Adventures of a Farang in Southeast Asia

WIANG SA and NAN

2006-08-05T02:54:00.000-07:00

We met Megan in the McDonalds on the Kao San Road around 7am after our 14hour bus ride to Bangkok. I was lucky enough to be the only person on the bus with two seats to themselves! I got a decent sleep but bus sleeps don't exactly leave you refreshed and ready for the day. We decided to get a $5 ghetto room close by so that we could shower, nap, and have a place to leave our bags. We had a million things to do in Bangkok before our bus left for Wiang Sa at 4pm. We decided to take a public bus to the largest outdoor market in the world, about 20mins from Bangkok. It was sooo overwhelming and so hot and none of us really had room in our backpacks for any of it so we left practically empty handed. We picked up some school supplies for the kids at Lauras school as well as lots of candy to bribe them with at a Thai supermarket. I mangaged to get about 20mins of nap time after all of our errands were done. We attempted to take a public bus to the main bus station since our experience to the market worked out but this time around was a different story! We watied for about 30mins for a bus and when we got on nobody spoke english so we had no idea if we were on the right bus but it bared the number of the bus we'd been told to get on. After we'd been standing with our backpacks laughing and falling all over the place in the middle of the bus for about 15mins (basically putting on a show for all the conservative Thai people on the bus) our bus stopped and the ticket lady on the bus (all buses have ticket ladies) threw our bags out of the door and practically pushed Christine down the stairs. We knew we weren't anywhere near the bus station so we took a taxi the rest of the way. Bangkok is nuts. Thailand is nuts.

Our bus ended up pulling into Wiang Sa about 2hrs late--around 4am. We had no way to contact Laura so she and Uncle Jai (her homestay owner guy) had been waiting there for that long. We took a bus to Nan and rented bikes. Checked out a few Wats and museums and a very sad zoo. We had dinner at Uncle Jai's--chickens from their backyard and rice. We biked down to Wiang Sa night market for something to do then we watched "Walk The Line" at Lauras place and planned our lessons for the next day. We were to teach grades 5, 1, and 2. After a short sleep on Laura's rock hard bed, she lent me a long skirt that was way too big and a huge purple polo shirt--teacher attire in Wiang Sa. I should mention that Laura and her housemate are the only two white people in Wiang Sa and the province of Nan, where Wiang Sa is located, only has 15 white people living there. We were celebrities. The kids were so intrigued by us, when they saw us walking the halls they would laugh or stare or want to touch us, it was like being a celebrity. The kids at Sriwiang Sa didn't speak much english so it was difficult trying to teach them the language when none of us speak Thai. They loved the clay, crayons, etc, and the candy that we brought them. I would like to think that they learned something from us--we taught them about Canada for the most part. It was an amazing day but I don't envy Laura--its an exhausting job.

Next stop, Chiang Mai! (More of Northern Thailand)

KOH LANTA and KRABI

2006-08-04T03:14:00.000-07:00

Christine and I left Phi Phi and headed to for the mainland where we were picked up by a minibus that took us all the way from the ferry terminal to Koh Lanta (good deal as it drove us onto the 2 ferries we had to take to get there). I was still not feeling great so I popped a gravol and slept the whole way--I hope the scenery wasn't too nice! We arrived on Lanta and discovered that in the off season almost the entire island shuts down! Our beachfront resort only had one other guest staying there. It was nice though--we got a cute bungalow overlooking the water (prime real estate) and it was quiet.

We decided to walk down the main road for dinner that night and ended up having to walk 40mins to find a restaurant that was actually open. This restaurant was inside a gorgeous resort and were so hungry that we decided to ignore the higher prices and just eat dinner there. We had the entire classy beachfront restaurant to ourselves, it was fabulous and totally worth the extra cash.

After dinner we tuk tuked back to our resort and watched a movie on my ipod (thanks James)! There weren't any restaurants open past about 9 or 10 and there definitely weren't any bars open. We did find a 7-11 down the road from our resort though for some movie snacks. No matter where you are in Thailand, you can always find a 7-11.

We spent our daytime hours on the beach (which was also deserted--very cool) or in the enormous, dangerous waves, or reading on our front porch. It was a really great island for relaxing and finding things to do to entertain yourself. I won't go into details but lets just say Christine and I may have performed a duet of a song from the little mermaid one day.

We left Lanta to head to Krabi for a couple of days before we had to meet back up with Megan in Bangkok. We stayed in an amazing guesthouse in Krabitown (cute little backpacker village) that had clean sheets and an outdoor shower. It was a much needed change from the dingy sheets and grimy showers we're used to.

We took a longtail boat to Rai Lai beach because we'd heard amazing things about it. It was stunning, much like Phi Phi. The main beach is in a bay between two huge limestone cliffs. Rai Lai is a rock climbing mecca so the climbers served as a nice distraction from the unbearable heat when we were lying on the sand. We only had a few hours there before we had to head back to Krabitown to catch our 14hr bus to Bangkok, so we soaked up every second of it. I would love to come back to Rai Lai and spend more time here.

Next stop Bangkok (a VERY quick one--I've seen enough of Bangkok and we have to get up north to see Laura)!

KOH PHI PHI

2006-08-02T00:54:00.000-07:00

Koh Phi Phi, where to begin. This is definitely my favourite island, scenery wise...It is so beautiful. Looking out from the white sandy beaches there are a few smaller islands not too far from shore that have jagged peaks and limestone cliffs...And they're surrounded by turquoise water of course! So stunning. We decided to fork out a couple of extra dollars to share a place on the beach that had two double beds so we could all live under one roof for a change.

My flu reached epic proportions our first night there--My temperature was dangerously high and I was really out of it. The next day I couldn't get out of bed so Megan decided to nurse me back to health while Xtine and Laura checked out downtown Phi Phi. Our resort was about a 20-30min walk/hike (depending on daytime/night time and alcohol consumption) through a scary, muddy, dark forest. We had fun with it though. There are lots of resorts in the main area but the beach there isn't as nice and its a lot more crowded...We were done with crowds after the full moon party. There is a beach inbetween our resort and the main area (There are 3 main beaches on Phi Phi) but it hasn't re-opened since the Tsunami. We could definitely see the effect of the Tsunami on Phi Phi. There was construction everywhere, you could still see how much damage it caused on this tiny island. They sold tsunami merchandise (postcards, t-shirts)in a lot of stores, it was pretty disgusting and I didn't see one person purchase any of it.

We went on a boat cruise that took us to the islands across from Phi Phi on our second day. Our first stop was a beach inhabited by monkeys. We snorkeled from the boat over some nice coral to get to monkey beach. We were given bananas and attacked when we got to shore. The monkeys were not afraid of us at all, as I'm sure they're used to all of the boat groups giving them food every day. They all really liked Laura and kept touching her...I'm pretty sure she's carrying some kind of monkey disease now. Our second stop on the tour was a lagoon surrounded by towering limestone cliffs in crystal clear water. The girls and I hopped in our kayas and explored the little caves and beaches within the lagoon. It was soooo stunning. The last stop was an island with Maya Bay (THE beach in the movie "The Beach") located on one side of it. The water was too rough to get into the bay so we had to anchor the yacht (hah) on one side of the island and swim to shore, go through a cave that had a natural waterslide that you had to climb up, and follow a trail for a few minutes. Swimming to shore was difficult because there was coral everywhere (I've already been scratched by coral enough on this trip and have the scars to prove it) and once you got close to "shore" it turned out to be less of a shore and more of a cave wall with sharp rocks on the sea floor. The waves were crashing pretty hard against the cave wall so we all got swept away, everybody either got dragged along the rocky sea floor or splashed up onto the cave wall. It was not fun at all but I just kept telling myself it would all be worth it. Only in Thailand would a tour operator do something sooo dangerous. I was right though, the beach definitely was worth it. I can't put it into words, it was so breathtaking so you'll just have to see for yourself when I get my webshots album sorted. Or watch "The Beach." The swim back to the boat was better and we were rewarded with dinner and drinks and first aid for those who took a beating from the waves/rocks.

We checked out a sweet bar that night. They had a drinking competition that only Laura, Megan and a bunch of guys were daring enough to participate in. You had to chug a beer, run down the beach, chug a whiskey/coke bucket, run down the beach again and down 3 shots of vodka. The funniest part was the prize for winning...A free bucket of alcohol! The last thing any of those people would want. Megan and Laura held their own against the boys but didn't win. There was an unbelievable fireshow for about half an hour later that night, and we had front row seats.

The rest of Phi Phi was spent lying on the beach or in a hammock, just taking it all in and relaxing. Laura had to return to her teaching job back in Northern Thailand and Megan wanted to go on a solo adventure to some more islands so Christine and I spent an extra day on idyllic Phi Phi before heading to Koh Lanta. Which is, surprise surprise, another island.

KOH PHA-NGAN

2006-07-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

Hello all, sorry my blog is so far behind...We're getting down to our last couple of weeks and its difficult trying to fit internet time into our schedules. Sorry there are once again no photos but Laura set up a webshots album for me (thanks elle!) so I'll have a ton of photos soon enough.

Koh Pha-Ngan holds world famous "Full Moon Parties" on the night of every full moon. Full Moon party got rated #3 best party after Mardi Gras and Carnivale so its kind of a big deal. If you aren't staying on Koh Pha-Ngan, there are boats, buses, trains, all kinds of full moon transportation packages to get you there. You can't go to southeast asia and not attend.

We arrived by boat 3 days before the FMP (full moon party for you slow people out there) thinking we'd have no problem finding accomodation...Wrong! We had to walk all over the place with our heavy backpacks--unfortunately Koh Pha-Ngan is a very hilly island as well. We managed to find a place on Leela beach, which is close enough to the party beach. The only rooms they had left that first night were two bungalows on really high stilts that were a 5minute walk up a dirt cliff. Laura and I shared a bungalow that had a broken step to get into the bungalow and I'm pretty sure if it had broken just a little bit more we would've tumbled to our demise. Our room had electricity but it was just a very dull lightbulb in the corner of the room. It did however have enough power to illuminate the mildew coating the walls! Our bathroom was a squat toilet and pitch black (bad combo). A mosquito net was surprisingly provided but those things don't do much with gaping holes in them. We did have a bamboo porch but I'm pretty sure if two people stood on it at once, it would've crumbled and once again, it would've been fatal. I'm not complaining, we all laughed about it and had a great time, I'm just trying to convey how hilarious our accomodations are in this part of the world sometimes.

Our first night there we met up with a bunch of Laura's teacher friends in town. Most of the restaurants here play either a movie or episodes of Friends during dinner. It was a nice change--I haven't watched tv since I left! Lining all of the streets are vendors selling buckets (dollar store style) filled with a combo of your choice from red bull, sprite, coke, whiskey, vodka, rum, juice, etc and a straw. I always went for the cheapest--redbull, coke, and cheap thai whiskey. It tasted a little bit like dirt but it was only about $3.15 and they didn't hold back with the whiskey.

The next morning we got moved to the most picturesque accomodations we've had yet. Our bungalow doorsteps were about 10metres from the water. The bungalows were much nicer inside as well. We did have to live with a billionopede (a centipede with a billion legs) for a while but it was worth it.

Full moon night I had the beginning stages of the flu but I did NOT want to miss out on one of the biggest parties in existence. We got to the beach around 11pm (thats when it starts to get busy) and Megan and I fulfilled our mission to get glow painted out of the way first. The beach is lined with different bars and clubs and each cluster of clubs has a theme--drum&bass, reggae, hip hop, techno, etc so you can drift between genres when the mood strikes you. There were tens of thousands of people packed onto the beach, the energy was incredible. We had buckets, we danced, it was crazy. I got a solid hour of sleep before we had to meet in downtown Pha-Ngan to catch our 6am minibus to the ferry. We didn't do full moon the way you're supposed to because we had to move on but it goes from 4pm-8am then they turn off the music for 2hrs and the full moon afterparty begins at 10am. Hardcore full mooners are nuts. As we waited for our bus we saw people walking around missing various items of clothing/shoes, lying on the sidewalks or on the street, girls passed out in the dirt in their party dresses, it was quite the night.

Koh Phi Phi (pronounced "pee pee"...ha) was our next stop...Some of you might recognize the name because it was hit really hard by the Tsunami. A lot of it isn't rebuilt and one of the main beaches is still closed but it still looks beautiful.

PS thanks to everyone who has been posting--I love logging on and reading your messages, it makes my day!

PHOTOS

2006-07-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

Since Thai computers never seem to like my camera, I'm going to send you to my competitors blog. In my links section click on "Lo's Blog." She has a link to her webshots albums there. I'm in the TB2BTeaching and TB2B Island hopping albums.

Note-If you check out the teaching album, the clothes I'm wearing were donated by Laura from her ugly clothes pile. You have to wear a long skirt and a collared shirt (2 things I did NOT bring to Thailand). Frumpy Mcfrumperson.

KOH SAMUI

2006-07-25T05:21:00.000-07:00

We dediced to fly to Samui because we found a cheap-ish flight from Pattaya (mainland Thailand). We got to board the plane via a flight of stairs on the tarmack--just like they did in the old days. After a an hour in the air we touched down on the second most touristy island in Thailand--Koh Samui! After chilling on Samet and Chang, we were ready for the Maui inspired Samui.

After checking into a couple of bungalows close to the beach, we met up with the birthday girl (Laura). After teaching in a tiny town in Northern Thailand for the past 3 months, Samui was the perfect spot to celebrate...She finally got to see other white people in Thailand!

Met up with a John and Jen, UBC Ski/board club people for birthday-ing. Samui had a Haagen dazs shop where we all ordered the most amazing desserts ever. Went to a beachside bar where the drink menu was very poorly/hilariously translated. I had a pena corada and some chooters.

We spent our days at the beach during prime tanning hours and went shopping for fake Versace bikinis and Chanel sunglasses, etc in the evenings before dinner. Dessert at Yogen fruz, baskin robbins, or haagen dazs would follow. Very tough life I'm living here in Thailand. On our last night we discovered the most fun club scene we've seen in our travels so far. There was a lane off the main street that had open air club after club and hundreds of people inside and spilling out onto the street. It was crazy good!

Some Samui highlights:
-how retarded hot it was (when we were tanning I was worried that my body was literally going to explode)
-When a bat flew into Laura and Megans bungalow and hid somewhere inside
-When we came home to a large cockroach swimming in our bungalow shower (it was seriously doing laps). I had to make a trap out of a glass and ashtray and chuck it outside. Quite proud of myself for going near it.
-All of the western food restaurants (We had Italaian twice!)
-Laura
-Watching two (gay?) guys practice THE move about 20 times from dirty dancing in the sea in front of us then discovering that they were staying in the bungalow next to us. (Hi Zach and Jake!)
-The mango lady who would come up to our beach mats to sell us delicious mangoes for about 0.50 (We didn't even have to move to get lunch)!

Samui was fun but you can only handle so much of having to share the beach with all of the euro men in speedos and you just get tired of how touristy it is in general. Going to head off to Koh Pha-Ngan for the epic full moon party (Anyone who's anyone in Southeast Asia will be there).
Photos to come soon I promise...Thai computers hate my camera!

Of course it starts to monsoon when I want to leave the internet place. boohiss.

KOH SAMET

2006-07-20T02:27:00.000-07:00

Photos to come later--ghetto computer here, once again.
We took a short ferry to Samet and arrived to the pier at night (makes climbing across another boat and having to practically jump onto the pier from the boat much more challenging). We met a fun Korean couple who shared their patented nail buffering kit with us and a Danish couple. Very entertaining boat ride, and hey, shiny nails too! We checked out a place that had a bungalow up in the boonies with a broken window, a broken fan, broken steps, and a mosquito net with gaping holes in it. We decided to keep looking. Jeps bungalows had a mediocre room but a sweet beachfront restaurant so we dropped our enormous backpacks there. We arrived on Canada day (yes I know this blog is extremely behind), expecting to have to make our own party but we sat down for a beach BBQ next to a huge table full of...Canadians! They gave us stickers and we all sang the anthem...It was all very patriotic. There were about 20 of them, all in Thailand teaching. We met up with them later for some more festivities at the only club on the island. We had to endure a monsoon to get to the club. Those things are crazy, they turn roads into rivers, hills into waterfalls, and flip flops into boats (I almost lost mine countless times).

Our room on Koh Samet unfortunately reeked like mildew b/c the clothes we all washed on Koh Chang never dried thanks to the rain there. It also had quite an ant problem. Needless to say we spent as much time as possible on the beach, in the restaurant, or in town.

The beach BBQ's on Samet are famous. The beach is lined with restaurants that fill up wooden boats with ice and place fish, chicken, shark, anything from the water, on plates on top of the ice. They have live mussels, lobster, and crab hanging out in tanks beside the food filled boats as well. You basically point at what you want and they cook it up and throw in some corn, potato, or garlic bread. Those were some fun dinners. (Dad and Robert, you would've been in heaven).

We left Koh Samet for Samui after 5 glorious days. I am more tanned than I have ever been before. The Thais still laugh at my pale skin though. Koh Samui update to come soon!

KOH CHANG PHOTOS

2006-07-18T04:13:00.000-07:00

Photos:
Megan and I posing with some of the weird food we found in a 7-11
The most popular seat in our beachfront restaurant at our resort
Some kayaks on the beach at our resort that we didn't rent because it rained the entire time we were there
Another table with hammock seats
A snake that slithered across the bar and around my beer one night. Megan touched it.

Thailand part I PHOTOS!

2006-07-16T05:14:00.000-07:00

The blog puts the photos in random order so here is a description and you can play a mix and match guessing game:
1. A typical Thai restaurant--also the restaurant below our guesthouse in Bangkok
2.Stickers that were attached to lots of seats on a taxi boat. Monks need a place to rest after a long day of watting.
3. goldleaf buddha statues at Wat Arun (one of the most famous wats in Bangkok)
4. Bangkok moto traffic. This photos not very realistic because traffic is actually MOVING!
5. Our diving resort on Koh Tao (This is the view from our balcony and our room was $6/night per person)!
6. Megan and I in our scuba gear just after a dive (And still looking pretty pale).

KOH CHANG

2006-07-04T03:16:00.000-07:00

Woke up to rain in Trat this morning...Hoped that it wouldn't reach as far as Koh Chang. We picked up a songathaew (pickup trucks with an awning and benches in the back for passengers) in the centre of Trat and got dropped off at the ferry terminal. The ferry system here is not like BC Ferries--the terminals are just big cement blocks sticking out from shore or they are long rickety piers that feel like they are about to collapse under your feet. All types of traffic board at the same time--we walked alongside cement trucks and motos as we boarded.

A songathaew met us at the pier and after some barganing we got ourselves a pretty good price to get to the bungalows we'd chosen out of my lonely planet guide. We ended up switching songathaews twice of course, as this is Thailand.

We got a ghetto-esque bungalow the first night but managed to get the closest one to the water for the next 2 nights. The rain/greyness followed us to Koh Chang and unfortunately stayed for our entire stint there. We did get out into the massive waves, even with the less than perfect weather. The undertow is so strong there that they warn you not to go swimming, it was pretty crazy feeling how powerful the water can be at that shallow a depth. We had to experience the undertow that caused 20 drownings this year already (Don't worry we were careful).

One of the Thai guys who works at the "resort" (ANYTHING can be called a resort here) offered to take us to a waterfall that only the locals know about one afternoon for free. There are lots of waterfalls on the island but they're really touristy and cost about $6CAD to see (which is a lot of money in Thialand). Tos (our guide) warned us that it was a difficult hike in broken english but we thought he just meant lots of uphill which of course the girls and I can handle. Turns out we had to criss cross back and forth across the river and climb slippery rocks as well as climb up a steep quasi-trail (Tos went ahead with a machete to clear the "trail"). It was so worth the climb when we got up to the waterfall though. It was gorgeous and we were the only people within miles. Megan and I attempted to swim in behind the waterfall but the water was so black and it was so loud and the waterfall was pushing us back--it was pretty scary (but fun)! On our hike back down I was attempting to step across a slippery rock and I was holding onto a vine but I slipped and lost my grip of the vine as well. I bounced down about 4m of rockface and landed in the river on my side. If I'd landed a few centimetres over in either direction I probably would've been seriously injured. Luckily I escaped with quite a few bruises and some cuts/scrapes and a freakishly bruised ear. (Don't worry mom I'm okay)!

Went to a good party on our last night at Koh Chang--more buckets of redbull and vodka (you can't drink out of a glass here, it has to be a bucket). Next off to Koh Samet--the closest island to Bangkok and favourite weekend getaway for Thais.

SIHANOUKVILLE

2006-06-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

Scary moto ride from our guesthouse in Psquared (Phnom Penh) to downtown where we were catching our bus. My moto driver was much more aggressive than the one I had yesterday--there were a couple of times I thought I was going to die. Boarded our bus full of seats made for tiny Cambodians and full of Cambodian people who were intrigued by our Western features (we've grown fairly accustomed to this by now though). A 4hr bus ride is short by our standards now so it was pretty nice. At one point we stopped at a roadside "Restaurant" (wood beams with a tin roof and no walls) where ladies carrying huge bowls full of fried bugs and spiders thrust them up towards the open windows where we were sitting. We were having a great time watching the people on our bus purchase bags of them and we cringed as they ate them, snapping off their heads or wings to munch on.

We arrived in Sihanoukville, Cambodias beach community. It was grey and raining--kind of a let down. The problem with Sihanoukville being so beach oriented is that when its raining out, there isn't anything to do. The weather didn't appear to be getting any better so we only stayed one night and hopped on a ferry back to Thailand the next day. I was disappointed that I didn't get to explore Cambodias pristine islands but it wouldn'tve been fun in the rain anyways.

The ferry was tiny and the ride was a rocky one--we went through a squall of sorts. Loud annoying Cambodian pop music was played loudly over the speakers which also didn't help my nausea. Megan felt quite seasick (which we later discovered was a bout of food poisoning) so this really nice Cambodian man who worked on the ferry rubbed a Thai remedy on her temples and under her nose to make her feel better. Another example of the Cambodian kindness we experienced. People like him balanced out the people we came across that were dishonest/aggressive.

Our border crossing was a lot more plesant this time around! It was sort of a relief to be back in Thailand. Cambodia was a great experience but I wasn't too stimulated by any of the places we went. Maybe we weren't there long enough to really give it a chance but Thailand seems to have a lot more to offer.

We arrived in Trat (In Thailand, close to Cambo border) to a cozy, cheap, clean (!) guesthouse with HOT SHOWERS! Tomorrow off to Koh Chang (translation = Elephant island)!

PHNOM PENH

2006-06-28T06:14:00.000-07:00

We pulled up to the centre of Phnom Penh (Capitol of Cambodia, pop 1 million) in our sticky bus (with tiny seats made for asians, per usual) and looked out the windows to a frightful sight. The few westerners that had gotten off the bus were being swarmed by moto/tuktuk/taxi drivers like white on rice. We prepared ourselves and stepped into the craziness. We were bombarded by a ton of drivers trying to get us into their cars or trying to take us to "The best guesthouse" (guesthouses here pay drivers a commission to drop off travellers at their guesthouse). The challenging part is trying to differentiate between the drivers who will take you where you want to go and the ones who will take you to the guesthouse that pays them.

We chose a guesthouse in one of the backpacker areas on Boeung Kak Lake. Our place had a relaxing patio that extended into the water on stilts. The lake was a nice setting even if the water is as toxic as everyone says it is. Checked out the royal palace and some cool restaurants that night. I definitely noticed a lot of stares and glares from Cambodian people in Phnom Penh--not sure if they were just curious or if they didn't approve of Westerners on their turf. Probably a mix of both.

Our moto drivers picked us up the next morning to tour the sites where some of Cambodias dark historical events took place. Weaving through the streets of Phnom Penh during the middle of the day on the back of a motorbike was terrifyingly fun. We weren't provided with helmets (sorry mom!) because nobody really wears them here. There aren't really traffic laws so you can only begin toimagine how disorganized and chaotic the roads are. Motos just speed in and out of gaps in traffic--even if the gaps are in oncoming traffic! When we hit the outskirts of Phnom Penh, all we had to worry about avoiding were potholes and huge smelly piles of garabage. I also saw a rabid dog on the side of the road.

Our first stop was the Choeung Ek killing fields. Thousands of people were killed and buried there in mass graves between 1977 and 1980 (I think I've got the dates right) during a nationwide genocide/extermination that killed about 2 million people in total. Because it was
so recent, we saw lots of bones and clothing protruding from the earth in the pits and even on the walkway we were following. Pretty chilling. The information that was posted about the significance of this site bothered me though because they compared it to the holocaust and even stated that it was "Worse than the genocide committed by Hitlers fascists." Comparing the two is just not right.

Our motos took us to the Tuol Sleng high school that was transofmed into a prison/torture camp during the same genocide. It was very eerie to walk through because they left it in roughly the same shape it was found in. They had a photo exhibit that captured the detainees starving, wounded/beaten, seconds from death and even photos of the dead. There was also an area that featured paintings done by a survivor (There were only 12 survivors out of thousands) that portrayed the different ways in which the detainees were tortured--the most cruel punishments imaginable. Some of the tiny cells we explored still had dried blood on the floor and the chains used for prisoners attached to the walls.

After a long sombre day, we went to a cozy, chill place in our neighborhood to have a nice dinner and unwind with some drinks and some world cup soccer. Next stop Sihanoukville (beaches)!

ANGKOR

2006-06-26T04:57:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty upset that this Cambodian computer doesn't like my camera because you can't write about Angkor, you need photos. I'll write a brief description and hopefully when I get back to Thai computers later this week I'll be able to post photos (I know I've been promising photos for a while).

Angkor is this ancient city- I think in its prime it was the biggest city in the world. I could be wrong though...Most of the info about these places is in Cambodian or broken english. The most famous part of Angkor is Angkor Wat (Wat = temple). Its famous for its spectacular sunrises so me and the girls were up at 4:30am to tuk tuk (motorbike with a carriage attached) out to Angkor for the sunrise. The coolest thing about Angkor Wat is that its still used by monks. The steps into the main, tiny part of the temple were steep and treaturous (it was pretty much like rock climbing--you were using all fours) so I only made it half way up to the temple before decidng that if I went any higher I would have to be attached to a harness and assisted down by some kind of rope system. Christine and I waited on the steps while Megan went inside and did her insense prayers/bows to buddha. Our tuk tuk driver took us to see Angkor Thom (I believe part of it was Angkors library) and quite a few other amazing parts of angkor.

The unfortunate part of this attraction is that it has become way too touristy. When we stopped for lunch we were swarmed by all of the restaurant workers begging us to come into their restaurant and offering deals. The worst part came close to the end of our tour though. We were bombarded by 10-ish year old girls when we got out of our tuk tuk selling purses, water and bracelets. They grabbed at us and would not let us enjoy the scenery. If we turned our attention towards the ruins they would whine and there were so many of them that you couldn't ignore it. They'd been taught the capitol city and population of the countries where most tourists come from. So we heard "Ottawa, 30 million people" about 15 times. I bought water from one of them and the rest of them yelled at me and one of them pretended to cry when Megan didn't buy water from her. At our last Wat there was a little girl who was about 2 years old selling postcards. She couldn't speak english yet (maybe she couldn't even speak at all yet), so she had a few friends with her also selling postcards. We didn't stay long as they decided to follow us around as well. They do NOT take no for an answer. Very annoying way to end a day of great sights. We leave for Phnom Penh, Cambodias capitol tomorrow.

BANGKOK - SIEM REAP

2006-06-23T02:19:00.000-07:00

We endured a tropical downpour to get from our guesthouse to meet our coach bus that was taking us to the border. I should've taken that as a sign of what was in store for us yesterday.

We had a 5hr trip to some middle of nowhere restaurant where we were told to get off the bus. I've gotten used to getting off and on bus after bus without being given a reason...I've stopped asking questions and I just go with it. The guy who worked for the bus company gave us visa request forms for Cambodia and told us that the visas were 35USD. I knew that they were supposed to be 20USD but whenever you ask a Thai person a question that they don't want to answer, they pretend they can't understand you. What could we do, we were in the middle of nowhere. We handed over the money and were put on an open back army style truck. That dropped us in the middle of a market close to the border. We had to weave our way through vendors in sweltering heat wearing 2-3 heavy bags. We went through Thai immigration first then walked through some kind of crossing which we thought was the border. We had to wait in the boiling sun because some guy on our bus overstayed his visa in Thailand.

While we waited some Thai begger kids hassled us from behind a fence. One of them slapped my bum to get my attention...It worked! They grabbed onto my bag and asked for money or "num num." A guy in our group gave them a couple of Baht (about one cent CAD) and they all swarmed him like vultures. Another bus picked us up and after a short drive kicked us out. More walking--finally made it to the Cambodian border. We had to wait forever after crossing the border in the hot sun for reasons unknown to us. We hopped on another bus which took us to a building where we were kicked off the bus. We waited patiently once again following the "don't ask questions, just go with it" mentality. It is the only way you can remain sane in this part of the world! We were escorted to a minivan that was built sometime in the 70's. This was a bit of a problem because our travel agent in Bangkok promised us a large airconditioned bus! We crammed 9 people into this van with no air con and one of the windows wouldn't open!

To give you an idea of how unconfortable our 6hr bus ride was...An unnamed airline pays an unnamed Cambodian political party to keep the road in terrible condition so that people are forced to fly between Thailand and Siem Reap. There are a few crazy Westerners travelling on a budget that opt for the potholed, broken bridged, never updated dirt road route. Words cannot describe how bumpy that 6hrs was, its something you would have to experience first hand to get it. There were moments during the "drive" that the three of us would just start laughing hysterically because it was such a ridiculous scenario we were in. We finally arrived in Siem Reap, covered in dirt (dirt flew in the open windows like you wouldn't believe)and exhausted (sleeping was impossible on the bus). Knowing that we were heading to the ancient city of Angkor the next day helped me through the pain and dirtiness.

BANGKOK

2006-06-23T01:58:00.000-07:00

Megan and I left Koh Tao via a high speed 2 hr catamaran. They were blasting eminem over the speakers which was highly inappropriate because there were kids on board...We assumed that whoever selected the music didn't have a grasp of english swear words. It was pretty funny/random to hear eminem on a ferry in Thailand. It was another 8 hr bus ride from the pier to Bangkok. We met up with Christine (yay!) and checked into our guesthouse that was a stones throw from the Kao San Road. We had an early night but we were kept up by the crazy soccer fans watching the world cup in the bar downstairs. The next day we shopped Kao San--Our plans to get out and see more of the city didn't work out. I bought lots of great, cheap stuff on the kao san though. We wandered the streets for a while trying to find a bank or currency exchange for US dollars (Cambodia uses US dollars more often than its own "Riel" currency because 1USD = 4100 Riel, which = a stack of bills that don't fit in your wallet). We went out to one of the main bars on the Kao San and enjoyed a beer tower...Too hard to explain in words, but hopefully I'll get a chance to put up photos soon. We had a reasonably early night because our bus to Cambodia left at 7:30am the next morning. More about Cambodia later...

KOH TAO

2006-06-21T03:06:00.000-07:00

Spent the past 4 days soaking up the sun (and a couple of thunderstorms) on this gorgeous island. We spent the first day doing scuba orientation...basically signing our lives away incase of lung embolisms, decompression sickness, etc. Day 2 we spent the morning in the resort pool with full scuba gear learning how to breathe underwater. The rookies all have an awkward rearly morning mandatory pool session. After spending all afternoon in the scuba classroom, Megan and I had a chance to check out the Koh Tao nightlife. Lots of very chill places just metres from the water. They throw beanbag chairs out on the beach with tables and dig holes in the sand for candles and little fires to create a mood. Very cool. Koh Tao is an island made up of tons of scuba resorts...They just started letting non-divers on the island a couple of years ago! Days 3 and 4 we piled on the boat with our scuba group for 4 open water dives (2 per day). Its not all fun and games underwater--we were tested on some unplesant skills we learned in the pool (such as filling up your mask with water at a depth of 18 metres then clearing it by breathing through your nose--scarier than it sounds). It was amazing though, the visibility was 15-20m. We saw some fabulous coral, a huge turtle, a mor eel (spelling?), a stingray, a school of squids and billions of fish. Our last night we went out to the resort restaurant (which was right on the water of course) with our scuba grad class and instructors. After a fabulous meal the younger members of the class headed down to another part of the village to a huge beach party being put on by one of the clubs. They gave out free buckets of Sangsom (Thai Whiskey, coke, vodka, and redbull) for half an hour at one point of the night...Needless to say we had a really good time. Sad to leave this island, I've had a taste of diving and I can't get enough! But alas, we have to get back to Bangkok to meet Christine and start our Cambodia adventure.

BANGKOK

2006-06-18T04:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry my first blog entry is so late coming--I've been totally on the go since I arrived. After my night stopover in Singapore, I finally arrived in Bangkok! It was pretty overwhelming to say the least. Met Laura and Megan on the Kao San Road (the most famous backpacker hub in asia) after getting dropped a few blocks short of our meeting place (McDonalds) because my taxi driver pretended to not know what McDonalds was. People here lie about everything! Carrying my backpack along the Kao San and back to our guesthouse was the most unconfortable 10mins of my life! Sweltering heat+backpack+long sleeves = no fun at all. The three of us decided to check out a local wat (buddist temple) which was pretty amazing. There were monks everywhere! Partied it up with Megan and Laura at the Irish Pub that night. I had to fight off jet lag so I decided to have a couple of authentic vodka red bulls. Kao San is such a crazy place I can't even put it into words. Tuk Tuk drivers (crazy little 3 wheel taxis with open backs) yell at "Hey you mam, where you go I take you"--their ultimate goal is to rip off westerners though. There are no set prices for anything here so you have to bargain for everything from clothes to taxi fares. I've already had a taxi drive in circles knowing that none of us would notice to rip us off. You have to yell four crucial things when you get into a cab here: "METER, NO STOPS, NO GAS, NO GEMS, NO SUITS" because cab drivers are given commission to take you to gem stores or tailors, etc.

Megan and I took a river ferry down the chao phyra to check out Bangkok's famous Wat Arun. It was pretty spectacular. The only problem with the wats is that a lot of areas are sealed off. Monk access only? We did get inside a couple of the temples and we remembered how to do all the proper bows that Laura taught us. Megan and I shopped Kao San a bit (its basically 4/5 blocks of hundreds of stalls and stores selling counterfit EVERYTHING! then hopped on a bus for an 8hr drive to Chumpon. At Chumpon we were tossed off the bus at 2am into a holding room that consisted of a hard floor with rugs tossed in the corners. The bus driver threw vinyl pillows on the ground and from that we figured that these were our accomodations for the night. At 6am, same bus driver, got us up and back to the bus to head to the boat pier for a 3hour beautiful boat ride to Koh Tao ("Turtle Island"). I got my first Thai sunburn at 9am that day! Who knew you could burn that early in the day? Megan and I are having a wicked time here. So wicked that I can't spend anymore time in this internet place because we have so much to see!

PHOTOS: Laura in our lovely airconditioned guesthouse in Bangkok, Buddhas at Wat Arun, stickers found on buses and on boats so the monks always have a place to rest, Bangkok traffic, and the main temple at Wat Arun.

Testing

2006-04-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

I leave in two months and one day. It seems way too far away...