3 J's Travel Blog
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Koh Phangan/ Full Moon Party
So i left you with Kampot for christmas, and went off for my dinner in HCMC with Tran's family with Jaryd, while jamie went to dinner with Geoffrey and Sammy. It was an awesome traditional Vietnamese dinner, including pigs brain! We are now in Nha Trang, and leaving tommorrow to go up to Hoi An. Anyway ill get on with the reporting. Full Moon Party. First of all to get there we had to catch a flight from Phnom Penh, then overnight in Bangkok, get up at 4am, taxi for an hour to the other airport in Bangkok, get a flight down to Surat Thani, get a bus for a couple of hours from Surat Thani to Don Sak pier and then catch a boat from Don Sak to Koh Phangan, which tok about 2 1/2 hours. So it wasnt the closest destination. But the party was worth it. we actually got really lazy with taking photos there, so just some photos of the actual new years party now. Hopefully one of the other J's has some general Koh Phangan photos, I cant remember. ill just rattle through the photos for ya, they kinda speak for themselves, the story of the Full Moon Party.
These are the taxi's everyone uses to get around on Koh Phangan, well the back of one. Taxi is a pretty loose term really as they are just pick up trucks with wooden plank seats in the back..When you arrve to Haad Rin, or the party beach, this is what you are greeted with, masses of people, loud music and countless rows of shacks selling cheap buckets Did I mention heaps of people?So the first stop is to get a bucket of cheap whiskey and redbull for about 3usd. These keep you going but areterribly difficult to dance with.Then its pretty much party hard till the early hours, moving from beach bar to beach bar, each blasting its own musical genre out into the sand. Do the fire limbo. Meet tons of people and have a good time. You have to be careful though, you are accosted by prostitues and drugdealers. I even had someone elses wallet put into my pocket just after the countdown. We were wise enough by now to know that these things could happen, so we stayed clear of it all!This is a really small example of the carnage you can see at the end of the night. Imagine people like tis, lying on the ground, but along a whole 2km of beach front. Gotta love the grit of the night on the camera lense too. However we made it home fine with no worries or dramas, leaving the beach at about 5m and getting back to the hotel just after dawn. Good times.Sweet as guys, im off to catch some sun at the beach.
JB
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Kampot for Christmas
Not a bad view on Christmas really.
At night (Christmas eve) we went exploring again, and it was freaky. The big hotel is very daunting at night, and it didnt help that we were attacked by a bird inside the place. But we slowly foun our way up to the rooftop terrace and played around with long exposures on the camera.
Christmas day brought about some beautiful weather, santa really came through for us with some pringles and wafer biscuits, score. Xmas lunch was noodle soup. We thought to ourselves what is christmas really about. Yes. Giving. So on the way down we helped the rangers pick up rubbish around the old ruins. Yes even Jamie Stuart lended a hand.
These were our digs for christmas eve at the rangers station. We were the only people there who spoke english. Good fun.After coming back down to Kampot town with the rangers, we hopped on a sunset cruise, then managed to find a place on the riverfront run by a kiwi that was doing a propper xmas dinner. Glazed ham, roast turkey, roast veggies, stuffing, gravy, apple pie, everything we could have asked for they had. We really couldnt have asked for a better xmas dinner, we were by the river, there was live acoustic guitar, and the traffic lazily drove past.
So there you go, Christmas in Cambodia. Have to go for dinner now, but stay posted for next post, eg. Full Moon Party.
JB
Koh Kong + Sihanoukville
Friday, December 17, 2010
Phnom Pehn/Koh Kong
At Koh Kong we decided to hit the beach because it was so hot. It took us at least 30 minutes to find some scooters to hire because everywhere seemed to be out. At last we found a place that had only one which was all we needed cos Josh had headed back sick. Then some drama of sorts. We headed to the beach with Jamie driving and me (Jarryd) on the back. As we were heading down the road Jamie had a massive brain explosion and headed down a one way turn-off. To make matters worse four cops were sitting down on duty there and so they whistled at us to stop. It was at this point that we realised our brakes weren't nearly as good as they should've been so it looked as though we were trying to do a runner. Eventually we managed to stop about 15-20 metres down the road. The "chief" policeman explained to us what we had done wrong then was about to write us a ticket but it looked like it was too much effort for him to do so told us to pay a "fine" of 5000 riel ($1.25 USD) which he pocketed instantly. More drama was to occur down the road a bit when a car passed us. We moved over to the right to give them some room when we hit a sandy patch and sort of lost control wobbling a hell of a lot and hit some rough, bumpy patches. For a second or two I was preparing for a bad crash and was wondering how bad the damage would be (btw only the driver wears a helmet here) but luckily we survived as Jamie regained control. We finally got to the beach and rewarded ourselves with a relaxing swim in the warm surf and headed back but got caught in a torrential downpour but we managed to get back home home safe and in one piece.
Phnom Pehn
Finally we were back to a big city along with the hectic driving, noise and smells a big city brings. We spent the day getting orientated and checking the place out and at night we decided to check out the waterfront and chase the happy hour for cheap drinks.
Day two
We checked out Tuol Sleng Museum/S-21, the notorious former school which was turned into a prison where over 17,000 were imprisoned during the Khmer Rouge's regime. Out of the 17,000 prisoners only 7 were to walk out alive. All of the prisoners who went in were documented and it was quite eerie walking into a room and seeing their faces steering back at you.
Day three
We decided to go on a quad bike tour which took us to the Killing Fields then to the villages situated slightly out of town.
When walking through the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek hearing a childrens choir only metres away and seeing Angkor beer advertising adorning the park benches it was hard to imagine that most of the prisoners held in S-21 were brought here to be executed. The 17 tiers of bone in the memorial tower reminds you of this though.
Our guide who was a local Khmer and had lived in France for about 30 year took was on our scenic ride around the villages. As we drove though, we were welcomed by chorus' of hello's from the little children would then run out and give you a wave. At times it was hard to know where to look because you would hear a hello from the left and as you looked left others would rush out from the right. Josh had brought some sweets for the kids got absolutely swamped when he handed them out.
Day four
Our last day in Phenom Pehn we have woke up a little sick. Enough said. We toughed it out however and braved a 15 minute walk in the intense heat to go see the Silver pagoda and Royal Palace. We didn't read about the opening times so surprise surprise it was closed when we got there and wouldn't be opening for a couple of hours so we decided to hit the museum and get some lunch to kill some time before the pagoda opened again. We then hit another market and headed back home. Josh managed to pick up 2 watches for $20 finding out later on that 1 didn't work and Jamie managed to find a bottle of Smirnoff for $6 and CC for $9.
Pursat
That evening as we were trying to relax there happened to be a wedding or birthday downstairs just outside of the guesthouse which played music till late out of the biggest speakers ever. Safe to say we were all quite annoyed that night.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Battambang
Our first full day in Battambang we hired a tuk tuk for the day and went out to check out the sites around the city. Our first stop was to catch the bamboo train which was basically planks of bamboo tied together which sat ontop of two bars with wheels and a motor. It was quite an experience and the bumpiness gave our arses still sore from two days of epic biking quite a workout. At times you could see when the tracks didn't quite meet up which meant preparing yourself for a bump.
We then headed for Phnom Banan, a Wat situated up a massive hill. I realised just how unfit I was when I found myself struggling only a third of the way up 358 stone steps. Although it was a mission to get there, the views were amazing.
Our last stop Phnom Sampeau was up another big hill. We all struggled this time as the day turned out to be an absolute scorcher. About halfway up we stopped to check out the Killing Caves which was a cave with a big hole at the top where the Khmer Rouge bludgeoned people and threw them into the cave. Didn’t think it was appropriate to take pictures because people were praying at the bottom.
That night there was a local circus with children performing which we decided to attend.
Day 2, Battambang
We decided to relax and take it a bit easier on our second day by taking a cooking class in the morning. The cooking instructor took us to the local market where we picked up some fresh ingredients to make our fish amok, beef stirfry and chicken & lime soup. All three dishes turned out delicious and we were even given a cook book so th at we could replicate these dishes back home. At one point we were offered some nice chillis to try which turned out to be a bad idea as we should've learned by now that our tolerance for extreme spice was pitiful. We all struggled for a few minutes afterwards, quote Jamie Stuart "guys I can't see a thing" as his eyes teared up. We took it pretty easy the rest of the day.