Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Koh Phangan/ Full Moon Party

Hey all,

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

We came down to Kampot to check out the Boker Hill Station. At the top of a mountain in the middle of a national park, it was built by the french in the 1920's, then abandoned twice, once by the french, then by the Khmer rouge. It is now decprepid and old, a relic, and very out of place. It is actually not just the one large building you see below, but a whole town of old abandoned buildings. They are actually beginning construction on a new resort town now. So we tramped up through the forest, and explored the place.this is the most renowned building of the hill staion, which was a casino and hotel.The old church, very creepy at night.Exploring old random building off the beaten path, had to kind of make our own path a little bit, which was a bit sketchy as we new this place had seen strong warfare and therefore mines. but we survived, i think the risk was very low so dont panic mum and dad.
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

First of all, this photo is at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, i don tknow if it goet put up before or not. Im putting it up there because any of us who know jamie stuart will laugh at this photo which he is in. 3 times. As if once wasnt enough.


sorry for the long wait, i know its been a while. But I am here now so no worries.


We are currently in Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon, and departing tommorrow for a tour down the Mekong Delta for three days. Anyway so we are up to Koh Kong. Im going to compress everything a bit sorry because we are quite behind. Koh Kong is on the southern coast of Cambodia. Its a tiny little port town right on the border. It used to be famous for drug and people trafficing but now its becoming more of a resort and eco tourism destination because of the beaches and beautiful mangrove national park forests.we rented bikes and went out to the mangrove forest walk, which as you can see was really beautiful. We managed to get hold of some ice block sticks like you used to get from dairies in NZ to battle the heat, and there were no accidents on the bikes either! Even Jarryd came out of the bumpy dirt roads unscathed. We then biked out of town to the main waterfall in Koh Krong province. We went for a swin there, although it was pretty hairy getting accross the slippery rocks. After not hurting himself on the bikes all day, jarryd feel and hammered his leg crossing the river, and the second photo is of jamie collecting his shoes after he dropped them in the river after slipping. We nearly lost them down the waterfall but jamie managed to pull of a full on rescue. We drove back into town to the big resort, were told that to use the massive pool there would cost 8usd each and though F that we'll just go to the beach instead. Despite it being sunset time the water was warm, and the sunset wasnt bad either.The next day we had booked a full day tour out to Koh Kong Island, but woke up at 6 30am to find that it was pissing down with rain, so we just chilled around town, updated the blog, then moved onto Sihanoukville.
Sihanoukville is pretty easy to sum up really. Beach during the day, party at night. Thats what Sihanoukvilles about. So far its escaped development, although this is changing, in town we learned that the Russian Mafia owns half of the land in Sihanouk, and the Chinese own the other half, amd they both have big resort plans for the place. But for now it is backpacker central. Ill give you an overview. White sand beaches during the day, just sit on beach chairs with a beer and relax slash recouperate from last nights hangover. At night you chase the happy hour with all the other backpackers, meet loads of people from scandanavia and australia, and party. 10c beers were the best value we managed to find, but if beer isnt your thing you can easily get 1 dollar red bull vodkas, and 2 dollar buckets (as in a bucket filled with a HUGE glass of whiskey and half a litre or so of coke). That plus the free shots you get on arrival at some places made for some hard but enjoyable nights.
The picture above is where we stayed in Sihanouk. Monkey Republic. 3USD a night each and about 2min from the beachfront.

We went on a boat tour one day to mix things up. It took us out to Bamboo island and around on a massive 3 story launch. We were allowed to jump off the top platform, 8m high, which was awesome, that is untill I attempted the front flip, which I did succed in completing but kind of bellyflopped in the process. Nice.




We also went out to a different beach, Victory beah on the other side of Sihanouk from backpacker central, and made a new friend out there, pictured above.
So thats pretty much an overview of Koh Kong and Sihanoukville. Ive missed out a lot but in the interest of wanting to go to china town for dinner i'll leave it there.
JB

Friday, December 17, 2010

Phnom Pehn/Koh Kong

Woke up early for our 6 hour bus to Koh Kong. Nothing eventful occurred on the way.
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.



















Dodgiest bridge ever!!


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

Our next stop was a small town of Pursat. There was much to do there and our main reason for stopping there was so that we could check out the floating village of Kompong Luong. It was like someone got bored one day and decided to pick up a village, make it buoyant and put it on water. It had everything, houses, mobile shops, petrol stations. We even saw a wedding taking place.

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.