Last days

We woke early as we only had the one day, had brekky then walked out onto the street and hired a tuk tuk. We were amazed at the motorbike towing this tuk tuk, it had a four on the floor gear stick and foot clutch, it was like no other motor bike we had ever seen (I took a pic). I had researched what to do for the day and knew that Buddha Park was 25 km out of town, but I omitted to tell Marty, so after about 20 kms Marty was getting antsy thinking we were going to be kidnapped. 

Buddha Park was interesting & I took lost of pics. Marty didn't find it all that interesting, but what I liked was that we were there all by ourselves, so the atmosphere was quite unique.

We then went to the temple complex, yes I know, I have said we avoid temples, but there isn't much else to see in Vientiane, so we did our usual stroll around, take a few pics and then onto the next place. Which was the markets. For those of you that don't know this about me, I collect dolls from all over the world and always have to buy a doll at each country I visit. Unfortunately Cambodia doesn't have any traditional dolls, but I managed to find one in Laos, at the bargain basement price of $8. Marty also picked up some more T Shirts. It was getting really hot by this time, so we went back to the motel, to once again sit out the heat.

That night we decided on a more expensive restaurant and found a Japanese one that looked good (lots of Japanese which is always a good sign). Had a lovely if not different meal, but it was good to have a change.

Next morning we were up early again and made our way to the airport and had another of those relaxing journeys through the check in & customs. We arrived in KL prepared this time, we knew to change money and buy a taxi voucher before exciting the airport, and had quite a hairy trip to the hotel, at an average of 140 - 150 km/hr. Once again, dumped our stuff and made our way to China Town to do some final shopping and have dinner.

Next day we didn't wake till 10 am, don't know why, but suspect it had something to do with the comfortable bed and block out curtains. We went for a walk at around lunch time and found a decent looking restaurant and had a wonderful breakfast/lunch including a lovely couple of glasses of wine, hard to find in Asia. We then packed and sat in the lobby till it was time to leave, and that is when the fun started. We hired a taxi to take us with plenty of time to spare (yeah right), the driver decided that even though his car ran on gas he would put petrol in it, big mistake. For the next hour he constantly broke down, stopping and starting the car every hundred meters or so. We yelled at him, demanded he get us somewhere to get another taxi, but to no avail. He eventually got to a petrol station and re-gased the car and then drove us at the apparently normal speed of 140 km/hr to the airport. We were probably by this stage 30 minutes later than the check in time advises, but because of that we didn't have to que, and made it quickly through check in & customs. 

Excellent flight home, we managed to sleep till about 30 minutes prior to landing (which was 30 minutes early) and my good old faithful dad arrived and drove us home. Well another wonderful holiday over,  time to start planning next years, hopefully to Europe. We hope you have enjoyed our blog, I know I certainly enjoyed sharing our travels with you.

Till next year :) 

pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthymartyc/KLDay14102009#

Day 13

Day 13

We were both sad and excited about leaving Siem Reap, so far it has been our favourite place, but we were going to a new country and looked forward to new experiences & sights. As I think I said previously we weren’t able to book a flight on the Monday so we were limited to 2 nights and one full day in Vientiane.

We thanked Sony (the manager from the GMI) and were surprised to receive a gift from him for staying at his hotel.

The airport at Siem Reap is very modern (more so than Phnom Penh) and very relaxed, it was probably the most relaxed we have ever been checking in and waiting (which we did with a G & T, beer and cigs in an air conditioned bar). We were a little surprised to see the plane, a prop plane that carried about 100 people.

We had a stop off in a regional airport to go through customs etc for entry into Laos and you will love this experience.

On arrival at the tiny little airport, there was a minibus waiting to drive us to the terminal, it only took a few people so the rest of us walked. Then we were ushered in a line into a small room with two desks and 2 very important looking officials.

Man 1 – his job was to check our names on the computer and staple our passport photo to form 1 (application for visa form) and take $1 each from us (no idea what that was for) then he placed our passport and application on the next table, while we waited on the plastic chairs.

Man 2 – his job was to record our name on the visa and then very carefully and precisely stick our visa into our passport.

We then had to go to desk 3, outside the room.

Man 3 – his job was to take our money for the visa (and check our entry form, form 2) and record this somewhere and then pass our passport onto man 4, onto the next desk

Man 4 – he stamped our passports (and removed form 3). Then onto desk 5

Man 5 – he took our health declarations (form 4) stating we didn’t have hog wog symptoms.

Then we had to go through customs, which involved

Man 6 - removing some piece of paper that a previous man had placed in our passport.

And this is all done with a seriousness befitting airport officials; thankfully we are used to travelling and enjoy the experiences, rather than getting upset with the antiquity of it all.

So we were back on the same plane in the same seats for the domestic flight to Vientiane.

Our airport pick up was waiting for us on arrival in Vientiane, and we had a surprising trip to our hotel. We had read that Laos was the poorest country in Asia, yet what we saw in the short trip from the airport was a place more advanced, cleaner, and certainly not poorer than Cambodia. There are more expensive cars and less motorbikes, the traffic is much less chaotic, there are no beggars, and there is a feeling of more wealth in this country than Cambodia, (and we saw overweight school children, which you certainly don’t see in Cambodia). Maybe it is different in the provincial areas?????

Our hotel was lovely (albeit on the 4^th floor with no lift), but it is air conditioned, with twin beds, and a balcony so we were happy.

We dumped our stuff and made our way out to explore what I had read was the riverfront with lots of restaurants and clubs (incidentally you can see Thailand just a short throw across the Mekong). We walked a couple of blocks and found a restaurant and had a reasonable 3-course meal with 2 tall beers and 2 G&Ts, for $13. We are certainly struggling to pay more than $20 for a meal.  The lack of beggars and touts was a welcome change after the constant tugging of heartstrings in Cambodia.

We were tired by this stage so made our way back to the hotel to settle in for the night. We planned an early start the next day as we only had the one day to see what we could of Vientiane.

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthymartyc/CambodiaToLaosDay1314#

video: http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthymartyc/CambodiaToLaosDay1314#5392394722579863106

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 10 & 11

Day 10

This morning we were booked in for a cooking course at the ‘Le Tigre de Papier’, this is a restaurant run by an organization that runs cooking schools for locals, an orphanage and many other aid services for locals. We arrived at 10am to find we were in the class with 4 other women, one from Sydney, 2 young San Franciscans (one a Nurse Practitioner) and a young girl from England. We got to select what starter & main we wanted to cook and we all agreed on one dessert.

Off we went to the market to learn about the local foods. Fairly typical Asian food market, hot, smelly and crowded but the food is amazing and it all appears so fresh. I get the impression that most of it is sold each day and then restocked with fresh stuff the next morning. The one item that intrigued us was the skin, head & legs (including feathers) of a chicken, stretched over a couple of sticks so it looked like a kite. Obviously they had skinned the chicken rather than plucked it, but I am buggered if I know what they do with the skin.

Back to the restaurant after picking up some sticky rice (not sure if we can get it in Oz) and we began, after we had donned our caps & aprons.

It involved a fair bit of slicing & chopping, but basically Khmer cooking is fairly easy to make, and we ended up between Marty & I with

Prawn Cambodian Salad

Pumpkin Soup

Lok Lak

Chicken Amok

Sticky Rice with Mango.

We both agreed the pumpkin soup was the best, and cant wait to cook it at home.

The slicing etc, involved using quite an unusual peeler, that juliennes the veggies, so we bout 3 to bring home.

O course we got to eat all the food or at least as much as we could with our other fellow cooks and thoroughly enjoyed all of it, and had a great talk with the others, I even convinced the young girls to go and give blood.

As we had no other plans for the day we went for a walk around the markets and then back to our room to escape from the afternoon heat.

Day 11

Today started really early with the alarm at 4am, grabbed a quick cup of coffee and met up with Manut. We both agree that we are always very lucky when we travel OS, and today was another example of our luck. The whole time we have been here it has been either rainy or overcast (not that the weather has stopped us from doing anything) and today we were hoping for a fine day as we were off to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. And yes you guessed it, not a cloud in the sky. We got to the temple at about 5.20 along with a number of others, who had some really serious photographic equipment, we were escorted to the edge of the pond, which apparently has the best view of the sunrise and bought 2 chairs for $2 and started taking some pics, only to find the camera was running out of battery. Wasn’t a problem though cause our little camera wasn’t really good enough to take effective photos, so we just sat back and enjoyed. The initial lightening was impressive with changes of colour of the sky and an almost revealing of the intricacies of the temple, but our luck only lasted so long, as soon as it looked like the sun was about to rise behind the temple, the clouds rolled in and obscured the sunrise. Not to worry, being part of the atmosphere with everybody else was worth it. We left at about 6.20am and there were already hundreds of people there. I must say I have never seen so many different nationalities in one country, which was fun, listening to all the different languages, and its amazing that the Cambodians can provide guides that can speak all the different languages. 

Next we were off to Banteay Srei, another single story temple, built in the 10^th Century. Being so old, it was amazing that this temple was in such good condition, with really intricate carvings. We stayed here for brekky and then on to the next part of the day.

THE CLIMB! This  is a 1.5 km climb up to a waterfall,  which has carvings in the rocks and in the riverbed. Yep, no worries, we were up for it. Yeah right, the climb had parts that were more like rock climbing and we struggled at these but we did it . worth the climb, because the carvings and the river bed was amazing. I have included pics. On the way back down we met many people coming up and of course Marty had to play the clown. When we were going down the rock climbing section, Marty told the people going up it that the climb got a lot steeper further up. You should have seen the looks on the people’s faces when he said it, we got a good giggle out of it.

We stopped at the Landmine museum and learnt about a young man who was a soldier in the Khmer Rouge regime as a teenager and then later defected to the Cambodian army. As he was an expert in land mines and realized only later what damage the land mines can do, started locating and defusing them and has been doing so for many years. He also runs an orphanage for children maimed by the mines. They believe there are still 3 – 6 million undiffused mines throughout Cambodia, even though they have defused millions already.

Next we were off to another temple, the last one fortunately. Don’t get me wrong, just being able to see these magnificent structures and being in awe of their age and how they were built is a an experience but after several of them they all start to blend and “seen one temple, seen heaps”. And we had used our 3 day pass so certainly got our monies worth.

Back to the hotel, and we said goodbye to Manut, and paid him for his 4 days of wonderful service. We got a sort of an address from him because I would like to send something over to him for his children but there appears to be no real postal service here as such, but I will try, at least I can try to sms him to see if he got what I sent.

Back at the hotel, we were both exhausted, me more so than Marty, so I had a nanny nap (only my 2^nd of the trip) and then went into town for dinner. I was still shattered so we had an early night to recover from our really big day.

There are so many people here, and so many children, very little is mechanized, and you can understand why, there are no mowers, because one mower could potentially eliminate jobs for a dozen women that slash the long grass. Bricks are made by hand, rice is grown and harvested by hand (they do have the luxury of a machine to remove the husks from the rice though). Everybody’s main aim of everyday is to get food, by any means, so they use everything, nothing is wasted, and they eat everything. There are so many beggars, some maimed by the land mines, some born with deformities and then just the poorest of poor that cant get work. We have started giving them food, when the opportunity arises, for example, if you go into a shop to buy supplies there is inevitably the mother with 2 babies, sitting our the front begging for a $1, so we buy food in the store and give it to them when we come out. Or if we are eating on the street, we give them what we cant eat, you just need to feel like you are doing something for them, but of course walk around the corner and there is another dozen waiting to ask for something.

We just don’t know how fortunate we are till we come to a country like this.

Pictures & videos  :  http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthymartyc/Day1011Cambodia#

Day 8 Cambodia

Day something

I would like to take this opportunity; no really I have to comment on the people here. They would have to be the friendliest people I have ever met. No one gets angry, no one bothers any body else, and the children are extraordinary. If you hear a child cry, which is rare, it doesn’t happen for long as a mother, sister, brother, uncle, aunt or friend will attend to the child immediately, and although I said before that I couldn’t say they were happy or not, I am now starting to gain some insight and realise that “yes they are happy”. Regardless of their poverty, regardless of their “class” they do what they have to do. And this involves surviving. Marty commented yesterday on their state of “poorness” and how they were starving, but one thing I have observed, is that the one thing they don’t lack is food. They may not have what we call a home, or even a place to live, but they do eat. Rice, vegies, eggs, some meat, and they are probably a lot healthier than us. If you get the opportunity to travel, come here, the people alone are enough to fill your hearts. The people are dirt poor, but they are so proud of their country, so happy and the thought of crime (theft) is out of the question. A City of Wonder.

Anyway, this morning we went to the Children’s Hospital and donated blood. This was a first and eye opener for Marty. They give you a “thank you “ bag which includes biscuits, Tshirt, and a packet of vitamins to take for the next week (I am assuming iron supplements), but also a can of soft drink and a card to return in a week to get your HIV/HepC/HepB/Syphilis result, gotta love em. Then when you walk out of the hospital, there are all the locals with their children and they are thanking you for what you have done. Humbling to say the least.

Off to more temples, just about over them by now, so ventured into a few but by 12 midday we were done.

Our next stop was to book our flight to Vientiane for next Monday, but unfortunately (not) that day’s flight was fully booked so we will just have to spend another day in this beautiful city.

We had lunch at a restaurant in Pub street and we both agree it is the best meal we have had yet. Fried rice and Chicken and Yellow Curry – awesome. Then we went for a walk to the local markets and “same, same, but different”, so we made our way back to the hotel, which is always a challenge as the tuk tuk drivers obviously don’t venture far from home. But we made it, and had a relaxing afternoon chatting to our son Matt and others on MSN. 

Later on we went back into town and had another awesome meal, incidentally, the meals are even cheaper here than PP, most are $15 - $20 which includes beer (50cents a bottle) and tip. Even though we said we weren't going to have another massage, (we have had a foot massage every night), we couldnt resist and opted for a full body massage. They are so different to anywhere else, and soooo painful, but you feel fantastic afterwards and really get a good nights sleep. All for the bargain basement price of $5 each. 

photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthymartyc/Day8Cambodia#

Day 7

Day 7 & onwards

It has been some time since I posted, we have been too busy to do it. And we have no phone service.

We almost missed the bus from PP to SR, because Edvin didn’t give us the full instructions but we made it. We were on the top deck of a double decker bus in the very front seat so had a fantastic view of the trip. Surprisingly there were only locals on the bus, no other tourists.

As you will see from the pics, the main road from PP to SR is no more than a small country road by our standards and as we got closer to SR the flooding became evident. Not that it deterred our bus driver, he just kept honking his horn and forging on.  We had a pit stop half way to be greeted with beggars and little girls selling pineapple and mango, and like any bus stop, baskets of cooked spiders, crickets, stuffed frogs & snails. Yum.

5 hours later we arrived in SR, both thinking we really didn’t want to be here, it looked even more backward than PP, and questioned whether we should get a flight to Phuket and spend the remainder of our holiday there.

We were very impressed with our accommodation ($15/night including breakfast) so thought we would give it a couple of days.

And we are so glad we did, we both feel like our holiday didn’t start till we arrived here, the people are what we were expecting and the atmosphere is different (smaller, friendlier, not as smelly and lots to do).

When we arrived at the bus stop we were expecting a pick up from our hotel, but unfortunately that didn’t happen, but a young man with a tuk tuk said he would look after us and make sure we got tour hotel, and he did. He then asked if we had a driver for our time here and we were sold with him and arranged pick up for the next morning for 7.30am.

We were still unsure of the place but as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast we made use of the free transport into town, and found ourselves in the main restaurant street of SR (Pub Street). There were no lights on, just candles everywhere and we realized that the electricity was out. We selected the second floor balcony of a restaurant looking over the street and were enjoying the ambience, when sadly the lights came on and revealed a very lively street full of every type & nationality of restaurant you can imagine.

The next morning our driver, Manut, arrived bright & early and we started touring the ruins. If you want to enjoy them, there are lots of photos. We went to about 5 – 6 different temples, all awe inspiring, full of history and really big. Each temple of course had the obligatory souvenir and food stalls attached to them, so at lunch time we enjoyed some local fare and of course invited Manut to join us. He had a chicken dish that looked scary. He insisted we try it, and after having a few mouthfuls I wasn’t sure how to warn Marty that the piece of meat I had eaten was chicken liver, and I knew that if he got a bit he would vomit. He was apparently already aware cause he had seen Manut eat the chicken foot, but he managed to avoid eating any more but still remained polite.

Last night we went back to Pub street and had another delicious meal, then stumbled on a massage place, so we sat down for a foot massage. The only thing they didn’t massage were our tummy’s, bums and bits, and for $5 we certainly got our monies worth.

Our driver picked us up again at 7am this morning,  and the day started with a trip to Ton Le Sap lake for a boat trip to the fishing villages. On the way Manut almost rolled the tuk tuk trying to drive through flooded and badly damaged roads, but after a quick walk through the floods to the other side, with Marty helping him to retrieve his tuk tuk and his thong, were off again.

We realized on the way that this is the poorest country we have ever been to. We knew they were poor but what we saw on the way to and on the lake was disturbing. We were very quiet by the time we arrived to get on the boat. I will explain that I had asked Manut about a boat trip I read about on Trip Advisor, he explained that that company is expensive and the rich people get the money, if we went with him the poor people would get paid and we would get the same  trip. What could I do, we opted for his suggestion. We at least felt we had contributed something to help them.

When we stopped on a floating crocodile/fish farm, I spent some time watching and videoing a little girl floating around and playing on the river in a plastic tub, she had asked me for a dollar but I was reluctant (as suggested) to give her any. I couldn’t resist after ½ hr and gave her the dollar. This resulted in another little girl who had just turned up  (along with her pet snake) really crying because she didn’t get a dollar too, at that point I asked Manut if we could leave cause it was breaking my heart.

Next we were off to a countryside tour, and didn’t our kidneys know it, the dirt road was a mess and if you have ever been in a tuk tuk on a bumpy road you will know that it isn’t pleasant. He took us to another temple to see and being polite we tried to appear eager and went to have a look. We met a couple of young lcal men who started talking to us, like most people here, and the story is as follows: they were apprentice monks who could speak English but didn’t get much of a chance to practice, so tried to engage English people whenever they could. We spent quite a bit of time talking to them and learning about their culture, the temples and themselves. They then gave us a tour of the monastery. This was an unexpected but really pleasant experience, to meet and help these young men.

Next we were off to Manuts house for lunch. This has happened to us before, where we have been invited to our guide/drivers village and home and we realize the privilege that goes with it. Marty was extremely nervous because of his experience with the chicken liver & feet the previous day, and when we arrived at his obviously very poor home, met his wife and 2 children (2 girls, Alicia aged 2 and Sara aged 2 months) and his 2 sister in laws (twins aged about 13) who all spoke no English, we settled down on the mat under the house along with ducks, chooks, dog, bad smells and lots of rubbish. His fare consisted of a home grown and cooked chicken with heaps of rice, and of course the chicken soup, that contained all the liver, kidney, feet, neck etc. I managed to score marty the leg & breast of the chicken along with some rice and he graciously refused anything else. I of course tucked into the whole lot, livers and all. As I said this is a real privilege and wouldn’t under any circumstances insult his generosity.

He then took us for a walk around his village and showed us the farming; I was particularly interested in the rice growing as I have always been confused how rice is grown.

We then went onto the Silk Farm, where we had a guided tour of how they make silk, then back to our motel.

pictures temples (potentially boring): http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthymartyc/06102009#

video: http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthymartyc/CrocodileOutsideOurWindowSiemReap#5389795200929735970

more interesting: http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthymartyc/Day7Cambodia#

Day 6

Day something 6/10/09

I sent an sms to Gambo yesterday when he asked how we were enjoying the trip. I will share my reply to him

“Its dirty, smelly, incredibly overcrowded, hot as hell, the people are beautiful, the food is great & we are having a ball”.

I lot of people describe Cambodia as the best place they have ever been. I would have to say it is so far not my favourite place. But I may change my mind as the trip goes on.

As in any Asian country, there are lots of palaces, temples and here, ruins to see. These are not things Marty & I are keen to see a lot of as we have seen so many they all eventually blend into one another and “seen one temple, palace, pagoda you’ve seen them all”, so here in Phom Penh there is not a lot else to see.  

However as I said to Gambo, the people are beautiful & the food is great.

Yesterday we hired a tuk tuk and went to the Central Market, a huge normally undercover structure that unfortunately is being renovated, so a lot of it is not open. However some sections are and a lot of the markets have been moved outside. When we got there I likened the place to what I thought India would look like, really really dirty & overcrowded, but not as smelly as the Russian market that we went to a couple of days ago. The Russian Market had some of the most evil smells we had ever come across & so we only stayed there a matter of minutes.

We found a couple of bargains at the central market and after the usual haggling (haven’t lost my touch) got them for the price I was willing to pay. Had a look around for a while, then made our way out. As I said before, their isn’t much here that appeals to us in the way of shopping.

We then found what I think is the only or at least the largest shopping mall, (no not interested in shopping, just the air conditioning) and made our way to the top to get a fantastic view of the city. As you will see in the pics, it is huge. The people are so poor, there are a lot of beggars, particularly children, but you are encouraged not to give to them as it apparently encourages them to continue begging. But although poor, they are friendly and we have not yet felt unsafe, I couldn’t say whether they are happy or not, that is a presumption I wouldn’t like to make especially based on the language barrier.

Back into another Tuk Tuk, this time to the ferry. At Edvin (the hotel owner) suggestions, we paid 800 riel (about 7 cents) to catch the ferry across the Mekong to a small village. The photos give the best description, but I will say, that this is my type of fun, going by local transport to a place were there aren’t any other tourists & seeing the locals in their own environment. Marty was feeling a bit unsafe (for exactly the same reason I was enjoying it) so we didn’t stay long. A young local struck up a conversation with us, and gave us some shade to stand under while we waited for the ferry back.

Back on the other side we  had trouble negotiating a Tuk Tuk, cause they couldn’t work out where we wanted to go, they cant read maps or English, but one little fellow said he knew where to go so off we went.

Of course that was just his way of guaranteeing the $3 fee. He had no idea where we wanted to go, but stopped and asked other locals on the way, and once I had worked out where we were I was able to direct him to our hotel. So we had a very cheap tour of some different areas of PP, and I had fun being lost. 

Yesterday morning Edvin gave me the local newspaper and its headlines were about the floods (floods, what floods), we hadn’t seen any news for a few days, but it turned out that Siem Reap (SR) was flooded and the road to our hotel was one that was flooded. So I emailed the hotel and they replied immediately that they were open for business. So we had a brief idea that we might have to spend another day or two here in PP, but decided we  would move onto to SR. Bus ticket ($9) purchased, hopefully Laundry back before we leave, and we are off to a new place.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthymartyc/RecentlyUpdated02#

 

Day 3

The first thing that happened this morning was that I got up to update this blog on the balcony, and when I had finished went inside and forgot the warning of “don’t leave anything on the balcony as the monkeys will get them” I left just about all of it including my mobile, so the next thing I heard were people shouting and when I went out the lady on the next balcony had my mobile that somehow she had managed to rescue from the monkey for me. Wont do that again.

Unfortunately today was a bit of a lost cause, I woke up in the morning, early as usual, and developed the worst stomach cramps, that I really couldn’t move for most of the day. Marty spent the day in the cool watching TV with me and eventually went to the pharmacy and got some pills that soon fixed me up. No diarrhoea or vomiting, so not a tummy wog, just incredible pain. Marty actually said he quite enjoyed spending the day relaxing so I didn’t feel too bad.

I had come good by dinner time so we at least made it out for a delicious Khmer meal

Day 4

Well we were up for some excitement today after a day of rest, so went for a walk for brekky & then organised for an air-conditioned car to take us for a tour. We started with S21, the Genocide Museum. Pretty shocking stuff, and to make it worse it was incredibly hot and humid, poor Marty was really suffering. Then we went to the Killing Fields, which was even more shocking. The photo on my web albums of the temple is actually full of skulls.

Then onto the Russian Market.  For those of you that have been to Asia, you will understand about the markets. They are mostly the same wherever you go, but depend on the development of the country as to what quality of stuff is available. Cambodia is very underdeveloped (more like Vietnams poor cousin), so what was in the markets was not of any interest to us. But what made it worse was the smell. Decaying flesh didn’t even come close to describing it. So we lasted about 5 minutes.

We were offered the Royal Palace (apparently similar but not as good as Thailand’s Palace which we had been to) and the National Museum, but not being into museums and It being so hot and all, we gave both of them a miss for today.  We made it back to the room, I was up for a massage & Marty wanted to cool down, so off I went, by myself, on my own, without Marty, to find a massage. Their was one just around the corner, “healing hands” with blind masseurs. My God!!!!!  I have had massages in a lot of countries but this one beat them all. I have absolutely no tension what so ever anywhere. And for the grand price of $6, I am going back tomorrow. When I got back, I found Marty extremely happy that the Melbourne Storm had beaten Parramatta Eels in the footy, so we both happy little vegemites (wouldn’t mind some actually, miss my vegemite).  

Went to dinner last night at the Foreign Correspondent Club (FCC). Very colonial and had a lovely meal. Then walked back through the streets. It really is a beautiful place. Talk later.

photos : http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthymartyc/03102009?authkey=Gv1sRgCK6H4PjTt9y-Wg#

Day 1

We had a easy trip down to the Gold Coast, thanks to our great friend Gambo, found the motel with ease and settled in for the night. We didn’t get much of a night sleep, either excitement or the small bed left us awake a lot of the night.

 We had ordered a taxi to get to the airport and arrived the at the airport 2 ½ hrs before our flight, lined up and then realised we were in the wrong queue. So we changed queues, for another wait, then to be told once again we were in the wrong queue. So we changed queues, to be told that the computer systems were down and we had to be checked in manually. Anyway to cut a long story short, eventually the system came back on line and the hundreds of us in line were eventually processed, boarded and departed only ½ hour late.

 The flight was only 8 hours and the XL promo seats although not as big as business class, food not as good as other airlines and the alcohol selection very, very limited, it was cheap and we were on it.

 We realised when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur how blasé we had become when we travel now. We got through customs etc, to the outside, and thought, “money”? “how are we going to get to the hotel”? But had a look around, decided on a taxi, then queued again, only to find we had to buy a ticket from the airport to get a taxi. This will get you Jane & Pete, Marty said he would stay with the luggage & I was to go looking for a ticket. I had a wander around the airport (on my own), exchanged some money and bought the ticket. I congratulated Marty on his newfound confidence in me, and jumped in the taxi.

 Traffic here in KL is much less than when we were here 4 years ago, and they have a new highway from the airport so the trip was smooth and quick. I had forgotten that when I booked the hotel, I had booked a deluxe room, so was pleasantly surprised to be taken to a lovely big, luxury room.

 We dumped our stuff, got back in a cab and straight to China Town. We found our fav restaurant in KL, had a 4 course meal, a couple of beers and once again were amazed at the cost of $25 for the lot. Short wander found the T shirts Marty wanted, coke & beer for the room, back in a cab to the hotel, and settled in for the night. Tomorrow we fly to Cambodia, so really excited about seeing a new country. We love Asia, and have already started questioning if we really want to do Europe next year, or maybe some other part of Asia we haven’t seen, and leave Europe to 2012 when Marty has long service leave.

 Day 2

 The day started quietly, we had breaky downstairs and then back to the room to pack for the next leg. (We met a couple who worked in Yamanto, close to Rosewood while eating). I had checked the time of the flight the night before and again in the morning so was relaxed about time to check out & leave for the airport. This all went well until we were on the way to the airport when I had a sudden flash of doubt, so I checked the flight time again to realise I had misread the departure time and we had only 15 minutes to get to the airport to get our flight, I interpreted the time as 3pm when it was actually 1pm. So we asked the cabbie to step on it. On arrival at the airport I bolted for the check in counter while Marty paid the cabbie and followed me. I found the queue for our flight (which was long) and then waited anxiously for Marty to find me. I saw him in the distance and started yelling, whistling, yelling again, all to the enjoyment of my fellow passengers. He eventually found me and we joined the queue relieved we hadn’t missed our flight. But alas when I checked the time of departure I realised I had misread the misread and the flight did actually leave at 3pm. So I stuffed up the stuff up, but we made our flight.

 Interestingly the Toohey party (less Pete & Jane, who was sick) had obviously waited at the airport to meet us in matching fluorescent shorts & white tops and although Marty got to see them briefly, my moment of panic had resulted in us not being able to join up with them, and for that I am so sorry.

 Anyway, we had a great flight (front seat again), and arrived in Phnom Penh (PP) to find our transport awaiting. The drive to our motel was eye opening as Marty said it reminded him of Bali, and I said it reminded me of Hanoi. Arriving at the hotel (Velkommen Inn), I had some doubts because it was down a seedy street, and looked anything but appealing, but Edvin (the owner) was waiting for us and showed us to our room. Roomy, air conditioned, reasonable bed, beer and a balcony; we were delighted.

 It had started to rain on our way to the hotel, but once we arrived, the sky fell in, a typical Asian down pour. We were on the balcony enjoying the rain when I looked up and on the eaves next to our balcony, were several monkeys (this was the third floor) all carrying babies, obviously trying to stay out of the rain. I took several photos, then they all made their way over our balcony roof to wherever.

We then made our way downstairs for some dinner. The bar, come reception, come restaurant was a little wider than a hallway and there were several people there already, Edvin told us he had a Blues Band their every Friday, Saturday & Sunday night so we settled in to enjoy the entertainment.

 And what a night, it started with just 2 musicians but then grew to 5 with guitars, drums, harmonica, piano accordion, and some other instruments I cant even name, but we spent several hours listening and talking to an array of different people, some who lived here, some who were travelling. Aussie, American, Norwegian, Swedish and of course some locals. The girls behind the bar, Mary, Lan, Nut & Teka were all very, very good bar girls, fed us popcorn with lots of salt so of course we kept drinking to quench our thirst. We finally made it up to our room at about midnight, knowing that this was going to be yet another awesome holiday.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthymartyc/RecentlyUpdated02#

 

 

 

 

 

2 weeks to go

Hi everyone, I am just playing with this blogspot to ensure everyone (including me) knows how to access my photos. What I will do is upload photos onto Picasa and then include the link each time to view the pics, you can either click on the link directly or cut & paste the link. This will take you directly to the Picasa album with all the new uploaded pics each time. I have tried this a few times and it seems to work well. I will also place links for any videos if I can.

Cheers to all