"the alternative was much worse..."

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and have plans for new year well in hand! We are in Hanoi and unsure of our plans, the Vietnamese apparently go totally crazy for the lunar new year, but that's about a fortnight away and we will sadly have left so not sure what will happen tomorrow (probably cocoa in bed by 9!)

Cambodia is a country with a difficult past, for anyone who doesn't know then Wikipedia is a better bet than us for detailed history... a communist revolution led by Pol Pot and the Kmer Rouge in the 1970's attempted to make the entire country an agricultural socialist state. People were forcibly marched out of towns to the country to become farmers leaving ghost towns behind them. The state set massive targets for increasing rice production, these were missed but overseers claimed they were met and sent off the agreed portion to market whilst the workers were left without food or seed stock. Millions died of starvation or through persecution, torture and murder as enemies of the state. The country exported rice whilst people starved and educated people, those who wore glasses or percieved enemies of the revolution were rounded up and removed to torture camps or just dissapeared.

We visited a museum based in a former school that was converted into a prison and torture camp, we also intended to visit the so called 'killing fields' where mass graves have been partially excavated and where most of the former prisioners of the camp ended up. We didn't make the trip to the killing fields as there is only so much you can take in or experience of mans ability to inflict misery and suffering on eachother, I think if you read what we saw below then you'll understand.

The museum itself is excellent although not for those of a delicate disposition, there are cells left as they were when in use with pictures of what was found following the overthrow of the regime (some very graphic but important so people aren't allowed to forget what happened... it's a chilling experience to see a photo of a man who had been tortured to death in a room you are standing in, the body chained to the same bed that is the only furniture that remains in the room) there are rooms filled with photos of every person recorded as coming through the camp together with photos of the guards. The guards and the prisoners were often so young... it's hard to look into the eyes of a boy of 13 or 14 and know that they were a guard here and therefore guilty of killing and torturing the people in the neighbouring photos. The photos of the guards and the prisoners are displayed side by side and you try unconciously to see some difference between them, something in the guards photos that shows them as being capable of evil acts, some sneer or darkened look but it's not there. The only way you can identify the guards is that they are wearing hats.

In another room there are interviews with some of the former guards now working as housewives, fishermen or farmers... they don't display remorse for their role in the prison saying generally that they were following orders or feared for their own lives if they refused to work there. They blame the rulers of the Kmer rouge and call for them to be prosecuted... it's hard to accept that they haven't been punished for their part in what happened but few others have either.

Away from the dark stories of the Kmer rouge the city of Phom Penh is hard to love, you can't really walk anywhere, the polution and rubbish are amongst the worst we've experienced on the trip and to be perfectly honest we didn't really enjoy the city as we have with other cities on this trip (the exception being an excellent restaurant run by a non profit organisation that trains street kids to be chefs... zuchini and cheddar fritters... yum), we left after few days and visited a town on the south west coast where we hung out on the beach eating fresh seafood and enjoying our first sight of the sea since the islands right back at the start of the trip!

Cambodia has many of the same problems with UXOs as Laos but it is slightly wealthier and has better healthcare (it's a relative position but still better) which means more people survive an encounter with a land mine, we saw this first hand on the beach as we encountered a large number of land mine victims asking for alms (pun not intended and only spotted on review I promise) on the beach together with the usual hawkers of beads, fruit, and hair removal. It's a strange experience to look a man in the eye and shake him firmly by the stump, but not as uncomfortable as you might imagine.

It is strange to western eyes to see so many disfigured people but as there is no social security for some people begging from tourists is one of the few ways they can make a living. We made a point of buying bracelets and books from the disabled hawkers (at inflated prices... shaking arms is one thing, you try out-bargaining a man with no legs) and kept change to give out as well, when a girl who looks about 4 or 5 asks shyly to take the left over food from your plate it is very difficult to stop yourself from handing over the contents of your wallet or ordering them half the menu from wherever you happen to be... but local advice books ask tourists not to give to children at all as they are often controlled by adults and made to work as beggars or peddlars when they should be at school, it's sound advice but it doesn't make it easy.

Other than the beach peddlars our time at the beach was notable mainly for the sunsets which were fantastic, the seafood fresh off the boat, and the illness that befell one of our party who shall remain nameless. It was a classic travellers mallaise that allowed this person to demonstrate their resiliance and quick thinking under the worst kind of pressure... they emerged greenly from the bathroom and muttered "I'm sorry if the bathroom smells funny, I was on the toilet and had to vomit on the floor, I've cleaned it up but the alternative was much worse"... we're thinking of getting it printed on a t-shirt. Once all illness had left the camp we packed up and boarded a bus direct for Vietnam.

Food for thought

Hello again,

Well we felt like this was becoming a big captains log of where we have been and how we got there... and it will be again but that gets a bit tiring to write and I'm sure a bit tiring to read... to be honest we were never sure what we wanted this blog to be for or about... initially we thought of it as a postcard to whoever wanted to read it, then it became a place to tell stories that we wanted to remember and something we would look back on as a way to remember the trip... we're still not sure what it is but we'll carry on regardless :) .

Well the subject of this entry is markets. Markets in this part of the world are generally the social and commercial centre of any town or village. The range of produce is often overwhelming and it feels like the whole town is there bartering loudly and examining various items for sale. When we first started this trip we were a bit timid in these places, we felt a bit out of place and frankly couldn't identify some of the things for sale (when was the last time you played 'what animal is that' at the butchers counter in Tesco or Sainsburys?). Over time we've come to feel more comfortable and have tried things and chatted to people and have fun guessing at least whether something is animal, vegetable or mineral... so now whenever we get to a new town one of the things we want to see and explore are the markets, whether it's textiles in Laos, military surplus in Vietnam or frogs, strange cat like creatures and live fish in buckets in Cambodia it's been a good way to get the feel for town and watch people bustle around like the cultural voyeurs that we have become.

This fascination with markets has another advantage besides allowing us to peer into the lives of the people around us...when we first started this trip we would board buses or boats clutching a couple of packets of crisps, some oreos and a couple of bottles of water all purchased from a 7-11 or similar, now we head to the market if we can and clamber aboard clutching lychee like things, some small bananas and green oranges having spent the afternoon trying to barter away the inevitable tourist tax! A lot healthier, cheaper and more satisfying :) (we tried a mango once but if anyone knows how to eat one of those on a bus with a penknife without covering yourself and those around you in juice please let us know!)

The colours, smells, sounds and life of an Asian market has to be seen to be believed, all the exotic fruits from the supermarkets back home actually grow here and a heaving fruit or vegetable stall just looks like something put together for a photo shoot, not sure if I'd trade in supermarkets just yet, you'd never get a trolley down the aisles here and some of the smells would probably get them shut down in a second... but I think whilst we gained in hygene and convenience we lost something as well (botulism probably).

Next update will finish of our Cambodian adventure and see us into Vietnam where we've been for the last week already.

How many buses does it take to get to Angkor Wat?

Well since the last entry we visited a place called the 4,000 Islands where the Mekong spreads out out to a width of 14km and there are a lot of islands. It was very peaceful and picturesque but also a little light on things to blog about. One of the 'things to see' on the island we stayed on was a rusting French locomotive interesting only as this was the only train line that the French ever built in Laos and it went between two islands, wasn't attached to the mainland and no longer runs at all. People took multiple pictures of this whilst we wondered what they would say to their friends "Wait 'til you see this picture I took in Laos of this rusted train" one presumes.

The islands were very peaceful however and we spent a nice couple of days lying in hammocks watching the water buffalo graze on the island opposite and making small talk with an exhuberant Romanian who had spent a day being smuggled over the border to Cambodia where he got drunk with a load of fishermen and ate bbq'd cockroaches... oh and a few raw ones as well... he admitted to being 'pretty drunk, and really hungry.' We've thought about it and we don't think we've ever been that drunk or that hungry but is it really worse than a kebab?

The islands were our last stop in Laos and we arranged onward transportation to Siem Reap in Cambodia, the trip involved one boat, 7 buses, one hotel that let out rooms by the hour (our very own Aussie thunderbolt battled with the manager who tried to overcharge the entire bus!) and at one point had 18 people plus luggage crammed into a bus that even the Cambodians said would normally only take 14 but all this is normal now and we exchanged tales with fellow passengers sipped our water and ate bananas to pass the time.

Angkor Wat is the most famous of a series of large and ornate palaces built by a series of God Kings who ruled a massive empire during the 12th century, there was also an ancient city that once contained over 1 million people but as only the Gods were allowed to live in houses made of stone there are no remains of the city.

We were told that if you bought a ticket after 4pm for the next day then you could get in and watch sunset the night before... we did this but frankly the sunset was not that impressive, the sun went down over the countryside rather than any temples and the countryside is somewhat remeniscent of Kent. We spent most of our time people watching and wondering what people were getting excited about and taking photos of? (French train syndrome) In the end we took a few to show willing but our hearts weren't in it (we admired the group who had brought pizza and beer with them though... clever buggers).

The next day we had arranged a tuk tuk driver to take us around the major sights and temple complexes including the giant faces of the Bayon Temple, the famous tree root covered ruins of Ta Prohm and the crown jewel of Angkor Wat... we also agreed to go and watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat... anyone who has seen our photos knows that we do like sunsets as a rule, possibly like them too much, but that there is a notable lack of sunrises. Well this time would be different! We arranged to be picked up together with our travelling companions at 5am the next day.

Well it was worth it, we turned left when everyone else turned right (a tactic from the L Foster school of crown avoidance and queue optimisation strategy) and had a section of the grounds all to ourselves, we watched the sun rise over one of the most stunning temples of SE Asia, the jewel of Cambodia. It was an amazing experience and the rest of the day didn't dissapoint either. We found the temples, carvings, giant moats and general grandeur of the place a real highlight, I don't think I have the words to do this place justice (although we certainly took enough photos to paint several million words) it was magnificent and blew away any fears we had that perhaps the hype and guide book descriptions had been over generous in their praise. It was outstanding.

At the end of our time in Siem Reap the time had come to part company with David and Martine who we had been travelling with for the previous 2 weeks, we went out for nice meal and, much as we had for the past fortnight passed the time talking like old friends and greatly enjoying each others company, as we have just left behind a number of very old and very dear friends it was really nice to find people who we felt so comfortable with and it was sad to see them go but also exciting to be on our own again and facing the challenges of the trip and making decisions on what to do and where to go as a twosome! We were leaving for Pnom Penh in the morning and they were headed to Thailand.

Travels in Laos with the Dutch

Hello again.



Well we have now been at this trip for nearly 2 months which means we are nearly half way through! We're having a great time, but also feeling quite tired of constantly moving on and not having a base of our own... one of us (you'll never guess...) has developed a fixation on Vegemite on toast and it's lack of availability :)





When last we wrote we were still in Laos in the Capital Vientiane, we headed south from there through Laos stopping at Pakse (a town notable mainly for the number of bus stops... or not as the case may be, but more on that later) where we decided to take a side trip together with a Dutch couple we were travelling with to look at a couple of waterfalls and Champasak, an ancient city and temple complex related to Angkor Wat which we were intending to visit in Cambodia.





We hired mopeds to visit the temple, the only bikes available had gears which our cool Dutch colleagues had no trouble with as one of them was taking their bike test... your Anglo-Australian correspondents were not quite so confident but after first stalling 5 or 6 times, we managed to get the hang of it. It's a great way to see bits of Laos as there are very few cars and on this area at least the roads are pretty good... until they suddenly end... on the wrong side of the river...





It turned out there was a ferry which consisted of two small fishermans boats tied together... oh, and you have to ride onto it over a plank of wood about 4 inches wide... and then stop, quickly, before the boat ends.





Needless to say we allowed our friends to go up first, and having watched their faultless boarding, and decided that driving into the Mekong would be better than the humiliation of admitting that we were scared we sailed on board, remembered to brake... but not how to change gear and stalled the bike to a standstill... much to the amusement of the fishermen trying to move it into a more useful position... oh well.





We actually saw a more conventional ferry later on, with buses on it etc. but the admiring looks we got from the tourists on the other boat made it all worth it, we were cool dangerous kind of tourists... or mental possibly... people took photos of us :)





Champasak itself was well worth the trip, the final temple was set at the end of a long ancient road, past two identical palaces (thought to be one for the girls, one for the boys) and then atop a series of very steep steps taking you to a series of different levels... pilgrims were made to work for their blessings. A photo from the top is below but it is pretty amazing, your final destination is about a mile from the start of the ancient road.




The next day we decided that as the ride had been further than it looked we would get the bus to a couple of nearby waterfalls as this would be "easier" ... well we got a tuk tuk driver to take us to the bus station which turned out to be under construction (but it looked nice if you are in the area in 6 months or so...



Undeterred we wandered around until we found the right road and joined what passes for a local bus (an old pick up truck with seats down both sides and a roof strapped on) together with half a dozen locals, a dozen sacks of rice and a large assortment of fruit and vegetables. We made stops all along the way, weren't totally sure that we were headed in the right direction, dropped people and shopping orders from the market off along the way and helped load and unload and were cheerfully charged 4 times what everyone else had been paying at the end (one passenger openly laughed aloud when they saw how much we had agreed to pay) but we didn't mind as it was a great experience, one old lady gave us bananas and made friends with a couple of the kids (a digitalo camera looks like magic if you've never seen one) :)



The waterfalls were pretty but again further away than we thought and we ended up walking 5km in the heat and the dust (unsealed roads) whilst people who had booked bus tours drove past us. Great fun again actually, we had EARNED our swim at the falls damnit... although we had taken too long to get there and the pool was in shade and bloody freezing... so we err.... took photos instead... oh well can't win them all and it was very pretty.



Right we will let you know about leaving Laos and our experiences so far in Cambodia next time and add the photos as well! Cheers



B&D

Caption competition

As promised to someone some time ago... leave captions in the comments section.