Monday, September 22, 2008
A Quick Update (9.22.08)
I talked to united this afternon, to change my flight home from 9.30.08 to 10.14.08 it would cost me 1,400, which is more than i paid for the round trip flight....based on this new information i'm coming home one the 30th....this also means that Australia and New Zealand are out of the questions. I'll be taking off from Thailand tomorrow to Kuala Lumpur and then to Brunei, returning to Kuala Lumpur. From their its to Hong Kong, over to Macau then back to the Philippines. The discombobulated route is based on price, its cheaper to fly to Hong Kong take the ferry to Macau then fly from Macau to the Philippines. Go Figure. See everyone soon!!!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Laos
5 Hours after crossing the border with the insufferable bus driver(s), who by the way put on the Aqua's (I'm a Barbie Girl) Greatest Hits video disc at full volume upon leaving the border just to be that guy we arrived in Vientienne the capital city. The Irish lasses ran to an ATM to pay me back the 40 USD they borrowed to get their visa's and bailed, in fact they payed me back 500,000 Kip, which was well over 50 USD, i even tried to give them 100k back and they balked, at least something good is happening to my karma. We managed to hook up with 7 germans who were looking to go to the same place we were Viang Vien. We managed to hire a private minibus for 50,000 kip a person (1:8652), and because their was now nine of us we had much more bargaining power for a 9 passenger minibus. The drive took 4.5 hours and was hell, the road was very comparable to the one to Siem Reap, filled with potholes and very dangerous, as this one was winding up and down mountains. The kicker was that the driver was feeling ill and continually rolled his window down, thus increasing the tempeture in the back of the minibus by 10 degress making everyone miserable, it only took 5 times each time he rolled it down for him to roll it back up. We arrived in Vang Vien shortly after 9 and it was pitch black out. We wandered around town, the germans with their lonely planet guides, and James and I just following not really wanting to get involved in the decision making process they were debating in German. Finally after looking at 3 guest houses the germans sent the two ladies of the group out to find the guest house as they were the ones vetoing each one we came across. We finally settled on one in the center of town, for a whopping 30K Kip a night (less than 4 dollars). To boot several of the germans thought they were paying too much. The room was complete with a bed, bathroom (no flushing toliet), and a table, what more could we ask for.
The purpose of going to Vang Vien was the tubing. What this involves as many can guess is floating down a river in an inflated innertube...the kicker is that their are 15 bars along the river that you can stop at as you go along, each complete with either a rope swing, or zip line that you can take out into the water. While tubing the first day (yes I went more than once) we ran into several English guys who liked to have a good time, they had brought with them several bottles of vodka and 16 bottles of red bull, the good times were a going!!! As the day went on the courage, albeit liquid, increased in many of the tubers whom where taking more and more risks on the swings. These swings were probably 30 feet above the water and at their pinnacle you were probably 40-50 feet above the water when you let go. I got brave on the first swing, made it to the top and nearly barfed from how high up I was....i did however try the zip line at the second bar, and decided that that was my adventure on the swings and lines for the tubing adventure as when i hit the water my feet touched the bottom, I'm all for excitement, but that was a little too real for me.
The second day in Vang Vien was essentially much of the same, we started tubing around 11 and made it back around 6:30 thus losing 20K Kip from our deposit, for those that could still walk (from the alcohol not injury) i'm not sure they even noticed. We relaxed in the evening heading off to Bucket Bar where you could get about a pint of whiskey and coke in a bucket for 20K kip and sit in a hammock and people watch. A good end to a two hard days of floating down the river.
Day three we were packed and ready to get back to Thailand, James flight home is on the 23rd, and he still has friends that he travelled to Thailand their. One of the deals we made while trekking was that we were to be back in Pattaya by the 19th, and low and behold at 9:02 our taxi from Bangkok pulled into the hotel where we were going to stay!
One thing about Laos is that the natural beauty is everywhere, the mountains the rivers, the people. Not much commercialism their, its one of the few places (countries) to not have any major fast food chain, not even a KFC. Vang Vien wasn't really experiencing Laos though, as the towns people were probably outnumbered by tourist, you definitely saw more white faces than asian faces walking the streets at any given time of the day. I would go back to Laos, its very laid back, and very serene, a good place to go if you need to get your head on straight and work shit out. next time it will be for more than 3 days!
Next stop after Thailand is still to be determined, a trip to South Korea may be making its way back into the itenerary, which means that my trip will more than likely be extended by 2 weeks, to the middle of October. Aside from South Korea, its looking like New Zealand or Australia (which ever comes in Cheaper and its a dead heat right now), Brunei, probably a quick stopover in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore to get out to any of the places listed above, and then back to the Philippines to come home.
For those actually following this back home, this takes me to where I am currently at in my trip sitting in an Internet Cafe in Pattaya Thailand!!!
The purpose of going to Vang Vien was the tubing. What this involves as many can guess is floating down a river in an inflated innertube...the kicker is that their are 15 bars along the river that you can stop at as you go along, each complete with either a rope swing, or zip line that you can take out into the water. While tubing the first day (yes I went more than once) we ran into several English guys who liked to have a good time, they had brought with them several bottles of vodka and 16 bottles of red bull, the good times were a going!!! As the day went on the courage, albeit liquid, increased in many of the tubers whom where taking more and more risks on the swings. These swings were probably 30 feet above the water and at their pinnacle you were probably 40-50 feet above the water when you let go. I got brave on the first swing, made it to the top and nearly barfed from how high up I was....i did however try the zip line at the second bar, and decided that that was my adventure on the swings and lines for the tubing adventure as when i hit the water my feet touched the bottom, I'm all for excitement, but that was a little too real for me.
The second day in Vang Vien was essentially much of the same, we started tubing around 11 and made it back around 6:30 thus losing 20K Kip from our deposit, for those that could still walk (from the alcohol not injury) i'm not sure they even noticed. We relaxed in the evening heading off to Bucket Bar where you could get about a pint of whiskey and coke in a bucket for 20K kip and sit in a hammock and people watch. A good end to a two hard days of floating down the river.
Day three we were packed and ready to get back to Thailand, James flight home is on the 23rd, and he still has friends that he travelled to Thailand their. One of the deals we made while trekking was that we were to be back in Pattaya by the 19th, and low and behold at 9:02 our taxi from Bangkok pulled into the hotel where we were going to stay!
One thing about Laos is that the natural beauty is everywhere, the mountains the rivers, the people. Not much commercialism their, its one of the few places (countries) to not have any major fast food chain, not even a KFC. Vang Vien wasn't really experiencing Laos though, as the towns people were probably outnumbered by tourist, you definitely saw more white faces than asian faces walking the streets at any given time of the day. I would go back to Laos, its very laid back, and very serene, a good place to go if you need to get your head on straight and work shit out. next time it will be for more than 3 days!
Next stop after Thailand is still to be determined, a trip to South Korea may be making its way back into the itenerary, which means that my trip will more than likely be extended by 2 weeks, to the middle of October. Aside from South Korea, its looking like New Zealand or Australia (which ever comes in Cheaper and its a dead heat right now), Brunei, probably a quick stopover in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore to get out to any of the places listed above, and then back to the Philippines to come home.
For those actually following this back home, this takes me to where I am currently at in my trip sitting in an Internet Cafe in Pattaya Thailand!!!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Vietnam, Laos
Vietnam is a really fascinating place, in HCMC (Saigon) the people are extremely friendly and the food is excellent. Most of the restaurants serve food that is both Vietnamese, as well as that with a french twist. The local stands are primarily for noodles and they in and of themselves are very tasty. I also noticed that sandwiches are a huge hit, especially on a 12 inch baguette.
Visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, it became very apparent some of the atrocities mentioned during the fighting their. Our tour guide, while speaking decent english, lacked a considerably when it comes to couth. Part of the tour of the tunnels was a display on the different tactics the VC used while fighting, including the many different traps used to maim, and or kill the US soldiers. Our guide actually made the comment when referring to one of the traps that it was his favorite.
After the tunnels we headed back to the hotel to make sure our bags were safe and see any of the parts of the city that the three of us wanted to prior to departing at 7. The bus at seven was a first for all of us, we were taking a sleeper bus to Na Trang, a beach community about 10 hours up the coast. The bus would arrive their at around 6AM. The bus was cool, it was laid out with three rows , Beds. Each person to themselves, their was a small shelf to store anything one might need through the journey, as well as space where your feet went to hide your travel bag out of site. When the bus arrived we decided to take a walk directly to the beach. James is a huge surfing fan, and had heard that their were decent waves in this part of Vietnam. The sea was really still, so we didn't have any surfing conditions, we decided to head back to the city to have breakfast, and then plan out the day, and figure out where we had to go to next to get me to the Border by the 15th, and Gustaf to Hanoi for his flight on the 16th.
Our travel agent in Saigon, Merina, a very attractive and educated Vietnamese American, had an office in Na Trang that we camped out it to store our bags and whatnot. We booked our travel to Hue, the next stop on our journey north before we seperated for James and I to head to the border and Gustaf to head to Hanoi. After sorting out our travel plans our next site to visit was the beach, we all were somewhat exhaused from the travel, and decided a relaxing afternoon at the ocean was just what we needed, we opted for some cabana's near a swanky hotel that cost us 25000 VND (1:16,652), and played in the ocean for several hours. Our bus to Hue wasn't leaving until 6 so we had time to spare and unwind. Hue is the gateway for one of two border towns, Vinh being the other, with Laos. Both borders do Visa on Arrival, I had my visa for Laos, James did not, therefore those two border crossings were our only options unless we were to fly. The Sleeper bus to Hue was for 14 hours, absolutely horrible, the beds however were confortable, so we didn't much complain, i just didn't sleep at all so that made for a horrible day in Hue. We arrivd in Hue without incident and decided to try to find travel arrangements as soon as possible. The hotel where the bus had dropped us off at had a travel agent, being that we all were cranky, tired, and just not in the mood to search out a deal to save us a dollar or two we opted to make the arrangements with the hotel we were standing in front of. The arrangements we made were for Gustaf to take a bus to Hanoi, and for James and I to take a bus to the Laos border via Vinh. We had to travel that route as that was the only way we were going to get a bus to Vientiene Laos. the bus would travel from 5 until just after midnight, when we would arrive in Vinh, change buses for the border and arrive at the border aroun 3AM. From the border we would travel to Vientiene and arrive their around 4 PM. This was to be the worst bus experience we would have. While in Hue we decided to see the sights, we hired three (one for each) pedi cabs to give us a tour of the city, this took approximately one hour and cost us 50K Dong a piece (less than 4 dollars). When the bus arrived we were presented with the awkward presence of our group splitting up. Gustaf was booked on a different bus, and we would not be seperating in Vinh, but at that moment.
The bus from Hue to Vinh was a sleeper. Upon arriving in Vinh, an italian gentlemen was woken and told rather abrubtly (pigeon english) that his stop was here and he was to get off. What wasn't communicated is that this stop was also for James and I to switch buses. We determined that the bus was not in Vinh but just south, so the Italian got back on the bus (which he should not have) and a lot of confusion ensued to the point of if James and I were to switch buses their. He and I had gotten off the bus simply to smoke a cigarette, if not we would have never gotten off the bus. It was finally determined that James and I should have switched buses, and that the bus we were to get on was not pulling out of the stop and beginning to head down the road. A couple of loud whistles from James and many people yelling got the bus to stop and back us so that we could get on it. This was a sitting bus, so it was quite uncomfortable as the back seat and several other seats were being occupied by the bus staff and not available to PAYING CUSTOMERS. This bus crew turned out to be the rudest and most disrespecting bunh we had come accross on all the buses we had taken on this leg of the journey.
The border crossing with Vietnm and Laos also proved to be an adventure, as with entering Vietnam, all the passports were collected and taken to the immigration officer, after they were stamped however the bribes came into play. Each person was reqiured to pay 20K Dong, or 1 USD to retrieve their passport, what a load of crap, and to top things off, as the passports were stamped and cleared mine had somehow been set aside as the the only American on the bus. That really pissed me off, after having not slept for a day, told I had to pay to get my passport back, not for the stamp, as all the passports were already stamped, and the rude bus drivers I was close to cracking. I Paid the money for my passport and they handed it over after me having to ask and point to my passport three times, not sure the game they were up to but it wasn't funny from my end. After walking about a 1/2 mile to the Laos border the fun began again. James did not have any photos left for his visa, and did i mention the border crossing is at the top of a mountain pass, the scenery was simply breathtaking. We arrive at the Laos immigration and James finds out he can simply pay a dollar for not having pictures or 2 dollars for the pictions, I'm sure the choice is obvious for what he did. After he cleared immigration i went through, the ass behind the immigration counter attempted to charge me for my visa again, then the daft cow takes my passport to the cashier window to confirm the giant red PAID stamp and leaves it there, when he comes back i asked where my passport was and pointed to the cashier, i about flipped, so i went and got my passport and finally he understood that my visa was procurred prior to arrival and that he needed to stamp my frickin passport, which he did and was able to walk from their to the bus where the driver felt the need to stand behind me shouting GO GO GO, at this point i had about had it, if I was someone else, i probably would have thrown the cocksucker through the winshield.
all right for now, next up tubing in Vien Viang!!!
Visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, it became very apparent some of the atrocities mentioned during the fighting their. Our tour guide, while speaking decent english, lacked a considerably when it comes to couth. Part of the tour of the tunnels was a display on the different tactics the VC used while fighting, including the many different traps used to maim, and or kill the US soldiers. Our guide actually made the comment when referring to one of the traps that it was his favorite.
After the tunnels we headed back to the hotel to make sure our bags were safe and see any of the parts of the city that the three of us wanted to prior to departing at 7. The bus at seven was a first for all of us, we were taking a sleeper bus to Na Trang, a beach community about 10 hours up the coast. The bus would arrive their at around 6AM. The bus was cool, it was laid out with three rows , Beds. Each person to themselves, their was a small shelf to store anything one might need through the journey, as well as space where your feet went to hide your travel bag out of site. When the bus arrived we decided to take a walk directly to the beach. James is a huge surfing fan, and had heard that their were decent waves in this part of Vietnam. The sea was really still, so we didn't have any surfing conditions, we decided to head back to the city to have breakfast, and then plan out the day, and figure out where we had to go to next to get me to the Border by the 15th, and Gustaf to Hanoi for his flight on the 16th.
Our travel agent in Saigon, Merina, a very attractive and educated Vietnamese American, had an office in Na Trang that we camped out it to store our bags and whatnot. We booked our travel to Hue, the next stop on our journey north before we seperated for James and I to head to the border and Gustaf to head to Hanoi. After sorting out our travel plans our next site to visit was the beach, we all were somewhat exhaused from the travel, and decided a relaxing afternoon at the ocean was just what we needed, we opted for some cabana's near a swanky hotel that cost us 25000 VND (1:16,652), and played in the ocean for several hours. Our bus to Hue wasn't leaving until 6 so we had time to spare and unwind. Hue is the gateway for one of two border towns, Vinh being the other, with Laos. Both borders do Visa on Arrival, I had my visa for Laos, James did not, therefore those two border crossings were our only options unless we were to fly. The Sleeper bus to Hue was for 14 hours, absolutely horrible, the beds however were confortable, so we didn't much complain, i just didn't sleep at all so that made for a horrible day in Hue. We arrivd in Hue without incident and decided to try to find travel arrangements as soon as possible. The hotel where the bus had dropped us off at had a travel agent, being that we all were cranky, tired, and just not in the mood to search out a deal to save us a dollar or two we opted to make the arrangements with the hotel we were standing in front of. The arrangements we made were for Gustaf to take a bus to Hanoi, and for James and I to take a bus to the Laos border via Vinh. We had to travel that route as that was the only way we were going to get a bus to Vientiene Laos. the bus would travel from 5 until just after midnight, when we would arrive in Vinh, change buses for the border and arrive at the border aroun 3AM. From the border we would travel to Vientiene and arrive their around 4 PM. This was to be the worst bus experience we would have. While in Hue we decided to see the sights, we hired three (one for each) pedi cabs to give us a tour of the city, this took approximately one hour and cost us 50K Dong a piece (less than 4 dollars). When the bus arrived we were presented with the awkward presence of our group splitting up. Gustaf was booked on a different bus, and we would not be seperating in Vinh, but at that moment.
The bus from Hue to Vinh was a sleeper. Upon arriving in Vinh, an italian gentlemen was woken and told rather abrubtly (pigeon english) that his stop was here and he was to get off. What wasn't communicated is that this stop was also for James and I to switch buses. We determined that the bus was not in Vinh but just south, so the Italian got back on the bus (which he should not have) and a lot of confusion ensued to the point of if James and I were to switch buses their. He and I had gotten off the bus simply to smoke a cigarette, if not we would have never gotten off the bus. It was finally determined that James and I should have switched buses, and that the bus we were to get on was not pulling out of the stop and beginning to head down the road. A couple of loud whistles from James and many people yelling got the bus to stop and back us so that we could get on it. This was a sitting bus, so it was quite uncomfortable as the back seat and several other seats were being occupied by the bus staff and not available to PAYING CUSTOMERS. This bus crew turned out to be the rudest and most disrespecting bunh we had come accross on all the buses we had taken on this leg of the journey.
The border crossing with Vietnm and Laos also proved to be an adventure, as with entering Vietnam, all the passports were collected and taken to the immigration officer, after they were stamped however the bribes came into play. Each person was reqiured to pay 20K Dong, or 1 USD to retrieve their passport, what a load of crap, and to top things off, as the passports were stamped and cleared mine had somehow been set aside as the the only American on the bus. That really pissed me off, after having not slept for a day, told I had to pay to get my passport back, not for the stamp, as all the passports were already stamped, and the rude bus drivers I was close to cracking. I Paid the money for my passport and they handed it over after me having to ask and point to my passport three times, not sure the game they were up to but it wasn't funny from my end. After walking about a 1/2 mile to the Laos border the fun began again. James did not have any photos left for his visa, and did i mention the border crossing is at the top of a mountain pass, the scenery was simply breathtaking. We arrive at the Laos immigration and James finds out he can simply pay a dollar for not having pictures or 2 dollars for the pictions, I'm sure the choice is obvious for what he did. After he cleared immigration i went through, the ass behind the immigration counter attempted to charge me for my visa again, then the daft cow takes my passport to the cashier window to confirm the giant red PAID stamp and leaves it there, when he comes back i asked where my passport was and pointed to the cashier, i about flipped, so i went and got my passport and finally he understood that my visa was procurred prior to arrival and that he needed to stamp my frickin passport, which he did and was able to walk from their to the bus where the driver felt the need to stand behind me shouting GO GO GO, at this point i had about had it, if I was someone else, i probably would have thrown the cocksucker through the winshield.
all right for now, next up tubing in Vien Viang!!!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Cambodia, Vietnam
Cambodia Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/pdullock/Cambodia?authkey=-i61t-AXzZo#
Vietnam Pictues: http://picasaweb.google.com/pdullock/Vietnam?authkey=m3zr9eC5H4I#5252214682838385090
To Start i want to apologize to everyone for not publishing any pictures yet, i will post pictures when i get back, the drawback to posting via the iPod and internet cafes is that they do not always have card readers for the memory cards for my camera's. believe me i have a lot of pictures and will go back through the blog and insert links to galleries.
Cambodia is a country that i am very glad i visited, however, i have no intention of going back. The country in and of it self had a dirty and dangerous feeling, that feeling you get when people are WAY to nice to you. The bus to Cambodia was through the Poi Pet border in Cambodia, this was anarchy at its finest, i am overly relieved that i made the decision to travel via an organized tour. On the bus from Thailand were two gentlemen, one from the north of England named James (think football hooligan), a great guy who was chasing the waves through SE Asia and was a first time travellor through these parts of Asia, and a Swede named Gustof (we called him Christof for the first three days not realizing that wasn't his name), also a first time travellor. We made a great pair walking blind through some of these places.
We recieved visa's on arrival that were not offered by Cambodia, so we stoped about a 1/2 mile from the border at a mom and pop restaurant, this was the first time a complete and utter stranger walked up and just said, "passport" and held their hand out. We filled out the immigration/Visa forms and paid our 1200 Thai Baht (1:34) and ordered the lunch, the women just disappeared, my first thought was where in the hell is my passport, the communiction lacked a just a little. The border for thailand was quite organized, the queue was set and we just came up and got stamped, our passports were steadfastly returned to us as we entered the immigration station, complete with cambodia visa's. Once we cleared immigration for Thailand we entered the no mans zone, straight out of the wild west, their were touts everywhere, people pushing carts that were gargantuan, and no clear direction of where we were to go or what we were to do. then out of no where the cambodian hgalf of our organized travel group (us three guys) shows up and guides us to the cambodian immigration place. This is a small room thats about 100 degrees and just awful, its packed with foriengers trying to get into cambodia, which in and of itself isn't not a hard thing to do, as they seem to let everyone in. We stood just jumbled in this room for about an hour before walking through officially in Cambodia, the other side was no better than the wasteland between the immigration stations. Our guide had let us know that the bus we were supposed to take was not leaving for another three hours, and not air conditioned, we were not keen on that idea due to the outside tempetue was the same as inside the immigration room. The side deal we made was for 1500 TBT for the three of us (500 a piece) for a private taxi (air conditioned) to Siem Reap. The road was absolute shit on the way their. Theere was plenty of construction, but this project which they project they will complete in one year will probably take 10, one thing about south east asian countries, expecially the poor ones is that they mix the cement by hand in buckets, no cement trucks or big mixers in most places. So imagine a highway overpass being done with hand mixed cemement.
Arriving in Siem Reap was a relief, the hotel i stayed at ended up being 5 star, and i only paid 27 a night for on an internet deal through asiatravel.com. the other travelors i was with found a half way decent place for 13 about a mile away from the hotel i was staying at. We went out that night and got our first taste of sanitized cambodia. Siem Reap is designed entirely for tourists, the bars are all western and the street food is close to nil in the "bar street" area. We ended up going to a dinner show that night that had an international buffet. It was hard to tell what food was cambodian, or if cambodians had a food that was signature to their country, their was kim chi in the buffett if that helps explain what i mean by "international". After the show we headed down to the bar street and kicked back a few cold ones. A street kid, dressed fairly nice was hawking three books for 5 a piece. he spoke great english, and was very quick on his feet. James bought one of the books and the damn thing was a photocopy, it was quite amusing to tell you the truth, but the kid suckered him bad, and this would be a recurring theme through cambodia of getting taking advantage of.
We had arranged a tuk tuk driver the first evening in Siem Riep for 16 a person for the three of us. come to find out later this was almost double the going rate for the tuk tuks to take to ankwar wat. We started at Ankwar Wat at 8 AM and this place was absolutely massive, the temples were huge, and the intracacy of the carvings and detail where truly overwhelming. After about 5 temples we heard people saying seen one, seen them all, but they all had a different feel, and each had their own unique feel and theme. The coolest one of course was the Jungle Temple that was used in the movie tomb raider, the trees growing through the actual temple were huge, the temble was 1000 years old, and it was estimated that the trees were 600 years old. At 4:00 we called it a day at the temples, after walking through the main temple of Ankwar Wat (each temple had a unique name with the biggest being Ankwar Wat, the area was also known as Ankwar Wat).
After sweating probably 2 pints of water, we headed back to the hotels, meeting up at mine (it had a pool) for a swim, it didn't suprise me that the water was proably 95 degrees, like bath water. we hung out in the pool for close to an hour then headed to the FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club) This i always thought was in Pnom Penh, but it appears that it has franchised out. The orginal FCC was a haunt for British reporters in cambodia through the war and before, now its just a hotel and restaurant.
We caught the early bus to Pnom Penh, and stayed the night their. We saw the Killing Fields, and the Genocide Museum. Pnom Penh, in and of itself was really dirty, and did not feel safe at all. The Killing fields were absolutely the most disturbing thing that I have ever seen, having been through the holacaust museums in DC and LA, this was 100 times worse. The Killing fields in and of themelves are 83 mass graves, the largest site that pol pot created. Their is an estimated 343 mass graves throughout Cambodia that the Khmer Rouge created. As you walk through the Killing fields themselves you follow a dirt path, we hired the tour guide for 10 dollars and it was ore than worth the money. As you walk along the path, he explains how the site of the killing fields was a chinese cemetary, and that was the cover used to hide the smell from the bodies by the KR. As we walked along, the tour guide scuffed some of the ground bent down and pulled a tooth out of the dirt, they are not really sure how much more is left in the actual site, or if their may potentially be more bodies not uncovered. Each time the rain comes or the river rises more is uncovered and shifted around. As you continue along the path, their are clothes in the dirt, and even bone fragments sticking up through the ground. Absolutely mind boggling to wrap your head around as you go through it. Its like being in the middle of the atrocities, which in a way you are. The tour finishes with the actually memorial, a temple building with approximately 30 shelves spaced about 2 feet apart with nothing but skulls that were removed from the ground.
All three of us were sick to our stomachs as we left the killing fields, the atrocities of the KR were just horrendeous, their were 6 million people living in Cambodia when Pol Pot took power, it is estimated that he killed 2 million Cambodians, we then went to the genocide museum. The musem is also known as SO21, its a former high school that was converted into a camp for the KR to torture their victims. One building is open cell areas, and the other two buildings are set up with the cells and photographs of the victims and of the actual results of their tyranny. Again very disturbing.
In the afternoon we caught a bus to Ho Chi Minh City. The bus took 6 hours. On the bus they passed out the Immigration cards for Vietnam, then collected everyones passport. This was quite organized, as we went through the cambodian border, a complete 180 from the Poi Pet border with thailand, it was extemely organized, i am a firm believer that the tour company greases the border agents. The passports that were collected earlier were turned over to the cambodian immigration. Everyone is asked to get off the bus, and then the border agent calls each persons name and they can get back on the bus. At the Vietnam side, same thing, only this time everyone crowds into the immigration building, and when the Vietnamese are done they bring your passport out and you can go through. Vietnam at the border seemed a bit dirty, with trash everywhere, but as we got into HCMC it was much cleaner, and the city doesn't have a coming after you feel like Pnom Penh. I'm currently in HCMC and the city has a very nice feel. Got in late and got a hoel in the backpacker area. If this is what backpacking in asia is like, I like it, one of the better hotel rooms i've had. Took the day on the 11th to relax, all of us have been running ragged for some time so it was a nice relief. Tomorrow the plan is to see the Cu Chi Tunnels outside of HCMC and then to Tra Nang a spectatuclar beach area.
Vietnam Pictues: http://picasaweb.google.com/pdullock/Vietnam?authkey=m3zr9eC5H4I#5252214682838385090
To Start i want to apologize to everyone for not publishing any pictures yet, i will post pictures when i get back, the drawback to posting via the iPod and internet cafes is that they do not always have card readers for the memory cards for my camera's. believe me i have a lot of pictures and will go back through the blog and insert links to galleries.
Cambodia is a country that i am very glad i visited, however, i have no intention of going back. The country in and of it self had a dirty and dangerous feeling, that feeling you get when people are WAY to nice to you. The bus to Cambodia was through the Poi Pet border in Cambodia, this was anarchy at its finest, i am overly relieved that i made the decision to travel via an organized tour. On the bus from Thailand were two gentlemen, one from the north of England named James (think football hooligan), a great guy who was chasing the waves through SE Asia and was a first time travellor through these parts of Asia, and a Swede named Gustof (we called him Christof for the first three days not realizing that wasn't his name), also a first time travellor. We made a great pair walking blind through some of these places.
We recieved visa's on arrival that were not offered by Cambodia, so we stoped about a 1/2 mile from the border at a mom and pop restaurant, this was the first time a complete and utter stranger walked up and just said, "passport" and held their hand out. We filled out the immigration/Visa forms and paid our 1200 Thai Baht (1:34) and ordered the lunch, the women just disappeared, my first thought was where in the hell is my passport, the communiction lacked a just a little. The border for thailand was quite organized, the queue was set and we just came up and got stamped, our passports were steadfastly returned to us as we entered the immigration station, complete with cambodia visa's. Once we cleared immigration for Thailand we entered the no mans zone, straight out of the wild west, their were touts everywhere, people pushing carts that were gargantuan, and no clear direction of where we were to go or what we were to do. then out of no where the cambodian hgalf of our organized travel group (us three guys) shows up and guides us to the cambodian immigration place. This is a small room thats about 100 degrees and just awful, its packed with foriengers trying to get into cambodia, which in and of itself isn't not a hard thing to do, as they seem to let everyone in. We stood just jumbled in this room for about an hour before walking through officially in Cambodia, the other side was no better than the wasteland between the immigration stations. Our guide had let us know that the bus we were supposed to take was not leaving for another three hours, and not air conditioned, we were not keen on that idea due to the outside tempetue was the same as inside the immigration room. The side deal we made was for 1500 TBT for the three of us (500 a piece) for a private taxi (air conditioned) to Siem Reap. The road was absolute shit on the way their. Theere was plenty of construction, but this project which they project they will complete in one year will probably take 10, one thing about south east asian countries, expecially the poor ones is that they mix the cement by hand in buckets, no cement trucks or big mixers in most places. So imagine a highway overpass being done with hand mixed cemement.
Arriving in Siem Reap was a relief, the hotel i stayed at ended up being 5 star, and i only paid 27 a night for on an internet deal through asiatravel.com. the other travelors i was with found a half way decent place for 13 about a mile away from the hotel i was staying at. We went out that night and got our first taste of sanitized cambodia. Siem Reap is designed entirely for tourists, the bars are all western and the street food is close to nil in the "bar street" area. We ended up going to a dinner show that night that had an international buffet. It was hard to tell what food was cambodian, or if cambodians had a food that was signature to their country, their was kim chi in the buffett if that helps explain what i mean by "international". After the show we headed down to the bar street and kicked back a few cold ones. A street kid, dressed fairly nice was hawking three books for 5 a piece. he spoke great english, and was very quick on his feet. James bought one of the books and the damn thing was a photocopy, it was quite amusing to tell you the truth, but the kid suckered him bad, and this would be a recurring theme through cambodia of getting taking advantage of.
We had arranged a tuk tuk driver the first evening in Siem Riep for 16 a person for the three of us. come to find out later this was almost double the going rate for the tuk tuks to take to ankwar wat. We started at Ankwar Wat at 8 AM and this place was absolutely massive, the temples were huge, and the intracacy of the carvings and detail where truly overwhelming. After about 5 temples we heard people saying seen one, seen them all, but they all had a different feel, and each had their own unique feel and theme. The coolest one of course was the Jungle Temple that was used in the movie tomb raider, the trees growing through the actual temple were huge, the temble was 1000 years old, and it was estimated that the trees were 600 years old. At 4:00 we called it a day at the temples, after walking through the main temple of Ankwar Wat (each temple had a unique name with the biggest being Ankwar Wat, the area was also known as Ankwar Wat).
After sweating probably 2 pints of water, we headed back to the hotels, meeting up at mine (it had a pool) for a swim, it didn't suprise me that the water was proably 95 degrees, like bath water. we hung out in the pool for close to an hour then headed to the FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club) This i always thought was in Pnom Penh, but it appears that it has franchised out. The orginal FCC was a haunt for British reporters in cambodia through the war and before, now its just a hotel and restaurant.
We caught the early bus to Pnom Penh, and stayed the night their. We saw the Killing Fields, and the Genocide Museum. Pnom Penh, in and of itself was really dirty, and did not feel safe at all. The Killing fields were absolutely the most disturbing thing that I have ever seen, having been through the holacaust museums in DC and LA, this was 100 times worse. The Killing fields in and of themelves are 83 mass graves, the largest site that pol pot created. Their is an estimated 343 mass graves throughout Cambodia that the Khmer Rouge created. As you walk through the Killing fields themselves you follow a dirt path, we hired the tour guide for 10 dollars and it was ore than worth the money. As you walk along the path, he explains how the site of the killing fields was a chinese cemetary, and that was the cover used to hide the smell from the bodies by the KR. As we walked along, the tour guide scuffed some of the ground bent down and pulled a tooth out of the dirt, they are not really sure how much more is left in the actual site, or if their may potentially be more bodies not uncovered. Each time the rain comes or the river rises more is uncovered and shifted around. As you continue along the path, their are clothes in the dirt, and even bone fragments sticking up through the ground. Absolutely mind boggling to wrap your head around as you go through it. Its like being in the middle of the atrocities, which in a way you are. The tour finishes with the actually memorial, a temple building with approximately 30 shelves spaced about 2 feet apart with nothing but skulls that were removed from the ground.
All three of us were sick to our stomachs as we left the killing fields, the atrocities of the KR were just horrendeous, their were 6 million people living in Cambodia when Pol Pot took power, it is estimated that he killed 2 million Cambodians, we then went to the genocide museum. The musem is also known as SO21, its a former high school that was converted into a camp for the KR to torture their victims. One building is open cell areas, and the other two buildings are set up with the cells and photographs of the victims and of the actual results of their tyranny. Again very disturbing.
In the afternoon we caught a bus to Ho Chi Minh City. The bus took 6 hours. On the bus they passed out the Immigration cards for Vietnam, then collected everyones passport. This was quite organized, as we went through the cambodian border, a complete 180 from the Poi Pet border with thailand, it was extemely organized, i am a firm believer that the tour company greases the border agents. The passports that were collected earlier were turned over to the cambodian immigration. Everyone is asked to get off the bus, and then the border agent calls each persons name and they can get back on the bus. At the Vietnam side, same thing, only this time everyone crowds into the immigration building, and when the Vietnamese are done they bring your passport out and you can go through. Vietnam at the border seemed a bit dirty, with trash everywhere, but as we got into HCMC it was much cleaner, and the city doesn't have a coming after you feel like Pnom Penh. I'm currently in HCMC and the city has a very nice feel. Got in late and got a hoel in the backpacker area. If this is what backpacking in asia is like, I like it, one of the better hotel rooms i've had. Took the day on the 11th to relax, all of us have been running ragged for some time so it was a nice relief. Tomorrow the plan is to see the Cu Chi Tunnels outside of HCMC and then to Tra Nang a spectatuclar beach area.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Week-5 Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam
The flight to Thailand was quite uneventful, it was on Royal Jordanian, now that surprised me t hat they flew that route, but not in the end as the final destination of the plane was Amman. Bangkok airport is interesting, first and foremost its freaking huge, it was a 15 minute walk to immigration, and i'm pretty sure that i could have left the airport at any time during this walk without incidence.
Cleared immigration without any problems and went straight to the taxi/airport limosine stand (these aren't stretch jobs, just private cars like honda's and toyota's), and booked a car directly to Pattaya, i don't want to be in bangkok with all the protesting, and especially the two shootings that have occurred, just don't want to be anywhere near it. Maybe on my next trip to thailand i'll give it a whirl. The driver was quite the speed racer, he was doing 140-160 KMH, or to translate 80-90 miles per hour on the free way, now the speed limit was 120, but damn if this guy wasn't going to break any land records he had set previously.
Took an extra day in Pattaya which is very relaxing, its a beach community/City of about 230,000, but the beach and view is fantastic, i can really see why people come here and don't want to leave, its absolutely beautiful, one of these days i'll come back and just make my way the entire length of the coast! While in Pattaya my immediate concern is to book passage to either cambodia or laos. Laos is out of the questions directly from Pattaya, so my route will have to be Pattaya to Siem Riep to see the ancient city of Ankwar Wat, then to Pnom Penh (both in Cambodia) to Ho Chi Minh City, then off to Hanoi, so south to north through the country of Vietnam, then off to Laos and back to Thailand to head to my next destination, which i'm trying to figure out, either to see andrew who is free from the 12-15 (don't think i'll be through to laos yet) or off to Australia possibly, been finding some spectactular deals on jetstar and tiger airways to perth, melbourne, or gold coast. So that would mean back to thailand, then to singapore then to either australia or the Philippines., either way i have to be back in the philippines by the 29th of September for my flight home. All right every one, i kept this one clean, but their is much more related to the go-go bars in Pattaya, i didn't realize that women has so much control!!
Thanks all, staying Safe As Usual!!!
Cleared immigration without any problems and went straight to the taxi/airport limosine stand (these aren't stretch jobs, just private cars like honda's and toyota's), and booked a car directly to Pattaya, i don't want to be in bangkok with all the protesting, and especially the two shootings that have occurred, just don't want to be anywhere near it. Maybe on my next trip to thailand i'll give it a whirl. The driver was quite the speed racer, he was doing 140-160 KMH, or to translate 80-90 miles per hour on the free way, now the speed limit was 120, but damn if this guy wasn't going to break any land records he had set previously.
Took an extra day in Pattaya which is very relaxing, its a beach community/City of about 230,000, but the beach and view is fantastic, i can really see why people come here and don't want to leave, its absolutely beautiful, one of these days i'll come back and just make my way the entire length of the coast! While in Pattaya my immediate concern is to book passage to either cambodia or laos. Laos is out of the questions directly from Pattaya, so my route will have to be Pattaya to Siem Riep to see the ancient city of Ankwar Wat, then to Pnom Penh (both in Cambodia) to Ho Chi Minh City, then off to Hanoi, so south to north through the country of Vietnam, then off to Laos and back to Thailand to head to my next destination, which i'm trying to figure out, either to see andrew who is free from the 12-15 (don't think i'll be through to laos yet) or off to Australia possibly, been finding some spectactular deals on jetstar and tiger airways to perth, melbourne, or gold coast. So that would mean back to thailand, then to singapore then to either australia or the Philippines., either way i have to be back in the philippines by the 29th of September for my flight home. All right every one, i kept this one clean, but their is much more related to the go-go bars in Pattaya, i didn't realize that women has so much control!!
Thanks all, staying Safe As Usual!!!
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