Holiday in Cambodia.

Angkor Wat at sunrise

The Dead Kennedys first recorded the song "Holiday In Combodia" in 1980. It's a song which is heavily critical of eastern Militarism (eg., Pol Pot's regime) and Western complacency and is particularly critical of self righteous young Americans. It contrast their pretentious ways against the brutalities which were occurring under the regime in Cambodia with the inference being that their convictions would be sorely tested were they to experience the horrors of such a regime.

So, it was with this song playing in my head that Wookie and I landed in Siem Reap, the town which has sprung up around the ancient wonder which is Angkor. The drive from the airport into the town confirmed what most people would suspect - a holiday in Cambodia is now definitely achievable and actually quite a pleasant experience. This is made evident by the sheer number of hotels and spas which have sprung up around the town. The road from the airport is lined with two hundred room western run Megaplex hotels which provide everything that a well to do traveller would require. I feel that this all lends a certain irony to the song and to the original intent.

Anyway, enough of the diatribe - what was Angkor like? Simply amazing - it lived up to every expectation. After a day getting settled in, Wooky and I headed for the first of what would, for us, be three days at the temples. Before I describes this, I might add a little bit about  Angkor.  Firstly, Angkor Wat is only one of about 20 or so major temples which make up the Angkor site. The majority of these temples are contained within the “Big Loop” which is a road about 26 kms long which encircles the main sites.

Our chosen method for seeing the site was by bike. The distances weren’t too great and the area is completely flat, so it seemed like a good option as it gives you a lot freedom to go and see what you want when.

So with this in mind, our first day was a scouting operation, with such a large area and so many sites to see we wanted to get a feel for the area before James arrived. After a day of riding we a good feel for the place and the next day when James arrived we got straight into it. All in all we spent around 8 hours riding, we managed to see the main temple complex of Angkor Wat and the Bayon (both amazing) and also some of the smaller sites. Having the bikes allowed us to take some of the less travelled paths which always ended up leading somewhere interesting and less touristy.

The overgrown ruins of Ta Prohm

A Buddha face scene from the all but abandoned north entrace of Ta Prohm

 

Bass-reliefs at Angkor Wat

Finally, on the third day we hired a tuk-tuk (two days riding was more than enough) which took us to Angkor Wat for sunrise. Again, this is a must see experience. It's incredibly busy and we had to fight hoards of tourists, but it was totally worth it. There is a reason people get up at 4:00am to go out and watch the sun rise behind this amazingly ancient pile of stone. After sunrise we spent the day exploring some of the further out and more interesting temlpes, but by midday we were completely templed out. There are only so many bass-reliefs and Buddha / Hindu statues you can look at before they all start blending together.

Yet another rampant tourist photo. 

And that was Angkor, tomorrow we get up early and head for Thailand. Our next stop is Chang-Mai where we would meet up with Nat and then head off into Northern Laos to catch a slow boat. As a fair well to Siem Reap we decided it was time to go out for some dinner and drinks and Siem Reap has a lot to offer in this respect. The main street of the Psar Chaa district is teaming with bars, restaurants and tourists. In fact, it's sadly getting somewhat of a Khao San road feel to it (made all the more evident by the fact the main streat is called "Pub Street"). Even so, it's a good place to get some good food and beers. Speaking of good food, I'll leave you all with a tip - anyone traveling to Cambodia should definitely try Lok-Lak. The menu describes this dish as "grilled beef with Cambodian BBQ sauce" - but it's so much more. It's been a long time since I ate something which really blew my mind, in fact it's hard to describe what it tastes like, just that it taste amazing.

On that culinary note I'll leave it there. Next stop Chang-Mai.

Welcome to KL

Kuala Lumpur, the city of ... of what exactly? I'm not quite sure. Prior to arriving in KL I'd read or heard very little about it. The most anyone could tell me was a) it's great for shopping and b) it's got the Petronas Towers, the second tallest building in the world. And after 4 days in Malaysian this still pretty much all I know about KL.

This is largely due to the fact that I abandoned KL almost as soon as I landed. After landing, I was looking at spending a lot longer in KL then I had intended to (due to some unexpected circumstances). What was originally meant to be a 2 day stopover had quickly turned into 4 days while I waited for Wooky to arrive. 

After discussing KL with a few people at my hostel, I came to the conclusion that whilst it seems like a fairly cool city, nothing was really drawing me in. I decided to get up first thing the next morning make my way to the bus station and head... somewhere.

In the end I opted for the Cameron Highlands, an area about 200km North of KL, and I'm glad I made the choice. The area is hilly and covered in tea / strawberry plantations interspersed with thick jungle. It's a nice change from the heat, humidity of KL. I also hit upon a an excellent hostel - Father's Guest house. Great place with friendly staff in an awesome location.

One of the many tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands

Interesting (read basic) accomodation in Cameron Highlands. Despite the look of the doorms it was a great pace to stay though.

The surrounding is pretty spectacular and is excellent for trekking. The thick jungle and unending hills, coupled with a lack of signs and the overgrown nature of the paths makes it a far more adventurous experience than first thought. Sadly, the views from the top of the mountains are somewhat spoiled by the fact that the development in this area has happened in a sprawling and haphazard way. As a result pristine jungle is often cut away by large tower block style apartment buildings or cuttings made to prevent mud slides onto roads. 

Thick forest of the Highlands

Friendly creatures too...

Having said that, in places the jungle is so thick and the terrain so impassable that, once we made it over the ridgeline and Tanah Rata was hid from view, we were presented with a massive expanse of apparently untouched jungle. We also had a nice suprised when we got slightly lost and stumbled across and Orang Asli village. The Orang Asli are the original inhabitants of the Malay peninsular and it was intersting to happen across one of the villages huddled in the hills.

Orang Alsi Village.

All in all, it was definitely a good choice to come up here for a few days. It was a great relaxing ay to start the trip, nevertheless, tomorrow I have to get moving again. I will be heading off to meet Wooky in KL before we fly to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) on Wednesday morning – and that’s where the fun really begins.

Here we go again.

It's that time of year, summer is here, uni is finished, Christmas is coming and I'm leaving. This time we four intrepid adventurers are heading out into the vast uncharted jungles of south east asia... actually... hang on. Hmm, turns out these vast jungles have been chartered, quite heavily in fact, and even by one of our group.

Well it's still going to be fun and this time I'll be trying to keep this blog a little more up to date. For various reasons (mostly technology related), this blog ended around half-way through last trip. This time however, I've made the transition for dirty backpacker to yuppie backpacker. I'm travelling with a brand new NetBook and an iPhone which should make things a lot easier. We'll no longer need to spend interminable hours in internet cafes struggling with intermittent access, rather we'll spend interminable hours in our hostel fighting over this laptop.

In any case, I'll make sure that our (mis)adventures are captured and posted. For now though, I need to board a plane. Next posting will be from somewhere in Malaysia.

Dave.

P.s. you may notice a very recent posting below from Africa. No, I didn't make a side trip to Africa, but what I did find was a nearly complete entry I never posted. So there it is!

There is no error in God's computer...

And apparently we are all wizards. Well that's according to the crazy lady we met in Stonetown, the capital of Zanzibar. She seemed quite harmless and, to be honest, her confusion didn't seem that out of place in Stonetown - the hectic mix of Islamic, Indian and Africa cultures means that it has a somewhat confused identity (and apparently some of residents are a little confused about religion too).

Zanzibar and it's amazing white sandy beaches.

So, crazy ladies aside, we had finally arrived in Stonetown in preparation for New years. Our journey here had an epic feel to it, even in comparison with the other monumental transit we'd done previously on this trip. I've mentioned before that travel takes time here, and one thing we've learnt about this is that it's best not to delay the travel or try to break it up. Push on through is the motto. Adding a rest day just makes things longer and you still feel wrung out at the end.

With this in mind we set out at 7:00am Christmas Eve from Chitemba on the sures of Lake Malawi with an audacious plan - we would aim to be Mbeya in southern Tanzania by 2:45pm in order to catch the twice weekly train to Dar Es Salaam. This gave us a total of 7 hours 45 minutes to make our way to the north of Malawi, negotiate the border, then on to Mbeya. A total distance of around 400km.

What ensued was something straight out of the Amazing Race with James, Wookie (Father / son), Nick and I (dating goths) barging our way across the country, running for busses, arguing with money changers and bus drivers and finally remembering an extremely inconvenient time zone change which we'd forgotten about (hence one our less to make the journey). The final push occurred when we arrived at the train station at 2:43 with train waiting at the platform. James and nick sprinted for the ticket offices while Wookie and Igot the bags ready to load onto the train, we'd made it...

Or had we? A distressed look from James and Wookie and a quick conversation confirmed our worst fears, the train was booked out. Christmas was ruined. We'd have to spend Chistmas in a hotel in Mbeya, or on a bus - boring.

But wait, at the last minute our shining star arrived, the station master, who nonchalantly wandered over and informed us, actually yes, there was a 1 first class cabin (4 berth) available and we could now by a ticket. After this he was dubbed the station master who saved christmas (we also had a taxi driver that saved christmas and later the swiss girl who saved Christmas, but that’s another story).

A merry Christmas message from Nick coutesy of his amazing light writing skills

Christmas was saved and we celebrated with some serious amazing race style high fives once we got into the cabin.

One last chapter the story: out train broke down for 18hours at one point. So what do you do? Frisbee that's what.