Lessons learnt

I guess the title refers to yesterdy and our cycling trip to Tonle Sap (lake) It was ridiculously hot and shadeless along the lake road. On the return trip we stopped at a stilt house which was displaying a rather beat up sign in Khmer which looked to be advertising the place as a cafe or something. Anyway we stopped and were sourly invited in to the place- which consisted of a floor overhanging -at the moment -a 25 foot drop into stagnant waters and some muddy pools with some chickens pecking around (no doubt in a few days or weeks the rains will come and the house will be above the lake water) The floor was made of halved bamboo canes nailed to a rough wooden frame on these tall stilts. The place noticeably moved as we wandered in (bare foot as is right and proper in someone's home) There was a group of about 5 women sitting on a mat playing cards and about 9 children - 7 of whom were under the age of 5 & a couple of mankey looking dogs panting in the shade. There were no walls - all was open at the sides and no concrete or cement or stone (everything was grass roofs and wooden posts) The lady threw a woven mat on the floor and went off to buy us the drinks borrowing money from one of the card players. Amongst the children crawling, rocking and lying face down on the floor was one little tyke about 3 who stood near us, leaning back on the "fence" that protected him from the 20 foot fall out of his home. We were immediately hit by the complete deadness in his eyes. It was heart breaking! My smiles and silly faces didn't raise a flicker of anything which you would associate with a toddler. All the children were completely left to their own devises and there was not a ball, a crayon or anything bright or soft or shiny for them to respond to. Eventually Si gave me one of his postcards (on one side a pic of the College in the snow and on the other a colourful pic of a Thai chap painting a Fly Tail boat in Phi Phi island.) I made a little hat /sail boat thing out of it and tried to engage the little guy. He was interested but obviously didn;t know how to respond to my giving this to him. He still didn't smile and still his eyes were blank. After a while he climbed in to a hammock (the place was full of hammocks were they clearly sleep) and I gently placed the boat on him before turning away and pretending to ignore him. The moment I did that he rolled out of the hammock and ran to a quiet corner of the room clutching the boat. We watched him as he opened up the folds and looked at the picture of the Thai boat..... The smile that cracked his face had us both in awe. He then ran smiling and then stopping to look again at this picture. Heartbreaking but so real - what you always hear about such a little thing making such a difference. After about five minutes he brought the other little kids around and they stood by tentatively as our pal came forward and stuck 3 fingers up - so we gave him three more cards. By this time we had to go - it wasn't a very happy place. The little boy ran after us as we put our shoes back on and put his little hand out so Si did the high five for him - he was clueless so we spent some time teaching him up above down below you're too slow. When we finally started to wave good bye his face crumpled and we were worried he may cry- it was absolutely horrendous just how they had no stimulus or anything at all. Now staying another day and plan to take some things and leave them outside their place tomorrow (just some picture books or a ball -anything really)
Another long day on the bikes today cycling back along to the temples area. We have a bus ticket booked now for Saturday to travel to Campot in South East (near seaside place called Kep famous for Crab) Will spend some money tomorrow on tcrayons and paper etc and run back up to poor places by the lake ..probably just leave that little boy and his siblings some stuff by the door but there's also a temple school where we stopped and spoke to a young trainee buddhuist monk and they could use some resources too.
Hope everyone is well.

Cycling tour of Cambodia

Great day yesterday - we took bikes from the guesthouse and cycled off towards Angkor Wat and the site of the temples. Awesome! It is only the state of the infrastructure at the moment which is stopping Angkor Wat from becoming as big as the pyramids on the tourist trail... though the time is very near. Incredible architechure and feat of engineering quite unlike anything we've ever seen.

We both had thoughs of the Inca pyramids as the closest to describing these great structures. We wandered about Angkor Wat itself and then cycled off around to Bayon which is even more beautiful with its many towers with smiling Buddha faces on each side. All the temples are surrounded by jungle and it wasn't long before the monkeys were playing along the walls and surrounding areas.

It was very hot and sweaty, Simon loked like he'd been in the bath fully dressed. One child who was trying to sell us water even remarked on it! Poor old Pants- everywhere so far people have been calling out to him or saying straight to his face "Your body very fat!" I have tried to assure him this is a compliment.

We cycled around past the Terrace of Elephants and decided to start making our way back to Siem Reap but went the wrong way- ultimately making the whole journey 36kms long!!

Glad we did though because we stopped at a village on the way for a cold drink and had all the children talking with us and so sweet telling us their names, Boi, Po etc. We took some photos and showed them the images and they were delighted. In the end I gave one little lass my head torch and she was absolutely thrilled- running off bare foot to show her mother. These folks have absolutely nothing. The children (even tiny ones) are engaged in trying to tout bottled water & post cards to tourists around the temple sites and,as in this case, at the road side)

In this case the road was very quiet and in between the odd tourist climbing out of a tuk tuk near their home in order to enter the temple compounds, the children sat about playing with each others hair or tugging their naked baby brother about from one adoring sibling to the next. They have no toys, no ball, nothing at all. The all waved us off when we set out again and we felt that if we ever come back we will definitly fill a rucksack with books, crayons, beachballs, small games etc. The journey was so lovely through the jungle and past the farms.

We stopped at another shack later and again were greeted shyly by a group of 7 small semi dressed kids. they hid beind the big cold box and peered over at us with big wide eyes. Simon drew a face in the wet caused by the base of his can of beer and they drew the arms and legs for the figure. Si videod them and showed them - the laughter and delight I'll never forget (even now writing this my eyes are filling up)
I think it safe to say - we absolutely love Cambodia. Today we're planning on cycling down to Tonle Sap lake and then tomorrow back to explore some of the temples we didn't get around to.

We've pretty much decided to skip Pnom Penh now - as we've heard so many bad things (even from Cambodians) and we can't be bothered with hassle and potential risk this time. Instead we're going to look into getting a bus down to Campot and Kep (about 20km from Campot) they are in south east Kep on the coast and Campot a river resort - quiet but mellow) We are due to enter Vietnam on 21st Aug (A week today) so hopefully we can bus it from Kampot.

Last night Simon had Cambodian bbq which included Croc and Roo... He liked the roo but not the croc. I didn't know they had ros in Cambodia!! So far we've both faced all our fears with dogs, rats (huge rats) snakes. Last night we sta having a relaxing G&T at the Foreign Correspondants Club as night drew down and watched the biggest bats I've ever seen leave their roosts for the night (I think they may have been fruit bats- huge things)

Anyway hope everyone is well- you're all very quiet!!!

BTW- sorry about typos and bad spelling- just not getting long ebough to re-read these blogs. Also quick note- apologies for spelling Khmer- Khymer in earlier posts. It is y-less and spelt Khmer! (as in: Khmer Rouge!)

Across the lake and a day in the country

Yesterday we decided against the temples after a bad night's sleep and went for brunch into town. Ended up taking a tuk tuk to the river where we hopped aboard a boat with a very helpful young driver who lead us off to Tonle Sap lake (a huge fresh water lake that runs off into the Mekong.) It was pretty incredible as all along where reed shacks built on stilts with families going about their business. Everywhere nude kids swimming and fishing and playing along the mud banks.

Eventually we moved out of the river into open water and on to the floating village (complete with floating catholic church, school, police, general stores) The views were stunning with the lake silver and endless to all horizons.

At one point I was clicking away at a little boat chugging in the distance and as it started to come closer I was enjoying focussing on a cute little ragamufin of a girl aged about 5, sitting up front of her dad's boat and wearing a too big hat. I put the camera down to wave at her and the boat made a beeline for us. Within seconds I jumped in horror as I realised she was holding up a big snake which was writhing around her shoulders. Well as soon as I alerted Simon (who is afraid of snakes) the panic ensued (because I am afraid of everything let's face it)The girl was begging for money and bring the snake closer and closer, eventually pulling up right next to our boat - which was almost toppling from the sudden movement of Si & I rushing to find some reasonable small change to pay her off.

Later we saw another small pants-less laddy merrily rowing a plastic washing-up bowl around other tourist boats and profering snake threats!

It was a great trip and we were struck by the life of the people on the lake and also on the way to the area by tuk tuk. Our driver was a great guy named Botra and he secured a deal with us to use him to take us to the temples today.

We met up with him at 8am and decided to use the first of our three day pass to head about 30 miles away to see the furthest temples which we wouldn't be able to cycle to. The journey was really great and once again -probably our favourite part because of the opportunity to see real rural folks living and working their normal day. Fascinating how this morning on our way out every family was involved in some industry- in the paddy fields, making carvings, sewing, cooking, sweeping, fixing generators, making bricks or rice noodles.

The countryside is so beautiful and lush - the rice fields are the most vivid green. We stopped at the first temple and it was HOT and full of japansies, chinese, korean tourists in big groups so wasn't that great a deal- but pretty stunning. Next we travelled further out and stopped in a kind of national park where Si and I set off walking 1500 meters up a mountain path through the jungle. Amazing noises of insects, frogs, birds and monkeys. It was extremely sweaty going and Pants looked like he's been in shower fully clothed by the time we reached our destination. At the end of the walk we got to see some beautiful carvings in the rock floor of the river (so underwater) It was a pretty magical place and featured in the film (terrible film) The Two Brothers (about the tigers) It's called the Linga River.

We had a leisurely lunch with Botra and he invited us to his home to meet his wife and children- bless him... not sure I would feel comfortable doing this but still. On the ay back to town we had a chance to check out the Land Mine Museum (pretty bloody grim -that's about all I can say about Kymer history at this time of night)
Anyway we were dropped back in town tied, sweaty and dusty but having had a really insightful day. Early night for me - Pants is off on his Jack to watch the footy at 1.30am- idiot! Not sure tomorrow may be cycling templewards again or chilling depending on how late back Si is and how he feels in the morning.

Hope all are well... we've got ages to go and don't know what to do about Pnom Penh as we keep hearing it's pretty dicey and prob best avoided -even from Cambodian's whose best advice is if you have to go - stay one night only and then in the morning visit the Killing Fields and then leave. (So Killing Fields are the option rather than the city- that doesn't bode well) Update soon...

Chef Pants and the magic pizza

Despite an early start yesterday we decided against visiting the Angkor Wat site due to exhaustion from our long journey the previous day; instead we plumped for cooking school. We wandered in to town and had an ice coffee whilst watching the locals zip around on mopeds and then pottered about the market for a bit - wonderful bustling and smelt great from all the spices and herbs on sale. All the sales women perch squatting in the middle of the tables with their wares before them (including chickens displayed feet upwards towards the customers and live fish slapping out their death throes at the sales women's feet, awaiting a customer and the inevitable chop of a big machete knife- almost trod on one great monk fish making a desperate bid for freedom along the floor)

A few mellow jars were consumed whilst chatting to a Singaporean girl and her American boyfriend before we made our way to Le Tigre de Papier restaurant for our lesson in Khymer cooking. A nice lady named Chenny asked us to pick a started each and a main course each which we were then to cook. Simon picked fresh shrimp spring rolls and Fish Amok and I plumped for spicy mango salad and scallop Amok. She then lead us back through the food market this time explaining what every thing was and getting us to taste a variety of fresh herbs, fruits and vegs before taking back to the restaurant and up some narrow steps into an open sided thatched roofed turret atop the building.

The turret kitchen was spotlessly clean and a bowl of lime infused water was all set out for washing our hands before we were donned in chef's hats and aprons and set to chopping. She was very sweet and enjoyed our calling "Yes Chef" after she demo'd how to slice lemon grass, fresh sweet basil, tumeric, garlic, shallots, chilli etc. We also made a fab coconut custard which is steamed in a sweet green pumpkin for an hour. It was really really good fun and we learned heaps of techniques - cooking with out oil, the use of flavours and building each one into the dish separately , making the pastes. She also had us make little banana leaf bowls to serve the yellow curry in and sharon fruit roses to garnish the plate. One we finished we sat down in the restaurant and enjoyed obviously the finest meal ever (coz we made it!!)

After this we were full and tired and hot and came back to the hotel for a shower and rest. We wandered back out about 6.30pm for cocktails at the Foreign Correspondents' Club (The "F"- as we foreign correspondents call it!) Very civilized. To be honest I wasn't much in the mood for drinking a lot and took it easy. After the sublime surroundings of the F we went to the ridiculous ambiance of the Dead Fish Tower- a bar/restaurant with wooden platforms and steps towering ever higher,real crocs in pools and Apsara dancing (trad Khmer stuff for people with double jointed fingers)

By this time, feeling hungry again but not fancying any more Khymer cuisine, Chef Pants suggested pizza. Apparently back in the day the Khymer people innocently used marijuana as a herb in cooking and they still do this only now you cannot buy it openly in the markets. With the onset of tourism they have hit on the idea of making pizzas "happy" as (what we thought) a gimmicky option when ordering. Neither us were interested in this and ordered standard pizzas (telling the waiter "No thanks we're happy enough" when he grinningly offered to make it a happy pizza)
Well it was a small but actually very tasty pizza - Si had a beer with it and I a coke (as I say I wanted to stay sane knowing today may well be Angkor Wat day)

Hmmmmmmmm- the little sod went and happied our pizza regardless! Of course we didn't know this til we were back at the guest house enjoying a quiet (beer for Si, small Bailey's for me) Suddenly we were feeling pretty surreal and giggling at the silliest stuff. Slowly realizing why this may be, we decided to make a quiet exit bedwards. As I stood gingerly up from the table I became aware I was standing n something squishy and so carefully squinted all the way down at my foot. Whether it was the pizza which made my processing skills so slow but it took me a seemingly ages and slow dawning realization that it was a living thing struggling under my foot... The triple lutz, back axle and a semi quaver met with a standing ovation from all the audience except the French on the next table (who unfortunately were the only audience) All the staff came running in and it turned out the hijinks was caused by a little yellow frog! Suddenly a policeman appeared from nowhere and collared the beasty - I pleaded for it's life but could hardly speak for a sudden urge to instead beseech the French "You lot don't eat it!"It was all a bit nighmarish given the pizza induced high we were on and we made a sharp exit. Once in bed the blasted pizza really kicked in and at one point we were thinking of trying to score some gnocchi to bring us down.

Anyway a very paranoid night ensued and we have had a late start today. Off for some lunch now (needless to say NOT italian!!) then to Angkor for sunset this evening and to buy our three day pass around the temples. Love and Pizza Man - Caio for now xxx

Up a Thai Temple

Holiday in Cambodia!

"Holiday in Cambodia"-a Dead Kennedy's ditty we're kinda partial to, also a highly recommended weekend break! One small problem is that it takes an age to get here and is fraught with border crossing stress...

Actually we felt we got off fairly lightly after reading copious horror stories of dodgy Thai officials and then seedy downtown Cambodian Poipet (the border town you emerge into from Thailand).

After a luscious hour sleep in BKK interrupted only by heat and the noise of Spanish fans celebrating their success against Germany and the knowledge that we had a 4am alarm call - we took a taxi to Hualamphong Railway Station. [Top tip again! DON'T let taxi drivers in BKK take you anywhere off the meter- we were touted immediately we left the guest house and told "no meter" but that the trip would only cost us 300Baht - we duly told him of an interesting way to get there himself and flagged a meter cab down to the tune of 53 baht!!!!)

All the train windows were wide open as we set off bumping along out of Bangkok, passing again the shocker of shanty towns built in the very roots of the high rise hotels and office blocks. It really takes the breath away how these folks manage to live in such squalour and poverty, yet we saw one little girl all neat in her school uniform standing on a home made wooden walk way above the stench of stagnant ditches, having her hair brushed by her mother. At least she's being cared for and going to school but I wonder if all her school mates live in similar shacks or whether they come from varying backgrounds? I suppose she doesn't often have friends for a sleep over!

The countryside was lush and gorgeous paddy fields, full of storks, egrets, strange but beautiful looking kingfishers and everywhere folks tending their crops in searing heat!

The journey seemed never ending, taking 6 hours and ending with the joys of border crossings. Almost the moment we got off the train we were set upon by tuk tuk touts. Carefully we negotiated only the border and "only 50 baht" - all seemed understood and we set off. Immediately he turned away from the arrow pointing to the border and straight into a travel agency - well I wasn't having it - I cannot stand naughty boys who don't listen to instructions!!!! I yelled "If you don't turn around right now and take us to the border -we'll get out and no pay!!"(What an old colonial bossy boots- but I knew I should have brought our own rickshaw wallah on holiday with us!) Anyway I clearly scared the fisherman pants off him as he duly turned around and headed demurely off for the border.

It was then a relatively simple affair to fill out departure forms to leave Thailand and fill in medical release forms for Cambodia and then the visa forms for the Cambodia visa (though the border official did exactly what the guide books and websites said he'd do and tried to charge us a extraneous 200 baht on top of the $20 visa fee. I said "What's that for?"he looked at his feet and mumbled "express visa processing"! No need to fear if you're doing this- don't pay the baht and wait for the longer visa processing which took 2 minutes.

Finally we walked into Cambodia and got hustled on to a "government tourist shuttle bus" Quite funny because everyone on it was questioning the guys and all were really paranoid that this too was a ruse to get more cash out of us. Whilst journeying along the french girls in front of us suddenly groaned as they found the bit in Lonely Planet that says basically don't get fooled by the official shuttle bus. Great! We were especially anxious as we'd arranged for our hotel to have a taxi meet us at the Cambodian side not at some bus station.

Anyway- in the end it worked out okay and on refection we don't think they wre trying to rip anyone off (I think they are trying to allay rumours of scams and corruption by being ultra helpful and efficient but because the all new modern bus station is actually in middle of nowhere and completely empty it looks like some sort of very expensive scam. Our driver wasn't there and a kindly police man allowed Si to call the hotel and after some misunderstandings and complexities which we still can't quite get to the bottom of, we got to the Mother Home Guest House some 2 hours later.

So far we love what we're seeing here. The countryside is stunning and people farm their land using oxen to pull their ploughs. Their are water buffalo everywhere in the fields - it is really lovely. The people are different too - extremely friendly.

Siem Reap is surprisingly new at first glance . It is open and light (no high rises) Lots of parks and royal gardens. Last night we walked into the centre where the bars and restaurants are and had the most delicious Cambodian national dish (Amok) Fish red curry - scrumptious. Draft beer at 50cents (about 40p) a pop and the meal about 3.75GBP.

There is a colonial feel to the old town and there are plenty of bars which have balconies which give a little more breeze and a view of proceedings away from the constant beggar action. I can feel this will be a continuing ethical issue for us...there are numerous land mine victims begging and also children (one very little boy could only have been about 4 years old and came running in front of us kneeling and bowing down head to the ground and little hands together) It's upsetting but also a concern that you don't want to encourage the life style for children. Prob best to remember how it feels to see them and donate to a charity when we get back.

Off to explore some more (prob staying here til 16th now as there's lots to see and do and the hotel is fab!)
More in a day or two.

Big lizard watch

Hi folks!
We arrived- finally- it was a totally knackering journey all told. Met with Rev. Bill at Delhi Airport- wow that's a lovely place!! NOT.

We only got to speak with Bill briefly as he was on the job protecting British borders from advancing illegal immigrants- which looked to us a little tough and involved a lot of passport scrutiny and endless phone calls to check people's destinations etc. Anyway even for the short time we had- it was great to see old Bill (looking exactly the same age as he was 11 years ago)

Arrived at about 8.30pm in BKK in 30 degree heat and no air. No probs checking in and a good snooze had by all. Yesterday we re-aquainted ourselves with some old haunts and some new areas of general bustling humanity and lack of loos (eventually the call of nature necessatating (sp) a bail-out by tuk tuk back to Khao San Rd.

Numerous beers and a sleep and shower saw us set up for a night out (definitely quieter than last year) All the usual suspects were out and about selling all the usual rubbish. One of the Burmese mountain women (adele) who sold us Elli's chirruping frog last year remembered us which was pretty incredible. Suddenly about 10pm I (Jo) began literally to melt and had to shakily ascend to bed where I fell asleep for an hour and felt worse when i awoke. Not sick or anything - can only put it down to heat stroke or something daft! Si went out and watched the footy game (starting here at 1.30am!)

Today we tentatively took our first Anti-Malarial pills with a yoghurt and muselli brekkie and then sat back to await the onset of the side effects. It's now about 4pm and no ulcerated gullets to be seen!

Went for a gentler wander around some quiet back streets and took numerous pix of a 4 foot monitor lizard as it swam up the canal and then started to explore the alley under a house! Not the prettiest wild life watching moment. Had our first run in with a wild dog- well it was a poodle but it seemed pretty wild to me- well if not wild certainly pissed off!! Suffice to say, I hurtled off down the street like a startled gazelle (okay buffalo) whilst Simon sort of laughed at me and later reassured me that if it had been a threat he would have ripped its head off!! All bodes well then for the remainder of the trip (Watch out canines)

Tomorrow we jump a taxi at 4.30am and set off by train to Cambodia border crossing.
Hope everyone is well... we're a little bit jaded I think but I'm sure we're just acclimatising. Next update should be from Cambodia.