Thailand - Ko Chang and Bangkok

From Siem Reap we went to the beautiful island of Ko Chang on the north east coast of Thailand. I wanted to spend my last days on the beach in sun seeing I wouldn't be getting much of that in Seattle on my return. We found a bungalow on the beach with a very laid back atmosphere. The restaurant was scattered with hammocks and pillows instead of chairs. Every evening we had barbecued fish but the champion chef Utai. Let me describe Utai to you. He is a very tan, small Thai man of about 40 with long hair and is covered in tattoos. To top that he wears a belt of 50 carved penises everyday. They are carved by monks and considered good luck. He is a very kind man and Reid and I became friends with him fast.

Ko Chang

The restaurant at "Porn's Bungalows" (yes, I know the name is funny)

Most of our days were spent riding around the island on our rented motor bike to find different beaches. One day we went snorkeling which was beautiful, 20 meter visibility! It was a great way to end my trip, relaxed and tan.


The most beautiful beach I've ever seen, long beach .....is that Mt Tam in the background?

Long beach

Beautiful sunset

Reid left a day before me (he finally found a flight out). The next day I followed in his footsteps to Bangkok where I would fly out in 3 days. I didn't get in until the evening and knew the Canadian boys I was on the Gibbon Experience with were in town so I met up with them and a fun night out on Khaosan road (the backpacker mecca of SE Asia).

Joel, Carson, me and Luke (aka me and the Canadians) on Khaosan Rd

The next day I went to the weekend market to stock up on gifts and maybe a thing or two for myself. This market is insane! I was there for 5 hours and didn't come close to seeing all the stalls. They sold everything from fake fruit to puppies. Overwhelming yes but good to get out of the way.

Puppies at the market

My second day in Bangkok I went to a few temples and then found myself at the giant shopping mall called MBK in order to find a book (only to find out it's sold out all over Bangkok). This mall was 7 stories high and a block long. Most of the day I just wandered the streets and had a go at the public transportation.
My last day in Bangkok (today, yay I'm finally caught up!) I met up with my friend Yannick (who I was with in Vietnam and Phnom Penh). We went to the Grand Palace and 3 different temples. The architecture here is so beautiful and colorful!

Wat Phra Kaeo

Wat Phra Kaeo with the temple of the Emerald Buddha to the right (the buddha, which is actually made of jade, was discovered in the 15th century and is very sacred to the Thai people)

Grand Palace

Largest reclining Buddha in Thailand housed in Wat Phra (those spirals are the bottom of his toes)

Wat Phra

Mmmmmm, street food for lunch

Climbing the insanely steep stairs to the top of Wat Arun

At the top of Wat Arun

So here I am now, typing at an internet cafe on the streets of Bangkok, my last day of traveling for 3 months on my own. It's a mixed and confusing feeling I have. I am so excited to go home to see my friends and family, to sleep in my own bed, to be in one place for longer than 4 days, to eat cheese and drink good wine mmmmmm. But at the same time this life style has become such a part of me and I don't know how that will effect me when I return. I have learned so much about myself and met so many wonderful people. Only time will tell and you'll hear about that on my last entry in a few days......

See some of you soon!!!

Cambodia - Siem Reap

From Kampot I took an all day bus ride north to Siem Reap, home of the Angkor temples. Quick history lesson for those who don't know about the temples. From the 9th to the 15th century Angkor surved as the capital to the Khmer Empire which stretched from Myanmar to Vietnam. The city housed up to 1 million people which was a very large population at the time. All of the houses and palaces were made of wood so are long gone now but what remains are the giant temples they built.

"Tomb Raider" temple known as Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

You can probably guess what most of my time was spent doing there.....My first day I rented a bicycle and went to some of the different temples including my favorite, Bayon. That evening I met up with Reid (who I traveled with before). As most of you probably know Bangkok's airport was out of service for a while and Reid got caught in the middle of it. He was supposed to fly out November 27th but obviously couldn't. So instead of sitting around Bangkok he decided to take advantage of the protests and hopped on a bus to Siem Reap.

Ancient sansript

My favorite temple, Bayon. Can you see the 3 faces?

The next day we went to some temples that were a little further away than most. So we hopped on a tuk tuk and away we went. The first one called Kbal Spean is known as the River of a Thousand Lingas (and in case you were wondering a linga is a carved penis). What remains now are just a bunch of circular stumps but there are also many hidden carvings in the water as well. To sound corny, it a very magical and mysterious setting. The second temple we went to was called Bantey Srei which is known for its detailed carvings. From there we went to the big one, Angkor Wat. It's huge!! We made it just in time for a beautiful sunset.

Ancient Khmer god Vishnu

Lingas

Kbal Spean

Reid and I in the back of our tuk tuk out to the temples. The roads were dusty so we gladly used our "kramas", traditional Cambodian scarfs. Everyone wears them here.

Bantey Srei

See the detail? This is just an archway to one of many doors.

Sunset at Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Reid introduced me to the deliciousness of sugar cane juice

Stumbled across this in Siem Reap, thought you would find it interesting

Our last day in Siem Reap was spent wandering the streets of the city, I was a little templed out. Next stop Thailand!

Cambodia - Kep and Kampot

From Phnom Penh I headed south with Katrina to the fishing town of Kep while Stephanie did her own route to the town of Sihanoukville to meet some friends. What was supposed to be a 4 hour bus ride turned into about 6 due to our bus breaking down and then being fixed a few hours later. If anything it was entertaining, you can see what a site we were in the photos.

We had a crowd of Cambodian children who watched us stranded tourists

Kep is a very small town so on our first day we just hung out and read and I rented a motor bike for a few hours to look around. The countryside of Cambodia is beautiful, flat rice fields for miles dotted with palm trees, huts, and water buffalo. The next day Katrina wasn't feeling well so I went on my own to Rabbit Island. It's a half hour boat ride from Kep and the day I went ended up being very very windy. It's always a great feeling when you get on a boat and the first thing they give you is a life jacket. So after a scary boat ride I made it to Rabbit Island where I hung out on the beach and explored to find remote beaches.

Our reading spot

Typical Cambodian scenery

Beach to myself on Rabbit Island

I was in the front of the boat which was morel like an over sized canoe with a motor, the waves were so bad we held up that tarp to keep us and the rest of the passengers dry

The next morning Katrina and I headed to Kampot by an interesting mode of transportation. On my boat to Rabbit Island I befriended an Australian couple who had just come from Kampot by motorbike. They were going to drive it back the next morning and then come back to Kep to catch a bus to Phnom Penh so Katrina and I offered to take the motorbike for them to save a trip. So to do it the SE Asian way we piled that motor bike with our two large backpacks, my small back pack, and her not so small purse, we were quite the site.

Motor bike loaded SE Asian style

Once we arrived in Kampot I immediately fell in love with it. The aging French buildings that line the streets, the laid back feel, the people.... After a delicious curry lunch we hopped on the motor bike to the caves of Phnom Chhnork about 12 km outside of town which also houses a 7th century temple. Once we got there we were greeted by about 12 children offering to be our guide. To make things fair and more fun for us we decided to hire them all for $1 each (which ended up being $2 after the tour, they were so cute!). So we were lead through rice fields to the caves by a group of 12 English speaking Cambodian children. They would pick flowers for us to put in our hair, would tell us which plants were used for what kind of cooking, they told us what the rock formations looked like in the cave, and then once we got into cave climbing they would tell us exactly where to put our feet, it was definitely a highlight of my trip.

Streets of Kampot

Our guides leading the way through rice fields

7th century temple in the caves

Cave climbing / exploring

The next day we went on a tour of the Bokor National Park. To get to the park only took about 10 minutes but to get to the top of the mountains it contained took about 1 hour but riding in the back of a pick up packed with people is always fun. Back in the 1920's when Cambodia was a French colony Bokor was home to a colonial hotel called the Bokor Palace. When the Khmer Rouge took over it was deserted and what remains today is quite a site. So we explored around there for a while and did some hiking in between. It was the coldest I have been on my trip, again it was really windy. The tour ended with a river cruise into town which was a nice way to see the sunset and end the day.

Bokor Palace, creepy but beautiful

Waterfall in the park

River cruise

For the next two days I did some volunteering for the local school. I figured I should give something back since I had been traveling in this part of the world for so long. From 2-4:30 I helped out at the drop in center which acted as the schools library, place to do arts and crafts, and play center. Then from 5-7 I would help teach English. They like to have Westerners because of our accent, I sometimes couldn't even tell if the Cambodian teacher was speaking in Khmer or English because his accent was so bad. So I thought this meant I would read a few things and correct some of the students but no, I taught the class. The teacher just handed me the book, pointed to where they were and then told me to go from there. Let me tell you, it is difficult to teach a classroom of 40 Cambodian children about the seasons in English considering they don't have seasons in SE Asia. But none the less it was a lot of fun and the people I worked with along with the children were all so wonderful.

Double jump rope outside of drop in center

Volunteer, student, me, and Pong (one of the English teachers who also runs the drop in center)

Hoola Hooping at the drop in center

Cambodia - Phnom Penh

Yay, I have finally arrived in Cambodia! The country with such a horrible past but such happy and wonderful people, it never ceases to amaze me. When I finally arrived in Phnom Penh it was around 6pm. I was in line across from the hotel they dropped us off at waiting for internet because I had a set of two groups of friends I was supposed to possibly meet up with. The first set being Yannick and Matthew (the two guys I traveled with from Hoi An to Nhatrang) and some friends of mine from High School, Katrina and Stephanie, who are traveling at the moment as well. So as I'm waiting for the internet who walks up, Matthew. So I decided to just check email later and go get dinner with him and Yannick. Then on our way to find dinner who do we run into, yup Katrina and Stephanie, so strange (and convenient on my part).

Stephanie and Katrina in the back of a tuk tuk

Yannick and Matthew in the back of a tuk tuk

My first day in the city I went to the national museum which mainly consisted of artifacts found at the temples of Angkor. Then later that day I went to an orphanage with Yannick and Matthew to play with the kids and help them with their English. They were all so cute! I learned traditional Cambodian dance from some of the girls so in return I taught them some ballet and salsa which they enjoyed.

National Museum

Kids at the orphanage learning English

Me and Seng

The next day I met up with Katrina and Stephanie for an intense day of learning about Cambodia's haunting past by seeing. To do a quick history lesson for those who don't know in 1975 Cambodia's government was over thrown by the communist group known as the Khmer Rouge. They evacuated the city of Phnom Penh (population 3 million people at the time) and moved them to the countryside to labor camps. Anyone who was a threat to over throw the government was killed. In the eyes of the Khmer Rouge this meant anyone with an education, people who worked for the former government, even people who wore glasses and not only were they killed but their families as well. As for those at the labor camps, they were fed one meal a day and worked 12 hour days so many people died of starvation as well. In the end after 4 years under the Khmer Rouge regime, approximately 2 million people had died, that was over a quarter of Cambodia's population at the time.

Phnom Penh, the Royal Palace walls

So on my second day in Phnom Penh I went to "the killing fields" where many Cambodians were executed. After that we went to S-21, the main prison during the time of the Khmer Rouge. It used to be a high school but was transformed into a prison where people were tortured in order to get information and ultimately killed as well. Both places were hard to see, they don't try to hide much here, but it was a way of learning about that ugly past that I could not obtain any other way.
That night instead of being depressed from the things I saw that day (which was very tempting) I decided to go out and celebrate life and the country of Cambodia instead. First I went back to the orphanage to volunteer again. After that since it was my last night with Yannick and Matthew, we went out for a delicious Cambodian BBQ dinner where we made friends with our waiter. After a pitcher (or two) of beer we decided we wanted to go dancing so our new Cambodian friend took us to a dance club he knew of. We were the only non-Cambodians there and had a blast.

Out and about with our new friend "The Joker" (he told us to call him that)

On my last day in Phnom Penh I went browsing through the various markets the city had to offer with Katrina and Stephanie. These days I don't really buy much at the markets but I always find them fascinating. The different types of produce on display, the interesting outfits you see on mannequins, and of course the strange cuts of meat you are always surprised by.

Dried shrimp

Chicken anyone? And no they're not rubber....