Saturday 18th December
We are currently on our way to Kota Kinabulu having spent two days in the heart of the Brunei Jungle.
The place (Sumbling Eco Village) was literally in the middle of nowhere and had just three small wooden huts for accomodation and a communal area for food.
We were initially met off of the plane by the owner who proceeded to drive us to the port where we picked up a speed boat through to the local town.
It started raining enroute and I have absolutely no idea how we made it there alive as the boat sped around sharp turns and narrowly avoided rocks and trees whilst being unable to see through the windscreen.
Apparently its the rainy season here though so I guess they must be used to it by now.
We were met at the other end by two of the local guides from camp and whisked off to the village looking for all intents and purposes like a couple of flood victims.
We had wisely chosen to upgrade our initial tent accomodation to one of the wooden huts and whilst this may have been cheating to an extent it still had enough local wildlife inside to keep David Belamy amused for several hours.
We even had our very own frog that seemed to be the master of his domain, commandeering the only table in the room and delighting in jumping at your feet whenever you moved.
That night one of the local guides took us out on a night walk through the jungle and take it from me it is a terrifying experience.
Your imagination runs riot and you have visions of being set upon by wild animals or falling foul to one of the local snakes or spiders as you take every step in the pitch black.
Every time we saw a leaf move or stepped on a twig our hearts missed a couple of beats and a foul stench emenated all around that had nothing at all to do with the forest, if you catch my drift.
It was'nt until the following day that we discovered that our guide was terrified of snakes so would have been as useful as a chocolate fireguard if we had encountered one.
Luckily on this particular outing the only wildlife that we encountered were birds and stick instects but secretly I was quite relieved as its probably not good for a son to see his dad crying and running off into the distance.
An Australian couple joined us the next day for a trip to the national park and I got to realise one of my childhood dreams, to ride through dense jungle on a long boat.
It was totally exhilirating as he traversed the rapids, water spraying over your face, whilst always keeping your eyes peeled for snakes in the trees overhanging the boat.
Our first port of call was the tree canopy, a man made aluminium structure that defied the law of gravity and provided a 360 degree view of the jungle fron a somewhat daughnting height.
It was a heart attack enducing climb that had us all wringing out our shirts by the end of it but the view was spectacular and well worth the potential cardiac arrest.
We then headed to one of the local waterfalls and were still so hot that we all jumped in fully clothed with Tyler leading the pack.
The Australian couple looked somewhat bemused but at least it saves us doing laundry for an extra day :-)
On the way back to camp I spotted a huge Python swimming past the boat, it was massive and I was gutted that we could'nt stop and take pictures, much to Pauline's relief.
When we got back the manager allowed us to go tubing down the river which was awsome as it gave me another excuse to wind Pauline up about all of the snakes that she was going to encounter again.
Tyler lost his tube and it proceeded to navigate it's way through the rapids until it was out of sight, but hopefully the Smiths have provided the local snakes with a lazier way to cross the river down stream.
It was great to get away from everything for a few nights and whilst we won't miss the ants and numerous other winged beasties, we will definately miss the village and its fantastic staff.
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Cambodia can be taxing!
Wednesday 15th december
A few mere months ago I used to travel quite a lot. In general this usually meant picking up a business class air fare to some distant shore, jumping into a taxi on route to a five star hotel and dining in some of the best restaurants the country had to offer.
I choose to reflect on this now as I sit here in our dorn room which is furnished with 4 very old wrought iron beds with wafer thin matresses, two windows (without curtains or blinds) that close half way and strip lighting that flickers slightly throughout the night.
Having just had a freezing cold shower in one of the 4 available shared toilets (the shower is located directly above the toilet to save space but means you get soaked any time you just need to pee) and still slightly hungry after eating in one of the local cheap food courts, I cant help wondering where it all went wrong :-)
In all honesty though, I love it!
We have stayed at so many different types of accomodation on this journey and I think over time it has hardened us slighty to the point where we now just take it all in our stride.
The people have been amazing without exception and instead of the air of protentiousness that one finds in many of the high class establishments there seems to be an air of anticipation amoungst those we have encountered.
In general most people are survivng on less than minimum wage yet still manage to have the most amazing experiences cultrurally, culinary and emotionally.
Anyway, sorry for that monologue, back to the blog :-)
Although it surprises me to say this we were all very sad to leave Cambodia.
However in order to ensure that you remember it the local government has devised a cunning goodbye present for everyone in the form of a leaving tax that each traveler has to pay at the airport.
I hadnt been aware of this ahead of time so the $65 charge for the three of us came as quite a shock and basically equates to 3 nights accomodation in most of the places we have been.
Our last few days in Cambodia were pretty uneventful, we made our way through to Kep which is a quiet sea side resort and after trying multiple hotels which were fully booked managed to find the optimistically named Kep Seaside Resort.
Rooms were $10 a night which included a cold shower and as many mosquitos as you could handle but it was comfotable and had a great view over the sea.
We met a few travellers there who were in love with Kep but to be honest there wasnt a great amount there except for a spattering of local bars and restaurants.
I had originally wanted to go to Bokor Hill the site of a once majestic casino and hotel that was heavily hit by the war and has been turned into a ghost town, apparently it was the location for the final scenes of "City of Ghosts" so every traveler that we met informed us, but not having seen the film it means nothing to me.
Its meant to be real spooky and unfortunately will be knocked down in a few months as the local petroleum company has brought the land and intend to build another faceless resort there.
Also unfortunately, although we had been told by multiple travellers that it was located very close to Kep its actually a pretty long way away and we should have stayed in Kampot, a city that we had passed 2 hours earlier which is much closer.
So instead we decided to head out to Rabbit island which was great and well worth the visit but unfortunately because we were pushed for time we only stayed for the day before heading back to Phnom Penh in search of a copy of "City of Ghosts".
We have now made it into Kuala Lumpur for a few days and the hostel is in a great location in the middle of chinatown right next to the nightmarket where you can by "genuine" fakes of every brand imaginable.
Last night we headed for Asia's largest indoor theme park (for all I know it is probably Asia's only indoor theme park) which was located in one of the cities many shopping malls.
Once again Tyler was about an inch too short to go on any of the really decent rides but Pauline and I took turns to do the roller coaster and a couple of other thrill rides whilst Tyler was content with the bumper cars (I think I may have to get him go kart lessons as he is a natural), and some spinny round thing that reminded me of the tilt-o-puke from the simpsons.
We are going to go exploring today before heading out to Brunei in the morning for our 2 day jungle trek!
A few mere months ago I used to travel quite a lot. In general this usually meant picking up a business class air fare to some distant shore, jumping into a taxi on route to a five star hotel and dining in some of the best restaurants the country had to offer.
I choose to reflect on this now as I sit here in our dorn room which is furnished with 4 very old wrought iron beds with wafer thin matresses, two windows (without curtains or blinds) that close half way and strip lighting that flickers slightly throughout the night.
Having just had a freezing cold shower in one of the 4 available shared toilets (the shower is located directly above the toilet to save space but means you get soaked any time you just need to pee) and still slightly hungry after eating in one of the local cheap food courts, I cant help wondering where it all went wrong :-)
In all honesty though, I love it!
We have stayed at so many different types of accomodation on this journey and I think over time it has hardened us slighty to the point where we now just take it all in our stride.
The people have been amazing without exception and instead of the air of protentiousness that one finds in many of the high class establishments there seems to be an air of anticipation amoungst those we have encountered.
In general most people are survivng on less than minimum wage yet still manage to have the most amazing experiences cultrurally, culinary and emotionally.
Anyway, sorry for that monologue, back to the blog :-)
Although it surprises me to say this we were all very sad to leave Cambodia.
However in order to ensure that you remember it the local government has devised a cunning goodbye present for everyone in the form of a leaving tax that each traveler has to pay at the airport.
I hadnt been aware of this ahead of time so the $65 charge for the three of us came as quite a shock and basically equates to 3 nights accomodation in most of the places we have been.
Our last few days in Cambodia were pretty uneventful, we made our way through to Kep which is a quiet sea side resort and after trying multiple hotels which were fully booked managed to find the optimistically named Kep Seaside Resort.
Rooms were $10 a night which included a cold shower and as many mosquitos as you could handle but it was comfotable and had a great view over the sea.
We met a few travellers there who were in love with Kep but to be honest there wasnt a great amount there except for a spattering of local bars and restaurants.
I had originally wanted to go to Bokor Hill the site of a once majestic casino and hotel that was heavily hit by the war and has been turned into a ghost town, apparently it was the location for the final scenes of "City of Ghosts" so every traveler that we met informed us, but not having seen the film it means nothing to me.
Its meant to be real spooky and unfortunately will be knocked down in a few months as the local petroleum company has brought the land and intend to build another faceless resort there.
Also unfortunately, although we had been told by multiple travellers that it was located very close to Kep its actually a pretty long way away and we should have stayed in Kampot, a city that we had passed 2 hours earlier which is much closer.
So instead we decided to head out to Rabbit island which was great and well worth the visit but unfortunately because we were pushed for time we only stayed for the day before heading back to Phnom Penh in search of a copy of "City of Ghosts".
We have now made it into Kuala Lumpur for a few days and the hostel is in a great location in the middle of chinatown right next to the nightmarket where you can by "genuine" fakes of every brand imaginable.
Last night we headed for Asia's largest indoor theme park (for all I know it is probably Asia's only indoor theme park) which was located in one of the cities many shopping malls.
Once again Tyler was about an inch too short to go on any of the really decent rides but Pauline and I took turns to do the roller coaster and a couple of other thrill rides whilst Tyler was content with the bumper cars (I think I may have to get him go kart lessons as he is a natural), and some spinny round thing that reminded me of the tilt-o-puke from the simpsons.
We are going to go exploring today before heading out to Brunei in the morning for our 2 day jungle trek!
Friday, 10 December 2010
Me want Bamboo
Saturday 11th December
We are now about to head out from Sihanoukville and for anyone bored enough to still be reading this, I cannot recommend it enough.
We were initially concerned about entering Cambodia but it has been by far our greatest experience to date offering everything that you could possibly want for a holiday destination.
We spent a few days in Sihanoukville itself that has long winding sandy beaches full of sun loungers and restaurants.
It is chock full of touts hawking a wide variety of tat from fake sun glasses and bracelets through to in place massages.
On the day that we arrived I was casually sitting on my lounger when one of the later touts decided it would be great fun to introduce me to the wonderful world of threading.
Threading (or "sadistic unrelentant pain" as it should be called) is a process whereby two pieces of string are twisted between the fingers of the torturer and then rubbed up and down various parts of your anatomy, ripping out hairs from their folicles as they go.
My particular tout went by the name of Annie and took great pleasure in listening to my whelps of agony as she proudly tour apart my back, thus insuring no life will ever grow there again.
For the first time ever I started to appreciate the high tolerance that women have for pain in the line of beauty as Pauline sat there for 2 hours getting her legs done without flinching once.
Once the pain had subsided (or the alcohol started to kick in) we made our way down the beach with my shiny new back back blinding all onloookers, to a section that housed giant inflatables.
That was the last time we saw Tyler that day, the things were swamped with kids and he had a whale of a time risking death or injury by throwing himself off of giant slides and trampolines.
The next day we headed off to Bamboo island, a fantastic little tropical paradise about an hours boat ride from the mainland.
We had been advised to go here by a few travellers that we had met in Vietnam as the island itself has just been brought by a large American company and will shortly be closing its doors to backpackers forever.
This already sounded like a nightmare but once we stepped foot on the island we realised that it was far more than this.
What the residents had built up there was something special, with a natural ambience that many have tried to recreate all over the world but have fallen far short.
Everyone we ran into were relaxed to the point of unconciousness and at $15 a night for a bungalow many people were staying here for the long run.
The island had about 10 bungalows, a dorm and a bar, other than that you were left to your own devices to go off exploring, snorkel in the crystal clear waters or just veg.
The majority of the tourists seemed to have opted for the last option and we soon found ourselves at the bar for long swaiths of time just enjoying the chilled out music and cheap beer.
The bungalows were situated right on the sea front and although it should have been relaxing to hear the waves crashing all night it was so loud that it woke us up on several occasions.
When we were packing up I spotted the biggest spider that I have ever seen in my life just behind tylers bed, the thing was the size of my fist and I jumped out of my skin, when we mentioned it to the locals they simply said, "yeah you dont want to get bitten by one of them" which was reassuring.
In a little over three weeks the bull dozers are going to be moving in and whilst I am sure that the ultimate result will be something special it could never recreate its predecessor, not that I will ever find out because it will be out of our price range.
We are now headed to Kep just down the coast with nowhere to stay and no idea where the hell we are going after that!
We are now about to head out from Sihanoukville and for anyone bored enough to still be reading this, I cannot recommend it enough.
We were initially concerned about entering Cambodia but it has been by far our greatest experience to date offering everything that you could possibly want for a holiday destination.
We spent a few days in Sihanoukville itself that has long winding sandy beaches full of sun loungers and restaurants.
It is chock full of touts hawking a wide variety of tat from fake sun glasses and bracelets through to in place massages.
On the day that we arrived I was casually sitting on my lounger when one of the later touts decided it would be great fun to introduce me to the wonderful world of threading.
Threading (or "sadistic unrelentant pain" as it should be called) is a process whereby two pieces of string are twisted between the fingers of the torturer and then rubbed up and down various parts of your anatomy, ripping out hairs from their folicles as they go.
My particular tout went by the name of Annie and took great pleasure in listening to my whelps of agony as she proudly tour apart my back, thus insuring no life will ever grow there again.
For the first time ever I started to appreciate the high tolerance that women have for pain in the line of beauty as Pauline sat there for 2 hours getting her legs done without flinching once.
Once the pain had subsided (or the alcohol started to kick in) we made our way down the beach with my shiny new back back blinding all onloookers, to a section that housed giant inflatables.
That was the last time we saw Tyler that day, the things were swamped with kids and he had a whale of a time risking death or injury by throwing himself off of giant slides and trampolines.
The next day we headed off to Bamboo island, a fantastic little tropical paradise about an hours boat ride from the mainland.
We had been advised to go here by a few travellers that we had met in Vietnam as the island itself has just been brought by a large American company and will shortly be closing its doors to backpackers forever.
This already sounded like a nightmare but once we stepped foot on the island we realised that it was far more than this.
What the residents had built up there was something special, with a natural ambience that many have tried to recreate all over the world but have fallen far short.
Everyone we ran into were relaxed to the point of unconciousness and at $15 a night for a bungalow many people were staying here for the long run.
The island had about 10 bungalows, a dorm and a bar, other than that you were left to your own devices to go off exploring, snorkel in the crystal clear waters or just veg.
The majority of the tourists seemed to have opted for the last option and we soon found ourselves at the bar for long swaiths of time just enjoying the chilled out music and cheap beer.
The bungalows were situated right on the sea front and although it should have been relaxing to hear the waves crashing all night it was so loud that it woke us up on several occasions.
When we were packing up I spotted the biggest spider that I have ever seen in my life just behind tylers bed, the thing was the size of my fist and I jumped out of my skin, when we mentioned it to the locals they simply said, "yeah you dont want to get bitten by one of them" which was reassuring.
In a little over three weeks the bull dozers are going to be moving in and whilst I am sure that the ultimate result will be something special it could never recreate its predecessor, not that I will ever find out because it will be out of our price range.
We are now headed to Kep just down the coast with nowhere to stay and no idea where the hell we are going after that!
Monday, 6 December 2010
4 Massages and a temple
Monday 6th December
After yet another interesting night bus, we have just arrived at sihanoukville on the southern coast of Cambodia where we will probably once again sleep for the majority of the day.
We spent 4 days in Siem Reap and it really wasn't long enough, the place is amazing with great restaurants, markets and loads of tourist activities to keep you amused.
Obviously the biggest of which is Angkor Wat the ancient temple complex situated about 4 miles from the city centre. We spent a day there with a local guide and whilst we probably only glimpsed the tip of the ice berg, it still provided a great introduction to what is one of the worlds most sacred sites.
The architecture is truly unbelievable, especially considering the lengths that the indigenous people had to go to in order to obtain, relocate and sculpt the rock into the marvels that stand today.
Whilst having a tour guide was definitely a benefit ours seemed to be engrossed in the mythological aspects surrounding the site and went to great lengths to impart this knowledge onto us at every available opportunity.
At one point he spent an hour relaying the story of queen Raja's struggle against the monkey warriors, a tale that was promptly forgotten, aided by the fact that we only understood every third word.
However to give him credit he provided us with a lot of knowledge about the site itself and without him we would have been wondering around aimlessly like so many of the other tourists that we bumped into along the way.
I could have easily spent multiple days there but after around 6 hours of walking Tyler had well and truly lost the will to live, after all there are only so many temples one can endure at 8 years old.
The following day we went on a quad bike adventure to watch the sunset over the paddy fields, the ride was great and the bikes couldn't have been more than a couple of months old.
We rode through multiple villages and the local children flooded out of their houses to wave and practice their English skills.
I am totally gutted that I don't have a decent camera here, the Cambodians are definitely not camera shy and always seem to have a broad grin on their faces.
When we had any spare time we filled it by getting massages, we even convinced Tyler to try it and now he is addicted, we have had Dr fish feet massages, back neck and shoulder massages, foot massages and 4 hand Khmer massages as well as the obligatory full body.
I even had ear candling which is a very unnerving procedure whereby they stick a tube into your ear then stick a candle into the tube that goes off like a sparkler. It's the weirdest sensation to have all external noise muted out and the only thing you can hear is the burning flame descending rapidly towards your earlobe.
To make matters worse we happened to be in the middle of the night market and the chairs were outside in the open which meant all passers by could bare witness to the stupidly fearful look that I had adopted whilst my head was draped in a towel with what looked like a tube of dynamite in my ear.
Not to be spared any scrap of humility Pauline convinced me to have a cut throat shave whilst I was there, normally a pretty straight forward procedure, however after they had finished they cut long strands of cucumber and stuck it all over my head turning me into a veggie mummy and thus completing my journey through the annuls of embarrassment.
Anyone that had stood around for long enough would surely have a wealth of footage that could be used against me for the rest of my life.
After yet another interesting night bus, we have just arrived at sihanoukville on the southern coast of Cambodia where we will probably once again sleep for the majority of the day.
We spent 4 days in Siem Reap and it really wasn't long enough, the place is amazing with great restaurants, markets and loads of tourist activities to keep you amused.
Obviously the biggest of which is Angkor Wat the ancient temple complex situated about 4 miles from the city centre. We spent a day there with a local guide and whilst we probably only glimpsed the tip of the ice berg, it still provided a great introduction to what is one of the worlds most sacred sites.
The architecture is truly unbelievable, especially considering the lengths that the indigenous people had to go to in order to obtain, relocate and sculpt the rock into the marvels that stand today.
Whilst having a tour guide was definitely a benefit ours seemed to be engrossed in the mythological aspects surrounding the site and went to great lengths to impart this knowledge onto us at every available opportunity.
At one point he spent an hour relaying the story of queen Raja's struggle against the monkey warriors, a tale that was promptly forgotten, aided by the fact that we only understood every third word.
However to give him credit he provided us with a lot of knowledge about the site itself and without him we would have been wondering around aimlessly like so many of the other tourists that we bumped into along the way.
I could have easily spent multiple days there but after around 6 hours of walking Tyler had well and truly lost the will to live, after all there are only so many temples one can endure at 8 years old.
The following day we went on a quad bike adventure to watch the sunset over the paddy fields, the ride was great and the bikes couldn't have been more than a couple of months old.
We rode through multiple villages and the local children flooded out of their houses to wave and practice their English skills.
I am totally gutted that I don't have a decent camera here, the Cambodians are definitely not camera shy and always seem to have a broad grin on their faces.
When we had any spare time we filled it by getting massages, we even convinced Tyler to try it and now he is addicted, we have had Dr fish feet massages, back neck and shoulder massages, foot massages and 4 hand Khmer massages as well as the obligatory full body.
I even had ear candling which is a very unnerving procedure whereby they stick a tube into your ear then stick a candle into the tube that goes off like a sparkler. It's the weirdest sensation to have all external noise muted out and the only thing you can hear is the burning flame descending rapidly towards your earlobe.
To make matters worse we happened to be in the middle of the night market and the chairs were outside in the open which meant all passers by could bare witness to the stupidly fearful look that I had adopted whilst my head was draped in a towel with what looked like a tube of dynamite in my ear.
Not to be spared any scrap of humility Pauline convinced me to have a cut throat shave whilst I was there, normally a pretty straight forward procedure, however after they had finished they cut long strands of cucumber and stuck it all over my head turning me into a veggie mummy and thus completing my journey through the annuls of embarrassment.
Anyone that had stood around for long enough would surely have a wealth of footage that could be used against me for the rest of my life.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
When we was in 'Nam
Thursday 2nd December
OK so I have been a little remiss in updating this of late, time has flown over the last week and there just never seems to be enough hours in the day. We are now in Siem Reap, Cambodia, however I thought that in keeping with tradition I would dedicate this post to some of the observations that we made during our time in Vietnam.
1. Everyone is soooo bloody friendly, even when they are blatantly ripping you off they maintain a cool air of kindness and never lose their amiable smile. You get the feeling that everyone is genuinely happy that you chose to visit Vietnam and whilst they are still a fledgling tourist destination when compared to their neighbouring countries they are learning fast and will be on par in no time at all.
2. The Vietnamese are resolute and steadfast in their determination not to move out of the way of oncoming traffic. Its the only place that we have visited where a pedestrian can literally halt a charging coach and pay no regard to its drivers torrent of beeps or profanities and the moped drivers are even worse. This normally results in a cacophany of horn blasts emenating from every concievable direction creating a cingular elongated beep that covers every audiable range. If horns ran on petrol then the people of vietnam would be very poor indeed and probably could'nt travel more than a mile a year.
3. From what we have seen the locals are completely addicted to Karaoke, however unlike other places we have visited they are bereft of even a small amount of talent. This however does nothing to disuade them as they flock en masse to the microphone to belt out some ominous sounding tune, out of key, on the locally provided 2000 watt surround sound systems that seem to be installed in almost every building.
4. The coach drivers are mental full stop.
5. The country is absolutely beautiful, with such a diverse landscape that you could easily vacation here every year and never once get bored, that is of course if you survive the coach journey there. All around are signs that some of the major tourist companies are fast moving in and unfortunately some of the smaller, cosier establishments are shortly going to be turned into mass produced faceless resorts that will be out of the price range of most locals and backpackers.
Anyway, we are now in Cambodia and after two days of travelling have reached Siam Reap. I am pleased to report that the coach journey was both smooth and uneventful and thus far everything has been exceptional. The guest house we are staying in could easily pass for a 5 star hotel back home and after one of the best sleeps of our trip we are ready to go out and do some exploring.
OK so I have been a little remiss in updating this of late, time has flown over the last week and there just never seems to be enough hours in the day. We are now in Siem Reap, Cambodia, however I thought that in keeping with tradition I would dedicate this post to some of the observations that we made during our time in Vietnam.
1. Everyone is soooo bloody friendly, even when they are blatantly ripping you off they maintain a cool air of kindness and never lose their amiable smile. You get the feeling that everyone is genuinely happy that you chose to visit Vietnam and whilst they are still a fledgling tourist destination when compared to their neighbouring countries they are learning fast and will be on par in no time at all.
2. The Vietnamese are resolute and steadfast in their determination not to move out of the way of oncoming traffic. Its the only place that we have visited where a pedestrian can literally halt a charging coach and pay no regard to its drivers torrent of beeps or profanities and the moped drivers are even worse. This normally results in a cacophany of horn blasts emenating from every concievable direction creating a cingular elongated beep that covers every audiable range. If horns ran on petrol then the people of vietnam would be very poor indeed and probably could'nt travel more than a mile a year.
3. From what we have seen the locals are completely addicted to Karaoke, however unlike other places we have visited they are bereft of even a small amount of talent. This however does nothing to disuade them as they flock en masse to the microphone to belt out some ominous sounding tune, out of key, on the locally provided 2000 watt surround sound systems that seem to be installed in almost every building.
4. The coach drivers are mental full stop.
5. The country is absolutely beautiful, with such a diverse landscape that you could easily vacation here every year and never once get bored, that is of course if you survive the coach journey there. All around are signs that some of the major tourist companies are fast moving in and unfortunately some of the smaller, cosier establishments are shortly going to be turned into mass produced faceless resorts that will be out of the price range of most locals and backpackers.
Anyway, we are now in Cambodia and after two days of travelling have reached Siam Reap. I am pleased to report that the coach journey was both smooth and uneventful and thus far everything has been exceptional. The guest house we are staying in could easily pass for a 5 star hotel back home and after one of the best sleeps of our trip we are ready to go out and do some exploring.
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