End times...

Beautiful waterfalls are always fun to explore and the Erawan falls, near Kanchanaburi were spectacular. 7 tiers of water falls that we climbed higher and higher to see, each one worth the bruised toes (from wearing thongs - don't do it!) and sweat. At level 5 I couldn't resist any longer and plunged into the turquoise waters to cool off - it was heavenly. The fish nibbled at my feet until I couldn't take the tickling (I giggled out loud to my own embarassment) and I sat where the water was rushing fast, so no fish could get me. It was awesome.

I was also really careful walking around the falls, making sure I stayed on the non-slippery, secure rocks. That was until an older couple decided they wanted to cross the falls, so a gallantly stepped out of the way to let them pass. They decided to take forever, pretty much standing still for 3 minutes while I waited. So, impatiently I decided to take the slippery path. Within seconds, my whole tour group arrived at the fall in time to see me slip so my legs went flying in a cartoonesque fashion. I somehow bent my wrist back and it quickly began to swell. I decided to head back down the hill to get some ice, hoping that I hadn't done anything serious.

With a throbbing wrist wrapped in a wet t-shirt, I passed crowds of bikini clad European tourists walking up the hill. This is a place where lots of Thai families go for the weekend, and being Sunday there were many there - and walking around in a bikini is simply not on in Thai culture (let alone flabby-bellied men in their underwear - seriously!). I can't believe how culturally insensitive some people are. However, the monkeys soon got revenge and began trying to swipe tourists cameras, sunglasses and hats. It was amusing.

After a cold shower and a bus ride back to Bangkok - I bought a bandage for my wrist, figuring if it still hurt when I got back to melbourne in two days, I'd get it checked out then (pretty sure its not broken).

After some shopping opportunites, we all went out for our final dinner and a very swish restaurant. It was expensive too. $12 for 2 course and drinks! We then checked out the nightlife and couldn't resist the bar that was a petrol station by night where we sat by the petrol pumps with candles burning and people smoking nearby. This was the place to buy cocktails in a bucket and so we did.

Next to the station was an outdoor massage and beauty salon, so at 11pm, a couple of us had an amazing facial that left my skin feeling tingly fresh and soft as silk.

What better way to spend your last night in Bangkok? If only you could do this at home - life would be so much sweeter!

Karen Village

Leaving Sangklaburi, we travelled to a local Karen village. The Karen are a minority hilltribe who live in their own communities, speak their own language and eat their own style of food. The women still wear traditional dress, but are certainly modern with satellite television and mobile phones.

We visited the local school where the women danced a traditional Karen dance for us and then the kids sang a song for us. The were aged 3 to about 10 and were very cute. Being the teacher that I am, I led them in Heads, Shoulders Knees and Toes and The Hokey Pokey (which they already knew) and then taught them Twinkle Twinkle. They got me to write it up on the chalk board and I taught one little girl the song She was about 8 and was clearly very intelligent, no doubt she will become the teacher one day. We gave the students gifts of fruit and a few toys and played duck duck goose and keepings off with them (not their name but they were essentially the same!) The children loved our cameras and even borrowed them to take a few snaps of our own.

After a Karen lunch (tasty!), we walked through the village viewing the local produce and women who were the royal silk weavers. Even though its 400 km from Bangkok, the King chose this village to weave their silk. The work is so intricate, it takes a woman a whole year to weave one piece that is 1m x 2m. This will cost about 2500 Baht, or less than $100 Australian!

Travelling on the back of a Songthaew (a ute with two benches in the back and a roof built on), we travelled to the town of Thom Pha Phum we we will stay the night. It is a beautiful place surrounded by towering limestone mountains. I am sitting in the local internet cafe surrounded by 14 year old boys playing war games and chatting on msn. Just like school!

Elephants and Bamboo Rafts

Today would have to be the most fun I've had in a long time. It started with a long boat ride on the lake. The lake is huge, it is man made and is as still as glass. As we sped across in our jet long boat (the driver was in competition with another tour group), we saw the old temple which had to be flooded for the lake to form. Its spire still stands.

We travelled for about 20 minutes and arrived at an Elephant camp run by the local Mon people. It was amazing seeing elephants casually wander down the hill to greet us. We bought bananas and sugar cane from a local woman to feed the elephants, and then we took a 2 hr trek through the jungle, crossing the river and farmland. The elephants were so well trained and well tempered and the tall, steep mountains and lush vegetation really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. We were given a simple, but tasty lunch of fried rice and pineapple and then we boarded some simple bamboo rafts to take us down the river. Now the river was slow and gentle, but our raftsmen clearly wanted to have some fun and try and get us in the water. So many times we crashed into rocks and branches, but no one fell in (just fell over on the raft a few times). When we watched the video later and saw their blooper collection from previous trips, we understood why they were getting up to mischief. That and the fact that they were all 20 something males!

We stopped for a swim in the clear river and headed back to the guesthouse for a well earned shower. But it wasn't long before we headed off to see the Thai-Burma border, which was a disappointment. They haven't let anyone cross in a year, and the local people who have a huge tourist market set up don't seem to have many visitors at all.

We then visited some local temples one that was glitzy gold, another that held the body of the guy that started it (he could predict peoples future lives), and another that held a jade buddha. This followed with a walk across the longest wooden bridge in Thailand, where a local boy became our tour guide and told us all about the area, thanks to the translation from Ma'am our guide.

Not bad for one day!

Intrepid Travels

My Intrepid tour began in Bangkok, where I moved from my modern, wealthy Siam hotel to the lovely Viengtai hotel in the old city known as Banglumphu. Khao San Rd (the backpacker ghetto) is worlds away from the part of BKK I had already seen. Neon lights, endless street stalls, markets selling hippy clothes and pirated DVDs, and of course thousands of young tourists getting their hair braided, body parts pierced and painted and enjoying the ready supply of beer on the footpath.

I met the group I would be travelling with and we all went out to dinner. They seemed an odd mix, but generally nice people. The first day was a slow start, and I began to get a bit worried that this trip would be a dud. We spent the morning in Bangkok and then caught a longboat down the river and were met and taken to a traditional thai house, made of teak where we would spend the night. The river trip was fascinating, seeing how many people actually live on the water and the women who travelled from house to house by boat, selling their produce.

The Teak house we stayed in was owned by a local family. It was beautifully built and decorated, with lovely rooms. We wandered the local market (very small, but interesting) and the local temple where the monks were very keen to watch us light incense. Dinner was cooked by the family we stayed with and we went to bed pretty early, as there was nothing to do after that! This was a good move because we were woken at dawn by the radio being played over loudspeakers.

Day 3 was a day of travelling and more travelling. We caught one bus from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi (2.5 hrs). The feature film was a thai teen horror movie (would have been good in my gothic literature class!) Lunch cost 35 Baht in a local restaurant - thats about $1.10 (Pad Thai and Coke). Another 4.5hr bus trip took us from Kanchanaburi, a large town with lots of foreigners, to Sangklaburi, a village on a huge lake where visitors don't often go.

After a hair-raising bus trip through winding, steep roads we arrived in this beautiful town in time for a sunset over the water, viewed from the guesthouse we were staying at. It made the trip feel worthwhile after all!

Sawadee Kha!

Sawadee Kha!

After a delayed flight in Siem Reap and over an hour queuing to get through immigration in Bangkok (so many people!), I arrived in Bangkok.

After Cambodia, Bangkok is a shock, even though I've been here a few times already. I stayed in the Siam area, which is mecca for shopholics. I visited four massive temples of materialism that put Chadstone to shame. The largest and most exclusive, Siam Paragon, has every designer brand you can think of, including Porsche. I'm not sure how you test drive from the fifth floor of a shopping centre though. MBK is like an indoor market, with stalls of everything, packed with teenagers and tourists. The prices are still so much cheaper than home that I could spend serious money in a place like this. Especially when there is a whole level of shoe shops. On sale...

Sitting, drinking a caramel frappe in an overly airconditioned mall is a far cry from the dusty roadside internet cafes of Cambodia. I feel comfortable here, but I'm not sure if that is a good thing. It is so easy to slip into the consumerist world that I am familiar with. I understand more clearly why the Cambodian people are so ruthless in trying to get tourists to spend money - because we do it so easily. No wonder they think we have endless supplies of cash (which we I guess we do for their purposes, considering that cash advances from a credit card are only a few button presses away).

Today I begin my Intrepid tour, and I'm looking forward to not having to think about logistics and just enjoying the experiences. I hope the group is good. I'm sure it will be okay, and if not - it's only a week!

killing with your bare hands

Yesterday I met a woman who could kill someone with her bare hands. And her feet, and elbows, toes and knees.

This was the pint sized lady who gave me the most amazing massage I think I've ever had! For someone so tiny, the strength of her hands was extraordinary, her mild manners and softly spoken voice deceptive. (I'm sure she wouldn't actually kill someone, though) Yesterday was a lazy day of exploring the town, wandering, reading and relaxing. I'm still not recovered from my recent stomach bug, so I took it easy. After a while I was tired of being yelled at five times before i got from one side of the street to the other "tuk tuk, Lady?", so I retreated to the oasis of the many day spas of siem reap.

If you ever come here, I strongly recommend that you pay more for someone who knows what they're doing. I still have fingerprint bruises on my legs from the brutal pummelling I received in Phnom Penh for $7! Here, they have a better idea of what they're doing (and what the tourists want), my heavenly massage was still a fraction of the price.

Bliss.

Back in the saddle...

I managed to get up and out today, feeling 10 times better than yesterday, and we took an amazing drive in our little tuk-tuk through the Cambodian countryside on the way to some of the more remote temples. It was great to see rural life, rather than tourism life in Cambodia. Rice fields, coconut trees and cattle were everywhere. The locals were eating breakfast outside their houses and the children were generally excited to see westerners. When our tuk-tuk started rattling loudly, we pulled over and were instantly met by a herd of kids under 6, who just wanted to say hello and didn't have anything to sell! They were very cute. When Ti-Ti (the driver) pulled over a second time to fix the problem, a local family were laughing at us hysterically, thinking it was the funniest thing ever that we had broken down. Or else they were making rude jokes about us to each other. It was a pretty funny situation.

The minature temple we saw first was amazing. Banteay Srei is dated back to the 10th Century and is known as the Citadel of women - a temple dedicated to Shiva. It has tiny doorways and amazing intricate carving in pink sandstone. We were up early, so beat the crowds and were able to wander comfortably around the site.

We didn't even know the name of the second temple we saw, but it was impressive too (can you tell I was already templed out by now?) It was quite remote and saw very few tourists. This was reflected in the local women and children's desperation for our business. The children earnestly pleaded for us to buy their goods, making the prices ridiculously low (I had clearly been ripped off in my previous souvenir purchases!) It is so difficult to resist.

The last temple was Ta Prohm, the famous temple that has been overgrown by the jungle. Huge tree roots snake over the ruins, creating an impressive effect. This is the place made famous by Tomb Raider. I was really keen on seeing this temple, but our arrival coincided with the arrival of about 10 Japanese and Korean tourist buses, so there were literally thousands of people trying to enjoy the maze like temple, which made it difficult to do. The crowds were so thick that we found an alternative route through the ruins (possibly one that was out of bounds) in order to make our way out. I can imagine that it would have been easy to become lost in!

After a lunch of noodle soup, and more purchases of crappy souvenirs that I do not need, I came back to town and began to explore it a bit more. It would be the most beautiful place, if not for the rubbish in the river. There are tall, green trees that hang over the water, and monks in orange robes walk serenely by. The grass is green and pretty sculptures align it. Mind you, the colour of the river did remind me of the Yarra!

Tonight is Chris and Susie's last night in town, so we'll have a fun night out. I have two more days in Siem Reap. I hope to explore the town tomorrow and then perhaps the surrounding villages.

Don't eat Mexican food in Cambodia

Altering my plans slightly, on Monday 7th I took a bus to Siem Reap (the home of Angkor Wat). For the first time ever, I actually felt tall because I had no leg room in a cramped seat for 6 hrs.

Our roadside stop in the journey met us with hundreds of people trying to sell us pineapple and mango, which was delicious. However I turned down the more exotic deep fried spiders and cicadas.

Siem Reap is completely a tourist town. There must be 10s of thousands of tourists here. The locals speak excellent English and they have even established offical taxi drivers to try and lessen the hassle of "tuk-tuk, lady?". It's still worse than Phnom Penh. What's better is that there are no children in the town streets selling things and no one is allowed in the restaurant area to try and sell to tourists.

Our tuk-tuk driver became our guide for our 3 day visit to the temples. I joined Susie and Chris, because it made it so much cheaper and we've been having such fun. He took us out to get our temple pass and we were able to see the sunset over the temples. The landscape is so much different here. It is beautiful, green jungle that is well looked after. The amount of smoke and dust in the air and the extreme traffic near the temples suggests that the environment is the loser.

The most overrated sunset ever, with a thousand people climbing a hill to sit on an ancient temple and watch the sun through thick haze! The first view of Angkor was breathtaking though!

Dinner at a Mexican restaurant, where I had a burrito that tasted delicious, turned out to be a bad idea.

Got up at 5.30 the next morning to see sunrise behind Angkor Wat. It was pretty, certainly lots of people waiting for the sun to come up, but not so many actually wandering inside the temple itself. The golden light of morning made the intricate bas reliefs glow (carvings of the Aspara dancers, whose body proportions resemble that of Barbie!)

Had breakfast at a local restaurant - there are so many places to eat and shop around the temples. The locals certainly know what tourists need.

Next was the Bayon Temple - that's the one that has towers with lots of faces on it. Unfortunately, I didn't get much chance to see this as by the time I had climbed up it I was dripping with sweat and my stomach was churning.

Without saying too much more, I went back to my hotel on the back of a moto (which was not a great idea with an upset stomach) and have spent the next 24hrs feeling pretty terrible in my hotel room. Thankfully there is an excellent chemist that had everything I needed and I've even managed to eat some toast today....

Tomorrow is the last day of my Angkor pass, so I've missed a whole day of temple viewing and I'm determined to go. Luckily the toilets at Angkor are excellent and everywhere! I'm pretty disappointed as this was what I was most looking forward to, but I think I might have been templed out after 3 days anyway. The huge number of tourists is a bit of a turn off too. My suggestion would be that if you want to see Angkor - do it soon, before it gets ruined and even more overrun with tourism.

To Market to Market

My final day in Phnom Penh was all about wandering the streets and seeing what life is really like in this cambodian city. It was pretty eye-opening. With my NZ friends, Chris and Susie, I visited the Russian market (after the Russians who shopped there in the 80s) It was chaotic! The streets jammed with motos, people busy buying groceries and it was the most claustrophobic market I have ever been in. The narrow aisles were stocked floor to ceiling with clothing - including lots of dirt cheap levi's, gap and quicksilver clothing (apparently its all made here). Plenty of tourist orientated goods too, but I didn't feel too hassled to buy silk goods or silver.

The Tuk-Tuk rides in Phnom Penh have certainly helped me overcome any fear of driving in Australia that I might have had! There are few road rules and the double lines in the middle of the road are just a suggestion. The only rule I can work out is that if someone honks their horn at you - move out of the way. There is no guarantee that they can stop! This is particularly precarious when overloaded trucks want to get past and there is no room to move.

After visiting the over-rated Wat Phnom (on the only hill in the city, where the locals make money from selling bananas to tourists so they can feed the already obese monkeys!), I walked the streets, bought some prescription sunglasses (Versace at a fifth of the price), and had the most painful massage ever for $7. The evening disappeared after happy hour drinks at the roof top bar of the Foreign Correspondents Club became a meal and a great place to chat with people from all over the world. One couple from the Netherlands were cycling around Cambodia.

A dingo stole my baby...

"A dingo stole my baby" was the greeting I got from one street urchin yesterday when I told him I was an Aussie. That was an original one!

** Warning - this is not nice to read** I haven't put any pictures here because they are pretty gruesome.. and it takes forever to upload them.

Well, my second day in Cambodia was one of the most emotionally draining of my travel experiences ever. After a lovely morning seeing the Royal Palace and Pagoda and lots of Buddhas, and lunch at "Friends"cafe, which trains homeless kids for the hospitality industry, the day was completely overshadowed by my next experience.

Visiting the Tuol Sleng Museum was harrowing. This is an old high school building from the 70s, that looks pretty ordinary, but it was turned into the S21 prison, where the Khmer Rouge imprisoned, interrogated and ultimately sent to their death, 17,000 Cambodians. These were mostly teachers, professors, doctors - skilled professionals, but also included quite a number of children. It is hard to imagine the school I teach in becoming a prison, but this is what happened here. The museum showed graphic photos of interrogations, where the prisoners were killed in the process, but the most moving part was the display of photos that filled room after room, level after level. These were simply head shots of all the prisoners who were kept in the prison and then taken away to be killed. The Khmer Rouge wanted complete control of the country, and wanted to do it by getting rid of the thinking, educated population... and their children.

The prisoners were kept in makeshift cells, made of brick or wood, within the classrooms. Or else they were just packed en masse into a classroom. The prisoners were chained to the floor and the only exercise they got was 30 minutes of stretches on the spot. The torture and interrogation processes are too horrific to even write.

People joined the Khmer Rouge because they thought it would save them from being killed. The soldiers included many children who were brainwashed into becoming brutal killers.

After the Tuol Sleng Museum, I took a tuk-tuk out to the next unbelievable experience - "The Killing Fields" or Choeng Ek, 15km out of the city. Here was where most of the prisoners at Tuol Sleng, and many others, were massacred. There is a memorial stupa filled with 8000+ skulls that were exhumed from the surrounding fields. 86 of the 129 mass graves have been excavated, and the skulls and clothes kept so that it is remembered. There are no children's skulls because the method of killing the children destroyed their skulls.

The place is eerily peaceful, there are dug out graves that are grown over with grass and many butterflies hover over them. The most confronting aspect for me was walking around the graves and seeing bones appearing through the soil and clumps of clothing sticking out of the earth.

This was no Auschwitz, but was terrifying because of the method of killing. In order to save bullets, the soldiers bludgeoned the prisoners to death using the ends of guns and farming tools. The prisoners often would not die with the first hit. They were also killed with machetes made from palm branches. The prisoners were lined up, killed and pushed into mass graves, the largest containing about 300 bodies. They think 20,000 people were killed at this sight alone, and there are quite a few others throughout the country. Though some of the bodies were exhumed and buried with honour, none of them were identified. It is believed that as many of 2 to 3 million Cambodians were killed during the rule of the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79. This explains why 40% of today's population is under 15, and the struggle the country has had to go to in order to rebuild - when the majority of their educated and skilled population were massacred.

It is just too overwhelming to try and understand how this could happen. But it did, and still does, and that's the world we live in.

The warmth and positive outlook of the Khmer people is so encouraging, considering their recent past. They have overcome so much and are looking towards a better future.

Today I have been reminded that I am so very privileged, living in such wealth and plenty. I wonder if I could give it up, and I really don't think i could. I wonder if I can do anything to make a difference to even out the massive gap between rich and poor - and I'm not sure I can.

Phnom Penh - Day 1

After a non-eventful 24 hrs in Bangkok (airport, airport hotel, airport), I arrived in Phnom Penh yesterday and was immediately glad I'd chosen Cambodia as my holiday destination. The size, pollution and busyness of Bangkok, is really not my thing. Bangkok is huge and horrible, whereas on touchdown PP is small and friendly. The minute I entered the airport, the Cambodian people were clamouring to help (granted, they wanted my business, but they were still so friendly in doing it). In fact, the customs men were more interested in finding out where I was from and chatting in English than looking at the forms I handed over!

Met 2 great Kiwi girls my age, one is also a teacher, and so we have banded together to visit a few sights.

My first impression of PP was that it is a city that is trying hard to catch up with its wealthier neigbours to the east and west. If I hadn't been to Vietnam, the culture shock would be huge. It is certainly poorer than either Vietnam or Thailand, with lots of children begging (saw one boy pretending he didn't have an arm to get some tourist sympathy. He was about 5 and smiled sheepishly when he saw I had caught him out!) There are certainly a noticeable number of amputees begging and selling things. It is confronting.

The tourist area of PP is booming with people trying to make a living. "Hello, hello", "G'day" comes from everywhere and people yell across the street "moto" & "Tuk-tuk" at a glimmer of white skin - but its all in good fun without the business savy feel of BKK or Ho Chi Minh. The young kids who walk around selling books to tourist have been at school from 7am, and are still up at 11pm, working. They show such spirit and good humour and the older ones remind me so much of the kids at school. I just hope that no one takes advantage of their openness.