Hola Amigos and Amigas!
Apologies for the lax posting on here, but really there isn't much to tell you except that we are enjoying PURA VIDA (pure life, as Costa Ricans say!) in a small town on the pacific coast called Dominical.
We arrived here five days ago, found a great guesthouse at a reasonable price (indeed, this is NOT Asia and Costa Rica is proving to be more expensive than we anticipated - so suffice to say we are taking care of our own meals and seeking out the best deals for our guesthouses).
The guesthouse is right on the beach and so far I have nothing more to report except that it has been sunny and we have been swimming in the ocean every day.
Tomorrow we will probably visit one of the many waterfalls in the area, but you never know what the day will bring...
Missing you all! Lots of love,
Maeve/Jay
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
a HOLA lot of costa rican love...
Well we made it.
And along the way, we made a few choices. They may seem abrupt to some but something was wrong in our guts and we decided that we were going to change course and not teach English under contract this time around. This decision feels great.
We are currently in beautiful Quepos, Costa Rica which is home to one of the biggest and bestest natural parks. We stayed in San Jose for two days and got to know a bit of the Costa Rican culture, all while trying to figure out what we were going to do.
And still, we don't know and we don't care! We are hoping to volunteer along the way down South to help with our budget (so we will still potentially be teaching English, just in places where people can't afford to pay teachers - I have found an orphanage in Peru that I am waiting to hear back from).
Don't envy us too much - it is the rainy season here so it is only sunny and beautiful all morning until it rains around 1 p.m and is overcast into the evening. The temperature never goes over 30 (and never below 17) so we are just having to adjust to it all.
We are looking, potentially, at making our way southwards via Panama overland. From there, there is a cruise (which is very safe and reputable) for five days into Colombia - which, by the way, has a terrible reputation as a bad place and is not if you keep your wits about you, which is true for anyplace.
Not sure when we will be home, but it will certainly be sooner than June (as originally anticipated...) or maybe not! You never know...
Adios amigos!
Maeve and Jay
And along the way, we made a few choices. They may seem abrupt to some but something was wrong in our guts and we decided that we were going to change course and not teach English under contract this time around. This decision feels great.
We are currently in beautiful Quepos, Costa Rica which is home to one of the biggest and bestest natural parks. We stayed in San Jose for two days and got to know a bit of the Costa Rican culture, all while trying to figure out what we were going to do.
And still, we don't know and we don't care! We are hoping to volunteer along the way down South to help with our budget (so we will still potentially be teaching English, just in places where people can't afford to pay teachers - I have found an orphanage in Peru that I am waiting to hear back from).
Don't envy us too much - it is the rainy season here so it is only sunny and beautiful all morning until it rains around 1 p.m and is overcast into the evening. The temperature never goes over 30 (and never below 17) so we are just having to adjust to it all.
We are looking, potentially, at making our way southwards via Panama overland. From there, there is a cruise (which is very safe and reputable) for five days into Colombia - which, by the way, has a terrible reputation as a bad place and is not if you keep your wits about you, which is true for anyplace.
Not sure when we will be home, but it will certainly be sooner than June (as originally anticipated...) or maybe not! You never know...
Adios amigos!
Maeve and Jay
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Charlotte, NC - I spent a month there one night.
Hola everyone!
Well, here we are again at the beginning of another adventure. We decided to shake things up a bit this time. Instead of merely backpacking through South America, we decided to teach English. While teaching is a completely different experience - certainly our mobility will be greatly limited and we see as much as we did in Asia - it offers us the ability to learn and absorb a particular culture a great deal more than passing through. (Not to mention the financial benefits). To increase our potential earning power and placement availability we decided to take a TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) certification in Manual Antonio, Costa Rica.
Yesterday, we boarded our flight from Toronto (to NYC to Charlotte to San Jose) with starry eyed enthusiasm. I must say I was pleasantly surprised to see none other than Bob Rae sitting a few ailes ahead of us on the plane. I said to a nearby steward "Bob Rae is on the plane!" He looked unamused and informed me they saw Mr. Rae often aboard. The flight was every travelers' nightmare. Conditions made it a bumpy, turbulent coaster ride which left both of us reeling for the sick bags. Weather in New York had us circling LaGuardia for 25 minutes which we both knew meant we would be missing our connecting flight. We ran from one terminal building to another - coatless, I might add. Winter is coming to NYC! - to find that our next flight was too delayed and that we had caught a break. We jumped for joy momentarily before realizing this meant our connecting flight from Charlotte to San Jose would be missed. The US airline advised us to get to Charlotte and spend the night, and take a flight the next morning to San Jose.
Arriving in Charlotte, we hunkered down in a local Holiday Inn and listed the reasons why it was best the final leg of our trip take place tomorrow. We arose bright and early, excited to get onward with our trip and made our way off to the airport. Ready to check in, the agent asks whether or not we have a return ticket. As we do not, the agent explains she cannot allow us onward. So begins the saga of the return ticket. After running around trying to find a loophole into the regulation, we finally decide to buy a cheap return ticket and whether or not we use it back, we at least can gain entry into Costa Rica. Unfortunately, by the time we had worked out the return ticket, our flight was long past boarding and we were once again facing another night in good ol' Charlotte.
Sigh - wouldn't be an adventure without some rocky travel starts?
Tomorrow, we are hoping we will make it to San Jose. If not, we are throwing our hands up and coming home. (Just kidding...like THAT would ever happen!)
Keep you posted. We love you and miss you all!
Maeve/Jay
Well, here we are again at the beginning of another adventure. We decided to shake things up a bit this time. Instead of merely backpacking through South America, we decided to teach English. While teaching is a completely different experience - certainly our mobility will be greatly limited and we see as much as we did in Asia - it offers us the ability to learn and absorb a particular culture a great deal more than passing through. (Not to mention the financial benefits). To increase our potential earning power and placement availability we decided to take a TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) certification in Manual Antonio, Costa Rica.
Yesterday, we boarded our flight from Toronto (to NYC to Charlotte to San Jose) with starry eyed enthusiasm. I must say I was pleasantly surprised to see none other than Bob Rae sitting a few ailes ahead of us on the plane. I said to a nearby steward "Bob Rae is on the plane!" He looked unamused and informed me they saw Mr. Rae often aboard. The flight was every travelers' nightmare. Conditions made it a bumpy, turbulent coaster ride which left both of us reeling for the sick bags. Weather in New York had us circling LaGuardia for 25 minutes which we both knew meant we would be missing our connecting flight. We ran from one terminal building to another - coatless, I might add. Winter is coming to NYC! - to find that our next flight was too delayed and that we had caught a break. We jumped for joy momentarily before realizing this meant our connecting flight from Charlotte to San Jose would be missed. The US airline advised us to get to Charlotte and spend the night, and take a flight the next morning to San Jose.
Arriving in Charlotte, we hunkered down in a local Holiday Inn and listed the reasons why it was best the final leg of our trip take place tomorrow. We arose bright and early, excited to get onward with our trip and made our way off to the airport. Ready to check in, the agent asks whether or not we have a return ticket. As we do not, the agent explains she cannot allow us onward. So begins the saga of the return ticket. After running around trying to find a loophole into the regulation, we finally decide to buy a cheap return ticket and whether or not we use it back, we at least can gain entry into Costa Rica. Unfortunately, by the time we had worked out the return ticket, our flight was long past boarding and we were once again facing another night in good ol' Charlotte.
Sigh - wouldn't be an adventure without some rocky travel starts?
Tomorrow, we are hoping we will make it to San Jose. If not, we are throwing our hands up and coming home. (Just kidding...like THAT would ever happen!)
Keep you posted. We love you and miss you all!
Maeve/Jay
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Delhi Belly
Namaste everyone!
Sorry we haven't posted since...Varanasi!? Could it be so!? Yes, well India will do that to you. We are just putting up a quick post to update everyone on our whereabouts the last few weeks.
Since our last post, we have visited the city of Agra - home to the more than magnificent Taj Mahal, Akbar the Great's mausoleum - and let it be known now that, no matter what anyone says, the Taj Mahal is arguably one of the most beautiful structures you may ever lay your eyes on. When we first arrived, we ventured to our hotel rooftop resto which had a superb view of the Taj...and we could hardly believe our eyes! But really, it doesn't even seem real until you are touching the thing because up until you get there the translucence of the Marbel makes it glow in such a way you could only think it to be a photograph.
Speaking of photographs, Jay took some of his best at the Taj and we will be sharing those with you when we get home (in SIX DAYS?) Words cannot describe the Taj nor India, for that matter, so we will hope pictures can fill in a small part of the void there.
After Agra, we took our last overnight train ride to Amritsar, in the northern state of Punjab. Admittedly, we forgot a few times we were in India and no longer in Bramladesh because with the huge Sikh community, it seemed oddly familiar...
Amritsar is home to the holiest shrine for Sikhs, the Golden Temple. It. Is. Unbelievable. The temple itself is said to be covered with 750 kg of gold and in the morning, afternoon or night it is a magnificent vision rising from the Guru Lake which surrounds it. We were lucky enough to meet a fellow there who kindly took us all around the temple and explained the tennants of Sikhism to us, in great detail. We spent two golden days in Amristar (pun intended!) and unfortunately it was all the time we had to spare to make it to the nation's Capital - Delhi.
Delhi is wonderful! It is, as they say, an Aladin's cave of wonders! But, we haven't only been straining our pennies on shopping. Yesterday, we visited the former residence of Mrs. Gandhi - the infamous Indira Gandhi, of course - which stirred a great deal of excitment within at least one of our two person travel party. Afterwards, we visited the spot where Mahatma Gandhi himself spent the last 144 days of his life and where, at the hand of a Hindu zealot, he was shot down in 1948. It was very moving and humbling to stand along the footpath that Gandhiji last walked upon...and to see his few earthly posessions which are on display - including his rounded glasses, his tiny chappals (sandals) and his walking sticks.
Today we are exploring the winding bizarre bazaars of Old Delhi as well as the Jama Masjid, the largest Mosque in India. Tomorrow, we will soak up as much as possible of this wonderful and beautiful country...and then, at midnight we fly to Paris.
Je vois la vie en rose!
Love to you all and...see you soon!
Maeve/Jay
Sorry we haven't posted since...Varanasi!? Could it be so!? Yes, well India will do that to you. We are just putting up a quick post to update everyone on our whereabouts the last few weeks.
Since our last post, we have visited the city of Agra - home to the more than magnificent Taj Mahal, Akbar the Great's mausoleum - and let it be known now that, no matter what anyone says, the Taj Mahal is arguably one of the most beautiful structures you may ever lay your eyes on. When we first arrived, we ventured to our hotel rooftop resto which had a superb view of the Taj...and we could hardly believe our eyes! But really, it doesn't even seem real until you are touching the thing because up until you get there the translucence of the Marbel makes it glow in such a way you could only think it to be a photograph.
Speaking of photographs, Jay took some of his best at the Taj and we will be sharing those with you when we get home (in SIX DAYS?) Words cannot describe the Taj nor India, for that matter, so we will hope pictures can fill in a small part of the void there.
After Agra, we took our last overnight train ride to Amritsar, in the northern state of Punjab. Admittedly, we forgot a few times we were in India and no longer in Bramladesh because with the huge Sikh community, it seemed oddly familiar...
Amritsar is home to the holiest shrine for Sikhs, the Golden Temple. It. Is. Unbelievable. The temple itself is said to be covered with 750 kg of gold and in the morning, afternoon or night it is a magnificent vision rising from the Guru Lake which surrounds it. We were lucky enough to meet a fellow there who kindly took us all around the temple and explained the tennants of Sikhism to us, in great detail. We spent two golden days in Amristar (pun intended!) and unfortunately it was all the time we had to spare to make it to the nation's Capital - Delhi.
Delhi is wonderful! It is, as they say, an Aladin's cave of wonders! But, we haven't only been straining our pennies on shopping. Yesterday, we visited the former residence of Mrs. Gandhi - the infamous Indira Gandhi, of course - which stirred a great deal of excitment within at least one of our two person travel party. Afterwards, we visited the spot where Mahatma Gandhi himself spent the last 144 days of his life and where, at the hand of a Hindu zealot, he was shot down in 1948. It was very moving and humbling to stand along the footpath that Gandhiji last walked upon...and to see his few earthly posessions which are on display - including his rounded glasses, his tiny chappals (sandals) and his walking sticks.
Today we are exploring the winding bizarre bazaars of Old Delhi as well as the Jama Masjid, the largest Mosque in India. Tomorrow, we will soak up as much as possible of this wonderful and beautiful country...and then, at midnight we fly to Paris.
Je vois la vie en rose!
Love to you all and...see you soon!
Maeve/Jay
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Holy Ghats and Cricket Bats.
Namaste everyone.
We have decided to be 'good' with our blog since we only have about two weeks of travel writing left and want to keep the updates going until we are home.
We are currently in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi. It is an ancient and beautiful place, the winding lanes of the Old City are filled with new discoveries, wondrous silk shops and plenty of paan stands. The city sits upon India´s holiest river, the Mother Ganga. All along the river are Ghats (stairs that lead to the water), which have various functions. For example, early in the morning several of the Ghats are used for the performance of Puja (offerings to various Deities, Shiva is particularly popular here...) but perhaps most famously is the Ghat closest to where we are staying, known as the ´Burning Ghat´. As Varanasi is the most auspicious place to die, Hindus come in droves to spend their dying days here or their bodies are brought from all over the country to be cremated and washed in the Ganga. It is believed that if you die and are cremated at Varanasi, you will acheive Moksha or in other words, you will be liberated from the life cycle of re-incarnation.
Admittedly, the first sight of the Burning Ghats is overwhelming. As we approached, I thought, well...maybe no one died today and we won´t see any corpses burning! But, silly Maeve, over 250 people are cremated at Varanasi every day and so there is almost no chance you will not see a corpse being cremated on the several pyres which are lit. We sat for a good while and watched the processes taking place, and essentially saw every aspect of the ritual. It is a beautiful thing to see and not at all gruesome, but oddly peaceful. Holy cows, goats and dogs peruse the piles of logs awaiting their fate, and children play happily and swim nearby. For everyone here, there is nothing morbid about death, cremation, corpses, ashes...it is just a necessary part of life, one we will all experience some day.
The process from start to finish takes about three and a half hours. Firstly, the body is carried by 'untouchable´ (yes, the caste system is alive and well in India, sorry to tell you Gandhiji) down to the Burning Ghat through the winding lanes of the old city. The bodies are covered in the most beautiful shrouds, fabrics which one would expect of India. Upon reaching the Ghat, the family takes the body, which is on a sort of bamboo stretcher, and washes it in the Ganga. Well, it is more like a total immersion of the body in the river, to ensure it is completely covered. Once this has taken place, the pyre is built for the body to rest on. The family removes the shroud and covers the face with a white sheet (the rest of the body is wrapped in it already, under the shroud) and they place the body on the pyre. The ´untouchables´ who handle the pyre and the wood then place several more pieces of wood on top of the body and set it alight. The fire comes from the Holy Fire Temple, which has a fire said to have burned for over 10,000 years (we heard 5,000 and 15,000 so I average it for you) that was lit by the God Shiva the destroyer himself. The body takes three hours to burn. Once the body has turned completely to ash, another ´untouchable´ comes to sift through it, in hopes of finding left over jewellery or gold that may have been spared. The ashes are then spred into the Ganga.
The cremation is exempt for the following, who are already considered to be pure: babies, pregnant women, victims of cobra bites, lepards, holy Hindu Sadhus and animals. In all of these cases, the family ties a large stone to their bodies and releases them into the Ganga.
It is quite a process. The wood for the pyre can be very expensive, sandalwood being the most expensive of course. Relative women are not allowed to come to the Ghat. You can all imagine my outrage when I was told this, in my western mindset I was unable to fathom the gross injustice of disallowing women from being part of the final funerary process. It was explained to me that this was so for two reaons...firstly, it is believed that crying during the process of this liberation would disrupt the soul of the deceased to be released and would be bad luck. (Okay, I thought grumpily, so women are the only ones who cry?!) but secondly and perhaps slightly more sensical, is that women are disallowed from being present in an effort to cut down on the problem of Sati - widows throwing themselves onto their husbands funeral pyres. So that is that.
Varanasi is a wonderful and religious city. We took an early morning boat ride along the Ganga yesterday to see the performance of Puja. Hundreds of Indians happily swimming and washing and going about their daily business. We have stayed here a bit longer than anticipated which is because of the spirit of the city but also because I had a terrible bug yesterday (I suspect the pakoras...) and am still recovering from it. Tomorrow night we leave for Agra, home to Dr. Aziz Assam (if you are familiar with Midnight´s Children) but most famously home to the Taj Mahal.
We have been spending a good amount of time on the train here, and have still a bit more to go until we are in Delhi. The trains are a curious thing but quite lovely when you get used to it (and when you are not the unfortunate victim of having your fingers crushed by the steel window shutter, which I was, but the bruises have subsided and I am still enamoured with the train).
Not much else to write now, expect that we are doing off tonight to enjoy some lovely classical Indian music. Must soak up all we can, in the little time we have left.
Lots of love to you all,
Maeve/Jay
We have decided to be 'good' with our blog since we only have about two weeks of travel writing left and want to keep the updates going until we are home.
We are currently in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi. It is an ancient and beautiful place, the winding lanes of the Old City are filled with new discoveries, wondrous silk shops and plenty of paan stands. The city sits upon India´s holiest river, the Mother Ganga. All along the river are Ghats (stairs that lead to the water), which have various functions. For example, early in the morning several of the Ghats are used for the performance of Puja (offerings to various Deities, Shiva is particularly popular here...) but perhaps most famously is the Ghat closest to where we are staying, known as the ´Burning Ghat´. As Varanasi is the most auspicious place to die, Hindus come in droves to spend their dying days here or their bodies are brought from all over the country to be cremated and washed in the Ganga. It is believed that if you die and are cremated at Varanasi, you will acheive Moksha or in other words, you will be liberated from the life cycle of re-incarnation.
Admittedly, the first sight of the Burning Ghats is overwhelming. As we approached, I thought, well...maybe no one died today and we won´t see any corpses burning! But, silly Maeve, over 250 people are cremated at Varanasi every day and so there is almost no chance you will not see a corpse being cremated on the several pyres which are lit. We sat for a good while and watched the processes taking place, and essentially saw every aspect of the ritual. It is a beautiful thing to see and not at all gruesome, but oddly peaceful. Holy cows, goats and dogs peruse the piles of logs awaiting their fate, and children play happily and swim nearby. For everyone here, there is nothing morbid about death, cremation, corpses, ashes...it is just a necessary part of life, one we will all experience some day.
The process from start to finish takes about three and a half hours. Firstly, the body is carried by 'untouchable´ (yes, the caste system is alive and well in India, sorry to tell you Gandhiji) down to the Burning Ghat through the winding lanes of the old city. The bodies are covered in the most beautiful shrouds, fabrics which one would expect of India. Upon reaching the Ghat, the family takes the body, which is on a sort of bamboo stretcher, and washes it in the Ganga. Well, it is more like a total immersion of the body in the river, to ensure it is completely covered. Once this has taken place, the pyre is built for the body to rest on. The family removes the shroud and covers the face with a white sheet (the rest of the body is wrapped in it already, under the shroud) and they place the body on the pyre. The ´untouchables´ who handle the pyre and the wood then place several more pieces of wood on top of the body and set it alight. The fire comes from the Holy Fire Temple, which has a fire said to have burned for over 10,000 years (we heard 5,000 and 15,000 so I average it for you) that was lit by the God Shiva the destroyer himself. The body takes three hours to burn. Once the body has turned completely to ash, another ´untouchable´ comes to sift through it, in hopes of finding left over jewellery or gold that may have been spared. The ashes are then spred into the Ganga.
The cremation is exempt for the following, who are already considered to be pure: babies, pregnant women, victims of cobra bites, lepards, holy Hindu Sadhus and animals. In all of these cases, the family ties a large stone to their bodies and releases them into the Ganga.
It is quite a process. The wood for the pyre can be very expensive, sandalwood being the most expensive of course. Relative women are not allowed to come to the Ghat. You can all imagine my outrage when I was told this, in my western mindset I was unable to fathom the gross injustice of disallowing women from being part of the final funerary process. It was explained to me that this was so for two reaons...firstly, it is believed that crying during the process of this liberation would disrupt the soul of the deceased to be released and would be bad luck. (Okay, I thought grumpily, so women are the only ones who cry?!) but secondly and perhaps slightly more sensical, is that women are disallowed from being present in an effort to cut down on the problem of Sati - widows throwing themselves onto their husbands funeral pyres. So that is that.
Varanasi is a wonderful and religious city. We took an early morning boat ride along the Ganga yesterday to see the performance of Puja. Hundreds of Indians happily swimming and washing and going about their daily business. We have stayed here a bit longer than anticipated which is because of the spirit of the city but also because I had a terrible bug yesterday (I suspect the pakoras...) and am still recovering from it. Tomorrow night we leave for Agra, home to Dr. Aziz Assam (if you are familiar with Midnight´s Children) but most famously home to the Taj Mahal.
We have been spending a good amount of time on the train here, and have still a bit more to go until we are in Delhi. The trains are a curious thing but quite lovely when you get used to it (and when you are not the unfortunate victim of having your fingers crushed by the steel window shutter, which I was, but the bruises have subsided and I am still enamoured with the train).
Not much else to write now, expect that we are doing off tonight to enjoy some lovely classical Indian music. Must soak up all we can, in the little time we have left.
Lots of love to you all,
Maeve/Jay
Thursday, May 7, 2009
...sitting under the bodhi tree...
Namaste,
It has been roughly 10 days since our last post, and I know our loyal followers must have been checking everyday to see if we have written. Our apologizes, we have been immersed in the colourful culture that is india. Let us first answer the question of everyones mind, yes it is hot, very hot, 40+ everyday we have been here. We understand now that this is due to the taunting and mokcing that we bestowed on everyone back home during the months of dec-feb when you saw snow and we saw sand...we are sorry...not too sorry but we are melting away here. We have taken to having naps from between 12-2 to stay cool and hydrated during the hottest parts of the day and are adjusting quite well thus far.
When last we wrote we were in the south in Trichy, from there we took our first train to chennai for one night and then our 13th flight of the trip to kolkata to cut rougly 30 hours of train travel and give us amble time to get to delhi, from here on out we are slaves of the indian railway system. Upon arrival in kolkata we became quite aware that every previous country was just a warmup in someway for india. The traffic in hanoi, the heat of indonesia, the begging of cambodia, the power outages of laos have all prepared us to feel not quite as overwhelmed as id india was our port of entry instead of exit. Kolkata is still an incredible city, and despite the preparations we were quite taken aback by it. It has been the only place where in the same field of view you can see something that will make you cry, smile, laugh, think, question and fill you with joy all together. It was no wonder that Mother Teresa came to call it home as many people need the help of a selfless indivual. One afternoon we made our way to her tomb to see the remains of a future saint. No matter your religion, you can se the good she has done in the organization she founded.
With walking the streeets just as entertaining as many attractions we have seen thus far, much of kolkata was seen in this fashion. Many a cricket match was observed by sitting as much as possible in the shade. Yet again as all busy cities we looked forward to seeing the countryside and leaving the hussle-bustle. We that said, we bought our first overnight train tickets and headed for Bodhgaya, the site of the buddha's enlightenment.
Which is where we are currently writing this post, we have spent the past two days on the temple grounds sitting, thinking and people watching as the masses pass through to see the actual spot of his enlightenment. The original bodhi tree was destroyed but a sappling was saved. This sappling was taken to sri lanka and thrives today, and from that tree they took a sapling and planted it back in bodhgaya in the very spot the original stood. It now sprawls out and is in its prime. A beautiful place to sit and enjoy the peace away from the market stands outside the complex. This has been one highlight of many on this trip for sure and has allowed for much reflection of the entire4 months to date. With that being said there is roughly only 3 weeks till we return and we can then elaborate on the posts we have made.
Anyway, back to the tree we go before we head to a hindu pilgram site of Varansi in the morning.
Love you all very much,
jay/maeve
It has been roughly 10 days since our last post, and I know our loyal followers must have been checking everyday to see if we have written. Our apologizes, we have been immersed in the colourful culture that is india. Let us first answer the question of everyones mind, yes it is hot, very hot, 40+ everyday we have been here. We understand now that this is due to the taunting and mokcing that we bestowed on everyone back home during the months of dec-feb when you saw snow and we saw sand...we are sorry...not too sorry but we are melting away here. We have taken to having naps from between 12-2 to stay cool and hydrated during the hottest parts of the day and are adjusting quite well thus far.
When last we wrote we were in the south in Trichy, from there we took our first train to chennai for one night and then our 13th flight of the trip to kolkata to cut rougly 30 hours of train travel and give us amble time to get to delhi, from here on out we are slaves of the indian railway system. Upon arrival in kolkata we became quite aware that every previous country was just a warmup in someway for india. The traffic in hanoi, the heat of indonesia, the begging of cambodia, the power outages of laos have all prepared us to feel not quite as overwhelmed as id india was our port of entry instead of exit. Kolkata is still an incredible city, and despite the preparations we were quite taken aback by it. It has been the only place where in the same field of view you can see something that will make you cry, smile, laugh, think, question and fill you with joy all together. It was no wonder that Mother Teresa came to call it home as many people need the help of a selfless indivual. One afternoon we made our way to her tomb to see the remains of a future saint. No matter your religion, you can se the good she has done in the organization she founded.
With walking the streeets just as entertaining as many attractions we have seen thus far, much of kolkata was seen in this fashion. Many a cricket match was observed by sitting as much as possible in the shade. Yet again as all busy cities we looked forward to seeing the countryside and leaving the hussle-bustle. We that said, we bought our first overnight train tickets and headed for Bodhgaya, the site of the buddha's enlightenment.
Which is where we are currently writing this post, we have spent the past two days on the temple grounds sitting, thinking and people watching as the masses pass through to see the actual spot of his enlightenment. The original bodhi tree was destroyed but a sappling was saved. This sappling was taken to sri lanka and thrives today, and from that tree they took a sapling and planted it back in bodhgaya in the very spot the original stood. It now sprawls out and is in its prime. A beautiful place to sit and enjoy the peace away from the market stands outside the complex. This has been one highlight of many on this trip for sure and has allowed for much reflection of the entire4 months to date. With that being said there is roughly only 3 weeks till we return and we can then elaborate on the posts we have made.
Anyway, back to the tree we go before we head to a hindu pilgram site of Varansi in the morning.
Love you all very much,
jay/maeve
Sunday, April 26, 2009
A Suitable Journey
We have arrived in India.
After a boat, a bus, another (bigger, packed and much sketchier) boat, another bus, a taxi, a plane, a night at the KL airport and one last plane ride...we arrived in Trichy in the south of India.
I won't deny it is hot. 37 degrees today...and it looks like a few solid 40s coming our way...but surprisingly (so long as you stay indoors at midday) it has not seemed to crippled us yet too much.
But then again, we've been here a day. We noticed on CBC.ca some interesting news, 27 tomorrow for toronto - we will be thinking of you tonight when the temperature here drops down around there...
It is a hectic place, to be sure, and that is evident already. But also immediately evident is the rich beauty of this land, and the people who call it home.
For those of you who know us well, you will understand why I am cutting this short. I smell the samosas sizzling on the street - no time to write, must consume copious amounts of Indian food!!! (Peter Anthos, we are thinking of you and your diehard love of the stuff)
Much love from India,
maeve/jay
After a boat, a bus, another (bigger, packed and much sketchier) boat, another bus, a taxi, a plane, a night at the KL airport and one last plane ride...we arrived in Trichy in the south of India.
I won't deny it is hot. 37 degrees today...and it looks like a few solid 40s coming our way...but surprisingly (so long as you stay indoors at midday) it has not seemed to crippled us yet too much.
But then again, we've been here a day. We noticed on CBC.ca some interesting news, 27 tomorrow for toronto - we will be thinking of you tonight when the temperature here drops down around there...
It is a hectic place, to be sure, and that is evident already. But also immediately evident is the rich beauty of this land, and the people who call it home.
For those of you who know us well, you will understand why I am cutting this short. I smell the samosas sizzling on the street - no time to write, must consume copious amounts of Indian food!!! (Peter Anthos, we are thinking of you and your diehard love of the stuff)
Much love from India,
maeve/jay
Saturday, April 18, 2009
...from Bali to the Gili's....
Hello hello,
It has been sometime since our last post and we re currently on one of the "Gili islands", located north of lombok, which is an island east of bali...a sampler location would simply to say paradise. After enjoying my birthday in our guesthouse pool in kuta surrounded by more Aussies and Swedes than i can count was fun, we decided to move a little inland to a village called "ubud". We were fortunate again to find a guesthouse with pool feet from our door, after many a stroll in town we would find ourselves with a nice afternoon dip to cool off.
The real draw of Ubud is that there is a patch of forest known as "the sacred monkey forest", basically it is home to about 300 macaque monkeys who will roam all over you if you let them. We of course took an afternoon to visit these little cheeky buggers. We arrive to find an entrance fee of 15,000 rupiah, which is roughly $1.75 and banana bunches for sale for about $2, naturally we wanted to feed some so we purchased our bananas and headed off. The first monkey we see if far in the trees and looks to be one of the larger males, he eyes us as we enter. Maeve eagerly waves the bunch in the air, and his eye is caught. He heads down the tree and heads towards us, maeve pulls one banana off the bunch and offers it to him...he sees it then lunges at the bunch, maeve startled, drops them and jumps away to see him make off with the whole bunch...hes big for a reason. Lesson learnt, do not taunt a monkey with bananas.
After enjoying a couple more nights in ubud we headed out for a 3 hour boat ride to the Gili's and we have been here ever since. The beach is gorgeous, the weather is amazing and the view back to lombok is the most beautiful we have seen on the entire trip. Needless to say we are taking the time to enjoy some peace and quite before we head to India in one week now.
I would like to say a big thank you for all the birthday wishes, Bali was not a bad place to spend it but missed everyone back home.
To the settino clan for the virtual "happy burds-day", than you very much,it was amazing. Maeve and i happened to be at a restaurant on the island that had wifi so we got chance to watch it on my ipod along with the videos of lyrik...ill give a big thank you to mr. gentile for arranging that, as next to my dad he is the most tech savvy of the bunch.
Love you all lots.
Time is flying by but crawling at once. We'll see you all before we know it.
jay/maeve
xoxo
It has been sometime since our last post and we re currently on one of the "Gili islands", located north of lombok, which is an island east of bali...a sampler location would simply to say paradise. After enjoying my birthday in our guesthouse pool in kuta surrounded by more Aussies and Swedes than i can count was fun, we decided to move a little inland to a village called "ubud". We were fortunate again to find a guesthouse with pool feet from our door, after many a stroll in town we would find ourselves with a nice afternoon dip to cool off.
The real draw of Ubud is that there is a patch of forest known as "the sacred monkey forest", basically it is home to about 300 macaque monkeys who will roam all over you if you let them. We of course took an afternoon to visit these little cheeky buggers. We arrive to find an entrance fee of 15,000 rupiah, which is roughly $1.75 and banana bunches for sale for about $2, naturally we wanted to feed some so we purchased our bananas and headed off. The first monkey we see if far in the trees and looks to be one of the larger males, he eyes us as we enter. Maeve eagerly waves the bunch in the air, and his eye is caught. He heads down the tree and heads towards us, maeve pulls one banana off the bunch and offers it to him...he sees it then lunges at the bunch, maeve startled, drops them and jumps away to see him make off with the whole bunch...hes big for a reason. Lesson learnt, do not taunt a monkey with bananas.
After enjoying a couple more nights in ubud we headed out for a 3 hour boat ride to the Gili's and we have been here ever since. The beach is gorgeous, the weather is amazing and the view back to lombok is the most beautiful we have seen on the entire trip. Needless to say we are taking the time to enjoy some peace and quite before we head to India in one week now.
I would like to say a big thank you for all the birthday wishes, Bali was not a bad place to spend it but missed everyone back home.
To the settino clan for the virtual "happy burds-day", than you very much,it was amazing. Maeve and i happened to be at a restaurant on the island that had wifi so we got chance to watch it on my ipod along with the videos of lyrik...ill give a big thank you to mr. gentile for arranging that, as next to my dad he is the most tech savvy of the bunch.
Love you all lots.
Time is flying by but crawling at once. We'll see you all before we know it.
jay/maeve
xoxo
Monday, April 6, 2009
Bali Bound
Hello to everyone,
Hope you enjoyed our April Fools joke. Of course Ho Chi Minh is not a hologram (as far as we know, anyway) but most of the story up until the man taking a picture was true. They really did scold Jay for having his arms behind his back, ha ha ha.
Anyway, our time in Viet Nam is quickly coming to a close. After we finally received our Indian visas (yay!) we decided to high tail it out of Ha Noi to Cat Ba island which is in Halong Bay. We were only able to spend two full days there, but on our first full day we had a wonderful boat tour of the bay (which hopes to become a world heritage site one day) and met a few other Canadians who were finishing their big travel adventure. It is incredibly hard to describe the beauty of Halong Bay...we have a few great photos but those too won't do much justice, all I can say is some places are worth braving tourists hoards and kitchy pearl stands...
Getting out of Ha Noi was lovely, the whole "not fearing for your life" when you walk down the street was wonderful, because the motorbike quota in Cat Ba was significantly lower than in Ha Noi. Jay and I have both been battling a bit of a headcold so we took it easy our second full day in Cat Ba, skipping another adventure tour and opting for a good walk and appreciation of the bay from land.
Today we had to head back to Ha Noi as we are flying out to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning. We took a speed boat and bus back to the city, not the ideal way to celebrate two years together but then again, we are in Viet Nam so how could it get much better? I know! BALI! Haha.
We are going to be arriving in Bali tomorrow evening, with our connecting flight bringing us from Ha Noi through KL onwards to Bali. Forecast for Bali this upcoming week ranges from 30-32 high with a low of 29 and not a drop of rain to boot. This is something we are greatly anticipating, Northern Viet Nam is a rather rainy place this time of year!
Glad to hear the weather in O Canada is shaping up, hopefully it stays true so our sunkissed bodies won't seem as harsh to you all come June, hehehehe.
LOVE TO YOU ALL,
Maeve/Jay
Hope you enjoyed our April Fools joke. Of course Ho Chi Minh is not a hologram (as far as we know, anyway) but most of the story up until the man taking a picture was true. They really did scold Jay for having his arms behind his back, ha ha ha.
Anyway, our time in Viet Nam is quickly coming to a close. After we finally received our Indian visas (yay!) we decided to high tail it out of Ha Noi to Cat Ba island which is in Halong Bay. We were only able to spend two full days there, but on our first full day we had a wonderful boat tour of the bay (which hopes to become a world heritage site one day) and met a few other Canadians who were finishing their big travel adventure. It is incredibly hard to describe the beauty of Halong Bay...we have a few great photos but those too won't do much justice, all I can say is some places are worth braving tourists hoards and kitchy pearl stands...
Getting out of Ha Noi was lovely, the whole "not fearing for your life" when you walk down the street was wonderful, because the motorbike quota in Cat Ba was significantly lower than in Ha Noi. Jay and I have both been battling a bit of a headcold so we took it easy our second full day in Cat Ba, skipping another adventure tour and opting for a good walk and appreciation of the bay from land.
Today we had to head back to Ha Noi as we are flying out to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning. We took a speed boat and bus back to the city, not the ideal way to celebrate two years together but then again, we are in Viet Nam so how could it get much better? I know! BALI! Haha.
We are going to be arriving in Bali tomorrow evening, with our connecting flight bringing us from Ha Noi through KL onwards to Bali. Forecast for Bali this upcoming week ranges from 30-32 high with a low of 29 and not a drop of rain to boot. This is something we are greatly anticipating, Northern Viet Nam is a rather rainy place this time of year!
Glad to hear the weather in O Canada is shaping up, hopefully it stays true so our sunkissed bodies won't seem as harsh to you all come June, hehehehe.
LOVE TO YOU ALL,
Maeve/Jay
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
ngươi hê tháng tư ban ngay!
Still in Ha Noi. Tomorrow we are getting our Indian visas and so we are looking forward to moving onwards to Halong bay, though we won't have much time before we fly out of Ha Noi to Kuala Lumpur and on to Bali on the 7th.
Ha Noi is certainly not the worst place to be waiting for a visa...there is a lot to do and we have been experience a wide array of Vietnam's history and culture. We visited the Military Museum, which features many old warcrafts from the American and French wars. We also have taken in a few solid cyclo rides in the city, as well as plenty of strolls around the lake in which it is said magical turtles live.
But, perhaps the most shocking experience we have had was this morning, when we visited the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. It is only open for two hours a day, and in true Lenin style, he is displayed in a temperature controlled glass case which you are ushered around with a horde of other tourists.
We arrived at a good time in the morning, considering that a line formed behind us which greatly exceeded the one in front of us. We waited for about half an hour in the line (a note to my mum, Donna, I was fearful of another Istanbul harem experience...luckily this did not occur) and as we approached the mausoleum itself, we knew this was some serious business. It is a huge multi-level tomb, with soldiers all around and standing to attention within. It seemed they had a sort of double duty, because aside from protecting Ho Chi's resting place, they were the etoquitte police. A group of girls in front of us were whispering and were shushed angrily, and while Jay and I thought we were the epitome of etiquitte...one soldier insisted Jay put his hands at his side, instead behind his back. Anyway, we were swarmed in a huge group of tourists and we slowly approached the room in which Ho Chi Minh was resting.
As a sidenote, it was actually his dying wish to be cremated. We thought it was odd that they would ignore this man's dying wish, considering he was their leader, but little did we know we would soon understand the truth of it all...
The room was very museum like, with the glass case at its center and soldiers standing all around it. We walked around it slowly, some people even stopped (as much as was possible) to get a better look. Cameras are strickly prohibited in the room and they check you at every stop to ensure you don't have one. Unfortunately, somehow, an American man had gotten his camera in and at the risk of having it confiscated (or worse) he pulled it out and before anyone could stop him, he snapped a picture...flash and all.
The guards were on him immediately, but it was after the flash went off that everyone in the room noticed something particularly strange...Ho Chi Minh's body was flickering! As if it was there one second and not the next, it went on for a spilt moment while the guards frantically tried to usher us out of the room. But the damage had been done and it seemed the guards had lost all forms of etiquette as they shoved us out, screaming into our ears.
Ho Chi Minh's dying wish was fulfilled...because his mausoleum merely contains the most deceptively created hologram, which for years has fooled tourists and locals alike into believing that they had actually kept his body perfectly intact. The American man who took the picture is being prominently featured in the newspapers as a conspirist who new well that Ho Chi Minh was cremated upon his death...
Needless to say, the country is shocked...but no one more so than us. Admittedly, I was confused as to what was transpiring, but Jay immediately knew it was a hologram and whispered to me hurredly "its a hologram!".
The news is already all over this and we would be surprised if you hadn't heard of it back home yet. We have contacted CBC and Canwest to see if they are interested in our perspective of the story, considering we were of the few who actually witnessed it happen...
We have only so far found one article on the internet (presumbably, the papers tomorrow are covering the story but TV is all over it)... The article is in Vietnemese but if you use the following link to translate the title, ngươi hê tháng tư ban ngay (don't mind the boxes, paste the entire title into the following link and the article results will pop up)
Here is the link:
http://translate.google.com/translate_t#vienng%C6%B0%C6%A1i%20h%C3%AA%20th%C3%A1ng%20t%C6%B0%20ban%20ngay
Let us know what you hear at home! We are following tabs closely.
Love,
Maeve and Jay
Ha Noi is certainly not the worst place to be waiting for a visa...there is a lot to do and we have been experience a wide array of Vietnam's history and culture. We visited the Military Museum, which features many old warcrafts from the American and French wars. We also have taken in a few solid cyclo rides in the city, as well as plenty of strolls around the lake in which it is said magical turtles live.
But, perhaps the most shocking experience we have had was this morning, when we visited the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. It is only open for two hours a day, and in true Lenin style, he is displayed in a temperature controlled glass case which you are ushered around with a horde of other tourists.
We arrived at a good time in the morning, considering that a line formed behind us which greatly exceeded the one in front of us. We waited for about half an hour in the line (a note to my mum, Donna, I was fearful of another Istanbul harem experience...luckily this did not occur) and as we approached the mausoleum itself, we knew this was some serious business. It is a huge multi-level tomb, with soldiers all around and standing to attention within. It seemed they had a sort of double duty, because aside from protecting Ho Chi's resting place, they were the etoquitte police. A group of girls in front of us were whispering and were shushed angrily, and while Jay and I thought we were the epitome of etiquitte...one soldier insisted Jay put his hands at his side, instead behind his back. Anyway, we were swarmed in a huge group of tourists and we slowly approached the room in which Ho Chi Minh was resting.
As a sidenote, it was actually his dying wish to be cremated. We thought it was odd that they would ignore this man's dying wish, considering he was their leader, but little did we know we would soon understand the truth of it all...
The room was very museum like, with the glass case at its center and soldiers standing all around it. We walked around it slowly, some people even stopped (as much as was possible) to get a better look. Cameras are strickly prohibited in the room and they check you at every stop to ensure you don't have one. Unfortunately, somehow, an American man had gotten his camera in and at the risk of having it confiscated (or worse) he pulled it out and before anyone could stop him, he snapped a picture...flash and all.
The guards were on him immediately, but it was after the flash went off that everyone in the room noticed something particularly strange...Ho Chi Minh's body was flickering! As if it was there one second and not the next, it went on for a spilt moment while the guards frantically tried to usher us out of the room. But the damage had been done and it seemed the guards had lost all forms of etiquette as they shoved us out, screaming into our ears.
Ho Chi Minh's dying wish was fulfilled...because his mausoleum merely contains the most deceptively created hologram, which for years has fooled tourists and locals alike into believing that they had actually kept his body perfectly intact. The American man who took the picture is being prominently featured in the newspapers as a conspirist who new well that Ho Chi Minh was cremated upon his death...
Needless to say, the country is shocked...but no one more so than us. Admittedly, I was confused as to what was transpiring, but Jay immediately knew it was a hologram and whispered to me hurredly "its a hologram!".
The news is already all over this and we would be surprised if you hadn't heard of it back home yet. We have contacted CBC and Canwest to see if they are interested in our perspective of the story, considering we were of the few who actually witnessed it happen...
We have only so far found one article on the internet (presumbably, the papers tomorrow are covering the story but TV is all over it)... The article is in Vietnemese but if you use the following link to translate the title, ngươi hê tháng tư ban ngay (don't mind the boxes, paste the entire title into the following link and the article results will pop up)
Here is the link:
http://translate.google.com/translate_t#vienng%C6%B0%C6%A1i%20h%C3%AA%20th%C3%A1ng%20t%C6%B0%20ban%20ngay
Let us know what you hear at home! We are following tabs closely.
Love,
Maeve and Jay
Friday, March 27, 2009
Never take Ha Noi pho granted!
Hello from Ha Noi, Viet Nam! (This is post 2 of 2, so proceed downwards firstly if you have not read it already!)
Much has happened since that last lofty post in Luang Prabang. We had a wonderful time in Laos and it came to an end much too quickly as before we knew it, indeed, it was time to leave. After the wonderful and enlightening elephant experience, we decided to make our way by slowboat up the Nam Ou (the river Ou) to the small valley village of Nong Khiaw. For those of you savvy in boating and acquatics, you would not be surprised to learn that boats travelling upstream (as we were) during the dry season (as we were) are often subject to impossibly low water levels and as such, a boat's only chance on continuing to move onwards is if it is pushed. We were sharing the small boat with eight other travellers and when the driver cut the motor and stepped out of the boat, we realized it was in everyone's best interest to also exit the boat and help him push. A sight to be seen, surely, as the eleven of us hiked up our pants and jumped into the river...
All delays aside, the boat ride was beautiful and though it ran a bit longer than predicted (however, not unexpectedly) we enjoyed savouring the huge limestone cliffs and hills that form Northern Laos. Nong Khiaw was a magical place, nessleted in a large valley with one dominating bridge connecting the community. Our first night there, we (not unhappily) discovered that the power only ran from 6 p.m until 10 p.m and by "ran" I mean came and went as it pleased. Unfortunately, our second day there I succombed to some rather painful food poisoining at the hands of some bad Laap (delicious Lao meat salad, even the bad stuff was delicious so how was I to know!) but within the day I was recovered and happily spending the day away from the toilet once again. Ironically, it was St. Patrick's Day which I spent close to the toilet yet I had not had a drop to drink...luck of the Irish indeed!
After three days in Nong Khiaw, we continued northwards on the Nam Ou by boat to the village of Muang Noi Neua. MNN was an even smaller community without vehicles of anykind (save the bicycle, of course) and limited electrical services as well. Our stay here was much more active than our previous location - one day we rented a small paddle boat and took in a good deal of swimming, and the other day we did a good three hour trek to some stunning caves inland. Jay has undertaken "The Lord of the Rings" reading and I am re-reading my all time favourite book "A Suitable Boy" so much of our time in these places was devoted to reading with the sun on our faces and with beer lao in our bellies.
In sports news, the Best of 7/Best of 7/Best of 7 BRISK tournament came to a thrilling and close end and while I applaud Jay's comeback efforts, I took the final game 7 to ensure my overall wins. Bravo to both parties involved.
After another three days in MNN, it was time to move onwards to Viet Nam. We decided to take a boat rather than a bus to the newly opened border five hours north from MNN but as this is not a populos route, we found ourselves alone on a longtail boat with the driver, his wife and an incredibly large catfish who joined us on a village stopby. (Happily, he survived).
Upon arrival to the town of Muang Khua - our last stop in Laos - we found a seemingly clean guesthouse to spend the night before we were to travel onwards early the next morning. Perhaps some of you have caught on at this point, but if you don't have electricity...you don't have ATMs. And if you don't have American currency, well sir, you are shit. out. of. luck. We had exchanged our American currency and of course no one was interested in anything else, so we had limited funds to get to Viet Nam. We were unsure of any unforeseen costs at the border and did not exactly know how much the whole trip to Viet Nam (boat and bus) was going to cost us. Suffice to say, our dinner was skimpy that night and we didn't even indulge in breafkast the next morning. Budgeting at it's finest!
We met a Thai man that night in town who overheard us stumbling through Lao to figure out how exactly to get to the border crossing. His English was superb, and he told us he too was going with his family (two grandchildren and a collegue) to the border the next day. He was renting a bus for himself, and as there were two extra seats, he offered us them to us. As we spoke with him and his wife, I found myself feeling oddly familiar with them. I then realized they were the bizarro Thai version of my very own grandparents, Mare and Frank!!!!! This delighted Jay and I endlessly during our time with who we came to call our "Thai family".
We travelled with them for three hours to the Viet Nam border. After a delicious noodle soup breakfast with the family - whom initially referred to as Thai Frank (TF), Thai Mare (TM), Thai John (TJ, we assumed he was their son), Thai Rory, aged 13, (TR) and Thai Maeve, aged 8 (TM2). Eventually we learned that TF was "JP" and TM was Renu, and they were both retired Professors in Food Science from the University of Chiang Mai. Their English was so spectacular because they had done their PH.Ds in Redding, England.
As a group, we made the impulse decision to carry on from the border to Ha Noi. All of us originally planned to spend the night in the border town but we were all tight on time and an offer of $10 per person in a spacious private van was too good to pass up. The journey would take ten hours on yet another bumpy, unpaved road. We stopped for dinner along the way and felt so part of the family as we all ate and shared signature Vietnemese dishes. We spoke at great length with JP and Renu though I forgot to mention their likeness to my own grandparents. What seemed like hours of bumpy road, sore bladders and neck pillows later...we arrived bleery eyed into Ha Noi at 5 A.m in the morning, rounding our travel day up to 22 full hours. We crashed at a hotel, barely away of the chaotic city that surrounded us...
And so here we are. Ha Noi is a beautiful city and we are thourougly enjoying our return to metropolitan life. The pho is good, the fresh rolls are good, the baguettes are good...life is great. We spent a good part of the day today taking in shopping and riding around town in a Cyclo (a sort of rickshaw-bicycle deal.) Tomorrow we are going to visit Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum - luckily he isn't visiting Lenin for his annual brush-up in Russia - and we will be continuing to take in the city until next week. We are glad to be staying here but also don't have much of a choice because we are awaiting our Indian visas! Yayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!! Ahem.
Phew. That took a bit out of me. I think we will go get some Pho and relax before taking in a Jazz show tonight in the Old Quarter.
Much love from Viet Nam
Maeve/Jay
Much has happened since that last lofty post in Luang Prabang. We had a wonderful time in Laos and it came to an end much too quickly as before we knew it, indeed, it was time to leave. After the wonderful and enlightening elephant experience, we decided to make our way by slowboat up the Nam Ou (the river Ou) to the small valley village of Nong Khiaw. For those of you savvy in boating and acquatics, you would not be surprised to learn that boats travelling upstream (as we were) during the dry season (as we were) are often subject to impossibly low water levels and as such, a boat's only chance on continuing to move onwards is if it is pushed. We were sharing the small boat with eight other travellers and when the driver cut the motor and stepped out of the boat, we realized it was in everyone's best interest to also exit the boat and help him push. A sight to be seen, surely, as the eleven of us hiked up our pants and jumped into the river...
All delays aside, the boat ride was beautiful and though it ran a bit longer than predicted (however, not unexpectedly) we enjoyed savouring the huge limestone cliffs and hills that form Northern Laos. Nong Khiaw was a magical place, nessleted in a large valley with one dominating bridge connecting the community. Our first night there, we (not unhappily) discovered that the power only ran from 6 p.m until 10 p.m and by "ran" I mean came and went as it pleased. Unfortunately, our second day there I succombed to some rather painful food poisoining at the hands of some bad Laap (delicious Lao meat salad, even the bad stuff was delicious so how was I to know!) but within the day I was recovered and happily spending the day away from the toilet once again. Ironically, it was St. Patrick's Day which I spent close to the toilet yet I had not had a drop to drink...luck of the Irish indeed!
After three days in Nong Khiaw, we continued northwards on the Nam Ou by boat to the village of Muang Noi Neua. MNN was an even smaller community without vehicles of anykind (save the bicycle, of course) and limited electrical services as well. Our stay here was much more active than our previous location - one day we rented a small paddle boat and took in a good deal of swimming, and the other day we did a good three hour trek to some stunning caves inland. Jay has undertaken "The Lord of the Rings" reading and I am re-reading my all time favourite book "A Suitable Boy" so much of our time in these places was devoted to reading with the sun on our faces and with beer lao in our bellies.
In sports news, the Best of 7/Best of 7/Best of 7 BRISK tournament came to a thrilling and close end and while I applaud Jay's comeback efforts, I took the final game 7 to ensure my overall wins. Bravo to both parties involved.
After another three days in MNN, it was time to move onwards to Viet Nam. We decided to take a boat rather than a bus to the newly opened border five hours north from MNN but as this is not a populos route, we found ourselves alone on a longtail boat with the driver, his wife and an incredibly large catfish who joined us on a village stopby. (Happily, he survived).
Upon arrival to the town of Muang Khua - our last stop in Laos - we found a seemingly clean guesthouse to spend the night before we were to travel onwards early the next morning. Perhaps some of you have caught on at this point, but if you don't have electricity...you don't have ATMs. And if you don't have American currency, well sir, you are shit. out. of. luck. We had exchanged our American currency and of course no one was interested in anything else, so we had limited funds to get to Viet Nam. We were unsure of any unforeseen costs at the border and did not exactly know how much the whole trip to Viet Nam (boat and bus) was going to cost us. Suffice to say, our dinner was skimpy that night and we didn't even indulge in breafkast the next morning. Budgeting at it's finest!
We met a Thai man that night in town who overheard us stumbling through Lao to figure out how exactly to get to the border crossing. His English was superb, and he told us he too was going with his family (two grandchildren and a collegue) to the border the next day. He was renting a bus for himself, and as there were two extra seats, he offered us them to us. As we spoke with him and his wife, I found myself feeling oddly familiar with them. I then realized they were the bizarro Thai version of my very own grandparents, Mare and Frank!!!!! This delighted Jay and I endlessly during our time with who we came to call our "Thai family".
We travelled with them for three hours to the Viet Nam border. After a delicious noodle soup breakfast with the family - whom initially referred to as Thai Frank (TF), Thai Mare (TM), Thai John (TJ, we assumed he was their son), Thai Rory, aged 13, (TR) and Thai Maeve, aged 8 (TM2). Eventually we learned that TF was "JP" and TM was Renu, and they were both retired Professors in Food Science from the University of Chiang Mai. Their English was so spectacular because they had done their PH.Ds in Redding, England.
As a group, we made the impulse decision to carry on from the border to Ha Noi. All of us originally planned to spend the night in the border town but we were all tight on time and an offer of $10 per person in a spacious private van was too good to pass up. The journey would take ten hours on yet another bumpy, unpaved road. We stopped for dinner along the way and felt so part of the family as we all ate and shared signature Vietnemese dishes. We spoke at great length with JP and Renu though I forgot to mention their likeness to my own grandparents. What seemed like hours of bumpy road, sore bladders and neck pillows later...we arrived bleery eyed into Ha Noi at 5 A.m in the morning, rounding our travel day up to 22 full hours. We crashed at a hotel, barely away of the chaotic city that surrounded us...
And so here we are. Ha Noi is a beautiful city and we are thourougly enjoying our return to metropolitan life. The pho is good, the fresh rolls are good, the baguettes are good...life is great. We spent a good part of the day today taking in shopping and riding around town in a Cyclo (a sort of rickshaw-bicycle deal.) Tomorrow we are going to visit Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum - luckily he isn't visiting Lenin for his annual brush-up in Russia - and we will be continuing to take in the city until next week. We are glad to be staying here but also don't have much of a choice because we are awaiting our Indian visas! Yayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!! Ahem.
Phew. That took a bit out of me. I think we will go get some Pho and relax before taking in a Jazz show tonight in the Old Quarter.
Much love from Viet Nam
Maeve/Jay
the end of laos...
hello hello,
We apoligize for the lack of posts in the past couple weeks, we have been making our way north by boat through laos with vietnam in our sights. Due to travelling via a river, the towns we have been staying in, while goregous, only have power from 6-10pm and with no internet access in sight. A great feeling for us, but little info for you all back home. I can only assume you have all been on the same trek by the lack of commenting we have now seen but i understand that internet access in homes is few and far between these days...just kidding we love you all and have been filled in on the major happenings via emails that we have caught up on. With that being said, we are currently in Hanoi the capital of Vietnam and have been indulging in the city life that we have missed over the last couple weeks.
Our posts left off with us in luang prabang relaxing on the mekong and enjoying the local treats and tasty beer lao. With the news of maeve's dipoloma arriving back home, we decided to celebrate with an adventure that we would not of normally done, but we are more than glad we did. Laos was once known as "The Land of a Million Elephants" but with only 1600 left, 600 of which work in the logging camps, the name is slowy becoming a thing of the past. With the logging industry declining in Laos, there has been an influx in jobless elephants. I know, the thought of a jobless elephant is a strange one, but they explained that because elephants eat so much food in one day that if let loose they would destroy villages and towns which are inhabited by locals who are no longer used to elephants. I dangeours situation for both sides. With that being said there is a camp whose mission is to rehabilitate these elephants, thus giving them a job and a far better life than what the loggin camps were providing. We signed up with one camp for an overnight stay and off we went.
We knew the itinerary would invlove riding on the elephants aswell as playing with them and eventually giving them a bath the next morning. So with much anticipation we took an hour car ride out of the city into the countryside where the camp was located. Upon arrival we were literally whisked away right onto one of the elephants for athe first ride of our trip. There was a Mahout ( a local lao, who is practically one with the elephant) on their neck while we were on the seat on their back. Before we knew it we were trekking through the jungle on an elephant, down hills, over rocks and yes, right into the river. A little uneasy at first but we enjoyed the ride and that that was the end of them to come...we were wrong. After dismounting from our ride we talked to a couple volunteers to get a better feel of the camp and its purpose. Everyone was very freindly and informative and explained what our stay would consist of. The most surprising of all was that we would next ride the elephant without a seat, simply around the neck with the Mahout behind us. The elephants only "work" about 4 hours a day at the camp, light load compared to the 10-12 hours in the logging camps. So they are lead out every afternoon into the jungle to roam and act as a herd until the next morning.
It was the march back into the jungle that we would be bare-necked if you would. Now while it was far more comfortable than riding in the seat, it was far more exhilarating feeling the power of these beasts right between your legs. They really are incredible animals. The trek took about 45 mins at which point we dismounted and made our way to our rooms to freshen up before dinner. Our room was amazing and we have pictures to do it justice, which you will all have to wait to see. All the meals were included, and dinner was a traditional lao dinner, fried seaweed to start with curried vegetables and ginger beef with rice, and of course a couple of delicious beer laos.
After a little time by the bon fire that night we were anxious to get to bed for the morning bath that awaited us. An bath to an elephant is much like a cup of coffee to most people, they just feel sluggish without one we were told. Many times at the logging camps they were denied their baths and given drugs to increse the work load, so getting to be apart of a morning ritual was very exciting. We walked to where they were placed the night before, and hopped up ontop to ride them down into the river. There we were, all 8 elephants marching right into the river for a nice big scrub down. The Mahouts get them into the middle of the river to where there heads are exposed and we start scrubbing. All over from head to tail. We were still planted on the neck so we mainly did the head, while the mahout was standing and climbing all over the place to ensure a good scrub. The command of "map" was then given and the elephants submerged in the water to give a rinse everyso often, taking us down with them. It felt much like a rollercoaster at points, and boy can they get dirty during the nights, our clothes still have mud on them. After the bath they all head out of the river to a quite steep path, not much to hold onto on the head so you just hold those big ears and hope for the best. It truly was one of the most memorable times on this trip thus far, one we both will never forget.
After a shower and some breakfast we said goodbye to our new grey friends and headed "home", with many a picture and movie in hand, again you'll all just have to wait.
After a night in our guesthouse we made plans to get a move on north via boat which is where the above post takes off.
Lots of love
jay/maeve
We apoligize for the lack of posts in the past couple weeks, we have been making our way north by boat through laos with vietnam in our sights. Due to travelling via a river, the towns we have been staying in, while goregous, only have power from 6-10pm and with no internet access in sight. A great feeling for us, but little info for you all back home. I can only assume you have all been on the same trek by the lack of commenting we have now seen but i understand that internet access in homes is few and far between these days...just kidding we love you all and have been filled in on the major happenings via emails that we have caught up on. With that being said, we are currently in Hanoi the capital of Vietnam and have been indulging in the city life that we have missed over the last couple weeks.
Our posts left off with us in luang prabang relaxing on the mekong and enjoying the local treats and tasty beer lao. With the news of maeve's dipoloma arriving back home, we decided to celebrate with an adventure that we would not of normally done, but we are more than glad we did. Laos was once known as "The Land of a Million Elephants" but with only 1600 left, 600 of which work in the logging camps, the name is slowy becoming a thing of the past. With the logging industry declining in Laos, there has been an influx in jobless elephants. I know, the thought of a jobless elephant is a strange one, but they explained that because elephants eat so much food in one day that if let loose they would destroy villages and towns which are inhabited by locals who are no longer used to elephants. I dangeours situation for both sides. With that being said there is a camp whose mission is to rehabilitate these elephants, thus giving them a job and a far better life than what the loggin camps were providing. We signed up with one camp for an overnight stay and off we went.
We knew the itinerary would invlove riding on the elephants aswell as playing with them and eventually giving them a bath the next morning. So with much anticipation we took an hour car ride out of the city into the countryside where the camp was located. Upon arrival we were literally whisked away right onto one of the elephants for athe first ride of our trip. There was a Mahout ( a local lao, who is practically one with the elephant) on their neck while we were on the seat on their back. Before we knew it we were trekking through the jungle on an elephant, down hills, over rocks and yes, right into the river. A little uneasy at first but we enjoyed the ride and that that was the end of them to come...we were wrong. After dismounting from our ride we talked to a couple volunteers to get a better feel of the camp and its purpose. Everyone was very freindly and informative and explained what our stay would consist of. The most surprising of all was that we would next ride the elephant without a seat, simply around the neck with the Mahout behind us. The elephants only "work" about 4 hours a day at the camp, light load compared to the 10-12 hours in the logging camps. So they are lead out every afternoon into the jungle to roam and act as a herd until the next morning.
It was the march back into the jungle that we would be bare-necked if you would. Now while it was far more comfortable than riding in the seat, it was far more exhilarating feeling the power of these beasts right between your legs. They really are incredible animals. The trek took about 45 mins at which point we dismounted and made our way to our rooms to freshen up before dinner. Our room was amazing and we have pictures to do it justice, which you will all have to wait to see. All the meals were included, and dinner was a traditional lao dinner, fried seaweed to start with curried vegetables and ginger beef with rice, and of course a couple of delicious beer laos.
After a little time by the bon fire that night we were anxious to get to bed for the morning bath that awaited us. An bath to an elephant is much like a cup of coffee to most people, they just feel sluggish without one we were told. Many times at the logging camps they were denied their baths and given drugs to increse the work load, so getting to be apart of a morning ritual was very exciting. We walked to where they were placed the night before, and hopped up ontop to ride them down into the river. There we were, all 8 elephants marching right into the river for a nice big scrub down. The Mahouts get them into the middle of the river to where there heads are exposed and we start scrubbing. All over from head to tail. We were still planted on the neck so we mainly did the head, while the mahout was standing and climbing all over the place to ensure a good scrub. The command of "map" was then given and the elephants submerged in the water to give a rinse everyso often, taking us down with them. It felt much like a rollercoaster at points, and boy can they get dirty during the nights, our clothes still have mud on them. After the bath they all head out of the river to a quite steep path, not much to hold onto on the head so you just hold those big ears and hope for the best. It truly was one of the most memorable times on this trip thus far, one we both will never forget.
After a shower and some breakfast we said goodbye to our new grey friends and headed "home", with many a picture and movie in hand, again you'll all just have to wait.
After a night in our guesthouse we made plans to get a move on north via boat which is where the above post takes off.
Lots of love
jay/maeve
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Head over heals for the Mekong River
Sabai-Dee!
So much to update, so little time (that is, I wish to spend so little time in this internet cafe so I can go back out and enjoy Luang Prabang...)
I will make it sweet and short! Jay and I left the comforts of Bangkok to go to Chiang Mai, which is a most beautiful city that we thoroughly enjoy for the two nights we stayed there. We took in many of the temples in the city, the Northern Thai cuisine (mmm fish cakes!), a Muay Thai match - note to self: a reasonably priced muay thai match will consist of prepubescent boys and soccer moms, er i mean muay thai dads - and the beauty of the hills.
We decided to make our way to Mae Sai, the northern most town in Thailand which sits on the Mae Nam Sai river, the dividing border between Thailand and Myanmar (aka Burma). The bus ride from Chiang Mai was about "four hours" - another note to self: hereafter quoted bus times will be altered on the assumption of straight roads, though the roads are never straight, see below - and after a good six hour bus ride we arrived in the small border town.
We found a beautiful guesthouse, which literally sat atop the river and looked over to Myanmar (a short swim away!). The farang (foreigner) to Thai ratio was ideal, that is there were very few farang and plenty of Thais and Jay and I spent three blissful days there...never once eating a bad meal. The owner of our guesthouse was a paternal figurehead and had several siblings, children, distant cousins, etc. running about and for that brief time they acted like our own large and insane families (chatting, feeding us, singing, feeding us, feeding us...). When it was time to leave Mae Sai, a most beautiful town nestled in a mountainous valley with its beautiful river, we were quite saddened. We hope to return there one day.
Onwards and upwards, as they say, and we ventured out to Chiang Rai (not to be confused with Chiang Mai), where we then moved on to Chiang Khrong, the border town for Thailand and Laos (hereafter Lao!). Of course, both bus journeys were approximated at a certain arrival time, and of course, both were off by about an hour...
We spent the night in a guesthouse where the main attraction was the view of the Mighty Meklong River, a most beautiful dominating body of water which runs through much of Southeast Asia. It was love at first sight...
The next day we made our way to the border and crossed into Lao hassle free, to the town of Huay Xai. At our guesthouse there, we met an interesting fellow who was seventeen and seemed to think he was the Lao Eminem. His name was "Loko", and his knowledge of oldskool hiphop was rather impressive and truth be told the kid has some talent when it came to freestylin. We told him to come to Toronto one day and visit us, he seemed pleased at the prospect...
Most people take the slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang but the prospect of two ten hour days shoved on a boat full of whiney farang did not appeal to us, so we opted for the "eight hour" bus ride to Luang Prabang. Twelve hours of gorgeous Lao countryside and lots of vomit bags later (not ours, thanks to Gravol. It seems a good fraction of our Lao bus mates had been drinking rather heartily the night before and the winding roads seemed to be little consolation for their hangover...), we arrived delirious and excited in Luang Prabang.
Here we have enjoyed Beerlao next to stunning scenes of the Mekong river, dabbled in Lao green tea in the french colonial tea rooms, perused the Lao goods in the night market and absorbed the incredibly easy going way of life here...in one of the most beautiful towns on the planet. A sort of mix of the 18th century french countryside but distinctly Asian all the same...
We are hoping all is well at home. It is time to escape the confines of this internet cafe and enjoy another day in this sleepy town of Luang Prabang.
Much love from Lao...
Maeve/Jay
So much to update, so little time (that is, I wish to spend so little time in this internet cafe so I can go back out and enjoy Luang Prabang...)
I will make it sweet and short! Jay and I left the comforts of Bangkok to go to Chiang Mai, which is a most beautiful city that we thoroughly enjoy for the two nights we stayed there. We took in many of the temples in the city, the Northern Thai cuisine (mmm fish cakes!), a Muay Thai match - note to self: a reasonably priced muay thai match will consist of prepubescent boys and soccer moms, er i mean muay thai dads - and the beauty of the hills.
We decided to make our way to Mae Sai, the northern most town in Thailand which sits on the Mae Nam Sai river, the dividing border between Thailand and Myanmar (aka Burma). The bus ride from Chiang Mai was about "four hours" - another note to self: hereafter quoted bus times will be altered on the assumption of straight roads, though the roads are never straight, see below - and after a good six hour bus ride we arrived in the small border town.
We found a beautiful guesthouse, which literally sat atop the river and looked over to Myanmar (a short swim away!). The farang (foreigner) to Thai ratio was ideal, that is there were very few farang and plenty of Thais and Jay and I spent three blissful days there...never once eating a bad meal. The owner of our guesthouse was a paternal figurehead and had several siblings, children, distant cousins, etc. running about and for that brief time they acted like our own large and insane families (chatting, feeding us, singing, feeding us, feeding us...). When it was time to leave Mae Sai, a most beautiful town nestled in a mountainous valley with its beautiful river, we were quite saddened. We hope to return there one day.
Onwards and upwards, as they say, and we ventured out to Chiang Rai (not to be confused with Chiang Mai), where we then moved on to Chiang Khrong, the border town for Thailand and Laos (hereafter Lao!). Of course, both bus journeys were approximated at a certain arrival time, and of course, both were off by about an hour...
We spent the night in a guesthouse where the main attraction was the view of the Mighty Meklong River, a most beautiful dominating body of water which runs through much of Southeast Asia. It was love at first sight...
The next day we made our way to the border and crossed into Lao hassle free, to the town of Huay Xai. At our guesthouse there, we met an interesting fellow who was seventeen and seemed to think he was the Lao Eminem. His name was "Loko", and his knowledge of oldskool hiphop was rather impressive and truth be told the kid has some talent when it came to freestylin. We told him to come to Toronto one day and visit us, he seemed pleased at the prospect...
Most people take the slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang but the prospect of two ten hour days shoved on a boat full of whiney farang did not appeal to us, so we opted for the "eight hour" bus ride to Luang Prabang. Twelve hours of gorgeous Lao countryside and lots of vomit bags later (not ours, thanks to Gravol. It seems a good fraction of our Lao bus mates had been drinking rather heartily the night before and the winding roads seemed to be little consolation for their hangover...), we arrived delirious and excited in Luang Prabang.
Here we have enjoyed Beerlao next to stunning scenes of the Mekong river, dabbled in Lao green tea in the french colonial tea rooms, perused the Lao goods in the night market and absorbed the incredibly easy going way of life here...in one of the most beautiful towns on the planet. A sort of mix of the 18th century french countryside but distinctly Asian all the same...
We are hoping all is well at home. It is time to escape the confines of this internet cafe and enjoy another day in this sleepy town of Luang Prabang.
Much love from Lao...
Maeve/Jay
Monday, March 2, 2009
back to reality (well, sort of reality) in chiang mai
Hi everyone!
Just a quick update on what we've been upto since our guests left us two mornings ago. Had a wonderful time with Ammaji (Donna) and Ugg (Karl - inside joke for him there) and were sad to see them go.
Jay and I experienced our last little bits of Bangkok on Sunday - visiting the wonderful JJ weekend market (the largest open air market in the world!). Yesterday, we visited my old teaching town of Samutsongkhram, where we were warmly met by teachers and students alike...though they knocked down my old house to build condos, which was quite strange...
Last night, we were whisked off by Doug and Thom to Zense, the newest hotspot in Bangkok with a stunning panoramic view of the city. It was the perfect two days to end off our time in Bangkok, such a wonderful and vibrant city! Time to leave behind three weeks of beautiful accomodations, expensive dinners (neither of which we ever were able to pay for!) and excellent company. Back to slumdogging it, but we are anxious to get back into our own routine and see as much as possible in the next three months!
Today, we are flying to Chiang Mai (in Nothern Thailand) to enjoy a few days in the hills and jungle until we go overland into Laos. Looking forward to Laos a great deal, we have heard wonderful things about it and of course, no country has disapointed thus far.
Hope everything is well at home - I heard it is warming up? Good to know hehe.
More to come.
Lots of love,
Maeve/Jay
Just a quick update on what we've been upto since our guests left us two mornings ago. Had a wonderful time with Ammaji (Donna) and Ugg (Karl - inside joke for him there) and were sad to see them go.
Jay and I experienced our last little bits of Bangkok on Sunday - visiting the wonderful JJ weekend market (the largest open air market in the world!). Yesterday, we visited my old teaching town of Samutsongkhram, where we were warmly met by teachers and students alike...though they knocked down my old house to build condos, which was quite strange...
Last night, we were whisked off by Doug and Thom to Zense, the newest hotspot in Bangkok with a stunning panoramic view of the city. It was the perfect two days to end off our time in Bangkok, such a wonderful and vibrant city! Time to leave behind three weeks of beautiful accomodations, expensive dinners (neither of which we ever were able to pay for!) and excellent company. Back to slumdogging it, but we are anxious to get back into our own routine and see as much as possible in the next three months!
Today, we are flying to Chiang Mai (in Nothern Thailand) to enjoy a few days in the hills and jungle until we go overland into Laos. Looking forward to Laos a great deal, we have heard wonderful things about it and of course, no country has disapointed thus far.
Hope everything is well at home - I heard it is warming up? Good to know hehe.
More to come.
Lots of love,
Maeve/Jay
Monday, February 23, 2009
phuket livin' is easy
well well,
It seems it has been a long while since our last update on the blog, and that has been due to the lavish life we have all grown accustomed to. Thanks to mj and emilios, we, maeve, karl, donna, and myself, have all had the pleasure of staying beachside in their glorious condo on karon beach, phuket. It is becuase of this lifestyle that we have, terrible as it sounds, just been eating, napping, reading, napping, swimming, napping, and otherwise just enjoying the warm weather and great company around us.
With that being said there hasn't been much exciting news to report, a couple bouts of illness, either due to some bad food or a little too much sun, but sickness was expected on this trip and it is far better to have it happen in an air conditioned condo than a guesthouse with a shared bath. All and all everyone has survived and is continuing to enjoy their time here. It has been a nice holiday in our trip having both Karl and Donna here to enjoy it with us. We will be taking a few days trips this week to some surrounding islands and a giant buddha up in the hills. So there will be more to report in the coming days and of course when our visitors return to the tundra you can all grill them as to all the stories they have heard thus far that may or may not of made its way to the blog. We will put up a few pictures if we can, or try to rather so they may already be above this post, in which case ignore, or if not give a look on the flickr account we have created as there may be a couple there.
Again pictures are being sent home with our guests, so make sure you hunt them down to get a sneak peak minus the commentary...
I'll throw a shout out to slumdog millionare cleaning up with 8 awards for maeve's sake, as we have picked up a copy and have already watched it twice here...its just that good
love you all
jay/maeve
It seems it has been a long while since our last update on the blog, and that has been due to the lavish life we have all grown accustomed to. Thanks to mj and emilios, we, maeve, karl, donna, and myself, have all had the pleasure of staying beachside in their glorious condo on karon beach, phuket. It is becuase of this lifestyle that we have, terrible as it sounds, just been eating, napping, reading, napping, swimming, napping, and otherwise just enjoying the warm weather and great company around us.
With that being said there hasn't been much exciting news to report, a couple bouts of illness, either due to some bad food or a little too much sun, but sickness was expected on this trip and it is far better to have it happen in an air conditioned condo than a guesthouse with a shared bath. All and all everyone has survived and is continuing to enjoy their time here. It has been a nice holiday in our trip having both Karl and Donna here to enjoy it with us. We will be taking a few days trips this week to some surrounding islands and a giant buddha up in the hills. So there will be more to report in the coming days and of course when our visitors return to the tundra you can all grill them as to all the stories they have heard thus far that may or may not of made its way to the blog. We will put up a few pictures if we can, or try to rather so they may already be above this post, in which case ignore, or if not give a look on the flickr account we have created as there may be a couple there.
Again pictures are being sent home with our guests, so make sure you hunt them down to get a sneak peak minus the commentary...
I'll throw a shout out to slumdog millionare cleaning up with 8 awards for maeve's sake, as we have picked up a copy and have already watched it twice here...its just that good
love you all
jay/maeve
Sunday, February 15, 2009
koh ru, bangkok and guests who keep us from blogging (through no fault of their own)
Hello!
Apologies for the lack of blogging lately, I looked back to see where we were when we last posted and it was Phnom Penh. Oops! Much has happened since then, so for convinience sake, I will go chronologically...
After exploring the central market in PP (thus far takes the cake for the craziest and most hectic market we've seen), we discovered that transportation to Kampot and Kep from Phnom Penh was more of a myth, and that the two towns were more easily reached via Cambodia's beach destination, Sihanoukville. While the prospect of visiting a crowded beach full of foreigners wasn't the most exciting prospect, we reckoned we would stay the night there and venture onwards to Kampot/Kep the next day, slowly making the loop back up to Phnom Penh for our flight out to Bangkok. Upon arrival in Sihanoukville, we settled nicely into a small bungalow about 5 minutes away from the beach and decided to explore the area a bit moving on...As we arrived late in the evening on the first night, we decided to stay a second night to have a full day in the area before moving onwards the day after.
The second night we were in Sihanoukville, we found a small cinema which had private viewing rooms (with a huge selection of films) or a larger viewing area, complete with private futon style balconies and huge recliners to enjoy the film. Admission was $3, and Slumdog Millionaire was playing. For those of you who have seen the brilliance of this film, you can understand our enjoyment and enhanced anticipation of arrival in India. For those of you who have not seen it - close this blog now, get off your butt and see it. Then return and finish reading.
In our exploration, we found that there was a small island, a 10 minute boat ride from Sihanoukville, named Bamboo Island. The small mainland booking office boasted beach side bungalows and a relaxed atmosphere. Naturally, we were drawn to the prospect and decided to forgo the journey to Kampot but simultaneously escape the hoards of tourists in Sihanoukville by visiting Bamboo Island, and Koh Ru (home to one sleeping dorm and ten beach side bungalows, plus one restaurant). We eagerly clutched our boat tickets, anticipating two and a half days of heavenly crystal clear water, white sand and all the good stuff which comes with South East Asian islands.
The boat ride turned out to be a boat tour, though we did not pay the extra $15 to have lunch. Expecting a ferry ride straight to the island, we were a bit put off when the boat pulled over for snorkelling. Fortunately for me, I was wearing my swimsuit and rather than sit in the boat while everyone happily splashed before my eyes, I jumped into the water asap. Jay stayed in the boat, having unfortunately chosen not to wear his bathing suit that morning and was obviously unable to change at that point. Finally, the boat dropped off the "ferry fare" group on the island while the rest of the group set out for a picnic lunch, which I suspect consisted of questionable sandwiches and white rice. Jumping off the boat, Jay and I looked around at the bungalows and beach in front of us. Uhh...this certainly was not Koh Ru, or at least was not the Koh Ru advertised on the mainland. (Sidenote: for those of you familiar with the hijinx of the Berentstein Bears, I felt the same way sister and brother bear did when the cottage they had fantasized about turned out to be nothing more than a dingy shack in the middle of a less than appealing environment.)
Tentatively, we approached the reception to ask if this could possibly be Koh Ru. "No." answered the receptionist gruffly, "other side of island. Ten minute walk." Hope remained. After walking through the lush and cool jungle, we arrived on an untouched, gorgeous stretch of beach which seemed miles away from Sihanoukville and the other side of the island. Phew. We checked in and spent two and a half days swimming, reading, building sand castles, eating Khmer curry and napping in hammocks. Suffice to say, the days passed quickly (funny how that happens when you really aren't doing much) and we found ourselves back on the dingy side of the island to catch the boat back to Sihanoukville.
Our emotions were mixed. Mostly, we were sad to leave Cambodia because we both had immensely enjoyed our experience there - the good, the bad and the ugly. Leaving Koh Ru was tough too, because we had not yet enjoyed such a relaxed and untouched beach bungalow (though we are working on that). Despite all these feelings of sadness, we were beyond excited to get back to Thailand because brother Karl, auntie M.J, uncle Emilios and Mama D were all on their way to Bangkok. Jay and I hopped on a bus to the airport, and before we knew it, we were on a plane touching down in Bangkok.
Our love to Cambodia - a wonderful, incredible land which we hope to see emerge from the stunted years of darkness into prosperous light that fills every corner of the country.
Happily, our flight happened to coincide with auntie's, and we arrived in Bangkok at the airport but 30 minutes before she did. We all had a joyous reunion - Emilios was already at the airport, much to our surprise - and said we would probably see one another next in Phuket, as Jay and I headed down to Khao San road and Auntie and Uncle went to Bang Phli to see Uncle Doug and Uncle Thom. (I have been reading an excessive amount of Indian literature. Please forive the overuse of formal titles.)
Karl arrived safely the next morning, and has been enjoying the freedom from winter, work and reality in general since he has arrived. We visited Wat Pho, which houses the huge reclining Buddha, we visited Siam Square and the malls therein, and yesterday we feasted in Little Arabia. Today we will be flying out of Bangkok and into Phuket. Tomorrow, Mama arrives
in Bangkok and the day after that we will be reunited on the beaches of Phuket!!!!!!!
All things considered, may be a while until we post again. But don't worry, you aren't missing much. Can't get much out of a post which consists entirely of beach life...
"Today we swam. Then we read. Then we played frisbee. Then we ate lunch..."
Much love to everyone from Bangkok and the beaches of Thailand,
Maeve, Jay and Karl
Apologies for the lack of blogging lately, I looked back to see where we were when we last posted and it was Phnom Penh. Oops! Much has happened since then, so for convinience sake, I will go chronologically...
After exploring the central market in PP (thus far takes the cake for the craziest and most hectic market we've seen), we discovered that transportation to Kampot and Kep from Phnom Penh was more of a myth, and that the two towns were more easily reached via Cambodia's beach destination, Sihanoukville. While the prospect of visiting a crowded beach full of foreigners wasn't the most exciting prospect, we reckoned we would stay the night there and venture onwards to Kampot/Kep the next day, slowly making the loop back up to Phnom Penh for our flight out to Bangkok. Upon arrival in Sihanoukville, we settled nicely into a small bungalow about 5 minutes away from the beach and decided to explore the area a bit moving on...As we arrived late in the evening on the first night, we decided to stay a second night to have a full day in the area before moving onwards the day after.
The second night we were in Sihanoukville, we found a small cinema which had private viewing rooms (with a huge selection of films) or a larger viewing area, complete with private futon style balconies and huge recliners to enjoy the film. Admission was $3, and Slumdog Millionaire was playing. For those of you who have seen the brilliance of this film, you can understand our enjoyment and enhanced anticipation of arrival in India. For those of you who have not seen it - close this blog now, get off your butt and see it. Then return and finish reading.
In our exploration, we found that there was a small island, a 10 minute boat ride from Sihanoukville, named Bamboo Island. The small mainland booking office boasted beach side bungalows and a relaxed atmosphere. Naturally, we were drawn to the prospect and decided to forgo the journey to Kampot but simultaneously escape the hoards of tourists in Sihanoukville by visiting Bamboo Island, and Koh Ru (home to one sleeping dorm and ten beach side bungalows, plus one restaurant). We eagerly clutched our boat tickets, anticipating two and a half days of heavenly crystal clear water, white sand and all the good stuff which comes with South East Asian islands.
The boat ride turned out to be a boat tour, though we did not pay the extra $15 to have lunch. Expecting a ferry ride straight to the island, we were a bit put off when the boat pulled over for snorkelling. Fortunately for me, I was wearing my swimsuit and rather than sit in the boat while everyone happily splashed before my eyes, I jumped into the water asap. Jay stayed in the boat, having unfortunately chosen not to wear his bathing suit that morning and was obviously unable to change at that point. Finally, the boat dropped off the "ferry fare" group on the island while the rest of the group set out for a picnic lunch, which I suspect consisted of questionable sandwiches and white rice. Jumping off the boat, Jay and I looked around at the bungalows and beach in front of us. Uhh...this certainly was not Koh Ru, or at least was not the Koh Ru advertised on the mainland. (Sidenote: for those of you familiar with the hijinx of the Berentstein Bears, I felt the same way sister and brother bear did when the cottage they had fantasized about turned out to be nothing more than a dingy shack in the middle of a less than appealing environment.)
Tentatively, we approached the reception to ask if this could possibly be Koh Ru. "No." answered the receptionist gruffly, "other side of island. Ten minute walk." Hope remained. After walking through the lush and cool jungle, we arrived on an untouched, gorgeous stretch of beach which seemed miles away from Sihanoukville and the other side of the island. Phew. We checked in and spent two and a half days swimming, reading, building sand castles, eating Khmer curry and napping in hammocks. Suffice to say, the days passed quickly (funny how that happens when you really aren't doing much) and we found ourselves back on the dingy side of the island to catch the boat back to Sihanoukville.
Our emotions were mixed. Mostly, we were sad to leave Cambodia because we both had immensely enjoyed our experience there - the good, the bad and the ugly. Leaving Koh Ru was tough too, because we had not yet enjoyed such a relaxed and untouched beach bungalow (though we are working on that). Despite all these feelings of sadness, we were beyond excited to get back to Thailand because brother Karl, auntie M.J, uncle Emilios and Mama D were all on their way to Bangkok. Jay and I hopped on a bus to the airport, and before we knew it, we were on a plane touching down in Bangkok.
Our love to Cambodia - a wonderful, incredible land which we hope to see emerge from the stunted years of darkness into prosperous light that fills every corner of the country.
Happily, our flight happened to coincide with auntie's, and we arrived in Bangkok at the airport but 30 minutes before she did. We all had a joyous reunion - Emilios was already at the airport, much to our surprise - and said we would probably see one another next in Phuket, as Jay and I headed down to Khao San road and Auntie and Uncle went to Bang Phli to see Uncle Doug and Uncle Thom. (I have been reading an excessive amount of Indian literature. Please forive the overuse of formal titles.)
Karl arrived safely the next morning, and has been enjoying the freedom from winter, work and reality in general since he has arrived. We visited Wat Pho, which houses the huge reclining Buddha, we visited Siam Square and the malls therein, and yesterday we feasted in Little Arabia. Today we will be flying out of Bangkok and into Phuket. Tomorrow, Mama arrives
in Bangkok and the day after that we will be reunited on the beaches of Phuket!!!!!!!
All things considered, may be a while until we post again. But don't worry, you aren't missing much. Can't get much out of a post which consists entirely of beach life...
"Today we swam. Then we read. Then we played frisbee. Then we ate lunch..."
Much love to everyone from Bangkok and the beaches of Thailand,
Maeve, Jay and Karl
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Phnom Penh
Hi everyone!
We are currently in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We arrived here on Wednesday and have a lot to do, so we haven't had the chance to post about our experience here thus far.
Firstly, Phnom Pehn is a beautiful city where stark contrasts abound. Having the heaviest French influence in all of Cambodia, Phnom Penh is characterized by the large boulevards along the river and architecture which is more reminiscent of Nice than anywhere else. Conversely, the city was also the center for activity, torture and authority under the Khmer Rouge. On April 17th 1975, the Khmer Rouge told residents of Phnom Penh that Americans were likely to bomb the city again, and that they were hence enforcing an evacuation plan which, they said, would last only three days. Of course, many people did not return to their homes in Phnom Penh, three days later or ever and the city was virtually a ghost town for the first forty-eight days before Khmer Soldiers began to settle in.
As we rode in our tuktuk to our guesthouse, we had to wonder how a city like this - so bustling and crowded - could possibly be evacuated and kept empty for such a long period of time. But I digress...(this isn't a history lesson blog after all)
We tried a few guesthouses upon arrival in the city but most were booked - saving the most expensive rooms, of course! - and since we are attempting to maintain a low daily budget, we trudged around the steaming hot city with our packs on until we found a lovely little guesthouse with a prime location for only $6 a night...aah sweet victory. The first order of business in Phnom Penh was to have our Vietnamese visas sorted out and so we decided to head to a travel agency around the corner instead of trekking out to the embassy, which was a good 20 minute tuktuk drive away. The travel agency said they would gladly take care of our visas, and that they would be ready the next day! Hurray! Only $35 and the convenience ensured we left with big smiles on our faces.
Until I realized neither of us told the woman exactly WHEN we needed the visa for, and considering we aren't planning on going to Vietnam until mid-late March, I grew concerned...
In the mean time, we decided to visit Tuol Sleng a.k.a S-21 (Security Prison 21). The building, originally a high school, was converted into the biggest center for torture and murder under the Khmer Rouge. It is estimated that some 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng and considering only 7 people ever survived, it is obvious what kind of brutality took place behind these walls.
There are four main buildings - A, B, C and D. Building A was used to keep "political prisoners" - using that term loosely, as anyone could have been considered a political prisoner who had had any political inclination opposing that of the Khmer Rouge's - and most of the rooms in this building simply posses a large, rusty bed with a black and white photo over of a corpse found when Phnom Penh was liberated in 1979. The other buildings were used to house the hundreds and thousands of people who were captured by the Khmer Rouge and each floor had hundreds of little cells, many still splattered with blood. On the base floors of the buildings are thousands of pictures of prisoners, hands tied behind their backs looking both stunned and petrified to be kept in such a horrific place. Many of them were children, and the aforementioned number of captives did not include the children who were taken with their parents, as many as 20,000 children may have been killed on top of those 20,000 adults held at the prison. One photo is particularly stunning because a young woman looks blankly into the camera...in her arms she holds a newborn baby, no more than two months old. One can only assume the fate of mother and child.
Most disheartening of all is knowing that these people were innocent Khmers, who perhaps were "too educated" and as a result an entire family would be killed. Anyone educated past grade 3 was liable to be arrested for being an intellectual.
The experience was altogether very moving and saddening. Truthfully, I have been having some terrifying dreams as a result of our trip to Tuol Sleng but waking and knowing that I have the comfort of realizing it was only a dream makes me that much sadder that thousands of people lived the nightmare.
Otherwise, we took a trip to the National Museum yesterday, which showcases the beautiful and incredible art and sculpture from before, during and after the Angkorian period - ancient pieces which shed a positive light on the dark history of Cambodia.
We then went to pick up our passports and, lo and behold, the Vietnamese visa was set to expire on February 22nd. Ohhhhhh great. We explained our situation to the woman, who was confused and annoyed why we didn't tell her initially (yeah, I feel you honey - it is my money that you are taking!) SO she told us she could "refund" $10 of the original price if we were going to change the date, otherwise there was no refund. We changed the date to appropriate our travels, coughing over an extra $50 in the process. Ah ha ha. Lesson Learned there!
Today we are set to explore the markets of Phnom Penh, and find out about getting to Kampot and Kep - two small towns we are going to explore before we head back to Phnom Penh and fly out to Bangkok.
Can't believe we've been here in Cambodia almost three weeks (at least, we will have when we leave). Time is moving too quickly!
Much love from Phnom Penh,
Maeve/Jay
We are currently in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We arrived here on Wednesday and have a lot to do, so we haven't had the chance to post about our experience here thus far.
Firstly, Phnom Pehn is a beautiful city where stark contrasts abound. Having the heaviest French influence in all of Cambodia, Phnom Penh is characterized by the large boulevards along the river and architecture which is more reminiscent of Nice than anywhere else. Conversely, the city was also the center for activity, torture and authority under the Khmer Rouge. On April 17th 1975, the Khmer Rouge told residents of Phnom Penh that Americans were likely to bomb the city again, and that they were hence enforcing an evacuation plan which, they said, would last only three days. Of course, many people did not return to their homes in Phnom Penh, three days later or ever and the city was virtually a ghost town for the first forty-eight days before Khmer Soldiers began to settle in.
As we rode in our tuktuk to our guesthouse, we had to wonder how a city like this - so bustling and crowded - could possibly be evacuated and kept empty for such a long period of time. But I digress...(this isn't a history lesson blog after all)
We tried a few guesthouses upon arrival in the city but most were booked - saving the most expensive rooms, of course! - and since we are attempting to maintain a low daily budget, we trudged around the steaming hot city with our packs on until we found a lovely little guesthouse with a prime location for only $6 a night...aah sweet victory. The first order of business in Phnom Penh was to have our Vietnamese visas sorted out and so we decided to head to a travel agency around the corner instead of trekking out to the embassy, which was a good 20 minute tuktuk drive away. The travel agency said they would gladly take care of our visas, and that they would be ready the next day! Hurray! Only $35 and the convenience ensured we left with big smiles on our faces.
Until I realized neither of us told the woman exactly WHEN we needed the visa for, and considering we aren't planning on going to Vietnam until mid-late March, I grew concerned...
In the mean time, we decided to visit Tuol Sleng a.k.a S-21 (Security Prison 21). The building, originally a high school, was converted into the biggest center for torture and murder under the Khmer Rouge. It is estimated that some 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng and considering only 7 people ever survived, it is obvious what kind of brutality took place behind these walls.
There are four main buildings - A, B, C and D. Building A was used to keep "political prisoners" - using that term loosely, as anyone could have been considered a political prisoner who had had any political inclination opposing that of the Khmer Rouge's - and most of the rooms in this building simply posses a large, rusty bed with a black and white photo over of a corpse found when Phnom Penh was liberated in 1979. The other buildings were used to house the hundreds and thousands of people who were captured by the Khmer Rouge and each floor had hundreds of little cells, many still splattered with blood. On the base floors of the buildings are thousands of pictures of prisoners, hands tied behind their backs looking both stunned and petrified to be kept in such a horrific place. Many of them were children, and the aforementioned number of captives did not include the children who were taken with their parents, as many as 20,000 children may have been killed on top of those 20,000 adults held at the prison. One photo is particularly stunning because a young woman looks blankly into the camera...in her arms she holds a newborn baby, no more than two months old. One can only assume the fate of mother and child.
Most disheartening of all is knowing that these people were innocent Khmers, who perhaps were "too educated" and as a result an entire family would be killed. Anyone educated past grade 3 was liable to be arrested for being an intellectual.
The experience was altogether very moving and saddening. Truthfully, I have been having some terrifying dreams as a result of our trip to Tuol Sleng but waking and knowing that I have the comfort of realizing it was only a dream makes me that much sadder that thousands of people lived the nightmare.
Otherwise, we took a trip to the National Museum yesterday, which showcases the beautiful and incredible art and sculpture from before, during and after the Angkorian period - ancient pieces which shed a positive light on the dark history of Cambodia.
We then went to pick up our passports and, lo and behold, the Vietnamese visa was set to expire on February 22nd. Ohhhhhh great. We explained our situation to the woman, who was confused and annoyed why we didn't tell her initially (yeah, I feel you honey - it is my money that you are taking!) SO she told us she could "refund" $10 of the original price if we were going to change the date, otherwise there was no refund. We changed the date to appropriate our travels, coughing over an extra $50 in the process. Ah ha ha. Lesson Learned there!
Today we are set to explore the markets of Phnom Penh, and find out about getting to Kampot and Kep - two small towns we are going to explore before we head back to Phnom Penh and fly out to Bangkok.
Can't believe we've been here in Cambodia almost three weeks (at least, we will have when we leave). Time is moving too quickly!
Much love from Phnom Penh,
Maeve/Jay
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Temples of Angkor
Angkor Temples - check!
hello hello,
That is just us checking off a giant sight that we had to see on this trip, and giant it was. The temples of angkor stretch for miles and miles over several different sites. Once inside one of the sites you had several different temples, some at different levels of decay to examine, yet all left us in awe. The incredible detail, which still survives today, is a mere fraction of the beauty that these temples most of held in their prime. They are a testament to the level of devotion their creators had for "the gods".
Now with that being said, the impact that this visit had on us both will likely only be properly conveyed in person, so this blog will not do. But fear not, as we took roughly 600 pictures between the two of us and we are creating a "flickr"account to get them up, along with some others that we haven't posted...I know I know we need to get pics up, and we both unfourtunatly didn't pack our camera cables so we have been surviving on finding internet cafe's with adapters for our cards. Luckily we have one here and they are being put up as i type this, so enjoy.
We will be staying in siem reap for another couple of days to soak up the sun and let the wonders we have just seen, sink in.
.
.
.
.
I paused in this post in the hopes that we would get our pictures up on flickr, but do the the "high speed"interent here we are struggling...but there are at least 3 up on flickr right now...our user name is : jay_dejager and we will alert you when we update that account...
anyway, we love/miss you all
jay/maeve
hello hello,
That is just us checking off a giant sight that we had to see on this trip, and giant it was. The temples of angkor stretch for miles and miles over several different sites. Once inside one of the sites you had several different temples, some at different levels of decay to examine, yet all left us in awe. The incredible detail, which still survives today, is a mere fraction of the beauty that these temples most of held in their prime. They are a testament to the level of devotion their creators had for "the gods".
Now with that being said, the impact that this visit had on us both will likely only be properly conveyed in person, so this blog will not do. But fear not, as we took roughly 600 pictures between the two of us and we are creating a "flickr"account to get them up, along with some others that we haven't posted...I know I know we need to get pics up, and we both unfourtunatly didn't pack our camera cables so we have been surviving on finding internet cafe's with adapters for our cards. Luckily we have one here and they are being put up as i type this, so enjoy.
We will be staying in siem reap for another couple of days to soak up the sun and let the wonders we have just seen, sink in.
.
.
.
.
I paused in this post in the hopes that we would get our pictures up on flickr, but do the the "high speed"interent here we are struggling...but there are at least 3 up on flickr right now...our user name is : jay_dejager and we will alert you when we update that account...
anyway, we love/miss you all
jay/maeve
Monday, January 26, 2009
...bamboo train, 394 steps and dark cave with a dark history...
hello, hello
well, after our first night in battambang we dove head first into a day of excursions. After consulting our guide book and a group of friendly irish folk, we put together our own tour with 3 stops on our agenda. Luckily our hotel has the most english speaking tuk tuk drivers in the city and we negotiated a driver to take myself, maeve, cathal and lindsay for the day, for a mere $15US. Quite a good deal considering the tour would last from 11am to roughly 6pm...a long day for a small tuk-tuk to take and not break down...more on that later.
Anyway, after grabbing a couple fresh bagettes, some water and fruit we set out on our adventure with no expectations in mind. The first stop on our tour was the "bamboo train". The railways in cambodia are quite old and for the most part are not used except for the purpose of taking tourists on a ride through the rural country side. Now let me first lay out what this "bamboo train"really is. My advice to everyone is that when you expect something an asia, even if you except nothing, you should excpect even less, in this case there couldn't be much less. There are two axils, neither attached to each other and a board made with thin bamboo, roughly 6 feet by 10 feet placed ontop of the axils with grooves to hold it "firmly" inplace. The heart of this train is a motorcyle engine loosly attached to the bamboo plank with what apearred to a be a thin washer belt to drive the back axil. Despite the 4 pillows they gave us to sit on, it was quite the bumpy ride. After a short haggle of the price, $3 each, we hopped on and with a roar-er-putter of the engine, we were off. Now having said to not expect much, i can safely say that we got so much more than we imagined. The beauty of rural cambodia could only be seen while riding an old bamboo train, with the scents and butterflies blowing by your face.
The ride went on for roughly 15 mins untill, up ahead, on this single track we see another bamboo train coming right at us. As we slowed down it became quite clear why the train was as simple as it was, because after we got off ours, our 2 conductors simply picked up the train, placed it on the ground and removed the two axils and we were no longer in peril, until a little futher on...a somewhat bigger train presented itself in front of us...one that was not made of bamboo but was transporting it, by the tonnes. So as we jumped off and to the side we were warned this time to stay far back as the doors tend to swing open of this 20 car train roared by. It looked like the tracks were used by locals after-all.
Once we continued on our train we came to the end of the line where their were some shops waiting for us, but it was a couple of kids which lured us down to come see what their mom was doing...knowing we were safe and being told of this before we followed and came across 3 brick kiln's which we roughly got the idea that this is how they make the bricks for the town...they take the mud of the land, mix it with ash of the grains that they burn and allow it to dry. Then they build a giant chimmney with the dry bricks and burn the grains in the bottom to create an even stronger brick...and the process is then repeated. Quite interesting, quite simply, yet very effective as they had thousands of bricks waiting to be shipped. After handing our several canadian flag pins to the kids, one too few which resulted in tears of course, we were back down the track and to our waiting tuk-tuk driver who was having a nap while we were away.
Back on the bumpy, bumpy road and with an hour of driving ahead of us, we all delved back into the beauty that is the cambodia country side, a simple life that seems to be apart from the rest of the universe. Every little house or shack or four walls we passed we were greeted with big smiles, waving hands of children and "hello's!" as it is all the english most cambodia's in those parts know. Whatever it was, we all started to realize that the tuk-tuk ride alone was worth the $15.
Our next stop was a temple located at the top of a mound, quite high jutting out of the flat grounds which surround it. Hailed as the inspiration for the angkor temples, likely only by the locals because as incredible as it was, it seems to pail in comparision to what lays before us, regardless, it was 394 steps to the top and off we went...As we began our ascent, 3 locals kids with fans ran behind us and followed us up, all the while flapping their fans at our calfs to cool us off. roughly 3/4's of the way up we stopped on a flat area and sat, to which the kids sprung over and began to massage our legs, shoulders and backs...we knew what they were after but were just grateful that they were working for it, and it felt damn good. After our massage, we made the last push and reached the summit to find 5 giant pillars each with carvings adourning their sides and areas inside for prayer or mediation. All 5 were in quite rough shape and their aging was quite evident, but the view of the countryside was incredible and the peace found at the top was worth the climb. After taking some pictures, which one of the boys took me to all the best photo spots, again just working for what he wanted...he knew he would get it. After taking some time to take in our surroundings and feeling the clarity which overwhelms you when you feel so small in the grand scheme of things, we descended the 394 steps, fanning continued of course, untill we reached the bottom. Gave each child a $1, thanked them and headed for some water. One of the little girls caught eye of another group about to climb and she fanned away yet again, gotta make a buck.
Once ready to go we found our tuk-tuk driver again, this time he hd found a hammock to relax in before he jumped to his feet for us. "Another hour", he tells us and we all settle back into our home for the day, ready for the bumps, the dust and the simling faces (not just ours, but of the people we pass).
Our final stop of the day is a cave, used during the khmer regime as a killing hole. Not as cheery as the previous stops, but a part of our trip and the histroy of cambodia that cannot be ignored, nor should it. The simling faces of the kids seem so much brighter knowing that merely 30 years prior there was no future for the country let alone and idea that they may have even been born, yet it is here that we found the most edearing child of all we have encountered, and he was our 12 year old tour guide.
As we arrived and got out of our tuk-tuk, there wasn't the same mobbing that has occured prior of people trying to sell us anything, just one child offering to guide us up the mountain to the cave. Unsure at first, he conviced us that we may get lost, and really he was just too nice to send away so he lead us. He is 12 years old, studying english an hour a night at an english school and working to pay for not only his english but his family. With that being said, his english was incredible for someone of his age in cambodia and likely the best of anyone we had encounter yet. As we strated the trek, we picked his brain about cambodia, from its weather to life here and he gladly opened up telling us things we didn't ask but were quite interesting. He knew his history as far as guiding us to our destinations, and of the khmer era, but it seemed that he could not fully grasp the scale of destruction that took place before him, simply because of his age. Yet he lead us up to a prison turned temple, describing how there were educated people held prisoner in small quarters essentially waiting for their execution. Roughly 5 - 10 a day were taken from the prison and walked up the mountian to a giant whiole in the ground, they were then brutally murdered usually with a machette, with their bodies left to fall into the cave. As we began to walk down into the cave, a painting depicted the killings and gave us a grave understanding as to what took place.
As we entered the cave our tour guide slide down the railing, saying this was the easy way, this act alone really drove home how he may know his histroy but is likely disconnected from the actually acts which took place here. The finally rested place of those murdered here was falling into this cave, and he merely slid down as if it was his basement, but as we said he is 12. Regardless, as we descended it became extremly clear how savage a history this country has seen. The remains of nearly 2000 people are still there encased in a glass and gold container with writings of events which transpired in this place. The bodies would gather on the ground in the cave until moved and disposed of by the khmer soldiers. Roughly 2-3 million people were killed under their regime, the boy''s grandmother being one of them as he later told us.
We spent quite a while in silence in the cave trying to understand how this could of been done over and over every day, untill we had our share and made the climb back up and out.Along the trail back to our tuk-tuk we talked more to the boy about his schooling, and what it cost for english school for him. He told us it was 400baht a month, roughly $13...not much but when the average monthly wage in camabodia is $25US, it becomes quite clear why they cannot speak the language.
As we reached the bottom we gave our thanks to the boy and each gave him 100baht, in hindsight we wish we had gotten his contact info in hopes of sending him money untill he finished school, likely he doesn't have a postal address as most do not in cambodia, but we both feel that we want to do more when we get back home, and not to loose the feeling we have now.
Anyway, as we got back onto the tuk-tuk for the last time, we were all dead silent the ride home...that was untill, we hear a crack and see our driver pull us into a driveway. Very confused we get out and see that the frame of our tuk-tuk has snapped and we are at the local welder...basically the only person around with a welding kit. The man jumps into action wearing onyl a thin sheet around his waist and begins to weld the frame shirtless...he did have glasses on so ill give him that, it wasnt until and elder man with a shirt came out, that he took over the weld job and we sat, mouths covered in the dusty cloud of the road.
After roughly 15 mins, we were back on the road and quickly at our guesthouse...we thanked the driver for a great day and all retreated to our rooms to take a much needed shower and clean the dust and irt which was now in every crack imaginable. By far one of the most memorable day in Cambodia thus far.
lots of love
jay/maeve
well, after our first night in battambang we dove head first into a day of excursions. After consulting our guide book and a group of friendly irish folk, we put together our own tour with 3 stops on our agenda. Luckily our hotel has the most english speaking tuk tuk drivers in the city and we negotiated a driver to take myself, maeve, cathal and lindsay for the day, for a mere $15US. Quite a good deal considering the tour would last from 11am to roughly 6pm...a long day for a small tuk-tuk to take and not break down...more on that later.
Anyway, after grabbing a couple fresh bagettes, some water and fruit we set out on our adventure with no expectations in mind. The first stop on our tour was the "bamboo train". The railways in cambodia are quite old and for the most part are not used except for the purpose of taking tourists on a ride through the rural country side. Now let me first lay out what this "bamboo train"really is. My advice to everyone is that when you expect something an asia, even if you except nothing, you should excpect even less, in this case there couldn't be much less. There are two axils, neither attached to each other and a board made with thin bamboo, roughly 6 feet by 10 feet placed ontop of the axils with grooves to hold it "firmly" inplace. The heart of this train is a motorcyle engine loosly attached to the bamboo plank with what apearred to a be a thin washer belt to drive the back axil. Despite the 4 pillows they gave us to sit on, it was quite the bumpy ride. After a short haggle of the price, $3 each, we hopped on and with a roar-er-putter of the engine, we were off. Now having said to not expect much, i can safely say that we got so much more than we imagined. The beauty of rural cambodia could only be seen while riding an old bamboo train, with the scents and butterflies blowing by your face.
The ride went on for roughly 15 mins untill, up ahead, on this single track we see another bamboo train coming right at us. As we slowed down it became quite clear why the train was as simple as it was, because after we got off ours, our 2 conductors simply picked up the train, placed it on the ground and removed the two axils and we were no longer in peril, until a little futher on...a somewhat bigger train presented itself in front of us...one that was not made of bamboo but was transporting it, by the tonnes. So as we jumped off and to the side we were warned this time to stay far back as the doors tend to swing open of this 20 car train roared by. It looked like the tracks were used by locals after-all.
Once we continued on our train we came to the end of the line where their were some shops waiting for us, but it was a couple of kids which lured us down to come see what their mom was doing...knowing we were safe and being told of this before we followed and came across 3 brick kiln's which we roughly got the idea that this is how they make the bricks for the town...they take the mud of the land, mix it with ash of the grains that they burn and allow it to dry. Then they build a giant chimmney with the dry bricks and burn the grains in the bottom to create an even stronger brick...and the process is then repeated. Quite interesting, quite simply, yet very effective as they had thousands of bricks waiting to be shipped. After handing our several canadian flag pins to the kids, one too few which resulted in tears of course, we were back down the track and to our waiting tuk-tuk driver who was having a nap while we were away.
Back on the bumpy, bumpy road and with an hour of driving ahead of us, we all delved back into the beauty that is the cambodia country side, a simple life that seems to be apart from the rest of the universe. Every little house or shack or four walls we passed we were greeted with big smiles, waving hands of children and "hello's!" as it is all the english most cambodia's in those parts know. Whatever it was, we all started to realize that the tuk-tuk ride alone was worth the $15.
Our next stop was a temple located at the top of a mound, quite high jutting out of the flat grounds which surround it. Hailed as the inspiration for the angkor temples, likely only by the locals because as incredible as it was, it seems to pail in comparision to what lays before us, regardless, it was 394 steps to the top and off we went...As we began our ascent, 3 locals kids with fans ran behind us and followed us up, all the while flapping their fans at our calfs to cool us off. roughly 3/4's of the way up we stopped on a flat area and sat, to which the kids sprung over and began to massage our legs, shoulders and backs...we knew what they were after but were just grateful that they were working for it, and it felt damn good. After our massage, we made the last push and reached the summit to find 5 giant pillars each with carvings adourning their sides and areas inside for prayer or mediation. All 5 were in quite rough shape and their aging was quite evident, but the view of the countryside was incredible and the peace found at the top was worth the climb. After taking some pictures, which one of the boys took me to all the best photo spots, again just working for what he wanted...he knew he would get it. After taking some time to take in our surroundings and feeling the clarity which overwhelms you when you feel so small in the grand scheme of things, we descended the 394 steps, fanning continued of course, untill we reached the bottom. Gave each child a $1, thanked them and headed for some water. One of the little girls caught eye of another group about to climb and she fanned away yet again, gotta make a buck.
Once ready to go we found our tuk-tuk driver again, this time he hd found a hammock to relax in before he jumped to his feet for us. "Another hour", he tells us and we all settle back into our home for the day, ready for the bumps, the dust and the simling faces (not just ours, but of the people we pass).
Our final stop of the day is a cave, used during the khmer regime as a killing hole. Not as cheery as the previous stops, but a part of our trip and the histroy of cambodia that cannot be ignored, nor should it. The simling faces of the kids seem so much brighter knowing that merely 30 years prior there was no future for the country let alone and idea that they may have even been born, yet it is here that we found the most edearing child of all we have encountered, and he was our 12 year old tour guide.
As we arrived and got out of our tuk-tuk, there wasn't the same mobbing that has occured prior of people trying to sell us anything, just one child offering to guide us up the mountain to the cave. Unsure at first, he conviced us that we may get lost, and really he was just too nice to send away so he lead us. He is 12 years old, studying english an hour a night at an english school and working to pay for not only his english but his family. With that being said, his english was incredible for someone of his age in cambodia and likely the best of anyone we had encounter yet. As we strated the trek, we picked his brain about cambodia, from its weather to life here and he gladly opened up telling us things we didn't ask but were quite interesting. He knew his history as far as guiding us to our destinations, and of the khmer era, but it seemed that he could not fully grasp the scale of destruction that took place before him, simply because of his age. Yet he lead us up to a prison turned temple, describing how there were educated people held prisoner in small quarters essentially waiting for their execution. Roughly 5 - 10 a day were taken from the prison and walked up the mountian to a giant whiole in the ground, they were then brutally murdered usually with a machette, with their bodies left to fall into the cave. As we began to walk down into the cave, a painting depicted the killings and gave us a grave understanding as to what took place.
As we entered the cave our tour guide slide down the railing, saying this was the easy way, this act alone really drove home how he may know his histroy but is likely disconnected from the actually acts which took place here. The finally rested place of those murdered here was falling into this cave, and he merely slid down as if it was his basement, but as we said he is 12. Regardless, as we descended it became extremly clear how savage a history this country has seen. The remains of nearly 2000 people are still there encased in a glass and gold container with writings of events which transpired in this place. The bodies would gather on the ground in the cave until moved and disposed of by the khmer soldiers. Roughly 2-3 million people were killed under their regime, the boy''s grandmother being one of them as he later told us.
We spent quite a while in silence in the cave trying to understand how this could of been done over and over every day, untill we had our share and made the climb back up and out.Along the trail back to our tuk-tuk we talked more to the boy about his schooling, and what it cost for english school for him. He told us it was 400baht a month, roughly $13...not much but when the average monthly wage in camabodia is $25US, it becomes quite clear why they cannot speak the language.
As we reached the bottom we gave our thanks to the boy and each gave him 100baht, in hindsight we wish we had gotten his contact info in hopes of sending him money untill he finished school, likely he doesn't have a postal address as most do not in cambodia, but we both feel that we want to do more when we get back home, and not to loose the feeling we have now.
Anyway, as we got back onto the tuk-tuk for the last time, we were all dead silent the ride home...that was untill, we hear a crack and see our driver pull us into a driveway. Very confused we get out and see that the frame of our tuk-tuk has snapped and we are at the local welder...basically the only person around with a welding kit. The man jumps into action wearing onyl a thin sheet around his waist and begins to weld the frame shirtless...he did have glasses on so ill give him that, it wasnt until and elder man with a shirt came out, that he took over the weld job and we sat, mouths covered in the dusty cloud of the road.
After roughly 15 mins, we were back on the road and quickly at our guesthouse...we thanked the driver for a great day and all retreated to our rooms to take a much needed shower and clean the dust and irt which was now in every crack imaginable. By far one of the most memorable day in Cambodia thus far.
lots of love
jay/maeve
Khmer love
Jomripsu! (A Cambodian greeting)
Sorry it has been a little while since we have posted. We have been so captivated with the beautiful Kingdom of Cambodia that we haven't gotten much of a chance to get onto the internet. As such, we will be trying to catch up on our experience in Cambodia thus far, and as one may imagine, this will take a few hearty posts to get the stories down.
We began our sojourn to Cambodia last Friday morning, leaving our comfortable guesthouse on the river in Chanthaburi, Thailand to set out via minibus to the Cambodian border. I know we posted last on Wednesday that we would be leaving Chanthaburi the next day, Thursday, but we had such a lovely dinner on Wednesday night - and after a long day of travel already - we decided to postpone the border crossing until Friday morning. We spent the day walking around Chathaburi, experiencing the sort of sleepy town that makes up a lot of Thailand's country. Finishing off our afternoon playing a heated round of Brisk and enjoying some Singha beer, we met a couple, Cathan and Lindsay (Irish and American, respectively) arriving at our guesthouse who were set to travel to Cambodia the next day on relatively the same route we were planning to do. The four of us enjoyed dinner together before heading off to bed to ensure we would all be ready for the full day of travel ahead of us.
The next morning, passports, passport photos, money and tenacity in hand - we headed to the minibus station, determined to have a smooth border arrivial into Cambodia. We had to negotiate with the minibus driver on how much the hour and a half ride to the border would cost us. He said 150 baht - I said 100 baht. He said 130 baht - I said 100 baht. Finally, he agreed and told us we would be leaving at 11 a.m. Because we had about fifteen minutes to kill, Jay and Cathal ventured off to buy water. Lindsay and I chatted for a while in the bus, until we decided to stand outside the bus and get some air - afterall, we had a long enough bus ride in the crammed, stuffy thing, no use in prolonging it needlessly. We stood outside the bus, waiting for the boys to return, when the driver got into the bus (smiling at us in that true Thai fashion) and started the engine. In true typical Maeve scenario form, I said, "wouldn't it be funny if he just drove away with all our stuff?" to which Lindsay chuckled and replied ""yeah, what could we really do?"". Of course, as she completed uttering the words...he drove off. Just like that - with all our packs, our purses and knapsacks. We looked at each other nervously, until my nervousness turned into furiousness which I unleashed on the man who I had bargained with. "Where is he going?!!!!!" "He come back. He he he he. Mi pen rai! ("nevermind!"). As Jay and Cathal returned, we saw their happy faces turn from confused to worries as they noticed the van was gone. We sat waiting for the return of the bus which luckily for us about 15 minutes later returned with one passenger and a full tank of gas, and our packs intact. Phew.
We made the journey to the border, stopping to pick up people in many villages who work or visit family in Cambodia. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge, many Cambodias fled by foot to Thailand and as a result a large amount of Cambodians have settled and raised family on the bordering Thai towns. We arrived at the Cambodian border, apprehensive because of all the horror stories of being swindelled we have heard. The border which we arrived at is not used often by tourists, mostly by commuting Cambodians and Thais, so we knew this would either work for or agaisnt us. We proceeded to fill out the necessary visa forms and give copies of our passport photos. The border official asked for the $20 American (as they accept American money everywhere in Cambodia, as well a Riel - the Cambodian currency) or 900 baht - which is more than 20 dollars American but they were not willing to budge on that. $20 is the advertised price for a Cambodian visa, so if we could get our hands on some American money we could make it across without getting swindelled as we had feared. Noticing a group of older British travelers passing into Thailand the other way, we decided to ask if we could switch baht for dollars since they would be using baht soon enough and we needed the American...a very kind woman traded with me.
I said, "1400 baht is rougly 40 dollars American, a bit more...if you would trade with me, I would be very grateful, because this border man ain't budging." She agreed.
I handed her (what I thought to be) 1400 baht and she traded her 40 American and we both went on our merry way. Once we were done our visa exchange, Jay and I assessed our financial situation...and we were looking much better than anticipated. As I stood examining our funds, I realized that in my haste, I had handed the British woman a thousand baht bill and four 20 baht bills, not four 100 baht bills which would have made the appropriate exchange...and she was long gone. Ooooooooops. Turns out the only person swindelled at the Cambodian border was the woman who traded currencies with me! Teehee.
That was that, and we were in Cambodia. The border was sparse, a few cows lazily grazing and a few taxi drivers eagerly awaiting to know our destination. We met one taxi driver who told us he would take us to Battambang (where we had planned to stay that night) for 300 baht each, a fine deal considering the journey was over three hours on a notoriously unkempt, bumpy and dusty road.
Despite the condition of the road, we couldn't of asked for a finer start to seeing Cambodia. We traveled along a path that is not usually traveled by foreigners and so many Cambodians stopped and stared as we bumped along the road, to the sound of sweet Cambodian "beats"(provided by our driver - who looked like a Cambodian version of Terrance Howard). The sights along the way where too much to take in all at once, but we did our best. We saw chickens plucking away at the earth (and of course I thought of my mum), we saw cows, people lazing in hammocks, beautiful mountains and palm trees. Eventually, once we had passed the town of Pailin (where most retired Khmer Rouge leaders are now living), we noticed a lot of red signs with little skull and crossbones on them...of cours we knew what lay beneath them - landmines, and plenty of them. At one point, we passed a row of the little signs, one of which had a group of people standing around. As we got closer, we saw beneath the sign a huge cavity in the ground, at least 5 feet deep and 8 feet across. Our driver told us that the mine had exploded that very morning, killing three people.
Cambodia is very much moving past the horrific genocide which tore the country apart between 1975-1979. It is moving past the American bombs the preceeded (and perhaps prompted) the genocide, and it is moving past the famine that plagued the country after the genocide. But it must be hard to move past it all when deadly reminders are still scattered throughout the countryside...
As we drove along, we contemplated how much this small country has had to overcome in the last forty years. Over 40% of Cambodia's population is under the age of 15, which means almost half the country is free of the horrific images that their parents and grandparents must see when they close their eyes. Almost an entire generation of people in Cambodia were killed, around 2 million people in a population of just 11. The government has yet to sort itself out, while it claims to be democratic the particular ruling party still controls everything imaginable through corruption. Tourism has boosted the country's economy for the first time and that is a good thing.
We drove along looking into the faces and smiles of all the people we passed, into their humble roadside dwellings, smelling fish drying in the sun and garlic cooking in pans. Our driver told us he had finished high school and not gone to university...but that his son, the eldest one of five, was going to be going to the one unversity in Siem Reap. There is a great hope and future for this country yet.
We arrived in the town of Battambang, which is still very much influenced by the French occupation which ended in the early 1950s. The French left behind a few things, namely: Large riverside French boulevards, French architecture and, best of all, baguettes! They are everywhere, and we have happily indulged.
Khmer food is also very delicious. Amok is Khmer curry - not so spicy as Thai and less potent than Indian curry, but very aromatic and flavourful.
Arriving to our hotel (which was "helpfully suggested" by our driver - don't get me started...) we plunked down in our $5 a night room for a while, until we explored town, ate dinner and drank Ankor - the national beer of Cambodia, of course.
Eating dinner on the streetside, we were accosted by beggers - some children, some mothers with children, some elderly folk - I guess we had the look of newbies because we seemed to be the concentration of their begging. Cambodia is still very much an improverished country and beginning in cities is quite prevalent.
We had arrived in Cambodia, and eagerly awaited our next day's exploits. In the mean time, a few beers and a comfortable bed awaited us, so after our drinks we returned to the room to hit the hay.
Of course, we returned to a bed infested with ants. The roughing it had begun.
Happy Chinese New Year! The year of the Ox....
love (post 1)
Maeve/Jay
Sorry it has been a little while since we have posted. We have been so captivated with the beautiful Kingdom of Cambodia that we haven't gotten much of a chance to get onto the internet. As such, we will be trying to catch up on our experience in Cambodia thus far, and as one may imagine, this will take a few hearty posts to get the stories down.
We began our sojourn to Cambodia last Friday morning, leaving our comfortable guesthouse on the river in Chanthaburi, Thailand to set out via minibus to the Cambodian border. I know we posted last on Wednesday that we would be leaving Chanthaburi the next day, Thursday, but we had such a lovely dinner on Wednesday night - and after a long day of travel already - we decided to postpone the border crossing until Friday morning. We spent the day walking around Chathaburi, experiencing the sort of sleepy town that makes up a lot of Thailand's country. Finishing off our afternoon playing a heated round of Brisk and enjoying some Singha beer, we met a couple, Cathan and Lindsay (Irish and American, respectively) arriving at our guesthouse who were set to travel to Cambodia the next day on relatively the same route we were planning to do. The four of us enjoyed dinner together before heading off to bed to ensure we would all be ready for the full day of travel ahead of us.
The next morning, passports, passport photos, money and tenacity in hand - we headed to the minibus station, determined to have a smooth border arrivial into Cambodia. We had to negotiate with the minibus driver on how much the hour and a half ride to the border would cost us. He said 150 baht - I said 100 baht. He said 130 baht - I said 100 baht. Finally, he agreed and told us we would be leaving at 11 a.m. Because we had about fifteen minutes to kill, Jay and Cathal ventured off to buy water. Lindsay and I chatted for a while in the bus, until we decided to stand outside the bus and get some air - afterall, we had a long enough bus ride in the crammed, stuffy thing, no use in prolonging it needlessly. We stood outside the bus, waiting for the boys to return, when the driver got into the bus (smiling at us in that true Thai fashion) and started the engine. In true typical Maeve scenario form, I said, "wouldn't it be funny if he just drove away with all our stuff?" to which Lindsay chuckled and replied ""yeah, what could we really do?"". Of course, as she completed uttering the words...he drove off. Just like that - with all our packs, our purses and knapsacks. We looked at each other nervously, until my nervousness turned into furiousness which I unleashed on the man who I had bargained with. "Where is he going?!!!!!" "He come back. He he he he. Mi pen rai! ("nevermind!"). As Jay and Cathal returned, we saw their happy faces turn from confused to worries as they noticed the van was gone. We sat waiting for the return of the bus which luckily for us about 15 minutes later returned with one passenger and a full tank of gas, and our packs intact. Phew.
We made the journey to the border, stopping to pick up people in many villages who work or visit family in Cambodia. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge, many Cambodias fled by foot to Thailand and as a result a large amount of Cambodians have settled and raised family on the bordering Thai towns. We arrived at the Cambodian border, apprehensive because of all the horror stories of being swindelled we have heard. The border which we arrived at is not used often by tourists, mostly by commuting Cambodians and Thais, so we knew this would either work for or agaisnt us. We proceeded to fill out the necessary visa forms and give copies of our passport photos. The border official asked for the $20 American (as they accept American money everywhere in Cambodia, as well a Riel - the Cambodian currency) or 900 baht - which is more than 20 dollars American but they were not willing to budge on that. $20 is the advertised price for a Cambodian visa, so if we could get our hands on some American money we could make it across without getting swindelled as we had feared. Noticing a group of older British travelers passing into Thailand the other way, we decided to ask if we could switch baht for dollars since they would be using baht soon enough and we needed the American...a very kind woman traded with me.
I said, "1400 baht is rougly 40 dollars American, a bit more...if you would trade with me, I would be very grateful, because this border man ain't budging." She agreed.
I handed her (what I thought to be) 1400 baht and she traded her 40 American and we both went on our merry way. Once we were done our visa exchange, Jay and I assessed our financial situation...and we were looking much better than anticipated. As I stood examining our funds, I realized that in my haste, I had handed the British woman a thousand baht bill and four 20 baht bills, not four 100 baht bills which would have made the appropriate exchange...and she was long gone. Ooooooooops. Turns out the only person swindelled at the Cambodian border was the woman who traded currencies with me! Teehee.
That was that, and we were in Cambodia. The border was sparse, a few cows lazily grazing and a few taxi drivers eagerly awaiting to know our destination. We met one taxi driver who told us he would take us to Battambang (where we had planned to stay that night) for 300 baht each, a fine deal considering the journey was over three hours on a notoriously unkempt, bumpy and dusty road.
Despite the condition of the road, we couldn't of asked for a finer start to seeing Cambodia. We traveled along a path that is not usually traveled by foreigners and so many Cambodians stopped and stared as we bumped along the road, to the sound of sweet Cambodian "beats"(provided by our driver - who looked like a Cambodian version of Terrance Howard). The sights along the way where too much to take in all at once, but we did our best. We saw chickens plucking away at the earth (and of course I thought of my mum), we saw cows, people lazing in hammocks, beautiful mountains and palm trees. Eventually, once we had passed the town of Pailin (where most retired Khmer Rouge leaders are now living), we noticed a lot of red signs with little skull and crossbones on them...of cours we knew what lay beneath them - landmines, and plenty of them. At one point, we passed a row of the little signs, one of which had a group of people standing around. As we got closer, we saw beneath the sign a huge cavity in the ground, at least 5 feet deep and 8 feet across. Our driver told us that the mine had exploded that very morning, killing three people.
Cambodia is very much moving past the horrific genocide which tore the country apart between 1975-1979. It is moving past the American bombs the preceeded (and perhaps prompted) the genocide, and it is moving past the famine that plagued the country after the genocide. But it must be hard to move past it all when deadly reminders are still scattered throughout the countryside...
As we drove along, we contemplated how much this small country has had to overcome in the last forty years. Over 40% of Cambodia's population is under the age of 15, which means almost half the country is free of the horrific images that their parents and grandparents must see when they close their eyes. Almost an entire generation of people in Cambodia were killed, around 2 million people in a population of just 11. The government has yet to sort itself out, while it claims to be democratic the particular ruling party still controls everything imaginable through corruption. Tourism has boosted the country's economy for the first time and that is a good thing.
We drove along looking into the faces and smiles of all the people we passed, into their humble roadside dwellings, smelling fish drying in the sun and garlic cooking in pans. Our driver told us he had finished high school and not gone to university...but that his son, the eldest one of five, was going to be going to the one unversity in Siem Reap. There is a great hope and future for this country yet.
We arrived in the town of Battambang, which is still very much influenced by the French occupation which ended in the early 1950s. The French left behind a few things, namely: Large riverside French boulevards, French architecture and, best of all, baguettes! They are everywhere, and we have happily indulged.
Khmer food is also very delicious. Amok is Khmer curry - not so spicy as Thai and less potent than Indian curry, but very aromatic and flavourful.
Arriving to our hotel (which was "helpfully suggested" by our driver - don't get me started...) we plunked down in our $5 a night room for a while, until we explored town, ate dinner and drank Ankor - the national beer of Cambodia, of course.
Eating dinner on the streetside, we were accosted by beggers - some children, some mothers with children, some elderly folk - I guess we had the look of newbies because we seemed to be the concentration of their begging. Cambodia is still very much an improverished country and beginning in cities is quite prevalent.
We had arrived in Cambodia, and eagerly awaited our next day's exploits. In the mean time, a few beers and a comfortable bed awaited us, so after our drinks we returned to the room to hit the hay.
Of course, we returned to a bed infested with ants. The roughing it had begun.
Happy Chinese New Year! The year of the Ox....
love (post 1)
Maeve/Jay
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)