We had what you could call a dizzy moment on our final night in Siem Reap. We had arranged to go and see some traditional Cambodian dancing called Apsara dancing, which is mostly ran through the expensive hotels in the town.
Our hotel of choice was the Grand Angkor hotel and the ticket also threw in a buffet to boot.
We have kind of developed a mini tradition on our final nights in places where we go and splash out in a nice bar or restaurant so this was our final splurge in Cambodia. Splashing out actually means paying about $4 for a drink instead of the usual $1.
Anyway, we spotted the glasses of champagne on the menu and ordered a glass each. In our excitement we did not realise that we were actually ordering champage from the contents page of the menu. So when we thought we were paying $4 a glass the menu was actually referencing page 4 of the menu. We had 4 glasses of champage in total and a $39 bottle of wine. Not too bad you might think, well it was! We nearly fainted when we saw the final bill of $122! The 4 glasses of champagne on page 4 of the menu were $15 a pop! Our drinks bill was the same price as our weeks accommodation in Siem Reap.
We have still not got over the price or our stupidity but we are trying to forget it............................
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Siem Reap - Poi Pet
We paid $12 each to get us from Cambodia across the border to Thailand and on to Bangkok. Usually such a cheap price for travel around South East Asia would not concern me but yesterday we really did get what we paid for.
A 40 seater rickety bus picked us up from our guesthouse. The bus was already full when we got on but we managed to get 2 seats together and the driver stashed our backpacks at the back. We thought we were about to start our onward journey but no! We went to pick up a further 15 people. The bus really could not accommodate an extra 15 travellers with their very large backpacks but this did not seem to concern the driver who continued to pack the bus with their baggage through the back windows of the bus. Everyone was getting slightly tense, stressed, cross but we assummed everything would work out ok. What happened next was this...........the driver got his hands on a number of plastic garden chairs and squeezed them into the spaces where the luggage had not been placed. Those who didn't have a seat had to sit on the garden chairs for the next 4.5 hours to the border crossing. It's also worth pointing out then once you reach the edge of Siem Reap the road disappears and becomes a dirt track. The rest of the baggage was placed in between the driver and the exit from the bus. Not an inch of space remained on the bus. It was a hot, bumpy and tiring journey and something I do not wish to repeat in a hurry.
Thankfully, after the border crossing we boarded a coach with more room and air con that worked sporadically.
A 40 seater rickety bus picked us up from our guesthouse. The bus was already full when we got on but we managed to get 2 seats together and the driver stashed our backpacks at the back. We thought we were about to start our onward journey but no! We went to pick up a further 15 people. The bus really could not accommodate an extra 15 travellers with their very large backpacks but this did not seem to concern the driver who continued to pack the bus with their baggage through the back windows of the bus. Everyone was getting slightly tense, stressed, cross but we assummed everything would work out ok. What happened next was this...........the driver got his hands on a number of plastic garden chairs and squeezed them into the spaces where the luggage had not been placed. Those who didn't have a seat had to sit on the garden chairs for the next 4.5 hours to the border crossing. It's also worth pointing out then once you reach the edge of Siem Reap the road disappears and becomes a dirt track. The rest of the baggage was placed in between the driver and the exit from the bus. Not an inch of space remained on the bus. It was a hot, bumpy and tiring journey and something I do not wish to repeat in a hurry.
Thankfully, after the border crossing we boarded a coach with more room and air con that worked sporadically.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Cambodia so far................
Its been a while again and in that time we've been to Sihanoukville.....chilled on the beach for 7 days, back to Phnom Penh and on to Siem Reap for temple overload.
Sihanoukville
This place really encapsulates what is happening to Cambodia. Development, development development on a mass scale with little regulation or monitoring. What was said to us by a Cambodian guide was 'the rich are getting richer and the poor much, much poorer''.
Foreign investment is coming in and soon-to-be-resorts are slowly sprouting up all along the amazing coast [nothing moves fast in Cambodia]. There are a lot of people getting on with it and making dollars from the tourists but there are as many that are being left out this new Cambodia and they are the poorest in the country. And the poorest in Sihanoukville are the beach hawkers, who on the whole are kids trying to selling everything to anyone, from fruit to scarves to postcards. They ask for your empty pop cans, plastic bottles and your left over food. Like all places with tourists with cash, ''tourists'' can buy whatever you want and in the very recent past that was so true. Things are slowly changing and there seems a much better awareness by everyone on issues around trafficking and all types of exploitation.
Phnom Penh
It has taken me a while to warm to Phnom Penh. We visited the National Museum, getting an introduction to the Angkor experience and the Royal Palace/Silver Pagoda. Amazing, amazing, amazing ..................... We also did another cookery class and spent some cash with NGOs working with the city kids. The markets are great, full of every label - copied of course, as well as snacks from things that you would continually eat [all sorts of Amoks] to things that you don't [deep fried crispy spiders [we have the cook book!!!]]. Restaurants Friends and Romdeng, the great FCC bar and our breakfast place of choice The Shop.
Siem Reap
Its difficult to descibe Siem Reap. This town has the majority of tourists coming through it because of Angkor Wat and the other temples. These temples date from the early 9th to 12th century, built by god-kings along with cities and palaces. These were abandoned and the jungle grew around until Europeans came and '"rediscovered"' them. They are amazing structures - architecture and art of a Khmer civilisation that included part of Thailand and south Viet Nam. The Lara Croft movie and Tome Raider 3 [I think] computer game partly was shot here. So the clique are is huge stone faces in the middle of the jungle - and its true!!! Pictures do not do the place any favours. Its like having all the best UK religious buildings in a 10 mile square in the middle of the jungle with frogs and screaming crickets all adding atmosphere. I have truly seen nothing like it before.
Saturday we leaving for Bangkok and then to the northern jungles for trekking around 25th December. I can't remember but something else is happening then too............................
Sihanoukville
This place really encapsulates what is happening to Cambodia. Development, development development on a mass scale with little regulation or monitoring. What was said to us by a Cambodian guide was 'the rich are getting richer and the poor much, much poorer''.
Foreign investment is coming in and soon-to-be-resorts are slowly sprouting up all along the amazing coast [nothing moves fast in Cambodia]. There are a lot of people getting on with it and making dollars from the tourists but there are as many that are being left out this new Cambodia and they are the poorest in the country. And the poorest in Sihanoukville are the beach hawkers, who on the whole are kids trying to selling everything to anyone, from fruit to scarves to postcards. They ask for your empty pop cans, plastic bottles and your left over food. Like all places with tourists with cash, ''tourists'' can buy whatever you want and in the very recent past that was so true. Things are slowly changing and there seems a much better awareness by everyone on issues around trafficking and all types of exploitation.
We have great photos and experiences of Sihanoukville - blue seas, beaches, BBQs and a real beach riviera feel every night. The skies are huge and the sunset is beautiful, lighting up is amazing colours. We didn't experience this area as fully as we probably should have done but unfortunately Emma got sick for a few days. We missed out on the amazing islands in the Sea of Thailand and the Ream National Park.
Phnom Penh
It has taken me a while to warm to Phnom Penh. We visited the National Museum, getting an introduction to the Angkor experience and the Royal Palace/Silver Pagoda. Amazing, amazing, amazing ..................... We also did another cookery class and spent some cash with NGOs working with the city kids. The markets are great, full of every label - copied of course, as well as snacks from things that you would continually eat [all sorts of Amoks] to things that you don't [deep fried crispy spiders [we have the cook book!!!]]. Restaurants Friends and Romdeng, the great FCC bar and our breakfast place of choice The Shop.
Siem Reap
Its difficult to descibe Siem Reap. This town has the majority of tourists coming through it because of Angkor Wat and the other temples. These temples date from the early 9th to 12th century, built by god-kings along with cities and palaces. These were abandoned and the jungle grew around until Europeans came and '"rediscovered"' them. They are amazing structures - architecture and art of a Khmer civilisation that included part of Thailand and south Viet Nam. The Lara Croft movie and Tome Raider 3 [I think] computer game partly was shot here. So the clique are is huge stone faces in the middle of the jungle - and its true!!! Pictures do not do the place any favours. Its like having all the best UK religious buildings in a 10 mile square in the middle of the jungle with frogs and screaming crickets all adding atmosphere. I have truly seen nothing like it before.
Saturday we leaving for Bangkok and then to the northern jungles for trekking around 25th December. I can't remember but something else is happening then too............................
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Viet Nam - Cambodia
Sorry its been a while. Believe it life does get very busy and internet connections are sometime too slow to deal with.
We are currently in Sihanoukville in Cambodia. A great seaside place, small but on the verge of becoming a town with millions of modern resorts. We have beautiful beaches and seas, weather around 32C, lots of beach bars & BBQs and islands to hand for great snorkeling and swimming. We have decided to stay until 10th to stop and relax. Yes, relax because life does get busy when traveling and moving through cities that you don't know.
What happened in Viet Nam - it rained for about 1.5 weeks which really put a dampener on everything and everything we had got wet. We moved from Da Nang to Nha Thrang [Viet Nam's beach resort with lots of American's looking for the sun] and then an overnight train to Ho Chi Minh City [Saigon]. We booked ourselves onto a trip into the Mekong Delta and the Mekong across the border to Cambodia - Phnom Penh. We did a homestay on the edges of the Mekong river which was fun before Cambodia.
Central and South Viet Nam has such a history with the US during their occupation and we did a couple of visits that will stay with us forever -My Lai site, Agent Orange and the War Remanents Museum in Saigon. Believe us, the government used these places as propaganda but the human tragedy is indescribable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre
Although the weather sorted itself out we only stayed in Saigon for a couple days. It is a great city - the traffic is mad worse than Han Oi and much much more. It is very French - wide boulevards and colonial architecture everywhere. Its does get more seedier with a number of western tourists there looking for obvious and of course its there if you have the wallet.
The Mekong Delta trip was disappointing. Its a region that is difficult to travel by yourselves so a trip was the easiest particular with the journey onto Cambodia.
Our arrival in Phomh Penh Cambodia was a real culture shock. It is so different to Viet Nam in terms of the people, culture and landscape. Cambodia is a developing country - it has poviety that we find extremely difficult to deal with because its on the streets in front of you.
Like all developing counties around the world it also has a huge number of wealthy and the travelers bring a lot of money into the country. Phnom Penh has a huge number of french expats and they are building an amazing playground for themselves. Reading the Whats On mags I would be pleased if a percentage of activity was happening in West Brom - BLOODY good restaurants, museums, bars, things to do.
We have been in Cambodia for 5 days and I still find it difficult to understand and explain what I have experienced here. The main shock'' was visiting the genocide museum Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields. What we experienced that day will remain with us forever as something that has changed us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Fields
We always planned to move onto Sihanoukville straight away and stop for a while. We are heading back next week and then onto Angkor Wat and other Wats in that region.
I hope its not too a depressing post after such a long gap because we are having a good time, this country is beautiful and the people are really generous and have a good sense of humor.
We are currently in Sihanoukville in Cambodia. A great seaside place, small but on the verge of becoming a town with millions of modern resorts. We have beautiful beaches and seas, weather around 32C, lots of beach bars & BBQs and islands to hand for great snorkeling and swimming. We have decided to stay until 10th to stop and relax. Yes, relax because life does get busy when traveling and moving through cities that you don't know.
What happened in Viet Nam - it rained for about 1.5 weeks which really put a dampener on everything and everything we had got wet. We moved from Da Nang to Nha Thrang [Viet Nam's beach resort with lots of American's looking for the sun] and then an overnight train to Ho Chi Minh City [Saigon]. We booked ourselves onto a trip into the Mekong Delta and the Mekong across the border to Cambodia - Phnom Penh. We did a homestay on the edges of the Mekong river which was fun before Cambodia.
Central and South Viet Nam has such a history with the US during their occupation and we did a couple of visits that will stay with us forever -My Lai site, Agent Orange and the War Remanents Museum in Saigon. Believe us, the government used these places as propaganda but the human tragedy is indescribable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre
Although the weather sorted itself out we only stayed in Saigon for a couple days. It is a great city - the traffic is mad worse than Han Oi and much much more. It is very French - wide boulevards and colonial architecture everywhere. Its does get more seedier with a number of western tourists there looking for obvious and of course its there if you have the wallet.
The Mekong Delta trip was disappointing. Its a region that is difficult to travel by yourselves so a trip was the easiest particular with the journey onto Cambodia.
Our arrival in Phomh Penh Cambodia was a real culture shock. It is so different to Viet Nam in terms of the people, culture and landscape. Cambodia is a developing country - it has poviety that we find extremely difficult to deal with because its on the streets in front of you.
Like all developing counties around the world it also has a huge number of wealthy and the travelers bring a lot of money into the country. Phnom Penh has a huge number of french expats and they are building an amazing playground for themselves. Reading the Whats On mags I would be pleased if a percentage of activity was happening in West Brom - BLOODY good restaurants, museums, bars, things to do.
We have been in Cambodia for 5 days and I still find it difficult to understand and explain what I have experienced here. The main shock'' was visiting the genocide museum Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields. What we experienced that day will remain with us forever as something that has changed us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Fields
We always planned to move onto Sihanoukville straight away and stop for a while. We are heading back next week and then onto Angkor Wat and other Wats in that region.
I hope its not too a depressing post after such a long gap because we are having a good time, this country is beautiful and the people are really generous and have a good sense of humor.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)