Cambodia, in a nut shell- by Tamara

Here are some photos from our trek in Thailand




So, I shall begin by telling you about getting to the border. Our plan was to get our visas right at the border because it is the cheapest route: $20 USD. We took a bus that dropped us off right close to the border, then we planned to take a tuk tuk right to the border. Now, so far we have been fooled by a few tuktuk drivers (as in they have taken us somewhere different than we had originally negotiated) and have come to expect it. However, when we said 'take us to the border' it seemed straight forward enough. First, the driver took us to a travel agency (who are known for gaining commission on all tickets and visas that can otherwise be purchased for cheaper, tuk tuk drivers work in tandem with travel agencies and get a cut of the commission), clearly this wasn't the border. But, who knows maybe this is how you get a Cambodia visa. Sure enough, the visas were significantly more expensive:$35 USD , we politely declined the transaction, they got mad at us, we left. Then our tuk tuk driver drove us next door (literally) to a Cambodia consulate where the guard told us we could get our visas for $32 dollars....... we didn't even get out of the tuk tuk we just said 'please just take us to the border', so she did. The border looked like a border from the old west, hot, dusty and busy with sinister looking folk around ever corner. It wasn't long before a fellow singled us out, and told us he knew of a great travel agency where we could get cheap visas : $30USD.... we didn't even break stride as we could see he was not pointing in the direction of the border. Now, we are finally at the visa window that has a sign saying 'Cambodian Visa $20USD', finally! Of course, there was a guard outside the window who then said it cost $26USD, we argued with him and eventually he just walked away, then the guy at the actual window said it cost $20USD plus $3USD... by this point we were tired of people trying to take our money and continued to argue with him, then he went down to $3 extra for all of us, we continued to argue, he said if we didn't pay it would take 3 to 4 hours, we said that was fine and went and say down.... we got our passports back with our visas about 4 minutes later. They did spell my name wrong (Tamama) but it was well worth it.

Crossing the border from Thailand to Cambodia reminded Darcy of the US\Mexico border, there was quite a stark difference. Cambodia seemed poorer and the people a little rougher. Lonely Planet describes Poi Pet (the border town) as the cesspool of Cambodia- it is no exageration. We were glad to get on a bus and be on our way to Siem Reap. The bus ride was hot and exhausting but thankfully brought us to a wonderful family run guesthouse. We spent the next two days exploring the wonderous Angkor Wat, which for those who don't know is a large collection of ruined temples in the jungle of Cambodia, the largest and nicest being Angkor Wat which is the largest religious building in the world. It was quite amazing and difficult to fully describe. But I will say, the stairs are comically steep... I don't know how they managed to build such amazing temples with stairs that more resemble a ladder or stone wall. Despite the awe of Angkor Wat, our favorite temple was one that they have left in it's overrun jungle state. It is truly amazing to see how strong and persist those trees are and the temples for that matter. I should also say that the people selling souveniers at Ankgor Wat are the most persistent yet. So far Darcy has bought 1 scarf and 6 flutes; Paul: 2 scarves , 1 tshirt, 2 books; Tamara: 4 scarves, 2 tshirts and 10 postcards! I should say that these kids selling souveniers will follow you around and harass you, the little boy I bought the postcards from first followed me to an entrance that I also had to exit from asking me to buy "10 for 1 dollar" and I said "no thanks" he said "maybe on the way out" I said "maybe" MISTAKE, once I got out of the temple he said " I wait for you, you buy now" I said "no thanks'" he said "ÿou said maybe later, I wait long time in the hot and now you no buy, you lie to me" I said "umm"...." He said "three for 2 dollars, you buy (with a whimper) " (in case you haven't done the math that is now 30 postcards) so I said "what am I going to do with 30 postcards?" he says "send them, give them away, I no care"(now crying), so, alas I now have 10 postcards of Siem Reap\Angkor Wat, which actually turns out to be 13 postcards because the case doubles as 3 more postcards...

Ankgor Wat at Sunrise


Tamara getting attacked by girls selling scarves....


Darcy at the Jungle Temple

Darcy also had a lovely experience with a girl who at first gave him a free bracelet then told him "Maybe come look in my store", Darcy said "maybe not", she said "Maybe no in Cambodia means maybe yes", Darcy just walked away (which is honestly the only way out).... she replied "you are not good... you are bad to me" Darcy felt bad, but not bad enough to buy! Just so everyone knows Darcy is quite a barterer, by far the best among us and the most resilient to their tricks (as you can see).

After 3 days in Siem Reap we were on our way to the capital, Phenom Penh. Phenom Penh is supposed to be the most dangerous place in Cambodia but like anywhere, after enough time seems more normal than anything (although I should say there was a fight just outside as I was writing this... how ironic). A few funny things about Cambodia is that everyone has checkered scarf that they use for everything from a head wrap, scarf around the neck, towel, clothing, to carry random stuff and even as a hammock for little kids. There are also hammocks everywhere, I am pretty sure that at any point there is a hammock within sight of every Cambodian. They even back up their vehicles to trees and hang the hammock from the vehicle to the tree and sleep. Another thing that is interesting about Cambodians is their ability to utilize the motorcycle or bicycle. Now, at the beginning of our trip when we were in Koh Tao in Thailand we thought it was funny when we saw 3 people on a motorcycle, and hysterical when we saw a group attempting to put 4 on... here in Cambodia it is not uncommon to see 4-6 people on a motorcycle among normal traffic, you think I am joking but I am not, we keep hoping to get a picture but it hasn't worked out.
There has also been a few opportunities for us to have the dead skin eaten off of our feet by fish... massage by Dr Fish... it seemed like a good idea... except for Darcy who would said he would only do it if it was full submersion.


Now, I am not sure about anyone else but I had no idea about any of Cambodia's history before coming here except there involvement\proximity to the Vietnam war. Did you know that Cambodia underwent a genoicide about 30 years ago and 2 million Cambodians died... the worst part about it is that the UN doesn't really acknowledge it as much more than an unfortunate event of the past... it is quite heart breaking. We visited a place called 'the killing fields' which is where alot of the executions occurred and mass graves were. There is a large monument full of skulls and old clothes that were dug up from the graves... it was errily sobering. We also visited a highschool that was turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge reign that was used for interogtation and torture, again, devistating and sobering.

On the brighter side, it is quite amazing to see how far Cambodia and its people have come from their recent past which crumbled almost their whole infrastructure, economy and culture. The Cambodians seem to have very close communitites and have the brightest yet most humble smiles I think I've ever seen.

On to Vietnam. Hurray!

On to Cambodia- Tamara

Our time in Chaing mai was concluded with a lovely trek into the jungle of Thailand. We left at about 9:00 in the morning into the back of a truck with 6 other people for a 2 hour drive... Thankfully, we had a few stops which included a picture perfect waterfall, the water was quite cold but not to cold for us Canadians. The next stop was at some hot springs, now being that it is about 35 degrees celcius, the hot springs did not seem appealing but, eventually our group all got in and found that it felt quite nice and made it seem not so hot outside. It was after all this that we began our trek, we began hiking on very moderate and simple trails complete with bamboo, vines, fruit trees as well as trees that tower higher than I have ever seen. We walked through 3 hill tribe sights and got to see how these people live. Our guide grew up in a hill tribe and said when he was little he would walk 2 1/2 hours to school everyday... and I don't think he was joking. We walked about 9 1/2 km to our final hill tribe sight where we would spend the night in a bamboo hut. It was a beautiful sight right along the river, sure enough as we arrived we could see people building a bamboo raft that we would be using the next day as well as people bathing in the river, chickens- everywhere and of course puppy dogs. But, what went surprisingly unnoticed were the elephants that were just behind our hut. Bah, it was amazing! The evening concluded with one of our guides playing guitar and singing for us- again, amazing.

The next day we were woken up at about oh, 1:00 am by the roosters that were clearing confused as to what time it was, then again at 2:00, 3:00 and yes 4:00, and then I think at sunrise as well but they may have quit by then. Despite the roosters, we all had a fantastic sleep. We all woke up to traditionally dressed hill tribe women ferverently trying to see us jewellry and elephant purses, we all caved.

After breakfast it was time for our elephant ride. What is funny about Thailand is that everyone seems to have a pretty casual approach to everything, the elephants didn't seem to be behaving very well but no one seemed very concerned about it. The elephant I was supposed to ride kept walking away from the platform, no big deal, they just told me to get on. The elephant that Paul and Darcy were on was about 45 years old and the one I was on was about 9 which I think for elephants are the rebellious teenage years. All the other elephants followed promtly in line while the elephant I was on continually would go off the trail and start eating. My guide was walking on the ground beside with a chain around one of the elephants legs, sometimes he would pull on it and grunt at the elephant trying to cue it to keep walking or go a different direction... the elephant won every time... it would eat until it finished, it would go the direction it wanted, it would pick up dirt for a while, it would break a branch off of a tree and hit itself on the head with it... but eventually it would always end up back with the other elephants. We rode for about 2 hours all along and in the river, it was delightful. Elephants are quite majestic and seem to have sad yet captivating eyes.

We then got onto our bamboo raft which turned out to be more fun than I ever thought. Although we did not go on super fast or rough waters there were several times when we thought that the raft would flip, the raft would break or that our guide had abandoned us... but all was well, we all arrived safely, well, except for Paul who at one point got his bamboo pole caught in some rocks on the river bottom which ended up with him getting clothes lined and launched into the water... haha, luckily for him no one really saw it and so everyone thought he jumped in the water on purpose. We were all expecting trekking to be fun, but it was far more fun than we ever imagined.

We left Chiang Mai on the 11th, we were all sad to go but the epic must go on. We arrived in Cambodia on the 12th... but that my friends is another story...!
I did forget one thing, we were walking in Chiang Mai and saw two dogs behind a gate, one was lying on its back sunbathing with all 4 paws in the air while the other came over to sniff me, he was very friendly. But, while Paul and Darcy were distracted by the sun bathing dog who we wern't sure if it was actually breathing, the friendly dog went over and sniffed Paul, then lifted his leg and promtly started peeing on Pauls foot. I must be honest I saw the whole thing coming but I thought Paul was watching, he didn't realize until the dog was near finished. And then by that time the mysterious sunbathing dog was up and both dogs looked quite pleased with themselves. We're pretty sure it is a tourist scam.

North in Chiang Mai by Paul

Well, I've been told it's my turn so here I am. It has been a lot of fun so far with many memorable things already. I won't try to fill you in on all of them but here's the short version of what's happened since Darcy last wrote. We had a couple of days in Bangkok before we got our passports back with our new, attractive, Mongolian visas so we spent time seeing the sites. We visited the world's largest reclining Buddha, saw the grand palace, a few other very iimportant Buddhist sites and also a couple of silk shops courtesy of tuktuk drivers (I'm sure a book could be written about them- who, for the most part we found entertaining in their scams, but very slick). Once we got to know the river taxiboats, the skytrain and taxi system getting around Bangkok was getting to seem second nature.

We left on the night train to Chiang Mai. This mode of travel has us looking forward to the trains in our future- it is quite a nice way to go. We started the crib tournament and am sorry to say that Tamara may be the most consistent crib player I've ever played as she has won 4 of 6 games to date. Because points are lost if we get skunked, there is a good chance that Wanda may be in 2nd or 3rd place when she joins us in 6 weeks!

Today we took a cooking class where we learned how to make 6 different Thai dishes. It was fun and tasty. I think Hastings lake Bible camp may have a Thai menu this summer. Tomorrow we head out on a 2 day trek where we will see some of the countryside, a national park, stay in a village adn then ride elephants and take a bamboo raft back down the river. Should be great and I'm sure you'll hear more about it.

I'm going to try to load some pictures now. If they're there, you'll know it worked. If they aren't, you'll know I tried, was in over my technological depth and will have to leave it for one of the others. Hope all is well with you all. Go Oilers!

Back in Bangkok - Darcy

We have some spectacular pictures of our time on Koh Tao, but they will come later but just you wait! We all had a wonderful time on the island. We spent our last day on a snorkeling tour and got to see the Nemo fish swimming in their anenomies. (spelling?) And lot's of other fish too! But alas, our mockery of the rookie traveller's sunburns come back to haunt us and we all got too much sun, which added to the fun of travelling back to Bangkok on a bus with air conditioning only on one side and movies with no sound 95% of the time and sudden blasts of incomprehensible noise the other 5%. That's the fun of traveling right? (It's easy for me to say I was on the air conditioned side:)

So we are back in the hustle and bustle of Bangkok now. We completed our applications for our Mongolian visa's and they'll be ready for us on Friday. So now we have a couple of days to see the sights here in the big city. It is quite something. A funny mix of very modern and still early development. For example to get to the emabssy, we took a boat taxi down the river, much the same way I'm sure it's been done for ages, and then hopped on the skytrain which is more modern than anything I've seen in Canada.

The sunburns are already going away and we are still healthy and happy, for which I am grateful.

Island fun - Darcy

Ok, so when we got to the Mongolian Embassy it was closed for a couple days, so we decided to leave Bangkok to experience the Thai beaches in the south. So we caught a night bus that day, and by 8:00 AM we were on our way to Koh Tao, our little island paradise.

And it is beautiful!!! White sand beaches, palm trees, clear ocean waters... Someday I will try to get some pictures up for you all. Our bungalo that we are staying in is only about 30ft from the ocean.

Yesterday we rented some small motor bikes, fins and snorkels and toured around the island. It's not too big, about 20 sq/km. So when we found a nice beach we stopped and jumped in the water to see what was there. It's amazing, even just 100 ft away from the shore there are so many different colorful fish. We've probably seen 40+ different species.

So the plan is to take a snorkeling tour tommorrow, and leave for Chaing Mai in Northern Thailand the next morning.

I am really grateful that everything has been going so well so far. Thai people are absolutely wonderful and it's been pretty easy to get around. The stomach is holding out quite well so far. I've only had one bathroom related adventure... details not neccesary.

It's hot. I haven;t stopped sweating for days.

Hope that all is well for everyone back home. As nice as it is to be here, I still do miss my friends and family back home. Take care.