Thailand

Our time in Thailand is nearly up. We have been on the island of Koh Phangan for nearly a month now, in the north at Chaloklum Bay, at a place called Rose Villa. It is a small community of the Thai Marffa, with a small handfull of great restaurants. (Restaurants - North Beach Bungalows, The Hammock Bar and the Thai owned one next door). It has just had a Typhoon - the scuba divers had been watching it over the last couple of weeks, as it hovered over the Philippines for a while. American CNN apparently had it as their lead story, a day or two beforehand. We were very lucky to have only had winds and rain. It was anticipated that we would get 6 metres waves. An area on the mainland was evacuated, which is where the centre of the typhoon went through. We have a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne on the 15th Dec., arriving on the 16th Dec. 8.10am. I must say that I am getting very excited! We are then around for a month before taking a flight from Melb. to Perth on the 16th Jan. and we will spend just under 4 months traveling the west coast, the north and then the east coast down to Sydney. Our next flight on the 1st of May will be to NZ - Christchurch, 3 weeks there, and three weeks on the north island. Auckland return to Fiji for three weeks and then to Sth America. Ian has been doing his Scuba Dive Master training. He unfortunately won't get all his dives done, but will complete the theory. This means that he will only need to complete his dives somewhere else around the world. There is a good bunch of guys at Chaloklum Diving - Nick (and his Thai family Lec, Louise and Lucy) and Mike who are the owners and been around for 15 years, Elliott from the UK who is a Dive Master and Greg from the USA who has been doing his Dive Master training with Ian. We have also met some great people from Amsterdam who went diving with Ian, and Magda from the USA who is living and working here. Many a night we have spent having dinner with some of these guys. I've been going to a Yoga Retreat and doing Pilates for the last 11 days which is supposed to give me a new body. I don't know about that! They actually come and collect you and bring you home which is great. Otherwise we would have had to hire a motorbike for the whole time. Although this would have been handy we have managed without one, apart from day trips, or into Tong Sala (10 mins) for two litre bottles of red and brie. For the rest of my days I'm in charge of bungalow maintenance, i.e. tidying up, hand washing and soaking, sweeping, I'm updating the website, if you hadn't already noticed, (but need to wait though for a faster computer before putting on extra photos), and of course there is much eating, hammock action and reading. Big travel tip:

• Do not stay at Chaloklum Bay Resort!
• Don't pay two weeks rent in advance - because if you change you mind you will not get anything back!!
• Don't argue too much with the owners about how they run their business, as a handgun will appear behind the counter, they have been known to threaten others before, and are rumoured to be apart of the islands Marffa!!!
• Subsequently we have not been back, we took our room key and didn't pay for our food bill!!!! And have been telling ourselves to "just let it go".

Ian adopted this dog and called it Spotty. Interesting considering that Ian is allergic to dogs!

We spent heaps of time with Greg and Magda who were both in Thailand working. This was her great house amongst the trees

The diving company that Ian managed to get half of his Dive Master completed. Michael, Nick (owners), Elliot (dive master) and Greg (student with Ian)

Ian dived practically every day

These Irish girls did some Pilates with me. We had a great meal out with them

The Yoga Retreat I attended nearly daily. Still couldn't touch my toes standing up

One of our favourite eating places was at Mo's. His in this photo with Magda and us

Waiting for the Typhoon to hit with our 2 ltr bottle of red and brie and biscuits

Ian worked with Jenny in Geneva, and her husband Charlie came to the island to see him, whilst they were traveling around Thailand

Auke and Ursula went diving with Ian

Koh Phangan in Thailand - we ate at this restaurant A LOT

Our stunning views in Thailand

The views on our beach that we stayed on for a whole month

Siem Riep - Cambodia

Here we are in Siem Riep - gateway to the millennium old temple ruins of the Khmer Empire, "whose artistic and archaeological significance and visual impact put it in a class with the Pyramids, Machu Pichu and the Taj Mahal", (pulled from tourist information!) Naturally a UNESCO World Heritage site. Angkor literally means 'capital city' or 'holy city', and Khmer refers to the dominant ethnic group in modern and ancient Cambodia. At its height, the Age of Angkor was a time when the capital area contained more than 1 million people and Angkor's military, economic and cultural dominance held sway over the area of modern Cambodia, and much of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. We spent one and a half days in air con taxi luxury looking around the temples here - and the very impressive Angkor Wat. Suffer to the others on the back of motorbikes and in tuk tuks. Had they not worked out that a taxi was only US$5 more than a tuk tuk? HOT, SO HOT! Sweety, very sweety! I got burnt even after over compensating with three 50+ sun screen applications. Now that's not supposed to happen! We saw sunset, sunrise and loads of temples. We bought a three day pass (as it's the same price as a two day). Some of the more popular temples were firstly Angkor Wat - constructed in the form of a massive 'temple - mountain' dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu. It is surrounded by a moat (which looks more like a river) and has an exterior wall (1300mtrs x 1500mtrs). The temple itself is 1 km square. Just be warned that there are a lot of walking up really high stone steps when visiting the temples. If you have a heights issue, or are really old, you may struggle somewhat. The other ones were Ta Prohm, which is where they shot the movie Tomb Raider, and has these enormous trees growing out of the stone structure. Banteay Srey which cost a little more to see because it was further out (38kms), but is known as the women's temple and has intricate carvings. Preah Khan which is the most fallen down. And The Bayon in Angkor Thom which has huge stone faces. Once again I came in contact with a snake, which Ian reckons I was going to stand on, and for some reason although the panic in his voice suggested I be careful and watch where I was walking, I choose for some reason to not look down and then I wouldn't be able to see it. We also took a very short balloon ride (10 mins), which was attached to a long cable (200m). Although it gave you a good distance view of Angkor Wat, you could not see any other temples due to the trees and the fact they they are quite spread out. We stayed at the Jasmine Hotel for 4 nights, and for the first payed the smallest amount for a nice room - US$4, for the two of us! Good really, considering we paid US$50 for the taxi for two days, and US$40 each for our temple passes. Some of the nice restaurants we went to included Soup Dragon and The Red Piano. A great cafe was Blue Pumpkin. We bumped in Jen and Jez (UK) who we first met in Hoi An in Vietnam, and got dressed up and had a couple of bottles of wine at the posh FCC - foreign Correspondence Club, before moving onto dinner (elsewhere of course!). Ian bought himself a hammock and had been going on about wanting one for ages. We both had Seeing Hands Massages, meaning from blind people. I really enjoyed mine, since my last few have been terrible. Poor Ian had the lady with iron fingers and absolutely hated his. We only ended up spending 7 days in Cambodia unfortunately. We initially hadn't planned on it being so rushed and had wanted to spend some time on the south coast. Because we had spent much longer in China and then our full 4 weeks in Vietnam, and wanting to spend 4 weeks in Thailand and a week with Cyndi in Penang Malaysia before our flight to Oz........., it just meant it had to be short. We chose to take a flight to Bangkok and then Ko Samui in Thailand. We didn't fancy the long bus trip on not great roads and didn't want to waste too many traveling days, having decided to stay on Ko Phangan (south island paradise) for a month. Ian is going to scuba dive flat out for this time, and me, well sun, sand, sea, reading, eating nice food, and maybe not much more!

Angkor Wat

Where they filmed the movie Tomb Raider

Angkor Temples in Siem Riep

Angkor Temples in Cambodia

Cambodia - artistic shot

Shooting range where Ian used a Colt 45

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Royal Palace

Phnom Penh - Cambodia

We arrived in Phnom Penh after our all day boat border crossing and then had to be transferred by van for at least an hour on very bumpy roads. Thank goodness we hadn't taken the bus! Luckily one of the girls in the van - Vicki from NZ had some food to share, as I was finding it all a bit much and was feeling somewhat off. We had been recommended the Happy Guesthouse. The people here were really friendly and helpful, and the food was fantastic. We stayed for 3 nights. The population of Cambodia is 13 million. Although they have their own currency, which is the Riel, they also use the US$. Ian and I decided then to use our emergency US$ instead of withdrawing any riel, and then probably not having to use two currencies. It is supposed to be winter here - it is SO HOT!! The National Museum showed Angkorian era artifacts which I found alittle disappointing, wanting to know more about the history, so we flew through it very quickly. The Royal Palace and Silver Pogoda was more interesting. Be warned that they treat the grounds like entering a temple and so you have to be dressed appropriately. Some women were having to buy t-shirts because they were wearing singlet tops, and Ian had to borrow some long trousers. The Silver Pagoda has over 5000 silver tiles covering the floor, and some jade small statues that had diamonds on it. The grounds and buildings were lovely. We had run into Mike from NZ who had done the Mekong Delta trip with us, and we also met Nathan from the UK whom we also spent a couple of days with. The four of us took motorbike taxi's for the day and firstly went to the shooting range. Only Ian and Mike had a go at chosing their weapon of choice and paying a US$1 per bullet. There are stories of tourists being able to pay more to shoot at animals, which is terrible. It was located on an army training ground which was somewhat intimidating. We also went to Choeung Ek, which is the Killing Fields. The Khmer Rouge regime in 1975 - 1979, led by Pol Pot used the Killing Fields to brutually execute more than 17,000 individuals, most of whom suffered through interrogation, torture and deprivation, initially in a prison (S-21). Choeung Ek is now a group of mass graves, which has a memorial stupa containing thousands of skulls. It is hard to understand why there was thought in grouping the people in the graves together, such as women and children together, and those beheaded together. It was within the time of the Khmer Rouge that between 1-2 million people perished, some killed outright and others dying from disease, malnutrition and mistreatment. On April 17th 1975 Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge and was completely evacuated until 1979 - 4 years! The people were told that it would be only for 3 hours and then 3 days, supposedly because the Americans were going to attack. This was not the case, and the Cambodian cilivans were made to work in terrible conditions on the land, with a high percentage dying and loads tortured in herrific ways!!!!! I have just finished a fantastic book called Surviving the Killing Fields. It's written by the Cambodian guy who played a character similar to himself in the movie and was the friend of the journalist. Only 22% of his family survived. It is a must read!!! I've been learning heaps about the history. It is hard to conceptualise that this all happened in my lifetime. We also went to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21). It was initially a High School, taken over by the Khmer Rouge when the city had been evacuated and used as a prison of interrogation and torture. Once they had extracted confessions the prisoner was executed. It kept records (biographies and photos) of all those who were imprisoned. The photos are on display, which is abit eary to look at. Surprisingly most of the prisoners where actually Khmer Rouge (which explains why I noticed they all had the same type of hair cuts). We took a large speed boat once again up the Mekong River (5-6 hrs, US$22) to get to Siem Riep. Our other option was taking a bus that would have only cost US$4, but I didn't want to tackle the roads that are rumoured to be pretty crappy.

Part of our Mekong Delta River tour

Local with Ian's sunglasses on