So first of all sorry to my loyal blog readers for not posting an update in about a month; but there is a perfectly good explanation for that: I was in Myanmar (Burma). Myanmar was a great country except the government blocked lots of websites, one of them being blogspot unfortunately, but I have now made it to India so I can once again post updates. This also means that over the next few days there will be lots of updates being posted from my travels in Myanmar and also the last two from Thailand.
First of all my second to last experience in Thailand was spent doing a 3 day/2 night liveaboard dive trip to the Similan Islands. For those of you who don't know where the Similan's are they are located a couple hundred kilometers north of Phuket and about a hundred kilometers off the coast (the west coast of Thailand). Also they have been rated as one of the top 10 places in the world to dive (I think the only location in Thailand to make that list).
The diving was unbelievable with extremely beautiful and colourful coral and lots of small fish as the Similan Islands aren't known for large sea animals apparently. However, our trip was pretty lucky I guess as on almost every dive we saw at least one really impressive sea creature.
The first dive was completed just off of an island called Ko Bon which is to the north and east of the main group of the 9 Similan Islands. Here we were told is most common place to see rays and towards the end of our dive our dive group was graced with a HUGE manta ray gliding over us, it had to have been about 4 meters across! On the second dive which was in the group of the 9 main Similan Islands (all of the remaining dives were) we saw a leopard shark sleeping on the sea floor which was pretty neat as we could swim up fairly close to it and look at it for a while without it swimming away.
The third dive was the following morning and for most part of the dive we didn't see much except for beautiful coral until the very end of the dive a hawksbill turtle swam by near us. The fourth dive again didn't contain any larger sea life but plenty of nice coral and schools of small fish, in terms of beautiful coral this was probably the second best dive site. The fifth dive brought with it lots of Kuhl's rays (much smaller than the manta ray we saw, these ones are only 50cm to 1m across) and lots of garden eels. Finally I did the night dive on the second day (dive 6 for me) which was pretty interesting, we saw tons of shrimp, a moray eel swimming around and played with the phosphorescence.
On the final day I was only able to partake in 1 of the dives (as I wasn't feeling too good) but the one that I did was probably the best of the trip I think (and confirmed by fellow divers). On this dive we saw a white tip shark swim by as well as 4 huge tunas (about 2 meters long) but the highlight of this div had to have been the coral: it was beautiful. Words cannot describe how great this dive was (if anyone wants the name of this site I can email it to them).
All in all it was a great dive trip and I highly recommend diving here to anyone that's heading to Thailand. From the Similan's I took a night bus back to Bangkok where I spent a couple of days organizing my visa for Myanmar. So the next update (to follow soon will be my last for Thailand: Bangkok).
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Krabi and Koh Lanta
After leaving Bangkok to head south I made a short stop in the border town of Ranong as I needed to renew my Thailand visa (damn government changing the rules to only allow 15 day visa exemptions if coming into Thailand overland). So after stopping in Ranong for 1 day and spending a few hours taking a boat over to Myanmar to get a stamp in my passport and then back to Thailand for a new 15 day visa extension I continued on my way to Krabi.
At first I just passed through Krabi on my way to Koh Lanta planning to spend some more time there on my way back so I didn't see too much of the town at the start. Koh Lanta is a nice sleepy island (at least for now) just south of the famous island Koh Phi Phi and Phuket; however, the island is really starting to develop fast so soon it may just be covered in more expensive resorts.
My time on Koh Lanta was mainly spent renting a motorbike and cruising around the island checking out all of the different beaches. There were lots of beaches here and all of them were amazing, probably some of the best beaches that I've seen so far. The island was very relaxing with not too much of a night life and not much to do all day other than check out the beaches. There were a couple of caves that I spent a short amount of time checking out and they were pretty extensive and impressive but you can only spend so much time wandering around caves (or at least I can).
After returning back to Krabi from Koh Lanta I had planned on spending a day sea kayaking as there are a few good day trips available from Krabi and I also planned to spend a day checking out Railay beach as it's supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in Thailand. Unfortunately on the first morning that I awoke in Krabi I found that I had developed a fever and wasn't feeling very well. As a result I passed the next 2 days in bed trying to get healthy as I was scheduled to go diving for 3 days right after Krabi. It turns out getting sick wasn't that bad as the sea kayaking was really expensive so I probably wouldn't have been able to do it anyways so all I missed out on was seeing beautiful Railay beach.
From Krabi I headed up to Khao Lak, still feeling a little sick, from where I was catching my 3 day live aboard dive ship for the Similan Islands. So the next update will contain my adventures diving and the awesome things that I saw under the sea.
At first I just passed through Krabi on my way to Koh Lanta planning to spend some more time there on my way back so I didn't see too much of the town at the start. Koh Lanta is a nice sleepy island (at least for now) just south of the famous island Koh Phi Phi and Phuket; however, the island is really starting to develop fast so soon it may just be covered in more expensive resorts.
My time on Koh Lanta was mainly spent renting a motorbike and cruising around the island checking out all of the different beaches. There were lots of beaches here and all of them were amazing, probably some of the best beaches that I've seen so far. The island was very relaxing with not too much of a night life and not much to do all day other than check out the beaches. There were a couple of caves that I spent a short amount of time checking out and they were pretty extensive and impressive but you can only spend so much time wandering around caves (or at least I can).
After returning back to Krabi from Koh Lanta I had planned on spending a day sea kayaking as there are a few good day trips available from Krabi and I also planned to spend a day checking out Railay beach as it's supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in Thailand. Unfortunately on the first morning that I awoke in Krabi I found that I had developed a fever and wasn't feeling very well. As a result I passed the next 2 days in bed trying to get healthy as I was scheduled to go diving for 3 days right after Krabi. It turns out getting sick wasn't that bad as the sea kayaking was really expensive so I probably wouldn't have been able to do it anyways so all I missed out on was seeing beautiful Railay beach.
From Krabi I headed up to Khao Lak, still feeling a little sick, from where I was catching my 3 day live aboard dive ship for the Similan Islands. So the next update will contain my adventures diving and the awesome things that I saw under the sea.
Koh Chang
Arriving in Thailand my first destination was Koh Chang, a large island near Trat and close to the Cambodian border. This island is very nice with lots of nice white sand beaches and it even has the palm trees to make it look almost picture perfect. In addition it seems to have taken the tourism industry a few years to find so although the Northern end of the island is dominated by resorts and large hotels, further south there are still lots of smaller bungalows and more of a backpacker area.
I ended up staying in an area called lonely beach and although it certainly isn't lonely anymore it is still quite good. The atmosphere is very relaxing and it's a lot quieter than further up the island at white sand beach, and again similar to Sihanoukville there seems to be a party on the beach from one of the resorts every night.
While staying on Koh Chang I passed away a couple of days just relaxing on the beach and reading books, as lonely beach was nice and quiet with some stretches that were pretty empty and very few people walking around selling things. On another day I rented a motorbike to check out the rest of the island and visited a couple of waterfalls that were only trickles in the dry season. The western side of the island was not touristy at all, probably because there weren't any sandy beaches but there was a nice fishing village that hadn't been affected by tourism so it was a nice chance to see how the locals live.
Finally the only other thing that I did on Koh Chang was to do a snorkel trip to 4 nearby islands. This trip was kind of a disappointment as I was hoping to be able to see 4 separate islands and get a feeling for how the diving was so I could determine if it was worth it. Well the 4 islands turned out to really be 2 islands and 2 piles of rock sticking out of the sea near the islands so we didn't get to see very much change. The snorkeling wasn't very good as we didn't see very many fish and the coral was really only good at one of the locations that we stopped at. As a result I decided to save my money for diving in the Similan Islands which is supposed to be one of the top 10 dive sites in the world.
From Koh Chang I caught a bus to Bangkok where I only spent a short amount of time before heading down south to Krabi and Koh Lanta. As a result I won't make an update about Bangkok quite yet but my next update will be for Krabi and Koh Lanta down south of Phuket.
I ended up staying in an area called lonely beach and although it certainly isn't lonely anymore it is still quite good. The atmosphere is very relaxing and it's a lot quieter than further up the island at white sand beach, and again similar to Sihanoukville there seems to be a party on the beach from one of the resorts every night.
While staying on Koh Chang I passed away a couple of days just relaxing on the beach and reading books, as lonely beach was nice and quiet with some stretches that were pretty empty and very few people walking around selling things. On another day I rented a motorbike to check out the rest of the island and visited a couple of waterfalls that were only trickles in the dry season. The western side of the island was not touristy at all, probably because there weren't any sandy beaches but there was a nice fishing village that hadn't been affected by tourism so it was a nice chance to see how the locals live.
Finally the only other thing that I did on Koh Chang was to do a snorkel trip to 4 nearby islands. This trip was kind of a disappointment as I was hoping to be able to see 4 separate islands and get a feeling for how the diving was so I could determine if it was worth it. Well the 4 islands turned out to really be 2 islands and 2 piles of rock sticking out of the sea near the islands so we didn't get to see very much change. The snorkeling wasn't very good as we didn't see very many fish and the coral was really only good at one of the locations that we stopped at. As a result I decided to save my money for diving in the Similan Islands which is supposed to be one of the top 10 dive sites in the world.
From Koh Chang I caught a bus to Bangkok where I only spent a short amount of time before heading down south to Krabi and Koh Lanta. As a result I won't make an update about Bangkok quite yet but my next update will be for Krabi and Koh Lanta down south of Phuket.
Sihanoukville
Sihanoukville is the beach resort town in Cambodia, actually it's about the only town in Cambodia on the ocean (with the exception of the village Kep that has to import its sand) so if you want some beach action you need to head here. Regardless this was the last place in Cambodia that I planned on stopping at before heading back to Thailand.
Sihanoukville was pretty nice and within 5 kilometers there were several different beaches that were accessible, most of them really nice. However the town of Sihanoukville has become very touristy over the past few years and anywhere within walking distance of the beach has been heavily developed for guesthouses, restaurants and bars; but if you head into the centre of the town there still is a large population of locals still living there (just no reason to head to the centre to see it).
Most of the beaches were really nice with the nicest two having to be Otres beach and Occheuteal beach. Otres beach was about 5 or 6 km away from my accomadation so I only ventured here once, while Occheuteal beach was a 5 minute walk down the hill from my guesthouse. The downside with Occheuteal beach was that absolutely everywhere was occupied by beach chairs from the restaurants and bars just off the beach so you were forced to sit at one place. Also the amount of beggars and people that came around trying to sell stuff was insane, you could hardly have a few seconds of time to yourself before someone came up asking if you wanted a massage or to buy a bracelet or fruit.
While in Sihanoukville I spent most of my time relaxing on the beach during the day (well more like the afternoon as I usually slept in most days) and most nights at one of the parties on the beach. The best part of Sihanoukville though was in the evening all the restaurants and bars along Occheuteal beach put out little tables on the sand and had seafood BBQ's for $3 with 50 cent draft beer, a perfect way to end the day and start the night.
Aside from lounging around on the beaches and partying all the time in Sihanoukville I also rented a motorbike for a few days and cruised around the town and the nearby country side. Checking out the surrounding area was pretty nice and the country side was very similar to that near Kampot so nothing much to do but it was still very enjoyable seeing all the locals out, most of them fixing fishing gear or kids running around playing soccer.
From Sihanoukville I boarded a bus to take me back to Thailand and to Ko Chang, a large island near the border with Cambodia. So this is it for the Cambodian section of my travels and I must say that it was quite a nice country (except for some terrible roads) although I was always amazed at how flat it was. Anyways more updates to come from Thailand, the land of smiles.
Sihanoukville was pretty nice and within 5 kilometers there were several different beaches that were accessible, most of them really nice. However the town of Sihanoukville has become very touristy over the past few years and anywhere within walking distance of the beach has been heavily developed for guesthouses, restaurants and bars; but if you head into the centre of the town there still is a large population of locals still living there (just no reason to head to the centre to see it).
Most of the beaches were really nice with the nicest two having to be Otres beach and Occheuteal beach. Otres beach was about 5 or 6 km away from my accomadation so I only ventured here once, while Occheuteal beach was a 5 minute walk down the hill from my guesthouse. The downside with Occheuteal beach was that absolutely everywhere was occupied by beach chairs from the restaurants and bars just off the beach so you were forced to sit at one place. Also the amount of beggars and people that came around trying to sell stuff was insane, you could hardly have a few seconds of time to yourself before someone came up asking if you wanted a massage or to buy a bracelet or fruit.
While in Sihanoukville I spent most of my time relaxing on the beach during the day (well more like the afternoon as I usually slept in most days) and most nights at one of the parties on the beach. The best part of Sihanoukville though was in the evening all the restaurants and bars along Occheuteal beach put out little tables on the sand and had seafood BBQ's for $3 with 50 cent draft beer, a perfect way to end the day and start the night.
Aside from lounging around on the beaches and partying all the time in Sihanoukville I also rented a motorbike for a few days and cruised around the town and the nearby country side. Checking out the surrounding area was pretty nice and the country side was very similar to that near Kampot so nothing much to do but it was still very enjoyable seeing all the locals out, most of them fixing fishing gear or kids running around playing soccer.
From Sihanoukville I boarded a bus to take me back to Thailand and to Ko Chang, a large island near the border with Cambodia. So this is it for the Cambodian section of my travels and I must say that it was quite a nice country (except for some terrible roads) although I was always amazed at how flat it was. Anyways more updates to come from Thailand, the land of smiles.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Kampot
My first two days in Kampot were spent renting a motorbike and cruising around the highways trying to find the shop where my camera was stolen, my plan was to try to buy it back from whoever stole it. The first day I hap no luck finding the stop but the country side that I was riding through was absolutely beautiful so it was a very enjoyable day (aside from the fact that I was still upset over my stolen camera). On the second day I managed to find the place and tried to buy back my camera but no matter how much money I offered everyone insisted that they didn't know anything about a stolen camera. So no luck trying to retrieve my camera but at least I tried.
During my last day in Kampot I took a tour to the Boking Hill Station, a national park that contains a huge hill in it where the french built a hill station that was later turned into a casino and then abandoned. The day trip to the hill station was really a waste of time and money as the guide tried to fit too much into the day. First we looked at the abandoned King's home and then the hill station and these stops were quite good and the hill station had some fantastic views out to the ocean; however, after that we had an hour trek through the jungle (it was really just between 2 switchbacks in the road and we could always hear the road construction), a visit to a "waterfall" (there wasn't any water flowing over the waterfall during the dry season), and finally we finished the day off with a boat trip down the river back to Kampot. The worst part of the trip though was learning that the government had sold the national park land to a rich guy from Vietnam and that person was starting to develop the hill top into a fancy 5 star resort. It was really sad to hear our guide talk about the plans for the resort and the amount of construction that was going to destroy the national park, and worst of all he was really happy about it. He thought that it would bring lots more tourism and thus money to his country and no matter how hard I tried to convince him how bad it really is he wouldn't hear any of it. The worst part is that the government in Cambodia is willing to sell of the entire country it seems and as a result soon none of it will be owned by any Cambodians. Apparently all of the islands off the coast have already been sold, mostly to Russians I think.
After my disappointing trip to the Bokor Hill Station I decided that I had seen everything that there was to in Kampot (there really wasn't much else there, although Kampot is famous for its pepper) and decided to head over to Sihanoukville the next day. So more to come on Sihanoukville soon (maybe even later today).
During my last day in Kampot I took a tour to the Boking Hill Station, a national park that contains a huge hill in it where the french built a hill station that was later turned into a casino and then abandoned. The day trip to the hill station was really a waste of time and money as the guide tried to fit too much into the day. First we looked at the abandoned King's home and then the hill station and these stops were quite good and the hill station had some fantastic views out to the ocean; however, after that we had an hour trek through the jungle (it was really just between 2 switchbacks in the road and we could always hear the road construction), a visit to a "waterfall" (there wasn't any water flowing over the waterfall during the dry season), and finally we finished the day off with a boat trip down the river back to Kampot. The worst part of the trip though was learning that the government had sold the national park land to a rich guy from Vietnam and that person was starting to develop the hill top into a fancy 5 star resort. It was really sad to hear our guide talk about the plans for the resort and the amount of construction that was going to destroy the national park, and worst of all he was really happy about it. He thought that it would bring lots more tourism and thus money to his country and no matter how hard I tried to convince him how bad it really is he wouldn't hear any of it. The worst part is that the government in Cambodia is willing to sell of the entire country it seems and as a result soon none of it will be owned by any Cambodians. Apparently all of the islands off the coast have already been sold, mostly to Russians I think.
After my disappointing trip to the Bokor Hill Station I decided that I had seen everything that there was to in Kampot (there really wasn't much else there, although Kampot is famous for its pepper) and decided to head over to Sihanoukville the next day. So more to come on Sihanoukville soon (maybe even later today).
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Ban Lung
After leaving Phenom Penh I wanted to head to Ban Lung, however that is a 12 hour journey (at least) if done in one go so I stopped off at Kratie to spend one night. Kratie is a small town located on the banks of the Mekong river and there isn't very much to do here, I had originally planned on spending 2 nights here but upon arriving my guesthouse owner convinced me to leave the next day. As a result I spent the night and the following morning in Kratie and saw the freshwater dolphins that live in the Mekong river. The short trip out to see the dolphins was quite good as we got to take a boat out into the middle of the river for about an hour and watch as the dolphins came up for air all around us while we sat there. I lost count of the number of dolphins that I saw surfacing, usually we could only see the fin but sometimes we could see the head, with some of them as close as 5 meters from the boat. After watching the dolphins for about an hour we headed back into Kratie where I caught a bus that would take me the rest of the way to Ban Lung.
My first impression of Ban Lung when I stepped off the bus was that it had to be the dustiest town in the world, only 1 small section of road was paved and everywhere seemed to be coated in a layer of red dust. Ban Lung is a nice small town that certainly isn't very touristy as there are only a few guesthouses, all restaurants are attached to the guesthouses and only 1 small and slow internet cafe. The first day there I rented a bike and toured around the town in the morning and then headed out to a nearby crater lake to spend the afternoon. The lake is extremely beautiful with crystal clear water that is the perfect temperature: pretty warm but still nice and refreshing from the hot sun. The lake is almost a perfect circle too which is why people call it a crater lake and surrounding the lake is a beautiful green forest.
The second day in Ban Lung I took a motor bike tour to most of the nearby waterfalls. Most of the waterfalls weren't that impressive and only consisted of a small dribble of water falling over the rocks, my guide assured me that during the wet season they were really nice and quite big though. There was one waterfall though, actually it was a series of 7 short drops of about 5-10 feet each, that contained lots of water and we were able to wade around through it and had a great time. The day was really enjoyable aside from the unpaved roads which left us absolutely covered in dust from head to toe.
On my final day in Ban Lung I spent most of the relaxing in my guesthouse which had a nice view of the lake in Ban Lung and in the afternoon I went out to the crater lake.
After leaving Ban Lung I headed for Kampot, unfortunately there wasn't a direct way to get there from Ban Lung so I had to overnight in Kampong Cham. Kampong Cham was a nice little city but with absolutely nothing to do here so I spent a short night here relaxing near the Mekong river before boarding a bus to Kampot (the bus journey where I had my camera stolen).
My first impression of Ban Lung when I stepped off the bus was that it had to be the dustiest town in the world, only 1 small section of road was paved and everywhere seemed to be coated in a layer of red dust. Ban Lung is a nice small town that certainly isn't very touristy as there are only a few guesthouses, all restaurants are attached to the guesthouses and only 1 small and slow internet cafe. The first day there I rented a bike and toured around the town in the morning and then headed out to a nearby crater lake to spend the afternoon. The lake is extremely beautiful with crystal clear water that is the perfect temperature: pretty warm but still nice and refreshing from the hot sun. The lake is almost a perfect circle too which is why people call it a crater lake and surrounding the lake is a beautiful green forest.
The second day in Ban Lung I took a motor bike tour to most of the nearby waterfalls. Most of the waterfalls weren't that impressive and only consisted of a small dribble of water falling over the rocks, my guide assured me that during the wet season they were really nice and quite big though. There was one waterfall though, actually it was a series of 7 short drops of about 5-10 feet each, that contained lots of water and we were able to wade around through it and had a great time. The day was really enjoyable aside from the unpaved roads which left us absolutely covered in dust from head to toe.
On my final day in Ban Lung I spent most of the relaxing in my guesthouse which had a nice view of the lake in Ban Lung and in the afternoon I went out to the crater lake.
After leaving Ban Lung I headed for Kampot, unfortunately there wasn't a direct way to get there from Ban Lung so I had to overnight in Kampong Cham. Kampong Cham was a nice little city but with absolutely nothing to do here so I spent a short night here relaxing near the Mekong river before boarding a bus to Kampot (the bus journey where I had my camera stolen).
Monday, January 5, 2009
Phenom Penh
After touring around the temples of Angkor Wat I headed to the capital city of Phenom Penh. After talking to lots of people who have already traveled through here I wasn't expecting very much, just a big dirty, noisy city. Arriving in the city I wasn't too disappointed, the tuk-tuk drivers were forcefully trying to get us into their tuk-tuks, we were let off in middle of what seemed like downtown so there was lots of traffic and noise and just hard to even think. Eventually I got my luggage and having had a guesthouse recommended to me before I headed off on foot to get there (as it wasn't too far away).
The guesthouse was pretty nice (for anyone staying in Phenom Penh I highly recommend staying by the lakeside) and in an area that was very quiet and peaceful, a nice change from just a couple of blocks away. I had planned on only spending 2 days in Phenom Penh, only to see the royal palace and surrounding sights, the killing fields and genocide museum. However, I ended up spending 4 days in the city just relaxing by the lake once the few sights had been visited.
The first afternoon in Phenom Penh we visited the royal palace and the silver pagoda. Both of these buildings were very impressive but unfortunately most of the grounds and buildings surrounding the royal palace are off limits to tourists so we could only see a small portion of them. We could only enter one hall (the reception hall) in the grounds of the royal palace as well as a small museum there and the silver pagoda so I'm not sure the entrance fee of $6 was entirely justified, but the buildings that we did see were very extravagent.
Over the next couple of days I spent most of the time just relaxing in my guesthouse over the lake and reading books as well as wondering through a few of the nearby markets. Nothing too special.
On my final day in Phenom Penh I went out to see the killing fields and the genocide museum. The killing fields were not nearly as gruesome as I expected, I expected to see human bones and skulls all over the place. Instead it was mainly just a large field that contained tons of small shallow depressions where mass graves had been unearthed. Additionally there was a large pagoda near the entrance that contained thousands of human skulls, this was easily the most horrific thing here as on most of the skulls you could see where the person had been bludgeoned to death. After the killing fields I went to the genocide museum, also known as Tuol Sleng a former high school or security prison 21 (S-21). Now this place was very gruesome as it mostly just contained photographs of what happened here during the Khmer Rouge regime. For those people who don't know, S-21 was the location where they brought thousands of Cambodians (and even a few foreigners) to be tortured into making confessions against Pol Pot (the leader) before they were shipped to the killing fields to die. About half of the school was turned into a prison with tiny brick cells that were only about 3 or 4 feet wide and 6 feet long. The other half of the school was kept as empty rooms where the prisoners were repeatedly tortured. While being kept there the guards kept great details including photos of the prisoners which make up most of the displays in the museum today, allowing you to get a very real feeling of what it must have been like during those times.
After having visited the killing fields and genocide museum I felt that I had seen all there was to in Phenom Penh so I left the following day for Kratie, a small town where I was only going to spend 1 day before continuing up to Ban Lung. Unfortuneatly after leaving Ban Lung though my camera was stolen so I don't have any photographs from after the royal palace as I needed to put in a new memory card then, but more about those adventures later.
A perfectly white chedi in the grounds of the silver pagoda.
A view of the outside of the silver pagoda, inside the pagoda is covered in thousands of silver mirrors but you aren't allowed to take photos inside.
A view of the royal palace, one of the buildings we couldn't enter but at least we could see it from the outside unlike most of the grounds.
The guesthouse was pretty nice (for anyone staying in Phenom Penh I highly recommend staying by the lakeside) and in an area that was very quiet and peaceful, a nice change from just a couple of blocks away. I had planned on only spending 2 days in Phenom Penh, only to see the royal palace and surrounding sights, the killing fields and genocide museum. However, I ended up spending 4 days in the city just relaxing by the lake once the few sights had been visited.
The first afternoon in Phenom Penh we visited the royal palace and the silver pagoda. Both of these buildings were very impressive but unfortunately most of the grounds and buildings surrounding the royal palace are off limits to tourists so we could only see a small portion of them. We could only enter one hall (the reception hall) in the grounds of the royal palace as well as a small museum there and the silver pagoda so I'm not sure the entrance fee of $6 was entirely justified, but the buildings that we did see were very extravagent.
Over the next couple of days I spent most of the time just relaxing in my guesthouse over the lake and reading books as well as wondering through a few of the nearby markets. Nothing too special.
On my final day in Phenom Penh I went out to see the killing fields and the genocide museum. The killing fields were not nearly as gruesome as I expected, I expected to see human bones and skulls all over the place. Instead it was mainly just a large field that contained tons of small shallow depressions where mass graves had been unearthed. Additionally there was a large pagoda near the entrance that contained thousands of human skulls, this was easily the most horrific thing here as on most of the skulls you could see where the person had been bludgeoned to death. After the killing fields I went to the genocide museum, also known as Tuol Sleng a former high school or security prison 21 (S-21). Now this place was very gruesome as it mostly just contained photographs of what happened here during the Khmer Rouge regime. For those people who don't know, S-21 was the location where they brought thousands of Cambodians (and even a few foreigners) to be tortured into making confessions against Pol Pot (the leader) before they were shipped to the killing fields to die. About half of the school was turned into a prison with tiny brick cells that were only about 3 or 4 feet wide and 6 feet long. The other half of the school was kept as empty rooms where the prisoners were repeatedly tortured. While being kept there the guards kept great details including photos of the prisoners which make up most of the displays in the museum today, allowing you to get a very real feeling of what it must have been like during those times.
After having visited the killing fields and genocide museum I felt that I had seen all there was to in Phenom Penh so I left the following day for Kratie, a small town where I was only going to spend 1 day before continuing up to Ban Lung. Unfortuneatly after leaving Ban Lung though my camera was stolen so I don't have any photographs from after the royal palace as I needed to put in a new memory card then, but more about those adventures later.
A perfectly white chedi in the grounds of the silver pagoda.
A view of the outside of the silver pagoda, inside the pagoda is covered in thousands of silver mirrors but you aren't allowed to take photos inside.
A view of the royal palace, one of the buildings we couldn't enter but at least we could see it from the outside unlike most of the grounds.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Siem Reap (Angkor Wat)
My first main destination in Cambodia was the city of Siem Reap to see the world heritage site Angkor Wat. After arriving in the city late in the afternoon following the boat trip from Battambang I spent the remainder of the day wondering around the city and immediately didn't like it. The city has become EXTREMELY touristy with almost everything set up to cater to tourists. Not to mention that it's hard to spend more than 5 minutes at a restaurant without someone coming up to you to beg.
I planned on spending 3 days to visit the all of the temples in the surrounding area and as such decided that on the first day I would head out to some of the slightly less temples further away from the city and leave the most famous ones for day 2. Heading out of town we first visited the temple Pre Rup. Pre Rup was a pretty awe-inspiring first temple as it was very large. The tmeple was shaped almost like a large pyramid and you could climb up the sides and stand at the top looking out over the world. Along the climb up and around the top there were some statues although it seemed that most of them had unfortuneatly been slightly destroyed either by the elements or people.
After visiting Pre Rup we continued heading further away from the main cluster and stopped next at Bantaey Srey. This temple was completely different from Pre Rup as it wasn't very big at all; however, the carvings that were present all over the structure were amazing. It seemed that most spaces where something could be carved onto the stone something had, and after visiting all of the other temples this one probably remains as the one with the best carvings.
Heading even further north we next stopped at Kbal Spean which wasn't much of a temple but there was a nice little waterfall flowing over some carvings in the rocks. At the parking lot there was also a small wildlife conservation organisation which had collected several monkeys, birds, turtles and other animals and was trying to breed them and return them to the wild. We got lucky when we arrived as they they were just starting a free tour of the animals so got to spend an hour learning about all of them as well. After Kbal Spean we started heading back towards the Siem Reap and made one final stop at Bantaey Samre which was a fair sized temple but not as impressive as the size of Pre Rup or the carvings of Bantaey Srey.
On day 2 we decided to see the most famous temples of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm in case by day 3 we couldn't make ourselves see more. The day started off by stopping at Angkor Wat, this temple is absolutely amazing. The sheer size of it is enourmous and the amount of work that must have gone into building it. The entire temple is surrounded by a wall and inside of this is a huge area with a few smaller buildings built inside. The main temple is built close to the back of the open yard and is extremely impressive. Within the main temple were 4 large towers (not sure what they're actually called), the ones you can see in the standard photo of Angkor Wat, but there were all closed off for restoration so we couldn't go up inside them.
After spending a few hours at Angkor Wat we headed off to the temples of Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom is a complex that contains several smaller temples: Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, the Terrace of Elephants, and some smaller ones that we didn't visit. I thought that Bayon was one of the most impressive temples that we visited, it contains hundreds of faces of the emporer carved into the walls so it seems that there is alwasy someone watching you. In addition there seems to have been very little restoration done to the temple so it looks to be in the natural state when they found it, starting to fall apart. Baphuon was under major restoration while we were there so we weren't allowed inside of it and all we could do was look at it from the front so it wasn't very interesting. Additionally the Terrace of Elephants wasn't very interesting as all it was was a wall with some elephant carvings on it, and a terrace at the top of the wall. Phimeanakas was a fairly decent temple although it was just like a pyramid which you could climb to the top of for some good views and there weren't any carvings or other impressive features.
From Angkor Thom we headed out to Ta Prohm making a short stop at Ta Keo on the way. Ta Keo was another large pyramid shaped temple similar to Phimeanakas and slightly more impressive; however, it didn't even compare to Angkor Wat and Bayon I thought. Ta Prohm was the temple that I had been looking forward to the most as this is the one that has jungle growth all over it (if anyone has seen Tomb Raider then this is the temple from that movie with the tree growing over the opening). The temple itslef didn't seem too impressive but it was really incredible seeing how they had just left the jungle to reclaim the area. Trees were growing out of everthing from walls to roofs to pillars. The downside to this was that everything was roped off for saftey so we weren't allowed to get very close to the ruins in most places. Finally we finished off the day with Bantaey Kdei which was a smaller temple that just happened to be on our way home, it was a very spread out temple that seemed to just keep going despite it's small appearance but other than that it wasn't too impressive.
By day 3 we were pretty worn out from looking at temple after temple so decided to take it easy and just rent bicycles and head in the direction of the Roluos group not really worrying whether we would make it all the way. We did end up cycling the 10 or km out to the temples and spent a few hours that afternoon looking at the temples Preah Ko and Bakong. The temple Preah Ko wasn't very impressive after seeing Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom yesterday so only a small amount of time was spent there; however, Bakong was a very large temple with many well preserved statues surrounding it. We spent a few hours wondering around Bakong and just relaxing at the base of it while waiting for the sunset so that we could get some good sunset pictures. This left us with an hour long bicycle ride back in the growing darkness, which in hindsight may not have been the wisest choice. As we were riding back we came upon the scene of an accident where a motorcycle rider had collided with a bicycle and the motorcycle rider was lying on the road severly wounded. Trying to communicate with the crowd of local people that had collected at the accident site proved to be impossible and we were very relieved when an ambulance eventually showed up. The part that shocked us most was that people didn't seem to know what to do: the one person who spoke english explained to us what happened but she wouldn't help any and she didn't even know the phone number for the ambulance to get help. Goes to show how little people in these countries are educated if they don't even learn how to call for emergency services.
After the indcident on the highway the rest of the ride back to town was uneventful (thankfully) and that night was spent relaxing after that experience. The following day I got up and caught a bus for Phenom Penh.
Some of the beautiful carvings at Bantaey Srey,
Standing in front of some the carvings at Bantaey Srey.
Standing in Bantaey Samre.
The famous Angkor Wat, unfortunately you can see the scaffolding being used for restoration around the "towers".
The many faces from the Bayon temple.
Some local Cambodians who were walking around and preying at the top of Ta Keo.
The trees taking over Ta Prohm, you can see the famous image from the movie Tomb Raider and myself standing in the roots of one of them (the only one we were able to get close to).
The Roluos group temple Bakong.
I planned on spending 3 days to visit the all of the temples in the surrounding area and as such decided that on the first day I would head out to some of the slightly less temples further away from the city and leave the most famous ones for day 2. Heading out of town we first visited the temple Pre Rup. Pre Rup was a pretty awe-inspiring first temple as it was very large. The tmeple was shaped almost like a large pyramid and you could climb up the sides and stand at the top looking out over the world. Along the climb up and around the top there were some statues although it seemed that most of them had unfortuneatly been slightly destroyed either by the elements or people.
After visiting Pre Rup we continued heading further away from the main cluster and stopped next at Bantaey Srey. This temple was completely different from Pre Rup as it wasn't very big at all; however, the carvings that were present all over the structure were amazing. It seemed that most spaces where something could be carved onto the stone something had, and after visiting all of the other temples this one probably remains as the one with the best carvings.
Heading even further north we next stopped at Kbal Spean which wasn't much of a temple but there was a nice little waterfall flowing over some carvings in the rocks. At the parking lot there was also a small wildlife conservation organisation which had collected several monkeys, birds, turtles and other animals and was trying to breed them and return them to the wild. We got lucky when we arrived as they they were just starting a free tour of the animals so got to spend an hour learning about all of them as well. After Kbal Spean we started heading back towards the Siem Reap and made one final stop at Bantaey Samre which was a fair sized temple but not as impressive as the size of Pre Rup or the carvings of Bantaey Srey.
On day 2 we decided to see the most famous temples of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm in case by day 3 we couldn't make ourselves see more. The day started off by stopping at Angkor Wat, this temple is absolutely amazing. The sheer size of it is enourmous and the amount of work that must have gone into building it. The entire temple is surrounded by a wall and inside of this is a huge area with a few smaller buildings built inside. The main temple is built close to the back of the open yard and is extremely impressive. Within the main temple were 4 large towers (not sure what they're actually called), the ones you can see in the standard photo of Angkor Wat, but there were all closed off for restoration so we couldn't go up inside them.
After spending a few hours at Angkor Wat we headed off to the temples of Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom is a complex that contains several smaller temples: Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, the Terrace of Elephants, and some smaller ones that we didn't visit. I thought that Bayon was one of the most impressive temples that we visited, it contains hundreds of faces of the emporer carved into the walls so it seems that there is alwasy someone watching you. In addition there seems to have been very little restoration done to the temple so it looks to be in the natural state when they found it, starting to fall apart. Baphuon was under major restoration while we were there so we weren't allowed inside of it and all we could do was look at it from the front so it wasn't very interesting. Additionally the Terrace of Elephants wasn't very interesting as all it was was a wall with some elephant carvings on it, and a terrace at the top of the wall. Phimeanakas was a fairly decent temple although it was just like a pyramid which you could climb to the top of for some good views and there weren't any carvings or other impressive features.
From Angkor Thom we headed out to Ta Prohm making a short stop at Ta Keo on the way. Ta Keo was another large pyramid shaped temple similar to Phimeanakas and slightly more impressive; however, it didn't even compare to Angkor Wat and Bayon I thought. Ta Prohm was the temple that I had been looking forward to the most as this is the one that has jungle growth all over it (if anyone has seen Tomb Raider then this is the temple from that movie with the tree growing over the opening). The temple itslef didn't seem too impressive but it was really incredible seeing how they had just left the jungle to reclaim the area. Trees were growing out of everthing from walls to roofs to pillars. The downside to this was that everything was roped off for saftey so we weren't allowed to get very close to the ruins in most places. Finally we finished off the day with Bantaey Kdei which was a smaller temple that just happened to be on our way home, it was a very spread out temple that seemed to just keep going despite it's small appearance but other than that it wasn't too impressive.
By day 3 we were pretty worn out from looking at temple after temple so decided to take it easy and just rent bicycles and head in the direction of the Roluos group not really worrying whether we would make it all the way. We did end up cycling the 10 or km out to the temples and spent a few hours that afternoon looking at the temples Preah Ko and Bakong. The temple Preah Ko wasn't very impressive after seeing Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom yesterday so only a small amount of time was spent there; however, Bakong was a very large temple with many well preserved statues surrounding it. We spent a few hours wondering around Bakong and just relaxing at the base of it while waiting for the sunset so that we could get some good sunset pictures. This left us with an hour long bicycle ride back in the growing darkness, which in hindsight may not have been the wisest choice. As we were riding back we came upon the scene of an accident where a motorcycle rider had collided with a bicycle and the motorcycle rider was lying on the road severly wounded. Trying to communicate with the crowd of local people that had collected at the accident site proved to be impossible and we were very relieved when an ambulance eventually showed up. The part that shocked us most was that people didn't seem to know what to do: the one person who spoke english explained to us what happened but she wouldn't help any and she didn't even know the phone number for the ambulance to get help. Goes to show how little people in these countries are educated if they don't even learn how to call for emergency services.
After the indcident on the highway the rest of the ride back to town was uneventful (thankfully) and that night was spent relaxing after that experience. The following day I got up and caught a bus for Phenom Penh.
Some of the beautiful carvings at Bantaey Srey,
Standing in front of some the carvings at Bantaey Srey.
Standing in Bantaey Samre.
The famous Angkor Wat, unfortunately you can see the scaffolding being used for restoration around the "towers".
The many faces from the Bayon temple.
Some local Cambodians who were walking around and preying at the top of Ta Keo.
The trees taking over Ta Prohm, you can see the famous image from the movie Tomb Raider and myself standing in the roots of one of them (the only one we were able to get close to).
The Roluos group temple Bakong.
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