The Kingdom of Cambodia!

Cambodia has given us mixed feelings at this stage...(day 4). The people are a lot friendlier than in Thailand, but there is almost always a hidden agenda. Every tourist is seen as an oppurtunity to make a buck (literally..they don't beg for less than one dollar here, leading Wim and I to make our theme song for Cambodia "I need a dollar, dollar, dollar is what I need, ay ay") They also speak very good english here. This is illustrated by the fact that I had an argument with a 6 year old who I refused to buy a bracelet from because I had just bought one from his friend for the above mentioned "one dollar". He followed us for about 10 minutes telling us "that life is not fair" and when I told him it is indeed not fair so he should go on home he called me "stinky madam".

The only way of getting rid of him was to escape off the street into a bar, which turned out to be a neon dungeon with locals singing cambodian karaoke at full volume....
This kid drove us to consider having a glass of wine that night despite us having given up alcohol for lent....luckily we overcame the temptation.

Yesterday we took a bus filled with locals and covered about 250km. Six and a half hours and about 10 dvds of Cambodian music videos later, we arrived in Siem Reap, home to the famous Temples of Anghkor Wat. Today we visited the Tonle Sap lake each sporting our fresh cambodian haircuts..Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Asia when it is the rainy season and thousands of Cambodians live on the water in floating villages because they cannot afford to live elsewhere. (some in boats, those who can afford it build bamboo houses which can float and thus are easily transportable since they have to move as the water moves with the season) This was another tourist trap as we were taken to a floating school by our guide only to be told that we have to buy something for the kids. A five dollar donation was not good enough, they became quite annoyed when we would not buy an 80 US dollar bag of rice. So after a confrontation with our guide, we made the donation to the school and left with a bitter taste in our mouths (and I of course left in tears...)Where is that damn glass of wine when it is needed????

So tonight we ended our day with cambodian barbecue at a streetside cafe (at the risk of restarting the gastroenteritis I had just recovered from..) and tomorrow we join our tour group for a trip around the rest of Cambodia....love u all

S and W

Our new Cambodian haircuts

Kids at the floating school

Wim with our guide, Roun

Khao Lak is located on the coast and is about a 2 hours drive from Phuket. There we spent 4 days in a resort with just enough tourists to not make it too quiet. The weather was hot, although we did have the occasional rain shower which would pour down with little warning. We hired a scooter to drive around the town and found ourselves a muay thai (thai box) instructor who introduced us to the sport in a gruelling 2 hour initiation session. Needless to say after the abrasions and bruises on my knees and elbows from kicking the life out of the punching bag, I quit after the first day. Wim loved it of course, but had to quit after day 2 because he hurt his back during a thai massage (dont ask).

We found a little German bakery which became our favourite spot for lunch and coffee and this was also our planned meeting spot should we not be together if the tsunami sirens go off. (Trust Wim and I to factor food into the equation when a natural disaster is threatening...)

Sheron showing off her survival skills in mini-piece of rainforest in Khao Lak

Deserted beach after 30 minutes of walking through mini-piece of rainforest

We packed our bathing costumes right at the bottom of our bags and set off for another new country: Cambodia

For a small island, Railey has a lot to offer, and over the past 9 days we've done our best to do more than laze by the pool and stroll from restaurant to restaurant. Being a top tourist destination, Railey reminded us sometimes of Dubrovnik or Santorini: great views and climate but often poor service and unfriendly staff. Nevertheless, we made the most of our tropical destination and kayaked, snorkelled, had a thai massage and went for a thai cooking class where we learnt how to make spring rolls, chicken and coconut soup, penang curry, pad thai (fried noodles with prawns) and sweet pumpkin and coconut milk dessert.

Wim also went rock climbing and enjoyed the physical challenge as well as the view of Railey from high on the cliffs. It's been great, but we are both a bit saturated and so moving on to Khao Lak the day after tomorrow!

Its spider man!

Whisper your wish into the night air with a balloon..

Thai cooking class

Phad Thai

Thailand!
Compared to India, Bangkok is a clean, well oiled machine. We arrived in Bangkok and within 2.5 hrs we had checked through customs, stored our baggage, taken 2 sky trains to the centre of the city to the academic hospital, opened files, seen the doctor and the nurse, paid, got vaccinated for japanese encephalitis and returned to the airport just in time to catch our flight to Krabi. (I don't think this would have happened in Cape Town as patriotic as I am...plus the nurses were all these tiny Thai girls with these cute white uniforms and little nurses hats...friendly and helpful)

So after a plane, a bus and a boat we are now on Railay Beach. Idyllic, lush beach set among huge mangrove trees and shearing cliffs. Good weather, awesome food (noodles, coconuts, fresh fruit like mangoes, pineapple and papaya, seafood, stirfy with seaweed, fried banana with pancakes and lots more!!)

We have been taking it easy, but the next 2 weeks will be spent here lazing by the pool or on the beach, enjoying water activities, etc

Until next time!
S and W

Waaw! We had an amazing 5 days in the Singalila National Park. In a nutshell: We climbed from 2100 meter to 3600 meter and back to 1600 meter in 4 days and covered 55km of paths in the mountains. Highlights were the amazing views of some of the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest and Kanchenjunga (both more than 8500 meter high), meeting interesting/funny people in the lodges we stayed and all the yummy noodle and rice dishes for lunch and supper.

 On the flipside, we were freezing cold at least a few hours a day and the Indian toilets and showers, i.e. holes in the ground and buckets of water, were challenging to say the least. Most special about this trek which made it different from previous hikes in Europe was that we were so close to the local people and nature. At night we would sit in the kitchen of the lodge next to the wood fire where the food is being cooked around a little pot of burning coals to get warm while still wearing 3 tops and a winter jacket, wondering how the locals can endure this. Some locals were just wearing slippers without socks.

Yay! We made it to Sandakpu. Little morning walk at 6am before breakfast to see Everest in all its glory.

Lots of children and young people in the villages on the way.

Very happy, exhausted and trying not to be cold. Temp 4 degrees inside.

Sunrise in Sandakpu. Spectacular but oh so cold at 5.30am.

Market in Rimbick, the last village of the trek.

During the day we saw so many cats, dogs, cows and baby goats in the villages we passed through. In one lodge, the baby goats were sleeping in a cardboard box inside, and in the morning both the village cow and the mother goat came inside the kitchen looking for the little goats. We are now officially ready for Macchu Picchu, but even more ready to leave the cold and soak up the sun in Thailand.


Photo left: Wangchuck and Doinka, the friendly couple with whom we had a great homestay while in Darjeeling. Wangchuck was also the organisator of the trek.

Day 4-6 of 112: Mirik, West Bengal province, India

After taking 2 flights and a 42 km trek along a winding mountain road (during which I said more prayers than I care to remember) we arrived in Mirik. Well Mirik must have once been a beautiful village along a lake, but now its a bit of a shit hole, more like a shanty town. Nice people, good food, lovely tea and very cheap, but freezing cold and we were more than happy to leave the next day after a quick visit to the local monastery (during which the monks refused to acknowledge us and I noted the one was wearing pink crocs!)

We left Mirik in a private taxi, only to crash into another taxi 20 km further along the mountain. (picture a steep, narrow road 2000m high, with mist and rain, a long line of traffic blocked by us and 2 drivers and half the Nepalese village arguing with each other (we crashed very close to the Nepal border post). So after 2 hours of this (and a pee in the tea plantation cos there were no toilets at the border post), we returned to Mirik, had to explain to half the village that it was not our driver's fault, and then caught another taxi to Darjeeling.

So here we are....a bigger version of Mirik, with views of the Himalayas which we are still waiting to see because of the mist...but tomorrow we go trekking in the Sandakpu mountains (we are near Nepal and thus somewhere close to Everest) for 5 days....more cold, hours of walking, but worth it to see Wim happy...wish us luck....photos to follow)

S and W

mendi!