Birthdays "Thai-style"

Well, I've reached the magic age of 25 - a quarter of a century - where everything reportedly "goes down hill from here". I don't believe a word of it. This year I got to celebrate my birthday Thai-style on the island of Kho Pha Ngan. Thai-style really means the same as in Adelaide, but the beer is cheaper and the friends much newer. On my "birthday-eve" Bol and I went out for dinner and then met up with mates to visit some bars as the countdown to midnight began. The bar we were in was short on spirits, and s0 for the big midnight birthday cheers the group of us sat around having shots of beer! I awoke the following day on my actual birthday to find our bungalow had been decorated in balloons. The girls we had been hanging out with for little more than 24 hours had gone to the effort of hanging them in the middle of the night as a surprise. You can't get much nicer than that! The people you meet when you travel ....

Our decorated bungalow - after a few balloons had popped

Not a bad spot for a birthday breakfast

So after a bit of a sleep-in, Bol and I jumped on the motorbike and went for a cruise to find the perfect place for my birthday breakfast. We stopped at a gorgeous bar on the beach for some fresh juice before heading to another beach to have burgers at a resort. I spent the afternoon getting a full-body Thai massage and then a second birthday dinner was held at "Kop Shop" - a gorgeous island restaurant with the nicest owner you'll ever meet. It was also the 30th of another one of the girls - Donna - so we had a big double birthday dinner and then of course, stayed up drinking and chatting into the early hours.

Bol gets creative taking photos of the birthday girls

Our cake was made out of dragonfruit and banana

Tineke, Bol, me, Karen and Donna having evening birthday drinks

All in all, it was a fantastic birthday - but I did miss all my family and friends from home. Thanks for all your phone calls and emails. XXXXXXXXXXXX

Kanchanaburi

After a couple of crazy days in Bangkok where we spent too many late nights out with mates and too many hours shopping to get a wardrobe ready for Europe, we retired to Kanchanaburi for some sightseeing. As you'd remember, we went to Kanchanaburi back in April when we were travelling with Tim and Traci, but our memory card crashed and we lost all our photos. We had to return to recapture the memories. This time we went with a few new friends - Dave, Doug and Meg. We went back to Erawan National Park with its amazing seven-tiered waterfalls and we also returned to the Tiger Temple. I won't go into details about either of these because I've done that further down in the blog from our last visit - and I'm feeling lazy - but the photos sum it up nicely.

At the second level of the waterfall

Doug, Dave, Bol and Wayne take the plunge

Bol and Dave

Bol and I prepare to go down the natural slipperydip into the pool below

Their paws are bigger than my head!

Bol pretends the tigers are his turntables and has a mix

Bol and I also got the chance this time to go for a train trip along the Thailand to Burma Railway - otherwise known as the Death Railway - across the River Kwai. We also visited Hellfire Pass, where Australian Prisoners of War were forced to work on the railway by the Japanese during WWII. They lived in terrible conditions and had to dig huge tunnels through rock with their hands and dynamite. More than 1000 Australians died during the course of the railway being built. It's an eerie place.

On the train crossing the Bridge over the River Kwai

Hellfire Pass: the POWs had to dig this out by hand

We once again stayed at Little Creek, which is one of our favourite guesthouses. As described last time, it's a series of mud huts spread over 30 acres. There's a great restaurant and swimming pool and it's the perfect place to play poker into the wee hours, as we discovered! It was a great few days and now we're heading back to Bangkok for a couple of nights and then down to the islands for our last two weeks to really relax, because life is just so stressful :)

Our African style hut

Bol unwinds after a stressful day!

The gang - Meg, Wayne, Dave, Doug, Bol and I - play poker at our guesthouse

Koh Chang

Our journey from Cambodia into Thailand was reminiscent of the television series "The Amazing Race". We caught a taxi, then a ferry, then another taxi, then a bus, then another taxi - running between each - until we jumped on the final ferry headed to Koh Chang with less than a minute to spare. Our race was well worth it though when we arrived at the island which was every bit as relaxing as we had hoped. We originally were going to skip Koh Chang because we'd heard such bad weather reports from other travellers, but as we seem to have done many times on our travels, we took the sunshine with us. We had three days of near perfect weather and we spent our time doing what has become our catch phrase on this trip: "relaxing, eating, drinking and swimming". We also found Koh Chang to be the best place for motorbike riding. Because of its size you could spend a full day riding continuously on the open roads and checking out the many gorgeous beaches tucked away across the island. Granted, there were some more difficult times on the bikes - such as when we had to carry them across a creek because of a broken bridge, to later find we'd be carrying them back across because of a no-through-road ahead! But all in all our riding was so much fun and for Wayne it was his first time riding on this trip, so he was stoked to finally get a chance to get on the bikes.

Long Beach

On the bikes again

One of the many views across Koh Chang

Bol and Wayne cross the creek with the motorbikes

We stayed at Paradise Cottages, which were basic but as the name suggests, absolutely gorgeous. Because it was low season on the islands we paid just 100 baht ($4) for a bungalow on the beach which is usually 400 baht. Bargain! We slept each night with all the windows and doors open so the sea breeze filled the room. The bed was positioned so that our heads were next to a massive window which looked out to the ocean. We'd awake each morning as the sun rose to look out across the sea with the sea breeze gushing in our faces. It was just amazing. Koh Chang was definitely a fantastic start to our return trip to Thailand - and our final month in South East Asia. Next off to Bangkok and Kanchanaburi, which will both be like returning home.

Our humble hut

This is where we'd eat breakfast each morning at our guesthouse

"David" shows you the view from our guesthouse at low tide

Fire twirlers performed on the beach near our guesthouse each night

Sihanoukville

After Leaving Siem Reap we took the 5 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh and then another 6 hours on another bus to Sihanoukville, a small coastal port town. We we told bfore heading there not to bother because of the constant rain that just wouldn't let up. But it was a choice of taking one of the worst bus trips in Asia from Siem Reap to Bangkok or risk the weather on the coast. Of course we chose the coast trip, not that we don't like long, bumpy, dangerous, uncomfortably cramped bus rides! Anyway, we chose the coast and stuck to it. Indeed the closer we got to Sihanoukville the more it rained, but we didn't care, we just wanted a meal and a drink and somewhere dry to sleep.

The first day there all it did was rain. And rain. And rain. But by the next day the sun started to shine, the sky got blue and we were walking, swimming and generally pretty happy. When we first got off the bus we were greeted by an english bloke called Lee. He co-owened a guest house with his mates called "Monkey Republic". There we stayed and it was like paradise after our trip. Huge tasty meals, cheap cold beer and great bungalows. We were spoilt! It was only a short walk from the beach and internet, had a free pool table and the bonus was it had Playstation 2 with my favourite game, San Andreas! Wicked. And to all my none PS2 mates I didn't just waste my time playing! Only some of it. We spent 6 nights there before heading back to Thailand which was very relaxing. Em, Wayne and I hired some guys to take us to a secluded beach where we swam and ate fresh sea food on the beach. Yep doing it hard for sure.

As this was one of our many relaxing stopovers we didn't get up to very much apart from the eating and swimming and drinking so there isn't that much to tell about Sihanoukville apart from.: if you do go there, which you should if you are in the lower part of Cambodia, stay at Monkey Republic and say hi to Lee for me.

Next it's back to Thailand to enjoy all that Koh Chang has to offer.

Em showing off her bathers that she had made in Vietnam.

Oh the hard hard times....

The short walk to the beach.

Friends hanging out with Lee at Monkey Republic.

Siem Reap

Siem Reap was nothing like I had expected. I imagined a small town or maybe even a village where life was slow and quiet. Where one could relax and reflect on ones travels, since it's the town closest to the famous Angkor Wat, one of the world's biggest Buddhist Temples. But when a town has a street called "Pub Street" you can guess it was nothing of the sort!

Emma, Wayne, Grant and I soon discovered that it was a place where it was easy to get lost in the spirit of the town. The rum spirits the vodka spirits etc.....! Mind you we did somehow manage to find time for more rewarding experiences. We of course partook in the Angkor Wat experience. It's unbelievable that they could build such massive temples without the use of modern day equipment. Even if they did have the equipment you'd still have to take your hat off to them. The place is amazing!

Angkor Wat is the largest out of all the Wats in the area and probably the most impressive. It is huge. The walkway up to the the main stairs in itself makes you feel small in the temple's

presence.

The walkway from the main stairs

The main entrance of Angkor Wat

Inside the walls of Angkor Wat

We arrived at the temples just before 6:30am and spent the day exploring the many temples around Angkor. Although Angkor Wat is the biggest and most impressive, my favourite was still the so called "Lara Croft" temple, Ta Prom. It has huge tree roots growing in, through and around the temple and was featured in the movie "Tomb Raider", which starred Angelina Jolie. This temple is amazing. As is the whole place. You really have to go there to see it for yourself because there is no way I can explain it in words.

One of the trees in the "Lara Croft" temple

Another rewarding experience fo us was when Emma, Wayne and an American guy we picked up along the way, Steve, went to one of Geralidine Cox's orphanages. It was great to see the work they are doing. They look after 60 children from the ages of 3 months to 18 years. All the kids get schooling, good fresh food, a safe place to sleep and most of all are made part of a "family". The lady who manages the place is called Bonna and she gave us a tour. Unfortunately the "big" kids were off studying for an exam so we didn't get to meet them.

But we did get to meet some of the babies and toddlers. We bought a soccer ball and some tennis balls for the kids which one toddler took great interest in. Although he could catch yet, Wayne and I had a great game of ball with him. Very cute! Although the tour was quite short we were all impressed at the size of the orphanage and the condition it was in. They certanly were doing a good job there. Next it's off to Sihanoukville.

Emma getting clucky

The gifts for the orphange

Phnom Penh

Cambodia's capital city outlived our expectations by far, with its colourful streets, winding alleys, great food and relaxed feel. By the time we reached Phnom Penh we had a group of five travelling together: Bol, Wayne, Grant, Dave and me. On arrival we headed to the Lakeside District, which as you can guess, was a series of cafes and guesthouses surrounding a lake and checked in to "Sister 9" guesthouse. At $3 a night, the place was a bargain and it became our haven for the next five days. In between our busy day trips we'd return to the guesthouse for meals, movies, pool and drinking beer on the water's edge.

Grant, Bol, Wayne and Dave on our guesthouse balcony

Any traveller to Phnom Penh will visit the Killing Fields and S-21, the former high school which was turned into a prison and execution centre during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. We visited both of these and while it wasn't a fun day out, it was amazing to see the sites where such atrocities took place. At the Killing Fields you walk through mass graves where thousands and thousands of people were thrown after being executed. Thousands of their skulls have been dug up and are on display in a big class case, while some of the graves remain in the ground, yet to be touched. S-21 I found to be even more disturbing, because you get to walk in and out of jail cells that were once student classrooms, and see photos of the victims who lost their lives. Each of them was executed because they were "believed" to be against the Khmer Rouge regime. Some were newborn babies.

On our second night in Phnom Penh the group of us ventured out to watch the World Cup. We headed to the Gym Bar, which turned out to be so full with screaming fans that it was impossible to get a drink, find a seat and all the rest of it. We decided to take a wander down the street where we stumbled upon a cute little bar that was basically empty. We were soon in conversation with the bar owners - a french man Remy and a Laos/Cambodian woman Monika who was due to give birth in two weeks. You couldn't meet a nicer couple and much to Bol's delight, Monika knew how to make his favourite food: a Cambodian pork and egg dish called Koh. Although the bar didn't usually serve food, Monika invited us back the following night to have dinner with her family. Of course, she cooked Koh and she got so excited to see Bol's reaction. Monika's hospitality was certainly a highlight of Phnom Penh and we went back to see her several times before leaving for Siem Reap. She called me her "big sister" because I am 11 days older than her. Our mate Dave took photos of us with Monika and Remy but I won't be able to upload them to the blog until we meet him again in a few days.

The sunset from our guest house

Typical market alley

Not your typical "Street kids"

One of the entrances to the Russian Market

Moving from Vietnam to Cambodia

"The Mekong Delta Tour"

For our journey from Saigon to Phnom Penh - Cambodia's capital - we decided to take a two day trip on the Mekong Delta. Thousands of people live along the intricate maze of water and most of their trade is done on boats, which are also used for the bulk of transportation (see cow pic below!) The waterway is unfortunately really polluted and even in boats there's no escaping the constant ''you buy you buy ...'' from the Vietnamese. If these two factors were taken away, the Mekong Delta could perhaps be described as the Venice of south-east Asia.
For the two day trip, which included crossing the border, we went with an organised tour. We usually stay clear of tours but in this case it was the easiest and cheapest option. The first day was spent hopping on and off boats and buses, visiting small towns and markets and watching a local music performance. At one stop we learned how coconut candy is made (very tasty samples) as well as banana rum (not so tasty). We ended the day with a three hour bus journey to the border town Chau Doc, which could possibly have been our scariest ride yet. The driver sped through the congested traffic at least twice as fast as any other person on the road, ensuring we reached our destination an hour ahead of schedule. With the majority of roads unsealed, we left our seats several times as we hurtled over the bumps. We think he was racing to get home in time to watch the soccer! We arrived safely though and after some dinner at a local restaurant, Bol, Wayne, Grant and I went to bed early to prepare for our 6am start.

After crossing the border into Cambodia in the morning, we spent the remainder of day two on a boat, which was thankfully bigger than the first. We could sit on the deck, stretch our legs and have a couple of cold beers with new friends we met. There's not much else to say about the Delta. It wasn't the highlight of our trip, but we did get a chance to get some good photos and it was a more interesting way of crossing from Vietnam to Cambodia than by bus.

Now, I've written this post from Cambodia but the computers here are so slow, you might have to wait another couple of weeks to find out about, and see photos of, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. We're having an awesome time in Cambodia though and will fill you in more as soon as we find broadband! Em and Bol X