Unexpectedly in Khon Kaen

Apparently the Dragoman philosophy boils down to five words. I can only remember flexibility because it is the one that comes up the most often.

Thailand is going in to its wet season and all the places Dragoman usually camp at were under water. Gertie would have got stuck.

It felt like a really long day. We started driving at 9am and arrived at a hotel at 7.30pm. I had the mad fidgets for most of the morning and it was terribly trying to sit still. And it must be about the middle of the trip because the people I have been finding slightly annoying, I would now cheerfully kill.

The hotel is super fancy

Same Same

Today was another drive day with a border crossing. [Same one as last time, but back the other way, it is much quicker to get back into Thailand].


I was up before most people for breakfast and enjoyed tea and kindle.

















A view out the front of the truck (her name is Gertie, she is a lovely truck).


















 We left our fabulous Cambodian guide, Sam, at the border. If anyone needs a fabulous guide in Cambodia, I have his contact details and, because we are going into the wet season, he has very little guide work until October.

I have found a new Glee friend on the trip. She has been travelling through India and Nepal for the last several months, so we spent the afternoon catching her up on episodes. There was time for an hour's swim before the meeting about camping.

We are heading off into the wilds tomorrow to bush camp and then after that we are heading into Laos. So there will be no net access tomorrow and I am not sure about the internet in Laos. It is China after that and, the last I heard, blogger is blocked there. I have ways of posting text, but the photos may have to stop. I'll try and work out something devious.

Making Friends

Julia and Claire (below) got a fish massage the other day in Phnom Penh, but I could not bring myself to put my feet in the tank. The whole idea gave me the wiggins.



















Tonight we went to the night market in Siem Reap and wandered around. Claire and I bought Same Same, but Different t-shirts because we are Tourists. And we all had a 'foot spa' and massage. I didn't take a picture, but imagine a warm night and couches and lotus scented water and fragrant tea and a slice of water melon.


I forgot to put in one of my favourite statues, yesterday. This is a happy lion outside Angkor Thom. We sat outside Thom for an hour and ten minutes wondering where in the hell everyone had got to. I did a couple of circuits of Thom, thinking of Latin words to take my mind off the heat, looking for everyone, but it was deserted and I started to feel a bit Picnic at Hanging Rock.
























This is the only picture I have taken of Siem Reap. Largely because I was knackered today after yesterday's bout of extreme temples and stomach gymnastics.

We have become slightly obsessed about that thing that travellers become slightly obsessed about and were discussing it on the way home from the night market just now. Julia kept making us walk ahead of her. I got the hysterical giggles, especially when... but no, this is not the time or the place for fart jokes.

Magical spelling will protect the country

I have washed the film of DEET and sunscreen off my skin, brushed my teeth and laundered today's clothes in the sink.

Today involved some of that less pleasant side of travelling, and while the others were having lunch, I spent some quality time in the toilet with Terry Pratchett and Guards! Guards!

It was a big day of visiting temples. I was a little distracted by things and I am not really sure which ones, but Angkor Wat was involved. I should go and look it up.

There were figures of semi-nude women all over the walls. I loved their tummies. Each tummy was unique and some had been carved by the hands of someone who loved women's tummies. Some of the women looked like they were about to dance out of the walls.

I touched noses with Buddha

The whole thing was worth it, because at the end of the day when I left the top of the last holy place to the several thousand tourists watching the sun set,

 

I got to feed an elephant.

I have had a mango shake and some fried rice for dinner and hopefully that will work out well.

How do you say wax in Khmer?

We went to the museum this morning. I find museums a bit blah blah blah, but I liked looking at the toes on the statues and this museum had a whole section on weaving and spinning. They had a collection of beautiful little stone spindle whorls.

This afternoon I went to find a place that does waxing. The market nearby has lots of little hair salon/stalls that I thought might do it. I had forgotten how not hairy Asian women are and so I searched in vain.

I saw someone doing cross stitch in one of the salons so I stopped to talk to her. She asked if I wanted my hair washed.

So I had a lovely time watching the women come and go and listening to them talk. I wished I had my cross stitch with me so I could have stitched with them for a bit. I have a cross stitch book mark in my pack, so I might get that out to start on the truck tomorrow.

I find lack of language frustrating. I am only learning a couple of words a day and, because we have a guide, there is not the same kind of incentive to make an effort to learn more. It's so easy to let him talk.

A walk through the market in Phnom Penh

 I learned to say 'thousand', 'hundred' and 'thank you very much'.

Visiting S-21 Prison and Choeung Ek

Again in two parts.


Part the first:
The day started badly with a poor night's sleep with no air-con. I had a complete sense of humour failure that was fixed by a giant mug of tea and some Vegemite on a baguette.

And if that hadn't worked, then I had a large helping of perspective.

There is plenty of information on the net for anyone who wants to know more.

Part the second:

In the afternoon I walked round to the market near the guesthouse we are in. I had just caught sight of two of the boys from the tour (they are really sweet, they eat oatmeal for breakfast every morning and one doesn't eat the crusts on his sandwiches) and was heading for them when someone spat on me. It could have been an accident, or a sneeze, I'm not sure. I've been spat at before, but not on.

Just now I went out again and found a small shop selling handmade-by-Cambodians things. They had a big sign up about a school that they have set up in the country and I went in to ask about it. I had a conversation with the guy about it and then he asked me if I was married. I showed him my ring. He asked me if I had kids and I said no. He asked me when I was going to have kids...

We talked for a few minutes more and then he said:

“You are very beautiful. You should have babies. Especially, the mix is very beautiful with a Cambodian man. The mother's nose and the father's hair... very beautiful.”

Kampuchea

The day (has it only been a day?) falls into three parts:

Part one – Crossing the border

I was going to take a photo at the Thai/Cambodia border, but everyone looked hot and dirty and cranky.

The border crossing involved a lot of go here, go there, you don't need a passport photo, $20 fee, no, $23 fee, come back here, you do need a photo, get a stamp there, go and get on the truck, no you can't go through there.

Part two – Seeing some things

O Cambodia. Go. Go to Cambodia.

The people here are extraordinary. We went on the Bamboo Train and visited the village around the brickworks.

I was taught by some of the village children to count to five, say 'hello', 'goodbye', 'cow' and 'rooster' in Khmer.

 

Find a Cambodian guide (ours, Sam, is marvellous), or go with Dragoman. I can't tell you what I have learned, it is too much to think about again so soon, but there is a reason our itinerary sounds so bleak at this stage.

The stairs out of the killing cave - didn't photograph the cave

I can see why so many Westerners come here and convert to Buddhism. We stood at the bottom of the killing cave and Sam told us stories and Buddhism made sense. By the time we had returned to the truck, my spiritual destitution had reasserted itself. 

 

The thought of coming back here to teach has crossed my mind, but I have a feeling that it is just the big talk that sometimes happens.

Tomorrow we are going to the killing fields.

Bats at 6.30pm. Looked like the milky way.

Buddha emerging from the cliff.

Part Three – Cambodian Hot Pot and Disco.

Just to indicate how On Holidays I am, we followed a gut-stretching meal at a hot pot restaurant with a Cambodian disco. Where I would have danced all night, but for dehydration.

Aranyaprathet

We have left Bangkok and have arrived in Aranyaprathet.











 

Our bus (Gertie) is more than twenty years old, has no air con and leaks when it rains. Tonight I am sharing a double bed with someone. Apparently the motto for this trip is all about flexibility and acceptance and tolerance and stuff, so I am going to complain here to you rather than look bad in front of the rest of the group. I also have a query about the Coke bottle opener in the toilet.

 

Actually, the hotel reminds me a lot of Chez Lala in Tulear. But with a pool and no Madame Lala and no prostitutes. I am about to go for a swim in the pool (just giving it a few more minutes for the day to get cooler...) and I am looking forward to sitting in the outdoor restaurant and drinking beer. Everything is reminding me a lot of Madagascar and I am feeling all lovely and reminisce-y.

This is my third (?) day in Thailand and I have learnt to say four things. Hello, Thank you, foreigner and gecko. Tomorrow we cross the border into Cambodia

Bangkok taxis

And snacks I probably shouldn't eat on the bus:

Malaysian sunset from train window

Chatuchak Market

I was trying to work out how to cross a busy road this afternoon (There were no little old ladies and my usual method is to get close to a little old lady and go when she goes. I figure they must be doing something right.) and some how ended up in a taxi with an American couple from Hawaii going to the big Sunday market.

They were Nikki, a masseuse, and Peter, a ski-diving teacher. Peter has been coming to Thailand once a year since 2002 to unwind after ten months teaching.

The market apparently covers 20 acres, I'd never heard of it.

As I walked in I was overwhelmed by smells. First, books mouldering in the damp heat, then hand made leather shoes, woven baskets, teak lanterns. There was so much stuff to buy and so so cheap. Carved wooden fruit bowls for 40 baht (just over 1 AUD), a giant jade elephant god for 350 baht, little jade elephants for 50 baht. I walked past beautiful textiles and wished some of my shopping friends could be here.

From there I thought I took a turn to go to the hand-craft area and ended up in garden plants. Another turn to set myself to rights took me into the pet section. And that's where it all went wrong. 

At first I looked at the kittens and hamsters and guinea pigs and rabbits and made a little joke in my head that I could pick up one of each for snacks later on [terrible, I know, and possibly explains what happened next] because I got lost in the pets. I passed tanks and tanks of tropical fish (all the ones I'd learned to identify in Madagascar, many of the juvenal varieties, too). Then I got stuck in the poultry section and nearly passed out or threw up from the hot dusty feathery smell of it all. 

And it kept getting more nightmarish and everywhere I turned there were more animals and I started seeing baby sugar gliders scrabbling to get out of their aquariums and Macaw parrots and Australian Bearded Dragons and tiny Iguanas and hedgehogs and dormice. And then it got worse and there were buckets of big maggots and trays of small maggots and shrimp and krill and crickets and gold fish and do not take photograph signs.

The joke in my head changed to 'I think I have had a dream like this where I just kept going round and round and no matter which way I turned I couldn't get out.' Each time I was sure that I had found my way, there were more pets.

And then there were the squirrels. The baby ones were all in a wall of little wire cages and the bigger ones were lined up along the top. I couldn't work out why they weren't making a run for it until I got closer. They were all tied to the cage with little silk ropes around their necks. Each one was leaning against its binding with its little nose pressed against the cage beneath with a look of glassy-eyed despair. Except for one little chipmunk who was still fighting like mad to get free. Should I mention the one that had on a little yellow dress?

I thought I had been in there for hours, but it was only 30 minutes.

Khao San Road (or near enough)

Today I:

* fell in love with Thailand

* arrived in Bangkok,

* avoided being ripped off by taxis,

* checked into my hotel,

* found the only nearby ATM that doesn't charge fees (AEON, found here),

* bought sliced pineapple, sweet tiny crispy hot sultana cakes and a coconut juice

* went for a swim in the hotel pool in the rain.

In Singapore I marvelled at all the buildings with plants growing on them. Having travelled up the peninsula, I see that the trick is stopping the plants from growing on things.

This solo travel as a lady thing is brilliant. I sat down in the train from Butterworth to Bangkok opposite a Turkish man with terrifying plucked out tattooed back on eyebrows. He was then joined by his friend and we were all squished in to our berth. I felt super uncomfortable.

An hour later they were calling me “my friend” (common in Turkey?), feeding me chocolate cake and fooling around to make me laugh.

Then, because I am a lady-girl-traveller-person, I was able to ask them for their facebook contact without being creepy.

I experienced typical Australian confusion at the two-kiss farewell.

Singapore to Butterworth

I forget now where I read it, Lonely Planet? The Man in Seat 61? but bless whoever gave the advice about getting food for the train. This first leg was 13 hours and that is a long time to go without a snack.

As I was sitting on the train watching rows and rows of well-ordered trees going past, I started wondering why someone would try and do this. I came up with the following possibilities:

a) mad

b) crazy

c) a little deranged

d) showing off

e) it seemed like a good idea a the time.

I am thinking, in my case, it is e) with a bit of d) and some c).

That said, sitting in air-conditioned comfort at the front of the train, watching Malaysia go past was nearly as easy as watching it on telly. And I like the view from trains, you always get to see the back of things. From the road you mostly only see the front. I saw a goanna (or something that looked like one) climbing out of a river near one of the railway stations.

Leaving Keppel Road railway station in Singapore filled my romantic little heart with joy. It was easy to imagine that you were in a novel where people drank gin and tonics and wore beige. They are closing it down, soon. Relocating to a new, modern station that connects with their public transport system and will be much more efficient.

Once we were north of Kuala Lumpur, the view out the window stopped reminding me of country Victoria (with more palm trees) and started looking appropriately travel-documentary exotic.

I kind of wish Singapore (strangely like Melbourne, comfortingly familiar) could have come in the middle of the trip.