The next day I find myself walking through life with a mild haze as we finish off the temple tour and look at Ta Prohm which is a temple so intertwined with nature that pictures cannot do it justice. To see the petrified trees acting as an extension of the temples is to not do it any justice. When you look at the scope of the temple itself and the history they have both come from, it's just unbelievable. A great way to finish off our temple days.
I wish that continued. As we wait for our midnight bus to arrive, I want nothing more than to sleep off life for a few hours so I look forward to getting on a bus and catching some sleep until the morning. We were also told it would be a straight 11 hour bus ride down to Sihanoukville. Well...
I find some little comfort on the bus, but sitting at the front, everytime i got comfortable I felt someone pushing my foot. Yep. Someone was sitting on the bus steps, I guess thinking that my flip flop would fall (I'm assuming) and they kept pushing my feet. Little creepy, not going to lie, so sleep did not come. Then 6:30am rolls around and we're back in Phnom Penh where they're telling us to get off the bus. So we're off and find out we have to switch buses, but it doesn't come for two hours. So we wait, and we end up getting split up with the minibuses that take us to the actual terminal. After a sketchy ten minutes leading to us leaving, we're on an oversold bus, I'm sitting beside all of the luggage, there's an odd smell coming from everywhere, and no one is comfortable. Maybe some sleep? Nah, that would make things a little too nice. I don't really know if it's possible to ever sleep on these busses. Honestly. When they're not simply dodging cows, children, cars, bikes, cyclists, they are constantly honking. Most of the time the driver is honking at nothing. And it's an unbelievably sharp honk. I think one thing I miss about Canada is its lack of honking. I miss silent drives. It definitely didn't help that I was sandwiched between the luggage and an incredibly twitchy older guy who tried to look out over the seats everytime the driver honked his horn. The count must have been upwards of 150-200 lean overs, and it started making me anxious so sleep never came. Surprise.
But all that being said, after about 14 hours of discomfort, we arrive in Sihanoukville. The beach resort that actually did remind me of home. Picture the main end with not even close to as many people, bars that you actually want to be in, and food and drink prices that won't stick it to you when you're feeling a little peckish. Not to mention all the massages and fresh fruit you could ever want. You could really get used to that kind of place.
So plan for the week: relaxing by the beach and soaking up the sun. What I loved though about the are is the cool breeze that came off the gulf so at night, it was cool rather than hot as hell so being out and about was brilliant. Excited for a week of relaxing!
That is until the second day when surprise! I got violently ill. Started at about 4am. Good way to bring in the day on the beach. But because I'm stubborn and have a fear of missing out, there's no time for bedrest. So we check out another beach. Well, I check out the sand between my feet as my head rests between my knees, but it was a nice place. Not going to sugarcoat, not the greatest day. Should have packed some Gravol or something (travel advice) to soothe the stomach. But I guess I'll stick to the water that won't stay down.
Anyways. Luckily it was only a 24-hour thing and it passed by the next morning. So we're all feeling good. Until about 3:30 when Graham gets sick. Then about 5:00 when Mike gets ill. Apparently I started a domino effect because the next morning Ellen is ill. So it was definitely something we caught, not sure from where, but clearly something got in. So the week was a scattered mess of illness, but a blast nonetheless. We all took it like champs.
To finish off the week we decide to grab a boat tour that takes us snorkeling and to a beach where you can do a river walk and quick hike through the jungle. Ahh, great way to finish off vacation, could not have asked for better.
So it was sad to say goodbye to it all, really did fall in love with Cambodia while we were there. And I really think we lucked out. Illnesses aside (which really could have been worse) everything seemed to work in our favour and everything seemed to fall in place.
Oh Cambodia...until next time.
2012년 2월 15일 수요일
Biking Through A Dream
Back with part two. I think I'm going through vacation withdrawal as I'm adapting back into Korean winter. No motivation lead me to not posting this, but I'm deskwarming and there's only so much Facebook, Korean course, lesson planning, travel planning, shopping and reading that you can do in one week. So I'm bringing in the blogging.
Day two of our temple tour was phenomenal. Rather than tuk tuk it out, we rented a couple bicycles to ride out to the temples. Way cheaper. Not going to lie, was a little bit sketched out at first with the thought of riding in the roads with all the tuk tuks, motorcyclists and cars, but it really wasn't bad and I wish we could have actually done more of it. So we biked out to the temples which seemed to take less time than it did to ride the tuk tuk out. Off to Angkor Thom!
The temple was unbelievable. The detail on these temples were incredible. This particular temple has over 150 faces carved into the temple structures as well as other detailed pieces. Just seeing it in person blew my mind. I don't think I can really describe it, but walking through these temples and knowing that they were built almost 1000 years ago with none of the equipment that we have, it's just mind boggling. And the fact that the religion is still alive there within the temple walls is a little surreal. So different from the west where religion is generally hush hush unless you're prepared to get some sort of backlash, here you are walking through a spiritual landscape that is held so highly amongst its people. It was just unreal to be a part of it for a little while. We got to climb a high tower that was easily 70 degrees minimum with no steps, only the rocks that hold it up, and on top was a Buddhist shrine with a monk where you can make prayers. So there you have the 360 degree view of the temple underneath your feet and a prayer shrine, just unreal.
After visiting a few other temples surrounding Angkor Thom we bike back to the hostel before the sun goes down. But we take the scenic route that goes around almost all of the temples. I will never be able to shake the sight of us biking passed Angkor Wat as the sun is setting behind the temple peaks while bouncing off the surface of the moat. You want to feel like you're living in a dream? It's right there waiting for you. The first night I was a little bummed out that we didn't get to check out the sunset on top of the temple, but after witnessing this and getting to bike beside the moat all the while the sun is setting made all those trivialities disappear. This was definitely one of the greatest highlights of my life, hands down. No regrets.
We top off the night with dinner and then off for some Australian Day celebrations at Angkor What? where the drinks are cheap and you get a t-shirt...some regrets.
Day two of our temple tour was phenomenal. Rather than tuk tuk it out, we rented a couple bicycles to ride out to the temples. Way cheaper. Not going to lie, was a little bit sketched out at first with the thought of riding in the roads with all the tuk tuks, motorcyclists and cars, but it really wasn't bad and I wish we could have actually done more of it. So we biked out to the temples which seemed to take less time than it did to ride the tuk tuk out. Off to Angkor Thom!
The temple was unbelievable. The detail on these temples were incredible. This particular temple has over 150 faces carved into the temple structures as well as other detailed pieces. Just seeing it in person blew my mind. I don't think I can really describe it, but walking through these temples and knowing that they were built almost 1000 years ago with none of the equipment that we have, it's just mind boggling. And the fact that the religion is still alive there within the temple walls is a little surreal. So different from the west where religion is generally hush hush unless you're prepared to get some sort of backlash, here you are walking through a spiritual landscape that is held so highly amongst its people. It was just unreal to be a part of it for a little while. We got to climb a high tower that was easily 70 degrees minimum with no steps, only the rocks that hold it up, and on top was a Buddhist shrine with a monk where you can make prayers. So there you have the 360 degree view of the temple underneath your feet and a prayer shrine, just unreal.
After visiting a few other temples surrounding Angkor Thom we bike back to the hostel before the sun goes down. But we take the scenic route that goes around almost all of the temples. I will never be able to shake the sight of us biking passed Angkor Wat as the sun is setting behind the temple peaks while bouncing off the surface of the moat. You want to feel like you're living in a dream? It's right there waiting for you. The first night I was a little bummed out that we didn't get to check out the sunset on top of the temple, but after witnessing this and getting to bike beside the moat all the while the sun is setting made all those trivialities disappear. This was definitely one of the greatest highlights of my life, hands down. No regrets.
We top off the night with dinner and then off for some Australian Day celebrations at Angkor What? where the drinks are cheap and you get a t-shirt...some regrets.
2012년 2월 4일 토요일
I Make Change
Like always, left packing far too late and yet again got very little sleep before heading out to Cambodia. On a plus side note, finally did some online Korean shopping and think it just might be a little too addictive. Super cheap and super easy and quick, order two separate items on two different nights a few days before my flight, and they both came in around dinner the day after I ordered them. I will definitely be jumping on that bandwagon. Anyways, off to Cambodia! Met Ellen in Gwangju to bus it up to the Incheon Airport for our evening departure. Bit of a long day of travelling that started around 8am, got into Cambodia around 11pm, but that's how she goes. Anyways, we rolled into Phnom Penh and we're off to the hostel, little place called Me Mates Place. We lucked out, at first the five of us were going to be in split rooms but the group hostel opened so we had the bigger room, plus a patio and rooftop terrace.
I'm just going to throw it out there that Phnom Penh is not my favourite city out there. There is so much poverty, and compared to the other cities we travelled through, it seemed awfully heightened in P.P. You couldn't stop to get gas without being surrounded by people asking for money and trying to sell you things. It's so sad to see, but impossible to help everyone over there. So there was definitely some culture shock getting into the city, which as it stands is actually pretty nice. Not a whole lot going on, but nice enough to spend a couple of days. We (Ellen and I, the other three arrived the night before us) had two nights and one day in P.P. so we jumped at the chance to see the local sights. The guy working the hostel tried so hard to convince us to go to a shooting range to fire some machine guns and, given $450, a rocket launcher. I would have been game for shooting a gun, but then reality sunk in with where we would be shooting it. Not exactly the safest location and the weapons were sketch, and to put into context with the rest of the day, I'm sure we all would have felt pretty awful if we had taken the opportunity. Our first stop was The Killing Fields. I made the mistake of not reading up on too much Cambodian history before travelling so everything was pretty fresh, but the Killing Fields were definitely depressing to walk through, and after going through that tour we went to S-21, which was a Prison used during the Khmer Rouge Communist Regime. It was a bit of a heavy day, I almost feel bad saying it was a great way to learn about Cambodian history, but it definitely makes me want to read more on the country. Day was topped off on a lighter note by visiting the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda.
Capped the night off with some dinner and meeting a few new faces, then some rooftop soccer and then prepared for our early morning departure into Siem Reap. Found enough of us so that we could rent a private van to drive us up there rather than take a bus (that little adventure will come later). It was a bit of a long drive up to Siem Reap. It took about six hours, but we made it. The guy from our other hostel set us up at the No Problem Villa so we already had a couple of rooms waiting for us. After settling in, off to Angkor Wat to watch the sunset. Underestimated just how busy it would be at that time, so we didn't get prime location to watch the sunset, but we got to glimpse it and check out a little bit of the temples area before heading back to the hostel and exploring the area. We lucked out and were in a fairly prime location, everything was pretty centralized and we could walk everywhere. Plus, we were close to the markets and Pub Street, so we had a little bit of everything.
We had a tuk tuk take us out to Angkor Wat again the next day to we could actually explore the temple. It still boggles my mind that we were walking through the temples only a couple weeks ago. It was so surreal to be in there. We heard it through the grapevine that most people leave the temples around 11 and return around 3-ish to escape the hottest times of the day, so naturally we made that our time to explore. I'm glad we did, the temple was not that busy, and it definitely enhanced the experience to be able to walk down some of the long corridors with nobody else. And it was definitely a lot bigger than I had anticipated. It looked big from the outside, but it seemed massive from the inside. Definitely a beautiful place to be, if I had a pretty good camera, I could easily spend hours on hours walking through there. Not to mention the monkeys. I've never seen a monkey in the wild, so it was pretty cool to see them just chillin at the side of the paths, or on the temple walkways. Great first day through Siem Reap.
The poverty in Siem Reap wasn't as bad as in Phnom Penh, but it was still fairly significant. But the whole city had a different vibe than how Phnom Penh felt. And I think I ran into one of the greatest swindlers I've every met. And I think she's only about 7 maybe 8. She definitely coaxed us into buying some bracelets. We tried the simple "Ah no money," but she knew how to work a sale and with a smirk and the line "I make change" she ended up getting a sale out of each of us. Was worth the dollar just for the entertainment value of it all, she spoke and understood English so much better than 90% of the kids I'm teaching.
Well I'ma break this trip down a bit, part two will come later.
I'm just going to throw it out there that Phnom Penh is not my favourite city out there. There is so much poverty, and compared to the other cities we travelled through, it seemed awfully heightened in P.P. You couldn't stop to get gas without being surrounded by people asking for money and trying to sell you things. It's so sad to see, but impossible to help everyone over there. So there was definitely some culture shock getting into the city, which as it stands is actually pretty nice. Not a whole lot going on, but nice enough to spend a couple of days. We (Ellen and I, the other three arrived the night before us) had two nights and one day in P.P. so we jumped at the chance to see the local sights. The guy working the hostel tried so hard to convince us to go to a shooting range to fire some machine guns and, given $450, a rocket launcher. I would have been game for shooting a gun, but then reality sunk in with where we would be shooting it. Not exactly the safest location and the weapons were sketch, and to put into context with the rest of the day, I'm sure we all would have felt pretty awful if we had taken the opportunity. Our first stop was The Killing Fields. I made the mistake of not reading up on too much Cambodian history before travelling so everything was pretty fresh, but the Killing Fields were definitely depressing to walk through, and after going through that tour we went to S-21, which was a Prison used during the Khmer Rouge Communist Regime. It was a bit of a heavy day, I almost feel bad saying it was a great way to learn about Cambodian history, but it definitely makes me want to read more on the country. Day was topped off on a lighter note by visiting the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda.
Capped the night off with some dinner and meeting a few new faces, then some rooftop soccer and then prepared for our early morning departure into Siem Reap. Found enough of us so that we could rent a private van to drive us up there rather than take a bus (that little adventure will come later). It was a bit of a long drive up to Siem Reap. It took about six hours, but we made it. The guy from our other hostel set us up at the No Problem Villa so we already had a couple of rooms waiting for us. After settling in, off to Angkor Wat to watch the sunset. Underestimated just how busy it would be at that time, so we didn't get prime location to watch the sunset, but we got to glimpse it and check out a little bit of the temples area before heading back to the hostel and exploring the area. We lucked out and were in a fairly prime location, everything was pretty centralized and we could walk everywhere. Plus, we were close to the markets and Pub Street, so we had a little bit of everything.
We had a tuk tuk take us out to Angkor Wat again the next day to we could actually explore the temple. It still boggles my mind that we were walking through the temples only a couple weeks ago. It was so surreal to be in there. We heard it through the grapevine that most people leave the temples around 11 and return around 3-ish to escape the hottest times of the day, so naturally we made that our time to explore. I'm glad we did, the temple was not that busy, and it definitely enhanced the experience to be able to walk down some of the long corridors with nobody else. And it was definitely a lot bigger than I had anticipated. It looked big from the outside, but it seemed massive from the inside. Definitely a beautiful place to be, if I had a pretty good camera, I could easily spend hours on hours walking through there. Not to mention the monkeys. I've never seen a monkey in the wild, so it was pretty cool to see them just chillin at the side of the paths, or on the temple walkways. Great first day through Siem Reap.
The poverty in Siem Reap wasn't as bad as in Phnom Penh, but it was still fairly significant. But the whole city had a different vibe than how Phnom Penh felt. And I think I ran into one of the greatest swindlers I've every met. And I think she's only about 7 maybe 8. She definitely coaxed us into buying some bracelets. We tried the simple "Ah no money," but she knew how to work a sale and with a smirk and the line "I make change" she ended up getting a sale out of each of us. Was worth the dollar just for the entertainment value of it all, she spoke and understood English so much better than 90% of the kids I'm teaching.
Well I'ma break this trip down a bit, part two will come later.
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