The sights and sounds keep getting better and better! This morning we took full advantage of our free 1 hour massage in our room (another perk of the hotel package). Cambodian massage is really good. Nice and strong (if you're brave enough!) and full of all sorts of body manipulations to get the bones crunching and the joints cracking. It's also rather 'involved'. There's this weird disparity between the need to cover up the body in public and the total lack of inhibition in the massage process. Felt amazing afterwards though.
After all the trekking around temples, we devoted the morning to a nice long stroll around Siem Reap, largely focused around two key destinations: the Old Market and Swenson's ice-cream shop (no prizes for guessing which of us picked which destination).
The market was chaotic to say the least. Inside the air was full of all kinds of smells, some considerably more pleasant than others. I felt particularly sorry for the women who seemed to be hand mixing some sort of fish paste by hand in a big plastic container, although the butcher woman didn't look to be having much fun either. Although I generally don't like to buy souvenirs (you usually regret them once you get home) I couldn't resist buying a shoulder bag made from recycled fish food bags. It's made in Cambodia and the workmanship is fab - it's even plastic covered to make it waterproof (i.e. UK proof). The look of thunder on the girl's face told me that I got a pretty good deal for $6 (she started the process at $15).
Whilst we were exploring we came across a lovely art gallery run by a local expat photographer called John McDermott. The gallery is lovely and modern inside and the photos are stunning, so it was a real joy to spend a few minutes walking around and reliving some of our favourite temples.
Lunch was a very basic affair. Just a can of soya bean milk (Yeo's, my favourite from my childhood) and a plate of boiled pork dumplings. Plenty of food for two and a snip at just $3 for the whole meal. The place was called Wooden House restaurant.
After lunch we got involved in some serious chill time, reading by the Central Boutique's lovely pool and taking the odd dip until it was time to leave with San for our afternoon excursions. San suggested we had a bit of time to kill before heading to the lake, so he recommended we check out a local artisan training centre, which we did. It was really interesting to watch the trainee artisans at work carving stone or wood, and painting on silk or painted wood panels. The shop had some lovely silk products and one fantastic painting of two peacocks. Sadly the latter was neither wallet nor backpack friendly.
Once we were done at the workshops, San drove us out to Tonle Sap, where we paid $20 for our own boat complete with a crew of two - a teenage driver and a younger kid, who was like some kind of water monkey the way he clambered around the boat.
The lake is something of a natural phenomenon, rising in size from 2,500 square kilometers in the dry season to 13,000 in the wet season. The lake is fed by 16 different rivers, but the primary source of water is the Mekong.
As I've said before, were coming to the end of the dry season now, so we had to travel down a very shallow channel to get onto the lake proper. At first we were a bit gutted because we thought we'd fallen prey to Scambodia yet again. Who would pay $20 for a trip in a boat up and down a dirty stretch of river water?
We were so wrong.
After motoring along past a ramshackled collection of makeshift houses on the bank and groups of kids playing on the riverbank the channel started to widen and we arrived at the edge of the great lake. The lake seemed to go on forever and after a short stint of open water we arrived at the floating village.
I had been expecting houses on stilts, assuming that the 'floating village' was simply bad translation, but in fact the houses are indeed all floating like something out of a big Hollywood sci-fi movie. I have never seen anything like it: house after house floating on the lake, presumably anchored in place. Each house had its own living quarters and kitchen and a good number of them were gaily painted in bright colours reminiscent of Central American buses. Everyone travelled around by boat and they had a floating market, a floating school and even a floating restaurant complete with aquarium display, crocodile pit and fish pond!!! To cap it all, there were a small number of very entrepreneurial girls who were doing a roaring trade persuading the Japanese tourists to pay them a few dollars to pose with their Burmese pythons. God knows how they feed these big snakes out on the lake, bit we did see a few floating duck and chicken coops...
We went upstairs to the viewing deck of the restaurant to try and capture the sun setting over the village. The houses in silhouette with the golden sunlight rippling on the water was beautiful, but nothing compared to the effect created by the last few minutes of sunlight as we left the village: Once the sun had dropped below the horizon, everything was bathed in incredible pink light - the surface of the water, the clouds in the sky, the boat, everything. I sat on the prow facing the direction we'd come from and soaked it all up. Truly magical. Probably a once in a lifetime feeling.
San was waiting for us when we got off the boat, ready to take us back home. Back at the hotel we freshened up and went out for a fabulous meal at the Sugar Palm. Amber finally got to try Cambodian amok curry. I had pork rib sweet and spicy soup. Nice food in a nice setting. No wonder it's a Lonely Planet recommendation.
We got back to our room in time for a full on tropical rain storm complete with thunder and lightning.
Tomorrow we leave Cambodia. I will be sad to go. We have already decided we will come back one day.
Monday, 18 April 2011
Sunday, 17 April 2011
The Temples of Angkor - Day 2: Kbal Spean, Banteay Srei, Pre Rup and sunset at Bakheng Hill
I know you all want me to talk about temples today, but for me the 17th April 2011 is all about lizards and fish!
We set off at 9:00am for Kbal Spean and arrived at 10:30am in blazing heat. Kbal Spean is famous for carvings in the bed of a river, which is a good 40 minute trek from the car park up a well cleared path. Within about 10 minutes I had spotted my first lizard of the day perched elegantly on a vine. It was Calotes versicolor a.k.a. Oriental Garden Lizard or, more bizarrely, the Common Bloodsucker. Presumably the latter name comes from the fact that males have a bright red head and torso in the breeding season. Given the number of brightly coloured males we saw today, I would guess that the breeding season is around now!
Later on we came to clearing, where I saw another three lizards. Male and female Bloodsuckers and one as yet unidentified lizard, which I am fairly sure was a flying lizard (Draco maculatus), as these are found in Cambodia. Another fantastic find for me, and an unmissable photo opp.
Thanks to the leafy roof of the forest, the trek was actually really pleasant and we made it up to the river in no time. We'd been told by our friends Courtney and Dave that there would be a refreshing waterfall awaiting us at the top, but this is the end of the dry season and as such the river wasn't even flowing! This afforded us a great view of the carvings in the river bed, but the waterfall was distinctly lacking. Interestingly most of the carvings are of male fertility symbols, or linga, which essentially look like little domes (imagine the top sliced off a concrete bollard!). There were rows and rows of these carved into the rock and presumably most of them are usually submerged.
It was here that I got my next zoological treat. Given that the river wasn't flowing, all that remained were a number of fairly large, extremely shallow pools in which the water had been died a deep brown from all the tannins leeching out of the fallen leaves. In these pools were several species of fish, but the ones that got me all excited (sad I know!) were the dwarf snakeheads in the Channa genus. I've seen these in aquaria and actually kept a few briefly in my own tanks, so it was incredible to see them in the wild in their natural habitat. I would never in a million years have imagined that they would live quite happily in water so rich in tannins and so low in oxygen, but here they were.
From that point on I was pretty sure we couldn't do any better on the wildlife front, but then on the way back down we came across not one but two Blue Crested lizards (Calotes mystaceus), a male and a female. I would like to include my own photo, but at the moment I don't have the technological requirements, so you'll have to make do with one from Google images. Either way I think it's safe to say that these lizards (even to a non-lizard-enthusiast) are outstandingly beautiful.
THEY MADE MY DAY! I was grinning from ear to ear after that. You can keep your temples, this is what travelling to far flung reaches of the world is all about for me!
Anyway, with that huge success unfer our belts, we ventured onwards to 'the jewel in the crown' that is Banteay Srei - perhaps the most impressive temple in Cambodia for sheer intricacy of stone carving.
For the millionth time we were left speechless. You just have to see Banteay Srei to understand how mind-blowing the carvings are. It's insane that people were able to produce such beautiful carvings without any of the electronic machinery we use today. Just an amazing place - you'll have to wait for photos, as I didn't take any from my phone and those are the easiest to upload right now.
From Banteay Srei we headed back to the main Angkor complex to check out one more temple (Pre Rup) before walking up Bakheng Hill to catch sunset. At Pre Rup we bumped into Manuel again! He'd hired a moto (motorbike taxi) for the day and had been busy seeing as many temples as possible. We chatted briefly before he had to carry on and we climbed back down from the top to seek out the perfect angle for a photo.
Unfortunately it was soon after this that the clouds started rolling in, so as we got to the bottom of Bakheng Hill you couldn't even see the sun. What you could see were the lovely elephants they have there, who looked very well looked after indeed and had some very fancy wooden chairs set on their backs (you can pay $20 to ride an elephant up the hill for the sunset). Beautiful looking animals and different to the elephants we had seen in Thailand in that they seemed smaller and had much darker skin.
In the end there was no sunset to be had from the top. We took a few photos up there to capture the impressive view, but decided to maximise our pool time back at the hotel and call it a day.
We headed back to the hotel for a refreshing dip and then left the Central Boutique to check out another recommendation: drinks in the bar at the Raffles d'Angkor hotel. A quick stroll later and we were in the Elephant Bar in the hotel, which is a jolly fine place to be. We ordered two scrumptious cocktails and were presented with two enormous bowls of snacks. The first was bite-sized crispy rice cakes served with curry sauce, the second was full of cassava crisps. Eating both bowls would certainly have constituted a decent meal for two adults.
They have a free pool table in the bar, so I challenged Amber to a game. We're both terrible at pool, so it was only down to the fact that statistically if you take enough shots you will eventually pot the requisite number of balls that I just managed to win. I don't think the bar staff had ever seen such incompetence round a pool table. They were most amused.
Following on from our visit to Elephant Bar we headed in search of a restaurant called Curry Walla for dinner. The food there is Bangladeshi in origin and I have to say it was very tasty indeed, especially the tamarind chutney.
We set off at 9:00am for Kbal Spean and arrived at 10:30am in blazing heat. Kbal Spean is famous for carvings in the bed of a river, which is a good 40 minute trek from the car park up a well cleared path. Within about 10 minutes I had spotted my first lizard of the day perched elegantly on a vine. It was Calotes versicolor a.k.a. Oriental Garden Lizard or, more bizarrely, the Common Bloodsucker. Presumably the latter name comes from the fact that males have a bright red head and torso in the breeding season. Given the number of brightly coloured males we saw today, I would guess that the breeding season is around now!
Later on we came to clearing, where I saw another three lizards. Male and female Bloodsuckers and one as yet unidentified lizard, which I am fairly sure was a flying lizard (Draco maculatus), as these are found in Cambodia. Another fantastic find for me, and an unmissable photo opp.
Thanks to the leafy roof of the forest, the trek was actually really pleasant and we made it up to the river in no time. We'd been told by our friends Courtney and Dave that there would be a refreshing waterfall awaiting us at the top, but this is the end of the dry season and as such the river wasn't even flowing! This afforded us a great view of the carvings in the river bed, but the waterfall was distinctly lacking. Interestingly most of the carvings are of male fertility symbols, or linga, which essentially look like little domes (imagine the top sliced off a concrete bollard!). There were rows and rows of these carved into the rock and presumably most of them are usually submerged.
It was here that I got my next zoological treat. Given that the river wasn't flowing, all that remained were a number of fairly large, extremely shallow pools in which the water had been died a deep brown from all the tannins leeching out of the fallen leaves. In these pools were several species of fish, but the ones that got me all excited (sad I know!) were the dwarf snakeheads in the Channa genus. I've seen these in aquaria and actually kept a few briefly in my own tanks, so it was incredible to see them in the wild in their natural habitat. I would never in a million years have imagined that they would live quite happily in water so rich in tannins and so low in oxygen, but here they were.
From that point on I was pretty sure we couldn't do any better on the wildlife front, but then on the way back down we came across not one but two Blue Crested lizards (Calotes mystaceus), a male and a female. I would like to include my own photo, but at the moment I don't have the technological requirements, so you'll have to make do with one from Google images. Either way I think it's safe to say that these lizards (even to a non-lizard-enthusiast) are outstandingly beautiful.
THEY MADE MY DAY! I was grinning from ear to ear after that. You can keep your temples, this is what travelling to far flung reaches of the world is all about for me!
Anyway, with that huge success unfer our belts, we ventured onwards to 'the jewel in the crown' that is Banteay Srei - perhaps the most impressive temple in Cambodia for sheer intricacy of stone carving.
For the millionth time we were left speechless. You just have to see Banteay Srei to understand how mind-blowing the carvings are. It's insane that people were able to produce such beautiful carvings without any of the electronic machinery we use today. Just an amazing place - you'll have to wait for photos, as I didn't take any from my phone and those are the easiest to upload right now.
From Banteay Srei we headed back to the main Angkor complex to check out one more temple (Pre Rup) before walking up Bakheng Hill to catch sunset. At Pre Rup we bumped into Manuel again! He'd hired a moto (motorbike taxi) for the day and had been busy seeing as many temples as possible. We chatted briefly before he had to carry on and we climbed back down from the top to seek out the perfect angle for a photo.
Unfortunately it was soon after this that the clouds started rolling in, so as we got to the bottom of Bakheng Hill you couldn't even see the sun. What you could see were the lovely elephants they have there, who looked very well looked after indeed and had some very fancy wooden chairs set on their backs (you can pay $20 to ride an elephant up the hill for the sunset). Beautiful looking animals and different to the elephants we had seen in Thailand in that they seemed smaller and had much darker skin.
In the end there was no sunset to be had from the top. We took a few photos up there to capture the impressive view, but decided to maximise our pool time back at the hotel and call it a day.
We headed back to the hotel for a refreshing dip and then left the Central Boutique to check out another recommendation: drinks in the bar at the Raffles d'Angkor hotel. A quick stroll later and we were in the Elephant Bar in the hotel, which is a jolly fine place to be. We ordered two scrumptious cocktails and were presented with two enormous bowls of snacks. The first was bite-sized crispy rice cakes served with curry sauce, the second was full of cassava crisps. Eating both bowls would certainly have constituted a decent meal for two adults.
They have a free pool table in the bar, so I challenged Amber to a game. We're both terrible at pool, so it was only down to the fact that statistically if you take enough shots you will eventually pot the requisite number of balls that I just managed to win. I don't think the bar staff had ever seen such incompetence round a pool table. They were most amused.
Following on from our visit to Elephant Bar we headed in search of a restaurant called Curry Walla for dinner. The food there is Bangladeshi in origin and I have to say it was very tasty indeed, especially the tamarind chutney.
The Temples of Angkor - Day 1: Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Ta Keo, Preah Khan, Angkor Thom
Thanks to getting to bed early last night, the 4:30am alarm clock wasn't too unpleasant, so both of us managed to get our act together in time to meet our tuk tuk driver, San, at 5:00am.
Cambodian tuk tuks are different to those in Thailand. The Thai ones are all enclosed, whereas the Cambodian ones are essentially a motorbike with a sheltered cart attached.
San drove us to the ticket office to buy our three-day pass and the onwards to Angkor Wat, where he dropped us at the bridge over the moat so we could walk inside the complex and find a good spot to catch the sunrise.
With it being so early, there weren't too may people around, so we had no trouble positioning ourselves on the edge of one of the ponds to get a decent shot of the sunrise. The only mild irritant was a group of giggling Japanese girls who insisted on taking each others photo directly in the way of my shot! While we waited for the sun we ate our packed breakfast (Amber had banana pancakes and honey, I had yellow noodles with chicken).
Sadly it was a little hazy, so when the sun eventually did rise, we were denied the spectacular scene of fiery orange I was hoping for and instead had to make do with a mostly grey-blue sky. Also, because we are in the dry season, the water level in the two ponds either side of the main walkway was relatively low. This meant that despite my best efforts with the camera, none of the photos came out postcard perfect. Nevertheless, just being there was great.
To be honest it would be far too time consuming to describe each of the temples we visited in much detail, so I'll post a few photos to do the talking for me. Suffice to say, I have wanted to visit these temples for a very long time and now that I have, I can honestly say they are every bit as awe-inspiring as I imagined they would be. Amber and I spent the whole day in a state of amazement. The temples are so beautiful, so intricate, so peaceful and so different from one another that I think a person searching for answers could get lost in them for days.
We started the day at Angkor Wat, which is the temple people refer to when they talk about the temples as a whole, despite the fact that it really isn't the most spectacular. Don't get me wrong, when you first see Angkor Wat it is very impressive, especially the amazing carvings in the walls - it's like the worlds most intricate wallpaper, as many of the patterns repeat over and over again - but compared to the likes of Ta Prohm (the temple which features in the Tomb Raider film) and the Bayon in Angkor Thom, it's somehow less interesting.
Our plan had always been to visit the temples recommended by friends who had visited the site before, so today we did sunrise at Angkor Wat, then went to Ta Prohm to see the ruins overgrown with the roots of enormous fig trees. A genuine case of the forest's triumph over man. The amazing thing about Ta Prohm is that the stones are all green with lichen compared to the grey colouration of Angkor Wat, so it feels very different. After Ta Prohm, we caught Ta Keo temple and then passed through Angkor Thom to visit Preah Khan. Preah Khan, like Ta Prohm, has huge trees growing out of the walls and is a very similar feeling temple, but in better condition. Again, pretty impressive. The thing that struck me most about Preah Khan alongside the detailed carvings of figures was the incredible noise of the cicadas. When they were perched within a courtyard or corridor the acoustic qualities of the stone greatly amplified the sound to produce a noise quite unlike anything I've ever heard before. It really added to the atmosphere of the temple.
We saved the biggest temple complex, Angkor Thom, for last. This area comprises several key sights, but the main ones are the Elephant Terrace, Preah Palilay, the Terrace of the Leper King, Phimeanakas, the Northern and Southern Kleang, Baphuon and Bayon. All of these were worth seeing, but the Bayon temple is easily the most impressive sight.
We had lunch within the temple complex, although it was slightly more expensive than normal, the portions were enormous. I had a delicious pork soup served with rice.
We ended our visit at Bayon, with its huge faces carved into the many towers. It's a hugely affecting place to walk around and there is a great feeling of being watched by an omnipresent king. What a fantastic way to end our first day.
After Bayon, San drove us back to the hotel to relax in the pool for a few hours. Then we headed out to get a couple of cocktails and some spring rolls, to tide us over until dinner time. Amber had sore feet from walking around the temples, so we decided to get a 15 minute massage each. Amber had what sounds like a fantastic foot massage, whereas I was attacked by a Thai lady who seemed intent on killing me (it was supposed to be a neack, shoulders and back massage, but I have my doubts). Somewhat battered an bruised I thanked her for the lovely massage, begrudgingly gave her a tip under Amber's stern gaze and then we both set off to find Angkor Palm to meet Manuel.
Unfortunately Angkor Palm wasn't open as a result of New Year, so when Manuel turned up we had to change our plans. We ate in 8th Street Bistro, where I had a fabulous beef lok lak (the other famous Cambodian dish). We managed to get a table on the first floor overlooking pub street, which was perfect, especially as they had draught Tiger beer. The conversation flowed and as expected, Manuel proved to be excellent company.
After dinner we went to find another bar with cheap drinks. Sadly all the places we looked at seemed to have horribly overpriced beer, so we wandered further afield and evetually stumbled upon a great rooftop bar called X Bar. This is a great little hangout and offers a great view of Siem Reap coupled with a skateboarding half-pipe on the roof! My kind of bar!
The bar was being temporarily run by three Aussie guys because the usual Cambodian staff were on holiday. This made for fairly slow service and some comedy moments. By far the best was when Amber ordered a beer and was presented with a glass of beer with a gecko literally frozen to the side! We have photo evidence. The great thing was that the guy hadn't even noticed the gecko was there until he put the glass down on the bar. I was a little concerned we'd discovered a local Cambodian custom, much like the cobras and scorpions in whiskey!
We stayed drinking in X Bar until gone midnight and then said our goodbyes to Manuel, having already exchanged email addresses and made firm promises to keep in touch and possibly go snowboarding with him sometime (our global network continues to grow!).
Friday, 15 April 2011
Getting to Siemreap. Welcome to SCAMbodia!
I have to admit, the night train to Bangkok exceeded all expectation. Amber and I both managed to get some decent sleep and we didn't feel too rough when we exited the train just outside Bangkok in Samsen.
This turned out to be a genius plan as we were then much nearer the Northern & North Eastern Bus terminal. We hopped in a cab (they are all air conditioned Toyota Corollas) and were at the terminal in minutes.
Finding the ticket booth was easy enough and two tickets to the boarder cost us 212 baht each. The bus was due to leave shortly after we got to the terminal at 7:30am, which gave us just enough time to buy snacks. I bought a bread roll filled with shredded pork which turned out a lot better than I was expecting it to.
On the bus we met a German dude about our age. His name is Manuel and within seconds of meeting we had agreed to share a taxi to Siemreap once we'd crossed the border.
The bus made excellent time and arrived at the stop near the border at around midday. From there the three of us crammed into a tuk tuk with all three rucksacks for the short drive to the actual border. This cost us 80 baht between us.
Once at the border, we successfully evaded the scam emigration office, where the tuk tuk driver had dumped our bags. Sadly there was already a lady there who had clearly paid them money for a form that you get for free at the main border office.
We got through passport control in the departures office and then walked to another office to obtain and fill in our entry visas. The guys there tried to scam us again by saying that we needed to pay an additional 100 baht on top of the actual visa cost of $20. When we refused to pay it they told us to sit down and wait 2 hours before they would process the visas!
We decided to call their bluff. Sure enough, they did process a few peoples' passports who had arrived after us but had paid the extra, but within 10 minutes we had all got our passports back and were on our way to the Cambodian immigration office, where we filled in yet another form in order to finally get across the border. High fives all round.
From here we got the free government shuttle bus to the main transport terminal, which took a few minutes. To our amazement there were no taxis within the terminal walls, so we took a little stroll outside and eventually were approached by someone who agreed to drive us to Siamreap for $40. This was cheaper than the guide book had prepared us for, so we were dead pleased with that result.
The drive to Siemreap was supposed to take an hour and a half. Our driver took about two and a half hours!!! This was incredible, given that most taxi drivers drive like lunatics and that the road from the transport terminal is essentially straight, with just one wide bend. We were gobsmacked.
To make matters worse, he had no idea where our hotel was in town, so in the end we made him stop the taxi by the river, so we could all get out and walk our separate ways to our respective accommodation.
We have agreed to have dinner with Manuel tomorrow night at Angkor Palm, which comes strongly recommended, to compare notes on our Angkor Wat experiences tomorrow.
The Central Boutique Angkor hotel proved relatively easy to find and we were welcomed with iced tea and big smiles. Our rooms is perfectly adequate and the swimming pool very tempting.
We were both desperate to get cleaned up after more than 24 hours in the same clothes!!!
That done, we moved our dinner to 6pm as we were starving.
Dinner was a set menu included as part of our hotel package deal. Spring rolls, glass noodle salad, pumpkin curry soup, fish amok and diced banana and mango in sweet milk. Not bad at all, although because Amber doesn't eat fish we played a game of 'pass the fish-wrapped-in-banana-leaf parcel' every time the waiter turned his back! I'm sure he didn't notice. Amber didn't want to be seen to have left her fish amok as this is considered the local delicacy in Cambodia. Personally I felt it had nothing on Chiang Mai's khow soi.
After dinner we headed into town to find the night market and a couple of cocktails. The night market was much like the night market in Chiang Mai i.e. stalls full of rubbish souvenirs. Deeply uninspiring.
We saw a funny thing. Like Chiang Mai, they have fish pedicure areas in the night market, but here in Siemreap they are using the wrong fish! We walked by shop after shop with people dunking their feet in tanks filled with either African Mbuna cichlids or Tilapia, neither of which are likely to do your feet much good, even if they are starving. We had a smug chuckle to ourselves at the hordes of backpackers trying out this amazing new experience. I'd get a better pedicure from sticking my feet in my 6'fishtank at home!
After a couple of 'Night Market' cocktails, we called it a night.
We have to be up at 4:30am tomorrow to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. The hotel has kindly arranged us a tuk tuk driver for the day and we'll get a packed breakfast to take with us. How's that for customer service?
This turned out to be a genius plan as we were then much nearer the Northern & North Eastern Bus terminal. We hopped in a cab (they are all air conditioned Toyota Corollas) and were at the terminal in minutes.
Finding the ticket booth was easy enough and two tickets to the boarder cost us 212 baht each. The bus was due to leave shortly after we got to the terminal at 7:30am, which gave us just enough time to buy snacks. I bought a bread roll filled with shredded pork which turned out a lot better than I was expecting it to.
On the bus we met a German dude about our age. His name is Manuel and within seconds of meeting we had agreed to share a taxi to Siemreap once we'd crossed the border.
The bus made excellent time and arrived at the stop near the border at around midday. From there the three of us crammed into a tuk tuk with all three rucksacks for the short drive to the actual border. This cost us 80 baht between us.
Once at the border, we successfully evaded the scam emigration office, where the tuk tuk driver had dumped our bags. Sadly there was already a lady there who had clearly paid them money for a form that you get for free at the main border office.
We got through passport control in the departures office and then walked to another office to obtain and fill in our entry visas. The guys there tried to scam us again by saying that we needed to pay an additional 100 baht on top of the actual visa cost of $20. When we refused to pay it they told us to sit down and wait 2 hours before they would process the visas!
We decided to call their bluff. Sure enough, they did process a few peoples' passports who had arrived after us but had paid the extra, but within 10 minutes we had all got our passports back and were on our way to the Cambodian immigration office, where we filled in yet another form in order to finally get across the border. High fives all round.
From here we got the free government shuttle bus to the main transport terminal, which took a few minutes. To our amazement there were no taxis within the terminal walls, so we took a little stroll outside and eventually were approached by someone who agreed to drive us to Siamreap for $40. This was cheaper than the guide book had prepared us for, so we were dead pleased with that result.
The drive to Siemreap was supposed to take an hour and a half. Our driver took about two and a half hours!!! This was incredible, given that most taxi drivers drive like lunatics and that the road from the transport terminal is essentially straight, with just one wide bend. We were gobsmacked.
To make matters worse, he had no idea where our hotel was in town, so in the end we made him stop the taxi by the river, so we could all get out and walk our separate ways to our respective accommodation.
We have agreed to have dinner with Manuel tomorrow night at Angkor Palm, which comes strongly recommended, to compare notes on our Angkor Wat experiences tomorrow.
The Central Boutique Angkor hotel proved relatively easy to find and we were welcomed with iced tea and big smiles. Our rooms is perfectly adequate and the swimming pool very tempting.
We were both desperate to get cleaned up after more than 24 hours in the same clothes!!!
That done, we moved our dinner to 6pm as we were starving.
Dinner was a set menu included as part of our hotel package deal. Spring rolls, glass noodle salad, pumpkin curry soup, fish amok and diced banana and mango in sweet milk. Not bad at all, although because Amber doesn't eat fish we played a game of 'pass the fish-wrapped-in-banana-leaf parcel' every time the waiter turned his back! I'm sure he didn't notice. Amber didn't want to be seen to have left her fish amok as this is considered the local delicacy in Cambodia. Personally I felt it had nothing on Chiang Mai's khow soi.
After dinner we headed into town to find the night market and a couple of cocktails. The night market was much like the night market in Chiang Mai i.e. stalls full of rubbish souvenirs. Deeply uninspiring.
We saw a funny thing. Like Chiang Mai, they have fish pedicure areas in the night market, but here in Siemreap they are using the wrong fish! We walked by shop after shop with people dunking their feet in tanks filled with either African Mbuna cichlids or Tilapia, neither of which are likely to do your feet much good, even if they are starving. We had a smug chuckle to ourselves at the hordes of backpackers trying out this amazing new experience. I'd get a better pedicure from sticking my feet in my 6'fishtank at home!
After a couple of 'Night Market' cocktails, we called it a night.
We have to be up at 4:30am tomorrow to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. The hotel has kindly arranged us a tuk tuk driver for the day and we'll get a packed breakfast to take with us. How's that for customer service?
Thursday, 14 April 2011
The world's biggest water fight...leaving Chiang Mai
So it's 9:30pm and I'm lying on the top bunk in our cabin on the night train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. The Express no less.
We've had the best day today. Got up at 7am and had breakfast whilst waiting for Nichar to show up. She had a 10km race this morning and came second. She even had a trophy to prove it.
Nichar gave us a lift on her scooter to the bottom of the road up to Wat Doi Suthep, where we jumped onto a song tao headed for the temple. The road had so many sharp bends in it, by the time we got up there both our stomachs were churning. Just glad I didn't have much at breakfast.
Doi Suthep was really cool. The entrance is lined with street vendors selling a wide variety of tasty treats. So tempting.
We headed inside and walked to a few steps to get to an open area at the bottom of the main stairway to to the temple. This staircase has two very elaborate naga (mythical sea serpents) as banisters all the way up, like all good staircases should have!
The weather was really overcast this morning and around Doi Suthep, there was thick mist, which only added to the atmosphere of the place.
As we are on day two of Songkran, there were hundreds of people at the temple saying prayers and giving thanks. You could buy lotus flowers and incense on the way in as offerings. We didn't but all the Thais did.
You take your shoes off to enter the main temple. It's very impressive. A sea of gold. Thanks to Songkran it was even more impressive today. The Thais processed around the central golden spire carrying their lotus flowers. Others were lighting candles or incense, or being blessed by one of the monks who was tying ceremonial string round their wrists. The air was full of the sound of bells. These bells are about two foot deep and arranged in rows. Usually you're not allowed to ring them, but today everyone was getting involved. It all added to the feeling of celebration.
We saw some spectacular moths. In one area there is a billboard lit at night by two enormous halogen flashlights. The two fig trees next to these lights contains some of the largest hawkmoths I have ever seen. They were giants. By far the most impressive find had to be a large pale green moon moth. I had these as pets when I was a kid in the basement of my parents' house, so to see one in the wild was really special. Even Amber had to agree it was beautiful.
Just outside the main temple we stopped to watch some young dancers dressed in traditional costume. The dancing was okay, but the thing that was really holding the crowd's attention was the way these girls were picking up money (donations to the temple) off the ground. I guess they were in their early teens and they were picking notes up off the floor by bending backwards into the crab position and then grabbing them with their mouths. Amber pointed that those skills might come in useful for then in later life if they were to pursue a somewhat less devout career path. Obviously I have no idea what she's talking about...
We left the temple at 10:15am and I bought myself a delicious snack, which consisted of pork, garlic and glutenous rice - mixed together and shaped like a sausage - on a stick. Incredible.
We texted Nichar to say we'd meet her outside Wat Prahsingh at midday and got on a song tao headed to Chiang Mai zoo. The windy road was so bad that two kids threw up during the trip down. Not ideal.
At Chiang Mai zoo we swapped song tao and headed to the Wat.
Wat Prahsingh was a hive of activity too. First there were the women selling birds in bamboo cages to be 'set free', then the people sprinkling a Buddha statue outside as a blessing. Yet more people were lighting candles and adding bright coloured streamers on sticks to what looked like a giant silver cake stand, each level filled with sand. So colourful.
We went inside two areas. In one of them sat an old monk, who seemed to be an important figure in the history of the Wat, as he featured in many of the old photos on the walls inside the temple and also appeared to be the inspiration for several gold statues. Being heathens, we failed to ascertain who he actually was, but he certainly came across as pretty enlightened. Either that or he was asleep with his eyes open!
Inside the main temple people were hanging up strips of bank notes on wires that ran the length of the hall. The 20 baht notes were arranged in plastic wallets horizontally, one above the other, as strips of five, with a golden triangle at the top and bottom. These rows of notes all ran to the far end of the hall where there was an enormous golden Buddha. It was truly spectacular.
The garden around the temple has a seating area full of proverbs in both Thai and English. Amber and I read a few of them before making our way to the temple entrance to meet up with Nichar. The plan was to get khow soi for lunch and then get properly stuck into the world's most famous water fight (Chiang Mai is reknowned as being THE place to celebrate Songkran).
We walked to the khow soi restaurant. Khow soi is a local delicacy of crispy fried noodles, a light yellow curry sauce, a chicken drumstick, some pickled veg and red onion, and a squeeze of lime. I am pleased to report that it lived up to the hype entirely. During lunch Sue and George showed up. Sue is a friend of Pete's (now doing a post-doc) and had been staying with Nichar prior to our arrival. George works for the WWF and in fact the two of them had just come back from Malaysia this morning. Lovely people with great stories. I could have chatted to both of them in the restaurant all day, but we had more important things to do. It was time to get wet.
Imagine an entire town surrounded by a moat in which every single man woman and child has decided to take to the streets with water guns, buckets and trucks carrying huge vats of ice water, all with the aim of drenching everyone else to celebrate the new year. Now take that image and make it tens times more crazy. That's what Songkran was like. I've never seen so many people having such a good time without the use of excessive amounts of alcohol or recreational drugs. And so many smiling faces!
George and Sue bought some buckets and pretty soon Nichar had blagged us onto one of the pickups carrying ice water, so we could wreak watery havoc on the crowds below. The sun had been hiding all morning, but now it was blazing. Perfect weather for a water fight. I didn't want to leave when it was time to head back to get ready in time to get a taxi to the train station. Sadly there wasn't a choice.
We walked back to Nichar's bike. The trip back was bedlam. The roads were packed with people, all soaked to the skin. Half of them were overspill from big street parties blaring out music. Some of these were being filmed for TV, presumably to show the rest of Thailand how it should be done.
Anyway, we eventually got back and packed up our bags. The taxi arrived and we said goodbye to lovely Nichar and crazy Chiang Mai.
We got to the train station nice and quick, so had a chance to grab a bite to eat before boarding the train.
Our cabin is amazing. We had been told we would only have reclining seats and no bed, but in fact we've got two beds and AIR CONDITIONING!!! Talk about luxury! So pleased with this result. Especially as neither of our fellow passengers is a) a weird, or b) a snorer. Woohoo!
We had dinner in the dining a while ago. Somehow they brought us a set meal that wasn't even on the menu, let alone being what we ordered. We also ordered a cashew nut spicy salad, which came as a plate of roasted peanuts! No points for attention to detail. We didn't pay for the peanuts.
We've had the best day today. Got up at 7am and had breakfast whilst waiting for Nichar to show up. She had a 10km race this morning and came second. She even had a trophy to prove it.
Nichar gave us a lift on her scooter to the bottom of the road up to Wat Doi Suthep, where we jumped onto a song tao headed for the temple. The road had so many sharp bends in it, by the time we got up there both our stomachs were churning. Just glad I didn't have much at breakfast.
Doi Suthep was really cool. The entrance is lined with street vendors selling a wide variety of tasty treats. So tempting.
We headed inside and walked to a few steps to get to an open area at the bottom of the main stairway to to the temple. This staircase has two very elaborate naga (mythical sea serpents) as banisters all the way up, like all good staircases should have!
The weather was really overcast this morning and around Doi Suthep, there was thick mist, which only added to the atmosphere of the place.
As we are on day two of Songkran, there were hundreds of people at the temple saying prayers and giving thanks. You could buy lotus flowers and incense on the way in as offerings. We didn't but all the Thais did.
You take your shoes off to enter the main temple. It's very impressive. A sea of gold. Thanks to Songkran it was even more impressive today. The Thais processed around the central golden spire carrying their lotus flowers. Others were lighting candles or incense, or being blessed by one of the monks who was tying ceremonial string round their wrists. The air was full of the sound of bells. These bells are about two foot deep and arranged in rows. Usually you're not allowed to ring them, but today everyone was getting involved. It all added to the feeling of celebration.
We saw some spectacular moths. In one area there is a billboard lit at night by two enormous halogen flashlights. The two fig trees next to these lights contains some of the largest hawkmoths I have ever seen. They were giants. By far the most impressive find had to be a large pale green moon moth. I had these as pets when I was a kid in the basement of my parents' house, so to see one in the wild was really special. Even Amber had to agree it was beautiful.
Just outside the main temple we stopped to watch some young dancers dressed in traditional costume. The dancing was okay, but the thing that was really holding the crowd's attention was the way these girls were picking up money (donations to the temple) off the ground. I guess they were in their early teens and they were picking notes up off the floor by bending backwards into the crab position and then grabbing them with their mouths. Amber pointed that those skills might come in useful for then in later life if they were to pursue a somewhat less devout career path. Obviously I have no idea what she's talking about...
We left the temple at 10:15am and I bought myself a delicious snack, which consisted of pork, garlic and glutenous rice - mixed together and shaped like a sausage - on a stick. Incredible.
We texted Nichar to say we'd meet her outside Wat Prahsingh at midday and got on a song tao headed to Chiang Mai zoo. The windy road was so bad that two kids threw up during the trip down. Not ideal.
At Chiang Mai zoo we swapped song tao and headed to the Wat.
Wat Prahsingh was a hive of activity too. First there were the women selling birds in bamboo cages to be 'set free', then the people sprinkling a Buddha statue outside as a blessing. Yet more people were lighting candles and adding bright coloured streamers on sticks to what looked like a giant silver cake stand, each level filled with sand. So colourful.
We went inside two areas. In one of them sat an old monk, who seemed to be an important figure in the history of the Wat, as he featured in many of the old photos on the walls inside the temple and also appeared to be the inspiration for several gold statues. Being heathens, we failed to ascertain who he actually was, but he certainly came across as pretty enlightened. Either that or he was asleep with his eyes open!
Inside the main temple people were hanging up strips of bank notes on wires that ran the length of the hall. The 20 baht notes were arranged in plastic wallets horizontally, one above the other, as strips of five, with a golden triangle at the top and bottom. These rows of notes all ran to the far end of the hall where there was an enormous golden Buddha. It was truly spectacular.
The garden around the temple has a seating area full of proverbs in both Thai and English. Amber and I read a few of them before making our way to the temple entrance to meet up with Nichar. The plan was to get khow soi for lunch and then get properly stuck into the world's most famous water fight (Chiang Mai is reknowned as being THE place to celebrate Songkran).
We walked to the khow soi restaurant. Khow soi is a local delicacy of crispy fried noodles, a light yellow curry sauce, a chicken drumstick, some pickled veg and red onion, and a squeeze of lime. I am pleased to report that it lived up to the hype entirely. During lunch Sue and George showed up. Sue is a friend of Pete's (now doing a post-doc) and had been staying with Nichar prior to our arrival. George works for the WWF and in fact the two of them had just come back from Malaysia this morning. Lovely people with great stories. I could have chatted to both of them in the restaurant all day, but we had more important things to do. It was time to get wet.
Imagine an entire town surrounded by a moat in which every single man woman and child has decided to take to the streets with water guns, buckets and trucks carrying huge vats of ice water, all with the aim of drenching everyone else to celebrate the new year. Now take that image and make it tens times more crazy. That's what Songkran was like. I've never seen so many people having such a good time without the use of excessive amounts of alcohol or recreational drugs. And so many smiling faces!
George and Sue bought some buckets and pretty soon Nichar had blagged us onto one of the pickups carrying ice water, so we could wreak watery havoc on the crowds below. The sun had been hiding all morning, but now it was blazing. Perfect weather for a water fight. I didn't want to leave when it was time to head back to get ready in time to get a taxi to the train station. Sadly there wasn't a choice.
We walked back to Nichar's bike. The trip back was bedlam. The roads were packed with people, all soaked to the skin. Half of them were overspill from big street parties blaring out music. Some of these were being filmed for TV, presumably to show the rest of Thailand how it should be done.
Anyway, we eventually got back and packed up our bags. The taxi arrived and we said goodbye to lovely Nichar and crazy Chiang Mai.
We got to the train station nice and quick, so had a chance to grab a bite to eat before boarding the train.
Our cabin is amazing. We had been told we would only have reclining seats and no bed, but in fact we've got two beds and AIR CONDITIONING!!! Talk about luxury! So pleased with this result. Especially as neither of our fellow passengers is a) a weird, or b) a snorer. Woohoo!
We had dinner in the dining a while ago. Somehow they brought us a set meal that wasn't even on the menu, let alone being what we ordered. We also ordered a cashew nut spicy salad, which came as a plate of roasted peanuts! No points for attention to detail. We didn't pay for the peanuts.
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Chok Chai tour: Day 2...part II
A terrible night's sleep was followed by an equally terrible breakfast, save for the excellent boiled eggs courtesy of the prehistoric local chickens.
Breakfast was followed by a 40 minute walk to the elephant riding and bamboo rafting centre.
The elephant riding was mostly terrifying. I had imagined a gentle meander around a forest trail whilst keeping an eye out for interesting animals. Instead Amber and eye cling on for dear life as our rather grumpy elephant walked us along the side of a hill with a significant drop to one side. To be honest, if I was the size of an elephant you could not have paid me to walk along such a path with a bloody great chair on my back carrying a couple of tourists. Not surprised she was grumpy! Anyway, we both agreed that being a passenger on an elephant makes riding camels in the Sahara feel like a walk in the park.
Hard to describe how I felt about the elephants. On the one hand, the elephants were amazing and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to hang out with them. On the other hand, there was something a bit sinister about the way the elephants are treated in this place. Certainly some of the mahouts didn't seem very respectful of their wards and I saw a few elephants both young and old chained up and pacing back and forth in a deeply upsetting way. Personally I think there needs to be respect between humans and animals in order for the two to work together effectively. In this case the relationship seemed to be all about the humans.
The bamboo rafting down the river was good, but sadly we had to enjoy it in the pouring rain. As a result all we got was a rather damp view of the river bank, no wildlife. Also, our raft was perhaps 5cm underwater for the whole journey.
Having saved my trainers from getting wet on the raft by tying the laces together and hanging them round my neck, I was somewhat disappointed that we encountered a Songkran water station on our return to the elephant centre. The revellers threw a few bucketloads of water straight I'm the back of the truck where we were sitting. Let's just say the trainers weren't so dry after that.
We got stuck into a tasty buffet lunch before driving to a nearby waterfall to have a swim. The driver entertained us by backflipping into the deepest pool. I wasn't quite up to the backflips, but I did jump in a few times from the rocks surrounding the pool.
Hundreds of ephemeral insects had all emerged en masse following last night's rain, which gave the waterfall a magical quality. Really beautiful.
To get to our final activity (whitewater rafting) we had to drive a gauntlet of water stations. The girls who swam in the waterfall kept their bikinis on, which caused a real stir with the men on the water stations. For the most part they were too busy gawping to remember to throw the water! Even with thus cunning diversionary tactic we still got a good soaking...or should I say blessing?
The whitewater rafting was the perfect ending for the tour. We were split between two rafts of four plus a guide. Although the water wasn't all that white, the rapids were choppy enough to be really good fun. We were on a raft with Jo and Anna, who had never done it before. They had asked to join us after we'd received the shortest brief ever about whitewater rafting! Needless to say, they loved every second.
The stretches of calm water in between the rapids were nice and relaxing. The sun even came out. Perfect.
With the final activity complete, we set off back to Chiang Mai, which meant even more water stations. We had done some forward planning at the rafting station and bought bin liners to protect our bags, so pretty much everyone was cool with getting wet. The lovely inhabitants of outer Chiang Mai didn't let us down. We arrived back at Nichar's house looking like a pair of drowned rats.
We both felt much better after a quick shower. Nichar took us I'm the back of her Honda Wave scooter (awesome!) to have noodles at a place called 'Kin cen' and I tried two new things. The first was a dry version of tom yum noodles made with green peppercorns. Heaven. The second was a milkshake of milk and condensed milk with purple jelly. Very odd, but very tasty and perfect for combating the heat from the noodles.
Nichar left us after dinner to do some work, so we grabbed a song tao and headed to the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. Most of the stalls were selling trinkets and fairly terrible souvenirs, so we didn't buy anything. However, I managed to persuade Amber to have a fish pedicure with me at a lovely little establishment called Fish Actually. Basically, your seated above a fish tank full of Garra rufa, which are a type of suckermouth loach, and you lower your feet into the tank so the fish can get to work rasping off all the old dead skin, leaving your feet nice and soft. It's one of the weirdest sensations I've ever experienced. Like really strong pins and needles, or dipping your feet in fizzy water. Amazing! Amber was in hysterics for most of our 15 minutes thanks to the tickling sensation. The fish loved her feet. At one point it looked like she had a fish sock on her right foot. The best bit was that you sit facing out of the shop, so people walking past can see your feet covered in fish through the glass along with the expression on your face!
After the pedicure we sampled some Chiang Mai Spicy Sausage and rotee with banana, condensed milk and chocolate. Then we made our way back.
By some miracle we managed to find a song tao driver willing to take us all the way to Nichar's complex for just 100 baht. Impressive given we barely knew how to say the address.
Breakfast was followed by a 40 minute walk to the elephant riding and bamboo rafting centre.
The elephant riding was mostly terrifying. I had imagined a gentle meander around a forest trail whilst keeping an eye out for interesting animals. Instead Amber and eye cling on for dear life as our rather grumpy elephant walked us along the side of a hill with a significant drop to one side. To be honest, if I was the size of an elephant you could not have paid me to walk along such a path with a bloody great chair on my back carrying a couple of tourists. Not surprised she was grumpy! Anyway, we both agreed that being a passenger on an elephant makes riding camels in the Sahara feel like a walk in the park.
Hard to describe how I felt about the elephants. On the one hand, the elephants were amazing and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to hang out with them. On the other hand, there was something a bit sinister about the way the elephants are treated in this place. Certainly some of the mahouts didn't seem very respectful of their wards and I saw a few elephants both young and old chained up and pacing back and forth in a deeply upsetting way. Personally I think there needs to be respect between humans and animals in order for the two to work together effectively. In this case the relationship seemed to be all about the humans.
The bamboo rafting down the river was good, but sadly we had to enjoy it in the pouring rain. As a result all we got was a rather damp view of the river bank, no wildlife. Also, our raft was perhaps 5cm underwater for the whole journey.
Having saved my trainers from getting wet on the raft by tying the laces together and hanging them round my neck, I was somewhat disappointed that we encountered a Songkran water station on our return to the elephant centre. The revellers threw a few bucketloads of water straight I'm the back of the truck where we were sitting. Let's just say the trainers weren't so dry after that.
We got stuck into a tasty buffet lunch before driving to a nearby waterfall to have a swim. The driver entertained us by backflipping into the deepest pool. I wasn't quite up to the backflips, but I did jump in a few times from the rocks surrounding the pool.
Hundreds of ephemeral insects had all emerged en masse following last night's rain, which gave the waterfall a magical quality. Really beautiful.
To get to our final activity (whitewater rafting) we had to drive a gauntlet of water stations. The girls who swam in the waterfall kept their bikinis on, which caused a real stir with the men on the water stations. For the most part they were too busy gawping to remember to throw the water! Even with thus cunning diversionary tactic we still got a good soaking...or should I say blessing?
The whitewater rafting was the perfect ending for the tour. We were split between two rafts of four plus a guide. Although the water wasn't all that white, the rapids were choppy enough to be really good fun. We were on a raft with Jo and Anna, who had never done it before. They had asked to join us after we'd received the shortest brief ever about whitewater rafting! Needless to say, they loved every second.
The stretches of calm water in between the rapids were nice and relaxing. The sun even came out. Perfect.
With the final activity complete, we set off back to Chiang Mai, which meant even more water stations. We had done some forward planning at the rafting station and bought bin liners to protect our bags, so pretty much everyone was cool with getting wet. The lovely inhabitants of outer Chiang Mai didn't let us down. We arrived back at Nichar's house looking like a pair of drowned rats.
We both felt much better after a quick shower. Nichar took us I'm the back of her Honda Wave scooter (awesome!) to have noodles at a place called 'Kin cen' and I tried two new things. The first was a dry version of tom yum noodles made with green peppercorns. Heaven. The second was a milkshake of milk and condensed milk with purple jelly. Very odd, but very tasty and perfect for combating the heat from the noodles.
Nichar left us after dinner to do some work, so we grabbed a song tao and headed to the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. Most of the stalls were selling trinkets and fairly terrible souvenirs, so we didn't buy anything. However, I managed to persuade Amber to have a fish pedicure with me at a lovely little establishment called Fish Actually. Basically, your seated above a fish tank full of Garra rufa, which are a type of suckermouth loach, and you lower your feet into the tank so the fish can get to work rasping off all the old dead skin, leaving your feet nice and soft. It's one of the weirdest sensations I've ever experienced. Like really strong pins and needles, or dipping your feet in fizzy water. Amazing! Amber was in hysterics for most of our 15 minutes thanks to the tickling sensation. The fish loved her feet. At one point it looked like she had a fish sock on her right foot. The best bit was that you sit facing out of the shop, so people walking past can see your feet covered in fish through the glass along with the expression on your face!
After the pedicure we sampled some Chiang Mai Spicy Sausage and rotee with banana, condensed milk and chocolate. Then we made our way back.
By some miracle we managed to find a song tao driver willing to take us all the way to Nichar's complex for just 100 baht. Impressive given we barely knew how to say the address.
Chok Chai tour: Day 2...part I
Wow. Just had possibly the worst night's sleep ever.
Last night was hilarious! Shortly after drifting off into a peaceful slumber, having finished yesterday's blog entry, everything went a bit wrong. Firstly, the construction of the huts meant that the slightest movement by Amy of the pyre people on our side of the hut set the whole floor into motion, which meant constantly being woken up every few minutes. Secondly, it turns out that bamboo flooring isn't quite as forgiving to lie on as a mattress. This, coupled with the world's slimmest pillow ment that your neck was permanently uncomfortable. However, these two factors were the east of our worries.
It started to rain. A full blown tropical thunder storm. Not a huge problem if your safely ticked away in a house or hotel, bit it turns out our bamboo dorm hadn't really been constructed with potential rain in mind. So along with the incredible lightning and thunder, Amber and I were not only treated to rain zipping through the late gaps in the side wall next to where we were sleeping, but also to rain coming directly through the thatched roof! Just what we needed to help us get some rest. Thankfully the girls shifted around to share nets so that we could move to a drier spot.
The fun didn't stop there. Shortly after we'd migrated to the other side of the dorm, there was a rather amusing incident involving a very large cave centipede, that had positioned itself between the mosquito nets of two of the girls we were on the tour with (Jo and Anna). This led to much panic and screaming on Jo's part and a flat refusal to get back under her mosquito net. I tried to help, but only succeeded in sending the creature scurrying round the back of the nets. The situation wasn't helped by Abba turning up to find out what all the commotion was about, only to then point out that at least it hadn't been a big wolf spider, like the one he then managed to spot on the roof of the dorm! Not particularly dangerous to humans, but you can imagine how the girls felt after that.
After a few minutes everyone settled back down to sleep, helped by Jo and Anna who insisted on playing a reassuring game of 'fortunately/unfortunately' between the two of them.
Sadly, the peace didn't last. Turns out the centipede hadn't finished it's campaign of terror and decided to do a lap or two on the inside of Jen and Rema's mozzie net. Cue yet more screaming. From the relative safety of our net, it was all pretty hilarious!
And so, for the third time we all tried to get some sleep with the rain storm continuing around us.
Fortunately, the rain abated eventually. Unfortunately...just as my ears had filtered out the buzz of the cicadas, another insect would start up and occupy my brain. This, coupled with the movement of the bamboo floor made for some very fitful sleep.
And then the chicks started creeping at 3am, followed by the roosters at 5am (still pitch black).
At 7:30am we gave up and got out of bed.
I have to admit, I've felt better.
Last night was hilarious! Shortly after drifting off into a peaceful slumber, having finished yesterday's blog entry, everything went a bit wrong. Firstly, the construction of the huts meant that the slightest movement by Amy of the pyre people on our side of the hut set the whole floor into motion, which meant constantly being woken up every few minutes. Secondly, it turns out that bamboo flooring isn't quite as forgiving to lie on as a mattress. This, coupled with the world's slimmest pillow ment that your neck was permanently uncomfortable. However, these two factors were the east of our worries.
It started to rain. A full blown tropical thunder storm. Not a huge problem if your safely ticked away in a house or hotel, bit it turns out our bamboo dorm hadn't really been constructed with potential rain in mind. So along with the incredible lightning and thunder, Amber and I were not only treated to rain zipping through the late gaps in the side wall next to where we were sleeping, but also to rain coming directly through the thatched roof! Just what we needed to help us get some rest. Thankfully the girls shifted around to share nets so that we could move to a drier spot.
The fun didn't stop there. Shortly after we'd migrated to the other side of the dorm, there was a rather amusing incident involving a very large cave centipede, that had positioned itself between the mosquito nets of two of the girls we were on the tour with (Jo and Anna). This led to much panic and screaming on Jo's part and a flat refusal to get back under her mosquito net. I tried to help, but only succeeded in sending the creature scurrying round the back of the nets. The situation wasn't helped by Abba turning up to find out what all the commotion was about, only to then point out that at least it hadn't been a big wolf spider, like the one he then managed to spot on the roof of the dorm! Not particularly dangerous to humans, but you can imagine how the girls felt after that.
After a few minutes everyone settled back down to sleep, helped by Jo and Anna who insisted on playing a reassuring game of 'fortunately/unfortunately' between the two of them.
Sadly, the peace didn't last. Turns out the centipede hadn't finished it's campaign of terror and decided to do a lap or two on the inside of Jen and Rema's mozzie net. Cue yet more screaming. From the relative safety of our net, it was all pretty hilarious!
And so, for the third time we all tried to get some sleep with the rain storm continuing around us.
Fortunately, the rain abated eventually. Unfortunately...just as my ears had filtered out the buzz of the cicadas, another insect would start up and occupy my brain. This, coupled with the movement of the bamboo floor made for some very fitful sleep.
And then the chicks started creeping at 3am, followed by the roosters at 5am (still pitch black).
At 7:30am we gave up and got out of bed.
I have to admit, I've felt better.
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