Bolivia. Arguably South America´s poorest country, with around 60% of the population suffering in poverty. From a traveller´s point of view, this can sometimes make for the best experiences. Bolivia is known for being the cheapest country to travel in, and what it lacks in monetary value, it makes up for in its wealth of nature.
We arrived in Bolivia, tired and hungry, and with most of Bolivia being at extremely high altitude, we instantly felt pretty ill. Altitude sickness is a big problem for travellers arriving in Bolivia, as most of the country's main sights are up in the mountains. I had already been made aware of this, and had recommended remedies such as chewing on coca leaves like the locals, or if not available, chocolate and lots of water. At short notice...chocolate was my preferred option! Dosage, self diagnosed.
Our first stop was Tupiza, in the South West of the country. Known as Bolivia´s wild west, we were taken in a rickety old bus through the rough roads, into the mountains. It was "so long" and "farewell" to the comforts of Argentinian transport, and a rude awakening to the rough, dusty and cramped buses of Bolivia. Amongst our fellow passengers, packed shoulder to shoulder in the aisles, were a couple of cockerals, and a dozen chicks. Viva South America!
Tupiza, the small dusty town, geared around organizing tours of the surrounding countryside and mainly for the infamous salt flats, offered little else to keep us there. Don't get me wrong, the views surrounding the town were stunning, with the orange and red mountains dominating the landscape, but we were short on time, and eager to sort our tour of the salar.
In the end, we opted for the four day tour, with 'La Torre' tour company, which would take us through the mountains and the national reserve for the three days before we even get to the infamous salt flats of Uyuni. It was a great deal, with all food and "basic" accomodation included. All we really needed to invest in was lots of warm clothing and sleeping bags, because it was going to be cold.
We had NO idea.
The first day was mainly ploughing through the mountainous deserts, taking us towards the reserve for our first night. We were introduced to our tour family. First there was "Super" Mario, our gangster looking driver, who had little to say, but lots of attitude (chewing on his coca leaves, and smiling wryly when we did something silly). Then, was our mama, Margarita. A wonderful classic Bolivian lady, dressed in her flowing skirt, wooly jumper and with her hair in long black plaits. She cooked us Bolivian feasts, three times a day, and called us her "chicas locas". Then were our fellow tourists, Liam the scouser who we'd met in Tupiza, and the French-Canadian brothers Eric and Charles. Sure, it was bit of a squeeze for four days in our jeep, but it was warmer than outside!
Never in four days have I been so blown away by the most varied landscapes I've ever seen in one province. We went from the barren, dusty, rocky red deserts around Tupiza, through deserted ghost towns, up into the icy lagoons at 4,855 ft above sea level, snow topped mountains, to white sodium filled lakes. Once in the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, we were to stay our first night in the below zero temperatures, with no electricity or heating, but to be able to look above and see the milky way clearer than ever before, was worth all the shivering pain!
Each day kept our trigger fingers busy on our cameras, with countless Kodak moments. For example, Laguna Verde, one of my favourites, dazzled me with its sparkling emerald green water, overlooked by the majestic grey, snow topped Volcan Licancabur.
We were able to relax in natural hotsprings over looking the snow topped mountain ranges and frozen waters. We had loads of crazy rocks to climb, and we found energy from out of nowhere. Running around the geysers, billowing out clouds of sulphur, at a casual 5000 meters above sealevel, probably wasn't the best idea, but it was all part of our delirium.
After this came another breathtaking lagoon. Laguna Colorada, famous for its fiery red and pink waters, dazzled us in the afternoon sun. To add even more to the view, groups of pink flamingoes clustered together on the waters, feeding on the plankton that gives the waters its fiery hue. It was as great a sight as Laguna Verde, if not better.
We stayed nearby that night, and made the near fatal error of drinking, as a bonding exercise! At such high altitude, drinking alcohol is strongly advised against, and I suffered the consequences. I woke up in the middle of the night, with the worst headache I have experienced, and everyone was suffering the next morning. I did as the locals do, and turned to the magic of the coca leaf. Trust me, its a miracle. Yet, it didn't give me enough energy to climb all the crazy shaped rocks, such as the gravity defying Árbol de Piedra.
We passed through the desert, to Uyuni town, and on to our most unique accomodation; we were staying in a hotel made entirely out of salt. Yes, the walls, floor, fireplace, tables, chairs and beds were all made out of cold hard blocks of salt. Despite how it sounds, we were relatively comfortable that night (obviously apart from the cold).
That evening, we took our first trip to the Salar...for a stunning sunset. The Salar de Uyuni are the largest salt flats in the world, at 3650 meters, and have a unique weather condition. With the thin air and radiating sun, there is a drastic contrast in temperatures in and out of the shade. Winds can be strong and bitterly cold, with temperatures in the winter reaching -20 degrees celsius. We happened to be there in the wet season, so that the pools of water laid out on the flats, created a brilliant mirror reflection of the clear blue sky.
Needless to say, the sunset was beautfully clear, on a bare, flat white horizon. The next morning, we returned in the early hours, to watch the sun return to the sky once more. It was a slow sleepy morning, as the fourth and final day of our trip. Yet, we still managed to take some cleverly crafted photos of Tash and myself standing on an apple, me stepping on Tash, and a scruffy human pyramid.
After this, our tour was sadly drawing to an end. We had run out of time to see more of the flats, and all of us wanted to catch the daily bus to Sucré. So we said our goodbyes to our wonderful guides, Mama Margarita and Super Mario, and headed off to our next destination. Dirty, smelly, cold and tired, the salt flats had worn us down, but not one person complained. The previous four days were worth every shiver.
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Friday, 20 May 2011
Buenos Aires and the beginning of South America....
And so begins Part II of my journey. Goodbye to South East Asia, and Buenos dias Buenos Aires, Argentina and South America!
After two and half months of Asian delights, I´ve dropped myself off into a completely different arena. South America couldn´t really get any more different, and I love it already.
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BUENOS AIRES
My first stop was Buenos Aires: the most exciting and cosmopolitan city in Latin America, famous for its colourful buildings, delicious steaks, and beautiful people. As the capital of Argentina, it stands out as a hub of activity and fun; a city that, literally, never sleeps.
After some sad goodbyes, it was time for a hysterically happy hello with none other than Tash Ozeren! I was reunited with this friendly face, after the longest of journeys, and I was so happy! Tash was full of excitement, nerves, and energy...and despite my jetlag, I mustered up some of my own.
We filled our days with Buenos Aires sights. Firstly, we headed to La Boca, the birthplace of Tango, and home to one of Argentina´s big football teams, ´Boca Juniors`. The streets were lined with colourful, quirky buildings, with artesanias and restaurants filling the area with people. It was refreshing to recognise the language at last. After five years of Spanish at school, I had enough knowledge to get around, albeit not easily. Yet, instantly, I felt at home with the latin culture. Argentina as a South American country is very European, especially in BA, so it was all a little bit more familiar for me.
La Boca claims to be the birth of Tango, due to housing many immigrants, who needed a universal language to communicate. This is where the world famous dance was said to have begun, and walking along the streets of La Boca, we were entertained by many different Tango dances, with women in heeled shoes and flowing skirts, erotically wrapping themselves round their male partner. However, back in the early days of Tango, the dance was traditionally danced between two men, as it was deemed improper for women and men to be in such positions in public. How I wish I could see that version...
Of course, Tango is not the only famous thing from La Boca, as I said before. The stadium of CABJ (Boca Juniors fútbol team) was a main stop on the walking tour. As the first team of the national hero, Maradona, Boca´s stadium is also a museum, Museo de la Pación Boquense. As our guide explained to us, Boca fans (and generally all Argentinian football fans) are crazy, and by that she meant insane. Though, she was a River Plate fan, and that´s like me as a Spurs fan, hosting a tour of Highbury. Still, in Argentina, one of the most important debates is "Who is the best player in the world: Maradona or Messi?". I don´t really think there is one true winner, and most of us wouldn´t really care, but this is Argentina and football is life...
We also explored the markets of fashionable Palermo, and authentic San Telmo. These markets were full of treats, in the form of the irresistable Alpaca knitwear, hand crafted jewellry, woven bags, and antique jewellry. It was difficult to walk past, but we had been reliably informed that Argentina was the most expensive place to buy such goods, so we should wait until Bolivia. Yes, it was torture.
Buenos Aires is a lively city at the best of times, but we happened to be there during a protest in the middle of the main political street, Avenida de Mayo. This also happened to be where our hostel, the party filled ´Milhouse´ was situated, so we were right in the thick of it. This protest was to do with a land issue up in the north of Argentina, but also collided with the May Day Political protests. For someone who had never experienced a protest before, yet alone in a South American country, this was pretty cool. Most of the days we´d simply walk past quickly, shielding ourselves against the cold wind, but occaisionally our plans were disrupted due to the marches from one end of the Avenida, to the other.
Food in Buenos Aires was wonderful. Argentina prides itself on its meat dishes, whether you choose a juicy steak, the meatiest choripan (chorizo sandwich) or a warm and filling empanada de carne. Top that off with an impressive selection of red wines, and I was in heaven. After two months of mainly veggie dishes of fried rice and noodles, meat was what I craved. We were, of course, concerned about our figures, but with empanadas at about 40p each, it was an easy choice.
And of course, the main thing that stands out about BA is the nightlife! The capital takes its reputation as "the city that never sleeps" very seriously, and we were thrown right in the deepend by staying at a party hostel like Milhouse. Every night there was a party at the hostel, ending in a different club. We made it out 3 of the nights, which was tough with my jetlag, but obviously a necessity. Each club we went to was different, but equally as lively. I found that BA is one capital where we actually felt quite safe walking home in the dark, as the streets were still full of people! For the first time in my life, I had a McDonalds at 5am along with fifty other people (who weren´t so stupid as to put sugar on their fries...). Buenos Aires was crazy, and in turn, it made us crazy! Running across the streets shouting "TOURIST!" is not something one would normally do...but it happened. Sending drunken facebook messages at 7am back at the hostel is not something I would see myself ever doing...but it happened. We were having what our friends would call a "nervy B", but it was fun.
To make it all the more wild, my twenty-second birthday occurred in Buenos Aires, and what better place to party?! We celebrated during the day with a trip to the match between Boca Juniors and Independiente, where the fans were more impressive than the football (in everyone´s opinion) and the atmosphere was electric. No alcohol allowed, or needed, at all. Once safely home, from this supposedly dodgy area, we had a juicy steak, and copious amounts of wine. Then followed more fiesta. I won´t go into all the details, as their funnier for me than for you, but it was a night to remember (mostly anyway).
It was hard for us to leave the bubble of BA, but we had a lot to do, and so much more excitement to come. Sadly for us, we couldn´t cover Argentina like we´d wanted to. Money and time are not our friends here, and Argentina is expensive. The bus system in Argentina is famous for being luxurious but pricey. So our time in the country was cut short to include the world famous Iguazu falls, and a week of Spanish lessons in the University city of Cordoba.
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IGUAZU FALLS
Iguazu was simply incredible. Way up on the border with Brazil, Iguazu are a collection of the most humbling and stunning waterfalls in the world. It was a long way out of our route, but everyone calls it a necessity. We made the long but comfortable bus journey up to Puerta Iguazu, a small and quiet town, cashing in on the main tourist attraction just an hour away. The park was full of wonderful white waterfalls, dotted about all over the place. Garganta del Diablo (the Devil´s throat) is the most awesome and humbling, as it spreads out over a vast space and its thundering falls can be heard from hundreds of meters away, and the clouds of spray can be seen in the sky for a mile. Tash and I were hysterically excited. We´d read that people believe that ions released from the falls cause people to feel happy, and we completely believed it. Standing at the waters edge, looking down into the seemingly bottomless clouds of spray, with birds circling round in the mouth of the falls, we felt so small. It´s those things that I love to travel for...I love to be made to feel insignificant and small, like nothing in my bubble of life really matters. That is how we both felt, and it felt so good.
The rest of the park was beautiful too. The falls were much smaller, but could be seen from further away. It was a Kodak dream for me. Tash has a love for butterflies, and I have a love for rainbows, so put those two things together with stunning waterfalls and a bright blue sky, and its just MAGIC. Honestly, we felt like we were in a fairytale, and we were delirious with glee.
We took the thrilling boat ride into the mouth of one of the falls. It was pretty scary, but amazing too. We were taken right into the spray of the falls, which felt less like spray, and more like twenty gallons of cold water being thrown over our heads. It was exhiliarating, but very, VERY cold. We dried off in the sun, fending off the racoon-like caotis from our lunches, and headed back to Diablo for one more chance at feeling completely worry free.
It was the perfect day, and we slept soundly in our beds that night. We´d had our little dose of natural magic at Iguazu, and we promised each other, that if we ever felt stressed or worried at home, we´d think back to Iguazu, and we would have our perspective back again.
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CÓRDOBA
Córdoba, Argentina´s most populated city after the capital, and our home for a whole week. As a university cirty, with around seven different universities, Córdoba seemed to be the ideal place for us to study Spanish. Despite having learnt Spanish at school, I am extremely rusty, and I love the language, so one of the main reasons for my trip to South America was to become fluent. Tash could not speak a word more than "hola" or "gracias", so it was very important for her to learn the native language, not just for necessity but to be more cultured. Also, back in Buenos Aires, there was an ´incident´ where, due to the language barrier, a pair of Argentinian men had to resort to a version of pictionary to hit on Tash and me (it consisted of two stickmen girls, with an arrow to two stickmen outside a house with a question mark and love hearts...classy).
Córdoba, as a city, does not have that much to offer tourists. It is a pretty city, and has a good student based night life, but other than that, unless you are having daily spanish lessons, there´s little else to do. We signed up for our week course from our "Baluche" hostel, a chilled out, comfortable and sociable home for us. We met lots of lovely people, all travelling in different directions, and studied Spanish during the day with our tutor Monica.
It turns out that Argentinian Spanish is very different from the Spanish that I learnt at school. Argentinians have a very different accent, where they pronounce the ´ll´ with a ´sh´ sound, and have different tenses for the verbs. This explained why I struggled to communicate so much with the locals, but also made me concerned about Tash learning this Spanish. Considering we were leaving Argentina straight after Córdoba, and spending the majority of our time in countries that speak the normal Spanish, it seemed pointless. However, it turned out to be ok, as I explained the difference to Tash, and she found it easier to remember anyway! Also, it was more of a crash course that we had, as you just can´t learn Spanish is a week. Tash as a beginner was put in the same class as me, which was tough for both of us at times, but it gave Tash the basics, and refreshed my memory of verb endings. I found it really useful, remember how to use the different tenses, and Tash learnt the basics of pronounciation and useful vocabulary. Monica was also very entertaining; we were taught about different cultures in Argentina, as well as the different meals, and customs.
So we were being educated, and this was important to us. I´d taken a knock back after discovering that my funds were depleting a lot quicker than I anticipated, and we decided to skip the beautiful wine country of Mendoza. I was really disappointed, as people passing through our hostel kept telling us how lovely it was, but I decided that it was more important to make it to cheaper Bolivia and all the delights that awaited us there.
Every little helps, so in Córdoba we kept to strict budget, and cooked for ourselves in our lovely little hostel. We spend barely anything, which was all important, and it was good to have a base. We ventured out of town to Alta Gracia, to visit the childhood home of Ernesto ´Che´ Guevara. The tiny little museum, in memory of Argentina´s most famous political persona was really interesting. Despite Che´s main influence being in Cuba, Argentina is still very proud of the educated, charming, and inspiring revolutionary. I already knew a bit about Che´s personal life, from watching the dramatization film, ´The Motorcycle Diaries´, but did not know as much about his political life. It was fascinating for me, and I like to think that he was a kind spirited man as well as a revolutionary, who loved his family, and believed in freedom. Argentina does right to be proud.
So after finishing our week long course, I felt a lot more equipped to deal with travelling in Bolivia and Peru. Tash and I said goodbye to our German friends in Baluche, and got ready to get down and dirty in poorer and more "South American" Bolivia.
One last juicy steak, and we are ready for the next exciting country. We got our last luxurious bus with our beloved "Expresso Singer" bus company (on this occasion without the champagne and ´inflight´ movies) and headed up to the border...
Argentina, we´ll be back for more, as Buenos Aires is just too good, and the beautiful south of Patagonia needs to be explored. So for now...hasta luego amigo.
After two and half months of Asian delights, I´ve dropped myself off into a completely different arena. South America couldn´t really get any more different, and I love it already.
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BUENOS AIRES
My first stop was Buenos Aires: the most exciting and cosmopolitan city in Latin America, famous for its colourful buildings, delicious steaks, and beautiful people. As the capital of Argentina, it stands out as a hub of activity and fun; a city that, literally, never sleeps.
After some sad goodbyes, it was time for a hysterically happy hello with none other than Tash Ozeren! I was reunited with this friendly face, after the longest of journeys, and I was so happy! Tash was full of excitement, nerves, and energy...and despite my jetlag, I mustered up some of my own.
We filled our days with Buenos Aires sights. Firstly, we headed to La Boca, the birthplace of Tango, and home to one of Argentina´s big football teams, ´Boca Juniors`. The streets were lined with colourful, quirky buildings, with artesanias and restaurants filling the area with people. It was refreshing to recognise the language at last. After five years of Spanish at school, I had enough knowledge to get around, albeit not easily. Yet, instantly, I felt at home with the latin culture. Argentina as a South American country is very European, especially in BA, so it was all a little bit more familiar for me.
La Boca claims to be the birth of Tango, due to housing many immigrants, who needed a universal language to communicate. This is where the world famous dance was said to have begun, and walking along the streets of La Boca, we were entertained by many different Tango dances, with women in heeled shoes and flowing skirts, erotically wrapping themselves round their male partner. However, back in the early days of Tango, the dance was traditionally danced between two men, as it was deemed improper for women and men to be in such positions in public. How I wish I could see that version...
Of course, Tango is not the only famous thing from La Boca, as I said before. The stadium of CABJ (Boca Juniors fútbol team) was a main stop on the walking tour. As the first team of the national hero, Maradona, Boca´s stadium is also a museum, Museo de la Pación Boquense. As our guide explained to us, Boca fans (and generally all Argentinian football fans) are crazy, and by that she meant insane. Though, she was a River Plate fan, and that´s like me as a Spurs fan, hosting a tour of Highbury. Still, in Argentina, one of the most important debates is "Who is the best player in the world: Maradona or Messi?". I don´t really think there is one true winner, and most of us wouldn´t really care, but this is Argentina and football is life...
We also explored the markets of fashionable Palermo, and authentic San Telmo. These markets were full of treats, in the form of the irresistable Alpaca knitwear, hand crafted jewellry, woven bags, and antique jewellry. It was difficult to walk past, but we had been reliably informed that Argentina was the most expensive place to buy such goods, so we should wait until Bolivia. Yes, it was torture.
Buenos Aires is a lively city at the best of times, but we happened to be there during a protest in the middle of the main political street, Avenida de Mayo. This also happened to be where our hostel, the party filled ´Milhouse´ was situated, so we were right in the thick of it. This protest was to do with a land issue up in the north of Argentina, but also collided with the May Day Political protests. For someone who had never experienced a protest before, yet alone in a South American country, this was pretty cool. Most of the days we´d simply walk past quickly, shielding ourselves against the cold wind, but occaisionally our plans were disrupted due to the marches from one end of the Avenida, to the other.
Food in Buenos Aires was wonderful. Argentina prides itself on its meat dishes, whether you choose a juicy steak, the meatiest choripan (chorizo sandwich) or a warm and filling empanada de carne. Top that off with an impressive selection of red wines, and I was in heaven. After two months of mainly veggie dishes of fried rice and noodles, meat was what I craved. We were, of course, concerned about our figures, but with empanadas at about 40p each, it was an easy choice.
And of course, the main thing that stands out about BA is the nightlife! The capital takes its reputation as "the city that never sleeps" very seriously, and we were thrown right in the deepend by staying at a party hostel like Milhouse. Every night there was a party at the hostel, ending in a different club. We made it out 3 of the nights, which was tough with my jetlag, but obviously a necessity. Each club we went to was different, but equally as lively. I found that BA is one capital where we actually felt quite safe walking home in the dark, as the streets were still full of people! For the first time in my life, I had a McDonalds at 5am along with fifty other people (who weren´t so stupid as to put sugar on their fries...). Buenos Aires was crazy, and in turn, it made us crazy! Running across the streets shouting "TOURIST!" is not something one would normally do...but it happened. Sending drunken facebook messages at 7am back at the hostel is not something I would see myself ever doing...but it happened. We were having what our friends would call a "nervy B", but it was fun.
To make it all the more wild, my twenty-second birthday occurred in Buenos Aires, and what better place to party?! We celebrated during the day with a trip to the match between Boca Juniors and Independiente, where the fans were more impressive than the football (in everyone´s opinion) and the atmosphere was electric. No alcohol allowed, or needed, at all. Once safely home, from this supposedly dodgy area, we had a juicy steak, and copious amounts of wine. Then followed more fiesta. I won´t go into all the details, as their funnier for me than for you, but it was a night to remember (mostly anyway).
It was hard for us to leave the bubble of BA, but we had a lot to do, and so much more excitement to come. Sadly for us, we couldn´t cover Argentina like we´d wanted to. Money and time are not our friends here, and Argentina is expensive. The bus system in Argentina is famous for being luxurious but pricey. So our time in the country was cut short to include the world famous Iguazu falls, and a week of Spanish lessons in the University city of Cordoba.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IGUAZU FALLS
Iguazu was simply incredible. Way up on the border with Brazil, Iguazu are a collection of the most humbling and stunning waterfalls in the world. It was a long way out of our route, but everyone calls it a necessity. We made the long but comfortable bus journey up to Puerta Iguazu, a small and quiet town, cashing in on the main tourist attraction just an hour away. The park was full of wonderful white waterfalls, dotted about all over the place. Garganta del Diablo (the Devil´s throat) is the most awesome and humbling, as it spreads out over a vast space and its thundering falls can be heard from hundreds of meters away, and the clouds of spray can be seen in the sky for a mile. Tash and I were hysterically excited. We´d read that people believe that ions released from the falls cause people to feel happy, and we completely believed it. Standing at the waters edge, looking down into the seemingly bottomless clouds of spray, with birds circling round in the mouth of the falls, we felt so small. It´s those things that I love to travel for...I love to be made to feel insignificant and small, like nothing in my bubble of life really matters. That is how we both felt, and it felt so good.
The rest of the park was beautiful too. The falls were much smaller, but could be seen from further away. It was a Kodak dream for me. Tash has a love for butterflies, and I have a love for rainbows, so put those two things together with stunning waterfalls and a bright blue sky, and its just MAGIC. Honestly, we felt like we were in a fairytale, and we were delirious with glee.
We took the thrilling boat ride into the mouth of one of the falls. It was pretty scary, but amazing too. We were taken right into the spray of the falls, which felt less like spray, and more like twenty gallons of cold water being thrown over our heads. It was exhiliarating, but very, VERY cold. We dried off in the sun, fending off the racoon-like caotis from our lunches, and headed back to Diablo for one more chance at feeling completely worry free.
It was the perfect day, and we slept soundly in our beds that night. We´d had our little dose of natural magic at Iguazu, and we promised each other, that if we ever felt stressed or worried at home, we´d think back to Iguazu, and we would have our perspective back again.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CÓRDOBA
Córdoba, Argentina´s most populated city after the capital, and our home for a whole week. As a university cirty, with around seven different universities, Córdoba seemed to be the ideal place for us to study Spanish. Despite having learnt Spanish at school, I am extremely rusty, and I love the language, so one of the main reasons for my trip to South America was to become fluent. Tash could not speak a word more than "hola" or "gracias", so it was very important for her to learn the native language, not just for necessity but to be more cultured. Also, back in Buenos Aires, there was an ´incident´ where, due to the language barrier, a pair of Argentinian men had to resort to a version of pictionary to hit on Tash and me (it consisted of two stickmen girls, with an arrow to two stickmen outside a house with a question mark and love hearts...classy).
Córdoba, as a city, does not have that much to offer tourists. It is a pretty city, and has a good student based night life, but other than that, unless you are having daily spanish lessons, there´s little else to do. We signed up for our week course from our "Baluche" hostel, a chilled out, comfortable and sociable home for us. We met lots of lovely people, all travelling in different directions, and studied Spanish during the day with our tutor Monica.
It turns out that Argentinian Spanish is very different from the Spanish that I learnt at school. Argentinians have a very different accent, where they pronounce the ´ll´ with a ´sh´ sound, and have different tenses for the verbs. This explained why I struggled to communicate so much with the locals, but also made me concerned about Tash learning this Spanish. Considering we were leaving Argentina straight after Córdoba, and spending the majority of our time in countries that speak the normal Spanish, it seemed pointless. However, it turned out to be ok, as I explained the difference to Tash, and she found it easier to remember anyway! Also, it was more of a crash course that we had, as you just can´t learn Spanish is a week. Tash as a beginner was put in the same class as me, which was tough for both of us at times, but it gave Tash the basics, and refreshed my memory of verb endings. I found it really useful, remember how to use the different tenses, and Tash learnt the basics of pronounciation and useful vocabulary. Monica was also very entertaining; we were taught about different cultures in Argentina, as well as the different meals, and customs.
So we were being educated, and this was important to us. I´d taken a knock back after discovering that my funds were depleting a lot quicker than I anticipated, and we decided to skip the beautiful wine country of Mendoza. I was really disappointed, as people passing through our hostel kept telling us how lovely it was, but I decided that it was more important to make it to cheaper Bolivia and all the delights that awaited us there.
Every little helps, so in Córdoba we kept to strict budget, and cooked for ourselves in our lovely little hostel. We spend barely anything, which was all important, and it was good to have a base. We ventured out of town to Alta Gracia, to visit the childhood home of Ernesto ´Che´ Guevara. The tiny little museum, in memory of Argentina´s most famous political persona was really interesting. Despite Che´s main influence being in Cuba, Argentina is still very proud of the educated, charming, and inspiring revolutionary. I already knew a bit about Che´s personal life, from watching the dramatization film, ´The Motorcycle Diaries´, but did not know as much about his political life. It was fascinating for me, and I like to think that he was a kind spirited man as well as a revolutionary, who loved his family, and believed in freedom. Argentina does right to be proud.
So after finishing our week long course, I felt a lot more equipped to deal with travelling in Bolivia and Peru. Tash and I said goodbye to our German friends in Baluche, and got ready to get down and dirty in poorer and more "South American" Bolivia.
One last juicy steak, and we are ready for the next exciting country. We got our last luxurious bus with our beloved "Expresso Singer" bus company (on this occasion without the champagne and ´inflight´ movies) and headed up to the border...
Argentina, we´ll be back for more, as Buenos Aires is just too good, and the beautiful south of Patagonia needs to be explored. So for now...hasta luego amigo.
Friday, 13 May 2011
Songkran, Supersoakers, Full Moon and Diving...Thailand Round Two.
The last chapter of South East Asia has come upon us, and boy, did it go by in a flash! So much so, that I barely had time to collect my thoughts, and hence the tardiness of this post.
Bangkok Part II was a completely different experience from two months previously, and not just because of the difference in us. With my sister Ellie, and good friend Helen arriving, it was sure to be a party. However, I don´t think we could have ever been prepared for what was to come!
It was Thai New Year, or Songkran as it is locally known, and Bangkok was transformed. The backpacker mecca of Khaosan Road, with its wonderful shopping and spa treatments, was on a lockdown, and in its place was a constant flood of Thai people, armed up to the eyeballs with supersoakers, hoses, and buckets of clay. For tradition would have it that the Thai people take to the streets for a 3 day waterfight! Luckily for us, and you may read into my tone if you will, the festival started a day early. So it was four days of being completely drenched, in water warefare. And no one was safe, especially tourists.
Young and old took to the streets, where loud music boomed from 10am up to midnight, the Royal Family visited Khaosan Road for a presentation, but otherwise everyone was a guerrilla waterfighter. All of my best travel companions so far were reunited, and donned up with Supersoakers and scruffy clothes (which were going to be ruined). You got used to having handfuls of clay wiped in your face by every other Thai person who spotted your Western face. You got used to being attacked by your own side, slap right in the face. You got used to loud booming music throughout the day and into the night. You never got used to feeling that cold, wet and dirty!
It was warfare all day, and party all night. Even after 8pm you´d still risk being soaked if you stepped outside your hostel for a quick Pad Thai (how much I´d missed that treat!). Ellie and Helen were so overwhelmed by it all, but quickly jumped in with both hands securely round a supersoaker.
To top off the crazy experience, we had the, erm...´pleasure´ of an authentic Thai Ping Pong show. An well known tourist attraction of Bangkok, the seedy sex shows that you are a approached for, finally attracted our attention. Six of us girls, accompanied by two excited boys, piled into a tuk tuk and ventured off into the Bangkok underworld. It was an experience alright! We had front row seats for the 40 minute long show of dimly lit girls entering the arena and producing various objects from their...private areas. Even when you thought you could be shocked no more, you were shocked again. I´ll just leave it at that...for your own curiosity!
So after a hectic few days in Thailand´s capital, we covered ourselves in bin bags and walked through no mans land to the bus stop. Our backpacks merely acted as targets for more clay and water, but we survived it, and had the pleasure of a damp overnight bus to the islands to look forward to...
Koh Phangan: Thailand´s party island. Thousands of party goers flock to this island every month for the infamous Full Moon Party. For every backpacker in Thailand, you simply must attend a Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan´s Haadrin beach. Due to this fact, the island was something of a tourist trap. The prices dramatically increased from the rest of Thailand, and sadly the island offers little else other than its famous parties. After a long, hot, sunburnt ferry over to the island, we all found out how much of an expensive few days it was going to be.
For one thing, the island was a lot bigger than we anticipated, and we were all staying in different hotels. Around Full Moon, this time on the 19th of April, the hotels book up quickly, and so prices are also high. Our hostel, Blue Lotus Resort, was lovely. It was on the quieter part of the island, but about a 10 minute taxi ride from Haadrin, where the boys were staying. The taxis on the island have a little agreement going that every taxi ride, regardless of how far, is 100 baht per person. Rip off. This didn´t sit well with us, but luckily our host, Pong, was happy to offer discounted lifts to Haadrin for us, in the back of his pickup truck.
We soon discovered that these lifts were to become a highlight of the trip. The crazy windy roads up and over the mountains towards Haadrin were like white knuckle rides in the back of a pick up. It was great, but terrifying nonetheless.
Despite the obvious party to look forward to on the nineteenth, we ended up partying EVERY NIGHT. The nights leading up to Full Moon are also famous, especially with the pool parties at Coral Bungalows (where some of the boys were staying). Every night us girls would meet at ours, eat delicious Mexican food, and pile into Pong´s pick up, playing "Dude Looks Like A Lady!" at high volume and winding round the bends. Coral was insane too. We all piled into the pool, drinking buckets and partying hard in our bikinis. The nights blended into one really, but the biggest by far was Full Moon.
Full Moon also fell on the birthday of Nadine Spoor. So obviously there was even more reason to make it a night to remember! We piled into Haadrin town, to buy our neon outfits, UV paint and Nadine a crazy birthday hat. I ended up going for a tye-dye dress, pleasing my inner hippy, and after the daily power cut, we UV´d up together and headed to Haadrin. Our little UV flowers, heart, peace signs, or other private in jokes were plastered all over our bodies.We armed ourselves with sufficient buckets and headed off in one big group.
Now, like every touristy place in the world,the Full Moon Party does not come without its dangers. There have been instances of drink spiking, robbery, attacks and other things, so we were all on our guard. Yet, honestly, my night couldn´t have been any better!
The long stretch of the beach was full of neon bodies, dancing, drinking, stumbling, singing, partying all night long. We stayed together in our group and joined in, sipping buckets and dancing to our favourite tunes being pumped out by twenty different makeshift bars along the beach. I was drenched from a mini water fight, but couldn´t care less, singing Rihanna, doing Sinead´s drunk dance, partying with Superman and watching the sunrise, sitting in the sea. When the sun came up, I was overwhelmed by how much fun I´d had, not just that night but in the whole two months of Asia. I fully loved life, and was so happy with the great people I´d met.
We partied on until 9am, as the party refused to quieten down. Sure, people had gone home, but the beach was still alive and kicking until midday. Now even I couldn´t make it until then!
The rest of the day was a write off, and we had our last dinner before some very sad goodbyes. Its the hardest thing about travelling, the goodbyes. For Asia to finally be drawing to an end, and for us to have to say farewell to faces that we´d grown so familiar to, was a little sad. But what a way to say farewell! It was farewell Thailand for Helen and Nadine, but for Annabel, Sinead, Rachel, Ellie and me, we still had the recovery paradise of Koh Tao to look forward to.
Koh Tao, (Turtle Island) is the more tranquil, laid back island next to Koh Phangan. A diver´s paradise, with numerous dive schools offering some of the cheapest dive courses in the world. Diving was top on my list of things to do, despite my fear. We settled into Phoenix dive schools accomodation, which wasn´t the best, but we got a great deal for an introductory dive. Koh Tao is much smaller than Koh Phangan, and you can see why people fall in love with it. Unfortunately we were unable to visit other great islands like Koh Samui or the stunning Koh Phi Phi, but Koh Tao was a great ending for us.
Diving was awesome. We were thrown right in the deep end, excusing the pun, with our first experience of using the equipment, after a short tutorial, in the sea! At first I found it a little scary, and took a while getting used to the mask, and my breathing. I don´t really like the sensation of being unable to breath normally, and it was always going to be overwhelming. Yet after the first 5 minutes at the bottom of the sea, just 5 meters deep, I was ready to go. It was just Annabel, Sinead and me, along with one other girl and three instructors.
I saw Angel fish, sea urchines, an eel and my top favorite, a stingray! It was beautiful, and so peaceful, just slowly floating along at the bottom of the sea. We were down there for 40 minutes, which was a long time, and we made it to 10 meters deep on our first dive. My ears were popping, but I made it back in one piece and absolutely loved it! We were given the opportunity of another dive before heading back, so we took it! When was I next going to have the chance?
This time it was a little trickier. Instead of a gradual decline down deeper, we went straight down to 12 meters. It was tough, and we followed a long rope down to into the darker water. Again, it took a while for me to adjust to the pressure and the breathing, but after the initial five minutes of discomfort, I was off again and finding it even easier than before! This dive took us through more rock and coral formations, requiring a little more physical energy, but still not much! I can now see why divers are so laid back and chilled out. They hardly have to use any energy! Back up on the surface, I could see the appeal of doing a PADI course one day. I could seriously get used to this life! For today however, that was enough diving for me, and the rest of Koh Tao was sunbathing on stunning beaches and sipping cocktails on the beach.
We grabbed a massage because we fancied it, and it was good. Why hadn´t I had more Thai massages? They are great! We did a little shopping, and organised our fretful trip down to Singapore. I didn´t like how quickly it was coming about. We had one last big farewell night out with our beloved Irish girls, and Aussie Steve who had headed to Koh Tao for some recuperation after Phangan. Koh Tao was paradise for us; slow, peaceful, beautiful paradise. What a way to end South East Asia.
After a tearful goodbye, Annabel, Ellie and I headed for our 2 day journey to Singapore and to and even bigger goodbye. On the bus I thought to myself, ´where did it all go?´ but I looked at my journal entries, and I saw that I had done so much and met so many that I tried not to feel sad, but to look forward to the next big adventure.
It was an unpleasant journey through Malaysia, with being ripped off through the currency exchange, and a hot sweaty mini bus journey, but we made it to clean, modern Singapore in one piece. Saying goodbye to Annabel, my companion, my partner, my best friend for ten whole weeks, was not fun at all. How could we do it without each other?! How would we survive?! This is what we both felt, and poor Ellie didn´t know how to make it better!
Looking back now, I can see that it was just us being tired and sad. With every ending there is a beginning, and boy, could I not wait for South America! Saying goodbye to Bells was sad and scary, but with it, I get to spend the next 12 weeks with another great friend, in another great place. I´m also a different person already, I can feel it, and I am a lot more equipped to deal with a scarier place!
Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, you have been good to me and I will always have these great memories.
And finally, to all these places, and all you great people I have met along the way, I have just one last thing to say:
It´s never goodbye. It´s see you later...
Bangkok Part II was a completely different experience from two months previously, and not just because of the difference in us. With my sister Ellie, and good friend Helen arriving, it was sure to be a party. However, I don´t think we could have ever been prepared for what was to come!
It was Thai New Year, or Songkran as it is locally known, and Bangkok was transformed. The backpacker mecca of Khaosan Road, with its wonderful shopping and spa treatments, was on a lockdown, and in its place was a constant flood of Thai people, armed up to the eyeballs with supersoakers, hoses, and buckets of clay. For tradition would have it that the Thai people take to the streets for a 3 day waterfight! Luckily for us, and you may read into my tone if you will, the festival started a day early. So it was four days of being completely drenched, in water warefare. And no one was safe, especially tourists.
Young and old took to the streets, where loud music boomed from 10am up to midnight, the Royal Family visited Khaosan Road for a presentation, but otherwise everyone was a guerrilla waterfighter. All of my best travel companions so far were reunited, and donned up with Supersoakers and scruffy clothes (which were going to be ruined). You got used to having handfuls of clay wiped in your face by every other Thai person who spotted your Western face. You got used to being attacked by your own side, slap right in the face. You got used to loud booming music throughout the day and into the night. You never got used to feeling that cold, wet and dirty!
It was warfare all day, and party all night. Even after 8pm you´d still risk being soaked if you stepped outside your hostel for a quick Pad Thai (how much I´d missed that treat!). Ellie and Helen were so overwhelmed by it all, but quickly jumped in with both hands securely round a supersoaker.
To top off the crazy experience, we had the, erm...´pleasure´ of an authentic Thai Ping Pong show. An well known tourist attraction of Bangkok, the seedy sex shows that you are a approached for, finally attracted our attention. Six of us girls, accompanied by two excited boys, piled into a tuk tuk and ventured off into the Bangkok underworld. It was an experience alright! We had front row seats for the 40 minute long show of dimly lit girls entering the arena and producing various objects from their...private areas. Even when you thought you could be shocked no more, you were shocked again. I´ll just leave it at that...for your own curiosity!
So after a hectic few days in Thailand´s capital, we covered ourselves in bin bags and walked through no mans land to the bus stop. Our backpacks merely acted as targets for more clay and water, but we survived it, and had the pleasure of a damp overnight bus to the islands to look forward to...
Koh Phangan: Thailand´s party island. Thousands of party goers flock to this island every month for the infamous Full Moon Party. For every backpacker in Thailand, you simply must attend a Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan´s Haadrin beach. Due to this fact, the island was something of a tourist trap. The prices dramatically increased from the rest of Thailand, and sadly the island offers little else other than its famous parties. After a long, hot, sunburnt ferry over to the island, we all found out how much of an expensive few days it was going to be.
For one thing, the island was a lot bigger than we anticipated, and we were all staying in different hotels. Around Full Moon, this time on the 19th of April, the hotels book up quickly, and so prices are also high. Our hostel, Blue Lotus Resort, was lovely. It was on the quieter part of the island, but about a 10 minute taxi ride from Haadrin, where the boys were staying. The taxis on the island have a little agreement going that every taxi ride, regardless of how far, is 100 baht per person. Rip off. This didn´t sit well with us, but luckily our host, Pong, was happy to offer discounted lifts to Haadrin for us, in the back of his pickup truck.
We soon discovered that these lifts were to become a highlight of the trip. The crazy windy roads up and over the mountains towards Haadrin were like white knuckle rides in the back of a pick up. It was great, but terrifying nonetheless.
Despite the obvious party to look forward to on the nineteenth, we ended up partying EVERY NIGHT. The nights leading up to Full Moon are also famous, especially with the pool parties at Coral Bungalows (where some of the boys were staying). Every night us girls would meet at ours, eat delicious Mexican food, and pile into Pong´s pick up, playing "Dude Looks Like A Lady!" at high volume and winding round the bends. Coral was insane too. We all piled into the pool, drinking buckets and partying hard in our bikinis. The nights blended into one really, but the biggest by far was Full Moon.
Full Moon also fell on the birthday of Nadine Spoor. So obviously there was even more reason to make it a night to remember! We piled into Haadrin town, to buy our neon outfits, UV paint and Nadine a crazy birthday hat. I ended up going for a tye-dye dress, pleasing my inner hippy, and after the daily power cut, we UV´d up together and headed to Haadrin. Our little UV flowers, heart, peace signs, or other private in jokes were plastered all over our bodies.We armed ourselves with sufficient buckets and headed off in one big group.
Now, like every touristy place in the world,the Full Moon Party does not come without its dangers. There have been instances of drink spiking, robbery, attacks and other things, so we were all on our guard. Yet, honestly, my night couldn´t have been any better!
The long stretch of the beach was full of neon bodies, dancing, drinking, stumbling, singing, partying all night long. We stayed together in our group and joined in, sipping buckets and dancing to our favourite tunes being pumped out by twenty different makeshift bars along the beach. I was drenched from a mini water fight, but couldn´t care less, singing Rihanna, doing Sinead´s drunk dance, partying with Superman and watching the sunrise, sitting in the sea. When the sun came up, I was overwhelmed by how much fun I´d had, not just that night but in the whole two months of Asia. I fully loved life, and was so happy with the great people I´d met.
We partied on until 9am, as the party refused to quieten down. Sure, people had gone home, but the beach was still alive and kicking until midday. Now even I couldn´t make it until then!
The rest of the day was a write off, and we had our last dinner before some very sad goodbyes. Its the hardest thing about travelling, the goodbyes. For Asia to finally be drawing to an end, and for us to have to say farewell to faces that we´d grown so familiar to, was a little sad. But what a way to say farewell! It was farewell Thailand for Helen and Nadine, but for Annabel, Sinead, Rachel, Ellie and me, we still had the recovery paradise of Koh Tao to look forward to.
Koh Tao, (Turtle Island) is the more tranquil, laid back island next to Koh Phangan. A diver´s paradise, with numerous dive schools offering some of the cheapest dive courses in the world. Diving was top on my list of things to do, despite my fear. We settled into Phoenix dive schools accomodation, which wasn´t the best, but we got a great deal for an introductory dive. Koh Tao is much smaller than Koh Phangan, and you can see why people fall in love with it. Unfortunately we were unable to visit other great islands like Koh Samui or the stunning Koh Phi Phi, but Koh Tao was a great ending for us.
Diving was awesome. We were thrown right in the deep end, excusing the pun, with our first experience of using the equipment, after a short tutorial, in the sea! At first I found it a little scary, and took a while getting used to the mask, and my breathing. I don´t really like the sensation of being unable to breath normally, and it was always going to be overwhelming. Yet after the first 5 minutes at the bottom of the sea, just 5 meters deep, I was ready to go. It was just Annabel, Sinead and me, along with one other girl and three instructors.
I saw Angel fish, sea urchines, an eel and my top favorite, a stingray! It was beautiful, and so peaceful, just slowly floating along at the bottom of the sea. We were down there for 40 minutes, which was a long time, and we made it to 10 meters deep on our first dive. My ears were popping, but I made it back in one piece and absolutely loved it! We were given the opportunity of another dive before heading back, so we took it! When was I next going to have the chance?
This time it was a little trickier. Instead of a gradual decline down deeper, we went straight down to 12 meters. It was tough, and we followed a long rope down to into the darker water. Again, it took a while for me to adjust to the pressure and the breathing, but after the initial five minutes of discomfort, I was off again and finding it even easier than before! This dive took us through more rock and coral formations, requiring a little more physical energy, but still not much! I can now see why divers are so laid back and chilled out. They hardly have to use any energy! Back up on the surface, I could see the appeal of doing a PADI course one day. I could seriously get used to this life! For today however, that was enough diving for me, and the rest of Koh Tao was sunbathing on stunning beaches and sipping cocktails on the beach.
We grabbed a massage because we fancied it, and it was good. Why hadn´t I had more Thai massages? They are great! We did a little shopping, and organised our fretful trip down to Singapore. I didn´t like how quickly it was coming about. We had one last big farewell night out with our beloved Irish girls, and Aussie Steve who had headed to Koh Tao for some recuperation after Phangan. Koh Tao was paradise for us; slow, peaceful, beautiful paradise. What a way to end South East Asia.
After a tearful goodbye, Annabel, Ellie and I headed for our 2 day journey to Singapore and to and even bigger goodbye. On the bus I thought to myself, ´where did it all go?´ but I looked at my journal entries, and I saw that I had done so much and met so many that I tried not to feel sad, but to look forward to the next big adventure.
It was an unpleasant journey through Malaysia, with being ripped off through the currency exchange, and a hot sweaty mini bus journey, but we made it to clean, modern Singapore in one piece. Saying goodbye to Annabel, my companion, my partner, my best friend for ten whole weeks, was not fun at all. How could we do it without each other?! How would we survive?! This is what we both felt, and poor Ellie didn´t know how to make it better!
Looking back now, I can see that it was just us being tired and sad. With every ending there is a beginning, and boy, could I not wait for South America! Saying goodbye to Bells was sad and scary, but with it, I get to spend the next 12 weeks with another great friend, in another great place. I´m also a different person already, I can feel it, and I am a lot more equipped to deal with a scarier place!
Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, you have been good to me and I will always have these great memories.
And finally, to all these places, and all you great people I have met along the way, I have just one last thing to say:
It´s never goodbye. It´s see you later...
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Running AMOK in Cambodia...
Cambodia, a beautiful country of rich tropical scenery, some of the friendliest people you could meet and home to the the worlds most famous temple, Angkor Wat. Yet Cambodia is a poor country, still haunted by its recent political turmoil, where its own people were tortured under Pol Pots´ vicious rule. I will not pretend to have known much about Cambodian political history before, or even that much about the Khmer Rouge regime, but I was instantly intrigued by this country´s past.
We started off in the country´s capital, Phnom Penh. A bustling city and at times a little crazy. Tuk-tuks buzzing round street corners, scooters with livestock in the passenger seat, and street vendors every 50 meters selling non-descript meat goods; a familiar sight! Not the prettiest or cleanest city, but Phnom Penh has a thriving nightlife. We explored it in one crazy night, after drinking with new friends on a street corner and fending off the poor begging children, who we couldn´t help but be charmed by. The boys couldn´t handle the poor sweet faces of the skinny little girls, and bought them Coca Cola and crisps. They meant well, but it was a mistake, as they kept coming back for more! It made for a good laugh at the time, but you couldn´t help but feel sorry for these children, scrounging for food at midnight. Its just a signifier of how poor Cambodia is.
The next day, we dragged ourselves out of our pits, to become educated. It was tough with our hangover, but we were determined to learn about Cambodia´s recent turmoil, so that we could appreciate the country in context. Our first stop was S-21: the political prison for thousands of Cambodians. Here you can walk around the eerie, empty, bloodstained stone cells where the prisoners were tortured and starved, whilst under questioning. The blood splatters on the walls, and the stale smell that lingered around the wall made me feel cold and empty inside. A hallway full of mugshots of the blank faces of the victims sent shivers down my spine. The place reaked of death and suffering, and I couldn´t wait to get out.
It shocked me to discover that Pol Pot and the other Khmer Rouge leaders were only recently taken to trial. This happened in my lifetime, and I was completely ignorant, a thousand miles away.
Next on our educational, but emotionally draining tour, were the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. The eerily quiet and empty compound, just 7 km out of the city, was not so long ago, home to some of the worst human atrocities commited in the last 50 years. The compound laid out around the memorial stupa, towering high and stocked full of skulls of the thousands of Cambodians, killed under the Khmer Rouge Regime. Thousands of Cambodian people, including women, children and babies, were killed here and buried in mass graves between 1975 and 1979. Only ten years before I was born. Walking around the bunkers, with tiny pieces of fabric still visible in the ground from victims´clothing, was what I can only describe as harrowing. So much death, and so much injustice in such an ironically peaceful location.
It was fair to say that we were emotionally exhausted after that day of education. It became clear how much Cambodia has been through, and explained the poverty that the people still struggle with.Yet, we soon found that, especially on our next two stops, Cambodia does not let its painful past ruin the great things that it should be proud of: its beautiful country and its beautiful people.
At a polar opposite of our experience in Phnom Penh, we were blessed with 9 beautiful days in Cambodia´s beach bum paradise: Sihanoukville.
Sihanoukville, in my opinion, cannot be likened to any other beach town I´ve ever been to. Partly, because Serendipity beach is the backpacker beach...with lines of bars and restaurants on the beach where people bask in the baking sun druing the day, and which convert into an array of bars and clubs at night. The body clock of Sihanoukville is pushed back a good few hours, and the pace of life slows down by at least half.
Bells and I were lucky to meet a wonderful Aussie to share this lazy beach paradise with: Miss Nadine Spoor. Having just arrived in Cambodia for a couple of weeks, on the way to London, Nads was looking for the same thing as us: laid back, spoiling ourselves fun.
Well we sure got it! Having only planned to spend four or five days there, we left an impressive ten days later. We were in a Sihanoukville coma. We came out of it refreshed, tanned, and craving to take in some culture once again! The days really blended into one good time, but here´s a quick summary:
By day we´d have breakfast at our favourite baguette shop (you don´t know how hard it is to get a decent egg mayonnaise sandwich out here!) and hit the beach. We´d be pestered constantly by children and women pestering you constantly to buy bracelets, fruit, a pedicure, manicure, massage or anything else that they think you look like you need! It could get quite insulting, when women would stroke your legs and insist that you need to have them threaded. LEAVE ME ALONE! I WANT TO BE HAIRY AND DIRTY!
The kids that we met were great too. At first we were irritated by them harrassing us all the time, and some could be quite rude, but we made a group of friends with bright young girls who sold mugs like us little plaited bracelets, to afford their evening English schooling. We came out of Sihanoukville with our wrists covered in the little bracelets, but they make us look "well travelled" I guess.
If the weather was poor, or we were too sunburnt, there were the sofa-cinemas, or even scooters to rent! Surprisingly, my first experience of riding a scooter was a success! Apparently I´m the Sebastian Vettel of scooters, zipping down the road away from the other two, wind in my hair and grin on my face. Not even being pulled over by the Cambodian police could spoil my fun. Brilliant. Plus Bells got a flat tyre, to truly add to the authentic experience!
By night, Sihanoukville came alive along the beach. All of the beach bars would open up for BBQs and drinks deals. The two main competetors for the nightlife, Dolphin Shack and JJ´s, had their backpacker reps out in force, flyering all day, and luring drinkers in for free shots and Happy Hour. We´d either drink on the beach, watching fire poi, or dance on the tables and poles to Rihanna and Far East Movement. We had a good group of people with us; the Canadians from Halong Bay resurfaced, as well as the English lot from Phnom Penh. No wonder we got stuck in the bubble so easily.
We loved Sihanoukville, and had some great times, but eventually it was time to break away and get on the move again. The next stop was Siem Reap, for our Angkor Wat experience.
Siem Reap was a great little city. Small as cities go, but compact full with a good market, and its famous drinking haven: Pub Street. The main reason for visits to Siem Reap, however, is Angkor Wat, and I was so excited!
Angkor Wat is the name given to a temple complex spread out over a large area, built in the early 12th century for King Suryavarman II. Angkor Wat is the name of the main walled temple that is most famous, but the tour takes you around Angkor Thom which is much bigger. Many say that Angkor Thom cannot be fully appreciated in less than 3 days, but we lacked the time and money to follow this advice. We paid a tuk tuk driver to take us to see the sunset on the first night, and then had the whole of the next day to explore the many ancient and ruined temples. We weren´t disappointed!
We woke up at 5am to be driven to the temple, for the sunrise over the famous 4 towers. There were crowds of tourists waiting for the perfect Kodak moment, of which we were maybe the little less enthusiastic, due to the early morning start. Yet when the sun peeked out from behind the towers, and the sky went peach, I was hooked. My finger clicked non stop until the sun was in the sky, when we went into the temple itself and wandered around the ancient stone arches. The first thing that struck me, and continued to throughout the complex, was the detail of the carvings in the stone. Carvings of Buddha, Devatas (deities) and faces, more than eight centuries old, still cover the temple structures.
We spent the best part of the day driving round, and stopping at the main sites. The huge stone faces of Bayon Temple and Ta Phrom (annoyingly made more famous by Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider) were my highlights. I especially loved Ta Phrom, as one of the few temples that have been left as it was found. The old ruined stone temple, was in my opinion, the most photogenic of the temples, with the huge white tree roots growing out and over the stone ruins. It was another moment when I felt so small, compared to the immensity of the trees, and the age of the temples. I loved it. I will also admit to running around, climbing the stones, pretending to be Lara Croft, even if I am against that sort of tourist attraction!
It was a long day, full of climbing, and wandering around in awe. I'll forever have fond memories of Bells, Nads and me chanting "Angkor WHATTT?!?!", whilst walking up the path to the entrance of the temple, just as the sun was rising. Classy, maybe not, but memorable.
I could maybe have done another day exploring further afield, but we were exhausted afterwards. It was one of the most impressive man-made wonders I have seen, on par with the Mayan temples. So top that with some authentic Cambodian street food, and some nights out on Pub Street...Siem Reap was also a big hit!
It is fair to say after that rushed summary, that Cambodia has been a highlight. In fact, it is probably my favourite country so far. I felt safe, happy, relaxed, excited, educated, in awe, hungover, and completely free to explore in a beautiful and complex country. Maybe I didn´t expect so much from it, or maybe I was just unaware of it, but Cambodia deserves more fame, and I hope that it thrives.
We started off in the country´s capital, Phnom Penh. A bustling city and at times a little crazy. Tuk-tuks buzzing round street corners, scooters with livestock in the passenger seat, and street vendors every 50 meters selling non-descript meat goods; a familiar sight! Not the prettiest or cleanest city, but Phnom Penh has a thriving nightlife. We explored it in one crazy night, after drinking with new friends on a street corner and fending off the poor begging children, who we couldn´t help but be charmed by. The boys couldn´t handle the poor sweet faces of the skinny little girls, and bought them Coca Cola and crisps. They meant well, but it was a mistake, as they kept coming back for more! It made for a good laugh at the time, but you couldn´t help but feel sorry for these children, scrounging for food at midnight. Its just a signifier of how poor Cambodia is.
The next day, we dragged ourselves out of our pits, to become educated. It was tough with our hangover, but we were determined to learn about Cambodia´s recent turmoil, so that we could appreciate the country in context. Our first stop was S-21: the political prison for thousands of Cambodians. Here you can walk around the eerie, empty, bloodstained stone cells where the prisoners were tortured and starved, whilst under questioning. The blood splatters on the walls, and the stale smell that lingered around the wall made me feel cold and empty inside. A hallway full of mugshots of the blank faces of the victims sent shivers down my spine. The place reaked of death and suffering, and I couldn´t wait to get out.
It shocked me to discover that Pol Pot and the other Khmer Rouge leaders were only recently taken to trial. This happened in my lifetime, and I was completely ignorant, a thousand miles away.
Next on our educational, but emotionally draining tour, were the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. The eerily quiet and empty compound, just 7 km out of the city, was not so long ago, home to some of the worst human atrocities commited in the last 50 years. The compound laid out around the memorial stupa, towering high and stocked full of skulls of the thousands of Cambodians, killed under the Khmer Rouge Regime. Thousands of Cambodian people, including women, children and babies, were killed here and buried in mass graves between 1975 and 1979. Only ten years before I was born. Walking around the bunkers, with tiny pieces of fabric still visible in the ground from victims´clothing, was what I can only describe as harrowing. So much death, and so much injustice in such an ironically peaceful location.
It was fair to say that we were emotionally exhausted after that day of education. It became clear how much Cambodia has been through, and explained the poverty that the people still struggle with.Yet, we soon found that, especially on our next two stops, Cambodia does not let its painful past ruin the great things that it should be proud of: its beautiful country and its beautiful people.
At a polar opposite of our experience in Phnom Penh, we were blessed with 9 beautiful days in Cambodia´s beach bum paradise: Sihanoukville.
Sihanoukville, in my opinion, cannot be likened to any other beach town I´ve ever been to. Partly, because Serendipity beach is the backpacker beach...with lines of bars and restaurants on the beach where people bask in the baking sun druing the day, and which convert into an array of bars and clubs at night. The body clock of Sihanoukville is pushed back a good few hours, and the pace of life slows down by at least half.
Bells and I were lucky to meet a wonderful Aussie to share this lazy beach paradise with: Miss Nadine Spoor. Having just arrived in Cambodia for a couple of weeks, on the way to London, Nads was looking for the same thing as us: laid back, spoiling ourselves fun.
Well we sure got it! Having only planned to spend four or five days there, we left an impressive ten days later. We were in a Sihanoukville coma. We came out of it refreshed, tanned, and craving to take in some culture once again! The days really blended into one good time, but here´s a quick summary:
By day we´d have breakfast at our favourite baguette shop (you don´t know how hard it is to get a decent egg mayonnaise sandwich out here!) and hit the beach. We´d be pestered constantly by children and women pestering you constantly to buy bracelets, fruit, a pedicure, manicure, massage or anything else that they think you look like you need! It could get quite insulting, when women would stroke your legs and insist that you need to have them threaded. LEAVE ME ALONE! I WANT TO BE HAIRY AND DIRTY!
The kids that we met were great too. At first we were irritated by them harrassing us all the time, and some could be quite rude, but we made a group of friends with bright young girls who sold mugs like us little plaited bracelets, to afford their evening English schooling. We came out of Sihanoukville with our wrists covered in the little bracelets, but they make us look "well travelled" I guess.
If the weather was poor, or we were too sunburnt, there were the sofa-cinemas, or even scooters to rent! Surprisingly, my first experience of riding a scooter was a success! Apparently I´m the Sebastian Vettel of scooters, zipping down the road away from the other two, wind in my hair and grin on my face. Not even being pulled over by the Cambodian police could spoil my fun. Brilliant. Plus Bells got a flat tyre, to truly add to the authentic experience!
By night, Sihanoukville came alive along the beach. All of the beach bars would open up for BBQs and drinks deals. The two main competetors for the nightlife, Dolphin Shack and JJ´s, had their backpacker reps out in force, flyering all day, and luring drinkers in for free shots and Happy Hour. We´d either drink on the beach, watching fire poi, or dance on the tables and poles to Rihanna and Far East Movement. We had a good group of people with us; the Canadians from Halong Bay resurfaced, as well as the English lot from Phnom Penh. No wonder we got stuck in the bubble so easily.
We loved Sihanoukville, and had some great times, but eventually it was time to break away and get on the move again. The next stop was Siem Reap, for our Angkor Wat experience.
Siem Reap was a great little city. Small as cities go, but compact full with a good market, and its famous drinking haven: Pub Street. The main reason for visits to Siem Reap, however, is Angkor Wat, and I was so excited!
Angkor Wat is the name given to a temple complex spread out over a large area, built in the early 12th century for King Suryavarman II. Angkor Wat is the name of the main walled temple that is most famous, but the tour takes you around Angkor Thom which is much bigger. Many say that Angkor Thom cannot be fully appreciated in less than 3 days, but we lacked the time and money to follow this advice. We paid a tuk tuk driver to take us to see the sunset on the first night, and then had the whole of the next day to explore the many ancient and ruined temples. We weren´t disappointed!
We woke up at 5am to be driven to the temple, for the sunrise over the famous 4 towers. There were crowds of tourists waiting for the perfect Kodak moment, of which we were maybe the little less enthusiastic, due to the early morning start. Yet when the sun peeked out from behind the towers, and the sky went peach, I was hooked. My finger clicked non stop until the sun was in the sky, when we went into the temple itself and wandered around the ancient stone arches. The first thing that struck me, and continued to throughout the complex, was the detail of the carvings in the stone. Carvings of Buddha, Devatas (deities) and faces, more than eight centuries old, still cover the temple structures.
We spent the best part of the day driving round, and stopping at the main sites. The huge stone faces of Bayon Temple and Ta Phrom (annoyingly made more famous by Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider) were my highlights. I especially loved Ta Phrom, as one of the few temples that have been left as it was found. The old ruined stone temple, was in my opinion, the most photogenic of the temples, with the huge white tree roots growing out and over the stone ruins. It was another moment when I felt so small, compared to the immensity of the trees, and the age of the temples. I loved it. I will also admit to running around, climbing the stones, pretending to be Lara Croft, even if I am against that sort of tourist attraction!
It was a long day, full of climbing, and wandering around in awe. I'll forever have fond memories of Bells, Nads and me chanting "Angkor WHATTT?!?!", whilst walking up the path to the entrance of the temple, just as the sun was rising. Classy, maybe not, but memorable.
I could maybe have done another day exploring further afield, but we were exhausted afterwards. It was one of the most impressive man-made wonders I have seen, on par with the Mayan temples. So top that with some authentic Cambodian street food, and some nights out on Pub Street...Siem Reap was also a big hit!
It is fair to say after that rushed summary, that Cambodia has been a highlight. In fact, it is probably my favourite country so far. I felt safe, happy, relaxed, excited, educated, in awe, hungover, and completely free to explore in a beautiful and complex country. Maybe I didn´t expect so much from it, or maybe I was just unaware of it, but Cambodia deserves more fame, and I hope that it thrives.
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