Monday 25 March 2013

Siem Reap


After our stressful border crossing we were all excited to get some rest. My friend had recommended us to stay at The Siem Reap hostel, so I had booked all five of us into a dorm room together beforehand. The Siem Reap hostel is an amazing place to stay if you go to Siem Reap. It is very much like a hostel that you would find in Australia, but without the expense. The best part about this hostel was that we had a nice pool, a movie room and a free pool table.

The pool at The Siem Reap hostel


We arrived into Siem Reap at about nine in the evening so we just got some dinner and went to bed. The next day we all decided that we deserved a rest day so we all just lazed about by the pool, eating, drinking and napping. Noel, Kate and Jayne got massages also, it was such a nice relaxing day!

After our relaxing day we were all set to see the temples of Angkor, these are the reason that tourism in Cambodia is so high. We decided to go and see the temples at sunrise which meant getting up at 4:30a.m. The temples of Angkor are the pride of Cambodia and the main one, Angkor Wat, is even on their nations flag. If you want to read more about the temples, here is a link for you

Angkor Wat at sunrise




Jungle clad Ta Phrom temple
Bayon temple; There were hundreds of faces on the temple.



We arrived at Angkor Wat and it was still dark so we found a spot to watch the sunrise. I had stood in that exact same spot four years ago with Louise waiting for a sunrise too, and that time it was too cloudy so there was none. Just when we arrived it started raining. I was devastated thinking that only I could go to Angkor Wat twice for sunrise and not see a thing! Luckily the rain stopped and the clouds cleared, I was finally going to get my sunrise!!
Unfortunately the sunrise wasn’t as exciting or impressive as we thought it would be, but we still had fun. After sunrise we got to explore three of the temples, Angkor Wat (the biggest one), Bayan (famous for its many stone faces) and Ta Phrom (the temple covered in jungle, this was also used for Tomb Raider). Ta Phrom is my favorite as it is covered in trees and has a very mystical feeling to it.

Jason in Angkor Wat

Myself and Jason at Bayan
Noel at Ta Phrom

After walking around the temples in the heat we were all wrecked by the time we arrived back to the guesthouse. It was fun seeing the temples but I wish that we hadn't gotten up so early to see the sunrise, as we were all very tired and felt like we couldn't enjoy the experience to it's fullest. It was one of those times where something is  a lot more fun when you look back on it rather than while you are doing it. After a couple of hours nap we decided to venture out to “pub street.” Pub street is exactly what you think it is, a street full of pubs. It was really strange to see this here in the middle of a small town in Cambodia, there were beggers everywhere and seeing a child no more than seven or eight years old going through all of the rubbish to find some plastic to sell at 1a.m. on a Tuesday night was harrowing.

The next day we had a nice sleep in after our early rise the morning before. Myself and Jason rented a couple of bikes and cycled around the town. By noon it became so hard to cycle in the heat that we had to return to our hostel dripping in sweat. Today was the day that Noel, Kate and Jayne were leaving us. I had so much fun with them all, it really felt like we hadn’t been apart for long. I was hoping that we’d get to meet up again at some stage. Being back together with my friends really make me miss Ireland and Irish people, you really can’t find anybody like them! I’m sure Jason had a lot of fun meeting them too (although I think he couldn’t understand a lot of our conversations) haha.

Miss them!





 One thing that I have to mention 
when talking about Kate, Noel and Jayne is the Lily dance. This is a worldwide phenomenon that has been performed in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, U.K. probably many other places also but now Cambodia too! The "Lily" dance is named after Kates mom because it is her that invented it. Whenever she's had a glass or two the "Lily" dance comes out in all of its glory. Let's hope that some day the "Lily" dance can become famous all over the world ;)
The famous "Lily Dance"


After saying goodbye to “the lads” we just packed our bags and got ready for our bus ride the next day…we were off to Battambang!

Siem Reap is a nice town, with lots to do both within the town and on the outskirts. I was glad that we got to be there with friends, the best thing about this town is that you can have a crazy night out if you want or just as easily have a mellow night. And of course having the temples in it's back garden makes this town even better!

Prices:

Accommodation: The Siem Reap Hostel $6 for a dorm bed in a really comfortable 6 bed dorm.
Tuk-tuk to the temples: $15 between myself and Jason
Entry into the temples: $20 for a day, $40 for 3 days and $60 for a 7 day ticket.
Meal: surprisingly western foods were the same price as local foods, ranging between $3 and $5 per meal
Bicycle rental: $1 a day
Bus ticket to Battambang: $7


Saturday 16 March 2013

My worst border crossing to date!

A couple of days ago we did the much criticized trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap. I had read a lot about this particular border crossing about how they will try to rip you off at every corner so we went prepared. Luckily we met up with my two friends from college Noel and Kate the day before. It was so great seeing them both! I hadn't seen Noel since he visited me in Korea 3 years previous and Kate since we travelled together in New Zealand nearly 4 years ago. Their friend Jayne was also with them and the 5 of us had great craic catching up.

We were all going to Siem Reap together the next day so we decided to book our tickets and travel together (safety in numbers!) We found a travel agents near our guesthouse and booked our minibus from Bangkok straight to Siem Reap for 300 baht each. The minibus would collect us the following morning at 7:20 from our reception. With an early morning ahead of us we did what only a group of Irish would do...went out and got drunk! We met Kates friend who lives in Bangkok and he brought us to a couple of great places that we would have never known about before. It was so nice to get out of the Khao San area and see some of Bangkok.

But before we could meet her friend we had to get a taxi to the spot. Of course the taxi dropped us miles away from the pub and randomly dropped us at Koreatown. It was so strange seeing hangul written everywhere and we were considering eating at one of the places until I saw that a soup that normally costs 2,000w in Korea cost the equilivent of 10,000w here. We swiftly moved on and waited for Kates friend to collect us and show us the way. He brought us to a pub that does the best fish and chips! Myself and Jason got a large portion to share and couldn't even nearly finish it. It cost about $12/$13 for the large portion.  There was also a great jazz band playing which was so nice because living in Gimhae we don't get the chance to see live music very often. This pub's name was fat gutz, a fitting name I thought!

After that pub he brought us to another great place. It was called Wongs place (I think) and is a great tiny spot that apparently is absolutely packed out the door every weekend, we went during the week so it was nice and quiet. It was such a fun night catching up with everyone.

After 4 hours sleep (worst decision ever!) we rose from bed and got ready for our day ahead of us. The travel agent told us that the journey would take about 8 hours total. Our minibus arrived and luckily only 2 others were on it with us, one from America and a Londoner. We had the craziest bus driver who would  keep sniffing something from two suspect little bottles. Every time he would sniff he would suddenly start crazy dancing to the songs (while driving) He also just made strange noises for the whole journey...his favourite being "eh eh ehhhh" quite similar to Anne from Little Britain.

When we finally arrived at the border town I was looking out the window and saw an arrow pointing left for the border. We went right. He brought us to this restaurant where they were so "nice" and offered to get our visas for us there while we wait, for only 1,200 baht. When we politely declined he told us that we would be queueing up for 6/7 hours at the border and will miss our connecting buses at the other side. Again we declined, knowing that this is exactly what we were warned about. He also took our bus tickets from us and told us he would give us new ones (I still don't know why we gave them to him)

After 20 minutes or so we were off again. We were just pulling away when we realized that we never got our bus tickets back, we asked our driver who asked the man at the restaurant, but he said not to worry we would get them. Of course this made us worry and by the time we got to the border we held a sit in until someone gave us a ticket or some kind of proof of onward travel out of Poipet (the border town) After another 20 minutes we still didn't have any proof but we did have a man from a travel company promise to bring us over the border and personally make sure we get on a bus. At this stage we didn't have much of an option and we were getting really hot so we went with him.

Once at the border we had to get our visas, I was looking around and a man told me to go to the building on our right, when our agent saw this he started giving out to the man who had helped me and tried to make us follow him past the building (so that we would get visas from him for 1,200 baht) We went into the building and got our visas for 800 baht. The process took about 10 minutes (not the 6/7 hours that the guy at the restaurant had told us) I think at this stage we were all angry because the person that was supposed to be helping us had just tried to scam us so we presumed we'd never see him again. To our surprise he was still waiting for us afterwards and came with us to the immigration line. We queued for what seemed like an eternity there in the horrible heat and all that was left to do afterwards was wait for a bus that we were hoping would come. Everyone else around us had stickers which are your bus tickets and we had nothing. Apparently, this happens if you refuse to buy your visa from the people. Luckily we were a big group and had the amazing Jayne with us who would take no shit from anyone. Miraculously the bus came and we were allowed on it without our tickets (I think they were just so sick of us at that stage)

While on the bus we found out that some people had paid 1,600 baht for the same journey that we were doing for 300 baht. In fact the American that was on our minibus to the border with us paid 2,000 baht and then they wanted him to pay another 400 baht at the border cause he "missed" his bus to Phnom Penh...he was still there when we were leaving. Overall this journey ended up taking over 12 hours but we finally arrived in Siem Reap. I think the hardest part of this journey is that people are lying and cheating you with a smile on their faces, in fact a girl had just found out that her bank card was stolen during her bus trip from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and they had accessed her account and taken nearly $4,000 canadian dollars. Obviously she was very upset and one of the tour guides was comforting her, he then proceeded to get her to pay him 1,200 baht for the visa (ripping her off a bit more).

If you are ever planning on doing this route I would definitely recommend you to do some research. I had read all about it on www.travelfish.org and the more you know beforehand the less likely you are to get ripped off. I would also recommend not getting a minibus (even though this is the easier option) Apparently there are plenty of government busses that leave from Bangkok bus station that are much cheaper and drop you to the border town, you can then just get a short taxi to the border and then pay for an onward bus to Siem Reap. Also, make sure you stand your ground! Another thing that I would recommend is to apply for your visa online. That way you will be guaranteed to not get ripped off with the visa. The online visa is only allowed on certain border crossings so make sure to check beforehand.

We have been in Siem Reap for two days now and have been pretty lazy, but more on that next time :)

Thursday 14 March 2013

Krabi- Kayaking, Krabs and …Kockroaches?!


While staying in Ko Lipe we decided to visit Krabi next. Mainly because it was one of the cheapest tickets offered out of Lipe. It was a comfortable 5-hour journey. Initially we had planned on staying on Railay beach but when the bus dropped us off in Ao-Nang we decided to base ourselves here instead (because it is cheaper and has more options)
We found ourselves a guesthouse and got settled in. One of the things I was most looking forward to about leaving Lipe was a bathroom! Our bathroom in Lipe was very basic, we had a toilet but it had no flusher so you had to use a bucket and pour water down when finished, lets just say that this led to quite a few blockages and if myself and Jason didn’t know each other well enough then…we do now!
The bathroom in Lipe was also a bit open and many bugs got in, so I spent the whole time while using it just looking around, fearful of what might peak up behind me.

While unpacking in our new guesthouse in Ao-nang, I got the fright of my life. I opened my bag and there sitting on top of my clothes was a cockroach!! He must have snuck into my bag in Lipe and travelled up with us. Another reason that I feel so lucky to be travelling with Jason is because my approach to a cockroach in my bag is to dart out of the room and stand in the hallway. Luckily Jasons approach is far more productive, he just got it out of my bag and out of the room as quick as he could. With that sorted, we decided to take a look around the town.

Jason on the long tail boat
Ao-nang is a very tourist beach town. It is a great base for people that only have a short time in Thailand because it has many islands and beaches nearby that you can go to on day trips, many trekking options, waterfalls and lots of other tourist traps. Once again we were in shock with how touristy it was. Again there were many Europeans here and plenty of British holidaymakers too. I forgot to mention in my Lipe blog that because there are so many Europeans around, Jason had his first chance to see people sunbathing topless. I think he was quite embarrassed at first but I’m sure he’s enjoying it ;)

On our first day in Ao-nang we decided to get a long tail boat over to Railay beach. Railay beach is a beach on the mainland but can only be accessed by boat. I had been here four years ago with my friend Lousie while on our round the world trip. This was our favourite place in Thailand and one of our favourite destinations of the whole trip. Because I had loved it so much back then I was a little apprehensive about going back…and I was right!



When the long tail boat pulled in to the beach it was unrecognizable, four years ago Railay was very chill, but now there were resorts all over the beach front and there was a walking street going through from West to East Railay. This walking street had cafes, bars and restaurants. It was much more built up than last time. We ventured over to East Railay where Lou and myself had stayed last time and found that that too had changed. The bamboo tattoo place where we got our tattoos is gone, the bar where we met some amazing lifelong friends was gone, it had all changed. I should have known better than to go back to one of my favourite places and I think this has taught me a lesson. But regardless of all of the change that has happened on Railay, the beach is still as beautiful as ever!


Railey Beach
Jason still loved Railey beach!
The funny thing id that I have been recommending Railay beach to everyone for the last four years! Oops.
We spent a bit of time swimming and sunbathing and then decided to take a kayak out for the day. I think that was the single-most best decision we have made in the trip so far as it turned out to be an incredible experience.
Surprisingly we turned out to be a good kayak team. We kayaked around some of the wonderful rock formations jutting out of the sea that that Krabi region is famous for; we then found a wonderful beach to grab some lunch from one of the women cooking on the long tail boats and take some very cheesy photos!

We then continued kayaking, Jason bought a beer so we found a place in the sea that was covered by the shade and just floated while he drank his beer. It was so relaxing, the water was so clear and we could see all of the fish below us perfectly. We also saw some of the craziest looking crabs I’ve ever seen! They were bright purple and green, I was a little creeped out because once we saw one, we looked around and saw that they were everywhere on these cliffs! We also got to kayak into a little tunnel in one of these cliffs. We would have stayed out there all day if we weren’t getting sunburned so we brought the kayaks back and headed back to Ao-nang. We had such a fun time and would definitely recommend kayaking to anyone planning on going to the Krabi province.

Us on the beach :)

The purple and green crabs

We were too nervous to take photos while kayaking, so this is the only one!




The next day we had a bus booked to Bangkok for 3pm, we wanted to check out the weekend market before we left but realized that it is more of an evening market so we just spent the day relaxing and getting a couple of massages before the 13 hour bus journey. The journey was actually a lot better than we thought, the only downside was arriving in Bangkok at 4:20am Luckily after some searching we found a guesthouse that would allow us to check in and not charge us for two nights. I’m now sitting in said guesthouse after a couple of hours sleep. We are going to stay here for a couple of days so that we can get our Bangkok to Siem Reap journey planned. I think we are both really excited about going to Cambodia…but more on that next time J

Basic information:
Where we stayed: The Aonang Grand Inn, double fan room 500baht, shared bathroom with one other room, which was unoccupied for our entire stay.

Ferry and bus from Koh Lipe to Aonang: 1,000 baht  
VIP bus from Aonang to Bangkok: 900 baht
Thai massage: 200 baht/hour

Us messing about on a beach in Krabi

Jason tried to find the cheesiest pose...I think this was the winner!





Friday 8 March 2013

Koh Lipe…Paradise.







We have just spent the last week on the small Thai island of Koh Lipe. It is in the southernmost region of Thailand, so south in fact that it’s quicker to get there from the Malaysian island of Langkawi than from anywhere in Thailand itself. So this is what we did. We spent about 24 hours in Malaysia and it reminded us of why we love Malaysia. The people are so kind and honest and the food is an amazing mix of the different cultures that make up Malaysia. Langkawi seemed like a lovely island and if we hadn’t prebooked accommodation in Koh Lipe we would have stayed longer there.

Sanom beach

When we arrived on Koh Lipe it was everything that we had dreamed about, crystal clear waters, some of the whitest powerdery sand that either of us have ever seen and not too much development on the beach front. We were staying in a place called Sanom Beach. It consists of about 8 huts and has it’s own beach. We were lucky enough to have a hut that faced directly on the beach. Our view from our hammock was just breath-taking.  

The view from our hut
We had decided on Koh Lipe as our first destination because after a very stressful couple of months we knew we needed a place to do absolutely nothing for a week, and that’s exactly what we did in Lipe.

Our days mainly consisted of sleeping, eating, swimming, sunbathing and the odd snorkel. After the first day we just felt a huge relief in our shoulders and our minds were at ease. We were also very anti-social while here, just keeping to ourselves and reconnecting, it was great!
                                                                                                          
Something that I have to mention when I talk about Koh Lipe is the dogs. There are dogs everywhere on the island. In fact when you are walking the main beach at 5p.m. you really have to be careful where you step so that you don’t trip up on one of them. The best thing is that most of the dogs seem really well cared for and genuinely happy. They rule the island. We never saw a shop or restaurant owner shoo any dogs away when they were around, so you could be having dinner with 4 dogs lying around you. They were also extremely well behaved, we didn’t see one aggressive dog while there and they never seemed to beg for food.
We used to pass a mom and her four pups everyday and could never resist a cuddle! In fact, I think we probably have more photos of dogs than anything else!

One of the amazing puppies!
One of the many dogs on Lipe

Our favorite little guy, we named him Buddy cause he reminded us of Will Ferrell.
He was the dog at our resort
During our time on Koh Lipe, we realised that the island is actually quite small so we managed to get to see most of the beaches that it has to offer.

Sanom beach:

This is where our hut was so we spent quite a bit of time on this beach. It is a very small beach about a 5/10 minute walk from the main beach (Pattaya), using a little walkway over the rocks. Because there is only one resort there the beach is quiet, usually we were the only ones on the beach before 9/10 and after 4/5. It was really nice to wake up in the morning and have an empty beach right in front of you.

The walkway from Pattaya beach to Sanom beach
The sand on Sanom was great, very white and soft. The waves weren't big and the resort offers snorkels for rent. The snorkelling was quite good as there is a big rock with coral on it a little bit out from the beach.

The resort also has a small little beach shack serving food and drink.

Lazing on our balcony.
Enjoying the water on Sanom beach
Sanom beach
Sanom Beach at sunset

Pattaya beach:

Pattaya beach is the most popular and  busiest beach on Koh Lipe. This is where most of the expensive resorts are and is the first beach that you see when you arrive onto the island. It is a gorgeous beach (hence the popularity) It has beautiful crystal clear water and white powdery sand but honestly I'm glad that we didn't stay there.

Jason on Pattaya beach.
There are lots of longtail boats on this beach so sometimes it can be quite hard to find a good place to swim. Also while we were there there was a big ship parked on the beach where the garbage from the island was being collected. It was there for about 3 or 4 days and as you can imagine, it smelled pretty bad! We used to have to hold our breath when walking past it. But, to be fair, at least they are doing something about the rubbish and not just dumping it on the island. 

The quintessential "Thailand" photo.
Anyway Pattaya is where you'll find restaurants where you can eat fresh fish on the beach and it is also where you'll find the entrance to the walking street.

The sunset on Pattaya beach.
Pattaya beach

Walking street:

Many touristy island and beach areas seem to have a walknig street on them these days and Koh Lipe is one of them. The walking street on Koh Lipe is where you'll find tons of restaurants, bars, shops, massage and beauty shops and cheaper accommodation. This is where we used to eat as there were some great pancake and juice shops and some really decently priced restaurants selling amazing Thai dishes. There was also a tiny bar on the street that offered buy 1 get 2 free cocktails which was pretty amazing for us! 
Walking street is also how you can get from Pattaya and Sanom to the other beaches on the island.

Yummy green curry from one of the
many restaurants on Walking street.

Sunset beach:

We took a back alley to Sunset beach one day (after getting lost the day before) On this back laneway we got to walk past some local houses, lots of chickens and the entry way to another beach that has a club on it and allows people to camp.

Sunset beach is named so because it is the best place on the island to watch the sunset. We really liked the look of Sunset beach when we visited it. It's very laid back and many backpackers seem to stay here. The sunset was beautiful also. The sand is more yellow than Pattaya and a little more stoney but it's still a nice beach. If you are walking there from Pattaya on Walking street it takes about 15 minutes.

Sunset beach.
The beautiful sunset on Sunset beach.

Sunrise Beach:

While exploring the island we found the local school and had a look around. It was interesting to see the huge differences between this small island school and our schools back in Korea! 
The local school is actually situated on Sunrise beach and their playground and basketball court actually has an impressive view of the beach.

The school playground...what a beautiful view they have!
Jason on Sunrise beach
...and again.
Sunrise beach was also less crowded than Pattaya and has lovely white sand also. Like Sunrise beach, Sunset beach is named so because this is the side of the island that the sun rises on in the mornings. We never actually made it to sunrise beach in the morning so I can't really comment on if it's good or bad.

Mountain Resort beach:

Mountain resort is a resort just off of Sunrise beach and has it's own little area. The best thing about this area is that it has a sand spit right in front of the resort. The resort itself looks beautiful from what we saw of it (if only...)

The beach by Mountain Resort.



We had so much fun in Koh Lipe and would definitely recommend it, but there were a couple of things about it. Firstly, it was expensive. We managed to spend much more here than we had wanted to and we only really bought food and some sun creams.
Secondly, it isn’t really a backpacker destination. There were package tourists everywhere. Most of which were European (which meant I was the whitest person on the beach) :( It was quite funny though because Jason is American he was shocked to see topless sunbathers on the beaches. Seeing his face every time he saw one was priceless; the embarrassment that he was going through was quite cute/funny.  But other than the price of things this is a wonderful island!

Basic information:
Where we stayed: Sanom Beach
Huts off the beach: $20
Huts on the beach: $30

Ferry from Langkawi to Lipe: $40
Dinner: usually around 120 baht each.  
Sanom beach website: http://www.sanombeachlipe.com/


More yummy Thai food.

A longtail boat on Pattaya beach


Pattaya beach

The view of Pattaya from the walkway.
Footprints on Sunset beach.

The walkway between Sanom and Pattaya.
Sunset on Pattaya.
Me walking along Pattaya beach.
Pattaya beach again!

Jason on Pattaya.
Sanom beach
Myself and Jason on Sanom beach
Beautiful Sanom at sunset.
Jason on Sanom beach