Thursday 25 July 2013

Crazy Songkran celebrations in Bangkok.

Enjoying the Songkran fun!

When our bus was pulling up into the city the first thing that we noticed were the water fights! There was water being thrown everywhere, there was also flour and water mixed together to make a paste and that was being smeared on everyones faces. It looked like so much fun, I think the ten year olds inside of us were rearing to go, but the adults in us realized that we each had large backpacksand small carry on bags with valuables in them and had to make our wary through thousands of people to find a guesthouse in the area where Songkran was being celebrated at its wildest!

The next 40 minutes were so stressful but eventually we found ourselves a cheap guesthouse and got our bags safely into our rooms. Before we did anything else we filled our water guns up and got ready for the action that was about to unfold.

If I had to describe Songkran in one word it would be INSANE! Unfortunately I don't have any photos as bringing a camera out in the craziness would be camera suicide. We were staying just off of Khao San Road, which is the main stage area for Songkran. Everytime you left your room you had to prepare to get wet, or should I say drenched! There were people on the streets with huge barrels of water and for a small price you could buy water from them to fill up your gun. But you also had to be careful because they were pouring buckets of water over people while passing by. There were also different variations in the water temperatures. The best ones to buy from were the people that had put blocks of ice into the barrels to make the water horribly icy cold. I still shiver thinking about the many buckets of ice water that I got poured over me.

It was so much fun though, It was the hottest time of the year in Thailand so the water had a great cooling effect. We decided to act as a tactical team that had each others backs. Along the way we would pick up some other people and work together with them. My personal favorite victims were the dry tourists that looked like they had just got off the plane and had no idea it was Songkran, seeing their faces when you shakily attacked them was the best. We spent a lot of time in a great little makeshift street bar just spraying people walking past.



I also had the pleasure of meeting up with my old college friend Shane. He has been living in Bangkok for a long time now, about 5 years, I think. Myself and my friend Lou got to meet up with him when we did our round the world trip four years ago and it was so great getting to see him again. I also got to meet his lovely girlfriend Dao who was so much fun!

Unfortunately that was the same day that we had to say our teary goodbyes to Erica and Dan. Having spent the last three years with them it was so strange saying goodbye this time, not knowing when we'll see each other again. We had a great week with them and were so happy that we got to celebrate their engagement together and meet up in a country that wasn't Korea. I'm sure it won't be too long until we see each other again.

See you soon! 


That night it started raining and this made the water feel a million times colder than during the day. I had to go back to the room early because I couldn't stop shivering. The fact that we only had a cold water shower to go back to made me shiver even more but luckily i was so cold that it made the water in the shower feel hot.

The next day would mark our last day in South East Asia. I have grown to love South East Asia with all of my heart and seem to always end up coming back here. I'm not sure if I'll get the chance to come back again some day but I really hope so. Being our last day in Thailand we were both very nervous and excited about the next part of our adventure...Nepal!

On our last day Kate had come back to Bangkok so we got to go for lunch with her, Shane and Dao. We had some delicious Korean barbecue and it was so amazing being surrounded by Irish people again, there really is nothing like it. Then Shane made myself and Jason insanely jealous by bringing us to see his apartment and even gave us cups of Barrys tea! Now that's friendship.

We both couldn't believe that our time in Thailand and Cambodia had come to an end! After our visit to Shanes apartment we had to go to the airport to get a flight to Kuala Lumpur and being the backpackers that we were, had to spend the night at the airport to wait for our flight to KATHMANDU!! 

Monday 22 July 2013

Island bliss on Koh Chang


We were excited to be back in Thailand and on our way to Koh Chang. We had heard great things about Thailands biggest island and were also going to be meeting up with our friends from Korea; Dan and Erica.

The journey from Koh Kong to Koh Chang went nice and smooth and the visa process was surprisingly easy and stress-free. We arrived in Koh Chang just in time for dinner. We had decided to stay on Lonely beach because it is much cheaper and backpacker orientated than the other beaches. It was April now and this is the hottest month in South East Asia so we decided to splash out a little and get an air-con room. As we were walking around that evening we instantly fell in love with the island. It was very quiet and had a nice relaxed vibe to it.

Lonely beach on Koh Chang
We found a restaurant that had free wifi so had dinner there. It had the strangest French owner though. He seemed quite drunk and was just downright weird. While Jason went back to the room to get the laptop I was witnessing a very awkward fight between him and his wife. I was the only customer in the restaurant and his wife started shouting at him for drinking the alcohol. He then said that the drink he was pouring was for a customer (I was the only customer and didn't order any alcohol) The fight then escalated to someone throwing dishes at the other and smashing them everywhere. I was just hoping and praying that Jason would be back soon! I think it was safe to say that we would never be going near that place again!

He didn't seem to mind the rough water

The next day we decided to rent a kayak and head out to the nearby islands like we had done on Railay beach. Unfortunately the waves in Koh Chang were much higher and I felt so uncomfortable being out there in the kayak so we decided to turn around and head back in. That night we had dinner by the sea and saw yet another stunning South East Asian sunset.

Amazing sunset!

Beautiful sunset at the beach restaurant



The next day we went our separate ways; I spent the day sunbathing and getting a pedicure...what more could a girl want! Jason spent the morning on an elephant trek. He had researched a lot about reputable companies that treat the elephants well. He decided to go with one company and he soon realized that no company that offers elephant trekking is good. He was very upset by the fact that the people used sharp metal rods to keep the animals in check and decided that at least now he did it he understands why it's wrong.
Jason bathing an elephant


Many people come to South East Asia and go elephant trekking. In fact I did it when I came here 4 years ago. But most people don't understand that by doing these treks you are supporting animal cruelty. There are some great places in South East Asia where you can visit a sanctuary and interact with the elephants in a much more natural way where the animals aren't forced to do anything that they don't want to do. I would definitely recommend one of these sanctuaries to anyone that wants to interact with an elephant. Sure you won't get to "ride" one, but wouldn't it be great to be able to interact with a happy healthy elephant rather than one that is being forced to carry you?
One such place that many of my friends have visited and loved is Elephant Nature Park in Chang Rai in Thailand. Their website is http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/

That evening Erica and Dan arrived and had just gotten engaged a couple of nights before so we went and watched the sunset, celebrated and caught up with each other.

We also booked a snorkeling tour for the next day, which was a lot of fun (albeit completely packed with people and not much coral in the sea). It was a busy couple of days in Koh Chang as we wanted to do as much as possible as well as have fun and celebrate together.
Getting ready to snorkel


The day after we had a cooking class booked, I think we were all excited about learning how to cook Thai food and we were definitely not disappointed. Our teacher was great and we couldn't believe the standard and quality of the foods that we made by ourselves. I can't wait to get into our new apartment so that we can try to recreate those dishes. The best part about the cooking class was that afterwards we all got to sit down and eat everything we cooked. We had made so much food that it was impossible to eat it all! Some of the dishes that we made were Tom Yum soup, Coconut soup, Pad Thai, Red Thai curry, Green Thai curry, Chicken with cashew nuts and sweet mango with sticky rice. Yum yum yum!!! I'm drooling right now just thinking about it!



Pad Thai


It was so delicious!


The next day Jason decided to go through with getting a tattoo that he had been thinking about for a while, he got it done bamboo style and was really happy with the end result.



Jason getting his
bamboo tattoo


Koh Chang was very chill and quiet while we were there which was great because we felt like we could really get to know the locals and made a couple of friends that we could stop in and chat to every day. But near the end of our stay on Koh Chang there was so much excitement in the air. Songkran was nearly here!

Songkran is the celebration of the Thai New Year. It is a massive 3-day event and the Thais celebrate by holding a 3-day national water fight. It was so exciting knowing that we were going to be celebrating Songkran in Thailand and had no idea just how crazy it would be!

The day before Songkran began we decided to stock up on water guns that every single store was selling (including the tattoo shops, restaurants and bars). We then found a group of local kids that were starting early by splashing every car and bike that was going past. We decided to join them and had so much fun, a ,to of people were tourists that had no idea so they got a huge shock when a massive bucket of water got thrown at them in their taxis. Most people took it with big smiles and laughs but there were a couple of foreigners that got pretty angry. I had one Italian guy come all the way back around on his moped just to start shouting at me. The best part was that the entire time he was shouting at me a Thai man was spraying him with water. He finally got sick of it and drove off again.

Unfortunately that was our last night in Koh Chang and the next day all four of us got the ferry and bus up to Bangkok to celebrate and see Songkran at its craziest!

All four of us together. Me, Jason, Erica and Dan.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

The Awful Bus Journey to Koh Kong

After Kampot we decided to head to Koh Kong, which is a big town right on the Cambodian/Thai border. There is a big national park there and there are quite a few options to do home stays there. We decided the night before we left Kampot that we would do a home stay for a couple of days in the mountains.

We were both very excited about it and had called the company the morning that we were leaving to confirm. They said that they had a place for us to stay and that we would be able to get motorbike taxis from the Koh Kong bus station. We had told them that we were leaving from Kampot and would call them when we arrived at the Koh Kong bus station.

We had booked our bus ticket with the guesthouse that we were staying at. The bus ticket cost $12 each; which is by far the most expensive bus ticket we had in Cambodia. All of the previous buses that we had taken were either minibus to regular bus. Every one of them had air-con and were quite comfortable to ride in and usually cost between $6 and $8.

That morning an old disgusting minibus came to pick us up. We weren't alarmed because a lot of times in Cambodia a bad bus will come and collect you to bring you to the bus terminal to catch your bus. We got on this bus and it was full of locals...so full in fact that there was only one seat for the two of us (it was a seat that you pull down as extra). Still believing that this would bring us to the terminal we went around town and picked up more and more people.
Eventually there were 22 people in a 16 seater minibus. And then it happened, we started driving out of town and kept going!

About 20 minutes into the journey we resigned to the fact that this bus would be taking us the whole way to Koh Kong (6 hours away). There was no air-con and as I said earlier myself and Jason were sharing a seat. We were so angry, not because of the fact that we were taking a local bus but because they had completely ripped us off by charging us a ridiculous amount each for the tickets. If we paid $3 each for them then I would have been quite happy...but $12 EACH!!!
Things just got worse from that point, it was disgustingly hot and a child in front of us started puking (he actually got sick all over the man next to him) Then the bus broke down so we had to wait while they fixed it.

While waiting we decided to ring the guesthouse and ask for half of our money back (even if they did give it back we would still be overpaying) since technically we paid for two seats and were sharing one. Of course we didn't get any money back but instead they tried to get others to move so that we could have two seats. This wash;t what we wanted at all since everyone else was just as cramped as we were. After telling them that it was ok and that we would share a seat we had to accept the fact that we had gotten ripped off. Along the way we stopped at a little restaurant and we ordered some food, there was a pig nearby that was eating everyones scraps that fell on the floor. It was an interesting place that unfortunately had us feeling sick that night.

Finally after a loooooooong six hours we arrived at Koh Kong. We found a phone and called the company again to get the details about how to get there. Unfortunately the person on the phone didn't speak much English and after 15 minutes on the phone I still had no idea where to go. We decided to get a tuk-tuk into town and find some wifi to get the address. Once we arrived in town we found the name. We asked some moto drivers and they said that it was too far away and that we could get a bus there the next day. Then we asked a tuk-tuk driver who told us the same thing. After such a frustrating/disappointing day we just asked him to bring us to a guesthouse. It was on the way to the guesthouse that the tuk-tuk driver told us that because we were coming from Kampot we should have gotten off of the bus about two hours before Koh Kong to get to the home stay. I was so annoyed because the person that we were talking to that morning knew we were coming from Kampot and spoke good English but failed to mention that we should be getting off sooner :(

We ended up staying in the border town and being as fed up as we were decided to leave Cambodia the next day and go to Koh Chang. We were both sad that that was the last experience that we had in Cambodia but it didn't stop us from having amazing memories of the wonderful country and it's people.

** Now reading it back, while sitting in a coffee shop in Korea, it sounds ridiculous to be so upset about $12. But at the time thats a lot of money, that could have paid for two nights accommodation. I can't explain it, but you get into a certain frame of mind when visiting these countries, like anywhere else in the world you want to be treated fairly. Also this was in April, which is the hottest month of the year in Cambodia. So we were in an overcrowded bus in mid 30's heat with no air-con or fan and a child vomiting. **

Tips: DON'T book your bus with Long Villa guesthouse in Kampot. We have written about our experience on trip advisor and we weren't the only ones that this happened to.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g608455-d2002766-Reviews-Long_Villa_Guesthouse-Kampot_Kampot_Province.html

Wednesday 3 July 2013

Kep and Kampot


After the craziness of Sihanoukville, we were excited to get to Kep as we had heard great things about it. Kep is a small seaside town near the Vietnam border. The great thing about Kep is that it's very popular among Cambodians as a holiday spot.

The minute we arrived we knew that we'd like Kep a lot. It is very quiet and spread out, but we were staying in a brand new guesthouse across from the beach. The beach itself wasn't great but the atmosphere and food definitely made up for it.

Some amazing bbq'd fish.

Jasons "manly" bike.



Kep is also a very famous destination in Cambodia for crabs (the food kind). So we spent our whole time there eating delicious crabs! On our first day we decided to rent a motorbike (our first in South East Asia). The best moped that we could find at a decent price was a beautiful shade of pink, Jason looked very manly driving it.

That day we drove to an incredible seafood market where we got to see all of the crab cages in the water. The market was so busy  and vibrant and there was fresh seafood being cooked all around. We couldn't give up the chance to have some fresh barbecued seafood so we shared an amazing fish and got some palm juice. The process of making the palm juice is quite tough, in fact every palm juice seller has huge muscles in their arms from it. Palm juice is extracted from a bamboo style plant. They must squeeze it through a machine to get the juice out from the leaves. It actually tastes quite good too.
The many crab cages around the shores of Kep

Our lovely lunch!

After our delicious lunch, we decided to try and find a pool to cool down in (April is the hottest month in Asia) and find a pool we did. We had a nice day lazing around by the pool and just relaxing. That evening we returned to the market place and went to one of the many restaurants that are perched on the sea there. It was so nice sitting eating delicious crabs while watching the most incredible sunset I've ever seen. It was one of those moments that I'll probably remember forever!

Amazing crabs in pepper sauce.

beautiful evening.

The next day we decided to drive around the surrounding countryside. We decided that we wanted to see the salt fields and caves nearby. That was probably my single most favorite day in Cambodia. we got lost and at one stage ended up at the Vietnamese border! We stopped in local restaurants and got to meet the locals. We reached a big town near the border and got lunch in a local place. It cost $2.50 between the two of us.


On the road
Some sweet kids that we made friends with

With the clouds and storm moving in we found one of the caves that we had wanted to visit. We spent a little time there with our "tour guide" who was a lovely high school student practicing his English. We couldn't stay too long because we had wanted to get back to Kep before the storm hit. Unfortunately on our way back we had realized that our back wheel had a puncture. Driving slowly we managed to spot a little wooden place at the side of the road where people seemed to be fixing motorbikes. We pulled over and sure enough it was a repair shop.


Myself and Jason in the cave

We had to wait a while as they were fixing other bikes first but the second that we sat down in the shop torrential rain just bucketed down. Luckily by the time that the repair was fixed the rain had stopped and we were on our way back to Kep.

We thought that because we had gotten lost that we didn't manage to find the salt fields but the next day while I was looking through my photos, the owner of the guesthouse was looking at them too and commented on the fact that we had seen the salt fields. We had thought all along that they were rice fields, but apparently not! We realized that maybe we weren't as lost as we thought we were.
The salt fields that we thought were rice paddies.

The next day we said goodbye to the lovely Kep and said hello to the riverside town of Kampot. Kampot is only about 40 minutes away from Kep but is quite different. It is a lovely town where most of the action seems to happen along the river banks. There isn't a whole lot to do in Kampot, which suited us just fine. We spent our days sleeping, eating and laughing. Jasons friend Bryan (who lives in Phnom Penh) had recommended a British pub (The Rusty Keyhole)  for us to order some ribs from, they are apparently "the best in Cambodia". I have to admit they were amazing!!
We met an old Australian man who was very set in his ways and really didn't like the fact that his Prime Minister was a woman and Americas was black, he also didn't like muslims. It was hard but I bit my tongue (hard!) We also met a lovely English girl that lived in Hong Kong for a while and now lives in Cambodia working for a charity that helps the elephants in Cambodia. It was great hearing about the work that she does, it makes you want to better yourself!
The beautiful colonial buildings of Kampot.

Unfortunately, when we went back to our room that night we had the devastating news that Jasons wonderful Grandma Jean passed away. It was so hard for Jason being away from his family but luckily we had had a chance to talk to her when we were in Bangkok and she was so excited for him and his travels. It was something that she had always wanted to do but never had the chance. We discussed Jason flying home to be with his family but she had insisted to everyone before she passed that he didn't come home. She said that now she would be able to be with us while we travelled. Because of this Jason decided to continue traveling and try to have the best time possible, I think that's exactly what she would have wanted.

I feel very lucky that I had the chance to meet her and get to know her a little before she passed. I can say with all honesty that she is one of the most inspiring people I've ever met. Not one person in her life can remember her saying a bad word about anyone...what a wonderful way to live! She makes me want to live my life in a more positive way. She was also a beautiful writer and artist. I was shocked by how beautiful her paintings that she showed me were.

This has been a hard time for Jason but I can honestly say that his Grandma Jean would be proud of him.
Jason and his Grandma Jean.