So our flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok was fairly uneventful...though I was very surprised as to how restless I got on a 3 hour flight...tell me to spend a 12 hour day on a truck and it’s no problem, 3 hours on a plane and I was restless as hell!!! When we arrived in Bangkok we were due to have our first experience of public transport...and an experience it was as when we got there we discovered that all the buses had been cancelled for some reason!! So the first experience was to experience the unpredictability of public transport!! So plan B was to find taxis for us all and once that was sorted we drove into Bangkok. It was the evening time as we were driving in and was lovely to see the lights of the city as we drove in. None of us did much that evening except to venture out for some food...which was an ordeal in itself considering how long we waited for food, though we quickly learned that this was just the way it was done in Thailand and food in restaurants is never rushed...which is fine in some situations but not when a large group of hungry travellers rock up looking for some food before bedtime!!
My first day in Bangkok was action packed in the sight-seeing sense! We were up early to get some breakfast and head off to the Grand Palace...however as soon as we went to head off the heavens opened!! So we (quite literally) rain checked for a couple of hours to see if it would improve and went to a local cafe for a drink and to use the internet. We literally set up shop in Temple 75 for the few days; there was always at least 2 or 3 UktoOzers there at any given time!! Luckily the rain did die off and myself, Rosie and Kev headed off to find ourselves the Grand Palace. It was only a 15 minute walk from the hostel but due to some very odd traffic junctions instead of just crossing the one road we needed to we ended up having to cross about 8 going the whole way around the junction! When we did get up to the Palace myself and Rosie put our scarves over our shoulders to cover up and went to go get tickets....only to get shouted at by a man with a megaphone that we had to borrow clothes from the cloakroom to cover our shoulders. We said we had scarves on but this wasn’t acceptable so we had to rethink. To get a loan of clothes from the cloakroom would have been a 40 minute wait but the Palace closed an hour later which wouldn’t have left us with a lot of time to actually see it. We then saw someone walking out with a scarf over their shoulders so we said we’d give it a try, went and bought the tickets and joined another queue...to get shouted at again about our shoulders! The most annoying thing about all this was that other women were wearing sheer shirts so their shoulders were actually visible so we don’t really know why they were having such a fit about our scarves which properly covered us! So we dashed back to the cloakroom...only for the dude with his megaphone to announce they had run out of clothes and we would all have to wait until clothes came back. At this point we were both getting slightly pissed off about the whole situation, but we remembered that there was loads of clothes stalls outside the Palace (obviously preying on tourists needing clothes!!) selling t-shirts and the like. So we went outside the gates and went looking for something cheap and slightly ok looking...but all we found were horrendous luminous coloured Hawaiian shirts!! We looked at each other and without saying a word walked off only for the little lady to shout after us “For lend, for lend”. So it turned out all the stalls outside rented clothes to tourists and were there for when the cloakroom ran out. So having a lend of the horrendous shirt rather than buying it was acceptable in both our minds so Rosie got a lovely luminous green and I a rather fetching fuchsia pink!! Once we were all kitted out we popped back inside and finally made it into the Palace and found Kev (I didn’t forget in that whole story that he was with us...just being a guy he didn’t have wardrobe issues to deal with so he went in ahead of us to walk around in case we ran out of time!!). The Palace itself was pretty impressive. I’m not saying I would live there...it was all a bit sparkly and bright for me but it was fabulous to look at. Everything had shiny tiles and sparkles all over it. And the roofs of the buildings were really ornate. My favourite part of it was probably the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The Emerald Buddha is one of the national treasures of Thailand...and ironically enough is actually made of jade!! When it was found it was presumed to be emerald and so it got its name but years later was found to be jade but the name never changed. It is a tiny Buddha in comparison to all the other ones that are usually in the temples and it was sitting high on a very fancy, ornate, gold throne type thing way up at the top of the temple. We wandered around the Palace grounds for about an hour or so and then we were all photoed out and me and Rosie were definitely ready to lose our latest fashion statement! So we headed out and made our way to Wat Pho, where the famous Reclining Buddha resides. Triona had mentioned the Reclining Buddha to me in emails but I definitely didn’t expect to see what I saw. I knew it was unusual as Buddha is usually depicted sitting cross legged or on some occasions standing but never lying down. So when we got to Wat Pho we walked around all the temples within the grounds looking for this lying down Buddha. We might have found it a whole lot quicker had we realised that it was a MASSIVE statue rather than just a little one that could fit in any temple. We were approaching one large temple and I could see through the window what I said to the others was “a large horizontal piece of gold”. We walked a little closer and realised that yep we had found it and holy crap it was huge!! Pictures and dimensions would do nothing to describe the enormity of it; it is truly something you have to see to get an idea of exactly how huge it is!! When we left the temple the ticket man was very kind and told us that the ticket would get us into a couple of other temples and that a tuk tuk would cost us the equivalent of 30cent, so in we hopped and off we went. He brought us to the first temple which supposedly was the happy Buddha with a big belly....and the temple was shut...so we got slightly suspicious at this stage and asked the driver where else was marked on the map. When he told us, a quick consultation with our guide books told us that all the temples that were marked were closed so we asked him to just take us home but that we would still pay him. At which point he started saying he was going to take us to some sort of Thai craft showroom but that we didn’t have to buy anything just look. We point blank refused and told us to just take us home, so we started off and after a few minutes he pulled over and tried to talk us into going to a different shop with clothes in it. Once again we said no and insisted that he take us home, he wasn’t particularly happy about it but he did eventually give in and took us home...though he dropped us a couple roads up from the hostel...I think he was trying to get some kind of revenge on us!! So it was a jam packed day 1 in Bangkok!
Day 2 was just as eventful. Rosie, Joe and I headed off on a walk to the river in the morning with the plan of walking down the river to the Temple of Dawn, however when we reached the river we discovered that there wasn’t a nice river walkway so we decided to ferry it up to the temple instead. The temple was lovely and had lots of little temples and what not within the ground so we had a good walk around and then Rosie and I did a boat ride around the canals. We both really enjoyed this as we got to see all the houses that hang out over the canal with all the little boats parked outside. Unfortunately as we weren’t there on the weekend we didn’t get to see the floating markets which was slightly disappointing...however we did see a crocodile sun bathing on a step just out of the canal which was kind of cool!! After that was more ferries back up the river to a fish and flower market and then we found our way to a Buddha temple that had hundreds of colourful prayer lanterns hanging from strings across the courtyard. I had expected most of the temples throughout South East Asia to remind me of the ones that I had seen in South Korea but had been pleasantly surprised at the totally different style in Bangkok. But this temple was the first time that I was reminded of Korea which was quite nice. Once we were finished there and had tracked down a tuk tuk that didn’t try taking us once again to the Thai crafts exhibition place we went to the Marble Temple. Again this temple was amazing to look at but we decided not to buy a ticket and to just walk around the grounds...which worked out pretty well as we walked past a back gate which was open so still got to see the inside of the temple and take a picture!! Once we were finished our exploration of the Marble Temple we headed back to the hostel after a very busy day of sightseeing. However the day was far from over as that night we were heading out to celebrate Pete’s 65th birthday! Pete’s birthday is not actually till the 22nd of August, and on the original itinerary (before the China cock-up) we would have been in Bangkok and we had planned to take him out to a show. So when the itinerary was moved around we decided to move his birthday too!! So that evening we all went to a lovely seafood restaurant right on the river under the Rama VIII Bridge (the Prince had it built for his father’s 80th birthday!!!). Then we were off to our show, I won’t go into too much detail except to say it was unexpected and very surprising!! We all came out to get back into our tuk tuks and head back towards home for a very strong drink!!!
Next morning was a lateish start for everyone after the frolics of the previous evening. Rosie, Joe and I made our way down to Chinatown to see the Golden Buddha. I know you’re probably thinking every Buddha statue is gold (except for the emerald one of course!!!) but this one is actually made of solid gold. After a walk through Chinatown (and a market where we saw everything from sweets to a bucket of stomachs!!!) we headed back to the hostel through a fabulous flower market. The colours and smells here were amazing and I couldn’t believe how many orchids there were in so many different species and shades. Unfortunately my camera had died at this stage so there are no pictures of the fabulous flowers which I was pretty disappointed about! Then it was home to pack and sleep before and early start for the Cambodian border.
We had 2 mini buses the next morning to drive us to the border where we were met by a lovely Thai girl who brought us the whole way through the border and looked after everything for us. When we got out on the Cambodian side of the border we had our own coach to bring us to the hotel in Siem Reap...called Smiley’s! And it was a very fitting name as the people there just did not stop smiling and could not do enough for us. After the early start most of us decided to stay in the hotel and eat rather than go exploring...which turned out to be a really good idea as that evening we had a huge storm! It started with just a little rain, which turned to a LOT of rain which turned into a deluge. Then the thunder and lightning started....and then the electricity went! So we ate dinner by torch light, which brought us back to our truck days a little bit!! The electricity was gone for a good few hours and only came back on at about 10 that night...at which point most of us were in bed as there was nothing else to do but sleep!! But the storm itself lasted most of the way through the night.
The following day was sightseeing day. Luckily the rain had stopped and we actually had a really nice day for it. The hotel organised mini buses for us to go to Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Phrom. I had been looking forward to seeing Angkor Wat as I had heard so much about it and it is the one that is really famous. But I have to be totally honest and say that I was slightly disappointed. It was amazing but slightly less spectacular than I imagined...though again this could have something to do with the fact that once again the curse of the scaffolding struck again!! It did get pretty impressive when we climbed up to the top section and got to see the work and that that went into the building and designing of it. But after an hour I was definitely ready to move on! Our next stop was by far my favourite. This one was Ta Phrom which is a temple that has been completely overgrown by a jungle. It’s ridiculously hard to comprehend what we saw, even though we saw it!! There were these massive big trees that were hundreds, if not thousands, of years old growing OUT of the temples. As in the tree was seeded in the roof of the temple and the roots had stretched down over the outside of the temple walls to reach the ground!! And as I’ve said these trees were hundreds of years old, which makes the temples even older and even standing there looking at it, saying to myself yes its real, the tree really is growing out of the temple so the temple must be ridiculously old I couldn’t get my head around! It was amazing to walk around and see it though and definitely the highlight of the day for me. Once we were finished there we went to Angkor Thom which was also amazing but at this stage I was getting hot and slightly watted out so I had a quick look around and then found nice tree with some of the other guys to sit under and had an ice cream! Overall it was a really good day and nice to get all the sight out of the way in one day, which meant after a very hectic Bangkok visit I was able to have a lazy day the next day! One funny thing about the sightseeing day was that for the most part it was all us UktoOzers who went on the trip, but one other guest in the hotel also signed up for it. He was a solo traveller from Hungary and he saw the list at reception and put his name down for it, not realising that we were a group. So he hopped into the mini bus with us the next morning. We all looked slightly shocked but I think he got more of a shock when within 5 minutes of being with us he realised that we weren’t just really sociable people getting to know each other, we were actually an established group! Of course he got curious at this stage and was asking us all about the trip which we gladly filled him in on all the fun details. But when we got to Angkor Wat, the first stop he quickly saw that while he was still full of enthusiasm for EVERYTHING he was seeing while he was on his 6 weeks trip, after being on the road for 4 months we had lost a bit of our enthusiasm and weren’t quite so enamoured with staying at the Wat for hours to explore every corner and nook and cranny of it! I think he was slightly miffed that he didn’t have extremely enthusiastic travellers to be with for the day but we were all used to it so not bothered by it too much!!!
The following day started out as a lazy day, spent sitting around the hotel, catching up on internet stuff and my journal. However, so as not to completely waste the day, me, Rosie, Joe, Bui, Kev and Pete headed into town for some food that evening. We found a nice little restaurant had some nice food and then decided to go for a drink. The drink however turned into a pitcher challenge as if we drank a pitcher of cocktail we got a free t-shirt. I went back to my student days of “Yay, free stuff” and so we got a pitcher and all left with a lilac (which in the pub lights looked grey!!!) t-shirts. We went on to another bar then and spent a lot of time there which involved another free t-shirt and a lot of dancing too!!! So the lazy day turned into a late night which defeated the purpose of relaxing, however I didn’t mind in the least bit as we had a really good night, and it was good to get out dancing!! We seem to get to do it once a month...which is a far cry from how often I went out dancing at home but it’s good to fit it in every now and then!!!
The following morning, despite the late night, was an early morning, as we had arranged to go on a boat trip to see the famous floating village. We had a bus ride there and then arrived at the dock and sorted out our boat. The floating village was very different to the canal ride in Bangkok. In Bangkok the houses jutted out over the canal but in Siem Reap the houses were literally on the water on floating platforms or in some cases large boats. It was amazing to see it but I couldn’t get over the difference between some of the houses. Some of them were really well kept with hanging baskets outside and that kind of thing; whereas others were really run down and we could see that they literally had one room as bedroom, living room and kitchen for the whole family. My favourite part was when I saw a couple of kids floating down the river in bug tubs and a little paddle. It was the cutest thing ever....all that was missing was an upside down pot on their heads and the picture would have been complete!!! As much as I enjoyed seeing the floating village I was very glad it was only an hour long after a late night the night before. When we got back to the hotel most of us hit KFC for some greasy food (though what I really needed was Mam’s Sunday Roast that day!!!)) And then it was back to the hotel to have an afternoon nap. Then dinner and packing rounded off the last few hours of Siem Reap.
The bus ride to Phnom Penh the following day was our first real experience of public transport. I had packed my day bag to include a cardigan in case there was air conditioning that made the co0ach a tad too cold. A tad too cold....hole crap it was freezing! We were all in cardigans and scarves and whatever anyone had to hand to keep warm; cuddling up to each other just to rob some body heat!! It was so cold that there was condensation dripping out of the air conditioning machines...which in turn dripped on us and didn’t help with the coldness. Half way through the journey we stopped for a break and we all piled off to go outside and warm up for a bit!!! And then we really started to miss the truck as once we were ready to go sit back on the truck after grabbing a drink and a snack we couldn’t because the driver had locked the door so we all just had to stand at the side of the road until he came back!!! We arrived in Phnom Penh to the bus station and I was amazed to see what unfolded. When the bus pulled in all the tuk tuk drivers moved in, presumably to harass us once we got off the bus. However dudes who worked at the bus station appeared out of nowhere with big steels barriers and positioned them around the bus so that we could all get off and get our bags without being hassled by anyone! It was brilliant but slightly unbelievable too that they have to go to those lengths to stop passengers getting hassled!!! That’s all I can really saw about my first Phnom Penh experience as all we did that night was go for dinner which was a bit of an ordeal as we seemed to have walked the wrong direction and only found a couple of seafood restaurants where we ended up being stared at and the waiter got slightly annoyed at us when we all didn’t know what we wanted to eat as soon as we sat down at the table! So day 1 in Phnom Penh was marked down as a bit of a dud but I presumed things could only get better (haha who’s singing the song in their heads now??!!)
Day 2 in Phnom Penh was interesting. I’m not sure I can mark it down as a winner as it was pretty hard hitting. Our first stop of the day was to go to Sol Seung or S-21, a prison that was used during the war. The prison has been converted into a museum documenting the atrocities that were bestowed among the people who were held there. I knew it was going to be hard to be there, as I had had a similar feeling when I went to Sachsenhausen in Berlin and this was just as hard as it all happened so recently. The first thing we saw was a notice of the “rules” that prisoners had to live by which included things like “you must immediately answer my questions without taking time to reflect”, “while getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all”, “do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders, if there is no order keep quiet, if I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting”, “you are strictly prohibited to contest me”. We saw this sign within 5 minutes of being there and it gave us all a sense for what we were in for during the tour. The guide also told us that the prisoners had to look straight ahead and weren’t allowed to look either left or right at any time. The first thing I noticed in the first room we were brought into was a photo on the wall. When the revolution was thwarted and the prison raided photographs of everyone who had died in the prison had been taken. This was for proof that they had actually died. This picture showed a man on the floor with horrific injuries to his stomach and bowels with shackles around his feet tied to a bed. There was also a chair in the background and a small steel box on the floor. When I looked around the room I realised that we were standing in the room that the picture was taken in and everything was exactly as it had been in the picture, including blood stains on the walls which were still there. There were similar pictures in the following rooms and it didn’t get any easier as we went along. When we went outside to go to the next building the guide stopped us at what looked like a climbing frame. He told us that before the war the prison had been and elementary and high school and that the frame we were looking at had been the playground. However the guards used the frame as a torture device to get the prisoners to confess to crimes that for the most part they hadn’t committed. The second building was where the cells were. The cells had been built in what had been classrooms. The cells were tiny. They were about the size of a portaloo and the prisoners would be shackled to the ground so that they could only sit. This meant that a lot of the prisoner’s loss the use of their legs and their muscles were never used. Another I thing I remember from the cells after the guide pointed it out was faded writing on the wall. The guide told us that it was there from the time of the school and was there for pupils but that it had been left there when it was turned into the prison; it said “nobody is perfect”. I wasn’t quite sure if it was there to let the prisoners know that’s that how they were thought of or if it made the soldiers who were on patrol there to feel a little better about themselves. On this note I’ll add that at the end of the tour we watched a short video which featured an ex-soldier who worked at the prison. I was shocked at how unremorseful he was about his actions. He talked about what he did to the prisoners and even admitted that he killed a man after hitting him over the head with a stick when his commander asked if he was a strong enough soldier or something along those lines. I understand that he felt he had to do those things or else suffer the consequences however in the video he smiled and laughed as he told some of the stories so it was like he wasn’t even sorry for what he did or didn’t see anything wrong with it whatsoever! We saw so many other things and heard about so much while we were there. It was very educational but also heart wrenchingly sad. After the museum we were brought to the Killing Fields. They are called this as, like in Germany where prisoners in concentration camps were put to hard labour, a similar thing happened to prisoners in Cambodia. For the most part it was prisoners from S-21 who were sent there and when they were told they were going to the fields they thought they were being sent to work. However at this field the only thing that happened to them was that they were killed, hence the name. The Killings Fields were just as horrific as the prison itself. Our guide warned us to be careful where we stepped as because it was the rainy season teeth and bones quite often found their way to the surface as not all the remains had been exhumed. He also told us that they wouldn’t be as the Cambodian government had called a halt to excavations at all the Killing Fields throughout the country as they already had enough evidence to prosecute the people involved. By this time the excavations had already found 17,000 remains in the Phnom Penh Killing Fields alone. The remains have all been housed in a memorial pagoda which we could go into to pay our respects. The first thing that I noticed when I walked in was the damage to all the skulls that were on display. Our guide had explained to us that because ammunition was so hard to come by the soldiers had come up with alternative ways to kill prisoners which including disembowelling, hitting them over the head with a variety of weapons, including the thick centre of a palm tree leaf. And this was only the tip of the iceberg; there were many other methods that I won’t go into keeping in mind the range of age groups that might be reading my blog! Needless to say, we all left the Killing Field in a very sombre mood thinking about a lot of stuff that we had learned. Later that evening myself, Rosie and Joe headed out for dinner. The only reason I mention this particular dinner is because in the restaurant that we went to Joe had bangers and mash with actual real baked beans!! As in Heinz baked beans...something we have all been craving for awhile now!! The food was lovely though and I got some yummy mashed potato (not as good as Dads naturally!!) and a yummy chicken cordon blue with proper cheddar cheese! It was home comfort at its best and we loved it!!! We then all went for a walk along the beach front before heading home to bed.
The following day was another tourist day but slightly less heavy than the day before! A small group of us headed out to the Royal Palace. It was really nice but very reminiscent of the one in Bangkok, the main difference being that the royal family still do actually live there...and the king was home too as the royal flag was flying in the front garden! We also say the Silver Pagoda which was really disappointing to be completely honest! I had read that it gets its name because of the silver, engraved tiles that covered the floor of the temple. So we walked around the palace grounds in and out of different buildings and it was only when I was on my way out of one that I noticed a silver tile on the floor. So I looked around and discovered that we were in fact in the Silver Pagoda but that the tiles had been covered in carpet! I immediately presumed this was to protect the tiles and then saw a cordoned off area near the door where there was no carpet. So I went up all excited to have a look at the tiles. Only to discover they were really tarnished and most of them, even though they were in what seemed to be the “display area”, were held down by duct tape!! And really old tatty duct tape at that! So I was highly disappointed with the Silver Pagoda and we all felt then it was time to head off for some lunch. That evening we went to a place called Friends for dinner. We chose this restaurant as it is run as a school for street children. The idea is to get kids off the street and to train them in catering and hospitality so that once they have finished their modules over a 3 year period they will be fully trained to work in the hospitality industry in Cambodia or any other country. The service in the restaurant was amazing; they were really efficient, very polite and spoke really good English too. And the food was unreal! It is a tapas restaurant so rather than one main meal we got to choose a number of little dishes to try. Little dishes they were not!! They were the biggest portioned tapas I had ever seen but we all tucked in and pretty much cleaned all our plates as the food was gorgeous! It was cooked so well and the flavours were yummy! We were all raving about it and found that they have a sister restaurant in Laos that we plan on visiting when we get there in a few weeks!! So our last meal in Phnom Penh and Cambodia in general is definitely one that I will remember for all the right reasons!!!
And so that brings to a close this part of the blog. I had a great time in Bangkok and am looking forward to going back to Thailand to see some more of it!! Cambodia was also great but gave me a lot to think about after the trip to S-21 and the Killing Fields. And so we are now off to Vietnam. Really looking forward to seeing there and we get to see lots of different sides to it from busy cities to beach resorts and everything in between!!
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