Day 693 - Muesli and fruit

With a killer bus trip ahead of us tonight, we pretty much did nothing this morning other than eat muesli on the street and pack our bags. After we'd given directions to Rita so she could check out the Grand Palace, the 2 of us headed for the internet to sort out some travel issues.

After our last Bangkok dinner we grabbed our packs and caught a local bus to the train station and hung out until our night bus to take us down the coast to the waters of Ko Tao!!

Adlibing our last day in Bangkok.

Day 692 - Deja vu

This is our 3rd time in Bangkok and we've done a lot around here so it was easy for us to negotiate the city and get some things that we needed done. The first stop was at the train station where we booked our bus tickets to Ko Tao for tomorrow night, and train tickets down to Malaysia in just over a week! We're all pretty excited to be getting some beach time in ...

Afterwards we caught the metro to the Malaysian Embassy for some questions and clarification - although the lady wasn't sure, she thinks we should be able to leave and re-enter Malaysia a few times.

From here we had a journey on the Skytrain, looking down on the city that was whizzing past us and eventually jumped off at the MBK Centre where we picked up a few necessities and had lunch.

Back in the heart of tourist town we wandered the streets looking for bargains, but there were none to be had. We're finding that the sellers here are obviously sick of tourists and aren't that keen to bargain - when you try and bargain they just get shitty and say something along the lines of "go to another shop then". Maybe they should consider a career change ...

In the evening we headed onto the street to enjoy Master Yim's cooking delights - we're mesmerised by his flair for favour that he creates in an almost meditative state. While we sit there's never a dull moment as there are always people passing by, colourful lights and an atmosphere of playful noise.

Adlibing Mr Yim.

Day 691 - Triple Thailand

Today we said goodbye to Cambodia - the first time we stayed in a country for the time we planned - go us!! We enjoyed Cambodia and managed to pack a lot of adventure and sights into the small amount of time we spent here. The people here are wonderful, and seem to always be smiling despite the hardships they've suffered over the recent years. That said, when we crossed over the border into Thailand we felt a surge of excitement - every time we've been here (this is our 3rd time on this trip) we've loved everyday! This time we finally get to go to an Island in south Thailand! First though, we're stopping in Bangkok to do some bits and pieces and initiate our 3rd Adliber into Thailand.

When we arrived we went back to the same hotel, and then went back to our favourite cook Mr Yim for a splendid, spicy meal - there's just no place like Thailand when it comes to flavour!
We wandered through the markets and around the tourist area of Khao San Rd, checking out hip clothes, trendy bars and the clutter of street food vendors! Adlibing back to Bangkok.

Day 690 - Shopping

Day 690 - ShoppingWith the final due date home now all but confirmed, we seem to have forgotten how to keep our bags light, and our bags grow on every trip to the market. Today we indulged in skirts, a scarf, and a pair of glasses for Liv, and a painting for Adam as well as scoring a couple of cheap, fake Lonely Planet guides for Malaysia and the Philippines (our next 2 destinations after Thailand). In classic Cambodian style our Malaysian guide has the pictures from Vietnamese Guidebook, and the front page information from the Burmese!! For lunch we had a taste of China - after more than a year out of China, we really miss things like the food from our surrogate home and we often dream of returning.

Today we did something unusual for us, and booked a flight ticket to Bali 2 months in advance - this is a precaution to make sure we actually make it home this year, as we have a habit of arriving in new countries and staying for much longer than planned! So, we're now one step closer to home ...

Tonight is our last night in Cambodia, and therefore our last night with Sam and Nicole, who we've been travelling with for close on a month now. We're really going to miss their great company, but we've got beaches to relax on in Thailand and they've got climbing to do in Vietnam. Hope to see you guys in NZ sometime soon!! For our last night together we all went out for Khmer food (this time it was actually tasty!) and then hung out until bedtime.

Adlibing it with wonderful friends.

Day 689 - Rest and recovery

After 2 full on days on the bike (and with Adam's illness) today we took a well needed break. While the others set off to see more temples, we slept until lunch time, did some mundane travel chores of clothes washing, spent lots of time researching flights online, and generally trying to recuperate. Adam made a call home to wish Miles a happy 21st birthday, but apparently was censored from the party the night before.

We ate dinner at the night markets, and then made it home just in time before the skies drenched the dusty roads that surround Siem Reap.

Adlibing rest.

Day 688 - Are we being watched?

This morning we decided to get up and amongst the ancient stones well before the heat of the day began its life-sapping attacks. We were on our bikes by 6.30am and punishing the peddles in pursuit of Angkor Wat, purportedly the biggest religious structure in the world. When we arrived we were awed by the size - the sheer man power needed to to build this temple is monumental. The temple itself wasn't the most beautiful that we've seen, but it was full of carvings and huge Buddha statues hidden in dark corners as well as prime positions. The vivid colours of sunset orange robes floated amongst the tourists who are drawn to this magnificent creation.As we made our way around the temple Adam got sicker and sicker until he was fast asleep using a rock step as a pillow. Since Angkor Wat and its neighbouring temples are the reason you come to Cambodia he decided to push his limits and battle through the day.From Angkor we were pulled towards Bayon, a gorgeous masterpiece full of larger-than-life stone faces gazing down upon us mere humans with penetrating stares that dare us to claim greatness over their almost heavenly position.It was a case of love at first sight, we had no idea which face to communicate with or which pillar of intricate carving to devote a minute of gazing time to. We made our way in and out of shadowy towers that reached for the sky, totally defying gravity with their stone mass.After so much amazement it would have been easy to go home right then and sit around reflecting on the images forever burned into our memory, but, there was more!We continued to cycle along the path and promptly arrived at the terrace of the elephants, which was an enormous wall that stretched beyond our view. The wall was adorned with a three dimensional mural of elephants and unusual creatures telling a king's story.

We continued rolling on towards yet another hidden beauty but were unable to actually find it at all, though in the search we came across a lone tower camoflaged in the shady forest with a covering of moss.

While Sam, Nicole and Rita slowly made their way towards our guesthouse, Adam left Liv in his wake by managing to grab a hold of a passing tuk tuk and zooming on ahead. Liv left the temple 20 seconds after Adam and anticipated catching him (who at last site looked about to collapse) quickly but was shocked he was no where in sight!!

Back at our guesthouse Adam lay in an exhausted heap on the bed unable to even eat or drink, while the rest of our fabulous five team made our way to the night markets for excellent cheap food and plenty of people watching.

Adlibing Angkor Wat.

Day 687 - Tree Temples

Siem Reap is famous for Wat? That is, Angkor Wat - the massive Angkor Wat is, by size, the centrepiece of many temples that dot the countryside.

More than 1,000 years ago the Angkor Empire rose to huge proportions and each successive King built his own temple masterpiece, each king trying to out do each other. Since it's so big, today we focused on a small area that we could easily bike to, and leave the biggest for tomorrow. The first temple we visited was a great warm up to what we would see throughout the day, with pretty carvings jumping out of the wall in a 3-D display.

Then we stopped in at Prasat Kravan, which despite being in a sheltered forest, was nothing but a ruin supported by wood bracings.

For lunch we stopped beside Sra Srang, a temple with only its base left behind, and a massive lake in the background where the King and his wives came to bathe, and no one else was allowed.
Afterwards we went across to Banteay Kdei, the first major temple complex of our day. Here we got our first look at the giant, ever-watchful stone faces that look done on all who enter.
From here we went to Ta Prohm, an amazing complex of stunning temples that have been taken over by the forest so that now it appears that trees are the foundations, but actually they are causing the temples to collapse creating natural booby traps in the process. One of the temples here is now named the Tomb Raider temple after it featured in the Hollywood blockbuster of the same name.

We spent ages wandering around here, and just as long perched in one spot gazing at the details of these masterpieces.
With hopes of catching the sunset we biked off to Pre Rup, where we performed a balancing act as we climbed the steep and narrow steps to the top of a tower and got caught in a storm while waiting for the sunset. Despite the rain, we had to get home somehow - our bodies were already exhausted from countless kilometres under the hot sun, as well as the many miles we walked in and around the temples. So back on the bikes we got and pedalled our way home.

Adlibing terrific temples.

Day 686 - Swerving to Siem Reap

Bright and early this morning we all jumped in a minivan to the bus station where we jumped on our bus to Siem Reap. This bus ride was typical of all bus rides in Asia: bumpy, swervy, hot and sticky, a bit too slow, but eventually successful. We had organised a tuk-tuk to meet us and take us to the guesthouse we wanted to stay at, so soon we all had rooms and went out for food.

Since most of the day was already gone we spent the last of it hanging out on the rooftop restaurant playing cards, drinking beer and eating yummy food.

Adlibing it to the home of Angkor.

Day 685 - Another depressing day

Our plans to go to the Killing Fields were rained out yesterday, so unfortunately we were in for a double-whammy of depressing days! The fields are 15km out of town, so the 5 of us jumped in a cheap tuk-tuk to get out there, instead of biking in this terrible heat. The Killing Fields are a series of mass graves where over 8,000 people were ruthlessly killed and buried as if they weren't human beings at all. Many killed here were former prisoners of the S-21 prison we visited yesterday.

As we walked around the graves that lie shaded by such beautiful forested land, it hard to imagine such horrors taking place here. Some bones and clothes lay in tatters across the ground, and all skulls are displayed in a memorial stupa as a sign that such pointless deaths won't be forgotten. We jumped back on our tuk-tuk passing robed monks mounted on the back of motos, and were deposited at the Royal Palace where the ticket price had risen 3 times in the last 2 years so we couldn't really afford it. It's such a shame that such beautiful monuments are hidden from budget travellers because of a greed for money. Instead we had a delicious Indonesian lunch, which made us excited about coming to Indonesia in a few months!!We then wandered along the river front, watching as pajama-clad Cambodians went about their daily life (generally hiding out from the heat!), and went into Wat Ounalom. Although this temple was founded in 1443, it was destroyed during the Pol Pot era (this guy didn't just kill 1/4 of his fellow country-people but also destroyed a lot of cultural sites), and therefore the temple is a brand new, concrete structure like the majority of Cambodian temples we've seen.

We briefly stopped off at Wat Phnom, a temple notable for the fact it's built on the only hill in town, and that it's home to the fattest monkeys in the world!

In the evening we met up at a riverside bar to enjoy happy hour with some friends of Nicole and Sam before we took them back to the Indonesian place for dinner - after declaring their "cheap" choice too expensive for our budget!!

Adlibing the killing fields.

Day 684 - A depressing lesson

Today the 5-strong team headed off to the Tuol Sleng Museum - also known as the S-21 Prison, where thousands of people were detained, tortured, interrogated, and killed during the genocidal Pol Pot regime of 1975-1979. It was made even more due to the fact that the prison is a converted primary and high school, nestled within a community. While the 2 hours we spent here was extremely depressing, it was an eye-opener and something all visitors should see as it explains a lot about Cambodia's recent history.The museum is divided into several parts: the interrogation/torture rooms; the cells (barely big enough for one person; and the mass holding cells. Throughout the torture rooms were graphic black and white reminders of the atrocities committed in the rooms. These reminders were photographs taken of the last 14 prisoners here who were killed on the spot when Phenom Pehn was taken by the Vietnamese Army in 1979 (which ended the Pol Pot era). Throughout the museum were photos of all the prisoners (including kids, and mothers with babies), taken when they arrived at the prison - giving us the unique opportunity to look into the eyes of people who are lost but not forgotten.We learned a lot about the terrors of the Pol Pot years, but it was so incredibly evil that it's difficult to comprehend the reality that the Cambodian people suffered during his reign.

We had planned to go from the prison to the Killing Fields, but the dark clouds threatened in the distance, so instead we spent the afternoon eating delicious Chinese noodles, going grocery shopping, and chilling out on the balcony at our guesthouse.

Adlibing a Prison.

Day 683 - Welcome Rita!!!

Our day started early as we wanted to get as much done before the worst of the heat arrives. Nicole and Sam are heading to Vietnam in a couple of weeks, so we all wandered down to the Embassy (stopping off for smoothies, coffee and brekky on the way), and then headed to the Psar Tuol Tom Pong (the Russian Market). Here we squeezed down the product-lined aisles and bargained ourselves into new sunnies (pair number 6 for Adam) and a few souvenirs for home.
At 2pm we negotiated a tuk-tuk ride out to the airport to meet our Portuguese friend Rita who arrived today after leaving Portugal a couple of days ago. We met Rita in November as we adlibed our way along the Annapurna circuit of Nepal. Even though we only met her for a few days, we instantly realised that she was a wonderful person, and so we were incredibly stoked to get an email from her a few months ago telling us she was coming over to Asia to travel with us. We feel privileged to have her join the adlibing team. From now on the Adlibing Asia crew is a threesome - though with Sam and Nicole still part of the team we might as well get a uniform!!!

We made it back from the airport just before the afternoon storm that's becoming a daily occurrence, and enjoyed catching up with Rita over a beer. We enjoyed the evening doing nothing much, and with all the time in the word to do it.
Dinner was more Indian with great friends, and a little planning for a big sightseeing day tomorrow.

Adlibing it with one more.

Day 682 - Doing nothing in Phnom Pehn

We were all feeling pretty lazy today so we spent a lot of time sitting on the deck overlooking the lake. We broke the day up with trips to various restaurants and bars, though some of us spent longer in the latter, than others! We splurged on a pizza for dinner (which you need to do once in a while) where we met some other travellers and had a yarn.

All-in-all, there's just not much to say about today ...

Adlibing didly-squat!

Day 681 - Broken bus

We had a very lazy morning waiting for our midday bus to arrive to take us to Phnom Pehn - the capital of Cambodia. The first half of the bus ride went smoothly, despite the intense heat and having to have a seat shuffle to get seats next to each other. About 100kms from Phnom Pehn the bus broke down and we ended up stranded on the side of the road for an hour. We noticed that slowly the other passengers we getting into minivans, so Adam the negotiator spoke to the driver and ended up getting a free minivan ride for the 4 of us all the way into central Phnom Pehn.

A short distance from town a storm descended from the skies and served to clean the dirt from the atmosphere and provided us with excellent views of the mountains in the distance.

The driver attempted to drop us off at a busy intersection where a swarm of moto drivers darted towards our van and jammed their heads in the windows yelling at us to take their moto!!! We totally ignored them and Adam managed to get the driver to drive in the right direction. Soon Adam was pressing the accelerator and holding the steering wheel as the driver attempted to call a hotel to come and relieve him of his burden!

We ended up right where we wanted to be, which is on the edge of Lake Kak where we enjoyed the storm-cleaned skies as we watched the sun throw its colours over the water.

Adlibing it to the city.

Day 680 - Biking the banks of the Mekong

With nothing much to do in town we hired a couple of motorbikes and headed north, following the Mekong River along bumpy roads that are home to many small villages. Our first stop of the day was as Sampong Temple - a temple on top of a mountain that provided splendid views out over green, tree-lined fields and out over the Mekong. After checking out the temple we sat down for a cold drink and "chatted" with the drink ladies while our sweat pooled at our feet! So without much convincing we were soon back on the bikes with the wind in our faces. Kratie is famous for being a good place for spotting river dolphins, so we stopped off to check out how much it would cost for a boat ride out to see them. Unfortunately the price for foreigners has tripled since our guidebook was written, which would have left us short on necessary funds to complete the day. So, plan B was created and we motored a further 20km north and deeper into village life. We wanted to visit a riverside market/picnic/swimming spot, but they wanted to charge us 4 times the price of the ticket - curse these white faces of ours!!!

As we rode north we enjoyed watching New Year's celebrations going on in every village - all the villagers get together in one place and blare music from a wall of speakers. Our particular favourite was the party at a temple with little kids dancing away to terrible American hip-hop!!
We ended up at the biggest temple in Cambodia - famous for its 108 pillars, where we enjoyed watching people get their fortunes told by the monks inside, while youngsters played a jandal-kicking, money-betting game!!! Across from the temple we got our first good Cambodian meal, while we lazed in hammocks overlooking the river. Adam got fresh meat noodle soup, while Liv had a delicious egg pancake filled with sprouts, peanuts, and cucumber. All this was washed down with an icy sugarcane juice!
Before heading home we detoured down a dirt track and found ourselves on a wide sandy bank that slipped into the muddy Mekong - though not muddy enough to prevent us from diving in for a swim. The only other stops on the way home was for fresh coconuts and to check out the sunset that was burning its image onto the glassy Mekong.

Adlibing good Cambodian food - finally!!

BABY BULLETIN!!!

Welcome to the world our beautiful baby niece Brooke Kathleen Harris!! Born on 17th April, at just 2.8kg she is the most gorgeous little girl ever. Our biggest love and congratulations go out to mum Dee, dad Dudley, and big brother Ethan. Just one more beautiful reason to come home ...

Love from Aunty and Uncle Adlibers x x x

Day 679 - Crappy Kratie

Today the bus took us from Ban Lung to Kratie, which turns out is a pretty ugly small town with nothing but a smelly market (just like the disappointing market in Ban Lung). We used to love walking around markets in Asia, but lately we've been going in and out as quick as possible.
The bus journey was a comic episode: when extra passengers got on, everyone erupted into intense argument which resulted in some form of "musical chairs" where almost everyone moved seats - somewhat frustrating as the bus waited until everyone was happy until moving on (with some passengers ending up sleeping in the dusty aisle).

Five minutes before we rolled into Kratie a torrential downpour cause yet another leaky bus episode, and meant we got soaking wet when we got out of the bus and got our filthy packs. Liv and Nicole took shelter and looked after the bags while the guys went in search of a room in the rain. The girls were pleasantly surprised at the good, cheap room they found - it even has cable tv (which might come in handy if this rain persists!).

We set out in search of cheap food, which we found at a guesthouse (where the most expensive food usually is), and then sat out the storm on the Internet.
We dined on some market food for dinner (including some grilled frog for Adam) and then the boys enjoyed beers while the 4 of us watched a movie, intermittently sneaking out to the balcony to watch the lightning show over the white capped water.

Adlibing a storm.

Day 678 - Kicking it at Kachanh Cascade

We ended up spending most of this morning mucking around trying to figure out what to do. After finally deciding on hiring motorbikes and exploring some of the waterfalls nearby, we spent over an hour walking around town in search of a place that would actually hire out bikes! With it being New Years, even though people have motorbikes they usually rent out, today they didn't really seem like they could be bothered with us! In the end we got 4 terrible bikes that clunked the 10km to the waterfall we made it to.

Despite the crappy bikes the ride was quite enjoyable - after riding a few kilometres on the main road we turned onto a quiet red clay road where we were accompanied by a chorus of "hellos" as we zoomed past. Often our appearance resulted in local kids bursting from their homes and waving us through. The waterfall was full of locals enjoying their holidays at the shallow pools at the top of the falls and below under the crashing waters. At the top parents dangled their babies (and in one case, their monkey) into the waters, much to the delight of the little ones! The only downside was that in Khmer culture adults (and especially women) swim fully clothed so Nicole and Liv weren't too keen to dive into the water despite the heat. Adam and Sam jumped right in and mingled with the kids, much to the jealousy of the teenage boys who were too cool to play in the water (but they obviously wanted to). Adam and Sam perched behind the falls and watched the activity from behind the watery curtain before following some kids rock climbing halfway up and then jumping into the pool below. This was only done once, after they hit the bottom!!We biked back to town for another lunch at the same restaurant as yesterday before spending the evening packing and playing cards (and Adam got his first taste of the famous Angkor Beer). Unfortunately we have a resident mouse in our room, who enjoyed nibbling through numerous bags and their contents, which made the packing process much more difficult than usual.

Adlibing a busy waterfall.

Day 677 - Taking a dip in a volcano

We took this morning nice and slowly, enjoying coffee and baguettes overlooking the forest below, and by the time we decided to get moving the sun was well and truly burning down on us. We began the 6km wander towards Boeng Yeak Lom: a clear green, circular lake at the top of a volcano inside a protected area. Just before we arrived at the ticket office we followed a dirt track through the trees that led to a perfect secluded swimming spot. We spent the day turning into prunes as we floated, swam and lazed in the cooling waters, not wanting to leave this small piece of paradise where the forest creeps right up to the glassy water's edge. Our rumbling tummies eventually dragged us from our water heaven and we headed back to town for lunch - well, closer to dinner! We were lucky at the restaurant we chose to eat at, as there was a Malaysian guy there who spoke perfect English and Khmer and could translate for us - this resulted in a fabulous meal, made 10 times better after our disaster of last night's meal! We even managed to score a good deal on mangoes at the local market before retreating to our tree top home. Adlibing a crater lake.

Day 676 - Boats and buses

After enjoying our last few Lao coffees on the deck overlooking the Mekong we jumped aboard a boat, which wound its way out of the four thousand islands and onto the mainland where our minivan awaited to take us to the Lao-Cambodian border - at this point our travel run ended. The corrupt Lao border control expect a US$1 bribe per person to get a stamp out of the country. Most travellers just hand this over and continue the cycle of ripping off tourists. In Asia (and South East Asia in particular) there is a belief that travellers have a lot of money (which comparatively we do) but that also we don't really care about how it's spent. The more people who pay such bribes the harder it is for real budget travellers to keep travelling. For us $1 goes a long way - we only spend under $US10 a day each.

What's worse, is that at this border crossing there are 3 places where you're expected to pay $1 bribe - that's a lot of money! So naturally, we just refused to pay! Although this meant holding everyone up (in fact some people wanted to pay for us, but we refused on principle) we did eventually get away with only paying what we were meant to. Some people were a little resentful of the fact that they paid and we didn't - but we had discussed this on the ride to the border that if you refuse to pay (and persevere with it) then you can get away with it. But as soon as they were asked, they just handed it over willingly no questions asked. So the cycle will continue ...

We arrived in Cambodia spent the next 9 hours either on the bus, waiting for the bus, or in the bank trying to find some way to get money!!

At 8pm we arrived in Ban Lung where it took us ages to find any decent accommodation - this was made harder because tomorrow is Cambodia's week long New Year, and everyone doubles/triples their prices. Eventually though, we found an amazing place where the 4 of us are sharing a beautiful room with a porch overlooking the tree tops of a horizon-spanning forest. We'd recommend anyone coming to Ban Lung to stay at Tree Top Guesthouse - it's great and owner Mr T is super friendly and helpful.
Dinner was a complete disaster that consisted of gruel and bad meat for the meat eaters, and fertilised duck egg for Liv (which Nicole bravely dug into!). Luckily on the way home we stumbled across some steamed pork buns and avocado baguettes to fill us up!

Adlibing it to Cambodia.

Day 675 - Biking to a swimming hole

Today the 6 of us (us, Nicole, Sam, Eric, and Eliza) rented bikes (after a long drawn out morning of trying to get everything/one organised!) and biked along the single track that circles the island and across to Dong Khon. Dong Khon is a bigger island than Dong Det and the main reason we went was to check out some rapid-like waterfalls that smash their way down a rocky canyon leaving a snow white trail behind. After enjoying the falls we decided to search out a less dangerous place for a swim and made it lucky with a steep rock hop down a canyon where a calm waterhole awaited!! Here we swam, floated, splashed and generally acted like the kids on the island enjoying their first swim. An intresting thing we found out about the Mekong is that at some points the bottom is unchartered so we're lucky we didn't sink into a bottomless hole!Once our fingers and toes were as wrinkled as an 80 year old after a bath, we jumped out and began a bike ride home. On the way the girls headed straight for food and drinks while the boys went to explore the island some more, and ended up watching young kids play petanque on a riverside sandy beach. In the evening Sam, Nicole and us reluctantly bought tickets to take us off the island tomorrow and into Cambodia. Tickets in hand, we searched out the samosa lady, and sat eating on a log as locals biked past and into the dark of night. Despite it already being pitch black it was still hot enough for the boys to strip off at Dong Det's beach and swim in the shadowy waters.

We met up Eric and Eliza for dinner and as the food was being made an intense storm made its presence felt as razor blade bolts of lightning cut through the night sky accompanied by a chorus of thunder. We relaxed on other travellers' balconies and sat back and enjoyed mother nature's show with a Beer Lao - made even more impressive by the fact that most of the island is powerless and therefore bathed in black.
Just as we were preparing to move on home the heavens opened up and on our bicycle back to the bike shop (and the rest of the walk home) we got well and truly drenched. It was almost humorous as the 4 of us pedalled in the dark, begging for another lightning flash to light the way on the small path that was quickly becoming a river of its own.

Adlibing it wet.