Angkor is in the news as a couple of Aussies were arrested after pilfering artefacts from the temples.
Just thought I would let you know that I wasn't involved.
I mean, I would've, but Tiger Airlines only lets you carry on 15kg, so I didn't have much choice...
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Friday, October 06, 2006
Heading back to the big D in the NT
I'm in the budget terminal at Changi, which sucks compared to the real airport... But I can put up with it considering my flight was $185 return. If you ever fly Tiger, make sure you are not overweight with your baggage (although being overweight is okay because they gave me a boarding pass.) The couple next to me got slugged $68 for being about 5 kilos over the limit. Take no prisoners...
But at least the el-cheapo Changi airport has free internet. Good to kill sometime before I get on the plane, which is in about two hours. Another Tiger thing... check in early. You have to line it in one queue where they check your passport. Then you go to another queue where they check your passport again and take your bag. Stupid.
Am not looking forward to the flight. I feel like shit and my throat is killing me. Thank god I have a weekend before I have to go back to hell, I mean work.
Thanks for reading!
But at least the el-cheapo Changi airport has free internet. Good to kill sometime before I get on the plane, which is in about two hours. Another Tiger thing... check in early. You have to line it in one queue where they check your passport. Then you go to another queue where they check your passport again and take your bag. Stupid.
Am not looking forward to the flight. I feel like shit and my throat is killing me. Thank god I have a weekend before I have to go back to hell, I mean work.
Thanks for reading!
Worried Mum Update # 3
Just thought I should let you know that I safely passed through customs in Singapore. They didn't even bother checking my gear, which I guess was good because my boogie board bag was, like, seven kilos heavier that in should've been and had a really big bulge in the middle, like something had been stuffed in there. I'll check it out when I get back to Darwin.... I'm sure it's nothing.
Heading out
I'm sitting at an internet terminal in Siem Reap international airport. Had next to no sleep last night because my emerging cold has evolved into a full blown cold. (Don't worry, I'm pretty sure it's not haemorraegic dengue fever...) So my throat is sore and knowing that I had to get up at 5am meant I didn't really sleep. No biggie. I have a day-use room in Singapore for eight hours before I fly back to Darwin, so will get a bit of a kip there.
I took it easy yesterday, which was good. Since I only have a week off and it's back to work next week (f#$k) I didn't mind chilling out and reading. I sat out on the balcony and took in the goings-on around the place. Siem Reap is a pretty busy little town.
Anyway, flying out of Cambodia in one hour. Might go have a look at some souvenirs...
I took it easy yesterday, which was good. Since I only have a week off and it's back to work next week (f#$k) I didn't mind chilling out and reading. I sat out on the balcony and took in the goings-on around the place. Siem Reap is a pretty busy little town.
Anyway, flying out of Cambodia in one hour. Might go have a look at some souvenirs...
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Just paid for the trip (kind of...)
Just found out I won a Tiger Airways prize I entered a few months back... $450 worth of travel credit, $200 cash, $100 Hertz voucher and two tickets to the Singapore Zoo. Not too bad... will have to start working on the next trip!
Appeasing Worried Mum Update # 2
Number of $1 khmer massages I have received from blind Cambodian men: ZERO
Number of times I have had unprotected sexual relations with Cambodian women of the night: ZERO
Protected sex? Also ZERO
Number of approaches made to me by thugs promising to kill you if I don't strap heroin to my body and fly it back into Australia: ZERO
Number of times I have acquiesced to the Siem Reap hospital's blood drive: ZERO
Symptoms of tropical diseases:
Haemorraegic Dengue Fever (It's going around apparently...): NIL
Lymphatic Filariasis: NIL
Sleeping Sickness: NIL (I have just checked... I am awake.)
Leprosy: NIL (All appendages present and accounted for.)
Number of times I have had unprotected sexual relations with Cambodian women of the night: ZERO
Protected sex? Also ZERO
Number of approaches made to me by thugs promising to kill you if I don't strap heroin to my body and fly it back into Australia: ZERO
Number of times I have acquiesced to the Siem Reap hospital's blood drive: ZERO
Symptoms of tropical diseases:
Haemorraegic Dengue Fever (It's going around apparently...): NIL
Lymphatic Filariasis: NIL
Sleeping Sickness: NIL (I have just checked... I am awake.)
Leprosy: NIL (All appendages present and accounted for.)
Templed out...
Hello again. It's Wednesday today and the last day of temple pass, which costs $US40 for three days access. It's fine with me because I think I could enjoy a day doing not that much at all in the hotel. It has an airconditioner which is all I need...
Today I went a little further afield to Bantay Srey, which was about a 45 minute drive. Normally I have been taken out to the temples on the back of a tuk tuk, but today I headed out in a car instead. It was good because I got to chat with the driver (and help him to improve his English!) It was definitely an interesting conversation. He told me quite a bit about the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot and the Killing Fields. His father was killed by the Khmer Rouge in 1978 with a stick, leaving his mother to look after eleven children. The driver really wanted to go to university but once his father died they didn't have enough money for that, so he's been stuck with some pretty ordinary and low paying jobs. His wife is a teacher and gets paid next to nothing. He said that many high school teachers have quit teaching and act as guides at the temples because it pays more. When you realise that a guide gets paid $20 for a day, it goes to show how poorly teachers are paid here...
I'm finding it pretty hard to deal with the fact that I'm effectively a multimillionaire in this place. It feels kind of awkward knowing that I, and plenty of others, are able to come over to gawk at their lifestyle when there's no way in hell they could afford to get to Singapore let alone to Australia. The world is majorly out of balance.... no wonder so many people want to blow us to pieces. Not the Cambodians though... they are very lovely, peaceful people.
The temples have definitely been worth seeing, but I think it would have been much better travelling with a few others to share in the experience. There's strength in numbers, and it would be easier to avoid the hawkers!! Sadly I haven't had the opportunity to run into other like minded travellers, since most of them are German, Japanese and Korean. I've come across a few American tourists, who you can spot because they are loud and domineering (much like their foreign policy...) To be fair, you can spot Australians the same way - they are just a little quieter, a little shorter and have a little more hair sprouting out of their eyebrows... So anyway, I think my days of enjoying travelling on my own are passing and I'm going to have to start heading out with friends, or travelling to meet people. It must be a sign I'm getting old and too set in my ways...
Anyway, I can definitely recommend a trip to Siem Reap and the temples at Angkor. It's a shame that you have to run the gauntlet of salespeople (you want cold drink! you want cold drink!) and the fact that you can't find a quiet spot to sit down to reflect because someone will come up to you and ask for money or try to sell you something. Still, there aren't too many sites in the world like it!
Have a good one!
Today I went a little further afield to Bantay Srey, which was about a 45 minute drive. Normally I have been taken out to the temples on the back of a tuk tuk, but today I headed out in a car instead. It was good because I got to chat with the driver (and help him to improve his English!) It was definitely an interesting conversation. He told me quite a bit about the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot and the Killing Fields. His father was killed by the Khmer Rouge in 1978 with a stick, leaving his mother to look after eleven children. The driver really wanted to go to university but once his father died they didn't have enough money for that, so he's been stuck with some pretty ordinary and low paying jobs. His wife is a teacher and gets paid next to nothing. He said that many high school teachers have quit teaching and act as guides at the temples because it pays more. When you realise that a guide gets paid $20 for a day, it goes to show how poorly teachers are paid here...
I'm finding it pretty hard to deal with the fact that I'm effectively a multimillionaire in this place. It feels kind of awkward knowing that I, and plenty of others, are able to come over to gawk at their lifestyle when there's no way in hell they could afford to get to Singapore let alone to Australia. The world is majorly out of balance.... no wonder so many people want to blow us to pieces. Not the Cambodians though... they are very lovely, peaceful people.
The temples have definitely been worth seeing, but I think it would have been much better travelling with a few others to share in the experience. There's strength in numbers, and it would be easier to avoid the hawkers!! Sadly I haven't had the opportunity to run into other like minded travellers, since most of them are German, Japanese and Korean. I've come across a few American tourists, who you can spot because they are loud and domineering (much like their foreign policy...) To be fair, you can spot Australians the same way - they are just a little quieter, a little shorter and have a little more hair sprouting out of their eyebrows... So anyway, I think my days of enjoying travelling on my own are passing and I'm going to have to start heading out with friends, or travelling to meet people. It must be a sign I'm getting old and too set in my ways...
Anyway, I can definitely recommend a trip to Siem Reap and the temples at Angkor. It's a shame that you have to run the gauntlet of salespeople (you want cold drink! you want cold drink!) and the fact that you can't find a quiet spot to sit down to reflect because someone will come up to you and ask for money or try to sell you something. Still, there aren't too many sites in the world like it!
Have a good one!
Monday, October 02, 2006
The Temples
Hi from Siem Reap... No comments as yet! Maybe I am a windbag and people have just been humouring me in the past.
I've spent a bit of time out at the temples at Angkor so far. They've been fairly impressive, but it hasn't been too hard to get 'templed out'. They genuinely are pretty spectacular - the carvings especially - but there are a lot of beggars and hawkers which can be a bit of a drag dealing with. Or more to the point, not dealing with, since the best way to avoid being cornered is to ignore them, and since most of the beggars and hawkers are kids, it's a tough thing to do. I think travelling alone makes you an easier target, so I've been tacking myself onto the back of tour groups as they enter and exit the temples, because that's where the attention is the greatest.
This morning I headed out to Angkor Wat, which is probably the most famous temple of the lot. It's known as the biggest religious structure in the world, and it is pretty big. And very popular with tourist groups! The most popular groups seem to be Korean and German, so it's difficult to hang on the back and take part in a free tour, since both my Korean and German are non-existent (much like my Khmer, though I have learned to say "No, thank you.") The good thing about Angkor Wat is that it is so big it's easy to escape from the crowds and get a better feel for the place. Four walls of the main structure are entirely covered in bas relief, which is intricate carvings depicting key events in Khmer history. Hopefully the photos will work out, and I will upload some to this blog when I can find an internet cafe that takes camera cards. It may have to wait until I get back.
Today I also visited Banyon temple, which is part of Angkor Thom and is far more run down. The carvings are just as impressive though, and I found this temple to be more inspiring. It was less crowded too and there were no hawkers, which was great. After Banyon I went to Ta Prohm which is a temple that has been taken over by forest and maintained that way to give it that Indiana Jones feel. Because it was in the jungle it was really hot and humid and not at all comfortable, so I didn't last long. One good part of this temple was a group of land mine victims who have formed a small musical group to entertain the tourists. They were quite talented despite their quite horrific disfigurement, and I appeased my guilt from running away from the armless beggar by giving them some cash.
Anyways, that's about it for this post. I have a three day temple pass and I'm not sure how I'll go being out there for three days. There's only so many times you can get excited by temples. I certainly won't mind putting in some R and R!
I've spent a bit of time out at the temples at Angkor so far. They've been fairly impressive, but it hasn't been too hard to get 'templed out'. They genuinely are pretty spectacular - the carvings especially - but there are a lot of beggars and hawkers which can be a bit of a drag dealing with. Or more to the point, not dealing with, since the best way to avoid being cornered is to ignore them, and since most of the beggars and hawkers are kids, it's a tough thing to do. I think travelling alone makes you an easier target, so I've been tacking myself onto the back of tour groups as they enter and exit the temples, because that's where the attention is the greatest.
This morning I headed out to Angkor Wat, which is probably the most famous temple of the lot. It's known as the biggest religious structure in the world, and it is pretty big. And very popular with tourist groups! The most popular groups seem to be Korean and German, so it's difficult to hang on the back and take part in a free tour, since both my Korean and German are non-existent (much like my Khmer, though I have learned to say "No, thank you.") The good thing about Angkor Wat is that it is so big it's easy to escape from the crowds and get a better feel for the place. Four walls of the main structure are entirely covered in bas relief, which is intricate carvings depicting key events in Khmer history. Hopefully the photos will work out, and I will upload some to this blog when I can find an internet cafe that takes camera cards. It may have to wait until I get back.
Today I also visited Banyon temple, which is part of Angkor Thom and is far more run down. The carvings are just as impressive though, and I found this temple to be more inspiring. It was less crowded too and there were no hawkers, which was great. After Banyon I went to Ta Prohm which is a temple that has been taken over by forest and maintained that way to give it that Indiana Jones feel. Because it was in the jungle it was really hot and humid and not at all comfortable, so I didn't last long. One good part of this temple was a group of land mine victims who have formed a small musical group to entertain the tourists. They were quite talented despite their quite horrific disfigurement, and I appeased my guilt from running away from the armless beggar by giving them some cash.
Anyways, that's about it for this post. I have a three day temple pass and I'm not sure how I'll go being out there for three days. There's only so many times you can get excited by temples. I certainly won't mind putting in some R and R!
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Appeasing Worried Mum Update #1
My personal safety checklist:
My passport is on my person: YES
My bags are locked in my hotel room: YES
Number of times my bags have been tampered by unscrupulous foreign airline workers: ZERO (I think...)
Symptoms I am showing for tropical diseases:
Malaria: NIL
Amoebic Dysentry: NIL
Dengue Fever: NIL
Giardia: NIL
Typhoid: NIL
Schistosomiasis: NIL (which is good, coz it sounds bad)
Number of grams of herion I am planning to smuggle back into Australia: ZERO
Number of kidney's removed after being drugged for sale on the organ black market: ZERO
So far, so good...
My passport is on my person: YES
My bags are locked in my hotel room: YES
Number of times my bags have been tampered by unscrupulous foreign airline workers: ZERO (I think...)
Symptoms I am showing for tropical diseases:
Malaria: NIL
Amoebic Dysentry: NIL
Dengue Fever: NIL
Giardia: NIL
Typhoid: NIL
Schistosomiasis: NIL (which is good, coz it sounds bad)
Number of grams of herion I am planning to smuggle back into Australia: ZERO
Number of kidney's removed after being drugged for sale on the organ black market: ZERO
So far, so good...
Blogging the travels
To save people the time of reading my emails if they really can't be farked, I've decided to start blogging my trips away. So those who don't want to read, don't have to click here to read it. But considering how wonderfully I can put together an email of my travels, no doubt this sight will be a hit (ha ha.)
I've just spent about half a day in Siem Reap, after 24 hours in Singapore. Have had very little sleep in that time due to impossibly early flight times, so today has been a bit of bludge until I'm ready to hit the Angkor temples tomorrow. Actually, I'll hit them tonight because if you buy the tickets after 4:45pm you can get in a free sunset, so that's what I'll do.
To use the time a little more productively than lounging around the hotel, I've gone out of a couple of walks. This is the first time I've been in a developing Asian country in 11 years, and it didn't take long for the similarities to arise. First, the traffic is amazingly bad. Crossing the road is an effort deserving of a Victoria Cross in my opinion. So far I've survived, but mainly because the locals are obviously adept at swerving around bumbling tourists. I ended up in the markets on both of my walks out of the hotel to date, and the smell of meat and fish (most of which is just sitting around) is pretty repugnant. There's a fair bit of litter everywhere to, so in all the smell is pretty bad. But that's an urban area in developing Asia for you. Nothing too terrible.
The markets are popular for tourists, and since shopping doesn't rate at all highly on my travel "Do's" list, I'll give them a miss from now on. There are beggars everywhere which is very confronting. Unlike those in New York and Toronto, where I think giving to beggars probably isn't the most helpful thing to do, it was very tempting to offer something. Especially to the man with no arms who was chasing after me waving what remained of his arms at me. Info at the hotel was ambivalent about giving, suggesting that a donation to charity is better. I was on my way to the ATM anyway, and only had cash in my money belt, so I decided not to give, as the last thing I wanted to do was forage around for money in such a public place. Maybe I'll whack in a couple of bucks in a pocket for the future. I don't know... I don't want to start a crowd by giving to one. Poverty sucks.... I blame George Bush. Less money for pointless wars and more for development!
Singapore was all right for 24 hours. It's not a bad stop-over destination. Neat, clean, safe and quite picturesque. Very, very western (Starbucks and Maccas everywhere) but still worth a look. I don't think I'll mind spending a day or two there in the future when I'm stopping over to somewhere a bit more exciting.
Not much else to report so far... it's been the pretty standard airport, flight, immigration, customs routine so far. If you ever come to Cambodia, get an e-Visa online first. You can skip most of the queue and get through immigration first. I got through so quickly there was no-one at customs so I just kept walking out of the terminal. I bet there are people still in there!
The hotel I'm staying at in Siem Reap (www.thevillasiemreap.com for my dad who will want to check it out) is pretty good. Good size room, air conditioner and pay TV. Don't know if they'll show the NRL grandfinal, but I missed the AFL due to no TV where I was staying in Singapore. Sounds like a nailbiter. Should be a good NRL grand final too.
Anyways, will see if I can add another blog or two in the next couple of days.
Have a good one! (PS - Leave me a comment!)
I've just spent about half a day in Siem Reap, after 24 hours in Singapore. Have had very little sleep in that time due to impossibly early flight times, so today has been a bit of bludge until I'm ready to hit the Angkor temples tomorrow. Actually, I'll hit them tonight because if you buy the tickets after 4:45pm you can get in a free sunset, so that's what I'll do.
To use the time a little more productively than lounging around the hotel, I've gone out of a couple of walks. This is the first time I've been in a developing Asian country in 11 years, and it didn't take long for the similarities to arise. First, the traffic is amazingly bad. Crossing the road is an effort deserving of a Victoria Cross in my opinion. So far I've survived, but mainly because the locals are obviously adept at swerving around bumbling tourists. I ended up in the markets on both of my walks out of the hotel to date, and the smell of meat and fish (most of which is just sitting around) is pretty repugnant. There's a fair bit of litter everywhere to, so in all the smell is pretty bad. But that's an urban area in developing Asia for you. Nothing too terrible.
The markets are popular for tourists, and since shopping doesn't rate at all highly on my travel "Do's" list, I'll give them a miss from now on. There are beggars everywhere which is very confronting. Unlike those in New York and Toronto, where I think giving to beggars probably isn't the most helpful thing to do, it was very tempting to offer something. Especially to the man with no arms who was chasing after me waving what remained of his arms at me. Info at the hotel was ambivalent about giving, suggesting that a donation to charity is better. I was on my way to the ATM anyway, and only had cash in my money belt, so I decided not to give, as the last thing I wanted to do was forage around for money in such a public place. Maybe I'll whack in a couple of bucks in a pocket for the future. I don't know... I don't want to start a crowd by giving to one. Poverty sucks.... I blame George Bush. Less money for pointless wars and more for development!
Singapore was all right for 24 hours. It's not a bad stop-over destination. Neat, clean, safe and quite picturesque. Very, very western (Starbucks and Maccas everywhere) but still worth a look. I don't think I'll mind spending a day or two there in the future when I'm stopping over to somewhere a bit more exciting.
Not much else to report so far... it's been the pretty standard airport, flight, immigration, customs routine so far. If you ever come to Cambodia, get an e-Visa online first. You can skip most of the queue and get through immigration first. I got through so quickly there was no-one at customs so I just kept walking out of the terminal. I bet there are people still in there!
The hotel I'm staying at in Siem Reap (www.thevillasiemreap.com for my dad who will want to check it out) is pretty good. Good size room, air conditioner and pay TV. Don't know if they'll show the NRL grandfinal, but I missed the AFL due to no TV where I was staying in Singapore. Sounds like a nailbiter. Should be a good NRL grand final too.
Anyways, will see if I can add another blog or two in the next couple of days.
Have a good one! (PS - Leave me a comment!)
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