Thailand

After a very full on six weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia, we approached our short visit to Thailand as a chance to slow down for a bit. We spent four days in Bangkok and then a week in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

In Bangkok we stayed in a grand old hotel near the old part of the city, close to the famous Koh San road (full of tourists, and street stalls selling everything from knock off branded clothes to coconut ice cream, pad Thai and mango sticky rice) and close to the stunning Grand Palace. 

Aside from exploring this general area, we also ventured out to one of the massive malls (where we had to stand for the King's anthem at the start of the movie we went to see), and also took a day trip to see the Thailand 'death railway'. 

Magic Max's turned out to be a great place to get a cheap bite to eat and watch the world go by down Rambutri Alley. Occasionally Max would actually come and show off a couple of magic tricks!

The busy Koh San Road area, and our Royal Hotel, which apparently is 100 years old. It's not terribly fancy these days, but sure is big and grand!

An old fort down by the river in Bangkok.

The Grand Palace and temple of the Emerald Buddha is probably the most spectacular thing we've seen on our trip so far! So much gold! 

The Grand Palace complex was established in 1782 and is 218,000 square metres in size. It consists of the royal residence, throne halls, government offices as well as the renowned Temple of the Emerald Buddha. This temple houses a statue of Buddha made entirely of green jade and was first discovered in 1434 by a monk in Chiang Rai who initially thought it was a plaster cast mould of Buddhas image until he scratched the plaster off its nose and found it was in fact Jade. Three times a year the King changes the statues costume (only the King is allowed to touch it), this is in accordance with the three seasons observed in Thailand - summer, rainy and winter season. We actually got to see the costumes in the Royal jewellery collection as well as an exhibit on how jewels play an important part in Thai culture, and how they restore and maintain them. The exhibit was new in 2016 and they only let people in 3 times a day for an hour at a time, so we timed it perfectly! Unfortunately photos aren't allowed in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha or the Royal Jewellery collection so you'll just have to take our word for it that it was all very impressive!

Part of the reason for going to see the death/Burma railway and bridge on the river Kwai was to retrace some of my family history; my Opa's family was taken prisoner when the Japanese invaded Indonesia, and my great grandfather was sent to work on the Burma railway while the rest of the family were sent to internment camps on Java. I'm not sure whether my great grandfather was sent to Thailand or Burma, but apparently thanks to being an engineer he was eventually sent to work in a workshop fixing locomotives, which probably helped to save his life. He also helped others with his local knowledge (having been born in Indonesia) of what kind of berries etc. that you could and could not eat. 

The Burma Railway was responsible for the deaths of nearly 180,000 Prisoners of War. The railway was built to link Bangkok to Burma and up to India during WW2 under Japan's Military rule. Stretching 415km in length, it took over 12 months to complete in 1942/1943. The working conditions and torture the POWs were subjected to was horrific. Many starved or died from illness. 

The cemetery where allied soldiers are buried from WWII. 

The JEATH (Japan, England, Australia/America, Thailand, Holland) war museum was a very small museum with a number of old photographs and artists depictions on display of the squalid conditions and poor treatment POWs received at the hands of the Japanese during WWII. I hate to think of what my grandfathers family went through during those years. Apparently in the camps they often ate rats and snakes and whatever else they could catch so that they didn't starve, and my when my great grandfather returned, he had lost so much weight that he was barely recognisable.

After the JEATH museum we were rushed onto long boats to get to the famous bridge and on to the train, for which we were running late. And by rushed, I mean we had the fastest and most legitimately scary boat ride ever! I was actually thinking how glad I was that I had travel insurance so that my body could be repatriated to New Zealand! However, despite my little faith, we made it to the bridge over the river Kwai where we had about 2 minutes to look around before jumping on the train. We were on the train for about an hour an a half watching all the sugarcane plantations whiz by, and thinking about how bloody hard and awful it must have been for the poor people forced to build this railway. I definitely questioned why the hell it had become a tourist attraction and why I was even riding it. I suppose at least it gets you thinking, and that at least their hard work wasn't just left to waste.

We then headed off on an overnight bus to Chiang Mai, but not before Shaun stood in the worlds worst poo. It was so bad I'm surprised we didn't get kicked off the bus (especially when the driver came past trying to identify the smell)! It took a lot of washing in the onboard toilet, along with half a bottle of hand sanitizer as well as double bagging to minimise the smell. 

We were very grateful that our room was ready when we arrived in Chiang Mai the next morning, as we were quite weary from a very bumpy ride, seats that cut off the blood supply in the back of our legs, and what can only be described as post traumatic poo disorder.

In Chiang Mai we stayed in a nice little guesthouse near to the Thae Pae 

Gate. We were in town for a week and checked out a lot of different markets, temples, and also found a great yoga studio where I went to five classes. Judging by the pain the day after my first class, it really was about time that I got back on the mat!

We also spent a day planning and booking the rest of our trip, which was until then a vague plan at best.

Chiang Mai is an old walled city in northern Thailand that was founded in 1296. It was once the ancient capital of the area. There are still parts of the wall and the moat remaining.

There were so many different markets and so many different foods to try! My favourite was the Khao Soi, a yellow curry from northern Thailand.

Doi Suthep Temple up on the hill overlooking Chiang Mai, although the clouds meant that we couldn't see the view!

We had a great time in Thailand, and I'd love to come back and explore its beautiful beaches. 

We are now in Malaysia - blog to come soon!

Cambodia: Temples, Tarantulas, and Tuk Tuks

We are now chilling out in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Chilling as in relaxing, and also chilling as in revelling in the comparatively temperate climate that doesn't result in instantaneous sweat when venturing outside!

Anyway, here is a recount of our recent whirlwind tour of Cambodia. Unfortunately reading this post will more likely be a marathon than a whirlwind, so thanks in advance for hanging in there!

Cambodia:

After five hours on a small boat speeding down the Mekong, and a couple of short and relatively painless stops for visa processing at the border, we arrived in the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.

Shaun, Tony, and I had two days exploring the city and its surrounds, constantly fending off barrages of "Sir, where you going? Tuk tuk?", as well as learning about some painful parts of the country's history.

On the first evening we found a great bar, the Lazy Gecko, run by a couple of expats, (one from upstate New York and one from Brighton) which would serve as our local for the next few days. Over the three nights here we tried a few Cambodia draughts, and a few more, made friends with the pub dog Eric, and tried a few more beers, you know, just to be sure we liked them! 

During the day we checked out the huge indoor markets, with each of us buying a pair of 'alibaba' pants (the colourful breezy kind with elastic cuffs, also the kind you see 90% of backpackers wearing in Asia), and admired all the other knick knacks. We also went to a temple and also to the beautiful Royal Palace, with buildings and towers adorned with lots of gold.

Portrait of the Queen, near the Royal Palace

Royal Palace

Riding in a tuk tuk (scooter with a passenger carriage attached to the back).

With Eric, the pub dog.

The exact moment Shaun rips a hole in the crotch of his alibaba pants!

While in Phnom Penh we made a point of doing some more ethical dining. We had dinner one evening at a place called Friends, which is a training restaurant that works with former street children and marginalised youth in the region. We also had lunch at a place called Daughters of Cambodia, which supports the victims of sex trafficking, and helps to facilitate their exit from the sex industry by offering them fair trade employment and support services (see daughtersofcambodia.org). The story on the wall of the cafe said that one in 40 Cambodian girls will be sold. Harrowing statistics. On a side note, but kind of related, later that day I stumbled across an article on the BBC about modern slavery, of which a staggering 45 million people world wide are estimated to be victims. Arguably the biggest human rights issue of our time, but one that doesn't seem to get a lot of airtime.

What does modern slavery look like?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36416751 (copy and paste into your browser).

Our last day in Phnom Penh was a bit grim, as we decided to visit the killing fields, and then the genocide museum at the S21 prison known as Tuol Sleng. I vaguely remember learning about the Khmer Rouge and their regime of terror in high school history, but visiting those places made me wonder whether I had really been listening at all, as such terrible events would surely be burned into my memory. Well they are now. 

Here is a bit of background on what happened:

The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, was the communist party of Cambodia. Formed in the late sixties, they took over the nation on 17 April 1975, marching into Phnom Penh and ordering people to leave their homes and sending them into the countryside where they were forced into hard labour farming the land. When the Khmer Rouge first marched into the city, there are photos of people celebrating their 'liberation', as they had already suffered immensely from intense bombing as the Vietnam war spilled over into Cambodia, and had no idea of what was to come. The idea behind the forced mass exodus into the countryside was the ideology held by Pol Pot (who was educated in France) of stopping the 'corrupt' influence of the west and restoring the country to an agrarian state where everyone would be self sufficient, like the traditional farmers known as the 'old people'. The 'new people' were considered dangerous and enemies of the regime. Many died from starvation, exhaustion and disease. Worse still, the regime targeted those they considered enemies (the 'new people') such as teachers, other educated professionals, and those with pale skin and soft hands, and then imprisoned, tortured, and executed them. It is estimated that nearly three million people died in the four years before the Vietnamese came and defeated the Khmer Rouge, which was about 20% of their population. In the aftermath of the Vietnam war the west gave S E Asia a wide berth, and after sealing up their borders it seemed the Khmer Rouge committed genocide of the Cambodian people essentially unnoticed. Incredulously, they even held a seat at the United Nations until 1993.

Tuol Sleng was once a school, turned into a prison where over the four year reign of terror, an estimated 12,000 people were brutally tortured and forced to write false confessions before being transported to the killing fields to be executed; usually in a brutal manner to save bullets, before being dumped into mass graves. 

Visiting the places where such horrors were committed was a harrowing experience. In Tuol Sleng I was looking at all the photographs of the prisoners and saw the picture of a New Zealander, Kerry Hamill. This jogged a memory, and afterwards I went online to find out more. Kerry was on a boat with two others, Canadian Stuart Glass and Englishman John Dewhirst, when they accidentally ended up in Cambodian waters after a storm in 1978. They were captured by a Khmer Rouge gunship. Stuart was killed, and Kerry and John were taken to Tuol Sleng where they were tortured over a period of months and eventually executed. His family only found out what happened to their missing son/brother two years later when a neighbour told them to buy the local paper with the news plastered on the headlines. Kerry's youngest brother Rob Hamill got to speak at the trial of Comrade Duch in 2009 (the head honcho at Tuol Sleng, and only one of four KR to face trial) and made a very moving documentary called Brother Number One about his search for information on what happened to Kerry. I think it was shown on Inside New Zealand last year, but if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you watch it (available on iTunes).

Learning about Kerry's story really made everything hit home. It took me a few days to process. Our tuk tuk driver that day said that he lost his father. Our tour guide in Angkor also told us that he too lost family members. The people here don't seem to be afraid to share their stories.

For a nation that has been through so much, the people are all incredibly friendly and welcoming, but you don't have to look too far beneath the surface to see that many are still struggling. Despite the revenue that places like Angkor Wat generates (at US$40pp and over a million visitors annually), the impression I get is that the money doesn't seem to trickle down to where it is needed the most.

The monument to the victims of the killing fields 

Pieces of clothing and bone still come to the surface when it rains.

Once a place of learning, Tuol Sleng became the most brutal prison during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Or next stop was Sihanoukville, the main beach town in Cambodia. We wanted to take Tony for some relaxing beach time, however we should have paid more heed to other travellers reviews and also the weather forecast! If you're planning a trip to Cambodia, I'd probably give this place a miss and head to the nearby island of Koh Rang, or to the sleepy riverside town of Kampot instead. I wish we'd done the latter! We got one nice afternoon on the beach  (that was when we found a patch of sand to lie away from the rubbish), and the rest of the time was absolutely torrential rain. Determined not to let that stop us, we took a tuk tuk out to another nearby beach where Shaun and Tony swam in the rain, while I finished my Vietnam blog and bought bracelets off a very determined beach vendor. On the way back the skies opened and our poor tuk tuk driver could barely see to drive us home! We had to lend him a pair of sunglasses to shield his eyes from the lashing rain! Needless to say, we gave the poor guy a tip, as we were just glad he came back to get us at all!  

Thankfully the hostel we stayed at was really comfortable, had great food, a pool table and a swimming pool, so it ended up being a really chilled out few days!

Our final stop in Cambodia was the town of Siem Reap where we met up with our lovely Canadian friends Jess, Nathan, and Krystal, and visited the famous temples of Angkor.

In our first evening we raised a toast to Shaun and Tony's nana, who sadly passed away on the 4th August. It's times like these that make you realise just how far away from home you are, and make travelling for an extended period time really difficult. 

Our hotel next to the river

Markets in Siem Reap

Finally trying some stinky durian fruit! It tastes better than it smells, but not by a big margin!

Save money! The street where beer is cheaper than water!

We spent two days exploring the temples of Angkor with our great guide Sam. If you're ever get to Angkor, I would highly recommend Angkor Smiling Tour. 

Over these two days we visited so many temples that it took Shaun and I several hours of matching our memories with our photos and internet searches to be able to fill in my diary!

On the first day we visited the famous Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm (where Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Arc, were filmed), and Bayon (temple of the smiling faces).

On the second day we watched a spectacular sunrise over Angkor Wat, then visited some of the temples a bit further away such as Pre Rip, Banteay Srei and more in the Roluos group of temples. I'll explain a little bit about some of my favourites in the photo captions. Unfortunately Jess wasn't very well this day and couldn't join us until later in the afternoon when we visited a floating village. 

Angkor Wat:

This is the largest temple in the area, and was built in the early 12th century. It was built by King Suryavaraman II and dedicated to the Hindu God Vishnu. It was once a huge city, home to 45,000 people, and included libraries, a university, and the main temple where everyone could go to worship with the King. However, the common people had to climb the steep steps set at nearly a 45 degree angle, requiring them to approach the King on their hands and knees. Just as well they have since installed some tourist steps!

The towers of the main temple inside Angkor Wat.

Looking back out toward the entrance 

Carving of two Apsaras - who in Hindu mythology are beautiful female spirits who dance in heaven.

The tourist stairs were steep enough!

We took a lot of group photos!

Ta Prohm:

This beautiful Buddhist temple has been left largely as it was found, slowly being reclaimed by the jungle after being abandoned for almost six centuries. I think this adds to its charm, which was exactly the idea behind minimising restoration. It was built in 1186AD and took only 17 years to build. It was apparently once home to over 12,000 people.

Our guide Sam was pretty creative when it came to group photos!

This relief started as Buddhist and you can see where it has been carved over to give the figure the appearance more in line with Hindu religion.

Bayon:

This temple is also known as the temple of the smiling faces and is located in the heart of the Angkor Thom complex. It is a Buddhist temple and was built in the early 13th century.

Banteay Srei:

10th century Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. It had the most beautiful innate carving - I can see why it is called the Jewel of Khmer art! I also liked it because it was small and didn't involve too much walking! Ha!

Aren't they a picture!

Warning: sunrise spam!

This was absolutely worth the 5am pick up!

I learned something interesting about the construction of the temples after I noticed some basalt blocks peeking out behind the outer sandstone blocks at Angkor Wat where part of the wall had come away. Cleverly, the inside layer of the temple walls were usually constructed with strong basalt blocks, while the outer layers are sandstone which is easier to carve. Additionally, the reason behind the moats around all of the temples also has to do with the stone work - constantly keeping the foundations wet actually kept the temples standing, whereas if the ground repeatedly dried out and then flooded again in the rainy season, the buildings would begin to collapse. I'm no structural engineer, but if they've been standing this long then they can't have been too far wrong!

Spot the basalt.

Later we visited a floating village. It was quite interesting to hear about how they move their houses (which float on empty barrels and bunches of bamboo) out onto the lake when the water is low, but when it is high they move up the river to shelter from the wind. We also saw a crocodile farm, which I thought was really sad given they were being bred to be turned into handbags :(

All too soon we were saying goodbye to our Canadian friends, and then to Tony. Shaun and Tony said their goodbyes over a few too many beers and a fried tarantula... I'll leave that tale for the boys to tell.

We definitely enjoyed our time in Cambodia- the relaxed vibe, the friendly people and we also learned a lot. However, it was surprisingly much more expensive than Vietnam, and the food was certainly a lot more spicy!

Shaun's 'Special Beef'. I don't think he could taste the beef under all that fried garlic and chilli. If you want to see a grown man throw a tantrum, this is how.

Here are a few more temple photos if you can be bothered scrolling any longer!