Now is time for some good old lazy rest on Phu quoc island completly
south of vietnam! After Cambodia, I left for Vietnam by bus to finally
join Nicolas for 2-3 weeks around. We straight away went on the isalnd
to spend 5 days on the beach, and dive!
We both passed the padi open water dive! Youhou! I guess it means now
I don't have any excuse to not go in the léman... We will see...
We had a lovely bungalow on our own, I guess it changes a lot compared
to the usual dorms I have been to.
Diner on the beach, shakes on the beach, taning on the beach, siesta
on the beach... Ok we left one day the beach to bike around the
island! Yes! I drove a bike! Okayyy I let it fall, but only once!
I am now at the airport, flying out to the center part of Vietnam, a
little bit of visits around, culture time, etc!
I keep you posted of course!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
North Cambodia
Wendy again, typing from a shitty internet place with the keyboard completely 'éffacé'.. So sorry again \i will have good reasons to make typos!
Sooooo.. What have I been doing in the last few days. After Siem Reap, I left by bus to Kanpong Cham, trying to head as much north I could in Cambodia towards the Lao border. I had pretty much a week left around Cambodia before crossing the Vietnam border to Ho chi minh. As soon as I got to Kanpong Cham, lots of locals harass zou to take a took or travel furtger.. Kanpong Cham did not look like it had much charn so I decided to move further to Kratie.
Kratie is a nice little city with 3 or 4 roads and of course a market in the center. t is right by the mekong river so I planned to laze around there a few nights. Still with the swiss girl I had met, we rented two motor bikes and cruised along the river. We stopped to watch some dolphins.. Yesss! Mokong river dolphins. There was a little port where you could go for a little tour,. which we did as any normal tourists.. My first day on the mekong, and probably not the last one!
I then left alone to the deeper of the beaten tracks of Cambodia to Sen Monorom.. Sadly I cant upload photos here, but I dont konw how to explain how my butt felt sour after 4 hours of muddy dusty roads.. Great expirience though! Some people even travelled on top of the pock/up... We were 8 people inside (for 5 seats usually) and probably something like 10 people on the top.. mostly locals.. Not counting the fish tanks, chicken and other junk they had up there.
Sen Monorom was really nice, it is up in the mountain so much frechser.. They even cll it the Switzerland of Cambodia! In the middle of nowjhere pretty much. With parks and jungles around.
First day I went for a field trip to meet wild elephants.. To get there we had to go to the local village and check if they could bring us there. Funny part is that the guy asked us to wait, and came back 1 hour later with an elephant! A semi wild one apparently who brought us around the jungle.
I was staying in a lodge off the road, which had a far with so many animals.. Hammacs everywhere. I had ny own bungalow which in the night was prviding me the jungle noises that you can all imagine.. Scaaarrrry!
the next day I went with a group o 5 for a 2 day treck in the jungle.. Not sure what we had to expect.. We pretty much left after 1 hour the tracks and wnet right into the jungle. the guide in front of us had an axe to cut the branches so we could pass... Thats the way they do.. they never go the same path... Funny, I got stuck by so may branches!!
We slept in hammacs along a waterfall. with only the stars around.. And of course the usual mosquitoes!
Really I can not say if I went more into the wild than that! I was completely exhausted after that! I think I need a wwek of sandy beaches to relax my feet!
I am now in pnomh penh, captial of Cambodia. I just got here. Will stay 2 nights and then head to Vietnam to meet my lovely man in Saigon!!!
Talk to you soon!
wendy
Sooooo.. What have I been doing in the last few days. After Siem Reap, I left by bus to Kanpong Cham, trying to head as much north I could in Cambodia towards the Lao border. I had pretty much a week left around Cambodia before crossing the Vietnam border to Ho chi minh. As soon as I got to Kanpong Cham, lots of locals harass zou to take a took or travel furtger.. Kanpong Cham did not look like it had much charn so I decided to move further to Kratie.
Kratie is a nice little city with 3 or 4 roads and of course a market in the center. t is right by the mekong river so I planned to laze around there a few nights. Still with the swiss girl I had met, we rented two motor bikes and cruised along the river. We stopped to watch some dolphins.. Yesss! Mokong river dolphins. There was a little port where you could go for a little tour,. which we did as any normal tourists.. My first day on the mekong, and probably not the last one!
I then left alone to the deeper of the beaten tracks of Cambodia to Sen Monorom.. Sadly I cant upload photos here, but I dont konw how to explain how my butt felt sour after 4 hours of muddy dusty roads.. Great expirience though! Some people even travelled on top of the pock/up... We were 8 people inside (for 5 seats usually) and probably something like 10 people on the top.. mostly locals.. Not counting the fish tanks, chicken and other junk they had up there.
Sen Monorom was really nice, it is up in the mountain so much frechser.. They even cll it the Switzerland of Cambodia! In the middle of nowjhere pretty much. With parks and jungles around.
First day I went for a field trip to meet wild elephants.. To get there we had to go to the local village and check if they could bring us there. Funny part is that the guy asked us to wait, and came back 1 hour later with an elephant! A semi wild one apparently who brought us around the jungle.
I was staying in a lodge off the road, which had a far with so many animals.. Hammacs everywhere. I had ny own bungalow which in the night was prviding me the jungle noises that you can all imagine.. Scaaarrrry!
the next day I went with a group o 5 for a 2 day treck in the jungle.. Not sure what we had to expect.. We pretty much left after 1 hour the tracks and wnet right into the jungle. the guide in front of us had an axe to cut the branches so we could pass... Thats the way they do.. they never go the same path... Funny, I got stuck by so may branches!!
We slept in hammacs along a waterfall. with only the stars around.. And of course the usual mosquitoes!
Really I can not say if I went more into the wild than that! I was completely exhausted after that! I think I need a wwek of sandy beaches to relax my feet!
I am now in pnomh penh, captial of Cambodia. I just got here. Will stay 2 nights and then head to Vietnam to meet my lovely man in Saigon!!!
Talk to you soon!
wendy
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Temples of Angkor
Hello, Wendy again!
Here I am, on my third day in Siem Reap to walk around the millions of temples we have around. The most known are the Angkor temples (Wat an Thom). They are incredible. I have not seen anything comparable (ok I did notgo to Mexico neither to Egypt, but people say it is more impressive!). The temples are still in a good shape although nature mostly took over them. Some temples have been found in the middle of the jungle.
Why is there so many? Around the 9th to 12th century, each king would request to have a temple built in his honor. Once a king would die, the next one would stop the construction of the previous one to start a brand new one somewhere else, bigger, better, etc...
I guess most of us know that one: Angkor Thom, one of the most 'lost world' temple.
So everyday you pick up a Tuk Tuk ('Hello ladyyyyy, you want tuk tuk?', thats is what you get pretty much everyday) and go to check the temples you want. Our private tuktuk (which we would organize to meet everyday was Thoeur.. very nice man. I discovered all this with Rachel a swiss girl I met at the airport in KL.
As much wild as we wantedto be, we asked to spent some time on the counry side to see how people live around here. Most live in wood houses with one room for the entire family. Most houses live on 'pilotis' to be safe with the raining season.
Interesting point alos is that this season Siem Reap as much less tourists than usual. Probably due to Bangkok and the economy issues... Well good for us, but very bad for them. Most of the people around here live on tourism. And you can feel that they are really having a hard time these months. So GO TO CAMBODIA! the people are so nice, always smiling, always welcoming you wherever you go ('Good luck to you ladyyyyy'). There are so much things to do around here I could stay a couple of more weeks. The town is quite nice also. Some touristy area with the usual pubs and so on, but at least they don-t have McDonalds!! Sorry PJ...
We were also very lucky when we went for a Sunrise one of the temples. We decided to take the second less obvious place, and at our arrival no one was there!! We shared the sunrise with our lovely tuk tuk driver and the local kids playing around before going to school..
Most kids go to school here either in the morning or the afternoon, they can choose. The school is apparently very good here. If they get an A grade in high school, they get to university for free. So everybody is serious about it.
Alright kiddos... I-m going for diner in town.. The last evening here. I-m leaving tomorrow toards the North East of Cambodia, right under Laos. Apparently you get really good sceneries, jungles and back country roads that are unrecommanded for those with sensible bottoms.. Let's see what I will find there!
Next cities> Kampong Cham, Kratie, and up to Banlung in Cambodia still.
Babye everybody!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap (Cambodia)
I'm finally on my planned route and just arrived this morning to Siem Reap in Cambodia. I went up from the south, Kuala Lumpur where I did a quick halt after Cameron Highlands.
I guess I should find out how I could show zou a map of where I stand right now, how far I went.. ok ok next time...
So so Kuala Lumpur:
Big big city, as expected, a lot of people hoping on and off from the metros, lots of different ethnicities coexisting in this never sleeping city.. I know who did not sleep that night either> ME. No mum I was not partying. I am still on the jet lag and could not fall asleep until 2 am.. and had to wake up at 4am to go to catch mz cheap cheap cheap cheap flight to Siem Reap. Now I know whyit was cheap. I had to pay 20$ for taxi to get to the far far far far away airport. Oh well.
Petronas tower in Kuala Lumpur were as expected, gigantic and impressive. Little India also as expected: Holistic and lots of mobs zooming around.
Again> I know I am not a big city person.
Quick 'interruption intellectuelle du jour': Do you know what is the main oil producer in Malaysia? Come ooooon .. guess..
As a fact it is my taxi driver who proudlz discussed it during the 1 hour drive: Palm trees.
Ok no one cares... I couldnt care less either, specially at 4am, but I had to be polite..
So so.. I left rainy kuala lumpur and now I am in Siem Reap!
Really an impressive city. First of all the people are beautiful here. They dont seem as much drowned by tourists, even though we are at the doors from the Angkor Temples.
I haven-t seen them yet, we decided (myself and a girl I might zt the airport) to spend the day in out of the beaten tracks place. Our new friend Vey, our official tuk tuk driver for the day took us out of town, in villages, and also on a village over the water. We got to see their shool (140 kids in two classes, with each 1 teacher... you can imagine...
Their food is also incredible, very tasty (at first I was scared to eat something that does not follow the swiss sanity checks) called Amok. I cant tell what it is.. I cant even say if it is written that way, but got I need to open a Cambodian restaurant with just that.
Oh, side note, its the perfect weather too! Finally not too hot, and not too rainy. We went to see the sunset on a boudhist temple 'mountain'. Gorgeous sceneries again.
Tomorrow I'm planning to start the Angkor temples visit. Lucky that I am, there is not much tourists these days, specially due to the Bangkok situation and the economy, a lot of people cancelled their tours.
Anyway.. I will try to take some pictures with my iphone tomorrow!
Ok guys... I have to go... I am going for my foot massage.. :)
wa
I guess I should find out how I could show zou a map of where I stand right now, how far I went.. ok ok next time...
So so Kuala Lumpur:
Big big city, as expected, a lot of people hoping on and off from the metros, lots of different ethnicities coexisting in this never sleeping city.. I know who did not sleep that night either> ME. No mum I was not partying. I am still on the jet lag and could not fall asleep until 2 am.. and had to wake up at 4am to go to catch mz cheap cheap cheap cheap flight to Siem Reap. Now I know whyit was cheap. I had to pay 20$ for taxi to get to the far far far far away airport. Oh well.
Petronas tower in Kuala Lumpur were as expected, gigantic and impressive. Little India also as expected: Holistic and lots of mobs zooming around.
Again> I know I am not a big city person.
Quick 'interruption intellectuelle du jour': Do you know what is the main oil producer in Malaysia? Come ooooon .. guess..
As a fact it is my taxi driver who proudlz discussed it during the 1 hour drive: Palm trees.
Ok no one cares... I couldnt care less either, specially at 4am, but I had to be polite..
So so.. I left rainy kuala lumpur and now I am in Siem Reap!
Really an impressive city. First of all the people are beautiful here. They dont seem as much drowned by tourists, even though we are at the doors from the Angkor Temples.
I haven-t seen them yet, we decided (myself and a girl I might zt the airport) to spend the day in out of the beaten tracks place. Our new friend Vey, our official tuk tuk driver for the day took us out of town, in villages, and also on a village over the water. We got to see their shool (140 kids in two classes, with each 1 teacher... you can imagine...
Their food is also incredible, very tasty (at first I was scared to eat something that does not follow the swiss sanity checks) called Amok. I cant tell what it is.. I cant even say if it is written that way, but got I need to open a Cambodian restaurant with just that.
Oh, side note, its the perfect weather too! Finally not too hot, and not too rainy. We went to see the sunset on a boudhist temple 'mountain'. Gorgeous sceneries again.
Tomorrow I'm planning to start the Angkor temples visit. Lucky that I am, there is not much tourists these days, specially due to the Bangkok situation and the economy, a lot of people cancelled their tours.
Anyway.. I will try to take some pictures with my iphone tomorrow!
Ok guys... I have to go... I am going for my foot massage.. :)
wa
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Singapore to Malaysia
Hello all,
this is it, my first blog on the fields...
I am pretty much far from where I had expected. My flight initially planned in Bangkok, was changed to Singapore due to some yellow tshirt people blocking the airport. So I arrived in Singapore, stayed there a few days to actually get used to the backpacking side of life.
I may say it was pretty hard to jump start, find the destinations, what to do, where to go, how to travel. But after 4 days I already feel like a pro :).. Hum well.. stilll a little naive, and paying 6 RM in malaysia for a 1 hour trip (it makes something like 2CHF for the trip, even less... and YES it is expensive... I heard). Well I-m getting a quick and dirty 'how to be a good backpacker' lesson right now, and I promise I wont get fooled anymore!!
So where am I know? In Cameron Highlands, a little north of Kuala Lumpur (KL for the 'intimes'), in the middle of tea plantations and jungle.
It s quite cool, air is breathable and I dont have to bring a towel due to sweat everzwhere I'm going.
Oh.. a little side note.. Z's and Y's are mixed on keyboard.. so I believe I wont be bothered by fixing everz little typo I make.. oh well people know me.. I-m layz (heheheh) with keyboards.
Just so you know what is the nature here.. I-m in front of z computer, in a lodge.. I just got stopped for the last 5 minutes of typing because a bee or something equivalent landed on my keyboard... just as long as between letter g and letter l...
yesssss.
Well, so I just spent my first day here, will probably stay until sunday. Going for daily treks in the junnnnngle and maybe spend the hour rain in the afternoon sipping local tea.
What after? I-m heading to KL (yes you should know now what it is..) for a day and straight on a flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia, so that I finally get back to my initial plans.
Craap.. now it is a mosquito trying to suck me up... and a BIG one.
I had my first experience also of a midlle of nowhere village in the middle of a nowhere area, with 2 hours to kill between 2 buses. I thus head for some food.. Baaad idea... I have no idea what ended up on my plate.. it was soup with unrecognizable seeds and fish... mmmmh I just realized then that tap water is not recommanded... So I stayed hungry... Yes mummy see I take care of myself!
Ok that's it for now! I need to find hostels for Siem reap... It will be tuk tuk time!! yohou!!
biz les suisses, les blegs et les autres europeens!
wa
this is it, my first blog on the fields...
I am pretty much far from where I had expected. My flight initially planned in Bangkok, was changed to Singapore due to some yellow tshirt people blocking the airport. So I arrived in Singapore, stayed there a few days to actually get used to the backpacking side of life.
I may say it was pretty hard to jump start, find the destinations, what to do, where to go, how to travel. But after 4 days I already feel like a pro :).. Hum well.. stilll a little naive, and paying 6 RM in malaysia for a 1 hour trip (it makes something like 2CHF for the trip, even less... and YES it is expensive... I heard). Well I-m getting a quick and dirty 'how to be a good backpacker' lesson right now, and I promise I wont get fooled anymore!!
So where am I know? In Cameron Highlands, a little north of Kuala Lumpur (KL for the 'intimes'), in the middle of tea plantations and jungle.
It s quite cool, air is breathable and I dont have to bring a towel due to sweat everzwhere I'm going.
Oh.. a little side note.. Z's and Y's are mixed on keyboard.. so I believe I wont be bothered by fixing everz little typo I make.. oh well people know me.. I-m layz (heheheh) with keyboards.
Just so you know what is the nature here.. I-m in front of z computer, in a lodge.. I just got stopped for the last 5 minutes of typing because a bee or something equivalent landed on my keyboard... just as long as between letter g and letter l...
yesssss.
Well, so I just spent my first day here, will probably stay until sunday. Going for daily treks in the junnnnngle and maybe spend the hour rain in the afternoon sipping local tea.
What after? I-m heading to KL (yes you should know now what it is..) for a day and straight on a flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia, so that I finally get back to my initial plans.
Craap.. now it is a mosquito trying to suck me up... and a BIG one.
I had my first experience also of a midlle of nowhere village in the middle of a nowhere area, with 2 hours to kill between 2 buses. I thus head for some food.. Baaad idea... I have no idea what ended up on my plate.. it was soup with unrecognizable seeds and fish... mmmmh I just realized then that tap water is not recommanded... So I stayed hungry... Yes mummy see I take care of myself!
Ok that's it for now! I need to find hostels for Siem reap... It will be tuk tuk time!! yohou!!
biz les suisses, les blegs et les autres europeens!
wa
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