Merry Election Eve

Hello from Thailand, where it is the eve of elections (overshadowing any reference to Christmas) and the selling of alcohol is forbidden (no, that’s not the only reason I’m in the hotel room updating the blog.) We’ve come a long way since Siem Reap. First, we did visit the temples of Angkor by bicycle, which was really great. The temple ruins were really beautiful, made even more pretty by the lush landscape. I thought it was going to be more crowded than it turned out to be, so I was pleasantly surprised by that as well. Pictures of Angkor are in their own online album (link to the left) because there were so many – and I only uploaded about half of the ones I took.


I have also added more pictures to the Cambodia album to include our boat trip to Battambang. The river ride was quite scenic, but it was long and kind of hot (an open air boat – but stuffy inside and too sunny up top.) But it was really cool (meaning, great) to see the landscape, the fishing villages and the people along the way. Battambang in itself wasn’t all that great, but we did find a nice hotel and took a fun cooking class. Now Matthias can make Amok – Cambodian curry with coconut milk – if he can find the ingredients.

The bus trip to Bangkok took a whopping 10 hours, and included a 2-hour border stop (we missed the first connection to Bangkok so we had to wait for another bus.) But the bus was pretty empty and traveled fast, so I didn’t have to endure the loud techno music and videos of sexy dancers playing on the bus TV for too long. We stayed in a very cheap and basic place in Bangkok, in the backpacker district of Banglamphu. Although they gave us a much better room after we complained about the bedbugs, we realized that our days of cheap and luxurious sleeps are over. It is high season here, so we are paying more for less.

That aside, Thailand is great. We spent some nice days exploring Bangkok – wandering around the various districts on foot and by boat, and enjoying cheap eats in the markets and street stalls. Actually, I’ve eaten more shumai (pork dumplings) here than in China, and the Pad Thai and curry dishes have not disappointed. Indeed, it's not only the food that's hot – we almost decided to skip the trip to the northern part of Thailand and head straight to the beaches to cool off, but I really wanted to see the north, and the fact that the beaches are REALLY crowded (and expensive) during the xmas/new year holiday helped us make our decision. So we have come to Chiang Mai in the north (where it is still hot) and we are going back to Bangkok for New Years via the ancient capital of Sukhothai. And in the meantime, we are looking into whether we can venture out to the countryside for a few days. Chiang Mai, though more laid back than Bangkok, is quite a metropolis – trying to escape the city on bicycle turned out to be more difficult and stressful than it was worth due to the traffic. But our hotel is comfy, air-conditioned, and quiet – with internet access, so I can keep up-to-date on the Thai national election results. And of course update the blog.

Sick Day

Matthias can finally feel vindicated as he has been saying for over a month now that air conditioning would make me sick, and now I have a sore throat. Of course, I think it’s the dust here, or something I picked up from someone somewhere, but we can blame the air conditioning when it makes him feel better – as long as I don’t have to give up air conditioning.

So, here I am in our (air conditioned) hotel room taking a sick day. I don’t feel too awful, but I thought I would rest up a day so it (hopefully) won’t get worse. We were going to ride our bikes to the temples of Angkor today, which are supposed to be spectacular and, considering the $20 admission fee and the distance we have to ride to, from and between the temples, I didn’t want to risk being sick and not enjoying the experience.

We left Sihanoukville a couple of days ago and stopped for two nights in Phnom Penh so we could visit the Killing Fields and the Tuol Sleng Prison, used for torture and execution during the Khmer Rouge era. The Prison, which used to be a school, had some disturbing and moving exhibits, including photos of the prisoners, some of their stories, and the torture they endured. The killing fields, where prisoners were taken to be executed, was incredibly disturbing as you could see peoples bones poking out of the earth by the mass graves. The central monument contains hundreds of skulls that were found during the excavation. I saw on CNN recently that the former Khmer Rouge officials are currently (and finally) on trial here, but it doesn’t seem that the people here are much interested (or actually believe that any justice will be done.) I heard this from an ex-pat, I feel funny asking locals what they think as I’m imagine it’s a super-sensitive subject.

We left Phnom Penh by bus and have been in Siem Reap (Gateway to Angkor) for two nights. Yesterday, we rented bikes from our guesthouse and rode around the town and through the nearby villages. It’s hot here, but not as oppressive as Phnom Penh (because it’s not a big city, I guess.) But we really miss the beach, and are beginning to see why many people up and leave their lives in the Western world for the easy life here (don’t worry, mom, I’m NOT about to do it – although Matthias is truly tempted by the ability to live well on very little. But I’m not.)

Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to see the temples and then we’ll be off by boat to Battanbang - a riverside town that I’m not sure is worth a visit, but the boat ride there is supposed to be nice. From there we’ll head into Thailand – a paradise by many accounts. But for now I’ll just drag myself to an internet café (being in a guesthouse with no Internet access – and no in-room TV for that matter, but plenty of DVDs to borrow!) do a quick upload of this and some photos and get back into bed – or maybe the hammock on the communal balcony. Oh, decisions!

Shore Leave

Hello from paradise! We are now on the southern coast of Cambodia, in a town called Sihanoukville. Cambodia is great, just as people along the way said it would be. People are super-friendly, the food is fantastic, and of course (Matthias’ favorite point) it’s cheap. We spent two nights in the capital city of Phnom Penh and then left for Sihanoukville by the sea.

We have been here for four days enjoying sun, sand, and good food. We rent bicycles everyday and ride to the quiet beach on the other side of town – a bit of a challenge as it is quite hilly here, but it makes me feel like I deserve all the fish with coconut curry (called amok) I’ve been eating. The area in which we are staying is pretty lively at night, but thankfully our hotel room is quiet.

Matthias and I were both quite surprised upon our arrival here to see lots of young American men around. We had no idea that Southern Cambodia was a tourist destination for Americans (in fact, I couldn’t imagine that many Americans could even locate Cambodia on a map – not sure if I could have before this trip.) I was also taken aback when I saw the hotel manager ask a young Black American to pay for his room in advance in the middle of the day (we never pay until check out) thinking RACISM! But later we got the full story.

It turned out that there is a US Marine aircraft carrier in the harbor, and the Marines aboard are taking shore leave here. We learned this later in the evening when we saw scores of Marines in the local bars (many with Cambodian girls fawning all over them) including a few hanging out in our hotel bar (thankfully, without the girls.) We also found out that they went back to the ship each night to sleep – so the young Marine mentioned above must have rented the room by the hour, which made a bit more sense. According to the locals, this is the first time a US ship has visited the area – hopefully, they will leave a decent impression.

After two more nights here we are going back to Phnom Penh. I thought we had to pass through there to move on, but it turns out that’s not the case. But, we still have to go back to visit the Killing Fields, which we haven’t seen yet. Then, we’ll take the bus to Siem Reap to see the Temples of Angkor.

We have just reached the halfway point of our Asian journey – our flight to the US will leave Kuala Lumpur on January 30th. That gives us two months for Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. Now that the weather is fine, we plan to slow down a bit, spending more time in some of the laid-back places.