Alex & Lizzy's (Travel) Blog

Well, despite my best efforts to try and convince Alex that I could still speak Indonesian, 22years after I last spoke it, it soon became apparent that this was wishful thinking and my secret dream that I would be instantly fluent again was dashed (maybe I really am the most forgetful person in the world….it’s pretty impressive forgetting how to speak an entire language isn’t it?!)

Anyway, back to Bali! Beautiful, lush, green, hot, humid, tropical Bali. I love it! We arrived at midday and went straight off to explore Ubud and the monkey sanctuary.

I’m pleased to say that I won a fight with the monkey that almost immediately tried to grab my water bottle but I will admit, flashbacks from watching Outbreak and 28 Days Later unnerved me slightly and I was a bit more cautious as we approached the hundreds that were running freely through the forest. After surviving the ‘sanctuary’ we wandered through the numerous art and crafts shops before heading back to our pre-booked (read: blown the budget for Christmas) guest house for a swim.

Feels strange thinking it’s Christmas tomorrow but we’re looking forward to treating ourselves to an extra nice meal and a Balinese massage

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So we’d heard that the view of Angkor Wat (the world’s largest religious building) at sunrise is pretty special so we set our alarms for 4am, and off we went on a tuk tuk in the dark.  The hoards of other tourists who’d also decided to do the same meant that the experience wasn’t the serene and inspiring sight we’d hoped for, but it was still pretty amazing. After the sun was fully up, lots of people returned back to the main town for breakfast and a nap. We decided we’d stick around and take advantage of the quiet and wandered around the temples virtually on our own.

A brief bit of history about the area courtesy of the Lonely Planet The city used to be the capital of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer empire which stretched from Burma/Myanmar to Vietnam and was built between the 9^th and 13^th Century. Attempts to save the temples from the attack of the jungle started in 1908, after a French Naturalist ‘rediscovered’ the area. Although most of the temples have been carefully repaired, some of them (Ta Prohm amongst others) still look like they belong in an Indiana Jones film (the site was used to shoot scenes from Tomb Raider and Two Brothers) and are half overgrown by jungl e.

We LOVED it! You’d never get such free access to a site like this in England- health and safety for starters would probably prevent you from getting within 10 ft of the ruins, let alone allow you to clamber up the worn, steep steps, 100ft in the dark. Brilliant . So after two sunsets, one sunrise, 10 temples and little sleep, we eventually left, still debating which was the best temple (Alex’s favorite was the Bayon, mine Pre Rup)

More photos @ Flickr

It’s difficult to express what I think and feel of Cambodia so far. The countryside is beautiful, the people are warm and friendly, even the capital seems fairly calm and quiet. Yet in the first few hours of arriving, we heard a fellow westerner on our bus from the border being asked whether he wanted to go and shoot some animals with an AK47, go and throw some grenades, or have some happy time with a 13 or 14yr old girl…..‘whatever you want is no problem no problem, you just come find me, it’s no problem’ (we got the impression that nothing’s out of bounds here if you’ve got the money)

Although horrible, when you hear some of the horrific history of the country and see people with missing limbs and disfigured faces it becomes slightly easier to understand why right and wrong can become so blurred. Every face over the age of 30 has lived through the hell that happened here – and the country is still traumatised. So a brief warning- I’m processing my thoughts and I’m going to ramble about what I’ve seen today and most of it was very ugly.

First we went to S21, the school that was converted by the Khmer Rouge into a prison for torturing and killing. Thousands of photos of the dead line the walls, blood stains still evident on the floor, torture equipment still in place, tale after tale of the horrific, unspeakable pain and suffering that humans inflicted on each other. The brutality of it shocks and angers me. I wanted to direct my anger and disgust at the tourist I saw who was able to smile and laugh while wandering through the building.

We then went to the mass graves at Cheung Ek, (aka the Killing Fields) where most of the prisoners from S21 where finally killed. There are over 19,000 mass graves in Cambodia- we saw about 10 each with the remains of between 100-450 men, women and children (in total somewhere between 700,000 and 3,000,000 people died due to the KR regime – the total is not clear). More stories- the killing ‘games’ that were played, the executions carried out in the night masked by music played over a loudspeaker. Most of these atrocities were carried out by kids who’d been torn from their families and sent to ‘re-education camps’ where they were brainwashed by the KR to hate, to fear and to kill. Some even killed their own parents.

The memorial ‘stupa’ (see below) holds some of the remains of those exhumed from the graves….there’s 17 tiers each filled with bones.

Unbelievably, the UN let the KR represent their victims on the UN council till 1991 and it is only within the last 3 years that courts have been set up to try some of the senior KR leaders responsible for the regime and killings.

How can the Cambodians live, apparently peacefully, alongside the very people that slaughtered their families? Why did Pol Pot ever think that eradicating the educated, the ‘wealthy’, the religious and those of mixed ethnic background was a good idea? Why did he think that families should be broken up and every good thing banned? Was it insecurity, fear, jealousy or too much power that drove him?  …I feel numb- I’m not sure I really want to understand.

Palm fringed sands, clear blue skies and a calm turquoise sea… what else could a person want for? Phu Quoc was a perfect, if a little pricey, retreat after a fairly frantic 11days  travelling through the rest of Vietnam.

The SCUBA diving wasn’t up to much compared to Phuket, Thailand, but in all other ways (apart from the food- Vietnamese is not a patch on Thai food )  it surpassed it and remains (for now) quite unspoilt.

Nope we didn’t order the ‘crap with fried vermicelli’ We did order a chocolate tart though (are you proud Julie?) and this is what we were served on a plate with a knife and fork-quality

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Having managed to stick to our budget pretty well so far, we decided to blow it in Hoi An , buying between us: a tailor-made wool and cashmere suit, 3 tailor-made shirts, 2 tailor-made dresses, 2 tailor-made skirts and one of the shelf,  made to measure knee high leather boots and a pair of leather work shoes for Alex (particularly useful for him due to his hobbit-like feet and his second brain). Fortunately, all of that set us back less than £200, far less than we’d pay if we bought new in NZ!

Hoi An really is a shoppers dream- if you come with your own designs and sketches, one of the hundreds of tailors would be able to make it within a day or two for less than you’d pay anywhere in the UK. The only down side is that the Vietnamese LOVE bureaucracy so organizing our box to be shipped to New Zealand (thanks Nick for taking it) took over an hour to do (over 2 if you include dealing with the guy that tried to swindle us at the hotel on our first attempt) and 6 pages of paperwork!

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Got an overnight train with a couple of friends from Hanoi to Lao Cai and then a bus to Sapa which arrived at 7am.  Enjoyed Alex’s birthday cake en-route which I’d managed to smuggle through customs.

Sapa feels totally different to anything else we’ve seen in SE Asia- cold for one! fairly foggy, very alpine. Could almost feel Christmassy here so we’ve enjoyed a few mulled wines .

Did a one day trek from Sapa down into the valley, stopping at some hill tribe villages along the way.

Once again the trek was slightly more adventurous than we’d expected so we spent quite a bit of time slipping and sliding up and down paths and trying to avoid stumbling into the paddy fields (4 out of 5 of us managed to avoid falling in!).

Saw some Black H’Mong people working together to build a house and at another village a playground….also saw them manhandling a huge pig for the party afterwards….lots of squealing and then silence!

Took a 5 hour bus through the mountains to Vang Vieng where the weather was sunny (hadn’t seen the sun since leaving Thailand).

Spent the next day tubing down the river, stopping at the bars (check out the menu- yep it’s all illegal, and no of course not), swinging on the ropes and jumping into the water.

The actual stretch of water that you tube down is 6 km long and we were stupidly advised before we went (flipping Kiwis – why are we going to live in their country?! ) that we didn’t really need to get a tube but we thought we’d get one and share it anyway…

Needless to say, further downstream (which the Kiwis blatantly never made it to) the river becomes very shallow, fast and rocky and  poor Alex (who’d insisted I take the tube) got scratched and bruised and lost his watch & wedding ring (fortunately only cheap replacements for the real thing!). However he wasn’t too sad (see below).

Had a wicked time, met 4 Scots who we hung out with which was a lot of fun. We also enjoyed watching Friends and Family Guy which were the only things played by EVERY bar in town rather bizarrely (although we’re almost ashamed to admit we enjoyed it but after a month of no TV, it was pretty good!)

The next morning, we got the bus back to Luang Prabang.

Interesting facts about Loas- The Americans (God bless ‘em) dropped 2 million tonnes of bombs on this beautiful land in the 60′s and 70′s.  30% failed to detonate so walking off tracks is generally unadvisable. Unfortunately, some of the locals risk their limbs and lives now trying to scrap the bombs in for money! It’s a very poor country.

Anyway, onto happier notes! Luang Prabang is pretty and chilled out. Did a day trip to Kouang Xi Waterfalls which was gorgeous.

Also saw a legit bear sanctuary which was pretty amazing.

 Spent the rest of the time wandering the night markets and riding round the city.