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[jennoandbridgo]

Week 3 – Kampot, Sihanoukville, back to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

Week 3 we continued our travels of the south, went back to Phnom Penh and then onto Siem Reap for the temples of Angkor.

After Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island) our plan was to visit the sleepy town of Kampot, which is about 20km from Kep (a bargain $10 Tuk Tuk ride, not recommended by the way, take the bus, 20 km in a rusty Tuk Tuk on a dirt road is NOT a comfortable journey and it took about an hour). 

We had read that in Kampot there was a National Park with some Waterfalls and a Zoo (we all know how much Chris loves a Zoo) but other than that we had heard it was just a really pretty, chilled little town. However after the night on Koh Tonsay, where we had no shower (well not one you would dare use anyway) and had been kept up all night by thunder that actually sounded like someone firing a gun inside our hut, all we wanted from Kampot was an actual hotel room, with Air Con, four solid walls and a real bathroom with a real toilet and a real shower that had at least 50% hot water. So that’s what we did (kindly funded by Lucy and John’s lovely gift), so I can’t really say anything else about Kampot because we spent the rest of the day sleeping, drinking beer and watching HBO movies in bed. We didn’t even make it to the zoo. 

Oh wait, we did venture out for lunch, Chris ordered a fish amok (Cambodia’s National dish) and it was bloody amazing. 

The next morning, bright and early (everything always has to happen early), we took a bus to Sihanoukville 2 hours from Kampot. Sihanoukville (named after the king father Sihanouk, but more on that later) is basically Cambodia’s coastal party town, a complete world away from Kep and Kampot. The city basically has 4 main beaches, all lined with bars aimed at western tourists and young holidaying Cambodians and throw parties that go well into the night. Free shot on entry, Free drinks between 10 – 10.30-type thing…actually reminded me a lot of Malaga. 

I think had Chris and I had been there with a group of friends we probably would of gotten involved a lot more, but as it was we were still in Kep mode and Sihanoukville isn’t exactly couple friendly so we ended up staying away from all of that, you know like the grown ups we are! 

On our first night we decided to treat ourselves (again financed by Lucy and John – Thank You!) to a nice meal and a glass of wine, we went to this French restaurant that had been recommended in the rough guide. For starters I had grilled scallops served in their shell with an herby butter ($3) and Chris has Carpaccio of sword fish marinated in tequila and lime ($2.50) and then for the main course I had surf and turf (steak, stuffed with king prawns $7) and Chris had a whole baked sea bass ($6). It was absolutely amazing, obviously a stupidly expensive meal by Cambodian standards but for this sort of food at home we would be paying loads, so completely worth it.

Our second day we decided to go back to being tourists again and booked a tour to the National Park; a half-day boat ride, with a stop off at a beach and trek through the forest, lunch and a stop at a working fisherman’s village. Actually a really relaxing day, although we learned nothing at all, our “tour guide” didn’t utter a word through the whole thing other than to point out some Sea Eagles. 

I wouldn’t recommend going to a fishing village, when we were there they were drying Shrimps and the smell is like nothing I’ve ever come across – bloody awful, mix that with bad toilets and drainage, decaying food, pigs and pig shit and you basically want to tear the nose off your face. It’s overwhelming to say the least.

The only way to get to Siem Reap, due to an inconveniently placed lake is to go back via Phnom Penh. The journey from Sihanoukville to Siem Reap is supposed to take in Cambodian time 8 hours, in real life time it’s more like 10 hours so we decided to break it up with another night in Phnom Penh. When we arrived back the whole city was closed and the roads where empty, which we soon came to realise was because the King Father (Mr. Sihanouk himself) had died of a heart attack that very day. The Cambodian people LOVE this man; you will hear people referring to him as the greatest man in Cambodia and the best King ever and so the whole city went into mourning. There is every chance that Chris and I were on the Cambodian news that day as we went down to the palace to see what would be happening and a camera crew set up in front of us and started filming us. We looked bewildered but tried our best to do a suitable sad face.

Right, nearly there! The next morning we caught our bus to Siem Reap a 6-hour drive from Phnom Penh. We had been massively looking forward to our visit to the temples, which is why we had saved it to last. We had two days, one day was for temples and the second day was to make use of the amazing roof top pool at our guesthouse.

There is literally no point in me trying to put the temples into words, as I won’t do them justice. As best as I could describe it is that I felt like Lara Croft in Tomb Raider (sadly without the boobs). Thankfully Chris has taken about a billion photos, which far exceed my writing skills.

After Siam Reap it was time for the last leg of our Cambodia travels and we headed back to Phnom Penh via the Karaoke Bus (8 hours of really intense Cambodian Music Videos. Not Cool), but we will save all that for another time. 

Love and Miss you all.

xxx

[jennoandbridgo]

Week 2 - Cambodia - Phnom Penh, Kep & Koh Tonsay

Week 2 of our month out and we have arrived in Cambodia. Our first impression was “fuck it’s warm”. 

Phnom Penh 

Our 30 minute ride (around $6) took us right through the slums and outskirts of the city, each road seemingly more crazy and hectic than the last.

We had booked a couple of nights at ‘Me Mates Place’. We rocked up and were very warmly greeted by our best mate for the next two days ‘Jonny’, a law graduate working behind the bar for $4 a day. $4 a day for a bloody law graduate! 

You can imagine my smile when I saw this sign upon arriving at our room

Look at the monkey with the bra and pants on!

Jen counted 21 monkeys playing around on the buildings in front within the first hour. Brilliant. 

The rest of the evening we had a little wander around, but as it was hitting dusk didn’t stray to far, and had some dinner at Me Mates Place (later told by Jonny though to eat next door as it was cheaper and better…awesome guy)

Next day, we were up early in need of some breakfast. We had the intentions of “going Asian”, so walked into town and stumbled around until we found the Old Market. Basically the biggest onslaught to my nostrils I have ever had the privilege (?) to experience. As you get deeper in the market, the heat really hits you (even at 9am) and the more you realise how far from home you really are. We quickly got out and I decided upon a vendors selling what I though was just a pancake. Easy right? Wrong. So the lady pulled out a big plastic bag, dumped in it a whole bunch of leaves and herbs, then proceeded to pick up a smaller clear bag and pour in some unknown liquid which I think contained chillies and garlic. In the “pancake” itself were bamboo shoots, ginger, mushrooms, beans amongst a few other things. All of this was put into the bag for my delicious and wholesome breakfast. All in costing me $0.75.

We walked to the river to sit down and attack our breakfast. We tentatively picked at it, quickly realizing that it wasn’t a pancake. Soon after we gave it to a homeless lady, after her child had been eyeing it up for 5 minutes. We went instead to eat a shitty buffet over the road. “Must try harder,” we said…

Later on that day we went to S-21 Genocide Museum, a haunting prisoner of war camp (was originally a high-school, but turned into this concrete prison), the most famous prison used in the 1970s during the Khmer Rouge regime, killing 1000s of innocent Cambodians, from kids to the elderly, all due to Pol Pots Hitler-esque takeover of the country. Its impossible to describe the feeling of walking around all these rooms where countless people lose their lives, where dozens of people slept in the same room waiting for their inevitable deaths. I’ll let the pictures do some of the talking.

We got a tuk tuk to Wat Phnom, the temple and hill after which Phnom Penh is named. It’s a small but simple temple, around which there were loads of street vendors selling a whole bunch of different things. One of the things being birds you can release and “set free”, but we had been speaking to people before and they said that actually the birds are trained to fly back into the cages at the end of the day. Entrepreneurial skills.

We braved it and tried another street vendor on our way back home, finding our new favourite type of Cambodian snack. We named it the Nutrigrain bar, a small package of tightly packed sticky rice, with mashed fruit inside (we had pineapple) and beans, all wrapped up in a banana leaf. Absolutely delicious, and properly filling.

Later that night we took Jonny’s earlier advice about  eating down the road, and went to check it out. The place was just 5 blokes sitting round, smoking and drinking dark rum. It looked more like someones front room than a eatery, but we were welcomed in by all. We had a spicy Tom Yung soup and got into some very broken English conversations with the guys. Eventually it turned into us all doing shots of dark rum and cheers’ing. Lovely stuff.

The next day we decided to check out of Me Mates Place and head on down to south Phnom Penh, checking into Okay Guesthouse. That day it rained and when it rains in Cambodia, it pours. We stayed in watched some films, including a steven seagal film, with the guys in the restaurant until early evening when we had arranged to meet with one of Jen’s friends friend Natalie and her husband John.

We met at Pink Elephant, by the river, to drink a few 50c beers and learn loads about Cambodia from John and Nat. Jen and I then thought it would be a good idea to try a happy pizza, basically just a really delicious vegetarian pizza sprinkled with marijuana. Lovely. Jen got a bit excited and decided to eat half of the pizza herself, whereas I didnt finish mine. Bad move Jen. What proceeded was a funny evening with Nat and John, meeting up with their friend Ian (whose PHD is brilliant – finding a new way of sanitation by developing flies which eat waste…), and his friends Ed and Katie, who are travelling Asia at the moment. It all got a bit blurry, but involved frozen margaritas, giggling fits over a kid that looked like a Hershey’s kiss, an absinthe bar, a DJ playing awesome rock and roll and getting a bar to open at 1am so we could carry on drinking until past 4am. 

The next day, on the Sunday, we were a little worse for wear and went for a walk around the capital again. We went to the Central Market (pretty much just a supermarket in an old building), but then walking back via a massive long park we witnessed the Cambodian peoples love for 3 “sports”. They bloody love a bit of park badminton, cant get enough of hacky sack (basically keepy-uppy with a bean bag) and en mass outdoor aerobics. Brilliant, I bloody loved it. Their parks are just full of people enjoying some kind of sports, ours are normally full of kids getting pissed on white ace and MD 20|20. That was all we managed to achieve on the Sunday. Poor.

Next day we got our first Cambodia bus journey to the seaside village of Kep, on the south coast. 4 hours, quite comfortable, with a stop to buy some boiled corn on the cob. Luxury. Kep, is a beautiful town, a lot of which was destroyed during the Khmer Rouge regime, and is just being restored now, but it is famous for it crab markets. MMMMMMMM.

We stayed at a place just off the main road, up in the hills, called Kep Lodge, and managed to blag the only cheap room there. 

Our three days in Kep consisted on cycling around the town (it was just a 2km stretch by the sea), bumping into monkeys, eating the most amazing crab food ever (one with green peppers and kampot pepper sauce at Kim Ly was phenomenal) and just lounging about. Here are some photos of Kep.

We also saw a number of animals in Kep, including water buffalo, cows, etc but more interestingly came across a black scorpion when walking home from dinner in town, and a number of snakes. Getting more and more used to living in a tropical climate for Australia at least. We wont be put out by the increase in size of bugs and creatures there right?

Finally for the week we decided upon a trip over to Kon Tonsay, a tiny island 4km of the shore of Kep. If Kep was sleepy, then this place was a coma. It was a literal paradise. 

There are a number of bungalows which line the beach, no shops, no dive outfits, just well travelled people looking for a chance to relax and do nothing for a few days. Due to the fact there were no ATMs in Kep, we had fallen pretty low on cash and had to survive the next 24 hours with $14. Luckily on this island there is not much more to do than sunbathe, swim in the crystal clear seas and walk that is about it! 

We decided to stay over on the island, and thus hired a hut on the beach for $7 for the night. After seeing the bungalow we wondered if staying over was a good shout due to the fact that the hut was literally something out of the film Zulu. The first sight we had when dropping our stuff off was a massive yellow spider, dead, on the top of the mozzi net. Lovely.

We decided to stay out of the bungalow for as long as possible in the evening, and so made friends with some Ozzi girls, who proceeded to scare the shit out of me letting me know about all the poisonous creatures that live in Sydney. Looking forward to avoiding the funnel web & huntsman spiders. Good stuff, back to the inevitable fear of the Sydney beasts. The electricity went off at 9pm, bedtime with the bugs…

We are now in Kampot, staying over for 1 night, then off to Sihaoukville tomorrow for the weekend. We’ll do another blog at the end of next week after back from Siem Reap. 

C + J xx

[jennoandbridgo]

Week 1 – KL and Perhentian Islands (Kecil)

We have been gone a little over a week now and thought we best update you all with our antics over the last 7 days.

We started off in Kuala Lumpur, sadly a rookie mistake on the night flight ruined what time we had there; we manage to sleep 10 of the 13 hour flight and woke up morning fresh on what was an early evening in Malaysia. Our two days and nights in KL were spent jetlagged or asleep. We did one evening take a wander around the city but the 35-degree heat and 90% humidity swiftly led us into one of KL many malls – not particularly cultural, we ate in the food court (but it was Malaysian food).

We promise to do better when we are next there in a couple of weeks.

Next stop was the Perhentian Islands; an hour flight from KL, followed by an hour drive to the ferry Jetty and a 30 minutes boat ride. It’s worth noting that they refer to these boats as “Ferries”, so we were expecting something sizeable, fairly slow moving, Ferry like. Not the case. They were mini speedboats, with a plastic sheet roof held up by a sort of scaffolding structure and designed to carry maybe 6 people and the driver, but invariably are loaded with up to 16 people, plus luggage. 

On this trip over we were actually enjoying the ride, taking off over the waves, watching the fish jump out etc until we noticed this Italian girl opposite making cross signs and kissing the pendant on her necklace. Most unsettling.

We found these “ferries” tend you drop people off about 100ft from the beach and a man in an even smaller boat comes and picks you up; and so ensues a daredevil transition between the two boats whilst frantically trying to keep all of our worldly possessions out of the sea. This boat then doesn’t even drop us on dry land; we are now about 15ft from the shore and told “you jump out now”. Bye Bye Converse!

We hadn’t booked any accommodation; instead decided just to rock up and see where was best to stay. Chris dumped me at a coffee shop (you always get charged more when you turn up lugging your backpacks) and went off investigating. A couple of a first choices were either full, repulsive cockroach dens or out of our budget and then Chris got talking to these two (very hung-over) American girls who mentioned that the Moonlight Chalets had good reviews and they were going to get a room there after breakfast. On hearing this and knowing that the accommodation situation on the island was not working in our favour, took the opportunity to run across the beach, Bay Watch style and bag what turned out to be the last room. Ooooops. 

Our Chalet (really more of a shed with a bed) cost us 60myr per night; about £11 but it was luxury as we had air con and our own “bathroom” (a shower over a toilet and sink). There is no central electricity on the Island (there are solar panels and wind turbines, but they are not in operation as unfortunately the government can’t afford the maintenance and operation of it), so the chalets only have electricity between 6pm and 9am. This is fine, you only need it to power the air con at night, we were on a paradise island and so only used the chalets to shower and sleep.

Our days on the Island where spent sunbathing, swimming and eating from the one of the only two restaurants open whilst we there. 

The island is quite literally paradise, white sands and crystal clear seas. We only need go out to waist height in the sea until we were surrounded by tropical fish (for our Nephews benefit we can confirm these were mainly Nemos and Doris).

One of these lazy days, Moko (well that’s what we called him, there were 8 syllables in his real name) said he could take us to this beach where we could swim with these baby sharks that liked to play around in the shallow end. “Only a 15 minute trek through the jungle,” “not difficult”, “only needed to wear flip flops”. Six of us met him at 3pm, water in hand and started off. It quickly became apparent this trek would be mainly uphill. After climbing for 15 minutes, we are then faced with an amazing view from the top of the island and all across. Stunning. We are also now faced with 527 steps down to the beach. Sigh. Down we go. Sadly when we reached the bottom it soon become clear that the tides and the waves were just too strong for us to get into the water, we would have been slammed against the rocks if we even had the (crazy) inclination to try, but it was nice to just sit there. We also realized that having come down 527 steps, we would have to go back up them to go back to Long Beach (our home for 3 days), honestly, staring at those steps would make you want to set up home there and never leave.

We obviously made it up in the end. Chris was the sweatiest I had ever seen him and my calf muscles still hurt, almost 3 days on.

We stayed another day after that; just swimming and sunbathing and then headed back to dry land.

For some reason, despite getting the early ferry back we decided to spend a day and night in Kota Bharu. No-one stays here, it’s an airport town and people just pass through on their way to or from the islands. We arrived at our hotel and dropped off our bags and went out to look for something for breakfast. We seemed to be the only westerners in the whole town, everyone kept saying Hello to us or staring. I imagine this is kind of what famous people feel like 

The general rule of thumb is to eat where the locals eat, we found a shop that was full of locals eating and decided to stop there for a coffee and breakfast. It’s 9am and about 35 degrees already so these coffee were over ice! We had no idea what to eat, there was no menu and so kind of somehow ended up (mainly at the waiters insistence) ordering Roti Telur. It’s kind of a pancake with a fried egg in it served with a bowl of curry/daahl for dipping. It was a bloody good order. It was delicious. As we were enjoying our Roti, this old guy walks past and says, “I pay” and keeps on walking. Not really knowing what he meant we had assumed that he was for some reason telling us he was going now, we were unsure how to respond. As he is leaving the waiter comes over to our table and tells us that this old man has paid for our breakfast. We agreed that is probably one of the loveliest gestures we have ever had. Usually in SE Asia and never maliciously people are trying to somehow find a way for you to part with your money and yet this man, having never spoken to us, spent his own money buying two complete strangers breakfast. A complete random act of kindness.

Anyway, that pretty much brings you all up to date. We are currently in Cambodia, Phnom Penh having arrived yesterday. 

We will update again soon.

Love and miss you all. Let us know what you’ve all been up too.

C & J

[jennoandbridgo]

Leaving Party - Sat 22 Sept

[jennoandbridgo]

Maria Mozzarella