Struth……..Cambodia mate!!!

G’day all,
Well we have been in Cambodia for a week now and let me tell you this place is a real eye opener. Out of all the countries I’ve travelled through over the years this has got to be the most war torn and poor I’ve come across. Once we crossed the Thailand/Cambodia border it is amazing the diversity between the two countries as soon as you pass immigration. It went from bitumen roads and a 5 star casino to dirt roads, armless and legless beggars, twisted corrugated iron shelters, and dust absolutely everywhere. Once crossing the border we caught the bus from hell. It took us over 6 hours to drive about 150km to Siem Reap. The road was the worst I’d ever seen it was full of dusty lumps and bumps and at stages we were doing 10km an hour just to get through it. The bus was also a load of rubbish as my seat collapsed backwards into this Japanese guys lap if I leant back and when we turned a corner my seat tipped sideways. So yeah it was great fun leaning forward for 6 hours. By the time was arrived in Siem Reap we were covered with dust but were pretty stoaked when we got a nice hotel room for $2 bucks each. On our first day in Siem Reap we all got motorbike taxis each and had a bit of a tour around the town and went on this really cool boat cruise through the floating village. The floating village had a floating school, police station, basketball court, and even a floating pig farm. All the locals have a boat instead of a car and completely live their lives on the water. Siem Reap is only 20km from the temples of Angkor which is one of the 7 wonders of the world and struth it’s so impressive. The next day we spend a whole day looking at Angkor, which is surrounded by a mote and has 1000 odd ancient temples dating back to 900AD. Angkor is unbelievable each temple is so different to the next. My favourite temple was the one they filmed Tomb Raider in which was covered in tree roots and vines and was in the jungle. After 3 days in Siem Reap we caught a crazy 6 hour bus ride down to Phnom Penh, which is the capital of Cambodia and is much more developed. I couldn’t believe how dodgy the main highway was as the bus was constantly beeping at kids riding bikes in front of the bus, cows randomly running across the road, and cars and motorbikes heading straight at the bus on the wrong side of the road. When we arrived in Phnom Penh we were surrounded by a million men trying to push us to their guesthouses and in the heat of the moment our Welsh friend Kate had her purse stolen and lost all of her ATM cards and cash. So I guess you could say we got to a rough start here. Yesterday Dan and I had a crazy day. We did a tour of Phnom Penh which covered a shooting range, the killing fields, and the S-21 torture prison. We jumped in a tuk tuk which took us 20km away from the city into the countryside where we arrived at this dusty old shooting range. This guys brings out a menu of what we can shoot which include AK47s, M16s, rocket launchers, and you can even throw a grenade for $30 US. We ended up shooting a semi automatic AK47 machine gun and a Russian K54 pistol. It would have to be one of the best things I’ve ever done in my travels and Dan agrees. We had so much adrenalin running through us and we were so nervous that all we could do was shake and laugh. I went first and ended up shooting the ground instead of the target and Dan hit the roof. I did much better with the pistol though as I got 3 head shots and 1 body shot from 4 shots. I would have loved to throw the grenade but I had a feeling with this dodgy country it would probably blow up in my hand and I’d lose some limbs. Apparently for $50 you can blow up a cow with a bazooka and for $2 you can shoot a chicken with a pistol. We then went to the killing fields where 20,000 Cambodians and foreigners where tortured and their bodies were thrown in mass graves during the Khmer Rouge days of the 70’s. We saw clothes and bones still sticking out of the ground and it was a real sickening scene. We also learnt that babies were swung by there feet head first into trees in front of there mothers and thrown into mass graves. It was very eerie but probably not as eerie as the S-21 prison we visited next. This was an old school converted into a torture prison. There were torture beds and cells throughout these depressing old buildings and blunt weapons like spades and pick axes scattered in the rooms used for torture. There was still blood all over the floors in blobs and smears and it was so freaky. Tomorrow Dan and Kate head back to Bangkok and I’m off to Vietnam alone so that should be interesting. See ya round like a barrel of an AK47.

Woodsy

Phuket, Phi Phi, and back to Bangkok

G’day all,

Well we have finally arrived back to Bangkok after many long bus journeys and many days swimming, motorbike riding, kayaking, and partying –not to mention spending way more than we planned. After Koh Phangan we had a very long day of busses and ferries to get across to the west coast of Thailand to Phuket. In Phuket we spent 2 crazy nights in Patong beach dodging "lady boys" on a hourly basis and hanging out with our new friends Gordan and Lim from Korea/Canada, and Tim from Melbourne. In Patong we decided to rent another motorbike and check out some of the other beaches in Phuket and also see how the progress is going with the Tsunami clean up. It ended up being one wild ride and 5 times worse than Koh Phangan as the traffic is so crazy it would have to be classed as stupid. All you can really do is just ride in a straight line and hope nobody clips you as they wiz pass you at 80km down a standard street. Before taking our bike back we saw this 50 year old American man with this absolute beast of a lady boy who was so old and blokey it was a joke…but made a good laugh at the same time. We then checked out some Thai kick boxing or MyThai as they call it here. It was the cheapest of touristy things to do but it was very interesting and worth the money. Also fighting was a World Champion Aussie guy who cleaned up his Thai opposition in about 3 mins but was highly entertaining as we all supported him with the old Aussie Aussie Aussie theme when he came onto the ring. After another late night of sucking back 7-11 Chan beers we had an early 6am rise as we took the ferry out the Koh Phi Phi or Phi Phi Island. This is the most expensive part of Thailand but the beauty and atmosphere of the place is amazing. The streets are lined with little fruit shake and Thai pancake stalls along with many restaurants and bars. There are no cars on the island only taxi boats, bicycles, and metal trolley carts. This island was destroyed by the Tsunami of 2004 and there are still many parts being rebuilt but it’s buzzing and packed with tourists and it’s very hard to get cheap accommodation. On our first night we stayed in this little basic bamboo bungalow but then we moved to a much better room for the same price on our second night. After a big discussion how we are going to start budgeting better and lower the price of this trip we had a few drinks and ended up throwing 100 baht notes around like 5 cent pieces and had a massive expensive night. We did end up meeting these cool Welsh girls named Kate and Amanda their Irish mate Paddy or Steve who we hung out with for the next few days. We ended up kidnapping Kate and she is now in Bangkok with us and coming to Cambodia with us tomorrow morning. On our second day in Phi Phi we decided to be cheap and Kayak out to Phi Phi Lay where the beach was filmed instead of take a boat tour which cost 3 times the price. Little did we know our 3 hour return trip would take about 3 times longer than that and we arrived at sunset and ended up getting towed back to the main island at dark. It was a fun but tiring adventure but we laughed about it all the same and still had a good time. We just arrived into Bangkok from Phi Phi this morning after a crazy 13 hour bus trip of which kept mysteriously stopping every few hours to steal our belongings out of the carrier. Today I met up with my good Thai friend Lack and we had lunch together and it was very nice to see her again. As mentioned before we head off to Cambodia tomorrow so we are just gearing up for another 15 hour bus ride.
Update ya all in Cambodia,
Woodsy