Pnomh Penh

In the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, we learned a lot about the genocide that took place in Cambodia not so long ago. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge came to power, led by Pol Pot.  Until 1979, they tortured and killed their own people with the aim of preventing any uprising. 4 million people were killed, meaning 50% of the population was wiped out.

Walking around Pnomh Penh, it's quite noticeable that there aren't many old people - this is because more than 50% of the population are now under 18, with such a massive proportion of the older generation having been killed.

We visited a prison called S-21, where people were either tortured to death, or tortured until they confessed to something they didn't do, before being sent to a killing field to be executed. 20,000 people were prisoners at S-21 during the Khmer Rouge regime, all of whom were killed apart from 12 people who survived by having a talent that made them useful to the Khmer Rouge.

At the prison, we met one of the survivors, Bou Meng, who was an artist and escaped death by painting portraits of Pol Pot. Despite the horrific memories that Bou Meng has of S-21, including the murder of his wife and his own torture, he returns to the prison every day in order to make a living. He even comes face to face with ex-prison guards who carried out torture and killings, as they also return to the prison for interviews with reporters.

Bou Meng

Our tour guide informed us that many members of the Khmer Rouge have not been punished and some are still even in government, but the Cambodian people have to accept this if they want peace.

After the prison, we visited a killing field, where the tour guide told us horrible stories of how men, women, children and even babies were executed.  There were mass graves where bones could be seen below the dirt.

In case you find this blog entry a bit depressing, here's a video of some monkeys playing outside our window in our Pnomh Penh hotel room!:

Siem Reap and Angkor Whaat?

We left Bangkok with the group and headed for the Cambodian boarder, which took about 4 hours. We'd heard that it can be a bit of a nightmare getting across without paying 'extras' to officials, but we had no problems getting through. After the formalities at the border we headed to Siem Reap.

In the evening we all went to a local Khmer village by tuk tuk for dinner- a five course meal cooked by a local family. Before we ate we had a tour around the village, which was very rural and so different to city life. The food was great (the best Amok we've had) and the people were friendly.

The following day we got up at 4.30am (!!) to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat (Wat = temple).
After a sleepy start, we headed to Angkor Wat in the dark and grabbed a coffee, served by a little boy called Spider Boy. In Cambodia, children only go to school for half a day, so a lot of them work the other half to earn money for the family.

Despite the mass crowds who were also there to catch the spectacle, the sunrise was awesome and just about worth getting up so early for! Once Marc had taken over 75 photos of the sunrise, we headed back to the hotel for breakfast (and a nap) and then went back to Angkor Wat to look around 3 different temples.

The first temple was called Ta Prohm (or Jungle temple), made famous by the Tomb Raider movie. It was built in the 12th and early 13th Century, so was pretty cool to look at and climb around. At one point we stopped for a group photo , only to be photo-bombed by a load of asian tourists who then proceeded to take loads of photos of us! They love westerners apparently.

We then headed to the main temple, Angkor Wat, for a look around it in the daylight.  It's the largest Hindu temple in the world, built in the early 12th century, so pretty old! We headed to one final temple, but by then we were all templed-out.

One of the streets in Siem Reap was called Pub Street, which sounded like our sort of place. There were quite a few bars to choose from, so we decided to sample a handful of them along with 4 girls from the tour group. One of the bars was called Angkor What? Genius.

We got back to the hotel at around 4.30am, and had  to check out at 11.15am the next day to get a 6 hour bus to Phnom Penh with a stinkin' hangover. Ugh.

Bangkok Revisited

We got a taxi from the airport to the hostel that we booked just off Kaoh San Road.  The hostel was above an Indian restaurant, and looked okay from the outside, but turned out to be the most horrible place
we've seen so far!

We had two private rooms with en suites, but there were no windows, there were holes in the walls and ceilings, everything looked generally dirty, the beds were rock hard and there were lots of crawly things! We had booked the rooms for 3 nights, but after one night we decided we definitely didn't want to stay any longer!

We headed to Kaoh San Road and found a much nicer place to stay, at a not much higher price. We found it on a nice street running parallel to Kaoh San Road, which we didn't even know existed the last time we
were in Bangkok.

One of the things that we didn't get a chance to do the first time round was visit the floating markets, so we booked a day trip and did this on our second day in Bangkok before checking into our new nice hotel.

This is a guy cooking our lunch!

On our second night back in Bangkok, we thought we'd head away from the main tourist street for a night out in Silom. The next day we nursed our hangovers with some retail therapy at the markets.

The next day was the beginning of our Roam Cambodia tour with G Adventures. The first night of the tour was a night the Bangkok Centre Hotel and we met the group that we'd be travelling with for the next
10 days.  After a briefing from our tour guide called "Bank" (a nickname we later found out was given to him by his mum as they had to go to the bank when he was born to pay for the birth!) we went to dinner.

There were 16 people on the tour, a mixture of Icelandic/German/Norwegian/British people who fortunately were all very nice! We all went for a meal together and then had an early night ahead of our 5.30am start in the morning for our 6 hour journey to Cambodia.

Krabi, Koh Phi Phi & Phuket

Krabi, Koh Phi Phi and Phuket are on the opposite side of Thailand to
the three islands that we've just been visiting, so we had another
long journey in store.

We left Koh Tao via a sleeper boat.  This boat had two floors, each
with two rows of beds with a walkway down the middle. Each row of beds
was basically one long mattress, and each persons' assigned portion
was very narrow! Lucky none of us are big boned, otherwise it would
have been quite a squeeze!

The boat set off and after about 5 minutes we hit some choppy waters
and the boat started rocking really badly. It felt like it could
capsize any minute and so we all just laid down, closed our eyes and
tried not to think about it! This went on for a few hours but finally
the boat hit calmer seas and we were able to get a few hours sleep...
Amy says it was the scariest night of her life!

Finally, we arrived at Krabi, and after a few hours waiting around in
a cafe we got a bus ride to our hotel, arriving at about lunchtime. We
decided to have a quick nap and then headed out to have a look round
the town. It seemed pretty quiet, so when a longtail boat driver came
up to us and offered a tour of Krabi, we went for it. He took us along
the river and we stopped at some caves, went through the Mangroves (a
thick jungly area) and then finished up at a fish farm, where we saw
the fish being fed, Marc stroked a puffer fish, and then we ordered
some fish satay which was caught and cooked in front of us!

As there didn't seem to be much going on in Krabi, the next day we
decided to go to Koh Phi Phi. We got a ferry to the island and walked
to our 14 bed dorm from the port, as there are no roads/cars on the
island to get a ride! We were staying a minute from the beach so we
went out for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the sea, and then had a
wander around the area.

We were staying in the main tourist area of Koh Phi Phi... It was the most western place we have been,
with young tourists everywhere, streets full of bars and restaurants,
and lots of pizza stands which the boys appreciated! We went for
dinner and then had a quiet evening as the boys had decided to go on a
boat trip of the island which left early the next morning.

The boat trip included a boat trip to Maya Beach, where The Beach
starring Leonardo Di Caprio was filmed. We had to swim from the boat
to the shore, which was really hard work!  It was a beautiful beach,
but FULL of tourists.

We also went to Monkey Beach.  The boat anchored up quite a way from
the shore this time, so we opted to kayak to the beach instead of
swim!

In the evening, we went to a nice seafood restaurant, before going to
watch the Wales Ireland rugby match in an Irish pub. We each bought a
bucket and settled in to watch the game. After this we were all
feeling a bit tipsy so we went on a bit of a pub crawl around ........
Ending up on the beach, where all of the bars had fire shows outside!
We stayed out dancing and drinking until we all got hungry and the
boys got some massive slices of pizza.

The next day, feeling fragile we decided not to do anything too
strenuous, and spent the day preparing for another night on the beach.
This time we bought some beers from the 7 eleven and just sat watching
the chaos from the fire skipping ropes and limbo poles!

We were leaving the next day, but we decided to get up and head to the
Koh Phi Phi viewpoint before we caught the ferry. After climbing what
seemed like hundreds of stairs in the midday sun, we got there, and
the view was worth it... If you listen carefully you can hear Amy
describing the beautiful scenery...

Our next stop was Phuket, where we were staying on Bangla Street in
Patong, which is a lot like Koa San Road, but much bigger and wilder!
On our first night we headed out to explore, and after stumbling into
the Russian district by accident we managed to find a nice Indian
restaurant to eat in. When we got back to Bangla Street we had had a
few beers, so we found it hard to refuse when we were being offered
free entry into a ping pong show (the street was absolutely full of
them). We sat down, but after being given a menu promptly left again
as one beer was 900 baht!! When outside we managed to haggle them down
to 200 baht so we went back in to see the show.

I won't go into too much detail but ping pong balls weren't all that
was involved... Baby terrapins, balloons and fish were all included in
the show...!! after that we needed another drink so we went to tiger
bar, which was a huge place full of loads of different bars all
fighting to get you to buy their drinks!

The next day we spent the afternoon looking round the nearby markets,
before deciding to get some vodka from the 7 eleven and have a few
drinks in the hostel. There was a group of people playing drinking
games in the reception area so we joined them, playing into the early
hours of the morning until we went to a bar, and then finally getting
some more alcohol and finishing up the night on the beach!

After all that we definitely weren't up for the 24hour bus journey
from Phuket to Bangkok, so we booked a flight and arrived into Bangkok
the next evening.

Koh Tao - Beaches, diving and lady-boys

After sleeping through the entire boat journey we finally arrived at Koh Tao, the last of the trio of islands off the South East coast of Thailand. We got a ride on the back of a pickup truck and dragged ourselves to the hostel to check in and get some much needed sleep.

We awoke hours later and began piecing together our memories of the night before. Marc was keen to find out about the diving courses on Koh Tao, so headed off to speak to someone at the Diving School connected to the hostel, Davey Jones Locker.

It turns out Koh Tao is one of the cheapest and coolest places to learn to dive, costing about £180 for a three and a half day course, including 4 dives and a PADI certificate at the end of it. He began the course straight away and had to sit through two hours of theory DVD's, only to be interrupted by a power cut half way through and sat in a dark room, by himself, for about 20 minutes.

The next morning he finished off the theory and sat an exam in a bar and then spent the afternoon learning skills in the pool with the diving gear on. Meanwhile, the other three bummed around the island, sitting on beaches drinking ice tea and the occasional Chang.

Marc did his first two 12 metre dives off the coast of Koh Nang Yuan at sites called Twin Peaks and Japanese Garden. He struggled to equalise from the pressure on the second one, which resulted in him spending the next week or so temporarily deaf in one ear and annoying everyone by saying "whaaat?" all of the time.

In the evening Marc met up with the rest of us and we convinced him to go on a pub crawl around the island, despite his promise that he wouldn't dive hungover!

The pub crawl was organised by three young'uns, which we all thought had one of the best jobs going. After a cheeky bucket we headed to the first stop: a pool party. If you went in the pool you got free shots, but we chickened out and stayed dry.

The next stop was a lady-boy cabaret show. We were all amazed at how little they looked like blokes. Pretty sure one of them was out of the Pussy Cat Dolls. When we arrived we decided it was a good idea to sit at the front to get a good view, but then some guy told Gareth that there might require some male audience 'participation' so, being the gentlemen that we are, we hid behind Amy. It was lucky we did as one guy in the audience got pulled up, blindfolded, partially stripped and had a lapdance by a man-woman.

Staying loyal to his pledge that he wouldn't get drunk and dive the next day hungover, Marc headed back  to the hostel. Good boy. The rest of us headed to the next bar, where there was a live band and everybody danced on tables, then on to the final stop on the pub crawl, which was a beach party with fire shows.

Marc did his final two dives at 18 meters at White Rock and a shipwreck near the previous sites, trying to hide any signs of the pub crawl. He had to perform all of the skills he learnt in the pool (such as removing your mask, air supply and tank) underwater, which was a bit daunting! Having successfully done all of these, he became a qualified PADI open water diver. It was one of the most awesome things he's done and he would recommend anyone give it a go, particularly in Koh Tao.

Marc celebrating his PADI  power

Koh Phanang and Full Moon Party FAIL

Our Koh Phangan accomodation, yet basic, was lovely and probably one
of the nicest places we've stayed so far.

We got out of the taxi at Lee Garden Resort and were greeted by a
puppy, who walked with us through the trees down to the reception and
our bungalow on the shore. Our room basically comprised of 4 beds and
an en suite with no hot water, but we also had a porch with a hammock
overlooking the sea.

For the first time on our trip, we took the chance to just chill on
the beach and catch some rays (some more than others - Marc's the
first sufferer of sun burn!).

About a hundred yards along the beach from our bungalow was a cool
little bar called Munchies, serving nice food and cheap beer.  Instead
of chairs, there we're just scatter cushions and we could just relax
with a bottle of Chang, looking out to sea.  Here we met an
English/Scottish couple called James and Emma, who are just coming to
the end of their three and a half month travels, so were able to give
us lots of tips about travelling around South East Asia.

One evening, there was a short power cut on the island and the barman
at Munchies kept us entertained by first playing his guitar and
singing and then putting on a fireshow!

Our last night on Koh Phanang was the Full Moon Party.  Our friend
Webb, who is holidaying in Thailand, came to meet us at Munchies with
6 other Neath girls, so wild times were bound to ensue!  We rave
painted ourselves up and started drinking.

To be honest, the four of us can't really remember a lot of the party.
 Before we left Munchies, the aforementioned awesome barman gave us
all free shots of tequila, which along with the cheap bottles of beer,
set us up for lack of memory.

In the early hours of the morning, we got a taxi back to our bungalow.
However, the taxi dropped us in place we didn't recognise and we
started walking up the beach unsure of which direction we should be
going. We stumbled across a bar blasting techno music and entirely
full of German people, which was quite surreal.  The lady behind the
bar was able to confirm that we were on the right beach, but had no
idea where Lee Garden was.

We kept walking, avoiding some angry dogs on the beach (they seem to
become territorial at night time!) and realised we must be going the
wrong way when we reached a place where the coast curved around a
cliff.  At almost exactly that point, the sun came up, which added to
the surrealism of the situation, but  it was nice to be able to see
where we were going!

We headed back the way we came and eventually ended up back at our
bungalow. The lady from reception was walking past as we arrived and
we asked her to book us a taxi.  The taxi arrived shortly after to
take us to the ferry port.  Still covered in rave paint and with no
sleep, we were off to the next island of Koh Tao!