Month: March 2012

Mandalay

Day 71, Thursday 15 March 2012, Mandalay

Mandalay, Mandalay.

I have always been an avid reader, as a child and young adult I was drawn to novels of adventure and mystery and there are certain place names that even now send a small shiver of expectation of adventure up my spine. Mandalay is one of those places names.

Up at 5.00 am for a 5.15 taxi to Yangon airport. This was probably the crustiest taxi we have had and the driver certainly had a touch of the formula one driver about him, his intent was to pass everybody on the road and not allow anyone to pass him, it was a fairly fast ride to the airport. Check in was as manual as the ticket purchase, but at least it was straightforward. There was a lot of people in the airport, I am guessing that to save costs they maybe only open the airport for certain periods ? A lot of flights went out at a similar time to us.

The flight left 15 minutes early ! I guess when everyone is on you may as well go. The plane was an ATR prop jet, it was about half full. It was a full service flight so we had coffee and a croissant and a free newspaper. Great flight but the visibility was appalling and I didn’t get to see much, so I read the paper and caught up on Myanmar news.

We arrived in Mandalay at 8.00 and took a mini-van to town, the mini-van seems to be the  only choice to get there, accept maybe tour buses. Cost for the mini-van was 4000 kyat each (about $5) for the forty five minute drive, and we were taken to the hostel we wanted to go to. Which was full…. Bugger. Luckily there were a few others in the immediate vicinity so we wandered up the road to the Nylon Guest house, which turned out to be pretty good and better value than The Winner Inn in Yangon, it did have wifi, but it was sporadic at best. The view from the room.

We took a small walk around the immediate area. Mandalay is not like I expected, given it is a famous SE Asian city and the capital of Burma for many years. We were in a fairly central area and the city is quite run down, even in comparison to Yangon, it is very dusty and the pollution from the cars is eye watering. Unlike Yangon motorcycles are allowed in town, and like everywhere else in Asia, road rules just do not apply to motorcycles.

We stopped at the Rainbow restaurant for lunch, which was pretty good, washed down with a couple of Myanmar beers, which was even better. There was a lot of locals drinking beer and whisky for lunch.

Myanmar is famous for its  red splattered streets, betel nut chewing is very common here and not something I have seen anywhere else is SE Asia, reminds me of Papua New Guinea. The local people in the bar, both men and women had red stained lips and teeth. Given the lack of dental care and hygiene in Myanmar, the staining really made the mouths of some of the people we met quite unpleasant looking.

We had a bit  of a rest after lunch and mid afternoon started on a walk to and around the royal palace walls and on to Mandalay Hill. The hill houses a few stupas and is the single high point in Mandalay and supposedly offers great views.

We planned on walking around the Royal Palace walls, which are approximately 2kms each side.

The walk was long and hot and after a couple of km’s a trishaw ( bicycle with a small side car) rider came past and offered us a ride, it was on my list of things to do so we took it to Mandalay Hill. I am glad we did, the walk was a lot further than I expected !

The trishaw was a bit more expensive than I would have liked, and this really proved to be the case throughout Mandalay – I suspect there was some price fixing between the providers as there was no bargaining and taxi’s were twice the price of Yangon – and five times the price of elsewhere in SE Asia. By the time we left the city we were pretty unhappy with the gouging as were most other backpackers we spoke to.

The Hill was pretty good though there was no view at all due to, according to a local man we spoke to “fog”,  it tasted like smog to me, but he said there was no smog in Mandalay as the was no industry… There were numerous Pagoda up the hill and I had enjoyable walk snapping photos on the way.

Apparently Buddha stood here and pointed down from the hill and prophesied a great city would be built here in 1857, which was when the king Mindon Min moved the capital to Mandalay and built the palace.

A number of people live on the hill, selling souvenirs and drinks to tourists, Mike and I bought a couple of sketches of Myanmar scenes from on vendor. Myanmar is a lot like Cambodia and Borneo, the lack of good infrastructure and a rather lax attitude to rubbish disposal means there is rubbish everywhere.  Mandalay Hill, which is the prime tourist attraction in Mandalay is covered in trash, everywhere you look off the path to the summit is covered in rubbish.

After the disappointment of a lack of view from the top of the hill and there being no chance of a good sunset we walked back down again and I took a few photos of the setting sun, through the “fog” over the moat of the grand palace. On the way down we stopped to chat to an Burmese English teacher who said he had been a political activist and had fled Myanmar to Thailand a few years ago and had just come back now things were changing. We had an interesting and slightly cagey chat about politics and life in Mandalay for a while. We all hoped for some good news on the by-elections on April 1.

We then took a motorcycle each back to the hotel and went out to the  Lashiolay restaurant, a Lonely Planet recommendation for a fairly good Shan meal and a couple of beers. The local food is heavily influenced by India so is quite spicy. We had a couple of chicken dishes, a spicy potato and a vege dish with rice. The food was OK, the quality of the vegetables here is considerably lower than elsewhere I have been,  so though the food is well prepared and cooked and tasty enough the meals are not great – not anyone’s fault of course. I am also very cautious of the chicken as nothing seems to get wasted here….

After dinner I was pretty whacked so back to the hotel, for what was the best shower in SE Asia, as the internet was down it was an early night.

Gallery – some photos from Mandalay and Bagan

Really enjoying Myanmar, Mandalay was average but Bagan is awesome, though leaving here for Inle Lake tomorrow. Internet is hopeless, so sitting down for a meal while these photos hopefully upload. some images of Mandalay and Bagan. The sky has been a constant haze since I have been in Myanmar, so apologies for some washed out images.

Will do some long winded and probably tedious posts when I am back in Bangkok.

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Day two in Yangon and back to normal.

Day 70, Wednesday 14 March 2012, Yangon

I woke after a good eight hours sleep feeling so much more lively than when I went to bed, thanks meds !  My back still aches but not as badly, and my stomach is still tender – I am wondering if my stomach hurts because I ate too much last night,But at least everything I ate last night is still inside. The headache is gone and my temperature is normal so think it was just a touch of sun stroke. Will hydrate more today and take more water with me when I go out. I am still a wee bit tired though and could curl up for a post breakfast nap quite easily.

We had a later start today, heading out just before 12, into the worst of the heat I guess, should stay in later or go earlier I suppose, but whatever we do it will be hot. We got a cab to the Monsoon restaurant downtown as there was supposed to be a good money changer nearby, plus we wanted a coffee before walking around the river front and seeing some of the central city sites, though there is not a lot to “see” in Yangon I am relishing the walk and to feel a bit of the city.

We found the money changer Ok, it is a large office with six businesses, mainly banks changing money at around the official rate. This is fairly new to Myanmar and a sign that they are starting to embrace tourism more officially. In the past, to get a good rate you had to use street changers with the risk of being ripped off. We were only allowed to change $500US each and I used five 100 dollar bills at the maximum rate of 815kyat per dollar. Mike used a mix of 100’2, 50’s and 20’s so got a lesser rate for the 50’s and 20’s. Two of his 20’s had ink marks on them so were rejected ! very very fussy.

Outside the money changer we met an Australian girl Jacqueline who was looking for Monsoon, so she joined us for a bit of lunch and a coffee, it was nice to have someone new to chat to. The coffee was great, but pricey, so won’t be doing too many of those while we are here as really going to have to be careful with cash for a few days at least.

After coffee we took a leisurely walk around the river front and downtown area of old Yangon. I got told off for trying to take a photo of the British consulate building, one of a few nice old colonial buildings on the river front. A lot of these buildings are in a terrible state, which is a shame.

Downtown Yangon is set out in a grid fashion with some wide main thoroughfares and smaller side streets, very different to the narrow lanes of many other places. With no motorbikes in sight, there a lot of cars about and lots of pedestrians. Some of the footpath is pretty bad so you are constantly looking up at where you are going and down again to ensure you don’t fall into a hole (or worse the drains)… According to Jacqueline a motorbike once hit and damaged the car of one of the “generals” and he subsequently banned them all from Yangon.

Unlike Cambodia walking the streets in Yangon is hassle free, no one (very few) people try to sell something or a taxi ride, it was quite a change. Quite a few people said hello, especially the kids, as we walked past, there are lots of tea stalls.

I paid a visit to the Sule Paya which cost me a couple of bucks and was pretty disappointing, Mike got his palm read while I was inside, I should have done the same in hindsight. Apparently he is going to come into some money soon – that was a real shock ! We wandered directionless around for a bit longer and then decided to get a cab back to the hotel as the heat was getting up.

After a wee rest I decided to go back to the Shwedagon Paya from yesterday as it was supposed to be stunning at sunset with the jewels sparkling under the setting sun. I had a rapid twenty minute walk there and arrived a bit worn and thirsty right on magic time at 5.30. however it wasn’t all that magic really, there was no sparkly reflection…. though the light was much better, it was significantly cooler and subsequently far more crowded than mid-day yesterday. I wandered around and snapped a few more photos. There are a  lot of lights and other intrusions around the main stupa, so it was quite tricky to get shots that masked them.

8 second exposure to capture some movement 🙂

I was just preparing to sit down in a quite corner with the long lens on and try and catch a few people shots when I ran into Jacqueline, so we hung there till dark, the place does look good under lights.

We left soon after nightfall and agreed to share a meal at the Feel Myanmar restaurant that was a couple of blocks away from the paya. It was an interesting walk, on semi-lit streets, with the occasional torch light read of the map to find the restaurant, but well worth it. It was a nice place, not as “European” as Monsoon, but obviously geared for tourists, though it was mainly filled with Burmese. Burmese food is heavily influenced by India, so lots of curries, and plenty of vege options. I had a nice pototo and pea curry, which is one of my favourites and we shared a bottle of Myanmar beer. The restaurant brought round desert a watery tapioca and brown sugar dish that was quite nice, when they asked if we wanted a second, we both said yes… not sure if paid for those or not, bill was confusing ! but the meal was very cheap, I was anticipating to pay significantly more for the food, so very happy. After dinner we caught cabs back to our respective hotels.

We are both heading to Mandalay tomorrow, Mike and I on a plane that leaves at 7.00 and takes 1 quarter hours and Jacqueline on the bus that leaves at 7.30 and takes 10 hours… Ours was a LOT more expensive. We may catch up in Mandalay and share a hire car to do a day trip to the “3 cities” on Friday.

Up at 5.00 for the flight to Mandalay so early night!

it has taken 2 days to upload this so photos are a bit haphazard.

Stupored after the stupa

Day 69, Tuesday 13 March 2012, Yangon.

very slow internet, so not many photos… but Myanmar is a big yay so far 🙂

I had a pretty average sleep, while the room is quite nice it only has internal facing windows and these are on to a lit hallway, while the curtains and frosting provide privacy they do not block the light – and my bed was right next to them. The hotel is also quite noisy so going to have to take a pill tonight. I am not sure of the status of my stomach, it is quite tender this morning, could be due to emptiness, could be due to one of these last night but who knows – will test and see.

The hotel provides a simple free breakfast, i had scrambled eggs and toast and soon after that we went out for the days mission. Go to Air Mandalay and get seats to Mandalay, change money and visit the Shwedagon Paya.

Through good fortune rather than good planning Air Mandalay’s offices are situated almost between the hotel and the paya and a 15 minute walk from the hotel. After setting off, at my instance, in the wrong direction, we soon realised our mistake and turned round and headed back the way we had come. It was an interesting walk to the office, the guide book says the footpaths are a mess in Yangon, but in this section of town the footpath had been recently replaced and was smooth as silk. As i mentioned last night, the roads are wide and clean, the buildings around are mostly ‘western’ in design and I could easily be walking down a street in Auckland.

The first sign that things are behind the times here was at the air Mandalay office, Air Mandalay is one of a few small local airlines plying the local Myanmar routes, apparently it is not owned by the government so by buying tickets we are not directly supporting the regime – I will post on this separately.  Anyway, the tickets were hand written, there is no ticket machine, the confirmation that seats were available was done by phone and we had to pay cash, I think I mentioned yesterday, no credit cards in Myanmar…

On the subject of cash….

I had read a lot about changing money in Myanmar, in guide books, forums and blogs and all have the same story, yet there is always that doubting she will be right attitude that you take when you go.

A few places will change money, apparently the legitimate places, such as banks and the airport (it was closed when we were there) now offer a rate close to the official rate, before you had to use street money changes to get a good deal – with the associated risk of being ripped off. And there are a LOT of stories of people being ripped off, no matter how closely the exchange was followed.

You can only change US Dollars, I read a couple of posts about people managing to change a few Euros, though they got really really bad rates, and it took them a while to find someone to change it.

The USD have to be immaculate, – no folds, no tears, no marks, they must be near new, old bills are no good (even if they are immaculate !).

Big bills get better rates ! you will get more kyat for 1 $100 bill than 10 $10’s….

So those are the rules…

We handed the Air Mandalay clerk are money $105 each (a massively expensive trip but will save us a day). As we were paying in USD rather than use a precious $100 we used a mix of $20’s and $10’s. The clerk went through all the bills and rejected 3 $20s and a $10 saying the bank would not accept them, we couldn’t see what the difference was with some of the others, but changed them for other bills from our wallets and these seemed to work. We also had to pay a further $3 fee for the airport and again 2 of $1 bills were no good… I used 10 and got us some Kyat (local currency ) in change as we needed some anyway.  First mission completed.

Second was to visit Shwedagon Paya.  The main Zedi (stupa) is 98 metres tall and is layered in a rumoured 55 tonnes of gold leaf and is incrusted with 5000 diamonds and 2000 other precious stones. The paya can be seen from just about everywhere in Yangon and is central to Burmese Buddhists faith.

The paya is certainly impressive ! started 2500 years ago it has been added to over the years and is quite large. Unfortunately it was late morning when we arrived and sun was blasting down on the reflective tiled ground so it was quite warm.   I took a lot of photos but will only upload a couple here due to bandwith, I may do a bulk Myanmar upload to Flickr later on.

After the Paya we set off to walk into down town, it was a couple of kilometres away down a hot wide road, but it gave us an opportunity to see some more of the place. We were looking for a bank to change our money and after an hour or so of walking around in the heat I was pretty gone, my back was aching badly and I had tanked energy wise, so we ended up getting a taxi back to the hotel with the aim to get a cab directly to a bank in the morning. Another sign we are not in the real SE Asia, no scooters in Yangon – and now this – how will they drive !!!

I spent most of the afternoon lying down and pouring water in to my mouth, I was feeling very average and think I got a touch of sun stroke, was hot and achy and very tired.

We watched a few bad movies on TV, ate some food, I had a chicken cashew, my first non-western food in a few days. Now my stomach appears to have settled i can back to trying local foods again : )

I popped painkillers, Imodium and half a sleeping pill and hit the pillow at 10.30, hoping for a good sleep..

Bangkok to Yangon – Myanmar, new adventures

Day 68, Monday 12 March 2012, Bangkok – Yangon.

No photos today!

I didn’t sleep well last night but at least my stomach was feeling better today. I went down to try some toast just after 8.00, was still feeling OK by 10.00 so went down for more toast and a coffee as a second test. I spent most of the morning in the air conditioned room as it is quite hot outside and down in the lobby area of the hostel, as we were flying this afternoon there was no point in heading out too far. I did a load of washing and the dust of Siem Reap did not come out, so half my clothes still look dirty ! I also posted another package of souvenirs back to New Zealand and sent my tripod this time, at least I have some space in my pack now.

Check out time was 11.00 so we spent a couple of hours down in the hostel lobby, I had a good chat with an American guy about his trip to Myanmar last year, really got me excited about the trip this afternoon.

We took the train out to the airport and joined a massive queue at the Air Asia counter, and then a massive queue at immigration counter so by time we got into the lounge area we were very close to boarding time. We had a quick burger at BK, my final successful test of the day and then after a small delay we were off to Yangon airport in Myanmar !!!!

It was a great flight, in fact all my flights in Asia so far have been good, much better than the horror stories I used to hear. Air Asia have really forced a lift in the game of some airlines, and I have nothing but good things to say about their flights – so far.

We landed into a setting sun at Yangon and had a very slow trip through their immigration service, not a lot of people just a thorough process. We walked out into the arrival hall to find a driver holding up a sign with “Phil Platt” on it, first time that has ever happened ! Ok we did pay for the service from our Hotel – Winner Inn. I decided that rather than faff about in a strange town, and an untested country with trying to find a way to the hotel I would pay for an organised ride. Worth it I think.

The ride to the hotel was interesting, though it was dark here are my observations so far !

  • Lots of men were the traditional longyi, a type of long wrap around ‘skirt’.
  • Unlike other SE Asian cities there are no scooters or motorbikes, almost unbelievable, however I understand they are banned in Yangon !
  • The cars are mainly old, lots of Nissan Sunnys and old Corrollas, a lot don’t seem to have working headlights, or it may have just been timing as we arrived just after sun down.
  • The majority of cars are right hand drive – which to me is an issue as they drive on the right hand side of the road !!! over taking will be a challenge…
  • There are a few new cars, passed a car yard selling BMW’s so things are changing here.
  • Lot of Korean restaurants and one large hotel we passed had its big sign out the front in Korean…
  • The streets we drove on were wide, clean, semi-well lit, with the lack of scooters it was almost like driving down Great North Rd !
  • We passed a few new looking houses and apartment blocks, but they were mainly empty, lights off and no one home, weird….

The hotel seems Ok, twin room, reasonably comfortable, vaguely old fashioned maybe. Will take some photos tomorrow.

Very limited internet so not sure how blogging will work, have to do via USB drive, and not sure on the speed yet. The American guy I was talking to this morning said there are some cafes around with decent wifi, so maybe hunt one of those out later. But don’t expect a huge amount of posts over the next couple of weeks, I will do my best !!

S-21 and the “killing fields”

 

Day 67, Sunday 11 March 2012, Phnom Penh and back to Bangkok

Final day of a two day stop over in Phnom Penh, I was keen to get out to S-21 and Killing fields today, had a light breakfast of toast, but was a waste of time, however I did feel  a little better so I decided to just go and see how it all went. I am quite hungry and not exactly full of energy today, so was going to make this a shortish trip.

I am sure everyone knows what happened in Cambodia during the mid to late 1970’s when the country was known as the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea under the brutal rule of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge party. If you do not know then you need to, up to three million of the then eight million population died under the regime.

S-21 (security prison 21) was an old school converted into a prison and torture centre when the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh in 1975. It is now the Tual Sleng Genocide museum. During its time as a prison from 1975-1979 between 17,000 and 20,000 men, women and children were imprisoned, tortured and murdered here, including New Zealander Kerry Hamill, the brother of rower Rob Hamill. A documentary movie about Kerry Hamill, Brother No 1 (the name for Pol Pot) is on release in NZ in march 2012, so go see it !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum

As we had to be at the airport at 3.00 I took a tuk tuk for the trip and left the hostel at 8.30 for the twenty or so minute ride to S21.  I did get the obligatory monk shot on the way though!

S-21 was interesting, it is a sad place and it is the portrait photos of the victims and staff that are the hardest to look at, though working out the difference was impossible, some are so young. Not feeling a hundred percent lessened the impact on me I think.

The torture rooms, when the Vietnamese arrived at the school in 1979 they discovered a number of bodies still in these rooms and there is a photo on each wall, I have elected to not show any of these photos or photos of skulls from here or the killing fields.

The prison block is a three storey set of converted class rooms, the Khmer rouge made crude doorways between the class rooms by smashing holes in the walls. In each classroom numerous cells were created, on the third floor they were made of wood and the first and second brick and concrete.

One of the victims and her baby

Some of the guards.

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge executive.From S-21 I took my tuk tuk out to Choeung Ek, one of many “killing fields” around Cambodia and the site were victims of S-21 and others were taken for execution. About 17,000 people were killed at this site between 1975 an 1979.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choeung_Ek

Choeng Ek is also the main memorial site just outside Phnom Penh. I wasn’t sure what to expect here, and really there is not a lot to “see” as all the buildings that were here during regime have been torn down.  You can do a self guided tour with an audio player which describes the site as you walk around.

To conserve bullets the khmer rouge what ever was handy to dispatch their victims.

The audio tape has a story of one of the survivors of the Khmer Rouge which I (along with many others) listened to in a shady walk at the back of the site.

The final part of the tour is the memorial stupa which contains bones and the skulls of 5000 victims, many of the skulls are smashed and damaged from the method of execution.

Some graffiti on the wall at S-21

Vietnam invaded Kampuchea (Cambodia) in 1979 to put an end to the Khmer Rouge reign, thousands of Khmer soldiers fled to Thailand and to near the Thai border.What is really scary is that even though all this was well known after discovery of the mass grave sites in 79/80 the US and its normal allies supported the Khmer Rouge until 1993 in its struggle against the communist regime in Vietnam and the puppet government it had installed in Cambodia. Some of the key players in the killing fields were allowed to go free….

After that rather sobering start to the day I went back to the hostel for lunch which was very nice and stayed in for a lot longer than the previous few meals, though i made the mistake of having a coffee once we got to the airport as I was gagging for one… it was expensive and ended badly.

I did make it safely to Bangkok and we stayed the night back at the HI Sukhumvit hostel again.

 

A wasted day in Phnom Penh

Day 66, Saturday 10 March 2012, Phnom Penh

I had a pretty good sleep last night but was straight to the loo when I woke up – damnit, today was killing fields day !  I gave things a rest for an hour and at 8.00 decided to try some toast for breakfast, if that stayed in until the tuk tuk arrived at 9.00 then I would call myself sorted and head on out. Sadly it didn’t even last ten minutes so that was my day decided for me. Mike went out  to do the killing fields and I went to the room to read. Fortunately we can just get wifi in the room – the hostel is advertised as only having wifi in the cafe, so a real bonus.

The room, where I spent most of the day.

The view out the window.

The hostel, lots of these skinny buildings in Cambodia.

I spent most of the morning reading and putting a plan together for Myanmar, I have booked us three nights accommodation in Yangon plus airport pickup as we arrive in the early evening. The Winner Inn, lets hope it is  ! it looks like Myanmar has become very popular this year, I have read a few blogs from people who have been there in the past few weeks and apart from sounding amazing, it seems to have gone up in price… I am hoping we have missed the peak season and accommodation will be easier to find on the ground than some of the stories I have read suggested was the case in Jan and Feb. At least we have something for the first place we go to booked, from their we can suck it and see, it should be interesting at least.

I will let Mike run through the plan when he is back and will then post it from Bangkok tomorrow afternoon. It appears there may be more internet in Myanmar than I first thought, but I wont bank on it.  I am sooooooo looking forward to Bagan !

I attempted lunch just after 1 and it stayed in for longer than breakfast – hopefully that is a sign of improvement. Mike came back soon after that and we went out for a walk about 4.30 to try and get to the palace and silver pagoda, but after a hundred metres or so I knew I wasn’t going to make it there and back and started getting some small cramps in my stomach so we turned round.

We did walk back via Wat Phnom which is just up the road from the hostel and on the highest point in PP, a massive 27 metres !

I loved this sign at the entrance to Wat Phonm.

Ah shrines, so cool…

As close as I got to a monk today !

After the Wat it was back to the hostel where I managed to get three games of pool in before having to nip off to the little room.

I ate some food and had a beer in hope it all stays in, and went back to the room to watch TV and click post !

Uh-oh, think it is has finally happened…

Day 65, Friday 09 march 2012, Siem Reap to Phnom Penh

Last night in Siem Reap, I have enjoyed staying here, lots to see and do, nice people and pretty cheap, definitely another place to put on my list of places to return to one day.

I woke feeling tired and groggy and a bit upset in the stomach, which never bodes well when you have a five hour bus trip ahead. I packed my gear and went down for a coffee at 6.15 so I was ready for the pick up to take us to the bus some time between 6.40 and 7.10. The coffee proved something was astray as I pretty much had to run straight back to the loo, definitely not a good sign…

With fingers crossed we got onto the Paramount Express Services bus to Phnom Penh. I DO NOT recommend this bus company. Yes the driver was safe, but the five hour ride took almost seven, not  just due to traffic – the ONE stop turned into two stops plus the twenty or so stops to pick people up and drop them off on the way (cash jobs) . The promised loo wasn’t there (thankfully I was so empty I didn’t need it), the aircon barely worked and a load of the seats were broken in some form or other. Not the VIP service we were sold.

Mike has a few paper backs so I am reading a book book at the moment, non-stop trash action (killer – killer whales anyone ?) but it kept me amused on the bus.  I did spend some time looking out the window as southern Cambodia rolled past, if I had the chance it would be nice to spend some time  on a bike pedalling some of the back roads and taking photos, for such a poverty stricken and war impacted country it is quite beautiful in parts, but not in a glorious mountain scene way, hard to explain.

We finally made it to Phnom Penh at almost 2:30, two hours later than expected, not that I was up to much anyway. We took a tuk tuk from the bus to the hostel I had booked on line. Me Mates Place, again not in the main block of hostels, so a walk to the river and grand palace, but it was supposed to be quiet (it was) and had good reviews.  It appears to be a nice hostel, it has a restaurant/bar which I was first a bit nervous about as some times these can be noisy, but it seems well sound proofed and it was a quiet night on Friday.

I risked a burger and fries – the burger was the best I have had on my travels – yum,  and a banana shake while blogging Preah Vihear. this was followed by an early night and I made it to bed with dinner intact, though stomach rumbling away !

Funnily enough I had only commented yesterday morning how I been travelling for two months with no stomach issues!

A visit to Preah Vihear Temple or was it Preah Vihear army base.

Day 64, Thursday 08 March 2012, Siem Reap –  Preah Vihear.

You will recall that a couple of days ago I met Cheeba, a Canadian woman here in Siem Reap for a holiday to see the temples. She had hired a car for a trip up to the Preah Vihear temple up on the border with Thailand and I had agreed to go with her and share some of the cost, and today was the day.

Built in the 9th century the temple has been hotly contested between Thailand and Cambodia for many years and was ‘given’ to Cambodia by the International Court of Justice in 1962, a decision the Thai’s did not and do not agree with. In fact as recently as Feb 2011 both sides were shooting at each other over the temple and some of the damage was pointed out to me on the tour. There was also a massacre of Cambodian refugees by Thai forces here in 1979. So a chequered and violent history to the site, you can read more on it here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preah_Vihear_Temple

The temple itself is on the top of a 525 metre high cliff and has spectacular views over Cambodia, Thailand and up to Laos – except today of course!.

Right time to get on with my story.

I was up early, really early….

I had set my phone alarm to go off at 6.05. When I woke and groggily checked my watch it was 6.00 so I turned the alarm off, grabbed my clothes and went into the bathroom to get ready for the day, I was fully dressed and brushing my teeth when I glanced at my watch and noticed it was now 12.35 am…. 6.00 and 12.30 look so similar when you are half asleep !!!  Alarm back on and back to bed half clothed.

Up again at the real 6.00 am, dressed and teeth again and downstairs for a coffee and wait for the car to get me at 6.30.  Come 6.50 I thought I had best walk round to the hostel where Cheeba was staying and find out what the story was, when I got there I found they had left, so the hostel guy rang the car guy and they had been muddling around Siem Reap trying to find my hostel (the name of my hostel had not been remembered correctly!), they were not far out of town and were going to wait. The hostel got me a motorbike so helmetless (as is the norm for passengers) I was soon screaming through the back streets of town out to the car.

There was four of us on the trip, the driver, who spoke pretty good English, myself, Cheeba and the  tuk tuk driver Cheeba had been using as he had never been to the site. The drive took about three and half hours over a not too bad road, better than I had expected anyway and our driver was very safe, which was great! We only had to swerve for roaming cattle twice – and once for a pig on the way back..

As mentioned the temple is on the top of a hill and you cannot take a car up there so you have to hire a 4wd drive at the outrageous rate of $35US. This is a business that is dying as the road is being rebuilt. It is not a hard road, but very steep at the top.At the top there was a lot of soldiers and gun emplacements, no big guns in sight, though I am sure they are around, I did see machine gun nests close to the border though. You have to have a soldier take you on a tour – private revenue generation ! and ours had very little English but he did point well.

We got to the start of the temple site and Cheeba had to lie down, she had been feeling unwell on the way up, so I went off down the temple stairs to the border for a look.

The bottom of the stairs are less than 50 metres from the barbed wire, so it really is close to Thailand. The tree is in Cambodia and the stairs are in Thailand.

And they are serious about keeping it…Saw this little critter on the way back up.Cheeba wasn’t feeling any better after a rest so I went off with my soldier to explore the temple site.My favourite bit of carving at Preah VihearThe holes apparently held large candles ?My guideSome war damageThe token monk shot

This soldier wanted a photo taken of us : )

The driver and tuk tuk guy, as you can see there was very little view, it was quite smoky,dusty and cloudy.

My guide took this photo on the cliff edge, the two Cambodian tourists both wanted a photo of me with them, not uncommon, but weird….

These are cliff faces where the Thai troops forced 42,000 refugees over, with 3000 confirmed dead and 7000 missing at the end of that tragic day. : (

There was not a lot to look at the temple, most of the carvings had been looted and I was told the gold Buddha had been stolen by the Thais. But the site was pretty cool, I liked the location and I liked that there was only about 20 people there. Apart from about 50 soldiers, mostly without weapons, and all very friendly, I think that they like it when foreigners come to ‘their’ site.After an hour or so of wandering around I went back down to where Cheeba was and she was not in a good way, fevers and aches, our soldier guide and the car driver had to help her walk back down to the 4wd for a very high speed and dusty drive back down to the car. The ride back to Siem Reap was marked by quite a long rain shower, not heavy rain fortunately, but enough to create a massive puddle in one of the towns we passed through which three small children were paddling in.

Apart from a couple of deep fried somethings, that were possibly rice ? I had no idea, I knew it had no meat ! I had not eaten all day, I was also extremely thirsty having run out of water an hour or so ago. I gulped a very welcome can of Angkor lager as soon as I walked in the hostel door, then had a shower and made Mike go out for an early dinner. After a few days of procrastination we finally purchased some souvenirs from the market and went for dinner at Temple again (free wifi of course). It was soooo  good to eat…