Exploring the Ancient - Angkor & Siem Reap (Cambodia)

My three days in Cambodia flew by very fast, yet I feel like I have been here a long time. I managed to do a lot, even more than planned, and still relax. These were three perfect days. I would recommend anyone who is travelling to south east Asia to pass by Siem Riep for some days.

- Day One; Tonle Sap -
My first day was just half a day, so I decided not to waste any time and booked a sunset boat tour, before heading to the city centre for lunch and a walk. It soon became clear that the city centre of Siem Reap is only small and that many things are within walking distance. I explored a bit until it was time for my boat tour. A tuctuc drove me to the lake, passing many sandy roads. The sand here is red and leaved a red dusty layer on everything. The route to the lake was nice; we passed some small villages with houses that were built on the water. At the lake I learned that a group boat almost cost as much per person as renting your own boat; so I opted for the last. It felt really fancy to have my own driver and my own captain (how is someone operating the boat called?).  We we to the floating village by boat and stopped to see the sunset from a view point in the water. You could see it perfectly from here. I watched the end of the sunset on the boat. It was really nice to see how fast the sun was dropping and how the sky kept changing.

Back in Siem Reap, I went to the city centre for dinner. At the restaurant I met two Swedish girls, with whom I went to the night market after eating. We wanted to go for a massage and chose one of the places on the market. This was the strangest massage ever. We were led from the normal-looking front of the salon to a place behind a curtain with several  mattresses on the floor. One of the girls working there looked like she was about 12 and all the staff were giggling all the time. The massage itself was also pretty weird, with many painful stretches. If I had been there alone, I definitely would have walked away immediately. In the end, it was a funny experience, but I think I prefer the Thai massage - by far.

- Day Two; Angkor -
Some girls from my hostel told me it is doable to visit all of Ankor in just one day, as long as you leave very early. They also said it would be best to start with Bayon, rather than Angkor Wat, to avoid the crowds since this route is different from the usual route. So at 6AM I was heading of to Angkor with my tuctuc driver for the day. He drove the common route reversed to avoid the big tour groups, and it worked! In some temples I was walking around nearly on my own. Only few Tempe's were crowded. This was great. My start at Bayon was perfect; it was not yet very warm, there were few people and the light was great for photos. I was surprised how much of the temple (almost all of them) was accessible. You could go inside and climb all the way to the top to have a fabulous view. It took me more that 8 hours to see all temples (with just a few small breaks) and by the time I reached Ankor Wat, I was destroyed. I was tired, it was hot and there were just too many people. By then all temples had started to look alike a bit. I already took hundreds of pictured and climbed at least as many steps. Still it was great to walk the long pass way towards the temple and to climb to the top of it. Only 100 people at a time are allowed up, so there was a queue outside. I was lucky to arrive at a moment when it was relatively short; when I was leaving again there were at least three times as many people waiting. Super exhausted I went back to Siem Reap.

For dinner I decided to try a Khmer barbeque. The grill place was a reversed bowl with a ring around it. The ring was used to boil vegetables in a broth and the grill for the meat. Really tasty and fun. After this, I went for a drink at temple bar, where there are traditional dance performances each evening. When I nearly fell asleep on the table, I realised it was time to call it a day and go back to the hostel.

- Day Three; Siem Reap by Bike -
Being Dutch, renting a bike for a day was a must. Best two dollars ever spent! It was a fast and fun way to move around. The traffic seemed dangerous at first because there don't seem to be many traffic rules; but soon I realised everyone is just taking into account what the others do. You just go where you need to go and avoid hitting other vehicles - it's as easy as that. I was planning to go to a morning yoga class at a vegetarian cafe. However, it took me so long to find the place that class was already over by then. In my search I had a nice tour along the river and saw some interesting places. I had to ask for directions many times, but did find the cafe in the end. Turned out it moved to another location earlier this year and it was a bit further out of the city than it seemed to be on the map. But it was worth the search. The place was in a calm palm garden with lounge chairs and other comfortable seats. There was a little library and all around were posters with spiritual pictures and nice quotes. I had my lunch there and took a good rest, before continuing my cycling tour.

Just for fun, I cycled up to Angkor; which was really not far at all. I think it would be fun to explore Angkor by bike, but you would need more time and a map (when I went there, the ticket counter did not have any). I read in my travel guide that there was a temple close to the road to Angkor, so I decided to try to find it. And I did. I even found another one that was nor mentioned anywhere, but was nice nevertheless. Bank on the riverside road, I followed the river to the city centre, passing some more nice temples. The temples here were very different than those in Angkor; very colourful with a lot of gold.

In the late afternoon, I returned my bike to get ready to have the yoga class after all. It was really nice to try yoga here. Very relaxing after the long days of sight seeing and carrying the backpack around. The class was in a little wooden room above the cafe. We were not far from the road, but far enough to not hear any noises and to create a calm atmosphere. After the class I had dinner in the garden and then went back to the hostel to pack. A perfect ending of my trip to Cambodia!

One Night in Bangkok (or 3) - Bangkok (Thailand)

Time flies when you are traveling. I can't believe it is already time to move on to county #2 - Cambodia. I am waiting at the "small" (this is by no means small for me) airport of Bangkok and have my flight to Siem Reap in one hour.

I really enjoyed Bangkok. This visit was just two and a half days, but I'll be back two more times during my trip. I will miss my fabulous guide Marina during those visits, though.

-Bangkok Day 2-
I started off the Bangkok tour with one of the biggest touristic attractions; Wat Phra Kaew, the royal palace. This collection of temples, gardens and museums is colourful and richly decorated. Everything is grand and impressive. I admired some of Bangkok's most famous treasures. Once I am able to upload photos, I will show you what mean.
Overwhelmed by all the sparkle, colour, heat and crowds of other people, we fled away to a small restaurant for a typical Thai lunch. I still didn't find out what kind of vegetable "taro" is exactly, but it tastes very good in warm coconut milk.

Recharged, we walked to temple Wat Pho (I do know that I am repeating myself here, since "wat" means temple"), another very beautiful place. Here, I got the chance to experience something really special - I made an offer to Buddha. First, I burned a candle and stuck it to the standard with its own wax. Next, I lighted 3 in sent sticks, which I stuck in a big bowl of sand next to the Buddha statue. Then, I left a flower in the vase next to the statue. The last thing was to stick a small golden leave on the Buddha. This way the stone was slowly turning gold while offers were being made. After a tour of the temple it was time for another typical Thai experience - a Thai massage at the school for traditional medicine. Very relaxing, definitely a recommendation.

In the evening, we went to another part of the city to eat out. We ended up going for a Thai variation of hot pot. There was a big pan of boiling water in the middle, which we filled with fish, vegetables and meat to turn it into a soup. Then each person would take some spoons full and added a spicy sauce, garlic and chili to make it as strong as you prefer. This was really delicious. We ended the day with a walk through Khao San Road, which really comes to live at night. The street turns into one big open air discothèque full with food stalls and shops. Luckily we had a room at the back of the hotel and we could sleep quietly.

- Bangkok Day 3-
This day we woke up a bit late because of the yetlag, so our day started with a lunch at one of the little street restaurants close to our hotel. We met some backpackers there and had the chance to share travel experiences and plans. Then we took a walk through another well-known tourist area, followed by a tuctuc trip to the river for a boat tour. We had a boat just for the two of us, although there easily could have been 10 people on that boat. Pretty cool. We passed many houses that were built on the water. A lot of the looked like they were going to collapse any moment. So strange to think that people actually live there. There were several hammocks right next to the water, imagine that you are taking a nap and then want to get out on the wrong side. That would be pretty funny.

The taxi we took to go to the royal palace later in the afternoon got stuck in traffic because the schools had just finished. So we switched it for two scooter taxis. These go super fast because they can zigzag through all the cars without any problem. Slightly dangerous, but a lot of fun. The palace was beautiful, but full of tour groups of Chinese people. We got surrounded by them several times. It became a game to avoid them in the end. Fail - there were just too many of them.

We ate dinner and a typical Thai dessert (things floating in coconut milk with shaved ice) close to our hotel and then went for a drink in the backpackers area. We could not leave Bangkok without having a little dancing party of course! This was a really fun way to end the first leg of my trip.

I almost missed the bus to the airport the next morning, but luckily Marina happened to wake up early. She went to the reception to tell them to wait for me while I got ready in less than 5 minutes. And it all worked out! Pfiew. Lucky me to be traveling with her.

And so it begins - Luxembourg to Bangkok

Last Saturday at early o'clock, I said goodbye to rainy and cold Luxembourg to take the train to Frankfurt airport. It's time for my trip to South East Asia! In the coming three weeks I will be visiting Bangkok, Ankor, Kuala Lumpur and Koh Samet.

Even before reaching the airport, I started seeing interesting things. And I did not even leave Europe yet. I shared my train with a group of people in their forties who seemed to have embarked on a party weekend. They were taking shots, playing accordion and singing songs - at 9.30 AM. A fun start of the day.

I was flying with a Chinese airlines and had a transfer in Shanghai. My first (albeit unofficial since airports don't count as entering a country) visit to China! During the flight, I noticed some peculiar things. Everyone seemed to have taken their own water bottles - they were giving them to the flight attendants, who would then fill them with water. They were walking around with trays full of water bottles the whole flight long.
Then there was this tiny old lady who wanted to take something from the overhead storage space above me. She was saying something in Chinese, and before I knew it she climbed on my chair to reach her luggage - with me still sitting there. That was slightly bizarre.

In Shanghai, I had less than 2 hours to transfer to the next flight. Seems fine, be it that the queue for transfer was extremely long and did not seem to move at all. I was already planning out emergency situations in my mind, when a lady passed by the queue to call for passengers from my flight. We were allowed to go through the priority lane so we could also make the flight. As soon as I entered the plane, I fell asleep and I only woke up when we were landing. I was so tired, I even missed the food ( and I never miss out on food).

Finally I made it to Thailand! After a little moment of panic about my phone card not working, I managed to get a Thai number and some directions to the hotel. A sky train trip and a ride on the tuctuc later, I was there. Time for the adventures to start. I was meeting my friend Marina and same of her friends for dinner later, do I had some time to wander around. The street of my hotel is full of hostels, restaurants and little shops, and is very popular amongst backpackers. It is very lively and noisy. Next to it, is a big street which was decorated with an endless amount of lights and pictures of the king and queen. I followed the lights, which turned out to be a pretty cool walk.

After my walk, I took a taxi to meet Marina and her friends. We went to an Italian-Thai fusion restaurant. The food was delicious and very special. It was really nice to eat with Thai locals. A good first meal in Asia!

By then I was so tired that I slept almost immediately when we got back to the hotel. I did not have time yet to figure out how my SD card converter works, but when I do I will upload a lot of pictures!