Koh Pha Ngan shenanigans

So Koh Chang is a rather more couply place than it is for backpackers. Our hostel, which was so out of the way is testament to that. Not that it wasn't nice. Our room was practically right over the ocean with the surf coming in below us. Loud, but pleasant nonetheless.

We took a bus to Bangkok which got us in in good time, and we stayed at our old haunt on Khaosan Road, the D&D. Nothing much to report about this one night in Bangkok, other than being spotted by an old work buddy from Potensis, Ryan, and joining him and his mates for drinks. Otherwise Khaosan Road was pretty much the same as before, just less water fighting and more lady-boys in attendance. Just look down and don't make eye contact...

The next day we took an overnight 18 hour journey to Koh Pha Ngan (pronounced co-pan-yang, don't ask me why). This comprised an 8 hour coach, followed by waiting, followed by a 20 minute minibus, followed by waiting, followed by another hour long coach, followed by waiting, followed by a 2 hour ferry. Not exactly the trip from hell, just long and tedious! The ferry crossing at 11am however was gorgeous, with amazing scenery in front of and behind us.

We booked ourselves into a place called the Haad Gruad Beach Resort, popular with backpackers and lovely in its own way, but not convenient to get anywhere. Apart from the Black Moon party on the other side of the island (which I'll get to in good time) we haven't left. It is however right on the beach, and once more we find ourselves falling asleep to the sound of the surf.

Other than spend time by the pool and relaxing, on our second day we were invited to go on an overnight fishing trip. Not having to think either very long or hard about this, we both said yes pretty much immediately. We were picked up at around 4.30pm, and taken to the local 'port' which is frequented pretty much by fishing boats, each around 30-40ft long. Our captain was a 47 year old fisherman, and had been fishing for the past 20 years, his father and grandfather before him. A very helpful and convivial guy, he spent most of the time in the cabin smoking his bong. We didn't crash.

We sailed about an hour out from the coast, and then dropped anchor in the vicinity of a rock which is apparently great for scuba diving. We were given our rods and bait (dead squid) and set to. Pretty soon it got dark, and people started catching more squid. These were immediately transferred to our hooks, as nothing beats live squid fishing apparently.

Now I've never been fishing before, and I gotta say, I don't really think it's for me. The patience needed is not in me, however we had a good group of people and it was a friendly and relaxed atmosphere with beer and drinks, plus the fug of weed over us emanating from the cabin. I sat like a lemon for a good 4 hours, legs dangling over the edge of the prow, and finally figured that that tug I had about 3 hours ago had actually been a barracuda or shark biting clean through the line, taking my hook and bait with it. I gave in to a lost cause, and called it a night.

Others however had more luck. One German guy managed to catch a barracuda very early on, which the captain immediately, cleaned, gutted and cooked for us. It was pretty damn tasty I must say, but was slightly weird eating it having seen it wriggling around not 30 minutes previously. With only three people catching a fish apiece the whole night, the big story has to be Matt landing a 1.5ft grey reef shark. He needed help bringing it up, and as it was raised over the edge wriggled off the hook. It was slapping around on the deck for a good few minutes as the captain and his sons tried to batter it over the head. They finally managed it, but not before it scared Matt shitless as it slithered towards him (I was on the other side of the boat, and so could laugh from afar). Apart from that it was a rather uneventful night, other than trying to sleep in a swinging hammock on a windy sea. After smashing into the upright for the 30th time, enough was enough and I slept on the open deck.

We arrived back at the guesthouse at around 10 am the following morning, and proceeded to sleep the rest of the day away. We woke up around 5, chilled for a while and had the guest house cook our shark for us (delicious) and then made our way to the Black Moon party. For those who don't know, Koh Pha Ngan is famed for its Full, Half and Black Moon parties. On the other side of the Island, it's a fluorescent rave on the beach, complete with glow in the dark body paint and glow sticks. Apart from the fact you will get drunk, you will get offered copious amounts of drugs, there are people with fire poi and fire sticks showing off to appreciative crowds, and sand DOES get everywhere.

We finished up around 5am (early as it goes) and slept again till around midday. We're on our way to Krabi Island to meet up with Ryan again before we head over into Malaysia, as unfortunately our VISAs run out on the 29th. Good times all round.

Utopia, Bamboo Island, Volleyball and some beach bars

I decided that Sihanoukville deserved a bit more of a writeup than I gave it in the previous post. Building on the amazing prose 'it's a chilled beach side village' or some other crap I wrote, here it is in a bit more detail.

Sihanoukville is actually shaped a little bit like a mini Wales, and actually has 4 separate beaches. We were staying closest to Serendipity Beach which seemed to be the main backpacker hangout. The beach itself is quite big, with guest houses, bungalows and bars along the shoreline, however we stayed in a slightly more hotel-like place about 5 mins walk away. Our bathroom was still a wet-room but had the decency to be quite big, meaning we didn't flood it each time we had a shower. Add air con, a tv with great reception (including HBO) and a beautiful pool area, and we were made men.

Right across from us was another guesthouse called Monkey Republic with a great restaurant and bar, and was where we started off most nights after dinner. A great place to meet people, we even ran into two Lilly Cole lookalikes. Don't tell them I said that though cos they don't like Miss Cole. And there was me thinking red-heads stuck together...

Utopia, yet another guesthouse and bar, was next on the agenda each night, and boasted free beds in their dorm room for punters. Not the nicest by any means, this is however the first place we've found which offers free accommodation. With a few crazy westerners behind the bar, this establishment regularly (if somewhat haphazardly) offers free shots, sometimes for reasons as innocuous as the bar staff like the song that just came on. Normally consisting of one of them walking around with an upended bottle over your mouth, it was a bit hit and miss regarding how much you swallowed and how much you ended up wearing. They also had a wet t-shirt competition on a night we were wining and dining two British girls, so I can't tell you about it, but I heard it was an interesting night with locals and backpackers, girls and guys all involved, including the missus of the guy who owned it. She won apparently. Nobody say 'fix'...

As mentioned the beach had quite a few bars along it, however I never made it past the first one for no other reason than I was quite content not to get too sandy, but I had a great time there each night.

For those after a bit of activity, there are a number of islands just off the coast of Sihanoukville, and Matt and I took a day trip to go snorkeling around them. While I was chuffed to bits my underwater camera worked, it was a shame the water was so murky. I have very dark pictures of some fish (not that there were many) but a great one of Matt which I'll stick up shortly. Apart from snorkeling, I spent most of the afternoon playing volleyball with the locals. Regardless of the fact it's their national sport, and regardless of the fact they play every day, I hadn't played in 6 years and felt like the slowest and least coordinated of the lot. When you see a 5'4 Cambodian jumping to spike the ball over an 8ft net when it's an effort for you, you'll know what I mean.

A great lunch on the island of BBQ Baracuda went down extremely well, and a small trek to the other beach gave us a slightly different but mostly similar perspective on things there: no electricity, no creature comforts, just bungalows and chilled beer.

As far as backpacker resorts go, this is probably the first one where so many people seem to stay for longer than a week, especially on Bamboo Island where they go to get away from it all. Some we spoke to had been there month, with others intending to stay till Christmas. All in all I can see why, and I was definitely falling prey to sitting by the pool or on the beach and having a few drinks in the evening as my new way of life. Matt however brought us back down to earth, and we're now in Koh Chang, an island just over the border into Thailand which deservedly holds national park protection. A lot fewer people however, coupled with it not really being as backpacker oriented, has made our decision for us - tomorrow we're off to Bangkok again.

From Vietnam to Cambodia - we've done it all!

Nah Trang was another busride away from Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. Apart from being extremely commercial and Americanised, they do have the Cu Chi Tunnels, what the local militia used during the Vietnam war. Unfortunately a bout of flu floored me the day we were meant to go, so Matt traipsed off without me, and by all accounts I think it's the best thing he's done so far. Otherwise Saigon is a place to go and eat and drink.


Matt snoring in Saigon (with Batman Returns in the background)

From Saigon we took a 6 hour bus across the border into Cambodia, stopping at their capital city Phnom Penh (Phnom is pronounced 'Nom'). I took an earlier bus than Matt, and so booked us into a decent if slightly out of the way guest house. On going back to the bus station 5 hours later, I befriended a few tuk tuk drivers, one of which had amazing English thanks to spending 3 years in a grammar school. He told me that where we were staying wasn't all that, and suggested we move to another place closer to the lake the next day. We took him up on this, and he came to collect us. The new place, named simply 'number 11' was a more backpacker oriented place, and had a restaurant and bar on stilts over the lake itself.

For those in the dark, Cambodia suffered from Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime back in the 70s. He is credited with killing 2 million Cambodians, waging war on the rich and the educated. Around 20,000 Architects and Engineers were murdered during his reign. This is memorialised by 2 sight-seeing areas. The first is the S21 Prison, where around 20,000 Khmer and 7 foreign journalists were incarcerated. The buildings used to be one of the leading schools in the region, but were converted into prison use in a rather barbaric fashion. Out of the 20,000 prisoners, only 7 are thought to have survived.

Most prisoners weren't killed in the prison, rather bussed to what is now known as the Killing Fields, the most famous about 15km outside Phnom Penh at Cheong Ek village. This particular killing field has approximately 86 mass graves, each of which holds between 50 and 400 bodies. One particular one contained solely women and babies, next to which you can see a tree, and a mark on a tree. The soldiers would hold the babies by their legs and swing them against this tree head first, hence the mark. My camera died that morning, and so unfortunately I have no pictures, but suffice it to say the whole experience is very chilling and sobering.

After two days in Phnom Penh (and having won $5 in a poker tournament, enough for a decent meal and a night's stay!) we took another bus to Siem Reap. The famed Angkor Wat is here, but again you can see the destruction caused by Pol Pot's government. While they are now restoring the monuments, a lot of the statues had their heads cut off by the Khmer Rouge soldiers. We did however get to see the temple used in the Tomb Raider film, an extremely impressive structure with huge white trees protruding from their roofs and entwined around struts. We got up at 4am to go and see the temple for sunrise, and when I get my pictures online I'll add some as they are truly spectacular.

We are now in Sihanoukville (pronounced Sin-ook-vill), a beachside village which is extremely chilled. Cambodians in general have extremely good English, but the towns themselves are extremely dirty, and ridden with hawkers trying to sell you things. I did however have one interesting chat with a girl of 10 who was trying to sell me something as I had a drink at Angkor Wat:

Girl approaches: You want buy something, only $1 (she pulls out various bracelets and trinkets)

Me: No thanks, I don't want anything

Girl: You want nothing?

Me: Yes I want nothing

Girl: Nothing costs $1, you buy this, better value

Me: Ate-Okun (no thanks)

Girl: Ah you speak Khmer, where you from?

Me: London

Girl: I tell you name of Queen, name of Prime Minister, how many people live in London, you buy something

Me laughing: No thanks, that's alright

Girl: You know capital of Madagascar?

Me: No I don't

Girl: I tell you capital and you buy

Me: How about you tell me capital and I tell you capital of Alaska?

Girl: I already know capital of Alaska, is Juno

Me: *speechless*

The patter this 10 yr old had, plus her intelligence left me dumfounded. Obviously they go to great lengths to try and sell things, but this one hawker had a lot more in her head than the average Khmer I'd spoken to.

There's also a lot of beggars in Cambodia, a lot more than I've found anywhere else so far. It's difficult not to give to everyone you see, and I've given to one person who approached while I was actually eating, but unfortunately it's not possible to make a habit out of it.

Otherwise the Khmer people are extremely friendly and helpful, if a bit on the aggressive side. People travelling in Cambodia seem to be more grass roots kind of people, and there are very few western holiday makers. I'd definitely recommend it however to anybody thinking of taking a vacation in this part of the world.

We're going to stay in Sihanoukville for a few days now, recharge after a few very early morning starts (4am and 5am two days running with little sleep inbetween) and then begin to island hop our way back to Thailand.