It's been a long time...
Said goodbye to Manuel on Sunday at the unearthly hour of 5am... so sad that he had to go. We had such a great time. But, well, can't dwell on what ifs, so on a happier note, I ended up meeting an American who had just spent two (!) days in Shanghai airport thanks to a bad connection and nearly missing my flight up to Chiang Mai (Thailand) thanks to a very late football match (Germany vs someone).
Had been grappling with the decision of either 1. going up to Chiang Mai, for some rural life and then, weather permitting, over and on to Laos, OR 2. going off to Japan to explore urban jungles and tea ceremonies, OR 3. fly down to Bali (Indonesia) for some sun, sand and volcanic action. Am actually really planning to do No. 3 (2 is too expensive) as I have quite a bit of time until Mark turns up!
But let me just recap what went on in the past few days...
Manu and I arrived in Siam Reap after a long and thankfully not very bumpy bus journey from Phnom Penh.
Tired and grumpy with heavy grey skies overhead we decided NOT to enjoy the sunset at Angkor Wat (MISTAKE! we thought a few hours in, but learnt that everyone had gotten kicked out early because the King of Malaysia was visiting the site, so not too bad in the end) and went off to explore instead.
Siam Reap was, to be honest, a bit disappointing... Mostly western restaurants and bars, with just about everything geared towards tourists. For example, we hid out in this one bar (air con heaven!), held completely in white, with lounging sofas and free WIFI that looked like something out of a lifestyle / best bars magazine. Surreal, especially after a very dusty tuktuk ride in from the bus station. The roads are full of holes and we were hanging on to our bags, getting sand blown in our faces, weaving in and out of motorbikes, passing all these UN Development buildings on our left and right.
Our hotel was alright, only a short minutes walk away from the (tiny!) city center and we booked our overly enthusiastic tuktuk driver for the next day.
The morning began bright and early (just imagine who was complaining about being on holiday!) at 4:50am to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat... was really beautiful. We charged into the temple while everyone else (especially all the Japanese tourists) stayed outside to watch the sun rising and had the place to ourselves for around half an hour. It was quite magical and at times eerie to be zooming around this dusky complex alone, with shadows everywhere. My imagination began to run away with me and I half imagined seeing tigers in the shadows (don't ask me why!) and mistook a tourist for a priest coming around the corner. (Yes, crazy, I know!) Shortly before lunch we had had enough and with the sun beating down we decided to call it a day.
Back at our hostel the receptionist greeted us with the news that the whole town was out of electricity and running water for the moment and he didn't know when it would come back. So dusty, sweaty and hungry we crashed into what was thankfully a relatively cool room (hotel was in a shady spot) and managed to fall asleep. About 30min to 45min later, the electricity came back on and soon after that, water started pouring out of the tap.
Refreshed we went out for lunch/dinner. After being fed and watered we came to the conclusion that, even though the temples were fantastic, we didn't really want to spend any more time Siam Reap. So we booked a bus down to Sihanoukville for the next day!
Sihanoukville is a really small coastal town, south of Phnom Penh and has quite a few lovely beaches. It's set to become to Cambodia what Koh Samui is to Thailand, but that may take some years yet. The builders are no way as efficient as, for example, in Dubai. We never saw them working, neither during the day nor at night!
We spent a peaceful week there, despite daily threats by Khmer children selling bracelets and fruit (you buy my bracelet or I kill you!). Lounging around, getting some sun and eating fresh barracuda for 3.- USD at night. There weren't many people around so we spent mellow evenings sitting on the beach, gazing at stars (can really see why they thought the earth was flat!) and eventually rolling home to watch the tennis. Beautiful!
On our third day, we took a boat tour to Bamboo island, which was absolutely stunning. A day of white sand and clear water with a bbq lunch, it was picture perfect. Despite some bouts of lightning and a roll of thunder in the distance. However the storm kept far away from us, moving off in another direction. The only hiccup was the boat's motor: it kept stalling and left us wondering if we would get there and back safely. But luck was on our side and surprisingly enough we didn't even sport serious sunburns at the end of the day.
Time flew by far too quickly and soon we were booking our airasia flight back to Bangkok for some serious shopping. Unfortunately 'someone-who-will-not-be-named' got pick-pocketed and lost his phone and wallet to pinching fingers. Thankfully he lost nothing really important, so in Bangkok we headed straight to MBK shopping center and invested in a new Sony Ericsson.
That day proved to be quite a record for us: we arrived at the mall at around 10:30am and left at 8:30pm... a full days shopping! (Ok, they do have a cinema in the building). Because most shops weren't really up and running before midday, we had brunch and went to see the Sex and the City film. (No, I am not some kind of sadist, making Manuel sit through it, there was just nothing else on watch!)
This may now account for the fact that I am LONGING to wear high heels and am sick to the back teeth of my travelling clothes... but apart from that tiny negative side effect, the film was a typical AMERICAN feel-good girlie movie (like Legally Blond or Clueless). Manuel, of course, nearly fell asleep. Or he may have, actually. I was oblivious to anything but the "I want to go to NYC"-urge that befalls me when I see the four girls. ;-)
Today I spent the day learning how to cook Thai!
According to my certificate, I am now a master chef (hehehe), able to create:
.Pad Thai (fried noodles)
.Rice rolls (like spring rolls)
.Papaya Salad
.Stir fried morning glory (Chinese spinach)
.Penang curry
.Fried banana & sweet potato
We went to the market first for a lesson on tropical fruits, herbs and spices before plunging head first into Thai cuisine. Our teacher, Meow, was quite a crazy woman, but in a funny way. She showed us the difference between the curry pastes and we made the green curry paste she would use for the next day's class.
To my surprise, I absolutely loved the cooking. Wonder how long that will last?!
Even learnt how to do the "big flame" for a smokey effect. Admittedly my flame bore more of a resemblance that one of a matchstick, rather than to a bonfire, but the food was still very tasty.
Random notes:
1. Every time I walked past a bakery, either in Cambodia or Vietnam I did a double take: thanks to the French all their cakes and pastries on display look exactly like those in Colmar, Paris, Geneva... really rams history home. Though it is a bit odd seeing monks and chickens cross by in front of lemon tarts and eclairs. Kinda surreal.
2. I was suffering from an earache and managed to get some ear drops which didn't really work. Sick with my grumbling and groaning, Manu offered to take a look and discovered that I had a tiny cut in my ear (no idea how that happened!) and after putting a bit of Merfen (disinfectant) I was right as rain again.
3. I tried to upload the pics of Angkor Wat but kept getting kicked out... so you'll have to wait until I get a more reliable connection somewhere else :-(
