Bali

I've arrived in bali and have spent a few days in Ubud. Ubud has a reputation for being the epicentre of culture in Bali and I agree that it has a huge amount of culture and arts. However, it has seemingly become a bit of a tourist trap with coach loads of "culture thrill seekers!" arriving in hoards and descending on the villages which have merged together to form Ubud.

First impressions of Bali was that it was similar to Cambodia but with more order.... that was because I arrived in the dark! Impressions quickly changed. After driving for about an hour I arrived at my guesthouse. I was a little disappointed because I assumed that it would feel like I had travelled to a different part of Bali but the road was pretty much lined with shops/workshops and homes for the whole drive. I didn't sense there was any huge distance between Ubud and the airport. Totally different to Cambodia where if you were to drive at night you would certainly feel like you had made a significant journey if you were to travel to a provincial town!

My guesthouse was an excellent Internet find - "Narasoma". I was impressed with the room on the top floor which was furnished traditionally with a massive wooden carved bed. A front and back balcony meant I could watch both sunrise and sunset from the comfort of my own living space! I awoke early to enjoy the sunrise and wow! The landscape was beautiful with interesting buildings and the volcano in the distance! I was now impressed.

Next on the agenda was a rice field walk and after consulting with the guidebook I set off and immediately sensed I wasn't on the right track. I carried on regardless and for an hour and a half or so was enjoying the walk. I hen tried to cross a gorge to walk home on the other side. A friendly local pointed me in the right direction. Ummm I would have preferred to go back the way I knew but trusting him I set off.... and promptly got lost in a maze of rice in the hot, hot sun!

I was Ok and enjoying the adventure until a big, black snake decided to JUMP (really!) from his hiding position next to my foot into the small water irrigation system that was running alongside the path. I had no choice but to continue with my walk - now armed with a big stick. Then, I saw snake 2, 3, 4 and 5 and suddenly was not having a too happy a time! I then turned back and managed to find the way again. Strangely I stumbled across a painter and a small gallery so had a small chat and he suggested an alternative route - NO way! I was going back the way I knew.

OOOh snake, snake, lizard, spider, snake, lizard. I was looking forward to the town! After 3 hours of walking I arrived back. Phew! The rest of my time consisted of shopping and eating and browsing galleries.

I did pay a visit to the popular Monkey Forest Temple which I thought might be a bit of a tourist trap but it was actually entertaining with monkeys stealing tourists food and generally being a bit of a nightmare for those with monkey phobia! Particularly good was the monkey "swimming pool" which was a small pond which the monkeys were swimming in and jumping off statues onto each other and diving for fun!
Wet, unimpressed monkey - No zoom - you could point the camera right in their "unbothered" faces

In the evening I watched a traditional dance performance and was impressed. My point of reference was Cambodian Apsara dancing and there were certainly similarities - hand bent in strange ways, feet arched and looking as if the dances were on hot coals. However, the major difference was the expressions in these dancers' eyes and the dance which I observed which was a lot faster with sharper movements to Cambodian dance.


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With one day left in Ubud I decided to try another walk. I walked for 4 miles and then couldn't find the start of the rice field walk. Mindful of the previous experience I decided to just enjoy the walk on the road! My feeling was confirmed when I saw a massive lizard just walking in the grass (he was about 2 ft long). Even though I knew by this stage the black snakes were "no problem" I just didn't fancy stepping on one by mistake.

Luckily a luxury hotel provided me with juice (at a cost!) to prevent dehydration! After this and slightly more walking in back lanes I could no longer resist the cries of "transport" and got a lift back to the centre of the city!

A few unexplored areas later I was ready to hit the road and head to the mountain lodge on Bali's second largest mountain....

Airport

Its not often that I cry in Cambodia. Yes, the dirty children and the land mine victims begging is distressing but after a period of time these become everyday scenes and you just get on with your life without such things playing on your mind too much (I guess it is just a survival thing - you can't change everything after all...).

However, today I was dropped off at the airport by a Cambodian - Canadian who escaped the Khmer Rouge. She now runs an NGO dealing with trafficking. As she dropped me off she alerted me to a group of girls, no older than 18 (looking like 14 year olds) who were all dressed in either pink or yellow T shirts. Their hair was short. Cambodian women treasure their long hair so this was odd.

She explained to me that they were all going to Kuala Lumpur to work in Malaysia as domestic workers. A closer inspection of the T shirts showed the name of the organisation sending them. They sat in a row waiting....

The next time I saw them was after check in and they were going up past passport control. In Phnom Penh the escalator goes past a glass wall to the outside of the airport. By this stage the families of the children in the bright coloured T shirts had gathered and they were waving. The children (because they were really children whatever their fake ages on their passports said) were crying, sobbing. It set me off too. They looked so innocent and petrified.

One in particular was sobbing on the plane. When it took off it was more of a howl. So very very sad. These girls, almost certainly, still lived at home, had never previously left the country and then all of a sudden they were being whisked away to work in a house (or something less desireous in due course) in a different country with a different language and culture - for very little money. They may only be an hour plane journey away from their homes but if you have no money and possibly someone else controlling your passport it is not that you can just return home when it all goes wrong.

When we arrived at Kuala Lumpur all I could do was smile at them a lot and hope that their final destination was a happy enough place for them.

Time to say goodbye...

Its time to say goodbye to Cambodia again after nearly 3 weeks... $25 of Cambodian "lard/ice cream"(I'm not sure what it is made of...) cakes have been eaten by the 100 students at the Centre's school which can only mean Happy Birthday or goodbye. I had both goodbye in English and the Khmer for goodbye iced onto the cake to ensure there was no confusion .... A few more goodbyes and then it is off to Bali.

More Khmer princess shots....

A before and after shot....

A kep sunset

Sunsets in Kep are sometimes spectacular - On this occassion I'd give it a 6 out of 10 but still impressive with the ocean backdrop!

Angkor Wat

Visiting Agkor Wat is supposed to be a once in a lifetime experience. I've now done it more times than I can count...! This time I took a group of Cambodian students who did the photo project with me - The idea was to get them to have some fun and take pictures.

In a while I'll put some pictures here! ....


There is not a lot to report - the tuk tuk drivers are still ripping people off in the city and there is a persistent use of child beggars in the city which is distressing.

That said I totally recommend Golden Banana guesthouse (www.golden-banana.com) which is just a haven of blissfulness from the heat of the city and the temples. It was a stark contrast to the guesthouse I ended up in with the Khmers - My hotel for the first two nights with them was very Cambodian. The TV was on, I had to fight to get a room with a window, the bedding was unattractive (not just in a fashion sense but in an ewwww-ish way) and the shower was ready to give you an electric shock as soon as you were naked enough to amuse the 20 or so tuk tuk drivers who appeared to sleep in the reception and were just waiting for a "comedy" incident like this to happen. I requested some additional bedding and luckily we escaped unhurt from the shower of death on all occasions it was used. Not bad at $10 a night for 4 people - but it was not where I was going to stay for 4 nights.


In contrast the Golden Banana staff were charming. The standard single room was actually large, the shower room attractive, the towels fluffy, the bed white and crisp..... the pools (two of them) refreshing - ahhh perfect. Suffice to say on the third day I did nothing but sit by the pool and eat.







After a lazy day I felt like I should do something so I took advantage of the free shuttle bus to the silk farm operated by a NGO Artisans d'Angkor - I have been to the Artisans d' Angkor gift shop and general show rooms before and they were worth a visit to see crafts such as stonework and metal work in action. It is an impressive organisation which seeks to give Cambodians opportunities via learning a traditional craft: http://www.artisansdangkor.com/

More pictures to follow...

The products are pricey - However, once I had seen the number of hours that goes into making a ream of silk and the work this organisation was doing, employing over 1,000 people it seemed more than right to get that nice silk scarf at only $24. Ok, Ok so it would have been $2 in the market but it would have been not nearly as nice and the organisation and its aim/mission is definitely worth supporting. I now have quite a collection of products from their shops....

Bokor/Kep - updated

Next stop was Kep - specifically Kep Lodge (again). I was really looking forward to some fresh prawns and crab in the famous Kampot pepper in the KimLy shack by the sea. I wasn't disappointed. Still as as delicious and cheap as ever. Worth the 4 hour bus journey!

After a few days of aimlessly wandering/cycling around Kep I decided to face the bus back to Phnom Penh. This meant that I could splurge on a trip to Bokor Mountain in Kampot. I have been trying to get up Bokor mountain ever since I arrived in Cambodia. The last time I tried the bribe was just too big. Bokor is is an abandoned French town was built as a resort to offer an escape from the heat of the capital city.

he focal point of the hill station resort was the grand Bokor Palace Hotel & Casino - Other ruins also remain - shops, a post office, a church....

The tour began in the traditional Khmer way - late. I was picked up in a tuk tuk which i thought would take me from Kep to Kampot to meet the others on the tour. Wrong. The tuk tuk took me to a shop/waiting place. Here I had my most successful Khmer conversation (with a stranger) to date! I managed to explain where I was from my job and so forth and even manged to explain that I was not involved in the Khmer Rouge Tribunals as he was suggesting (as he worked out I was a lawyer...). It kept me amused for a while. Then a mini bus turned up - this took me to Kampot.... I then was asked to get on a motorbike which took me to the foot of Bokor Mountain where the rest of the group were waiting. 3 modes of transport in an hour with no explanation about what on earth was happening! Patience required

About 15 of us were then herded into trucks which took us part of the way up the hill into the jungle. We then faced an hour and a half of walking in the jungle spotting strange creatures - snakes, beetles and moneys mainly.

Apparently the company developing the site would not let us go up all the way in the trucks because the road was not developed enough in the middle...seemed strange but I have long learnt to accept Cambodian logic. Basically, we could ride in the truck to the middle - get out walk for an hour and half in the baking heat and then ride the rest of the way in the truck. Ummmm - don't ask!

The tour guide was not impressed with my walking footwear - basically slip on pumps (now ruined by the torrent of rain later in the day). I didn't point out that the Ranger accompanying us with the gun was wearing flip flops....

The guide had a particular need to tell the worlds longest jokes. Did I tell you the one about the tourists who wouldn't pay because they were called monkeys by their tuk tuk driver? He also explained his view on a variety of different plants - including what we know as rattan/wicker - apparently the Cambodians eat this. I would imagine it is not very tasty but that said Cambodians do tend to eat everything which they can pick off any plant or tree!

After an hour and a half of walking we were back in the trucks taking us to the summit. Surrounded in mist we suddenly became aware we were actually up high and it was cold (!) outside (!) in Cambodia (!).

As we twisted our way up the mountain the development was apparent. The site is owned by the government but is now under 99–year lease to the Sokimex Group who have undertaken to repair the road and redevelop the site, repairing the old hotel and casino along with new buildings (mainly as casino/hotel). The road was very new and the cuttings at the side of the road were lined with new turf and were being mowed! - a strange thing in Cambodia! As we approached the ghost town we could see the foundations of the new building by Sokimex - It will completely destroy the atmosphere of Bokor and transform it from an adventure to a ghost city to a easy ride to a bling/eyesore of a hotel.

At least for the time being the abandoned buildings have been untouched. The abandoned buildings are truly amazing - Ignoring the DANGER sign and exploring the casino was a great experience - old bathrooms; orange moss growing on the building; cracked windows - a real air of the colonial French. Free to explore the building, which was clearly liable to collapse in part at any time, - Open access, that is what is great about Cambodian health and safety!

There were a number of spiral staircases which had just fallen apart sticking to the main stairs it was clear that in its prime the building would have been an amazing place. The view at the back of the building was utterly breathtaking and one of the best I had seen in Cambodia - the coast line looked beautiful sweeping below us.

While we were munching on a lunch of rice and vegetables trying to look around the casino the guide was intent on telling us a potted history of everything Cambodian in a completely incoherent way. He didn't seem to convey to the tour group that the organisation who was building on the site and who was granted the ability to rip apart the national park which Bokor is situated in is closely related to the governing party here in Cambodia.... basically they are in it together - I filled in a few blanks for the group. I often find it really surprising how unaware people are of the political situation in this country even if they have lived here for a while.

....I then asked if I could make my way to the abandoned church which was about a 10 minute walk away.

I don't think the guide understood why I could possibly want to go to see the church in the pouring rain. But I guess I couldn't understand why the guide thought that we all wanted to hear his ramblings (which would have been good if they were focused on the history of Bokor rather than the whole of Cambodian history) for 30 minutes when we only had 2 hours to explore (after about 4 hours of travel just to get there). Cultural differences eh!

The group followed over to the church and all too soon we were herded back into the back of the truck for the trip to the spot where we had to walk for an hour and a half again. By this point I wasn't sure whether this walking part was actually due to the limitations of the road as we were told or because the tour guides wanted to make the trip longer or what..... Anyway, one woman (wearing appropriate footwear I should point out) slipped and sprained her ankle - She had to ride down, all the way, in the truck. Turns out driving on the middle portion of the road can be purchased for an additional $1.... ha!

By this stage (a) people were complaining about how tough the walk was (b) the guide was still asking me over and over where my "sneakers" were. I had to stop myself from loudly expressing that: (a) this is a JUNGLE walk PEOPLE - Did you people expect it to have a concrete path? (b) I do not own sensible shoes and (c) if I did I would not be wearing them out of the house even in the jungle and (d) I didn't fall over. HUH!

The day rounded off with a boat trip down the river in kampot and a moto ride back to Kep. Phew!

More photos to come...