Been there, Don Det...

Having arrived at sunset, and after a tiring day travelling, i pretty much settled with the first place that i found and negotiated what i thought was a good deal.  The travel guide had said that accommodation was $1 a night, but they didn’t factor in inflation and the weakening dollar and the strengthening Kip – so i had to settle for $2.50 a night.  I also wasn’t staying on the river, but i ended up staying there for 4 nights so it couldn’t have been all that bad...

I thought i was getting away for a while, but it appears that half the backpacker tourist population were doing the same thing, and the island has very quickly developed into a backpacker haven of cheap booze and ‘happy’ meals – and i am not talking the MacDonalds kind!

I thought this was another opportunity to see the Irrawady dolphins, but in this season they actually take tourists to the Cambodia border and view them from there – so as i had just seen them in Cambodia, i didn’t think that would be necessary to do again.  Apparently in the dry season you can see them from near the island just south of Don Det, so i was out of luck.

I basically spent the 4 days walking around the island just exploring island life, and noticing what a huge impact tourism has had to the local lifestyle.  I was wandering whether the river ever flooded the island, but because it can get to 14km wide in this section of the river, the water tends to spread out instead of rise up, so human life is quite well established here.  They have a school, and the guest houses and hotels are getting bigger and better.  The tourists that spend time here are usually the backpackers who want to find the cheapest accommodation and then proceed to spend loads of money on beer – go figure!  There are other activities like tubing and kayaking, but these tend to be within the drinking scene as well. 

On the one hand i can see how some locals welcome the tourists with open arms, as it means that they will earn more money and can buy the more western gadgets – some of their phones were really hi-tech! 

Leaving Cambodia

There is a thing in Cambodia where transport to and from border posts is really expensive – they kind of know you want to get there and there is no other way – or so they think you think...  I refused to pay the $11 for a bus to the border, and so i thought i would try and get a bus to the next town instead as that should have been $4 – the only thing was that the bus left at 2pm and that would mean it would be too late to get to the border and beyond.  So i tried the local minibuses, the only guy that was trying to sell me a ticket was also trying to rip me off, he was wanting to charge me $7 to the next town... and when i started picking up my bags to walk away he started dropping his price and eventually stopped at $3.50. 

I have noticed that i get quite stubborn, and i do not like it when they try and extract more money from me than the actual price of the ticket – whereas others find this amusing, so i guess there is some learning to do in this area...  So, because he tried to rip me off – i refused to  buy a ticket from him, no matter how little it is. I continued picking up my bags and then i walked... for quite a few kilometeres, in the heat with my bags  - i seem to enjoy torturing myself! LOL!  I tried getting a lift in one of the local pick up trucks, but they weren’t picking up, so i continued walking.  Someone in army uniform came past on his scooter and gave me a lift to the turnoff, so at least i was on the right road.  I then walked a couple of kilometres and after no taxi-type pickups coming past i decided that i would go for the hitching option.  There are so many 4 x 4’s, and none of them stop to offer a lift.... After a while a lovely couple who did not speak English stopped and gave me a lift.  So that got me to the next town... once there, many people try to find out where i am going so they can sell me tickets, so i walk again... i head towards the main road, but then a cloudburst appears, so i hide out in a little shop on the side of the road.  It had a plastic awning sheltering it from the rain, but as it was not taught water collected in it, meaning that it could fall through the awning.  So my job while i sat there was to empty the water before it became lethal.   When the rain cleared i bought some toilet paper, a lighter and a can of condensed milk... I asked if i was going in the right direction and was told that i wasn’t.  So i decided to walk all the way back to the centre of town and ended up catching a local minibus for $4 which dropped me off at the border.

I didn’t realise it was the border as it only has a few porter cabins, so it could have been just another village... I found the Cambodian official who was to stamp my passport and he was requesting that i pay him $2... I had read about this in the Lonely Planet, so i acted naive and asked him what for.  His response was that it was to stamp my passport – so i just smiled at him and said this was not an official charge. He smiled back and did not pursue the matter.  His buddy that was having no part in this negotiation just stamped my passport and i walked away without paying.  A bit further down the road i found the little cabin that housed the Laos officials.  Usually you can get a Laos visa at the border crossings, but not at this one, so i had arranged that in Phnom Penh and it was significantly more expensive than i had expected.  As they don’t get any visa fees at this border crossing, they also ask for $2 to stamp my passport... I tried the same trick, and explained that i had already paid enough for the visa, but they were more stubborn than i am – not something i come across often (Lol!) – and were refusing to stamp my passport without the money.  So i eventually surrendered the money and left with a stamped passport. 

At most border crossings there are masses of annoying people trying to take you somewhere for an exorbitant amount of money – well not at this border crossing.  It was quite desterted, except for the few men who were doing some construction on what i imagine is to be the new border post buildings.  One of them offered to give me a life on his bike but i declined and continued to walk with my bags for a couple of kilometres.  I thought the place where i was going was only 5km from the border, but it turned out to be a few more than that, so i was really grateful to the driver of a truck that eventually gave me a lift to Ban Nakasan, so grateful that i parted with a few dollars to express my gratitude.

From Ban Nakasan i needed to catch a ferry to Don Det, which is a little island in the middle of the Mekong river.  Once again the ticket sellers were trying to get me to pay more money than was necessary, but i just sat and waited for about an hour before a group of 7 tourists arrived.   They had paid an all inclusive ticket to Don Det, and these guys were now telling them that they had to pay for the ferry – which in theory they had already done.  They were then quite happy to accept the normal ferry price from me, and after about half an hour and the other tourists having to repay their fare, we were off. 

It was now sunset as we took our short trip to the island while watching the sun go down...

Dolphins, pyjama parties and bicycles...

I arrived at Krati (pronounced cruchy) in the early afternoon, and having met Sarah on the bus we ended up sharing a room together to reduce costs.  We found a nice room with a riverside view, and then we went for a walk looking for the free ATM (the other option is to use one that charges $4 per transaction).  I had seen it on the way coming in to town, but i could quite remember how far it was, so after walking many km’s and not coming across it we decided to ask someone.  They then phoned an English speaking person who could help us and they said it was right back where we had started – lol!  So we turned around and headed back, and made it to the riverfront just in time for a beautiful sunset.  And yes, we found the ATM as well, only a couple of blocks from our guest house!

Just north of Krati is Kampi, and this place is well known for sightings of the rare Irrawady river dolphins, of which it is believed that there are only 70 left in the stretch of river from Kampi to the Laos border.   That is all thanks to Pol Pot – so yes he tortured and murdered thousands of humans, but his violence also extended to the dolphin population as they were hunted for their oils – and by grenade!   So seeing the dolphins is quite a big tourist attraction, and you can tell by the fact that they have tourist prices – one of my pet hates!  My lonely planet guide says that the out of season price is $5/4/3 depending on if there are1/2/3 tourists.  However the prices are now $9 per tourist for one or two people, $7 per person if there are 3 or more people.  Ouch.  We cycled the 15km there and then i decided that i was not going to pay the $9, and Sarah didn’t want to either – we tried bargaining with them, but they were not budging.  If we just sat there watching the river they wanted to also charge us $7 each – so we left for greener pastures up river.  We found a French speaking local – unfortunately neither of us spoke French, so we couldn’t quite organise him to take us on his boat – we think he was telling us that the water was too low for his boat.  We sat a while, ever hopeful of a potential free sighting – but none.  We then headed further up river and eventually came upon a ferry about to depart, so we hopped on, thinking that maybe we would see a dolphin on this journey.  We got to the other side of the river $0.25c poorer and having not seen any dolphins.  We then continued to cycle down river continuing to watch the river for a sighting... All the while passing many families and children shouting hello as we cycled past.  Sarah eventually gave up on replying, but i couldn’t bring myself to stop, so i continued replying to every ‘hello’ that was shouted from the sidelines.  The views were just spectacular – and the temperature was to die for – literally!!  It was scorching, and the sweat was just poring off of us.  We were hoping to find someone with a motor boat that could take us to the dolphins for cheaper, but they were all manual rowing boats – and with the strength of the Mekong River – we preferred a motor boat.  We continued cycling south and felt like we were going to be cycling forever without ever finding another ferry to the other side... But when you start seeing restaurants with TV’s then you know you are nearby – don’t bother looking for a sign, because there aint any.  Thankfully we found it and we waited for the next ferry to come collect us to take us back to the mainland.  We then decided to cycle the extra 6km’s back up river to the dolphin site to buy some trinkets... that ‘s when we met 2 South Africans who had just come back from the trip and said it was amazing.  So Sarah and I, choking hard on swallowing our pride, forked out the $9 to pay for our boat trip out to see the dolphins.  Within 30seconds of being on the boat, we saw our first dolphin!  We then went out to a place that they frequent and watched them as they came up for air.  The water is really flat and it is all around you, so when you are looking in one direction you hear them come up for air in another direction.  So the pics are not that good, but it was good to be there, it was early evening so it was cooler so it felt like a good time to be on the river. 

Trust me... it really is a dolphin!

After our adventure on the river we still had 15km’s to cycle back to town, so most of that was done in the dark.  Sarah managed to pick up a local hitch hiker and give him a lift on her bicycle – rather her than me, as i am still not brilliant on a bicycle...  From our little map that we were given, we cycled 52km during the day!  What about the pyjama party you ask, well Cambodia is one big pyjama party – many of the local women walk around in their matching pyjama sets... i don’t think anyone has told them that they are pj’s, and i certainly wasn’t going to burst their bubble, instead i decided to join them!

 These young Cambodian girls were teaching Sarah and i to make friendship bracelets... they also ran the guesthouse (aged 16 & 18)!!

The killing fields of Cambodia

The main reason why i came to Phnom Penh was to get a Laos visa, as it is not possible to get it at the border crossing that i will be passing through.  While here i thought i should do some touristy thing, and i really want to understand this country a bit more.  From what i can see on the surface there is a lot of poverty, there are a lot of orphanages, and there is a lot of foreign interest here, trying to help out in some way.

I don’t enjoy learning history from history books – that was proved when i got 17% for one of my history exams, so i knew nothing about Cambodias past. Slowly i started hearing about the Khmer Rouge, and when i visited the Toul Sleng Museum here in Phnom Penh, the reality of what happened struck me.

                                                 

From what i can gather, a group of people, led by Pol Pot, decided that they knew what was best for everyone else in the country, and subsequently enforced their beliefs on others making them work the land like slaves.   They destroyed so much of what had been important in the country prior to their take over – that includes temples and statues of buddhas, banks etc. There were about 20 000 people who did not survive their period of ruling, and they were tortured and murdered, and that included men, women and children.

The museum (Toul Sleng) used to be an old school which Pol Pot converted to a detention and torture centre.  On the walls of the torture rooms are a single picture of one of the victims and the only other objects in the room are the bed and shackles where the people were tortured. The detention cells were tiny and some of them did not even have a window.  In another section of the museum they have rooms full of photos of the victims – men, women and children.  Looking into their eyes in the photo just brought me to tears – just being aware of the suffering that they endured.

 I then visited the Killing Fields, which is where those who weren’t killed at Toul Sleng were taken to be executed.  During an excavation there they discovered about 9000 corpses, and so they have built a huge stupa to house the bones of all those that were executed, and these are on display so that people can know the atrocities that happened.  You also walk around the pits that were used to bury the corpses.  There are still pieces of cloth and some bone fragments lying around the area, which makes it all seem a lot closer.  When i think of WWII it seems very distant for me, as i was not alive during that time, but this happened during my lifetime.  I was born in 1975, and that is when it all started – so to think that such atrocities existed not so long ago is quite scary... could there possibly still be people who think in the same was as Pol Pot did? Could something like this happen again in the future?

Sunrise, Sunset...

The temples of Angkor are the main tourist attraction in Cambodia.  I didn’t know too much about them but the pictures i had seen looked lovely, so i decided it is a must – despite the cost of the entrance fee!  It is US$20 for one day, US$40 for 3 days and US$60 for one week.  I chose the 3 day option, and you can choose 3 days in a row or any three days within one week.  So i chose the any 3 days and ended up going every second day – which was really nice to have a rest day in between.

At the first guest house i was staying i got a free bicycle for loan, which was as old as the hills but it got me there!  Now some people will know that ‘I don’t cycle’! I much prefer to walk, no matter how far.  But as the temples are quite a distance from town, it would have meant that it would take me a long time to get anywhere – and it is really hot! (On the internet it says it is only 31 – clearly that weather man is not in Cambodia!!)  Once i moved guest houses (cheaper and free wifi), i paid US$1 a day to rent a bicycle, and it was a better bike – i could feel it in my leg muscles.   So yes, i took to the roads – initially with a bit of fear, but after 3 days of cycling i was owning my space on the road.

I woke up at 4.30am and was on the road by 5am (still dark – with my little head light) in order to make it in time for sunrise.  The temples with the sunrise backdrop are just phenomenal, and the light at that time of day is really a good time to take pics, so i would be out until mid day and then come back for my ‘free breakfast’ – which has actually become my lunch.  I was advised not to go to Angkor Wat on the first day – and save it to the last day – so i went to Angkor Thom on my first day and encountered Baton temple at sunrise.   I then went to all the other places within Angkor Thom, and when there were rain showers i would run for cover.  So my first day was spent seeing only Angkor Thom.  On my second day i decided to go to Angkor Wat for sunrise, and if i liked it then i could go again the next day (which is what i did). From there i went to Ta Prohm and then back through Angkor Thom and back to my guest house for breakfast.  The third day was much of the same, but it felt a bit less haphazard than the other days.  This time i went in a circle starting at sunrise at Angkor Wat and then doing the small circuit – all still on bicycle.  After ‘breakfast’ at 12 i had a nap and then went back to Angkor Wat for sunset.  I had not gone for sunset on any of the other days as it was raining mostly, but the weather was good on the last day, and the sunset was beautiful as well – it is a pity my camera battery died before it had finished!

My experience of going to all these temples was mixed – i loved the Bayon temple as they have the 216 huge  figureheads of Avalokiteshvara around the temple and it is just beautiful.  Some of the buildings had very interesting stone carvings, some depicting battle scenes, some overgrown by trees and some had none of these characteristics.  I noticed myself getting bored and extremely irritable with the bus loads of tourists that are chatting at high volume and it is all about having their photo taken at the place.  That equanimity which i was cultivating in solitude on retreat was out the window – this was the real test for equanimity, and i failed!  The other thing which really tested my patience was the local people who were trying to sell you stuff. On the one hand i can see that they are desperate to earn a living, and some of them are young kids, so are only doing what their parents have told them to do – but from the time you arrive at your first temple you are bombarded with ‘Lady park your bike here free Lady’, ‘Lady do you want some water Lady?’, ‘Lady do you want breakfast lady?’. All with a kind of American twang to their English. But by the third day i was being a bit more human about it all and trying to remain open to the experience, instead of completely shutting off.

Considering whether i was a pilgrim or tourist on this adventure – i would have to say that i was a tourist, from sunrise until sunset...

Hobo Stylin...

When i was a kid – and that is a long time ago – my favourite tv programme was called The Littlest Hobo. I used to be glued to the screen, and the song was so catchy – so i have included it here for your enjoyment!



I think that even at such a young age, a part of me resonated with this wandering vagabond of a dog, and now as an adult wandering the earth – i feel even closer to what that dog represented. In the song, the lyrics speak of ‘maybe’ settling down, but until then ‘just keep moving on’. Well ‘then’ has arrived for me and i am ready to return home and begin my new profession.
This is due to two reasons mainly, one being budgetery constraints – basically i am running out of money and the second is due to me finally feeling ready to return home. Initially there was an element of feeling like i had failed because i am not going to make it to all the countries that were on my list, but i realised that i would feel like more of a failure if i arrived home in South Africa with huge debt (my credit card is for emergencies only, and thankfully i have not had to use it so far) and then would have to spend many months working to pay off a holiday.
The part of being finally ready to return, is where i arrived at while i was on retreat, and so i am spending many hours on my little computer trying to prepare for my life in South Africa, so not quite being all here, but it needs doing. I need to get my UK degree recognised by the relevant authorities in South Africa, so it is gathering all the correct paperwork for that process to start happening. Then i need to find a job – preferable starting the day after i land!! Etc etc.

I managed to get my airline to fly me to SA from Sydney for just a nominal fee and airport taxes – which is quite a relief, so that means that i will not be returning to the UK before heading home – to be honest the visa process looked like a nappy-full, so i decided to just go straight home.

So this wandering hobo is gonna settle down for a while... ;-)

Cambodia Beckons

As my Thai visa was expiring on 1 September, i had to go to one of the neighbouring countries. So i took a bus from Bangkok to the border of Cambodia.  Somewhere i had read that this is a border with distances between the two posts, so i was expecting to take a tuk-tuk from where the bus dropped me off to the border and then in between the border.  That was not necessary though, as the bus dropped me off at the border and the space between the two posts was shorter than at others. I had also read that the visa process is tiresome with long queues, but as it was out of season this was not an issue.  To get the visa, i had to pay the US$20 plus an extra 100 Thai Bhat (£2) for express 3 minute visa.  I had read that they would likely charge me in Thai Bhat and that it would work out to be nearly double the official price in US$, so to pay only £2 extra – i was happy to just let it go, even though i knew that this was not an official cost.  And the visa was really available in 3 minutes!! So no long 2 hour queues.  Then going through immigration was pretty painless, just another form and e ‘vuala – I am in Cambodia!!

As you come out of immigration there is a sign saying ‘free shuttle for tourists’, so i hopped on, curious to see where it went.  It was going to the bus station, and when i arrived there i realised it was designed for tourists and their wallets.  Then i looked at the price of the buses and knew they were way overpriced – this was where having read the lonely planet came in handy!  They were wanting to charge me US$12 for the 200km journey to Siem Reep, which was more than double what i had paid in Thailand for the 400km journey to the border!!!  So i walked out of the bus station and headed straight for the main road.  The taxi drivers are so persistent about you getting a lift with them - I had one drive slowly next to me as i walked, for about 200m.  Then when i crossed the road to get away from him, he stopped his car and walked across the road to try and give me a ‘good’ price to go to my destination.  I realise that they are desperate for work, especially out of season, but i have a budget.  If i wasn’t on a tight budget then i would definitely help the locals out a bit more.  But on this occasion i walked for about 1km when i stumbled upon some guys sitting under a tree in front of a bukkie (4x4 truck), and they asked where i was going, so i told them and it just so happened that this was the more local form of transport, so i hopped onto the back of the bukkie and waited for about half an hour for more customers to arrive.  The driver tried to suggest that if i paid extra they could leave straight away – i said that if i paid that much it would be cheaper to go on the bus, so he smiled and we left anyway. Can’t blame him for trying.

The lonely planet had suggested that i get to the next village, Sisophon, and arrange onward transport from there – as it is cheaper.  So after being completely windblown, and a punctured tyre, we arrived in Sisophon where i was told that there were no more busses to Siem Reep – but there were plenty of taxi drivers ready to take me there!

So i hauled out my Lonely Planet and sat reading about what options were available here, while about 10 men were standing around me watching me and trying to see what i was reading.  My guide book was not helpful in this situation at all, so once again i decided to start walking.  That seems to be my default – just walk.  I stopped and asked the direction for Siem Reep, and asked a few more people along the way, just to check i was going in the right direction – i have learnt not to take one persons interpretation of a way to get somewhere!!  Siem Reep is about 100km from Sisophon, so some thought i was a bit mad not taking a taxi.  It felt really good somehow to just be walking on that stretch of road, it felt like a real backpacker experience vs a comfortable bus or taxi ride...

After a couple of kilometres another bukkie stopped and asked where i was going – they were going to Siem Reep, so we negotiated a good price US$3 to get there. No flat tyres this time, just bags full of chickens! Live ones! 

I was dropped off near the guest house i was wanting to stay at, but unfortunately i did not know exactly where they were as they were not on the map, so i walked around in a bit of a circle asking people – and found them to be really helpful, even phoning the guest house to get directions.  The taxi drivers told me they knew where it is, but they did not impart that information for obvious reasons.  And then i met a young Cambodian woman who decided to drive me there on her scooter – me with all my bags – what a sight that was! LOL!  She dropped me off at the place, which was really great, as it was just about to get dark and rain.

The guest house turned out to be more expensive than i had budgeted for, but the room was really nice and the price included breakfast, free laundry, and free bicycle rental – so i weighed it all up, and decided to just stay there anyway. So for US$8 i have a pretty good deal. Now to sleep... g’night.