Micka & Sarah

Singapore is a lot different to the rest of the SE Asia we've seen. Its clean, modern and has an awesome public transport system - we went everywhere on the train and hardly had to walk anywhere, there's a subway station at least every 4-6 blocks or so, everywhere. It rains just as much as it doesn't and it is also just as expensive at home, we had to pay $5 for a beer!!! So we got on the MRT and headed to Little India where we had booked a hostel. After settling in for a little we checked out Chinatown for half an hour before heading out to the Night Safari. Open from 7.30pm and closing at midnight it is a few hectares of open enclosures in the middle of a forest. There was also a tram ride that went around the park. There were small animals like mouse deer, wild cats, echidnas, flamingos and also rhinos, elephants, jaguars, tapirs heaps of animals.

The next day was Australia Day!! We got the hostel to hook up our laptop and play Hottest 100 and just sat in the bar all day listening and drinking ridiculously expensive beer.. We met a guy from Melbourne and hung out for the arvo, going to a food court for some cheap dinner and then set out to drink our 1L bottle of Duty Free Vodka..... urggg never again!

A little fatigued and a little more than a little hung over the next day we went to the Singapore Zoo. Right next to the Night Safari and set out pretty much the same. there are no cages for the animals (except for a few things like snakes or some of the small monkeys) just an open enclosure where most would just have a steep ditch at the edge or a small timber fence. there were zebras, giraffes, crocodiles, komodo dragons, and heaps of monkeys and orangutans.

Exhausted we had a short siesta at the hostel and went back out to Harbour Front and checked out the Singapore icon - the Merlion (the lion prawn) - it was kind of cool. And it was just near an awesome casino that was three buildings with a rooftop joining them (needed flash clothes to enter) and also saw the big ferris wheel.

Our last day in Singapore was spent shopping (mostly window shopping unfortunately) in Chinatown then the famous Orchid Road which is a street packed full of huge malls full of designer stores. We rushed back to the hostel to grab our stuff and then to the airport for our last stop before home - Bali!

We got there just in time to check in but couldnt find where the counter was. We stopped at a jetstar desk and asked and were told that the flight had been cancelled. A little bummed we waited in line for ages to work out what was going on. Jetstar and Qantas were the only airlines that werent flying to bali because of the Volcano that had erupted in Java. Jetstar offered a flight anywhere on their destination list so we picked Manila and swapped our two booked flights from Singapore to Bali and Bali to Sydney valued at $600 for Singapore - Manila then Manila - Singapore - Melb - Syd valued at $3000 as well as a night in a flash Hotel with free dinner and breakfast and a taxi there and back - Awesome!!

ps. Just had to show you this huge snail we saw on the sidewalk one night:

So after our night in a pretty flash hotel we slept in a bit then hung out at the airport for some window shopping and free foot massage then jumped on the plane to Manila.

The next day was spent on... yes, another bus. We left the island on a high speed catamaran and transfered to probably the most comfortable bus we'd been on. We didnt get to Phuket till about 9pm and almost everything was closed in Phuket town where we'd planned on staying so took ages finding a place to stay.

Phuket town is the closest thing to anywhere else in thailand with most of the other beaches being either resorts or patong beach which is nothing like thailand, more like a zoo for package tourists.

The first day there was spent doing almost nothing, we sussed out the area and spent the arvo playing computer games.. then we got a motorbike that night and drove out to the cinemas and watched Gullivers Travels. The next day we spent driving aroung the island beach hopping.....
All the beaches were really nice, soft sand, blue clear water and it was an awesome day, we both managed quite impressive sunburns.

We took an early taxi out to the airport in the morning and after being ripped off for some "excess baggage" flew to our second last stop - Singapore!

We caught the bus from Siem Reap to bangkok at eight oclock. It was a pretty uneventful bus trip that got us into Bangkok at about 5.30pm. A fair majority of that time was spent in a crammed minibus or sitting at the border!

We planned to head to Koh Phangan the next morning but it was cheaper to go the next night so we decided to go to the weekend markets at Chatachuk (which we had been to before but not on the weekend) and did some shopping then jumped on the skytrain to MBK centre for a bit more shopping....

At 6 that night we got on a bus to Surathani on the mainland and straight on a boat across to Koh Phangan, it was hell, we arrived at 1pm, we hardly slept on the bus and had to sit on the outside of the boat where it rained... but we made it!

When we arrived we eventually caught a taxi to our bungalows which were on the oppisite side of the island. The price of a taxi is ridiculous considering its a twenty minute drive and you have to pay 6x more than if you had taken 40minute taxi in Bangkok...

Our bungalow was pretty awesome it was up on the headland of the beach with really nice views of the ocean just 50m away. It was really big, tiled floors and a bathroom which had pebbles instead of tiles which was sort of cool.

The following day we hired a motorbike and explored the south of the island and Haad Rin beach (where the full moon party is held once a month), when we were driving we saw a sign for a fishing trip and decided to go along. We went out in a little boat with two other people and the captain, he didnt speak any english but knew how to say thankyou when we offered him a beer from our esky! We lost our anchor in the first 5 mins at sea but the rest of the trip was really fun. We caught about 30 fish in 2.5 hours - averaging about 15-20 cm with a few that were 25cm!! in true SE Asia fashion none were thrown back (except for a couple Sarah managed to keep away from the captain! We went back to the island on dark and they cooked up a few of the bigger fish for us to eat at the restaurant. We then had to find our way back to our bungalows in the dark, a bit of an adventure but we made it in the end.

Our bungalows were doing a boat trip the next day (full moon party day) so we decided to do that and go to the party later in the night. It was to a small national park of islands about 50kms off the coast. First we went snokelling for an hour which was really cool, had lunch and jumped of the boat! Then to another island that had the 'Emerald Lagoon' in the middle of it, it was pretty. We kayaked around a bit and then went on to a third island that had a cave up the top of a mountain - Micka made it all the way up but Sarah preffered to have a nap on the beach...

After a few drinks at our bungalow we went to the full moon party at 10. These partys are huge, getting up to 30,000 in peak season and it is what Koh Phangan is famous for!! The drink of choice is a bucket which cost about 9 dollars but have a small bottle of vodka a can of redbull and a can of coke so you don't need many!! Its a big beach so it wasn't to packed which was good and some bars did shows or had slides and stuff onto the beach. One of the bars had these guys that did fire shows where they would get a stick buring on each end spin it and spit fire and another guy did the same with some numchuck things which was unbelivable!!! great night.Our taxi left at 2:30 only because we had the option of 2:30 or 7:30 in the morning and we didn't feel like an all nighter after the tour that day that left us pretty sunburnt...

The next day we did nothing............the hardest thing we did all day was to hang up a hammock!

We thought we'd better do something the next day so got another motorbike and stopped at a few of the waterfalls on the road into town. We saw another sign saying fishing park and restaurant so we headed in there and spent the next two hours fishing. It was a quiet little pond full of fish and contrary to what micka may say, Sarah caught the big catfish!! He caught a big snapper though and they cooked it up for us for lunch - it was delicious.

Then we spent the rest of the day driving around to the west / north side of the island with a quick stop at a really beautiful beach that wasn't too busy then we headed back to our bungalows before it got too dark.

After another 6.5hr bus ride we made it to Siem Reap. We stoped about 3 times on the way for food, we got some food at one and saw a table full of crickets, frogs, cochroaches and spiders and people were buying them by the bag.....

and we had a terrorist on the bus..................

The main place to see here (and the main thing to see in Cambodia) is the temple complexes just out of town, there are heaps including Angkor Wat the biggest religous monument in the world and pictured on the cambodian flag.

We got into town and as we were driving to a guesthouse we ran into dave and jono the aussies we went around laos with and organised to meet up for dinner.
We got to a guesthouse and decided to go to a pool, which was also a bar. Most pools we have seen have been pretty slimy but this one was at least clear.
That afternoon we took a tuk tuk to one of the temples for sunset called Pre Rup it was alot quieter than angkor wat but there was at least 40 people or more there.

We met up with the guys before they left that night and went to bed early as we were going to get up early to do sunrise at angkor wat.

It was five bells when we left and there was already a large crowd there. It was really awesome and we took the chance to look around while it was still early and were out of there before most people, so we could get to some other temples before they got too crowded.

Alot of the buildings and statues had carvings on them which don't show much in the pictures but you can see the detail on this one quite clearly (sticks out like dragons balls)

Our idea paid off as all the next temples we visited were almost empty. We went next to angkor thom which is a huge walled area with lots of temples and monuments inside. We went to the bayon first which had heaps of towers with four faces on them facing all directions of a compass it was really cool.

Next was Baphuon which was under construction and i forgot to load the photo, then Phimeanakas (below)

Right near that was sras srei a really nice lake/pond



A quick hike through some jungle and we were at Preah Palilay which was really nice with the mist still hanging around and trees had grown over it.
Then we jumped back inthe tuk tuk to Preah Khan which was huge and largely destroyed but still nice. There was alot of restoration going on.

On the way to the "Tomb raider temple" we stoped at Ta keo which is a huge temple mountain about 50m tall and decided to climb it. Until sarah chickened out half way, mainly because the steps were huge and steep!

Ta Phrom was used in the movie tomb raider so its very popular, there were busloads of chinese and japanese tourists everywhere, it didn't take long to get sick of the crowds and we moved on to our last stop the Banteay Kdei which was a little less spectacular than the others but still nice and quiet.

We headed back for some sleep, some blogging, some shopping and some dinner.

The next morning we caught a bus back to bangkok (another 9hours) for a nights stop before our trip down to KPN.

We got up late the next morning and headed out to get a taxi to Kampot. We decided the taxi, although $10 more expensive than the bus, would be a faster and more comfortable ride than the bus. It took about 20mins of haggling with a group of about 8 taxi drivers trying to get our business but still trying to rip us off with our tuk tuk driver translating for us. eventually we got a taxi for $25, which they then squeezed another 3 passengers and finally left for Kampot. It did cut out 1.5 hours of travelling so in the end it wasnt too bad a decision but will learn for next time how to do it properly.

As soon as we arrived we hired a motorbike and drove out to the pepper plantation about 40ks from town. Kampot is famous for its pepper - it is meant to be the best pepper in the world. It was a long bumpy road there and we turned off at the sign onto a red dirt road that looked like home. we werent sure we were at the right place because we drove for ages without seeing anything. Then some people started yelling and waving at us from the side of the road - we'd found one! One of the farmers showed us around his pepper farm. They sort of grow like grapes on a vine. He picked off a few bunches for us to try. He explained (sort of as he didnt speak much english and we dont speak any cambodian) how they make white, red and black pepper. He also showed us the fruit trees he had - bananas, papayas, jackfruit, and mango. We bought a little pepper (not sure how were getting that home) and when we said not to worry about our $2 change they were so gratefull, it is amazing how much they appreciate the smallest amount although im sure they can do more with $2 than we could.

We headed back and watched the sunset at a restaurant on the river. Some kids were fishing off the balcony with a bamboo pole and we drank some Angkor the local beer to finish off the night.

The following morning we took a tour to Bokor National Park. Bokor satation at the top of the mountain was built in the 1920s for the french elite and it had houses, police station, church and a casino/hotel. When the French left Cambodia it was abandoned and has since been used / abandoned throughout the various wars with Khmer Rouge and Vietnam. All that is left is the police station, church and casino. At the moment they are building a (private) road to the top (the best road in SEA) and a 5 star hotel amongst other tourist amenities. So to go to the abanded buildings you have to take a tour and part of the price is a bribe to use the road. Anyway they include a hike up the mountain, english speaking guide, lunch and a sunset cruise along the river in Kampot. The hike was kind of fun walking through the jungle where bears, tigers, cobras, monkeys and elephants are meant to live (although because of the explosions for clearing the road they are all scared away) and the transport on the back of a small truck wasnt too awesome because there were about 20 of trying to squeze in and not fall out but the casino was awesome. It is completely run down, it was five stories and you can imagine how it would have been in its hey day.
Out the front was a courtyard and then it was straight off a cliff, which they say many chinese businessman jumped off after losing everything... You could see bullet holes in the floor and some walls were there was a standoff between the Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese, one hiding out in the casino, one in the church. The church was just as run down but wasnt quite as impressive. We finished off the trip with the sunset cruise which was nice and relaxing.

For tea (and quite a few beers) we went to a place just 2 places down from our guesthouse. It was called the lazy farmer. The owner was super nice and stopped to sit down and have a chat with everyone that came in. We ended up talking to him and his other barman all night. They told us all about their lives as farmers, how they farmed, life in Cambodia and showed us some Cambodian music remixed into pop music. It was a great night.

We went home realising it was midnight and we had to get up early next morning to head to Kep. We left at 7am for the 40min drive. We wanted to go over to the popular Rabbit Island and thought the ferry was just up the road. We ended up walking 2kms with our packs on by the time we got there. The ferry turned out to be a heap of fishing type boats that would ferry a group of 2-10 people over at a time. We headed over to find a small patch of beach with nice sand and lightly lapping waves. There were little bungalows along the beach and we got one for $5. We spent the whole day sitting by the water and sleeping. It was a little cool for swimming and we both ended up unwell but we still enjoyed a whole day of nothing at the beach.

The next morning we headed back to Kep and decided there wasnt anything to do there so went back to Phnom Penh for the night. We were both still recovering from being crook so only had a quick dinner and spent the afternoon / night in the most comfiest bed we have ever slept in. In the morning we were fully recovered and ready for yet another bus ride.. to Siem Reap.