Asia trip - 3.-25.4.2008
Allright, now I found a computer that let me upload some pictures... So that's my first few days out there in Asia and I think the pictures will speak for itself!
After the night on the plane from Frankfurt to Bangkok there was a pretty sweet sunrise somewhere over India.
In Bangkok, Mandy who I know from Canada picked me up at the airport and we took the first bus down to Pattaya, at city south-east from Bangkok at the Gulf of Thailand. There I had some interesting experiences with the local food, this good man sold me some fresh roasted grasshoppers, frogs and scorpions...I didn't like the scorpions though, too bitter!
today we took a boat out to an island with some pretty sweet beaches, oh yeah I also got my first sunburn today....
the morning started with some rain showers so we just hang around the beach in some beach bars, later once the sun came out again we walked up to Buddha Hill to see the statue and the view over the ocean and city
Day 5 of my trip, time to go to Bangkok and get some pulluted air in my lungs and a bit of big city asian city life! After dinner we headed to downtown, along with is Mandy's brother and his girlfriend. haha yeah this picture was taken in a small tuk-tuk on the way back to our car.
Today I got the unique chance to go with Mandy's mum and her friend up to Ayuthaya, both are teachers and her friend grew up in that town. So first I had the chance to meet her mother in her house which was built with wood in a distinctive Thai style. Later we checked out the historic town of Ayuthaya. The Angkor empire built this city as the last post of their ancient road to Angkow Wat in Cambodia. So a good start for me to see this place before going to Angkor Wat later on my trip.
Day 7 and 8 I spendt in Bangkok exploring the city and it's crazieness! From old temples to modern skyscrapers, new shopping centres to street markets where you can get pretty much everything!
After taking the nightbus up to Chiang Rai in the northern part of Thailand I got to meet more of Mandy's relatives. I also had the chance to visit some hilltribe villages that were set up to visit and even had people living in them. The rings around her neck have around 5kg weight...
Mandy's grandparents, we usually had dinner with them...
Today was all about Songkran, the New Years festival. Now we're writing year 2552. The evening we spent at a bar having lots of whiskey with young people from Chiang Rai.
After a short plane ride to Chiang Mai we met up with a friend from Mandy, we checked out the old town and also joined the Songkran water fights that were going on all over the town, people just splash each other with water and have a huge party!
Another day in Chiang Mai, here are some kids playing on the stairs up to a temple and they were their traditional dresses.
Time to say good bye to northern Thailand, a 3rd class train without any AC and not too many fans but open windows with dusty air and the pollution from the train blowing right into my face brought me down to Phitsanulok. The old man in this picture was sitting next to me and somehow he liked my legs...he tried to squeeze my muscles as few times...haha yes these interesting people you only meet on these kind of trains...oh yeah I forgot to mention that it was pretty hot in that train, esspecially when we had a layover for about 30 minutes waiting for a oncoming train to pass....
Phitsanulok, this small city had not too much to offer so I just took another bus the next day to Nakhon Ratchasima. Thailand's second biggest town with very little tourism which suited me.
Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia! The land of the last true adventures...yes true! After crossing the border I ended up taking a free shuttle bus to the bus station, there I was told that the next bus would leave 4 hours later but instead they could hook me up with a taxi driver who would drive me for 30$ to Siem Reap...well 30$ in a country where people make 80$ a month is pretty expensive...so I just tried to find another bus station...not that easy since I don't speak any cambodian and people just recommended taking the taxi...while walking up the main street which didn't look like a street at all, more like a warzone full of garbage, run down vehicles, old buildings and lots of deep little lakes full of muddy water all over it. well somehow I managed to keep the taxi drivers at distance and a local farmer with his old pick up truck full with fruits offered me a ride to siem reap, we agreed on 10$...but I wasn't the only guest that he picked up, just the only guest that was allowed to sit inside along with some fruits, his wife, grandmother and him. On the back he had a some times up to 10 people sitting on my backpack and his load of fruits. So after 2 hours on a really bad street we got to Sisophon, there the driver tried to tell me that the trip would be over here, still 5 hours away from Siem Reap where I wanted to go. But he had a friend there that was operating a share van to Siem Reap, share van means the van would leave once full and full in Cambodia is about 20 people in a 9 passenger van. Haha bad luck I thought and started to discuss with my driver and the guy with the van. we settled that my whole trip would cost me 20$ and that we would leave right away and he still had 16 people in his van...yes and then the next 5 hours were quite a trip, friendly locals offering me food on the van but the downside was the street, even much worse than the first 2 hours... Along the road were a few really poor villages and on the road quite some traffic from old bicycles, all kinds of animals to huge trucks and our van....but the good thing was I had some adventure and we got safe to Siem Reap!
Angkor Wat, the reason why to go to Siem Reap! Today I checked out the old city of Angkor Wat, the capital of the Angkor Empire and also the largest religious building in the world. Pretty amazing just to stroll through these ruins and to see their huge dimensions and complexity. I spent there all day and still didn't see all of the temples, some hidden in the woods.
Enough temples, today I took a small boat to Battambang, along the way we passed lots of small villages on the river, it was cool to pass these floating homes and wave back to the waving kids. We also got stuck once in the mud because it's dry season and the water levels are pretty low in this region. So all the males in our boat had to get off the boat into the waste high water, we pushed the boat for about 300 metres and then could go back into it, most of us got some cuts on our feet while pushing the boat...another one of these adventures...so after a very long boat ride sitting on a piece of wood with about 30 other people, some of them locals that we picked up along the way we arrived in Battambang 9 hours later...I've never been so happy to stand and not have to sit on a piece of wood!
Another long day, this time 10 hours on the bus down to Sihanoukville, a beach town down in southern Cambodia at the Gulf of Thailand. Also a interesting trip with a old lady on the bus offering me some of the food that she bought each time we stoped for a break. Then in Sihanoukville I checked in at a german owned guesthouse...something I usually wouldn't do but this time it was located close to the bus terminal and very central in downtown with lots of great street food stalls just opposite of it. So that's where I headed for supper, I did not sit more than one minute at my table when 4 local guys from the table next to me invited me over to their table and join them with their food and wine! yeah and so we ate a lot of BBQ meet with som veggies and drank even more wine, local wine which was pretty strong. it's taste was more like a wine-whiskey mix but cheap. After we all had enough the bill was just 7$ and they were happy when I paid 5$ and they the rest. Eating in these street food places is one of the best ways for me to get in touch with locals...
Today my only plan was to spend some time at the local beaches, I rented a bike and just checked some of them out. After around 7km out of town I found a pretty nice one without much other people around. In this picture I caught some local fisherman just returning from the sea and selling their fish to some moto-drivers that bring the fresh fish to the market in town.
before taking the bus to Phnom Penh I checked out some rather rural areas from Sihanoukville a little bit outside of downtown, while checking out a cementary next to a buddhist temple I caught some kids playing in a tree. I asked them if I could take a picture of them and they more than loved that and asked me to keep on taking more pics of them.
Phnom Penh, Tida a friend that I got to know in Canada and who is Cambodian offered me to stay at his place with his family, another great local family that I am able to get to know here in Asia, it's amazing to see how important the family life for people here still is. Today I checked out the school where Tida is responsible for the computer network, then I did a long loop through the streets of Phom Penh by foot and motorbike taxi. In this city poor and rich really meets each other, often next door to each other. But the city is alive and I really enjoyed checking out several local markets and I bought some dirt cheap t-shirts at the 'russian market'. The good thing here is that most street signs are in cambodian and english language, so it's pretty easy to find the way.
After the night on the plane from Frankfurt to Bangkok there was a pretty sweet sunrise somewhere over India.
In Bangkok, Mandy who I know from Canada picked me up at the airport and we took the first bus down to Pattaya, at city south-east from Bangkok at the Gulf of Thailand. There I had some interesting experiences with the local food, this good man sold me some fresh roasted grasshoppers, frogs and scorpions...I didn't like the scorpions though, too bitter!
today we took a boat out to an island with some pretty sweet beaches, oh yeah I also got my first sunburn today....
the morning started with some rain showers so we just hang around the beach in some beach bars, later once the sun came out again we walked up to Buddha Hill to see the statue and the view over the ocean and city
Day 5 of my trip, time to go to Bangkok and get some pulluted air in my lungs and a bit of big city asian city life! After dinner we headed to downtown, along with is Mandy's brother and his girlfriend. haha yeah this picture was taken in a small tuk-tuk on the way back to our car.
Today I got the unique chance to go with Mandy's mum and her friend up to Ayuthaya, both are teachers and her friend grew up in that town. So first I had the chance to meet her mother in her house which was built with wood in a distinctive Thai style. Later we checked out the historic town of Ayuthaya. The Angkor empire built this city as the last post of their ancient road to Angkow Wat in Cambodia. So a good start for me to see this place before going to Angkor Wat later on my trip.
Day 7 and 8 I spendt in Bangkok exploring the city and it's crazieness! From old temples to modern skyscrapers, new shopping centres to street markets where you can get pretty much everything!
After taking the nightbus up to Chiang Rai in the northern part of Thailand I got to meet more of Mandy's relatives. I also had the chance to visit some hilltribe villages that were set up to visit and even had people living in them. The rings around her neck have around 5kg weight...
Mandy's grandparents, we usually had dinner with them...
Today was all about Songkran, the New Years festival. Now we're writing year 2552. The evening we spent at a bar having lots of whiskey with young people from Chiang Rai.
After a short plane ride to Chiang Mai we met up with a friend from Mandy, we checked out the old town and also joined the Songkran water fights that were going on all over the town, people just splash each other with water and have a huge party!
Another day in Chiang Mai, here are some kids playing on the stairs up to a temple and they were their traditional dresses.
Time to say good bye to northern Thailand, a 3rd class train without any AC and not too many fans but open windows with dusty air and the pollution from the train blowing right into my face brought me down to Phitsanulok. The old man in this picture was sitting next to me and somehow he liked my legs...he tried to squeeze my muscles as few times...haha yes these interesting people you only meet on these kind of trains...oh yeah I forgot to mention that it was pretty hot in that train, esspecially when we had a layover for about 30 minutes waiting for a oncoming train to pass....
Phitsanulok, this small city had not too much to offer so I just took another bus the next day to Nakhon Ratchasima. Thailand's second biggest town with very little tourism which suited me.
Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia! The land of the last true adventures...yes true! After crossing the border I ended up taking a free shuttle bus to the bus station, there I was told that the next bus would leave 4 hours later but instead they could hook me up with a taxi driver who would drive me for 30$ to Siem Reap...well 30$ in a country where people make 80$ a month is pretty expensive...so I just tried to find another bus station...not that easy since I don't speak any cambodian and people just recommended taking the taxi...while walking up the main street which didn't look like a street at all, more like a warzone full of garbage, run down vehicles, old buildings and lots of deep little lakes full of muddy water all over it. well somehow I managed to keep the taxi drivers at distance and a local farmer with his old pick up truck full with fruits offered me a ride to siem reap, we agreed on 10$...but I wasn't the only guest that he picked up, just the only guest that was allowed to sit inside along with some fruits, his wife, grandmother and him. On the back he had a some times up to 10 people sitting on my backpack and his load of fruits. So after 2 hours on a really bad street we got to Sisophon, there the driver tried to tell me that the trip would be over here, still 5 hours away from Siem Reap where I wanted to go. But he had a friend there that was operating a share van to Siem Reap, share van means the van would leave once full and full in Cambodia is about 20 people in a 9 passenger van. Haha bad luck I thought and started to discuss with my driver and the guy with the van. we settled that my whole trip would cost me 20$ and that we would leave right away and he still had 16 people in his van...yes and then the next 5 hours were quite a trip, friendly locals offering me food on the van but the downside was the street, even much worse than the first 2 hours... Along the road were a few really poor villages and on the road quite some traffic from old bicycles, all kinds of animals to huge trucks and our van....but the good thing was I had some adventure and we got safe to Siem Reap!
Angkor Wat, the reason why to go to Siem Reap! Today I checked out the old city of Angkor Wat, the capital of the Angkor Empire and also the largest religious building in the world. Pretty amazing just to stroll through these ruins and to see their huge dimensions and complexity. I spent there all day and still didn't see all of the temples, some hidden in the woods.
Enough temples, today I took a small boat to Battambang, along the way we passed lots of small villages on the river, it was cool to pass these floating homes and wave back to the waving kids. We also got stuck once in the mud because it's dry season and the water levels are pretty low in this region. So all the males in our boat had to get off the boat into the waste high water, we pushed the boat for about 300 metres and then could go back into it, most of us got some cuts on our feet while pushing the boat...another one of these adventures...so after a very long boat ride sitting on a piece of wood with about 30 other people, some of them locals that we picked up along the way we arrived in Battambang 9 hours later...I've never been so happy to stand and not have to sit on a piece of wood!
Another long day, this time 10 hours on the bus down to Sihanoukville, a beach town down in southern Cambodia at the Gulf of Thailand. Also a interesting trip with a old lady on the bus offering me some of the food that she bought each time we stoped for a break. Then in Sihanoukville I checked in at a german owned guesthouse...something I usually wouldn't do but this time it was located close to the bus terminal and very central in downtown with lots of great street food stalls just opposite of it. So that's where I headed for supper, I did not sit more than one minute at my table when 4 local guys from the table next to me invited me over to their table and join them with their food and wine! yeah and so we ate a lot of BBQ meet with som veggies and drank even more wine, local wine which was pretty strong. it's taste was more like a wine-whiskey mix but cheap. After we all had enough the bill was just 7$ and they were happy when I paid 5$ and they the rest. Eating in these street food places is one of the best ways for me to get in touch with locals...
Today my only plan was to spend some time at the local beaches, I rented a bike and just checked some of them out. After around 7km out of town I found a pretty nice one without much other people around. In this picture I caught some local fisherman just returning from the sea and selling their fish to some moto-drivers that bring the fresh fish to the market in town.
before taking the bus to Phnom Penh I checked out some rather rural areas from Sihanoukville a little bit outside of downtown, while checking out a cementary next to a buddhist temple I caught some kids playing in a tree. I asked them if I could take a picture of them and they more than loved that and asked me to keep on taking more pics of them.
Phnom Penh, Tida a friend that I got to know in Canada and who is Cambodian offered me to stay at his place with his family, another great local family that I am able to get to know here in Asia, it's amazing to see how important the family life for people here still is. Today I checked out the school where Tida is responsible for the computer network, then I did a long loop through the streets of Phom Penh by foot and motorbike taxi. In this city poor and rich really meets each other, often next door to each other. But the city is alive and I really enjoyed checking out several local markets and I bought some dirt cheap t-shirts at the 'russian market'. The good thing here is that most street signs are in cambodian and english language, so it's pretty easy to find the way.
posted by Dönner - เดินเนอร์ - 듀너 - ドエナー - 德納 at 2:41 AM
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