Sorry for haven't been so good at updating the blog the last few weeks. We've been hiding out from the tuk tuk drivers. I'm telling you nobody, I mean nobody is safe from them!! Currently in Ho Chi Minh City, southern Vietnam. We made a swift exit from Cambodia today (only 6 days there in total) . Well as swift as you can get when the fan belt goes on the bus you are travelling on, and you have to wait a good hour for emergency repair parts. Apparently one hour is excellent time in these parts, and of course another hour to perform the repairs!! Will tell you more about Mr. Tuk, Tuk in a while.
So since Jeanette made the last post we moved south through Laos and been and gone from Cambodia. So from Luang Prabang, Laos, we took the horrendous 9 hours bus journey south to backpacker mecca of Vieng Vien. Signs were ominous when the bus conductor started handing out plastic bags before the drive even turned on his engine. Our suspicions were satisfied when we started climbing and winding our way through the Laos mountains (really spectacular scenery) but a guranteed recipe for making you sick!! On the journey we met "Ray Foley" from Carrigaline, no not the award winning DJ but our Ray has his own claim to fame. Ray features in the Denny Sausage "Posh Surfers" add on TV. Remember it.... and also did a RAY on RAY sketch with Ray foley the DJ live on the radio, akin to the famous "Roy on Roy" gift grub sketch on Today FM. Anyway it was great to meet up with another Irish person, and the three of us quickly descended into Cork accents (I'm afraid to say) Don't think anyone else on on the bus had a clue what we were saying.
So anyway, arrived in Vieng Vien, and did the obligatory tubing down the local river stopping off at the local bars along the way. Unfortunately the river level was pretty low so not much white water, but there was plently of craic at the watering holes along the way.
From Vieng Vien it was a short hop (only four hours) onto the really chilled capital of Vientiane. We spend two days here sorting out a Cambodian visa and just relaxing. Not a whole lot to see in Vientiane but its still a really nice place to visit. We rented bikes for the day and had a really enjoyable cycle around the city visiting the local landmarks. See photo of colour coordinated Jeanette!!!
From Vientiane we took an overnight bus to Pakse, and then onto the "Four Thousand Islands" on the southern Laos border. Yes, its a bit confusing, Laos is South East Asia's only totally land locked country but yet has over 400o thousand islands! Figure that one out. Basically the huge Mekong river has cut out over 4000 islands (they claim) from within its expanse. We spent 2 days on the lovely Don Khone island where we tried some fantastic "Pumkin Burgers"! Watch out Burger King!
So its was time to leave Laos and head onto Cambodia, more specifically Siem Ream and the temples of Ankor. We booked ourselves onto a bus package that would deliver us in Siem Reap within 48 hours. Little did we know the mammoth journey we were undertaking, with confusion, frustration and adventure at every step of the journey.
Here goes:
- Mini Bus no. 1 - air con leaked and we are got soaked at the back of the bus
- Mini Bus no. 1 - boot opens whilst in top gear motoring down dirt road, bags fall out the back narrowly avoiding woman on scooter
- Transfer to Mini Bus no. 2 as mini bus no. 1 is clearly not up to it!!!
- Carryout border formalities only to find that there is no Mini Bus no. 3, or at least not for myself and Jeanette and 3 other unfortunates. An hour later a banger Toyota Camry along with driver and his husband and child arrives and takes us onto Stung Treng. This was gas. There were four in the back( jeanette, me, Chris and Emma - our new Swedish friends) and wait for it, four in the front (driver, wife (sitting on gear stick), child, and Utto (from Germany). Poor Utto had to hold the 3 month old child. Eight in an old Toyota Camry isn't bad going. Don't ask how gear changes we carried out!
- Cross the river in Mekong by ferry. Surprisingly straight forward.
- Get on minibus no. 3 and drive about 60Km's to Kratie.
- Wait in Kratie for 2 hours for Mini bus no. 4.
- Mini bus 4 no. finally arrives and all 12 of us pile in! It was really overloaded at this stage, and then the driver stopped for 4 more, who proceded to climb onto the roof. This would have been fine only that the driver decided to drive on the worst mud road known to man. To top it all off the bus's lights kept failing with lots of oncoming traffic! Thanks be to god we made it to Kompong Cham safe and sound to overnight there.
- Bus no. 5 was surprisingly pleasant. This was the public bus from Kompong Cham to Siem Reap.
So 4 bus's, 1 boat, 1 car ferry, and 1 toyota camry to travel a total of 120 miles in 13 hours!!
Jeanette crossing no-mans land between Laos and Cambodia
stranded on the Cambodian side of the border need to get onto Jackie Healy Rae about this road!
One upside to the entire experience was that we really made some great friends during the trip, friendship through adversity Kim, Rosalee, Chris and Emma so we met with and bumped into a couple of more times in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.
So onto Siem Reap it was to see the famed temples of Ankor. It was an early start 4.30am to get up in time to see the sunrise over Ankor Wat. The next 12 hours or so were spent visiting the spectacular temples around Siem Reap including the famed "Tomb Raider" temple where the trees are engulfing the ancient buildings. See photos.
So without delaying in Siem Reap we headed for Phnon Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We had some interesting bus stops along the way, one in particular where they were selling hairy tarantula spiders as a light snack, I kid you not. Apparently its a delicacy.
So onto Phnom Penh and into the realm of the Tuk Tuk driver. They are all over the place and always at your service and thats the problem. We were staying on the 3rd floor of a building blog and would sit out on the balcony for breakfast. Straight about you would have tuk tuk drivers on the road below waving at us trying to solicit our business. Once we left the business we were asked where we were going today, and tomorrow and the next day. Its seemed like they thought we couldn't walk. But the pits was yesterday morning, we were out waiting for breakfast again, when one of the tuk tuk drivers decided to come up and serve us the breakfast. He walked straight into the guesthouse kitchen, aquired the tray and brought us out the omelletes. Honestly there is no escaping them.
In Phnon Penh we visited the horrific Choeng Ek memorial at the infamous Khmer Rouge's "Killing Fields". We also visited their S-21 interrogation centre, based in a former high school, to see where the poor unfortunate Cambodians citizens spent their last few months being interrogated before being sent to Choeng Ek for extermination. Its hard to believe that all this happened within our own lifetimes and that many of the perpatraitors were young teenagers!
Currently in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and guess what - zero sightings of tuk tuk drivers!
Heaven!
Hope all is well at home.
Brian
