A Lonely Beach Day

LONELY BEACH, KOH CHANG, THAILAND - CELIAS VIEW

A Lonely Beach Day.......

Wake up as soon as the light comes through the Bamboo hut cracks. Hot and sticky cause the fan is broken, hungover and sick.

Stumble straight to the beach and into bathtub warm water, a beautiful blue colour. Wake up properly, start feeling fantastic, Kisses good morning......

Swim the length of the beach to get the day kickstarted. Hose off sand and head over to treetop for breakfast. Lounge over the sea and eat homemade museli and yoghurt and drink chai tea.

Refill our water bottles and head off for adventures.

Take the Scooter and head off to some waterfalls in the middle of the Island. Go swimming. Visit some markets.....

Head up to the highest peak for the start of sunset then speed all the way down to hit the beach just before sundown....


Eat curry or pad thai or seafood BBQS and drink daiquiris and beer.
Sit on the beach and watch firetwirling. Run into the water, nightswimming naked and swim out to where the water gets really dark. More kisses.

Collapse in the hut. Shut the door.Kick the fan. Swear at the fan. Fall asleep..........

Sihanoukville

SERENDIPITY BEACH - CURTIS VIEW

Caught the bus to S'ville on the southern coast of Cambodia, thought it would be perfect way to wind down a quick trip though the country.

When we arrived It just begin to bucket down so we got ripped off and got a taxi which wouldn't take us to the guest house we wanted only to his friends so we had to wait out the rain before moving again and taking up our lodge over looking the sea on the beach.

The great thing about eating near the sea is that the sea food is always good and we tucked in weary from our travel. S'ville is a bit a tourist spot on the coast, covered with restaurants, bars and Guest houses on the beach.

We desperately wanted to go for a swim but all the way along the beach 2-3m out form the beach seem to float a wall of jelly fish. So we decided its best not to die in this part of the world and retreated to the bars.

On the last night I meet up with Churchy one of Roh's mates from Aus, and we got stuck into the drinks at Monkey republic where he was staying. It just so happened to be 'Gentlemen's night' and intrigued we stayed for free shots and quite a messy night of pool with crazy drunk backpackers. Somewhere in the middle I forgot to pay my tab (sorry Churchy!) and I stumbled home to Celia (who wisely stayed at home) for a few hours sleep before our 6.30 bus to Koh Chang - back in Thailand.

A Traveller in a Floating World

PHNOM PENH CAMBODIA - CELIAS VIEW

We ended up spending most of our time staying in this cool little place called Boeng Kak Lake in Phnom Penh.

Here the guesthouses were built on stilts above the lake. They were very very basic and very cheap and we had to share them with both mosquitos and rodents but you could forget the bad stuff if you were lying in a hammock watching the sunset over the lake from your guesthouse.

We really enjoyed Phnom Penh checking out the local markets and bars. We hit up the central market for Cambodian silk and I managed to buy thirty ( thats right kids thirty!) cushions covers in about twenty minutes.....

Later on that particular night we decided we were sick of the dust and mud and rats in Boeng Kak so headed out to a expat club we had heard about on 51st st called Elsewhere.

I looooooooooved this club. Loved it. It was so cool.......It was in a big old french colonial mansion and was surrounded by trees and little alcoves. There was a beautiful little pool in the middle and so we made friends with the bartenders stayed late, curt got behind the bar to make cocktails and I jumped in the pool to drink them. Fun.

There was a more serious side to Phnom Penh

S21 AND THE KILLING FIELDS - CURTS VIEW


Our tuk tuk driver was telling us about his family while we were at the lake and he told us his father was killed during the nightmare of the Khmar Rouge, full on to have living history told to you while you sit back and have a beer over looking a lake. With this fresh in our minds, the following day we headed to the Killing Fields and S-21 (school converted to a prison), something like 20 000 people died in the prison, very strange place to be. Considering it all happened on a couple years before we were born. There is no money to maintain the Genocide museum (Toul Sleng) that is now on the same site. This is quite worrying considering the magnitude of the killings and torturing and the importance of not forgetting this history.After spending some time looking over the photos of the dead and the other various pictures, cells and torture devices we made our way 16ks out of the city to the Killing Fields.

The Klling Fields were also humbling, 196 mass graves with thousands of people buried in them, up to 300 people were killed a day, bludgeon to death with hoe handles and such to save on bullets. There is now a Stupa memorial to the people killed filled with the skulls of the dead so there spirts can be free. I felt sick and thankful, humble and overwhelmed with what i saw. Lastly we we asked if after all this we would like to go to the very popular shooting range, this however did not seem appealing so we headed back to our house bungalow on the lake.

Tarantulas, Temples, Tuk Tuks and travelers diarrhea

SIEM REAP ANGKOR WAT CAMBODIA

CURT AND CELIAS VIEW

After a brief yet infectious stay in Bangkok we picked up and flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We timed our arrival well managing to get there just in time for a outbreak of hemorrhaging Dengue Fever which caused mass internal bleeding as well as aching bones.
Nice.

We stayed at a semi dubious guesthouse opposite the lake ( read swamp in the case) fairly close to the centre of Siem Reap. Outside our little establishment were street vendors who seemed to sell coiled snakes, pigs snouts, something we think was rat and .....Oreo cookies. The world is bizarre.

Curt got pretty sick here, typical travellers stuff (he wants me to put explosive ass) and his general wellbeing wasnt helped by the smell of fried rat outside the window. So naturally like everyone else in the world we had one major reason for being in Siem Reap...Angkor Wat.

I had no idea it was so big! By far and away, bigger than any other temple, holy place or lost city that I've been too. While the atmosphere at Macchu Picchu might have been more intense and the pyramids are undoubtedly older, ( and Ephesus is just boring and crowded) Angkor Wat just goes on forever with temples and sacred sites. The whole thing stretches over a area the size of Manhatten and every part of it is different. We were stretched for time but took in the major temple sites over a day and a half.

We were under some sort of a unlucky curse at Siem Reap though, to start with we arrivied at Angkor Wat for sunrise only to have it rain for the exact twenty minutes that the sun was coming up before settling into your average thirty degree day. Next and perhaps most tragically, a buddhist nun startled me in one of Angkor wats temples asking for a donation in return for a blessing and the famous red string. I jumped and dropped my camera and now five days into the trip it doesnt work!

So we have missed some great pictures ....Five days into the trip..sigh And after all that we somehow managed to miss our bus by some weird thing where we keep getting told different times. That turned out to be sort of cool as our tuk tuk driver just dropped us on the outskirts of town and we got the crowded local bus where everyone stared at us ( but nicely) for five hours.

Finally we arrivied into Phnom Penh where we have spent the day exploring the Killing Fields and S-21 Museum...

The Ultimate Crash Landing Pad

BANGKOK, THAILAND - CEILAS VIEW

We barely made our plane after some excellent all night parties with our friends in Brick Lane and with the STA crew in Islington.

We were a complete mess on our leaving day, but STA very kindly let me leave two hours early from work after showing up two hours late and not working all day...Bless them!
Curt managed to lose his passport at check in for several harrowing moments but finally finally finally we were sitting on our flight bound for Dubai.....

A couple of long flights, movies and bus rides later we were attacking our mini bar in our hotel on Khao San rd and then dropping into some serious sleep...

When we awoke it was to the playground that is Khao San Rd. I've been hearing about this street for a very very ver long time and it sort of exactly what I expected but not....

We spent the next few days exploring Bangkok by river taxi, tuk tuk and foot.
We had promised my big brother that we would check out the Royal Palace from the inside as he hadnt managed to and It was absolutely amazing. Huge Pagodas, Silver temples, amazing paintings.

We had a closer look at some of the wall paintings and were a bit suprised by what they showed when you look closely......



After that we went to Wat Pho and checked out the enigmatic reclinging Buddha. Huge.........



We also checked a street vegatarian restaurant my brother had recommended and afterwards we did the one thing left in the world that might annoy my parents and got some back alley piercings done. I got one and Curt two for about a fiver each......

Curt also made a effort to enjoy the local cusine.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae5Cz-FaxVA