Hello everybody,
I realise I am a little late but I wanted to take my time to write about our fabulous honeymoon. Note the F word, I do not, I repeat not, use it lightly. Apart from the pictures Olaf already refers to in his blogpost, you can find a more extensive selection with captions in the Picasa web album I have created for anyone who would like to have a look at the things we saw, and most importantly as visual memories to ourselves. Here follows a summary of our trip.
Bangkok
Our first impression of Bangkok was that it is so modern. We had expected a kind of Mumbai (dirt, some skyscrapers, a lot of poverty and pollution) but Bangkok is exceedingly clean, spacious and the air is very fresh. There is modern-style transport (underground railway, skytrain) and though you can get ripped off by tuk-tuks if you feel like it, there is always the option of the super-cheap taxicab. On the other hand, the modern stuff stops when you get to the old city which helps preserve some its historical character. We stayed in a fancy hotel on Khao San Road (backpaper central) the first night and watched the fireworks from the pool on our hotel roof with some beers in our hand. And then, not having slept much on the plane the night before, we went to bed and enjoyed a blissful sleep interrupted a mere 16,000 times by partying tourists. Bangkok's temples are impressive but the famous Emerald Buddha at Wat Phra Kaew (a modern Wonder of the World) was rather dispointing. We spent two days walking around and seeing all the sights and met up with my old boss Caroline at night for food and drinks. The rooftop Vertigo Bar on the 61st floor of the Banyan Tree Hotel was definitely one of the highlights of this city, the beautiful views and gorgeous sunset most definitely made up for the pricy cocktails!
I took advantage of meeting Caroline to tell her something I had been wanting to tell her for a long time. When I had just arrived in Milan and was looking for a job several years ago, I lied and said I was mothertongue speaker of English because my mother was from South Africa. Almost everybody now knows this not true, but I had never told Caroline the truth. It felt good to finally be able to tell her and come clean, though it obviously hurt her a lot. I hope she will eventually forgive me and that we can perhaps be friends again. The future will tell...
Krong Koh Kong
After a few days in Bangkok we traveled to the Southernmost Cambodian border and crossed into Koh Kong province, home of the only rainforest in Southeast that still stretches from the inland mountains right to the sea. Krong Koh Kong is a small, inconsequential town that is obviously expecting a lot of tourism in the future but was still rather quiet. We had our first taste of Cambodian hospitality, friendliness and cuisine here - and enjoyed all three things thoroughly. If I could eat nothing but rice with shrimp and vegetables for the rest of my life, I would not be sorry for it! Though their country has only been completely war-free since the demise of Pol Pot and the last of the Khmer Rouge in 1998, it was remarkable to see how the Cambodians are rebuilding and how open and happy they are in spite of years of oppression and threat. Everybody smiles, not just at us but at each other as well. Wherever you go in this country, you will find children shouting 'hello' - often the only English they know - and waving at you. When you respond and wave back, they invariably start jumping up and down with excitement, screaming with joy and waving as if their lives depend on it. We rented a motorbike - a first for me! - and learnt a lot about mangroves, how they grow and how important they are for the preservation of the natural environment at the nearby nature preserve. We wanted to go swimming too but unfortunately we were unable to locate the beach... The next day we took a bus that drove us Eastwards through the Koh Kong Conservation Corridor, Cambodia largest rainforst preserve.
Kompong Trach
The tiny town of Kompong Trach - or Kompong Trash, as we called it - was a little hamlet near an estuary close to the Vietnamese border consisting of some houses along the main road and two dirt roads. It was a dump. Even the temple had been closed up and a pile of rubbish had formed in front of it. There was only one guesthouse where nobody spoke any English and not a single restaurant. We had come here because he had become intrigued by a Lonely Planet entry stating there was a hidden valley nearby. Imagine our surprise when the countryside turned out to be completely flat!! There happened to be one karst formation not far from the village inside which there were shallow caves leading to a small open-air chamber in the middle of it. It wasn't much but it was worth it. We found some children there who were very excited to be able to practise their English and willing to guide us through the caves for a little tip. Even in this remote place where we were the only foreigners and where people only stop for the night on the way to or from the border, we were once again amazed at the genuine kindness of the people. Food was a different matter though, we finally found a stand that did something with fruit, ice, cacao and condensed milk and decided to go for it. It turned out to be some kind of delicious dessert, which we ate with fervour despite our apprehension of ice cubes in Asian countries (our memories of having a bacterial infection due to infected ice cream in India were still very fresh). As poor as they may be, Cambodians have obviously learnt the trick of keeping ice cubes bacteria-free and we could happily go on to Phnom Penh the next day.
Phnom Penh
Though not the 'ideal South East Asian city it was supposed to be', Phnom Penh was a nice village-like capital with a lot of foreigners. The hotels were overpriced, as were the food and means of transportation, but we knew this would be the case in advance. We visited the National Museum, a quaint modern-art-meets-traditional-Cambodian-style building with a nice collection of Angkorian and Khmer sculptures that gave us a good introduction to the archeological sites in Northern Cambodia we were planning to visit. It also had an interesting section on archeology and excavation techniques. As it was the national 'End of Genocide' day, we unfortunately could not visit the Royal Palace and its famed Silver Pagoda but, on the positive side, we did manage to pick up some illegal copies of the LP's to Cambodia and Laos for a few dollars (we only had the one about the whole region which did not have all the information we needed), which came in handy as we had just decided to forgo Thailand and to go to Northern Laos. Phnom Penh's real attraction, the memorial sites of the Khmer Rouge murderous regime, left us speechless and sickened. Tluol Sleng Museum, a former high school in Phnom Penh, was Prison S-21 during Pol Pot's regime, an imprisonment and torture facility for enemies of the state. We were properly introduced to the horrors of this regime and how it came power in this livid and well-documented museum. One of the most heart-rending room was the one with lines and lines of pictures of the thousands that were detained and tortured here before being deported to the killing fields of Choeung Ek where the bodies were dumped in mass graves. Choeung Ek itself is a seemingly idyllic lawn surrounded by trees, only the holes in the ground and the signs mark out the sights of former mass graves. There is a memorial stupa/chedi here containing the bones of the unidentified victims found here, though it is only a fraction of the millions of Cambodians (one third of the population) murdered or starved to death by the Khmer Rouge.
Kompong Thom
Next up were the Pre-Angkorian temples at Sambor Prei Kuk, near Kompong Thom on the road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. Situated in a quiet, remote forest, not much remains of the grandeur that the temples must have been conveyed to the onlookers of yesteryear. Some of the temples are still more or less in tact and most have been reclaimed by nature. Trees have grown on top, inside and through the brick structures and make the building look lost and forlorn. The forest strangely enough looked as if it could have been anywhere in Northern Europe, which made the whole site have an eerie, mystical feel to it, as if something was not right. Oh, and a lot of trees were hometrees!! (For those who have seen Avatar)
Siem Reap & Angkor Wat Archeological Park
What can one say about Angkor Wat and the temples around them? They are amazing, magnificent, baffling, monstrously beautiful, unbelievably intricate, astonishingly carved and induce you to reflect on the marvelous civilisation that created this massive city and temple complexes around 1,000 years ago. Everybody knows pictures of Angkor Wat but have you ever seen the sun rise over it? You may have seen Ta Prohm in the Tombraider movie but have you ever touched tree roots larger than yourself that have enveloped whole buildings? From the frighteningly steep slopes of Ta Keo to the serene faces that the Bayon, from the idyllic waterworld of Preah Neak Pean to the intricately carved city-temple of Banteay Samre, from the seemingly unstoppable force of nature at Ta Prohm and Ta Som (in reality most of the trees have been removed and only those suited for dramatic pictures remain) to the relief elephants on the royal palace in the walled city of Angkor Thom, I could have spent a week there. Check out the pictures.
The boat trip to Battambang
The boat trip from Siem Reap to Battambang is promoted as a must-see highlight of Cambodia but it is not worth. The longboat filled with tourists takes 6 hours in the rainy season but 9 in the dry season. Though you pass through some narrow waterways where you to duck in order not to be hit by branches trying to prick your eyes out and you have a nice view of some of the Vietnamese floating villages, you feel like an intruder into someone else's private world. There is something terribly wrong with a bunch of rich Westerners in a luxurious, fast boat taking pictures of the natives who obviously some of the poorest people in the country.
Vientiane
From Battambang we went back to the Thai-Cambodian border and made our way to Saraburi where we tried an interesting form of Chinese hotpot. As the staff did not speak any English and we had no clue what to do - which obviously elicited some well-meant laughs from them - we played around with some fishy things and veggies in the burning oil and had a surprisingly good meal. Afterwards, we caught the overnight sleeper train to Nong Khai in Northeastern Thailand where we changed to a train into Laos. This train only took us a couple of kilometres into Laos and after going through the border formalities we turned out to be in the middle of nowhere at the mercy of some money-hungry minivan drivers. Oh well, what's a holiday without tourist traps? Laos' capital Vientiane was hardly large enough to be called a city and certainly did not seem that way. I though it was generally disappointing, with its famed golden stupa which was really ugly from up close and remained closed even though we had paid to get in and its cloudy sunsets over de muddy sandbanks in the middle of the Mekong river. I did enjoy Patuxai, the local version of the Arc de Triomphe built from cement donated by the Americans to build an airport at Vientiane. Somehow I don't think that improved Lao-American relations. Though the Lonely Planet and the Lao people profess otherwise, Patuxai looks absolutely nothing like the Arc de Triomphe.
Phonsavan
After the first of many looooooooong bus rides (this one took 9 hours) up and down mountain ranges affording us stunning views of gorgeous green valleys and rugged peaks, we arrived in the dusty provincial capital of Phonsavan. There is nothing whatsoever to do in the town itself and we were happy to crash down in our beds at Nice Guesthouse, which turned out to be true to its name. The next day we hired a motorcycle and went to visit the Plain of Jars. The jars at the Plain of Jars are between 3,000 and 1,500 years old and stem from Lao prehistory. Their purpose is unknown, although scientists now think at least some of them were used for funerary purposes. A local legend tells a different story though, they say village hero Khun Jeuam restored peace and prosperity to the region by droving out evil chieftain Angkha in the 6th century AD and ordering the jars to be set up so enough lao-lao (local rice whiskey) could be brewed in huge to keep his soldiers celebrating for six months! Whatever the reasons, the jars still keep their peace on the plain and nearby hills and seem to be happy at the bewilderment of their visitors.
Sam Neua & Vieng Xai
After another day-long bus trip, we arrived in Sam Neua, the tiny, quiet capital of Laos' Northeasternmost province, a place so remote that the only tourists who come here travel across the mountains on the bad road West from Hanoi. We rented another motorcycle and drove around the countryside around the town. We truly felt like we were in the middle of nowhere looking out at rice fields and mountains slopes without a single person in sight for miles. The second day we went to nearby Vieng Xai, the town where the leaders of the Pathet Lao (Communist Lao army) hid during the Vietnam war when the US illegally bombed Laos as well. Laos has received more bombs per inhabitant than any country in Asia - and it wasn't even at war! Because the Lao were suspected (and rightly so) of supplying the Northern Vietnamese with food and weapons - the famous Ho Chi Minh trail - and there was a civil between the old-style post-colonial government and the Communist freedom fighters, the US did not seem to care enough to make this war official. There are still UXO (unexploded ordnance) to be found everywhere in Eastern Laos, a situation that still claims many lives every year.
Luang Prabang
After a 14-hour bus ride, we arrived dead-tired in Luang Prabang, the famous bejewelled temple-city and former capital of Laos. Although the temples were beautiful, the weather was not too great (as Laos is really high up, it was rather cold the whole time) and it was very touristy, it was not my favourite place to be. We visited a lot of temples, did some shopping at a local handicrafts village and feasted on French-style baguettes. We also took a river trip to the Pak Ou caves, which turned to filled with octagenarian Americans with canes walking up stairs and then getting stuck. Here is an impression, imagine all this being said in horrible American accent: Bill: 'I can't get down, Lorna'. Lorna: 'Well, I am gonna try. If I don't make it, it was nice knowin' you!' Just picture 50 people like this in a tiny cave and you get the picture.
Nong Khai
We caught a bus back to Vientiane and crossed the border - avoiding the train this time - back into Thailand. We spent the day in the border town of Nong Khai, which was mainly remarkable for the Sala Kaew Ku sculpture garden filled with surreal statues of Buddhist, Hindu and vague mixed mythological figures towering above us. Another positive experience was the return to sunshine and heat!
Ayutthaya
That night we caught the overnight sleeper train to Ayutthaya and slept like babies. Ayutthaya is the former capital of Thailand and an artificial island where three rivers come together to form the Chao Phraya river that flows down to Bangkok and then to the sea. Historical sources describe its majesty and pomp and Westerners visiting the city for the first time in the 16th century were in awe of its wealth. Today, many temples remain and the city has been inscribed into UNESCO's World Heritage list. Our last dat was a beautiful, sunny day, as we had hoped it would be. To make sure we would be completely watted (templed) out when we went home, we visited about a dozen of them. Some of the sites even inspired me to try some yoga moves (see pictures). It is also the place where I nearly lost my everything. We had rented bicycles and had to cross a river on a boat not meant for bicycles. I got off first a put my bicycle down against a fence to help Olaf off the boat, but unfortunately by bike fell over and my bag - with my passport, my wallet, the Lonely Planet and our tickets! - dropped into the river. Fortunately Cambodian-made bags and real LPs float and after I had swung down into the river holding myself to the untrustworthy fence to get my bag, the boat driver was nice enough to fish our LP out of the water as well. All this gave us quite a scare and made us feel like drinking beer.
So that was that and we made it back safe and sound, back to bleak, grey and icy-cold Berlin. I wish I was still there...
