Journey to the Centre of Oz / Happy Christmas!

On 2nd / 3rd December we ended the first leg of our journey, by taking the overnight flight from Singapore to Darwin. For the third time in a week, we found ourselves arriving at dawn in a new city. But where the people of Singapore had beguiled us with the warmth of their welcomes, the Darwinians unfortunately left a sour taste: unfriendly, sarcastic and cynical at every turn it seemed. Maybe it was just the heat, which was hitting the high 30s, but the place didn't endear itself to us. Unfortunately we had to spend 5 nights here sandwiched around a 3 day expedition to Kakadu and Lichfield National Parks.

Where else would we stay in Darwin?

As we hinted, Darwin wasn't much to write home about, though we spent an interesting morning at a museum which focused on the history and culture of the local aboriginal peoples, the local flora and fauna and an exhibit on Cyclone Tracy, which pretty much destroyed the city on Christmas Day 1974.

This is my fourth visit to Australia and Sue's second, but the first time either of us has spent any time in the Northern Territories. The thing that struck us both is the aboriginal issue, which is much closer to the surface here than in the big cities and feels much more real. In the Northern Territories, the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples often inhabit the same spaces, but at the same time from our observations seem to live in completely separate universes. The aboriginals that we sag in Darwin City reminded us of ghosts, wandering through the spaces that they used to live in, with a look of bewilderment on their faces. This is their land, but no longer their land.

This is a hugely complex issue and not one that we could deign to have a solution to. What is evident, is that the aboriginals developed a way of living in harmony with their environment over 60,000 + years, but that these ways were trumped by the technological solutions brought by the Europeans. When they saw the aboriginals, they saw little more than savages; indeed well into the 20th century they were classified under flora and fauna as a sub-species and policies of effective ethnic cleansing were practiced. A significant number of aboriginals have struggled to adapt to the society implemented by the settlers, whether through reluctance to give up their traditional ways (and many would say why should they), through inability, or due to prejudice against them. Whichever, they often seem to be stuck in a half-way-house limbo, where they are not fully living the old ways or the new ways.

Whatever the rights and wrongs, this is an issue that still polarises Australia. Government policy today is without doubt much more liberal and seeking to draw in aboriginal culture and knowledge into the mainstream, whilst giving aboriginal peoples more rights over their old lands and to live traditional lifestyles, but we have heard many white people complaining that they are being taken advantage of. We left the Northern Territories unsure whether two such disparate ways of living can easily co-exist, or whether they need to draw closer together. Either way, it looks like it will take many more generations, before the dust settles on this.

We had 2 weeks in total in the Northern Territories. It was pretty tough going for us at times, but we did manage to pack a lot in. First off, we visited Kakadu and Lichfield National Parks on a gruelling 3 day, 4 wheel drive safari. The temperature was hitting 40 degrees with high humidity and after a few minutes of activity in this we were drenched through with sweat and the flies swarmed around us. A couple of 3 hour walks in particular really tested us both, even if some of the views were spectacular. We had some welcome relief in the form of some clear, deep, water-holes: because they are high up, formed by waterfalls coming off the escarpments, they are guaranteed to be free from crocodiles. We were able to dive in and swim for a while, which was the most wonderful relief from the heat of the day. We also pay tribute to our guide Brad, who taught us so much about aboriginal culture and about the flora and fauna in the area.

Our second tour was really a means of getting down from Darwin to Alice Springs and experience the feel of the 'Red Centre' on the way. We were in a minibus with 12 others, with 9 Germans, a Dutch girl and ourselves - fortunately our guide spoke no German, so English mostly prevailed. It was 3 hard days of driving, with the scenery changing slowly from the tropical rain forest of the 'Top End' to the semi-desert of the 'Red Centre'. There were some interesting stops along the way, including the Katherine Gorge and the Devils Marbles, but we suspect at times that the only person awake on the bus was the driver!

Finally, we arrived in Alice Springs, an oasis town that grew up as the location for a wireless station halfway between Darwin and Adelaide. Our first impression was that it seemed a rather world-weary town, though wouldn't you be in that heat. We stopped off for just one night, before heading off for another 2 day / 2 night tour culminating in Uluru.

Uluru, was just as anticipated, but we were probably more taken by the Olga's, a series of huge sandstone boulders and rock escarpments. The largest, was much higher than Uluru and millions of years, the walls of it's rock faces have been eroded into surreal shapes, making this like a walk through a modern sculpture park. We managed a good 2 hour hike into the Olga's and having left the rest of the group to do a longer version, we had the place to ourselves at times, which just added to the special atmosphere.

At Uluru, we arrived in time to see sunset and then came back at dawn the next morning. We just had time to do the 10km base walk right round the outside, managing to get off before any of the other tour groups, which allowed us to see it at it's best and in serene quiet. These were two of the best hikes of our tour, but sadly my camera fell into one of the rock pools halfway down to Alice Springs and seems to have given up the host, so we have limited pictures available of this leg taken on our I-pad.

Before we finish, a word on accommodation. On our tours down from Darwin, this was easily the most basic since we left London. 3 of the last 5 nights were in swag bags, which are basically canvas bags with a mattress inside. The group just rolled these out in a circle around an open fire and hoped that this would ward off any snakes, spiders or other venomous creatures for which Australia is famous. On the first of these nights, we had to head for shelter half way through the night, as there was a thunderstorm coming in - not just because we would probably have got a soaking, but because the spiders tend to come out of their burrows after a heavy downpour! But the worst night was probably in a motel on the first trip, where every room and the toilet/shower block was infested with cockroaches and cane toads, which wasn't conducive to a good night's sleep.

Matters went from the ridiculous to the sublime though on our final day. We arrived at Uluru airport for our flight To Sydney on Sunday 15th December, to find that our flight had been cancelled. But all is well that ends well, because we were taken off to a luxury resort for the night and slept soundly under our clean, crisp linen and air conditioning.

So, a day late we arrived in Sydney, where after nearly 4 months on the road we have finally completely unpacked our rucksacks. Thanks to Dax, Max, Freddy and Joe, whose house we are looking after whilst they are back in the UK. We've been here a week now and just about getting used to the idea that we don't have to pack up and move on again tomorrow. We will probably stay here in Sydney until mid-January whilst we are working out what our next plans will be.

Thanks to everyone who has been following this blog and our journey thus far. We hope it has been half as much fun to read as it has been to write. Now we are settled for a bit, our posts will probably reduce a little, but we will let you know here when we have settled on our next steps.

In the meantime, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Fair dinkum...Brad, our guide in Kakadu

An Australian Sea Eagle on the edge of Kakadu

 

Ancient Aboriginal rock art in Kakadu

View from atop a Kakadu escarpment

A 5 metre high cathedral termite mound (and Sue hoping that's not a termite going up her trouser leg!)

Swimming at Tolmer Falls in Lichfield National Park

The ultimate massage at the Buley Rock Pools in Lichfield

 

The obligatory Uluru at dawn.

 

And finally...if the spiders don't get you, the crocs will!

 

 

Land's End

First of all, apologies for the gap since the last post. It seems that internet connectivity in the Northern Territories of Australia is rarer than rain in the desert!

We left you last, having just departed our paradise island of Ko Boulon Leh in the Andaman Sea. We were now heading towards the final leg of our overland journey that started in London back at the end of August. We retraced our journey back to the scruffy, city of Hat Yai which is Thailand's 4th biggest city and the big railway junction for the south if the country, where the line branches south-east for Khota Bahru in Malaysia and the jungle line back down to Kuala Lumpur, or south-west for Butterworth/Penang and on to KL and Singapore.

We had over 4 hours to kill in Hat Yai before our train down to KL, which wasn't made any easier, when the heavens opened just as we arrived in the station area. We rushed for cover in a large Thai 'greasy spoon', where we were told we could have anything on the menu, as long as it was chicken and rice. We watched the rain pour down outside and tried to work on a strategy for making chicken and rice last for 4 hours. Fortunately, the ladies serving and cooking seemed to enjoy having us around (either that, or they found our 'drowned rat' impressions funny), so they were in no hurry to kick us out. We were joined for a while by 4 young Russian backpackers, who hailed from Yekaterinburg. They were amazed to find that we had recently been to their home city and really enjoyed seeing our photos.

Eventually there was a break in the rain and we escaped to the station. We found our international, inter-city express train, sitting forlornly on one of the back platforms, tumbleweed blowing past. It was a decrepit 2 carriage affair, that reminded me of the old trains that just about make the short journey between Cambridge and Newmarket a few times a day. At the end of the front carriage, we found our 2 bunks for the night. Lots of heavily laden locals were boarding, but all seemed to be at the far end, with swathes of empty seats in between. Eventually, we were joined by Sanna and Taneli, a young Finnish couple, struggling under the weight of immense packs - they were climbers heading ultimately to New Zealand and in their packs were 30 foot of rope, crampons, ice axes, tents and other specialist equipment. Apparently their packs weighed in at over 100 kg and they had done a similar journey to ours carrying all of this. We built a barricade between us and the rest of the train with our luggage and had an enjoyable evening swapping stories (including a travel horror story to beat any that we have ever heard, of their search for a bed for the night, after their train arrived 12 hours late into Calcutta at 2.00 in the morning - we will never complain about a bad room again!). At the border into Malaysia, we were rudely interrupted for an hour when we had to take all of the luggage off at for customs inspection.

We arrived into KL at 6.30 in the morning pretty tired, but thanks to my old friends and colleagues at CFC, we had a treat in store, in the form of a night of 5 star luxury at the Marriott. It felt strange after some of the less salubrious places that we have stayed, but we lapped up the luxury nonetheless and we were particularly grateful that they got us straight into our room at 7.00 in the morning!

We were taken by surprise by KL, in that Christmas was in mid-swing here even though we were only in the last days of November. The gaudiness of some of the decorations in the malls near our hotel took our breath away. Outside one, we were welcomed by a 20 foot inflatable winking snowman replete with a Santa hat and lit by a barrage of silver lights. We ventured inside and found Santa in person sitting proudly in his sledge with families queuing for their picture. But he was merely the centrepiece for the central atrium of the mall, which had been filled with several 3 storey high Christmas trees laden with baubles and lights; a merry go-round and a stage where a band dressed as Santa's helpers played 'Jingle Bell Rock' at full volume to the backdrop of a snow-coated Germanic style house.

The scale of the decorations took us by surprise, because Malaysia is a Muslim country, but it is also pretty prosperous in KL and we guess that nothing will stand between western brands and a marketing opportunity like Christmas!

 

Away from the main shopping district, we found KL to be a very nice city, even if the traffic was horrendous at times. We had a cheap tasty lunch in China town (leaving us almost nostalgic for our time on China), walked across the river, past the national mosque with it's grand sweeping mosaic roof and up to the botanical gardens (which were rather ramshackle, though pleasantly cool and quiet on a hot day). KL is quite a cultural, ethnic and religious melting pot and seems to work well as a city, which we found encouraging. We got around the city on a neat little mono-rail system, which was always busy and we never waited more than a couple of minutes for a train, with the fare set at about 20 pence to get anywhere in the city!

On our last evening we strolled over to see the Petronas building: a symmetrical pair of dalek-like towers, joined like Siemese twins mid-way up. At the base, were bars, food courts and ornamental lakes and fountains. As the sun set, the towers lit the night sky and the fountains were filtered through a series of lights. We sat and watched and mused over how far our journey had taken us, how much we had seen and finding it hard to believe that we were approaching the end of the first-leg of our journey.

Then we were back at KL Sentral Station for the overnight train to Singapore. Annoyingly, we had been unable to buy a ticket before getting to KL and, as a result had to settle for a seat for the night. Even though we managed to get into the first class carriage, it was still not that comfortable and we passed a sleepless night in the eerie quiet of the train.

Since I had last been to Singapore, they have closed the old central station (too much of a real estate opportunity we guess) and moved it 20 kilometres north of the city centre. We emerged bleary eyed and confused at 5.30 a.m. into the modern new station. Fortunately the local people immediately endeared themselves to us with their friendliness. We had to get a bus up to the RMT (rapid mass transit system) station and hadn't managed to find either an ATM or a money exchange place. A bus arrived and the driver smiled and waived us onto the bus for free and made a point of stopping to tell us where to get off and where to go next. At the RMT station, an employee gave us maps and even used his tablet to locate our hotel on the map for us. Little things like this gave us an immediate good impression of the city.

It was a Sunday morning when we arrived (1st December) and the RMT train took us easily to our destination, though it took the best part of an hour. We were staying in an area of the city known as 'Little India' where a lot of the budget hotels are found. It was a vibrant part of the city, even if a little edgy at times, and we enjoyed our stay here. We had an excellent curry in a local restaurant for lunch on our first day and we felt immediately teleported to the streets of an Indian city. Our hotel had had mixed reviews, but it turned out to be very clean and comfortable and the staff could not have been more friendly, giving us the first room that became available when we arrived early in the morning and giving us free coffees as we waited.

It was interesting that we noticed an edgy under-current in Little India, because we heard a week later that this area had been engulfed by the worst riots that Singapore has seen in more than 20 years. It seems that an Indian man was killed by a reckless taxi driver (and we can testify that some of the taxis drive pretty aggressively here) and within hours there was a mob on the streets turning over cars and fighting the police. We understand that there are a lot of Indian migrants brought into Singapore, to provide cheap labour for the many ongoing building projects and they tend to congregate in this area, so it is easy to understand how trouble can ferment in such an area of what is, otherwise, a very prosperous city. We're not sure what is happening, but we do seem to have been one stop ahead of trouble on much of this trip!

But Little India isn't really indicative of Singapore, so we spent most of our 2 days exploring the central part of the city, particularly the areas around the harbour and the Singapore river, which forms it's heart. This whole area is ultra modern and the combination of the modern architecture and the setting around the bay was really impressive, if a little clinical at times. It was a hot day and we sweltered as we walked around the exposed bay. We were forced to take refuge first in the air-conditioned cool of a shopping mall (which had every up-market western brand we could think of, but with less gaudiness than the Christmas decorations of KL) and then the oasis of the 'Gardens on the Bay'.

These 'Gardens by the Bay' warrant some mention. We still can't make up our minds whether we liked it, but it was certainly thought-provoking with its avant-garde mixing of nature with modern architectural styling. Closest to the bay itself were the 2 huge wave-shaped glass and steel domes of the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome, which houses the world's largest indoor waterfall with different controlled climates hosting a vast array of tropical and Mediterranean plant-life.

Possibly even more impressive, was the 'Supertree Grove': 18 tree shaped steel scaffolds that act as trellises for hundreds of different species of climbing plants. The trees are connected high in their branches by a 50 metre circular walkway and as the sun sets, the trees and the walk way are illuminated by thousands of multi-coloured lights. At 7.00 on the dot, a son-et-lumiere started, with music perfectly co-ordinated with the electronically controlled dancing lights on the trees. Set to the backdrop of the Singapore skyline, it was an unexpectedly dramatic 15 minute extravaganza!

Singapore was very expensive compared with the rest of Asia, but on the way back towards our hotel, we found an open-air market area, where we bought rice, noodles, satay sticks and cold beer at a fraction of the price of the restaurants and sat and ate it on trestle tables looking out over the bay. Locals mixed seamlessly with tourists to create a lively party atmosphere and it felt like a fitting end to our overland journey, as we looked forward to flying on to Darwin in Australia the next day.

In our next post, we will tell you how we have got on with our first steps in Australia, so that we are up to date before Christmas!

The Gardens on the Bay in Singapore, by day...

 

...and by night

The Singapore night skyline across the bay

And finally...marketing Singapore style

 

Thai Tales

On 20th November, we took our final steps in Cambodia to the border with Thailand and everything seemed to change again. After the simple rural countryside and communities of Laos and Cambodia, Thailand felt like coming back to reality with a dischordant clang. Suddenly, the volume had been turned up: on the noise, the traffic, the prosperity and the attitudes of the people to tourists.

We got through the busy border crossing much quicker than expected, but the dividend was not significant, because we lodged for the night in an anonymous motel in the anonymous border town of Aranyaprathet. We expected to find something remarkable in a town with such a long winded name, but it took us longer to learn its pronounciation than to see it's sights.

The next morning, everyone's minds were just on getting to Bangkok. We had decided that we didn't need to spend much time here, as we were now on a tightish timetable to get down to Australia and the lure of a beach in Southern Thailand trumped sightseeing another city. This proved to be a good decision.

Sue and I jumped off the truck ahead of getting to the hotel, in order to pick up our train tickets for the following day (we'd splurged £25 for 2 first class sleeper tickets for the 16 hour overnight journey). Our first impressions as we walked the streets, was how prosperous it has become (certainly since my last visit here 20 years ago). This contrasted with our second impression from a taxi window: we were forced to detour because of anti-government protests and saw hundreds of grim faced policemen in full riot gear and barricades topped with razor wire blocking roads.

We researched behind the headlines a little to find out what was going on and have been following the escalation of the trouble as we have headed further south. The simple issue behind it seems to be nepotism. The former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, fled the country about 5 years ago, in similar scenes, with charges of corruption against him. His supporters claims that it is coincidental that his companies started winning premium government contracts shortly after he was elected - hmm! 5 years later, his party is back in power, with his sister as Prime Minister and they are trying to force through legislation giving him an amnesty, creating a constitutional crisis and putting the king (who as in the UK technically has to assent all legislation) into an impossible position. No wonder that the opposition supporters have taken to the streets, but the issue seems to be polarising the country on party lines which remains potentially dangerous.

Our hotel was close to the legendary Koh Sahn Road, surely the backpacker capital of the world. The travellers here seemed to be partying on regardless of the escalation tensions just a mile away and we wondered how much it would take to prick this bubble. In the evening we went out with the whole of our group, for a meal and then onto a bar for some drinks. It wasn't quite our scene and we felt very old, so we left the others to their cocktail buckets and dance music fairly early - just as well, because most of the group only made it back just in time for breakfast.

The following lunchtime it was a bitter-sweet moment as we waved Archie and our travel companions goodbye. The group was disbanding like a break on a pool table: everyone with their own exciting onward travel plans, or heading back to families or friends.

We, fortunately, were well on our way heading south on the train as the demonstrations in Bangkok started to get nasty. We were, however, hit by a different issue, which was serious flooding across swathes of Central Thailand caused by days of unseasonably heavy rain. Much of the track was under water and, in the morning when we should already have been in Hat Yai, we trudged blearily off the train for a 3 hour bus ride to resume our journey on a different train further down the track. We passed lots of little villages that were largely under water, roads that ended suddenly and resigned looking people wading waist high through the water with vegetables on their heads which they remained determined to get to market.


Our troubles were, comparably, a minor irritation, but an 8 hour delay meant that we missed the single boat a day that headed from the small port of Pak Barra in the very south-west of Thailand to the even smaller island of Ko Boulon Leh out in the Andaman Sea. Pak Barra is not the greatest place in the world to get stuck, so we tried our luck haggling with the local fishermen, to see if we could get one of them to take us out to the island - which was about one hour in one of their long tail boats, which were usually used for coastal fishing. We eventually succeeded at a higher price than we would have liked, but we were really tired by this point and didn't want to lose our accommodation which we had already paid for.

It was an exciting journey heading out past many small islands and dramatic limestone karsts with the boat to ourselves. There were one or two moments when we wondered whether this was an ill-advised journey. The water was choppy as we got further out and these long-tail boats are not that stable - the need to get them right up on to the beach shore means they are very shallow-keeled. But, of course our man sails these waters in this boat every day and he got us there with no trouble an hour before dusk.

We now had 5 nights on our island hideaway and we couldn't wait to get into a gentler rhythm for a few days. The whole island was probably no more than 2 square miles, with half of that taken by a steep, thickly forested hill that ends in sheer cliff faces along the western side. On the other sides are a cluster of very low key resorts and about 300 islanders, known as Chaolae sea-gypsies, who have made a living on these islands, mostly as fishermen, for hundreds of years. On this side, the cliffs are replaced by mangroves and stretches of shingle and sand beaches, with a few well-worn tracks. There was not a single car on the island!

We spent the first 3 nights on the most up-market of the resorts - which was not that up-market, as it had no hot water, very few facilities and the electricity only ran from 6pm to 6 am. But it was a beautiful spot and our little cottage was charming, with a veranda with views out across a stretch of white sand to the bay. We switched for the last 2 nights, because we found somewhere just as nice on the other side of the island, but quieter and more friendly for a third of the price!

We timed our stay pretty well, as the island got hit pretty hard by the storms that caused the floods we mentioned above. A pontoon boat heading back to the mainland was swamped by waves and sunk and we could clearly see its stern jutting out of the water from the island. Just as dramatically, part of a large tree came down on our resort, crashing through and badly damaging 2 of their cottages. They spent the whole of our stay clearing up the debris and starting to repair the damage, but fortunately nobody was in them at the time.

We thoroughly enjoyed our sojourn on the island, even if I got rather sun-burnt snorkelling on the third day (there was some coral reef to be seen here, though sadly most of it is bleached and/or dying and the variety of fish not as wide as we have seen elsewhere). There were probably only a couple of hundred tourists staying on the island (most of them for some reason German, Swiss or Eastern European) and in such a small space, we got to know a few of them quite well, as we kept arriving at the same places for meals etc. We spent our time swimming, on nature walks, (spotting grey Pacific Reef Heron, Collared Kingfishers, Orioles, Brahminy Kites, Grey Bellied Squirrels, huge Great Mormon Butterflies, Butterfly Lizards and the wonderful 3 foot long Clouded Monitor Lizards that kept surprising us), watching the local fishermen bring in their catches and eating and drinking. Our second residence bought jack fish and yellow fish, squid, crab and prawns as the fishing boats landed and cooked them straight away on a barbecue for us, or simmered them in a coconut, ginger, chilli and herb broth - absolute perfection!

But our journey had to continue and at the end of our 5 days, we got the scheduled speed-boat back to the island. They had rather over-filled the boat (more than 20 of us crammed on) and this was compounded by a sudden squally shower which forced us all into the small covered area. Then there was one very large Russian gentlemen: the previous evening we had seen him lounging behind us in a bar and he had disdainfully blown acrid cigar smoke in our direction; this morning he smugly occupied 2 seats, as others were crammed together standing. But this morality tale has a good ending, because as the boat turned and sped off away from the island, the wind drove the rain into his face and he got a proper soaking, whilst we sheltered in his substantial shadow!

On the next post, we will tell you about the final leg of our overland journey: leaving Thailand for Kuala Lumpur and onto Singapore.

Flooding in a village in Central Thailand

Just us in a long tail fishing boat heading out into the islands of the Andaman Sea

Remnants of the ship wreck from the storms earlier in the week

Our home for 3 nights on Koh Boulon Leh...

...and not a bad view from the verandah!

Local Chaolae fishermen heading out

The view from the restaurant at our second resort on the northern side of the island

That's just water...honestly!

The Chaolae family who looked after us in our last 2 nights on the island

Fish for supper...

...but none for me (a Pacific Reef Heron)

A Clouded Monitor lizard

And finally....a word in your shell?

 

Anchored Down in Angkor Wat

OK, we admit it, we broke the rules of our own game! We left you last, having just decided to temporarily 'jump truck' and fly from Vientiane in Laos to Siem Reap in northern Cambodia. Our defence? The route planned for the truck was largely to be a duplication, going in and then out of Cambodia by the same road. With Sue, in particular, jaded by the long hours on the truck the prospect of cutting out 3 driving days, 2 border crossings and 1 bush camp and getting to stop in one place for 5 nights was irresistible.

So, on Monday 11th November, the guys on the truck had another 6.00 am start, whilst Sue, Sarah, Jon and I had a leisurely breakfast and then headed off to the tiny airport at Vientiane and got onto a packed twin-propellor plane, first to Pakse (a small city in the far south of Laos) and then on to Siem Reap. Most disconcertingly, as we sat waiting to taxi out, we read that on 16th October a similar plane on this very route had crashed into the Mekong, tragically killing all 49 passengers.

There had been some heavy rain-storms in Cambodia (latterly the fringes of Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines and Vietnam) and from the air, we saw great swathes of the country-side under water right up to the airport, punctuated by the tips of trees and houses with a new-found shoreline.

Poor Cambodia, a country that has been in the wars literally and metaphorically for several generations. As with Laos, it was sucked into the Indo-China war and with the withdrawal of America and it's allies in the mid 1970s, it was left with a huge power-vacuum. This was filled by Vietnamese interference and, more infamously, by Pol Pot (bizarrely, this was not his real name, but an abbreviation of 'political potential' from his French university days) and the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge's policies were based on the crazed dogma of creating a 'pure, self-sufficient peasant society'. To achieve this, the cities were emptied and their inhabitants sent out into the countryside to be 'turned into peasants'; the money-economy was abolished and anyone who was, or appeared to be, intellectual (for example they committed the heinous crimes of wearing glasses, or having un-calloused hands) were singled out for the worst treatment. Dissenters, or 'enemies of the regime' were sent to torture camps for the extraction of a 'confession', before they and their entire family were brutally executed. In little more than 10 years, a quarter of the Cambodian population perished, either in the Indo-China war, or through disease, starvation, forced labour or torture / execution.

The Vietnamese called an end to the regime in 1979 by invading, but this simply pre-saged a 20 year civil war, with the Khmer Rouge retreating to the jungle and only really ending with the death of Pol Pot in 1998. The situation is more stable now, but the government and economy remains dominated by Vietnam and there is widespread allegation that the last election was rigged in favour of the ruling party. The people have an indomitable faith in the UN to help them keep their development on the right track, which could seem a little naive when noting that the Security Council allowed the Khmer Rouge a place right up until 1993 and their members apparently regularly attended sessions in New York.

The suffering of the Cambodian people in the Indo-China war and under the Khmer Rouge still felt like an open-wound at times. Our guide Chet, was 1 year old, when the Khmer Rouge entered his home city of Siem Reap. His parents were sent to an agriculture camp and he spent the next 5 years with his aunt. His parents survived and he smiled when he told the story, but there was a sadness in his eyes that belied him.

The horrors were really brought home to us though, when we visited the Killing Fields Museum (where victims were brought by the truckload to be executed and dumped into mass graves) and the Tuong Sleng prison in Pnom Penh, which has been turned into a genocide museum. Tuong Sleng was a school, which was converted into one of the main holding centres, where 'enemies of the state' were brought to have their confessions extracted. The cells were grisly enough, but the most powerful 'exhibit', was a series of panels, where the photograph of every inmate (including tiny children) holding their identification number was displayed. Here was raw, emotional power deflected back at the camera: shock, confusion, terror, pleading, denial, defiance, pain, exhaustion, anger, hatred, sorrow, pity, compassion, resignation - spirits alive and then broken.

This feels like a story that still needs to be told. Indeed the UN-backed court to try some of the Khmer Rouge perpetrators was only started in 2006 and is ongoing. At Tuong Sleng, we met Chum Mey who was one of the few survivors of the camp and has given evidence at the court. In a horrible irony, he survived, because he was a mechanic and, at the price of his life, was forced to repair the typewriters that were used to record the confessions of his fellow prisoners and ultimately his own. For a few dollars, we bought a signed copy of his memoirs and he showed us his picture in the display.

Despite this grisly overhang, we enjoyed our 8 nights in Cambodia and there is much positive to be viewed and experienced here, which explains why it has become such a big tourist draw in the last 10 years. Uppermost here, is the Angkor Wat complex a few miles to the north of Siem Reap. Built in the 12th century, it was the capital of the Khmer Empire, which dominated south-east Asia in its hey-day. We took a couple of days to see the area, but could easily have taken another. On the first, we rose at 4 am to get a spot by the lake and see the sun rise over the main temple. On the second, we hired bicycles and cycled some of the way round the huge site, stopping on a couple of occasions to take partial shelter from torrential tropical downpours.

In some ways we were under-awed by Angkor Wat itself, but wowed by the succession of temples, shrines and old walls to the north of the main site at Angkor Thom and beyond. Many of these were partially hidden by forest (indeed new buildings are still being uncovered), with tree roots growing like coiled snakes into and out of old walls. Because some of these were so well hidden, there were far fewer people around them and this exclusivity added to our enjoyment. We didn't venture too far off the path, though, as we had been warned that some areas had not been cleared fully of Khmer Rouge mines.

On one of the evenings, we went to see a Cirque du Soleil style circus show, written and performed by a school for under-privileged children that specialises in creative education. The energy and enthusiasm of the performers (particularly knowing they came from difficult backgrounds) was inspiring and, even if the jugglers dropped their props a couple of times, it was all still very impressive and enjoyable.

For the rest of our time in Siem Reap, we took advantage of the pool, read, starting getting this blog up to date and enjoyed the great food and drink in the bars and restuarants of Siem Reap. The tourist scene was interesting here, because it managed to encompass everything from the lowest backpacker hovel, sorry hostel, to a 6 star resort (owned by the Vietnamese, we understand). In any case, by the end of our 5 nights, we had got our equilibrium back and ready to hit the road again (though Archie had been left at the border and swapped for a small coach, as the Cambodian authorities wouldn't give it a licence).

We were straight back in the saddle, with a 10 hour stint, stopping at a roadside cafe, where fried terantula and other insects were on the menu (see pic below). Our next stop, Phnom Penh, was interesting as the capital and also the best place to get to understand the horrors of the last 50 years. There was not much else to see here other than a lively night scene. We initially enjoyed the £1 mojitos and the great food, but we quickly spotted the nasty underlying 'sex' industry. A lot of the bars openly had prostitutes waiting to entice customers, but far worse were the rumours that paedophilia was not far beneath the surface and stories of families 'selling' their children into prostitution. Sue and I went off to watch a showing of The Killing Fields and embarrassed ourselves by accidentally walking into the adjacent building which was a brothel: we beat a hasty, red-faced retreat, to the amusement of the occupants!

As a much needed counter-balance to this, we took a walk down to the river front (yes, our friend the Mekong again), where locals were promenading as part of the celebrations for their 'Water Festival'. We followed the tide to a large square, where a large crowd had gathered in front of the Royal Palace, which was lit up by thousands of golden bulbs. An excited and entirely good natured hubbub filled the air, alongside the smell of roasting meats and whole families were sat in circles around picnic blankets. This was a great way to finish our stop in Pnom Penh and to show us that there is an undercurrent of goodness and optimism here that will stand the country and it's people in good stead as they continue to build on their recovery from their past problems.

Our final overnight stop in Cambodia was in Battambang, a pleasant city of 250,000 people on the banks of the Sangkae river, that completed our loop of Lake Tonke Sap. On the lake, we took a short boat trip through a floating village, populated by Vietnamese Water Gypsies who had fled up the Mekong river in the early stages of the Indo China war and had never left.

On the way back to the Thai border, we stopped at a beautiful temple sitting atop a rocky pinnacle with commanding views over the surrounding rice fields. There must have been 300 steps to the top and young children wearing English football shirts raced up alongside, flapping fans to cool us and hoping to earn a $1 fee in return. It is hard to be cruel in these circumstances, but these children should clearly be at school and giving them money would only encourage them to keep staying away.

This brings us to Thailand, which we will tell you about in our next post. We will, however, just say that as we write this a State of Emergency has been declared in Bangkok and there have been riots on the streets. For those of you worrying, you needn't: we left Bangkok on 22nd November, just as the demonstrations were starting up and headed south almost to the Malaysian border where we are safely and peacefully ensconced on a beautiful island in the Andaman Sea, before heading down to Kuala Lumpur.

Welcome to Cambodia...

Sun rise over Angkor Wat

Tourists making Angkor Wat lake resemble the 18th green at Augusta

A classical view of Angkor Wat

A more hidden temple entrance, hidden in the forest

A quieter back entrance to Angkor Wat

Cycling in the jungle around Siem Reap

Gorging on coconut!

Brandon, contemplating whether to have his tarantula fried or grilled...or to adopt him as a truck pet!

Vietnamese water-gypsies on Lake Sonle Tap

A view down onto Wat Peapahd temple and to the rice fields beyond

And finally...collecting water is child's play, if one can only reach the tap!

 

Chasing the Mekong

We were in Laos for just 10 days, but it was a charming, easy going counter to the tough travelling of China. After our first stop in Luang Namtha, we headed south through the northern part of the country to the ancient capital of Luang Prabang, onto Vang Vieng, (the dramatically scenic centre for caving and rock climbing) and finally to Vientiane, which feels more like a sleepy county town than the capital of a country.

It feels barely credible at times that Laos even exists as a country. It is landlocked and surrounded by much larger neighbours (China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam) and it's history has at times been like a game of pass the parcel with these aggressive neighbours. It's population is also a melting pot of various tribal groups, who have only recently forgotten their differences.

It's recent history has been tragic in many ways. In an admission that they couldn't stand up to their neighbours they called in the French, who were a little more benign as an occupying force and their influence is everywhere in the architecture and even in the large number of French tourists that we saw here. But their real problems started when they got sucked into the IndoChina war (after this trip, we will no longer refer to it as the Vietnam War). Officially they remained neutral, but inevitably there were sizeable groups in the country that supported the VietCong and as a result, the poor Lao were bombed more heavily than any other country.

Today they seem to be dominated by China, with the people heavily controlled by an authoritarian government. Many people we spoke to talked angrily of deals done with the Chinese government: for example long term mining rights sold in return for infrastructure projects, that are often just a road that leads from the mine to the Chinese border. But underneath the docile exterior, there does seem to be some deeper resolve and from what we saw, the people look healthy and happy with improving living conditions.

Luang Prabang was a cool spot to spend 3 nights, though we were amazed by the number of backpackers here. The centre of the town has been engulfed by bars, restaurants and shops aiming for this market. Laos is firmly on the south-east Asia backpacker trail now, and Luang Prabang seems to be the centre of it. The town has a very attractive natural setting, nestled into a broad curve in the Mekong river and around a steep hilltop, topped by a Buddhist shrine. The view from the top, particular when the sun sets over the river, is probably worth the trip on its own. Away from the backpacker centre, there are also some interesting complexes and the river banks are lined by small restaurants that serve Delicious Lao style curries and, much to Sue's delight, great French style coffee!

We had a decent hotel on the edge of the town, but to get into the centre, we had to navigate the most decrepit bridge (referred to as 'the communist era bridge' to differentiate it from the much more modern and solid 'capitalist era bridge' further up stream!) that crossed high over the Mekong. Pedestrians were divided from the traffic, but the whole structure shook when anything bigger than a motorbike crossed. Underfoot, the old planks creaked and we could see the water swirling through the gaps, as if waiting for a false step. Coming back over the unlit bridge at night after a couple of drinks was certainly an interesting experience!

The 'communist era bridge' over the Mekong

Small ferry boats wind their way up and down the Mekong at Luang Prabang

A Buddhist temple in Luang Prabang

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The view down the river to our bridge

As we approached Vang Viang, the scenery became more rugged, with limestone karsts soaring vertically out of the rain forest. It used to be the big backpacker party town of Laos, where drugs and strong alcohol combined with big outdoor raves, zip wiring across the river and 'tubing'. Tubing involves riding the rapids on a tractor inner tube, which probably isn't good when combined with a cocktails of drugs and alcohol. At one point more than 20 backpackers died in accidents in less than a year apparently and under pressure from the Australian government, the practice was heavily regulated.

From our group Ralph and I went for the tubing, but far from a white knuckle ride, it turned out be a serene 90 minute float down the river, admiring the mountains and the lush rainforest, with the main excitement being the multi-coloured dragonflies that buzzed around us like helicopter gunships.

Our final stop in Laos was in the capital Vientiane. It summed up the country, that it has the most low key capital that we have ever visited, sitting quietly on the Mekong, with Thailand looming on the other side. There was not a whole lot to see here, but we passed a day ambling along the river in fierce heat, before taking to the solace of an air conditioned coffee bar to read and write and catch up with some admin.

By this time, we had decided to cheat by 'jumping truck' for a few days and taking a flight from Vientiane to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Sue, in particular, was pretty exhausted by the long days on the truck and a couple of hours on a plane saved us 3 days and 24 hours of driving, plus 2 land border crossings. It also meant we would get 5 nights in Siem Reap: with the lure of Angkor Watt and a hotel with a swimming pool!

We will tell you more about how we got on in Cambodia on our next post...

Riding the river at Vang Viang

The finish line for the tubing at Vang Viang

The presidential palace in Vientiane

And finally...service postponed until further notice