As you can see from our photo, we managed to cross the border into Vietnam without too much bother. Compared to our Cambodian border crossing, actually, it was a breeze!
We woke up early yesterday morning, all prepped for the journey ahead from having read lots of accounts of the Ha Tien border crossing between Cambodia and Vietnam (it’s only been open a short while, so we tried to get as much info as possible – don’t you love the internet?)
The first stage of our journey was to get from the small seaside town of Kep to the Vietnam border, about an hour ride on a tuktuk. Tuktuks, as I’ve mentioned before, are charming little motorbike-driven vehicles, open-air and perfect for getting around town in short bursts. Not so perfect for traveling in with all your luggage for over an hour, most of the way on a bumpy dirt road, but our driver was a champ and took us all the way to the border (most of the time the tuktuks stop a few kilometers beforehand, and make you pile all your stuff onto motorbikes for the last haul).
Getting through Cambodian customs was no problem – surprisingly. We had to overstay our visas by a day because we could only get 30 days in Vietnam and our flights to Indonesia are on the 2nd of December, but they simply charged us the (official) nominal fee, and even gave us a receipt! Marvelous.
Then we hopped onto the backs of motorbikes and zooted off to the Vietnamese customs area. We filled in our forms and had our visas checked no problem (they don’t issue them at the border), and even got a 50% discount on the scam fee – most people said they had to pay $2 to get their passports back, we only had to pay $1! Bonus.
But then.
To pass over into Vietnam we had to get our visas stamped, and the stamping-visa-man was nowhere to be found. You would think that at a border crossing with only one conceivable restaurant and no other entertainment spots, it would be quite simple to find one man, but no. We waited over an hour (along with a group of ten other people wanting to cross the border) for this one guy to pitch up – never mind that there were at least five others who (surely?) could have stamped our passports. When he finally arrived (no apology) he proceeded to make three phonecalls before getting to our passports. I would have been seething, but I kept thinking that this was the last step before freedom…
And it was! We set off for the Ha Tien Bus Station, about fifteen minutes on the bikes, I think, to catch a 2 hour bus to Rach Gia, from where we would catch a two and a half hour ferry to the island of Phu Quoc (pronounced something like foowark), our home for the next few days.
The bus station was a patch of dirt with a small sign. No ticket office, no schedule and (more worryingly) no buses. We were approached immediately by a skinny guy with long neck hairs claiming to be a tourism official and telling us that we would have to wait two days (two days!) for the next bus, but luckily we’d read up on this bus station and were on red alert for ‘a skinny guy with long neck hairs who speaks good English’! The guy really needs to cut his neck hairs if he wants to further his scamming career.
Just then, as we were wondering what to do, a young Danish guy walked up, eating a baguette. One of the refreshing things about traveling in an Asian country is that you don’t need any excuse to talk to other Westerners – the fact that you both speak English is excuse enough. We started chatting, and it turned out he’d just come from Phu Quoc, and had taken the Ha Tien ferry from just down the road (the one that website forums had warned us was ‘un-seaworthy’ – so you can’t believe everything you read!) Thanks to our serendipitous meeting, we trundled down the road for a few minutes, found not only the ferry but a lovely booking office (hooray!) and managed to get onto the next boat, leaving in 2 hours, just enough time for an ice-cold freshly squeezed lemon juice (my new favourite drink) and to get some local currency and a local SIM card. Should have been enough time to eat, too, but somehow our fried noodles took 45 minutes to prepare, so we had take-away for the ferry. Which was, incidentally, completely seaworthy.
The two hours on the boat passed very pleasantly chatting to two other travelers, and we arrived at the hectic pier of Phu Quoc in one piece (hectic because of the crowds waiting to try and convince you to take their taxi / minibus / motorbike). Luckily we’d booked a ride ahead of time, and slipped out of the madness and into Vietnam.
So far, so beautiful. We’re staying at an eco-friendly resort right on the beach, with stunning sea views on all sides and natural indigenous forest. I’m having a bad health day today (more on that in the next blog), but it is a simply stunning entry into Vietnam.
… is really the message that we want to send with this journey.
That no matter what your chronic condition, you can take heart in knowing that it is possible to follow your dreams, just like I’m doing with my diabetes and our travels.
Part of our Take Heart Campaign is finding handmade hearts in each of the countries we visit, which we’ll auction off to raise funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, who are searching for a cure for diabetes.
I have to say, although Cambodia started off a little rough and hectic, we are really loving it these days – it makes such a difference to be in the South, where all is ocean and beauty (apart from the thousands of beach shacks selling beer and the kids trying to get you to buy bracelets wherever you walk).
This weekend, our Celebration Weekend (not only Mark’s birthday but also our 3 year anniversary – what an accomplishment!) we were lucky enough to go on a scuba diving weekend. I haven’t dived since I was certified in Lake Malawi, nearly two years ago, so I was a tad nervous… When you first learn how to scuba dive there are so many things to remember that I was worried I’d forget something crucial and panic underwater. Needless to say, I was worrying for nothing.
We set off really early on Saturday morning and took a two-hour boat ride to Koh Roh Samleng, where Eco Sea Dive have their wooden bungalows. We spent that day snorkeling around the coral reef and rocks right outside our bungalow (and seeing all kinds of beautiful tropical fish) and swimming in the clear turquoise sea, off the totally unspoilt beach… Magical! There’s a small village on the island, and the villagers were lovely – nobody tried to sell us anything and the kids called out ‘Hello hello!’ everywhere we went. The bungalows were really rustic – basically like camping on the beach – and in the space of an hour (just before bed) we saw a giant spider (the biggest I’ve ever seen) and a mammoth gecko, seriously, this thing looked like a small crocodile! Okay, well, not that big, but it was just hanging out next to the bed. Not the most soothing sight before sleep.
That night it poured with torrential rain, so we didn’t get much sleep anyway (tin roofs make a lot of noise), but luckily we had to be up at 5am anyway, so sleep wasn’t a top priority (I never seem to sleep properly on nights when I have an early wake-up call).
We set off on a big boat to the mystical island of Koh Tang – it’s too far from the Cambodian and the Vietnamese shores for most people to get there, so it’s only visited by the three dive schools in Cambodia, and then only on special occassions.
It. was. incredible. As I said, I was really nervous going in, but as soon as I was underwater I felt like I’d stepped into a National Geographic movie, or a fairytale. The most astounding coral in bright colours and crazy shapes, all populated by an abundance of tropical fish, sting rays, eels and of course an amazing array of anemones and flora. Words can’t really describe how extraordinary it was… A completely unspoilt reef, and our group were the only people there.
I’d forgotten how peaceful scuba diving is, too. When you’re under the water, time seems to stop. It’s just you and nature, and the steady sound of your breathing. It’s the most amazing feeling… I’m hooked!
We had two dives yesterday, and lunch on the boat, and then headed back to Sihanoukville – a five hour boat ride (phew) that left us totally exhausted, but happy. Today we arrived in Kampot, a charming French colonial riverside town, and found a most delightful guesthouse where we’ll be for the next few days, so we’re decidedly settled and cheerful. AND we found some birthday cake for Mark this afternoon! Bitter chocolate and espresso…yum.
Of course, the other reason I was nervous about scuba diving was because of my diabetes. Any exercise will cause your blood sugar to drop, but scuba diving – which seems like such mild exercise (really just paddling with fins) – is pretty intense. I decided, seeing as we were doing two dives one after the other, that I would take less insulin with breakfast and purposefully go high, and then I could always take more insulin after the dives. I didn’t want to risk going low underwater. Going low while you’re diving is really dangerous – it impairs your decision-making skills and your fine motor skills and makes you all fuzzy headed, which is the last thing you need underwater. My plan worked pretty well, after both dives I was still in an acceptable range, and it didn’t have any lasting low blood sugar effects. The other option is to come straight out of the water and have something sweet, to counteract the low, but I didn’t want to risk the low coming earlier – I’m not that scuba savvy yet.
All in all, a great success! We’ll be doing much more diving in the future. I can’t wait!
(Here’s our Best Moment from yesterday – on the boat. Check it out:)
I realised, yesterday, one major way in which this trip is different from a holiday.
It’s different in a lot of smaller ways, of course – we’re working as we go, we’re doing it for a cause, I have to be a lot more aware of my health, we have to document everything along the way – but there was one main difference that I hadn’t really come to grips with:
We have to create a home as we go.
I think that’s part of the reason we haven’t become travel weary up to this point, is because we made a decision right in the beginning that we would spend slightly more on accommodation, and get something that was comfortable and clean and nice, rather than a cheap dingy hole. But even when things are comfortable and nice, they don’t always feel like a home. And when you’re camping out instead of living in a room, that’ll get you down…
I think that’s part of what was getting me down yesterday. We were staying in this beautiful location, with amazing views out over the ocean, but the actual room we were in was a little wooden thatched bungalow, with a creaky fan and a creaky bed, and not much else. The bathroom was tiny with only cold water and one of those toilets where you can’t flush the loo paper (you have to put it in a bucket next to the toilet, which I hate!) There was no fridge, no TV, no desk, no space for anything. And although it was clean enough (the cleaner came in every day and sprayed everything down with bug spray), there were mysterious droppings in the bathroom, and we didn’t want to buy any food and leave it in the room in case it attracted mice (our bungalow was right next to the forest).
Today, however, we’re staying in a lovely sterile room in a hotel just around the corner. It’s really big, and it has lots of light, and aircon, and a TV and a fridge and a large desk and chair. The bathroom not only has a hot shower, but a bathtub (hooray!) and everything is brand-new because the hotel just opened (I mean: brand-new – we pulled the sticker off the basin, and took the sticky tape off the fridge. It’s the newest place I’ve ever stayed in!) And I immediately feel happier. We can unpack, we’ve bought supplies of snacks and fresh fruit and yoghurt (which we can put in our fridge) and I feel like I can settle in here for a few days.
So that’s something to remember for the next many months… In order to make small homes along the way, we have to find places that make us feel comfortable. A worthy travelling lesson, I think.
So we’ve finally found the beauty we’ve been searching for in Cambodia!
Sihanoukville, a small beach town in the South, is lovely. Really lovely – white sandy beaches, clear turquoise seas and long vistas stretching out to horizons dotted with small islands… Really beautiful.
It’s been somewhat ravaged by the recent typhoon – parts of the beach were washed away terribly, and the structure of the beaches has changed completely, apparently – but it’s still by far the prettiest place we’ve seen in Cambodia.
We’ve spent the last couple of days swimming, snorkeling, eating barbeque on the beach, and lying in the hammock of our beach bungalow… It’s a hard life, I tell you! (Check out our Best Moments of the Day to share in it with us). But now it is Monday morning and, believe it or not, Monday mornings still mean something when you’re traveling the world and next to the Cambodian beach. We have a whole pile of work to do today, and we’re moving to a more work-conducive place to do it in (aircon, desk, not right next to the sea!)
I know I promised to speak more about the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum, and to try and unpick how they made me feel, but I’m not too sure that I can, to be honest. I will say that I’m feeling a little down. I’m not sure if it’s hormonal, or the 5am low blood sugar I had this morning (which woke me up with my heart pounding, and which I can’t quite figure out) or if it’s the weight of this Cambodian conundrum that is still chasing our steps, or if it’s just a bit of travel fatigue. I’m not going to question it too much, I’m just going to go with it, and have an easy day of feeling a little less-than-chipper. Everyone has them.
I haven’t stopped thinking about the whole Cambodian situation, though. It’s impossible to, really, when you’re surrounded by evidence of it on all sides. And we’ve been talking about it a lot, to people who live and work here, to try and get to the bottom of it. I think I might be too empathetic for hectic political situations – I immediately go for the emotional response. For example, in my head (and heart) it makes complete sense that the reason we haven’t seen too many Cambodian success stories and the reason people don’t seem to take too much care with their properties and public spaces, is because a mere 30 years ago, anyone who was refined and looked after themselves and their properties, anyone who strove for something higher and better and more than they were given, was punished, in the worst possible way. They were executed. Now surely that must have a significant, lasting impression on the lives and minds of a country’s people?
Heavy thoughts for a Monday morning, I know! It’s interesting, though. From home I thought traveling was all one happy holiday – but when you’re really trying to connect with a country, it’s often a lot deeper and more troublesome than that.
So we’ve been in Cambodia a little over a week now, and have spent time in three places already – Siem Reap (where the temples of Angkor Wat are), Phnom Penh (the capital) and Kratie (a small riverside town, we arrived here yesterday).
Here are some things we’ve noticed so far….
* The people we’ve stayed with have been really lovely – warm, friendly, well spoken and so helpful.
* The people on the street are infuriating, especially tuk-tuk drivers. They’re really desperate and grabby, and they don’t leave you alone, no matter how many times you politely refuse.
* I love the food – Cambodia is famous for its pepper, and they serve this delicious sauce of fresh lime juice, coarse salt and black pepper with most dishes. Yum!
* I also love that there is bread everywhere – baguettes are sold on the side of the street (with a weird pate or delicious cream cheese and cucumber) and there are bakeries here and there, and bread sold in the supermarkets.
* The violence of the past is very much a part of people’s lives – they reference the Khmer Rouge frequently, as a time marker or an explanation for why things are a certain way.
* Mark pointed out that there aren’t all that many middle-aged people (because of the Khmer Rouge). There are lots of youths and old people, but not so many in the 40 to 60 age range.
* There’s definitely more of a scammer edge here. You have to be sussed and know how much things should cost, and even when you do there’s a good chance you’ll be ripped off. It seems there’s a ‘get it while you can’ attitude, and not a whole lot of space for bartering. Understandable, given where the country has been, but really annoying if you’re used to things being fair.
* Phnom Penh is a rip-off – expensive food, expensive transport, pricey accommodation. It’s a city city too, like Bangkok. We preferred Siem Reap.
* The foot massages here are AMAZING. Hour-long reflexology and massage treatments that are intense but wonderful.
* The kids are adorable, and really friendly. Every child we pass calls out ‘Hello!’ and occasionally, ‘Where are you from?’
* The traffic here is the craziest we’ve ever seen – it doesn’t seem like there are any rules at all. None whatsoever, not even which side of the road you should drive on. We approached a 4 way stop in a tuktuk yesterday, and nobody even PAUSED, never mind stopped! Terrifying stuff – best to just look away, I find!
That’s all for now, no doubt I’ll have a few more impressions once we’ve found our way around Kratie… We spent the morning exploring the side streets and market, and it feels a lot more authentic Cambodia than anywhere else we’ve been, we only saw two other tourists! Kratie is famous for their rare Irrawaddy dolphins (there are only 70 left in the world) so we’ll be going to see those soon…
I’m curious – for anyone who’s been to Cambodia before. Does this sound like your first impressions of the country?
Here’s our latest video diary (a Week 3&4 combo, seeing as we were away for almost a week of the last two)… Thought you might like to see snippets of all we’ve seen in the last few weeks, as well as hear what we have to say about it (in real life, not just written words!)
Here’s the embedded video, or you can watch it on YouTube here.
So now my blood sugar has stabilised and I’m feeling well and energetic and happy again… Sorry for the rants last week! I tend to turn into a bit of a Wicked Witch of the West when I’m exhausted and my sugar is acting up.
But now I’m back! Aren’t you relieved? (I know Mark is…)
Today we had an amazing day, exploring the ruins of Angkor Wat here in Siem Reap. Absolutely incredible. We left at 8am and our tuk tuk driver took us to Bayon, the ancient temple with over 37 pillars of Buddha heads facing four directions. From there we wandered around exploring Baphuon, the Terrace of the Elephants, the Terrace of the Leper King, and the Pyramid (which was not quite a pyramid, but which was terrifyingly high to climb up without help!)
Then we zoomed off into the forest to find Ta Phrom, the half-overgrown jungly temple that’s been left to crumble (to some extent) where we found a secret spot for a bread-and-cheese-and-watermelon picnic overlooking a lake. Stunning!
And then, finally, once we’d taken at least a thousand photographs, we went to Angkor Wat, the star attraction. It was staggering from a size point of view, and extremely intricate, and lovely. Here’s our Best Moment of the Day, from one of the spots we found high up on the temple:
I must say, I was surprised how many tourists there were out and about today. You’d think, what with it still being off season and the flood and all, that there wouldn’t be that many people but there were tons! By far the most tourists we’ve seen on this trip. Mark and I made a concerted effort to find small hidden nooks and crannies, little spots that didn’t seem to have been discovered by a queue of people that morning, and all in all I think we succeeded.
It was just such a wonderful deluge into Cambodian history and culture, and such a welcome break to be feeling well and energetic enough to fully enjoy it!
Hundreds of photos to follow soon, I promise. I just have to get them off my camera…
Yesterday, 1st October 2009, exactly a month since we left, was HECTIC.
Allow me to set the scene before I give you a blow-by-blow… I arrived back in Bangkok, Thailand, from a really busy (and fascinating) 4 days in Vienna. 10 hour flight, 14 hours in transit, 5 hour time difference. My second dose of jetlag in a week. The idea was to spend 2 days recovering, catching our breath and resting before the trek to Cambodia. Except my flight landed late, we had to wait an extra hour for the bus, and the traffic in Bangkok was crazy. So we only arrived at about 5.30pm, and then found out that the only bus that would get us to Cambodia in one day (and thereby avoid sleeping in a dodgy border town) left at 5.55am. So let’s change that two days into one. The day after that one day…
* 2am: Woke up sweating, heart pounding, head floating, and craving sugar. A night-time low, my absolute worst (and as far as I can tell, without direct cause – I’ve taken notes trying to find the source of a night-time low. Anyone have the answer for me?) After a super-sweet juice and a couple of miniature bananas, my heart rate slowed enough for me to go back to bed and try to fall asleep again (now 2.20am)
* 4.30am: Alarm went off to wake us for the day. Dragged myself out of bed, showered, drank tea. Had stupidly decided in my exhaustion the night before that I could quickly pack in the morning. Baaaad idea. We both scrambled to get everything packed in time to catch a taxi at 5.20am, to get to the train station in time for our 5.55am train.
* 5.30am. Still in the hotel room. Torrential rain outside. Pitch dark.
* 5.35am. Run through the rain with a backpack and suitcase each, desperately trying to protect our electronic valuables with an umbrella. There is water everywhere – huge puddles every footstep. We’re too late to care.
* 5.40am. In the taxi, at last. Our train leaves in 15 minutes. The hotel recommended we allow 20 minutes to travel. Thai trains are notoriously punctual. I chant a prayer the whole way to the train station – we’ve already bought our tickets and transfer tickets and they’re non-refundable.
* 5.51am. Arrive at the train station, throw money at the taxi driver, and run to the train. Find a seat just as it departs.
* 5.55am to 11.40am. Train ride. 3rd class seats only, so they’re a little hard (and dirty), and all the windows are open. None of the cushioned air-conditioned luxury we’ve been treated to on Thai trains before, but the tickets were ridiculously cheap, the scenery is fascinating, and we’re too tired to care.
* 10.21am. High blood sugar, for no reason. Makes me feel emotional (let’s make that extra-emotional, given the exhaustion, the jetlag, the low this morning, and the inability to sleep on the train).
* 11.42am. Met at the train station by a very nice man from the company we booked our transfer with. He takes us to a songthaew (a kind of open-backed, covered truck) where another very nice man drives us to what is supposedly the border between Thailand and Cambodia, but is actually a ‘consulate’s office’, one of the famous border scams. Two men dressed in official-looking costumes sit behind a desk with Thai and Cambodian flags, hand you official-looking forms, and ask you for 1200 baht each for a visa ($36 US dollars). When you say that you’d rather just get a $20 visa at the border, they tell you it’s impossible, and that it will take 3 days. We’d read all about the scam, so we insisted.
* Noon to 1pm. Made our way through the maze of scams and false stories out of Thailand, across the stretch of mud to the Cambodian border, where we went through a ‘quarantine’ (had our temperatures checked) and got a $20 visa no problem. Then we waited at the ‘bus station’ (a couple of benches just around the corner from the border, next to a stretch of mud) for our bus, which we had paid for in Bangkok, and was supposed to leave at 2pm.
* 2.35pm. An hour and a half later, still no bus. Eventually arrives and takes us to the bus station, where we catch another bus, which will supposedly take us to Siem Reap Bus Station or Market, depending who you ask. Either way, no problem to catch a tuk tuk to our guest house, they assure us.
* 3pm. We are now officially on the road, and officially in one of the tourist scam buses we had read about. I’m not quite sure how, because we’d booked from the State Railways of Thailand information desk, so you’d think it was all above-board. You’d think wrong. Our trip will take us 4 hours, so we’ll arrive at 7pm, after dark and, we’ve now been told, at a guest house that offers a ‘special deal’ for tourists (the special deal being that any tourist who checks in earns a $7 commission for the bus driver).
* 5.15pm. Mark keeps saying that the landscape around us looks flooded (there was a typhoon in this general area a couple of days ago, but we’d heard that it was concentrated elsewhere). I keep telling him maybe that’s just what Cambodia looks like.
* 6.53pm. We finally pull into Siem Reap, and it is F.L.O.O.D.E.D. People walking down the street with water up to their knees. Our bus making waves that wash over motorbikes. No distinction between the river and the street. Water water everywhere.
* 6.58pm. The bus driver tries to convinces us that the area we’ve booked a guest house in is severely flooded, but we don’t trust him (the dirty scammer) so we get a tuk tuk to take us there anyway.
* 7.09pm. He wasn’t kidding. The water is so high that it washes up over our feet while the tuk tuk is driving. Eventually it gets so bad that we get out and walk (the water is up to our lower thighs) while the tuk tuk valiantly carries our suitcases to the door.
* 7.15pm. We arrive! At last. Our guest house is clean and comfortable, and above ground (i.e. no flood water, thank goodness!) We have made it through over 13 hours on the road, without sleep, with jetlag and, oh did I forget to mention? Our first two days on anti-malarial tablets, which tend to make you tired and a bit under-the-weather.
So all in all, I’m going to go ahead and say that was our most hectic day yet.
