Banana Seeds and Jewel Beaches

Well this is it, our last day in Asia has arrived (at least for now). Where do I begin, easy... After Cambodia, Kendra and I made our way back to Thailand to complete another full circle of Asia and enjoy some familiar places. We had three weeks before our flight to Australia. Our plan was to catch a few things we missed in Bangkok, head back to Koh Tao for a short reunion and then head out to the Adaman coast (West Coast of Thailand on the Indian Ocean) in search of some of Thailands famous (and/or secluded) beaches.

In Bangkok we spent a day doing errands (ie. Fast Food, Starbucks, Post, Singha, Buckets, Van Bars etc..) and a day doing some of the sight seeing we had missed on our previous visits. Actually it was on my birthday when we went around Bangkok taking in Thailand's largest reclining Buddha, the Royal Palace, Emerald Buddha, Ramayana murals, Temples, Stupphas, Amulet markets...well the list goes on. Check out some photos. (Some of you may be disapointed to know that we didn't get to see the Ping Pong's ;)


Just inside Bangkok's Grand Palace.


The Chakri Maha Prasat Hall at the Grand Palace.


The absolutely massive reclining Buddha in Wat Pho ("Wat" means temple) nearby the Grand Palace. This structure/sculpture is 46m long and, at its highest point, 15m high!!

After the bustle of Bangkok we headed straight back to our diving paradise, Koh Tao. Kendra and I were pretty excited about seeing who was still there and enjoying a familiar place for a change (Funny what seems familiar after 6 months on the road). We weren't disapointed, not by the people anyway. Accomodation was another issue.

We had arrived in Koh Tao on one of the busiest weekends of the year. Not only was it the Queen's birthday, a national holiday, but also the day after the Full Moon Party in Koh Phangang. In other words the place was packed. The accomodation problem was eloquently made clear to us when we walked through the courtyard of Buddha View and saw our first familiar face, Renee (the instructor that brought us into the diving world). "Great to see you!" he said with a smile and (still smiling) "You couldn't have picked a worse time to be here"..."Nice to see you too Renee". He was right, of course, and we ended up walking up and down the beach trying to find a vacant room. In the end we spent the night in our most expensive accomodation yet, a whopping, $36 CDN...
what...it's a lot to us...come on stop laughing...yes it is whopping...no I haven't been smoking weed...it's quite a lot actually...OK, I guess it's not that bad...
how about I compare that with what we got the next night for accomodation. Fortunately for us, that's not a fair comparison because the next night we were offered a deal we couldn't refuse, although I have to explain a bit before getting to that.

Once we had our, extremely posh, 2nd story room, with satellite TV, hot water and a view (kind of) of the beach :), we went back to the dive shop and discovered that there were several people on the island that we still knew and even convinced a few of them to join in my b-day celebration (having previously spent it on an overnight bus...although you already know that). This was when I broke out the homemade Banana Seed Wine (which actually tastes like cheap whiskey) that I had bought for the occasion a month earlier in Vietnam...that was a mistake, but I'll get back to that later.

OK, I'm getting to the point here, I think. As part of our Koh Tao reunion we ran into Sarah (you may remember she was the one that shaved my head just a wee bit too close), our old neighbor at the Sunshine guesthouse. She had heard about our accomodation woes and offered her place to us as she would be on another island for a couple of days! So you see, an offer that we couldn't refuse, two nights for free!! Thanks Sarah (too bad we missed you though, I needed another haircut :)!!!

OK, so at this point you know that we've saved on accomodation and started drinking Vietnamese Banana Seed wine. After this things get a little blurry until the alarm goes off the next morning to wake us up for our dive at 7:00am. We were on the boat by 8:00am enthusiastic, hangover and all (okay I was the only hungover one). Being that this is the rainy season in the Gulf of Thailand the seas were just a "little" choppy. The banana seeds didn't like this one bit, and it wasn't long before I was at the back of the boat spewing my guts out...twice...at least it wasn't into the regulator at 20m! It wasn't too embarassing, although half the boat had a good laugh.

That was our first 24 hours in Koh Tao. The next two days were relaxing ones. We took it easy, enjoyed our favorite places, had some more great laughs, and even checked out a night of Thai Boxing before heading to our next destination, Phuket. The trip to Phuket was a little adventure. At one point we were abandoned for 4 hours at an obscure roadside restaurant with 7 other people, waiting, hoping, that the mini bus driver that was supposed to pick us up didn't forget about us. Instead of getting to town at 4:00pm like we expected we arrived at 1:00am with no where to stay...hey, what can you do...we eventually found a place and crashed for the night.

As a little family suprise, Paul (my brother in Korea) was taking a vacation and had picked Thailand as his destination. We met him and his girlfriend, Kate, in Phuket for three days of fun in the sun, cut-throat card playing (Hearts mostly), and a memorable round of mini-golf. It was great to see them both!


Paul and I on Patong Beach Phuket just after our Boogie Board attempt, dude.


Paul and Kate out for dinner on our last night before going our seperate ways. Go Flames!

Finally our last major stop in Thailand. We were headed to Railay beach to try and spend our last 10 days in Asia basking at one of Thailand's jewel beaches. We would not be disapointed.

When we arrived in Railay it was just what I had imagined. To make things that much better, it was the off season and one of the nicest resorts in the bay offered a great deal to stay in a fantastic bungalow with access to a beachside pool. How can you beat it. This is where we would spend our last days in Asia. I can't describe the beaches or the scenary any better than pictures so check it out.


Our arrival in Railay Bay.

These ones kind of speak for themselves.















So that's it, we left Railay - reluctantly - and headed on our last great journey in Asia (at least for now). This consisted of no less than 7 seperate boat/minivan/bus transfers. Picture us, at one point, being dropped off in Malaysia at a totally confusing bus station. It was dark, raining, we were under a highway overpass with no idea how, or when we would get out of there for about 3 hours, oh and practicaly nobody could speak english. A little tense but it all worked out, another story to tell.

So here we are in Singapore, the night before our flight to Australia. Asia was amazing and we will miss its many charms. For now we're headed back to the "Western" world, fixed prices, traffic laws, marsupials, venomous snakes, meter maids, and something that should resemble english, "Throw another shrimp on the Bar-B"...we'll see.

Regards,
Mike and Kendra

History 401: The Kingdom of Cambodia

In Phnom Phen, the capital of Cambodia, Mike and I bore witness of one of the largest genocides the world has seen in the 20th century. From 1975-1979, 2-3 million Cambodians died from execution, malnutrition, exhaustion and disease.

How could this atrocity occur? It started with an internal battle for power, where the ousted President, King Nordom, started to support a small indigenous rebel group called the Khmer Rouge. Coupled with the US B52 bombers tearing up the Cambodian country side, in an attempt to draw out the communist Viet Congs believed to be in hiding, the rebel group became strong enough to overthrow the Army gov’t and become the leaders. Under this new order, called ANGKA, the leader Pol Pot, decreed that it was “Year Zero” and forced all citizens to vacate their homes and return to the fields to work as equals. Everyone received the same lodging, food rations, and black pajama like uniforms. This radical idea was further accentuated with the indoctrination of love for only Angka – family loyalty was strongly rejected. Labour camps for children and adults were established where over the years, the food rations declined to nothing, yet the hard, manual labour never slowed, resulting in countless deaths.

If you were educated, spoke a foreign language, opposed the creed of Angka or even wore glasses, you were executed by the loyal Khmer Rouge soldiers. Over 17,000 Cambodians suspected of being against the KR were taken to Tuaol Suay Prey High School, which was converted into a torture and interrogation prison called Security Prison 21 (S21). Men, women and children were shackled in chains, locked in small rooms, interrogated, tortured by dubious means and when they finally “confessed” for their treason, then were taken to Choeung Ek. Here, the prisoners dug massive holes, were blindfolded, bound, and then bludgeoned to death in an attempt to save bullets. Thus the mass grave site became known as the Killing Fields.

Eventually the Vietnamese Army overthrew the KR, who continued guerrilla warfare throughout the 80’s. The memory of the Khmer Rouge era haunts those who survived. Awareness and understanding of this genocide is critical in helping deter the current civil genocides ongoing: Bosnia, Rwanda and Dar Fur just to name a few. Perhaps with education, we can force our governments’ involvement to stop the killings.


Memorial Tower at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek which houses the skulls of thousands of victims of the Khmer Rouge.


One of the many signs found at the Killing Fields.

The sign reads: "After escavating the mass graves, Victims' clothes were cleaned by deodorants in 1988".


One of the torture rooms at the S21 prision. Along the faded walls, you can imagine prisoners sitting, waiting for their interrogation.


These are only a handful of the victims at S21. Walking around the museam, looking into their faces, I saw fear, shock, indignation, anger and tears. I cried myself.

After my eye opening, heart wrenching, soul piercing experience in Phnom Phen, we continued our history lesson north in Siem Reap. For 3 days, Mike and I explored the architectural haven of Ankor – the temples that are the essence of Cambodian pride. The monuments were built from the 9th – 13th century. The most widely known, Angkor Wat, is the largest religious building in the world. Our first glimpse of Angkor Wat was at the stroke of dawn. The sky turned from a midnight blue and into an orange, then pink hue and the magnitude of the temple was revealed.


Mike & I standing outside the entrance to Angkor Wat.


I'm climbing (crawling?) the steep steps that lead to the highest tower of Angkor Wat. This is the only side that has a iron rod handle to cling onto when going down. Mike was able to go up and down 5x faster than me!


Angkor Wat is covered in Bas-Reliefs, images scuplted right from the original stone. We spent hours roaming around the temples looking at the pictures.


View from the highest tower of Angkor, looking out at its front yard.

The many temples distributed throughout this 200 km2 of land vary in style, composite material and meaning, but all are awe inspiring. Some of my favourites were the Bayon Temple, where faces are carved into the numerous towers and Ta Pronhm whose corridors with cornered towers and gapuras has tree roots slithering down gates trying to dislodge the building.


The Bayon Temple


Talk about Jungle Mania! This is a part of Ta Pronhm complex.

On our final day of visiting the temples, we were bike riding to Angkor Wat to see the sun set, when we saw families of monkeys along the roadside. I was so excited and thought of my mom who LOVES monkeys! We had heard we would be inundated by two things at Angkor: 1) children selling souvenirs and 2) monkeys. Well the former was bang on, the kids were everywhere, selling everything and always asking in a singsong voice “Where are you from”… “The capital of Canada is Ottawa, they speak 2 languages”. The first 5 times were endearing, and then it just became repetitive and finally a little annoying. As for the later, we thought that monkeys in SE Asia were a myth, but we were finally rewarded with a sighting!

Instead of a setting sun, we saw the release of rainstorm clouds and got drenched racing home in the dark, torrential downpour. Somehow it seemed a fitting end for our last day in Cambodia. To sum up our experience in Cambodia, I found it was a dark journey with a lot of sorrow and tears, but there is an underlying force in the people and as in the Angkor temples, a strength and endurance to survive.

Love and peace,

Kendra & Mike

P.S. Book Recommendation: "When Broken Glass Floats" by Chanrithy Him (her personal account about growing up under the Khmer Rouge)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE

Just wanted to write a quick note to wish Mike a happy 29th birthday!!! We are currently back in Bangkok (for the third time) and like always, we are in a rush to go somewhere else.... back to Ko Tao for 3 days, before finally making it to the Phuket. We are taking another overnight bus to Ko Tao, so not too much of a celebration fo Mike's b-day, but we did have drink buckets from a party van on the side of the street last night.

I love this picture of Mike. I took it while we were touring Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but that's another update.

Love,
Kendra

The Tailors of Hoi An

Hello again!!
We’ve just finished our trip through Vietnam, and once again we had a great time. Kendra and I both feel that Vietnam has its own distinct vibe that sets it apart from the other SE Asian countries. This could have been because of our recent 2.5-month stint in China but seriously it did feel different and we loved it!

From the last update you may or may not remember that we were in Ninh Binh (just south of Hanoi) on motorbikes touring the countryside. Next we headed south along the backpacker trail to Hue - Hoi An - Nha Trang - Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City depending on your politics) - and the Mekong Delta (check out the map link).

In Hue we spent a day touring the Perfume River visiting ancient tombs, pagodas and watching the local river life. We also walked around the old town, which much to my eternal happiness was another World Heritage site (check). Here we saw our fist real evidence of the Vietnam War as we walked past old American tanks and armored units “captured” by the Viet Cong near the end of the war in 1975. We also saw an old American bunker along the city's Ancient Citadel walls and a site of several battles. We would see a lot more reminders of the War before we left Vietnam.


American Tank in Hue. The sign says (and this is exactly whats written same spelling and grammar)
"M48 Tank with artillery of the US equipped to puppet soldiers for raiding and killing the people. In the spring 1975 campaign. Captured by the liberation army at Phu Bai on 25 March 1975."
Different perspective.


Kendra snuck a nice picture at a market in Hue.


Ming Mang Tomb in Hue on our day trip down the perfume river.

We stayed in Hue for a comfortable 3 nights and headed to Hoi An. Here we encountered the world famous Tailors of Hoi An...dun dun dun... they definitely deserve special mention. Tailors are everywhere in Hoi An. Custom made clothes is the business and business is gooood! For us, this was one of the reasons we were there, and like most travelers we met, we were a little wary/nervous of the whole process. First thing first, we had to pick out a shop. This took some time but eventually we found one based on an off hand reference from another couple. We dove in. For the next 6 days we would be there twice a day everyday (except one). The closest thing either of us has had for a job in months (hehe, sorry to rub it in, not really :) ). We started out with a little feeler to see if shop was any good. For me they made one pair of pants and one shirt (yes Kendra helped pick out colours) and Kendra had one dress made. This went well and we started our main order, which consisted of several suits, shirts, pants and dresses (I only got one, the Tailor said it brought out my eyes...ha, cheesy). The fitting process was sometimes fun, but mostly painful, like I said we were there every day making sure we got what we wanted, we did our best but we knew nothing about tailor made clothes, material, stitching, floating canvas's, French cuffs, plackets, English style, lining, burn tests....the list goes on. Our greatest fear was that because we've lost so much weight (a shocking 9 kg each), when we get home the clothes wouldn’t fit. Of course the obvious reply is, don't gain the weight back, thanks, but just in case, we hammered it into the tailor every day that they had to fit when we got home...we'll see. You should have seen us...the fittings were pretty comical; we'd walk into the store like the travelers we were, sandals, swimsuits, and t-shirts. We would get all dressed up, talk about nipping here, and tucking there...it was like we were in some parallel universe. Afterwards we'd step back outside and resume our backpacker role by checking out the beach or site seeing. At one point we were both in our suits and got shivers down our spine as it looked like we were about to head off to work, yikes. In the end the clothes looked good and we were happy with them although the whole process took its toll on our enthusiasm. Oh and just a heads up, Mom, you’ve got several packages on its way home from Vietnam; hope there’s room (Dad?).


Getting fitted at the tailors and yes, that is a look of confusion on my face.


Kendra in a nice new skirt and one of her new shirts. She looks happy!

Hoi An wasn't just about tailors and clothes, it also boasts two, count them, two, World Heritage sites. They are:

1) Hoi An Old Town: made up of a mixture of Chinese, Japanese and European Architecture. There are temples, cafe’s, theatres, craft shops and of course tailors.

2) My Son (pronounced - Me Sun, meaning – Beautiful Mountain): are Cham ruins with buildings dating back as far as the 7th century AD. Cham is the historical name for the ethnic group that settled the area and which still makes up a large portion of the population. This area was a religious center from the late 4th century and was occupied until the 13th century – the longest period of development of any monument in SE Asia (including Angkor Wat, or so says the guidebook)! The jungle has had a few centuries to reclaim the site which gives the area that much more appeal. Despite its significance (and probably because of it) My Son did not escape the war and we saw evidence of destruction from the fighting including a massive crater near one of the biggest groups of buildings.


"My Son" ruins outside of Hoi An. In the bottom right quadrant you can see a bomb crater from the Vietnam War.

Other than tailors and heritage sites, much to Kendra's happiness we spent some days on the fantastic nearby beach, our first few official beach days since we left Koh Tao at the beginning of April! (and Kendra thought we’d be beaching it all the time, it wasn’t so bad, right babe :)?)


The beach at Hoi An. Brings a tear to the eye.

Nha Trang was our next stop where we also spent time on a beautiful beach. One day we did an island tour, snorkeling, diving, beach volleyball. Who could forget the floating styrofoam bar or the call from the server, “Hey everybody, we-got-f’n-shitty-ass-wine, but-don-worry-is-free!!!”. A nice surprise here was on our last day when we met up with our long lost friends from Tibet, Warren and Jody. We caught up with our respective travel stories since we last saw them and reminisced about our Tibet adventure, it was good fun (not to mention some solid Frisbee on the beach)

Finally after spending almost two weeks (half our total time in Vietnam) in Hoi An and Nha Trang we left for Saigon. Our Visa was running out so we couldn’t really explore the city much. We did get to spend 1 day at the famous Cu Chi tunnels of the Vietnam War though. Here we crawled through tunnels made by the Viet Cong, got a lesson on how guerilla warfare works, and even fired an AK-47. The whole day was an eye opener on how the Vietnamese had to live during the war. We didn’t have long to think about it though as the next day we were off to Cambodia on a 2 day trip up the Mekong Delta to Phnom Penh.


Cu Chi Tunnels. That is the standard entrance into this extensive system built by the Vietnamese. This was just before I went into the tunnel which hasn't been changed since the war. There were bats hanging from the roof, which was only about 4 feet high, and several corners to get me turned around. A humbling experience considering that some Vietnamese lived in these tunnels for several years at a time!


A booby trap devised by the Viet Cong. This would obviously cause a lot of damage, they had several others equally as leathal.

The trip began early in the morning. Once again this was in a “tour format” which we generally don’t like, but time constraints and the fact that it guaranteed we’d make it to the border the next day proved its worth. Actually the trip was a pleasant surprise. It started out with a bus and then a boat ride to an island in the massive delta. We spent the next two days going up canals on several islands and visiting little cottage industries such as coconut candy villages, honey bee farms, and floating houses with fish farms underneath. We spent one night at a border town on the Delta called Chau Doc, and then headed up the Mekong river to Phnom Penh. What an amazing trip. The Mekong delta is huuugge, we only saw a fraction of it in 2 days. It was particularly special for Kendra and I as we had crossed the river in 5 of the 6 countries it flows through. We saw its beginnings in Tibet, its middle in Laos/Thailand and its end in Vietnam and Cambodia!! A travelers dream!


Travelling down a small canal on an island in the Mekong Delta.


Typical Vietnamese house along the Mekong Delta.


Taking in the view as we headed to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

I feel long winded (as Kendra says) today so I thought I’d go on a little bit more with insight into something about traveling that you don’t usually hear about, other travelers. When we write back home, update the website, or tell stories of where we’ve been, its obviously much more interesting to tell everybody about the locals, the funny stories, the different cultures and traditions of the area. However, when reporting travels back home one tends to ignore the fact that we are also meeting people/foreigners from all over the world.

In Asia the typical way you meet travelers is either on the bus, or in the restaurant. You might find yourself having dinner with a couple of people from your latest overnight bus. Once you’re at dinner conversations usually begin with innocent questions about where you’re from, or where you’ve been. It gets interesting next when, depending on the people, the conversation might develop into a discussion about the continuing crisis in the middle east, or maybe an analysis of censorship in communist countries versus western countries, even better the pros and cons of traveling over long periods of time vs. a short period of time. Inevitably there is always mention about US foreign policy (they dip their fingers in everything). You better believe it, traveling doesn't just give you an excuse to take photos of everything, ride on the back of motorbikes, dodge insane traffic, and have a banana shake every day, it also gives you the chance to debate everything from traveling to terrorism, politics to religion, or, the "you-don't-have-to-eat-local-food-at-every-meal" debate (most of these are not actually debates, it seems that the people we’ve met at least generally have the same opinion on things, ie. its OK to order a Pizza). You meet so many people from different parts of the world who for the most part seem to love conversation. I'm sure we've saved the world 3 times since we've left, or at least stopped injustices in 2 African countries (the best results come over beers after a good meal). In Vietnam, it also helped that it was so cheap we could actually afford a room with a TV. We were able to get caught up on recent news, wars, crisis, and what-not (still can’t believe the Tour de France) that we have missed. Its one of those things that you don't often hear about from traveling, the conversations, ideals and personalities you meet along the way. It’s as much about people as it is about places. Ohhh, the nostalgia is setting in.

OK so after all that I’ll just say that Vietnam was a place of bus tours, boat trips, tourist traps, heritage sites, beaches, history, great people and good food, the whole package! A vacation from a vacation. Now we’re in the home stretch for Asia, another 4 weeks and we’ll be basking in the Australian sun. Take it easy back home or wherever you are.

Mike and Kendra