Cambodia

I found the most amazing hostel! It was at the lake front right in the middle of Phnom Pehn. This guest house called Floating Island had a first level deck over the lake, relaxing couches to hang in while enjoying the beautiful sunset and an iced coffee! The first night I met Ljubica from Croatia and Tom from England. They have each been traveling Asia for about 6 months now and have met up several times. It was really nice to hear all their stories and experiences from Asia because for me it was all new, my very first time in South East Asia and I didn't know what to expect.

The next day CK, one of the "moto" drivers who works at the hostel, brought me to the National museum where I saw a lot of ancient statues of Buddha, Vishnu and Shiva. They're all made from sandstone and some of them where very big and impressive. After that, and after buying a copied Lonely planet from a little boy who walks the streets all day in the burning sun with a heavy basket a round his neck trying to sell books for that extra dollar for his family, I spent the rest of the day just wondering the streets, taking in the life, browsing on street markets and confronted with the fact that I find bargaining down quite hard. It made me feel guilty to try and bargain when it's all ready only 1 euro, but after 12 days I became the best ;-)!

The second day Ljubica, Tom and I visited the killing field and S21. Two sights that are filled with the horrible memories of the Khmer rouge.

Khmer rouge
The Khmer regime is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people (estimates range from 850,000 to 3 million) under its regime, through execution, starvation and forced labor. Although directly responsible for the death of a large amount of that number, the policies of the Khmer Rouge led many others to die from starvation and displacement. In terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled, it was one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century. One of their motto's, in reference to the New People, was: "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss." After four years of the brutal rule, the Khmer Rouge regime was removed from power in 1979 as a result of an invasion by Vietnam. It survived into the 1990s as a resistance movement operating in western Cambodia from bases in Thailand. In 1996, following a peace agreement, the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot formally dissolved the organization. With the death in custody of Ta Mok (The Butcher) in July 2006, Khang Khek Ieu, also known as "Duch," remains the only member of the regime currently imprisoned awaiting trial in the Extraordinary Chambers currently being established to try certain former officials of the Pol Pot regime.

The next day CK and AK, two brothers that work in the hostel, invited us to the annual rice party in their home village. It was about an 1,5 on the back of a moto. We drove over reasonable sealed roads among a lot of traffic, mainly big truck packed with people on the back going home after a days work in the garment factories. The scenery is chocking. Its so dry! There's nothing but sand, dust, burnt of grass and the skinniest cows I have ever seen. Cambodia is to dry half of the year and in the wet season half the country is flooded by the Mekong river. They have rice, vegetables and some fruits. No excess of fruits just growing everywhere, even the coconut trees where bare. No milk from the cows and well I don't see how you could even get 1 steak off of them.

Not only do they have this environmental disadvantage but they also lack knowledge. One of the key factors of the Khmer Rouge was that they executed everyone with an education, training or any kind of knowledge. Cambodia is basically left with hardly any knowlegde to pass on to the younger generations and that is only if you are lucky enough to still have parents or even grandparents! 40% of the population is younger that 15 and is out on the streets everyday trying to make a living, living day by day, surviving. There is no room for a long term focus, I mean how much is an education worth if you don't have enough to eat for that day!

Finally we arrived at the village and had dinner with the whole family. We sat cross legged on a big table and were served a feast. Rice, noddles, chicken (probably the freshest I have ever had because it was still running around when we arrived ;-)), some beef, cucumber and cabbage. all thought the rest of the family couldn't speak any English and we had to communicate with nods and smiles we really had the best time. After dinner the whole village gathered for the dancing. Imagine the dry-est paddock you have ever seen, a pole in the middle with a light and some huge speakers blasting traditional Cambodian music. We learned the traditional dance and after an hour we had trouble breathing because of all the dust we were kicking up. For us it was really special to be part of this but I guess that half the village had never seen a Western person before so we became the biggest attraction of the evening. I now know what it must feel like to be famous, people just stare!

After a day of recuperating I took the bus to Siem Riep. This town has a completely different then Phnom Pehn. All though a lot of people in Phnom Pehn are also dependent on tourism for their income it feel more real then Siem Riep. Siem Riep is located right next to the famous temples of Ankor. This is why you find the most upscale and trendiest restaurants, hotels and bars here. It's lost the real Cambodian feeling all though I must admit it was nice to indulge on an English breakfast an have a clean toilet with toilet paper for once! I did that the first day but after that I went back to the street restaurants that serve real Khmer food for just $1,-.

I spent two days visiting the temples. The first day I saw about 6 relatively small ones. These temples are so ancient and you just walk around in complete amazement about how they built these huge mountains (as that is what they represent) and how well all the details and engravings have serviced. They all have their own character and feel. The second day I got up at 5 to see the sunrise over Ankor Wat, the most famous of all the temples. It was stunning!

After 12 day Cambodia, all the impressions of beauty, friendly people, the sad history of this country and the constant reminders of that time and the amazing heat, I felt a bit of a relief when on Sunday I flew to Singapore.

Monday Nathalie and I had a great day, went for lunch, shopping off course but mainly talked a lot and that was really nice. I felt sad about only having such a short time and she made me promise I would stay longer next time ;-)!

Monday 12th of march 23.15 my plane was airborne....so yes I'm back home!

Last days NZ, on to Singapore and Malaysia

My last days in NZ where nice and relaxing. I managed to sell my car to the local garage without all the hassle of spending days in a backpackers car market. Probably would have got more for it selling to backpackers but it was a loss I was willing to take. Instead I spent my precious time by going to see a movie with Trudie, having lunch with Sinead and catching up with Mark, who had just come back from his holidays on the North Island.

Wednesday was my last day and also a big day on the farm. It was the big sheep sell. Grasslands used to bi all sheep and beef but is in the transition to becoming a dairy farm with 6 to 8 dairy units. The auctions started around 1.30. They basically draft about 100 sheep out of one herd and put them in a pen. The brokers go from pen to pen, value the sheep and then the bidding starts. Unfortunately Trudie and I missed almost everything because we where treating ourselves to coffee and something fattening in Darfield! They had predicted that the bidding would go on all afternoon but it only took about 1,5 hours.

The rest of the day the sheep and beef guys would be busy loading the trucks. Quite an emotional moment for some who have worked with the sheep for years. Luckily this also went very smoothly and didn't keep them busy till midnight because there was a bbq and drinks that night. It would have been a bit sad if they all had to work while we were having a good time. Mainly because it was all about them and the ending of an era.

It was nice to catch up with everyone while enjoying a nice Kiwi bbq and drinking my bourbon. Although I felt sad I was also excited because tomorrow a new adventure would start!

Trudie drove me to the airport and all though I have been able to manage the tears till then this was quite an emotional goodbye for me. But we said good bye with "See you soon" so who knows...I might be back!

After a good flight I was able to give to of my friends a very big hug. Nathalie and Tineke were at the airport to pick me up! I was overwhelmed by the heat and humidity and the next day I experienced how it feels to be back in a city of 4 million people. A big contrast to the peace and quite of NZ and especially the Canterbury plains.

The first day we went shopping, off course! What else to do in Singapore. That night one of Nathalie and Brams friends had a birthday party in an open aired lounge bar on the roof of a building right in the center! Really amazing! The next day we chilled out on the beach (nothing compared to NZ I must say, it was a artificial island where the people from Sing come to escape the fumes and crowds) but very relaxing! It was a new very trendy bar with big beds draped with curtains where you could easily fit 4 people. Those were all booked so we went for the "normal" sunbeds.

The next day Tineke and I said goodbye to Singapore and entered Malaysia. We wanted to go straight trough to the Cameron Highlands but all the buses from Kuala Lumpur (KL in the popularised way of saying) were full. So we had to spend one night there. Seeing as the bus would leave from Puduraya bus station and Chinatown is right next to it we went there to look for a hostel. Not a good idea, also because it was probably even more crowded that normal because of Chinese New Year!

It was crazy with people and where Singapore is clean and feels a bit western this was really Asia! We found a hostel and got a room without a window, they had tried to make it look nice by cutting pictures out of magazines and using it as wallpaper. The bathroom facilities are basically a hole in the floor and no toilet paper. You flush by getting a big scoop of water out of a bucket in the corner and throwing it in the hole. And the shower is usually right above the toilet and cold water! This is what I call surviving or maybe I'm just really spoiled with the standards of the hostels in NZ ;-)

Cameron highlands is famous for the tea plantations and the cooler climate! Oh how I loved that, nights where you can actually feel it cooling down and maybe even feel like putting on a jumper. Back home I always complain about the cold but now I realise that I could never live in a country where it is constantly hot. I do love our seasons!

We spent three days there and then left for Langkawi, an island on the west coast near Thailand. We had to overnight in Penang and found ourselves once again in a shabby run down hotel, but ok it was only for one night.

Langkawi was amazing! The hostel was like you would picture paradise. we had our own cabin which was painted tropical blue on the inside. There was a nice communal area and plenty of trees around to feel relatively cool. It was your basic holiday feeling. White beaches, sunshine, clear blue water, dinner on the beach with a beautiful sunset.

One day we rented a motorbike and thanks to plenty of practice on the farm we were off! The feeling of freedom is so great, with the wind trough our hair we drove all day. We climbed up a steep set of stairs to discover the beautiful "7 Wells", starting point of an waterfall, then drove to find a nice and secluded beach. For about 5 minutes we thought we had found paradise but the came the monkeys!

The are truly cheeky bastards and when we wanted to chase them away one of the males looked so scary that instead of us chasing them away, they chased us away. The are cute from a distance but you just don't know how they react so from now on I'll stay clear.

Our last night in Langkawi I couldn't sleep. I had changed my flight and only had 2 weeks left. The plan was to travel one week down the east coast by myself, Tineke was flying home the next day, and then spend one week with Nathalie in Singapore. But stupid me had made these plans without talking to Nathalie and as I turned out Brams parents were going to be there that week. So what to do... in the morning I surprised Tineke by telling here that I was going with here to the airport and would try to catch a flight to Cambodia!

I know, quite impulsive but I think those are the best decisions one can ever make. That's when you follow you're heart because you don't have time to rationalise and consider what others would do or think. So I flew with Tineke to Kuala Lumpur, had to stay there one day which I spend by visiting the Batu Caves, a Hindu temple, and arrived in Cambodia yesterday!

I'm in a great hostel with a deck overhanging the lake, have met nice people, survived my first day wondering the city of Phnom Pehn by myself and are so happy I made this decision!

It seems to be a perfect order to do this trip. It's one step at a time to get used to Asia. First in Singapore it was the weather and so many people, but everything is so western. Then we entered Malaysia where Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist live together, a real cultural melting pot. It feels more Asian but still it's one of Asia's best developed countries when looking at infrastructure and building. Then now Cambodia... My first impression from the sky was that it's very dry and poor. You could see paddocks but everything was burned off. Phnom Pehn has a real small city feeling because there are no high building, no real city center as we are used to in western countries. Every street is equally busy, crammed with little shops, food being prepared everywhere and moto's driving like crazy. I think 2 weeks is enough for me!