Vibol: Wat gate keeper- aka best Tuk Tuk driver ever!

We arrived at Siem Reap Rooms and were immediately impressed. It was all wood interior and ceramic tile floor and the rooms were big, nice, clean and bug free. There was also a rooftop patio/lounge that had a dip pool. It's run by a Canadian couple, who gave us the run down on things to see and do, expected prices etc, very helpful. Our first day we did nothing except walk around town and do a little shopping. We bought some paintings, some leather things that are very intricate and neat but I can't really explain what they are to you all right now. I got a book for four dollars because I traded one in and I bought another book from an amputee. We had some delicious Mexican food and great Khmer food at a place called the Khmer kitchen. The next day we would start our Wat tour.

Feb. 19th- Templing

We had an early start, 430am- to be at angkor wat for sunrise. Vibol picked us up from our guest house. It was a short but brisk tuk-tuk drive to the main entry gates, we bought a 3 day temple pass for 40$. They snap a photo of you at 5am in the morning looking our best (greasy bed head) and print off a paper pass. Then headed to Angkor Wat, the biggest temple, with a moat that is 1.3 km by 1.5km. There is a long walk to where the temple actually is through some large beautifully designed gates. Then sat around a large pond waiting for the sun, sunrise actually doesn't happen until 630am. So we sat in the dark for a while with a large crowd who immediately left after the sun was up. Angkor Wat was basically ours, maybe 10 other people were roaming around it. When we exited Angkor Wat there where monkeys everywhere!!! Then had to locate Vibol so we could start the 'Mini-circuit'. 

Our next temple was Angkor Thom, which was actually a city. It was created between 1113-1150. The city had a population of a million people, at this time London only had 50,000 people. The city included 7 temples in all. The first one that we visited was Bayon. Bayon is a temple with all the faces on it, as well as two libraries. Then to Baphuon which is fairly large. Ryland did some climbing, always climbing staircases that aren't open to the public or functional. The other temples were called Ta Phron, Banteay, Kdei and Prasat. .  We spent 5 hours exploring the mini-circuit and headed for a lunch break before going back for the sunset.

We checked into the Dancing Gecko, since Siem Reap Rooms was full. It was a standard guest house.We headed back out to the temples around 4PM to go to Pre Rup Temple which is the less busy temple for sunset. My camera decided to break right before the sun began to set, bummer but the sunset wasn't that amazing anyway. Meg made friends with a bunch of ladies from a Japanese tour group and together they attempted to blow away the clouds. After a long 12 hour day of templing, we headed back for some grub. We went to Khmer House Restaurant and I had the most amazing mango salad. 

Feb 20th. Vibol picked us up at 830am as we where heading to Beng Mealea. This temple has been left to the elements, it is covered in vines, trees and cob webs.  It was a two hour tuk-tuk drive, Vibol bought us masks to wear because it was so dusty along these very long dirt country roads. As we were driving, kids everywhere were yelling Hello and chasing the tuk-tuk. We passed many water buffalo that look like a rino-cow. We didn't see many other tuk-tuks until one came out of no where to pass us, only to turn the corner so sharply that they went right into the ditch. Vibol stopped and said that's why he drives slow and that the driver probably had never driven on this road before but the tuk-tuk was destroyed. Everyone was okay, thank goodness. Beng Mealea is an extra 5$ but is definitely worth the price. It is a glorified playground for those who love climbing and adventuring. We spent  roughly two hours exploring, and could have spent 2 more, until we needed to venture back. Meg and Aron needed to catch a bus, they were heading down south to the beaches. Ryland and I weren't done 'templing' and visiting some amazing museums though.

Tall and short and short and tall and innnnn between and IN BETWEEN!

So we left Krabi on the fifteenth of February to head up to Bangkok and on to Cambodia. The trip started off in a crowded mini bus (large van) that had some stinky French men on board. They desperately needed a shower. We were a little frustrated with the van because we really just wanted to take a regular bus but it wasn't to be. We got to Suraythani where we were to transfer to a larger bus, but ended up sitting there for an hour because they didn't realize how many people were travelling with them this day and had to arrange for another bus. This bus showed up and we all piled on. From the get go we did not like this bus. It didn't smell too horrible but all the blankets on the seats were kids blankets (Sponge Bob, Drangon ball Z, Looney Toons etc) but the foot rests were at an extremely uncomfortable height so it put your legs up too high and if the person in front of you put their seat back it would basically rest on your knees. This all seems trivial but after having spent almost a month in Thailand experiencing the good and the bad, we thought we had finally figured out the right questions to ask to get what we wanted: how wrong we were. The bus was uncomfortable, no one could sleep, smelly French men everywhere, some Chilean girls laughing constantly because they were watching 'How I met your Mother' ( I only mention this because I was jealous of them because I really like that show and wanted to watch it as well), and on top of all of this some very disturbing and disgusting smells were bombarding our olfactory senses and the bus driver was crazy. The smells emanating from below decks were ranging from stinky fish, to pee, poop, wet dog, and pad thai. Strange, I know. The ride was supposed to take about 6 hours or so and we were all just trying to persevere and get through this ordeal when all of a sudden the front left tire on the bus popped with a loud bang! Laura was sitting beside me and grabbed my arm so hard I thought she was going to crush it. The driver luckily was good and had the bus under control and drove over to the side of the road. But, they didn't let us out right away and the bus started to fill up with putrid burnt rubber smell and smoke, so some passengers got off and opened the side door for us all to get off ( the Chilean girls were quite thankful because they were really starting to panic and bang on the glass and talk really really fast spanish). Luckily though, buses pulled over and allowed all of us passengers to get on for the rest of the trip to Bangkok, which turned out to be on 45 minutes away. So, we arrived in Bangkok in one piece and very disappointed in the Thai buses and made our next move to Cambodia.

We booked another mini bus (van, urgh!) to take us to the border and then arranged for a taxi to take us from the border to Siem Reap. The drive to the border was uneventful other than good cup of soup and Meg making a friend with a German from frankfurt. We arrived at a place a few kilometres from the border and filled out our visa information and gave up our passports to "Mr. Border" (seriously, that was the name he gave me, and I asked him twice what his name was) which we didn't really like and waited a few minutes. Then we got back on the mini bus and headed to the Cambodian consulate where the visas were processed and then on to the border. The border town on the Thai side was full of markets, I imagined that it looks quite similar to Tijuana. We walked through the Thai departure check and then onto the Cambodian immigration arrivals while passing through 'No Man's Land' that was filled with Casinos and Cigarette and Liquor stands (it was like Niagra Falls meets Asia minus any stunning scenery). Cambodian immigration was a breeze and we gathered our group together and got on another bus that would take us all to our taxi. We arrived at another bus station and got our taxi that was a 93 Toyota Camry LE. I know it was a 93 cause Mom has the 92 LE CE ( that means 6 cylinder, no big deal). Also another funny note about this, our taxi driver was the Cambodian twin of Brian Shelley, no joke! He was the same height, had the same shape, same haircut, laugh, body language and smile. It was crazy. I almost called him Brian a couple times (for those who don't know who Brian Shelley is he is the GM of camping for the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka and has been involved with Kitchi for a long time); he called me big hairy English man and pulled my arm hair and laughed hysterically. The country side on the way to Siem Reap was pretty much flat farm land for as far as you could see and very bright red dirt everywhere. The trip took 2 hours to Siem Reap and we were very relieved to arrive at our highly recommended guest house Siem Reap Rooms. SUCCESS!

Krabi

February 9th. We left Koh Tao and headed to the docks at Chumpon and onward to a bus to the town of Krabi. It was a fairly uneventful journey but we did see an elephant on the side of the road and we took a large van and not a bus. Other than that though, smooth sailing and we found a HOTEL room in Krabi (The Grand Tower!) for only 350 Baat, a steal of a deal. The room boasted a great view of the karst topography along the river and a golden temple perched on a hill in the distance. Krabi is a nice little town that has some very good eats and some interesting things to check out, but it is mainly a gate way to Rai Lai beach and Koh Phi Phi. On a side note, in Thai the way you pronounce Koh Phi Phi is Go Pee Pee. HA! We had a meal at the night food market which was decent the first night, except Laura's meal never materialized and Aron found some delicious Chinese doughnuts. We decided to spend one more day in Krabi to do a four Island tour and then head to Go Pee Pee. The four island tour was nice but it was one of those things where you go to a place get off take a picture get back on go somewhere else and repeat. This was a little disappointing considering the idyllic surroundings. The first Island we visited was Koh Tup and then Chicken Island. These island are actually sort of attached by a sand bar which we waded across and then got kind of stuck because the tide had come up so we had to partially swim back. Oops. Well, I had to swim half way, and the girls swam the whole way. Ha, take that shorties. I also felt like a champ because I had a fully waterproof bag and people were struggling with holding their bags over their heads. We did some snorkeling around Chicken Island and then headed to another island that had some monkey on it. Unfortunately people were throwing stuff at the monkeys for them to catch and it was kinda sad. The last place we stopped was a mainland beach with a Buddha shrine in a cave. By the end we were all pretty tired of the tour as well as slightly crispy from sun exposure. We retreated to the hotel for some naps and aloe vera. We had dinner at a local spot (local because we were the only pale faced round eyes), Dee Dom, which was very tasty and we bought enough beers, 4, to get a free bag and our picture taken! Hooray! On our way home we watched the tail end of the Man U vs Liverpool futbol match on a big screen that was just on the street and all the locals were watching it, which was fun. We then meandered to a place called Bolero cafe where a band was playing and they were pretty darn good. They played some great oldies rock and the guitar player was a monster and the bass player was not bad either. Laura and Meg assisted the lead singer in a rousing rendition of pretty woman. After all this activity we still managed to make it to bed by 11pm and get ready to head to Koh Phi Phi the following day.

Koh phi phi

So we are having trouble finding a computer that will upload our photos and well Internet in general. Right now we are in Cambodia and having been busy enjoying all the sites... We try to to catch up with our blogging...

We caught the early ferry to koh phi phi on feb 12 then took a long tail boat to the long beach it had beautiful places to stay... We stayed where an America couple told aron and meg to stay it was a gloried tin can Ahaha but in our price range- hmm sorta. I felt like I was at camp again. The rest of the day we hung out at the beach. We saw some heat lightening at night which was cool. The next day we did an island tour. We shared a long tailed boat with a family from the Czech republic they were hilarious. The first stop we went wad bamboo island for some snorkeling- I was sunburnt from krabi so ryland lent me his rash guard thank goodness because there was jelly fish everywhere. The snorkeling was unreal but ryland got stung twice on his arm and meg six times. I apparently kicked one but never got stung. We went into some rock coves and then to monkey island for lunch and had some really good pad thai on the beach there was thousands of tiny jelly fish so we couldn't go swimming. Our tour took us to maya bay, Vikings cave and other places that the "beach" was filmed. After we returned from our tour I took a shower... It wasn't until after I finished I realized I had just showered with a friend- the biggest cockroach I had ever seen. There was a group of monkeys outside our
Room and we tried to feed them the cockroach but apparently even monkeys have standards. So we headed to dinner I apparently ate some bad mushrooms. Litterally cause I was up puking the whole night from the mushroom cashew nut stir fry. I was unbelievably sick- I felt so messed up , it took a few days before I started feeling normal again.

The next day which we all forgot about was valentines day- the island was fully booked so we took a ferry back to krabi and I slept off my sickness and wrote post cards but I had some amazing food. But I am off mushrooms for a while, which is too bad because they are really good in stir fry.

Krabi

February 9th. We left Koh Tao and headed to the docks at Chumpon and onward to a bus to the town of Krabi. It was a fairly uneventful journey but we did see an elephant on the side of the road and we took a large van and not a bus. Other than that though, smooth sailing and we found a HOTEL room in Krabi (The Grand Tower!) for only 350 Baat, a steal of a deal. The room boasted a great view of the karst topography along the river and a golden temple perched on a hill in the distance. Krabi is a nice little town that has some very good eats and some interesting things to check out, but it is mainly a gate way to Rai Lai beach and Koh Phi Phi. On a side note, in Thai the way you pronounce Koh Phi Phi is Go Pee Pee. HA! We had a meal at the night food market which was decent the first night, except Laura's meal never materialized and Aron found some delicious Chinese doughnuts. We decided to spend one more day in Krabi to do a four Island tour and then head to Go Pee Pee. The four island tour was nice but it was one of those things where you go to a place get off take a picture get back on go somewhere else and repeat. This was a little disappointing considering the idyllic surroundings. The first Island we visited was Koh Tup and then Chicken Island. These island are actually sort of attached by a sand bar which we waded across and then got kind of stuck because the tide had come up so we had to partially swim back. Oops. Well, I had to swim half way, and the girls swam the whole way. Ha, take that shorties. I also felt like a champ because I had a fully waterproof bag and people were struggling with holding their bags over their heads. We did some snorkeling around Chicken Island and then headed to another island that had some monkey on it. Unfortunately people were throwing stuff at the monkeys for them to catch and it was kinda sad. The last place we stopped was a mainland beach with a Buddha shrine in a cave. By the end we were all pretty tired of the tour as well as slightly crispy from sun exposure. We retreated to the hotel for some naps and aloe vera. We had dinner at a local spot (local because we were the only pale faced round eyes), Dee Dom, which was very tasty and we bought enough beers, 4, to get a free bag and our picture taken! Hooray! On our way home we watched the tail end of the Man U vs Liverpool futbol match on a big screen that was just on the street and all the locals were watching it, which was fun. We then meandered to a place called Bolero cafe where a band was playing and they were pretty darn good. They played some great oldies rock and the guitar player was a monster and the bass player was not bad either. Laura and Meg assisted the lead singer in a rousing rendition of pretty woman. After all this activity we still managed to make it to bed by 11pm and get ready to head to Koh Phi Phi the following day.

Full Moon Party

Feb. 7th, We had just finished up our scuba course and to celebrate what better way than a once in a life time party experience; we decided to head to Koh Phangang for the full moon party. So we started as a group of 8; the majority of our scuba group came with us. We arrived at the island just in time for the beginning of party mode with neon shorts- tee shirts I felt like I was at a predrink for a tight and bright party. We all laughed at everyone in these bright colourful outfits saying we would never submit to buying one... Little did we know that within two hours of having dinner we were all decked out in bright tee shirts. Ry bought these bright pink short shorts that matched the ones meg was rocking. Soon enough we found  that we were painting ourselves in glow in the dark paint as well. It was time to knock back a few buckets to get grooving. What left to do but hit the beach.

"The Split" It was early in the night and as a group of 8 we met up with our friends friends... our group of 8 became a group of 15. It is not easy for a group of 15 people to stick together in a small area of potentially 30,000 people. We made a plan, you had a buddy, if you got separated you were to meet at the ferry for 830am, and we were to stay in front of cactus bar for the whole night. By 10pm we were down to 7,  by midnight we were a lonely wolf-pack of 4. Meg and I went to the bathroom and to buy a drink and when we came back Aron had disappeared, she gone off to help some random guy but was with Pien ( our friend from the Netherlands). Ryland refused to let meg and I out of his sight for the rest of the night. Basically it was a wild party of pumping music, and I wasn't sure if I was over the scene or what but by 3am "I felt like the party had crapped on my soul"- Ry.  Ryland was very disgusted at the garbage that littered the beach and was washing into the ocean... no one seemed to care- this is not your bed room, learn to pick up after yourself. We had enough and by 4am we took a taxi back to the ferry and slept between what looked like a monk (turned out to be a tourist) and some locals underneath a beach side veranda. We woke up at 6am with maybe two minutes of sleep and wandered to find food. We ran into stefan (one of the guys we were with at the beginning of the night) and he filled us in on the where abouts of Aron.- Apparently Pien had a bunch of seizures and was in the hospital in Koh Samui. So we returned to Koh Tao with 5 out of 8- apparently that is pretty great odds to come back with for a full moon party says the scuba instructors. We got in contacted with Aron, she was able to come back the next day and we planned to go to Krabi and Koh Phi Phi for the last bit of our Thailand visit.

Just an update... We have tried to post a few times but the Internet/ computers in krabi are pretty much useless. Sorry about the delay but we will have some blogs posted once we leave here. We are heading off to koh phi phi today and then we plan to make the long trek via bus to Cambodia.

Koh Tao and hidden gems

So as of today, February 7 2012 Laura, Meg and Aron are Open Water Divers and I am an Advanced diver. We have had 3 days of diving in the warm gorgeous water around Koh Tao. Although I am slightly jealous of the girls because it seems like they had better visibility on their dives then on mine and Im feeling a little lighter in the wallet after some extra hidden costs on my course. All in all it was good though. I did a night dive and a deep dive which were pretty good.

The Open Water Course had some skills the first day and we learnt a lot did a 9m dive. The next day we went to Twins and Japanese Gardens Dive spots for two 12m dives for 45 min each. Saw some amazing fish, coral grouper, blue-spotted sting ray, white eyed moray eel etc.  The third day was the best with a 630am start we headed to Chumpon, my tank was outta air but I caught that as I was getting my equipment ready, we dove to 18m, although the depth of the site goes to 40m. Me and Meg felt a bit sea sick after the first dive as the boat was really rocking. We then went to White Rock. During our Surface Interval Time we had some tea and played ninja and jumped off the top of the boat for fun. Then dove to 14 m and did some fun skills that are all caught on video. The rest of the afternoon we spent on the beach reading, then we celebrated our course with some beers and watching our video... now off heading to a full moon party!!!