A little retrospective view....

November: Fernie, British Columbia, Canada

As we sit in the lounge of our home for the next six months, the snow capped Rocky mountains glinting as the sun sets, our minds are cast back to the last few months spent constantly on the move. The novelty of being “settled”; paying rent and trying to find work together with finally being able to see all the fantastic pictures Chris has taken has brought on a flood of memories of our travels.

This will be a retrospective journey through the rest of Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand. Whilst I am sure there are many forgotten incidents and gems, a little prompting from Chris' green book (a quick jotting down of the day's highlights- usually involving what we ate) and an electronic flick through the photos will bring the best parts back!

Kampot, Cambodia

After one of the first bus journeys for a long time to actually take as long as it said (about 3 hours) and to feature a driver that didn't play Khmer karaoke at full blast (instead an assortment of seventies dross with the highlight probably being T-Rex) we arrived in Kampot. A sleepy provincial town with quite a strong expat community who spotted its charm and laid back vibe and just never moved on. We settled into a nice hotel with a massive room, Chris went straight to the motorbike shop and got us a moped to see the sights. Our main aim here, and second after seeing Angkor Wat, was to visit the Bokor Hill Station. A deserted and creepy collection of French Colonial buildings that had been left untouched for decades. Unfortunately for us, the Cambodian government now decided to touch them and it was undergoing massive restoration with absolutely no public access. We had heard stories that if a certain guard was there on a certain day and a certain bribe was paid then maybe you could walk the road up (taking 8 hours and costing you $50 for a guide) But even this was not reliably happening so another example of Cambodian exploitation and corruption led to our frustration.

One of our fellow travellers through Laos, Eric, had also visited Kampot and had told us about an orphanage school run by a French speaking Cambodian lady. He and a friend had delivered an english lesson to the younger children. Great, thought I and proceeded to set one up of my own. A couple of conversations with the older boys who had pretty good english and I saw good to go. Now, either I am horribly out of practice or these kids would give South Oxhey children a run for their money! Perhaps trying to teach through songs and games outdoors wasn't the best way to go...Having said that, it was good fun and Chris was a brilliant TA!!

After my brief return to teaching we decided that a road trip was in order and as the roads were fairly safe and the price of bike rentals so cheap, Chris finally got his wish and hired a 250cc dirt bike. I took a little convincing, the bike wasn't really designed for two people to travel on it and definitely not in any real comfort. So we headed to Kep, a seaside town with a reputation for serving excellent crab. The journey passed quickly, the extra power of the bike meant that we could squirt pass most hazards and it took no time to cover the 30 odd ks to the sea. It was here that we probably spent the most on a room (after Viantiane) but it was worth it. An exclusive-style (wasn't that exclusive if it had us!) hotel set up the hill with a swimming pool and wonderful view. First port of call (!) was the Crab Market, this consisted of about 10 identical looking restaurants serving pretty much the same menu, the hotel had recommended a particular one and when we looked, it was the only restaurant with any customers so we went for it. And it was delicious. My mouth is watering just remembering it... needless to say, we ate there every night!

It was here that we met one of the most interesting westerns who had made the Far East their home. Marcel, a German audio engineer, had met and married a pretty Cambodian girl and had opened a bar named The Riel Bar, so named after the little used Cambodian currency. Here we learnt the history of the currency and the depths to which the Khmer Rouge had screwed up the most basic aspects of ordinary life. If you paid your bill in riels rather than dollars then a slight discount- we needed no encouraging! Marcel also provided us with a hand-drawn map to explore the backroads and see more of the real Cambodia, a task Chris was willing to experience on the mighty dirt bike!

One of the first stops was the Kampot pepper fields where we were assured some of the best pepper in the world comes from. We were able to wander around the farm (not much to see) and try the green peppercorns straight off the plant, spicy! We bought a bag of black peppercorns for $5 and it has made it through the rigorous controls of both Australia and New Zealand to finally be tasted four months later! Further along we went to visit some local caves which involved small children acting as your guides (although our small child got usurped by a teenager with much better english) The caves were fairly unremarkable until we got through the other side to a series of explosions and found yet again the beautiful countryside was being torn apart illegally to fuel the construction of the vast mansions for the ministers' sons. Our guide shrugged off our dismay by saying people had to work somehow to feed their families and even our arguments of how he will soon have no caves to make his own income failed to sway him. This was a prime example of the attitude of the Cambodians that Marcel had explained to us. The Cambodian people exist in the present, the devastation wrought by the Khmer Rouge means that the future holds no stock, who knows when it may be snatched away from you? Now is all that matters and Now also means to grab as much as you can.

We returned to Kampot with a few days to kill before we could enter Vietnam, one of the sights to see is the National Zoo just up the road so we thought we'd check it out. I have never been one of those anti-zoo people, I am prepared to admit that I enjoy the opportunity to see rare and dangerous animals up close but visiting this zoo broke our hearts. Chris got loads of brilliant pictures but every animal we came across seemed to be more traumatised than the previous one. We didn't want to leave the cages because you could tell that your presence brought some comfort to them. The only ones who seemed to be coping well with their lot were the orang-utans by the main entrance, their charming personalities meant that they were the best fed and the most interacted with, not so the poor otter trapped in an endless repetitive cycle, the pacing lion or the sorrowful black bear.

It was here that I had only my second Asian massage. I had wanted to check out the “seeing hands” masseuses in Thailand but had not got the chance. These are blind people who have learnt the art of massage and now probably have more money and a better future than most others. For $5 I received the deepest and most painful massage of my life so far! During that hour I must confess that I did not enjoy it very much (those fingers and thumbs are SO strong!) but afterwards I felt fantastic. An experience well worth having!

A journey back to Phnom Penh to catch a bus over to Saigon to begin the Vietnamese adventure!

VIETNAM

As soon as we crossed the border into Vietnam, we could tell we were in a different country. For the first time in 3 weeks there was no rubbish heaped up on the side of the roads, the houses looked like people could actually live in them in comfort and there was an air of, if not quite prosperity, something close to it. We drove through the suburbs of Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City if you prefer) and were slightly intimidated by the scale of it all. As the bus pulled up to the side of the road, the usual crowd of locals had gathered to “welcome” the newest arrivals. Almost immediately we realised that we would have to handle the Vietnamese differently from the Cambodians. Where as we had had to become accustomed to being extremely firm (really quite rude in fact) to get our message across previously, now we would have to exercise a little more tact (a lesson Chris learnt straight away from a little old lady.) As a matter of fact we learnt that the best way to avoid unwanted proposals was to completely ignore them, avoid eye contact, everything. Quite hard to do but extremely necessary to save your blood pressure!

We did our usual trick: I holed up in a café with the bags and Chris went to find the hotel which he did fairly quickly. A wander around the streets yielded some tasty street food, a welcome return to cheap and delicious food after the dearth of Cambodia. We also had our first experience of Bia Hoi, the fresh beer brewed daily and costing pence for litres. Unfortunately it tasted really rough, we did put it down to the metal container it was in rather than the beer and were prepared to give it another chance at a future date!

The next day we did the real touristy thing and took a cyclo to the War Remnants Museum (renamed from the Museum of American and Chinese War Crimes!) The little old bloke took the both of us (me sat in between Chris' legs) at slightly more than walking pace along the boulevards and through the insane traffic. The museum was a sobering experience, I found that it effected me more than S21. I think the fantastic, yet terribly disturbing, display of photographs from all the journalists who have died or disappeared over the war years is what made it so powerful. We were there for a good 3 hours and still didn't have enough time to quite see it all.

It was from Saigon that we were to have our initiation to the frustration and resentment that is the “open bus ticket”. On the face of it, it is a great way to travel. For $30 you can travel near enough the whole of Vietnam, including several stops but there is a price to pay which we were very soon to find out! The first of our stops was the mountain town of Dalat, only 300 km away yet it would take over 10 hours to get there, stopping at “Auntie's” restaurant which was inevitably overpriced and under quality. We arrived to the rain and a definite coolness, in fact we were to sleep for the first time in months without air conditioning and actually needed to put the blanket on! Bliss! One of the main reasons we wanted to visit Dalat was that we had heard that it was a great place for activities, however with it being the rainy season, rock climbing was out. With it also being incredibly hilly, I ruled that for me mountain biking was also out! So we went with a smaller independent company and booked a hike for me and a ride for Chris (keep us both happy!) The next day we went our separate ways, I had a really interesting, educated guide who told me so much about the history and culture of Vietnam, it was fascinating. ' Oh and the hike was pretty good too! Chris impressed the guys by doing the ride in record time and even giving the experienced guide a good run for his money (the show off!) As a reward for that Chris' guide took us to a proper Bia Hoi establishment, the kind of place that you only go to with a local. Between us we drank 6 litres of bia hoi and ate a delicious plate of chilli and lemongrass kangaroo! We had been reading the menu and asking Heu what the various dishes were and after seeing our surprise at “kangaroo” went and ordered it. It had to be one of the best beer munchies I have ever eaten!

We enjoyed our day of activity so much that we decided to go for the alternative to rock climbing which was canyoning. This involves abseiling down waterfalls, perfect for the rainy season! We teamed up with 3 Israeli guys and did a couple of straight abseils first. It definitely doesn't have the same thrill for me as climbing does but it was still fun. The last one was down a waterfall and that was a lot more challenging! I found it quite hard to get back on my feet once they had been swept out from under me and I wrenched my knee quite badly. However I still did the few metres freefall at the bottom (despite wearing contact lens) The very last highlight involved jumping straight off into a pool several metres below. The fact that a couple of metres below the top the cliff jutted out did put everyone off initially. It was up to Heu to show us how it was done: a run up and a head first dive was enough to convince Chris and 2 of the Israelis, I was far too chicken (I used my contact lens as an excuse!) After this we went for dinner at one of the most entertaining restaurants I have ever frequented. There is a great story behind Tu Anh and her “original” peace café. Once in Dalat there was only one Peace Café run by a group of typically hard-nosed Vietnamese women, one of which was Tu Anh who created all the dishes and cooked the food. Now for some reason she was thrown out by the other ladies and told to never darken their door again so she went and opened a Café a few doors down with the same name, the same menu and the same prices. The best part is that her Café is always packed whilst the other does well to get people to eat more than just the free breakfast. Tu Anh is a charismatic host (and a great cook) and revels in the chance to tell the story, which I'm sure she does every night but is indulged by her loyal customers.

Next on to Mui Ne, a beach town renowned for its kitesurfing, yet another totally different landscape with huge sand dunes and parched trees. We rented a motorbike from our hosts and went exploring, we soon found that there wasn't much to Mui Ne. It is all strung out along the coast and really required a motorbike to get around. We checked out ALL (and I mean all) the kitesurfing shops and were shocked that even in this incredibly cheap country, it was going to cost several hundred dollars for 10 hours of lessons and riding. After some deliberation we decided that it was worth it, a couple of hours a day was all that we would be up to so it would provide nearly a week's activities. It was amongst all these inquiries that Chris had his little “incident” which basically involved him getting into a strop with a security guard, driving the bike a little too fast over cobbles set in slippery grass and low-siding it. He wasn't hurt but the nearly new bike was, luckily only the foot peg was a bit scuffed and the end of the brake lever had snapped off. We found a mechanic (and his whole family) and through sign language and a friendly passer-by were able to sort the whole mess out. A new Honda brake lever (still in its packet for proof) was bought and replaced and the owners were none the wiser! Needless to say Chris was VERY careful after that!