We are in Vietnam now. In a town called Can Tho very close to the mouth of the Mekong. We took a bus and boat from Phnom Penn. A little bus came and picked us up from our guest house and took us to the boat dock. Of course there was an iratating Canadian kid on the bus that talked loud about dumb things. I must be getting old for this kind of stuff to bother me. He was telling his French speaking girl friend something about how chickens and cows are skinnier over here? Because they have to find their own food? I wanted to tell him it had a lot to do with the amount of hormones pumped into the beef back home. But instead i put on my headphones and tried to drown him out with music. We boarded a little boat along with some other tourists and off we went on our three hour tour. Johnny and i snagged the best seats in the back of the boat with the best comfort and view. We stopped at the border and dealt with our passports. I looked over and a few people were boarding a boat so i grabbed Johnny and we were off. Our original boat wasn't leaving for another 40 minutes. We made it away from the Canadian and into Chao Doc a few hours later. Right as we got off the boat we were approched by "Hope" who told us for a mere $1 he would take us to a great Guest House. we hopped on his rickshaw and barely the distance of a walk we were there. I was shown three rooms and kept asking if they had cheaper. We stayed in the $5 room that looked exactly like the $8 room only it was on the top floor. The next day we walked down to the bus station, because Hope had told me that the only place to buy a bus ticket was from our guesthouse. I also had read that if you could find an interpretur it was possible to maybe get on a cargo boat down the Mekong. When i asked Hope about this he told me "Not Possible" and since it was the start of Tet, the lunar new year. We would have to purchase our bus tickets today, because they would all be full. I told him we were not going to Siagon, but to the small town of Can Tho. "I know, very full" We found the bus station which has a bus leaving every hour for 1/6 of the price from the guest house. We asked a few people about boats, but it was useless.
Back in the middle of town we spotted travel agent next to a used English book store, I asked the travel agent about a boat down the Mekong and he quoted me at about $200 since there were only two of us. I asked about hopping a cargo boat and he said "Not Possible" we went to check out the book store cause Johnny wanted a Nam Map. When the guy, who spoke a little English unfolded the map for us we traced the Mekong down to the mouth and said to each other we wanted to go that way. This guy told us he had organised this for some other tourists last year. We asked if he could do the same for us. He made a couple of calls and told us to come back at 5am the next morning.
When staying at a guesthouse here in Nam, you have to turn over your passport in case the cops come by and ask for it. It took us a while to talk the owner into giving us back our passports. I told him we would be leaving at 4:30am. The next morning we came down from our rooms to locked doors and barking dogs. I tried every door in the place until finally the guy woke up since the dogs barked continuously from the time we walked down. 15 minutes or so. We walked around the corner to the book store and at exactly 5am our guy showed up with his wife on the back of his scooter. We paid him some money and followed him in our rickety rickshaw down to some sketchy nieghborhood. He had us wait in the dark at a corner for a few minutes then we followed him to a little cafe, this all in the dark. We had coffee and some noodle soup while we waited for another guy who would take us on his little boat out to the bigger boat, that would take us down the Mekong to Can Tho. We boarded the big boat, i paid the little boat guy then gave the Capt. half of what we would pay, i was to pay the rest when we arrived. Johnny and i sat down on the bow of this 40' wooden empty cargo boat as we headed down river. We were told we could come into the cabin, but we wanted to watch the Sunrise. I finally fell asleep and was awakened by the Capt. and told to come inside to the bridge where i took over the hammock for the remainder of the trip. This day was by far the best time Johnny and i have had. It was the Capt. his wife, two sons and maybe a sons girlfriend. They did not speak a lick of English so we just smiled. they fed us lunch of rice, cabbage and eggs, all of which was very good. The trip took about 10 hours. They were very good at hugging the which ever edge of the river had the most excitement going on. We went through a great floating market, watched some local fisherman, skirted along some very rudimentary brick producing plants. Saw some good stuff. Around 4:30pm we rounded a corner and there was Can Tho. About this time the phone rang and it was our boy calling to see that everything went alright. I thanked once again, paid off our Capt. He waved over a water taxi that took us to shore. We waved goodbye and smiled our thanks. We had a hotel picked out, but as soon as we stepped foot on shore we were approached and told of a better hotel. She was old and we could walk faster than her and we quickly ditched her. I think we are going to stay at least one more night before probably taking a bus to Saigon. Malika is still in Cambodia, but we may meet back up with here in a few days here in Vietnam
I am having trouble adding photos, but you can check some out at
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=41039380 just click on photos
Friday, February 23, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Cambo-land
I forget how friendly the folks are here, in this country. Just a simple smile and a wave gets the people going. We took a bus into Phnom Penn the other day. A real little junker of a bus picked us up from our guesthouse, Johnny and i both thought it was the bus we were taking to Phnom Penn. Soon the little bus was filled all the way to max capacity with a few people even standing. One of my favorite accents is the Australian one. There was this young kid that got on which ruined it for me. Had i had to listen to him much longer and it would have made me hate even my favoritest of Aussies, Christian. He was loud and had a peircing laugh. I finally turned and told him that maybe he needed to use his inside voice. This worked for a couple of minutes. Soon we were at the main bus station, and i was happy to learn that the bus was over booked and Johnny and i were asked to move to the next bus along with two Germans. We sat alone on this bus a few minutes while we watched the guys in charge run around? With in a few minutes another guy came on and asked us to move to the next bus? Whatever we don’t care. We sat around for about 30 minutes and finally left. The bus had great AC and really loud Cambodian movie blaring for six hours. Johnny and i were stoked that we got seats in the front. I’m not sure why they decided to design the bus with the horn on the inside of the bus, but it was right under our seat. I shoved my ear plugs in and it brought the volume down to just ‘High’.
No one needs worry about me getting onto the back of a motorbike. While in Siem Reap we witnessed two motorbike wrecks, one of which the lady did not walk away from. On the 5 hour road to Phnom Penn i counted 4 accidents. Only one involving a car. The road into town was the craziest traffic i have ever encountered. The road can barely fit two cars, one headed in each direction. Yet here we are in a big old bus passing four or five rows of motorbikes while at the same time being passed by two rows of motorbikes and the same happening in the oncoming lane of traffic, this mixed in with bicycles, dogs, food carts, pedestrians, and cows. It makes for a crazy time. Sitting in the front seat i’d think to myself there is no way we are going to avoid slamming into that cow or that family of five on their little scooter. But somehow we avoided them all. I thanked my bus driver for not killing us when we pulled into the bus station at Phnom Penn. We had the address of a guest house and took a Tuk tuk there. Yesterday we turned in our passports to start the Vietnam visa process walked to go and get breakfast. I happy that the French Colonized this area because they can brew a mean cup of Joe, unlike those Thais and their Nescafe. We met a nice Tuk Tuk driver named Sam and hired him for the day. He took us to the S-21 museum this is the school that the Khmer Rouge converted into their torture prison. I’d seen this five years ago and it is quite disturbing so Johnny went in by himself and i walked around the corner and got a really bad halfass massage. After that we went to the grand pallace but we were denied cause we wore shorts. it is 180 degrees here. We headed back to the guest house and put on pants. Next we went out to the killing fields and the gun range. If only i had more money. Johnny fired the Tommy Gun giving me the last five bullets. Then we both split 30 bullets each and Anti-aircraft gun. Wow was that thing fun. Blew the hell out of the little paper target they had set up. Next time i am budgeting more money because for $200 and the price of a barrel of gasoline you can go into the field and shoot a rocket launcher into the can of gas. They also had available hand grenades, RPG’s AK-47 and pile of handguns and even an M-60 machine gun like Rambo. I know that donating blood in a country like Cambodia wasn’t the most responsible thing i could do but tossing a thirty year old grenade would have topped that. Our driver Sam was eying the shotgun and had never even picked up a gun so Johnny and i paid for him to do that. It was pretty funny to see him fire that. Oh yeah to add to the fun you can drink beer while shooting these guns too. We enjoyed Sam’s company. Next on the list was the grand palace, once inside lots of people were in shorts. I guess it depended on the mood of they guys at the gate. I saw a couple of women get denied cause their bare arms were showing. I was none too impressed with the palace, most of the cool stuff had been stolen, maybe we will see it when we get to Vietnam. At the national museum i remember seeing an awesome display of bats. The roof of the place is said to hold more bats than any man made structure in the world. After we had dinner at a little street place with Sam, I had chicken soup which was mostly just bones and cartilage, yummy. But then three cokes, soup, some mushroom in gravy and rice for $1.80 can you really complain. We paid off Sam and had him drop us in front of the museum. We set up Johnny’s video camera ran and got a couple of beers and waited, and waited , and counted maybe 10 bats, and waited and got of waiting, then it was too dark to see much and we left. Maybe the bats snuck out the back, i don’t know.
Today we don’t know what we are doing. Waiting for our visas and we will leave tomorrow. We are going to take a boat from Phnom Penn to Vietnam down what i thought was the Mekong but is actually called something else?
No one needs worry about me getting onto the back of a motorbike. While in Siem Reap we witnessed two motorbike wrecks, one of which the lady did not walk away from. On the 5 hour road to Phnom Penn i counted 4 accidents. Only one involving a car. The road into town was the craziest traffic i have ever encountered. The road can barely fit two cars, one headed in each direction. Yet here we are in a big old bus passing four or five rows of motorbikes while at the same time being passed by two rows of motorbikes and the same happening in the oncoming lane of traffic, this mixed in with bicycles, dogs, food carts, pedestrians, and cows. It makes for a crazy time. Sitting in the front seat i’d think to myself there is no way we are going to avoid slamming into that cow or that family of five on their little scooter. But somehow we avoided them all. I thanked my bus driver for not killing us when we pulled into the bus station at Phnom Penn. We had the address of a guest house and took a Tuk tuk there. Yesterday we turned in our passports to start the Vietnam visa process walked to go and get breakfast. I happy that the French Colonized this area because they can brew a mean cup of Joe, unlike those Thais and their Nescafe. We met a nice Tuk Tuk driver named Sam and hired him for the day. He took us to the S-21 museum this is the school that the Khmer Rouge converted into their torture prison. I’d seen this five years ago and it is quite disturbing so Johnny went in by himself and i walked around the corner and got a really bad halfass massage. After that we went to the grand pallace but we were denied cause we wore shorts. it is 180 degrees here. We headed back to the guest house and put on pants. Next we went out to the killing fields and the gun range. If only i had more money. Johnny fired the Tommy Gun giving me the last five bullets. Then we both split 30 bullets each and Anti-aircraft gun. Wow was that thing fun. Blew the hell out of the little paper target they had set up. Next time i am budgeting more money because for $200 and the price of a barrel of gasoline you can go into the field and shoot a rocket launcher into the can of gas. They also had available hand grenades, RPG’s AK-47 and pile of handguns and even an M-60 machine gun like Rambo. I know that donating blood in a country like Cambodia wasn’t the most responsible thing i could do but tossing a thirty year old grenade would have topped that. Our driver Sam was eying the shotgun and had never even picked up a gun so Johnny and i paid for him to do that. It was pretty funny to see him fire that. Oh yeah to add to the fun you can drink beer while shooting these guns too. We enjoyed Sam’s company. Next on the list was the grand palace, once inside lots of people were in shorts. I guess it depended on the mood of they guys at the gate. I saw a couple of women get denied cause their bare arms were showing. I was none too impressed with the palace, most of the cool stuff had been stolen, maybe we will see it when we get to Vietnam. At the national museum i remember seeing an awesome display of bats. The roof of the place is said to hold more bats than any man made structure in the world. After we had dinner at a little street place with Sam, I had chicken soup which was mostly just bones and cartilage, yummy. But then three cokes, soup, some mushroom in gravy and rice for $1.80 can you really complain. We paid off Sam and had him drop us in front of the museum. We set up Johnny’s video camera ran and got a couple of beers and waited, and waited , and counted maybe 10 bats, and waited and got of waiting, then it was too dark to see much and we left. Maybe the bats snuck out the back, i don’t know.
Today we don’t know what we are doing. Waiting for our visas and we will leave tomorrow. We are going to take a boat from Phnom Penn to Vietnam down what i thought was the Mekong but is actually called something else?
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Happy New Year China
February 16th
We went back to the TAT offices in the morning to see about getting our passports back so we could get the hell out of Bangkok and just maybe get a little back from our canceled Nam visa. We asked for our passports and the one dude said not till Wed. The guy next to him said something and made the phone sign and then he said “OK come back at 8pm” and a refund?? “ i have to talk to the manager” Malika and i dinked around until 8pm. When we got there our passports were there with Cambodian Visa’s and we got back everything less 400bht We were both very happy about this, but did not show it until we left the office. Now we were in good moods and NO MORE were we going to get jipped (until a few days later) After TAT we went to meet Peter Kent, former Grandaddy tour manager who now resides in BKK with his girl Nuct. We took a local bus and the sky train, meeting two very nice and very helpful locals. This was good because it rebuilt our faith and trust in our Thai brothers. Peter just bought a cute little Condo in a very nice area. We hung out a bit then cabbed it down to a local eatery. Nuct did the ordering. We had Tom Yum Koon (shrimp), whole baked fish and some string beany dish in a tasty gravy. We drank Thai whiskey, which i think is actually rum. with soda pop and seltzer water. Best meal i’ve had. Peter picked up the bill, about $30 for all four of us. Afterwards we went for drinks at Soy Cowboy (Cowboy Street) named after a former GI who opened the first bar on that street (Soy) It was a fun place the whole street was bars, food carts scantedly clad Thai girls and drunken Embassy workers. Because of its location it did not seem so scummy-like.Most of the patrons were regulars who worked at the Embassies. We sat out front of one bar and watched the people. We had a fun time and it was great to hang out with Peter. Nuct is going to school learning English so she and Malika visited all night. Nuct bought us a bag of crickets, you know just to snack on, like beer nuts. Nuct loves them. I had a couple. The crunch of the legs wasn’t so bad, but the overall flavor could use some work. Peter informed me that they had more protein than a steak. I think Malika had one, and looked like another might make her throw up.
The next day Malika took off to the floating market and Johnny and i Went back to china town and then to a mall in Siam Square. Johnny was looking at getting some paintings done. We decided to take a break and have a refreshment at Dunken Donuts, as we walked there i overheard a Thai lady telling two foriegners to go to TAT, i couldn’t help myself i went back and said “Did that lady just tell you to go to TAT?”yes” i wouldn’t do that they are a rip off” The lady was pissed which confirmed my suspicion that these so called nice helpful Thai’s were getting some sort of kickback. I told the whiteys about my experience, they thanked me and i left. As i sat in the donut store i was overy dirty looked by the lady. I don’t mind giving my money to the locals but to heck with that TAT scam. I then walked over to the pissed off lady with 50bht in hand and told her that i know she gets paid, but TAT is not good for tourists. She was having none of it, so to hell with her and i went back to enjoying my crappy donut and icky coffee.
That night we decided to treat ourselves to facials. It was my first professional facial. It was quite nice until they got to the blackhead removal. Too painful for me. But soon our pores were clean, though they would be filled back up ten fold by the time we got to Cambodia.
The next morning we took a cab to the local bus terminal, enough of this buying a ticket through a travel agent. Instead we paid $7 to get to the border, not a bad ride. Getting our passports stamped was a breeze. It took Malika a bit longer since she tried to use her old visa, they were not having that, so she was sent back to get a new one. They tried to up the price on her, but she stood her ground. While we waited on the other side we were rounded up with the rest of Whitey and told that we could ride this free bus to the main bus station in the border town of Poi Pet. Poi Pet looks a lot like Tiajuana. Free Bus?? the guy told me that no one believes him, but the government wants to promote tourism so they have set this up since it is so dangerous to walk there. He was very believable. He got everyone to go. I knew that he was going to try and get us to go on his special bus, but if figure we will just walk over and negotiate our own ride. NOPE!! After Malika got through we were taken down the road to the bus terminal, a road that seemed very un-dangerous. Once at the station we were told that the last bus was leaving and tickets were $10 each. I know that even though it had been five years since my last visit, it was far less than $10. I remember riding in the back of a pick-up for hardly anything. I was told that there had been too many thefts and that the gov would no longer allow this pick-up riding method. When i said i was going to go look around away from the bus station I was told it is far too dangerous and that the only other option was a $60 cab ride that you can conveintly book right here from this very station They were overly pushing us to get on the bus, but we wasted too much time arguing and the ‘last bus’ left. They would not lower the taxi price and every time i tried to walk away i was followed and warned not to leave. I new this was a scam, but couldn’t seem to get away from them. Malika slipped away and they were all very concerned “where did your friend go” It is too dangerous, many people with knives and how you say....machettee they chop her arms off. There English was very good and would not leave us any conversation space so when Malika returned (with both arms) she told me under her breath that she found a guy that would take us for $40 but it was very hush hush, she had to follow him into an alley. The guy told her that if the bus people saw her leave and get into his car the police would stop and harass him. this was not only a scam, but a local police run scam. After about two hours of arguing and us threatening to get a room at a guest house, we would walk down the street and they would follow us in a car we settled on $40 and 100bht ($3) “You Pay Now!” I said no, but i’ll give half now and half when we get there. I gave the bus guy $10+100bht which was the pay off money and we paid the drive $30 when we arrived. After paying the bus guy he leaned in the window and said “tip for me” yeah right!. sorry too dangerous? (I know the whole time you are reading this you are thinking, Bob just pay the $10 and go. I don’t mind paying the money, i just don’t like the monopoly they got going and the whole don’t go there or you will be killed by the locals.
The road to Seim Reap was hell, just like five years ago, I was happy to have taxi seat padding. They drive on the correct side of the road like in the States, but the car is Right hand drive. Because there is no road, just a bumpy dust bowl it was like driving in the fog. We were doing about 40mph and passing big trucks doing 10-20mph. I was a bit nervous, because it was dark out and i could see the oncoming headlights well before he could. I would warn him and tell him when it was clear. I was riding shotgun. Luckily he was better at telling whether the oncoming headlighs were two motor bikes or a 20ton truck. This made the ride very exciting. We hooked in johnny’s Ipod and listened to Dengue Fever, a friends band who’s lead singer is Cambodian and sings in Khmer (Cambodian) the driver enjoyed this. He was ok. After we left he told us that it was a police scam. I mentioned that he should write up a note in English, slip it to travelers at the border telling them that if they can sneak away he’ll take them for $20 to Seim Reap. He said no the cops know him and will take his car and take him away if he doesn’t go along with the scam. I guess leaving the bus station is very dangerous for some. Too bad for him and us. He only takes one trip a day from the border. I was also happy knowing that the last bus left two hours before us but we passed it up within one hour. The taxi driver laughed and pointed at the bus saying “midnight” this was a little after 6pm. We stopped along the way for the driver to eat at a sort of kind of restaurant. We sat and ate with him. Nothing i have ever tasted. A bowl of boiled ?? one thing looked like squid and felt like catalige. the next bite i am pretty sure was an intestine. I pointed to my stomache a said “Cow?” Yes Yes. Mmm...yick!. We arived around 9:30pm got a nice room for $8. Best room so far in S.E. Asia.
Yesterday we went to Angkor . i got a one day ticket for $20 and the others a three dayer $40. I was well templed out at the end of the day. We saw Angkor Wat a couple other temples whos names elude me. We climbed up to one up on a hill to watch the sunset. Johnny and i found it more fun to talk about the people up there. He had brought up a bottle of wine so we enjoyed that up there too. afterwards we climbed down and headed back to our house. Had some cheap food and went to bed. Today We went to a fancy hotel, where Johnny had breakfast and Malika and i had coffee. $2.50. The place was really neat inside. johnny went back to the guest house and Malika and i went to go eat paying for both meals + drinks for less than one cup of coffee at the fancy hotel. We then all went to donate blood for the unfortunate children infected with the real Dengue Fever. The place was set up by a Dutch Doctor, very clean very professional. Took just a few minutes. It left us with a good feeling, a box of cookies, a soda pop and a t-shirt. Malika went for day two of temples while Johnny and i walked around a grimy little market which sold meat with flies all over it. Not too far away i heard a big crack and then made the mistake of checking out the noise which came from the street. There was an old women lying in the street next to her downed motorbike. There was no rush for a couple of locals to come to her aid. bikes just cruised on by. I did not like seeing this. I wish i had the medical experience to know what to do. johnny said they moved her like three times before getting her into a tuk tuk, I saw that she was totally out. Hopefully just knocked out. I am pretty sure you are not supposed to move those who are unconsious, but then again , it was not looking like there was an ambulance coming anytime soon. Made me think i am going to be a hell of a lot more aware when crossing the street. I also showed Johnny where all of my travel insurance info is.
I went looking for a way to Phnom Penn, it looks like $10 VIP bus or $5 Crap bus. I hear the roads are now paved so i am hoping that three hours on Crap bus is tolerable.
We went back to the TAT offices in the morning to see about getting our passports back so we could get the hell out of Bangkok and just maybe get a little back from our canceled Nam visa. We asked for our passports and the one dude said not till Wed. The guy next to him said something and made the phone sign and then he said “OK come back at 8pm” and a refund?? “ i have to talk to the manager” Malika and i dinked around until 8pm. When we got there our passports were there with Cambodian Visa’s and we got back everything less 400bht We were both very happy about this, but did not show it until we left the office. Now we were in good moods and NO MORE were we going to get jipped (until a few days later) After TAT we went to meet Peter Kent, former Grandaddy tour manager who now resides in BKK with his girl Nuct. We took a local bus and the sky train, meeting two very nice and very helpful locals. This was good because it rebuilt our faith and trust in our Thai brothers. Peter just bought a cute little Condo in a very nice area. We hung out a bit then cabbed it down to a local eatery. Nuct did the ordering. We had Tom Yum Koon (shrimp), whole baked fish and some string beany dish in a tasty gravy. We drank Thai whiskey, which i think is actually rum. with soda pop and seltzer water. Best meal i’ve had. Peter picked up the bill, about $30 for all four of us. Afterwards we went for drinks at Soy Cowboy (Cowboy Street) named after a former GI who opened the first bar on that street (Soy) It was a fun place the whole street was bars, food carts scantedly clad Thai girls and drunken Embassy workers. Because of its location it did not seem so scummy-like.Most of the patrons were regulars who worked at the Embassies. We sat out front of one bar and watched the people. We had a fun time and it was great to hang out with Peter. Nuct is going to school learning English so she and Malika visited all night. Nuct bought us a bag of crickets, you know just to snack on, like beer nuts. Nuct loves them. I had a couple. The crunch of the legs wasn’t so bad, but the overall flavor could use some work. Peter informed me that they had more protein than a steak. I think Malika had one, and looked like another might make her throw up.
The next day Malika took off to the floating market and Johnny and i Went back to china town and then to a mall in Siam Square. Johnny was looking at getting some paintings done. We decided to take a break and have a refreshment at Dunken Donuts, as we walked there i overheard a Thai lady telling two foriegners to go to TAT, i couldn’t help myself i went back and said “Did that lady just tell you to go to TAT?”yes” i wouldn’t do that they are a rip off” The lady was pissed which confirmed my suspicion that these so called nice helpful Thai’s were getting some sort of kickback. I told the whiteys about my experience, they thanked me and i left. As i sat in the donut store i was overy dirty looked by the lady. I don’t mind giving my money to the locals but to heck with that TAT scam. I then walked over to the pissed off lady with 50bht in hand and told her that i know she gets paid, but TAT is not good for tourists. She was having none of it, so to hell with her and i went back to enjoying my crappy donut and icky coffee.
That night we decided to treat ourselves to facials. It was my first professional facial. It was quite nice until they got to the blackhead removal. Too painful for me. But soon our pores were clean, though they would be filled back up ten fold by the time we got to Cambodia.
The next morning we took a cab to the local bus terminal, enough of this buying a ticket through a travel agent. Instead we paid $7 to get to the border, not a bad ride. Getting our passports stamped was a breeze. It took Malika a bit longer since she tried to use her old visa, they were not having that, so she was sent back to get a new one. They tried to up the price on her, but she stood her ground. While we waited on the other side we were rounded up with the rest of Whitey and told that we could ride this free bus to the main bus station in the border town of Poi Pet. Poi Pet looks a lot like Tiajuana. Free Bus?? the guy told me that no one believes him, but the government wants to promote tourism so they have set this up since it is so dangerous to walk there. He was very believable. He got everyone to go. I knew that he was going to try and get us to go on his special bus, but if figure we will just walk over and negotiate our own ride. NOPE!! After Malika got through we were taken down the road to the bus terminal, a road that seemed very un-dangerous. Once at the station we were told that the last bus was leaving and tickets were $10 each. I know that even though it had been five years since my last visit, it was far less than $10. I remember riding in the back of a pick-up for hardly anything. I was told that there had been too many thefts and that the gov would no longer allow this pick-up riding method. When i said i was going to go look around away from the bus station I was told it is far too dangerous and that the only other option was a $60 cab ride that you can conveintly book right here from this very station They were overly pushing us to get on the bus, but we wasted too much time arguing and the ‘last bus’ left. They would not lower the taxi price and every time i tried to walk away i was followed and warned not to leave. I new this was a scam, but couldn’t seem to get away from them. Malika slipped away and they were all very concerned “where did your friend go” It is too dangerous, many people with knives and how you say....machettee they chop her arms off. There English was very good and would not leave us any conversation space so when Malika returned (with both arms) she told me under her breath that she found a guy that would take us for $40 but it was very hush hush, she had to follow him into an alley. The guy told her that if the bus people saw her leave and get into his car the police would stop and harass him. this was not only a scam, but a local police run scam. After about two hours of arguing and us threatening to get a room at a guest house, we would walk down the street and they would follow us in a car we settled on $40 and 100bht ($3) “You Pay Now!” I said no, but i’ll give half now and half when we get there. I gave the bus guy $10+100bht which was the pay off money and we paid the drive $30 when we arrived. After paying the bus guy he leaned in the window and said “tip for me” yeah right!. sorry too dangerous? (I know the whole time you are reading this you are thinking, Bob just pay the $10 and go. I don’t mind paying the money, i just don’t like the monopoly they got going and the whole don’t go there or you will be killed by the locals.
The road to Seim Reap was hell, just like five years ago, I was happy to have taxi seat padding. They drive on the correct side of the road like in the States, but the car is Right hand drive. Because there is no road, just a bumpy dust bowl it was like driving in the fog. We were doing about 40mph and passing big trucks doing 10-20mph. I was a bit nervous, because it was dark out and i could see the oncoming headlights well before he could. I would warn him and tell him when it was clear. I was riding shotgun. Luckily he was better at telling whether the oncoming headlighs were two motor bikes or a 20ton truck. This made the ride very exciting. We hooked in johnny’s Ipod and listened to Dengue Fever, a friends band who’s lead singer is Cambodian and sings in Khmer (Cambodian) the driver enjoyed this. He was ok. After we left he told us that it was a police scam. I mentioned that he should write up a note in English, slip it to travelers at the border telling them that if they can sneak away he’ll take them for $20 to Seim Reap. He said no the cops know him and will take his car and take him away if he doesn’t go along with the scam. I guess leaving the bus station is very dangerous for some. Too bad for him and us. He only takes one trip a day from the border. I was also happy knowing that the last bus left two hours before us but we passed it up within one hour. The taxi driver laughed and pointed at the bus saying “midnight” this was a little after 6pm. We stopped along the way for the driver to eat at a sort of kind of restaurant. We sat and ate with him. Nothing i have ever tasted. A bowl of boiled ?? one thing looked like squid and felt like catalige. the next bite i am pretty sure was an intestine. I pointed to my stomache a said “Cow?” Yes Yes. Mmm...yick!. We arived around 9:30pm got a nice room for $8. Best room so far in S.E. Asia.
Yesterday we went to Angkor . i got a one day ticket for $20 and the others a three dayer $40. I was well templed out at the end of the day. We saw Angkor Wat a couple other temples whos names elude me. We climbed up to one up on a hill to watch the sunset. Johnny and i found it more fun to talk about the people up there. He had brought up a bottle of wine so we enjoyed that up there too. afterwards we climbed down and headed back to our house. Had some cheap food and went to bed. Today We went to a fancy hotel, where Johnny had breakfast and Malika and i had coffee. $2.50. The place was really neat inside. johnny went back to the guest house and Malika and i went to go eat paying for both meals + drinks for less than one cup of coffee at the fancy hotel. We then all went to donate blood for the unfortunate children infected with the real Dengue Fever. The place was set up by a Dutch Doctor, very clean very professional. Took just a few minutes. It left us with a good feeling, a box of cookies, a soda pop and a t-shirt. Malika went for day two of temples while Johnny and i walked around a grimy little market which sold meat with flies all over it. Not too far away i heard a big crack and then made the mistake of checking out the noise which came from the street. There was an old women lying in the street next to her downed motorbike. There was no rush for a couple of locals to come to her aid. bikes just cruised on by. I did not like seeing this. I wish i had the medical experience to know what to do. johnny said they moved her like three times before getting her into a tuk tuk, I saw that she was totally out. Hopefully just knocked out. I am pretty sure you are not supposed to move those who are unconsious, but then again , it was not looking like there was an ambulance coming anytime soon. Made me think i am going to be a hell of a lot more aware when crossing the street. I also showed Johnny where all of my travel insurance info is.
I went looking for a way to Phnom Penn, it looks like $10 VIP bus or $5 Crap bus. I hear the roads are now paved so i am hoping that three hours on Crap bus is tolerable.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Ripped In Thailand
I feel like i am in the eddie of a river, stuck here in Bangkok. We were looking around for Visa’s but can’t seem to get away with out paying over $100 for Cambo and Nam. Malika and i went looking for the Cambodian Embassy just to see if the price was a bit lower. When we had walked all over town and back. We asked a local and he pointed us to the TAT office. Tourist Authority of Thailand, so we went there. We were told that we might be able to get a visa at the Cambo border, but Nam had to be done in advance. A rush visa was something like $300. We were also told that USA held passports paid more than any other country. We ended up getting the two for Johnny and i at $111 per person.To be picked up 5 days later. Malika put here order in for Nam but had to take a bus the following day to Cambodia any way so that she could leave and come right back in since she had overstayed her 1 month in Thailand. TAT sold her a $45 bus ticket since trains did not run to the border and buses only once a day. On our way home from TAT we stopped at the internet and Malika looked on the Lonely Planet website. I sure wish we had done this first. There are three trains a day and plenty of buses. Malika paid $10 RT, extended her Thai visa for free and got a Cambodian visa for US $20. B.S.!! she was able to cancel and get her $45 back on the bus, she said she had an emergency and had to get down to Singapore. I went down on Saturday morning with the same excuse, but the guy had already turned in my visa into the Cambodian Embassy, so?? Today we are going down to, fingers crossed get some money back on our Nam visa. Since we have learned that they are one day rushed $30 from Phnom Pen or $20 in three days. This is the Government Agency that has duped us not some private joint. That is the part that irks me the most. $111 sucks, but i can tell myself how easily i could spend that at home, but just knowing that we were straight up lied to really gets me. Our receipts say NO REFUNDS, so we are hoping that our lie of Johnny’s Mom having to go early into the Singapore Hospital early is going to work. Otherwise, i don’t know if complaining to a manager or the Tourist Police will do anything. Either way we plan on sending a complaint to the Lonely Planet. I am a little bit down on Thailand after getting ripped twice and food poisoning
I took the bus to china town yesterday. I am getting some horrible blisters on my delicate feet. I was headed there to get some new kicks, I think i need better air flow between my toes. I took the bus cause it is cheaper .34 instead of the normal $1.50 in a taxi. I ended up being stuck in traffic for like 2 hours. It wasn’t so bad because the bus had awesome AC. I sat and wrote in my journal and took pictures of the driver who fell asleep at the wheel. After two hours and not moving very far i decided to wake up the driver and ask if i could just get off and walk. I walked about ten minutes and realized i was like five minutes from home. I had just gone in a very small two hour circle. Today before speaking with the TAT i’ll try China Town again.
I’m meeting Peter Kent, Grandaddy former tour manager for dinner tonight, He lives here with his Girlfriend.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Feb 9
I did another cleanse yesterday, Just a one dayer. Not nearly as nice. I don't know if it was the shell fish or the shrimp soup but i went home feeling awful. I laid down for a bit and then proceeded to throw up out both ends all night long. I must have stumbled downstairs to the bathroom 30 times. I have not felt like that in a long time. I was feeling really dizzy so in the morning i talked Johnny into getting me an orange juice and some rice before he took off for his day. A few hours later Malika showed up with some Pepto. I took that and had some water. I then forced myself up so that i could get some Papya into my stomach. Today Malika and i went to the Thai immigration office. Malika has over stayed her welcome. It is quite expensive to extend her visa so tomorrow morning she will be hopping a bus to the Cambodia border for a quick exit and re-entry. Then we will all head up to Chang Mia while we wait for our Cambodian and Vietnam Visa's to process. We will come back down next weekend then head to Cambodia. Mallika and i stopped for a foot massage, and 7-11 for some Salmon and Teriyaki flavored potato chips. Yummy
Thursday, February 08, 2007
We are back from healthy camp, all bronzed, skinny and healthy. It sure feels good to eat Pad Thai from the street stalls and anything else for that matter. We are quickly re-polluting ourselves. Funny though i fill up quickly now. We have yet to get our drunk on either. Johnny and i had two beers last night, but i was too full to drink any more.
We took off a day before Malika so that we could get a hotel to watch the game. the boat that took us from Had Tien had easily 20 people too many in it. I think there was a total of 45 of us, even the Thais were laughing about how full we were. We had a little run in with a race of people that are really getting on my nerves. First off as i was patiently waiting for my turn at handing my bag up to the guy on the boat where i would then board. We all ready know they will take everybody, so they wont take off unitl everyone is on board. Wow i get shoved right out of the way by this big backpack as this lady shuffles her family onto the boat. There is a Thai guy on the boat efficiently loading everyones packs but instead she stands in the way to try and get her and her families bags on. The Thai guy was pleading with her to sit down and let him do it, but whatever. Then it was this lady who would not move towards the back of the boat so that everyone else could get on. “No more people, the boat is too full” I wonder who is yelling that into my ear, do i even need to turn around, No i don’t but i do need to say under my breath “If you guys get off we will be five less people”
Now we are at the dock and i am buying a ferry ticket back to the mainland. There are a bunch of people lying around the grass waiting, I buy the ticket and ask “What time does the boat leave” She answers “Two hour ear-y” What time? I get the same answer, i figure her English is wrong and maybe she means in Two hours and it might be early. She hands me my ticket and it says 3pm. Cool we have 2 1/2 hours to kill lets walk over and get something to eat. As we return down the street towards the ferry dock at five minutes after one i look up and say “I hope that is not our boat leaving” There is no one in sight and the ferry office is closing up shop. I run over and show her my ticket
Lady: “Why you not on this boat?”
Dumb American:” My ticket says 3pm”
Lady:” I tell you two hour ear-y”
Dumb American: “I thought your English was just messed up?”
Lady: something in Thai that sounded like “Bong bok dong Stupid Farong!
So we have missed the two hour Express boat and she sends us over to the other ferry dock where we hop on to the Extreme Un-Express boat and 5 hours later we dock on the other side. We sat luckily in the only section of shade on the roof of the ferry surrounded by Spring Break MTV Israel. Lots of frat studs with there shirts off.We took a little bus ride to the center of town the got suckered into a cab ride down the street to the hotel. We were fine with the room 400bht $11 with hot shower and tv. While Johnny checked in i went again with our cab drivers. The cab was a small pickup with seats in the back and a welded on cover. They took me to a travel agent where i purchased two train tickets for the following day to a town 6 hours north called Prachup. By this time i am so exhausted that i don’t even notice how much they just charged me 680bht each. back to the hotel to pick up Johnny cause now they cabbies are going to drop us off at a seafood joint, which i am craving. As we start driving i mention i want to be able to walk back and they say “Oh no this place 10km away” so we get dropped somewhere closer with the only seafood on the menu being shrimp. Johnny gets some very good chicken and mushrooms and i get some dinky little chicken wings in a port wine sauce. they were tasty and considering this is one of our first real meals since the cleanse we fill up quickly. as we walk back we run into our cabbie friends sitting on the corner in a little traffic cop station. It is two seats and a desk covered by a giant police motorcycle helmet. It is hard to explain i will try and post a picture. Johnny goes into a nearby CD store and they hand me a beer and a can of smoked fish, good stuff they also have a bowl of some sort of pork soup, also very good. They handed me the spoon at one point, but on closer examination i noticed that swimming in the soup spoonful was the snout of the pig, nah! but thanks. We hung out with them for a while had a couple of beers went back to the hotel and crashed. The next morning at 6am we turned on the game. We walked around town a bit, not much there then at 2:30 the cabbies came by and picked us up to take us to the train station. He says he has hooked us up with a car for 450bht, I say “no i think the sign at the bus station says taxi to train 120bht” OK we take you to a different car that happened to be 120bht he then hands me my tickets stapled into an envelope, i guess what i bought was the voucher. The staple happens to go right through where the price of the ticket is. 250bht, yep we were well ripped off. Guess it happens to the best of us. At the train station Johnny and i decide we just want to get back up to BKK so i ask if we can upgrade and go all the way up instead of stopping at Prachup. “Sorry all full, only 3rd class” Hell we don’t care, 1rst class 3rd class, can they really be all that different? How much? “No charge” cool!
NEVER AGAIN!! will my tender ass sit in 3rd class. Poor Johnny his seat was broken and leaned severely forward. I tried to give him a couple of suggestion's on fixing it, but it was too late he was over it by this time. The first ten minutes wasn’t bad since we were the only ones on the train, but then at the next town half the population got on. We tossed and turned and cursed to each other. Johnny swore he was getting off in Prachup and when we finally went through i was ready too, luckily the stop was to brief and we were stuck on the train. We arrived the next morning at 4:30 they tried to rip us off on a Tuk Tuk ride to Koh San rd. but we got around that, sort of. We walked around and everywhere was full, we finally found a room and crashed for about 2 hours until that figging dog started barking. In my dream Johnny had a gun with a scope and we were trying to kill the dog. He barked right through my ear plugs.
After getting up we spent most of the day walking around china Town. We are really over the whole Koh San Rd (Back Packer Heaven) area so we found a guest house in China Town. Cheap and dirty. Later we looked for a cool night market that Gary Simms and i frequented last time in Thailand. We had a horrible time explaining it to the cab driver and ended up at some crazy night bazaar, a market that was way to pricey. Many rich Europeans and old dudes with their young Thai girlfriends. We ended up eating at a place called Steak Jungle. it was semi pricey but we did not care. Johnny had pad Thai and i had spicy shrimp, I am not much for steamed rice so i declined the offer. Johnny’s pad Thai was great. I took one bite of my spicy shrimp the shrimp was good but my mouth was on fire, my eyes welled up and i started hyperventilating, Johnny was a lot of help pointing and laughing, I fought through the tears and got the waiters attention demanding a plate of steamed rice. We eventually found the night market, but by this time my legs were tired and my feet blistered so we just headed home. I took a shower and laid down, within about a half hour i awoke scratching my feet, elbows and arms. I was being eaten alive, this is what you get for cleaning the grime off. I put on shirt, pants and covered my feet with a towel and fought the urge to scratch until finally falling asleep. Then at 5am we heard that loud language. I wont name any Israel names but they are so loud and obnoxious. About 6:30 when there was no way we were going to be able to sleep any more we got up and went downstairs to wait for Malika who’s train was coming in that morning. The doors on the rooms where we were staying had a spot to put a lock on the door, on the outside, so as a thank you for the loud noise i went ahead and tied a piece of string so as to keep those bastards locked in their room until either A: they had to break the door and pay for it or B: someone let them out. doing this act of revenge made my day just that much better.
We opted not to get the junky China Town place, but instead found a cute little, quiet joint just around the corner from a loud main street. 300bht a night split between Johnny and i, with a nice courtyard and very friendly hosts. We will get our Visa’s going tomorrow morning and be on our way to Chaing Mai early next week. Embassy is closed on weekends. I think we are going to hit up the horse track and some Thai boxing on Sunday night.
Jan 8th
I had the best nights sleep in all of my Thai travels. This place is just around the corner from a very busy street, but it is clean, quaint and quiet. We will be staying here for the rest of our time in Bangkok
We took off a day before Malika so that we could get a hotel to watch the game. the boat that took us from Had Tien had easily 20 people too many in it. I think there was a total of 45 of us, even the Thais were laughing about how full we were. We had a little run in with a race of people that are really getting on my nerves. First off as i was patiently waiting for my turn at handing my bag up to the guy on the boat where i would then board. We all ready know they will take everybody, so they wont take off unitl everyone is on board. Wow i get shoved right out of the way by this big backpack as this lady shuffles her family onto the boat. There is a Thai guy on the boat efficiently loading everyones packs but instead she stands in the way to try and get her and her families bags on. The Thai guy was pleading with her to sit down and let him do it, but whatever. Then it was this lady who would not move towards the back of the boat so that everyone else could get on. “No more people, the boat is too full” I wonder who is yelling that into my ear, do i even need to turn around, No i don’t but i do need to say under my breath “If you guys get off we will be five less people”
Now we are at the dock and i am buying a ferry ticket back to the mainland. There are a bunch of people lying around the grass waiting, I buy the ticket and ask “What time does the boat leave” She answers “Two hour ear-y” What time? I get the same answer, i figure her English is wrong and maybe she means in Two hours and it might be early. She hands me my ticket and it says 3pm. Cool we have 2 1/2 hours to kill lets walk over and get something to eat. As we return down the street towards the ferry dock at five minutes after one i look up and say “I hope that is not our boat leaving” There is no one in sight and the ferry office is closing up shop. I run over and show her my ticket
Lady: “Why you not on this boat?”
Dumb American:” My ticket says 3pm”
Lady:” I tell you two hour ear-y”
Dumb American: “I thought your English was just messed up?”
Lady: something in Thai that sounded like “Bong bok dong Stupid Farong!
So we have missed the two hour Express boat and she sends us over to the other ferry dock where we hop on to the Extreme Un-Express boat and 5 hours later we dock on the other side. We sat luckily in the only section of shade on the roof of the ferry surrounded by Spring Break MTV Israel. Lots of frat studs with there shirts off.We took a little bus ride to the center of town the got suckered into a cab ride down the street to the hotel. We were fine with the room 400bht $11 with hot shower and tv. While Johnny checked in i went again with our cab drivers. The cab was a small pickup with seats in the back and a welded on cover. They took me to a travel agent where i purchased two train tickets for the following day to a town 6 hours north called Prachup. By this time i am so exhausted that i don’t even notice how much they just charged me 680bht each. back to the hotel to pick up Johnny cause now they cabbies are going to drop us off at a seafood joint, which i am craving. As we start driving i mention i want to be able to walk back and they say “Oh no this place 10km away” so we get dropped somewhere closer with the only seafood on the menu being shrimp. Johnny gets some very good chicken and mushrooms and i get some dinky little chicken wings in a port wine sauce. they were tasty and considering this is one of our first real meals since the cleanse we fill up quickly. as we walk back we run into our cabbie friends sitting on the corner in a little traffic cop station. It is two seats and a desk covered by a giant police motorcycle helmet. It is hard to explain i will try and post a picture. Johnny goes into a nearby CD store and they hand me a beer and a can of smoked fish, good stuff they also have a bowl of some sort of pork soup, also very good. They handed me the spoon at one point, but on closer examination i noticed that swimming in the soup spoonful was the snout of the pig, nah! but thanks. We hung out with them for a while had a couple of beers went back to the hotel and crashed. The next morning at 6am we turned on the game. We walked around town a bit, not much there then at 2:30 the cabbies came by and picked us up to take us to the train station. He says he has hooked us up with a car for 450bht, I say “no i think the sign at the bus station says taxi to train 120bht” OK we take you to a different car that happened to be 120bht he then hands me my tickets stapled into an envelope, i guess what i bought was the voucher. The staple happens to go right through where the price of the ticket is. 250bht, yep we were well ripped off. Guess it happens to the best of us. At the train station Johnny and i decide we just want to get back up to BKK so i ask if we can upgrade and go all the way up instead of stopping at Prachup. “Sorry all full, only 3rd class” Hell we don’t care, 1rst class 3rd class, can they really be all that different? How much? “No charge” cool!
NEVER AGAIN!! will my tender ass sit in 3rd class. Poor Johnny his seat was broken and leaned severely forward. I tried to give him a couple of suggestion's on fixing it, but it was too late he was over it by this time. The first ten minutes wasn’t bad since we were the only ones on the train, but then at the next town half the population got on. We tossed and turned and cursed to each other. Johnny swore he was getting off in Prachup and when we finally went through i was ready too, luckily the stop was to brief and we were stuck on the train. We arrived the next morning at 4:30 they tried to rip us off on a Tuk Tuk ride to Koh San rd. but we got around that, sort of. We walked around and everywhere was full, we finally found a room and crashed for about 2 hours until that figging dog started barking. In my dream Johnny had a gun with a scope and we were trying to kill the dog. He barked right through my ear plugs.
After getting up we spent most of the day walking around china Town. We are really over the whole Koh San Rd (Back Packer Heaven) area so we found a guest house in China Town. Cheap and dirty. Later we looked for a cool night market that Gary Simms and i frequented last time in Thailand. We had a horrible time explaining it to the cab driver and ended up at some crazy night bazaar, a market that was way to pricey. Many rich Europeans and old dudes with their young Thai girlfriends. We ended up eating at a place called Steak Jungle. it was semi pricey but we did not care. Johnny had pad Thai and i had spicy shrimp, I am not much for steamed rice so i declined the offer. Johnny’s pad Thai was great. I took one bite of my spicy shrimp the shrimp was good but my mouth was on fire, my eyes welled up and i started hyperventilating, Johnny was a lot of help pointing and laughing, I fought through the tears and got the waiters attention demanding a plate of steamed rice. We eventually found the night market, but by this time my legs were tired and my feet blistered so we just headed home. I took a shower and laid down, within about a half hour i awoke scratching my feet, elbows and arms. I was being eaten alive, this is what you get for cleaning the grime off. I put on shirt, pants and covered my feet with a towel and fought the urge to scratch until finally falling asleep. Then at 5am we heard that loud language. I wont name any Israel names but they are so loud and obnoxious. About 6:30 when there was no way we were going to be able to sleep any more we got up and went downstairs to wait for Malika who’s train was coming in that morning. The doors on the rooms where we were staying had a spot to put a lock on the door, on the outside, so as a thank you for the loud noise i went ahead and tied a piece of string so as to keep those bastards locked in their room until either A: they had to break the door and pay for it or B: someone let them out. doing this act of revenge made my day just that much better.
We opted not to get the junky China Town place, but instead found a cute little, quiet joint just around the corner from a loud main street. 300bht a night split between Johnny and i, with a nice courtyard and very friendly hosts. We will get our Visa’s going tomorrow morning and be on our way to Chaing Mai early next week. Embassy is closed on weekends. I think we are going to hit up the horse track and some Thai boxing on Sunday night.
Jan 8th
I had the best nights sleep in all of my Thai travels. This place is just around the corner from a very busy street, but it is clean, quaint and quiet. We will be staying here for the rest of our time in Bangkok
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Dao? Tao ? owe?
Feb 2.
I weighed myself at Karen’s house a month ago and again today. I’ve dumped 10lbs. I have been eating somewhat healthy to prep myself for this cleanse since Jan 2. I found out that it is not ingestive but digestive and it isn’t Dao but Tao. The instructor wrote on the board Dao so i may have had that part right? It is day five of our five day cleanse. I found out that there is a three day post cleanse to reintroduce foods back into my system. I was also given a paper with suggested guidlines on eating. I figure since i am starting with a whole new clean slate that i will follow these guidlines as best i can. For a while at least. We were planning on taking off here Monday afternoon, but we may stay a day or two longer. We are suposed to wait three days before reintroducing protiens into the diet. We want to go to a town 6 hours north of here that is said to have some fantastic seafood, so we want to enjoy that fully. From there we will head back up to Bangkok for a few days while we wait for our Cambodia and Vietnam visas. Johnny found a couple of art galleries that we want to check out there and also the floating market. It is kind of a gloomy day here, it is still warm and isn’t raining. I’ve just started a new book so i will probably just kick it in the hamock most of the day
tough life
I weighed myself at Karen’s house a month ago and again today. I’ve dumped 10lbs. I have been eating somewhat healthy to prep myself for this cleanse since Jan 2. I found out that it is not ingestive but digestive and it isn’t Dao but Tao. The instructor wrote on the board Dao so i may have had that part right? It is day five of our five day cleanse. I found out that there is a three day post cleanse to reintroduce foods back into my system. I was also given a paper with suggested guidlines on eating. I figure since i am starting with a whole new clean slate that i will follow these guidlines as best i can. For a while at least. We were planning on taking off here Monday afternoon, but we may stay a day or two longer. We are suposed to wait three days before reintroducing protiens into the diet. We want to go to a town 6 hours north of here that is said to have some fantastic seafood, so we want to enjoy that fully. From there we will head back up to Bangkok for a few days while we wait for our Cambodia and Vietnam visas. Johnny found a couple of art galleries that we want to check out there and also the floating market. It is kind of a gloomy day here, it is still warm and isn’t raining. I’ve just started a new book so i will probably just kick it in the hamock most of the day
tough life
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