Back to Bangkok

I haven’t had so much to write here recently, perhaps because all the strange things I end up doing seem quite normal to me now. Unfortunately one of my memory cards got corrupted so I’ve possibly lost my photos from Cambodia and the first two weeks of Thailand, but I’m hoping to get them back.

Bangkok is a city full of temples, something that doesn’t interest me much, so over the last few days I’ve been taking time away from sightseeing and just relaxing in parks and sampling as many different kinds of street food as I can. Today I’m staying with Decha from couchsurfing, in a part of Bangkok I don’t know the name of, but it’s quite far away from the centre, and not many farang here. Tonight we’re going to bed.

My WWOOFing experience

Discovering WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) was actually what sparked my ambition to set off on a trip round the world, even though it’s been a while until I’ve actually got round to doing some here in Thailand. My first destination was Ken Albertsen’s “rock climbing adventure park”. Here’s what he had to say about himself:

“We have several properties NW of Chiang Rai – which is a popular tourist town in northernmost Thailand, 70 minutes drive from the Burmese and Laos borders. Each of our properties is no more than 12 minute drive from downtown Chiang Rai. Types of activities available: organic gardening, orchard work, clearing rock cliffs and developing climbing routes, building cabins and tent sites – including infrastructure, setting up solar DC panels, plus crafts and artistic painting.”

I felt a bit misled by his listing, since when I arrived it definitely wasn’t a farm, and although he does have plans for a rock climbing centre and retreat, it’s definitely not that at the moment, and I’d estimate at the speed Ken does things it’ll done sometime in the next 10-15 years. Despite these surprises, I enjoyed the tasks we did together for the first few days, and although not the best communicator, he was interesting enough to chat to. After being there for four days, some other volunteers arrived, something I was very pleased about as it meant an end to long evenings playing solitaire by candlelight. For the next week, our schedule consisted of doing some work in the morning – including putting up some solar panels, laying a pipeline, weeding – and then in the afternoon Ken would act as tour guide and take us to a waterfall or up the side of a mountain. One of the other guests was a chef, so we all learned a lot and ate fantastic food, including one day a goat we found on the side of the road (something I carefully documented with photos which unfortunately got corrupted, still trying to get them back).

My next home was Amee Doyer’s Organic Farm, run by a French-Canadian and his Thai wife. His listing on the site was as follows:

“60 acres orange farm (1000 trees), rubber trees(1750), banana, lamiai, lemon, lime. Fish tanks (6), pigs (mountain), chickens (black), rice, ginger, garlic, soya, cantaloup, water melon, tomatoes. Need help to transform (crystalized ginger, niger oil) and market (locally and internationally) the production. Compost making. Oil press, teak tree planting, vegetable gardens, green manure. 6 bedroom 4 bathroom house, rosewood furniture, spring mattresses, shared meals, farm produced vegetables, fruits and meat, Lisu hilltribe atmosphere, varied activities.”

While I enjoyed the work here, I felt a bit less comfortable, as I was given a very brief welcome and not told what the arrangements were apart from being given some bedding or introduced to the people on the farm. My concerns about not waking up on time were put to one side when I was woken up at 6:45 by a MIDI symphony. Our confusion was exacerbated when Clement and Amee left on the second day without saying good bye or letting me and the three other visitors what we ought to do or who we should speak to. We ended up just walking about the farm and joining in as best we could with whatever the other workers (Lisu hilltribe who spoke no English) were doing. The farm itself was beautiful however, with a house overlooking a valley encompassing miles of banana trees, rice fields and shacks dotted about the landscape. Although planning to spend a week and a half, I left after 4 days out of annoyance and boredom, since we were learning nothing at all about what we were doing or why. I have to say though, that Clement seems to be the first man in Thailand I’ve seen who has a genuine relationship with a Thai woman, rather than the typical one in which a man buys a woman clothes in return for affection.

Overall I’d reccomend WWOOFing, as long as you know what you’re getting into, and are prepared to abandon your preconcieved notions about what it’s going to entail.

I’ve got egg on my face, and on Obama’s face as well

Just arrived in Bangkok. Contrary to expectations and the pictures I saw on the news, there are no burning cars or fighting in the streets. There were a lot of soldiers with large guns in some areas entering the city, but no signs of any trouble anywhere. From reading news reports it looks like all the red shirts have gone home. The only one I saw today was someone wearing a Man U shirt.

Far more exciting than protesting however, is the Songkram water festival, a huge street party to celebrate the Thai new year where young people drive round in pick up trucks spraying each other with hoses. It’s also the only chance you’ll get to smear egg on a strangers face without being punched in the face. Basically the streets in a certain area are packed with people with water pistols, lots of street stalls, and people carry buckets full of white paste which they smear on passers-by. One way to describe it would be a mandatory wet t-shirt competition. It’s not something that would really work in England, partly because it would be really unpleasasant to have cold water thrown on you even in the height of summer and because British’s mens macho culture would probably end up in punch ups if you smeared egg on the wrong person’s girlfriend, whereas here, everyone is a target and there are no disagreements and the only noticably drunk person was an old hippy skanking to himself in a corner. It’s been fantastic fun, even alone, and I spent some observing and then once I got the hang of it, joining in and getting very wet. Lots of OBAMA cries since I was wearing my inauguration t-shirt, which is now mostly white and lots of ‘HAPPY NEW YEAR’, followed by a jug of cold water down my back. No pictures of my own yet, but heres one from the BBC:

Tomorrow I fly to Chiang Mai, then get the bus to Chiang Rai where I meet Ken, my WWOOF host.

Last day in Siem Reap

This morning I cycled to Angkor Wat (which was a bit unimpressive, I preferred it in minature, there must be some quite shit temples if this is the best one). The highlight of the visit was seeing a monkey. Going back into town was a very pleasant journey however, taking the back road back into the main town, and I picked up some weird fruit from a vendor on the side of the road which I’m too scared to eat. Last night while dining at a Mexican restaurant (sometimes the noodles become too much) I met a really interesting couple from Sheffield. Tomorrow I’m off to Bangkok where I’ve just learned there are riots going on. Fortunately as soon as I get there the next day I’m taking a plane to the most northern part of Thailand there is, Chiang Rai to an organic farm. In the meantime I’m off to meet some couchsurfers at the Angkor What?.

Siem Reap

Guesthouse of the week is the delightful but well hidden Garden Villa. I was led here straight off the bus and into a tuktuk. Although wary of what it might have been, my fears about sleeping in a dirty stinking hole were set to rest as soon as we went came through the gates and into the courtyard. It’s very nice, but I did have to spend quite a lot of time last night squashing mosquitos with a sock. I’ve had quite a lazy day today, cycling about along the river and further out of the city onto the dusty tracks where most people live on the free bike the hotel provided, eating food and having a massage. It is the second biggest city in Cambodia, but as 80% of the population lives off subsistence farming in the countryside it hardly has the same feel as even a small city in a Western country. In fact it feels a bit like a slightly larger Shepshed with more hotels and less white people.

Off to the temples of Angkor Wat tomorrow. I hope it’s good.

It’s easy to be sentimental

Actually, it’s surprising how little impact 8000 human skulls had on me up close, but no-one wants to be the one to admit to being insensitive to genocide. The dump was a genuinely profound experience though.

Phnom Penh

Today is my second and last full day in Phnom Penh before I catch the bus tomorrow morning to Siem Reap. I’m staying in the delightful and inaccurately named Okay Guesthouse, and have been having fun chatting with travellers from exotic locations such as France and Manchester.

On my first night here I stayed in the Bright Lotus, more expensive but not at all nicer or friendlier than where I am now. Yesterday I went to two harrowing sights, the Tuol Sleng genocide museum and the Killing Fields. Tuol Sleng is a former school that became a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime during 1975 and 1978, and has been preserved almost exactly as it was during the torture and imprisonment of many thousands of the Khmer population, something that gives it a great deal of immediacy and standing in some of the original cells, each one with a photo of it’s prisoner (The Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records of everyone who entered the prison, no-one ever escaped).

One of the school buildings

I’d upload some more photos, but it’s painfully slow here so it’ll have to wait till I get to a proper connection. I also visited the Killing Fields, an area of mass graves. It didn’t really have the same impact however as it was mostly just some holes in the ground. However nasty their history, it’s quite difficult to get past the ordinariness of it. Most of the visitors are Westerners with pained expressions, observing with sympathy, but mostly I think, like me, just relieved that it’s not our tragedy.

This morning I went to the distinctly unimpressive National Museum. The architecture is it’s best feature as the contents are a bit dull really. I’ve also come to the conclusion that for most of the time, people in South-East Asia don’t do a huge amount of work. The main activities for Cambodians I’ve seen are sitting in a hammock or standing about chatting. An exception however are the men, women and children who forage for anything they can find of value in the city dump. More humbling than probably anything I’ve ever seen. I bought 20kg of rice before visiting, which my tuk-tuk driver helped me seperate into bags which I then gave to the incredibly grateful people at the dump.

Arriving in Cambodia

I’ve now left Vietnam and crossed the border into Cambodia. Having already applied for my e-visa, this was a pretty painless procedure, although there was some awkward waiting about while a surly man took our passports away. I’m about 10 minutes into Cambodia now and though it’s not wildly different to Vietnam, there are some marked differences between the two countries already. As in Vietnam there are houses and businesses lining the main road in a linear fashion but more spaced out here and the land on either side is more lush and incredibly flat and swamplike; you can see for miles and miles any way you look. Most of the houses out in the countryside are up on stilts. Lone farmers tend to their patch of land whule cows, donkeys and a few pigs roam about apparently uninhibited. US dollars are so widely used here that its all I was able to get out of the cash machine when I had to pay for my first meal, chicken with a lot of bones in it with vegetables and rice for $2, in what amounts to the Cambodian equivalent of a service station.

A general map of my journey in Asia and beyond

View Trip in SE Asia and beyond in a larger map

Ho Chi Minh

I’m in a hotel called Y Nhi on a tiny alley in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon (I asked which was the proper name, but the answer just made me more confused than I was before) and I’ve just been out for a meal with Phuong, Jane, Thy and someone called Little Turtle. Last time I wrote I was in Hoi An, where I stayed with Marcus and Sarah and a group of Danish girls. While I was in Hoi An I rented a motorbike for the equivalent of 4 pounds a day and explored the local area, as well as spending time on the beach getting horribly sunburnt and once again learning the lesson about putting sunscreen everywhere.

After Hoi An I took another nightbus down to Nha Trang, a place I didn’t paticularly like, partly because I was constantly being asked if I wanted a “cheap lady, very good price”. Fortunately I had already booked my bus for the same night so after going to see the white buddha (a lot like the buddha on Lantau island in Hong Kong), to kill some time I went for dinner in an Indian restaurant where several rats ran through which put me off a bit, but still, I had paid for it all. Although I’d paid for a ticket all the way to Saigon, a Vietnamese girl convinced me to get off in Mui Ne instead, a small town which is mostly 10km of beach and hotels. I stayed in Mui Ne for a couple of days, one day we took a motorbike trip to nearby Phan Thiet but mostly eating the delicious local seafood and getting to know some local people.

Late last night I finally made it into Ho Chi Minh city, and as normally happens here, someone approached me and directed me to their hotel within moments of collecting my bags. Since it was late at night I graciously accepted, and it turned out to be pretty nice and the family who run it are extremely friendly. When I got back a few minutes ago, the oldest lady in the family brought me some iced tea and bananas. I’m trying not to spend much time in my room though since it doesn’t have a window and it makes me feel anxious.