Angkor 2

30.1.08

Bah! These ‘moto’ drivers really are a pain sometimes - whilst walking through the streets I’m constantly faced with a barrage of whining inquiries as to whether I’d like to hire one. The only real way to deal with these questions to ignore the drivers completely, as replying results in them taking it to the next level: “how about later, sir?” normally followed by “perhaps tomorrow you want to see temples?” and then some more general pleading. Of course, outrightly taking no notice makes you feel like a complete arse, but I’m left with no choice!

Determined to be DIFFERENT - my usual problem - I covered the major points of interest at Angkor over the last couple of days by bicycle. I was away shortly after 11AM yesterday and didn’t make it back until some time shortly before 7PM. Coming after doing very little exercise for some time - plus, so soon after Christmas to boot - I was thoroughly exhausted by the end. Today has been declared a splurge day: I’ve barely set foot outside my guesthouse except to crawl into the wonderful Blue Pumpkin Cafe, respond to emails, update the blog and fill myself to bursting point with multiple coconut pastries and banana danishes!

Traversing around the temples yesterday took me far longer than I had thought it would, thanks in some part to the intense heat - clouds have all but completely deserted Cambodia now and the sun has got his fiery hat on - and the mind-blowing size of the place. The Angkor Temples were part of a large expanse of buildings, built by the Khmer civilisation between the 9th and 13th centuries A.D., that stretched from Burma all the way to Vietnam (land that was also commanded over by the Khmer). However, back then, only buildings dedicated to the gods were permitted to be made from stone - all others were wooden-based - which is part of the reason why only these temples remain. The aim of the ‘devajara’ (Khmer god-kings) was to build the largest, most impressive religious buildings known to man. To this, they certainly did succeed.

I didn’t really take in many more temples than I did on the previous day, instead spending more time inspecting those I’m skimmed past prior. However, of the others that I did see, I most enjoyed ‘Ta Prohm’. Like the Bayon Temple, Ta Prohm looked exactly like something out of an Indiana Jones movie, except perhaps even more so, thanks to the slow determined encroachment of so many gigantic, gnarling trees. Nature had had its say, sending thousands of roots, creepers and branches to span so many of the temple’s walls; in parts, having torn open gaping holes, they had crept inside courtyards, rooms, hallways and passages, spreading throughout. The result was very much a construction one would associate with fantasy - apparently others thought so too: the latest Tomb Raider flick was filmed here.

Sweating profusely - and likely looking a sight for sore-eyes - I headed over to Preah Khan complex: an old Buddhist monastery/university, which a fellow cycler had recommended to me on the basis of it looking like a maze from the inside. I think Dad would have most appreciated this place: it looked exactly like any one of the many cities populated by men in the Lord of the Rings. The main one that it conjured up was Osgiliath: everything from the shape and formation of the ruins down to the type and colour of the stone could have been ripped straight from that city. More likely it was vice-versa :)

I cycled back late last night, along the rubble/partial-tarmac roads (where many side-roads comprised of nothing but red-sand), weaving in-and-out of dodgy traffic (as a cyclist I’m treated as one of the lowest order on the roads, so have to get used to being constantly cut-up, from those driving on the same road as me to even those turning onto the road only just ahead of me) trying to get back before the sun gave out. I’ve noticed several modern buildings springing up on this road from Siem Reap to the Angkor Temples: there’s a flash Nokia shop, several large, hideous, garishly yellow apartments (double-glazed and with balconies), a few expensive looking clothes shops and the odd nice looking walled mansion. These serve up a real contrast to the rest of the run-down, paint-chipped, stained and crumbly shops and houses that make up the rest of - still the majority of - the neighbourhood, currently looking very out of place. It’s like seeing the same town, generations apart, but somehow brought together, distastefully. The biggest surprise is the presence of on-stilts, wooden shacks, located just across the river from where I’m staying. Like a scene from what Siem Reap must have been perhaps only a couple of decades ago, it’s like stepping back in time.

Tomorrow I need to move on. I have a little over 2 weeks before I fly on to Hong Kong, before heading to Oz. Thailand looks like the next likely stop, though I’m tempted with checking out Vietnam (for sake of completeness, if nothing else). However, I’d need to sort out more flights then. Would be easier just to hit the Thai beaches. Very tempting.

Angkor 1

29.1.08

Yawn. Early night turned into a late night as, despite being shattered after an afternoon of heavy cycling and sight-seeing, plus treating myself to a giant pizza and cake (not at the same time, of course), I couldn’t seem to nod off. Could be something to do with the heat - it really doesn’t ever cool down here, hot, sunny and dusty during the day, sultry like a sauna at night (at least my room is).

Did manage to get my finger out after a leisurely start yesterday and hire a bike for the afternoon. A bargain for just a dollar. Took the road north to the ruins, taking some snaps of temples on route. It was several kilometres before I reached the first checkpoint, where I was promptly informed I’d need to go round in a circle before an enormous moat I could see in front of me, then back on myself several more km to get to somewhere I could purchase a ticket. Sweating profusely, I arrived at a very formal looking ticket barrier - rather like those you get on toll roads - where I picked up a 3-day pass for $40. With that done I headed off to the temples.

People were not kidding when they said that these buildings stretched for miles. The whole complex (or set of complexes, since temples are divided into their own massive courtyards, surrounded by enormous, ornate walls, set back from great moats that stretch in either direction to the horizon). I’m not going to do them an injustice by trying to describe how amazing these buildings are, so I’ll get some pictures up ASAP instead. Needless to say, I wasn’t completely blown away by their height - though I’ve only seen Angkor Wat and its surroundings plus several inside a fort called Angkor Thom, none of them were as tall as say the Taj Mahal - however the sheer number of buildings (there’s hundreds of them, many intact/restored), the area they spanned and their contents were mind-blowing. Made of stone, the carvings in the walls of the temples of Angkor are in places enormous: the giant smiling faces of the Bayon Temple being the most astounding to me so far, like something the Aztecs may have dreamt up. Blended together are narrow-passageways, great halls, towering monuments, tall stairwells, gigantic pillars, dominating statues, crumbling ruins, scattered stone bricks, all spread across many levels and set against thickset, uncontrollable jungle. As a whole it feels like you’re entering Indiana Jones country.

Unfortunately my camera died on me early yesterday, so I’m eager to get out and explore some more, committing all of this to ‘film’ (disk). Yesterday’s trip filled me full of a great enthusiasm for adventure - something I haven’t felt since visiting the temples of Rajasthan in India. I had a slap-up breakfast this morning whilst chatting to a couple of Dutch people (one off to Nepal in a few days, so was able to give some advice there, the other on his way to Vietnam and full of interesting facts about that place). Now it’s time to shower and set out. It’s going to be a long day I feel!

Pre-Angkor Post

28.1.08

Early Monday morning, sat in an extravagantly furnished cafe, eating a croissant, slurping cappuccino and taking advantage of the free wifi. Time for a serious blog update today. Am pleased with my guesthouse - the staff there are really nice as is my room. The town of Siem Reap has the feel or a holiday resort and, unlike Phnom Penh, the majority seem to be benefitting from the money created by the influx of Angkor Wat enthusiasts, which puts me in a lighter mood. There’s top quality restaurants offering every kind of food, ubiquitous massage parlours, internet cafes, 24/7 corner shops, cafes, markets. Sure, it's not classic Cambodia, but it DOES have everything a tourist could need, plus everything is cheap: I had a delicious - and massive - pumpkin and coconut soup for dinner last night, washed down with a double gin and tonic, for less than $5 (thank you, strong pound). The Mediterranean influence is strong here: the restaurant I visited was one of many found along a clean, no-cars allowed strip of road seemingly dedicated to such establishments. The ‘Khmer Kitchen’ was supposedly visited by Mick Jagger of all people. Well now it’s been visited by Jake Coleman too ;)

Even the tuk-tuk drivers are doing well here, thanks to the high demand for transport about the temples of Angkor. I’m tempted to get one for my own trip. However, I’m feeling a bit unhealthy today, so I’m contemplating hiring a bike and skirting the perimeter myself. As a round trip, it’s a fair few kilometres, but I think I can manage it. Am going to purchase a 3-day pass for my visit ($40 for the privilege) and make the most of it.

For now, back to browsing the web and listening to Hendrix playing in the background.

Siem Reap

27.1.08

Just made it to Siem Reap, have fired up the laptop and thought I’d get an update in. Turns out the entire of the countryside of Cambodia is filled with either barren wasteland or rice/wheat fields, the rest covered by the simple, wooden, on stilts houses owned by farmers tending said land. The general level of poverty is far more prevalent than anywhere else that I’ve visited in South-East Asia, as I had expected. Still, it’s nice that the rich elite aren’t really anywhere to be seen outside of the cities.

I had a nice long conversation with a friendly old Cambodian guy sat next to me on the bus. His English was very good thanks to his living in the United States for the last three decades, though I still managed to struggle with his strong accent. Turns out he fled the country back in 1979 when the Khmer Rouge were in power. He lost many of his family to them and only survived by lying about his occupation, pretending to be a farmer. In actual fact, he’d be involved in the Vietnam war, fighting as part of Cambodia’s air force alongside the Americans against the Vietcong/Khmer Rouge. The latter had eventually invaded Cambodia, Khmer Rouge taking the reins as they conquered the capital of Phnom Penh. This was when he fled to the countryside, leaving the truth about his real allegiance behind him.

From what I could ascertain, in 1979 he’d fled to the Thai border with thousands of other refugees. Many of these had died on the roads, blown up by hidden land mines. He said something about how the first and second lines of his walking party took critical hits from the mines, whilst he was back in the third line (as a side note, during our journey he pointed out fields that used to be full of mines, as well as roughly the places where offensives had took place). According to him, several months after reaching the border the news came through that the United States were offering asylum for anyone who fought with them during the Vietnam war. On hearing this, he’d applied for help, was granted a flight with his closest family - wife and four children - to Bangkok, and from there was flown to the US, New York to be exact.

It was a pretty amazing story and I lapped it up - thrilled to hear a first hand account of what had happened. Though he English was excellent, I couldn’t quite get all the answers to my questions. I’m very keen now to find out more though, so will pick up some literature as soon as possible.

I’ve now arrived at the ‘Popular Guesthouse’ in Siem Reap and am sat in a single, clean room with fan, double-bed and tiled floor. Pretty good for $3. I had a bit of a run-in with the tuk-tuk driver who brought me here: he was advertising a free lift to the ‘Red Lodge’ guesthouse - which seemed reasonable considering other drivers (so many of them, pushing and shoving to display their signs to the windows of the bus when we arrived) were charging $1 to anywhere. Turns out the lodge was full, so all of a sudden the driver wanted $2 to take me to the next place, or at least a promise I’d use him to get around Angkor Wat. No chance! As if I’d want to use someone deceitful like that again also. I reluctantly gave him $1 and 1000 riel (4000 to the dollar, remember) before he slunk - if it’s possible to do that whilst driving - away.

Going to investigate the little town some more - it’s still missing any signs of supermarkets or big buildings thankfully, has a nice river that runs through the middle of it, still retains the charm of its dusty, caked-mud with rubbish strewn about streets. Think I may take three days to investigate the temples, then head off to Thailand.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

25.1.08

So, I touched down in Cambodia a couple of days ago. My first impressions of the country weren’t all that pleasant: I needed to purchase a visa for $20 at immigration, but as I explained to the man in uniform at the desk, I only had Malaysian Ringitt on me. As it turned out, he was happy to accept that too, only this time he wanted 100 MYR for the visa (worth slightly more than $30). As it turned out, I only had 95 MYR on my person, but hey guess what, he had no problem accepting that. For my troubles, he handed over a US $20 note and took my passport. It could not have been more obvious what he was doing with the profit. This was then passed down to a line of over half a dozen officials sat in a line behind a desk, checking and stamping unseen items whilst gabbling among themselves.

I positioned myself at the far end of the line, where a sign informed me that this official was the cashier. After a few moments by passport appeared - along with stamped 30 day visa stuck inside it - which I received after handing the $20 note over.

The flight over with Air Asia was actually short and pleasant. Seats were faux-leather - like they had been on my previous Jetstar flight from Hong Kong to Singapore - and the plane of small to medium size (it was an airbus). I watched the landscape change from that of slender hills and enormous tree plantations (Malaysia) to flat, dusty, plant free and dotted with old looking buildings (Cambodia), in less than 2 hours.

The currency in this country is strange. ATMs issue US dollar notes, whilst these break down Cambodian riel. About 4000 of these make up $1 and so far I’ve seen riel come in only 500 and 1000 dominations. Phnom Penh is definitely a strange place. My first impression reminded my of India somewhat: catching a ride on the back of a ‘moto’ (scooter) along a packed road, traffic consisting mainly of older cars and lots of scooters (as opposed to the common rickshaws in India), dust getting everywhere. The buildings on the road side appeared fairly rundown; I haven’t spotted a single skyscraper yet nor, I’m happy to say, a single McDonalds or Tesco (bare in mind this is Cambodia’s capital).

I got dropped off at a guesthouse called ‘Okay Guesthouse’. This has turned out to be quite a place: it has over a hundred individual rooms - though they appear to be hidden towards the back of the ‘complex’, as I have only seen a handful - with a entrance that opens to a dining area at the front, where people sit to eat, drink and watch the attention sapping TV at the front, continually playing from a huge collection of DVDs. I got myself my own room with 2 queen-size beds and fan for $4 a night (shared bathroom down the hall: no hot water, bring your own toilet paper). Outside the room in the corridor are a few bunk beds - dorm-like - which were unoccupied until last night.

The weather here has been warm and stormy: it was cloudy when I arrived but they finally broke yesterday so I caught a bit of sun during the day. I took a detour around the area close to my hostel, taking in an impressive couple of monuments (one representing Cambodia and Vietnam’s friendship, the other an Independence Monument). Also nearby is the Royal Palace - a vast place surrounded by a yellow wall, where huge triangular and spire-topped red and yellow roofs could be made out peeking out from behind (similar to the style employed in Thailand) - next to the National Museum. As the former was closed when I walked by, I popped into the latter, where I shared a guide with a Austrian girl (Melina) who I bumped into at the entrance. On the walk round we saw many statues of the multiple incarnations of the Hindu God Shiva, plus his wife (her complicated name forgets me) and Brahma, not to mention a whole load of other Hindu gods. Following that came the more familiar statues of the Buddha, adopted in his standing/sitting/reclining positions, where we were informed the position of his hands had meaning (if one hand faced palm forward whilst the other was laid palm up ninety degrees to it, this represented a sign of peace, for example). These statues were up to 1500 years old and of varying states of disrepair, unsurprisingly. Melina and I made sure we got our money’s worth by firing as many questions at the guide as possible - was definitely fun to see her scramble for all the answers.

It actually turned out I’d met Melina once before, briefly as I arrived at the 4,000 Islands in Laos (back in November). We’ve arranged to meet again for some food tonight, before she sets off towards the north-east.

Lastly, I took in the promenade: a strip that runs alongside the large Tonle Sap river. Crossing roads got more difficult as the day wore on: traffic - still scooters in the main - runs wild everywhere, with people crossing lanes to get to where they want too. Plus, the odd zebra crossing is ignored, meaning no set crossing points. Horns can be heard most of the time, but not half as often as on the Indian continent. The smaller side-streets surrounding the area I’m staying in, plus the promenade, are full of a mix of people either loitering about or trying to sell their wares, whether that be packs of cigarettes, haircuts, various forms of unappetizing foods (I saw one stall selling many forms of dried insects, including rather large and hairy all-black spiders) and what I’ve guessed to be fuel. These streets are fairly packed with stalls, peddlers and people, making them very dusty and dirty. 

There were quite a few tourists walking up and down the promenade whilst I was there as well as many families out for a stroll. Several touts tried to press me into buying their wares around the museum (mainly knock-off Lonely Planet books as well as postcards). I did pick up a 2000 riel (25p) bottle of water off a bit of a mangy looking girl as she wouldn’t accept no for an answer and besides I was thirsty! Also, I’m having to get used to the constant inquiries coming from tuk-tuk and moto drivers: “lift, sir” and “where you want to go” follow me everywhere.

Such a contrast to westernised Malaysia! Despite this country’s state of wealth appears significantly lower than that of its neighbours - though I can’t speak for Vietnam - it has its fair share of classy restaurants, normally sporting some sort of uniformed guard near its entrance. I’ve eaten surprisingly costly meals at a couple of these now and have formed the conclusion they must be for the more high-brow members of Cambodian society, as well as foreigners. The relatively high prices (say $2-5 dollars for a dish), plus the clean, trendy settings inside these establishments horribly contrast with the reality of what life is like outside. I’ve promised myself I’m going to stick with more traditional Cambodian cafe restaurants and street stalls from hereon in, though perhaps I won’t be eating spiders just yet.

26.1.08

I gave money to a beggar for the first time today. He wobbled up to me on his stump legs - he can’t have been more than 4 feet off the floor, despite having a fully developed upper body - and stuck his what appeared to be amputated arms out towards me, his eyes pleading. I took a guilty gulp of my beer, sitting in my comfy chair in the pampered environment that was a bar by the riverside. He can’t have been much more than an early teen.

I’ve seen some terrible things in India before now, sometimes even more grotesque and tragic than the boy I saw today. But never have I been presented with the lap of luxury that is available in Cambodia whilst at the same time this. The contrast is abominable and it’s the reason why I won’t be spending much more time here. I promised myself that I wouldn’t attend any more restaurants/cafes/bars that appeared to cater for the rich and the ‘western’, but it appears that just about everywhere that is mentioned in my Lonely Planet guide fits into this category. Sure, these establishments are fantastic! I popped into a ‘traditional’ Cambodian restaurant this evening to sample some of the local Khmer dishes.

This authentic restaurant turned out to be a very tastefully furnished - its decor reminded me of an Italian restaurant, thanks to its polished wooden bar, surrounded by red brick walls and huge, full to the brim wine racks - and yet again must have been only catering with the Cambodian ‘elite’. Outside, tuk-tuk and moto drivers hung about, for what must have been hours, hoping to catch a customer on his or her way out. Kids in tattered clothing constantly flowed in and out of the dining area, mainly trying to sell books to foreigners. The meals they served there were divine: I bought a large bottle of Angkor Beer (not to be confused with ‘Anchor Beer’ - hoho), with which I was given free sweetened peanuts, plus a meal of ‘Lok Lak Beef’ and rice (sliced steak as far as I could tell, in a very tasty both lemon and something sweet tasting sauce). Then I was served a complimentary dessert of melon in caramel, which appeared out of nowhere. Very tasty: exquisite for $6! However, it was all too apparent still that this was way to costly for anyone loitering beyond the doors of the riverside ‘Khmer Borane Restaurant’, which consisted of the majority of Cambodians.

So I’m feeling a bit like an evil capitalist living amongst (or, thanks to guards posted at doors, trying to erect a barrier between) the people of Cambodia. And yesterday I learnt all about how so recently they were brutally treated at the hands of the communists, the Khmer Rouge. Here is a society that is caught in the middle and must feel very lost indeed.

I got up fairly late yesterday at about 10AM - as I’ve unfortunately got into the habit of doing of late - and headed to the guesthouse’s dining room for a breakfast of cheese omelette and baguette (cheese slices by the way - note to self: you CANNOT buy good cheese in SE Asia). After chatting with a couple of other backpackers in the hostel, enquiring after how to get about Phnom Penh, I hired a moto driver for the day. First stop was the infamous ‘Killing Fields’. These were about 14 km outside of the city - all the way there I sat on the back of the scooter clutching onto the hand grips at my sides for dear life. The driver appeared to be a nice guy: very smiley, took me wherever I asked him and was always there waiting when I had finished (a bargain for $10).

The Killing Fields themselves were a number of farmer’s fields in the middle of the countryside. A tasteless tall monument stood at the entrance as a reminder to what happened hill, filled to the brim with shelf upon shelf of skulls that had been dug up from the surrounding mass graves created by the Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot clique during the late seventies. The sites of the graves were now wide dry mud filled holes, over a foot deep and spanning several square metres each. The bones had been excavated and taken away, but pieces of tattered clothing belonging to the many victims were left sticking out of parts of the ground. Apparently roughly 10,000 people were killed there, an attempted genocide by the Khmer Rouge attempting to eradicate those Cambodians who did not fit their bill (i.e. the educated and/or rebellious).

It was a pretty shocking sight; I spent a long time lingering there reading the signs that explained where the killings took place exactly and where the prisoners were held beforehand amongst other things, trying to soak up the atmosphere. Unfortunately, despite appreciating the poignancy, I couldn’t quite muster the same emotions that others visiting the site could. In retrospect, how could I? It’s very difficult for me to emphasise with such events, having never come even close to experiencing anything similar.

I felt the same way on visiting S.21, or Tuol Sleng, a high school that in the sixties was converted by the Khmer Rouge regime into a prison to detain individuals suspected of opposing Angkar (their strict Communist ideals). As it turns out, everyone who was taken to this prison was exterminated, bar only seven people who survived it. I took in some horrendous sights: there were many classrooms used as torture rooms, with the stripped beds and equipment left much as they were found (with black and white photographs posted to walls above the beds showing barely recognisable, bloodied human carcasses strapped to them, depicting the scene on arrival), as well as other classrooms used to house hastily-built prison cells (holes had been broken through wall after wall, creating a long strip of cells, which were partitioned by crudely put together bricks and mortar, leaving a space of about three and a half foot by five foot per cell, if that).

I also surveyed a set of gallows, more torture instruments, pin-up boards containing hundreds of photographs on victims and some cabinets containing skulls that showed off bullet hole wounds and bludgeon cavities.

All-in-all it was pretty harrowing stuff. On a more trivial note, I made time to visit the ‘Russian Market’, a large tarpaulin covered market, selling everything from dodgy DVDs (though pricey, in my opinion, at $2 each) to clothing to meat and fish. I sat down at a noodle cafe run by a very keen cook - the food I had was delicious. She informed me enthusiastically that the dish was called ‘Low Chang’, though I’ve since found out that refers to just the noodles (which were fat). Washed it down with a nice fresh orange juice, squeezed in front of me.

I also stopped by a hairdresser’s - a really up-market one at that, but considering how good the haircut was I was happy to fork over $3. Actually, I haven’t shared this info yet, but when I was in Kuala Lumpur I also had my haircut (so that was about a week and a half ago), which was done on the cheap and turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Despite spending ages on it, the barber left the hair on top of my head at vastly varying lengths. It wasn’t too noticeable to others but bugged the hell out of me. Fortunately, the hairdresser in Phnom Penh could do more than just cut hair - he could speak English too - so thankfully that’s all now sorted.

I took one last trip at the end of the day to Phnom Pen’s lake, located in the centre of the city and surrounded by a real shanti-town like backpacker ghetto. It was actually a pretty cool laid back place: despite being very dirty and grimy - even for Cambodia - it housed several narrow, twisting alleys that lead to cheap guesthouses, each of which backed straight onto a large, water-lilly strewn lake. I chose one and walked to the open air seating area at the back, positioned right next to a makeshift pier (just some raised planks). Kids were punting about on the water, offering trips for $1 each. I’d actually just come to see the sun set - which was beautiful by the way, dipping below what had been an extremely cloudy sky all day to give the sky a roaring red glow - and sat drinking a fruit-shake with the owner and several other guests at that guesthouse. The atmosphere was extremely friendly and welcoming; everyone was sharing several humungous spliffs and so getting on tremendously well! I declined though, as I was only passing through and wanted to make it back that night (lakeside turned out to be quite some distance from where I was staying - pity really).

The heavens really opened last night and the rain came down by the bucketload, waking me up at one point. I did very little today other than lounge around, read my book and watch the TV in the guesthouse’s dining area. I’ve also booked a trip to Siem Reap for tomorrow - for Angkor Wat basically - so most of my day will be taken up traveling by bus (6 hours or so).

'Terminal' Boredom

23.1.08

Killing time at Kuala Lumpur’s little league airport (LCCT - for the domestic and cheap-ass, read Air Asia, flights) awaiting my flight to Cambodia. Very basic, but fortunately they haven’t skimped on a coffee lounge nor the fast becoming obligatory wifi. Have spent the morning eating donuts and drinking coffee with my new best chum Ju Hee - a Korean girl who I have had the fortune of bumping into at every stop since Singapore and has insisted on attaching herself to me like some cute, little lost pup :) Her English isn’t all that good so I’ve been helping her since she parted ways with her sister in Singapore; it’s been implied many, MANY times there’s something going on between us but that isn’t the case, at least I THINK not (hard to tell, the language barrier ya see). We met up for the last time yesterday evening at the Cosmopolitan Hostel in Singapore (where I decided to return to for one last night thanks to how good the peanut butter is supplied with the complimentary breakfast, among other reasons) and have parted ways today. 

My stay at the hostel was furthermore interesting thanks to bumping into various people I met last time I was there - a real reunion if you will. Spent the afternoon yesterday in Singapore walking about in the heat (sweltering after the refreshing Cameron Highlands), taking in a few more skyscrapers, treating myself to coffee and cakes at a Starbucks-alike and riding the monorail to take in the view. Last night, caught a fairly plain Malay chilli noodle dinner at a roadside cafe with Ju Hee (totally devoid of tourists thanks to its back alley, lost in the middle of a night market setting) and watched a bit of the third Resident Evil film, Extinction (which is awful by the way, so don’t bother).

Speaking of the Cameron Highlands, I left there on an early bus yesterday. I decided to spend all of both Sunday and Monday there, giving me time to take in most of the sights. On the Sunday, as promised, myself, Andrew (a Brit on his way back home from Oz) and Eva (don’t ask me the real spelling as it’s an Irish name - she too was on her way home, via Malaysia and Borneo: ah, wish I was going to Borneo!) took a ‘jungle walk’ northwards from Tanah Rata to the next town (forget its name). It looked like a fairly easy walk, but thanks to a, at times, very steep climb to about six and a half thousand feet turned out to be quite long and tiring. The scenery was also hidden by the thick foliage we climbed/stumbled through, meaning the views - even from the highest points - were on the scarce side. Also, no doubt thanks to the height above sea level, the ‘jungles’ were less tropical than I’d imagined they would be - the whole trip felt more like one through a very dense forest, not too different from one back home. After about four hours, we hit the main road, skirting a very impressive 18-hole golf course (both it and the very impressive hotels surrounding it proving just how affluent Malaysia is) to get to the next town. By then we had time to check out a small strawberry farm (fresh strawberries and ice-cream, plus real strawberry milkshake consumed by all - yes, as delicious as it sounds), then we took a cheap ride in a taxi back to the hostel.

Dinner was fried rice and chicken combo from one of the many Indian restaurants lining the main street in Tanah Rata. I’ve got to be honest, bar the odd roti (pancake) and the exceptional food court in Melaka, none of the food in Malaysia that I’ve sampled has really bowled me over, especially noticeable after the exceptional grub I experienced in Singapore. Fingers crossed it gets better in Cambodia!

As we missed out on the tea plantations (basically what the Cameron Highlands are best known for) on the Sunday, I decided to stick around on Monday and do them then. Unfortunately, laziness played its part on that day too - very easy when you’re staying somewhere as laid back as Daniel’s Lodge I’m afraid to say. After finally hitting the town for lunch followed by some of the locally produced tea (‘Boh Tea’ - very nice it was too, having a slight aroma, and def. an improvement on the usual Lipton Yellow Tea which is found throughout the rest of SE Asia) and freshly made scones with fresh strawberry jam (not as good as yours though, Gran), the last thing we wanted to do was take another long hike. Spent the afternoon watching DVDs in the lodge’s movie room, plus listening to music and napping. A good job too, as the rain really hit hard later on. 

Feeling guilty, I got off my backside once the rain subsided (at about 6pm) and made for one of the other walks, which I’d been told offered a decent view of a tea plantation. Thanks to the rain, the jungle took on a different appearance - I definitely felt like I was walking through a rain forest this time, from the pervasive hanging creepers, anonymous cawing and damp feel to the air. The way was quite steep - the steps consisting of the thick, spreading roots of many trees - and I head to rush as I knew darkness was approaching. Reaching the top before 7PM, I finally found an impressive view of a valley, tea plantation and all (though only a small part of one). Finally I felt I’d justified my trip to the Highlands!

Highlander

18.1.08 - On the Road to the Highlands

A few things that spring to mind about Malaysia. Unending jungles - more trees than I’ve ever seen before, even more so than Laos. Even sitting on this air-conditioned bus with grey skies providing dull light by which to type by, the tropical vegetation is a constant reminder of how close I am currently to the equator. I’m a little disappointed by the weather on the whole: it feels like the greyest day yet (relatively speaking of course), which sums up a good amount of my time in coastal parts these last few months. I guess the best time to visit the coastline of Thailand and Malaysia etc. is spring/summer/early autumn, ideally.

I took a trip with a gang of fellow backpackers last night into the Chinatown district of Kuala Lumpur. The night market there was distinctly less impressive than the one in Singapore, mainly consisting of noisy touts selling copied DVDs, but we did stop at a nice Chinese restaurant where I tasted some of the best egg fried rice EVER. Keeping in theme with the rest of KL, it was an actual restaurant rather than a stall or ‘dharbar’ (hole in the wall) - these are less common in Malaysia, which is more like England in terms of eateries bar the frequent food courts.

Coolest part of KL must have been the Petronas Towers, especially viewed up close and personal at night. Even to the eye they looked ‘photoshopped’ - impossibly iridescent and such a contrast against the dark Malaysian sky. The chaotic monorail system was fun to experience too - several different companies managed a line each, which criss-crossed the city having stops placed in random locations as well as rarely intersecting with one another, none of which made getting from one point to another easy or cheap for that matter (most of the time you’d have to buy at least two tickets for different lines to get to your destination). It’s probably all a big conspiracy.

20.1.08 - Cameron Highlands

Have been staying a ‘Daniel’s Lodge’ in the Cameron Highlands for a couple of days now. The area is surprisingly cool and lacking in humidity, thanks to its placement at around 1500m above sea level. The first night was touching on freezing - needed 4 thick blankets to sleep in my dorm room, thanks to its being so open to the elements (they’re situated in an attic containing many glassless windows).

I’ve done very little other than chill out, read and drink cheaper-than-KL beer and spirits (some locally brewed stuff that tastes bizarrely like Pimms and even goes well with strawberries, as picked at one of the local strawberry farms). The Cameron Highlands is actually an area or province in Malaysia; the town I’m staying in is called Tanah Rata. It’s a very peculiar place: many of its buildings are Swiss in style (wide, not very tall and black/white in colour), it’s mainly nothing more than a main road with shops/cafes built around it that runs through a small valley and has something of a north American/Canadian hill town feel to it, though thanks to the scenery and sporadic rundown buildings (there’s a bus station that appears half collapsed - still in use mind) it also has a feel of a Russian town (judging by what I’ve seen on TV, anyway). I’ll have to upload some photos soon as I’m doing a bad job of explaining it. Noticeably, it’s a very surreal experience after the steamy cities I’ve become used to visiting.

The valley is apparently surrounded by walks (‘jungle walks’) - some of which I’m going to check out today. Most of the people I’ve befriended have continued up north to Penang today (an island off the NW coast), giving me time to update the ol’ blog, take some more photos and do some more exploring. There’s an aforementioned strawberry farm to check out, not to mention a tea plantation (or ten, seemingly what the Cameron Highlands are most renown for). Could be a busy day, which I’ll need to keep warm (yes, it’s that breezy!).

Melting in KL

It's hot. Not direct-in-the-sun hot, but just sweltering, clammy, steamy hot. It's 6PM and I've already had 2 showers today. I'm currently staying in a very sociable hostel in one of the rougher areas of Kuala Lumpur, not far from it's famous Petronas Towers: two twinned 'skyscraping' monstrosities that look as if they were plucked straight out of Hong Kong. This is further reinforced at night, when the towers are brightly lit up in silhouette by blue/white lights surrounding its edges.

Having left the quite frankly bloody freezing climates of England behind me - with a short stop at my friends Adam and Claire's house in St Albans on the way down, where I found their now 2 year old son Will to be scarily old and louder than ever - I took the now familiar and easy flight to Hong Kong from Gatwick, clocking in at about 12 hours. I spent 3 days in the ex-pat filled city, staying in a tiny broom cupboard to the north of Kowloon Island (towards the northern end of Nathan Road). Kowloon Island turned out to have far more character to it than the strictly business and shopping Hong Kong Island. Still filled with buildings tall enough to touch the sky, the streets supported a different kind of life: street stalls selling everything from knocked off watches to jeans and handbags (known as the 'Ladies Market'), a great selection of Chinese restaurants and a mind-blowing number of stores dedicated to tax-free electronics (Jake heaven), amongst the usual clothing shops. The streets in the evening turned into a ludicrous free-for-all, consumers spilling out of one shop to another, so busy the place had a carnival atmosphere (like that of Leicester Sq. in London, only much more fun). What's more, this would go on late into the night, shops staying open until close to midnight with no shortage of customers.

Having only had a small taste of Hong Kong and the main island's beautiful, lit up skyline when I was there for the day pre-Christmas, this time I took the opportunity to view it from across the water on Kowloon Island, as well as from above. The latter involved taking a long-running tram ride up "the peak", at times reaching an angle of 45 degrees (though it felt much steeper!). The view from the very top was awe inspiring, and because I got there fairly late, I stuck around to see the night fall and the city lights to switch on.

More impressive was the view from the opposite shore on Kowloon. At 8PM, I took in a 20 minute long light show, where the tall towers were lit up one by one in time to cheesy music, as if at a disco, with powerful green long lights seeking out the stars accompanying it. The enormous scale gave the spectacle a surreal quality.

Next stop on my trip was Singapore. Unusually, this place felt more western/English than even Hong Kong. Every street sign and advert was in English, PAs on trains and in supermarkets spoke in English, the majority of the population that I met appeared to choose to speak firstly in English. I stayed in a wonderful backpacker's hostel: these appear to be prevalent around Malaysia (and Singapore), as opposed to the guesthouses all over the rest of SE Asia. However, what's great about them is that they are real social hubs - you can't help but meet other people in the 'common rooms' and kitchens of such places, as you're forced to rub shoulders during making breakfast or when using the internet.

I met a whole load of people whilst staying there, which made travelling around the city a lot of fun, as I was always accompanied by someone or other. Like HK, Singapore is filled to the brim with electronic malls - some larger than those even in Hong Kong - as well as sporting a street famous for its shopping (Orchard Road) as well as an extremely expensive hotel popular with the stars (Raffles). I took in the latter, as well as visiting a night safari (will add more details of this at a later date, but I'll just say that the tiger bats were the highlight of this, flying unrestricted over your head with a wingspan of a metre or more). By far one of the best things about Singapore was Little India - where my hostel happened to be - that really was just like a little piece of that country (though minus some of the nastier smells or the ubiquitous cows).

The Indian vibe carried on running throughout Malaysia. On Monday I took an easy through-bus across the border from Singapore into Malaysia. After stopping twice - once to have my passport departure card stamped, the other to be issued with a partnering arrival stamp - I arrived in a country I expected to be very different from Singapore, but was surprised to find was very similar. The highway to my destination of Melaka was well kept, huge and new looking, likely thanks to the regular toll booths along said road. The countryside spread out in either direction, undulating and coated in miles of thick jungle and foliage, more so than in any other place I'd encountered so far.

Melaka is a seaside resort, popular with Malaysians. It was the first port in the country to play host to the Portuguese, as Vasco da Gama landed there in the 15th century, after scaling the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. The influence is there to see in its many brightly painted, colourful buildings, giving the town the feel of a Mediterranean sea town. The Dutch and the English also took turns occupying it, but their time there is less obvious. I stayed in a very cheap hostel there, costing me £1.30 a night, which along with the cheap food available reminded me of how cheap SE Asia could be (struggled to spend £10 a day in this town!). Some of the best food available is sold in food courts - as in Singapore - which take on a style similar to those found in America and England, accept the food is of an exceptional standard, plus comes in an amazing number of varieties (covering Japanese, Chinese, Malay, lots of Indian, Thai and even an unconvincing 'western').

There's a lot of money in Malaysia and it does manage to retain a western feel still thanks to its supermarkets, malls and spoken English. What's evident (and nice) is that the country doesn't rely on tourism for its main trade, unlike Thailand. I'm in Kuala Lumpur now and, outside of my hostel, I'm happy to report the streets aren't swamped with tourists. 

NOTE: Malaysian and Singaporean people are really, REALLY nice. I've been quite taken aback by how friendly and helpful they are. The weather while I've been here has been incredibly sultry. I'm told it neared 100% humidity one day.

Will update hopefully tomorrow, when I reach the Cameron Highlands (so long as there's wifi). Off now to check out a night market and grab a bite to eat. No drinking as found out drinks in bars in KL cost even more than they do in England! Still, was impressed I managed to purchase a delicious pint of Old Speckled Hen for my money (from a typical Irish bar). Went to the Batu caves today - enormous cave carved into the side of a mountain on KL's outskirts, that requires you climb 272 steps to enter. Monkeys run rife there and one even managed to bite a member of our group. Scary.