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Dear all!
First of all, sorry that we kind of suck at blogging, way too long since last time..
Since then we've moved a bit. After guided tour in Ayutthaya (with a guide we didn't understand too well) on Thursday, and Tina had removed her stiches on Friday, we did some last minute shopping and packed our bags and were ready to head to Cambodia on Saturday. Then we got a message from Paula from Taiwan that there had been some fighting on one of the borders between Cambodia and Thailand, so we went to an internet cafe at 1am to do some research. We found out that there had been some shooting and six people were killed/hurt, but it wasn't the same border as the one we were going to cross. We did call the Embassy (or the emergency number to UD in Norway to be more precise) to get some travelling advice, but we knew more than they did so they weren't of much help. Next morning, after about 4 hours of sleep we got on the bus to Cambodia, after making sure it was safe with the travel agency.
We've been warned and read a lot about the hassel that would meet us on the border, and ALL the scams that are going on there. And you know us.. we're apparently quite easy to con, so we were kind of nervous. And we literally(!) hadn't gotten out of the bus before they started telling us that they had a faster and better taxi, we just had to pay this and this, and they talked to everyone about hostels and visa and how to get to Siem Reap/Battambang faster. And it actually worked on a lot of people. We said nicely "no, thank you". However after getting to the bus station we realized that the transport from there was organized by the "mafia" and consisted of over prized bus and taxi. We ended up paying 40(!!!)USD for a taxi ride to Battambang if we wanted to get there before dark, which we did.
In Battambang we arranged with our hostel to go on a tour to see the Bamboo train, the Killing Caves from the Khmer Rouge period, and some villages. It would have been great, expcept from the fact that for every stop we had to pay extra, which the hostel didn't warn us about, and silly us didn't ask. So instead of paying 5 USD which we thought we would we ended up paying 15 USD each! And if our mood wasn't good before, it sure as hell weren't any better now.. So we decided to leave Battambang one day earlier, by boat. This was actually why we came there, because we were recommended by Arild Moldstad, a norwegian travelling guru, that the boat trip between Battambang and Siem Reap was one of the most beautiful ones. We were told when we bought the tickets that the trip would take about 7,5 hours, but Lonley Planet said 9 so we figuered it would take 9. It took 12 painful hours in an overcroweded boat with almost no view!!! Since it is the dry season the river was very low so we got stuck a couple of times and the engine broke down at least twice. And when we got of the boat about 15 tuktuk drivers surrounded us and pulled our bages and were yelling: "3 dollars", "1 dollar each", "2 dollars lady!" We were tired and got a little frustrated and weren't too fond of Cambodia at the time. We took a tuktuk together with a swedish girl we met in Battambang, and were happy when we arrived safe and sound at Earthwalkers, a norwegian founded socially responsible hostel. It is therefore a little more expensive than the rest so we only stayed there for two nights.
The last two days we've been exploring the great temples of Angkor. It is huge. No, that's an understatement, it is ENORMOUS! So we rented a private tuk tuk driver who took us to the different ones. And guess what? We were lucky enough to get the tuk tuk DJ, which means we could play our iPod in the Tuktuk. Could it be any better??:) The sun is really hot though, it is apparently summer here, so our energy was drained. We didn't think the summer would come before April or so :p Cambodia also turned out to be almost three times more expensive than Thailand, and we weren't prepared for that either. The people here are very poor, which is the reason for the scamming at the borders and tuk tuk drivers intenstity when we got of the boat in Siem Reap. A lot of people and children comes and ask us to buy stuff every other second, it is hard to turn a three year old down, but we can't buy from everyone and some people says we shouldn't buy stuff because it supports modern slavery, but it really isn't easy. We want to give something back, and at the same time it gets really intense.
We do like us here now, just needed some time to get used to new things again :)
Untill next time.. soon hopefully, then it won't be so long ;)
- comments
Hege Øvergaard Jeg fortår deres frustrasjon, det er en helt annen kultur. Thailand er mer turist-tilpasset på en måte, enklere. men Kambodsja ligger nok etter der på alle måter. Uansett, så er dårlige opplevelser også en del av turen, og minner.....
Lone Godt aa hoere at dokker har det bra! Bare vent tel vi kjaem tel Taiwan - da skal vi grave etter tips fra dokker! Bare aa forberede seg! Saa langt har vi kommen oss i mella utn store problemer, og har vaert fornoeyd med alle plassan vi har vaert. Faar se om hellet fortsette! Kos dokker vidre! =) klemma!
Kine Ja, har vaert en del frustrasjoner, men naa har vi det fint, og du har helt rett, det er en del av turen. Vi skal proeve aa gi daakker saa gode tips som mulig, Lone. Leser bloggen deres og virker som dere koser dere og har det utrolig artig. Gleder meg til vi ses:) God tur videre! Klemma
Eisabeth Solberg Så gøy å lese bloggen deres, var ikke klar over at dere hadde begynt på Asia turen deres en gang. Godt å hør at alt er bra, på tross av en del tolmodighetsprøver og hindringer på veien. DEt er jo en del av opplevelsen, selv om det er fryktelig irriterende der og da så er det noe å se tilbake på og smile av senere. Hvor går turen videre? Jeg bor jo på Bali, så dere får gi meg en lyd hvis dere er i mine trakter:) God tur videre, klem fra Elisabeth
Kine Hei Elisabeth, Saa hyggelig aa hoere fra deg! Er du fortsatt paa Bali? Saa goey. Naa blir det Vietnam og Laos foer vi tar turen til Taiwan. Deretter forflytter vi oss til India og omegn. Blir desverre ikke tid til Bali denne gangen, men hadde vaert utrolig artig aa besoekt deg der. Haaper du har det aldeles supert :)
Elisabeth Solberg Ja, jeg er på Bali. Jobber som studiekoordinator for Gateway college her nede. Det er mitt andre semester i jobben og trives veldg godt:) har det aldeles supert. Høres ut som dere har valgt en veldig spennende reiserute. Gleder meg til å følge dere vi dere. Tenker selv på å ta turen til Vietnam og Taiwan så veldig klar for tilbakemelding. God tur videre:) Klem