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Hello!
How is everyone? It's been a crazy week or so, unlike the theme a few weeks ago where I was going through a phase of supposedly killing animals in cold blood, the theme this past week has been one of me against Mother Nature and the elements she has thrown in my direction.
Shortly after my last post, when I was in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, the weather turned for the worse, and I was sitting through a typhoon. There was the heaviest rain, strongest winds and most volatile thunderstorm I had ever witnessed. It was so bad that all the power went out in the local area, so luckily I finished my last post when I did!! My time at the beach wasn't the best, but it's cool to say I sat through a typhoon.
After Sihanoukville, I made my way east to Kampot. It's a small town, it felt almost like a ghost town as they was hardly anyone around. I was excited to read that there was a KFC from looking at a map my guest house provided, so me and my friends set off in search of this KFC. Soon it dawned on us that there was no KFC, but we refused to believe it and we must have walked around the whole place twice, and getting excited at every red sign we saw, before giving up and settling for a panda ice cream at the local supermarket, which are amazing by the way!!
We went on a day trip in Kampot, which involved jungle trekking up some terrain, and then visiting an actual ghost town, where they had 2 casino's and a church. Apparently the area is being redeveloped into some super resort, but all we could see were the abandoned buildings, so we explored them. After a while we got a bit bored, so we decided to hide in dark corners and scare people as they came past. Immature I know, but great fun, especially when we videoed one of our mates being scared. After we jungle trekked down to the car and then had a sunset river cruise, before getting a car back to Phnom Penh.
The next day we caught a bus to Siem Reap, it was meant to take 6 hours but took around 8-9. I was sat near the front, and I was listening to my music, but all I could hear was the drivers horn, and the loud music from the bus speakers blasting through, so I moved to the back, where I realised the air con was intermittent. It was a really hot day, but I decided I'd rather be sweaty than have the excruciating pain of the horn piercing my skull.
The following day we decided it would be a good idea to hire bicycles and go to see some temples at Angkor Wat. The bikes weren't the best, the handlebars were really low, and it felt wobbly but after a while I got used to it. We cycled for ages and saw a few temples, including Angkor Thom, which is really nice, and the temple that was used in Tomb Raider. The ride back was not so good, and I had severe saddle arse, not good!! I was glad to get off it in the end.
We visited Angkor Wat the next two days, this time using a tuk-tuk, much more comfortable and faster. Each time we arrived at a temple, we were surrounded by people selling us cold drinks and food, and a load of kids selling us postcards, jewellery and magnets. It became a bit tiring after a while, they seemed to harmonise with phrases "Buy something mister", "Come back and buy from me", "You buy from me", "Only one dollar". In the end I let one of my friends go first, this way dragging the people to them while I made a run for the temple, after all I already had postcards and magnets!
It was Halloween while I was in Siem Reap, so we dressed up and went out. Everyone was dressed up on the Saturday but it was the day before Halloween, so we assumed loads of people would dress up on Halloween, how wrong we were. I went as a scuba instructor, with a snorkel and shorts and dive t-shirt, it's the best I could put together, while Mike went as a baby, literally wearing a towel as a nappy and a dummy, and Ross went as a mummy, which involved loads of toilet paper. The locals were laughing and coming up to us in the street as we were walking so I thought it was best to keep my mask on. We got to the bar and no one was in fancy dress, we felt like right idiots, but thankfully a bit later a small group came in fancy dress, but they weren't as good as ours!
The final day at Angkor Wat involved waking up at 4.30am to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. What a let down!! It was too cloudy and when you could see Angkor Wat it was covered in scaffolding, so it ruined it for me. By the 3rd day I had temple fatigue, so was happy to finish here and go back to the guest house. For the rest of the day, me, Mike and Ross found an online gaming place and played Counter Strike. It was really good as we only had to pay for the food we ordered, so we paid 4 pounds for 5 hours of gaming and food. I know it's not very traveller-like but we needed our gaming fix!
The following day, which was Wednesday, I had to wake up at 4.30am again, as I was off to see the child my mum sponsors. When I arrived at the ActionAid offices, my guide kept telling about how bad the roads were. I thought she was exaggerating, until I saw it for myself. The road was just made up of mud, and about 2 or 3 trucks had been stuck in it at precarious angles, which meant the rest of the traffic was held up. Once we passed this the road got better, but it was still bumpy. Now most people in England drive carefully on bumpy roads. Our driver never got that memo, and decided it was a good idea to floor it! I was astounded by how bad the road was, even more astonished by how fast the driver was going, and finally gobsmacked that his car was still in one piece in the end! The road leading to the village was the worst road I have ever seen, if it can even be classed as a road. We had to walk along it to get o the village.
The village was spread out and hidden behind plants, you could only see a few houses/huts at a time. We finally arrived at Chen's house which was a small one room house. She was really shy and wouldn't talk at first but after I started taking photos and showing her she relaxed and played around. She's from a poor family but she seemed really happy and looked like she enjoyed playing with her sisters. The house, although basic, looked like quite a cool place to live as the sleeping area and eating area were lifted off the ground. I was a bit upset when I had to leave but I was really happy I had gone to see her.
I was then taken to see some community projects that had been set up, which involved the village growing their own food. I was really inspired by how hard the people worked to make their own lives and the community as a whole better. Also it was good to see the money not just being given to people, but them using it to set up businesses which could then pay back the money. The youth of the village working in the projects could teach a lot to some of the youth of Britain about hard work and manners!
The journey back was no better, and I'm glad I didn't suffer from car sickness as it felt like, what can only be described as an unstable rollercoaster. I was dropped off at the border and crossed into Thailand. I got a motorbike to the bus station and conveniently found that it was closed, the driver knew all along as I negotiated a good price, welcome back to Thailand! I was gonna spend the night in the bus station but was being bit to shreds by the mossies so I checked into a hotel that cost 15 pounds, that's loads, but it was a nice room.
The next morning I caught a bus to Bangkok, and then got a train to Malaysia, although due to flooding I could only go to Hat Yai in southern Thailand. I arrived the next morning and found I couldn't get a bus to where I wanted in north Malaysia, so I decided to just go to Kuala Lumpur. Hay Yai had 10 foot of rain so it was still clearing up the mess from the floods when I arrived. It must have been bad because even McDonalds was closed!!
I got to KL later that day and was excited to see Nandos, I have been missing it loads! I ate there that night, and the next day I did some sightseeing and went to the top of the Petronas Towers, which was cool, but after about 5 minutes I was ready to go back down as the view didn't change! Yesterday I went to a Gurdwara, which is near where I'm staying, so make sure you all tell my gran, as it will get me loads of brownie points, and then I went to what can only be said to be mega malls. The first one had 8 floors, and had a theme park inside. The rollercoaster was huge, like bigger than one at Alton Towers. I ended up visiting 6 malls yesterday, all massive ones, even one especially for electronics. I even sneaked in a cheeky Nandos....
I'm heading to Melaka in south Malaysia today, and then to Singapore on Wednesday, before hopefully going Indonesia on Saturday, so it's busy period.
I forgot to say Happy Diwali to everyone, hope you all had a good one, if you celebrate it.
Anyway I need to get to the post office so I'll end it here. I'll try and put some photos up this week but I have so many.
Take care,
Sanj
- comments
raymond van barneveld petronas towers! i remember watchin a documentary on them. cool you went to go see your mums sponsored child. i still havent helped clear out the batcave so will do that upon returning for christmas. the el clasico is building up but im looking forward moreso to the el east midlands derby. honestly we smashed portsmouth and then sanj-lay went to see us beat ipswich so fingers crossed we can keep it up. anyways keep yourself safe out there man cant wait to hear more x
greg Excellent read as usual Sanj, halloween costume sounds well scary?!? Awesome on all levels that you been to see your mums sponsor child, must've been amazing and a real meaningful experience. Realise I've stopped watchin Globe trekker, you is more informative! Was great talking to ya last week, hope all keeps going well, got your postcard today too, so post is actually working! Hey told your gran about your Gurudawara visit in KL, she was well happy, think you hit some mega points, you've shot up the table faster than the mighty Rams! Keep trekking and can't wait for next one Greg
shabs dude your posts are getting me seriously excited about my travels and all the stuff I'm gonna get to see, eeeek! :)