Last days in Bangkok

We had a fantastic trip! We made it home safely on 18 January. We spent our last days in Bangkok shopping and looking around town. In front of one of the new shopping centres is a beautiful Erawan shrine, where locals come to give offerings and can make a donation which funds the performance of traditional Thai dancers and musicians.






We also went to Jim Thompson's House. He developed the Thai silk trade after WWII. His house was really beautiful, traditional Thai style with lovely gardens.

Bangkok

We are back in Bangkok now. We arrived late on the 13th after a really long day! In Sihanoukville they told us the trip took 12 hours but it ended up taking 15+ hours. We left at 7am and it took about 6 hours to get to the border. The roads were reasonable for half of the trip until we reached the point where they were still building the roads. It wasn't too bad until we crossed into Thailand and the driver was taking bribes from people to get dropped off in different places so it ended up taking forever! In order for him to catch up on time he was going 140 km/h down the express way! We were so glad to get here! Yesterday we took the skytrain to Chatuchak, a huge market and ended up spending the whole day there. Today we went to some of the newer shopping centres in town to do some last minute shopping. We are flying home on Jan 17.

Sihanoukville...Day 4

We have spent the past couple of days on the beach relaxing and going swimming and having the local kids jumping all over us. The little kids run into the water with empty water bottles and use them as floaties. Sihanoukville is beautiful and the weather has been perfect. Local restaurants set up BBQs at night with fresh seafood! We are sad to leave but we have to take a bus to Bangkok early tomorrow morning.

Sihanoukville

We were sad to leave Phnom Penh but we are running out of time before we have to be back in Bangkok to fly home. We said goodbye to the kids and took a bus to Sihanoukville on Monday afternoon. We arrived 4 hours later and finally found a place to stay. The next day we walked a block down to Ochheuteul beach. It is so beautiful and we just stayed there all day. There are little restaurants set up all the way along the beach and locals walk by all the time carrying different foods on thier heads, looking for a sale. They sell little lobsters for 25 cents each and young girls can make a bracelet with your name in it for a couple of dollars. Today was another lazy day on the beach.

Phnom Penh...Day 6

Today is a public holiday in Cambodia for remembering the victory over the Khmer Rouge. We went to see the kids dancing last night and were talking to one of the older boys. "Why is it a holiday?" He replied, "Genocide." Then he asked "You have it in Australia?" We said "no" and he asked "why not?" So today we decided to take all the kids to the waterpark. We all piled into the van with half of the kids sitting on the roof! We all had so much fun. Some of the younger kids can't swim so the older ones look out for them. The staff who look after them had just as much fun as the kids!

We are sad to leave but tomorrow we are taking the bus to Sihanoukville.

Phnom Penh...Day 5

The last 2 days we have spent relaxing and going to the markets to do some shopping. Yesterday we took a tuk tuk to the Russian Market where they have just about everything!

This morning we went back to the Central Market which is only a few blocks from where we are staying. In the afternoon we walked over to the National Museum where they have some beautiful Khmer sculptures, many from around Angkor. There was also an exhibition of some of Rodin's photography from when he visited Cambodia and some sketches of Khmer dance.

Phnom Penh...Day 3

Today we did a cooking course through the Frizz Restaurant. Our teacher took us around the local market first to buy fresh ingredients. The first thing we made was sayong jayk, which is chicken wrapped in banana flower then deep fried. Next we made a green curry paste which we made for kari baitongh saich moan, which is green chicken curry. Then we made fish amok, the national dish, made from fish, coconut milk and curry paste. All the ingredients are mixed together and put in a banana leaf with coconut cream on top, then steamed. Finally for dessert we made num pra pei ney, which are Cambodian ceremonial cakes wrapped in banana leaves. Everything was really delicious and we had a beautiful view over the Mekong.

Lorna's amok
Joan's amok

Phnom Penh...Day 2

We went to see the kids this morning and gave them the presents we got for them yesterday. They all remembered going to the waterpark last Christmas. As soon as we got there they rushed to pull off our shoes so we could go inside then they ran to show us the photo album we had sent them last year. The girls especially liked the headbands and nail polish and painted our nails. The boys had toy cars, keychains, flying balloons and other things.
In the afternoon we walked to the Central Market to do some shopping then spent the rest of the day walking around town.

Update

Hi everyone. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Sorry we haven't been able to update the blog since we left Vientiane. So here's the update...from Vientiane we caught an overnight bus to Pakse then decided to continue on so we took 5 songthaews and a boat to Champasak. Champasak was a very small town so we hired bicycles and went out to Wat Phu Champasak, a beautiful pre-Angkor temple on top of the mountain. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and was built from the 6-13th century. A nearby museum has collected stone sculptures from the site but there are still several left in the temple.

From Champasak we went to Don Khong in the 4000 islands where we spent Christmas Day. We found a little guesthouse where a Lao woman baked a turkey dinner, it was fantastic!

The next day we took a minibus to the Cambodian border. It was down a dirt path with a wooden shed on either side. We were lucky and only had to bribe them 3 USD each to stamp our passports. From the border we took another mini bus to Stung Treng where we decided to go to Ban Lung, Ratanakiri. The dirt road was really bad but we got there. We spent 4 nights in Ban Lung. The first day we rode bicycles down the dirt roads out to the crater lake. It was a really nice place to swim but we were orange from the dust by the time we got back. The next day we went out to a Chunchiet Cemetery, which is the cemetery of the Tompuon minority. Family groups are buried together in the forest under a shelter with life like wooden effigies and carved elephant tusks on either side. These included pregnant women, women wearing jewelery and men wearing police uniforms, a mobile phone, revolver and sunglasses. On the way back we stopped at a 200 year old Chinese and Lao village. On our final day, we went elephant trekking. It was so fun! It took 3 hours to go through the rubber plantations, to the waterfall and back again.

We left Ban Lung and got a crazy bus driver going back. He was going so fast and the road was full of potholes that we were airbourne 4 times, this was made worse because the seats weren't secured to the floor. Thank God we finally made it to Kratie. Kratie was a nice little town on the Mekong River. We spent 2 nights there and took motos out in the afternoon to see the freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins. Although they are rare we saw alot of them.
Yesterday we got up early to get the bus to Phnom Penh. After 20 minutes the driver pulled over and the assistant grabbed the tool kit. We knew this wasn't a good sign. He continued on another 10 minutes before pulling over, turning off the ignition and yelling "smoke!". Oh my God the bus was on fire in the middle of nowhere!!! Everyone got off and sat on the side of the road for about an hour, until another bus came to pick everyone up, except us! "No worry, another car coming in 10 minutes". Well another car didn't come, but 2 more hours later another overloaded bus came by and we crammed on. The trip that should have taken about 5 hours ended up taking 10 1/2 hours. We were so glad to get here! We walked over to the restaurant where the kids from the orphanage we saw last time do their dancing. The staff remembered us and they brought out 2 of the children to see if they remembered us too. They did and one of them recited everything in a Christmas present we had given all the children last year. Then all the children came out to see us and told us they missed us.

Today we went to the market to get presents for the kids and we are going to see them again tomorrow.

Vientiane...Day 4

This morning we went to the Temple of The Heavy Buddha which houses a bronze Buddha image which is several tonnes. The monks were really friendly there and they were reading magazines inside.

In the afternoon we went to the Lao National Museum which is in the former French Governor's mansion. There were many displays related to the French colonialists and the American imperialists. Also on display was the former President's exercise equipment. Towards the end there was a special display of confiscated heroin and amphetamines in a glass case as well as tools used by "bad elements" to steal motorcycles.

Tonight we are taking the overnight bus to Pakse.