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  • Arias JordensAsia ScenicArias Jordens

    Bamboo Train

    23 апреля 2016 г., Камбоджа ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    This is exactly what you think and kind of not at the same time. Its a bamboo platform, with a bike motor attached to it, converted to ride train rails. That's it. So much fun!! And with no rails or protection you feel the speed! Only downside is there's only one disused track so if you meet another train coming the other way one of you's got to get off...Читать далее

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  • Arias JordensAsia ScenicArias Jordens

    Phnom Sampeau

    23 апреля 2016 г., Камбоджа ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    Phnom Sampeau held both the Killing Cave and the Bat Cave. A ride of emotions really, I saw the killing cave first which was where the Khmer Rouge used to throw bodies from from the surface of the mountain, down the gaping hole. There was a display of the human bones left on site as a reminder of the horror that had occurred there. We were told that the hole above from which the people were thrown was artificially widened because, when people had first discovered them years after the Khmer Rouge were out of power, the bodies were still heaped and rotting as the sun had not been able to degrade the tissue. As you can imagine I left the cave feeling rather sombre. We made our way down the mountain on the back of mopeds driving as though they were about to be swallowed by oblivion to the bat cave for 5pm. Around this time every evening a natural phenomenon occurs during which approx 2-3 million bats flee a crag in the side of the mountain to feed for the night. A constant mass of black streaming, rising and falling as though being blown by the wind. A 45 minute murmuration of bats. Incredible. By the time we went back home I had been shocked, disgusted, sad, shocked again, amazed and covered in guano. A ride indeed!Читать далее

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  • Arias JordensAsia ScenicArias Jordens

    Otres, Cambodia

    28 апреля 2016 г., Камбоджа ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Seagarden!!! Otres is a stretch of beach near Sihanoukville that caters towards travellers seeking beach life, island life, relaxation, food, alcohol or any combination of the aforementioned. Rach and I got there in time for a birthday of someone we had met in Siem Reap and so dropped our bags, hopped on a boat and spent the night on Koh Ta Kiev with lots of funduggery!

    A couple of days in and it was time for me to say bye to Rach as she was off to Vagabond Temple, a yoga and meditation retreat, for a week from which she was not be returning for 3 months - unknown to either of us at the time. The day she left our awesome South African Chiang Mai friend Chris arrived to join us for the foreseeable future. From then Seagarden blurred together, one day merging into another of carefree nothingness. Sea, sand, massages, drinks and games with a great crew of people.    Читать далее

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  • Arias JordensAsia ScenicArias Jordens

    Kampot, Cambodia

    4 мая 2016 г., Камбоджа ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Kampot was pretty much a continuation of Seagarden our crew just swapped out the sea for a river with.....THE BLOB. Arcadia was a bit out of Kampot town but was the hostel that everyone came to from other hostels to party and go on the blob so we were well placed! Being backflipped off the blob was a definite highlight even though it did hurt my face... Also "Charade Cards Against Humanity" best game ever to break down barriers. Just saying.Читать далее

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  • Arias JordensAsia ScenicArias Jordens

    Koh Rong Samloem

    9 мая 2016 г., Камбоджа ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    We took a boat across to Koh Rong Samloem seeing a frickin' tornado or cyclone or whatever it's called on the way!! We arrived and it was literally an island paradise with barely any people. We spent our first night in a tent suspended in trees which was awesome, rented snorkels to explore the nearby reef and jetty, swimming through what felt like a wall of a million fish.

    AND THEN NIGHTTIME.

    One of the most spectacular, authentic nature experiences of my life!! Us being the only ones in the sea that we could see, swimming with the bio-luminescent plankton, no light pollution coming from the island, millions of stars above actually sparkling. A reflection of above as below, it was wonder full. No description or picture could ever portray my amazement so I won't try too any further.

    When we got back to Sihanoukville, we shared a pizza and said our "see you soon's". I was upset I wasn't going to be seeing her for so long as she was (and still is) such a huge part of my life. I was glad however that this was the last experience we shared together before our parting because it was truly magical. And really, 3 months isn't that long of a time.    Читать далее

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  • Arias JordensAsia ScenicArias Jordens

    Phnom Penh, Cambodia

    12 мая 2016 г., Камбоджа ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C

    After Koh Rong I was meeting up with Jack and Chris in Phnom Phen, the capital of Cambodia, which was a very busy, very dirty city in which in which not much seemed to be attractive. The street food near to the hostel was good apart from that the city itself didn't have much to offer and we left relatively sharpish. I think the reason for this is because of the very recent history courtesy of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. The 2 main "attractions", if that is what they can be defined as, were S21 - a secure detaining and interrogation facility, and the killing fields. Kind of gives off the feel for the city. We didn't have time to go to the killing fields but we did take the tour of S21.

    Before that we had arranged something more exciting for the first day I arrived. Guns.....and lots of them!! The 3 of us teamed up with Jackson, a Texan from the hostel, and headed out to the range picking up another 2 Texans on the way which turned out to be great as they all wanted to shoot rocket launchers as that's pretty much the only thing that can't be shot in America!! I was on a budget and so limited myself to "just" grenade launcher which was awesome and gave a very satisfying thooomp as I shot it although didn't get too see the explosion as it landed about 300m away in a forest....the rocket launchers were so cool to see!! All 3 shot them at barrels of gas to a get one helluva mighty explosion, vibrated me to my core!! Jack shot the rambo gun which was awesome, Chris shot an M16 and we all had a go on an old school rifle. Our adrenaline fuelled afternoon was followed by a trip to the casino which proved to be very fruitful and a bar crawl to end the night, man levels were high!    Читать далее

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  • Arias JordensAsia ScenicArias Jordens

    Ben Tanh Market

    14 мая 2016 г., Вьетнам ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    This was the night market near our hostel which we pretty much frequented for one reason or the the other, needless to say my previous 3 months in Asia had honed my bartering skills to a very fine, very prickly tee. The vendors never stood a chance. Between us we bought a multitude of vest for a much needed wardrobe stock up, wine holders, candle holders, paper lanterns, pashmina scarfs, pop up cards, postcards up name it, they had it, we haggled and potentially bought it. It was also a landmark moment for me as it was where I tried my first pho of Vietnam :)Читать далее

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  • Arias JordensAsia ScenicArias Jordens

    Pub Crawl...That Fateful Night

    16 мая 2016 г., Вьетнам ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    I'm not going to go into too much detail however this was a definitely memorable moment of the trip so it's worth mentioning.

    A person who will remained unnamed at this point (whose birthday it was yesterday) decided to knock back 2 buckets of long island ice tea's in the space I'd drunk half of one and get a little bit drunk. We ended up leaving the pub crawl early after he and another unnamed person (his name starts J and rhymes with yack) were being sick onto the road from a second storey balcony much to the delight of the people and especially the bouncers below. We hopped into a cab as birthday boy was a dead weight too heavy to carry and headed back to the hostel. During this trip, as I was speaking quasi-English to the cabby, we suddenly hear a groan and then a very pungent smell reeks in the car. I turn aorund to Josh being sick on the floor, pure liquid so no chance of catching it. I'm screaming, the cab driver's yelling, Josh is trying to do the window down in time for his next bout which, as you could probably predict, fails miserably, ends up spewing onto the window and wiping it up with his face while he rests after his ordeal. Well the cabby is pretty angry at this point and once we arrive at our hostel is wanting to physically hit bday boy for what he's done to his car. I manage to bribe the driver off with the rest of the money in my wallet (which wasn't too much but still) and then drag buddy ol' boy to the door of the hostel which is card activated. Now Mr Unnamed had the key in his pouch so whilst I was searching for it he was leaning on me for support and while im fumbling in the dark I start to hear a trickle. I look around and see a puddle start forming around my mate's foot. Now we've all experienced alcohol wees before and they are long, violent things that should not be shared. That is exactly what this was. The trickle turned into a torrent and there was nothing I could do but wait for the waterfall to run itself dry whilst I propped up my friend, keycard in hand waiting for him to finish. In what seemed like an eternity later the river ran dry for a false finish but as I went to open the door it started again for a final rumble. I recognised this time it was the end as Josh's body (woops) slumped on me again heavier than before indicating he was done and I dragged him to the room and into bed.

    Okay so maybe a lot of detail there but totally worth it!!! Happy birthday brother!!

    PS. He still loves Long Island Ice Tea's to this day.    Читать далее

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  • Arias JordensAsia ScenicArias Jordens

    Jade Emporor Pagoda

    17 мая 2016 г., Вьетнам ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C

    What seemed like a short walk on a map led to a hearty jaunt to see this pagoda. It was the first Taoist temple I had been to and straightway I could tell the differences compared to that of the Buddhist & Hindu themes that are prevelant throughout SE Asia. For one it was much darker both in natural light and in the colours used for decoration, and it seemed to incorporate statues a lot more, of who I have no idea. The scent of incense burning was strong in the air and though it didn't purvey the same sense of stillness and tranquillity as a Bhuddist temple, there was still a sense of peave, reflected by those who had come to pray within.Читать далее

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  • Arias JordensAsia ScenicArias Jordens

    War Remnants Museum

    17 мая 2016 г., Вьетнам ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C

    This musuem was shocking, disgusting and eye opening all in one barely manageable bundle. Having only visited S21 a few days before in Cambodia the atrocities that can be caused by man were fresh in my mind and the war remnants museum was about to ram that back home as subtle as sledgehammer with the most explicit images I have ever seen.

    Its contents are regarding the Vietnam war, the why, the how, what happened during, what happened after and what is still happening today, 3 generations later. I'd studied the war at school for a term maybe and kind of knew the politics and end result but that was about it and it was all learnt in such a clinical way. Coming out of the museum I had a paradigm shift in how viewed the country I was travelling and a respect and appreciation to the resilience of the Vietnamese people who despite all they have gone through, still reaping the effect of Americas's war on their land are still some of the happiest and accomodating people I have met.

    Without going to much into it, the effects of agent orange were devastating to innocent people and future generations whose only crime was to be born in the wrong country, and the way the musuem is setup the last display you see is of the various weapoms used throughout out the war. Now usually I see weapons and I'm like "awesome" or "that would do something nasty!". After having walked through this very graphic museum and seen the destruction, pain and life lost that they caused to human beings I just stood in a kind of numb silence. Trying to comprehend how people could do this to one another and how America had disrupted this entire region (the Vietnam war playing a major role in the rise of Pol Pot) for.......what exactly?    Читать далее

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  • Arias JordensAsia ScenicArias Jordens

    Cu Chi Tunnels

    18 мая 2016 г., Вьетнам ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    The famous Cu Chi tunnels, how the Vietnamese survived the absolutely massive amount of bombs that hit the ground - more than the total that was dropped on both sides in WW2. The tunnel entrances were camouflaged, covered with leaves or bush, and were ridiculously small although I still managed to slide into one! You had to get in a certain way otherwise you wouldn't be able to squeeze through. We had a little taster of this encampment walking underground from place to place with turnoffs that only lead to rooms with entrances so we couldn't get lost. Still it was very cramped and restricted, I felt like I couldn't get enough air I was under for a total of 5-10 mins. If the bombs started or soldiers turned up the Vietcong could reside underground indefinitely with miles of tunnels connecting different camps, savage jungle booby traps above ground and false turns underground if the soldiers happened to find they're way in it's no wonder why the Americans struggles so much against such an adversary they were no where near prepared to fight.Читать далее

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