Day 2 - The back of the back of beyond
23 Juli 2024, Slovenia ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
12:00
I sleep less than brilliantly. My room has no cooling features of any kind. It’s in the basement of an old stone building, so isn’t disastrously hot, but I could have done with a fan or some AC to keep me cool. Kirsten’s on some work calls this morning, so I head out around 10:00 for a wander around Ljubljana. It’s a stunningly pretty little city, very quiet, very clean. 100m from our guesthouse is the Republic Square, which celebrates Slovenian independence. It’s all but empty. I head on down towards the river, taking a scenic route - i.e. I set off in what I think is the general direction of the river, and it turns out I’m walking away from it. I dawdle along for maybe 30 minutes, stopping to look at occasional bits of architecture. Finally, I reach the river, and sit down at one of the many waterside cafés that line its banks. I deserve and have a strong black coffee. I’m conscious I haven’t eaten since lunchtime yesterday, so grab a piece of cheese pie. It’s delicious. Lots in common with the Greek Spanakopita I love so much.
Arriving back at our guesthouse, Kirsten is just about finished with her work calls, and I decide it’s probably beer o’clock. The local brew is called Lasko, and is a fairly generic Mediterranean lager. Inoffensive, easy drinking. Max joins us and insists I have another. She’s a good woman.
18:00
Kirsten and I head off from Ljubljana around 12:30, heading East towards the borders with Croatia and Hungary. I’m on map duty, and successfully navigate us out of the city centre without too many difficulties. We join the eastbound highway, and settle into a fast cruise. The roads are fairly empty, and we make good progress. The views of the scenery are stunning. Only a few kilometres out of Ljubljana, we’re surrounded by sweeping hills blanketed in thick forest.
We leave the highway, and join a 2 lane road. We leave the two lane road, and join a single carriageway road. We leave the single carriageway road, onto a single track. We are definitely headed for the middle of nowhere. The map is fairly easy to follow though, which is something. We start to climb a not insignificant hill. Reaching the summit a few minutes later, we realise we’re very nearly at our AirBnB.
It’s idyllic. We’re surrounded on all sides by vines and fruit trees. It’s silent. Not quiet - SILENT. We’re shown around the property and grounds by our hosts, Simone and Franz. They introduce us to their dogs - Mufi and Arya. We introduce Mufi and Arya to Mila and Juancho. Much dogging occurs. Our AirBnB has a wine bar in it. I’m not kidding - a full on bar with a wine fridge, and wine racks. Now, we’re not stupid enough to think that the wine is free, but it’s a lovely touch, and we crack open a bottle of Slovenian Sauvignon Blanc, which is better than we thought it’d be. We briefly consider taking our wine to the hot tub, but Kirsten has another work call to join.
Instead, I head down to our nearest town, Ormoz - which is about 10km away. We need food and wine supplies. Before shopping, I take a bit of a swing through the town. It feels, I don’t know - almost empty. There are a handful of cars on the road, but very few. Quite a lot of businesses look to be closed - whether for the end of the day (it’s a little past 16:00) or more permanently, I’m not sure. I find a wine tasting room of the famous Puklavec family, but alas - it closed at 16:00. I’ll be back in the next couple of days…
My first shopping stop is at the Lidl supermarket on the outskirts of town. They have very little of what I need. More successful is a stop at the Spar supermarket nearby. Spar in this part of Europe is a more mainstream supermarket than the corner shop brand we’re used to seeing in the UK. They have most of what I need - including some cool looking local beers and wines. They don’t have BBQ fuel though, so I make a 3rd stop at a Slovenian supermarket chain called Mercator, who happily fulfil my fuel fantasies.
23:50
We have a lovely dinner, sitting outside under the vines. I knock up a simple, Greek marinade for some chicken thighs, and Kirsten pairs it with a Sicilian pasta dish that shows more than a passing resemblance to Puttanesca. Delish. The BBQ is a small version of the big Landmann I use at home, which makes cooking the bone-in chicken thighs a breeze. They’re crispy where they should be, juicy and unctuous in all the right places, and - crucially - cooked all the way through.
After dinner, Kirsten insists on some red wine, and grabs a bottle that she and Max bought in Italy, on their road-trip through to Slovenia. It’s wonderful. I’m a relative newbie with Italian wine, and struggle to know which are worth a punt, and which not. This one’s a banger. Bright acidity, full bodied and zippy fruit. I’d make a note of the winemaker’s / vineyard’s name, but there’s zero chance of me finding the same wine in the UK. Around 22:30, I suggest bed, but Kirsten’s thinking is slightly more diagonal than mine, and she proposes a final bottle of wine. It’s been ages since we sat up (fairly) late with too much wine, and set the world to rights - so I greedily acquiesce.
I stumble to bed a little before midnight, and Kirsten attempts to climb the narrow staircase to her room. This doesn’t go entirely to plan, and she falls down them. Thankfully uninjured.Baca selengkapnya
Day 1 - I've been here before.
22 Juli 2024, Slovenia ⋅ 🌙 22 °C
15:30
I spend a lazy morning getting packed, finishing a couple of errands, and reading a little about Slovenia. A new country for me, I know little about it, other than its part in the former Yugoslavia, and the resulting ethnic conflicts in the 1990s. Home for the next week will be a cottage in one of Slovenia’s wine regions, and my companion will be my school friend Kirsten, who I quickly realise has known me for pretty much bang on 30 years. That’s a sobering thought. We’ve not much planned for the week. The climate looks beautiful - our nearest weather station will be Maribor, which promises temperatures in the high 20s, light breezes, wall-to-wall sunshine. I imagine we’ll do some hiking, quite a lot of wine tasting/drinking, maybe some lake swimming if we find something suitable nearby. We’ll see what cool food we can find to cook. I’ve no idea about Slovenian cuisine, but given it neighbours Italy to the West, and Croatia to the South, I’m expecting good things. Kirsten’s driven her camper van up from Madrid, so we’ve got some transport sorted, should we need it much. From the sounds of it, our cottage is at the top of a hill, downwards from which finds you in one of 4 or 5 vineyards that surround the property.
I leave the house a little before 14:00, and jump on a train for the short ride up to Gatwick. Despite the Monday, early afternoon timing, the train is busy, having been delayed on its way to me. It sounds like I’ve enjoyed the best of the Summer weather while I’ve been in the UK these past 10 days. Today is grey and mizzling - a more popular 2024 combination. I’m not sad to be leaving it behind. I AM sad to be leaving behind my darling Vicki. I’ve loved being at home with her since got back from SE Asia, and I’m uber-excited for our next trip(s) away together in September.
Gatwick North is comfortably the busiest I’ve seen it this year. This is the first ‘full’ week of school summer holidays in the UK, and it shows. Children EVERYWHERE. I’ve paid to use the fast-track security service at the terminal. I’m not checking a bag, so have got a couple of heavy-ish cabin bags. Arriving at the fast track queue, I spot that they’re using one of the new CT scanners, which is great - except that it’s broken. Chatting to one of the security staff, they’ve been using it for a week now, and there have been some, well - let’s say ‘teething problems.’ The issue is quickly resolved by someone who doesn’t look like they work at the airport. I’m a little disgruntled when one of my bags gets pulled for further inspection. I always travel with a medikit, which contains a pair of blunt scissors, whose blades are less than 6cm long (as required by the Civil Aviation Authority). It’s these that have caused a red flag. Now, my bag is packed pretty fucking brilliantly. Everything I need, nothing I don’t. The medikit is right at the bottom of the bag - obviously. I locate it for the guy, whose beard is simply spectacular, and he measures the blade. Sure enough - 5.5cm. I huff, grab my belongings, and repair to one of the little desk things to repack my bag, quietly seething.
Still, I make it from the train to Brewdog in around 45 minutes, which is a none too bad result for this time of year. I’m thinking about buying a debenture seat at Brewdog in the North terminal of Gatwick Airport. I’m sat at the same table seat as I have on several occasions already so far this year. I’m pretty sure the bar staff recognise me. Looking back through my scribblings from earlier in the year, I can see that I’ve been here on several occasions when I was all but the only customer. Today, they’re pretty much at max capacity. There are even (whisper it) some kids in here. Not many, but some…
I’m conscious that at various times in this journal, and particularly at airports, I’ve written stuff that indicates I have some sort of preternatural hatred of kids. I don’t. I love (some of) them. I do, however, find that my enjoyment of travelling can be impaired by their loud, shouty, uncontrolled presence. I guess it’s not the kids I have an issue with, but rather the parents of those kids who choose not to assert any kind of control or discipline over their offspring. Besides - why would you bring them to a craft beer pub, when there’s a perfectly serviceable <insert fast food outlet name> just down the stairs?
So anyway - Slovenia. The sum total of my knowledge and experience boils down to a few games of football England have played against them, a couple of wines (one of which I adore) that I’ve tried in the UK, and that aforementioned war in the early 1990s. When I travel long-haul, I invariably end buying a Lonely Planet / Rough Guide type book, a growing library of which I keep in my office at home. I haven’t for this trip, and am unsure if:
1) This is because I’m only going to be away for 10 days, or
2) I’m largely sticking to one part of the country, or
3) It’s Europe, and I figure that’s unlikely to need me to spend a ton of time learning about local practices, a sharply different culture, a different currency.
I find myself feeling guilty that I’ve essentially snubbed the entire Slovenian nation, and wondering whether the WHSmiths downstairs have got a travel section…
23:50
The flight itself is a breeze. A shade under two hours. We leave close enough to on time that we land a few minutes ahead of schedule. The airport is all but empty, and I’m the first person to the immigration queue. I’ve no baggage to collect, so am actually outside waiting for my taxi a minute or two ahead of our scheduled arrival time. My driver is parked up the road a little, presumably to avoid paying a parking fee. He turns up pretty quickly, and seems like a jaunty sort of chap.
We set off - at quite a lick. I’ve no idea what the speed limit is in these parts, but I suspect it’s not 150kph. My driver is quite animated. He gets quite involved when I mention that I worked in business psychology for 15 years. Hands leave the steering wheel, he turns round to talk to me face to face a couple of times, even though we’re travelling at upwards of 80mph. As we arrive into the city centre of Ljubljana, we very, VERY nearly have a crash. A car pulls out in front of him, and we do the whole skidding / brakes screeching thing, before pulling to a stop less than half a metre from the offending vehicle. I’m unsure whether the fault lies with my driver or the other car, but it unnerves me somewhat. Happily, we’re not far from the guesthouse, so there are few opportunities for further nerve jangling.
Kirsten and Max have gone out to grab some food. Oh, I realise we need to do a bit of explanation, don’t we? I consider myself very lucky to have had 4 ‘best’ friends throughout my life, and even luckier that 3 of them are still with me. Kirsten is one of them. We met at school when we were both 16, and just clicked. We share a similarly dark sense of humour, we have in common the same philosophies of life, and even when we’ve not seen each other in a long time, we slip into a very easy style of conversation.
Max is Kirsten’s mum. She lost her husband, John, a few years back, and asked Kirsten if she could join some of this trip. Kirsten’s driven up from Spain in a camper van with Max in tow (as well as Juancho and Milla - but we’ll deal with them tomorrow). I’ve met Max a handful of times over the years, and have always adored her company. She’s a wine hound, so we have much in common.
I catch up with them at a cool restaurant down by the riverside. I can’t see much of Ljubljana in the dark, but it seems like a lovely town - very quiet, lots of bars and restaurants, easily walkable. We natter over a couple of bottles of wine, and head back to the guesthouse around 23:00. It feels like I’ve had a long day…Baca selengkapnya
Day 30 - Home. Amazing! Reflections…
11 Juli 2024, Singapura ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
00:30
My first flight, into Dubai, is a cakewalk. I’m in the Premium Economy cabin, still relatively new to Emirates, and it’s plush. There’s a minor snafu when I’m offered a pre takeoff drink, and there are only soft drinks available. The cabin is maybe 40% full. I’m in a bulkhead seat, but will move to an empty window row once we’ve taken off. The crew ask if I want to be fed after takeoff, and I say yes - but only if the food service will be quick. Happily, it is. I ditch my seat after eating, and grab a vacant window seat, recline, and try to get some sleep.
I’m successful in this endeavour. I sleep for around 4 hours, waking a couple of times, but drifting back off easily enough. I wake up for the last time with maybe 45 minutes to go to Dubai. The England vs Netherlands semi-final has started back home, and i’m getting intermittent updates. My plan is to screech off the plane, and find a bar in which to watch the second half.
The landing’s a bit bumpy. I’m not really used to those on an A380, but apparently there are sandstorms around Dubai tonight. The distance from plane to bar can vary wildly at DXB, so huge is the airport. I’m in luck this time though, as we pull up at gate C20, right next door to an Irish bar. I’ve got loads of time, assuming the game is done at 90 minutes. Extra time should be ok. Pens might be a bit squeaky…
02:30
Well, England are through to the final. Done in normal time, as it transpires. I suspect Spain will win the final, but finals can be funny things.
DXB is comfortably the busiest I’ve ever seen it. I *think* this is the first time I’ve transited via Dubai in July, during Summer holiday season. Idiots, everywhere. Much like the supermarket, airports deprive human beings of common sense, and a their spatial awareness.
09:00
I manage another 4 hours or thereabouts on the second flight. I’m very pleasantly surprised. I can’t remember the the last time I slept so well across two different flights. Landing into Gatwick is easy, and I’m very quickly at border control. In and out in under a minute. Seriously, this tech shit is pretty cool. Bag reclaim is a bit of a clusterfuck - I don’t know if the crew are on strike, but it feels like they’re close to it. After a good half hour, my bag emerges, and I stride on into customs. Immediately, I’m pulled over. This is literally a first ever for me. My bag is immediately taken to pieces - every single crevice unlocked. The lady searching by bags is very sweet, but ultimately, I’m conscious that I’ve been pulled aside for some reason - whether the reason I look, the way I smell, I’m unsure.
Happily, there’s nothing to find, and I find Andy shortly afterwards.
The drive home is painless, and seeing my beloved Vicki is AMAZING. We’ve never been apart for this long, and the way she smells is a happy dose of brilliant.
Some reflections:
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel travelling with a brand new partner, but Felix has been a great companion. I’m not sure it’s a massive surprise to me, but it turns out we have hugely similar beliefs, approaches to life.
Go to Cambodia. I didn’t have any pre-conceived ideas about it, but I was still stunned by this amazing country. Go - I can’t recommend it enough, GO. You’ll spend almost nothing, and discover a people, a country, a cuisine that is unlike anything else you’ll have ever seen.
North Thailand is one of my favourite places. The pace of life is addictive. I would take the North of Thailand over the islands of the South any day.
Singapore is worth a visit, if only to let me know what you really think. I didn’t love it, but I definitely didn’t hate it.
It’s amazing to be home. I knew I’d missed Vicki, but it wasn’t until I smelled here that I really knew how much.
Join me again, in - oooh, 10 days, for Slovenia. Thanks for reading x x xBaca selengkapnya
Day 30 - Home. Amazing! Reflections...
10 Juli 2024, Singapura ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
00:30
My first flight, into Dubai, is a cakewalk. I’m in the Premium Economy cabin, still relatively new to Emirates, and it’s plush. There’s a minor snafu when I’m offered a pre takeoff drink, and there are only soft drinks available. The cabin is maybe 40% full. I’m in a bulkhead seat, but will move to an empty window row once we’ve taken off. The crew ask if I want to be fed after takeoff, and I say yes - but only if the food service will be quick. Happily, it is. I ditch my seat after eating, and grab a vacant window seat, recline, and try to get some sleep.
I’m successful in this endeavour. I sleep for around 4 hours, waking a couple of times, but drifting back off easily enough. I wake up for the last time with maybe 45 minutes to go to Dubai. The England vs Netherlands semi-final has started back home, and i’m getting intermittent updates. My plan is to screech off the plane, and find a bar in which to watch the second half.
The landing’s a bit bumpy. I’m not really used to those on an A380, but apparently there are sandstorms around Dubai tonight. The distance from plane to bar can vary wildly at DXB, so huge is the airport. I’m in luck this time though, as we pull up at gate C20, right next door to an Irish bar. I’ve got loads of time, assuming the game is done at 90 minutes. Extra time should be ok. Pens might be a bit squeaky…
02:30
Well, England are through to the final. Done in normal time, as it transpires. I suspect Spain will win the final, but finals can be funny things.
DXB is comfortably the busiest I’ve ever seen it. I *think* this is the first time I’ve transited via Dubai in July, during Summer holiday season. Idiots, everywhere. Much like the supermarket, airports deprive human beings of common sense, and a their spatial awareness.
09:00
I manage another 4 hours or thereabouts on the second flight. I’m very pleasantly surprised. I can’t remember the the last time I slept so well across two different flights. Landing into Gatwick is easy, and I’m very quickly at border control. In and out in under a minute. Seriously, this tech shit is pretty cool. Bag reclaim is a bit of a clusterfuck - I don’t know if the crew are on strike, but it feels like they’re close to it. After a good half hour, my bag emerges, and I stride on into customs. Immediately, I’m pulled over. This is literally a first ever for me. My bag is taken to pieces - every single crevice unlocked. The lady searching by bags is very sweet, but ultimately, I’m conscious that I’ve been pulled aside for some reason - whether the reason I look, the way I smell, I’m unsure.
Happily, there’s nothing to find, and I find Andy shortly afterwards.
The drive home is painless, and seeing my beloved Vicki is AMAZING. We’ve never been apart for this long, and the way she smells is a happy dose of brilliant.
Some reflections:
1) I wasn’t sure how I’d feel travelling with a brand new partner, but Felix has been a great companion. I’m not sure it’s a massive surprise to me, but it turns out we have hugely similar beliefs, approaches to life.
2) Go to Cambodia. I didn’t have any pre-conceived ideas about it, but I was still stunned by this amazing country. Go - I can’t recommend it enough, GO. You’ll spend almost nothing, and discover a people, a country, a cuisine that is unlike anything else you’ll have ever seen.
3) North Thailand is one of my favourite places. The pace of life is addictive. I would take the North of Thailand over the islands of the South any day.
4) Singapore is worth a visit, if only to let me know what you really think. I didn’t love it, but I definitely didn’t hate it.
It’s amazing to be home. I knew I’d missed Vicki, but it wasn’t until I smelled her that I really knew how much.
Join me again, in - oooh, 10 days, for Slovenia. Thanks for reading x x xBaca selengkapnya
slovenia is lovely, you will enjoy it. Hopefully it's not Thailand but a great European country x [Lou]
Day 29 - Sayonara, Singapore.
10 Juli 2024, Singapura ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
19:30
I sleep much better, waking only a couple of times, and my stomach seems to have calmed down. I’m not hungry, but deffo feel up for the day. We check out at 11, leave our bags in the reception area, and head out for Haw Par Villa, a small park in the West of the city, built by two Burmese brothers in the early part of the 20th century.
Contained within its boundaries is Hell’s Museum, an examination of the different philosophies of death in various different cultures and religions. The displays are graphic, vivid, and really quite enchanting. There’s a wall display that highlights the religious and mortal mentalities of some of the major religions of the world - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism.
What’s fascinating is to see how closely aligned these are - at least into one of two broad camps : those with linear views of life and death, and those with circular views of time. There’s definitely something appealing about the circular approach - where behaviour in the first life informs life in the second (known as Samsara).
Further into the exhibition, we encounter the 10 Courts of Taoist Hell - an incredibly graphic depiction of the punishments meted out for corporal sins. Some seem fair enough - rape or murder will get you *checks notes* thrown into a wok of boiling oil. Others, seem a tad harsh. Ingratitude? That’ll get your heart cut out. Drug addiction? You’ll be tied to a red hot pillar, and grilled alive. Dare to misuse a book, and your body will be sawn in two. At the end of all of this, your memory will be wiped, and you’ll be borne into the next life. Obviously, you won’t remember anything that’s gone before, so you won’t be able to learn from your mistakes, and be better. Seems a bit misguided.
It’s past midday, and the last thing on our Singapore list is to have some Singapore Chilli Crab. Dearly departed Anthony Bourdain recommended Keng Eng Kee, and who are we to disagree. The restaurant is basic - plastic tables with plastic seating. The smells coming from the kitchen are double naughty. I’m minded that chilli crab *might* not be the best thing for someone recently recovered form a dicky tum, but I can’t not have some. I order some Hor Fun noodles for ballast, and they’re banging. Kind of similar to the thick, rice noodles I’ve eaten recently in Thailand, and chock full of umami nomness. The crab, when it arrives, is spectacular. A whole crab, served in a tomato and chilli sauce, finished with ribbons of egg. It’s maybe not as hot as I thought it might be, but it is delicious. Felix describes the next 20 minutes as ‘feral eating’ and I can’t disagree. We crack, we slurp, we snarl. Such an incredible food experience.
We’re unsure how to fill our few remaining hours. We need to jump in a cab around 3 hours from now, at 17:00. We head down to the riverside, stop briefly at an Irish pub called Molly Malone’s (it’s the law), and take a walk along the river for an hour. It’s HOT in the sun, and we find ourselves craving shade. We head a little further over to the East of the city, and put down anchors at a cool little bar called Blu Jaz. Funky décor, laid back background music, a decent pint of Guinness - what’s not to like? We’re definitely both in ‘home’ mode now. Felix is downloading some TV/movies for his flights home, and I’m writing a shopping list for tomorrow to get ready for a weekend away.
We’re at Changi by 17:30, and I’m sitting in a bar with a beer by 18:00. Felix is flying from a different terminal, so we’ve said our goodbyes. Changi is an incredibly easy airport. We found it painless on the way into Singapore, and all evidence so far suggests the same for departures. Airport beers are a bit steep, mind. £14 for a pint = scary stuff.
So - some reflections on Singapore, as I’ve some time before boarding.
1) Remember when I said the city didn’t seem sterile? Well, I take *some* of that back. There IS a sterility to parts of the city centre, a combination I suspect of the stringent laws governing litter, chewing gum and the like, and the fact that the city centre is just WAY too expensive for all but the very wealthiest of Singaporeans. Most of the working and middle classes live to the North of the city, priced out of the downtown zones.
2) There are pockets of non-sterility though. Chinatown, Little India, and Malay Town are just three examples, but there are others. Even here though, property prices are so high that no one actually lives in them - but they at least have ethnic businesses in them.
3) Singapore is, by a country mile, the cleanest city I’ve been to. It’s genuinely shocking how clean it is. We spotted some litter at one point, and both gasped.
4) It is WICKED expensive. You can save some cash by eating at hawker markets, for sure - but do so with caution. If my experience is accurate, I definitely got some tummy grumbles as a result. Outside of the hawker markets, food and drink are more expensive than I think anywhere else I’ve been - including Las Vegas. It beats London and New York hands down.
4) The city just *works* - it’s been so carefully thought out and designed. Where in London you can feel the organic nature of the city’s development over centuries, Singapore feels rather like it’s the product of a town planning game like SimCity. It’s well thought out, transport is sensibly apportioned across the city, public services are available where you need them, when you need them… Despite being such an incredibly expensive city, Singapore regularly features in top 10 rankings for liveability as well.
Would I rush back? Probably not for a dedicated trip. If there was a stopover en route to/from Australia, where I could spend a couple of nights in Singapore to break the journey, yeah - I’d visit again…Baca selengkapnya
Day 28 - Well, this lacks joy.
10 Juli 2024, Singapura ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
09:00
Meh. I wake up for the first time at 02:00, with a griping stomach. Sharp, painful stomach cramps that leave me on the verge of shouting out. Moments later, I’m wedded to the toilet. The downside of eating at so many different hawker stalls, is that it’s more difficult to pin down exactly which one I’m going to blame for upsetting my stomach. The next 4 hours are less than pleasant. I make sure to keep myself hydrated, manage to doze a little, but essentially spend my time in pain, and wearing a groove between my bed and the toilet.
Around 08:00, I ping Felix to let him know I’m spending the morning in bed. He hasn’t had any stomach issues after his hawker purchases. This at least lets me narrow down which of the stalls might be responsible for my discomfort. I feel like I’m pretty much empty, so decide to try and top up on some sleep.
21:30
Holy shit. I sleep through till 14:30. Clearly much needed. My stomach feels a little better. It’s still griping a little, but less frequently, and less painfully. Around 15:00, I head out in search of bland food, and some room groceries to keep me going. It’s hot and sunny out - I feel a little queasy, and my head feels woozy. I spend a fairly fruitless hour wondering around a mall looking for a pharmacist that Google Maps claims is in here somewhere. The mall has been laid out by an idiot, whose idiot brother is responsible for the directions signs. It is, at least, air-conditioned. I find a café selling Kaya Toast, a Singaporean speciality, consisting of white toast, a ton of butter, and a sort of coconut jam type thing. It’s very tasty, and just about bland enough for my purposes.
I manage to find the pharmacist, and a grocery store. The supermarket is wicked expensive. I have a browse, and am stunned by the cost of some fairly basic daily staples - bread, water, dairy, wine. You know, all the main food groups. Back at my room, I collapse onto my bed. A modest outing has really drained me. I fall into a deep sleep, and wake again around 18:30. I update Felix, and eat some dull, tasteless snacks. I treat myself to a Sprite, watch a movie, and hope that tomorrow will be a better day…Baca selengkapnya
Day 27 Part 2 : Food, bowling, food.
8 Juli 2024, Singapura ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
14:45
It’s starting to rain in Malay Town, and we deserve a pit-stop. We stop at a craft beer bar called Black Sheep, and I have a fabulous pint of stout. Felix and I head over to the Marina Bay as the heavens open. We’re aiming for the Marina Bay Gardens, a botanical masterpiece in the heart of the city. We spend a lovely hour wandering around the Flower Dome, but are thwarted in our attempt to visit the Cloud Forest, as it’s closed for maintenance. We start walking around the garden areas, but the rain is getting torrential. We decide a couple of hours of downtime is in order, before we head out again later.
23:25
We head out again around 17:00, and aim for the Chinatown Complex hawker market. Around half the stalls are open. Many open first thing, and close when they sell out - and that can be as early as lunchtime. Undeterred, we start out by buying a pork rice dumpling each. Wow. Shredded BBQ pork, wrapped in a handful of rice, then steamed in a pandan leaf, and served with a Hoi Sin and/or a sweet sauce. Next up is a vegetarian Popiah, a rice pancake stuffed with a few different types of vegetable. Yum. We move on to a plate of Xiaolongbao - steamed bao buns stuffed with flavoured pork and a hot pork stock. Felix has some fried chicken and some crispy pork belly strips, and I satisfy myself with some chicken and pork satay skewers. We’ve eaten incredibly well, and probably for about £10-£15 each.
We set off in search of entertainment, and find a bowling alley in a shiny shopping mall. Our hearts sink when we see a closed sign, but a member of staff pops out to tell us that’s only until 19:30. I pop over the road for a well deserved beer, and Felix does some high-level mall browsing. The bowling is great fun. Not the highest quality, but there are some high points. I score exactly the same in the first and second games, so at least I’m consistent(ly bad). Felix wins the first game, and I win the second. Honours even, we depart in search of more food. We take a long walk up one of the smartest and most expensive shopping boulevards I’ve ever seen. Every store is a temple of fashion. It’s a little overwhelming to two guys who don’t exactly align with consumerist attitudes. After a couple of false starts, we locate Lechon Pinoy, who serve suckling pig in a variety of ways. We go for simple - rotisserie piglet served with spiced creamed spinach and some rice. It’s a sensational bit of meat. Succulent where it should be, crunchy where we want it to be. The crackling is a juicy joy. We wolf it down. We’re pretty much done though. It’s been a long day.Baca selengkapnya
Day 27 pt 1 : Boots are made for walking
8 Juli 2024, Singapura ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
15:00
We’re out before 08:30, making for Chinatown. We meet our guide, Stephen, and the other guests joining our walking tour. There’s a family - 3 sons, a daughter and mum, and a solo German traveller called Pascal. Stephen walks us around Chinatown for 90 minutes, taking in some of the local sights, and giving us a fascinating insight into the history of this and other ethnic quarters. We stop briefly for a snack in the Chinatown Complex hawker market. They’re called Butterflies, and straddle the line between doughnuts and a kinda sesame seed bread roll. Lovely stuff. Felix and I both have eyes on stalks looking at the other stalls that are here, and decide to head back here later for some dinner. Chinatown is bustling and hectic. There’s something a little addictive about it. We wander past a few Durian stalls - and well, let’s not be coy - they stink. I think the best way to describe the odour is a cross between very ripe mango, and rotting flesh. Not so yum.
From Chinatown, we jump on the subway to head to Little India. The subway is modern, clean, air-conditioned throughout. It makes moving around town a thorough pleasure. Little India is at a markedly slower pace than Chinatown. We wander past some grocers selling some incredible looking produce. We stop for some vadai, another kinda doughnut, this time flecked with curry leaves, cumin, and chilli. Delish. We wash it down with some sugar cane juice mixed with lemon juice, which is very refreshing. When the sun’s out, it’s a HOT day. Happily, it’s fairly overcast, so we’re rarely in the sun’s hot rays.
Our next stop is Malay Town, a little further South, and not far from our hotel. On our way there, we pass through the Atlas building, which has an incredibly cool bar on the ground floor. There’s a gin ‘tower’ - which Stephen tells us used to be staffed by women wearing white fairy outfits, attached to pulleys in the ceiling, to grab the bottles of the very highest shelves. Sadly, no longer - but it must have been quite the sight. Malay Town is a maze of narrow shopping streets. There are some really cool vintage stores, some music shops, and just random tat emporia. We stop briefly at the Sultan Mosque, before putting down roots at a chai shop to end our tour. I’ve done 12,000 steps this morning, in flip-flops.Baca selengkapnya
Day 26 - Southbound, to Singapore
7 Juli 2024, Singapura ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
12:30
I gave up on the football at the end of the 90 minutes. Just couldn’t keep my eyes open. I checked the score when I predictably woke up at 03:00. Back to sleep, but awake again around 06:30, and no more sleeps. Today’s not gonna be the very funnest of days. Felix and I meet at 10:00 to get checked out and have a coffee, then jump in our cab to Phnom Penh Airport. The traffic is pretty mental - as it has been most of the time we’ve been in Cambodia. Our driver is not just a loon, but pretty aggressive with it. Thankfully, we arrive at the airport unscathed.
We’re about 3 hours ahead of our flight, but the desk doesn’t open for another 40 minutes. Something in the back of my brain is freaking out at this, so I drown it out with a beer. Check in and security are dealt with blissfully quickly, though I have to say goodbye to a travel fork/spoon thing that I stupidly left in my hand luggage, as it has a 4cm, blunt as fuck knife blade on it. Never liked it anyway.
We’re sitting in the departure lounge - me with a beer, Felix having fun with his various bags and backpacks, trying to figure out how to connect them all together. We’re both sad to be leaving Cambodia. It’s been a great country to visit:
1) The folks here are WONDERFUL. They’re just so warm and friendly. Wherever we’ve been, there are smiles abound.
2) It’s a stunningly beautiful country. The cities have charm and fractured chaos, the countryside is as green as anywhere on the planet, the mountains are breathtaking, the beaches deserted. So much beauty to recommend it.
3) The food - by the power of Grayskull - the food. I had I would say it’s closer to my experience of Vietnamese food than Thai, but Khmer cuisine has an identity all of its own. We’ve eaten incredibly well here, and done so at bargain basement prices. It feels like we’ve eaten healthily as well though.
4) Whilst I wasn’t blown away by Angkor Wat, I would visit Siem Reap again, and go back to Angkor Wat later in the day, but honestly - the other temples we visited were, for me, far more charismatic and enchanting. Ta Prohm particularly is one of my top 10 heritage sites I’ve ever visited. Just spell-binding.
5) If you come to Cambodia, go to Battambang. It’s a fabulous little city, and the views of the bat exodus at sunset are worth the stop alone.
21:30
We land into Changi a little ahead of time. Transiting the airport is a piece of cake, and we’re into our cab to the city centre by 17:40, about 30 minutes after landing. The drive into the city is amazing. I’ve been told that I’ll think Singapore is what the cities of the future will look like. Crossing the Sheares Bridge into the city centre, it’s hard to disagree. I’ve also been told that I might think of Singapore as too sterile, lacking soul. The streets we pass by look anything but. Clean, yes - but far from soulless.
After we’ve checked into our hotel - comfortably the most expensive of our trip, and probably the least luxe - we head out in search of cash and food. The visit a hawker market not far from our hotel, which is chock full of random little stalls, selling random food. I have a Hainanese pork and rice dish, Felix opts for some braised pork belly, and then a dumpling soup. When he asks me to buy him a weird soft drink, I do not fail. We decide the best way to describe it is sparkling Listerine. It’s meant to be sasparilla, but no - Listerine it is. Between us, we do not finish it.
The food is cheap - S$4 for my pork dish, and little more for Felix’s two dishes. It’s very easy to spend a ton of money on food in Singapore, and we’ll do our best to eat at some of the more economical hawker markets. After dinner, we amble back in the direction of our hotel, stopping at a pool hall for a few frames. Felix wins.
We head back to the hotel. We’ve got an early start tomorrow for a walking tour of Chinatown and Little India, and I’m beyond jaded…Baca selengkapnya
Day 25 - We're on the road to Phnom Penh
6 Juli 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
16:30
I ended up awake until nearly 02:00 - watching news coverage, a bit of football. I was quite moved by Starmer’s speech in Downing Street. I think it’s just been SO long since I felt like a leader of this country had my and others’ best interests at heart, that could be trusted to do the right thing, just that could be trusted, if I’m being honest.
Anyways, I wake up feeling a little jaded, and get my shit together. Our bus leaves a little after its allotted 11:30 departure time, but it’s fairly empty, so we can both stretch out. I’m always amazed on these trips how inconsequential a 3 hour road journey becomes. It feels like a short hop, a puddle jump - blink and I’ll miss it. I watch some TV, spend some time gazing out the window. Around 14:00 local New Zealand are playing England at rugby. The wonders of technology (4G cell coverage, a VPN service, a Sky app) mean I can watch it on my iPad while on the bus. This is what the internet was really invented for. Traffic is very heavy arriving into Phnom Penh. The last 10 miles takes us around 40 minutes. I’m fine with that though. The timing works out beautifully - it’s half time as our bus pulls up, and the second half starts just as I’m settling into my room at Penh House.
We’re greeted like returning explorers when we arrive at Penh House. It’s only a week since we were last here, but we’re given the very warmest of welcomes. I settle down with a beer to watch the second half. England ultimately lose by a single point. The performance wasn’t the very best, so I’m disappointed for the team. It’s incredibly rare to beat New Zealand IN New Zealand, and even rarer to do so at Dunedin, that cathedral of rugby. I suspect England will rue this as a missed opportunity.
22:50
Felix and I meet in reception at 19:00. He’s had a highly effective and energising afternoon, combining a workout with a 90 minute massage. I’ve watched rugby, drunk beer and had a nap - so I guess I win. We walk to Malis - a very well known and well reviewed restaurant about 20 minutes from our hotel. We’re both wearing collared shirts, such are the whispered tones in which folks discuss this restaurant. The chef is a semi-famous celebrity chef in Cambodia. The menu is like a coffee table book - hard bound, beautiful photography, food that looks amazing. We order a variety of dishes - some to share, some to protect fiercely. Our starts are Takeo sausages (no? Us neither…) and a cured beef salad. The sausages are incredible. really meaty, with subtle aromatic flavourings - some red peppercorn for sure, and some cardamom, but I’m not sure what else. The salad is also great - it’s dressed and mixed tableside, which adds a little theatre. It tastes incredibly healthy whilst also packing a great flavour punch.
Mains consist of a duck dish for Felix, and a crab plate for me. The duck is wonderfully cooked, and served with a really tasty red rice side, and a Prahok sauce - stunning. My crab is delightful - huge, flaky chunks of crab served with a crab-fried rice, and a lighter than light butter sauce.
Felix agrees to take a look at the dessert menu, and we both decide it’s what Jesus would have wanted. My tasting plate includes a very good creme brulée laced with Kampot pepper, a magnificent jasmine mousse, and some coffee ice-cream. Felix’s has some glutinous rice balls with palm sugar, some sort of banana contraption, and a black pepper ice-cream. All seriously good. The bill is, let’s not fuck around, substantial for Cambodia. Worth it, but substantial. The cooking here is imaginative, well executed, and uses top notch ingredients. We leave two very satisfied boys.
We’re both planning / hoping to stay up for the football at 23:00. Whether we’ll make it to the end is another question - particularly if there’s extra time (+/- penalties) to take into account.
I pass the time watching some Formula 1 qualifying, and some of the South Africa vs Ireland rugby…Baca selengkapnya
Day 24 - Spooky ass weird mountain
5 Juli 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
16:30
What a sensational day! I awake to the exit poll prediction telling me that the Labour Party have won the General Election back home, and will have a huge majority. The Tories aren’t going to be quite as down and out as I’d have perhaps liked, but they’ve been humiliated. I sit down with a coffee to watch more of the results come in. I cheer out loud when Shapps goes. I laugh to myself when Mordaunt loses. I do a little dance when Fabricant is toast. It’s honestly a brilliant way to start the day. As I go to leave my room to head out with Felix, Rees-Mogg is dethroned. YESSSSSSS!
Head out we do, aiming for Kep Sur Mer, and the famous seafood market there. Exiting the car, we’re met by a wall of heat. It’s the first properly sunny day we’ve had for a few days, and it’s so hot it’s prickling to my skin. Walking through the market is a trip. There are amazing displays of raw, and in some cases, live food. None of it is refrigerated. It doesn’t smell bad though, which indicates to me that it is incredibly fresh. There are stalls selling skewers of many different types of fish - squid, Kingfish, tiny crabs, seabass, and a bunch we don’t recognise. There are countless live crabs, for which the market is most famous. Deeper into the market, there are spice shops, selling ground and whole spices, along with bags of Kampot Pepper. Felix guesses (and he’s probably right) that these will cost a fraction of what we paid at the plantation yesterday. Felix buys a small octopus on a stick. It’s delicious. We stop for a cold drink by the water’s edge, where a wonderfully cooling breeze whips off the ocean. Neither of us is particularly hungry after our protein fest last night, so we jump back in the car without lunch.
Our next stop is Bokor mountain, the other side of Kampot. We’re still in the sunshine on the 75 minute drive over that way, but there are some grey clouds gathering around the mountain-top. As we turn off the main road, and into the National Park, there are monkeys everywhere. Some scatter from the road when our drivers leans on the horn, whilst others proverbially flip the bird. The drive to the summit is beautiful - the views down to the sea are breathtaking. We drive through some low lying cloud, and pause for breath at a massive white Buddha statue.
We head on to a pitstop at a huge edifice of a hotel right in the middle of the National Park. It is deserted. It reminds us of the hotel in The Shining. Restaurant, empty. Kids’ play area, empty. Lobby, empty. There’s a café/bar in the reception area, so we grab a quick drink and use the bathroom. We head further up the mountain, past a very weird row of terraced houses that remind me of some of the crescent streets in Brighton. They are empty, and verging on dilapidated. Across the road from them is a part built warehouse. It’s utterly surreal. The weirdness is not helped by the continuing thickening of the cloud around us. The sensation of being in low cloud is quite different to fog, that’s more familiar to us. Firstly, it moves very differently - and you can sense it moving. Sometimes, you’ll very clearly see it moving. Secondly, once you’re in the thick of it, there is no visibility. I don’t mean visibility is limited - I mean there is NO visibility. The temple we’re headed for is shrouded in cloud when we arrive, but it’s shifting and changing around us. We head to the very top of the mountain, which has (on a clear day) the most incredible steep view down in the valley below. With the cloud where it is, we briefly see the valley floor, before it disappears from view again. It plays with the mind in an ultra cool way…
22:30
For our last dinner in Kampot, we head to a place run by one of the pepper farms not far from the city. I have a delightful cocktail featuring red pepper (as well as some gin). My starter of squid ink dumplings in a herby broth is stellar. It’s a kind of ravioli / Chinese dim-sum hybrid, and bloody lovely. Felix orders some Foie Gras, only to be told they’re out. He sulkily makes do with a delicious salmon and avocado tartare. My main is a duck breast, simply pan roasted with a Holy Basil and chilli dressing. Banging. Felix has his first Amok of our Cambodia stay, and we both agree it’s up there with the best. Properly tasty food.
While we’re eating we reminisce and reflect on our time in Cambodia. Both of us have loved it, and would return. I have a sense it’s a country about to undergo extensive and rapid change. Maybe in 5 years time, maybe in 10 - but I suspect it’s going to look and feel very different in the not too distance future. Felix has been very taken with island life, and I’m quick to remind him that the peace and quiet of Koh Rong Sanloem isn’t necessarily guaranteed elsewhere. The closest equivalent I can draw in Thailand is Koh Tao, but even there, the pace of life was higher, the hustle/bustle were more prevalent. I’m sure there are islands both in the Gulf of Thailand and in the Andaman Sea that more closely align to his recent experience, but he’d have to seek them out.
We’re not quite ready to call it a night, so stop at a bar called Rusty Keyhole, which we both agree sounds like a sex act for which you’d have to pay very top dollar. We play some ludicrously bad pool. I chat briefly to the Scottish guy behind the bar, and we compare stories of watching Tories losing earlier today.
It’s been a really fucking good day.Baca selengkapnya
Day 23 - Pick a peck of pepper
5 Juli 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
16:00
There’s an insane electrical storm around 03:30 which wakes me up. It sounds like it’s right outside my terrace door. I pop my head out to check, and yes - it’s right outside my terrace door. Some incredibly loud thunder, some incredibly bright lightning. After an hour, I decide to try and get back to sleep. It doesn’t happen. The thunder is SO loud that it drowns out the sound of my headphones. The lightning is SO bright that I can sense the change through my eyelids. I cover my head with a pillow. It blocks out the light and thunder, which is great. It stymies my ability to breath, which is less so. I finally drift off again around 05:30 when the storm starts to subside, and sleep through to my 09:00 alarm.
The rain has cleared, and there’s a steamy atmosphere in the air. Felix and I head out at 11:00 to La Plantation, a Kampot Pepper farm a half hour away. We pass some roadworks, which turn out to be laying of a new road. It looks to be happening very quickly. The contraflow is a touch fucked though. The scenery we drive through is very, very pretty. We arrive to the farm, and I’m minded that it’s something of a cross between a ramshackle citrus farm I’ve visited in South Africa, and a smart vineyard in, oh - I dunno, probably South Africa as well. We set off on a free tour of the farm, and learn more than we probably ever thought we’d know about pepper - different types, different colours, different fertiliser strategies. We meet some fresh lemongrass, and learn the difference between sun drying and mechanical drying. At the end of the tour, we have a tasting of 7 different types of pepper, none of which are boring. The dried red pepper is brilliant, the salted green peppercorns sensational. The long-pepper leather (not really leather) is a headfuck, but the salted black long pepper takes the prize.
We head down the hill for some lunch, where we find a short but compelling menu, and the offer of a glass of rosé, upon which I seize. We share a green mango salad, dressed with some green Kampot Pepper - which is both understated and full-on. Felix has some fried rice, and I have perhaps my best Amok of our time in Cambodia, which is spiked with red long pepper. Awesome. After lunch, we return to the shop, and I buy more pepper than I was necessarily thinking i would buy. Oh, and some sauces. I’m not 100% sure I’m supposed to take them into Singapore, or back to the UK, but we’ll cross that bridge when it becomes a bridge.
Back at the hotel, we’ve earnt an afternoon dip. Soon, the clouds darken and the wind whips up. There’s rain brewing, and we scurry to our rooms to rest/nap/cower.
22:12
We head out at 19:00. Neither of us napped in the end, but it’s been a pretty chilled afternoon nonetheless. We head to Bistro 23 - a very French restaurant in the French Quarter. The food is staggeringly good. I have a gin and beetroot cured barracuda dish with red Kampot Pepper. It’s one of the nicest things I can remember eating in quite a while. Felix has a chicken liver parfait which is an excellent example of the genre. Our mains are also both amazing. Pork belly for me, beef cheek for Felix. We’re both acutely aware that eating this kind of European bistro food in the heart of Cambodia is a bit ridiculous, but the food is ridiculously good, so who gives a fuck? The crackling on the pork belly is in my top 3 pork belly cracklings of all time. Just sublime. Felix somehow manages a scoop of mango sorbet for dessert, and we leave less than £50 lighter. It’s a relatively pricy meal for Cambodia, but feels like incredible value.
We stop on the way home at The Green Room - described by Google as a ‘pub.’ Arriving, it’s easy to see why - there’s a pub quiz in full flow, chaired by a chap wearing an England football top. 90s Indie bands on the jukebox, winner stays on the pool table, 5 or 6 men drinking alone on high stools at the bar - most or all of whom we suspect are called Dudley. We play some fairly atrocious darts, listen to some fairly awesome music, and are accosted by the chap in the England shirt after he’s finished the quiz. His name’s Alan, he runs the bar, and he moved to Cambodia 6 years ago. He regales us with some not very interesting stories, and eventually leaves us alone. We decide to call it a night. I’ve got an early start to watch Tories cry, and Felix feels like he’s ready for a loooooong sleep. Bonne nuit!Baca selengkapnya
Day 22 - It rains, it shines.
4 Juli 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
15:45
I sleep MUCH better, and feel actually refreshed when I wake. The weather on the other hand, is deep in the doldrums. I can hear the sound of the rain pounding down, even over the A/C in my room. There’s some low, grumbling thunder in the distance, which fairly quickly becomes loud, banging thunder nearby. We’re both packed up and checked out by 09:15, and on the pier waiting for our 09:30 boat. The rain, if anything, intensifies. There’s a small hut under which most of the passengers are cowering. Felix and I brave the rain. Initially. 09:30 comes and goes, and some dude who looks like he might have something to do with the boat company says it’ll be late, maybe 10-15 minutes. It ultimately arrives over 20 minutes late, by which time Felix and I have joined the cowering crowds. We finally leave around 10:00. Our connecting bus departs at 11:00, and the boat ride is due to take 45 minutes. Could be sketchy.
Needn’t have worried. The boat is substantially faster than the one we took over a few days ago. It hoons along, and we dock just after 10:30. We grab our bags, have a very quick pitstop at 7/11 and the bathroom, and head for the bus office. Well, REALLY needn’t have worried. Our bus is NOT at 11:00. That’s the Phnom Penh bus. Ours is at 11:30. We park at a nearby café for a cold drink.
Getting underway at 11:30, it’s soon evident that this bus isn’t quite as comfy as some of our previous chariots. As we drive through a heavy rain storm, it starts to leak on my shoulder. I spot several other places where water is leaking. How reassuring. About an hour out of Sihanoukville, we join a ‘road’ that is to be our companion for most of the remainder of the trip. It’s a washboard. A van shaking, filling rattling, bladder bouncing washboard. It very much reminds me of some of less roady roads in Africa. It’s quite exhausting. Happily, our driver ranks relatively low on the loony scale. I watch a movie, and soon enough, we’re arriving into Kampot.
Our hotel is beautiful. Just outside the city centre, with a beautiful pool, and some amazing gardens. The rooms looks close to brand new, are very comfy and well appointed. Not a bad way to spend a few days. We have a cooling dip, sit very briefly in the blazing sunshine, make some vague plans to eat seafood later, and I retire to my room, with strong nap intentions.
22:15
BANGING nap. I set an alarm for 18:00, and it wakes me up. I turn it off, roll over and go straight back to sleep. Unheard of. Fortunately, I wake up about 35 minutes later. Felix and I head out at 19:30, and aim for downtown Kampot. We’re both ready for a seafood feast, so head to Kampot’s best reviewed pheeesh restaurant - the aptly named Kampot Seafood. An avalanche of food arrives. I’ve barely eaten the past couple of days, but am still slightly overwhelmed. I start with a seabass ceviché - spanking fresh seabass, plenty of citrus, some mango for sweetness. Delicious. Felix has a seabass carpaccio with Kampot green pepper. We both expect the pepper to challenge the flavour of the fish, but it works perfectly. We each have a seafood platter for our main course. Mine includes slipper lobster, some squid and some swordfish. Felix’s is a festival of shellfish - pippies, mussels, scallops, razor clams and some oysters. Just sensational. My swordfish is a teensy bit overcooked, but otherwise, everything is cooked perfectly, and served with some delicious dipping sauces. I find myself guessing that this will become our most expensive meal of the trip, but the damage is a shade over $50. Not cheap by any Cambodian measure, but it feels like a steal.
Walking back to our hotel, we pass a bar where a westerner that looks to be in his 60s or 70s sat surrounded by local Khmer girls, the average age of whom seems to be 17. We spend the 12 minute walk back to Emerald Residence discussing the various rights and wrongs, ethical or otherwise, of huge age gaps in relationships. A jaunty conversational topic with which to draw our day to a close.Baca selengkapnya
Day 21 - Hmmm, not sure about this.
2 Juli 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
18:00
I have a pretty shit night’s sleep. I stupidly didn’t sleep until gone 01:00, because football. Almost as turgid as the England game, since you ask. At 03:30, I wake up. I roll over to try and go back to sleep, but quickly realise it’s my stomach that’s woken me. I visit the toilet, and - well, let’s just say I’m glad my stomach woke me up. Around 04:30, I try and get back to sleep, satisfied that the few toilet visits I’ve had have voided my gut. It doesn’t happen. I think I finally drift off around 06:00, and wake up around 08:00. My head’s groggy, my stomach is, to use a word I think my Mum used to use, ‘roiling.’ Meh.
I mooch in my room, and decide a swim might help me feel better. It sort of does, but largely doesn’t. I don’t fancy any food, and the beating sun is HOT. I head back to my room, and attempt a late morning nap. I am successful. Flat out for close to 2 hours.
Felix is back from his diving trip. Lucky sod has had a 1 to 1 session, as the dive instructor’s only customer of the day. Visited two different dive sites, seen some awesome coral, met a bunch of fish - including a Panda Clown Fish, which is what happens if Nemo bangs a zebra.
We have a dip, followed by a very brief lounge in the sun. I already know that Felix has been massively encouraged to travel more, and he’s already forming plans for later this year. I ask him whether he’s formed a view on solo travelling. He has, and it’s a positive one. He’s very happy in his own skin, and with his own company. He’s made friends very easily during our journey, and at 19 feet tall, personal security shouldn’t be an issue.
My stomach feels like it’s settled a little, so I grab some lunch - a club sandwich, so hopefully nothing too challenging. Roger jumps up onto my lap, unbidden - little scamp. My sandwich does the job - in that it sends me back to my room for more naps. I’m starting to feel a little feverish again. Honestly, getting a little bored of this now. Moving day tomorrow, so I think an evening of rest is probably my best option.
Fucksticks.Baca selengkapnya
Day 20 - All about the chill.
1 Juli 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
13:00
I wake to a sombre, grey sky. There’s light rain in the air, and a ton of humidity. I made it near the end of the 90 minutes of football last night. Fortunately, Vicki sent me a nudge telling me to turn it back on, so I managed to catch the winning goal in extra time. Still a turgid, torrid game. I promise myself I won’t stay up for the Switzerland game on Saturday, but equally I know I’ll probably cave on the day.
I manage to sleep until a little past 09:00, which is acceptable. Despite not eating much yesterday, I’m not particularly hungry. I head down to the pool bar anyway - in two minds about what to do with myself. I spot Felix, who’s also slept well. He stayed out until the end of the game yesterday. Apparently as many as 30 people watching the game. The stream wasn’t working particularly well though, so they watched the end of the game with Vietnamese commentary, which sounds like it needs to be seen/heard to be believed.
We play some cards. The rain grows heavier for a period, then lightens, before growing heavier again. I think it’s going to be one of those days. Felix is reintroducing me to Shithead - a game I’ve not played in close to 30 years. It’s not exactly a game of skill - but a fun enough way to pass a couple of rainy hours. We have an early lunch, and Felix heads off for his afternoon boat trip. I head off for a nap.
21:00
I spend most of the afternoon lazing in the shade by the pool - reading, people watching, even dozing a tiny bit. I’m struggling to remember the last time I felt this blissed out. I have not a jot of inclination to do anything other than what I’m doing (or not) right now.
I’m sweaty as balls by 17:00, so I head back to my room to freshen up. By the time Felix returns from his boat trip at 19:30, I’m a couple of beers and a Café Patron deep at the bar. Roger has found me, and is snoozing on my lap. He’s incredibly cute. I don’t think anyone’s ever given him this kind of affection before. Felix regales me with tales of his trip - the slightly sketchy tour ‘owner’ offering weed and mushrooms, the coral on which he removed a significant section of skin on his foot, the tiny fishing village to the North of the island where they hung out for a while… It all sounds pretty enticing. Koh Rong is unlike any other South East Asian island I’ve visited - and I *think* that’s because the balance between tourists and local communities is still tipped in favour of the locals. I mean that both in terms of absolute numbers, but also in terms of emphasis. This doesn’t (yet) feel like a tourist island. It feels like an island where local people live and work, and that happens to have a fairly small number of travellers visiting it. I think that’s gonna change soon though. The evidence of construction and development is all around us. I think in 10 years, it’ll probably be unrecognisable. If you’re gonna come (and I really suggest you do), then do it soon.
Felix and I have a fab dinner of local Khmer dishes. I have the best Lok Lak I’ve had thus far. It uses a prime cut (sirloin maybe, or fillet) instead of a stir-frying cut, and the juiciness of the steak adds massively to my enjoyment of it.
Felix is up early tomorrow for a day’s diving, so heads off for a shower and some downtime. I take my glass of wine back to my room, wondering which movie to watch.Baca selengkapnya
Day 19 - All signs point to slow
1 Juli 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
19:20
I’ve had a bit of a nothing day, in the best possible way. My sleep is a touch sketchy. Well, wakey - at least. There’s a thunder and lightning show around 03:00 which I stay awake with for an hour. It’s not the spectacular forks or torrential rain of eastern Thailand, but the long, slow grumbles of thunder that shake across the sky are incredibly soothing sounds to which to listen.
I wake for good around 08:30, not feeling like I’ve had quite enough sleep. I mooch around in bed for an hour, but I’m hungry, so get up in search of some breakfast. Felix joins me for coffee, and I adopt a ginger kitten, who I call Roger. A combination of tiredness and food is suggesting to me that a nap might be in my future, so I dive in. Felix has some altogether more energetic plans today - hiking over to the other side of the island.
I have a great couple of hours, and decide on waking that a dip in the pool is in order. It’s wonderfully refreshing, and I have it to myself. Felix messages to say that he made it to Lazy Beach, and it’s all but deserted. Sounds pretty cool. I pop to the Eden Beach beach bar for a glass of wine, and a light lunch. of a Saruman curry. It shares its heritage with the Rendang and Massaman curries of neighbouring territories - lots of coconut, loads of different aromats, slowly braised beef that's wobbly and tender.
Again, Felix joins me for coffee. He’s run back across the island, because… I’m still getting over my sickness, otherwise - you know, I’d have run it with him. We decide on a code for sex tourists - they are to be called ‘Dudley.’ I mention this to Felix because there are couple of what I think are Dudleys in the bar area. They proceed to get into an argument with an Australian woman, about what, we know not.
I head back to my room, and manage YET another sleep. About 90 minutes this time. I can’t tell if I’m catching up on last night, or pre-loading for tonight, when Felix and I will *try* and watch the England Euros game. Either way, I wake feeling jaunty and refreshed.
22:45
Felix and I head out around 20:00, back to Sara - the bar we hung out in last night, ostensibly to check whether they’re showing the game later. I’m not hungry, and Felix is in ‘grazing’ mode. There are some big-screen TVs around the bar, currently showing the Formula 1 race. We ask the server dude what time they close - 23:00. We ask if showing the football - he says yes. This is very confusing. Ultimately, we figure that he means the restaurant/kitchen closes at 23:00, but that we should be fine to sit at the bar watching the game. I’m not convinced I’m gonna make it that late. I don’t feel feverish anymore = WIN. I still feel pretty banged up = NOT SO WINNING. Felix has some squid, and then some more squid - battered and fried to begin, braised with Kampot pepper to follow. He enjoys both. We chitchat in our our easygoing fashion - much of it is tangential, but in a very comfortable way. Some recent University graduated folks from Devon that he met earlier are at the bar to watch the game, as is Ronan from last night. Content that I can leave Felix to watch with his new mates, I make for home/bed. I get set up with my iPad and a VPN, and will see how far through the game I make it before I either:
a) fall asleep, or
b) get frustrated with how shit England, give up, and fall asleepBaca selengkapnya
Day 18 : So right? Or Koh Rong?
29 Juni 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
09:00
I wake up :
1) having slept for nearly 9 hours, with (I think) no wake ups, and definitely no dashes to the dunny, and
2) feeling much better. I mean MUCH better.
Suddenly, today’s 6 hour journey to Koh Rong Sanloem doesn’t feel intimidating. 3 hours in a minivan, then 45 minutes on a ferry. BRING IT ON. The reward at the end will be more than worth it. Koh Rong Sanloem is one of two smaller Koh Rong islands off the South coast of Cambodia. I’ve read reports that is starting to undergo some fairly extensive development. Hardly surprising, but it sounds like now is the time to visit to have a chance to see the unspoilt and peaceful island I’ve read about. There are no roads on the island. None. Any transport is by boat, or on foot. At a push, you might be able to get around by bike, but it’s definitely off-road. I don’t think there’s an ATM. The next 4 days are a proper RnR (rest and relaxation, not rock’n’roll…) opportunity.
17:00
Stage 1 is straightforward enough. The 3 hour bus journey passes quickly. I’m a little alarmed that our 13 seater minivan turns out to seat 18. There are a couple of Cambodian families travelling with kids. The kids do not get a seat. Nor do they get a seatbelt. Hold tight folks…
We drive through some torrential rainstorms. The driver slows down a little for these. Felix sleeps through them. Arriving into Sihanoukville is a bit of an eye-opener. There’s been a LOT of Chinese investment here over the past 10-15 years, and there are countless high rise buildings under construction - some will be hotels, others will be apartment blocks to house the staff working in those hotels. There are a number of glitzy, ritzy looking casinos. As recently as 2010, Sihanoukville was a relatively sleepy town - a handy place to spend a night before hitting the island trail. Now, I can’t wait to get out.
We arrive at the port with about 20 mins to spare. There’s some confusion when we’re directed to pier 4, and there are no numbers on the piers. Some helpful guidance points us in the right direction. The boat’s not huge. Certainly smaller than any boat trip Vicki and I took in Thailand earlier this year. Seats maybe 15 at a push? The boat ride is bumpy. Not crazy rough, but enough to throw us around a bit. I start to feel a little jaded and feverish.
Our boat arrives at Paradise Pier on time at 15:45. We’ve been told someone from our guesthouse is going to be waiting for us. We approach anyone - literally anyone, asking if they’re waiting for us, but no. Ten minutes later, a small boat appears at the horizon. I’m kidding - it’s not that far, but it kinda feels like it. He motions us into the water. He’s pulled up about 25 metres out. We must look a little sheepish, as he jumps out to show us it’s only a couple of feet deep. We wade out, nearly come a cropper when climbing into the ultra slippery boat, and head off. Eden Beach resort is at the far end of the Saracen Beach - maybe 750m away. It takes us about 10 minutes. Speedy travel, this is not. The water is similarly shallow at this end of the beach, so we jump out, and walk up the beach to our accommodation.
The rooms are great. Set in a plush garden, perhaps 15 metres back from the beach. Someone’s been thoughtful enough to get the A/C running ahead of our arrival. Only, I’m starting to get shivery again. Fucksticks. I turn the A/C down, and crawl into bed to try and warm up. It’s a little counterintuitive - I can feel that my skin is properly hot the touch, but I also feel very cold. I let Felix know that I’m gonna try and have a snooze, and will ping him later to catch up.
21:05
Did not sleep. Turns out - not sleepy tired, but just illness knackered. I rest up for a couple of hours, and ping Felix to check his location. ‘Just down the beach’ he replies, and I set off to find him. Now - there’s no cell coverage here. None. Not even in our resort. Decent WiFi, but no cell signal. As soon as I leave our resort, I realise that I don’t know which way ‘down’ the beach is. head back to Eden Beach to use Google Maps to check the bar location, and set off again. I get maybe 200m down the beach, when I realise I’ve forgotten my vape. I trudge back, becoming disheartened. I push through though - brave little soldier that I am.
I arrive to ‘Sara’ bar, and find Felix deep in conversation with Ronan and Niamh, a couple we very briefly met on the ferry over earlier. They’re staying here, and Felix grabbed them for a beer (Soda water). They’re bang in the middle of a long-assed trip around SE Asia and the Far East, coming most recently from Vietnam. We share a couple of travelling war stories, some tips and recommendations. They’re very easy to spend time with. Through my illness (brave little soldier etc etc) I manage a couple of beers, and feel a little better. At least, I manage to convince myself I’m feeling a little better. I’m wiped out though, and decide to head back to the resort. Felix comes with me, largely in search of food. I repair to my hut, in the hope of big sleep, and after a day of eating basically fuck all, a big breakfast.
HOLD TIGHT FOR FEEDBACK.Baca selengkapnya
Day 17 - Friday = day of rest
29 Juni 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
09:00
I manage a few hours of scratchy sleep, regularly waking up either sweating or shivering. Somewhere in the night, I took off my hoodie, as I find it wrapped around my left foot. No - I’m not sure either. This feels more like a bug than a food / water / hygiene issue. I let Felix know that I’m going to set-up base camp in my room for the day, in the hope that I’m sufficiently recovered to move on to Koh Rong Sanloem tomorrow. Bring on the plain rice / water / flat Coke combo…
20:30
I neither want to give you, nor do I suspect you want to hear, a blow-by-blow account of my illness. Suffice to say, I have a fairly dull day of plain food, lots of water, the occasional latrine dash, and some snoozes. In the words of Scarlett O’Hara, tomorrow is another day.Baca selengkapnya
Day 16 - Lurgy strikes like lightning
27 Juni 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C
12:30
I’m in the hotel lobby a little after 07:20. Felix appears about 15 minutes later, mumbling something about his watch being several minutes slow. The bus station is a good 15 minutes away by tuk-tuk. We’ve got time - but not much. I use Grab to order a tuk-tuk. A driver accepts the job, and then moves exactly nowhere. I cancel, and order another. Happily, he turns up almost immediately. We make it with a little under ten mins to spare. Needn’t have worried - another passenger wombles up 5 minutes after the scheduled departure time. Wanker.
The bus is pretty well appointed. Comfy seats, decent leg room. Some parents with a young baby board. Yes, of course - they’re sat in the seats directly in front of us. They go to recline their seats, and nearly crush Felix’s knees. Our journey is 6 hours today - not in and of itself a concern, but if there’s going to be dickhead behaviour, it’s going to feel a lot longer.
The driver continues the trend of lunacy. I’m less concerned though, as I can’t actually see out of the windscreen unless I make a special effort. Out of sight, out of mind etc etc. Felix finds a spare couple of seats further back in the bus, which allows us both to stretch out a little. The time starts to pass quickly. I flit between watching a movie, reading about Phnom Penh, and watching the Cambodia countryside. This feels like the greenest part of the country we’ve yet come across. The rice paddies are richly verdant, unlike the barren and brown paddies down in Battambang. The roads are reasonably clear. We occasionally get stuck behind a tractor, or other slow moving vehicle.
At 10:00, around 2 hours into our journey, which stop for a bathroom break, a pitstop, and for some food to be taken onboard. We’re asked to make sure we’re back on the bus by 10:10. The bus driver starts to beep his horn when the appointed time arrives. We’re missing two passengers. It’s Mum/Dad and their teeny baby. They stroll back onto the bus 3 minutes later. Of course they do. I don’t think we knew we were going to be fed, but the bus attendant comes round with some fried rice shortly after we leave again.
Around 90 minutes from Phnom Penh, Mum/Dad/baby abandon their seats to instead occupy the rear bench of seats. They leave their original seats fully reclined, because they’re idiots.
17:30
The bus arrives almost an hour early into Phnom Penh, just after 13:00. 5 hours has passed really pretty quickly. Disembarking the bus in Phnom Penh, the heat is a bit of a shock after 5 hours in the air-conditioned cocoon of the bus. Our hotel is only a few hundred metres up the road, so we set off at a march. It transpires only one of our rooms is ready. To be fair, we’re early, and the check-in time is officially 14:00. The check in process is a little clunky and convoluted. It doesn’t inspire confidence. We dump stuff into the room that’s available, and Felix heads out for a massage.
Maybe ten minutes later, I use the bathroom - number 1s only, but when I flush, I’m met by a bowl of dirty, brown water. It does not drain away. I’m afraid this is not hugely uncommon in this part of the world. I bet pennies to pounds that someone has put their used toilet paper in the bowl instead of the bin. An easy enough mistake to make, due to muscle memory, but blocked toilets are a less than pleasant result. I’m 50/50 whether we should check out, get a refund and find somewhere else, or just ask for a new room. I ping Felix, and wait to hear back. It transpires he’s signed up for a full 90 minutes of massage, so I’m waiting quite a while…
We ultimately decide that new is always better, request a refund at the front desk, and head off to Penh House. Immediately, there are good vibes to be had. The staff are a delight, the rooms are beautiful, and fully functional in the toilet department. There’s a rooftop bar with an infinity pool, and there’s a more than decent Chardonnay by the glass. It does make me think about the risks of booking on an aggregator site. I’ve been lucky with booking.com during my sabbatical. This is one of very, VERY few misses over the past 8 months. Most have been great. I think when you’ve stayed in upwards of 40 different hotels/guesthouses in an 8 month period, it’s only reasonable to expect that 1 or 2 will be a bit duff.
22:00
Somewhere around 18:00, I start to feel properly rough. Aches, a fever, and an open backdoor policy. I repair to bed, and try to sleep. I doze for a while, but keep waking up - shivering. I don some socks and a hoodie, and curl up under the duvet. It’s really quite dull. I let Felix know that I think it’s incredibly unlikely I’ll be up for touristing tomorrow. It’s a huge shame, as we were due to take our Killing Fields tour tomorrow, which - whilst not the jauntiest of subject matters, is very much why we planned to come to Phnom Penh. Still, I can’t much think about that just at the moment, as I’m feeling incredibly sorry for myself. I touch base with Felix. It transpires he’s had a lazy evening at the hotel. I can’t blame him - the hotel’s proper lovely.
I’ve only been in bed for a few hours, but already feel like my back is seizing up. I’m really struggling to get comfy. Very much wish my room had a bath right about now. Actually - scratch that. I don’t fancy the idea of getting out of the bath and feeling cold...Baca selengkapnya
Day 15 - Temples can be cool too
26 Juni 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
17:30
Felix is much improved this morning, so I arrange for a driver I met yesterday to pick us up at 10:00 for some high-level templing. We start at Pre Rup - which our driver says is one of the prettiest temples in Siem Reap. We don’t disagree. It’s one of the oldest temples in the city, built in 961. We climb some incredibly steep stairs to the top terrace. It’s only afterwards that I learn the temple was built to honour Mount Meru, the sacred mountain of the Buddhist religion - hence the steep construction. Coming back down the steps is a somewhat vertiginous experience.
We move on to Ta Prohm, which was featured in the Angelina Jolie iteration of the Tomb Raider movies. It’s wild - literally. There are trees growing out of various bits of temple, and it feels like it’s set into the heart of the jungle. We inadvertently join a Russian tour group while wandering around. The intersection of nature and human-made structure is an enchanting one. It is also a highly sweaty one. The heat index for today is in the low 40s, and the humidity is upwards of 85%. By the time we get back to our ride, my bandanna is sopping wet. Not a bit damp - but like I’ve just dunked it in a basin of water. Bora (our driver) suggests a beer, and I think this is an excellent idea.
Our next stop is Bayon, famous for the faces carved into the stone edifices. It’s incredibly beautiful. It also, in places, has a strange smell, which we struggle to identify. We come across a few content creators, in the midst of creating content, but it’s barely a patch on the crowds at Angkor Wat yesterday - I find the experience a far more interesting, engaging and enjoyable one, at least partially as a result.
Our last stop is the South gate of the Angkor Thom complex of which Bayon is a part. A large, human-made canal surrounds the complex, and we see a herd of buffalo taking to the water to cool down. Further downstream, there’s a small fishing boat, busy at work.
Bora drops us near our hotel, at a restaurant called Best Mom. Neither of us has eaten yet today, and I’m ready for some food, and a Ganzberg, which I think is the only widely available Cambodian lager I’ve yet to try. It’s not quite in the same derisory category as Krud, but it’s not a million miles away. Our lunch, on the other hand, is excellent. A Khmer pork stir-fry for me, and some fried noodles for Felix.
The food has a soporific effect on me. Back at the hotel, I lie down to read, and quickly feel snoozy. I bank a solid 1.5 hours, while Felix heads out to the gym. I wake up, thinking the A/C is on the fritz, as it’s suddenly very loud. It takes me a second to realise that it’s the noise coming from the deluge outside. This might just be the heaviest rain I’ve seen yet. I park myself on my balcony to watch the show…
22:30
It’s still pissing it down when we head out at 19:30. Felix is definitely feeling in much finer fettle, and has even been to the gym for a solid workout this afternoon - the loon that he is. We jump in a tuk-tuk to head to Chanrey House, an awesome looking restaurant near the riverside. It’s smarter than I perhaps expected it to be. My sleeveless t-shirt/bandanna combo is maybe a little underdressed. Felix is approaching needing to do some laundry, so purely by chance donned an actual shirt, so is particularly smug.
The menu looks incredible. Pricy (at least for this trip), but incredible. Felix treats himself to a $6 bottle of Perrier, and I grab a glass of South African Chardonnay, that is really pretty good. Our starters are fresh Spring rolls, and a banana blossom salad. Both are great. Felix has a fillet steak for his main, and I have a stuffed seabass dish, with some black mushrooms. Awesome all around. The black mushrooms served with the seabass are one of the most umami laden things I can remember eating. Just punching.
We forego dessert, and head next door to grab a post-prandial. My mango daiquiri is delicious, and I particularly like the use of a lemongrass stalk as a straw. There’s some music happening when we arrive - what sounds like some traditional Cambodian/Khmer vocals, but supported by a decent acoustic guitarist and some piano. Pretty cool. I suspect we’d both be happy to occupy these comfy seats for a stretch, but we’ve got an early start for an 08:00 bus to Phnom Penh tomorrow morning, so decide to call it a night.Baca selengkapnya
D14: Indiana Jones + the Temple of Insta
25 Juni 2024, Kamboja ⋅ 🌧 28 °C
09:00
I don’t sleep brilliantly. I think this is largely because each time I wake during the night (frequently), I’m conscious that my alarm is probably going to go off in fairly short order. I do manage to get back to sleep each time, but I don’t feel well rested. Felix is sensibly keeping his powder dry. Hopefully some more rest will speed his recovery.
My pick-up is 04:15, and I’m outside the hotel in good time. My guide is called Chanty, but his nickname (which he later admits he gave to himself) is Indiana Jones, and he encourages us to call him Indy. Our group is 13 in total, and a real range of characters / ages / nationalities / backgrounds. As we drive through the city of Siem Reap picking up other guests, there are quite a few bars still open from last night, with some walking wounded occupying tables and bar seats. We arrive at the Angkor Wat temple complex bang on 05:00, and set off on a walk to the main setting of the temple. It’s maybe 05:30, and the light is just starting to pinch at the horizon. It’s clearly going to be an overcast morning, and I suspect the light over the temple will not be mind-blowing. It’s busy - Siem Reap is living up to our analysis of it being a bit of a tourist trap. I sit on the stone outside one of the library buildings in front of the temple, and spend some time people watching. There’s a water pool to one side of the front of the temple, and there’s a HORDE of tourists,
which look increasingly to me like something out of the Walking Dead, waiting to take a picture perfect snap of the temple reflected in the water. Only, there’s insufficient light, and it’s quite breezy, so the pics will be, frankly, rubbish. This trend continues. I see countless tourists trying to capture the perfect Insta pic. Local photographers roam around offering their services to tourists who simply must capture that they were there, and how great they looked when they were there. There are very few people that are there for the experience, and for the memory.
As I suspected, the sunrise is a bit of a damp (literally and figuratively) squib. The temple is an impressive edifice, and the surroundings are beautiful. Am I blown away? I am not. I can’t help but think of the staggering beauty and scale of the bat exodus Felix and I experienced just a couple of days ago in Battambang. That stopped me in my tracks. The Angkor Wat temple - I’m glad I’ve been, but for me it doesn’t compare to the wonders that the natural world can offer. It doesn’t dazzle me, doesn’t give me the fizz, doesn’t tickle my pink bits, and definitely does not delight my danglies. I find myself wondering if I’m simply no longer that impressed by the ‘achievements’ of humankind, particularly when they illicit the kind of influencer driven behaviour I’ve seen here this morning. Christ, I sound old.
I head back to the hotel for some breakfast, and to catch up on some sleep. Our tickets are valid for the rest of the day, and across a bunch of different temples. My plan is to head out later, once it starts to cool down, and when there are perhaps a few fewer tourists.
21:30
It starts raining around 12:00. Lashing sheets of rain. I pop onto my balcony to take a look, and am quickly soaked. I’ve had 2 hour nap, so am fairly well caught up on sleep, but the rain is just too hard to think about going anywhere just yet. I check in with Felix, who is feeling like he’s through the worst of it. We agree to make a call at 16:00 whether to go templing this evening, or whether to save it for tomorrow morning.
I read for a couple of hours. The rain does not abate. I have a Krud - a fairly unpleasant local beer. It’s got a watery, thin body so redolent of beers in this part of the world. There’s a faintly metallic taste, I suspect as a result of using cheap materials in the canning process. The bouquet is nutty, and not in a particularly pleasant way. In summary, not my fave. I suspect during the Communist years, it was the 'beer of the people.' But - it’s called Krud, and that’s a bit funny.
At 16:00, the rain is still coming down. We agree to head out at 17:00 to grab some food, and save temple-town for the morning. The rain’s gradually lightening, but it’s umbrella worthy. We grab a tuk-tuk up to Pinky Poo. At least, that’s what I *think* it’s called. It’s actually called Pinak Pau - but I was close. Their Khmer cuisine is feted, and rightly so. I have a stunning cured beef salad, spiked with chilli. The beef is cured in lime and fish sauce, and has the texture of velvet. Felix, who let’s remember, is nursing a delicate tum, has an interesting sort of puffed rice ball thing, with beetroot, and some delicate spicing. Our mains are even better. My fish curry has the sour smack of tamarind, the heat of red chilli, and the fragrance of lime leaf. It’s the best curry I’ve had so far on this trip. Felix has his first ever fresh mackerel dish, which is served with a kind of mustard and peppercorn sauce, some more beetroot and some fairly plan turmeric rice. He seems very pleased with himself.
After dinner, we take a walk through the soggy streets of Siem reap - over to the riverside neighbourhood, up to the central market, down Pub Street… We stop at the Temple Bar to do some people watching, sitting upstairs with a great view down over the street. We see some young girls who look like they’ve just finished their a-levels, and are embarking on a gap yaar. We witness the touts approaching tourists and offering them everything from a tuk-tuk, via a ‘massage with boom boom’ to weed. We try to keep count of the likely sex tourists we can spot. Thailand is perhaps better known for sex tourism, but there are some obvious examples happening here in Cambodia. It leads us to Google the prevalence of organised crime in the country, and it transpires that it’s a growth industry, particularly for the sex trade, and for people trafficking. Until the past few years, this has largely been driven by international criminal organisations, including the Chinese Triads and the Red Wa gang from Thailand. Increasingly, there are Cambodian gangs running things locally. I'm not entirely sure why, but I feel a strange sense of pride in this homegrown talent doing so well.
We make a vague plan to do some stuff tomorrow, and retire back to our hotel. It feels like it may actually stop raining soon, after fully 8 hours. Hopefully, tomorrow is a drier day...Baca selengkapnya
Day 13 - Siem and Reap
24 Juni 2024, Kamboja ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
16:00
We’re up and out in decent time this morning. We’re in a tuk-tuk by 10:15 to take us to meet our bus, which leaves at 11:00. Bus is the same set-up as our bus from Poi Pet down to Battambang. You know - comfortable, air-conditioned, driven by a lunatic. An hour into the journey, it starts to poon it down - properly torrential rain. The driver at least slows down a little as a result. I spend most of the journey booking us some travel and hotels for the rest of our trip. We’re pretty much sorted now, with a good idea of where we’re going, where we’ll stay and what we’ll do. What feels like a quick 3 hours later, we arrive into Siem Reap, which is markedly bigger and more modern than Battambang. We both comment that it feels like what it is - a well worn stop on the tourist trail. Very excited to see the Angkor Wat complex, but not convinced I’m going to love the city of Siem Reap itself.
We jump in a tuk-tuk to our hotel. As we disembark, I hand the driver a $10 bill for a $3 ride. He doesn’t have enough change for me. I pop into the hotel, and ask if they can help. They cannot. I’m more than a little concerned that I have some larger bills ($50, $100) to try and get through while we’re here. I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll have a restaurant bill approaching $100. May have to pop into a bank, and see if they can break them down for me.
We check into our hotel, and are shown to the Honeymoon suites. They’re super-luxe, and costing us a tickle over £20 per night. We’ll head out around 18:00 for an early dinner, as we’ve a crazy early start tomorrow to catch the temple at sunrise. Our guide is picking us up at 04:15. Aye carumba.
21:00
Code brown! Code brown! Felix has succumbed to an upset stomach. Bizarrely, we were discussing just earlier today how well both of our constitutions had been coping on our trip thus far, and I told him that if he made it through an entire month in this part of the world without the brown rain, then he’d have done incredibly well. Only hours later…
As a result, I head out on my own, walking down to the riverside neighbourhood. It’s hot and sticky, and there aren’t really any pavements to speak of. I’m brushed by several moped riders during the 20 minute walk, and I arrive dripping with sweat. It’s a very pretty little neighbourhood though, and I count myself lucky to find a craft beer bar called Embargo overlooking the canal. It’s run/owned by a Hawaiian guy called Jared. All of the beers are brewed in Cambodia or Vietnam. I try an IPA made in Siem Reap, and am very impressed. Properly bitter, a little bit of funk, and a healthy 6.2% ABV. It’s also, at $6, comfortably the most expensive drink I’ve had since arriving into Chiang Mai two weeks ago. I ask Jared if he can break a $100 bill for me. He says he’ll try… I end up with about $40 and about 200,000 Riels in change. This seems like a reasonable trade.
Opposite me on the other side of the river, I can see nightlife waking up. I take a brief stroll through the market area, past some street food stalls, and via ‘Pub Street’ which does pretty much what it says on the tin. Flashing neon, drinks promotions, folks on the street flyering for their bars. It strikes me as a cross between Saigon and San Antonio. Moving on fairly swiftly, I find one of the restaurants I’ve tagged to visit. Along with an ice cold beer, I have some fresh summer rolls, and a beef Lok Lak. Both are delicious. I have another beer, and eavesdrop on what I’m pretty sure is a substantial heroin deal happening at a table near me. I could happily bar hop my way back to the hotel, but time is getting on, and I’m mindful of the early start tomorrow. I jump in a tuk-tuk, and hightail it back to Indochine. Felix is not much improved. I’m doubtful he’ll be in a fit state for our sunrise tour tomorrow. Happily, we’re here for a couple of days, so there’s time to catch up.Baca selengkapnya
Day 12 - Like a Batt out of Bang
23 Juni 2024, Hongkong ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
13:30
I sleep well, waking naturally a little before 09:00. Nothing planned until Kim picks us up for our afternoon tuk-tuk tour at 14:00, so I have a lazy morning reading, mooching, writing. The sky is brooding and threatening rain.
A little before 12:00, I head out in search of sustenance. Felix is chilling by the pool. I wander fairly aimlessly. I’ve a few places in mind to try over the river in the town centre. It’s raining, and the air feels heavy. It’s Sunday, and quite a few places are closed. Some are open later, but it looks like daytime Sunday is downtime/family time. I end up back at Jaan Bai, where we ate last night. I want to try a Nom Bang, a baguette sandwich that shares quite a bit of heritage with the Vietnamese Banh Mi that I love so much. It’s incredible. Shredded BBQ pork with pickled, shredded papaya and carrot, some cucumber batons, and a slightly spicy sauce that I think is along the lines of a Sriracha and Kewpie combo.
I’m starting to form my opinion of Cambodia in general, and Cambodian people specifically. What’s been described to me as the more basic pace of life here, I’ve interpreted as simpler. I love it. The town of Battambang itself feels like the speed setting has been turned down several notches. There’s a natural lethargy, which I mean as an entirely positive thing. Everywhere I look, there are people gradually going about their business - pacing themselves. Even the traffic moves slower than in Thailand. I find it incredibly easy to spend time here.
Everyone we’ve come across so far (admittedly, only around 24 hours) has been lovely. Super friendly, super helpful, super smiley. There's a welcoming openness, and a sense of joy in the eyes. It feels like an incredibly happy place.
21:00
We’ve had a great afternoon. Our guide, Kim, picks us up in his tuk-tuk at 14:00, and we head off at pace. We stop at a huge statue, denoting the man after whom Battambang was named. His story is long and distinguished, as is his magic black stick (stop tittering at the back). The long and the short of it is that he used his magic black stick to stir some rice he was cooking for Cambodian soldiers. The magic black stick turned the rice black. Our hero ate it all, also turned black, and was turned into a superhero. As origin stories go, it’s pretty damn cool.
From here, we head into the countryside to the bamboo train. Neither of us has a clue what to expect. It transpires we’re to be transported on a thin, bamboo platform, which rests on some metal train wheels. It’s not connected in any other way. A two stroke engine is then strapped to the back of the bamboo platform, and a belt-driven motor attached to the rear train wheels. If this sounds like something pre-industrial, you’d be correct. Felix and I sit at the front while our ‘pilot’ mans the engine. We think she’s around 13/14 years old. Setting off, we accelerate fairly quickly to around 25mph. It feels a LOT faster, as we’re very low to the ground, and we can feel every bump and shake intimately. At one point, we have to stop to let another bamboo train pass us. None of this detracts from the serenity of the rural Cambodian countryside. We pass by rice paddies, cattle grazing fields, arable farmers working the soil. There’s really nothing of note to see as far as the horizon.
Around 5 miles up the track, we stop again, this time next to some little stores selling cold drinks, nick-nacks and the like. The shops are manned by some very cute and very persistent kids - maybe ranging in age from 4-8. We must wait here until the ‘big train’ passes, which is a passenger train that runs from Bangkok through to Phnom Penh. We’re told this will be maybe 10 minutes, but it proves to be more like 30. We pass the time playing with the kids, who are great fun. They give up trying to sell us stuff after 10 fruitless minutes, and are content instead just to hang out. When the big train arrives, it is both big and small. Standing 3m from a train track whenever any train goes past is a bit of a thing. That said, this is actually a 2 carriage commuter style train, so is gone in the blink of an eye.
Kim then takes us on a meander through the countryside surrounding Battambang - we pop into a mushroom farm, and find some wild Makrut lime, we cross a fairly rickety suspension bridge, we visit a farm that makes rice wine, we stop at a roadside BBQ stall where we are offered rat.
Our last port of call is Phnom Sampov. I’ve been looking forward to this. It’s a series of caves in which live something approaching 16 million bats. At dusk, these nocturnal creatures leave the cave in search of food. They leave - all at once. There’s a mass exodus that lasts for upwards of an hour. Kim takes us to a farm that is devoid of other tourists. He reckons it’ll be about 15 minutes until the show begins. He who spends the intermittent time sharing stories of his youth, and of Cambodian/Khmer history. He was born in a refugee camp in 1982, and lived there until he was 12. His parents would both have been considered intellectuals, and thus subject to the Khmer Rouge killing fields. They ran away as fast as they possibly could. He tells us of family members who were not so fortunate. Even today, he says there are elements of the Khmer Rouge still at work in Cambodia. It’s a heartbreaking tale.
He breaks off from a lesson on the impact of Cambodia’s support of Vietnam during the Vietnam war as he can hear the bats starting to move. What follows is staggering. It starts as a trickle - 10 bats here, another 20 bats there. The numbers build and build until there is a constant torrent. What’s beguiling is that viewed as a whole, there’s a uniformity to the crowd. View any single bat though, there’s an individuality, there’s chaos. I take some photos, some videos, but most of all - I watch. This is a natural wonder, and I find it more impressive, more engaging than any man made edifice. At one point, I close my eyes, and tell myself I can hear, or maybe even that I can *feel* a sort of low, humming vibration from the sheer volume of bats flapping their wings. Felix and I are both speechless. Just a brilliant, brilliant experience.
Kim drops us at Pomme in the centre of the old town centre. He’s been a brilliant companion for the afternoon. We’re both properly hungry. Felix has a Lok Lak - a hybrid curry/stir-fry of beef. Super tasty. I have another Amok, which is similar to the one I had last night, but has some notable differences. They’ve certainly used a different fish, and they’ve used some very young lemongrass as a vegetable. Lovely stuff.
We head back to our hotel. The weather’s largely behaved itself today. It’s spitting with rain, but barely umbrella worthy. We make plans to meet in the morning, ahead of our trip up to Siem Reap. Onwards!Baca selengkapnya
Day 11 - Go, go - Cambodia!
22 Juni 2024, Kamboja ⋅ 🌧 26 °C
17:00
I wake up at 05:45, fully an hour ahead of my alarm. I think because I know I’ve got to be up early today, I can’t get back to sleep. I make a coffee, and start packing, which takes me approximately 7 minutes. I realise Vicki’s probably still up, and she is! I think it’s the first time on this trip that I’ve caught the end of her day, whilst mine is just beginning.
07:45 comes around, and I head to reception. I’m very happy (and slightly stunned) to see that Mr Lift Man is already waiting for me in the lobby. Now all we need is a Felix. He emerges just a couple of minutes late, which I’ll allow. Our new best friend sets off for Prachin Buri, about 15km down the road, at quite a clip. About halfway there, he hands over a small pot, which rather reminds me of a jar of poppers. He encourages us to open it, and we’re just stupid enough to do so. It transpires to be some decongestant in pad form, smelling of Olbas oil, and maybe a touch of Tiger balm. Quite pleasant really. At the station, we buy two tickets. Now - the journey to the border is about 2.5 hours, and 120 miles. Our fares are 28 Baht each, so maybe 75p. Bargain. The platform is pretty busy, but we’re hoping that the train will gradually empty out as we get towards the border.
Onboard, it’s also pretty crowded. There’s no A/C, but the windows are open, bringing a lovely, natural feel to our cooling. There are some ceiling fans as well, but we’re apparently in the wrong seats for those to be effective. Countless hawkers march up and down the train offering their food and drinks wares, which range from the pretty bog-standard (cans of soft drinks, water) via the strange (weird sticks of ‘meat’, bags of fish) to the utterly unidentifiable. The heat’s just about bearable, and watching the world go by is a wonderfully distracting pastime.
We arrive into Ban Kong Luk a couple of minutes late, around 11:20. We need to get over the border to pick up a bus to take us to Battambang. There’s a bus at 12:30, and one at 14:30. We’ll aim for the 12:30, but we’re not gonna break our necks to get there. We’re quickly through the Thai border control, and into no man’s land between the two countries. We join the queue in the immigration office for Cambodia. As we reach the front, a fairly officious little prick asks to see our passports. He points out that we do not have an immigration card. We were unaware there was even such a thing. We have printed copies of our visas, but no - these will not suffice. We scoot to one side, quickly complete our forms, and are directed by the forms dude to go back to the front of the queue. Our officious little prick objects, and sends us to the back of the now several times the size queue. Still, at least the air is conditioned. The queue moves glacially, and the 12:30 bus is looking a touch tight…
Out on the Cambodia side, we set off at a march to the bus company’s office. We arrive, and are told we’re JUST in time. I v v quickly nip to the bathroom, and pay for our tickets. The US Dollar is the primary street currency in Cambodia, so we’ve brought some cash with us. I’ve also got a little leftover from my trip to the US in May. When I hand these over, I’m told they’re not ‘new’ enough. Apparently, anything but the newest and crispest bills will not do. This little snafu negotiated, we board the bus. It looks pretty comfy. This company is likely to be our chariot for most of the next couple of weeks, so it’s heartening to see that we’ll be comfortable for the journeys we need to make. None are as long as the train ride from Chiang Mai down to Ayutthaya, but there’s a couple of 4-5 hour trips in there.
I’ve not been quite sure what to expect from Cambodia. Reviews have varied. The most recent of these, from Vicki Rish is that it shares a lot of DNA with Thailand - but will feel more basic, more raw, certainly poorer, and with less well developed infrastructure. Gazing out of the window, this tracks with what I’m seeing. The buildings are a little more dilapidated, the roads are less smooth, the cars and mopeds are a little older and in more of a state of disrepair. Even the greenery looks a little duller - though this may have more to do with the deep grey clouds gathering at the horizon, that promise squally showers later this evening.
The bus arrives on time into Battambang, and we grab a tuk-tuk to our hotel, the other side of the river. Felix heads out to look for trousers, while I have the briefest of naps, followed by a beer on my balcony. Laid back is working for me…
23:10
We meet at 19:15 and head out into that there Battambang. We’re aiming for a restaurant called Jaan Bai, about which I’ve heard good things. The rain is persistent, but not heavy. It’s umbrella worthy though. We arrive at Jaan Bai a mixture of hot and wet. The food is sublime. Felix has some salt and pepper calamari to start, which is a great example of the genre. I have a pork belly and cucumber salad - sensational. Felix definitely wins the mains - a huge chunk of beef short-rib, slowly braised in herbs, spices and a coconut broth. It’s meaty, wobbly, aromatic, delicious. My fish amok is also excellent. A mild and fragrant fish curry, through which beaten eggs are mixed, before the whole lot is stuffed into a banana leaf cup for steaming. I’ve had it before, but this one is particularly great. We both agree that the food tastes even better as we discover that the restaurant gives half its profits to a local orphanage. Felix has room for a dessert, but I do not. I can just about fit in a small flight of flavoured Cambodian rice wines. The ginger and red chilli variant is amazing - properly hot. The lemon and lemongrass version is fresh and zingy. The coconut and pineapple offering is tropical. The last is, well - not to my taste. Anise and coffee. It tastes a little like Covonia cough linctus. Best avoided.
We wander back along the river, and find ourselves in Street Art Bar, a kind of hipster homage. The drinks are warm, the owner insane, the décor a little reductive - what’s not to like? The music is actually pretty good. a trio of local yoofs doing some really cool stuff. We decide to move on after one drink though. We walk past a bar, the name of which we have yet to discover, that is banging out ultra-fast electro house type shiz. We walk on by. We stop in at Rainbow, where another trio of local yoofs is doing similarly good stuff. We (I) befriend a couple of street cats. They’re terribly cute. Time is cracking on though. It’s nearly 23:00, so we head back to our hotel, through the continuing drizzle. We're both looking to a lie-in tomorrow, as our tour doesn't start till 13:00. 10:00 alarm I reckon...Baca selengkapnya
Day 10 - Life-wild
21 Juni 2024, Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
18:45
What a day!
A relatively early start, but nothing like the brutality of the 04:00 alarm call I’m used to on African safaris. Felix is also up with the lark, and we meet in the car park just before our pick up at 08:00. We meet our guide, Klin, who immediately tells us that we are inappropriately dressed. It’s wet enough (please refer last night’s rainstorm) that leeches are a risk, so we need trousers. I’ve got some Columbia bush pants, but Felix is bereft. I lend him my North Face zip-offs, which *sort of* fit him. The long trousers tickle his ankles, but they’ll do.
We jump into our minivan, and head off to the national park. I’m not entirely sure what to expect today. It’s not quite a safari in the Africa mould, but there’s plenty of wildlife to experience. We’re apparently going to go on a bush walk, which will be awesome, and some other stuff. We stop for caffeine and a quick wander around the study centre. Klin comes to grab us, as there have been elephant reports nearby. We bundle into the van, and head up the road.
What we see, I’ll be honest, shocks me. I’m so used to the African variety of safari, that seeing people out of their vehicles not 10 metres from an elephant is bordering on disturbing. In Africa, you don’t even get out of the vehicle if you’re busting for a pee. In Thailand, it’s positively encouraged. We pull up at the side of the road, and Klin motions us out. Weird. Weird, weird, weird. Felix is loving it though. I’ll admit, there’s something incredibly raw about standing near this animal, that I know from experience can be so dangerous and destructive. It takes me a while to be able to just relax and enjoy a majestic wildlife encounter.
We stop briefly again at the visitor centre to don some leech socks, then head off for our bush walk. It is the most incredible sensation. There’s a small chance we could come across some sizeable game, but the likelihood is that we’ll see lots of smaller creatures on our trek. We’re looking at a good couple of hours marching through the jungle. BTW - we look up the difference between a rainforest and a jungle, and we’re deffo in a jungle. There’s something serene about the jungle. I mention to Felix that folks often talk about peace in the same breath as quiet - but that the jungle is incredibly peaceful, and anything but quiet. There’s a cacophony throughout our hike, but it doesn’t detract from the sense of calm, balance and serenity that we both experience.
We spend a half hour with a family of gibbons. Their movement through the canopy is so effortless and graceful. We start to beat a somewhat hasty retreat when they start to throw scat at us. This is apparently standard behaviour. Felix spots a snake, which surprises us all. Klin moves like lightning and grabs it by the tail so we can take a closer look. I wince a little at the poor thing’s treatment, and it definitely seems to anger the snake quite significantly. Klin brings us a cicada, maker of that so familiar noise, but a creature I’ve never seen in the flesh. We see some utterly funky and furry caterpillars, some giant squirrels (not as big as the name suggests…). We then hike a couple of miles to meet our driver/van. I don’t think I’ve ever sweated so much. The heat index is up in the high 40s again today, and while the jungle canopy provides some blessed shade, it’s still steaming hot.
After lunch, we head off back into the park. We spend some time with some sambar (big deer) and some pig-tailed macaques. Oh and some butterflies. SO many butterflies… We stop briefly at a waterfall, which looks like it would be a sight to behold in the wet season, but is a little underwhelming today, compared to everything else we’ve seen. We finish up with a trip to the highest point of the park, which has an other-worldly view across the valley. It’s dramatically cooler up here. We both find it pleasant.
Time’s getting on - it’s after 16:00. We head back to our guesthouse, which is a good hour’s drive away. Felix manages a not insubstantial snooze. I feel my eyes getting heavier, and nearly drift off a couple of times, only to be foiled by a pothole / speed bump / bridge etc etc. No matter.
Back at Siam Dasada, I have one of the finest showers I’ve ever had. It takes several minutes for the water to heat up, and it’s not exactly a power shower, but washing the dust, heat and sweat off me is a deliciously delightful experience.
I reward myself with a glass of my leftover wine from yesterday. I feel I’ve earnt it.
22:00
We’ve planned to eat at Siam Dasada this evening, largely because we’re almost out of cash, and don’t want to grab more before we head to Cambodia. We head to the restaurant via the reception desk, where we ask (with the aid of Google Translate) for a taxi at 07:45 in the morning to take us to Prachin Buri. What follows is confusing, slow, and slightly troubling. The guy I talk to spends about 10 minutes on the phone, I assume trying to locate a cab company in the not too distant vicinity. He then phones someone else, and someone else. At no point does he check back in with us- we are clueless. He finally accosts someone sitting in the reception area, who may or may not have something to do with the hotel. He comes over to us, and agrees to give us a lift to the station tomorrow. We agree a 07:45 meeting time, and start hoping that he’ll actually be there. If the very worst comes to the very worst, there’s a later train we can take.
From there, we head on down to the restaurant, where Google Translate informs us that the kitchen closed at 19:00. It is 19:30. Ok - back to Tipsy Bar it is, which will dig even further into our remaining Baht reserves. We eat well - some crispy pork belly, and a prawn/glass noodle hotpot for Felix, and a Vietnamese sausage salad (!) and some fried rice for me. Felix’s hotpot is a dish I tried a couple of times on Koh Santa back in April, and which I LOVED. I’ve completely forgotten about it though. My salad is very tasty, if a little avant-garde. There is once again a band. We briefly harbour vain hopes that they’ll be better than last night’s offering. They are not. The rain stays away, and we’re back at Siam Dasada a little after 21:00. Early start tomorrow, assuming Mr I’ll Give You a Lift guy actually turns up.Baca selengkapnya
Day 9 - Welcome to the jungle
20 Juni 2024, Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
16:00
The public transport options up to Khao Yai National Park are limited. There’s a train that runs to Pak Chong, to the North of the park, but we’re staying South, and getting across the park will prove tricky. We decide to jump in a cab, as the Grab app reckons it’s only going to be 1,100 Baht. This seems very cheap to me, but - ok. Our driver arrives, and immediately starts to negotiate an increase. Part of me wants to tell him to fuck off, but the greater part of me recognises that the price quoted by Grab (an Uber type company) is incredibly low compared to the around town cab prices we’ve been paying during our stay in Thailand. Khao Yai is fully 2 hours / 100 miles away, and the price he’s asking for seems reasonable. I checked with a couple of local cab companies yesterday, and they all wanted upwards of 4,000 Baht for the same journey. Our negotiation is fairly stilted, as our driver speaks very little English, and that’s twice as much Thai as I have. Google Translate saves us though, and soon enough we’re en route.
The drive out is hair-raising. I’ve not done a long (ish) drive in a small vehicle yet. Our minivan experience to Pai and back is the closest to it. It’s ‘interesting’ to be able to see what the driver dude is up to here. He’s obviously keeping an eye on where we’re going, but mainly he’s watching a Thai TV soap opera. He’s definitely in the ‘confidently aggressive’ category of cab driver. We’re happy enough in the back, chatting away, and trying to ignore the occasional sharp braking…
The drive up takes fully 2 hours. We very nearly head in the wrong direction at one point, but I catch it in time. We realise (via the means of Google Translate etc etc) that there is another very similarly named hotel about 10km in the opposite direction. Close one, that. Arriving to Siam Dasada, we realise:
a) we’ve snagged an absolute steal, and
b) we may be the only guests at the lodge
We’re paying around £35 per room, per night, and the accommodation is palatial. Properly deluxe. We pop to the lodge restaurant to grab a light lunch, as neither of us has eaten today. Felix orders ‘shrimp filled doughnuts’ which turn out to be nothing of the sort, but which are delicious, breaded Thai fishcakes. I have a very decent prawn Phad Thai. I ask for a glass of wine, and am brought the bottle, and a wine glass. I ask for a glass of wine. The wine glasss is taken away, and a champagne glass brought in its place. It takes a little while, but ultimately it transpires that they don’t sell wine by the glass. To be fair, with this level of occupancy, they’d risk a lot of wine wastage, and nobody needs that kind of negativity in their life. I dive into the wine, which is a decent Chilean Chardonnay. Felix is heading out for a bike ride around the lodge, and I’m gonna read for a bit. I’m half hoping there might be a snooze lurking…
22:30
There WAS a snooze lurking. I have maybe 1.5 hours of afternoon delight. We head out at 19:30 in search of a bar a short walkaway called Bamboo Bar. It is closed. Several hundred metres down the road is Tipsy Bar. We decide to go and at least take a look. Success! It’s open. There’s a duo setting up on the live music stage, there’s an orange statue of the Incredible Hulk in the garden, and they have wine. We settle in.
We have some food - a mountain of seafood fried rice for Felix, along with some fried squid eggs, and a seafood omelette with crispy pork rice for me. Both v tasty. Vicki and I tried squid eggs back in April, and did NOT enjoy them. These are a marked improvement. I think the ones we had were simply boiled. These are sliced, breaded and deep fried. If you didn’t tell me otherwise, I’d think they were pieces of calamari. Once again, I ask for a glass of wine. Once again, this proves problematic. I’ve still got 1/2 bottle of my lunchtime Chardonnay in my room, and it looks like it’s gonna be joined by half a bottle of red wine in a couple of hours. I comment to Felix that I feel al little like we’re at the only eatin house in the Bayou. There’s a closeness in air, a deafening chorus of cicadas, and real sense that we’re a million miles from the nearest population centre.
We finish eating, as:
a) the band strikes up, and
b) a huge rainstorm kicks off
The rainstorm does drown out the sound of the music, and this is no terrible thing. The rain intensifies, until it’s as heavy as any rain I’ve ever seen. The wind direction changes slightly, so that a light drizzle is being blown into the tin roof under which we’re sitting. It’s not unpleasant. It’s probably the coolest I’ve felt since we arrived. The rain continues, unabated. If it’s even possible, it gets heavier. Then the lightning starts. It’s a good few miles away from us initially, and manifests as thick sheets of lightning across the clouded sky. It gradually gets closer to us though, until vivid forks crack very close by to us. Most everyone else that was sitting outside has moved indoors to stay dry. Not us though - this is way too much fun to watch. Whilst gazing into the eye of the storm, we realise just how batshit crazy the garden ornaments are. Obviously, we’ve got our friend orange Hulk. There’s a Spiderman hanging from the ceiling as well. A variety of Harley-Davidson signs around the place, a red UK style telephone box, and a cartoon mouse. Obviously.
After an hour, the rain starts to lighten. We consider making a run for it. We’re probably a 10-12 minute walk from our room. Neither of us has an issue getting soaked, but equally - neither of us particularly wants to get struck by lightning. We wait for perhaps another 30 minutes, The lightning strikes feel a little less intense, and little less frequent. We call for the bill.
Now - we’re slightly running out of cash. I brought about 20,000 Baht in cash with me, and Felix took out 10,000 when we arrived. We’ve both significantly underspent against our budget over the past week, so haven’t needed to re-up with cash just yet. We’re in Thailand for 2 more days, and have been hoping not to have to visit an ATM before we make it to the Cambodia border. The Bamboo bar that we’d hoped to go to earlier accepts credit cards. The Tipsy Bar, where we’re currently being presented with a bill, does not. It’s fine - we might just be a bit tight for cash when we jump on the train on Saturday to head for Poi Pet… We’ve both got some US Dollars to get us started once we get into Cambodia.
We make our move. Felix strips off his t-shirt. I do not. The rain - which in the UK would constitute heavy rain, but over here is nowt but a light shower, is quite pleasant. As we march down the road, a bolt of lightning cleaves the sky. We’re surrounded by the growling call of bullfrogs. It’s pretty other worldly. We see a few more vivid lightning strikes on the walk back, and we’re both ducking instinctively, as though this is somehow going to improve our chances of not being struck by it. I reason that I’m walking next to a 25 foot tall lightning conductor, so should be ok. Back at the lodge, huge puddles have appeared where there were none when we left. I’m wet through, but not as wet to the bone as was possible. We’re going to try and get some VPN/screen cast action going to watch the England vs Denmark game. Wish us luck….Baca selengkapnya
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