Our new Australian friend from Koh Wai, Penny of Oz, now has legend status with us. Not only was she kind enough to put us up for the night in Bangkok but she also treated us to a restaurant dinner (she refused to be talked out of it). It was great to see Bangkok away from Ko San Road and see how many of the ex pats live. Her tower block is full of Korean and Indian people and is pretty much self contained with the shopping mall below, gym, tennis courts, swimming pool etc. I don’t think she’d approve…
I’ve stayed in many guesthouses and resorts which have the word paradise in the name. None, until reaching Koh Wai Paradise even came close. In fact if it wasn’t for the terrible laundry service, the mosquitoes (that even bite during the day) and the rock solid bed then I think this would be it. Picture this, your own wooden hut on a clean sandy beach on a small remote island (3km at it’s longest point) with no roads. Clear light blue 30 degree water with a coral reef metres off the beach. Dolphins swimming by while eating breakfast and lobster,…
I know, it is long overdue, but I’ve either been too exhausted or too remote to even contemplate interblogging. Here I am in Bangkok, with a bit of catching up to do. After a nightmare of a 16 hour journey from Siem Riep to Ko Chang I found myself poised to celebrate both Thai New Year and my birthday in the beautiful, if commercial, Ko Chang. Initially I felt a bit down on my birthday, being so far from friends and family, but mainly this was down to tiredness after three days of physical exercise and then the aforementioned journey.…
Arriving in Siem Reap, home city of Angkor Wat (Cambodia and possibly South East Asia’s biggest crowd puller), one of the officials on the bus told us that all the tourists were to get of the bus early before reaching the bus station. This was in our best interests as we would be given a free tuk tuk ride to the guesthouse of our choice, and thus avoid all the “thieves at the bus station who will steal your wallet and camera”. Somewhat sceptical we got in our free tuk tuk and where taken to, surprise surprise, the same guesthouse…
My first impressions of Cambodia couldn’t be more different from those in Vietnam. The people here are so friendly. Generally the level of English is good and we’ve been approached by many a local who just wants to talk. They are very open and willing to talk about many things in their lives. If people walk or bump into you, they apologise immediately, even if it wasn’t their fault. That is such a far cry Vietnam, for instance, the tour guide who pushed me out of the way in the Ho Chi Minh museum because I was reading the display…
After our bad start in Vietnam around Nameo, although things got better for us, we continued to hear more horror stories of bad tours and tourist rip offs along with being confronted with rude aggressive people. We decided against seeing Ha Long Bay due to the weather and the fact that not one other traveller we spoke to felt they got their money’s worth with a trip that turned out to be everything but what it was advertised as. We continued to hear similar stories in Hanoi and Hue, invariably people were disappointed with their visits to Sa Pa (one…
I’m really not in a writing mood so you’ll have to wait a bit for more America bashing along with my latest experiences in Vietnam. Heading in the direction of Cambodia tomorrow up the Mekong delta. For the time being, as a follow on from my Secret War post, have a read over this Amnesty International article about Laos. Thanks to Jordi and Nuria for sending the link over.