Cambodian History

3rd to 11th November - Siem Reap & Phnom Penh

Straight out of the airport and after a short drive through the bustling streets of Siem Reap we arrived at our hostel, Funky Flashpackers. We hadn’t slept properly and mourned for somewhere to lay horizontal, our beds wouldn’t be ready until 1:00PM and we had arrived for 8:00AM! We headed to the rooftop bar and were completely made up with a huge seating area of sofas and cushions along with a free pool table and for myself, a full English breakfast. We killed these hours lounging around, half of us slept and eventually we got our rooms, a shower was needed. All the residents of our new hostel were definitely here to party, 1$ beers and pool volley ball, so with that in mind i decided to skip sleeping once more and jump into the pool with a cold beer, most of the guys joined as well and we got talking to people which was great as recently we’ve been so busy getting the sight seeing done we’ve not spent time at hostels.

That evening we all headed to the notorious ‘Pub street’ which turned out to be a much calmer version of Khoa San Road in Bangkok. Our tuk tuk drive there was hilarious, our driver called himself ‘Batman’ and swerved all over the road purposely whilst shouting to random people, probably not the safest mode of transport but luckily it was only around the corner and he was cheap. We went to several bars chatting to other people and figured out the pub crawl hosted by stay and work travellers is definitely not one to miss. We had been previously told about it by Josh and Jenna who we travelled with in Thailand, they agreed that it was a brilliant night. 

We had booked four nights at this hostel with only Angkor Wat to see and with that in mind we woke up the next morning, relaxed on the sofas, played volley ball and decided to get involved with the evenings drinking games that were organised by the staff. Beer pong it was. After reluctantly getting our groups together i was teamed with Ingham and confidence began to sky rockets after the first or second beer, i’ve always considered confidence to be the most important factor in competitions and this time it worked! The first two matches nobody scored against us, we were both shooting cup after cup and it emitted a great atmosphere on the roof top bar with the crowd getting involved. We arrived at the final without evening knowing it and probably because we didn’t have the pressure we beat the final team with no problems, screaming in victory we prepared for what we believed to be the last match completely unknowing we had just won two front seat tickets to a local Cambodian circus! It wasn’t until the next jug of beer was bought that the staff/rivals informed me they already lost a previous game and this was only a friendly, me and Ingham were in a poor way with vision impaired and movements slowed but the game started well, for half of the shots i had to pick Ingham up from against the wall but somehow he still managed to score! I had to begin drinking his drinks which pushed me further over the edge and after a tense match we were finally beat by a single cup. The staff let out a huge cry of relief but were still happy to admit it was anyones game and with that finished, we went straight to the room before the floor became our beds.

The pub crawl had come around the day afterwards so off we headed to X-Bar to book ourselves a place on the event, with a 10$ cost and a fairly quiet bar when we first arrived we almost didn’t do it. However we took a gamble and it definitely paid off, we got a free t-shirt straight away and the staff seemed brilliant, really easy to get on with and more importantly, a sense of humour. Straight away during the staffs introductions on stage a game began, flipping a coin, choose heads or tails. Very simple however we’re fairly sure its a trick coin and over 6 tries it always landed on heads and luckily both Ingham and Ben realised and ended up being two of four up on stage. Their next challenge was to down a pint and beat the others, the rest of the group felt confident we’d succeed and sure enough Ingham won yet more circus tickets which made us all burst into laughter, that was a total of four free tickets now! The crawl continued with some live music and then off to the first bar where we started with beer pong once more, in all honesty me and Ingham shouldn’t of mentioned our previous victories as we won the first match quite easily but the second was a complete wipe out against an American guy, he obviously plays far too much! 

Within moments of beer pong coming to an end, Henry, one of the staff jumped up onto a bench and announced the next game would be beginning, out of nowhere he shouts "the first 5 people to sit down on the bench are in", somehow i managed it! One person would be knocked out each round of the game, Henry would ask us to retrieve one item from the audience at a time, first ones sat back down continued. They started with a dollar note, done. Then a pub crawl t-shirt, no problem. Next was more difficult and problematic as at this point i was against two girls and we needed to bring back a bra that wasn’t our own! With some pleading from myself and a bit of charm i managed to be first back to the bench, bra in hand! The final dawned upon me and this other girl where we were asked to bring a sock back to the bench, i reluctantly got Dan’s, he assured my they were clean on thank god and this was then placed over a pint of beer. The challenge was to finish the beer first through the ‘used’ sock. I’ve never been a huge drinker and definitely not one to down a drink but with the guys screaming and chanting i managed to pull it off and win. That was a total of two games played through the pub crawl and our group had won both.

The next morning we revelled in how great the night was and laughed about what had happened throughout, mostly we once more relaxed and chatted with people before the evening came once more and we decided to finally go to the circus, with four tickets we invited Dan and Robin to come along. It was quite good as we weren’t expecting anything amazing, The majority was very impressive gymnastics with a storyline splashed with a bit of comedy, not bad for completely free and it filled the evening nicely. 

Our final day, we packed and left our bags downstairs ready to start Angkor Wat before our night bus which was set to leave at midnight. In true form of our luck it began to rain heavily, and we had to postpone our temple viewings until midday, thankfully it actually cleared up and the sun came out, we hopped into our tuk tuks and set sail. We reached the complex and visited Angkor Wat first where we ventured around the grounds and inside the amazing temple, it was like travelling back in time by hundreds of years, this whole religious site was built during the 12th century and is still, considering, in brilliant condition. We continued onto two more of the iconic temples including Angkor Thom which rose to fame for being the location used in the first Tomb Raider film. The tree’s here have overgrown their place, twisting and rooting into the temple creating these incredible scenes, nature had fought back. I learnt from eves dropping on a tour guide that the tree’s grew their branches downwards to increase their surface area on the ground in an attempt to drink more water. After a quick stop off for some food, the place was owned by one of our tuk tuk drivers so how could we refuse? We began a short 15 minute walk uphill to try and overlook Angkor Wat for sunset, we realised pretty early on that the place was heaving with people and our chances were quite slim of seeing anything. We got to the top to find a huge queue for the vantage spot and we decided against the wait, within minutes of being there the heavens opened up and the heavy rain began! A brisk walk back down in the crowd and we shot off back to the hostel. 

Later that evening we jumped onto our night bus waving good bye to Siem Reap, unfortunately we had never got one of these buses with actual beds, turns out its the equivalent of a bad quality single bed between two people! Me and dan were in each others way for the entire night, very poor sleep for the two of us. We arrived in Phnom Penh early again and our new hostel wasn’t ready, just our luck. I was horribly tired so i opted to fall asleep on the sofa whilst half the group split off and decided to do the Cambodian Killing Fields straight away. That day, after finally getting some rest, we ventured and explored the local area but overall didn’t get up to much! 

Me and Robin got up early the next day and set off to the Killing Fields after arguing with a tuk tuk driver for a cheaper price, he explained since we're paying less he's going to drive like a maniac to save time, thats fine by me, anything for an extra dollar in my pocket! We arrived and opted to get the audio whilst walking around the site, i'd hugely recommend doing the same as it was incredibly insightful. Everybody was in silence walking around, viewing each section of the site is disbelief that a single man could do this to a country, i won't explain on here what happened but if you don't know, please give it a 'google'. The thing that stuck in my head and probably will do for many years to come is the 'magic tree', a place where unthinkable horror took place to both children and even babies. It was tragic to think i was stood right where this had happened only 35 years ago, it is still incredibly recent. The tree now is covered in small, colourful ribbons in respect to those who lost their lives. We discussed Cambodian history on our way back to the hostel and truly felt for the country that lost so much, but yet, reaches out as a friendly and culturally rich place to visit.

Cambodian Circus, I could do that...

I wouldn't dare do that!

Inside Angkor Wat

View from inside Angkor Wat

The guys walking through the grounds

One of the structures inside the grounds

The main photograph of Angkor Wat from the lily ponds

Finally another group shot, not done enough of these!

Our trusted tuk tuks

Angkor Thom crazy tree 1

Angkor Thom crazy tree 2

Close up of the roots

Angkor Thom crazy tree 3

Another structure within Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom crazy tree 4

Band photograph...

Not a bad drive around the complex

Cambodian Killing Fields

Huge case filled with the skulls of those who lost their lives

The 'Magic Tree'

Ubud - The Cultural Hub of Indonesia

25th October to 2nd November - Ubud & East Java (Mt Bromo)

The ferry back to the island Bali was a good time to sit back and reflect on Indonesia so far, we were on top of the boat in the baking sun with a chilled beer in hand. I’d so far loved this beautiful country with the friendliest people, they were always up for a laugh and a conversation, the fact everybody smiles always puts you in an optimistic mindset. sometimes on this trip this can be rare to find, often you’re seen simply as another person in the crowd or a tourist willing to part with some money. Ubud was a place i had never really considered visiting until my previous house mate Shauna talked to me about it, convincing me one day we should visit. I felt it a shame she wasn’t with us but i already knew i would happily revisit this part of the world without a moments hesitation. Ubud is known for being the cultural hub on Bali, filled with scenic landscapes and a laid back attitude. 

Our hotel was fairly incredible for the cost, comfortable beds and very spacious. The shower had a pebble flooring to exfoliate your feet, what more can you ask for? We ventured out shortly after arriving to grab some food, little did we know when we walked into a small restaurant five minutes from our accommodation that we would taste some of the best food we’ve had out here. I’ve never had spring rolls that delicious and the variety of mains we had over the next few days were incredibly well crafted. Gordon Ramsey would struggle faulting their culinary expertise. They asked with confidence after each meal “How was your dinner Sir?”, they knew full well that a compliment was to follow. The next morning we grabbed ourselves some scooters after struggling to find someone with six and after a few minor navigation problems we arrived at the monkey forest, within seconds of being inside we were quite literally surrounded by monkeys scanning us from top to bottom, trying to locate any kind of fruits we had on us. With some crafty hiding skills several of us had grapes, bananas etc which we threw out into the crowds or passed them out, it was quite fun to see the monkeys trying to climb peoples legs and even sitting on their shoulders. There was one that actually went into Ben’s pocket and stole his water bottle, managed to open it as well! We wondered around this forest for a few hours watching the monkeys running about and kept our distance from the bigger ones, clearly the dominant males which looked untrustworthy. The location itself was very serine with huge vine trees and old looking stone work that nature had taken back.

Our next stop was a rush to the rice fields attempting to capture sunset however we didn’t realise the distance and arrived when the sun had almost completely gone behind the horizon line. With our short 20 minutes of daylight left we ventured through the valley taking some snap shots and taking in the scenery. It was the first one we could actually walk around and see close up how they were created so it was worth doing. I kept promising myself i would return during our stay in Ubud to capture a sunrise however it never quite came around as we were too busy. We awoke early the next morning and all had breakfast on our veranda, the service was great and more importantly included in the room price! 

We had been told about the worlds most expensive coffee, kopi luwak, and that one of the plantations was right here in Ubud so with my new fondness to the drink we agreed we couldn’t miss it. The coffee beans are actually fed to civets, cat like ferrets, then when the beans pass through the animal they’re recollected! Sounds horrendous i know… We jumped off our bikes at the plantations and instantly began a tour with a friendly guy, we expected to pay, or at least a tip, however he showed us around then within a moments notice pass us onto a colleague of his and wondered off! We were shown how the beans were roasted and prepared then asked to take a seat. Couple of minutes pass and the lady reappears with 12 different taster sized coffees and teas and to our surprise completely free. They were all absolutely incredible, if i was a rich man, i’d of bought boxes of the stuff. She then offered us the kopi luwak, typically its $50 a cup anywhere else in the world, however, right here it was the equivalent of $5 if i remember correctly so we bought a cup each. Awful. I actually couldn’t stand the taste! A few others in the group liked it but it was just far too bitter, even attempting to put palm sugar in fixed nothing. The poor lady seemed almost offended by the fact i couldn’t finish it but none the less on leaving i bought myself a favourite from the tasting set, a coffee made mainly from the root of the plant. The name escapes me currently.

Afterwards we jumped back onto our trusted scooters and headed North to see sunset over the volcano at lake Batur, it was a long, zig-zagged journey of around two hours before we came over the horizon and feasted our eyes upon the low laying valley where just one volcano stood, it looked superb, surrounded by flat land and the lake. We drove down to the waterfront where a local man suggested we checked out a small fishing village further down the lake side so we followed up and down this hilly dirt track. I decided to pull over at some point to get a quick picture, the group continued onwards. After the photograph i jumped back on the bike and set off down this dirt hill, the back breaks on this bike hardly worked as it was and within seconds i was going to quick thanks to gravity, i began having to tap the front break and before long the back wheel slid from underneath me. Straight over the handle bars, quick front roll and boom i’d come to a halt. Just typical it would happen to me, luckily no serious injuries just a couple of bruises and a scrape down my left arm. The worst injury was my pride when the guys found out, i’d been the most sensible and then this happens! They will never let this slide now. The village was ok but not much to see so after that me and Ronchetti headed back towards a spot i’d seen earlier for sunset, the others set sail for a drive to the other side of the lake. The sunset was beautiful with an amber glow in the clouds and Mt Batur along my horizon line. 

The next morning we moved hotel as they were fully booked and decided on two more days in Ubud. This was our final day with the bikes and even with being tired from loads of driving we set sail North-West to the three lakes, i wanted to mainly see Lake Buyan as i’d researched them prior to arranging the trip, there was great vantage spots from hills nearby so that was the target. We weren’t disappointed with the views, as we came closer a gigantic mountain became visible, it was shrouded in clouds and towered over other, close by mountains. We pulled up at several places to take in the view but i finally chose a spot overlooking the lake with mountains in the background, as previously, some of the group fled to drive around the great roads whilst me and Ronchetti waited for sunset. Bali has been the best place so far for landscapes, in other countries i’d struggled to actually get out to specific locations, it had been more about the people and culture.

We didn’t want to leave Ubud but unfortunately our final day had arrived, we had booked white water rafting for myself, Dan, Ben and Ronchetti, the other two didn’t quite feel up to it so with an early start we arrived at the starting point and jumped into our boat after being informed we must travel 18km to the finish line! The river took us through a superb valley riddled with waterfalls, exposed rock faces and foliage, at the times we weren’t battling to keep the right way up in the water it was actually peaceful and tranquil. The rapids at times were forceful and great fun, but as expected half of it was quieter and too easy. At one point the front of our raft smashed into this huge boulder which almost sent me head first straight out! So i can’t complain at the difficulty too much. We got to do a five meter straight drop which was definitely nerve racking, we had to lay down and brace for what was definitely an impact at the bottom. After missing the water rafting in Pai, Thailand, i was very glad to have done it, hopefully there will be another chance again during our travels. 

Drying our eyes we left the place we began to love knowing soon we will be hiking Mt Bromo in East Java. The journey started just as any other, a long haul bus expecting to take a short 11 hours including the ferry ride however with just a few hours until we reached the town we planned on staying all six of us had fallen asleep and awoke in worry that we were now actually a further 3 hours down the route! Luckily i’d known about Malang and we opted to jump off and set up camp at the first hotel we found. We desperately needed showers and some real sleep so we booked the cheapest rooms and headed upstairs only to find the rooms don’t have showers, not even communal ones! I’d never heard of such ludicrous rooms so unfortunately we marched back downstairs and had to book the most expensive rooms! If you ask me, its done on purpose. We finally got outside to explore where we had landed to find the place had absolutely zero tourists, which is perfectly fine, if anything i usually prefer it, however everybody kept staring at us. We got use to it after a while but still there was absolutely nothing to do in the area until Mt Bromo the next day. We got what we imagined at the time to be a decent deal from our hotel, a taxi would take us all the way to the walking point of Mt Bromo then we could explore on our own. The five hour journey by car took us through some amazing scenery surrounded by flush mountains until all of a sudden our driver pulls over near a couple of small shacks and loads of locals. He told us we must pay the entrance fee and hire a jeep from here! This was an absolute tourist trap and we knew it, they attempted to charge us near £15 per entry and a further £30 for the jeep hire. We had read online loads of travel blogs explaining how you can do this journey without any of this however our driver who spoke very little English anyway was adamant we paid only to get here and refused to drive us any further. Even if we wanted to pay the extortionate prices, we couldn’t, it was our last day in Indonesia and we lacked the funds. Reluctantly and with our now grumpy driver we demanded to be taken back to the hotel. It was a huge disappointment to have travelled so far just to see this volcano and we failed at the absolute last hurdle. East Java had been very uneventful and we were glad to be leaving the following morning, but it absolutely hasn’t tainted my love for Indonesia. 

 Our first steps into the Monkey Forest

 Small monkey perched on a statue

 "Whats in the pocket sir?"

 My favourite monkey shot from the day

 One of the babies on some branches

 Deeper into the jungle

 Wouldn't usually photograph someone swearing, but.. It's behind you Robin

 The bridge in the monkey forest

 Amazing tree's!

 Ubud rice fields

 One more from the plantation

 Luwak coffee beans

 The amazing variety of coffee and tea we got for free!

 The small fishing village i photographed literally 30 seconds before falling off my bike

 The boats from said fishing village

 A worker on the rice fields with Mt Batur as the backdrop

 Lake Batur sunset

 Lake Batur twilight hour

Lake Buyan sunset

The Islands of Indonesia

15th to 24th October - Denpasar & Gili Trawangan

Early into the evening we had arrived in Indonesia, after a minor panic about bringing alcohol/tobacco into the country we discovered it was alright and we headed through security with reasonable confidence. We split the tobacco between ourselves but even when it was clearly seen, nobody flinched. The first guy we saw attempted to hook us for a taxi and even after clearly stating “we’re ok thanks”, he followed us out of the airport, stood with us for ten minutes and then when we got in another taxi, for some reason he appeared shocked! I was placed with Ingham, Ronchetti and Jenny and we set off to our new home in Denpasar. I don’t think i’ll ever in my life have a more histerical taxi drive than that day, the driver instantly riddled us with questions which is quite normal but he continued to point women out on the streets and telling us how to pretty much hook up with people. He defiantly didn’t shy from details but the best comment from our new friend was that some Australian girls drink far too much beer, Bintang to be precise and because of this, they’re often ‘larger’. His words not mine. As you can imagine this conversation for over 20 minutes broke us up into laughter continuously. We didn’t even reply to much!

Denpasar was not quite what i was expecting at all, in some fashion it reminded me of Thailand, which worried me, it seemed like there was one large strip littered in bars, tourists and locals selling everything under the sun. We dropped our gear off at Pop Hotel and ventured to get ourselves grounded, luckily we discovered quite quickly the crowd was much nicer but hawkers were definitely in full force. After a few casual beers and a superb carbonara me, Paul and Jenny broke from the group and got an early night. It had been my graduation back in England the same day and i had a Skype call with the university group, it was brilliant to see everyone so happy and with that the next morning i had planned absolutely nothing, purposely. I wanted a day of just sitting on the beach, drinking some gin and eating fresh fruit. I did exactly that! Four of us sat there and watched the day go by pretty quickly, we spoke to some interesting people, one in particular that Paul for reasons unknown bought a blowpipe with darts from. This man told us about how it took him two weeks on a boat to travel from his home country Papua New Guinee where these ‘weapons’ are made by his uncle and sold to tourists as something for the mantle piece! Not a bad story at all. The rest of the group began to arrive into the late afternoon and we sat and watched the sunset on the beach, one of the best i’ve seen out here! The sun illuminated everything in an orange glow and its outline in the sky was visible as it disappeared over the horizon. The night continued with bars, pool and conversations before we arrived at yet another rooftop club, people opening doors for you, marble everywhere and Western priced drinks. I didn’t actually see much of the place before i needed taking home, i had enjoyed my graduations too much it seems! Thanks Ben for getting me back!

We wasted the next day with just relaxing by the pool at our hotel and heading out for a good meal knowing we had planned Waterbom the next day! It’s the third largest waterpark in the world, first in Asia. An early morning and off we set, we were far from disappointed when we arrived to see huge, spiralling slides across our peripheral. We started with the lazy river, something i’ve never given much time but they’re brilliant! Floating around a designed course on a tube where you bounce around gently through little water features and greenery. Afterwards we began on the larger attractions and almost all of them were brilliant but theres on in particular, Dan and Robin went on it first whilst i was busy on another, they came over afterwards and convinced me to follow them back up the stairs to this specific waterslide. Turns out it was a trapdoor kind of system where you stand at the top of the slide and after a countdown the floor opens up and you pretty much free fall into this ride! Obviously nervous i get in and prepare for the drop, i wasn’t disappointed! Apparently as it opened i screamed “like an old man” was just one of the quotes. You crash land onto the slide at good speed then thinking i’m about to come out the other end i began flying upwards from the momentum, around a slanted loop. Best ride there by a long shot, and literally zero people there all day! The staff there were also incredibly friendly, couldn’t do enough for you and actually had a laugh with you. I’d recommend the place to anyone else heading this side of the world.

       Travelling to Gili T was relatively easy with a travelling package bought at a tourism office, a quick taxi followed by a few hours on a ferry beached us on the island, we jumped into the shallow water with our bags and once again felt the horror of wet feet and sand combined. The island was nicely quiet with only horses and carriages going past us because engines are banned! I’m always most fond of the peaceful places we’ve visited on this trip. We booked our bungalows and headed down to the beach for a quick swim, snorkel kit attached and under i headed to have a look for some fish. Literally only 30 meters from shore the ground disappeared beneath where i swam into this infinite dark blue sea, it was an eery kind of emptiness that surrounded me! As i’m not incredibly fond on deep water that was enough  and back to the beach with an iced coffee i headed. 

Our next few days consisted of mainly late nights and zero sightings of the morning, well deserved! Finally we pulled our act together, stopped wasting our time and got a boat hired to take us on a few hours snorkelling trip. Alas not everybody woke up so just me, Robin, Paul and Jenny appeared at the docks ready to go. Once again the trip was brilliant! We saw yet more sea turtles including me managing to swim quite far down for a better look, it was great for Paul and Jenny who i don’t believe had done this before. Later on we were told to jump in before our driver pointed further down the coast and he set off, luckily we can bloody swim! It was a good 30-40 minute journey through the coral gardens  which was crowded in both fish and colourful coral before we reached a huge ship wreck that the driver spoke about at the beginning of the day. We saw loads of scuba divers swimming below us exploring the boat but even from above it was very interesting. 

We arrived back later in the afternoon and told the group of our trips success and with that we headed back to the beach and booked a longer, better sounding trip for tomorrow. Five hours of both snorkelling and fishing and we got it for a bargain as well! I’ve never tried fishing and wasn’t by any means fully committed to what the day would hold but the morning came and we began at first with snorkelling. Unfortunately the current was strong meaning staying in one place was very difficult, you could even see the fish struggling as the zig zagged between the coral but to top things off my goggles kept leaking and there was nothing i could do about it, our driver had moved the boat and he wasn’t brilliant with English so i got nowhere. But still, swimming around is not the worst way to spend the day.

We began fishing later on in the day which by all means started brilliantly, i got myself sat at the front of the boat in the baking sun and with a quick tutorial cast my line with a tasty chunk of tuna into the deep blue, my competitive streak instantly came through and i was game for catching the first fish. A good 20 minutes passed before my chance of victory was shattered by both Ingham and Jenny screaming out they had a bite, reeling it in to our amazement it was fairly big! The day went on and alas beginners luck didn’t kick in for myself and i ended up catching absolutely nothing, from my knowledge everyone else did very well and by the end of the day we had a good haul! When we arrived back at the docks we said our thanks to the driver and he bagged up the fish and left, guessing he was going to have a good BBQ later on at our expense. The next morning it was time to leave and we arrived at the beach nice and early, after a horribly long wait on my own with a very uninterested staff member he finally told me we couldn’t get on the boat as it was already full and we had to come back the next morning! I’ve been stuck in worse places so we spent our extra, unexpected day at the beach relaxing on bean bags and planning our next destination, Ubud. 

Paul & Jenny 

 Preparing for our first scuba drop

 The happiest photograph of Robin i've ever seen!

 The beach at Gili Trawangan

 One of our overly friendly bar staff

 Can't beat beanbags!

 Paul & Jenny highjacking my camera

 Biggest catch of the day by Ingham and Jenny. Rep Snapper i believe?

 Robin fishing

 My first and probably last attempt at fishing

From one side of our boat