Going to KL

What a day of contrasts ! You would not believe what two hours (not even) of flight can do.

But first things first : after L having a bit of a sick day yesterday (very very bad case of food poisoning),
we somehow managed to set off this morning circumstances non withstanding and -to a great deal- thanks to the German pharmaceutical industry !

We saw people working on paddie fields, driving to work as a salesman for dusters made out of chicken feathers and lone fishermen throwing out their net hoping to catch something to eat that day. Four hours later I stand in a shopping mall with Gucci, Prada and Boss fighting for our money. How bizarre is this ? How unequal is the wealth of this world distributed ? Makes you think...and we as tourists even pumped some money into Cambodia -and we did not stay at a european/American whatever hotel chain. Okay probably some wealthy Cambodian, but what are you going to do.

Having said that you do understand why the the more average person on the streets touts you all the time...

Anyway - one smooth AirAsia ride later and one -shall we say- adventurous taxi ride later we eventually arrived at the hotel. Mental note : do not believe anything that travel blogs say (this one excluded). They said that there was almost no difference between premier and budget taxis. There is ! the first one probably knows the way, has a fully functioning airco and does not nearly run out of gas. Ours did not. None. In the end my OpenStreetMap based sat nav on MY ipad told him where to go. While his car was on the last breath of gas (it ran on LPG) and L nearly fainting in the back. 36 degrees with a failing airco is no fun if you recover from a gastro...

Hotel fine, just fine. Actually could not be better. Nice view to the Twin Towers. Where travel blogs say you can not get tickets in advance but have to be there at 06.30. Total BS. I went there to do a little reccie for tomorrow, already dreading getting up at 06.00 like a ticket to the towers is the next iPhone. You see Petronas only lets about 600 ppl a day up their towers. Well I managed to get tickets for 19.15 tomorrow which is just during sunset. How about that travel blogs ? Turn out they stopped giving the tickets for free two years ago. I do not know if that has to do with the costs of the F1 engagement, but whatever.

Afterwards a nice swim, with probably the best pool view ever, followed by the nicest lamb curry ever, followed by the nicest night swim ever. Time to hit the sack.

Angkor Wat Baby

Angkor Wat Baby !

What a highlight ! Everything I had hoped for, imagined and then some more. I set off on my own this morning as the rest of the gang wanted an easy day and not necessarily walk for miles and miles in the blistering sun. But they will come tomorrow for an abridged version

My Tuk Tuk picked me up at exactly 10.30 and we drove off. Best 15$ I ever invested (today that is). It was a smooth and lovely ride and I really did not feel sorry for the cheapskates who paid north of 1000e on tickets getting here, but were too stingy afterwards. Cant do the time, dont do the crime. Hiking 25km in sweltering heat is no fun. Walking maybe in through the temples, par contre, is. And your Tuk Tuk driver will take you from temple to temple and then leave you to your own devices. Just what I wanted.

 

When I first saw Angkor Wat, it was 100% what I expected and then some. See for yourself. What followed afterwards was the temples and ruins on Ankor Thom and Tha Prom.

It is so weird to see all these ruins in the middle of the jungle, imagining that several hundres years ago, when London was boasting 40.000 people and us germanz were probably still hitting each others with clubs, there was a civilisation that had the first mega city, as it is thought that at its height more than a million people lived in Angkor.

It is like steping right into an Indian Jones or Tomb Raider movie. Hang on - Tomb Raider had Tha Prom as a backdrop. It is so mythical it is unbelievable. One of those places where you can actually feel history.
Back tomorrow...

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Transiting to Cambodia

Today was a big travel day.

We traveled by car from BKK to Siem Reap in Cambodia. After a late start from Bangkok we set out to a very smooth ride in a hugely oversized (for the three of us) Minibus to the Cambodian border. The journey was organized by our lovely hostess in Bangkok, who's great apartment we were renting. Going native is really the thing, as you do not end up in some 5* Hotel that could be anywhere but get to share the life with real people. As rides go this was the smoothest and safest ever, so a big shout to our host in BKK, Mam, for choosing this one for us. To be recommended !

He dropped us right off at the border, so all we had to do was dodge the two/three scammers on the Thai side and get our passport stamped on the way out. So top tip, when you do this yourself - get a private hire from BKK and safe all the hassle with Tuk Tuks and other shit.

Once emigrated from Thailand you have to walk towards Cambodia and basically ignore everyone talking to not wearing sand colored uniform. If you do not have an e-visa you have to go to the Visa hut and pay 20$ for a lovely sticker in your passport. Do not forget a passport photo ! Or get an e-visa (5$ extra), skip that queue and queue up for Cambodian Immigration. Do not forget to get an Arrival/Departure Card from the officials (sand uniform).

You do walk through some no man's land with Casinos and Hookers and mostly unpleasant elements. But if you ignore all of them you're fine.
There was a lot of buzz and hype on blogs and forums on how unpleasant and dangerous (scamming) this place is. Stay focussed, stay calm, say a POLITE NO to everyone (unlike me at some stage), basically just say no but in a polite way and you will be fine. Hide your valuable though. I was totally freaked and stressed out at the beginning, over stressed as it happens. yes - it's not a very friendly place. No - you ain't going to meet Jack Sparrow or Black Beard. Unless you want to. Remember that this is where first world meet third world. You probably make three to four times as much in a month that they do in a year. They just want their cut.
Keep a level head and your wits and you will be fine. It is not as hostile as Wikitravel et al. make it out to be. Do be careful, but do not be spooked.

Once cleared immigration you are herded  onto a bus, that takes you to the International Tourist Transit Center, a place where you get your onward traffic at set prices.

9$ on  bus to Siem Reap (3h), 48$ for a taxi with 4 PAX max. Not cheap but the cab is money well invested, as it only takes two hours. In Thailand I used to think that there was a lot of overoptimistic overtaking - there is even more in Cambodia.

Once in Siem Reap the cabbie stopped to introduce us to his 'brother' (from a different set of parents by the looks of it) who will be our Tuk Tuk driver for tomorrow. 15$, going rate.

We ended up in 120m2 of splendor (only 120e a night), the Karavasara Hotel. Jaysus - if someone said I had to live here for six months in this apartment, I'd say OK. It is FAB. The daughter that stayed behind due to illness would have loved it here.

Off to bed now

Slideshow time

Day 3 in BKK

3rd and last (full)day in Bangkok. Royal Palaces on the menu.

After a later start, we eventually made it to the Royal Palaces. Really nice place, shame that that its precinct is crawling with the scum of this earth and the best con artists that Bangkok can offer. Thank God for the grumpy germanz, who a/ pointed us to the right direction (which our almost honest cabbie had done too) and b/ shouted they are all liars. Which they were.

I had a sudden change of clothes to do, as I was wearing shorts. Instead, and to show my respect, I had to wear trousers strait out of the Thai Department of Corrections and you won't be seeing them either. On the grounds you still have to be on your guard as Thai (and thus some thieves - I am not generalizing here) enter the grounds for free. So obviously if you are a Thai pick pocket...

Place itself underwent major renovation works, so most temples were shut.

Afterwards it was off to the cinema and The Dark Knight Rises. So did everyone else in the cinema,as this is what you do around here, as after the ads and before the show, they play the National Anthem.

Photos

 

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Day 2 of our adventures

I cooked with Poo (and I liked it).

 No - not with a number 2, but with a friendly lady called Poo, who runs a local charity/cooking school for do-gooders like me. After getting up at 07.15 (earlier then when going to work), I set out on my own -and the 5 million commuters in Bangkok.

Taxis are out of the question. When you are here, take the Metro or walk, as in a cab you will endure endless traffic jams.

Anyway prior to the cooking school a trip to the markt was involved. Basically Thai people seem to eat everything but a proper steak. They do not know what they are missing. But from living fish, eel, frogs and bugs everything that you can possibly imagine was eaten.

Cooking school was fine too. Now I know what went wrong with my Tom Yums : mental note - do not use stock, just water is fine. The other people where proper do gooders, the type you take an instant disliking to and keep it throughout the experience.

 Anyway : afterwards we set out to discover posh Bangkok and went to the aquarium in Siam shopping mall. Amazing ! Much better than any of your sealife's in Europe.

Tomorrow : Kings palace and TDKR in the evening. That is Batman for the non nerds. Max needs to be kept happy too.

Here are some photos

1st day in Bangkok

After a long flight and a few very politically incorrect things to do (try whisky and Doha...) we arrived in Bangkok. Smooth taxi ride to the condo, probably as guns and drugs were forbidden in the cab.

A long night sleep later we woke up, some more jet lagged than others. I (Guido writing) was the Energizer Bunny as usual...

Eventually we set off to the temples of Wat Pho, first by Metro and then by Taxi. Nice old taxi driver, who scammed us out of the double fare. As it was either paying 2.5 euro of 4 euro, I decided not to kick off in one of my usual rants. Temples were great and the investment into the personal tourist guide (300THB) was worth every Baht. Shame he struggled on the zoom though.

The temples were quite an amazing experience. See for yourself. After a hearty lunch we decided to take the bus back to the Metro, only to end up in a Taxi again (the bus never showed up and we were at the correct stop). Taxi was a death trap on four wheels, having to stop at a gas station to refill...the tires with air !.

Guy was honest but useless, as he dropped us off at the wrong end of Lat Proa Road. we were told to tell the taxi driver to go to Big C (a supermarket) on Lat Proa Road. Only that there are TWO Big C's...

Ah well - a few bahts later we aere back safe and sound and off to the roof top pool (wait for the pictures....).

Here are some photos of the day