Crossing the border this time was surprisingly simple. We caught a bus to a Cambodian town near the border, and then hired some moto-taxis (it is what it sounds like) to take us the rest of the way. They took us the last few kilometers to a ramshackle hut, which doubled as Cambodian customs and then through to Vietnamese immigration. Here we were greeted by an official who asked us to fill out an arrival card (having pre-obtained our visas in Cambodia). Once the arrival cards were completed the official asked that we give him US$1. I still have no idea what this dollar was for, perhaps a smile. Having obliged, he quickly processed our passports and then we were back on the moto-taxis racing through the gate and into Vietnam.

After a night on the mainland we caught a ferry to Phu Quoc island (off the southern tip of Vietnam). Here we hired some motorbikes for $5/£3 per day. The bikes were a necessity for getting the most out of our stay. The island is made up of a myriad of red dirt roads which lead to many hidden beaches. However, some of the roads have been washed away by small rivers making for a very interesting ride…

Each beach, different from the last pressed us to keep exploring new parts of this beautiful island. Having grown up on the east coast of Australia we always had the setting sun in the back of our minds. Nothing can beat the sun setting over the ocean, and on Phu Quoc’s quiet coconut palm lined beaches it certainly didn’t disappoint. For this, I will let the pictures do the talking.

The following day, now addicted to two wheeled exploration we headed off again. On this day however, we discovered the pitfalls of the island roads. Racing down a red dirt road I hit possibly the largest, spikiest rock for a few kilometers. It lifted me into the air, and I landed with a twisted jolt on the uneasy surface. Clutching the brakes hard, the wheels locked up and skidded out of control. Searching for traction, my instincts kicked in and I put my feet down. This caused my thong to have a blow-out (for the English: my flip-flop had a blow-out. I hope I didn’t have you worried….) before I finally skidded to a stop.

Straight away I knew I had a flat tyre and with Joel burning dust into the distance I held my finger on the horn. Eventually, our friends riding with us that day Sophie and François heard my horn. To my relief they turned around, and finally so did Joel. So after assessing my now completely flat tyre, it was up to Joel to search for some help. I was stuck on the side of a dirt road in the middle of the rainforest just waiting. A few kilometers down the road Joel came across a collection of shacks. Quickly glancing through them one appeared to have alot of bike parts lying around and a man who looked like he knew his way around a motorbike. His english however, was non-existent. So Joel entered into a game of charades trying to explain that a bike down the dirt road has a flat tyre. From Joel’s description there was alot of pointing and hissing noises.

Finally it became apparent that the charades was pointless and the man had no idea what Joel was talking about. Luckily though, Sophie and François had a Vietnamese friend who we got on the phone and acted as translator. Within a couple of minutes the man was ready to go and Joel came back to collect me. From there I rode the bike very carefully for about 2km before arriving at the shack. Here the man quickly fixed the tyre, and within minutes we were riding into the sunset…

Wading through the floodwaters of Siem Reap we decided to take refuge in a massage salon. Skipping over the sandbags in the doorway, the owners were only too happy to welcome some customers. Feeling slightly adventurous I decided to try something new. So after browsing the massage “menu” I decided to go for a “copper scrub”. It was described as a traditional Khmer (Cambodian) massage. Having no idea what it was, I assumed it was similar to a mud scrub, just copper coloured.

It soon proved that I couldn’t have been more wrong. As Joel lay there fully clothed enjoying a regular massage, I was asked to remove all my clothes and to lay on my front. The lady then started to apply some oil to small patches of my back and rub them intensely. At first it felt quite nice, but she kept rubbing the same place over and over again. Soon it started to hurt, almost a dull burning pain. Then she would move onto the next patch. Methodically she worked over my back in what seemed to be straight lines. Eventually it got to the point where I asked the lady to be a little softer as she was beginning to hurt me.

A little bewildered, she looked at me and said “Ok”, but barely changed the way she was scrubbing my back.

After completing my back she began doing to same thing down my arms. It was then that I caught the first glimpse of the markings. I could just see these red lines running down my arms. I turned to Joel who just had a slightly humorous look on his face. At this point I knew that my back was now covered in the same red marks. With little else to do, I just gritted my teeth and endured the rest of the scrub. Soon after, the lady finished and left, Joel just looked at me laughing and singing “eye of the tiger”.

After dressing myself and heading downstairs the owner of the massage salon asked

“What sickess do you have to get a copper scrub?”

I just replied with “Well, I’m not sick!”

Only then did I find out that a copper scrub is a traditional Khmer healing method. The scrub is completed by rubbing a copper coin over the same area continuously so as to bring the blood to the surface. It is believed to help heal common illnesses such as headaches and common colds.

Perhaps next time I have a headache I  will just take a few painkillers and go to bed….

Hopefully by our next update my tiger stripes would have disappeared.

Thanks for reading

J&J

Hope you enjoyed the pictures, coming up next is James as a tiger!

This temple, called Baksei Chamkrong was completed in 968 AD just before the Angkor Thom gates.

These inscriptions were just inside the door at the top of the (very) long climb to the top.

The Bayon ruins. This was the centrepiece of Angkor Thom and also the Angkorian capital for a long period of time.

Something scared James!

A detailed bas-relief.

Thanks for checking out the post, one more Angkor ruins Photo Special to come!

Joel and James

The West bank entrance to Angkor wat:

The entire outside of Angkor Wat is protected by a large 190m wide moat.

One of the 2 Libraries:

For some reason the lady on the left is more popular.

The Khmer Rouge defaced a large number of statues throughout Cambodia like this one.

Rain has taken its toll on these sandstone carvings.

The scale of Angkor Wat is staggering.

It’s a monkey!

The East bank entrance.

Paparazzi-ing James hehe.

More Angkor coming soon! Remember to subscribe to get a friendly email when we put up a new post. (No spam, we promise!)

Joel & James

Joel and I will be volunteering ourselves for two weeks working directly with local people in their various different roles at Kinyei. I am developing a barista training program for four new staff, which will begin working in the Kinyei café in early October. I am using my six years experience working in the coffee industry in Australia to develop this program and train the new staff. The new staff have never worked with coffee or customers before and through this training they will gain valuable, employable skills to set them up for their working lives.

Joel will develop some new training for Kinyei’s IT equipment, and to teach the new IT staff some basic computer skills. Some of them have never used such things as email, Google, Microsoft Word etc. so Joel has quite the work ahead of him! With these new skills gained, they will maintain Kinyei’s IT needs now and into the future.

Also, both of us have been giving some English lessons to the staff. This has involved developing their conversational English skills. One of the students even took the opportunity to take us to his English school elsewhere in Battambang. Here we were used for ‘show and tell’ and all of the students were thrilled to have us around. We were asked to tell the class our best tips for learning English. A bit stumped, all we could come up with was ‘umm, start leaning when you are 6 months old’! Seriously though, they don’t really need any tips, they are all so enthusiastic to learn and are excited to be in your presence. Sitting in the classroom, they all can’t wait to ask you another question and hang off your every answer. The enthusiasm to learn here is out of this world.

We are still yet to convince all of Kinyei’s staff that we are not twins. It really doesn’t help that our names both start with ‘J’. Most of the time James was shortened to just ‘Jam’

Our time at Kinyei has been fantastic and it has allowed us to meet so many amazing local people. I’m sure it won’t be long before we return to Battambang in search for some local Kinyei hospitality.

J&J

Neither of us had ever crossed through an overland border (excluding those in the EU, which don’t really count). So we knew from the start we were in for an interesting experience.

With our wits about us we left Bangkok in a metered taxi (a smart way to travel around Bangkok, although many drivers need a little convincing to put their meter on). We were travelling to Mo Chit bus station in northern Bangkok. Here we would be able to board a bus to Arunyaprathet, which is 7km from the Thai-Cambodian border. After getting lost in the taxi and being dropped at the bus depo, we finally found the bus station and purchased a ticket for the first class bus.

The first class bus however, was far from lavish. The speedo and the fuel gauge were broken, the suspension was awful and the odometer was stuck on 809,777. So, without knowing how fast we were going or when we would run out of fuel, we set off on the journey. As we made our way out of Bangkok it became clear that the monsoonal rains had caused some flooding, and there were certainly a few sketchy moments driving through flooded roads. Our driver was not in the mood for stopping though which was evident by his driving which was simple; 1: redline the engine and 2: overtake everything in our path, disregarding oncoming traffic. We made it to Arunyaprathet by mid afternoon, only just…

In Arunyaprathet we had to get a tuk-tuk 7km to the border. At this point we met two Colombian-Australians who were travelling the same way. So together we quicky found some tuk-tuks and headed to the border market. The tuk-tuk then dropped us near the border where some men greeted us with “welcome to the border” and tried to usher us into their office. Far from believable, we turned the other way and headed through the chaos towards Thai emigration. At that exact time the heavens opened up and delivered an almighty tropical thunderstorm.

Once through Thai emigration (very simple) we headed towards the Cambodian visa office, there we filled out some forms for our visas and handed over USD$20. The visa officer (dressed in a police uniform) demanded that we pay USD$20 and 800 Thai Baht. Joel however, realised this was not right and told him we would only be paying USD$20. After some face melting death stares and a stand off, they gave in, processed our visas and threw our passports back at us.

With our new visas in hand we battled through the rain, passed through Cambodian immigration and were officially in Poipet, Cambodia. Here we met absolute chaos, and despite the rain there were people and bikes everywhere. Before we knew it we were ushered along by some people and put onto a “government” bus. It looked nothing like a government bus, nor did the 12 year old driving it, but we had little choice but to just go along for the ride.

Eventually the bus set off where it drove out of Poipet (we were very pleased to see the back of that place) and into the countryside. After driving for about 15-20 mins we arrived at a large transportation depo. Here there were lots of “police”, “government officials” and others. By the time we arrived here it was beginning to get dark and there wasn’t really anyone else around. We were told that it would be a USD$40 taxi fare to Battambang and we must pay upfront to some man sitting in a booth. We had a long think about it, and despite deciding we were subject to yet another elaborate scam we had no choice but to go with it. So begrudgingly we paid the man and got into the taxi enroute to Battambang. Well, it was more like a scrapheap ready, late Toyota Camry.

Driving along awful roads with lots of traffic (without street lights) and battering rain we made the 2.5 hour journey to Battambang. Other than a few hairy overtaking moments we made it to Battambang unscathed, and the taxi driver dropped us out the front of Kinyei. Here is where we met our friend Alex and where we will be spending our time doing voluntary work in Cambodia over the next couple of weeks.

Now in Battambang for 2 weeks our next blog posts will be about our adventures and voluntary work here.

J&J

Fast paced, efficient and mighty futuristic, Singapore was far different than either of us had imagined.

The blend of cultures in Singapore creates a diverse urban form which is all squeezed into a small island. Influences from British, Chinese and Indian cultures are very evident in Singapore and would create interest for a range of travellers. Joel and I found ourselves staying in Little India, an area only a few stops away from the esplanade, but with a completely different charm. In contrast to Orchard Road which is all about the glitz and glam of high end shopping, Little India was a busy market area full of shops and restaurants housed in colonial buildings. Most of the buildings had a narrow footpath covered by archways created by the overhang from the 2nd story. This space provided a tunnel for pedestrians and was also utilised by the locals to sell a range of products or keep plants.

Braving the local resturants in the evening, we visited an indian resturant where we appeared to be the only non Indians. Here we were seated at the same table as some locals and our indian skills were tested. Our food was delivered on a jail tray without cutlery, but instead with plenty of indian chapati and naan bread to scoop up the curries, chutneys and sauces. Trying to only tear the bread with our right hand (the left is traditionally used for ‘other’ uses), we struggled through, but the fantastic food at a tiny price was well worth the challenge.

On the following day we visited some areas more famous in Singapore. From the Marina Promenade, the Marina Bay Sands stands out across the water. Dominating the skyline on that side of the bay, the Marina Bay Sands is an incredible building made up of three towers with a boat-like structure along the top. This area of the bay really shows off the extravagant side of Singapore, which also has an art museum, a casino and a huge shopping centre (complete with ice skating rink).

With even more extravagance than the bay, we visited Orchard Road (an area famous for high end shopping). With our local guides (Mia and Evan) we took a stroll along the street which has countless flashing billboards, neon lights and huge video screens for as far as the eye can see. Everywhere you turn there is another huge store dedicated to another fashion house. Also, just in case there is one of Singapore’s tropical thunderstorms, many of these shops are connected by underground tunnels which also have more shopping, (shops under shops!) allowing you to travel miles beneath the ground, all with the comfort of airconditioning. Singapore doesn’t do anything by halves!

With the world class MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), it’s simple to zip between different parts of the city, uncovering the diversity of Singapore.

Next stop, Bangkok, Thailand!

J & J

This is our first post of hopefully many. Currently we are in Melbourne, about to embark on our fantastic adventure tomorrow to Singapore. (Somewhere James hasn’t been, which is nice for a change)

We wil be travelling through Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and then onto Berlin for New Years Eve, by which time we will then need to head to England in search of some more funds.

So after years working in retail as an optical dispenser and with James comfortably in a government job as a town planner, it was time to act like ‘twenty somethings’. So we quit our day jobs and decided to throw ourselves deep into the world’s cultural melting pot. We sold our cars and furniture to fund this epic 3.5 month backpacking journey, where in early January we will end up in the UK for an indefinite amount of time.

Yeah, sounds rock solid doesn’t it?

Stay tuned for some fun tales from the far east!

J & J