On the road again South-East Asia

Jemaa El Fna Food

2009-06-01T19:48:00.001+02:00

Jemaa El Fna Food, originally uploaded by ibeepix.

Happy New Year!

2008-04-14T03:36:00.002+02:00

Songkran 2008, originally uploaded by ibeepix.

I'm back in Bangkok, and what a change it is from Australia. It's very hot, about 40 degrees during the day, 30 at night. And after 2 months of being confronted with severe water shortages I seem to have arrived at the biggest water fight in the world. Yes, it's Songkran, Thai New Year, and people celebrate it by splashing water at each other.It's bigger and crazier than I could ever have imagined, especially in and around Kao San Road. Yesterday there were thousands of people there, all armed with giant water guns, drenched, covered completely with talcum powder and hardly able to move. In other parts of the city celebrations are a bit more gentile. Groups of children, teenagers and the odd granny are on the streets, dancing around on loud music or in trucks driving around and trying to get as many people wet as possible, shooting water at passers by, cars and into the open windows of buses. Even the bus drivers are joining in and are shooting into the buses of their fellow bus drivers.
So far I haven't been able to take any pictures, but today I'll try to make some...

Songkran 2008, originally uploaded by ibeepix.

Busy in Bangkok

2008-02-03T11:06:00.000+01:00

Yesterday morning I arrived back in Bangkok. And for the first time ever I had a hard time finding a room. I usually stay in Rambuttri street, not far from Kao San Road. My train arrived around 6.30 AM, so I was quite early. But not a single guesthouse had a room available, not even the more expensive ones. I think I walked around for an hour with my heavy backpack and then decided to stay in one place and wait until somebody checked out. After about another hour without any progress I checked whether any of the nearby guesthouses had any rooms available yet, and luckily the place where I wanted to stay from the beginning had a single room for me, I just had to wait for it to be cleaned. By 10.30 AM I finally could go to my room...
When I went out for a little stroll, I bumped into Sarah, an Australian girl who'd been staying in Nongkhai for the last 2 weeks. She left Nongkhai a day before me and was doing her last minute shopping before flying home. I joined her for some more shopping and we had some great Indian food at 'Spicy Affair' (this place has possibly the best Indian food in the Kao San area, even though it never seems to be busy). After we said goodbye and she took a taxi to the airport, I got a very nice massage.
Then I decided to check out the dentist since I bit of a little bit of one of a tooth while sleeping a week ago. Somebody recommended 'Dental Time' on Chakrapong road to me. And it turned out to be a good dentist. Since it was only a tiny little bit that had broken of my tooth, they only had to polish it a little bit, but they did a good job and it cost me only 100 baht (2 euro).
This morning it was raining quite hard, so I took a taxi to the Panthip Plaza, the place to buy computers, camera's and game consoles. I bought myself a new external hard drive, because the one I had already is nearly full, and a cheap lightweight tripod for my camera.
Then I walked to Siam Square to enjoy the air-conditioning in the luxurious malls, had some great Japanese food and took the bus back to Kao San...
Tomorrow evening I have my flight to Melbourne, so from now on you can follow my adventures on my Australia blog...

The Good Life

2008-01-30T10:46:00.000+01:00

Lunch at Lee's (from left to right: Silvie, Stu, Sarah, Susan and Dave)
I've been in Thailand now for exactly 3 weeks and the end of this stopover in Thailand is slowly coming closer. Friday I will take the train back to Bangkok and monday I will fly to melbourne. Once again I can say it has been absolutely wonderful. Nongkhai is such a nice place. Though I'm sure that a lot of people would think it's the most boring place in the world since there's not that much to see here.
I've been hanging out with my friends here, working on my portfolio and writing job application letters for a job in Melbourne, having lunches at Lee's, who makes the best vegetarian food ever, having fresh coconuts while listening to live performances of The Rubberband (listen to some songs I recorded down below) in the Gaia Bar (a great bar floating on the Mekhong). And I think it was during one of their songs I thought to myself: 'This is the good life'.
But as I said, it's all coming to an end soon, and that's ok, 'cause I'm sure Australia is going to be great too...

The first 4 songs were played by the whole band (Anton on the accordion, Lee on the violin, Christina on the guitar and David on percussion), the last 2 are played by Lee (voice and guitar) and Susan (flute)...

Moving time

2008-01-20T09:38:00.000+01:00

Today, I'm finally moving to a single room:-) The room that I wanted became available and I will move there later today, which is really nice 'cause the room I was in was quite nice and small.

I've been working on my new Australia blog the last few days and now I can finally declare it open for business. So please go check it out. The new address is australia.inebeerten.be. It's very similar to this blog. I haven't written anything interesting yet, since I'm not in Australia yet, but that will change soon...

Vandaag verhuis ik eindelijk naar een nieuwe kamer. :-) De kamer die ik graag wilde hebben is vrij gekomen en dat is heel fijn, want mijn oude kamer was nogal lawaaierig en klein.

Ik heb de laatste dagen ook aan mijn nieuwe Australië blog zitten werken en ik kan nu eindelijk zeggen dat hij online is. Dus ga er zeker eens naar kijken, 't adres is australia.inebeerten.be. Hij lijkt heel erg op deze blog.Ik heb wel nog niks interessants geschreven aangezien ik nog niet in Australië zit, maar daar zal snel verandering in komen...

Technical Problems

2008-01-15T11:04:00.000+01:00

I recently made a new online portfolio. And when I put it online, I erased my old one, and everything else that had been gathering dust on my old webspace. But unfortunately I didn't realise that by doing so, I also deleted the background and header images for this blog and for the blog newsletter. I thought I fixed the problem last week, but apparently I uploaded the wrong images for the newsletter, so that's why the newsletter looked a bit weird. I just uploaded the right images, so everything should be ok now...

Other than that, everything is wonderful here in Nongkhai. The first few days I was very tired from the train trip, but I feel like my energy is up again. I met a lot of nice new people and many of them are staying for a while. The weather is really nice with warm and sunny days and cool nights. And I had a really good massage the other day...

Ik heb recent een nieuwe online portfolio gemaakt. En toen ik die online heb gezet, heb ik mijn oude portfolio en alle andere dingen die stof lagen te verzamelen op mijn oude webruimte, gewist. Maar helaas wist ik niet dat ik door dit te doen ook de achtergrondbeelden voor deze blog en de blognieuwsbrief heb gewist. Ik dacht dat ik het probleem vorige week al had opgelost, maar blijkbaar heb ik de verkeerde beelden voor de nieuwsbrief geupload, en daarom zag de brief er dus een beetje vreemd uit. Ik heb zojuist de juiste beelden geupload, dus nu zou alles ok moeten zijn.

Daarnaast gaat alles goed hier in Nongkhai. De eerste dagen was ik een beetje moe van de treinreis, maar ondertussen heb ik alweer wat meer energie. Ik heb een hoop nieuwe, interessante mensen leren kennen en de meesten blijven hier ook tijdje. Het weer is overdag warm en zonnig en 's nachts lekker koel. En eergisteren heb ik een heerlijk massage gehad...

And back in Nongkhai

2008-01-12T04:06:00.000+01:00

Jenny and I immediately booked our train tickets to Nongkhai. Unfortunately the sleepertrains were all full for the next few days, so we were forced to take a normal train. The trip to Nongkhai was horrible. I think to diesel engine was located underneath our carriage, so it was very very noisy. I didn't sleep for even a minute.
We arrived in Nongkhai around 5am, took a tuktuk to the Mut Mee Guesthouse and made ourselves comfortable in the hammocks in the garden, since the reception is closed until 8am. I ended up in small double bedroom right in front of the noisy entrance, because all the other rooms were full. And it looks like I wont be able to move into one of the 2 best single rooms because they are taken by people who will stay longer than me :-(
But neverthless it is really nice to be back here...

Jenny en ik hebben onze treintickets naar Nongkhai onmiddellijk geboekt. Helaas zaten de slaaptreinen vol voor de komende dagen, en dus konden we niet anders dan een gewone trein te nemen. De rit was verschrikkelijk. Ik denk dat de dieselmotor van de trein onder onze wagon zat, dus er was heel veel lawaai. Ik heb nog geen minuut kunnen slapen.
We zijn om 5u 's morgens in Nongkhai aangekomen, hebben een tuktuk naar de Mut Mee Guesthouse genomen en ons in de hangmatten in de tuin geïnstalleerd aangezien de receptie nog tot 8 uur gesloten zou zijn. Uiteindelijk heb ik een hele kleine dubbele slaapkamer gekregen juist voor de lawaaierige ingang van de guesthouse, omdat alle andere kamers al bezet waren. En 't ziet ernaar uit dat ik ook niet zal kunnen verhuizen naar één van de twee beste single kamers omdat daar mensen inzitten die nog langer dan mij gaan blijven :-(
Maar hoe dan ook is 't ontzettend fijn om terug hier te zijn...

Back in Thailand

2008-01-10T03:37:00.000+01:00

Tuesday evening I left Belgium. My flight to London was quite frightening. At first it was delayed for 45 minutes because of too much wind in Heathrow, but then we did leave, and the landing was awfull. The airplane was shaking very badly, and I was really happy when were back on the ground safely. My flight to Bangkok was really nice. I flew with EVA Air, a Chinese airline that I had never heard of before booking my ticket. I was a bit scared it would be some dodgy airline, but it turned out to be really good., with a very friendly service on board and the food was good too.
I arrived in Bangkok around 3.30pm on wednesday. My friend, Jenny, from Switserland arrived about half an hour earlier on a plane from Frankfurt. And somehow we managed to get through immigration and bagage collection at exactly the same time. It was nice being back I Bangkok with her.

Dinsdagavond ben ik weer uit België vertrokken. Mijn vlucht naar Londen was nogal beangstigend. Ze was eerst al 45 minuten vertraagd omdat er teveel wind in Heathrow was om veilig te kunnen landen. Uiteindelijk zijn we toch vertrokken, maar de landing was verschrikkelijk. Het vliegtuig zwenkte uit in alle richtingen and ik was heel blij toen we weer veilig op de grond stonden. Mijn vlucht naar Bangkok was wel heel goed. Ik vloog met EVA Air, een Chinese maatschappij waar ik nog nooit van had gehoord voor ik mijn vlucht boekte. Ik had een beetje schrik dat het een slechte maatschappij zou zijn, ,maar het viel dus heel goed mee. De service aan boord was heel goed en 't eten was ook lekker.
Ik ben woensdag om 3.30u in de namiddag geland in Bangkok. Jenny, een meisje uit Zwitserland die ik uit Nongkhai ken, was een half uur voor mij geland met vliegtuig uit Frankfurt. En op de een of andere manier zijn we erin geslaagd om op exact dezelfde moment uit de luchthaven te komen. 't Was echt leuk om samen met haar terug in Bangkok te zijn.

Australia, here I come !

2007-11-25T13:28:00.000+01:00

After undergoing a chest x-ray and waiting in agony for 2 weeks, my Australian visa finally got approved this week. I already booked my flight to Bangkok after I got the x-ray, because the doctor told me it was clear. But I waited to book my flight from Bangkok to Melbourne until I got my visa and booked it this morning. So it's all set now :-)), I will fly to Bangkok on the 8th of January and I will fly to Melbourne on the 4th of February. I have almost a month in Thailand, to visit my friends in Nongkhai and maybe do some other things...

I will make another blog especially for Australia when I find the time, but for the time being I will keep on posting on this blog...

The end is only the beginning

2007-11-10T09:53:00.000+01:00

Yes, I'm home again. I arrived back in Belgium wednesday around 11am after that very long and exhausting trip from Bangkok. Eventhough it's always nice going back home, back to a place you know very well, were you can relax and see your old friends again; my return hasn't been too great. I've had major jetlag and a really bad cold, the weather is horrible outside and all kinds of small things seem to be going wrong. But today is the first day that seems to be a bit better.

So the end is the beginning. Of what? As some of you already know, I have some new big plans. I'm planning on going to Australia, hopefully in januari. On my way to Australia I will visit my friends in Nongkhai again for a few weeks, and after that I will fly to Melbourne, were I'm going to try to find a job and will stay for a while, maybe indefinitely, if I really like it there. But right now I'm trying to organise this trip to the land of Oz. I've started my visa-application, something that shouldn't be to hard, but of course for some reason that I don't know (though I think it has to do with the fact that I've been traveling in poor countries in the last few years) they have asked me to get a chest x-ray, before they can approve my visa. Monday I will get the x-ray, and hopefully everything will be ok, so they can approve my visa, and I can book my flight. I'll keep you posted on my progress in organising this trip. And I'll post the link to my new Australia blog as soon as it's ready...

The long journey home

2007-11-06T09:26:00.000+01:00

This morning I got up early, around 5am. My 6am minibus to the airport left half an hour late, and I was a bit scared that I would arrive too late at the airport, but there was really no need, because we somehow managed to get there in only 25 minutes (usually it takes about an hour or more). My flight to Singapore was very relaxed and we got here with a slight delay, around lunchtime. And now I'm stuck here in the airport until my flight to London leaves around 10.45pm. So I have a lot of time on my hands to discover everything there is to do here in the airport. So far I've already had some nice sushi, watched some television (unfortunately they were playing Terminator II on the moviechannel, I'll have to check again later to see if there 's a better movie on), had a cappucino, walked around in the shops, looking at very expensive things that I would never buy, used the free internet and had a footmassage by one of those footmassage machines...
Yeah, I think I will be happy when I arrive back in Belgium, tomorrow around 11 am (that's about 30 hours or more (I seem to have some calculating problems with all the time differences, but it sure is a lot of hours) after I got into that minibus in Bangkok).

Last day in Bangkok

2007-11-05T09:50:00.000+01:00

Leaving Nongkhai was harder than expected. Physically, because there was a train strike, the first one in about 20 years, which meant I had to stay one day longer in Nongkhai. But I didn't really mind staying longer. And mentally, because I had to say goodbye to so many lovely people. Nongkhai really feels like a second home now.
But I finally arrived back in Bangkok, and I've been indulging myself with shopping, massages and good food. The shopping isn't completely going to plan today, because I kind of forgot that most of the market stalls in the Kao San area are closed on mondays. I hope they will open tonight, but I'm afraid they will not. But I've had a few nice massages. And I've had some really good food at Spicy Affair (Indian food), their Malai Kofta is delicious, and at Maykaidee's, the best vegetarian food in town.
All that's left for me to do now is pack my bag and have a good night sleep before embarking on the long journey home...

7 days to go

2007-10-30T05:44:00.000+01:00

Yes, indeed. I was quite shocked when I got an email this morning reminding me that I'm flying to Singapore (and on to London and Brussels) in exactly 7 days. The last 5 months have flown by very quickly. Indonesia and Malaysia seems like ages ago. But I think it was all good. The first 2 months were a bit harder for me, not feeling completely at ease where I was, but it was nevertheless a great experience. And the last month was just great, staying at Mut Mee, which kind of feels like home now. They even offered me a job here, but I kindly declined. In the last few days many friends have left Nongkhai though, so I think it's a good time to leave too. Thursday I'll take the nighttrain to Bangkok for some final days of shopping. Tuesday morning I'll fly to Singapore and wednesday I"ll be back in Belgium...

The Naga Fireball Festival

2007-10-30T05:18:00.000+01:00

On the 26th of october, at the end of the buddhist lent and on the full moon, the Naga Fireball Festival takes place in Pon Pisai, about 45km from Nongkhai. The guesthouse organised a trip going there by bus and returning on a late night river cruise with dinner on board. So a big group of us decided to go there and hoped to see some of these mystical fireballs. Three years ago I also went to Pon Pisai, but that night we didn't see any fireballs, apparently they saw some the next day, when I had to do a visarun.
I was quite excited to go back. There were thousands of people, mostly Thai, sitting on the banks of the Mekhong, having a picknick, enjoying some (rather disappointing) fireworks and simply having a good time. People were lighting rice paper lanterns and watching the show on the river with thousands of candles floating down the river and many with fire decorated boats going by. But the fireballs once again didn't show. The Thai people didn't seem to mind though, they were just there to have good time and thats exactly what they got. Around 9PM we boarded the boat and began our long journey upstream to Nongkhai. We had a nice dinner on board, but I think we were all happy to get off the boat when we arrived back in Nongkhai at 3.30 AM...

Dragon Boat Races

2007-10-18T10:50:00.000+02:00

Yesterday the festival season officially started in Nongkhai with the Dragon boat races. Today there isn't much happening, but in the next few days it should become pretty crazy with more boat races, parades, markets and the Naga Fireball Festival on the 26th.

God is black and grew up in a ghetto in Chicago

2007-10-17T03:45:00.000+02:00

I met him two days ago. He came to the Mut Mee restaurant with two of his disciples who hung onto every word he said. Actually the whole restaurant listened to what he was saying because he made it very hard not to hear him talk. He loved using words like "fucking" and "shit" and if this would have been broadcasted on American television you'd probably only hear beeps. He started explaining how he grew up in a ghetto in Chicago and how his mother was a drunk and his father made a lot of money but was screwing around. He became a member of a gang eventhough he was white, but his gangmates called him a nigger too. He was kind of the first white nigger, the original M&M. Oh, and he could use the word nigger, he didn't use it because he was a racist, but he was one of them, he was one of the brothers. He said his gangmates hung out in his garden drinking beer, and his mom would come out being drunk and abuse them verbally, calling them all kinds of racist things, and then she would go out to buy them all a beer. He said that hip-hop now wasn't really hip-hop and that those famous rappers were definitely not as gangsta as he was. And then he started to say he was all spiritual, and that in fact Chicago was a very spiritual place probably the most spiritual city of the US.
He also started talking politics and history, saying that Western Europe didn't like America that much, but Eastern Europe did, since they owe a lot to the US. He said that both World War I and II started in Yoegoslavia. And he didn't like Europe, especially not the Euro. Europe was not good at all. He said Turkey was already part of Europe, though one of his disciples said him straight, so he said Turkey was lucky that they weren't part of Europe yet, and if they were smart they shouldn't become part. He also said that Australia was full of serial killers now, a bit like the USA in the 60's and 70's.
He talked for hours and hours only stopping to have a sip of his beer, and you could see people in the restaurant first trying to move to another table, further away from him and then just leaving, because there was no escaping him in the restaurant.
After some hours he finally got up to leave and pay his bill. He signed it with "God"

Nongkhai III

2007-10-11T11:39:00.000+02:00

Once again I apologize about not writing any new posts for such a long time. The weather has been really bad the last week as the tail of that typhoon that went over Vietnam, swept past Nongkhai. It was raining almost every day non-stop for a week. So there wasn't much to do here in Nongkhai except for hanging out with the other longtermers, watching some movies and reading some books. The internet was down a lot too, because apparently a big fiberglass cable got cut in Bangkok and it took some time to repair it.
But it's all starting to look a bit brighter now. The sun is out again. My friends Frederike and Zeger, who also did the yogacourse in august, came back to spend the last days of their trip in Nongkhai before they return to Holland. And saturday there's going to be a big party in the Gaia Bar...
And I'll try to upload some more pictures in the next few days...

Nogmaals mijn excuses dat ik alweer zolang niets heb geschreven. Het weer is de laatste week behoorlijk slecht geweest omdat de staart van die tyfoon die over Vietnam is gegaan, over Nongkhai hing. Het regende bijna nonstop voor een week. Dus er was niet zo heel veel te doen hier in Nongkhai, buiten een beetje rond te hangen met de andere long-termers, een paar filmpjes bekijken en boeken te lezen. Het internet werkte ook vaak niet omdat er blijkbaar een fiberglass kabel in Bangkok was doorgesneden, en het duurde wel effe eer die gemaakt was.
Maar ondertussen begint het er allemaal weer wat beter uit te zien. De zon schijnt weer. Mijn vrienden Frederike en Zeger, die de yogacursus in augustus ook hebben gedaan, zijn terug hier om de laatste dagen van hun reis hier door te brengen voor ze weer naar Nederland vertrekken. En zaterdag is er een groot feestje in de Gaja Bar...
En ik zal de volgende dagen weer wat foto's proberen up te loaden...

Back in Nongkhai

2007-09-29T11:00:00.000+02:00

As soon as my computer was fixed I took the night train to Nongkhai. Surprisingly the train arrived with a delay of only 5 minutes (usually there's a delay of 2 or 3 hours), so I was at the Mut Mee Guesthouse at 9.30am. It is nice being back here, as it feels a bit like home. My old room was already taken but I got another one that is even better...
I'll be staying here untill a few days before the end of my trip (6 nov), so I can work a little bit, make some stock illustrations and make a new portfolio. And I'll be able to keep on doing my yoga practise and go to the free meditation sessions.
For me Nongkhai is probably the best place to stay for a longer period of time. It is a very relaxed place, the locals are friendly and there are not too many tourists, but enough to have a nice conversation once in a while. There are also a few foreigners staying here longterm. There's a nice market and there's an interesting Buddhist sculpture parc. And of course it's on the banks of the mighty Mekong...

Zodra mijn computer gemaakt was, heb ik de nachttrein naar Nongkhai genomen. De trein kwam verrassend genoeg aan met maar 5 minuten vertraging (meestal is 't 2 of 3uur vertraging), en dus was ik om half 10 in de Mut Mee Guesthouse. 't Is leuk om terug hier te zijn want 't voelt toch een beetje als thuis aan. Mijn oude kamer was wel al bezet, maar de kamer die ik nu heb is nog beter...
Ik zal hier tot een paar dagen voor 't einde van mijn reis blijven (6 nov) , zodat ik een beetje kan werken aan stock illustraties en aan een nieuwe portfolio. En ik kan hier ook mijn yoga blijven doen en naar gratis mediatie sessies gaan.
Nongkhai is voor mij de ideale plek om iets langer te blijven. 't Is een heel relaxte plaats met vriendelijke locals en er zijn niet te veel toeristen, maar toch genoeg om af en toe een interessant gesprek mee te voeren. En er zijn ook een aantal buitenlanders die hier langdurig blijven. Er is een leuke markt en een interessant buddhistisch beeldenpark. En 't ligt natuurlijk op de oevers van de Mekong...

New Photos !!

2007-09-27T12:54:00.000+02:00

Yeah, finally some new photos! I know you all have been waiting for new pictures... And I will be uploading some more during the next few days.

Computer troubles

2007-09-25T08:06:00.000+02:00

The morning after I arrived back in Bangkok, I took the bus to the train station to buy my train ticket to Nongkhai for the 24th. But unfortunately my computer decided that I should stay in Bangkok a little longer. As I told you before, my parents took my laptop to Cambodia, I asked them to do this so that I would be able to work a little bit when I return to Nongkhai, where I will stay until the end of my trip. But when I used my laptop last week it was incredibly slow and when I was back in Bangkok I discovered there were some serious problems with the operating system, and possibly the hard disk. Luckily there is an Apple Service Provider in Bangkok, so I paid them a visit and they agreed that there was a problem and would look at it. I went straight to train station and delayed my departure for 2 days. This morning I phoned the Apple shop and they had good news, they were able to fix the problem by reformatting the hard disk, off course this means I lost all my software, but I shouldn't have too many problems reinstalling them. All my documents were on an external hard disk so I still have them. And I'm happy that it was all fixed relatively quick and cheap (it cost me about 25 euros). And if all goes to plan I will be on my way to Nongkhai tomorrow evening...

That notorious bustrip from Siem Reap to BKK

2007-09-23T06:26:00.001+02:00

Yesterday morning I took the bus to Bangkok. This bustrip is quite notorious because of the state of the road between Siem Reap and the border, I wouldn't really call it a road and definitely not a highway like they do in Cambodia, it's a bunch of potholes in the dirt. And there are a lot of scams they try to pull on you, during this trip, especially when you do it in the other direction.
They picked me up at 7am, and after picking up enough other tourists so the bus was completely stuffed with people and luggage they started their trip towards the border. For about half an hour the road was still quite good. But then it got worse and worse and worse and... But eventhough we were being shaken alover, we were proceeding at a more or less decent speed, because the road was in a 'good' shape as it didn't rain. After stopping for lunch and driving through a lake in Sisophon, the road seemed to get better and I started to think that maybe we would be able to make it to the border sooner than expected. Off course about a minute after that thought we heard a strange noice coming from underneath the bus, and yes, it had broken down... We had to get out of the bus and the driver started to work on it. A French guy who had taken this bus many times already said that it would most likely take about 2 or 3 hours before the bus would be fixed. But the gods decided to be kind to us and after about half an hour we were back on the road continuing our journey. The road got worse again, off course and after another 2 hours we finally reached the border in Poi Pet. It was 3.30pm by now, it took us about 8.5 hours to travel 150 km. Crossing the border was easy and on the thai side we got another bus, true luxury compared to that Cambodian bus. For some reason the busdriver didn't want to drive fast though, saying that he wanted to drive 'safely' and we didn't arrive in Bangkok until 8.45pm. It was definitely an exhausting trip, but I was happy to be back in Bangkok in one piece...

The temples of Angkor

2007-09-22T05:59:00.000+02:00

Monday morning I hired a motorbike taxi to visit Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom in the morning. We left at 6am, hoping to beat the crowds. But at Angkor Wat that is simply impossible to do. You have to approach the temple on the west side, and according to the guide book 'there is nothing to prepare you for the majesty of Angkor Wat'. But I found that slightly exagerated. To be honest I was not that impressed by Angkor Wat. Yes, it's a big temple, and there are a few beautiful carvings, but I felt a bit let down and I'm not sure why. Maybe I got my hopes up too high after hearing all these wonderful stories. After visiting Angkor Wat we went to the Bayon inside Angkor Thom. The Bayon is probably one of the most interesting temples inside Angkor Complex. The temple has 54 (if I remember correctly) towers with 4 huge buddha faces each. All those faces looking at each other and at you, they're great. After visiting a few other smaller temples inside Angkor Thom I retuned to Siem Reap as my parents would arrive around lunch time.
It was nice seeing them again after being on the road for about 3.5 months. We spent the afternoon in town and decided to rent a car with driver and guide for the next 3 days to see the temples. This was a very nice way to see the temples, and I wouldn't have been able to afford it on my own. It was quite exhausting visiting al those temples. Sometimes it was really hot and sometimes it was raining. And most of those temples were built artificial mountains, which means off course that there is a lot of climbing involved. But after seeing almost all the temples in Angkor I have to say that eventhough Angkor Wat itself didn't really impress me, the whole complex did. It's absolutely worth seeing the temples.
Thursday evening my parents left again, continuing their trip to Phnom Phen. I stayed 1 more day in Siem Reap, so I could visit a few temples again where it was raining the first time.

Siem Reap

2007-09-16T11:06:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I took a bus to Siem Reap. I arrived at about 3pm at the bustation and was welcomed by a big group of shouting and touting men, trying to get me to come to their guesthouse. It reminded me a bit of Jaisalmer in India. I decided to go with a tuktukdriver who said he was rom the buscompany and would give me a free ride to my choice of guesthouse anywhere in town. Of course after I settled into the tuktuk, he said the ride was only free if I would promise to use his services as a tuktukdriver the next day to visit the temples of Angkor Wat. Since I was planning to go by bicycle I didn't need his services, so he said he would take me to my guesthouse for 1$, which was fine or me. But suddenly he couldn't bring me anymore, his friend would bring me. After driving about 2km, the tuktuk driver stopped and said that that was only as far as he would go for 1$ and that my guesthouse was at least 5 km further. If I still wanted to go to my guesthouse I had to pay 2$. I told him that I wasn't going to pay more, because he knew very well where my guesthouse was when we agreed on the price. So he said that I should pay 1.5$. I said he should drive on, thinking that I wasn't going to pay him more than 1$ anyway. After 500m he drove into a small dust road and stopped. He talked to some people and I assumed he wanted to say something to a friend before resuming the journey, but he said we were there and that my guesthouse was around the corner. I was a bit suspicious,'cause a minute ago he was telling me that my guesthouse was still 5km away, but decided to follow him and indeed he was right, there it was, my guesthouse. I gave him a dollar bill and when he asked for half a dollar more, I shaked my head and laughed very loud. It seems wherever you go tuktukdrivers are never to be trusted :-))

Phnom Penh

2007-09-13T06:39:00.000+02:00

After a short but turbulent flight I arrived in Phnom Penh 2 days ago. My first impression of Phnom Penh is that is very wet and chaotic. From the airplane it looked as if the whole of Cambodia was flooded and it was raining when I arrived. And the traffic in the streets around my guesthouseis crazy, Bangkok traffic is nothing against this. Yesterday morning I woke up to discover a bright blue sky and after switching to another guesthouse across the street with better rooms and a nice outside sitting area, I made my way to the national museum. Walked around a little and in the afternoon and went to the Orussey Market which is close to my guesthouse. This morning I visited the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda. But I have to admit that I was not very impressed by it, I guess I've already seen too many realy beautiful palaces and temples before...
Tomorrow morning I will take the bus to Siem Reap, where I will visit the temples of Angkor Wat and see my parents in a few days.

Na een korte maar turbulente vlucht ben ik eergisteren in Phnom Penh aangekomen. Mijn eerste indruk van Phnom Penh was dat het ere erg nat en chaotisch was. Vanuit het vliegtuig leek het wel of heel Cambodia overstroomd was en het regende bovendien keihard toen ik aankwam. Het verkeer in de omgeving van mijn guesthouse is superdruk en chaotisch, het verkeer in Bangkok is er niks tegen. Gisteren was er een stralende blauwe lucht toen ik opstond en nadat ik naar een andere guesthouse ben verhuisd met betere kamers en een fijn terras buiten, ben ik naar het nationaal museum gegaan. Ik heb een beetje rondgelopen en ben naar de Orussey markt vlak bij mijn guesthouse geweest.
Deze ochtend ben ik naar het koninklijk paleis en de zilveren pagoda geweest, maar ik moet eerlijk toegeven dat ik niet erg onder de indruk was, ik denk dat ik ondertussen al veel te veel mooie paleizen en tempels heb gezien...
Morgenvroeg zal ik de bus naar Siem Reap nemen, waar ik de tempels van Angkor Wat ga bezoeken en over een paar dagen mijn ouders ga zien.

2007-09-08T11:51:00.000+02:00

Two days ago I came back to Bangkok. I managed to get here from Ayuthaya for only 25 Baht (about 0.5 euro) and using 4 modes of transport (my feet, boat, train and bus). I decided to go for 'luxury' this time and went straight to the Rambutri Village Inn Hotel. They have single fan rooms with private bathroom, window and some space around the bed for 290 Baht. And best of all, they have a swimming pool on the roof. Ususally I stay in a depressing 150 baht matchbox room with shared bathroom and no window.
The problem is that getting a room at Rambutri Village is difficult, the single fan rooms are almost always fully occupied. Luckily I arrived at the right time, check-out time, and after waiting for about an hour I managed to get the only fan room that became available :-)
I've been doing some shopping yesterday, enjoying the airco at the malls around Siam Square and trying to find a laptop backpack, because in about 10 days I will be travelling with my own laptop :-), my parents are taking it to Cambodia...