The last few days have been action packed and some of the best of my adventure. Unfortunately due to slow internet connections, constant moving from city to city and a dodgy keyboard on my laptop I haven't been able to blog as much as I'd like to but I'm hoping that will change when I get to Laos and start to chill out for a few days. Here are a few bullet points of what's been happening:
-I'm presently traveling with Philly Griffin ( a friend from Waterford), for Xmas we went to the islands of Kao Phanyang to catch some sun, hit the full moon parties, and have a monster New Years. The island was a bit like Ibiza but more chilled out and far better scenery. Life was mostly all about sleeping in a log cabin beside the beach, driving around on our Honda 50s on the most dangerous roads I have ever seen, drinking coconuts, avoiding 40 ft, 500km an hour tidal waves and having a daily "dream package" massage :)
-Three days were had in Cambodia. Without doubt some of the most enjoyable days of my life. Firstly, we went to the capital Phnom Penh, a dust ridden, unorganised jungle where everyone rides a bike and chaos manages the traffic rules. With literally no traffic lights and no names on the roads anything goes. It was not unusual to see 4 or 5 people on the back of small bikes beeping horns, zig zagging and jockeying for position, wearing a face mask to protect against dust and a baseball cap to protect themselves from the belting sun. Also got the chance to visit the harrowing Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and the Toul Sleng Genocide Musuem. One of the highlights was being brought to a army base by my taxi bike rider. A menu was put on the table and i had the chance to fire a varierty of weapons in a ravine or shotting range. I toyed with the idea of firing an M16 and a rocket launcher for 200 dollars but decided that i'd leave it to Chuck Norris, Rambo and the more than willing Israeli boys that were there!!! After a crazy night in the dodgiest hotel I ever stayed with we got two taxi bikes to the train station and then made our way painfully slow to Siem Reap and the amazing temples of Anker Wat. Anker Wat is the biggest religious construction in the worlds history, it spreads out over 77km of land and has a wide variety of temples, causeways, towers and underground chambers. Fascinating. I'd need a few hours to catalogue the experience. I'd strongly recommend a visit if in the vicinity. Will try write more about it later.
-After a tortuous 10 hour bus journey we landed in Bangkok and hit the central back pack streets. This place is seriously sleazy and anything goes from what I can see. Plenty of dart throwing and ping-pong shooting shows on hand for little or no cover charge. Crazy. After an early night in and the watching of a few FA cup matches myself and Philly called it a night. Today so far has been all about arranging our overnight train to Laos and getting fitted out by one of the famous tailors that are everywhere. Today I put in an order for 7 Kashmir pants and 9 cotton shirts. Have a fitting in a few hours. Total cost after receiving a free Pepsi and spending 10 minutes haggling - 200 euros. Time will tell if it was good valuable.
Lots of photos uploaded on the blog. Here's a link to the Cambodia section.
