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chrischarly

700 Blog Entries
6 Trips
5148 Photos

Trips:

Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Chris and Charly Down Under
Chris and Charly's African Adventure
Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
Chris and Charly's mini trip to The States
Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey

Shorthand link:

http://blogabond.com/chrischarly



Buddy List

Jason Kester
Jason Kester
butchop
butchop
chris_j_knight78
chris_j_knight78



Yummy yummy seafood with Kampot pepper

Phnom Penh, Cambodia


View from our balcony at tree tops
The owners of Mekong Sunrise guesthouse were kind enough to arrange free transport for us to the bus stop, and then we were able to get straight on the bus, easy travelling once again. We took the bus to Phnom Penh then had to wait for 1 ½ hours for the next bus to Kep.

Restaurants on the water
It didn’t take long to get to Kep and as Chris had already had a look at places to stay, our life was pretty easy! After chatting nicely to a local on the bus, he spoke to the bus driver on behalf of us at dropped us off at the bottom of the drive to ‘Tree Tops’ and from there just a 700m walk where we got a nice hut with views of the sea for just $5. Perfect.


Delicious prawns...

The most awesome crab dish!!

As well as Kampot, Kep has some amazing seafood so in the evening we gorged ourselves on crab and prawns cooked with green Kampot peppercorns, delicious and very decadent for us backpackers!

permalink written by  chrischarly on August 25, 2011 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Garden party

Kampong Cham, Cambodia


Bus arrived, then broke down...
Got up bright and early (well 7.30am) and had a quick coffee before checking out and making our way to the bus stop heading to Kampong Cham. The bus did surprisingly arrive in Kratie on time, but broke down as soon as it arrived?! But after just ½ an hour’s wait another bus showed up,

The supposedly impressive lighthouse
so as sheep we were promptly ushered onto this bus and straight into the remaining seats at the very back, nice! Shortly into the journey, due to the bumps and eating just before getting on the bus, I started to feel very sick, so Chris playing nurse gave me a nausea tablet and I passed out for the rest of the journey awaking only when we arrived, perfect!

Outside Mekong sunrise guesthouse
Kampong Cham is a bit of a sleepy town, and as we had seen the dolphins yesterday, there wasn’t a great deal to do, but an ideal stop-over to break up the journey to Kep.

Where we stayed in Kampong Cham
We found a nice guesthouse easily called Mekong Sunrise that had $4 rooms overlooking the River, and we met up with 4 other travellers, Jo, Johnny, Claire and Neil and enjoyed a few drinks with them in the evening after going to a garden Party for dinner.

Our massive terrace
This is basically a place where they cook spit-roast beef, I know it sounds strange, but it tasted good, and it is a real local thing to eat when in Cambodia. Unfortunately, they tried ripping us off with the bill at the end, charging almost double the price on the menu, which left a slightly bad taste in our mouths after a great meal.

permalink written by  chrischarly on August 24, 2011 from Kampong Cham, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Irawaddy dolphins

Kratie, Cambodia


Excited about seeing the dolphins
We spent the morning walking around Krati to see if we could find anyone else to join us to see the Irrawaddy Dolphins in the afternoon, but without any luck, which would’ve helped drop the cost a little.

The mekong from the top
We went regardless though stopping off beforehand to climb 360 steps to the top of a Mountain to see some great views of the Mekong River.

Lovely view from the top
When we arrived at the dock to go the boat, we were lucky enough to find Andy, a solo Chinese traveller, so he joined us to save us a whopping $4.

Lots of steps
We were out in the boat for just over 2 hours and we were lucky enough to see many dolphins during this time and some pretty close.

Buddhist monk statues
Irrawaddy Dolphins are mainly freshwater dolphins and there are about 70 in this area, with a total of just 200 left in the world,

Little house on the water
meaning they are seriously endangered and are sadly expected to be extinct within the next 10-20 years. In the morning we put our camera battery on

Off to see the dolphins...
charge to ensure we could take loads of pictures and videos whilst we went out for the morning. Unfortunately we didn’t realise that as soon

Dolphins!!!
as the guests leave the guesthouse they switch all the power off in the rooms! So we were ½ way through our trip and the battery run out, just as the dolphins came closer! So upset!

Dolphins
Unfortunately the photos we took didn’t come out that great, one due to our limited battery life, and two because they move so fast! But still an amazing afternoon and a great chance to see them before they sadly disappear.



permalink written by  chrischarly on August 23, 2011 from Kratie, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Robbing bastards...

Stoeng Treng, Cambodia


Leaving don det
Woke up this morning still drunk from our impromptu piss up at Adam’s bar. What better way to be crossing the border?Then, made our way down for our 8am boat which finally left about 9.15. Once we crossed onto the mainland we were ushered to an office where we were given visa forms and told that the cost of the visa would be $28 if we did ourselves, or, $29 if we gave to the tour company to arrange. The actual price of a visa should be $20 but this border is known for its ‘extras’ that obviously make the officials very rich men.

Monk using free wifi
Obviously, we decided we would do it all ourselves, which upset the organiser, meaning that he refused to speak to us from then on, or anyone else for that matter. Hey ho! Finally got on a minibus to the border and went to the Laos departure office, here started the fun….. They requested $2 per passport for the exit stamp. We politely told them ‘No’, and then requested a receipt but to no avail, it’s simple, no $2 no stamp. Robbing bastards!

Huge fishing nets
Then when we walked across to the Cambodia side there was a health check point, that seemed random as several people walked past, but obviously they stopped us. They asked us to fill out a little yellow form then asked for a $1, we politely said no. They then asked for yellow fever certificates, which we had at the bottom of our main bags, we fished them out but were told they had expired, they hadn’t as they last 10 years and not 1, so again told them no $1.

Gorgeous!
Then they aked us if we had a gonorrhoea vaccination, do they even exist?! At this point, we told them that under no circumstances were we paying them, (well maybe involving a tad bit of shouting in a less polite way than stated) picked up our bags and walked away, they did not protest. Next stop our visa on arrival, $23 not the $20, but we just argued a little then paid.

Huge beautiful storm in the sea
Then when we went through the checkpoint they requested $2 per passport for a stamp, argued a little then paid $1 as a compromise to get it over with. So we made it through for $26, but pretty sure that $6 was all falling into back pockets. If we want to ever get work whilst travelling we will definitely try and get an immigration job. With the 100’s or maybe 1000’s of people crossing this border each day, they must be very rich men! We then found our bus and it was nice and we soon left for Kratie. When we arrived we checked a few guesthouses and found an ok one for $5 close to everything. We went for a nice walk along the river and had the most amazing fruit Smoothie consisting of banana, pineapple, apple, dragon fruit, avocado, condensed milk and ice, amazing!




permalink written by  chrischarly on August 22, 2011 from Stoeng Treng, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Messy night...

Ban Dondet, Laos


Road repair?!
Last day in Don Det today after spending 8 days here. It was nice just spending a while in one place and not travelling continuously so the chances are we will forget how to do it! The reason why we spent so long here was that we couldn’t Enter Cambodia any earlier or we would over-stay our visa before making our way back to KL to fly to Australia.

Just before the cat weed&stained my trousers
We went for a nice walk around again in the baking heat, of course a nice change to rain, but wow, it was hot!

Scary-looking clouds
In the evening we went to Adam’s bar expecting to watch a film there and have a quick drink before calling it an early night. This however, didn’t happen.

Adam's bum
When we turned up, Adam,

Adam dancing on bar
the owner and his friend John had been on a heavy session all day and invited us to join them, involving many shots of vile local whisky and many beers. Not sure when we stumbled home, but it was a great night and we didn’t even spend a Penny as Adam was adamant he was paying! Bonus!

permalink written by  chrischarly on August 21, 2011 from Ban Dondet, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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An expedition...

Ban Dondet, Laos


Leading the way...
We awoke to sunshine so decided it was time to stop chilling and go on an expedition. Charly nominated herself as expedition leader (EL) and chose the mode of transport as foot, the other option being bicycle. Our itinerary was to walk down the sunset side of Don Det then cross the bridge to Don Khon to see the waterfalls.

The bridge to the other island
We sunscreened up and set off along the track that follows the riverside, although the sun had dried out most of the mud, we soon found ourselves up against a small lake where once was a path.

2 fishing boats
Our fearless EL, went off in to the bush to create a new path around this obstacle. I followed on behind, unworthy……

Trying to avoid the mud
We soon had crossed several obstacles including a large slab of beef and had reached the end of the path along the water. We decided to ask a local guy who strangely offered us a massage (in the middle of nowhere) and then once we declined he asked our ages.

Ducks
Our form of communication was to write in the dirt and we soon learned that this very athletic local guy was 62?! We gave over our ages and he then drew a large clock type thing in the sand and proceeded to tell our fortune. Amused by this we were until he wrote down 10,000Kip or $1. We politely excused ourselves from Mystic Meg and headed inland to find the main road.

Oops
I was quickly reminded of the fact that I was just a lowly “expedition reporter” as I lead us down a path through the rice paddy to a dead end. Under a dark cloud cast by EL we headed back to the junction and took the other choice.

2 Local kids fishing out of a big pond
A little way along we found an old bridge and could see the road, but the paddy had flooded across the road and it was a rather large lake. Whilst EL made her strategy of attack we were joined by Meg who gestured for us to follow him across the lake. We de-shoed and EL headed off guided by Meg and I hung back to watch and enjoy.

An outside oven
I was pretty sure they were going through a deep section when Meg pointed to the water were EL should place her foot. She placed it down, and then down further and further until, oops, there she goes straight in up to her waist.

A bull in our way
Meg dragged her out and once again I had let down the expedition by not having the camera to hand, and by laughing too much to get it.

Locals boys leading a bull
I made my own route and made it through only shins wet, EL was covered in mud and wet. No problem, Meg led us to a nearby guesthouse and took EL to the back. EL came back looking violated, after apparently Meg was very, maybe too keen to give her bum a good wash with hands and hose.

Me after I'd just fallen in
This concluded our expedition and after a short break we walked, EL squelched back to the guesthouse and a nice shower……………………..



permalink written by  chrischarly on August 20, 2011 from Ban Dondet, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Stupid rain...

Ban Dondet, Laos


Tiniest kitten in the world

Small kid trying to get back on his bike

Stupid rain...

permalink written by  chrischarly on August 19, 2011 from Ban Dondet, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Bye Henry and Anya...

Ban Dondet, Laos


Chris fishing

Fishing from a hammock


Chris happy

Chris' HUGE fish


The curry was even too spicy for Chris!!!
Henry and Anya left today to head to Cambodia. We surprised ourselves by managing to get up early to say goodbye to them! Impossible to do a lot today due to the terrential rain that didn't let up all day, so we instead drowned our sorrows in a bar, and once again had an Indian! :)

permalink written by  chrischarly on August 18, 2011 from Ban Dondet, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Lazy day again...

Ban Dondet, Laos


Loving the hammock!

Chillaxing


Small kid trying to get back on his bike

Sunset from our balcony


Sunset in the bar

End of sunset- strange colours

Henry and Anya were planning to go for a bike ride to the other Island but only made it as far as their hammocks, another one of those days! We, once angain, enjoyed a day chilling and having a few beers with them before they depart to Cambodia.

permalink written by  chrischarly on August 17, 2011 from Ban Dondet, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Rain rain go away

Ban Dondet, Laos


Raining so hard you couldn't see

Raining so hard

Busy day of achieving not a lot due to the rubbish weather. We need an umbrella...

permalink written by  chrischarly on August 16, 2011 from Ban Dondet, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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