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Dan

83 Blog Entries
1 Trip
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Trips:

Been there, Dan that!

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Not enough Chuffing money!!!

Kowloon, Hong Kong

Bought a new camera, got my 1month Chinese visa (triple the amount of previous 3 month visa) and paid 12 pounds a night for a corridor!
Had to stay an extra 2 days because of, guess what, the national holidays!!!
Had a nice time at the space museum and national art gallery though. Perticularaly good exibit of roman frescoes duf up from the lava of mount vesuvious. Local interest obviously.

Fake student card bought in Thailand already paid for itself twice! Do not go without if travelling to China!

permalink written by  Dan on October 1, 2008 from Kowloon, Hong Kong
from the travel blog: Been there, Dan that!
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1 Hour in Macau

Macau, Macau

I would have liked to look round but needed to get over to Hong Kong cos I've got to get to the tourist agency early tomorrow to get my visa application in.

Airport landing strip was cool. Completely man made and sticking out into the sea so was convinced we where performing a splash landing until the last second when this little concrete strip appeared... not at all woriied, honest!

So straight out the airport and over to the ferry terminal for hour long ride to Kowloon but I've got the stamp in my passport so thats another country to tick off (if Macau is a country? answers please)

permalink written by  Dan on September 29, 2008 from Macau, Macau
from the travel blog: Been there, Dan that!
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Food and football... happy days!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Came back to try and do a Khmer cookery course but its a national holiday this weekend so most stuff is closed. Cambodian food is very good really excellent coconut based curry called "amok" much nicer than the Thai versions! Also do good salads had a very tasty meal yesterday of banana blossom and chicken in a cold salad similar to Lao laap (banana blossom has a sweet mild cabbage flavour/texture)

Had a chance to walk around the waterfront which is really nice and the palace and surrounding wats are striking too. Done little else but watch the footy last night... Hull beat Arsenal and Man United won because one of the worst refereeing decisions ever!

People in SE asia are mental for premiership footy by the way. I've seen loads of games over the last couple of months. Very strange watching English footy on a remote island in the gulf of Thailand.

Anyway, fly to Bangkok in a couple of hours then to Macau on Monday. Should be back in China by Thursday afternoon, really looking forward to it... bring on the tasty aubergine!


permalink written by  Dan on September 28, 2008 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Been there, Dan that!
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12 hours in Bangkok, one last green curry!

Bangkok, Thailand

Got rid of some books and spent as little as possible in Bangkok. Was chucking it down with rain and actually cold!!!

Had a good green curry with shrimp for 50p. The street curry vendors (they make it fresh) here are excellent and really cheap. Definately the best thing about Bangkok, along with the good bookshops that have an great variety not just Maeve Blanchy, Tom Clancey and Patricia Cornwell!!!
Picked up a copy of Sun Tzu's The art of war for some relevent reading when I get back into China.

Off to do some real travllling again now, not to be distracted by western food and tourist friendly transport systems.

permalink written by  Dan on September 28, 2008 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: Been there, Dan that!
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Beach + monsoon = book

Sihanokville, Cambodia

Took a couple of buses down here from Siem Reap. Nice enough little town with some lovely beaches but I hit the bad weather. Was also thinking about maybe doing another scuba dive or 2 but i really need to save the money and the weather being crap made up my mind.

So I sat and read my book about how Nixon and Kissinger are pretty much to blame for leaving Cambodia in the lurch and wide open to Pol Pots resulting atrocities.

2nd day the weather was reasonable and I sat in a cafe by the beach getting harassed by hawkers and kids wanting tin cans or money. Good sunset the that evening and had some really nice fresh squid bbq'd, not a hint of rubber!

Would be a really nice place if the weather was good as its not that busy (yet, give it 5 years I reckon) so you get the white sandy beaches without so many Brits abroad unlike a certain country to the west!

Back to the capital next, fly to Macau soon.


permalink written by  Dan on September 26, 2008 from Sihanokville, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Been there, Dan that!
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Angkor Wat!!!!!

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Sorry for the delay on this one I actually wrote a long article about Angkor 3 or 4 days ago then there was a power cut and the auto save on the blog failed to do what its supposed to!!!

Cambodia is a doddle to travel in, its as flat as a pancake and the roads are wide. Bit harsh on the engineers in Laos with all the hills and jungle they have to get through but the same distances here can be got through in half the time.

So a fairly comfortable ride north to the town of Siem Reap the only event was the fried tarantula on sail at the lunch break. THis one had a missive bucket full of live ones and a plate around the same size of greasy looking 2 inch black blobs.
I didn't have one.

I hadn't realised that Angkor comprised of over 250 temples not just the 1 famous one as I had erroneously believed. The main tourist area has around 25 huge and beautifully built temples dating from between the 11th and 12th centuries. Most are Buddhist but some are Hindu.
They all have intricate carvings and fabulous arches columns and tall steep staircases and you basically get free run of the place (within reason) once you've paid you 20 dollar a day (2 for the price of 3) entrance fee.

The park has 2 sort of ring roads through it and I took the inner road on the first day hiring a bike for a dollar instead of the 15 dollar tuk tuk. Had a lovely day cycling along the shady roads turning a corner and coming across yet another outstanding piece of architecture.

What's so nice is the variation I thought I'd quickly get board at looking at the same thing but the temples all have big differences. Some are pyramid shapes. Others one level buildings (one of these had doorways that got smaller the further you went in) Others have square stone pillars some round roman style columns and one is built of bricks instead of huge stone slabs. My favourite though was the temple named Bayon which was a kind of circular pyramid of columns which had wonderful Buddhist faces on top of them about 2 meters square.

Next morning I had planned to cycle the second, outer, ring but I woke feeling awful and ended up in bed all day. Fortunately I had the extra day on my ticket so on day 3 I felt better but still not well enough to cycle a 30 km round trip so hired a motorbike and driver. To make the most I headed out to one of the distant temples 80km from the main park. It was worth the sore bottom. Beang Malia was designed by the same chap who built Angkor Wat but it hadn't had much of the jungle cleared from it. The beautiful building was crawling with fantastic ancient trees and long winding vines and best of all it just had a few boards through it and you where given complete freedom and encouragement from the wardens to boulder your way through and get lost in its dark hallways. I got there late afternoon (all the tour groups go early morning) and the only other tourists I saw where a few leaving as I entered so I had the whole complex to my self. In the evening sunlight through the trees it was truly stunning. My pictures don't do it justice whatsoever.




permalink written by  Dan on September 24, 2008 from Siem Reap, Cambodia
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Killing Fields and Genocide museum

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Still suffering a bit from the cold so I really feel I didn't get round enough and slept a lot but i'll be back at the end of this little detour so hopefully have some more time then. I'm intrigued by the city and its colonial past and clearly very poor present.

Did a morning of tourism and it was about the most harrowing of my life. Went to the killing fields site an area of mass graves with a Stupa in the middle which Pol Pot used in the late 70's to murder approximately 200,000 people. Its not the only site in Cambodia he had around 2 million people killed during the genocide.
The place itself doesn't have a whole lot of information so I hired a guide and got a lot of extra info and understanding out of the visit.
I didn't realise that the Khmer Rouge was funded by Chairman Mao and the Chinese. I was also unaware of the reasons for the murders. Pol Pot was simply scared of intellectuals whom he felt wouldn't agree with his communist ideals so all such people were killed along with there entire families so there could be no reprisals. This included children and babies who where killed in a special area of the field called the killing tree, apparently babies would be smashed against it the same way you might hit a tree with a baseball bat.
Amongst the paths there where still many clothes and even teeth still in the ground though when the graves where discovered in the 80's the majority of bodies where dug up and buried properly though there skulls form the centre of the stupa. These skulls also show that no bullets where used in the killings only farm tools and bamboo canes. Some prisoners where also thought to have been buried alive.

The soldiers performing these actions where often very young sometimes only 12 years old, they had simply been brain washed or scared into doing the commanders wishes. Those soldiers who tried to escape where also executed, usually beheaded using the leaf from a young palm tree (it has an edge like a saw blade) in front of the other soldiers to warn off any further desertion.
It was a truly upsetting experience simply because it all felt so recent and real sometimes when you see these things its so far in the past its hard to imagine but with all the skulls and cloths still there it really brought it home.

And i wasn't finished there I also visited the main genocide museum which was situated in the old prison . This building had previously been a school but had been modified into prison blocks and torture rooms.

Once Pol Pot had gotten control of the country he ordered the closure of all intellectual and religious establishments defrocking monks and forcing everyone to support the Khmer Rouge. Anyone who resisted was accused of collaboration with the CIA and taken to these prisons. He also closed the country to foreigners and any who failed to leave in time where also arrested. a number of french, american, Indian and Australian doctors, officials and journalists where taken here and then executed.
The base population where sent into forced labour camps in the coutryside leaving the towns and cities deserted for 3 years.

The museum contains a lot of information along with some pretty horrendous photographs from the original arrest photos to later stages of peoples time there. Only 7 people who ended up in this prison survived the war.

After that emotional morning I did little else other than have a nap and read War of the Worlds.

Next morning I took a bus north to Siam Reap the site of Angkor Watt an many other temples. Hopefully slightly more cheery posts to come


permalink written by  Dan on September 18, 2008 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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Cambodia!!!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

A 1 hour flight and 5 minute wait for my visa later and I'm in Cambodia. Really looking forward to the next 12 days here as I've only heard good things. Met Andrei and Kerry again (whom I did the gibbon trek with) and they have VERY kindly leant me there spare camera... so alls well!
Still recouping from sleep deprivation at the mo but i'll be busying myself again soon.

permalink written by  Dan on September 16, 2008 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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Getting the Orange line in the right place!

Bangkok, Thailand

Not a lot to say came back for a night and wound up going to this insane Thai cabaret which you had to buy a bottle of Johnny Walker Whisky to get into. Fortunately there where a few of us so it didnt get to messy though I stumbled home in the early morning and woke for my flight not long later.

permalink written by  Dan on September 15, 2008 from Bangkok, Thailand
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Swimming with the fishes!

Ko Tao, Thailand


Sairee beach
Whilst I was in Laos I met a few travellers who'd come from Thailand and I had asked them what to do with my spare 2 weeks here rather than hanging around in Bangkok. It was pretty unanimous that I should go to the islands and the majority also suggested doing my scuba training. For some reason it hadn't really occurred to me but it seemed a bloody good idea as it is said that Ko Tao (ko meaning island, Tao is turtle) is one of the cheapest places to learn around.
SO i booked myself on a 4 day open water course (open water being the sea as apposed to a pool) and took the night bus and early morning ferry. The island is pretty beautiful though fairly touristy. Apparently really quiet in comparison to the other big tourist destinations round here though.

Diving was amazing the coral reefs here are beautiful and despite poor visibility at times (because its nearly full moon) I saw some pretty incredible stuff. Sadly no pictures as my camera isn't waterproof... actually it stopped working last night so there may not be any pictures for the foreseeable future :(

Enjoyed the diving so much and also dreaded the idea of another 4 days in Bangkok so I signed up for the advanced course too. Just finished that yesterday so I'm now certified to dive to 30 meters! Also did a night dive on this course which was insane (mainly due to the crazy waves) but diving with torches looked made it look like we were on the bottom of the deepest oceans. Was really interesting as you see completely different stuff including glowing fishes and plankton.

So i've done nine dives over the last 6 days and am just going to chill out now till Sunday when I return to the capital pick up my passport form the Russian consul and fly to Cambodia the next afternoon.


permalink written by  Dan on September 12, 2008 from Ko Tao, Thailand
from the travel blog: Been there, Dan that!
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