Howdy,
It has been a very long time since we blogged and so much has happened. We ended our last blog with the last weekend we spent in Phnom Penh. We finished up our volunteering on June 17th but not without a ton of extra help at the orphanage. The orphanage accepted 17 more high school student volunteers so we were really out of work! It was ok though, as it was nice to interact with other people. The students came from an international school in Japan.
Sat June 18th we boarded the bus to Siem Reap. The bus ride was scheduled to be 5 hours but ended up being 7, regardless though it gave us a great chance to see the beautiful countryside of Cambodia. We stayed at the most "fabulous" resort in Siem Reap called the Golden Banana. It is a gay friendly establishment so the staff and other guests were wonderful!!!! Everyone was looking at us like we were a couple...we let it slide. We had a villa instead of a room complete with our own balcony overlooking the waterfall pool. We were so sad to leave but we took a momento back - Golden Banana pants just like the staff wore. While in Siem Reap we ventured to the obvious location - Angkor Wat and surrounding temples. We decided to go on the big tour as that was the reason we were there. We hired a tour guide named Lucky and a tuk-tuk driver named Naga for the 3 days of touring. They were both fantastic as well!
The temples were breathtaking to say the least. There is way too much information to share on this blog about each one but the gist is that all - pretty much - started out as Hindu temples, then Buddhist, then Hindu and now a mix of both. Something interesting yet horrible to find out was that the Khmer Rouge inhabited Angkor Wat during the civil war in the 70s and there are several bullet holes in the temples due to target practice. Our favourite temple was Pre Rup. Pre Rup is by far in the worst shape of them all but is in the jungle so the scenary around it is stunning. We also visited the "Tomb Raider" temple where Laura Croft Tomb Raider was filmed. The trees/roots that surround and engulf the temples make it a beautiful sight.
Our last day at Siem Reap was started by going to Angkor Wat to see the sun rise. We left the hotel at 5am and arrived at the temples around 530am. It was cloudy so we didn't see much but it was super cool to be able to at the temples that early. It gave them a sort of mystical feel as opposed to a tourist attraction alone.
The rest of the time in Siem Reap was spent visiting a floating village and floating market. We took a tuk-tuk about 30 mins out of the city to the river, rented a boat and went to the floating market. The second we stepped off of the boat to enter the market we were greeted by a huge pit of CROCODILES! It was a crocodile farm and something that we have noticed is that crocodile leather is huge her, however illegal to bring back to Canada. This means, unfortunatley, Kelly cannot acquire a "croc paw" keychain (she of course cleverly coined this term). We also visited the night market, which is WAY better in Siem Reap than Phnom Penh. At the night market we got a pedicure, manicure and massages for a whopping $8. To finish off our last night in Siem Reap we decided to do a fish massage. A fish massage is where you put your feet into a big pool filled with fish and they eat your dead skin. It was not relaxing what-so-ever. Fortunately for the $2 charge we also got a free beverage (beer).
We boarded the plane on June 22nd to come to Chiang Mai, Thailand. We had a stop over in Bangkok and then headed on our way to Chiang Mai. If you ever travel to southeast Asia take Bangkok Airways any where you can. They are fantastic! We had two 1 hour flights and on each we got a full meal - delicious meal I might add and countless amounts of drink offered. Also, we had four people solving our luggage mystery as only 1 of our 3 bags showed up at first. They all stood around with walkie talkies and sorted it out greatly. We headed to our hotel, the Royal Princess and were luckily upgraded to a better hotel room. The Royal Princess is located in the heart of the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar - a huge night market (one of the biggest tourist attractions in Chiang Mai) which allows for convient access to many items however this has been quite hard on the wallet!
Today, June 23, we went on an all day trekking excursion. We started out with visiting a butterfly and orchid farm. Next we took a drive to the Maesa Elephant Camp. Here we got to ride elephants for about 30 minutes and hug and kiss them. It was so sweet! After that, we walked a short distance to a zipline with a cage. Only 2 people at a time could fit in the cage and that is how we crossed the river. We then had lunch, Pad Thai cooked in banana leaves which was great. After lunch we trekked for an hour in the jungle to reach a waterfall. We spent about 20 mins at the waterfall swimming around and getting stared at as we were the only brave ones to take on the water falling. It has quite a bit of pressure under it, you have to hold onto your bathing suit as it would rip it off you, close call for Maria....... It was beautiful, definitly the highlight of the day. We then trekked back about an hour and this took us to our next destination which was white water rafting. Maria had the smellest life jacket in existance and Kelly's helmet was a big snug/didn't fit her at all. We definitly will white water raft again, it was awesome, and hopefully look for some more exciting rafting. We had a short ride on a traditional bamboo raft...probably not going to be doing that again. We had ice cream and then headed to the Hill Tribe Village. Here we met some locals and had a short tour. We also learned a bit about the religion and Susan you will be pleased to learn that they still have animism. It was the end of our day so we headed back to the city and had a gourmet supper of Subway. It was delicious and very much needed. There are several chain restaruants around our hotel including McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Subway and Starbucks.
Our day ended with making a quick trip to the hospital. No worries anyone, and no it wasn't Kelly! Maria has acquired a wonderful face rash so we thought it was a good idea to check it out. We went to the hospital and had a doctor that we are sure was about 20 years old and the asian version of Graham Trott. The diagnosis given was that it is an allergic reaction to a bug that I squished and secreted acid that caused a rash like look. All is well though, I have a topical medication to put on for a week and should be good to go!
That is all for now, tomorrow we are heading out on the Flight of the Gibbon which includes ziplining through the jungle. Stay tuned for more details,
Kally and Maury - thats how Lucky said our names! Maury, Maury, Maury!
Travelers abroad.
Thursday 23 June 2011
Sunday 12 June 2011
Holiday in Cambodia
Hey all!
We have spent the last 2 days seeing the sights of Phnom Penh AKA Cambodia. We started our day on Saturday with going to the Royal Palace/Silver Pagoda and the National Museum. The Royal Palace was beautiful but there was a lot of restricted area - I guess you have to do that when you live in a place that is also a tourist attraction. Inside we were not allowed to take pictures which is too bad for you! lol. There was a lot of red and gold and many many Buddha statues. We then moved onto the Silver Pagoda which was cool as the floor is made of silver, again though it was mainly covered in carpet so you couldn't see the floor unless you looked at the edges of the floor. Regardless, it was still beautiful. Something that we learned very quickly was that Cambodia equals intricate design and detail - it is all so breathtaking.
Another thing that is breath taking is the fumes....NOBODY walks here as it is too hot so that equals a lot of vehicles (motos mainly) and A LOT of exhaust.
We then went to the National Musuem where there were many statues and archives that were of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Maria loved it but it sure put her knowledge to the test and it must be admitted that she has forgotten quite a bit....depressing! The statues and archives were very cool to see and dated back to pre-Angkorian periods. Shiva and Vishnu were the main depictions that we saw and they were pretty sweet, it must be said!
Lunch was next on the agenda and we ate at Happy Herb Pizza. No worries the herbs were mainly oregano. We seem to be eating a lot of pizza here, but its super good. Different sauce type, its sweeter as everything is including ketchup, but very good.
We spent the rest of the day at markets including the Central Market and the night market. The night market was really cool and very full. We got to see a live band/karaoke thing - there were several pre determined people to perform and it was really funny!
Sunday we decided to have a depressing but necessay day and chose to go to the Genocide Museum and the Killing fields. It's undescribable what happened during the Khmer Rouge regime and needless to say there were quite a few tears and just a general terrible feeling. We watched a documentary of a families experience under the Khmer Rouge rule. It was good to hear an actual story as your senses are overloaded and its hard to imagine what happened. The documentary helped us to get a better understanding and appreciation but it was very emotional.
We then headed to the Killing Fields and again were confronted with more emotion and awe. The largest mass grave that they found held 450 people and these graves - the majority- are quite small. In total 2 million people died during the reign. We took pictures but when we went through them again we realized that we will not be looking at them often.
That's all for tonight, enjoy the pictures and don't be judging our sweaty mustaches!
Kelly and Maria
Travelers Abroad.
We have spent the last 2 days seeing the sights of Phnom Penh AKA Cambodia. We started our day on Saturday with going to the Royal Palace/Silver Pagoda and the National Museum. The Royal Palace was beautiful but there was a lot of restricted area - I guess you have to do that when you live in a place that is also a tourist attraction. Inside we were not allowed to take pictures which is too bad for you! lol. There was a lot of red and gold and many many Buddha statues. We then moved onto the Silver Pagoda which was cool as the floor is made of silver, again though it was mainly covered in carpet so you couldn't see the floor unless you looked at the edges of the floor. Regardless, it was still beautiful. Something that we learned very quickly was that Cambodia equals intricate design and detail - it is all so breathtaking.
Another thing that is breath taking is the fumes....NOBODY walks here as it is too hot so that equals a lot of vehicles (motos mainly) and A LOT of exhaust.
We then went to the National Musuem where there were many statues and archives that were of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Maria loved it but it sure put her knowledge to the test and it must be admitted that she has forgotten quite a bit....depressing! The statues and archives were very cool to see and dated back to pre-Angkorian periods. Shiva and Vishnu were the main depictions that we saw and they were pretty sweet, it must be said!
Lunch was next on the agenda and we ate at Happy Herb Pizza. No worries the herbs were mainly oregano. We seem to be eating a lot of pizza here, but its super good. Different sauce type, its sweeter as everything is including ketchup, but very good.
We spent the rest of the day at markets including the Central Market and the night market. The night market was really cool and very full. We got to see a live band/karaoke thing - there were several pre determined people to perform and it was really funny!
Sunday we decided to have a depressing but necessay day and chose to go to the Genocide Museum and the Killing fields. It's undescribable what happened during the Khmer Rouge regime and needless to say there were quite a few tears and just a general terrible feeling. We watched a documentary of a families experience under the Khmer Rouge rule. It was good to hear an actual story as your senses are overloaded and its hard to imagine what happened. The documentary helped us to get a better understanding and appreciation but it was very emotional.
We then headed to the Killing Fields and again were confronted with more emotion and awe. The largest mass grave that they found held 450 people and these graves - the majority- are quite small. In total 2 million people died during the reign. We took pictures but when we went through them again we realized that we will not be looking at them often.
That's all for tonight, enjoy the pictures and don't be judging our sweaty mustaches!
Kelly and Maria
Travelers Abroad.
Friday 10 June 2011
Can you uptuk in a tuk tuk?
Hello all!
Its been a few days since we have wrote, but don't be alarmed we are still alive and well. We had our second day of orientation where we were given a tour of the city including the Olympic Stadium. The stadium in Cambodia was built for the olympics to come here one day, but clearly that was not going to happen. Its actually quite sad as the stadium is beautiful and obviously the people had hope. We did some more market hopping and bought some pants - luckily they fit!
After the formal part of the orientaion day we had a welcome dinner at the Riverside - which is an area where lots of tourists go. We were fed a traditional Khmer menu which consisted of rice, deep fried corn (delicious!), fried beef, crunchy noodles, fish curry and of course an Angkor beer. It was very very good.
The next day we were taken to our orphanage to start work. The building itself is large and open and quite nice. The director was an hour late as she was running on Khmer time but all turned out well. We were basically told to do whatever we wanted and had a short tour of the different rooms we could work in. There is some disappointment in our placement as there are many volunteers there and we feel as though there is not much for us to do. The placement also has a full staff so volunteers are just kind of a bonus. Because of the amount of volunteers and the fact that there are 60 more coming next week (not all at our placement) we made the decision to cut our volunteering down to 2 weeks instead of 3. We feel this is the best use of our time and theirs as we are really enjoying being here.
Last night we went out for drinks with another volunteer staying with us at our host family - Sarah. We went back to the riverside area and ate chicken pizza and french fries - both of which were awesome! Kelly and I both enjoyed a few cock talls (seriously thats what was wrote on the sign haha!) which lead to the saying, "can you uptuk in a tuk tuk""? Needless to say the drinks here are very strong.
Maria had her first attempt at doing her laundry by hand which turned out well for the most part, keep in mind I had had 2 drinks... Mostly, they came out clean.
The plan for this weekend is to see the sights of Phnom Penh so stay tuned!
Kelly and Maria,
Travellers abroad.
ps. Another tip we've learned is that time goes by very slow here and the days are really long as people start at 5am and don't quite until 10pm. Something fun to do in the evenings is read the map of Manitoba lol. We spent 1 hour looking at funny names of our home and it made us smile. Has anyone been to Ladywood, Manitoba - what kind of a name is that, talk about being anatomically incorrect. Some other funny names of Manitoba include but are not limited to - Ethelbert, Big Mossy Point, Pansy, and Gunton.
Its been a few days since we have wrote, but don't be alarmed we are still alive and well. We had our second day of orientation where we were given a tour of the city including the Olympic Stadium. The stadium in Cambodia was built for the olympics to come here one day, but clearly that was not going to happen. Its actually quite sad as the stadium is beautiful and obviously the people had hope. We did some more market hopping and bought some pants - luckily they fit!
After the formal part of the orientaion day we had a welcome dinner at the Riverside - which is an area where lots of tourists go. We were fed a traditional Khmer menu which consisted of rice, deep fried corn (delicious!), fried beef, crunchy noodles, fish curry and of course an Angkor beer. It was very very good.
The next day we were taken to our orphanage to start work. The building itself is large and open and quite nice. The director was an hour late as she was running on Khmer time but all turned out well. We were basically told to do whatever we wanted and had a short tour of the different rooms we could work in. There is some disappointment in our placement as there are many volunteers there and we feel as though there is not much for us to do. The placement also has a full staff so volunteers are just kind of a bonus. Because of the amount of volunteers and the fact that there are 60 more coming next week (not all at our placement) we made the decision to cut our volunteering down to 2 weeks instead of 3. We feel this is the best use of our time and theirs as we are really enjoying being here.
Last night we went out for drinks with another volunteer staying with us at our host family - Sarah. We went back to the riverside area and ate chicken pizza and french fries - both of which were awesome! Kelly and I both enjoyed a few cock talls (seriously thats what was wrote on the sign haha!) which lead to the saying, "can you uptuk in a tuk tuk""? Needless to say the drinks here are very strong.
Maria had her first attempt at doing her laundry by hand which turned out well for the most part, keep in mind I had had 2 drinks... Mostly, they came out clean.
The plan for this weekend is to see the sights of Phnom Penh so stay tuned!
Kelly and Maria,
Travellers abroad.
ps. Another tip we've learned is that time goes by very slow here and the days are really long as people start at 5am and don't quite until 10pm. Something fun to do in the evenings is read the map of Manitoba lol. We spent 1 hour looking at funny names of our home and it made us smile. Has anyone been to Ladywood, Manitoba - what kind of a name is that, talk about being anatomically incorrect. Some other funny names of Manitoba include but are not limited to - Ethelbert, Big Mossy Point, Pansy, and Gunton.
Monday 6 June 2011
Don't flush your bright pink toliet paper!!!
Our flight from Winnipeg left at 7:45 am on June 3rd and took us to Vancouver by 8:05 (B.C time). After a 6 hour stop over, which we killed by drinking margaritas and riding the walking escaltor (there was more than 1 shot of tequila in the drinks...) we were on our way to Seoul, Korea.
During the 11 hour flight (which for Maria has easily been the longest 11 hours of my entire life!) we watched 5 movies, slept and ate the worst meals in existance..ok we're being dramatic...but really they were terrible. Seaweed soup tastes exactly as one would picture, fish guts and salt!
When we touched down in Seoul we were greeted by a worker who took us immediately to our terminal. Apparently we lost 50 minutes somewhere and had to board our plane quickly. After another 5.5 hours we arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The humidity hit us like a bag of hammers right off the plane and Maria looked like the Grandma off of Beverly Hillbillies when she was given electric shock therapy!
We were met by a woman named Svenja who is from the organization and taken directly to our host families house. While on the drive to our host family we were quite overwhelmed as there were several prostitues hanging out near the airport - brothels were scattered around. Luckily our host family is far away from this area.
Our host family is fantastic! Mami (pronounced Mommy) is hilarious and even slapped Maria right in the belly the first night as their culture is very hands on - she is so so funny! Mr. Savuth works at a car dealership which would explain why there is a car parked in the living room after work...seriously. They have two nieces living with them and they do the cleaning and such. Meals are great, however we had no appetite until today because of the extreme heat and humidity. There is also another volunteer at the host family who has come in extremely helpful. On Sunday, she showed the ropes and took us around the city.
Today we had our orientation with Volunteering Solutions and met lots of other volunteers mostly from the U.S. We had lunch at a market and did a bit of shopping and bargaining which turns out is quite fun. The people are fantastic, the market ladies that we bought our stuff from were very friendly.
The major lesson we learned today is to not flush our toliet paper which happens to be pink (Debby - it reminded me of home when I saw the color :) ). We learned this the hard way...read between the lines...anyway though now we know.
Stay tuned for more life lessons from Cambodia we will bring to you,
Maria and Kelly
travellers abroad.
During the 11 hour flight (which for Maria has easily been the longest 11 hours of my entire life!) we watched 5 movies, slept and ate the worst meals in existance..ok we're being dramatic...but really they were terrible. Seaweed soup tastes exactly as one would picture, fish guts and salt!
When we touched down in Seoul we were greeted by a worker who took us immediately to our terminal. Apparently we lost 50 minutes somewhere and had to board our plane quickly. After another 5.5 hours we arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The humidity hit us like a bag of hammers right off the plane and Maria looked like the Grandma off of Beverly Hillbillies when she was given electric shock therapy!
We were met by a woman named Svenja who is from the organization and taken directly to our host families house. While on the drive to our host family we were quite overwhelmed as there were several prostitues hanging out near the airport - brothels were scattered around. Luckily our host family is far away from this area.
Our host family is fantastic! Mami (pronounced Mommy) is hilarious and even slapped Maria right in the belly the first night as their culture is very hands on - she is so so funny! Mr. Savuth works at a car dealership which would explain why there is a car parked in the living room after work...seriously. They have two nieces living with them and they do the cleaning and such. Meals are great, however we had no appetite until today because of the extreme heat and humidity. There is also another volunteer at the host family who has come in extremely helpful. On Sunday, she showed the ropes and took us around the city.
Today we had our orientation with Volunteering Solutions and met lots of other volunteers mostly from the U.S. We had lunch at a market and did a bit of shopping and bargaining which turns out is quite fun. The people are fantastic, the market ladies that we bought our stuff from were very friendly.
The major lesson we learned today is to not flush our toliet paper which happens to be pink (Debby - it reminded me of home when I saw the color :) ). We learned this the hard way...read between the lines...anyway though now we know.
Stay tuned for more life lessons from Cambodia we will bring to you,
Maria and Kelly
travellers abroad.
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