After a month-long hiatus from blogging, I have returned to China with a load of photos, many experiences, and four new countries to my list. AnnaRae, Ashlee, Ben and I traveled to Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
This was my first experience with Southeast Asia since my focus has been East Asia. I will not bore you with an in-depth retelling of my travels, so do not worry.
In Thailand we did the typical travel that I am used to, seeing as much as I can. We went to a lot of places in three days: Grand Palace, floating market, tiger temple, snake farm, temples, museums, and the bridge over the River Kwai. Not only did I see the bridge, but I also walked across it. I visited the prison museum nearby that showed the living conditions for the POWs.
The Thai love their king; the country is full of his picture. There are more pictures than tuk tuks, and the streets are full of tuk tuks. Tuk tuks are motorized pedicabs with roofs. The Thai also are laid back and helpful. Sometimes, they offer help a bit too insistently.
Our entrance to Cambodia is something I will never forget. We woke up before the sun rose to take a bus several hours. The bus could not drop us off at the border itself, so we took tuk tuks to the border. It would be easy to walk across the border, if not for the corrupt visa men at the border. We haggled for the cost of a visa because they refused to abide by the sign. To put it simply, I was pissed that I could not stop such corrupt behavior. Between the Thailand/Cambodia border are casinos. Apparently, the Thai go there, the no-man's-land, to gamble.
The best word to describe the ride from the border to Siem Reap is dust. Most of the roads and bridges were being constructed as we drove across. We drove across a road as it was being paved. We stayed at an Irish pub and guesthouse in Siem Reap. I ate yummy Irish cuisine (yes, I said it) while surrounded by Irish paraphernalia. The posters on the wall made me homesick. One of the posters was the same as one in the beach house.
Just outside of Siem Reap was Angkor Wat. I saw Angkor Wat! It was amazing. I climbed stairs and walked among the vast ruins. As I walked around the hallways, I came across statues of Buddha, covered in cloth and surrounded by incense.
Siem Reap had a night market, which had a fish massage place called Dr. Fish. We put our feet into a pool with fish that nibbled off the dead skin. It felt weird and wonderful. Once you got used to being tickled, it was a relaxing experience.
I experienced ancient history in Siem Reap and modern history in Phnom Penh. For general knowledge, the Khymer Rouge controlled Cambodia for several decades. Within that time, thousands of Khymer were detained, tortured, and killed. The most infamous prison, Tuol Sleng, a.k.a. S.21, is in Phnom Penh. Originally a school, S.21 became a museum of genocide. The extent of documentation, such as photos of every prisoner, was frightening. The museum added stories from the surviving guards, which varied from calls for justice to indifference. The silence in the classrooms-turned-torture-chambers was deafening. The Choeung Ek killing fields were another educational site about the Khymer Rouge. The grounds were FULL of dead bodies. Clothes and bones poked out of the dirt that we walked over. I walked on the bones of genocidal victims! That was unsettling.
In addition to killing fields and prisons, Phnom Penh also had a palace. I knew that France influenced Cambodia, but the palace showed proof. One of the palatial buildings was named after Napoleon III and was built in a French style. I thought it was interesting that the French building was in disrepair while all the other, non-Western buildings were in comparatively perfect condition.
For those of you interested in Cambodia but fear the language gap, everyone speaks English. Cambodian TV is basically American TV.
Our next stop was Singapore. We stayed at a hotel in the red-light district before moving to a hostel in Chinatown (牛车水). The red-light district hotel was called Hotel 81-Lucky. Feel free to laugh. Around the hotel were scantily-clad ladies of the evening standing about giving me the evil eye like I could steal business. The hostel was a better choice; Chinatown was a wonderfully, ethnically diverse neighborhood. There was a mosque, a Buddhist temple, and a Hindu temple within footsteps of each other. Singapore has a large Indian population, Moslim and Hindu. We celebrated Chinese New Year in Chinatown, the best place in Singapore to celebrate Chinese culture.
Onto the last stop in the trip, Bali. Indonesia was the easiest place to enter. Upon arrival, you pay 10 USD at one counter. Behind that counter, you get the visa and entry stamp. It was a piece of piss and no corruption. The Balinese also speak very good English; they say more than “hello” on the street. We stayed on the southern and northern part of Bali, and experienced two types of beaches. Kuta Beach, in the South, was a popular tourist spot. However, the beach was covered in trash. We swam in garbage. In the North was Lovina Beach, famous for having black sand. The black sand beach was clean and appealing.
My least favorite part of the trip was the vendors and drivers, who honked and called us over. They were almost as insistent as their Chinese equivalents, with the exception of Singapore.
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