NovaTOURient

June 9, 2014

Siem Reap

christinelouise Asia, NovaTOURient, Travel Talk 2014, Angkor Wat, Asia, Cambodia, Drinking, NovaTOURient, siem reap

I’ve fallen in love with Siem Reap. As a long term traveller, it’s just nice to rest your head in one place for a while, and Siem Reap seem perfect for just that: small enough to get around, yet lively enough to keep us entertained.

Our first day is dedicated to sightseeing. Clem, the guy working at the hostel, drives us to see Angkor Wat, Bayom Temple and the tomb featured in Tomb Raider. While it takes a “normal” tourist several hours to look around, it takes us under 2. Clem laughs at us and called us lazy, while he starts the tuk tuk and heads back to Angkor Wonder Hotel. And then it starts to rain. I guess our laziness is really just a good instinct.

Tried to be Lara Croft and failed

After the now mandatory nap, we go check out the night market. I buy some gifts for my family – only the ladies, since I am shit at picking out presents for guys. I buy stuff like pillow cases, scented candles and jewelry. For dinner, we head to the pub street and eat at Temple, a bar/restaurant that has an Apsara dance show. They have beautiful girls in the heavy khmer dress I got to wear in Phnom Penh just slowly dancing to traditional songs, and every now and then they switch it up and do a fun coconut dance with a group of guys.

The next day, we get massages and pedicures. Sometimes I can be a total lady. I am talking to the really nice ladies in the salon and they tell me my chin cleft is cute. That’s a first.
At night, we go to Little Italy and get pizzas and a bottle of white wine – so naturally we also get a tiramisu and pana cotta too. By the time we are finished, we still have a bit of wine left but are too drunk to have it at the table, so I pour it into my water bottle, because I am classy. Shut up. We basically pass out after that.

We sleep for ages and have breakfast at noon. After that, I walk around town looking for the Angkor Hospital for Children, and of course I get lost. I find a hospital and ask some locals for help, but they don’t understand me and it’s awkward and everyone’s staring at me. Someone points me to the right hospital eventually, though. When I finally find it, a lady at the desk tells me to come back an hour later, as the guards who will escort me to the lab are on lunch break. I walk back to the hostel and relax for a while before I drag my lazy butt back to the hospital.

A guard takes me through the big outdoor area, where lots of families sit with their kids in their laps, staring at me like I am an alien. I’m pretty uncomfortable, mostly since I feel like my presence is making their misery a tourist thing. I meet with another guard that takes me to the lab way in the back of the hospital premises. The lab has a waiting hallway and two cubicles; one for taking the children’s blood samples, and one for blood donations. The lab itself is behind the cubicles.

I get a form to fill out, and then a nurse takes a blood sample to see if my blood can be used. Then I am laying on a bed, being drained for blood. Only 350 ml, but it takes quite some time. I am feeling a bit lightheaded and have a strong urge to giggle, all while I can hear children crying and screaming only three metres away from me, and families are waiting out in the hallway, looking at me with great interest – the door isn’t closed. You’d think they are checking to see if my blood is a different color than theirs. Half an hour later, the doctor gives me a coke, some crackers and a T-shirt. I relaxe a little bit in the cubicle before heading out again – this time by myself, which just makes people stare at me even more.

I go back home and have a long nap, feeling pretty good about myself. Days prior to it, I had finally taken out the (healed!) piercing that has been infected since Thailand and went off my antibiotics and malaria pills – and of course alcohol. While that is normally not good enough, the hospitals here are so desperate to recieve blood because of the dengue fever outbreak, that they accept everyone as long as they are healthy. They seem grateful that I went through the “trouble”, and I don’t see any other donors or westeners around for that matter in the hour I am there. So if anyone plan on going to Siem Reap, please donate, they really need your help!

I’m really trying to diet lately, and we’ve been on salads mostly, which we order the next day while having lunch on pub street. I need a drink after being off the wagon for almost a week, and one thing leads to another – we get drunk and decide to have pizza – after our lunch! We go to Il Forno and share a pizza and some wine. Then we decide to eat dessert at Little Italy. We are super wasted at 5 in the afternoon, giggling and falling over stuff back at the hostel. I’m sure Clem thinks we were hilarious. When we wake up from the nap we obviously just had, it’s 10 at night. So we go for happy pizza. Now, that means that they put weed on the pizza. While I am only feeling a bit lightheaded, we go for drinks on pub street and we run into Edda! I end up drinking with her and her Irish friend Amanda until around 2 at night, when we all decide that it’s sleepy time. It hasn’t been a very eventful night, other than that everyone starts dancing on the pub street and then I go home and apparently creat a profile on an interracial dating site. Whoops. I definitely delete that when I wake up, I promise.

June 6, 2014

Sihanoukville

christinelouise Asia, NovaTOURient, Travel Talk 2014, Asia, balloons, Cambodia, Drinking, sihanoukville

Now for the first time in what seems like ages, I’m actually having fun. Despite an almost constant thunderstorm and pouring rain, I am having an amazing time in Sihanoukville. It involves drinking, of course.

We stay at Monkey Republic, which has a nice bar and restautant area with a good atmosphere, although no one really seems to be socializing. It makes me feel bad for the solo travellers staying here, and at night, while we’re having a cider at one of the tables, I notice a girl sitting by herself at the bar with no one to talk to. After a while, I hit the bar and order a drink and ask her to join us. Her name is Kirsten, and she’s from Melbourne, but on a 6-month long trip around SE Asia and Europe. We talk about Greece (of course), and get increasingly intoxicated while at it. A girl from Canada, Lauren, joins us at the table, and Sara goes to bed soon after. We decide to go to Utopia, where we enjoy a drinking game and some balloons, while a weird Cambodian guy creeps on us. We leave after he becomes too annoying and head to the beach. Kristen and I are dancing and having our own party, while Lauren goes to talk to people. Not too long passes before we head to JJ’s Bar and go crazy. I am home around 3 at night, after a visit to Jimmy’s kebab stand.

The day after, Sara and I cross the street and go to TopCat Cinema and watch Don Jon, and then we get some food. The cinema is more like a place full of small rooms with AC and blankets and a PC full of movies and TV shows that you can choose from, and you can buy snacks from a vending machine and even order (happy) pizzas! Most of the food around here is western and good, so we get really fat during our stay. Then we end up drinking ciders at the bar with Kristen again, and the two of us go out to the exact same places, buying tons of balloons. I accidentally pop or let go of a few. I’m home at around 2 after my by now usual kebab.

Then comes the next day, and it rains even more than ever. Sara and I have a Sex and The City marathon at the cinema for a few hours and then take a nap. We hang out in the bar area, Kirsten joins us and since my hobbies are drinking wine and judging people, we get ourselves a glass and I get Tinder. Fun fact is I get a job offer at JJ’s because I match one of the guys working there.

Well, bottom line is that Kirsten and I get a bit drunk and want to go to the night market, but I tell her about a guy I’ve noticed at lunch and at the bar. He’s all by himself and no one talks to him, and I feel really bad, but just don’t really know what to do or say. She convinces me to go ask him if he wants to come. My stragedy is to buy us a shot of tequila and ask him if he wants one. And so a night of being really drunk begins yet again.

I try to stick to balloons, as I have to get up and pack for our bus at 6, but I end up feeling… sick. I go to a quiet place at the beach and get sick, all while watching the thunder getting closer to the beach. It’s beautiful. I also smoke an entire pack of cigarettes that I have somehow acquired, because it replaces the bad taste in my mouth with another bad taste. I don’t last much longer after that, and I get my kebab and hurry home at around 1.

I wake up at 6.15, realising that I have set my alarm for 7 instead in my drunken state. I hurry up and finish packing, but I feel more and more sick. I try to throw up, but not much is coming up. It’s pouring more than ever outside, and the restaurant is still closed, so my hope of waiting for the bus after check-out with some fruit is gone. We get to wait with our backpacks in the shed that is the reception, and the bus is surprisingly almost on time! We start driving, and it’s really upsetting my stomach. I’ve brought a tiny plastic bag with me just in case, and after less than an hour of driving, I quickly get it out of my bag and watery vomit pours out of me. I try to make as little noise as possible, to avoid people noticing or getting sick. Then I notice that my bag is leaking and my lap is getting soaking wet. I have no idea what to do. I just hold on to the bag and feel even worse, until Sara finds another bag that I can dump the leaking one into. It helps, but the damage is done. I am soaking wet and reeking of vomit. We have to drive like 5 hours until we reach Phnom Penh and switch to a bigger bus to Siem Reap. I am slowly drying, the freezing AC making it hard to do, but at our quick stops, I get out in the heat and eat rice and soy sauce to stabilize my stomach and try to dry off as much as possible.

We continue another 7 hours on this bus, and I feel a lot better, but still smelling awful. We get picked up at the bus office and are driven to Angkor Wonder Hotel. I get a shower and throw out my red India pants with the horrible smell on them, and we have some dinner on pub street before crashing. It’s been some hectic days and I need rest.

June 2, 2014

Phenomenal day out

christinelouise Asia, NovaTOURient, Travel Talk 2014, Asia, Cambodia, phnom penh

As you can tell by the embarassing picture above, this is a much less depressing post. Ages ago, I saw a picture on Instagram of one of my friends dressed up in a traditional khmer dress and I immediately decided I was going to do the same when I got to Cambodia.

So fast forward to the present, where we are heading down to Sihanouk Boulevard, where the vegetarian restaurant we ate at the evening before is. We are craving the food once again, because we actually miss somewhat healthy food, so we go and I got a bagel with salmon and accidentally pick a cinnamon and raisin bagel because I think it’s a wholewheat bagel….FML. After that, we are on the look for a shop where I can get my picture taken (Sara doesn’t want to do it, but tags along anyway). We find a place and I am taken into a studio, where I get my hair and make-up done first. The lady uses white eyeshadow for powder, soo much blush, 5 kinds of eyeshadows on my eyes, a lot of brow- and eyeliner and massive false lashes! Oh, and lipstick and gloss. I look like a drag queen, and I am loving it. Then the make-up lady puts a massive wig-thing on the back of my head and starts combing my own hair over it. Then she takes out the clothes and jewelry – my favorite part! The dress is a corset that’s way too tight and a stiff piece of fabric that has to be folded for ages to make a skirt. And then she put heels on me. What a turn-off. A photographer comes in and takes pictures, but not before moving my body into these awkward poses for me.

Cue overload of me-pictures:

After this shamelessness I promise I won’t show you more pictures of my posing awkwardly in HD, but I will tell you that it would make you cringe.

Anyways, after taking the pictures, they take off the clothes and jewelry, let my hair down and takes the lashes off. The make-up is still there though, so I put on sunglasses and hope for the best. I end up getting the photos on my USB, as I can’t wait three days for Photoshopping to be done. We go back home (me still looking like a drag queen) and I shower. That just had to be done. Then we have lunch and later also dinner at the same restaurant where we had breakfast! We’re awful, we know. It’s called Vego by the way, and it has great salad.

Now it’s time to say goodbye to Phnom Penh and its three massive rainfalls a day. Sihanouk Ville, here we come!

June 2, 2014

Penhful day out

christinelouise Asia, NovaTOURient, Travel Talk 2014, Asia, Cambodia, Choeung Ek, khmer rouge, killing fields, phnom penh, S-21 security prison, tuol sleng

Phnom Penh is the capitol of Cambodia. 39 years ago, everyone living here was forced to leave their homes to start a new life in the countryside under the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot wanted a complete agrarian society, and all intellectuals (doctors, teachers ect.) and anyone who was weak or otherwise in the way, was promptly executed. One of the most popular places to visit in this city today, is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, an old high school turned into the S-21 security prison and execution center. My source, Wikipedia, estimates that between 17,000-20,000 people were imprisoned in the 4 years it was running as a prison. People were usually charged with working with CIA or supporting the old Non Lol regime, and were tortured until they confessed. There can still be seen blood on the floors of the tiny cells and interrogation/torture rooms.

Furthermore, there is a museum with pictures of all the prisoners, their biographies, and a collection of skulls. There is a graveyard in the playground area for the 14 corpses that were found once the prison was shut down – pictures of some of the corpses hang in the rooms they were found in, like some of the torture rooms.

It’s a creepy experience walking into the empty interrogation rooms with blood on the floor, knowing how much suffering has happened happened in here. Even more so in the rooms with photographs on the wall, taken after the prison was shut down. You have to squeeze through a tiny brick cell to get to the narrow hallway between all the cells of the prisoners, and it feels awful knowing that this is where people were chained for 2-3 months before taken away.

At night, the guards would load trucks with prisoners, telling them that they were going to be moved. They drove 15 km before stopping at Choeung Ek: the killing fields.

With a speaker playing propaganda music to drown out the screams, people had their throats slit with palm bark, or were hit in the skull with different tools. No guns were used, as bullets were expensive. Then the corpses were dropped in open graves.

Visitors leave bracelets around the killing fields to pay their respects

This is the biggest one. There are two other preserved graves – the one of a 100 headless soldiers, and the one of a 100 naked women and children. While a lot of women were imprisoned and killed because they were thought to be working with CIA, a lot of them were killed because of a Khmer Rouge saying: “When you dig up grass, you must even remove the roots”
That meant that whenever a man was killed, his entire family should die too, to prevent someone wanting revenge.

The killing tree is right next to the women and children’s grave. Guards grabbed children by their feet and smashed their heads into the tree, leaving traces of blood, brains and hair in the bark to be found later on. The mother’s were often stripped naked and forced to watch, until they themselves were executed and thrown into the grave with their children.

Finally, a tall building is raised in the field as a memorial, and containing clothes, bones and skulls of found victims. Around 9,000 in total.

So, at least that what I understood from my audio guide. It is both depressing and interesting to see how something so awful has happened – and so recently! Despite all the bad things that has happened, it’s a peaceful day with butterflies flying around, flowers growing all over, and people showing their respect in one way or another. It’s kind of reassuring to experience how calm it can be after such a storm.

Bracelets on the Killing Tree. The one with the peace symbol seems very fitting

I wrote this a bit differently than I usually do, because I wanted to give people who know nothing about this part of Cambodia’s history a chance to understand what I am seeing today. I only really used Wikipedia because I’m lazy. But it’s definitely worth reading more about, especially what really happened in S-21! I recommend Survival in the killing fields by Hain Ngor, which is a great book by a doctor who pretended to be a taxi driver, survived three imprisonments and ended up winning an Oscar for a film about the dark years of Cambodia, but lost everything in the process. Less depressing post coming up.

May 30, 2014

Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City

christinelouise Asia, NovaTOURient, Travel Talk 2014, Asia, Ho Chi Minh City, saigon, vietnam, war museum

No purse, no problem

We get in and, starving, so we drop our bags at Nhog Thao or whatever our hostel’s called, and our roommates, two guys from England, join us. They are all in the mood for Burger King, and I cannot turn down fastfood ever, so naturally we go there without a fight. After dinner, we go to Baskin Robbins and get ice cream for the walk home. We all hang out in the room before passing out.

The next day is our only day here in Saigon. While I am keen on the tunnels and shooting range, Sara doesn’t want to deal with hours of transportation, so we go to the War Museum and it’s awful. Not that it sucks, but there are so many pictures of corpses, dead babies, blown-up men, burned women and children born after the war with severe conditions because of the Agent Orange mist. I have to admit that I cry a few times. The worst picture is a closeup of a man who was victim of phosphorus bombs.

And there is a picture of a man blown to pieces in 2003, when he stepped on a mine. Which leads me to this disturbing fact:

So, yeah. My day has been depressing….until!

For a month now, we’ve been waiting for Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie to come out. It premieres today, so we get our tickets before the trip to the museum, so they won’t be sold out. It is such a great movie, I want to watch it again!

OK, time for bed. We’ve got an early bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia tomorrow!

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