2014

June 14, 2014

Taman Negara

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SONY DSC Going to a 130 million year old rainforest with only a small village and no ATMs? It sounds like a piece of cake, really.

We begin our journey to Taman Negara early in the morning, by getting on a private bus. I have the pleasure of sitting next to a French guy that sleeps with his legs wide open and rests his head on my shoulder. 3 hours later, we are waiting for our jetty boat to our destination, another 3 hours away. The journey is beautiful, although it’s slightly uncomfortable sitting in a narrow canoe with no leg space whatsoever. We then have the pleasure of climbing a lot of stairs and walk around for what seems like ages to get a hostel. We regrettably settle on the first thing we find, Liana Hostel, where we share a dorm with Allison and Matt from England. We spend the night reading and enjoying the AC in our room as it is uncomfortably hot and humid here, before falling asleep.

The next day, we all get up early to go on a hike in the rainforest.

We get to the canopy walk, which is a few suspension bridges that add up to around 500 metres of walking. Every bridge seems to take us higher up above the ground, and it’s amazing.

After that, Sara and I hike back to the village to meet up at our travel agency, where we have booked a visit to the Orang Asli tribe. We get on a jetty boat to do rapid sailing – you know, where they rock the boat and sail as fast as they can while you get soaked. Then we arrive at the tribe.

Orang Asli means “original people” and is a tribe scattered around. They are nomads, so they move every now and then without warning. They live in simple huts, their chief is their medicine man, and they hunt and gather every day – only what they need, not more. It’s quite admirable seeing how they manage to live a life without greed.
The chief shows us how they make fire, and then he makes a few arrows for the blowpipe, their hunting weapon of choice, followed by a demonstration. Then our group take turns aiming at a teddy bear with the blowpipe – and I am pretty good. Surprisingly.

The arrow on the right, next to the teddy bears face? That’s mine! The chief’s is the one stuck on its face.

Taking pictures of cats, of course

At night, we go on a safari at a plantation. We sit on top of a jeep and the guide points a flashlight at everything in hopes of seeing some animals. We see quite a few: a slow loris, cows, wild boars, owls, kingfishers, foxes and… LEOPARDS!!

Blurry picture of a tiny animal that our guide assured us is a leopard

June 12, 2014

Kuala Lumpur

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After a very turbulent, over-prized flight with a cheap airline, we make it to KLIA2 and get a bus to KL Sentral. We have a late dinner at McDonald’s, which is halal! Shoutout to my muzzies in hurr (hi Albulena). Then we get on the sky train and walk around Chinatown for ages before finding Marquee Guest House. Then we pass out.

Close to our hostel

The next day, we wake up quite late and take our sweet time getting up. It’s just one of those days, I guess. We get a skytrain to KLCC, where we stumble upon the Petronas Towers!

Sara suggests going to the Convention Center to check out Aquarium KLCC, so there we go. At first, we can’t find the aquarium, and walk around a massive convention, feeling pretty out of place. By the time we find it, we are a bit disappointed to find out that it’s a total kids thing. It’s still pretty cool though. We see piranhas, sharks, spiders and all that crap.

We walk around the different malls in the city center before going back to relax a bit. Then we have dinner at a street kitchen in Chinatown, which is actually pretty nice, despite looking dirty. Tomorrow it’s time to go somewhere else. I don’t know the name, really, but there’s supposed to be a tribe, so I’m game.

June 11, 2014

Final thoughts: Cambodia

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Cambodia is a country I could see myself live in someday. Not permanently, of course. Prior to coming here, I read the book Survival in the Killing Fields, which got me really interested in the country’s unbelievably sad history. It is creepy in a way, seeing all these people on the street, knowing a lot of them have survived this awful event – or been a part of the Khmer Rouge. Despite this, they are among the most friendly people I have ever met. They are good at English, and the kids are adorable. No, really, I am adopting a Cambodian kid someday.

I would love to do social work here one day – especially in Siem Reap – but the party scene is so tempting too! Who knows, all that is certain is that I’ll be back someday!

June 9, 2014

Siem Reap

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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

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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.

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