Northeast of Cambodia

Hola !,

After a 4 days stay in Phnom Penh, my on-my-own trip started!. I took a bus to get to the northeast part of the country, waterfalls, jungle and elephant trekking attract many visitors to this area. However it is still quite easy to find out off-the-beaten-track sites (hors des sentiers battus) and the atmosphere in this province is really different from the rest of Cambodia, it is so remote...and so dusty!.

First stop, Kratie, 6hrs away from Phonm Penh in a air-conditioning and comfortable bus...you can see the Mekong dolphins and enjoy one of the most spectacular sunset views in Asie



Then from Kratie, things gets tougher, the capital of Ratanakiri is only 7hrs away by bus..but this one is far less comfortable...jam-packed, with families and their small babies peeing just beside you...Anyway I can make u sure than we had a great time, the trip was more than exhilarating...7 hours and 3 breakdowns later (one flat tire and 2 engine breakdowns), we finally managed to get to Ban Lung, our base camp for the following days.


The following days where just GREAT!, best time in Cambodia, three days of motorbike runs to
get to beautiful waterfalls, minority villages, lakes, this is really something !.
Susanne, Gerhard, it was great to share such an experience with you guys!, I miss you a lot!!.

Some waterfalls...
















A rubber tree plantation.....
















...a gem mine in activity, miners working there have to support really high temperatures, they dig around 3meters depth holes in the ground and from the main hole they carve out galleries to extract gem...one of the toughest jobs I have ever seen...


Everyday was a completely new adventure, several hours of motorbike driving, in sometimes very complicated dusty tracks...i have become nearly an expert ! ;-)

It was as well a brilliant opportunity to know how people lives like it these villages, how they live...and the way they die!
In some minority villages, young people gets married at 15 years old. In case one of them dies, the tradition says that the other has to kill him/herself in a week time...Here you are some pics about their cemetery, the older is the man/woman who dies, the bigger is the 'sanctuary'. Relatives go often to the cemetery to offer food and water to feed the spirit...


...and what about Cambodian children?, they are just lovely, never seen in my life people so
smiley, children are so happy with so few..


After Ratanakiri, my dear friends left to Siem Reap whereas I planned to go back to Phnom Penh and then go further south up to the coast. Bye bye Susanne and Gerhard and farewell!!.

Next post completely different atmosphere, switching from dust to tropical beaches with immaculate white sand...

More post are coming soon, keep you posted!

Jona

In the Capital and surrondings...

Hi folks,

Here we are for a couple of snapshots of the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Pehn, which was considered for a long time as the most beautiful city of the French Indochina.

Visitors do not usually stay for a long time, but this city has something special, and the longer you stay, the more you like it...An important number of expatriates live here, most of them working for NGOs or simply as foreign language teachers. French touch can be felt almost everywhere, in the luxurious gardens, in the colonial French style houses or in names given to some government facilities, such as 'La Calmette' for one of the main hospitals...

Day-to-day life of cambodians and most of the tourists is concentrated along the riverside, local people play a sort of football with special balls similar to the ones used in badminton...They are virtually able to hit the ball in every position you can imagine...I tried to play once and I felt so ridiculous...it could be a good exercise for football trainings, will it be imported into Europe?!


Like in all big cities in the world, traffic is a main concern...lol


and like anywhere else in Asia, you can find every kind of goods in local markets, food, clothes, souvenirs...and spare motorbike parts!, nothing more relaxing than a 'siesta' between shock absorbers, ignitors and all the stuff...

It was cool to spend a couple of days there with Silvia, we then split, she flew back to Bangkok whereas I headed towards the northeast. Here you are a picture of her with a new fried we met there...
Next pit stop, Kratie before getting to one of the Cambodia highlights, Ratanakiri region!.

And that's all so far!. Read you soon!

Jona

Angkor...

Hello all,

Sorry for the delay. Everything is going fine, it is just that is difficult to find out some spare time
to keep you posted, but I will keep on doing so!.

Do you remember the last post?...sure you do so...boat trip from Battambang to Siem Reap, the closest city to the ancient temples of Angkor.
We stayed there for a week, a big group with Emma, Silvia, Beatriz, Carol, Philippe and myself.. unfortunately, at the end of the week the group splitted little by little...the real adventure on my own starts!.

Most of these temples were built around the 10th century after Christ. You have seen already the pictures of Cambodia nowadays...hope with the next ones you will all be able to go back in time and to get a snapshot about what Cambodia looked like at this time...really different!!. It was simply one of the most powerful countries in the world.

Do you want to have a look around this magnificent site ?, follow me!!. To get into one of the main fortress, Angkor Thom, which is just huge (more than 10km of perimeter!), enter one of their four gates. Here you are one I preferred, Victoria gate:


Which leads to the misterious temple of Bayon with its enigmatic faces, some would say they are smiling, some others would say they are staring at you, keeping an eye on you to make sure you are behaving as a good Cambodian citizen...





It is difficult to say how many temples are there, but there are more than a hundred!. Each one has its own atmosphere, and it is so nice to walk inside and try to understand how people could feel entering to one of these huge mass of carved stone...










Nowadays most of the temples have been cleaned out of any tree or any kind of plants which virtually covered them, some exceptions are Ta Prohm , can you guess being one of the european explorers who first found these marvellous buildings?. Can you guess the nationality of the first explorer who actually recorded this discovery?...french!.




Here you are another version of the world famous Rodin's thinker...in Angkor!













For those who may come here, I highly recommend you to hire a bike and just wander around...you will see images like these ones



And that' s all folks for the time being. I promise the next post will be soon.

For your information, now at this time I am nearly ending up my stay in Cambodia, heading to Vietnam in three days. Next posts will be for Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, Kratie, Ratanakiri and Sihanoukville in the North. More nice shots and some history is coming soon, so please stay tuned!.

Kisses for you all, take care.

Jona

Cambodia in our way to Angkor

And here you are the 3rd in a row!. Before going ahead, here you are a map of Cambodia so you can easily figure out where I am...

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/south_east_asia/cambodia/cambodia.htm

From Battambang, we catch the boat to Siem Reap through the Tonle Sap river, nice run with some impressive pictures of day-to-day life of people living in the riverside (sometimes on the river itself...)


...people use the boat to transport rice, fruits and vegetables...floating houses are found during all the journey long...


Very exciting the first part of the trip cause the river is so narrow that the boat hardly manages to make the turns...
The second part of the trip, when the rivers gets wider is so relaxing...



When travelling, dressing like a backpacker is essential, don't you think so ?


Write to you soon for some more shoots...this time from the ancients temples of Angkor, one of the most impressive sites on earth!.

Cambodia 1st part

Hello again,

I had the feeling that in Cambodia is where the real trip starts for me...Forget about Bangkok's commodities and quite western-alike (more or less) way of life.
Just crossing the border you realize how different Thailand and Cambodia are...atmosphere is completely different, and of course the very first shocking thing is poverty...Here you are a couple of pictures of the Poipet border, and the way you fill up with petrol...with empty glass coke bootles!



From the border we 'negotiate' a taxi to go to Battambang, the second most important city in Cambodia. Cambodians are not like Thais in negotiation, so we had such a hard time in agreeing a fair price...If you want to see what a bumpy road is, come along here...no pavement, this 'road' is more like a sand track with bumps and people everywhere...Horn is the most important part in any vehicle, they use it each time they overtake someone or something...that means they virtually use it all the time..

Battambang is not really a touristic place, but there are a couple of interesting sites. We went there by motorbike (which was really fun!), and that allowed us to see how many people live...do you believe this is one of the richest regions in Cambodia ?!...it is!.

Hello all!

Here it is finally the first post. First of all, as you have possibly noticed, it is in English, translations are so time-consuming that I cannot afford that... Sorry for any mistake I could make. Next times may be in spanish or french or english, depending on the mood!.

Should I start by the beginning?...ok let's go!.

First destination, as you already know: Bangkok, I arrived there the 21th january, on my own, the girls should come as per the 24th. Fortunately I met very nice people, specially Bertrand and Elisabeth, from Toulouse. I still remember the last night spent toghether until 4.30am drinking Singha beer...



Bangkok the city where anything goes well, very nice the transition between the old Bangkok, with the very well known Kao Sarn Road backpacker paradise, where you can even meet famous people!! (see below)



...the King's Royal Palace (awesome!)



















....and the new Bangkok with its own skytrain (a modern aerial train!) or the IT center...a sort of "El Corte Ingles" (ou Galeries Lafayette) with just 5 floors plenty of IT stuff!!. Sorry but do not have pictures of it...my hard disk just decided to erase the picture :-(

You may want to go to Chinatown, where everything can be sold or bought!, and where you can believe me, traffic is a complete chaos !!





Another good point of Thailand....food!!, you can really get it anywhere, from the traditional Thai noodles or curry, or a milk shake in a plastic bag or even the most horrendous-smelling fruit I have ever seen (or eaten, beurk!): the durian!.




Bangkok's river, Chao Praya river, has important buildings and temples along both riversides,
here you are a picture of Wat Arun, one of the most important ones. At sunset taking a boat is something special, really a high efficient stress-killer...



And for the time being, that's all folks!. After Bangkok we moved towards the east, in direction to Cambodia where I plan to stay the following 3 weeks.

See you !
Jona