So, the internet in Cambodia and Laos is not great....sorry for the delay in this post.....which makes it fairly big!!!
So, having had a great time on the island of Koh Tao 5 years ago, it was finally time to return. Ever since i saw the awesome video that was made of my Open Water course when last on the island.....
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...i thought that adding underwater videography to my repertoire of skills could never be a bad thing, and with a very generous training fund from Bloomberg, i decided to book myself in for a 4 day BSAC course. Oceans Below were the company that originally filmed my groups OW Course video and were recently asked by the British Sub Aqua Club to design the dive industry's only Pro Level Underwater video course. Basically, they're the people to train with!
Having just completed my Advanced Open Water course with Scuba Junction and doing my Peak Buoyancy element as a specialist skill, i was feeling confident that i could get some good results under my belt. My training instructor was Lisa from Austria and after an afternoon of learning about the tips and tricks of underwater videography and how to ensure you camera casing stays watertight when in action, it was time to hit the water the following morning. With 2 dives under our belt, i had amassed about 30 minutes of footage, some of which i hoped would be usable. Alas, that afternoon, i had a fever and spent the next week in bed and out of the water. Luckily, after visiting the local clinic on the island for blood tests, it was confirmed that i didn't have Dengue fever (which i was almost certain i'd caught!) and just told to rest up. Rest i did, but it meant that i missed out on the full moon party :( Best laid plans and all that. So, having rested up for a week and getting back to full strength, it was time to get back into the water.
With lots of knowledge gained from the first 2 dives, these next 2 were much better and my camera work that much steadier......tripods aren't really practical underwater! To give you an idea of the challenges i faced, imagine trying keeping your camera steady whilst maintaining good buoyancy, an average safe depth, whilst pointing the camera up to keep as much blue in shot as possible and trying not to swim into any rocks or coral. Now you'll start to get and idea of how hard filming underwater is! If that's not enough, it's always good to find some fish to swim alongside (not behind them, no one likes fish ass!) so that you can get some decent material. Well, after spending a day chopping it all together and passing the course, these are the results of my 6 dives with a video camera, enjoy :)
Having had to adjust my travel plans slightly due to my fever, i was cutting it close to my VISA limit for Thailand, so i headed back to Bangkok (a 12 hour boat and bus trip), to rest for the night, before spending another 10 hours on a bus across the boarder into Cambodia and onto my first stop, Siem Reap.
So, having had a great time on the island of Koh Tao 5 years ago, it was finally time to return. Ever since i saw the awesome video that was made of my Open Water course when last on the island.....
.
...i thought that adding underwater videography to my repertoire of skills could never be a bad thing, and with a very generous training fund from Bloomberg, i decided to book myself in for a 4 day BSAC course. Oceans Below were the company that originally filmed my groups OW Course video and were recently asked by the British Sub Aqua Club to design the dive industry's only Pro Level Underwater video course. Basically, they're the people to train with!
With lots of knowledge gained from the first 2 dives, these next 2 were much better and my camera work that much steadier......tripods aren't really practical underwater! To give you an idea of the challenges i faced, imagine trying keeping your camera steady whilst maintaining good buoyancy, an average safe depth, whilst pointing the camera up to keep as much blue in shot as possible and trying not to swim into any rocks or coral. Now you'll start to get and idea of how hard filming underwater is! If that's not enough, it's always good to find some fish to swim alongside (not behind them, no one likes fish ass!) so that you can get some decent material. Well, after spending a day chopping it all together and passing the course, these are the results of my 6 dives with a video camera, enjoy :)
Having had to adjust my travel plans slightly due to my fever, i was cutting it close to my VISA limit for Thailand, so i headed back to Bangkok (a 12 hour boat and bus trip), to rest for the night, before spending another 10 hours on a bus across the boarder into Cambodia and onto my first stop, Siem Reap.
Siem Reap is home to Angkor Wat.....yes more temples :/ There are basically loads of temples in a very short distance of one another. A day visiting most of them was enough for me though.
However, one of the temples was used as a location for the film Lara Croft Tomb Raider! Alas, Miss Jolie and her hot pants were nowhere to be seen, but the temple was still standing at least.
I'd heard about some cool islands a 2 hour boat ride from Sihanoukville and decided to check them out and go diving again. So, the next morning, i caught a boat over to Koh Rong Samloem. This is a smallish island, home to a tiny fishing village and a few hidden resorts. There are no roads/cars/bikes and less than 200 people on the island at any one time, so i had a mile long beach all to myself :)
I spent 2 nights here and did a couple of dives. The visibility wasn't amazing when i dived, but there were sooooo many fish, it's probably one of the best dive sites i've been to so far. Being a desert island, at night there are loads of big spiders, snakes and bats everywhere, so it's handy to carry a torch at all times!
After 2 nights on my own (only 1 of the 6 staff at the resort could speak English), i decided to head over to the larger island, Koh Rong. This island is a bit more developed, and by developed, i mean it has about 6 resorts on the beach front and a few more tourists. But again, no roads/cars/bikes, but the island is massive. There are plans to build an airport and in around 10 years time, these islands will be the new Koh Samui/Pangyang/Tao i reckon. To give you an idea of how good they are, Mr and Mrs Smith can hook you up with a boutique hotel on one of the smaller islands for $1350 a night, or you can do what i did and pay $5 a night and still get the same views :)
So, my time on the islands and south coast was up and it was time to visit the capital, Phnom Phen. There's a lot of very recent history in Cambodia and no trip is complete without a visit to the Killing Fields. Before i went there though, i thought it best to visit the shooting range first as so many other tourists do. A magazine for an AK-47 costs $40 (one of the cheapest options), so i went for that. As expected, it's a very powerful weapon with a lot of kick back. It's gets surprising hot very quickly too, so you have to really concentrate to keep your aim.
After the quick trip to the range, i headed off in my Tuk Tuk to the killing fields. It's a small area and one of the few remaining signs of the genocide that took place here under the leader ship of Pol Pot in the 70s. If you come to this part of the world, it's worth a visit. There's not a lot left there now apart from the memorial, but after heavy rains, some clothes, teeth and bones can surface from the graves below.
On the way back to the hostel, just 1km from the Killing Fields is the Cambodian beer brewery. I asked my Tuk Tuk driver to stop and asked if they did tours. He said no. I said that we should ask anyway, so he had a chat with the security guard on the front gate for a few minutes. After a bit of walkie talkie talk by the security guard, i was waved though and greeted by a member of the management at the steps of the office complex. He was very welcoming, but very apologetic too, as the tour guide was busy training all afternoon and couldn't show me around. He said though, that i was more than welcome to come up with him to their private bar to sample some of their freshly brewed (3rd placed award winning) beer. Errrr.....OK then! This folks is how you organise a piss up in a brewery....for free ;) How many beers did i have.....well, lets just say i forgot to take photos!
From Phnom Phen, i headed north to Kratie to break up the trip into Laos a bit. All i knew about Kratie was that it was a good half way point to stop on the way to Laos and it's also home to some fresh water dolphins too. On the bus up, i got chatting to the only other westerner, Glenn from Holland. We stayed at the same hostel and hooked up with a few other travellers that night. We were told it was the last night of a big festival in town, so decided to go down and check it out. There was a big stage and sound system which had been set up by the Kingdom Beer company to promote their new lager. So, more cheep beer, live music and some very odd Cambodian competitions where they got teenagers up on stage doing stupid stuff to win crates of beer! They had a live band, but at 10PM, everything wrapped up. I ran over to the band and said they should carry on the party and keep on playing....which they eagerly did. Then, 10 of us gatecrashed the stage and started dancing to the awesome (they were an amazing band!) rock music they were knocking out. This went on for 30 minutes or so before it was time for them to pack up. But the management of Kingdom Beer were loving the fact a load of westerners were enjoying the show, so invited us to join them and the band for more free beer! Yeah!!! Every 2 minutes though, we had to toast each other as the Cambodians are not use to drinking as fast as us tourists, so they were trying to slow us down a little!
The next day, we headed off up the road (15k) to see the fresh water dolphins. No back flips were witnessed, nor dolphin clicking noises heard. Disappointment was rife. In fact, they just bobbed around a bit. Should have gone to SeaWorld :( There was also a turtle sanctuary nearby, so we paid them a little visit.
It's run by monks who are trying to breed them in large numbers to help with the conservation of the local turtle population. They're doing very well and you'll be pleased to hear that turtle numbers are rising again! With that excitement behind us, it was time to move onto Laos and leave behind Cambodia.
After another day spent on the bus, sitting in damp clothes having been drenched by a flash monsoon, we arrived in Don Det in the 4000 islands later that evening. Don Det is another small island with only one road and a few bikes. The perfect place to chill out in a hammock and do nothing!
It turns out, they actually play a little bucking bronco game with all the tourists. When you're in the water with the elephant, you climb up onto their backs and get comfy. Then, the keepers have trained the elephants to shake their heads from side to side to try and throw you off!! This combined with the trunk water showers makes for a fantastically fun elephant experience :)
However, one of the temples was used as a location for the film Lara Croft Tomb Raider! Alas, Miss Jolie and her hot pants were nowhere to be seen, but the temple was still standing at least.
It's got loads of ginormous trees growing in and around it. A lot of it is crumbling though, but the Cambodians are working numerous countries to help fund the rebuilding and preservation of many of these fantastic sites. Siem Reap is more like a small town than a city, but it's really relaxed, so i spent a few days there chilling out before heading off to Sihanoukville on the south coast. Sihanoukville is a new town built around 60 years ago by the French due to it's seaboard location and naturally deep harbour, so it's quite modern by Cambodian standards. Its a bit of a party town too, so a good place to hit the bars on the beach front, and by beach front, i mean some of the best beaches in Asia!
I'd heard about some cool islands a 2 hour boat ride from Sihanoukville and decided to check them out and go diving again. So, the next morning, i caught a boat over to Koh Rong Samloem. This is a smallish island, home to a tiny fishing village and a few hidden resorts. There are no roads/cars/bikes and less than 200 people on the island at any one time, so i had a mile long beach all to myself :)
I spent 2 nights here and did a couple of dives. The visibility wasn't amazing when i dived, but there were sooooo many fish, it's probably one of the best dive sites i've been to so far. Being a desert island, at night there are loads of big spiders, snakes and bats everywhere, so it's handy to carry a torch at all times!
After 2 nights on my own (only 1 of the 6 staff at the resort could speak English), i decided to head over to the larger island, Koh Rong. This island is a bit more developed, and by developed, i mean it has about 6 resorts on the beach front and a few more tourists. But again, no roads/cars/bikes, but the island is massive. There are plans to build an airport and in around 10 years time, these islands will be the new Koh Samui/Pangyang/Tao i reckon. To give you an idea of how good they are, Mr and Mrs Smith can hook you up with a boutique hotel on one of the smaller islands for $1350 a night, or you can do what i did and pay $5 a night and still get the same views :)
So, my time on the islands and south coast was up and it was time to visit the capital, Phnom Phen. There's a lot of very recent history in Cambodia and no trip is complete without a visit to the Killing Fields. Before i went there though, i thought it best to visit the shooting range first as so many other tourists do. A magazine for an AK-47 costs $40 (one of the cheapest options), so i went for that. As expected, it's a very powerful weapon with a lot of kick back. It's gets surprising hot very quickly too, so you have to really concentrate to keep your aim.
After the quick trip to the range, i headed off in my Tuk Tuk to the killing fields. It's a small area and one of the few remaining signs of the genocide that took place here under the leader ship of Pol Pot in the 70s. If you come to this part of the world, it's worth a visit. There's not a lot left there now apart from the memorial, but after heavy rains, some clothes, teeth and bones can surface from the graves below.
On the way back to the hostel, just 1km from the Killing Fields is the Cambodian beer brewery. I asked my Tuk Tuk driver to stop and asked if they did tours. He said no. I said that we should ask anyway, so he had a chat with the security guard on the front gate for a few minutes. After a bit of walkie talkie talk by the security guard, i was waved though and greeted by a member of the management at the steps of the office complex. He was very welcoming, but very apologetic too, as the tour guide was busy training all afternoon and couldn't show me around. He said though, that i was more than welcome to come up with him to their private bar to sample some of their freshly brewed (3rd placed award winning) beer. Errrr.....OK then! This folks is how you organise a piss up in a brewery....for free ;) How many beers did i have.....well, lets just say i forgot to take photos!
From Phnom Phen, i headed north to Kratie to break up the trip into Laos a bit. All i knew about Kratie was that it was a good half way point to stop on the way to Laos and it's also home to some fresh water dolphins too. On the bus up, i got chatting to the only other westerner, Glenn from Holland. We stayed at the same hostel and hooked up with a few other travellers that night. We were told it was the last night of a big festival in town, so decided to go down and check it out. There was a big stage and sound system which had been set up by the Kingdom Beer company to promote their new lager. So, more cheep beer, live music and some very odd Cambodian competitions where they got teenagers up on stage doing stupid stuff to win crates of beer! They had a live band, but at 10PM, everything wrapped up. I ran over to the band and said they should carry on the party and keep on playing....which they eagerly did. Then, 10 of us gatecrashed the stage and started dancing to the awesome (they were an amazing band!) rock music they were knocking out. This went on for 30 minutes or so before it was time for them to pack up. But the management of Kingdom Beer were loving the fact a load of westerners were enjoying the show, so invited us to join them and the band for more free beer! Yeah!!! Every 2 minutes though, we had to toast each other as the Cambodians are not use to drinking as fast as us tourists, so they were trying to slow us down a little!
The next day, we headed off up the road (15k) to see the fresh water dolphins. No back flips were witnessed, nor dolphin clicking noises heard. Disappointment was rife. In fact, they just bobbed around a bit. Should have gone to SeaWorld :( There was also a turtle sanctuary nearby, so we paid them a little visit.
It's run by monks who are trying to breed them in large numbers to help with the conservation of the local turtle population. They're doing very well and you'll be pleased to hear that turtle numbers are rising again! With that excitement behind us, it was time to move onto Laos and leave behind Cambodia.
After another day spent on the bus, sitting in damp clothes having been drenched by a flash monsoon, we arrived in Don Det in the 4000 islands later that evening. Don Det is another small island with only one road and a few bikes. The perfect place to chill out in a hammock and do nothing!
After roaming south east Asia for 3 months in flip flops, i'd managed to pick up a few cuts and blisters on my feet, so resting up was just what the doctor ordered and this was the perfect place to do it. It was by this stage of the trip that you start bumping into the same people doing a similar route. Jackob, Ewelina, Adam, Emme etc, so there were plenty of sunset beer buddies. Having relaxed for a good few days, it was time to catch the dreaded night bus north to the capital Vientiane. I'd heard lots about this place, mainly that it's boring, but thought it best to check it out none the less. So, having found a place to stay along with a few others on the night bus, we checked out the city and its night life. We were playing pool at a rooftop bar over looking the river Khong and onwards into Thailand, when all of a sudden, MEGA loud music started blaring out from the river front with loads of shouting. We took a look over the balcony and saw this;
Keep Fit en mass! Apparently, this happens almost every night and there's not just one group of them, but rival clubs. It seems to me though that the one with largest sound system was clearly winning! So, what else can you do in Vientiane? Bowling! It's dirt cheap too, so off we headed for a game. The alley was imported from Mexico, so they have to program everything in for you. It clearly doesn't make much difference though as i still won the game.....just!
So, north again i headed, this time to the infamous Vang Vieng, most famous for Tubing. For those that don't know, Tubing is where you sit in a big rubber ring, drive 5KM up river, then float back down, stopping at loads of river side bars along the way. A few years ago, Tubing hit it's peak. All the river side bars had built zip lines, rope swings and massive water slides etc, but depending on the rainfall, the water level could be dangerously low and this, combined with the heavy drinking culture led to many deaths, so the Laos government cracked down on it and now only 3 river side bars remain. However, having only just arrived in this beautiful town (check out the view from my room!)......
...it was time to grab some dinner and beer before evening thinking about tubing. It was during this dinner and refreshing beer that myself, Zae and Nico were told about that evenings jungle party. It's only on once a week and then, only if it's not raining. It just happened to be a Saturday night and rain free, so off we went, into the Jungle! A quick little quiz for you all.....what type of music do they play in the jungle??? JUNGLE MUSIC!!! Needless to say, it was a pretty crazy awesome night! Alas, the next morning we awoke to heavy rain. It rained and rained and rained. It just didn't stop for days. We partied at night, but skipped the tubing, but still had a blast. The rain just kept on coming though, so i packed up again and headed north to Luang Prabang hoping for sun.
I'd heard loads of good things about this town and former royal capital of the Kingdom of Laos. Plus, with it being a UNESCO world heritage site, i was expecting good things and it didn't disappoint. Having again found a place to stay with some fellow bus buddies Charlotte and Jules, we made our plan of attack for the town and surrounding sights. The first stop on our list was the Tad Sae waterfalls, about 30 mins away from the town. After much bargaining with the local tuk tuk cartel, off we headed to see these much hyped falls.....
....and who'd have thunk some genius would build a rope swing for all to enjoy!
A good time was had by all, but how were we going to top that the following day? Well, Elephant trekking seemed high up the list of things to do, so off we went in search of a suitable tour. We ended up picking the kayaking down river, trekking, bathing and feeding the elephants, followed by a visit to a Lao Lao whisky factory. This turned out to be an inspired choice and off we headed early the next morning.
Kayaking was first up. After 2 hours of paddling and drifting down stream, we stopped for lunch before boarding our elephants. No seat was involved for me, i simply had to sit at the back of the elephants head on it's neck and put my legs behind it's ears. The girls opted for a seated option though. So, off we headed for a tour around town which lasted about 40 minutes. All went well, expect for when my elephant got scared by a dog towards the end and decided to throw a wobbly. Luckily, all those times i've spent on a bucking bronco ride at fairgrounds paid off and i managed to ride out his panic attack. Back to base we went and now it was time to feed them and then take them down to the water for a little swim.
It turns out, they actually play a little bucking bronco game with all the tourists. When you're in the water with the elephant, you climb up onto their backs and get comfy. Then, the keepers have trained the elephants to shake their heads from side to side to try and throw you off!! This combined with the trunk water showers makes for a fantastically fun elephant experience :)
We also spent an evening at Big Brother Mouse a local charity that aims to help all Laos children become literate. Every evening from 5-7PM, local children (teenagers mostly) turn up. There are a few staff there too, but they rely on word of mouth amongst foreigners (they're listed in the Lonely Planet guide) to come along for an evening and help with reading or just to have a conversation with a local, so that they can improve their English. I was paired up with a local guy who wanted to improve his reading. He pulled out a copy of the local English language paper and we proceed to read about Brazil winning their 3 group games in the Confederations Cup. This then turned into a lesson about the rules of cup competitions, as semi-final is quite hard to explain in plain English!
Luang Prabang was unfortunately my final destination in Laos. It was time to head over to Vietnam, but i faced one problem.....a 26 hour bus ride!!!! Did i make it all the way? Was there a toilet on board the bus for passengers to use? Did the Vietnamese boarder guards strip search everyone on the bus???! Tune in next time to find out!!!
