Cambodia

We landed in Cambodia yesterday morning and went straight to our hotel in downtown Siem Reap. It's just a small one, quite personable, and the rooms are clean, air conditioning, free breakfast, free wi-fi, frozen facecloths when we come back to the hotel along with a chilled glass of water. They say they have a pool, but the actual pool is at another hotel and you have to take a tuk tuk or walk about a km, so I can't be stuffed. We're booked into a different hotel after this one with two pools, bigger rooms, and bigger balconies. F. feels a little crowded on the tiny one next to our room...

We went down to the markets yesterday and again last night, where I bought a few things. We also went out for lunch and supper, both beautiful meals. Cambodians know how to cook for sure. The city of Siem Reap is still developing, and reminds me of Belize City in some ways, rudimentary streets mixed with some newer ones, and buildings of all type and measure, all stages of decay or construction. The traffic is interesting to watch. There are no street signs and the lanes are more of a suggestion...I feel much safer in a tuk tuk than walking, but F. likes to walk. She had to wade across the flooded street this morning to go to the bank machine. It poured rain here last night and flooded out. It also poured just as we finished up some of the temples and stopped for lunch - buckets of rain! The forest was flooded and about to flood the roads.

We went out to a bar last night for some beers, and met a kiwi who sat with us for a few. The night life was interesting to watch as people went by. So many sellers of everything, old and young, all pleading with you to buy something and give you special deal, bring good luck. After awhile the pressure gets to me, and I have to move on. I did buy a lovely painting at the temples this morning for $10, beautiful art on canvas by a young man of Angkor Wat temple. We haven't been to see that yet, going tomorrow. We were at the site but the site is HUGE and takes 2-3 days to see it all, and it was pissing rain by the time we left, so decided to postpone that temple until tomorrow when we finish up the other ones as well. Had a nice moto tuk tuk driver today named Choi who is going to pick us up again tomorrow for the day. They drive you from temple to temple as it can be a bit of a hike. The site is huge, so most people either take a moto tuk tuk or even ride an elephant.

Now that we're back at the hotel, we're relaxing for a bit, will wander out for some more shopping and supper later on. Hiking the temples is tiring as there are tons of stairwells, and lots of stones to climb over, and it's so very hot and humid to get around. Even F. is hot which is saying something...

More later in the week. Have to find a charger or adapter for my mini-laptop as the plugs here don't take a polarized cord, just two-prong and my laptop is about to die!

Three Countries in Two Days

     We left Alice Springs just before noon on Friday, headed for Darwin, F. and I sporting our new backpacks. Upon arrival, we found lockers to dump our bags and took the shuttle down to the Darwin waterfront, which was nice enough, looking quite brand new actually and not particularly crowded, with no vendors. I was expecting something like Halifax waterfront I suppose, but they have the Mindl Market in Darwin at Mindl beach so I guess that’s where the markets focus. In any event, was sure nice to see the ocean again – the East Timor Sea. It was rather hot though, so didn’t spend much time in the sun as I felt a burn coming on. F. even took off her jumper aka hoodie. We did a tour of the waterfront before sourcing a pub, found a nice one and got on the pints of Carlton Draught… and people watching. There was some kind of a fundraiser going on in the common space next to the pub – everyone was dressed in santa suits in the smouldering heat…pant pant…I was hot just watching them. Then they started doing Zoomba…even funnier. We ordered some food, had a nice meal and then were so tired we headed back to the airport to spend the night as we had a very early morning flight to Bali, country number two.
     The night in the airport was pretty damned uncomfortable for the most part as they had hardly any seating and other than the carpet, nowhere to lie down. I managed to score some prime real estate with a couple of love seats when a big family got up to board their flight, so we both caught a few winks there, but then the announcements started for the upcoming flights. I was ready to punch someone by the time our flight boarded – so loud! Then we were off and jetting out of the country. We managed to find ourselves on a less than full flight with several empty rows of seats – bonus! F. came and got me, having to startle me out of sleep with several shouts and finger flicks to wake me up and put me onto the empty seat rows where we were able to stretch out. I actually caught a couple of hours sleep on the seats which was so very needed by that point.
     We arrived in Bali at 6am, and found they had even LESS seating there and we couldn’t check our bags until 2 hours before our flights, which was about noon to check in, and with a 2 hour time difference, it was HOURS AND HOURS. We did find a nice smoking room/café where they had nice couches so I bought a few drinks and curled up on the couch there for a bit, reading. By the time we finally got to check our bags, we were OVER the Bali airport. Less than impressed with the extra costs of stopping over in Bali though – we had to pay $29 for a visa, and another $20 for an airport tax which I think was a little ridiculous given we didn’t leave the airport. The visa is a cool sticker in my passport, but a total rip off for simply changing planes and the airport was a crappy one to hang out in for hours and hours. Of course this wasn't without incident as well - we found that our bank cards did not work in the one ATM that was before the visa check point, so I had to leave my passport with them and go find another bank machine - thankfully there was an ANZ (my aussie bank) around the corner - took out 200,000 something or others, went back and got my passport back and back to the visa purchase counter, only to find out I needed 235,000 so back out through the visa check counter, leave my passport again, back to the bank machine - couldn't find my wallet - SHIT. Then found the wallet, got the rest out, went back through the check point, picked up my passport, back to the purchase counter, got my visa, then back to find someone to give me an immigration card as I was asleep when they handed them out on the plane, then back to the visa check point, fingerprints and photo taken, and THEN we were finally through. At least I didn't do what F. did and mixed up her zeros, took out 1,000,000 so had MORE than she needed. All part of the adventure but we were certainly ready to move on to country number three…
     The flight from Bali to Kuala Lumpur was uneventful, although there was a scary moment when I found myself seated in the same row as one of two babies on the flight…dammit. She was wailing too, but soon settled down when the flight took off, thankfully. We were on the tarmac forever though and because I couldn’t put my seat back and was so very tired, my head kept dropping forward like a chicken until I could finally tilt the chair after takeoff. Enter country number three.

on the Darwin Waterfront

Zoomba Santas

Darwin Sunset at the waterfront

sunrise over the ocean from the plane to Bali

Balinese currency

handy to have a hose there

pretty flowers in the airport bathrooms

chocolate and tobacco?

nice longneck beers in Bali

long neck beers in Kuala Lumpur

hotel kitty

Malasian Ringits

F.'s in the 7/11 for another long neck

Thankfully F. knew her way around KL as she had just been through here last year and we were staying at the same hotel – Tune Hotels, right at the airport, you could see it from the arrivals exit. We paid our one ringit though and took the shuttle as it was rather hot and muggy and one ringit is about 25 cents…quick drive to the hotel, checked in, and settled into our tiny rooms – not much bigger than the double bed, but clean, comfy, and our own bathrooms. A shower was in order after slogging for 2 days in airports, sweltering in the heat (I was anyway). We took our showered bodies downstairs to the open common area of the complex, overlooking the airport and parking lots, nice tall alcove with chairs, 7/11 and two restaurants bordering it. We drank some local beers in longnecks, and got ourselves some local food – I had dim sum for the first time, quite tasty. And just as we finished up, the winds came in with a tropical storm and down came the rains…we were ready for bed anyhow, so here I sit in my tiny room, listening to the tropical storm sweep through and dump some rain on the city. Early rise tomorrow – flight at 6:50am, so we have to be at the check-in by about 5am…thankfully there is a shuttle every 15 minutes, so no big deal! Now I’m going to settle into my $20 hotel room. A/C and towel are extras 5 ringits for the towel, I think 15 for the air con…so worth it! So nice to stretch out again on a nice bed after bumming around airports for the last 36 hours…country number four tomorrow!

Oh My GAWD First Facebook and now Blogger!

Change isn't always easy. I absolutely hate most of the recent changes with Facebook, but I thought I might try out some of the new changes with Blogger, so if things look a little different, it's because I am trying to embrace the change...to see an entire post, simply click on the title and you can find the entire blog post, photos and all. Let me know what you think, anonymously or otherwise.

Cambodia Here I Come!

    It has been a few years since I've backpacked anywhere. I traveled via Karma, the hippy van last year, and before that it had been 2004 when I last backpacked. My daughter and I went to central America and visited Guatemala and Belize. Now I am off to Cambodia in a couple of days with a friend and am so excited I may not sleep tomorrow night. I even bought a new backpack for the journey. I had a really nice backpack from the last trip, but sadly that too went up in flames during last year's house fire on New Year's Eve. I did buy a replacement at Value Village for $7 but it was a single compartment, no pockets or rain shield, so I splurged and bought another. Cambodia is rather damp this time of year and I needed not only a variety of pockets for shoving things in, I also needed some waterproofing for when the monsoon rains hit. It isn't nearly as large as my old one but I have learned that the bigger the pack, the more crap you fill it with.

     My new pack is fabulous, and they really thought of everything. It has pockets in the waist straps, possibly for essentials like money, flashlight, keys, etc. Pockets on the shoulder straps for an mobile phone or iPod - I have an iPhone, so it will fit nicely there. There are mesh pockets on the sides for water bottles or shoes/sandals, and a huge front pocket outside the main compartment. My friend F. who is traveling with me calls it my Mary Poppins pack because of all that I have managed to cram into it. She has a pack twice the size of mine, also brand new, and is taking nearly half of what I have so will have lot of room for souvenirs, hers and mine. I'm also taking a day pack, which will be my trusty University of Waterloo backpack that was luckily in my car at the time of the fire. It's been with me since I first landed in Waterloo in 1997 and is now covered in colorful patches, and has heaps of stories of its own to tell.

I've never been to Asia, so am excited about finally landing on that continent. It will be very different for sure to be among such a vibrant culture where I do not speak the language. We shall be counting on hand gestures, broken English, butchered local language, and photos/maps/drawings. I'm sure it will be interesting to say the least to find ourselves directed to the wrong place, or asking for the completely wrong thing. Shopping will be much easier - everyone understands dollars, and American dollars are easily accepted, so I reckon we will use American money for most things when we can. A dollar is a dollar.

     I have someone who will be feeding Dundee and scooping his litter while I'm gone, but this neighbor is allergic to cats so can't spend much time here, so I am enlisting the help of a friend to visit with Dundee while I'm gone, just to hang out and play with him as I'm certain he will be lonesome. Perhaps his teddy will get a workout...

Some of what we will be hoping to explore is:

• the many beautiful temples, especially Angkor Wat
• the bamboo railroad where they take the train apart when someone approaches from the opposite direction
• the killing fields - important time for reflection here
• the floating villages
• the many markets
• volunteering at a local orphanage
• and just about anything else that catches our eyes - we're open to any visceral experience!

Cambodia is the orange country in the middle

     There will be blog posts and Facebook updates when I can, as I will be bringing my small laptop with me, but it will depend on power source, wireless signal, and the time to actually upload photos and label them. What doesn't get done while I'm there can easily be done when I return to Australia. I will have my iPhone with me too, but please do not call me unless someone is dying, as it will cost me a fortune. I'll be checking emails when I can. I have also registered with the Canadian and Australian Embassies and they have my travel insurance details. We don't plan on going through any of the politically charged areas of the country, and sticking pretty close to the gringo trail. 

Thanksgiving is for Turkeys

Well, since I wasn't going to be in Australia for Canadian Thanksgiving, I held it last Sunday at my house and invited my friends to come and partake in their first ever Thanksgiving dinner. On the menu was of course - turkey, which I might add is not easy to find in Australia it appears as they are not big turkey eaters. I had to go to the butcher and get one of his two turkeys in the freezer. He had one very large one, about 27 pounds, and another that was about 10 pounds...I took the 10 pounder, and that was nearly $40 as it was. Holy shit. The rest of the menu was as follows:

• sweet potatoes
• mashed white potatoes
• corn souffle
• buttered carrots
• cranberry sauce
• dinner rolls
• and let's not forget the homemade stuffing with Canadian summer savoury (thanks again Joanne
• and for dessert - figgy duff with rum and brown sugar sauce

We literally pigged out. It was fabulous. And while we were eating we went around the table and everyone spoke about something they were thankful for. The common thread was that we were thankful that in coming to Alice Springs from away, as we were all new recruits this year, we were all pretty thankful to have found such good friends to share our time with. 

     The dinner preparation was not without a few snags...this was the first time roasting the turkey in a gas oven and the gas flame went out. The oven is new and it doesn't continue to spew gas when the light was out, but I didn't notice for a time that it was out and when I went to baste the turkey, the oven was barely warm...oops...crap. So I cranked it up and finished the bird off, no problem. The next issue was with the figgy duff. I had to buy a tea towel to wrap my steamed pudding in as I lost my pudding bag in the fire last year. I was quite pleased with the texture of how it turned out and wrapped it snugly in the tea towel and chucked it into the boiling pot of water. Then I saw the egg. The egg I had forgotten to add to the pudding. CRAP! So I had to yank out the soggy pudding bag, open it up, slop the pudding back into the bowl and mix the damned egg in. Then slew this bit of sloppy pudding back into the towel, tie it up again and chuck it back into the boiling pot of water. I was not optimistic about how it would turn out, particularly given no one had ever heard of figgy duff or knew what it was meant to be like. I did not want a dunce pudding. Turned out it didn't matter - the pudding turned out just fine, and we powered through it all, declaring it wonderfully nice, particularly the sauce made with Aussie Bundaberg rum.

     After dinner we sat around through the turkey sweats and watched a couple of movies before calling it a night. Thanksgiving in Oz was a success!