Battambang

NEW ALBUM – CLICK ON THE ‘VIEW MY ALBUMS’ ON THE RIGHT OF THE SCREEN

The Bamboo train

I left Siem Reap for Battambang yesterday and joined in with a tour group. On the way to Battambang we stopped at a school for homeless children for lunch. Battambang is the fourth biggest town in Cambodia for tourists after Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap. The town is not very big but it is surrounded by some great countryside.

After arriving and booking into the hotel we went for a trip on the bamboo train.

Sunset across Cambodia

This train is as you’d imagine made of bamboo and runs on a single track. When a train comes in the other direction whoever has the fewer people on their train has to get off whilst the driver takes the train apart so the other train can pass. You then put it back together again and carry on the journey. It was pretty cool and we stopped on the track to view the sunset which was far better than the Angkor Watt sunrise (that’s on difficult!) a few days before.

Villagers cooking rice in Bamboo - very tasty!

The following day I left the tour who moved into Thailand and onto Bangkok (I’m not going back there!). I hired a moto driver who took me to some of the sights outside the town. We drove through lots of villages before making our way to a place called Phnon Banan which is a temple on a hill that re-dates Angkor Watt (11^th century). Upon arriving the moto driver said he’d wait by the bike, I soon realized why, there were 358 very steep steps to the top.

Phnom Banan

The temple was pretty cool and had some great views of Cambodia. After this I went to Phnom Sampeau (another temple on a hill) and the Phnom Sampeau killing caves – which were caves used by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s of executing people. It was pretty sad to see as there were lots of skulls of the victims on display.

For this journey again my moto driver wasn’t up for the walk but arranged for me a 12 year old girl to take me up the mountain – it was another long, steep and hot walk but when we got back to the bottom I gave the girl $2 and she was well chuffed.

I’m heading back to Phnom Penh tomorrow the probably off to Kampot and Kemp before returning to Ho Chi Minh City.

Siem Reap and Angkor Watt revisited

Sunrise at Angkor Watt

After being in Sihanoukville for a few days I started to get a bit bored of the beach so decided to head north and revisit Siem Reap and Angkor Watt with the plan to then go to Battambang which I wanted to see last time I visited Cambodia but didn’t get time. I took a bus which ended up taking 14 hours from Sihanoukville. The road between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap was pretty damaged due to the floods several months ago which made for a bumpy ride.

What I saw at sunrise

I wanted to see the sunrise an Angkor Watt which is supposed to be pretty amazing. Sadly the picture above isn't mine. This photo was taken by a friend of mine some time ago. The picture to the right is what I saw.... grey sky! The sun let me down and hid behind the clouds. So I didn’t really get to see the sun rise I just got to see it get light.

Bayon temple

It was still pretty cool. I hired a bicycle and cycled there at 4:30am. There’s very little street lighting so I was cycling in the dark for most of the journey. After watching it get light I revisited some of my favorite temples from before. I got back to my hotel at 11am and it felt like I’d done a full days sightseeing.

I’m going to Battambang tomorrow which is the home of the bamboo train and supposed to be a nice town.

Ta Prohm

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Serendipity Beach

I arrived in Sihanoukville in Cambodia a couple of days ago after a 12 hour journey from Ho Chi Minh City via Phnom Penh. Despite the very long journey it went pretty quickly and the bus didn't break down. Its amazing that this 12 hour bus journey cost me $16 (about 10 pounds!)

Sihanoukville is a place by the sea which has some pretty good beaches. I'm staying in a place called Serendipidy beach which is next to Ocheteaul beach. Its a pretty nice place as its not as developed as most coastal places but still has enough things to keep you busy.

Serendipity Beach

It's the kind of place that I would imagine will be completely different in 5 years time. You can already see places that are being roped off for development. I hired a bike yesterday and cycled around all the beaches. There are some pretty nice ones with virtually no people on them. I'm planning to be back in Ho Chi Minh City on 27th January so until that time I will be mainly relaxing. I'm thinking of going to a couple of other places close by but will see how I feel.

Mekong Delta – 9th – 11th January 2012

* NEW PHOTO ALBUM - CLICK 'VIEW MY GALLERY' ON THE RIGHT OF THE SCREEN *

Mekong Delta

I’ve just finished a three day tour around the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta is in the south east of Vietnam and is well known as one of the biggest areas for producing rice in the world. We went to a number of towns on the tour including My Tho, Ben Tre, Can Tho, Long Xuyen and Chau Doc which is pretty much all the major town in the delta. I was expecting it to be very underdeveloped but it wasn’t.

Lunch with some good people I met

We saw a number of things over the three days. On the journey we saw lots of rice fields before the first stop which was a pagoda with two giant statues. We then had lunch on one of the 4 Islands called Tortoise Island. We didn’t see any tortoises which was disappointing. The other Islands are called Dragon, Phoenix and Unicorn Islands so I doubt there will be any of them on those Islands either.

Floating market at Cai Rang

For the rest of the day we went to see a coconut candy factory and saw some Vietnamese folk music. This was pretty funny – not the best entertainment but I’ve added a video so you can watch for yourself.

On the second day we went to a floating market followed by a visit to a rice noodle making factory and an orchard garden. It’s a sign of the times when you find rice noodle making factories and coconut candy factories interesting!

Dragon fruit in the orchard garden

As I've not left HCMC for 5 months it was very nice to have some peace and quiet. I was surprised how much I’d missed it. In the orchard garden there were some amazing fruits being grown including dragon fruit and jack fruits which are huge.

We also went to a crocodile farm which I was really up for but didn’t realize that the crocodiles are raised so they can be sold for meat and made into shoes and handbags. There were over 4,000 crocodiles on this farm some of them were enormous.

Fitting in with the locals

On the last day we went to visit a fish farm and a minority village. Minority villages create images in the mind of places miles from anywhere. This one was just of a main road and maybe a kilometre from a big town so its a bit like someone visiting Poole and taking them to Lytchett Matravers to visit a minority village. It was still very good as all the houses were on stilits where the Mekong river floods.

I've still got another three weeks off work and am in the process of planning a trip to Cambodia to stay by the seaside.

Folk guitarist - not happy.

Finally - my ‘picture of the week’ this week is of the guitar player at the Vietnamese folk music place. He looks like he really doesn’t like his job. It’s probably the same expression I had on my face when I worked in the Bank.

Ive uploaded a new ablum so have a look at some of the pics. They're pretty good.

2012 in Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City Opera House.

There were a number of options for what to do on New Year’s Eve. Some of the people from our school went to a sea side town called Vung Tau for the evening whilst some other people went to a part on the sky deck on the biggest building in Ho Chi Minh City called the Bitexico tower. Both were good options but instead my flat mates and I hosted a house party. It was a good party and a large number of people attended. Arsenal were playing New Years Eve and the game finished at 11:50pm local time so I got to watch the football then watch the fireworks from our roof top terrace – happy days.

Nice building in the city

We are fast approaching the Vietnam holiday of TET which is the lunar New Year and their biggest holiday – more importantly this means my school is closed for two weeks so I can go on a road trip. Some more good news is that I have a 3 day break next week so I’m looking to get a 3 day, 2 nights trip to the Mekong Delta or Dalat. I’ve not made up my mind yet. For TET I'm thinking of going to Cambodia and seeing the things I ran out of time to see when I went back in July.

View of the City with the Bitexico tower

It will be nice to have a holiday as I've been working hard for the past 5 months albeit I did have a 10 week break before that. I've found out that my schedule for the next semester at my business school is very good. I'll be able to work a full week in four days in a row which means I'll have some good quaility time free to go on overnight trips away. 

Ive another great 'picture of the week' this week. See below.

Man having a fire by the side of the road.

I took this photo of an old fella having a fire by the side of the road which at first might seem strange but alot of people do this.I'm not sure why he was doing this but he looked really happy burning random stuff - I doubt this was to keep him warm. I've seen alot of people burn fake money in the past which I think is an offering for people use in the afterlife.

I'm not sure if the official currency in the afterlife is fake money or this gets turned into real money enroute or its part of a money laundering operation where they have to get this layered into the afterlife Banking system.

I should have asked the old man burning stuff but I don't think his English was that good. However it was good enough to ask me for a dollar for taking his photo so maybe I should have tried.