Castles, hooping and Art projects on the beach

Today was a productive day on the beach,  I spent a portion of the afternoon building a sand castle. In the end the locals said that it looked like Ankor Wat. >.<

After trying quite hard to fill the castle mote with ocean water I decided to destroy the castle. 

Some coffee later I was restless again, retrieving the holla hoop from the guest house I attempted to learn how to do some tricks. Too bad all the locals wanted to try it out as well...I tried to holla all the way back to the guest house, it didn't work and was very tiring!

Last night I lucked out, a Cambodian bar staff was watching me sketch on the beach outside of his bar. He liked my skills so much that he decided that I can paint the bar starting tomorrow. At noon I got to head to the store with him  to pick up supplies and start painting for the day I am sooo stoked that I get to leave my mark in Cambodia. 

My castle that Karrie and I made, the locals said that it looks like Ankor Wat.

Awesome bridge

Sunset on the serendipity beach

The bar that I am painting

Check out the little man!

'Happy' Shake nite in Cambodia

So after making Cambodian style Jager bombs, finding out that they were stupid.
Watch the video!
We went down to the beach to meet new people and got feed some free drinks.

The night before we drank 3 free mystery shots, and a free whiskey bucket. 2 Jager bombs later....
Last night it was 1 free mystery shot, a free whiskey and sprite.....4 Cambodian style Jager bombs and a real mixed drink later. I was drunk and hungry.

Off to the corner store to eat some local food. (Beef Luk Lak) On the menu there were 'Happy shakes' , 'Happy Pizza' and the option to make something 'Happy' for an extra $2.

One strawberry banana 'Happy' shake later back down to the beach.

Beef Luk Lak

Happy Shake

Our Thanksgiving Dinner

I ended up sitting in this chair with Karrie on the beach for 4 hours with a bunch of new found friends....I found myself much quieter than my usual self. A couple of 'Smokes' later it was about an hour till sunrise....off to bed.

Days on Serendipity beach

We have been spending our days on the beach getting as much R & R as possible before we make our break into Nam....we are still undecided on whether or not we will make it to Phnom Phen.

Last night we ran into our friends we have seen them in 3 different countries and we hope to see them again in Vietnam. (that would make it 4 different countries) Also we found another place that played some dub step and drum and bass to bad that it was very brief.

It looks like we have become very comfortable here and are ready to beach hop for the rest of our trip. To save money we have bought a bottle of Rum and Jagermister to last us until we leave Cambodia.

Arrival in Sihanoukville (Beach)

After taking a really A/C'd bus last night at 8pm we arrived in Sihanoukville at 6am. This bus was by far the coldest one we have ridden in. The best part about this bus was the seats fully reclined, they gave us blankets and water. it was like riding 1st class Asia stylez.

I definitely recommend going with 'Ankor Express bus' - but remember bring a sweater.

After a nice day of tanning and reading my book I feel so much more relaxed than I did when i first arrived in Cambodia. I won't be surprised if I get stuck here for the next 10 days before we head on a bus to Ho Chi Min City.

Ankor Wat and some

Yesterday we headed down to the Siem Reap night market, bought stuff, got hassled and we haggled for bargains.

While we waited for the market to open, we got a fish massage. The is where the fish eat your dead skin off your feet. (This feeling is very strange) So for $3 and a free beer we got to put our feet in a vat of fish.

Today we woke up at 4:30am to get a tuk-tuk to Ankor Wat to see the sunrise. I couldn't believe how many people there were. We saw so many temples today:

1. Ankor Wat
2. Ankor Thom
3. Bayon
4. Phnom Bakheng
5. Thomnanom
6. Chau Say Tevoda
7.Ta Prohm

I am temple'd out. During our time temple hopping I bought a mango, it was the crunchiest mango I have ever eaten. It wasn't sweet nor was it sour, it just had a very interesting texture.

Fish Massage

Sunrise at Ankor Wat

Batman tuk-tuk

Crunchiest mango ever!!

I <3 trees.

 

I don't know how some people can buy a one week pass, that is a lot of temples to see. Mind you there are that many to keep you entertained. Tomorrow night we head on a night bus to Sihanoukville.

 

Rave in Cambodia

So today I was feeling a bit down, I was like okay I am going to do something to cheer myself up.

Got my hair cut and dyed.

Ready to head on out into the semi Koh San Rd of Cambodia in Siem Reap, along the way Karrie saw a sign for a 'Full Moon Party'. Since we weren't going to make it to the one on the island in Thailand,  I really want to head out and get my dance on, that always makes me feel better.

After lucking out and finding some Jager Bombs and some tequila sunrises off to the 'fullmoonparty' From 12am-12pm. There was curiosity thumping in hopes for good music...

So someone was listening to my prays, they were playing Drum & Bass when we arrived. OMG! There was a small glitch in the music, the d&b/reggae dj decided to tag team with a hard house dj. (My rant here is that if you are going to tag team with someone you should at least play the same genre of music.)

The party was at an Eco resort, so there was a swimming pool, bar, some tables, and it was all outside behind a fence outside in the grass.

There wasn't many people, but I sure love the dance floor space. So I can't complain.

We left at 4:30am when the D & B dj decided to head off the decks and socialize.

Arrival in Siem Reap

I wish I had some better news about this trip. 

Side note: I hate the smell of burning garbage, I also don’t enjoy the fact that they prefer US dollars over their own currency Reil’s and wish that we were getting ripped off left right and centre. Soon this poor country will be running on American dollars. 

The bus system sucks here, when we got stuck in Stung Treng it was a company called Sorya.

This time we decided to take a bus through the local bus company called Rith Mony. 

Both times it has been a disaster, I am a little concerned about the next bus excursion. 

Trying to get here was a long excruciating journey, after setting off from our guesthouse at 6:45am after 3 hours of sleep we got on a moto bike to the bus station. We ended up leaving 10 minutes late, on our way we stop to pick up people. I was wondering where they were all going to sit, the bus driver and his posse pulled out tiny plastic stools for these locals to sit in the aisle.  I overheard that it is ½ the price to sit uncomfortably squished between everyone.  I felt bad but annoyed since the man sitting next to me had decided to use my arm rest to sleep on. Also the stupid seat was broken and didn’t recline....but it was better than being one of the 3 Cambodian people standing for 12 hours. 

About every two hours for the next 8 hours we stop for bathroom breaks and food.

By 3:30pm we were told to take our bags off the bus and wait for the connecting bus to Siem Reap. For some reason Karrie and I was the only ones that got off the bus for the switch.

The man said 10 minutes, 3:40pm. 

We did however did try sticky rice, beans and coconut shavings stuffed into a bamboo shoot. This was tasty.

The man said 30 minutes, 4:10pm. The bus left. Now it was just us at the local transfer point. After waiting awhile we got worried that the bus wasn`t coming for us. I asked the lady at the fruit stand that spoke a reasonable amount of English.

The fruit stand lady said 6pm... 6pm came and went. We asked the waiter since we had time to eat dinner here. 

The waiter said 7:30pm....nothing happened. 

8:00pm the bus shows up, everyone and t he bus driver gets off the bus to eat, hit the bathrooms and stretch their legs. 

8:45pm we finally get on the bus and we are moving. Due to the lack of seating we were placed at the front of the double decker bus on the second level. There was very little room.

10pm we were told that we could move to two free seats since the people had gotten off the city before.

10:10pm we were freezing the AC was going full blast there was no avoiding it. 

12:15am after freezing for 2 solid hours we get off the bus to swarms of tuk-tuk drivers yelling at us. We are 6.25 hours late, in total we have racked up 10.75 hours....hoping to be arrive at a place on time. I have a feeling that it is going to be like this for the rest of our time in Cambodia. I really hope that it isn’t. 

12:40am we went to a fancy guest house to splurge get wifi and a swimming pool...they are full.

1am off to another guesthouse not as awesome but we`re damn exhausted.  

2am....I cannot sleep.

For a more descriptive blog post please refer to Karrie’s facebook. She said it better than I since I was just too tired to complain anymore.

Leaving Ban Lung

So we started off the day at 8:30am at our guest house, our tour guides picked us up on their moto bikes.

We ate a large American breakfast and off we went.

We hit up the Cha Ung Waterfall, Kachanh Waterfall and the Katieng Waterfall....then it was lunch time.

After lunch we headed off to the famous lake in Ban Lung the Yeak Loam Lake. The lake here was just pristine, the water was an aqua colour and it was room temperature water.  The panorama videos will be proof of that.

When I had placed my feet in the water whist I was reading my book I realized something was tickling my feet. It was tiny shrimps! 

From there we spent some time lounging, swimming, reading and socializing with the other foreigners that were there also. 

At 4:45pm we were off to the reclining Buddha to see the sunset and the province of Ratanakiri, Cambodia. This by far has been the most spectacular view point we have hit during our travels. 

Today we are preparing, packing and relaxing before we get on a bus at 6:30am a 12 hour bus ride to Siep Reap to see Ankor Wat.  (I believe we counted this will be our 17^th or 18^th bus ride.)

Arrival in Ban Lung

(Bun Lung- is how it was in written in Laos)At 8:30pm-ish we were immediately swarmed by a dozen people trying to get us to stay at their guest house as we walked off the bus.

Finally we found and ATM for Karrie we decided to stay at a place that was recommended by a very persistent tour guide. (I learned later on his name was Mr.Pov and his Australian girl friend is named Jenny, so I guess that he won’t forget my name)

We gave in, the tour guide team took us to the (Tribal) guesthouse on their moto bikes and off we went. We checked out the room it was acceptable, all we cared about was having a comfy bed which they did have. The room they showed us is $6US for $3per/person. There are places that are $2 a night but we were to worn out for the day of bussing around to keep searching.

After a shower Mr.Pov escorted us to his family restaurant to grab some local Cambodian food. A plate of food and unlimited rice goes for about 8000r. I believe at this present moment you can get about 4000r for one US dollar.

He showed us a map and talked about all the things that we can do while we are visiting Ban Lung. I am/was interested in home stays around SE Asia but it seems that even for two days and one night including all meals still will run you about$35US per person. Maybe next time I will do home stays in Laos since I liked the locals so much there, I need to spend more time in Cambodia before I decide to participate in a home stay excursion.

Tomorrow we are going to sleep in and hit up the market in the city.

We have planned for Wednesday to see three waterfalls, one swimmable lake and climb a mountain for the beautiful sunset. (Totalling $12US per person for the day including pick up and drop off from/to our guest house)

After we are well rested and ready to make another move, we get on a 12 hour bus ride to Siem Reap.

Stuck in Stung Treng

So after the bus ride where we were driving no faster than 20 km/ hour we finally arrived at a gas station in Stung Treng. It took about 2 hours to get here and they continued to tell everyone that we all had to switch buses.

With the bus being really slow they gave everyone all you can eat steam buns with what I believe was hardboiled egg, cabbage and some mystery meat. I miss the steam buns you get in China. YUM!

We tried to go to the bank and the ATM was NIS, they also wouldn’t change my Canadian dollars. I was becoming worried and annoyed with Cambodia.

After waiting 2 hour and 20 minutes before our very questionable local bus came to pick us up.

Down some dirt paths, picking up and dropping off people, stopping next to bushes for bathroom breaks....about 4 and a half hours later we have arrived in Ban Lung. We were suppose to arrive at 4pm we were 4.5 hours late.