We are back from where we started 4 and 1/2 months ago - in the sweltering heat of Bangkok and going through our last day in South East Asia with mixed feelings.
Was it worth it? Definitely!
Are we happy to go back to Europe? Looking greatly forward!
Will we do this again? Cannot wait for our next destination!
Although in the land of the Buddha, we did not find Nirvana and we again have far more questions than answers. What we did find though is warm and smiling people, great friends, free spirits and little acts of kindness. We met people that had lost their illusions, but had kept their faith in the small person. We saw poverty, sickness and pain and we saw happiness, faith and thousands of little children and how little it sometimes takes to make a difference. We saw annoyed shopkeepers tired of stingy backpackers asking for discount and we saw boatmen looking forward to the next season when all the tourists will come back, because it means he will be able to support his family. We saw again, one cannot change the world, but can change someone else's life and we are developing some ideas about that and will let you know soon so stay with us.
Well we are off to the airport but if you are ever in Bangkok on the weekend you DEFINITELY have to go to the big Weekend market at Jatujak :))))
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Here we are back online again, island hopping the last weeks has once again proven to be a very time consuming activity!
After finally visiting the Angkor Wat itself on our third day in Siam Reap we were notably impressed and started a long and very painful journey to Bangkok. The bus made the first 190 km in a little bit more than five hours on the muddiest road I have ever seen in my life (if you ever need to go from Siam Reap to Thailand: Take the plane!) and then we crossed one of the most bizarre border crossings in SEA and here we were again back in good old Bangkok (I feel we have not been giving Cambodia the space it deserves and promise to get back to it any time soon!). We had a night of luxury at the Sheraton (the usual backpacker standard ;) courtesy of my dearest brother Alek and headed of to Phuket. That was a bit of a disappointment as the island is rather big and you don't really get the island fever and everything is overpriced. So we headed off to the island paradise of Phi Phi (where The Beach was shot) for a couple of days of tropical rainstorms and a couple of days of gorgeous sunshine. We enjoyed enormously the fantastic beaches, the wild monkey attacks, the Bacardi colas at Philip's (a couple of bungalows and a bar at a small unknown beach on Phi Phi), the white sand and clearest blue water and not so enormously the boat trip which turned into a survival exercise, the blood-thirsty mosquitoes and sadly the rubbish almost everywhere on the island. We them moved to Phi Phi town to get a bit of a reality shock of all the vacationers with trolleys that had populated the area. Gladly we went diving (Divers do it deeper!) among the most beautiful marine life we have ever seen (again there is a movie which some lucky few will have the pleasure to see ;)).
conversations about the After this we decided to go a bit more off beat, again, and hopped on to Koh Yao Noi. This is a very serene, calm, green and extremely friendly island, which has managed to escape the hoards of mass tourism, we enjoyed the company of Laura and Antonio and rented a beautiful house together on the shores of the splashing sea in the midst of a beautiful garden at Sabai Corner. The days went by biking around the idyllic island life, snorkeling around the islands of the National Park and lazing on the lonely beaches. Of course we also had long and enlighteningmeaning of life, the universe and everything ;) (Colin if you ever read this, it was great fun). A flight booked in a weak moment however was going to put and end to this bliss, once again we were off to Bangkok (feels almost like home now), enjoyed a buzzing night life on Koh San Road and took the train to the old capital Ayuthaya. Its unbelievable how many places there are still to see after more than two months in Thailand...
After finally visiting the Angkor Wat itself on our third day in Siam Reap we were notably impressed and started a long and very painful journey to Bangkok. The bus made the first 190 km in a little bit more than five hours on the muddiest road I have ever seen in my life (if you ever need to go from Siam Reap to Thailand: Take the plane!) and then we crossed one of the most bizarre border crossings in SEA and here we were again back in good old Bangkok (I feel we have not been giving Cambodia the space it deserves and promise to get back to it any time soon!). We had a night of luxury at the Sheraton (the usual backpacker standard ;) courtesy of my dearest brother Alek and headed of to Phuket. That was a bit of a disappointment as the island is rather big and you don't really get the island fever and everything is overpriced. So we headed off to the island paradise of Phi Phi (where The Beach was shot) for a couple of days of tropical rainstorms and a couple of days of gorgeous sunshine. We enjoyed enormously the fantastic beaches, the wild monkey attacks, the Bacardi colas at Philip's (a couple of bungalows and a bar at a small unknown beach on Phi Phi), the white sand and clearest blue water and not so enormously the boat trip which turned into a survival exercise, the blood-thirsty mosquitoes and sadly the rubbish almost everywhere on the island. We them moved to Phi Phi town to get a bit of a reality shock of all the vacationers with trolleys that had populated the area. Gladly we went diving (Divers do it deeper!) among the most beautiful marine life we have ever seen (again there is a movie which some lucky few will have the pleasure to see ;)).
conversations about the After this we decided to go a bit more off beat, again, and hopped on to Koh Yao Noi. This is a very serene, calm, green and extremely friendly island, which has managed to escape the hoards of mass tourism, we enjoyed the company of Laura and Antonio and rented a beautiful house together on the shores of the splashing sea in the midst of a beautiful garden at Sabai Corner. The days went by biking around the idyllic island life, snorkeling around the islands of the National Park and lazing on the lonely beaches. Of course we also had long and enlighteningmeaning of life, the universe and everything ;) (Colin if you ever read this, it was great fun). A flight booked in a weak moment however was going to put and end to this bliss, once again we were off to Bangkok (feels almost like home now), enjoyed a buzzing night life on Koh San Road and took the train to the old capital Ayuthaya. Its unbelievable how many places there are still to see after more than two months in Thailand...
Pics
Apsaras in Angkor Wat
Peter and Yva in Angkor Wat
Philip's Beach
Bamboo Island - fun fun fun...
Lon in front of Philip's Bar
and more again...
Laura , Antonio and Pepe in our house on Koh Yao Noi
Laura being hungry
Island trip...
Where do we go from here??
That's all folks!
For now :)
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
The Temples of Angkor
And we have pictures again!
We are already awing away the second day of our three day visit to the Angkor temples. I will spare you all the historical, religious and mythological data, which you can get from the link above and instead follow the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.
The terrace of the Bayon, the temple with 216 faces: is it a god, is it a king or is it someones enormous ego?! Probably all of these combined in the Khmer king Jayavarman VII
Preah Neak Pean temple once set in the middle of a lake, surrounded with four more lakes, look for the same construction in a new Las Vegas casino complex
Faces of a tower
The temples give in to the moving soil
Pres Rup temple
Guardians at the gate of Angkor Thom
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