Siem Reap : the city of Temples and more..

Ok Ok..it´s been 3 weeks now.i know..but finally i made some time to write the last post about Cambodia.
And it is the best one..you´ll see°!
Siem Reip is a very touristic city, but in a nice way. Everything and everybody wants to bring you to the temples and show you around as much as possible. I met Chris again and with Gavin, a new friend ( i told you that you have everyday a new friend ;-)) from our Guesthouse we threw ourselves into the mission of discovering the temples.
You can get 1, 3 and 7 day passes. We decided that 1 is definitly not gonna be enough and 7 is too long..so the 3 day pass was perfect!
We began our trip to Bantey Srey, a temple 20 km from Siem Reap. But..it was also a mission to even get there. Imagine sitting in a Tuk tuk with a professional photographer ( Gavin) and a semi-professional  photographer with a hangover..both equipped with the mother of all Cameras....and little Julia with her half broken Lumix. Well, i can tell you..i didn´t take a lot of pics..i just got them from the guys ;-)
So we stopped like every 5 minutes to get shots of the cambodian life, kids playing,children on their way to school, young boys cycling with 10 rice sacks on their little bike, people harvesting rice, a farmer washing his cows in the lake...let´s say..half day was seeing farming life, the other half was about the temple. It was beautiful!

stopping for a coke and playing with the kids

monk blessing a house

ricefield

The temples are mostly built to worship the Gods of Hindu Mythology: this 3 are the most important ones and built the Hindu Triad together:   Brahma( farther of the gods, men and world),Shiva ( the destroyer and builder)  and Vishnu (Intermediary between the gods and man.  Sun God.  To help man, Vishnu appears on Earth as a human avatar.  Nine avatars are said to have already come, with a tenth yet to appear)
All the bas-relief decorations are about either the wars between the Khmer and other tribes or the war between the gods. The stories kind of repeat themselves..but you never get tired of looking at this amazing work.

• being blessed with Gavin by a monk....maybe we´re married now ?? who knows what he was mumbling..

The biggest day for Chris and me was the 32km circuit on the bicycle to see Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.
Getting up at 4.30 in the morning was the first hard step to take..but as soon as the warm wind goes through your hair and you see the sun slowly rising you can´t think of anything more boring than being asleep right then.
As we like to do things a little bit different than all the others we decided to go straight to Angkor Thom for sunrise as everybody else is sitting at Angkor Wat .And indeed, we where the only ones..which was kind of eerie as the temple was still very dark when we entered because its surrounded by trees. But the atmosphere is just amazing and mesmerizing. Seeing the Faces of Bayon getting lit slowly by the sun is a wonderful waist of time.Every 5 minutes they looked different ..so you can imagine how many freaking pictures i have.
But there was still a lot to come, so get on your bikes and start to padel!

So, to discover the max. of temples we cycled approx. 30 kms in a circuit, the best temple being Tha Phrom on the loop.
Eerie, magical, surrounded by nature and half destroyed  by giant trees that shimmer golden in the sun. Sounds mesmerizing? Just have a glimpse at the pics and you´re with me ;-)

this day was very successful, ending with a high-five and a " let´s get drunk" shout out ;-)



To have a break from the temples we squeezed in a visit to the floating village. This was not as nice as i imagined it to be, as the journey there was on the worst road ever and when you arrive they want 20 dollars each to get you on a boat that drives you around the village. This was a bit rip-off and we where quite disappointed also because they claim to be a eco-tour but sit only 2 people in each boat that has space for 15. Well, still, we drove all the way out, so we paid and forgot about it.
Here some impressions of the life there.

fisherman at work

afternoon chat

Perfect, the last temple day was about to start and our mission was to visit Ban Melea, 70 kms from Siem Reap, one of the oldest temples, nearly completely destroyed and the place where Lara Croft and parts of Indiana Jones where filmed. This was a different experience as you have to climb over old stones, improvised staircases, branches, roots and more stones.....it was fun and i nearly could imagine being Lara Croft myself  ;-)

BUT: to make it very short...we haven´t talked about ....the mother of all temples, the queen of the sunrise and the sunset and the most impressive bas-reliefs constructed on earth: Angkor Wat 


Unfortunately we where only there for sunset, twice..but we saw what we wanted to see, we had the building nearly for ourselves the second time because everybody else needed to get the sunset shot, so we wandered around imagining how it was to live at this place back in the days.

the only smiling apsara 

With this fantastic pictures in mind it was time to say goodbye to Cambodia and take the bus to:
Bangkok!


More from T'hailand asap,


xx, j

Ban lung, Ratanakiri Province

11 hours of driving in a bus to a destination thats not on the main to-do-list of tourists, servicing 4 more provinces on the way. Let me tell you how that works.
The bus was already crowded when i got in, my big backpack finding some space under the seats because the trunk was already full. I was the only white person on the bus, but luckily i got a seat beside the only women that could speak english and studied in France. So at least i could have some conversation on this never ending trip. On the way random people got picked up and if theres no more seats..well, just sit on a ricesack or on little plastic chairs handed out in the middle row. As entertaining programm we had wonderful cambodian karaoke videos with even better music or movies with  some kind of action involved ( either shooting, fighting for a girl or karate) Imagine all this for hours and hours in a  rather loud volume...jep, you go crazy! Ahh, and never mind the honking every minute, the bumpes on the road, people sitting beside you hearing their own music out of their phone..but without headphones....thinks falling of you from the overhead compartments while driving through a rather big bump....and right when the person at your side leaves the bus and you think..nice..now i can  stretch my leg..one of the people sitting in the middle comes up to this seat. And again..the bus was half empty after 10 hours of driving..but this guy just didn´t want to move..not even when i asked him to signing at all the empty seats around us. He  just smiled nervously and shook his head. I couldn´t be bothered to move because i had so much stuff with me..so i just pluged my earphones in, watched some episodes of Malcom in the Middle and hoped that this journey will finally come to an end.
Eventually we arrived and i just fell out of the bus to meet 2 girls from Czech Republic that where in search of an accomodation like me. Several moto drivers offered to drive us for free to the Lake view lodge, that sounded really good so we said yes. Oh, and yes, that works..they can drive around with their whole family on one moto, so  never mind one little tourist with a big and a small backpack. Off again into the night, arriving at a rather disgusting place which we decided, after a  short observation of the rooms, not to stay.The owner wanted us to pay the motodriver now, but we just waited for a moment of distraction by other customers and walked off into the night again, where we were " rescued" by an american guy that lives in Camboda and who offerend us a lift to a nice place. The treetop lounge. One bungalow left,meant for us,,( only with 2 beds, but we could move a matress in ) we happily stayed at this place with a cosy  terrace restaurant overlooking the valley. In 15 minutes time we met Chris who was travelling alone and had a single room but with 2 beds. So after a beer or two i moved into his room and we all shared the costs. Everybody happy ;-)

lunch stop..sticky rice in bamboo...nice..

hmm, not so nice..fried tarantula..anybody fancy that?

ah, well, cockroaches..fried...i guess thats not too bad ..

Ban lung adventures..to the jungle and back
The nice thing about traveling alone is that you´re never alone! You meet people every second and have new friends every couple of days. Some even have the same way for a while and if you get along good...even better..your travel together and get better deals and can save money. So it came that Chris and me booked this very interesting jungle tour with homestay. Well, the jungle trekk was pretty amazing and quiet excausting, but that was nothing compared to the way we drove with our motorbikes..through red dust that covered every inch of you and roads with massive bumps and holes in it..over bridges constructed with bamboo or single wood panels ( very trustworthy ;-) ) we drove far into the countryside, even crossed a river by boat before we arrived to meet our hosts. A family consisting of grandparents, parents, approximatly 8 children, and the mothers sister with a child. They couldn´t speak a word english and even when we tried to communicate with our few sentences in Khmer...no answer...just a very shy glance followed by either giggles or no expression at all.  Hmm, well, for dinner we had rice and noodles that we bought in the little corner shop ( shop is actually too much of a word here...it was just the front porch of a women selling instand noodles, some cans and lighters). It got dark, we all were wondering around the fire to get warm ( yes! it was bloody cold!!) and at 7 pm it was time to go to bed. So everybody climed the steep steps up to the house, a big house compared to the others, but with nothing in it. Everybody just slept on the floor, by night seperated by sarongs that build a room. We as guests even got  a thin matress..we heard some music, looked at some pictures and then it was time to sleep. This was the longest night ever!! So many people in one room, babys crying at night, one of the girls had a midnight phonecall session with her friends ( on speaker) but all that wasn´t even that bad. I was just so cold that i thought my toes will froze and i can´t walk the next day. Well, i still could walk, and the day was quiet warm again. We had breakfast ( rice and noodles), visited the ricefields half of the family was working on, played a little bit with the kids and drove home. It was an interesting expierence, and its hard to believe that people in the 21. century still live like that, but i was certainly glad beeing back in civilisation.

my motodriver..sweet 17 years old..

the famous red dust that covers everything

jungletrekk, don´t forget the machete

thats how you look after the ride ;-)

rice field 

our homestay

rice and noodles, mjamm

kids 

new architecture for a trustworthy bridge

Hanging out in our beautiful guesthouse for the afternoon, freshly showerd and enjoying a very western cheeseburger was definitaly a nice ending of the little stay in Ban lung.
It´s time for the créme de la créme: Angkor Wat...here i come!

Sihanoukville, Ortres beach and Bamboo island

After 2 weeks of working and citylife it was time for a break. So i catched a bus to Sihanoukville, in the south of the country to have a little beach holiday. Yes, cambodia has beaches,  Lonely planet says its like Koh Phi Phi and Koh Tao 10 years ago. That sounds about wonderful, and indeed it was. I took the latest bus because i still needed to get my Passport from the Thai embassy, where i applied for a 60 day visa for Thailand. My appointment was from 3-4 pm to collect my visa...at half past 4 still no sign of my passport, and me and several other people where getting really impacient and anxcios. The worst thing is that nobody actually talks to you to tell you what the hell the problem is. So if there was somebody coming to the office, seperated by thick glass windows from the angry crowd, everybody would storm forward to ask about their passports. Sometimes he would look at you and just say..No ..not yet...so i asked, what are you doing then? " still signing....still signing.."   WHAT? They had my passport for 4 days and now it occurs to them that it should be about time to sign it....seriously....i didn´t know what to say... So i told them the truth, that my bus is leaving at 6 and that i have to go..." yes..yes...at 5 pm should be ready"....Well, turned out that i just couldn´t wait that long because i still needed to pack everything and my pickup from the Guesthouse was at 5.15 pm. So i just left and hoped that i can collect my passport the next time beeing in Phnom Penh.
In typical Julia style i threw all m belongings together, said goodby to some fo the girls that where back from their day-task and off i was to the bus station.
The bus was fully booked, but as the Cambodians are very ( very!) stricked with their seating orders ( seriously..if they give you a seat, you´ll better stay there!! Even if the bus is half empty, don´t mess around with them!)  and also very attentive who they seat together ( in this case, the white people ) i ended up beside a girl from holland and in front of a bunch of english guys. As we all hadn´t booked any accomodation yet we decided to go to Mushroom point at Ortres beach, which is about 6 km out of Sihanoukville, isn´t in the lonely planet and looked awesome on the internet ( well, i had no idea, but the others found it on hostelbookers, so i just followed the mob)
After a nearly 6 hour drive with at least 4 nearly crashes on the busy road we finally arrived, all still alive, to be surrounded by  tuktuk drivers and motos offering their services for horrendous prices. We managed to get them down to 2 dollar each, wich was actually a really good price according to the distance and the time ( nearly midnight). 4 people with their backbackes in each tuk tuk and off we drove through the darkness. Halfway through our drivers turned into this prehistorical dusty road with a lot of wholes and we thought for a moment..oh no..where the hell are they bringing us? But yes, it was actually really far away and it was one of the last places of the street....which turned out to be fully booked. Snap! But well, as it was late we just had to take what was left, so we booked into a place 2 doors down which was totally fine.

Beach..finally! What can i say, hanging around, reading, getting a massage, drinking fruitshakes and just relaxing..that a life!
Boattrip to Bamboo island with snorkel stops..never mind snorkelling though...you can´t see anything...but i decided to stay at the island for 2 nights and tried to do nothing. So i waved my english friends goodby at the shore and went with 2 other guys, Miranda from Australia and Mitchel from England, my new friends for the next 2 days to find our accomodation at the other side of the island.
It was just fantastic, beach bungalows, really nice  dorms, an open space restaurant near the beach..hammocks pitched up everywhere. Well, you can imagine, the next 2 days where just about enjoying the moment and beeing happy to be there.

sunset at bamboo island

Bamboo island 

I could have stayed a week, but i had my bed at Mushroom point already booked for the 3. night, so i sadly had to take the boat back just to go and relax a little bit more at the other beach ;-) out of one night make two but then it was about time to go back to PP and be ready for another adventure: Ratanakiri Province in the Northeast of the country. 11 hours drive from PP and not really a major tourist place. Perfect!