Bokor National Park + Kampot

Hello again

Now I'll give you all a longer update.

After leaving Bangkok we got a bus from the eastern bus station to the border for 2.60 quid, a five hour bus journey, bloody cheap! This was our first border crossing, an interesting one, from which I learnt alot! You soon realize that being in a country such as Cambodia no one will do anything for free! This guy just grabbed my passport and started filling in the forms for me to hand into the officials, i thought he worked for the border team, no the cheeky bugger wanted me to pay him for filling out my forms! Basically we told them to piss off and just walked to our taxi and drove off. The taxi is another story, taxi's everywhere over hear take you to a hotel of their choice where they get commission for dropping you off. In the end you just have to say no and walk off! We didn't stay in Koh Kong for long as we arrived by night and it did not seem to be that good of a place. After that we got a bus to Sihanouk Ville for 9 bucks.

Sihanouk Ville was even worse, the place was a complete dump. The beach was filth and the area just seemed to be full of bars for the tourists, of which there seem to be hardly any in this country! The beach was full of rubbish and effluent from the bars seems to be pumped straight out onto the beach/ sea! We had to go here though to get our Vietnamese Visas as this is meant to be the best place to get them. The visa is quite expensive at $40 but it took 20 minutes to process!

After Sihanouk Ville we got a share taxi from just outside the local market to Kampot, a much nicer town, for around $6. Kampot seem to be a nice place, a little run down if I'm honest but full of really old French colonial buildings. Yesterday afternoon we chartered a boat to take us up to Techou rapids, about a 1 1/2 hour boat. There were some amazing views across the valley, loads of riverside fishing villages, your stereotypical stilt houses with reed roofs! The rapids were a bit of a disappointment as we found out only once we were up there that the government have decided to build a dam up river just around the corner effectively slowing the flow so much that the rapids seemed to be just a trickle of water!

This afternoon we got a tuk tuk to a buhddist temple that was built in the middle of a cave. The local village kids took us round the caves and deep into them crawling through some rather small gaps to get back out, only by torch light for about 12p, they were happy though!

Tomorrow were trekking through the jungle with a a local guide to Bokor National Park which is meant to be really nice, it takes two days and you sleep up there in the old rangers station!

After this I think that we're off to Kep and Koh Tonsay Island then we head for the Vietnamese border at Hat Chien (only opened recently to johnny foreigners) through the Mekong Delta to Saigon.

I'll hopefully be able to update once I am in Vietnam.

Adios for now.

Hope all is going well at home.

Jared

Update 2: Bangkok to Kampot

Hello All Again,

Just another update from Kampot this time. Travelled from BKK to Koh Kong stayed one night there and got the bus to Sihanoukville, which we did not like too much as it was a complete dump, the town was a tip really dirty. so we decided to go to Kampot which is much nicer. Its an old french colonial town, with some nice architecture and mountain backdrop. Off to Kep to see the beach possibly today and up to bokor mountain for a night which should be very cool.

any how this was only a v short update, longer one to follow, hopefully tonight when i can get my archos working.

adios jared

First Update from BANGKOK!!!!

Hello All

This is my first update from Bangkok, and boy is it interesting!

There is so much to tell I have seen loads and its soo bloody cheap.

First day in BKK was really interesting, damn taxi man tried to pull one over on us. He kept flicking this switch by his steering wheel making the charge shoot up to about 600 baht (12 quid). I just got out and started bartering with him. Managed to get him down though.

Our hostel is pretty cool, we're right on the river front (skanky ass river!), to get to the hostel you have to walk down these really small side streets, slum!



Yesterday we started talking to this Thai student on the street who told us where the really cool places to go were, he then flagged down a couple of tuk tuks for us, who droves us around the city for a good couple of hours to all of these temples and Buddhas which are normally closed but were open due to a Buddha holiday, all for the measly sum of 50 pence!!



Food from the street vendors is also brilliant, you can eat a really nice chicken noodle soup for around 60p or pad thai (fried egg noodles) for 50p.



Today I went to the royal palace which was rather stunning, gold every where!

Off to Koh Sanh Road tonight for some beer and more cheap food. Off to the eastern bus station to get a bus to Trat and then on to Koh Kong, just over the border in Cambodia.

I'll try to update later in the week probably will not be until i get to Phnom Penh in about 6 days.

Hope all is well back home with you lot.

Adios Jared

P.S. i will endeavor to update some photos soon.

on the plane!

hi all. Just one last post before i get there. Take off has been delayed 20 mins so thought id update using my phone. Cant wait to land in bangkok only 14 hours away! Looks like the weather is going to be bloody hot and humid. 3 days in bangkok staying at the phiman water view hostel right on the river, just up from ko sanh road. Then on to a bus to hat lek and cambodia! Adios jared

T-Minus 2 Days!

Hi Again

Only two days now and still a fair amount to do. Still have to sort some insurance out! I did however manage to get some travelers cheques (USD) and some Baht from the travel agents the other day. I also booked my accommodation for three days in Bangkok, staying at a place called Phiman Water View. Looking at their Web site appears to be a really nice place, cheap too, right on the water front.

Ill update once I get there.

Adios

Only 19 bloody days left!!!

Hello all again,

Not long until I go now, still lots to do. I've got so much to think about:

Money
Cards - which ones?
How to send my money overseas
Visa's
Equipment - what will I need
Where to go
What to see
Whether or not to buy a car in New Zealand?
Will I run out of money.
If i order this will it get to me in time!

yadda yadda yadda the list goes on.

Well any how I managed to sell my car to a nice bloke this morning for his son to start driving in, got a good price for it, chuffed. This now means that my savings for my travels are coming along nicely so I should hold out okay for the duration of my trip.

Well I am going to sign off for now, not much more to add from my other posts, other than I managed to get my job back; sent a few emails, annoyed one or two people, but hey gotta think of Number 1!

I'll update once I arrive in Bangkok.

I'll be leaving on the 29th of April Terminal 3 Heathrow Airport 10 am!

Adios

Closing Time + redundancy

Hi All

I though it about time for another update since it has been a while and speaking of being a while, that is what my trip is not! Only 42 days now and still LOADS to do. 

I was made redundant from work last week, not something that you really want to hear so close to you trip with still more money to save. I have however had a productive week off, I managed to register with 4 other temping agencies which will hopefully bring about some work, sell my old working boots to a nice Scottish man and spring clean my car in time for sale. Even though I did inevitably loose money, hopefully my actions will make some money for me.

Back to my trip now... I finally hauled my arse into gear and applied for my New Zealand working visa (now approved!) and will be applying for my Thailand & Australian visa tomorrow; the others I believe can be obtained out there.

I had a bit of a result last week as I managed to persuade one of my good friends, SteveO to meet us out in New Zealand and then to come with us to the US. I also watched the BBC documentary on Yosemite Tuesday gone and boy I had no idea that it got that cold in the northern US states; on that note I think I am going to have to drastically alter my route across the states!

I have also been keeping myself busy by doing some more reading about the places that I want to visit, I now have a good idea of where I would like to go in Cambodia, Vietnam and New Zealand. I still have no ideas about where to visit in Laos, Thailand and Australia, I'm erring towards the side of making it up whilst I am out there.

Any how signing off for now, I will try and update a couple of times before my expected departure date.

Adios