Sigh, there's Siy again

Phnom Penh is chaotic compared to Hong Kong, but relative to Vietnam we think it's not quite as busy. For example, when crossing the street here you can wait for a break in traffic and make your move, whereas in Hanoi you'd be standing there all day waiting for a break,
We started our day by meeting a fellow named Siy. He'd a tuk tuk driver and he seemed to have claimed the spot outside our hotel. He's definitely a friendly dude but we passed him off in order to make our way to the Grand Palace since it was only a block away.
The Golden Palace of PP [ http://www.canbypublications.com/phnompenh/pproyalpalace.htm ] is very ornate by any standard and has lovely grounds filled with flowers and shrubs. But it'll cost you $6.50 and a $3 T-shirt if you're not appropriately covered up. Plus, the place shuts down at 11 (not 10am like Mr. Siy said as we walked past him) so we had to be quick. Fortunately none of us do a lot of research and the significance of most places are lost on us so we could easily breeze through the complex of temples in just over an hour before being asked to leave.  The main building, the Throne Hall, is an impressive structure but the good stuff is off limits and not really visible at all. Probably because the King still uses this as a residence.  One passes through a doorway in the surrounding wall to get to the Silver Pagoda that is nestled in another garden filled with bird baths of lilies, 2 large stupas and a statue of King Norodom on a horse. Strangely there is a large replica of Angkor Wat on the grounds as well - no need for that bus trip tomorrow!
Upon exiting the palace grounds we were immediately spotted by Siy. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the comment made by Blaine & Leah's taxi driver when they were dropped off at the hotel: "wow this place expensive, like 40 or 50 dollars a night". So obviously we're now targetted as the rich tourists. After some debate we decided to let Siy drive us around for the day for $25. First stop was lunch at a Khmer restaurant by the river. We were all taken by surprise how big and wide the Mekong river was here and it's hard to fathom the fact that during rainy season the river fills up and forces the Tonle Sap river backwards. Consider the Red River pushing the Assiniboine river backwards at the Forks in Winipeg.
Allow me to introduce you to my new friend Amok - he's a wonderfully tasty Khmer dish of curried fish smothered in thick coconut milk served in a banana leaf bowl. Variations abound but the one we had at this restaurant was the best we had. Too bad I can't recall the name of the place.

After lunch we took a siesta by the hotel pool to prepare ourselves for the brutality we would learn about at the "killing fields" of Choeung Ek. It was a heckuva tuktuk ride out there (40min?) but it did provide a glimpse of Camobian life - incredibly poor, corrugated metal shacks on stilts beside a garbage-filled ditch interspersed with new multi-story apartments covered in blue-tinted glass. Also the massages get cheaper the further out of town you go, $3 in PP dropping to 9000 Riel ($2.25).

I'm not going to say much about the Killing Fields. It's a tad sickening although I haven't been to Auschwitz and Rwanda might be worse. Just Google it yourself: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0110_030110_tvcambodia.html  But I will mention the jaw bones sticking up out of the ground and the tree where they smashed little ones' heads against to save bullets. Strangely enough I'm not thrown by the commander who said to do that, but wonder about the man whose job it was to do it and how his sleep was tortured by nightmares. We might try to buy the movie at the market once we return to PP.

The ride home was made much more pleasant by grabbing a case of Angkor beer ($11.50 for 24) and using it to wash the road dust out of our mouths.

02-JAN-2012

PP

Phnom Penh, not Koh Pi Pi. The airport is like Brandon compared to the massive structure of BKK. Our e-visas were supposed to breeze us through security but the stewardess on the plane skipped us when handing out the landing forms. So we had a bit of reversing in the customs queue and were the last ones out. And then a security dude at the exit asked for another form that we didn't have. But our blank looks caused him to wave us through of exasperation.
Toyota has what appears to be 90% market share here, judging by the number of Camrys swarming the roads. Many have extra chrome trim around the taillights, or blinking lights on the hood or mirrors or stainless steel gas cap doors. Also can't ignore the plethora of Lexus RX300 SUVs, many of which have "Lexus" plastered across the side just in case you missed the fact that the owner is richer than you.
The King Grande Boutique Hotel greeted us enthusiastically and informed us that our friends were up by the rooftop pool. We quickly dropped off our luggage in our lovely, well-appointed room and navigated the overly complex security system in the elevator.
"Cambodia. Wow." Said Leah.
It was exciting to meet with friends and stories from the past few days were fervently exchanged. Alighting Thai balloons were contrasted with HK fireworks, then compared to the parties that the hotel staff here told of NYE. (For the record, it sounded pretty good.)
The view up here was great. A water and light show was going on the park on one side. A carnival with a large ferris wheel was on the other. Street noise echoed up from in between. Fantastic!

New Year's Day is a nice day to fly...

The roads are clear and the airport is barren. No lines. After the crowds of last night it was weird to see the place so quiet.

Since we missed having the good HK dim sum, we had the famous HK airport dim sum. It's good and all, but I think the Chinese lady at work has made better dumplings.

To get to Pnhom Penh we connected in Bangkok. And coincidentally our friends Blaine and Leah were connecting at around the same time we were. Since we had time to kill we thought we'd try and see them at their gate. But Suvarnabhumi airport is huge and I'm fairly confident that we walked nearly 2km to get from our gate to theirs. And since the airport is built so that incoming and outgoing passengers are separated, we had to avoid security (and a cleaning lady) to get there. Upon arriving at the gate we could not see them. We knew they had a tight connection and were beginning to wonder if they'd made it. Suddenly Julie started banging on the glass partition and yelling Leah's name. But those two had just sprinted the distance we had just casually walked and were borderline delirious so it took them a moment to see us and then recognize us.

Using frenzied sign language and doodles on our tablets we managed to determine that we'd see them at our hotel in Phnom Penh.

Julie leads us down the rabbit hole for breakfast

One of the challenges of travelling is determining what to eat, where to eat and how to eat. Fortunately Asia makes it easy – the answer is noodles. Noodles for breakfast, noodles for lunch and supper is also often noodles.  I had thought that I’d start the day with a Hong Kong waffle, but no, those aren’t for eating until midday.

Walking further down the street Julie abruptly turned into what looked like a warehousing area for the local florists and produce stands.  She reckoned that at least we could possibly get ourselves a banana or something to tide us over and satisfy my grumbling belly.  I asked the lady who sold us the token banana where we should go for a Hong Kong breakfast. She pointed further down the dim hallway crowded with pallets, boxes and industrial fridges. So we went, and popped out into an open space surrounded with stalls with large pots of boiling broth that filled the nose.

A smiling lady caught our eye and sat us down. I naively thought that this meant she could speak english since we’re obviously foreigners. But on the flip side, how many foreigners venture into this industrial diner? So maybe she thinks we’re living here and can speak Chinese!

Commence ordering by pointing! Take one didn’t work out so well when I received a plate with one runny egg on it. Julie’s noodles looked good though. Julie tried again and this time I got the full meal deal: a few slices of ham, more eggs and a wiener.  The tea in the little plastic glass was super lemony and super sweet – just the way I like it! I think it was HKD46 for us both, about 6 Canadian loonies.

After brekky we wandered through Kowloon Park, which is a lovely park in the middle of this metropolis that can make you forget that you’re even in a city of millions of people.

photos on smugmug - http://kalicinski.smugmug.com/Travel/SE-Asia-2012/Hong-Kong

Oh Hong Kong, one day is not enough

OK, so technically we had nearly 48hrs, but subtracting for travel to and fro the airport and this nasty thing called jet lag (is it better to fly west or east?), we really didn't seem to have that much time here.

Julie and I kicked off our travels with the first debate of the trip - how to get to town from the airport. For future reference the train and an Octopus card are the best bet. The train includes a free shuttle to your hotel once you arrive at Kowloon Station.
We used the last of my Holiday Inn points to get a nice room at the Holiday Inn [sing it] right on Nathan Rd in the heart of Kowloon. Primo location next to MTR stations and loads of action. However our plans of watching the fireworks from the rooftop pool were dashed when Julie went up there and found you couldn't see a thing besides the walls of neighbouring buildings.
In a strange twist of east meets west, HK puts on Winterfest, where they pretend to be in the north. Just like we saw in Singapore last time round, the city was ablaze in Christmas lights and decorations and carols jingling from every loudspeaker. It's certainly a pretty sight and for us Winnipeggers it's a treat to walk around a festive atmosphere with only a sweater on. (I'm guessing temps have dropped to more normal levels back home?)  There are decorations EVERYWHERE; Tiffany’s sponsors giant Christmas trees and a carousel in Statue Square and we even found a skating rink that had real ice!

 

Due to our time restraints we didn’t get to see too much. I had hoped to go on a walking tour after downloading an app onto our tablet and we didn’t even get back to Julie’s favourite global party place of Lan Kwai Fong. But we did happen upon what may be a serious contender to our magical little bar further up the harbour.  Pier7 has a prime spot right below IFC, which is the tallest structure on the island. The view from here completely made up for the long flight and jet lag – I’d do it again and again just to see this skyline.

We did some investigating to find ourselves a party for NYE, and we found numerous options: HKD380 for a rooftop party @ the Harbour Plaza hotel, HKD500 for a party at the Intercontinental on the waterfront or HKD2400 for an extravagant 8-course meal with harbour view. By the time we made a decision we missed getting in on the cheap option - typical!

 

<<original draft written Dec.31. finished in Winnipeg Feb.19>>

more photos online @ kalicinski.smugmug.com

The dragon awakens

Beijing Capital International Airport never fails to impress me: the 60ft+ ceilings swoop in graceful lines between the towering support columns and I'm pretty sure it's the largest indoor space I've been in.
It's finally sunk in that we're travelling again. We're in China! It's colder than Vancouver. And as soon as we stepped out of the tunnel into the airport it smelled like China - you know what I mean. (Chinese restaurant smells)  As we landed I saw the main doors where we stepped out into our first Asia experience three years ago and got even more excited to burst through the doors this time around. But gotta wait one more flight...
The flight from Winnpeg to Vanvouver was a rough one - some of the most up-and-down, side-to-side turbulence we've ever encountered. We had a bit of a scare for our trans-pacific flight - we could not check in online and when we showed up the plane appeared fully booked and we were sitting apart in different sections of the plane. Fortunately we were plenty early for that flight and Julie managed to find an actual Air China employee to nicely rearrange our seats for us. They fed us twice on the flight; breakfast at 3am Vancouver time and then lunch at 3am Beijing time, separated by two movies and about five hours of semi-valuable sleep.
I've just finished my second "Chinese breakfast" of the day (rice porridge, an intoxicated egg, and some sort of pickled vegetable) and continue my inability to sleep on a plane. (forgot my sleeping mask...)

Sure am looking forward to Hong Kong and waffles, bubble tea and that spectacular skyline!

Away we go again!

I'm not really sure I'd recommend taking a substantial trip just after the Christmas holidays - because it's one level of stress to plan the holidays, and to add another level for trip planning seems a bit unnecessary.  So in between shopping for other people, we've been shopping for hotels and flights for ourselves. :)
No matter, January follows December and by golly, we're going to skip most of it!

Here's the rundown: 

New Year's Eve in Hong Kong.

Jan 1-8 in Cambodia, split between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

Jan.9-12 float down the Mekong to Saigon on a private boat that Julie's found us.

Jan.12-14: Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Jan.14-16 in Bangkok for our first nights in this metropolis.

Jan.16-20 in the Phangna region north of Phuket for some scuba diving and rain forest hikes. 

Jan.20-23 flying home via BKK, Singapore, Tokyo and Vancouver.

When we first started planning this trip, we were torn between focusing on places that we liked the last time we were through SE Asia, and discovering new places and seeing new things.  The latter option has won the day.  We're no longer going to spend a week on the idyllic island of Phuket, Thailand. Rather, we're aiming for a small little island near Burma called Koh Phayam.  That's after we spend a week or so in Cambodia, exploring Phnom Penh and the temples of Angkor Wat.  In the early stages of planning I was relishing the thought of kicking back on the southern coast of Cambodia down near Kep - but as details got worked out, that dream was dashed due to lack of time. Nuts. But we are rendezvous'ing with another couple from Winnipeg in PP. And that shall be exciting to travel with some friends - sort of a first for us.

Andrew's luggage - Julie's is bigger

What to pack for such a trip? A vast assortment of gizmos, from two cameras to a tablet pc to a blackberry.   This time I've splurged on fancy Exofficio underwear that reportedly can be worn and washed nightly. Fancy stuff. Our friends managed to only pack carry-on for their trip - I am amazed at their talents. 

It's 3 hours till airport time in Winnipeg. The strange thing is...it hasn't sunk in yet.
Yet I'm sure it'll be a mad dash to the finish line to get everything sorted!

Wish us well!


...I really wish I'd properly finished this blog from our big trip.  What good is a story that just abruptly ends??  bogus...