Bamboo train through rice fields, and these are some of the things we see...

Baby monkey!


This afternoon we went to visit a Cambodian-volunteer-run NGO non-profit orphan school. Teacher Annick is doing her job here... our tuk-tuk driver for the day happened to be the director of this place, 89 orphans or poor children left behind, several teachers teaching on a voluntary basis. We have the details about the place if someone feels like donating to it.


Another temple... I think we lost count of them by now. 11th century, this one, older than Angkor Wat. 358 stairs to go up - quite an accomplishment in this heat of the midday...


Some human skulls and bones, found inside one of the "killing caves", where the Khmer rouge killed many people by throwing them into a deep cave... sad place.

The bamboo train! (Cambodia currently has no working real trains anymore... but these little wooden/bamboo racks with a motor can drive up to 40-50 km/h. The fun part is, when there is another train coming from the other side - one of the two has to then stop and dismantle his train, but that only takes about 30 seconds, so that is really cool...

Angkor Wat temples

The inner part of Angkor Wat, the mother of all temples, and the world's largest religious building. Cambodia's number one attraction, too, obviously. Actually a really good place to learn Japanese...


Stone faces of the Bayon temple, part of the Angkor Thom complex. Part of the UNESCO World heritage sites. Just one of the many photos, of the many temples, that we spent many hours visiting... (starting the day at 4am in the night to catch a (not really happening) sunrise!)


Lara Croft, played by Annick, in the Ta Phrom temple, the mightiest of the jungle temples, where the roots of truly impressive trees are devouring the stones of this ancient temple. The Tomb Raider movie was cast in this stunning scenery.


Indiana Jones, climbing Ta Keo in the scorching sunlight, to find some hidden treasure... (no, sorry, the Indiana Jones movie was not filmed here...)


Annick made friends! This cute little Boa wanted to lick Annick to show her affection, but Annick was not too pleased, because the snake was apparently poisonous (as we were told only later on). Don't worry, Annick's still alive :)

Arrives au Cambodge, la corruption reigne!

Apres des longues heures de voyage et quelques problemes (entre autres de pas prendre le bon train a Bangkok et de devoir passer 10h dans un train SANS lits) on est finalement arrive au Cambodge. Pour passer la frontiere et obtenir un visa il faut, dans le cas normal, payer 20$ mais ici il faut encore rajouter 100Baht aux policiers, qui y insistent et qu'on voit apres se partager l'argent. C'est partout ici comme ca. Chaque personne qui te rends un service (deja paye) on redemande une partie de cet argent mais nous sommes assez vifs et on ne se laisse pas faire.
Demain on se leve tres tot pour voir le coucher de soleil a Angkor Wat, vous aurez des photos, je le promets :)
(Annick)

There is another impression here, however, when you look beyond the let's-rip-tourists-off. On the way here (a taxi ride over a new tarmacced road), we could see mostly poverty. Small miserable huts along the road, rice fields, people plowing their land with buffaloes, improvised constructions and fences, and no other roads other than this main one, only dust/mud paths.
This evening, I went for a walk to the centre of Siem Reap, a hub for many westerners. Among the idiot-tourists drinking and smoking, the tuk-tuk and motorbike drivers offering their services, and the many street shops trying to get you to buy something, I found a little man at a side street, selling books. The man had no hands. He was patiently waiting for me to inspect his selection, and when I bought a guide book about Cambodia, his agility of his arm stumps to get his wallet out of his pocket, take out 4 dollars change, rip the plastic cover of the book away so I could read it, was actually impressive. And very touching. A man, living with the consequences of the country's history (many landmines still remaining here), remaining honest, polite, and keeping up hope to make enough money selling his books (at a lower price than a book store! [as I afterwards checked]) to care for his family - with no hands.
After a touristy temple day tomorrow, I hope to see more of this sad, but touching country, drenched in history. Good night. Joé

Enough shark bites - time to move on!

(Edit, for Mike: Yes, we're leaving the island today, and will head eastwards by train to Cambodia. Have safe travels home!)

Meio - de Mike ass geschter fort gang (a misst am Moment (theoretisch) lo zu Bangkok sen, wou heen den Owend en Fliiger zreck hellt). D'Annick an ech waerten dann lo a Richtung Cambodge reesen! Siem Reap (+Wat Angkor) ass eisen eischten Stopp. (Ko Tao -> Chumphon -> Bangkok -> Arayaprathet/Rongklua/Poipet -> Siem Reap - missten do muer den Owend oder Iwwermuer den Mettig ukommen, de Mettig geet et hei vun der Insel fort). JOE


Fini l'ile des requins!! Joe et moi, nous sommes seuls maintenant. Mike est reparti en Angleterre rejoindre sa femme et c'est pourquoi on a decide de quitter Ko Tao (Koh Tao). Vu que le sud de la Thailande est une infinite de plages blanches et d'eau turquoise et que la seule chose qu'on fasse c'est manger, dormir et observer des poissons/requins (ce qui est vraiment genial et on ne se plaint pas) nous nous sommes dit qu'il est largement temps de vivre quelques autres aventures. On va partir au Cambodge et on arrivera mercredi. Pays pauvre, marque fortement par la guerre et les 2 millions de morts du au regime des Khmers Rougers et Pol Pot, cette nation a quand meme beaucoup de choses a nous offrir. Angkor Wat a Siam Reap en est une, et ca vaut toute la peine de traverser une route (assez desastreuse) de 160 km pendant 5h. Vous aurez certainement des nouvelles de notre aventure :) ANNICK

Mouth-watering (literally!) snorkeling on Ko Tao

This was yesterday, as we went for a swim in the rain and the stormy weather - where Annick just barely avoided getting devoured by a big hungry blood seeking shark after she was bleeding slightly, as she cut her toe on a sharp rock.


Hi Mike! How are the fish?


Braving the depths of the waters rewards Annick with beautiful underwater-scenery.


Even Buddhism has its place in the water - (I tried my hardest!)


This evening, a very "interesting" dinner at this place near the beach.

A snorkeling video on its way, hopefully, if this internet works...

Blubb...

If this works, then here is a little video of what snorkeling on Ko Tao looks like. Now add the salty taste of seawater (water getting into the mask sometimes), the threat of razorsharp corals (which host all sorts of stinging camouflaged fish, some with visible spikes, some without), which sometimes get a little close, as well as some small fish that bite you / nibble a little painfully, and some bigger fish (our neighbour saw a shark!), which better not bite...
Oh and of course, the hellishly burning lobsterisation afterwards, despite applying waterproof suncream beforehand...

Blubb!

Ohh que oui, j'adore la mer (Voyage a Koh Tao)

J'ai toujous aime la mer, pour toutes ces sensations qu'elle me donne. Le sel sur le visage et les levres, l'horizon touchant l'infinite, les jolis jeux de couleurs de bleu azur jusqu'a bleu turquoise, la bruit des vagues qui se terminent sur la plage et evidemment le sentiment de liberte et des vacances. Ici en Thailande la mer n'est pas differente. L'eau est a beaucoup d'endroits beaucoup plus clair et surtout chaud comme dans une baignoire. Lorsqu'on est arrive sur cette petite ile, apres 2h dans la ferry, on etait bien etonne. Tout l'ile est couverte de vert sauf les plages y ont bien droit a leur place. Ce midi une grosse averse c'est annonce au-dessu de nos tetes (bien sur la temperature ne baisse jamais en dessous de 26 degrees) et donc on a decide d'aller nous baigner dans la mer. C'etait genial :) dehors il faisait un peu froid car il y avait quand meme du vent, mais dans la mer il fait bien chaud qu'on n'a plus envie de sortir. Deja en conditions normales c'est assez difficile de me faire sortir de l'eau (peut etre c'est le fait que je sois un "aquarius) mais ici "no way". Joe, Mike et moi on s'est bien amuse de faire pleins de photos betes dans l'eau (avec la camera resistante a l'eau de Joe) et puis on a joue un peu pirates et on est monte sur des petits bateaux pour en avoir une planche a sauter.
Bon vous en aurez surement des photos :)

End of the road..

Well, tomorrow will be my last full day on this wacky adventure so I should probably update this blog business.
Firstly, let me say that my 3 days in the jungle were unbelievably good! As I said to Joe and Annick, this holiday has been the adventure I always daydreamed about back in my school days.

Trekking through perilous jungles, evading blood sucking leeches while listening to the screeching of some alien like bugs nearby. Witnessing, close up, sulphurous boiling water exploding through the earths crust and gushing up infront of me. Swimming underneath beautiful waterfalls and up and down rivers after helping build the bamboo raft we would later crash and bash our way downstream the following day. Travelling for hours from one closed off village in the mountain to another on elephants across the deep rivers.
I should also mention the evening we sat around a small fire in the local tribes village by the river, listening to the chorus of Crickets and seeing the dance of hundreds of fireflies around us. The sky lighting up every few minutes with the fading promise of heavy rain to come.

I could continue to talk of our jungle adventures but that's a story best told in person! =)

Since then, we've travelled over long distances on hot, sweaty night trains, bobbed across the ocean on a ferry to a strange island where we swam in the warm waters during a rain storm and where I currently sit, getting eaten alive by mosquitos.

Tomorrow we set sail around the island to discover the exciting, undiscovered secrets of the coral reef... or in other words, we're snorkling and looking at fish!

Signing off! =)

This was today, in Ayutthaya, where we learned to respect old ruins and learned about buddhism... ;)


In the jungle, we rode some elephants... here is Annick (and Anna, dutch student, part of our group), which brought us from one village to the next, with a few stops whenever there was some tasty grass or tree spotted by our elephant...


I was trying to impress the tiger, by looking strong, and roaring... in a fairly cool waterfall we visited. Well, the tiger was not anywhere near probably, but still... we were not attacked by any tigers, so I take credit for that ;)


This was the nice candlelight dinner on our first night in the jungle - a "Karen" tribe village. Part of our dinner was colleted on the way as we were trekking through the forest - organic and fresh!

In an hour: train to Bangkok, then overnight train to Chumphon, then ferry to Ko Tao.