Entries about towns

After Cambodia, I made my way directly to the Thai capital, Bangkok. In view of the recent political events in Thailand, I am telling myself that I was lucky to visit this country a month ago and not presently. Though I am being told that except for the curfew (10pm - 5am), almost nothing has an impact for the tourists in Thailand at the moment.

When I was in Peru in Arequipa, 8 months ago, I had met with a Thai guy briefly who was thinking at the time to maybe open a café, restaurant or hostel somewhere in the world. We had kept in touch and I was pleased to learn that he had finally decided on opening an hostel in Bangkok. And the timing was more than perfect as he had only opened the day before I arrived and therefore I got the privilege of being his first guest! And I am not saying that because the owners are now my friend but the hostel and welcome were fantastic so I highly recommend the Three of a Kind hostel if you are looking for a place to stay in Bangkok, you won't be disappointed!

My main goal in visiting Thailand this time was to explore the South islands and do some scuba diving but I took the opportunity of staying in Bangkok to visit a little bit the main Buddhist temples and royal places, but also to relax as the previous weeks in Cambodia had been quite hectic. Beside the thermometer was reaching almost the 40 degrees so that makes you even more lazy...

My friend Angkrit, the owner of Three of a Kind, and myself exploring the flower marker in Bangkok

Lots of traffic in Bangkok and drivers start here very early!

The ex-mansion of the Thai kings

The royal hall used for welcoming foreign officials and other ceremonies. Unfortunately it was not permitted to take pictures inside...

Wat Arun

China town

The Emerald Buddha, from the Grand Palace. One of the symbols dear to Thailand

Grand Palace

The huge reclining Buddha in Wat Pho

Another prayer room in Wat Pho

Following Laos and the 4000 islands, I decided to carry down south into Cambodia and its capital Phnom Penh. The bus journey was actually one of the worse I have experienced during my travelling year. First there is the matter of crossing the border and getting your visa. Whilst a Cambodian visa usually costs 20$, you also "must" pay 5$ for the guy who is going to bring your passport into the immigration office and 5$ for the police chief who is going to stamp it. Everyone seems to get a little bit in their pocket or so it seems. Unfortunately there is not much you can do about it if you don't want to take the risk of being left behind by the bus, in the middle of nowhere...

After this then it is a long 14 hours journey through bumpy and dusty roads, in a 40 degrees bus where the A/C doesn't work, not the most pleasant experience ever. But then the bus finally made it to Phnom Penh and I could get some well deserved sleep in a hostel near the tourist area.

The next days were spent visiting the noisy capital with the royal temple, the killing fields and the famous S21 prison where Pol Pot and his subordinates killed around 3 millions Cambodian people during the 70's (almost 1/4th of the total Cambodian population!). To be honest I knew very little about this dark period of Cambodia, the Red Khmer period, and the more I got to know, the more I was losing faith in humanity. Where were all our western countries during this period? Maybe then spreading the "democracy" wasn't that important in those troubled times or maybe was it because Cambodia doesn't have as many natural resources as other countries in the Middle East? But I am probably becoming now too cynical, I'm sure they had a very good reason not to intervene... And the worst thing is when Vietnam decided to invade Cambodia to put an end to this madness, Pol Pot and a good number of his friends migrated to Thailand, where they lived happily until the age of almost 90 years old... For sure this world is definitely not fair and I doubt will ever be.

But what stroke me the most is the ever lasting smile on all the Cambodian faces, these people have faced really dark times and yet they are probably the most vibrant and nicest people I have met during my trip. Always ready to help and joke, this definitely forces my respect...

So after a few days in the capital, I headed down south to the small Cambodia coast and the towns of Kep and Sihanoukville and its island, Koh Rong. Not much to say about those places other than it was nice to chill out on the beach or do a bit of sea kayaking after my time in the noisy capital. But one could get bored quickly about those places as there is not much else to do and I decided to go back up towards Thailand, making first a stop in Battambang, an old French colonial town, the second largest town of the country but also very quiet compared to the capital. But I didn't really get any time really to spend there so after some visits to some old temples nearby, I carried on to Siem Reap, in the west of Cambodia, also known for its close location to the Angkor temples... but this will be the object of another post, especially since I don't want to flood you with tons of pictures...

So here is a first selection of my Cambodian pictures, just for your pleasure... :-)

The Royal Palace

Memorial of the Killing Fields

Sign in the Killing Fields

Bracelets in memory of the people who died in this grave

Memorial monument gathering all skulls found in the killing fields, Phnom Penh

A bed used for torturing prisonners in the S21 prison - Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - S21 Prison

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - S21 Prison

Relaxing in Koh Rong island

Stairs leading to an old temple, near Battambang

Monkey near Battambang

Buddhist temple near Battambang

Around 5pm each day, millions of bats fly out of their cave to feed

A crazy sight of bats

Fisherman in Kampong Phluk aka the flooded forest

A few days later, after a short stop in Punta Arenas in the south of Chile, I decided for once to throw my principles out of the window and to take a plane to Santiago, to avoid spending again hours and hours in buses and also avoid having to cross again the border between Chile and Argentina (the whole Chilean region in the south being full of fjords, there is no direct road that links Punta Arenas to the cities north of Puerto Natales). One option would have been to take a cruise boat and admire the magnificent fjords of Patagonia but alas there was not enough time for me to do so and this would have been quite pricey as well.

So once arrived in Santiago, I decided to spend the next few days to relax whilst waiting for my flight to New Zealand. In 6 months and a half I had seen countless museums, taken 10,000 pictures, hiked I don't know how many trails, so it was enough and I really felt the need to not to anything. Funny fact, when I had first arrived in Mexico city, I had met two guys from Chile in my first hostel. We had exchanged our contact details when I had told them that I should be finishing my trip in Latin America 6 months later in their capital and they had offered for me to contact them at that time. So instead of spending a few more nights in a hostel, I therefore stayed with my friends Walter (and Max), which also offered me the possibility to test my new spanish skills... Well, hum... I still have some progress to make but at least I can have now a (very basic) conversation!

The feeling I got from Santiago was actually quite good. The city is surrounded by high mountains offering a nice sight (according to Walter, the views are also more amazing in winter time when snows cover them all) and even though it is a big city, there are lots of local bars and restaurants which give you a true feeling of the Chilean culture. Apparently the Chilean capital is also economically booming so I will definitely keep an eye on it in the future. The weather was also a lot warmer than the previous weeks spent in Patagonia so definitely a good place to spend my last days on that continent.

The last few beers in South America with Walter

Punta Arenas

Cormorants colony in Punta Arenas