Travel day

4/1/12:

This is gonna be a long one. I'm going to detail what a travel day looks and feels like for us. This particular day is our bus trip from Sihanoukville up to Phnom Penh, over the Cambodian-Vietnamese border and on to Ho Chi Minh City.

0630: alarm goes off. I say a silent prayer that it's a mistake and I still have 6 more hours to sleep. No luck. Carolyn begins to roll out of bed. I whisper that she'll probably have to go on without me. It seems I've come down with an affliction which has cemented my eyes shut. The western world calls this affliction 'sleepy.'

0637: Carolyn gets in the shower. I ask no one in particular why anyone would schedule a bus at 0730?

0642: I manage to fall out of bed and begin personal hygiene.

0647: slather hydrocortisone on Carolyn cause she looks like she's come down with chickenpox because of all the bug bites.

0652: finish packing my bag. Remind my beautiful bride that I love her but the jury's still out on whether I'll be able to make it another 5 minutes before falling asleep. Perhaps my affliction is actually narcasleepy?

0700: walk out of our room right on time. Not sure how we made our time hack. Walk to the hotel restaurant and sit down.

0705: the waitress asks what time we're leaving to which we respond 0730. She assures us there is enough time for breakfast. We order 2 'small breakfasts' which is just scrambled eggs, a baguette (yummy!!!) and hash browns.

0706-0729: fiddle around on the interwebs, look at our watches every 2 minutes and remark that they're cutting it close.

0730: our meal comes. Immediately move into survival mode meaning we stuff all edible morsels into the baguette and shove it all down our gullets as quickly as possible. While inhaling our breakfast I grumpily provide breakfast for a family of Mosquitos who seem to inhabit the chair I'm sitting in. Aren't I nice?

0742: our ride shows up and we quickly finish our meal, pay the bill and check out of the hotel.

0745: the driver happily sings some Cambodian song while displaying the largest smile on the planet. There is clearly something wrong with him since the sun has only been up for 2 hours and he's smiling.

0745-0800: speed around town picking more people up. Chat with the other backpackers about our various travel experiences.

0800: arrive at the 168-sorya bus terminal. 168-sorya is the bus company we're taking to ho chi Minh city today.

0802: load our bags underneath the bus and climb aboard. Carolyn is not happy with how I'm handling the bus tickets so she retakes that responsibility. She complains that we're sitting in the rear of the bus but I happily remind her that we'll be further away from the driver and hopefully out of range of the horn (which they use every 2 or 3 minutes here!!!!!). Bus is older looking with no bathroom but the A/C is kicking!!!!!!! I predict atleast 13 hours of Cambodian karaoke will grace the tv screen on the buss.

0810: depart bus station which is really just a random crappy store in downtown Sihanoukville.

0816: make a random stop at the 'real' bus station. I think we pick more people up but my powers of perception are still foggy.

0849: another random stop on the side of the road. The driver chats up one of the passengers for a couple minutes as we head off again.

0855: bus driver uses horn for the 36th time this morning.

0919: stop in random town to pick up local passengers.

SIDE NOTE: the towns we pass through all look pretty much the same. Filthy stores, trash all over the place being sifted through by cows, chickens, and dogs, smiling faces and of course the ever present fashion trend of Cambodia: women all wear pajamas! We've seen a couple bonus instances of a women wearing Angry Birds pajamas! Score.

0949: pick up and drop off some local peeps.

0956: Cambodian karaoke starts. Our driver must be a closet gangsta cause he turns up the bass to painful levels.

1045: bathroom / food stop. Incidentally, Cambodia is the only country we've been to that doesn't charge you to use the bathroom at bus stops.

1100: back on the road. The person in front of me has taken advantage of my absence and leaned his seat back. Now I get to enjoy the rest of our bus trip with filthy, dirty, oily backpacker hair inches from my face.

SIDE NOTE: why do backpackers generally refuse to wash themselves? Friggin disgusting. I'm routinely grossed out by the lack of personal hygiene displayed by backpackers here.

1126: driver really really loves that horn.

1239: Carolyn leans over and whispers that we have a 30 minute layover at the Phnom Penh bus station. I immediately see where she's going with this. You see the bus station is a hop skip and a jump from the Lucky Supermarket which just so happen to have cool ranch Doritos!!!!!!! We formulate a plan where Carolyn scouts out a defensible position to look after our bags while I make my way over to doritos heaven. I say defensible because the tuk-tuk drivers are particularly aggressive in phnom penh. So much so that the bus companies place a mobile barrier up to help protect passengers as they get their bags.

1300: arrive at the bus station. Operation Cool Ranch begins. Carolyn maneuvers to a corner table and I make my way to the grocery store.

1320: The store is packed but I succeed and return triumphantly with our Doritos and a chocolate croissant bonus!!!!

1340: board our bus which is super nice and grab our seats. The bus has a bathroom but it's built for midgets as its about 3 feet high and maybe 1.5 feet wide. Emergency purposes only I think.

SIDE NOTE: we purchased our tickets from one of the ubiquitous travel agents in Sihanoukville. The tickets had our seat assignments. We got our follow on tickets this AM which also had seat assignments. Keep in mind that not once did anyone go near a computer. People simply called someone and viola, we have tickets and seats. Not once have we had any issues of double booking or lost booking or anything. Things just seem to work out.

1345: depart Phnom Penh for Ho Chi Minh City.

1400: bus attendant passes out water for everyone ... VIP what what!!!!

1530: take ferry across Mekong river. Double decker VIP bus on a rickety ferry over the Mekong. Exciting!!!!!!

1600 - 1648: snooze.

1730: stop at bus station for bathroom break and snacks. Carolyn finds a western toilet stashed away at the rear of the place. Carolyn 1, squat toilets 0!

1736: order vegetarian rice (i.e. rice with only vegetables). Get pork added as a bonus. Explain that I want NO meat and learn that there is no such thing here.

1738: order 2 waffles from a guy on a motorcycle. Who knew breakfast came on 2 wheels???

1750: depart bus stop.

1754: pass the first pawn shop we've seen in SE Asia. Shortly after we see a ton of casinos. I guess gambling is a universal problem.

1803: stop at Cambodian border. Get off bus.

1805: pass through Cambodian immigration, get finger printed.

1807: Carolyn persuades Cambodian driver to mail our postcards. Winning!

1820: drive to the Vietnamese border.

1823: exit bus, collect all bags and enter immigration building. Stop for quick photo :)

1829: pass through Vietnamese immigration. Bags go through x-ray machine.

1831: exit building officially in Vietnam!!!!!!

1832: begins to rain .... We're still outside.

1845: bus pulls up and we get onboard Waiting for our passports.

1850: passports are handed back.

1853: Vietnamese immigration officer comes on board and checks our passports.

1855: depart border.

2110: arrive in Ho Chi Minh City!!!! Of course it's pouring out!!!

2113: grab our bags and orient ourselves to where we are.

2114: cross street and go to ATM. Put rain covers on our bags.

2116: start walking, looking for our hotel (which we did not Pre-book).

2129: find hotel in back alley. They have 1 room left for $20/night including breakfast. Win!

2133: put our bags down in our new room approximately 15 hours after we left our last room.

2140: walk to a nearby pho place (noodle soup). Still raining by the way.

2200: finish dinner. Walk around the area.

2211: get the best fruit shake I've had in SE Asia; Carolyn gets a damn fine hot chocolate.

2217: see our first circle K!!!!! It's not seven-11 but it'll do!

2224: offered marijuana for the 2nd time in 3 minutes.

2249: in for the night. We're both pretty wet and in need of a good hot shower.

So there you have it. A travel day in SE Asia, complete with a border crossing!!!


Pics:
1) us leaving The Cambodian side of the border.
2) me with our first bowl of pho in HMCM!
3) bus station in Sihanoukville.
4) Vietnam border crossing.
5) our first bus from Sihanoukville to phnom Penh.
6) Mrs Blue after the ATM in HCMC.
7) Mrs Blue in our new hotel!
8) our bus from phnom penh to HCMC.

Farewell Cambodia

Tomorrow we head out bright and early to Vietnam so today we regrouped and did some future planning. Picked up the laundry and passports and searched the Internet. It was gloomy all day and we've seen a few good thunderstorms so we waited and waited but it didn't come until 2130 and of course we were kinda far from our hotel and had to run back. Good to know the lungs still work after two months of no running. There are a few 'movie theaters' in town so we got a room and watched The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. We both read the book and just like in most cases the book was way better then the movie.

We ran into our new friends today as they were heading back from Koh Rong. Meeting people is by far one of the highlights of traveling and we really found gems with these two. They had a wealth of travel and life knowledge and we just had an amazing time with them.

I'm still covered in bug bites and it's so darn itchy, I have so many it's like having chicken pox. Michael's been a sport and helped applying the anti itch cream to the 50+ bites on my back and arms. It should go away soon!

This is what happens when military members don't dispose of their uniforms properly. We saw these drying at someone's house. It not as bad as all the BDU tops men were wearing in Laos with name tapes, rank and US Army or Air Force still on them.

Swiss Family Blue

3/30/12:

We made it back to civilization!!!!!

We spent the night of the 28th at a place called Paradise which was a bit farther down the beach. It was nice but clearly older than our first bungalow at a place called CoCo's. I think we slept alright but as usual, a hideous mosquito managed to breach our mosquito net and wreak some havoc on our tender skin. Anyway, got up had breakfast and moved to the highlight of our trip to Koh Rong. We found a place on another beach called the tree house bungalows and thought 'we HAVE to stay here.' So we booked 1 night there for the astronomical price of $30/night. However, this has to have been one of the coolest, most amazing places we've ever stayed in. They've built bungalows high up in the trees literally on the ocean. Ok, not actually on the ocean, but about 3 meters away. Our bungalow was about 30 feet high and had a bathroom half way up the ladder. The bungalow itself had a nice bed, some windows and a table. The porch had a hammock a papazan chair, a wooden bench and table. It was truly amazing. Just sitting up there listening to the waves crash on our own beach. Ain't life grand?

Anyway, we spent yesterday (29th) just lazing around our tree house and ended up going for a walk to another deserted beach nearby called 4k beach. Why? Cause the beach is 4 km of untouched white powdery beach with some stunning water to boot. Played in the water for a bit, annoyed some crabs and snails, you know the normal stuff.

Had dinner with some fabulous new friends and consumed the best pizza we've tasted in a while.

Sleeping in our tree house was über romantical except for the temperature. We opened all the windows and even the door but the ocean breeze just have us the finger. Stagnant, hot air is all we got. Not easy to sleep when you're sweating all over yourself as the bed. Not fun at all. But listening to the waves all night sure was great. Oh did I mention that a cute puppy slept on our porch all night? And we saw the coolest water buffalo walk by our tree house? Awesome!

So the treehouse was great except a couple minor issues:
They only had running water at night and didn't really have a reliable time table for said water.
The towels provided smelled like they came from a high school gym's dirty laundry.
Ants. Heaps and heaps of ants. Luckily they didn't carry us away during the night.

In case you couldn't figure it our from our posts ... Koh Rong is amazing. If you're looking for a stunningly beautiful island with huge, completely deserted beaches then put koh Rong at the top of your list. It isn't going to stay this way for long. rumor has it that development is starting to make its way to this wonderful island. Plans are in the making for an int'l airport, ring road and $1600/night resorts. But there's still time to experience koh Rong. We just can't say enough about this island!!!!!

We hopped on the 2 hour ferry this AM and made it back to civilization. Got a room at the Beach Road hotel for $20 with A/C and a hot shower and a pool!!!! Then we made arrangements to get our Vietnam visa which is a whole lot easier here than anywhere else on the planet. Seems the further you get from Vietnam, the more this mythical visa costs and the the longer it takes. Here in Sihanoukville it costs about $45 per person and takes 30 minutes. In phnom penh it was closer to $50 or $60 and would take like 3 days. If you're completely paranoid and get it in the US before leaving it costs over $100 and takes weeks. So all this of course means we're heading to Vietnam in the next couple days. Should be a great time!

Spent the rest of today doing refit stuff: laundry (2 weeks worth), snack shopping, foot massages, etc etc. we'll spend tomorrow hanging out at the hotel pool planning for Italy and maybe watch a movie later.

Pics:
1) view from inside our treehouse
2) our treehouse
3) Carolyn on our porch
4) our treehouse is the middle one.
5) close up of the treehouse

Scuba

3/28
Day three on the gorgeous island of Koh Rong. We signed up for two fun dives and I was looking forward to a day away from the sand fleas and mosquitos.

We started getting our gear together at 1030 and loaded up around 1115, by 1120 the boat was barely out of the dock and Michael was already bleeding. I was sitting in the front of the boat with our new friend Kathleen and we made room for Michael when he got on but he wanted to sit on the other side and while navigating over there he has a major run in with the anchor. I see someone getting the first aid kit and I see a bloody foot but I had no idea it was Michael. Finally Kathleen realizes, I yell over to ask if he's alright since we can't see each other and everyone seems to think ill be running over but lets face it Michael hurts himself often. The beta-dyne made it look far worse then it actually was but he did still take off an entire layer of skin on his pinky toe. How that boy still has toes is beyond me.

Michael's cut was probably the most exciting part of the day because the dives were pretty boring. Call us dive snobs but going 8 meters for an hour and seeing a few fish isn't all that great. Plus my attention span doesn't last that long, I get bored quick and prefer deeper, shorter dives. The second dive was better, we saw some huge starfish, and more fish. There were 3 young dive masters in training on the boat with us. They are stowaways not planning on leaving for months and think this is the best diving ever, it's not. It crappy diving, it just cheap to get certified so a lot of people do it.

The good part was that we were on the boat with our two new friends and we met another guy so the evening was a blast. There is an Italian restaurant on the island that someone recommended so we all headed out for dinner and spent a few hours eating pasta, drinking beers and chatting with our new friends with the waves crashing around us. The other good part was that we hadn't dove in two years and it's a perishable skill so it was nice to get back into it. I had a really hard time clearing my ears to begin with but the second dive was much better.

Just another day in paradise!

Koh Rong

3/27/12:

Grabbed the 8 AM ferry to the island of koh rong yesterday morning. We'd read that this is one of the most beautiful beaches in all of SE Asia so we were pretty excited to get here. Well to say its beautiful is an understatement. You can't even believe this is Cambodia. It seems like there are about 50 people on the island total which means you pretty much have the beach to yourself. The beaches are probably the most beautiful we've seen in SE Asia. Think the panhandle of Florida or Clearwater beach Florida. White powder sand that goes on and on and on. The water is turquoise and completely clear. I just can't say enough about the beaches here!!!! The beach at Koh Phi Phi was the most spectacular, but this place may have the better actual beach.

Anyway, coming here means you're camping. No power (except for a couple hours at night) and of course, cold showers. We stayed at a place called CoCo's for our first 2 nights which has been super nice. We have our own bungalow, bed, shower and mosquito net! From our porch you can just see the beach and we even have a hammock. Just an FYI though, the hammocks only hold 1 person. We attempted to get in it together which ended with both of us on the ground writhing in pain. Carolyn now has a lovely blue'ish, green'ish, yellow'ish bruise on her arm and I have an extremely large bump on my hip bone which makes me look like the hunch back of Notre Dame.

Our room also came with a large family of Mosquitos and some other creature who dearly loves to eat soap. The mosquitos have figured out how to infiltrate our mosquito net and consequently feast on our tender legs all night. The soap eating creature takes a few nibbles out of our soap just to let us know he's watching is and then during the night he takes the rest of the bar. Not very nice.

Yesterday we spent lazing around the. Beach and just playing in the water. Today we tried to trek across the island to a beach on the other side. We were told we could just walk through the village (which had like 3 houses), through the jungle and then we'll come out to a beautiful beach in about an hour. Well after trekking through the jungle and mountains for about 1.25 hours we came out to very lovely, familiar beach. Yes, somehow we made several wrong turns and ended up about 20 meters away from where we started!!!!!! So we had a couple laughs and just ran into the water.

Tonight we booked a dive trip for tomorrow and I went out for a night dive. It was Awesome!!! Saw some truly amazing creatures and had a great time. Came back and had dinner and a couple drinks with the Mrs and some new American friends. What a great night!!!! Really loving it here except for the sleeping part.

Pics:
1) Carolyn in our room
2) the beach!!!!
3) Carolyn on our 1 person hammock.
4) view from the restaurant.
5) us on the ferry.

Sihanoukville

3/26/12:

We're still in recovery mode so we took it slow and easy today. Walked around the town and checked out the beach. The descriptions we read about this place are pretty spot on: seedy, dirty, grungy, etc. but it isn't that bad really. It's clearly in need of tourism to kick start some infrastructure development and maybe a facelift or two but that's all. Our map showed some bars on the beach and labeled the west end ones 'tourist bars' and the east end ones 'Khmer bars', Khmers being the ethnic majority in Cambodia. Sounded kinda funny until we got to the beach and saw that the map was on the money.

The tourist bars had plush chairs and lounge chairs and beach chairs all laid out. The Khmer bars all had 80's style beach chairs surrounding large communal tables. The tourist bars had old fat western men cavorting with their Cambodian trophy ladies. The Khmer bars had families here on vacation with cases of there own beer. Big difference.

Anyway, nothing exciting happening today. But tomorrow we're heading to the island of Koh Rong for 4 days. This place has electricity for about 2 hours a day which means no A/C, no fan, no hot water, no tv and certainly no Internet. So we'll be off the grid for a bit. Don't worry of you don't hear from us for a few days. We'll post as soon as we get back.

Oh, one more thing. It rained tonight. Like the end of the world type rain. Something we definitely miss about living on the east coast. It just doesn't rain nearly enough (or hard enough) in SD.

Time for the beach

We are well enough to move so we're on the road again. I know Michael made light of the situation but it was really awful. If we hadn't booked tickets to Italy I think we might have just skipped Vietnam and headed to the western world.

We took a 6 hour bus ride to Sihanoukville which is a dangerous but beautiful beach town. Since we were laid up for so long we had time to research and in this case it wasn't good. The biggest crime seems to be bag snatching/burglary. Usually two people will drive by on a moto grab a woman's bag and take off, if the bag is attached to her then there have been cases when the woman was dragged too. Once we arrived we realized how this takes place so often, for a beach town it's spread out and all the roads (even the main roads) are poorly lit with lots of hidden areas. Let's just say we'll be on our toes while we're here.

There is a desolate island Koh Rong in the area that has a few guesthouses which you can book in town and then take a ferry to. We went to inquire about them tonight and heard the travel agent telling the couple being helped that most are booked. Once it was our turn the only thing left was a newer bungalow near the town with only generators so we booked two nights there and then one night at a place literally on the beach that runs on solar power. We are heading there on the 26th. Tomorrow we're going to check out the beach, pick up some books and try to find a badminton set for our island stay.