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Halfway around the world in 1 year
Welcome to Sotje62 ! My blog intends to make the world a smaller place. Automatically and real-time, the blog traces Beatriz and myself's whereabouts, it might just tell you a thing or 2 that interests me - therefore not you, that's the privilege of having a blog - but read new blogs on the top and click on the pictures in the side bar to see older blogs, the blog,and Beatriz and I hope you grow a good 'travel' appetite. Sotje62 travel blog is in Vlaams (donker gekleurd) and in English (light coloured). So read what you understand and again what you like.
27-10-2009
In Sihanoukville, Cambodia. (In English !!)
Sihanoukville is already lasting a week for us. It helped that the weathermen were good to us, only 2 rainy days, and today we have a pumping heat limiting body movement to the absolute minimum. Room, breakie, fruit shake and the same route back :-) Every evening, Bea and me go for BBQ-ed seafood. Absolutely fingerlicking good!! If it were me, I easily stay another week ! We fill our days in Sihanoukville reading books, drinking fruit shakes, go for a swim and haggling with masseuses and salesguys. The beach is overfull of them. The women offer massages, manicures, pedicures, epilations of chesthair! This is scary. They look at you and tell you that that hair has to go off! If you have a good "chesthair day", they change course and go your nails, feet, toes... After the first day I learned my lesson, nails and hair to perfection before the beach, it saved me a few bucks and some peace of mind! There are women with babies begging for a buck, disabled people, girls selling bracelets. In the end we bought two bracelets and a 'real pair of ray bans' for the good cause.
I haven't managed to upload my pics of Vietnam so instead I write a few lines about Cambodia, his news and character, and my experience of the kingdom country. Strongly influenced by hindu style, khmer architecture abundantly landmarks Cambodia in temples, schools and government buildings. The main highlight being the Angkor site in Siem Reap. Since Vietnam we have talked about it; will we visit Angkor in 1 or 3 days; it is huge, do we rent a car and driver for the day, do we rent a tuk-tuk; or maybe a bicycle. Next month is the marathon of Angkor so there are people who run through it. Also the Cambodians visit their Angkor, and they love to talk about Angkor, that's how I first found out about the hospitality of the Cambodians. They might be more friendly than the Vietnamese and more talk-eager than Lao people, however anyone can see that differently depending on the experience one has. After my visit I definitely let you know how Angkor was.
Cambodia suffered a lot in the late seventies with Khmer Rouge. Khmer Rouge, with their bloody regime, ended more than 2 million lives, and made many Cambodians leave their own country. The Khmer Rouge, to this day, has left its mark on the country. In Phnom Penh I read in the local paper that the local council wanted, and made, a poor area disappear to start a large commercial construction project. A bulldozer has cleaned up what was in the way. This happens all over South-East Asia - locals need to make way for resorts and get other land or get compensated - but what is most disturbing in Cambodia, is that the inhabitants of that block only were informed 2 days before the demolishment of their houses. It's hard to generalise the situation in Cambodia on one example, but it's the one that I read.
Tomorrow we take the bus to Phnom Penh and we leave the beach for what it is. I wish you a long All Saints weekend and definitely talk soon. Klaas
16.09.09. Half-Round the world in 1 year / Kick off. 9th of April 2009, Mumbai, India’s biggest city, is our best destination to take the train south to Goa, Kerala and Bangalore. From there we go 4,000 km by train back to north India, see Karnataka, Rajasthan, the Taj Mahal, Varanasi and Nepal. In Nepal we do small treks in the Himalayas and visit Kathmandu. Over de friendship highway, the route goes from Kathmandu to Lhasa by jeep, maximum altitude 5250m and we get to see the Mount Everest. In Lhasa we take the train through China, see the Terracotta warriors in Xi'an, and go 3,500m north to enter Mongolia and arrive in Ulan Bator. In Mongolia we camp in the Khovsgol area near the Russian Siberia, and renew the Chinese Visa to go back south. The clock says 4 months when we trained through China and see Yunnan, South China with its wonderful terraced rice fields. We enter the tropics and after 6 months travels we are in Vietnam. 2 months after that, we should have seen Angkor, the beaches in Thailand & Maleysia ...<e.d. 25.10.09. There is a change of plan after Angkor: we fly from Bangkok to Manila, we go to the Philippines!!> and on a ferry to Indonesia. From either Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok, we find our way to Sydney and work for 3 months. We will have traveled for 1 year when we are in Oz and ... and ... and ... that is how far we planned. But we were supposed to come back in 1 year but we are only half around the world. Beatriz and myself love Asia!! So much for planning ahead and scheduling. Let's just see how we get on and the more exciting our trip will be. Wish us good luck on the trip!!
