Entries from Julio 2008
Jul30
We reached My Tho by local bus after a 4 hours ride on a bumpy road. The stop was a few kilometres away from the city centre, in the middle of nowhere. Once again we were lucky and a minibus took us four –we were still travelling with Empar and Juan- for free from the side of the road to the river shore, where the most of the action happens in town. We didn’t like it much and expected to find a much authentic place in Ben Tre town, just a 15 minutes ferry and an overland ride of 12 kilometres on the other side of the river.
This is a preview of
The Mekong Delta towns of My Tho and Ben Tre
.
Read the full post
Jul27
What do 4 tourists do in a local bus travelling through the Mekong Delta? Well, among others, have fun!! It was a long walk from our hotel to the local bus station in Chau Doc but it was really worth the effort. Once we arrived there we found out –read corroborate- that hotels and travel agencies sell out tickets of the same buses at higher prices than in the station and then impute it to the rise of the prices of petrol, not to their comission. So we bought our tickets, got in the bus and were surprised of seeing some local people on very wide costumes filled up by what it seemed to be their flesh –something weird if you think that the average Vietnamese is quite skinny. After some minutes the bus had moved and had crossed the first police checkpoint on the road, we could finally know about this mystery. What they all had under their clothes –and in every corner and seat of the bus- was packets and packets of cigarrettes that they were smuggling into the province of Can Tho, our next destination. Between stop and stop they kept on screwing out pieces of the bus to take the hidden cigarrettes and put them on big boxes, then stoping in the middle of nowhere to pass them on to a motorbike rider, who should take them somewhere different, and so on. This trip was pretty fun and once we arrived in Can Tho we had enough to laugh about.
This is a preview of
Can Tho and the floating markets
.
Read the full post
Jul25
Fearing things before they happen is not our way to proceed but, somehow, we had been warned so many times –by other fellow travellers and by different guide books- about the rude manners, the scams and the dangers of travelling in Vietnam, that we unconsciously were more mindful than we normally are. Such a false prejudice, we arrived in Chau Doc and were completely amazed with the people, the food, the city and everything around.
This is a preview of
Vietnam, such a nice surprise
.
Read the full post
Jul22
There were different options to reach Vietnam from Pnomh Penh, but from all of them we choosed to take a boat and travel down the brown and quiet waters of the Mekhong River until the Vietnamese frontier village of Chau Doc. It was a pleasant journey on a 2 storey slow boat from where we could take pictures of villages and locals in their daily activities.
This is a preview of
Entering Vietnam
.
Read the full post
Jul17
Further north in the coast, the area around Sihanoukville is being spoiled by property investors speculating with the coastal terrains, constructing resorts and privatising beaches, since tourism is proving the industry of the future. We were expecting to find hordes of tourists and Khmer families enjoying the beaches and massive tourist development all around the area, but we got such a nice surprise once we arrived there.
This is a preview of
Sihanoukville
.
Read the full post
Jul14
The south coast of Cambodia is blessed with tropical white sand beaches, little islands, small fishing communities and national parks. It is a good place to relax, after being in the stressing city of Phnom Penh. It is also visited by very little number of tourists, since development here is very low at the moment.
This is a preview of
Kampot, Kep and Koh Tonsay Island
.
Read the full post
Jul12
According to the normal pattern, the capital of a country is the busiest and most modern city of the nation. This happens again in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The streets are noisy, dirty and polluted because of the high concentration of vehicles -private cars, tuk tuks, taxis, big motorbikes, mopeds, buses, truks and many more- which also makes to cross the road a pretty dangerous action, since everybody drive as they please –with red light, in the wrong sense of the road or on the pedestrian zones-. We haven’t had any problem with the traffic so far, but have had to stand in the middle of the road more than once, waiting for the vehicles to stop at the red traffic light. We have spent many hours wandering around town and have suffered from the fumes until our lungs could feel it. Now, from a smoke free area in an internet cafe our throat is getting better but, in case we come back to this city, we will consider to wear this surgical masks that many locals do wear.
This is a preview of
Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital
.
Read the full post
Jul8
Our third destination in the country was Siem Reap, the closest town –around 6 km- to the ancient temple ruins of the reign of Angkor. The town is a secure investment place for anybody wanting to start up a tourism related business due to the proximity of Angkor Wat and the rest of the tourist sites. This is why many of the hotels and restaurants are massive and run by westeners. An example we found would be Babel Siem Reap Guest House, a highly reccommended place to stay for its clean, spacious rooms and for the new owners, a spanish, an italian and a french guy, all of them very friendly and helpful. Another recommended guest house right next would be the Good Kind Guest House, where we actually were staying and from where we arranged our visit to the Angkor area, bus tickets, etc. There was one amazing cambodian guy -Seiha- who was responsible for the guests and who made his best to accomplish their needs. Thank you very much for everything!!
This is a preview of
Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor
.
Read the full post
Jul6
Right after crossing the border, we realised that Poi Pet was not the best place to stay at for the night. Casinos, duty free shops, cars, mud everywhere and taxi and tuk-tuk touts made from it a very bad choice to spend our time, plus it was almost as expensive as any average european big city but with a half of the quality standards. Getting out of town was difficult at that time of the day -more than 8 pm- since public local transport seemed to be inexistent. After one hour of arguing and bargaining hard we arranged a shared taxi for half the price of what they were asking for at the beginning and could get to Sisophon on the same day.
This is a preview of
First days in Cambodia
.
Read the full post
Jul4
After so many days enjoying the comodities of Bangkok’s tourist area, Kao San Road, we were decided to get back in the trail and move to a new country, a new language and a new culture. Our first contact with all these things, right in the gate to Cambodia was pretty awful. After having spent around 6 hours sitting in a 3rd class train and having had to hitch hike from the railway station to the border due to the abussive price of taxis and tuk-tuks, we were not expecting to be forced to face such a bad welcome from the Cambodian border authorities. Many travellers talk about it, but one never thinks it is going to be that way.
This is a preview of
Facing the mafia at the Cambodian border of Poi Pet
.
Read the full post
|