1. Don't be tall
Only children, dwarfs and/or double-leg amputees should expect any level of comfort from these tiny "beds"
2. Spoon a stranger
If there is a better way to become quickly acquainted with the person next to you, we haven't found it yet. Short, narrow reclining seats with just an arm-rest separating you ensures the necessity to adopt this intimate sleeping position.
3. Lights on, lights off
Thought you'd bring a book along to pass the hours? No; your driver has turned the lights out. Bring a head torch. Thought you'd sleep since it's all dark in the bus now? No; your driver is making another commission-earning pit stop - sorry, toilet stop for everyone's comfort and enjoyment - and you will wake up for it. We're sorry; the head torch won't help you now
4. Don't expect to sleep
We've called it a 'night bus' here because surely the word 'sleeper' was only ever a wild miss-translation...brace yourself for a long night and seriously consider investing in some valium. Readers will be happy to hear rhohipnal is also widely available in Asia (and, when not dropped into your bacardi breezer unannounced, actually very effective) but please see #5
5. Don't buy sleeping pills with a Vietnamese girl called Flower
Team 365 has it on good authority that those who do may well end up with a 12-hour erection instead (please see #2 and picture the scene yourself.) Oh...so that's why the pharmacist cast a knowing glance at your pretty Vietnamese companion and said "yes, you sleep real good tonight" when you inquired about the strength of the pills (thanks to our man-in-the-field, Steve Barker, for that one)
Friday, 3 September 2010
Monday, 30 August 2010
Not Another Top 5 List: How to get the right day tour
1. For "visit a local village" READ "endure handicraft hard-sell"
Every tour has one. Promises of deeper cultural understanding give way to this unique sales technique. For every item you see being made by a locals' hand, you'll see 10 more thrust infront of you at a "special" price available only today...
2. Time is money
When the tour operator says it's 8:30 - 5 expect to be collected at closer to 9 and returned by 4
3. Make friends
The icing on any day tour cake is the new friends that you can make. Get in there early with some kind words or risk being paired in your kayak/camel/horse-drawn carriage with that crazy middle-aged American woman who keeps talking about her recent boob reduction
4. Lunch is a lottery
...so bring along something of your own. It will either serve as necessary sustenance or a tasty snack once the day tour is done
5. Shop around
No matter which tour operator you book with you will get exactly the same tour; so go cheap and bargain hard. No-one wants to make a new friend (see #3) and find that they paid less that you
Like this? why not check out How to cook authentic Vietnamese cuisine or Things not to say in India
Every tour has one. Promises of deeper cultural understanding give way to this unique sales technique. For every item you see being made by a locals' hand, you'll see 10 more thrust infront of you at a "special" price available only today...
2. Time is money
When the tour operator says it's 8:30 - 5 expect to be collected at closer to 9 and returned by 4
3. Make friends
The icing on any day tour cake is the new friends that you can make. Get in there early with some kind words or risk being paired in your kayak/camel/horse-drawn carriage with that crazy middle-aged American woman who keeps talking about her recent boob reduction
4. Lunch is a lottery
...so bring along something of your own. It will either serve as necessary sustenance or a tasty snack once the day tour is done
5. Shop around
No matter which tour operator you book with you will get exactly the same tour; so go cheap and bargain hard. No-one wants to make a new friend (see #3) and find that they paid less that you
Like this? why not check out How to cook authentic Vietnamese cuisine or Things not to say in India
Three Six Five with No Place To Be
Just a quick shout-out to those lovely bloggers at No Place To Be who have featured Three Six Five in their "Meet a Random Traveller" section...
If you can't get enough of Rob and I on this site, please check it out HERE - also an awesome place for all sorts of travel-based advise, musings and where one can get incredibly jealous about another couples' year-long trip around the world.
Good times :)
If you can't get enough of Rob and I on this site, please check it out HERE - also an awesome place for all sorts of travel-based advise, musings and where one can get incredibly jealous about another couples' year-long trip around the world.
Good times :)
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Day 123 - 128: Sabaydee!
Sabaydee! - or hello! from Laos. So relaxed have we been since entering our fourth country on this trip - that it has taken 5 days to get round to this post, and I get the feeling there is plenty more chilling to come...Our first stop in Laos was in Don Det - a pretty little island in the Mekong River that makes up just a tiny part of Si Phon Don or Four Thousand Islands. Aside from the occasional walk around the island, or over the bridge to the neighbouring island, it's safe to say that our first four days in Laos were spent sitting, eating, lying in our river-side hostel's hammocks and reading. It was bliss.
We made some lovely new friends and even found a bakery that sold cinnamon and banana doughnuts and cinnamon whirls buns that were to die for. Not overtly Laos, I'll give you that - but delicious all the same.
We've got stuck in with the local cuisine also and I am (perhaps prematurely) predicting an absolute stormer of a Food for Thought for Laos; coconut curry with vegetable? Finally! An Asian country with an appreciation for the humble potato! Hurray!
Today I am writing from a rather rainy Champasak, where we have visited the Wat Phu Champasak (think: beautiful ruins smaller than Angkor Wat but bigger than My Son) and, in the spirit of Laos, taken everything in a very, very, relaxed manner. [pics to follow when broadband speed catches up with us]
Tomorrow we head further upstream to Pakse where Team 365 will be joining forces with our good friend, Jeff, and together we will aim to bring you a wide and varied look at Laos.
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Sex, drugs and karaoke
Throughout my travels in India I was offered drugs - excluding marijuana - only once. Ironically the magic mushrooms sales pitch came in Hampi, a site considered so sacred to the Hindu faith that alcohol and even that well known trouble-maker meat was, in the entire city, contraband.
The heroin-hills of Indochina, I have learned, have not followed in these conservative footsteps. Here in Cambodia drugs share the streets with hookers and wanna-be pop starlets in intimate proximity.
Sitting in a pub in Phnom Penh a young boy, maybe 12 years old, approaches our table. He's selling books. All the backpacker essentials; Lonely Planet Guide Books, war biographies and recent best-sellers. All the books in shiny polythene wrappers are photocopies of good quality, they're sold at a fraction of the retail price by hordes of children that roam the streets, day and night.
"Guide book?", he nears the table; his basket slung around his thin neck with fabric hangs at waist height in front of him.
We shake our heads, "No thank you"
"You want" he begins, pulling a book half-way above the rest and lowering his tone "...guide book?" His eyebrows are raised and his glistening young eyes dart from the table to the small white wrap tucked into the plastic wrapper. I must have looked shocked enough to deserve an explanation.
"Opium" he whispers "I give you good price." I'm amazed. I falter. His quick fingers have already selected another book, he plays the next card in his illicit hand. "Cocaine? you want cocaine, lady?"
Geographically, this makes no sense; opium? yes, but cocaine - from Latin America? - definitely not. In truth, most drugs, whatever they are sold as here in Cambodia, are heroin of some description. Every year a small number of thrill-seeking travellers will overdose in Cambodia's capital when they snort a sensible line of coke that turns out to be a deadly line of smack.
Does the child know this? Should a child know this? It doesn't matter - he's onto the next table. He looks like a bright kid, maybe he'll get enough money to go to school and eventually go far, or maybe he'll end up, bookless, hanging around hostels.
Many hostel employees, or at least the young local men that frequent accommodation options, will happily double-up as your dealer. "We have happy hour" I was recently told "and we have happy time - happy time, all the time."
All wanna-be dealers need know is that innocently insert the word "happy" in front of their offerings and they have satisfactorily signified the inclusion of marijuana. Happy shake, anyone? So lax is the law in this area that a chain of restaurants called Happy Herbs Pizza can operate, and with wide-spread success.
But let's not suggest that the police aren't playing their part in this troubling charade. I've heard; and call it vicious rumours if you will for I have not seen it in action myself, that in some towns rickshaw drivers will sell heroin (calling it what they will) to travellers and then drive to a preordained spot for a "random" stop-and-search. The traveller will pay a hefty fine (upward of US$500) directly to the policeman's pocket or give the officer the honour of bumping up the drug-related arrest statistics (great for tourism, don't you know?) and spend 3 months (minimum) in jail.
The driver's pocket, meanwhile, still hot from the travellers' notes will be reunited with the untouched wrap of smack ready for the next round.
There is nothing in Cambodia if not the desire to support one-anothers' enterprises.
Which is why, when a friend in search of a beer one evening in Battambang heard music and saw a dimly-lit venue with doors to booths lining the left side and girls lining the right side of the space; he was sure it was a bar-come-brothel.
"No, sir" a bartender in a well-lit, prostituteless bar assured him later that evening "it's karaoke."
And herein lies the one Cambodian vice I can happily say I wish I had purchased. This is a nation that loves to sing - the men, especially, will show no restrain in public renditions of khmer hits.
There even seems to be an entire TV channel dedicated to this national obsession. As with drugs, though the presentation varies; the substance is the same.
There are only two types of karaoke videos. The first is in the studio; in the background a stage is full of beautiful women and aging men will "dance" - I have used inverted commas here because the "moves" only require rhythmic shifting of the feet and slow twirling of the wrists from one side to the other, at hip height. In the foreground a man (old) and a woman (exquisite) will take it in turns to mime at eachother.
The second type is outdoors; a beautiful woman in a long dress will be dragged into woodland by men with swords and sashes while another man (in a different coloured shirt from the kidnappers') will hide behind trees and look longingly over logs at his lost lover. Miming, in this scenario, is optional.
All the while the khmer text is appearing at the bottom of the screen and filling from left to right in either blue or red in time with the song so that everyone at home can sing-along. And, boy, do they sing along.
It seems that it is young girls from relatively well-off families that can frequent proper karaoke bars, like the one in Battambang. It is a very different past-time to those who are born into less affluence.
Giggling and scantily-clad, Cambodia's alarmingly young-looking prostitutes can be found adorning the lap of any male westerner in bars across the country regardless of his intention to sleep with them or not.
"They're persistent" a friend (and solo-male traveller) told us, "they want to sleep with you, they need the money but what they really want is a rich European boyfriend who'll treat them well, support their children and pay the way out of this mess."
The money, in this case, is anything between US$20 and US$40. Though this may sound like a pittance, to put this into perspective, a waitress can hope to earn US$40 per month - at best. Often, much less.
Sex in Cambodia, as with any commodity, is controlled by supply and demand. And it is the high level of the former and the (seemingly) lower level of the latter that is keeping prices down. Still, when faced with toiling long and back-breaking hours in rice paddies or restaurants for the same reward as one night's work, one can begin to understand those who opt for the latter.
This is a generation of Cambodians that have grown up without parents or intellectual guidance since the Khmer Rouge, beginning with the 'soft-handed' population, wiped out almost every adult just 30 years ago. The average age in Cambodia today is 22; the young population are enjoying freedom and living - for the first time in a long time - in relative peace.
Still wounded from the war Pol Pot waged on Cambodia, she has turned to tourism to regain her strength. But at what cost in the long run? For two of these vices, I fear, the long-term price may be much higher than the short-term. Both for individuals and for society as a whole.
For my part, I won't be spending a single cent on sex or drugs while I'm in this recovering and beautiful country. What I must do before I leave is find a karaoke bar with some Journey on the playlist. How hard can it be?
The heroin-hills of Indochina, I have learned, have not followed in these conservative footsteps. Here in Cambodia drugs share the streets with hookers and wanna-be pop starlets in intimate proximity.
Sitting in a pub in Phnom Penh a young boy, maybe 12 years old, approaches our table. He's selling books. All the backpacker essentials; Lonely Planet Guide Books, war biographies and recent best-sellers. All the books in shiny polythene wrappers are photocopies of good quality, they're sold at a fraction of the retail price by hordes of children that roam the streets, day and night.
"Guide book?", he nears the table; his basket slung around his thin neck with fabric hangs at waist height in front of him.
We shake our heads, "No thank you"
"You want" he begins, pulling a book half-way above the rest and lowering his tone "...guide book?" His eyebrows are raised and his glistening young eyes dart from the table to the small white wrap tucked into the plastic wrapper. I must have looked shocked enough to deserve an explanation.
"Opium" he whispers "I give you good price." I'm amazed. I falter. His quick fingers have already selected another book, he plays the next card in his illicit hand. "Cocaine? you want cocaine, lady?"
Geographically, this makes no sense; opium? yes, but cocaine - from Latin America? - definitely not. In truth, most drugs, whatever they are sold as here in Cambodia, are heroin of some description. Every year a small number of thrill-seeking travellers will overdose in Cambodia's capital when they snort a sensible line of coke that turns out to be a deadly line of smack.
Does the child know this? Should a child know this? It doesn't matter - he's onto the next table. He looks like a bright kid, maybe he'll get enough money to go to school and eventually go far, or maybe he'll end up, bookless, hanging around hostels.
Many hostel employees, or at least the young local men that frequent accommodation options, will happily double-up as your dealer. "We have happy hour" I was recently told "and we have happy time - happy time, all the time."
All wanna-be dealers need know is that innocently insert the word "happy" in front of their offerings and they have satisfactorily signified the inclusion of marijuana. Happy shake, anyone? So lax is the law in this area that a chain of restaurants called Happy Herbs Pizza can operate, and with wide-spread success.
But let's not suggest that the police aren't playing their part in this troubling charade. I've heard; and call it vicious rumours if you will for I have not seen it in action myself, that in some towns rickshaw drivers will sell heroin (calling it what they will) to travellers and then drive to a preordained spot for a "random" stop-and-search. The traveller will pay a hefty fine (upward of US$500) directly to the policeman's pocket or give the officer the honour of bumping up the drug-related arrest statistics (great for tourism, don't you know?) and spend 3 months (minimum) in jail.
The driver's pocket, meanwhile, still hot from the travellers' notes will be reunited with the untouched wrap of smack ready for the next round.
There is nothing in Cambodia if not the desire to support one-anothers' enterprises.
Which is why, when a friend in search of a beer one evening in Battambang heard music and saw a dimly-lit venue with doors to booths lining the left side and girls lining the right side of the space; he was sure it was a bar-come-brothel.
"No, sir" a bartender in a well-lit, prostituteless bar assured him later that evening "it's karaoke."
And herein lies the one Cambodian vice I can happily say I wish I had purchased. This is a nation that loves to sing - the men, especially, will show no restrain in public renditions of khmer hits.
There even seems to be an entire TV channel dedicated to this national obsession. As with drugs, though the presentation varies; the substance is the same.
There are only two types of karaoke videos. The first is in the studio; in the background a stage is full of beautiful women and aging men will "dance" - I have used inverted commas here because the "moves" only require rhythmic shifting of the feet and slow twirling of the wrists from one side to the other, at hip height. In the foreground a man (old) and a woman (exquisite) will take it in turns to mime at eachother.
The second type is outdoors; a beautiful woman in a long dress will be dragged into woodland by men with swords and sashes while another man (in a different coloured shirt from the kidnappers') will hide behind trees and look longingly over logs at his lost lover. Miming, in this scenario, is optional.
All the while the khmer text is appearing at the bottom of the screen and filling from left to right in either blue or red in time with the song so that everyone at home can sing-along. And, boy, do they sing along.
It seems that it is young girls from relatively well-off families that can frequent proper karaoke bars, like the one in Battambang. It is a very different past-time to those who are born into less affluence.
Giggling and scantily-clad, Cambodia's alarmingly young-looking prostitutes can be found adorning the lap of any male westerner in bars across the country regardless of his intention to sleep with them or not.
"They're persistent" a friend (and solo-male traveller) told us, "they want to sleep with you, they need the money but what they really want is a rich European boyfriend who'll treat them well, support their children and pay the way out of this mess."
The money, in this case, is anything between US$20 and US$40. Though this may sound like a pittance, to put this into perspective, a waitress can hope to earn US$40 per month - at best. Often, much less.
Sex in Cambodia, as with any commodity, is controlled by supply and demand. And it is the high level of the former and the (seemingly) lower level of the latter that is keeping prices down. Still, when faced with toiling long and back-breaking hours in rice paddies or restaurants for the same reward as one night's work, one can begin to understand those who opt for the latter.
This is a generation of Cambodians that have grown up without parents or intellectual guidance since the Khmer Rouge, beginning with the 'soft-handed' population, wiped out almost every adult just 30 years ago. The average age in Cambodia today is 22; the young population are enjoying freedom and living - for the first time in a long time - in relative peace.
Still wounded from the war Pol Pot waged on Cambodia, she has turned to tourism to regain her strength. But at what cost in the long run? For two of these vices, I fear, the long-term price may be much higher than the short-term. Both for individuals and for society as a whole.
For my part, I won't be spending a single cent on sex or drugs while I'm in this recovering and beautiful country. What I must do before I leave is find a karaoke bar with some Journey on the playlist. How hard can it be?
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Food for thought
Although it may not be well-known for it's cullinary delights, Cambodia's food has been amazing - lucky, seeing as we're probably bound to making these lists from now on. It's perhaps easier to vary your diet here than in neighbouring Vietnam, as Cambodians seem fans of Indian style curry sauces, as well as 'traditional' Asian noodle, rice and stir fry dishes. Below are the foods and meals that got the nod for best we've had during our stay.
Rob's Menu
Rob's Menu
BREAKFAST
Baguette and omlette. Standard, but this restaurant had peanut butter, jam and nuttela for free in the condiment basket.
ELEVENSES
Iced Coconut
LUNCH
Cookery class sea food Amok and rice
AFTERNOON SNACK
Mochi rice cake
DINNER
Beef Lok-Lak from Chim's, Kampot
Dessert
Banana and vanilla milkshake, from Battambang
Drink
$1 a bottle whiskey and flat coke
Kat's Menu
BREAKFAST
Pancake and honey
ELEVENSES
Ice Coffee and milk
LUNCH
$1 yellow noodle and rice, from Siem Reap
AFTERNOON SNACK
Mango, pineapple and sapodilla milkshake, from Battambang
DINNER
Cookery class veg Amok
Dessert
Dessert
Banana and chocolate milkshake, from Battambang
Drink
Drink
Angkor Draft
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Day 113-114: Boat trippin and Smokin' Pot
It's become something of a recurring theme on this trip that the unplanned things, the spur-of-the-moment decisions, the yeah - let's just go for it 's that provide some of the most magical times.
On purchasing the tickets we'd received a number of different estimates regarding the trip time. Some came in at a speedy 4 hours while others pitched in at closer to 8; everyone agreed it depended on the season, no-one was able to confirm whether travelling the route in the rainy season (as we were) actually made it faster or slower.
Nine hours (and for 365's new best friend, Steve, a t-shirt tan to end all t-shirt tans) later with sore arms from waving to children on the bank and shouting 'hello!' we were still none the wiser as to whether that was faster or slower than it was meant to be. What we did know was that tomorrow our extended group of friends would be taking a cooking class together at the fantastically named Smokin' Pot restaurant.
This was the case when we decided we'd been on enough buses for a while and opted to take the long way round from Siem Reap to Battambang; by boat.
On purchasing the tickets we'd received a number of different estimates regarding the trip time. Some came in at a speedy 4 hours while others pitched in at closer to 8; everyone agreed it depended on the season, no-one was able to confirm whether travelling the route in the rainy season (as we were) actually made it faster or slower.
None the less we set off early and made ourselves comfortable on the roof of the boat (as you do) with the luggage in the morning sun. We quickly met some fellow travelers and shortly after introductions we were all happily sweating profusely together as we sailed through whole communities floating on the banks of the river under the clearest blue sky we had seen since Vietnam.
Nine hours (and for 365's new best friend, Steve, a t-shirt tan to end all t-shirt tans) later with sore arms from waving to children on the bank and shouting 'hello!' we were still none the wiser as to whether that was faster or slower than it was meant to be. What we did know was that tomorrow our extended group of friends would be taking a cooking class together at the fantastically named Smokin' Pot restaurant.
The day began with a trip to the market to buy our supplies with our knowledgeable and super-chilled out host, Vannak. First we made the traditional Khmer dish, Amok; a creamy coconut and chili dish served with big chunks of veg and rice. Please note, how happy Rob (above, far right) looks at the consumption of this dish.
Then, when I was definitely too full to eat any more, we made the spicy beef [tofu for me] stir-fry with basil and chili. This was a simple 4-minute frying wonder of a dish that was based around the same paste we'd made for the Amok, but with a few added extras. Here Rob decided to "do it like to locals"and on ascertaining that Vannak would usually add 10 chilis to his, decided to follow suit. Please note how Rob looked after finishing this dish (below).
Definitely, definitely too full to possibly continue we moved onto the final dish of the day; a chicken [veg] soup. A simple soup with a fresh citrus flavour that, it's safe to say; finished us off.
Vannak gave us a great recipe booklet - so expect a re-run of the above events when we return home - and we slumped helplessly into afternoon naps.
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