I know it's been a while since my last update - apologies, but time just seems to be getting away from me. This email is a doozie, so get your coffee/tea before you begin reading.
The last few weeks have been really, really fantastic - there are several trip highlights to report. At the end of my last email, I'd been in Kanchanaburi in Thailand and had bathed an elephant. The next day, I got on an early bus to Siem Reap, Cambodia, the site of the great temples of Angkor Wat. This turned out to be one of my longest, hardest travel days yet. One of the scams that runs in the tourist industry in southeast Asia (there are loads) is the Cambodian bus scam. I'm not sure there's actually an easy way out of it, but at least I got to Cambodia in the end. The scam is to make the trip long and unbearable. We were held at the Cambodian border for 2-3 hours to do something that takes 30 minutes. Then we got on a bus without aircon, though it was promised, and spent 5 hours on a dirt road to travel 130 km. THEN, when we finally got to Siem Reap, the bus stop wasn't at the bus station (that would be too easy), but rather at the hotel/guesthouse of the bus manager's choosing (a few km out of town). So after a 13+ hour bus trip, we had to make our own way into town. It was almost comical. Almost. It all worked out, though, as I met a cool girl named Julie on the bus, and we decided to bunk together and share expenses.
Angkor Wat was - well, amazing is a small word for such a place. I can't upload any photos from this computer, but it's a truly incredible thing that you can only see to comprehend the enormity of what was buried in that jungle for hundreds of years. We were there for the sunrise (along with a ton of other tourists), which was beautiful. We'd met another traveller, Randol, and the three of us spent the day together. Truly, a highlight of my trip so far. I'd only booked one day for Angkor Wat, though in retrospect I wish I'd had more (this is what happens when you take the advice of hostel owners in Bangkok ...). I'd love to go back someday and explore more of the temples (and more of Cambodia).
The next day, I hopped a plane to Ko Samui on the Thai peninsula. I had contemplated exploring more of Cambodia, but I was tired after the craziness of India, and needed a beach! The girl, Rachel, that I'd met in Bangkok and gone to Kanchanaburi with, met me on Ko Samui, and we beached together for the next week. Ko Samui was nice, but even on the quietest beach we could find, the roads were too built up for me. I liked the beach, but was glad to leave after 3 days.
We moved on to Ko Pha-ngan, the next island to the north. Some of you might know of Ko Pha-ngan as the home of the Full Moon Party (and more recently, the Half Moon Party, Black Moon Party, Shiva Party - are you getting the idea that any day of the lunar month is a good reason for a money-making party?). That wasn't why I went - not really my scene. I went because it's a bit wilder, a bit less built up than Ko Samui, and has nice beaches. It's certainly not off the backpacker trail, but not so overdeveloped yet. We stayed on the opposite side of the island (Haad Yao, for those of you who've been there), a nice long beach with good snorkeling. The bungalow concept in Thailand is fun - you can't book ahead, so you just go to the beach you want and wander up and down, looking at places until you find what you want for what you want to spend. We stayed in a pretty basic bungalow (wood plank floors, fan ony, no hot water) for 300 Baht/night (that's about $9, I think). Obviously, we splashed out. :)
I really enjoyed my time there. It was just what I needed to relax. And, another highlight of my trip, I learned to SCUBA dive! There was a dive shop on the beach, so I took a PADI open water course. What great fun. It'll be terrific to dive on the Great Barrier Reef next month, then Fiji in November. And it was also great to learn to dive in lovely warm water that's full of pretty fish - I'm a fan of bathtub-temperature beaches ...
After the PADI course, I had planned to go across the peninsula to Ko Phi-Phi, but having found "my" beach, I just didn't want to leave. That's the beauty of what I'm doing - if I don't want to go, I don't. So I didn't. Rachel left after fives days, and I just stayed in the bungalow (having to shell out the entire $9 for the room was quite a stretch). I laid on the beach for 4 more days, did another diving day, and just relaxed - what a luxury.
After Ko Pha-ngan, I made my way across to Phuket (ugh) for a fight back to Bangkok, and flew the next day to Beijing. After a long trip to the hostel from the airport (traffic in Beijing is pretty nasty), I checked in to a lovely little place called the Templeside Guesthouse. It's in a hutong (Chinese version of an alleyway, basically, but nice), and is a cute square building around a courtyard (a bit like the riads in Marrakech, but only one floor). I met some people that night and went out for duck (a must-do in Beijing).
The next day, I went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, which is really something - I'm really drawn to Chinese architecture, so I find myself continually looking up at buildings here. That afternoon, I met up with Patrick Lynch, the brother of my former boss at UCB. I'd met Patrick very briefly in the UK, and he lives in Beijing, teaching English at a university here. We went off to Beihai Park, a lovely park in central Beijing for a nice walk and a beer by the lake, followed by dinner at a traditional Chinese restaurant. It was a real treat to be here with a local - Patrick knows so much about the city, and it was great to spend time with him.
The next day was a bit of a housekeeping day (it's too tiring to do touristy stuff every day, and laundry needs doing and such). I went to an international medical clinic. You might recall that I ate some dodgy food in India; unfortunately, I picked up some sort of infectious something (I won't gore you with the details). A few prescriptions later, and I was set (and you'll all be glad to know, I'm sure, that the meds are having the desired effect). That night, I went to a Chinese acrobatics show - they're the students of the State Acrobats of China. It was amazing to see, though you wonder how good it really is for those kids to be doing some of the things they were doing.
The next day was another highlight, one of the highest, actually. The hostel organized Great Wall tours - there are several you can do in a day from Beijing, and I chose one that was a bit further away (read: less tourists), and original wall (not rebuilt), and a reasonable amount of up and down. We drove out to Jinshanlin, climbed up on to the wall, then walked, I think 20-30 tours, to Si Ma Tai. The whole thing was 9-10 km, and lots of up and down. Thousands of steps, I'm sure. I didn't count. Go look on the web to find some photos of the area - it's exactly what you picture in your head when you think of the Great Wall. The scenery was stunning, the Wall is amazing, and one of the best parts is that there weren't very many tourists there, so I have photos of just wall - no people! At the end, I took a zip line across a lake to get back tot he bus. What a fantastic, fantastic day. One of my very best so far.
Yesterday, I met Patrick again, and we went to the Lama Temple, the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside Tibet. Again, such beautiful buildings, and another really nice day with Patrick. Afterwards, we went for a terrific meal at one of Patrick's favorite vegetarian restaurants.
Today is my last full day in Beijing, and I'm off to visit the Summer Palace, if I can ever manage to finish this crazy email. I leave tomorrow for Xi'an, home of the Terracotta Army. I'm really looking forward to this - after thinking about it for about 2 minutes, it seemed crazy to come to China and not see the Terracotta Army. I'll do a quick 2-night trip, then back to Beijing to fly onward to Tokyo. I have a week in Tokyo/Kyoto, then I'm off to Sydney. It's all going by so fast!
Impressions? Southeast Asia was lovely, and such an easy place to travel. It feels a bit like a playground. The Thai people were very friendly, though the tourist industry is so built up that it's hard to get a feel for real Thai culture. That said, I really enjoyed it, and would love to come back and go overland through Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. And a different trip to Malaysia (I'm in trouble with the travel-bug, I think ...).
China is different - the tourist industry isn't big enough to separate tourists from locals, so you fend for yourself a bit. The people are friendly and accomodating, I find, though the language barrier is a problem sometimes; not many Chinese speak much English, and most of the signs are in Chinese. I really like it here, and wish I had more time. Unfortunately, I really want to have time for Australia and New Zealand, so I won't change my ticket. But I will definitely come back some day. There's so much more to see here.
One more note. Toilets again. :) My favorite experience (and I use the word "favorite" tongue-in-cheek) is peeing in a squat toilet on a ferry from Ko Pha-ngan in rough seas. It wasn't pretty ... :)
I hope this finds you all well, and that you've actually survived reading to the bottom of this email/novella. Please let me know how you're doing, and I'll try to be better next time about not waiting so long to send another email.
All the best,
Dina
Cambodia - Angkor Wat 1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24651&l=e0d10&id=620235943
Cambodia - Angkor Wat 2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24652&l=d9814&id=620235943
Thailand final - Thai Islands
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24688&l=8de18&id=620235943
Beijing set 1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24646&l=fc96c&id=620235943
Beijing - Great Wall of China
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24644&l=7f74b&id=620235943
Beijing final
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23620&l=59022&id=620235943
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