This is what we got up to when you lovely folks were opening up your Christmas pressies!
Merry Christmas
x
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Jingle bells and temples
After a really nice six hour bus ride from Phnom Penh we arrived into Siem Reap. The last part of our trip that was vaguely planned in advance, accommodation was sorted and they sent a tuk-tuk to pick us up. The Driver was ‘Soun’.
It quickly became apparent that Cambodia is a fairly expensive country to travel in. At least in comparison to Thailand and certainly on a six month trip budget! For a holiday though it would be fair and I guess we only visited the super touristy spots. They use the dollar more than their own currency of Riel.
Because of budget issues here we headed straight for the street food, which in Bangkok we were really enjoying (more on that in a later post to follow...squeak....). Here we paid between $1 and $2.50 for a main meal each, which was much better than the expensive restaurants. Siem Reap is a very new town on the backpacker trail. Their main strip “pub street” opened its first pub in 1998, before then it was just a dusty road with electricity only a few hours a day. At the end of pub street is a corner covered in street food stalls and this became our spot for dinners. Over three nights we tried three different places and on the third night I managed to convince Ed that it was nearly our last night in Cambodia and so we should make the most of the Cambodian food so we ordered a feast of dishes all at $1 each and tucked in!
Apsaras at Angkor Wat
Victory Gate at Angkor Thom
Messing about at Angkor Thom
Monks at Angkor Wat
Getting excited about a romantic sunset
ah, somewhat less romantic...with 100s of other tourists!
Sunset reflected in Ed's Xmas pressie
Angkor Phrom
2nd favourite temple
Christmas Eve Feast!
It quickly became apparent that Cambodia is a fairly expensive country to travel in. At least in comparison to Thailand and certainly on a six month trip budget! For a holiday though it would be fair and I guess we only visited the super touristy spots. They use the dollar more than their own currency of Riel.
Because of budget issues here we headed straight for the street food, which in Bangkok we were really enjoying (more on that in a later post to follow...squeak....). Here we paid between $1 and $2.50 for a main meal each, which was much better than the expensive restaurants. Siem Reap is a very new town on the backpacker trail. Their main strip “pub street” opened its first pub in 1998, before then it was just a dusty road with electricity only a few hours a day. At the end of pub street is a corner covered in street food stalls and this became our spot for dinners. Over three nights we tried three different places and on the third night I managed to convince Ed that it was nearly our last night in Cambodia and so we should make the most of the Cambodian food so we ordered a feast of dishes all at $1 each and tucked in!
Apsaras at Angkor Wat
Victory Gate at Angkor Thom
Messing about at Angkor ThomNeedless to say the reason we were visiting Siem Reap was to indulge my love of temples! We bought a three day pass to Angkor Wat temples (Wedding gift No3. Thanks to the lovely Lucy and Dacey!) Day one we got a guide ‘Joe’ and he took us all around Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and we went to the top of a mountain to watch sunset. It sounds romantic but when you are surrounded by 100s of fellow travellers, not quite what we were anticipating! In fact I uttered the phrase to Ed that I didn’t think travelling does broaden the mind, i’m beginning to think in fact that it makes you racist! Let’s just say there are a couple of nationalities that are beginning to grate on us!
The second day we just went with our Tuk Tuk driver Soun, and visited seven temples in all, i’m afraid now they are somewhat one in memory but the photos will help! The third day was Christmas Day and we hired bikes and did Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom again, at our own pace and LOVED it.
Christmas eve we enjoyed a few cocktails and beers, some fabulous frozen margheritas were had, and then had our feast at the street stall. Along Pub street they have ridiculous discounts on beer so we stopped into a bar for a nightcap. We ended up chatting to the gent next to us, Frederic, a French-Canadian who volunteers at the local children’s hospital every year for a few months and has been doing this for ten years. He was a psychologist and we had some very interesting chats with him. He was a lovely man, he sponsors a couple of young men allowing them to get to go to University. A very nice man that taught us a lot in the few hours we spent with him. Before we knew it, it was midnight and Christmas Day so we toasted each other and headed back to the hotel.
The second day we just went with our Tuk Tuk driver Soun, and visited seven temples in all, i’m afraid now they are somewhat one in memory but the photos will help! The third day was Christmas Day and we hired bikes and did Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom again, at our own pace and LOVED it.
Christmas eve we enjoyed a few cocktails and beers, some fabulous frozen margheritas were had, and then had our feast at the street stall. Along Pub street they have ridiculous discounts on beer so we stopped into a bar for a nightcap. We ended up chatting to the gent next to us, Frederic, a French-Canadian who volunteers at the local children’s hospital every year for a few months and has been doing this for ten years. He was a psychologist and we had some very interesting chats with him. He was a lovely man, he sponsors a couple of young men allowing them to get to go to University. A very nice man that taught us a lot in the few hours we spent with him. Before we knew it, it was midnight and Christmas Day so we toasted each other and headed back to the hotel.
Monks at Angkor Wat
Getting excited about a romantic sunset
ah, somewhat less romantic...with 100s of other tourists!
Sunset reflected in Ed's Xmas pressie
Angkor Phrom
2nd favourite temple
Christmas Eve Feast!Phnom Penh
We jumped on a plane to Phnom Penh from Bangkok and stayed there three nights.
Arriving at our booked hotel they had no record of our reservation. I wasn’t worried as i’d seen there were rooms available, we took a seat and waited to find out more. It turns out though the Owner had discovered we were on our Honeymoon and upgraded us to his “quieter more relaxed” sister hotel.
It was really lovely, we’d gone for a small room with shared bathroom at the original hotel and now we had a huge bedroom with our own bathroom, there was a really nice communal lounge and outside area and the food was AMAZING.
We were very lucky and very happy.
Ed looking pretty chuffed about the upgrade!
Over the next few days we spent time learning about the Khmer Rouge, we visited the S21- a former school turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge’s power (1975-1979). It was very moving, because it is such recent history everyone here has been touched by it, it affected every family here in some way or other. Big thanks to Lucy for lending us her book, it made so much difference and allowed us to have a much better understanding of what happened, thanks chica!
The following day we went off to the Killing Fields where they took the Cambodian’s after torturing them at the prison to kill them. It was pretty grim. Each rainy season fills the pits up with water and the buried rise, so slowly over the last 30 odd years more bones and things are rising up. We had to step over some teeth and a bone. It was a pretty hard place to take in, it all seems too surrel.
It’s also pretty real to us as they were killing any educated person, so if we had been around in that time it would definitely have affected people we know. We didn’t take cameras with us to these sites so our pics of Phnom Penh are not many.
On a lighter note, the food in Cambodia is AWESOME. For me it beats Thailand. Current faves are Amok, which is a lemongrass flavoured curry, between us we tried it three times, each time the flavours were the same but the consistency was different. The first time it had a thick curry like sauce, the second was a drier version and the third was meat in a much more liquidy sauce. Anyhow, it was bloody gorgeous and we shall endeavour to learn it on our return. Other goodies were Ngoam, which were crispy noodles with a coleslaw like salad on the top with a yummy Tamarind dressing and when we hit Siem Reap we tried Lok Lak which was beef in a great sauce, similar taste to a black bean sauce. The flavours in Cambodian food seem very clean and you can really taste the different flavours, lots of lemongrass, ginger, lime...lush lush lush!
The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh
The view from the FCC in PP over the Mekong and Tonle Sap
Royal Palace
Arriving at our booked hotel they had no record of our reservation. I wasn’t worried as i’d seen there were rooms available, we took a seat and waited to find out more. It turns out though the Owner had discovered we were on our Honeymoon and upgraded us to his “quieter more relaxed” sister hotel.
It was really lovely, we’d gone for a small room with shared bathroom at the original hotel and now we had a huge bedroom with our own bathroom, there was a really nice communal lounge and outside area and the food was AMAZING.
We were very lucky and very happy.
Ed looking pretty chuffed about the upgrade!
Over the next few days we spent time learning about the Khmer Rouge, we visited the S21- a former school turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge’s power (1975-1979). It was very moving, because it is such recent history everyone here has been touched by it, it affected every family here in some way or other. Big thanks to Lucy for lending us her book, it made so much difference and allowed us to have a much better understanding of what happened, thanks chica!
The following day we went off to the Killing Fields where they took the Cambodian’s after torturing them at the prison to kill them. It was pretty grim. Each rainy season fills the pits up with water and the buried rise, so slowly over the last 30 odd years more bones and things are rising up. We had to step over some teeth and a bone. It was a pretty hard place to take in, it all seems too surrel.
It’s also pretty real to us as they were killing any educated person, so if we had been around in that time it would definitely have affected people we know. We didn’t take cameras with us to these sites so our pics of Phnom Penh are not many.
On a lighter note, the food in Cambodia is AWESOME. For me it beats Thailand. Current faves are Amok, which is a lemongrass flavoured curry, between us we tried it three times, each time the flavours were the same but the consistency was different. The first time it had a thick curry like sauce, the second was a drier version and the third was meat in a much more liquidy sauce. Anyhow, it was bloody gorgeous and we shall endeavour to learn it on our return. Other goodies were Ngoam, which were crispy noodles with a coleslaw like salad on the top with a yummy Tamarind dressing and when we hit Siem Reap we tried Lok Lak which was beef in a great sauce, similar taste to a black bean sauce. The flavours in Cambodian food seem very clean and you can really taste the different flavours, lots of lemongrass, ginger, lime...lush lush lush!
The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh
The view from the FCC in PP over the Mekong and Tonle Sap
Royal Palace
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
The Honeymoon Begins
We've now officially been on honeymoon for one week. It has been amazing! We've seen a handful of temples already, I've got excited about the monks and the food and Chatuchak market while Ed has rolled his eyes at my constant exclamations of delight over said food (Cambodian is currently beating Thai) and laughed at the number of items at the locals market i tried on and failed to fit into. Even post wedding diet nothing fit, these Thai's are SUPER tiny!
Starting the honeymoon in style with a quick glass of bubbles and dinner at Chez Gerard, no less!
Honeymoon budget kicks in about 12 hours after this pic was taken so we made the most of "having" money. Also made the most by buying two rather lovely pairs of fabulous sunglasses. They are our Xmas pressies to each other!
We arrived happy and tired in Bangkok and headed straight to our hotel in the business district. We treated ourselves with the help of our lovely friend Paul (Wedding gift number one; tick), the room was huge and the rooftop pool was great. It was lovely to acclimitise in a nice hotel. The first night, we decided to treat ourselves to room service, it seemed a shame to waste the robes in the wardrobe and we certainly won't be able to do it much in the next six months. I ordered Phad Thai and Ed ordered something that said it was sauteed noodles. When it came i delved right into mine, lush it was! While Ed turned his nose up at his and decided his plate's contents looked like the scene in Harry Potter when Ron sicks up slugs! He tucked into his cookies saved from the plane instead!
In the mania of getting married and packing up our flat, packing clothes for the trip wasn't really a priority so I soon realised the only long items I had packed were my jeans. There's no way i could walk around temples in jeans so we headed off to the shopping district on the skytrain to find some trousers.
There's definitely a dress code in Bangkok, denim shorts and vests for the newbies and anyone that looks to have been here any longer than a week appears to live in pirate trousers (TM Lucy and Dacey). Big baggy trousers, often with crotches hanging very low so they almost appear to be skirts. If i'm honest I'm quite taken with them but Ed is not! So i managed to find a pair of less piratey trousers to don for the temple going.
Two nights in the fancy hotel and then it was time to get travelling.
We checked in to our second hotel of the trip near to the uber touristy area of Khao San Road. It was funny getting the taxi to the new area, up in Sukhumvit it was all business travellers and a couple of well to do families, now as we approached Khao San Road there were swarms and swarms of tourists.
Luckily after someone at work recommended a hostel to me we were off the main strip near Rum Bhuttri, hostel was clean and cool and really close to some awesome little restaurants.
My favourite temple of the week so far has to be the Wat Pho to see the Reclining Buddha, I got very emotional when i saw it as it has been somewhere I've wanted to visit for ages. Unfortunately the pics from that day are on our big camera and I havent brought the lead to hook up to computer, sorry!
The following day saw us visit the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha, bit of a con really as he is Jade but still, pretty impressive. Where the previous day we had enjoyed Wat Pho quietly, The Grand Palace had teems and teems of Japanese coach trippers so it took some of the impact away due to the volume of people there.
A very happy Sarah at The Grand Palace, Site of the Emerald Buddha. (NB I'm already allowed to wear my Christmas Present!)
Note the sign reads "Keep Off the Grass"
After a sucessful and fun morning at the Chatuchak Market we decided to head off for Wedding Gift No2. Thai Kick Boxing. We'd tried to go the previous night but the taxi and tuk tuk drivers weren't keen on the distance etc so we gave up, opting to go on our own the following night.
Ed had checked the location on the map and as we were near the SkyTrain for the Market it was easy enough to jump back on it to get to the stadium.
Once off the train we walked... and walked... and walked! We found a fab park which, being a Saturday was full of locals, it was really nice to step back from all the hustle and bustle of the Khao San area.
We knew the stadium was near the park so each time we saw a half swanky looking building we approached it only to find it was not the stadium, across a busy road and past a metro station we still hadnt found it, eventually we came to some shops selling Boxing shorts and we knew we must be close. Just round the corner was the stadium, a run down looking building with corrugagted roof, hilarious! We grabbed some tickets thanks to our wonderful friends Marg and Mike (Wedding Gift No2; tick) and headed back to the park to grab a seat and relax.
Chilling out in the park after an epic journey to the stadium.
Five-thirty rolled round and we headed back to the stadium for our seats, we'd paid quite a lot of money so hoped they would be good. And bloody good they were too! Front row and i was on the end so we were right next to the coach and family of the 'Blue boxer'. Thai boxing begins with a sort of prayer where the boxers do a ritualistic dance around the 'ring'. (Do you call them rings? Ours was Square?) it soon became apparant that we could - 99% of the time - correctly guess who was going to win based on their prep dance. You could see who was more focused, who was sussing out the audience and who was pretty scared. Our boxers wore red or blue and as we were in the blue corner that was who we supported although we did always try and guess at the beginning who would win. They play five rounds of three minutes, scoring each round and winner is the guy with the most points. Luckily there was only one Knock Out, stretchered off.
It was good fun. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, I was worried we'd get covered in sweat and blood but wasnt the case!
Front row seats for Thai Boxing
Sign, just in case I was tempted to join in
A mountain of Phad Thai from a street stall, 80pence, AKA a very content Sarah
Starting the honeymoon in style with a quick glass of bubbles and dinner at Chez Gerard, no less!
Honeymoon budget kicks in about 12 hours after this pic was taken so we made the most of "having" money. Also made the most by buying two rather lovely pairs of fabulous sunglasses. They are our Xmas pressies to each other!
We arrived happy and tired in Bangkok and headed straight to our hotel in the business district. We treated ourselves with the help of our lovely friend Paul (Wedding gift number one; tick), the room was huge and the rooftop pool was great. It was lovely to acclimitise in a nice hotel. The first night, we decided to treat ourselves to room service, it seemed a shame to waste the robes in the wardrobe and we certainly won't be able to do it much in the next six months. I ordered Phad Thai and Ed ordered something that said it was sauteed noodles. When it came i delved right into mine, lush it was! While Ed turned his nose up at his and decided his plate's contents looked like the scene in Harry Potter when Ron sicks up slugs! He tucked into his cookies saved from the plane instead!
In the mania of getting married and packing up our flat, packing clothes for the trip wasn't really a priority so I soon realised the only long items I had packed were my jeans. There's no way i could walk around temples in jeans so we headed off to the shopping district on the skytrain to find some trousers.
There's definitely a dress code in Bangkok, denim shorts and vests for the newbies and anyone that looks to have been here any longer than a week appears to live in pirate trousers (TM Lucy and Dacey). Big baggy trousers, often with crotches hanging very low so they almost appear to be skirts. If i'm honest I'm quite taken with them but Ed is not! So i managed to find a pair of less piratey trousers to don for the temple going.
Two nights in the fancy hotel and then it was time to get travelling.
We checked in to our second hotel of the trip near to the uber touristy area of Khao San Road. It was funny getting the taxi to the new area, up in Sukhumvit it was all business travellers and a couple of well to do families, now as we approached Khao San Road there were swarms and swarms of tourists.
Luckily after someone at work recommended a hostel to me we were off the main strip near Rum Bhuttri, hostel was clean and cool and really close to some awesome little restaurants.
My favourite temple of the week so far has to be the Wat Pho to see the Reclining Buddha, I got very emotional when i saw it as it has been somewhere I've wanted to visit for ages. Unfortunately the pics from that day are on our big camera and I havent brought the lead to hook up to computer, sorry!
The following day saw us visit the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha, bit of a con really as he is Jade but still, pretty impressive. Where the previous day we had enjoyed Wat Pho quietly, The Grand Palace had teems and teems of Japanese coach trippers so it took some of the impact away due to the volume of people there.
A very happy Sarah at The Grand Palace, Site of the Emerald Buddha. (NB I'm already allowed to wear my Christmas Present!)
Note the sign reads "Keep Off the Grass"After a sucessful and fun morning at the Chatuchak Market we decided to head off for Wedding Gift No2. Thai Kick Boxing. We'd tried to go the previous night but the taxi and tuk tuk drivers weren't keen on the distance etc so we gave up, opting to go on our own the following night.
Ed had checked the location on the map and as we were near the SkyTrain for the Market it was easy enough to jump back on it to get to the stadium.
Once off the train we walked... and walked... and walked! We found a fab park which, being a Saturday was full of locals, it was really nice to step back from all the hustle and bustle of the Khao San area.
We knew the stadium was near the park so each time we saw a half swanky looking building we approached it only to find it was not the stadium, across a busy road and past a metro station we still hadnt found it, eventually we came to some shops selling Boxing shorts and we knew we must be close. Just round the corner was the stadium, a run down looking building with corrugagted roof, hilarious! We grabbed some tickets thanks to our wonderful friends Marg and Mike (Wedding Gift No2; tick) and headed back to the park to grab a seat and relax.
Chilling out in the park after an epic journey to the stadium. Five-thirty rolled round and we headed back to the stadium for our seats, we'd paid quite a lot of money so hoped they would be good. And bloody good they were too! Front row and i was on the end so we were right next to the coach and family of the 'Blue boxer'. Thai boxing begins with a sort of prayer where the boxers do a ritualistic dance around the 'ring'. (Do you call them rings? Ours was Square?) it soon became apparant that we could - 99% of the time - correctly guess who was going to win based on their prep dance. You could see who was more focused, who was sussing out the audience and who was pretty scared. Our boxers wore red or blue and as we were in the blue corner that was who we supported although we did always try and guess at the beginning who would win. They play five rounds of three minutes, scoring each round and winner is the guy with the most points. Luckily there was only one Knock Out, stretchered off.
It was good fun. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, I was worried we'd get covered in sweat and blood but wasnt the case!
Front row seats for Thai Boxing
Sign, just in case I was tempted to join in
A mountain of Phad Thai from a street stall, 80pence, AKA a very content SarahNext stop Phnom Penh, Cambodia.....
Sunday, 21 November 2010
The Big Day
So, if you've found this blog you are probably one of our wonderful family or friends who came to join us on the 6th at Kingston.
We had THE best day of our lives. Everything went fairly to plan, minus the amp blowing up and the speeches running a 'little' over time! The weather held out for us and it was sunny enough to dash off to Corfe Castle for some wedding pix as newly weds.
Thank you so much for coming, having all our important people there meant the world to us.
We had a wonderful few days in the New Forest after the wedding, utterly relaxing and ate loads of amazing food!
I've packed up work for the moment and we are sorting out the flat and getting ready for our fabulous honeymoon. We are excited beyond words although it still doesn't feel very real.
Check back soon for tales of our adventures!
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