Claire and I have been able to do some pretty incredible things the past two months, but I do not think any of them can top the day we recently spent biking through Angkor Wat.
For the hefty price of $1 per day, we were able to rent bicycles that were most likely built between 1975 and 1980. With no gears and questionable breaking abilities, we biked the roughly 4 miles from the town of Siem Reap to Angkor Wat Archeological Park. Luckily the road was totally flat and we had at this point become accustomed to the chaotic nature of roads in southeast Asia, so we arrived without incident.
As we arrived in the park we came across the moat for Angkor Wat and then the temple itself. We had seen the temple the day before, but seeing it in this capacity in the early morning light was truly stunning.
The day before we had taken a tuk tuk through the park and though it may have been a bit more comfortable and quicker, being able to move at your own pace in the park was very refreshing. We were able to spend more time searching and exploring parts of the park we may have just gone right by in a tuk tuk.
In one day we saw Angkor Wat, most of Angkor Tom, Tom Prohm and Srah Srang. This may not seem like a lot but this park is big! The one temple, Angkor Wat, is just one small part of it. I did not really know this until we arrived and did not really understand until we explored it on bike.
The only downfall of the bikes, it was hot! Siem Reap is probably the hottest place we have been so far on our travels and being out in the sun is bad enough, but even worse when you are on a big expending energy in that same heat.
Though was it worth it? Absolutely! When we got back we estimated we rode about 20miles that day. We were sweaty, dehydrated (despite all efforts to remain hydrated), dirty and exhausted. Though I would do it all again in a heartbeat and would recommend that everyone go to Siem Reap and everyone do Angkor Wat via bike!
Friday, November 30, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
The Land of Smiles
Hello All! It has been a while so I will do my best to fill you in :) I am sitting in our guesthouse called Two Dragons in Siem Reap,Cambodia drinking a 50 cent beer. Not a bad way to start the night.
We arrived in Bangkok on Nov. 14th, after a 20 hour journey from Budapest. Bangkok is an amazing city-loud, dirty, full of people, sky scrapers next to run down shacks-over stimulating to say the least. But Thailand is known as the "Land of Smiles" and it lived up to that title from the beginning. Our first interaction with a Thai person was the security guard at the skytrain. He asked us where we were going, gave us directions, maps,and then brought us to the ticket machine where he did the whole process for us. Amazing! We stayed in an area pretty far away from the touristy area in Bangkok, which was awesome. A large river runs through Bangkok,so the main way to get around is the water taxis. Fun and very efficiant to take you around the city. Our first night we walked from our lodgings to find the boat, and ended up going down a very busy market street, filled with food stalls EVERYWHERE, people, stray dogs, cars,motor bikes, regular bikes, and more people. But as I said, everyone is so friendly that while we stuck out, we were greeted with smiles and laughter.
It's funny being here as compared to Europe, where many people expect you to know their language and are a bit stuck up if you don't. While in Thailand the attitude is more "You don't know my language? That is hilarious, let's laugh about it as we try and communicate with each other". Much more fun...
So we spent 4 days in Bangkok, feasting on delicious food and cheap beer, seeing temples, and going to markets. The Flower Market was my favorite, 20 acres on streets filled with flowers literally everywhere. Every hotel, restaurant, and offering is bought there.
We then ditched the city and went to Ko Somet, an island about 4 hours from Bangkok. A nice compromise to the 18 hour bus to the far South. The first two night we were in a more touristy area (looking for a hotel with 30 lb backpacks at noon makes you settle a lot quicker than usual) but then went farther down to beach to find our tropical, jungle, paradise. Small bungalows with a bed on the floor and a mosquito net, beautiful beach with no motor boats, and to top it off three puppies that "belonged" to the owner ran around wanting to play the whole time.We relaxed to the extreme and joked about spending the next 3 weeks there.
After 5 days in beach mode it was time togo back to Bangkok for the night. We went to Ko San Road this time, the backpackers haven, which had trippled in the number of people there. But we found a cheap guesthouse and celebrated Thanksgiving with Pad Thai, Spring Rolls, and chicken wings. And of course, more Change.
We left for our long journey to Cambodia the next day. Rode by mini bus which was long, sweaty, and full of scams. We read warnings of it online, but decided to go for it anyway since we already had tickets. At every turn people were trying to squeeze more money out of us. The final straw was the end of the night (3 hours after we were supposed to arrive) when the bus stopped in a random parking lot with tuck-tucks waiting for us, saying they would take us to our hotel now (they were "free" with the acception that you pay the same driver to drive you around the temples the next day). Tired of being scammed, everyone of our bus refused to get off the bus until we got more answers. We we finally got off, Pat and I demanded that our driver would take us to a hotel and, no we would NOT be using them the next day. All in all, we arrived safe, 12 hours later. We woke up late the next day, switched hotels after finding bugs, and then made our way to Angkor Wat to see temples so amazing it is hard to describe...
But I will describe them later, after we see more`! We got the 3 day pass since the area is so huge.
So, Thailand is incredible, I cannot wait to go back in a few weeks (going to see the North). The people are wonderful and there are so many amazing things to do and see. First impressions of Cambodia are also great. Definitely different than Thailand, much less developed, but the past two days have been great.
Off to dinner, love and miss you all. More on Cambodia later : )
We arrived in Bangkok on Nov. 14th, after a 20 hour journey from Budapest. Bangkok is an amazing city-loud, dirty, full of people, sky scrapers next to run down shacks-over stimulating to say the least. But Thailand is known as the "Land of Smiles" and it lived up to that title from the beginning. Our first interaction with a Thai person was the security guard at the skytrain. He asked us where we were going, gave us directions, maps,and then brought us to the ticket machine where he did the whole process for us. Amazing! We stayed in an area pretty far away from the touristy area in Bangkok, which was awesome. A large river runs through Bangkok,so the main way to get around is the water taxis. Fun and very efficiant to take you around the city. Our first night we walked from our lodgings to find the boat, and ended up going down a very busy market street, filled with food stalls EVERYWHERE, people, stray dogs, cars,motor bikes, regular bikes, and more people. But as I said, everyone is so friendly that while we stuck out, we were greeted with smiles and laughter.
It's funny being here as compared to Europe, where many people expect you to know their language and are a bit stuck up if you don't. While in Thailand the attitude is more "You don't know my language? That is hilarious, let's laugh about it as we try and communicate with each other". Much more fun...
So we spent 4 days in Bangkok, feasting on delicious food and cheap beer, seeing temples, and going to markets. The Flower Market was my favorite, 20 acres on streets filled with flowers literally everywhere. Every hotel, restaurant, and offering is bought there.
We then ditched the city and went to Ko Somet, an island about 4 hours from Bangkok. A nice compromise to the 18 hour bus to the far South. The first two night we were in a more touristy area (looking for a hotel with 30 lb backpacks at noon makes you settle a lot quicker than usual) but then went farther down to beach to find our tropical, jungle, paradise. Small bungalows with a bed on the floor and a mosquito net, beautiful beach with no motor boats, and to top it off three puppies that "belonged" to the owner ran around wanting to play the whole time.We relaxed to the extreme and joked about spending the next 3 weeks there.
After 5 days in beach mode it was time togo back to Bangkok for the night. We went to Ko San Road this time, the backpackers haven, which had trippled in the number of people there. But we found a cheap guesthouse and celebrated Thanksgiving with Pad Thai, Spring Rolls, and chicken wings. And of course, more Change.
We left for our long journey to Cambodia the next day. Rode by mini bus which was long, sweaty, and full of scams. We read warnings of it online, but decided to go for it anyway since we already had tickets. At every turn people were trying to squeeze more money out of us. The final straw was the end of the night (3 hours after we were supposed to arrive) when the bus stopped in a random parking lot with tuck-tucks waiting for us, saying they would take us to our hotel now (they were "free" with the acception that you pay the same driver to drive you around the temples the next day). Tired of being scammed, everyone of our bus refused to get off the bus until we got more answers. We we finally got off, Pat and I demanded that our driver would take us to a hotel and, no we would NOT be using them the next day. All in all, we arrived safe, 12 hours later. We woke up late the next day, switched hotels after finding bugs, and then made our way to Angkor Wat to see temples so amazing it is hard to describe...
But I will describe them later, after we see more`! We got the 3 day pass since the area is so huge.
So, Thailand is incredible, I cannot wait to go back in a few weeks (going to see the North). The people are wonderful and there are so many amazing things to do and see. First impressions of Cambodia are also great. Definitely different than Thailand, much less developed, but the past two days have been great.
Off to dinner, love and miss you all. More on Cambodia later : )
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Bunk beds, spritzs, and night trains
Hello from Vienna! Here us a summary of what we've been doing for the 10 days...
Cinque Terre, Italy:
-arrived here after Genoa to find closed hiking trails and some serious rain and wind. To top it off, our room was half the size of a dorm room and equipped with bunk beds and one small window looking into an alley! As the waves were furosiously crashing at the coast we explored the one block town and then quickly found the bar with free wifi and snacks, to which we became regulars on day one.
-on day two we took the train to the town over, trying to ignore the cold rain. We then decided we were cold and the town was eerily similar to our town, so we retreated back to our bar for some red wine and soccer.
-day three: SUN!! We woke up to find sun and a calm sea. Trails were still closed, but we town hopped by train and packed as much as possible into our last day.
Important lesson learned: get a room with somewhere to sit : )
Venice:
Beautiful, magical, unlike anywhere I have ever been. I will never forget stepping off the train and feeling like I just went back on time. I felt like I was visiting one of this colonial towns where they act out how it was back then...but it was real! Every 30 min one of us would comment on how old everything was. We arrived to rain here too, so we got to experience "agua alta" aka when Venice floods. But this is a typical thing there, so everyone just puts on their rain boots and goes about their day.
We spent the days wandering through the tiny winding streets, following signs pointing us in the direction to the important areas ( Rialto bridge, Sam Marcos square, etc). Anytime we felt lost we would just "follow the shwag", as every touristy area was filled with stall upon stall of crap to buy. But we were able to go off the beaten path, finding small cafes and bars where we drank "spritzs" (white wine, aperol, and seltzer) since Bellinis were 15 euro.
Saint marks basilica was one of the most amazing things I've seen as of yet. So giant, made of patterned marble, with mosaics covering the interior; awe inspiring at the least.
We journeyed on the 4th to Vienna by an 11 hour night train. We didn't get a sleeper car so it wasn't the most comfortable ride, but we survived. We decided its worth it to either spring for the sleeper car or find friends who want to make a giant bed out of the fold down seats with you-either would work great!
And now we are on day two in Vienna. Already loving it and thinking four days won't be nearly enough. It is a clean, beautiful, old but very modern city. I plan on eating sausage and cake for the next 3 days : ). Off to a Mozart concert tonight, will report more later.
Cinque Terre, Italy:
-arrived here after Genoa to find closed hiking trails and some serious rain and wind. To top it off, our room was half the size of a dorm room and equipped with bunk beds and one small window looking into an alley! As the waves were furosiously crashing at the coast we explored the one block town and then quickly found the bar with free wifi and snacks, to which we became regulars on day one.
-on day two we took the train to the town over, trying to ignore the cold rain. We then decided we were cold and the town was eerily similar to our town, so we retreated back to our bar for some red wine and soccer.
-day three: SUN!! We woke up to find sun and a calm sea. Trails were still closed, but we town hopped by train and packed as much as possible into our last day.
Important lesson learned: get a room with somewhere to sit : )
Venice:
Beautiful, magical, unlike anywhere I have ever been. I will never forget stepping off the train and feeling like I just went back on time. I felt like I was visiting one of this colonial towns where they act out how it was back then...but it was real! Every 30 min one of us would comment on how old everything was. We arrived to rain here too, so we got to experience "agua alta" aka when Venice floods. But this is a typical thing there, so everyone just puts on their rain boots and goes about their day.
We spent the days wandering through the tiny winding streets, following signs pointing us in the direction to the important areas ( Rialto bridge, Sam Marcos square, etc). Anytime we felt lost we would just "follow the shwag", as every touristy area was filled with stall upon stall of crap to buy. But we were able to go off the beaten path, finding small cafes and bars where we drank "spritzs" (white wine, aperol, and seltzer) since Bellinis were 15 euro.
Saint marks basilica was one of the most amazing things I've seen as of yet. So giant, made of patterned marble, with mosaics covering the interior; awe inspiring at the least.
We journeyed on the 4th to Vienna by an 11 hour night train. We didn't get a sleeper car so it wasn't the most comfortable ride, but we survived. We decided its worth it to either spring for the sleeper car or find friends who want to make a giant bed out of the fold down seats with you-either would work great!
And now we are on day two in Vienna. Already loving it and thinking four days won't be nearly enough. It is a clean, beautiful, old but very modern city. I plan on eating sausage and cake for the next 3 days : ). Off to a Mozart concert tonight, will report more later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)