Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Cambodia

Kathryn and I are currently in Phnom Penn, Cambodia.  Kathryn leaves today to fly to Bangkok for a day before she heads home, and I am leaving in the morning for the northeastern part of the country via bus.  On our way to Cambodia from Thailand we didn't stay in Bangkok for more than 10 minutes because I wasnt feeling great and we didnt feel like carrying our backpacks around the crowded city for a day.  So, from KPP we took a ferry to Krabi, a shuttle to the bus station, then an overnight bus to Bangkok.  From there we took another bus to the border and then went onto Siem Reap, total travel time: 30 hours.

Me, at Banteay Kdei (one of the temples outside the Angkor Wat complex)

We spent five nights in Siem Reap, and were lucky to find an awesome guesthouse there.  We stayed at the Prince Mekong Villas, owned by a great Swiss guy named Eric.  It included free breakfast, laundry, and bicycles which we took advantage of.  We decided to do the three day pass for Ankor Wat and biked around the ruins there.  I think cycling is the best way to see the majority of the temples, it get's expensive to take tuk tuks (moto taxis) and the temples are too spread out to walk (we were biking between 40-50km per day).  There is a great map of the temples here.  We also rented motorcycles in Ko Lanta and Phnom Penn which was great because it gives you the freedom to go where you want and you dont have to rely on the bus - as long as you dont mind driving on the dirt roads :)

Cute picture of Kathryn and I at Ta Prohm, too bad the photographer didn't get the whole temple : /


We also visited a silk farm and factory just outside the city which was very interesting.  I shared a room with a silk artist at the Emerson Winter Market and already knew a little bit about the process but it was cool to see each step of the process and finally the finished products.

We've been in Phnom Penn for two nights, and have been enjoying a few days relaxing before hitting the road agian.  We are staying at the Top Banana Guesthouse and they have great food!

Sunset on the way back into Phnom Penn on our moto

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Island Hopping

Kathryn and I have been travelling for about one week now, and we are having a great time!  We flew from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last Sunday.  Our flight wasn't bad, and I didnt run into any problems leaving Taiwan, although I did have to pay a fine for overstaying my 30 day visa.  We decided that we were tired of the big cities and so we didn't stay in KL.  Instead we took the train to Butterworth (in Malaysia) were we continued onto the island of Pinang by ferry.  It was a long journey, we were travelling for about 24 hours (Taipei-Pinang) but it was definitely worth it!

Waiting for the ferry in Malaysia


The island was beautiful, and there were not many tourists there.  We stayed in a nice little hotel that cost about $3.50 a night each. :)  We also had a somewhat scary encounter with the monkeys in the national park.  It was our last day and we decided it would be fun to do some hiking in the jungle there.  We had a great day until we got to the last trail of the day heading towards monkey beach.  I've had a lot of experience with monkeys in South America and up until this point considered them pretty harmless although they can be quite mischievous.  Kathryn didn't get a chance to hike monkey mountain while she was visiting us in Kaohsiung so she was anxious to see some wildlife as well.

We were walking down the trail when we heard the tell tale sound of monkeys in the trees and saw one right above us.  Before we could even think of getting out our cameras it came right down to the ground (very unusual for wild monkeys) and sat on a rock about 2 feet away starting at us.  I was a little confused (and concerned) by it's behavior but was completely shocked when it jumped onto my backpack and literally started hissing at me and showing it's teeth!  We both pretty much freaked out at this point and I started screaming at the money (in an attempt to scare it) while Kathryn looked around (unsuccessfully) for a stick or some other object to scare it away.  I dropped my backpack (camera, money, and everything else inside) while the monkey actually tried to drag it away into the jungle!  Luckily my bag was too heavy for the monkey to run off with it but anytime I approached the either the monkey or the bag it hissed at me like it was going to attack us.

Kathryn managed to find a granola bar in her bag and hoping to distract the monkey I took it, which didnt really work because it practically grabbed the bar out of my hand before I got a chance to throw it far enough away.  Even with the food in hand it continued to defend its place in between me and the backpack.  Finally it retreated into a tree above my bag to eat the bar and I managed to grab my backpack and we literally ran as fast as we could all the way back down the trail to the entrance of the park.  To say the least, we are avoiding all trails or attractions involving monkeys for the rest of our trip.

Our trip has been pleasantly uneventful since then, and we crossed the border to Thailand on Wednesday.  We made our way to the coast where we took a ferry from Trang to Ko Lanta where we are currently staying.  Right now we are on the Andaman Coast, which is the western coast of Thailand.  Ko Lanta has a more relaxed reputation compared to some of the more developed islands.  It is one of the largest islands and we practically have the whole place to ourselves because it is low season here and many tourists avoid the islands because of the occasional rain.  The weather hasnt been bad, except for the occasional shower and we are enjoying the discounted prices due to the lack of tourists.  Our beachfront bungalow is costing us $4 per night each (and we are staying at one of the more expensive resorts on the island).

The boats between islands aren't running regularly, but we ran into a couple on their honeymoon at the dock who is heading to Ko Phi Phi tomorrow so we are going to try to negotiate with one of the longboat drivers to take the four of us there.  If there aren't any boats we will have to go to Krabi (on the mainland) and then take a ferry from there to Ko Phi Phi.  The beaches on Ko Phi Phi are often referred to as the most beautiful beaches in the world so we are really excited! We have a Thai cooking class at our hotel in a little bit, and I cant wait to learn how to make Thai food at home :)

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Pictures from Taiwan

We are leaving for Malaysia today but I wanted to post a link to my pictures from Taiwan before we left. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish editing the captions, but I hope to update them while traveling :)

I had a great last day in Kaohsiung, Kathryn and I spent the day at the beach and then a friend of ours had a birthday party so I got to see pretty much everyone I knew before I left.  Now we are off to the airport in Taipei!

Enjoy!



One of my morning classes.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Kathryn Comes to Visit

Kathryn is arriving today and I'm really excited!  We'll be traveling together for about a month and then I will have two more weeks to travel alone.  Im actually sad to be leaving Taiwan.  I have really enjoyed my time here teaching and living in the city.  This weekend should be really fun, we bought tickets to a pool party on Saturday at one of the hotels in Kaohsiung so we will all be celebrating the 4th of July!

I have been interviewing at schools here for next year and also sending out applications in the Boston area so it has been a very busy week.  Today was the last day of the semester for the after school programs and their summer program begins next week.  Summer camp here is basically like summer school for them, but at least our classrooms have air conditioning!  I took some pictures of my students today:

Where are you in the world?