Jan 22, 2009 - Phnom Penh

By Mette Før vi tog afsted, læste både Jørgen og jeg, "first they killed my father", en dirrende beretning om hvordan det var at være barn i Khmer Rouge tiden. Her var også en beskrivelse af, hvordan Phnom Penh i "year zero" på et par dage bliver tømt for mennesker, og disse millioner af folk derefter i lange kolonner ad landevejen (som dengang var en grusvej) bliver ført ud på landet til arbejdslejre. Siden da har vi læst, at 1 ud af 4 cambodianere blev dræbt/skudt/døde af sult i Pol Pot tiden, og at ikke en eneste familie var uberørt. En...

Jan 17, 2009 - Crossing borders

By Mette Our itenary Today we left Thailand in order to go to Cambodia. Yes, this means that we have changed the itenary, but Ko Chang was so close to Cambodia, that it seemed to make more sense this way. Our plans from here is to then go to Phnom Penh and from there to Siam Reap to se among other things Angkor Wat. Then we want to bead back to Thailand to catch a train to Northern Thailand, cross into Laos and Luang Prabang - and go to Vietnam from there.... Well, let's see what happens. It also depends on where we decide to spend the...

Jan 16, 2009 - Taste of Thailand

By Mette Vi boede 6 dage på et stort, fint hotel i Bangkok, langt væk fra larm og ballede, men også isoleret fra det daglige liv. Oveni købet var alle undtagen Pernille syge et par dage. Derefter tog vi til Ko Chang, hvor vi boede i en hytte i et typisk turistområde. Og som turistområde er der ikke meget "lokalt" over hverken mad eller omgivelser. Thai'ere er her nogle, man møder på grønsagsmarkedet og bag ved disken på restauranterne. I Bangkok spiste vi ikke så forfærdelig meget, og det meste af det vi satte til livs, kom fra et...

Apr 15, 2006 - Tai Tai Waterfall/Friends and Song Kran

Cambodia is revealing itself ever so slowly. Compared to Vietnam (orderly and industrial)this place is the Wild West in every sense. I hung out at Tai Tai waterfall on and off for about 2 weeks or so and even dared to spend one night in my tent. I don't know if I would do it again as the locals aren't real fond of tourists and carry weapons just in case. I have to remind myself that the Khmer Rouge genocide was only a few decades ago and remote areas are NOT the place to be after dark. Nevertheless, it was a great experience. Song Kran, the...

Apr 9, 2006 - Palmsunday under palmtrees...

...and even with a palmtree growing in our bathroom! Really, if you don't believe me, have a look at the pics - and please try not to imagine, how I sat on the toilet clutching to a pretty useless umbrella in a tropical downpour for the first time in my life! Anyway, the spot for all this, and the island, I picked for Mirjam's last days with me here in Thailand was Koh Kham - a tiny island, I stumbled across by chance and with the help of the internet - these black rocks on white, powdry sand just looked too tempting... And really, it's...

Mar 5, 2006 - Cooking, Ka-Ti stylee and our Break for the Border...

This rest of this weekend has been pretty action-packed! I got up on Saturday morning feeling great considering Friday night's extravagances (admittedly, a feeling that didn't last very long...) and we went round to Ka-Ti, where we were to have our cooking lesson. When we arrived Ning brought us over a drink made from the flower of the Okra plant, which is supposed to purge your body - very useful if you're feeling a bit rough! The cooking class was great because everything we made, we got to eat! We started by making a papaya salad and...

Feb 2, 2006 - Arrival in Ko Kong

"Welcome to Ko Kong" says the motodop tout as I jump out of the minibus from Trat to Haad Lek on the Thai Cambodian border. Despite reading stories about nightmarish border officials, the border crossing was straightforward and didn't have any special "surcharges" -- perhaps because I already had my visa -- much to the official's disappointment. From the border crossing, it is a short motodop ride down to Ko Kong town. Oft mis-reported as being an island, the town is 100% on the mainland, there is a same-named island off the coast (you pass...

Jan 25, 2006 - Getting ripped off cold at the border

I reckoned, after all this fantastic beach-stuff, I'll finally tell you a story that wasn't that nice after all - just showing you that backpacking isn't all just fun and sunshine... Well, actually, it started off very nice: On Bamboo Island, I had two fantastic bungalow-neighbours, Cindy and Maz, basically two crazy chicks from London, but apart from being completely nuts, they were (and still are, I assume) really fun to travel with. Anyway, they had this travel-route planned for their remaining time in Cambodia, that was so utterly...

Jan 4, 2006 - Overland insertion

With our Christmas and New Year holidays finished, we've turned to the emotional and personal heart of our Southeast Asian leg: Cambodia. It's where Guy spent the first three years of his career, and still exerts a powerful pull over him. In all the time he lived there, however, he never entered or left the country overland - always by plane. As Cambodia becomes more secure and developed, it's become a lot easier to go overland, so we decided to give it a try. The target border point was in the southwest, between Trat (Thailand) and Koh...

Oct 8, 2004 - The Beautiful Island of Ko Chang.

We have just left our paradise island to return to Bangkok. Alas! Ko Chang was the most beautiful place either of us has ever visited. Off the coast of the Thailand/Cambodia border it is the second largest island in Thailand, one of 52 scattered in the sea. 70% of Ko Chang is covered in rainforest making the island a conserved National Park. There were monkeys living behind our cabin. While they are fast constructing new resorts, for the moment Lonely Beach remains quite isolated from the real tourist attractions. We simply relaxed by the...