Travelogue :  Amber's Southeast Asia travels

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Hi....its been along time since i have added a blog so thought i better get to it!

So my last place i was in before cambodia was my tai chi retreat in Yangshou China....which i loved. I cant say enough how much i like China and how it fitted with me and how i met the right people, this seems to happen when on own and not in a group and this was so at the retreat. I met Anthon, Giles and his friends Adrian and Wing. Anton was at my retreat and was very sane and great company. One evening i met him and some otheres being Giles and his friends out in a bar and that same night Giles was moving to our retreat which turned out to be great! Giles being English (so good witty sense of humour if not a bit crude at times)and an artist and into the same music as me and with an ipod that worked was a bonus (mine had broken) so we spent many a night chatting giggling and just sitting in the coutyard of the retreat which was soooo amazingly peaceful althougth the noise of crickets or frogs was intense and so was the mozquitoes that loved my ankles.....the worst place ever for these little mozzies. However when it was time for me to move on leave for cambodia i felt ready i had been here 10 days and of course before my trek i was here for a day trip with the mexicans, so i said goodbye to Giles as all my other buddies had left already.

Cambodia mmmmmmmm well OK so i was sceptical at coming to Cambodia as i knew the whole cult of young backpackers (as nice as they are) but just different lifestage/experience to me were probably going to be the people i would be travelling with in cambodia and they were. But i really liked Cambodia there were some real highs here which made, for example we were in Siem Reap our first destination and we went to visit the floating village....it had been rainginas of course rain season and for those of you who are unfamiliar with cambodia the roads are basically like lakes/rivers when it rains and mud rivers at that pretty fun i found but of course not fro the Cambodians who have to struggle on foot, bike in the rain and going about thier daily life especiallyu the farmers...from what i saw. Anyway we were going along to the village in rickshaws when our leader said we have to get out as they can take us no further the rickshaws cant cope with the mud!!! so out we all get the rain coming down and we start to walk along the muddy road which is like a clay mud with just shanty houses along the sides before the fields start. There were alot of cute children about coming up and being so friendly and who loved the mud and rain, it began to get very tiring walking in the mud we had all taken our shoes off and our feet were so stuck in mud it was funbut another 2miles to go didnt sound too exhilerating. Then a tractor went past and our leader managed to bargain one dollar per person to take us all???ALL ??? (in this one tiny tractor is he crazy!?) to the floating village ummmmm ok well this is exactly what we did. So ten minutes later 16 of us were crammed in this triler thing on the back of the tractor!!! this was FUN Our journey went on for miles and i cant imagine how we would of waled it, it was a very uncomfortable ride perched on a metal bar holding on with the guys that had to stand falling on us everytime we went over and down bumps which was continuous!! along the way there would of been some great shots of the families living in the shanty houses and the kids playing in the mud (luckily i had taken afew before we got into the tractor) we arrived at our destination and aboarded the boat to the floating village which was also great to see......as this for me is what i like i know it sounds awful but i liketo see how the local people live and im very interested in the poverty side of things so the poorer the more i like to see whats happening.;-( at the floating village there were little children probably as young as five sailing in buckets!!! yeah for sure to get out and about from one village boat to the next the little kids use buckets and have wooden paddles ....they also paddle up to the boat and ask for money. So n the way back we had our great transport again the tractor. It was even better on the way back as cars just one or two as not many at all in this area were tooting at us and trying to over take and then once they did they would end up either skiddied or being stuck and pushed out of the mud which was great to see and on passing we all went toot toot which made the cambodians smile and became a bit of a game between the cars and us the rest of the way.

For me that was the best bit as you cant plan that noone else can have that moment it was just our moment that happened on that day and i will always remember it with a big smile on my face. Siem Reap of course was good but again not the wow factor that the wonderful beautiful surreale taj mahal has. Siem Reap was fun again because of the rain and being stuck inside the wat for an hour getting just as soaked im sure as if outside! while we waited for the rain to slow abit....it never did all afternoon but this just adds to the pleasure....ummm i would of been bored without the rain maiking it so much more memorable and fun!

OK so then we went to kompang cham a small village didnt impress me much felt touristee we then went to sikhville which is totally spelt wrong where we spent some time relaxing at the beach, nice but not what i came to cambodia for, owh and we went on a home stay which i was really looking forward to but it turned out to be a set up by intrepid ;-( there was no family and no cows to milk as i was so hoing for although we had great fun and played poker,spin the bottle and silly games again moments i wont forget.

Phnom Penh here i liked and found very intersting as we visited the killing fields and heard from a local guide all that happende dhere and what was going on and why. It was horrific and at times felt very sick standing in the cells listening to him explain, it amazes me how this was just in 1975 the year i was born and makes me wonder why the hell did america/englan not intervene i mean its not like them to like a bit of power or control but i dont know they were letting them get on with it apparently thinking leave the communist countries to battle it out themselves and maybe no oil/money hey!!! well i like to think englan didinot realise what was going on i know people i have asked who were young adults in that generation seem to not of heard anything about it.

Hope you like the pics the first one is my tai chi retreat