See It Do It Live It

Having Phun in Phnom Penh

Posted by in Asia, Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Trip

Of course we also wanted to sample the fun side of Phnom Penh. This city really feels like somewhere that people live, rather than just one big tourist experience. There are a lot of ex-pats here, working at the many NGOs. We (guiltily) enjoyed a breakfast of muffins and doughnuts. Not at all ‘local’ but very much appreciated. There is just something wrong with having dinner items at breakfast time – curry before 12? No thanks! To escape from the oppressive humidity for an afternoon, we went to the cinema….read more

The Killing Fields

Posted by in Asia, Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Trip

While in Cambodia, it felt necessary and right to remember the countries recent history. To this end we visited both the S-21 prison and one of the Killing Fields. The S-21 prison was once a school which was then converted into Cambodia’s most important prison during the Khmer Rouge regime. 14,000 prisoners were tortured and killed here, and only seven survived. It was a terrible place, and it is quite hard to even figure out our feelings about our visit there. The Killing Fields are half an hour away from…read more

Angkor

Posted by in Asia, Cambodia, Trip

I’m sure that most people are aware of Cambodia’s recent history, but here is a brief summary. In 1975, the Cambodian Communists (known as the Khmer Rouge) and Pol Pot took charge of the country. They almost immediately started to remodel the country into an agricultural state and marched people to rural communities to work as slaves. Anoyone considered Western, intellectual or professional was considered to be an enemy of the state and one quarter of the population were killed by the regime. Even speaking a foreign language was reason…read more

Do you Khmer often?

Posted by in Asia, Cambodia, Thailand, Trip

Another day in transit, this time getting from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia. I am generally a fan of train travel, and after having a look at the Seat 61 website (well worth checking out if you want to use trains anywhere in the world) our plans were cemented. This is how we found ourselves on a street corner at 5am. Unfortunately the taxi driver we flagged down didn’t speak any English. Luckily Graham is more alert at that time than most people, and started doing train impressions including…read more

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City of Angels / The Big Mango

Posted by in Asia, Bangkok, Thailand, Trip

According to the in-flight magazine, Bangkok is also known as the City of Angels or as the Big Mango. A quick Wikipedia search confirms this amusing nickname. To get to our apartment, we hopped on the very efficient and easy to use Sky Train. We are staying very near the Saphan Taksin station, in an Air BnB place owned by the lovely Mac and Noi (from USA and Thailand respectively). Despite the great reviews, we have had mixed success with Air BnB so far, but had high hopes for this…read more

You want a masaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiii??

Posted by in Asia, Thailand, Trip

Hello Asia! We landed late at night, but straight away noticed a huge contrast to Africa. There are so many shops, so many things to buy, so many English people and so many backpackers. Its quite a culture shock! We spent our first night in Thailand in Phuket. After two solid days of travelling, involving a taxi, a walk, a boat, another taxi, two flights, two metro journeys, another flight and another taxi we were quite tired. We headed out for a tasty street food meal of rice, chicken and…read more