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‹ Previous (18/04/2009) MONTH Next (2009-06-17)› ‹ Previous (2009-04-21 - Laos) COUNTRY Next (2009-05-29 - Thailand)› Cambodja Phnom Phen (see on map) 19/05/2009:
On Monday, we returned to Phnom Phen a day later from what we had foreseen . We returned to the area of the hotels of the lake Boeng Kak and stopped again to the same hotel where we had lodged ourselves previously. For luck in the new room there was not any hole for where the rats could enter, although the runs that these did through the ceiling were terrifying. It was also impressive as all our room rattled when the foreign girl of the room next to us invited the Cambodian young owner of the hotel to share it with her. We had to wait to today on Tuesday in the morning to collect the passport in the China embassy but we were still a little tired and ill and yesterday afternoon we did not do anything. In the morning we have collected the passports and have paid the Chinese visas (inexplicably the Alexandra had to pay 70 $ and I only 30 $). Afterwards, we passed through the area of the central market, returned to the area of the lake and passed the afternoon between the hotel and the small outdoor restaurant occupied by Veasna. Veasna was a very nice man that on the contrary to all the hotels of the area has a shop very simple but that does the best sandwiches (David and Maria: when you are through the area try the sandwich of omlet!). Yesterday in the afternoon I asked him how the repression of the regime of Khmers Rouges was lived and without any type of reluctance he started to explain to us that since small, his family lived in Phnom Phen. When the Khemers Rouges entered the city, these obliged the people to leave towards the fields ( about two million people), including the ten members of his family. Through the path they killed his father, who had been welded and once arrived to the destination killed his brother, who had been military police. After a month they divided up all the families displaced according to sex and ages and Veasna, which was 8 years, was sent to work to dig channels, beside another group of 30 boys of ages between 6 and 15 years. During the four years that he was working as slave for the Khmeres Rouges he passed a lot of hunger, for they only gave a bowl of rice every day. Even then, Veasna commented that he was lucky, because in other areas the food was still more scarce and the mortality due to malnutrition was sky-high. On the other hand, the group of Veasna changed of location every ten days, once a canalisation finished to take water to the new fields of rice, and when passing through the forest they could collect hidden roots or to hunt insects that ate with delight. When finally finished the regime of Pol Pot they could be brought together with the other two surviving relatives (of a family of 10 people) and returned to Phnom Phen. His home was occupied by vietnameses soldiers, but these told him that the family could occupy any other home empty of the city and keep it (the majority of the people that died during the regime originated from the cities). They occupied a good home for some years, but in the face of theneed formoney, in 1995 he sold it and bought one more humble near the lake. For luck, in 1999 the first tourists started to appear through the area and he opened the first restaurant, with quite a lot of success, even though he has always maintained it and has a very humble aspect. Now, Veasna seems a happy man, even if he looks with worry at the next drying of the lake Boeng Kak and the possible repercussion on the tourism. Siem Reap (see on map) 23/05/2009:
At few kilometres of Siem Reap is found Angkor, the greatest marvel of SE Asia. In spite of everything, after 3 years and a half of journey and of the numerous visits of monuments all around the world, it seems that I am losing the capacity to be impressed. In spite of everything, I paid the entry of 40dolas and was going by bicycle for three days over the tens of temples that there are spread by an enormous area. Yes, Angkor is gripping, but I personally felt more attracted during the visit to some temples visited in India and built also among the 9 and 13 centuries. And is more, leaving aside some temple specifically, what has fascinated me more in Angkor have not been the temples, but the patient and powerful fight of the nature to reconquer the ground occupied by the human constructions. Some temples preserve signals of this fierce battle and still preserve spectacular roots going among the stones of the walls and holding centennial trees. But in most of the cases, the temples have been conquered to the nature again and restored in a long process initiated at the end of the nineteenth century by French archaeologists. Anyway, even if the forest has been felled with many temples, foundations have been repaired, channels have been excavated to protect the monuments of the erosion of the water and even, in some cases have been reconstructed in stone on some new foundations; the nature can be considered the winner in Angkor. As they reveal images obtained by satellite, Angkor was the largest pre-industrial urban centre of the world, occupying an area of 3000 square kilometres (bigger that the current New York) and holding a population of a million inhabitants; a space that nowadays continues being taken up by forests and fields of rice. In any case, the Khmer Empire dominated the nature and the adjacent cultures between the 9th century and 13, when they built the enormous metropolis of Angkor and its temples, in general built with stone piled up in pyramidal form on some foundations of sand. The temples were built and confirmed first to Hinduism, later to the Buddhism and some centuries later another time to the Hinduism, under the sponsorship of an emperor that destroyed all the statues of budha. However, the religion finally winner was the Buddhist, although this was the cause of the decline of the empire, influenced also by the superiority of the empire of Sukhothai, the one that we visited some weeks ago in Thailand. The Khmer empire converted to a branch of the Buddhism called Theravada, which denies the deity. This negation of the divine took power away from the governors, who stopped building temples and lost the capacity to hold the channels of water that the fields of rice had to irrigate to feed the million of people of the city. Finally, the city collapsed and had to move where at present is Phnom Phen. Thailand Bangkok (see on map) 29/05/2009: Going out of Cambodia, we observed more than ever the catchers of insects. The catches were simple, consisting of a big vertical plastic, a light above to attract the insects and an enclosure with water to catch those that fell. In spite of already having observed multiple shops of fried insects in Thailàndia, Laos and Cambodia, it is still incredible that there are so many people selling them. But what I found stranger is that the people stopped in the shops, chose a type of insects, and after paying left happy with a plastic bag full of insects, which they tasted with delight. It was extraordinary that nobody put them to buy them and to eat them, or that were not taking part in any TV competition. Maybe after all, the insects were good. In fact, I ran into a traveller who tried the larvae of insects in a shop and ended up buying a bag because he liked them. Maybe we should also have tried them not to pass hunger in Cambodia, for luck, we were entering Thailand and we should not feel tempted to try them. Alexandra wanted to remain at least five days in Bangkok, resting but especially eating. What big difference with the two previous countries... Really I also felt like arriving to Bangkok. We have passed ourselves five days eating crisp chicken until bursting, and sweets, coffees, cocacolas... Also we have relaxed with the people of Overstay, the people of Couch Surfing with who we had been the previous time. We have been conversing, reading, writing and staking different games of chess or of escrable. On the other hand, also there was another reason to stay in Bangkok. The day before yesterday, on Wednesday, the FC Barcelona played the end of the Europe Football Cup against Manchester. In 2006, exactly at the beginning of the journey i also made all the possible to see the end of the Europe Cup in Tirana, the capital of Albania and the Barça won. This year the Barça was again in the end and with some other boys from Overstay we were in the tourist centre of Bangkok where at two in the morning there were many open bars offering the football game. I do not have to say that the game was excellent and that Barça won very deservedly, but was not as cheered up as in the 2006 in Albania, perhaps it was too late or perhaps there was a majority of amateurs of Manchester. Ko Kradan (see on map) 03/06/2009:
Before going out from Bangkok I looked for people of Couchsurfing who were ready to lodge us on the beaches of Thailand in the south. I got answer from a very interesting boy that lived in an island, but unfortunately did not have mattress where we could sleep, and we have just preferred another offer in another island, Koh Kradan, in the west of Thailand, where some Italians had a hotel (www.kalumekradan.com) that offered small free huts to the members of couchsurfing. From Bangkok we caught a night train with bed of second class quite comfortable and wide (a space of 2 people in the train of Thailand would be occupied by 6 or 8 people in India). The day after in the morning we arrived to Trang, from where we caught a minibus towards a port of river where waited for us a small boat to take us to the island of Koh Kradan. But here we gave ourselves the first fright, for the small boat costed 16euros and the same amount to return. Even then, I was ready to spend some days of rest in an island and we embarked. Alexandra had the second fright, for as it goes out from the estuary of the river and leaves the protection of an island, we find ourselves in the middle of the open sea with some waves which it seemed that they would knock the small wooden small boat in any moment. It was a journey of almost one hour that was made very long for Alexandra, but for me it was very short, for the landscape of small islands cutting back the horizon line was charming. The Island of Koh Kradan is a very small island, of more than one kilometre long and about 200 meters of width. Even so, the long extension of beach (protected by the waves in the east of the island) was taken up by about 4 or 5 hotels with bungalows where only there was a total of two tourists and us. Evidently, we had arrived in low season, but fortunately the time has held and throughout the five days it has done quite a lot of sun and it rained only for an hour. Anyway, despite being in a paradise of holidays, Alexandra was completely unsatisfied, then in the island there were no shops or outdoor shops to buy food and the prices of the restaurant of the hotel of the Italian were a little expensive. Evidently, the Italian was doing a little business lodging people from couchsurfing for these were seen obliged to eat in the restaurant and to catch the small boat of which he would have a commission. Anyway, even if the Italian was not on the island and we have not met him, I also have to mention his honesty, because before arriving to the island he recommended us to buy food and water from the mainland. In the island there was nothing much to do except relaxing,reading, writing... even so, the three last days I have been dedicating a couple of daily hours to swim above the corals close to the beach, with some glasses and feet of duck from the hotel. The visibility of the water was not too good (probably for the season) but in balance, the quantity of fish that there was was impressive (especially in the corals of the south). On numerous occasions I found myself swimming among hundreds of goldfish that swam against the tide microorganisms of the waters. In theory, the island was found protected in a nature reserve, even so, an afternoon I was not surprised too much observing a small boat that threw nets very near the coralline area. Yesterday afternoon I also went out from my working routine to the computer and went out through the island to walk, threading a marked road as "escape in the event of tsunami". The road crossed a forest or tropical forest, very thick, up to the other side of the island, where the waves exploded with force against the rocks. Surprisingly, it was a show completely different to the calm beaches of the east of the island. Malaysia Penang (see on map) 08/06/2009:
After relaxing for 5 days in the small and calm island of Koh Kradan, we took different minibuses again to do some more hundreds of kilometres towards the south, to visit another island, this time in friendly Malaysia, a country that we enter without any problem. The island, called Penang, is the most visited former English enclave in Malaysia, acquired in 1786 by the captain Francis Light in exchange for getting married with the daughter of the sultan of Kedah and in exchange for a military protection that he never provided. The captain Francis established the Georgetown city declaring it a free port, attracting quickly Chinese and Indians of other English enclaves. These different cultures, including the Malaysian, were successful in the city, preserving their community, identity and religion, being this one of the reasons of the fascination that at present produces Georgetown. In Georgetown there is the greatest proportion of Chinese in Malaysia (40% Chinese, 40% Malaysians and the rest mostly Indian). It can be observed in the great quantity of Chinese temples in the city: Taoist and Buddhists, which are very similar in design, with a full decoration, although the Taoist temples have statues of its idols and Gods and the Buddhists sculpture of Buddha. On the other hand there are some old churches (a small proportion of Chinese are Christian), hinduist temples and a couple of pretty mosques, to which the Malaysians go, mostly Muslim. In the mosque of the Kapitan Kelin, a Malay explained to me that, on the contrary to the Buddhists and Chinese Taoism and to the hinduist Indians, who worship the statues with offerings, incense and prayers, the Muslims do not have images in the mosques because they worship God directly. On the other hand, not everything is about temples, churches and mosques in Penang. Georgetown has an interesting Chinese neighbourhood with its shops concealed behind doorways and wooden shutters half open, and an Indian neighbourhood where its played music at high volume and Indian clothes. In this neighbourhood, the atmosphere is that of an Indian film, where you can recognise the Indian actors, and the temples and restaurants, but you can not smell the unpleasant smells of the Indian or observe the omnipresent dirt of the street. Surprisingly, the Indian neighbourhood was an clean copy of India, with clean and wide restaurants and good food with a lot of meat. In Georgetown we met with Kendra, a local girl of CS, and also with a German boy from Couchsurfing. Kendra, collected us with her car and the four of us went to the hippodrome of Penang that opened its doors for some days, afterwards we ate some delicious noodles (noodles) with shellfish, and in the afternoon visited the botanical garden of Penang that had an interesting exhibition of bonsáis, insectivorous plants and orchids. All the time, Kendra, of Chinese origin, offered us good conversation and explained to us that each of the three communities in Malaysia (Chinese, Indian and Malay) speaks its language and they have its traditions, but they relate among themselves and there are no discriminations. For example, in the state school, the cultures are mixed and the youngsters have friends of all the cultures. In spite of everything, sometimes there are problems with the government, because this applies the Sharia or Islamic law. For example, a Chinese girl married a Muslim and in order to do so she had to convert to Islam, but the relation was not good and they divorced. Then, the girl wanted to stop being Muslim but the Islamic law does not allow it (when one has converted to the Islam, will be a Muslim forever, wanted or not) and now she cannot get married with a Chinese of her culture because he should also convert to Islam. Today we have relaxed and have left to pass the hours of the day with calmness. In a given moment, it was in our small room of the hotel, looking at the fan of the wall that moderately was saving me of the heat of south east Asia, and i realised that I sit very happy, despite having given up since some time ago my life of comfort in Europe. I can imagine easily the rest of my life living in small and hot room of hotel, in exchange for not having a stressful work again or in exchange for power to keep discovering cultures and new people around the world. Kuala Lumpur (see on map) 12/06/2009:
Zaikha and Faizal were the first couchsurfers that I lodged in my home now i will go to their house after about four years. Of that meeting a good memory remained, and from the goodbye we decided to see eachother again in the future, when my journey around the world took me to Kuala Lumpur (or KL as they call it here). Zaikha and Faizal had travelled in Europe with their small daughter Aresha, but now already she has grown, however, there was a new baby in the family, Zara. The family gave us the room of Aresha and, taking advantage of their Internet, the day after we remained in their house, relaxing and conversing with Zaikha. The following day, me and Alexandra celebrated our third anniversary together. I have never been so much time with a girl, and sharing so many hours and adventures. The communal life has not always been easy, but, we have started to learn with time to accept our differences and to understand our personalities. Probably, once the journey finished, the communal life will be much easier, although we cannot forget that we still have about two or three years of journey. Even then, we follow with the idea about marrying once arrived in Europe, because we love eachother and because it can help to get the US visa easier. The celebration in itself was not too special, to us maybe yes, because we went up on the bridge that joins the two towers Petronas (with 252 m, one of the highest buildings of the world) and we did an activity that we did not do since we went out of Europe: going to the cinema (we saw: Angels and Demons). Yesterday, on the following day of our anniversary, we arrange to meet with another boy of couchsurfing, Yu Wei, of Chinese origin, and with his car we went towards Melaka, another colonial town that reminded us of Penang. The state of Melaka is one of the oldest Malay sultanates (it is at present one of the few states that does not have sultan) that was successful up to the arrival of the Portuguese, who conquered the city and built a strength. In spite of everything, the Dutch stole it from the Portuguese, finally yielding it to the Englishmen. One may not miss that the city has interesting traces of this colonial past, although we visit them without entertaining ourselves too much, preferring being settled in a bar to talk with Yu Wei and Kirksman, a boy from Melaka of Chinese origin that was training for the olympic games as weight lifter of dumbbells. The races, which are an identity sign for the Malaysians, are a sign of prejudice or racism in Europe, was one of the first subjects of conversations. In any case, in Malaysia it is normal to talk about races and to name some of the discriminations that the Chinese or Indian suffer from the Malaysians. For example, the universities have a maximum number of entrance for the Chinese, that are seen obliged to studying abroad (many do not return). On the other hand, Yu Wei and Kirksman complained that in spite of the help of the government, the poorest communities were the Malay and Indian ones, and that that was owed to the Chinese culture, that it is always centred in working and gaining money. Today, to finish rounding the week up, I have met with Roman a Swiss friend with whom we had shared some weeks on the beach of Goa. Roman has just received his Land Rover in KL originating from Bangladesh (quite more economic that to send it from India). Anyway, with the car caught in the south of asia, Roman yet does not know which would be his immediate future, although he continues with the dream of travelling around the world with his 4 x 4 (even in the very expensive Japan). Roman has a feeling of bond with his 4 x 4 very similar to the majority of travellers with car; similar also to mine, although I managed to break it abandoning the car in Nepal, that has been a very good decision, because it has allowed us to travel with a much more adjusted budget. On the other hand, even if Roman had been travelling less time than we, he was already intoxicating himself with the spirit of the traveller, and declared to me that he started to dream of travelling during all his life, even if he kept sacrificing the relation with his distant girlfriend, who did not decide to follow him. 14/06/2009:
Yesterday it was a happy day, although at night I went to sleep with a feeling of sorrow. The day was happy because we were invited to the celebration of the wedding of the brother of Faizal. The weddings in Malaisia are celebrated on different days, a day at the house of the family of the girlfriend and another day at the house of the family of the boyfriend. One of the reasons of these celebrations in parallel is the great quantity of guests who invite each other, who in the case of the brother of Faizal could be counted by the hundreds (they told us they expected about a thousand people). In any case, that did not frighten Elma, the mother of Faizal and of the groom, at the house of which the wedding was celebrated; then Elma is one of the most hospitable women of the world, who has lodged more than 350 people through couchsurfing in two years. We arrived at eleven in the morning, when they were still preparing, although not much later people started to arrive and delicious food started to be served. Little more late arrived the couple, accompanied by the noise of different Harley Davidson and a band of drums. The couples were received and a throne was adapted, where they were photographed and blessed; and later in the nuptial table, which had a special menu and much more delicious than that of the rest of guests, because according to the tradition, the couple has to feel as kings for a day. Among the different guests there were different people from couchsurfing, friends of Zaikha and Elma and guests of them. Among these there was a boy from Iran who showed his worry about the results of the elections in Iran of the previous day (in Malaysia there are many Iranians working and studying). According to the official communiqué, Armadinejad had won the elections with an absolute majority, but the leader of the opposition and the Iranian boy assured that there had been an electoral fraud. The boy wanted to go to protest in front of the embassy of Iran, although he was also very frightened by the consequences that they could make. In the end we, a north American and a Malaysian girl, decided to accompany the boy. In the embassy of Iran in KL there were not too many people and the police dispersed us threatening us that if we did not stop they would take strong measures. Even then, the people met in the site from where the campaign of Mosavi (the opposing leader) had been organised. The site was full to burst, with about a hundred or two hundred people completely indignated and looking at the television to receive new news of the conflict that was exploding through the streets of different cities in Iran. As they explained us, observers of the party of Mosabi had attended the counting of ballot papers in the embassy of Iran in KL and the result had been 80% in favour of Mosavi, but in the morning, the embassy announced officially that the result had been 70% plus for Armadinejat. All the world was convinced that the same fraud had been done in all Iran, and taking into account some declarations of Armadinejad according to which, to lie to favour the country or the Islam is not a sin. In the end we returned home sad, impotent and worried with our friends in Iran. It is not only about the result of some elections, it is about the future of millions of people that want to live with more freedom. The people are very disappointed and a revolution can be produced, and the revolutions can finish with many deaths, independent of victory or not. ‹ Previous (18/04/2009) MONTH Next (2009-06-17)› ‹ Previous (2009-04-21 - Laos) COUNTRY Next (2009-05-29 - Thailand)› |
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