Christmas on an island

We had been warned that going to the south of Thailand over Christmas without a reservation can be difficult. This is especially true for the really popular destinations.

Aware of this we still caught a flight down to Krabi on December 21st. Our hope was to find a cheap beach bungalow on a beautiful Thai island where we would be able to spend Christmas. The morning after landing in southern Thailand we got on a boat going to the popular island Ko Phi Phi, famous for beautiful beaches and high lime stone cliffs.

We might have been taking a risk by choosing such a popular place without a reservation. Luckily in the end the risk taking paid off.  After some searching  we found a cheap and simple beach bungalow on a quiet beach where we celebrated Christmas.

Merry Christmas

We would like to wish all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

God Jul och Gott Nytt År.

Two days of pure luxury

When we arrived in Bangkok we had been on the road for eight weeks. During this time we had only stayed in hostels and simple guest houses. Sometimes the accommodations were excellent and other times pretty rough. Hot showers, flushing toilets and actual bed sheets had become a luxury that we no longer took for granted.

After realizing that we had enough hotel points to stay at Holiday Inn for two nights we did not think twice before deciding to use them. Entering the lobby at the hotel felt unreal and entering the room with the king size bed felt even more like a dream. The fluffy pillows and the crisp white bed sheets made us not want to get out of bed in the morning.

After two nights we left the luxury with some sadness and walked two blocks down the road to our next hostel. There we checked into the dorm room and we were back to being backpackers again.

Memories of a genocide

On our first day in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh we got an insight into the county's horrifying recent history. Between 1975 and 1979 Cambodia was ruled by the Khmer Rough. When the Khmer Rough came into power after the civil war they forced everyone who lived in cities and towns to leave their homes and work on fields under slave like conditions.

The government killed anyone who was regarded a threat to their new society. Any opposition was killed as well as anyone with an education and anyone who spoke a foreign language. They even killed people who wore glasses since this could be seen as being intellectual. All the schools in Cambodia were closed and even young children were made to work the fields, often separated from their families.

The majority of all the food that was produced in Cambodia was exported in return for guns leaving a large part of the population to starve. During the four years that the Khmer Rough were in power more than 25% of the country's population was either killed or died of starvation. Over 1000 killing fields (execution sites with mass graves) have been discovered.

We visited the most notorious prison Tuol Sleng as well as the Choeung Ek killing fields. Tuol Sleng was a school before 1975 and had been turned into a genocide museum and Choeung Ek is now a memorial site. Both places give a very good insight into some of the unbelievable horrors committed during these years. Out of an estimated 20'000 prisoners at Tuol Sleng only seven people survived. The only two survivors that are still alive sit at the museum every day and talk to the visitors. 33 years after then last executions at Choeung Ek bone fragments, teeth and clothing material washes up to the surface on a rainy day.

We both felt very moved and humbled when visiting these two places. We learnt a lot this day and no matter how horrible the past may be, only by educating people about what happened can we prevent it from happening again.

Tuol Sleng - the former school turned into a prison

cell blocks

mass graves at Choeung Ek 

individual cell

Paradise Island

After the bus ride we described in our last post we arrived at the Cambodian cost early the next morning. We headed to the coast in hope of finding a paradise beach.

At 7:30am we boarded a dive boat with the destination of Koh Rong. After two hours of rough sea we arrived at what was recently only a little fishing village. A few simple beach bungalows have been built along the beach next to the village. Within the last two months three small restaurants run by locals have also been opened. We had definitely found our paradise.

A ten minute walk from the village we found another long white sand beach where we spent a day all on our own. Our only company were little crabs running up and down the beach looking for food. In front of our bungalow we each had a hammock where we could relax in the shade and read our books. When we got hungry the local restaurants provided good authentic Khmer food. On our last day before heading back to the main land we went scuba diving and had the chance explore more of the underwater world.

The beaches on Koh Rong are just too beautiful for this island to stay as undeveloped as it currently is. The day we left was also the day that the new airport in the port town of Sihanoukville opened. Our feeling is that we got there just before this deserted paradise will be turned into another tourist hot spot. But who can blame them, a poor country like Cambodia cannot let a paradise pearl like Koh Rong stay untouched. We just hope that the locals living on this island also get a chance to benefit from the future development.

A long night with a rough ride

Before boarding the night bus in Siem Reap we had not anticipated how rough our next eleven hours would be. At first we thought that we had been assigned the best seats at the back of the bus. We were told that these seats reclined all the way and provided extra leg room.

Due to the combination of pothole covered roads and completely warn out suspension the seats at the back of the bus had fallen apart over time. Every bump in the road jolted us and made the broken backrest shift out of place.

The water from the non functioning air conditioning system was giving Pär occasional showers throughout the night. Erika on the other was kept awake by the smell from the outlet of the toilet ventilation system situated right above her head. In the end we realized that despite the extra leg room we were given by far the worst seats on the entire bus.

When we arrived at 6am in Sihanoukville we were too exhausted to use our expertise bargaining skills to argue with the tuk-tuk driver who wanted six dollars for the short ride into town.

Angkor Wat

Our first stop in Cambodia was Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the biggest religious monument ever built and certainly one of the most spectacular. In the area surrounding there is also the ancient city of Angkor Thom as well as numerous other temples. Most of the temples were built over a thousand years ago and are evidence of an impressive civilization.

Having heard numerous stories about the beauty of this temple area our expectations were high. It was even more impressive than we could have ever imagined.

Walking through these temple ruins left us speechless. It is hard to imagine that these enormous temples with all their fine details were constructed without a single piece of machinery.

Tree Top Explorer

In southern Laos we went on a two day expedition through virtually untouched jungle. The natural beauty that we got to experience was above anything we had ever seen before. Most of the distance through the forest was covered by foot. The expedition was also a fear factor experience with zip lining, abseiling and rock climbing.

A total of about 10 long zip lines over a steep canyon gave us the chance to see waterfalls from above and experience a birds eye view of the jungle below. The different zip lining platforms were connected with abseiling ropes and short hiking trails. The real fear challenge came on the second day when we had to rock climb up a cliff leading to the top of a waterfall.

We slept in a tree house that could only be reached via zip lines and had our morning shower in an icy cold waterfall.

These were definitely our best two days so far on our travels. The expedition was a great combination of natural beauty and adrenaline rushes. Anyone going to southern Laos should not miss the Tree Top Explorer.