Now before I begin the final blog of South East Asia. I warn you that it is going to move at a lightning fast pace through three countries before we hit Australia so hold on (In fact there are loads of words and pictures probably too many, but just think it’s including five destinations in one). We have been to all of these places together at least once before and we have pretty much experienced the cultures, tried all the food and all the beers, but with me being me I couldn’t have a gap could I? Or and a crazy story or two...
SIHANOUKVILLE
With our last leg of Asia well planned we made it back to Sihanoukville. We pulled into the bus station where we quickly bumped into Nick, Stu and Renee playing chess while touting for their hotels, must be the new Sihanoukville Lions Team hangout or the fact its rainy low season and the town is a lot quieter than we remembered from 6 weeks earlier.
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| Nearly there... |
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Was great to see familiar faces and we were excited to be back. With us pretty much being locals we couldn’t help but laugh when the Tuk-Tuk drivers started trying to charge us $6 to town. When we told them we used to live there they laughed with us and took us to Serendipity Beach for the standard $2. We were looking forward to being looked after for the weekend. Matt sorted us out a great room at Ocean Walk next door to the CCPP volunteer house at mate’s rates.
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| Sorry Matt. I forgot to take a picture of Ocean Walk but I was entertained while sat at your bar watching locals chuck bricks at each other while smoking at the same time, now that's talented... |
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Our first port of call was walking back past the golden lion roundabout to the CCPP campus to have a catch up with the children and staff. We were greeted warmly and the kids still remembered us. We stuck around for the afternoon helping out in English and Art and meeting the new volunteers. It was great to be back in Sihanoukville and see the wonderful CCPP children again. It was also quite strange being back and we felt quite emotional with the ties that we had built.
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| Back on the CCPP Campus |
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| Kate visiting the Beautician... |
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| Reedy helping with Lunch |
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Being back we got an early introduction to the monsoon rains. We had a great night out with Jen having drinks in some of the old haunts and I nearly managed to lose our wallet but luckily I dropped it in Sessions and we got a phone call to say they had found it. Maybe we feel a bit too comfortable here!
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| Our first night out at the beach was a wash out. Hello wet season |
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| Catching up with Jen over a few drinks |
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| Back at Sessions Bar. Never normal. Part your bike where you want mate. Don't mind us! |
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There were a few visits that we had to do, especially on the food side which included beach BBQ at Kuren, Happy Herb Pizza, breakfast at Starfish and a visit to The Wall to see Dan.
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| Back to Starfish for Breakfast... |
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| ...in the relaxed garden oasis setting right in the town centre |
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| Awesome Pizza & it is OK to have an Unhappy Pizza |
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| We just couldn't return without a visit to The Wall to see Dan. For once we didn't hit the wall before leaving. Rock 'n' Roll |
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We also had to sample again the great steaks at Nick’s, New Sea View Villa where the good man treated us to a bottle of red, the first in ten months, it was divine. Cheers Nick.
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| A bottle of wine on the house and a delicious steak with blue cheese. Enough said |
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| Red Wine & not Beer. Ecstatic |
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| You forget how much you miss a tipple of wine. Even when your a Beer Specialist. Cheers!!! |
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I also had to throw in a couple more Cambodian beers that I had promised the last time we were here during the sampling evening if you can recall and this time we were going for the Stout category.
BLACK PANTHER, FOREIGN EXTRA STOUT, CAMBODIA, 8%ABV, 330ML CAN
Brewed by the Cambrew Brewery since 2000 here in our very own Sihanoukville, Black Panther Stout is named after the powerful symbol for strength, energy and health. It was time to step away from the blonde lager beers and into the world of Cambodian Stout.
Once poured the Black Panther had a lovely dark black/red colour with a good tan head. Sadly it didn’t last long and became a thin collar leaving no lacing as the beer sank down the glass.
The aroma was of burnt toasted coffee which carried on into the taste, which had hints of liquorice once it warmed up and some dark chocolate tones. The strong coffee flavour held and was the overriding flavour.
I did feel that for a stout the liquid was a little too carbonated and was lacking in body and creamy smoothness. It was far too easy drinking for the style of beer and the Extra 8% Abv.
Overall it was quite an enjoyable beer. It was nice to get hit with powerful flavours for once after drinking so much watery lager style beers lately.
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| Black Panther Extra Stout-It Pur's |
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ANGKOR EXTRA STOUT, FOREIGN/STOUT, CAMBODIA, 8.0%ABV
Angkor Extra Stout is the original Cambodian stout and as you will expect with the name is also brewed in Sihanoukville by Cambrew Ltd and it is quite strange that the company brews two beers of the same style with the same Abv. On the other hand it is probably a good idea in a market that is overrun with blonde lager styles.
The beer pours with a lovely dark brown colour, had a nice coffee head and leaves behind some lacing if only minimal. So far so good!
The aroma was not overpowering with hints of mild roasted malts and a chocolate sweetness. The taste had some malty sweetness, roasted coffee and chocolate. It had a nice balance and was not overpowered by a strong coffee flavour with a nice hoppy bitterness to boot.
Again it felt thinner than the 8% Abv and a little over carbonated but it did have a creamy edge and a clean finish.
Not bad at all for South East Asia and it does stand out above the other regional beers but at best an average stout. It is great to finally have a beer style alternative while following the backpacker route. It was even awarded a Gold Medal in Monde Selection, Belgium 2009
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| Angkor Extra Stout |
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Part of planning our return was a farewell league match for the Sihanoukville Lions FC. It was great to see the guys and the match turned out to be similar to the International in Phnom Penh as the monsoon rain hit. Ankle deep in water and covered in mud but good fun.
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| The Mighty Lions. What a Motley Crew. Thanks for having me :) |
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We managed to get a nice sunny day on the beach and revisited the CCPP centre before we had to leave which again was great, seeing the children and our friends there.
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| The sun shining down upon Serendipity |
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| Beer umbrella's sheltering the swarms of beach sellers & masseurs |
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| Our farewell visit to CCPP just in time for some group tunes... |
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| ...and some Drum & Bass |
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| The CCPP Nurse, Kate |
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| Contemplating our time in Sihanoukville & Cambodia |
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Our whirlwind stop was over and maybe one day we will return to Sihanoukville. Who knows what the future may hold.
BANGKOK
I don’t know if we said it before but the small beach town of Sihanoukville tends to keep people longer than they initially intended. There was something about the place that seemed to pull us back and this was reconfirmed when we boarded our day bus back to Bangkok, for some reason it took us one hour to leave the town and we passed Ocean Walk three times which was the place we set off from. The route back to Bangkok was supposed to be a direct bus but as we have come to realise this isn’t always the case.
The journey took us fourteen hours and included three mini buses and three big buses. When we arrived on the outskirts of Bangkok we thought how well we were doing because we hadn’t stopped to eat or drink all day and this usually makes me very ratty. We had met a fellow Aussie traveller on route and instead of being dropped off on Koh San like we were told we clambered off the bus into a dark old bus station somewhere on the outskirts of the city which turned out to be about 10km from our destination.
This is where things got a little hairy after how well we thought we were doing. As soon as we collected our bags off the bus, the three of us were collared by six armed police men and were taken into the middle of the dark car park where we sat on a bench and were told that our bags needed to be searched. At first this seemed a little odd but not a problem until one of the police men started questioning me asking if I had Marijuana in my rucksack convinced that I did, he then said that when he found it I was to say nothing. As this was going on another police man who was stood behind me said he might need to strip search me. The whole situation started to seem more serious than we first expected.
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| Six of these wanted to search our bags |
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They started searching our day bags, two police men per person and you could say it was a very thorough search opening every item, checking everything, including book pages and packs of playing cards. They were pulling things out of our bags and our stuff was all over the car park, it was dark and they were just using flash lights so no light room like you see in the movies.
You hear the horror stories and two things were running through my mind, one they had had a tip off and they thought we were someone else and two they were going to plant drugs on us and cart us off to the Bangkok Hilton. When I realised this I made sure we were watching their hands but this was difficult as there seemed to be hands in every pocket. My heart was racing and I have never felt so scared, they kept telling us we had come from Pattaya, which we hadn’t but they wouldn’t believe that. They could have seen our passports to see we had come from Cambodia that day but they were convinced we were coming from Pattaya and definitely thought we were carrying drugs. The thorough search carried on to our rucksacks where they continued to check everything. Being very intimidating this went on for about forty minutes. They seemed very disappointed that we weren’t carrying drugs and we think they had possibly had a tip off and had got the wrong people. Thank god our rucksacks are always locked in our flight bags.
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| Thought the three of us were heading for one of these |
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The whole experience felt surreal and we felt violated. They eventually let us stuff our belongings back in our bags hoping we had everything as the flash lights were only to be used for searching it seemed and not to collect our things. They told us to go and there was a taxi waiting at the gate which the three of us jumped in and headed to Koh San to find accommodation for the night as fast as we possibly could (Can you believe it but the Thai authorities didn’t check our passports, ask for our names or even what country we were from). Here we parted ways, not knowing each other’s names but sharing a scary situation together, one that I hope never to experience again.
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| Or maybe one of these. Luckily no Bangkok Hilton |
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We checked into MyHouse Guesthouse. Now being late at night we went for street Pad Thai having still not eaten all day before calling an end to the day with our heads still spinning.
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| My House Guesthouse |
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| Just enough time to post SEA souvenirs home before heading to the island with much lighter Backpacks |
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From Bangkok we were heading straight out back to the Island of Koh Tao for a weekend of Scuba Diving to celebrate Kate’s birthday. Not looking forward to more Thai travel we had to push on. South East Asia was coming to a close.
THE ISLAND OF KOH TAO
It was great to be out of Bangkok after what had happened and amazing to pull into the pier in Koh Tao. It was back to Scuba Junction and the guys had come to collect us. It felt like we had never been away and it was great to see everybody.
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| 4am in Chumporn waiting until 7am for the boat to Koh Tao |
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| Great place to wait though, The Night of the Full Moon |
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| Pulling back into Koh Tao, Nice |
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| At the port the welcoming committee in place |
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Now we were Qualified Open Water Divers our travelling pennies were a little short to complete our Advanced Course and we didn’t really want to study over Kate’s birthday so we will leave that for another time. We organised four fun dives over two mornings which were amazing. We were a little rusty but got back in to it soon enough with Gemma’s help. On the second day we took an underwater camera with us to capture the experience.
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| Back at our scuba home. Scuba J |
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| Time to get our equipment ready... |
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| ...ready for our Fun Dives... |
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| ...gear to the boats people |
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| Day 1, the Thai Navy were sinking a War Ship to be used as a wreck dive site |
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| Reed & Becker Open Water Divers |
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| Making my way through the Deep Blue |
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| Which Way to the Beach |
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| It's All Good |
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| Kate Just Chilling |
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| Little Nemo's |
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| Blue Spotted Sting-rays |
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| Wow!!! Turtle Power |
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| The Scuba Team-Kate, Johnny & Gemma |
On Kate’s birthday and after the dives were over we surprised her with a cake in the dive shop before getting ready for a night out.
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| Tapas & Cocktails at Moov |
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| Cabaret Time |
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| These 2 Lady/Boys just appeared behind the bar from nowhere |
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| Me & Justin a little out of our comfort zone, but at least he didn't have to hug a 'Performer' on the way out! |
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There was definitely no more scuba-diving the following day. Our recovery day before heading back to Bangkok started with a trip to the Greasy Spoon Cafe for a full fry up which did the trick and the afternoon was spent sunning it on the beach. A great send off because it will probably be a while before we enjoy the warm weather again. Australia and South America will be freezing...
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| Just what the doctor ordered |
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| Goodbye & we Thankyou, Greasy Spoon Cafe! |
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| This might be the last beach for a while. Nearly time for the winter woolies |
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We had an amazing time in Koh Tao and it was perfect that we had the opportunity to scuba dive again at Scuba Junction with Gemma and the gang. It’s a fab place to dive, highly recommended for the second time. Before leaving Turtle Island I will leave you with what my Singha Beer told me with thanks going out to Benjamin Franklin 'Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be Happy'.
BANGKOK TO BALI, KUTA
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| Goodbye Koh Tao |
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| We even passed Scuba J's Mantaray as we headed back to the mainland. Chao Gemma! |
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| Lomprayah High Speed Catamaran in full swing with Koh Tao in the distance |
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The race was on to get to Sydney in three days and we boarded the Lomprayah High Speed Catamaran to start our journey back to Bangkok for the fourth and final time (A little more expensive but in my opinion the best way of getting to and from the islands). We spent one day and one night in the city before catching our flight back to Bali. At least this gave us time to sign out of Thailand with quite a few more street Pad Thai’s, we are officially addicted.
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| Our Air Asia Aircraft. Bangkok to Bali |
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| Flying in over the coastline of Bali. Kuta here we come for the 3rd time... |
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To be honest it wasn’t great to be heading back to Kuta after being stuck there at Christmas. Personally I hate Kuta with a passion but apparently the rest of the Island is lovely we just never got a chance to see it.
The good thing was we were only there for a day the bad thing was the charges you have to pay to stay there just one day. Even though we had flown in just to catch a flight to Sydney we still had to pay $25 each for a 30 day Visa (Our 3rd) and 150,000 kip airport tax which enables you to leave.
However the sun was finally shining on the island and we saw an amazing sunset our final one in Asia so I will thank Kuta for that. <><><><>
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| The Sun Sets on Kuta Beach as the Surfers call it a day... |
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| Amazing Final Sunset in South East Asia |
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| A nice way to say goodbye to the Asian sub-continent |
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| Perfect. Thanks for following our Adventure but it is far from over.... |
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We were now ten months into our world adventure having spent two and a half months in India and seven and a half months in South East Asia. We had had the most amazing time and were nervous about the culture shock that Sydney may have in store for us. We were excited to soon be seeing Danny and Kathryn in Australia, our third meet on our year long World Adventure. We see them more travelling the world than we do at home with just the M42 (Leeds to Manchester) between us.
Well here goes nothing. A round up of South East Asia in just a few words...
...Fabulous, exciting, fascinating, difficult, tiring, fun, upsetting, poverty, children, cultures, traditions, corruption, armed police, interesting, transport hectic, traffic madness, busy, quiet, people (wonderful, friendly, rude, aggressive), scooters, temples, Buddhist Monk’s, buffalos, cows, rice paddies, orang-utans, elephants, Komodo Dragons, sand dunes, cities, beaches, islands, exotic, food, flavours, colours, noise, same-same but different, loads of beer, wonderful, DONE.
I will forever have wonderful memories of our time spent in Asia and all the wonderful people we met along the way who made the journey even more special so thank you to you all.
Now let’s crack on and look forward to what beer surprises Australia, Argentina and Brazil have install for us.
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