G'Day Maties!!

Well dear reader here we are in OZ ready to start the last leg of our London to Sydney trip and the penultimate country in my big trip.  Since leaving Vietnam a number of countries have been visited, one missed altogether and one where I spent only a day in before moving on.  We left Vietnam and crossed into Cambodia in what had to  be the quickest and easiest border crossing ever.  We paid $25 which was for our visa and also included a $2 facilitation fee (that's a bribe for those who don't know).  We left Vietnam and entered Cambodia in around an hour (result!).  From the border we drove (in an air conditioned coach no less!) and arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital, late in the afternoon.  We settled ourselves into our salubrious hostelry (matress on floor in a seven person dorm) and went to have a look around and plan what we were going to do for the next few days.

The first day was spent visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21 Prison) which was a school converted into Cambodia's most notorious prison in 1975. More than 14,000 people were tortured here before being killed at the Killing Fields; only 8 prisoners made it out alive!

 S21 Prison - innocuous looking init?

 

Classrooms and other rooms converted into cells

Pictures of torture victims

From the genocide museum we moved onto the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek which is where the Khmer Rouge killed many thousands of their victims during their four-year reign of terror. Today the site is marked by a Buddhist stupa in what is now a memorial garden.

Memorial Stupa which contains skulls and victim's clothes as well as other bits of skeletons discovered

Victims clothes

 

Skulls are displayed on a number of tiers in the Stupa

The next couple of days were spent looking around Phnom Penh and generally chilling out.  After reacquainting ourselves with our truck we drove to Siem Reap and Angor Wat.

 

 

 

 Phnom Penh

 

The Russian Market so called as it was frequented by Russians

The Angor Wat world heritage site contains a number of other temples and palaces in addition to Angkor Wat itself.  I found Angkor Wat a little disappointing as it is surrounded by pristine lawns rather than jungle as I pictured.  I much preferred Bayon and Ta Prom which is where Indiania Jones and the Temple of Doom was filmed.

  Sunrise at Angkor Wat

 Angkor Wat

 

 

 

 Bayon - heads are made up from carved blocks

 

 The Elephant Terrace

 

 

 

Ta Prohm - The trees are around 200 - 300 years old.  Angkor Wat was like this before being cleared and restored.

 

Siem Reap

So, what do you think of the trip so far?

It's the pig's bollocks!

 

 

It was raining so children play in a puddle while the sheep seek shelter

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some Cambodian Photos

As we drove through Campbodia to and from Siem Reap you could see that the terrain was much flatter and wetter than Laos and Vietnam we crossed over into Thailand and once again rough camped before arriving in Bangkok where my trip was interrupted by my having to fly home and say goodbye to my brother Simon who went on the ultimate journey.  I flew back to Bangkok and then onto Kuala Lumpa to catch up with the Motley Crew in Melaka just in time to do a major truck clean (well I thought it was major as we needed to use tooth brushes at times) in preparation for shipping the truck to Australia for the Darwin to Sydney leg of our journey.

Melaka

After my spending the sum total of one day in Malaysia we arrived in Singapore a bustling and vibrant city like no other we have come across so far in our journey.

 We tried to stay at this hotel but there were no rooms (at least that's what they said!)

 

 

 

 

 Singapore from the Flyer (taller than the London Eye - oh well!)

 The botanical gardens

 Singapore sunset

 The docks

I spent two days going around town.  Visited the botanical gardens, Sentosa Island (Theme Park), walked around China town and little India, got lost in a huge mall on Orchid Street (Grace's credit card would have taken a hammering here!) and went on the Singapore flyer which is purportedly the highest in the world as its 5m (or could be 35) higher than the London Eye. Didn't get time to see the zoo which is supposed to be the world's best but hey ho have to leave something for another time.

We left Singapore in the afternoon of our third day to catch the ferry to Batam which as you all know is one of the islands making up Indonesia and where we officially enter the country.  This was a relatively short trip in preparation for our 30 hour jaunt on the high seas to Jakarta. 

Singapore from the ferry (a little hazy what!)

...and after a little manipulation!

We landed in Batam late afternoon and didn't do that much as the island is pretty much a transit stop for people going to Jakarta by ferry.  There wasn't very much to see and do so I spent a day doing pretty much nothing until we left for our ferry crossing which proved to be quite enjoyable which to be honest wasn't what I expected.

 

Batam, a place of extremes

Kitch decoration  in reception at our Batam hotel (only good thing about it!)

Our ferry to Jakarta was a huge affair and rumour has it that it can carry 5,000 people.  It wasn't that full and whilst we were in third class which is normally pretty crowded I found that it was OK by comparison to the ferry to Manais in Brazil (see blog header picture for those sleeping arrangements!).

Claire looking forward to sleeping between Neil and John

After setting sail I spent a lot of time on the deck taking in the sea air, chatting with locals and meeting some interesting folk.  Whilst idling my time away I made small talk (I know not something I'm known for) with an Australian from BFN called Jiffy (what sort of name is that!) and a Scouser called Graham.  Jiffy doesn't really do flying and so is travelling by ship and road to see the world.

Jiffy is fairly early on into his trip and is planning on teaching English in Jakarta for a while before moving on.  He is taking tips and hints from Graham who is raising munny for WaterAid by visiting every country that is a member of the UN (around 200) without flying (check out his website) .  He started last year and has since gained a world record for the most countries visited in a year (133!!). When we met him he had around 20 to go.

Jiffy on the left plays accordian to while the time away, Graham, on the right, tends to plan routes

 Sunset on the ferry

 

 Jakarta

 

 Jakarta is known for it's street art (graffiti to the uninitiated)

 

 Jakarta side streets

 
 
Views from the train to Jogja

From Jakarta we took an 8 hour train ride to Yogyakarta or Jogja as it is fondly referred to.  This is a popular tourist destination with most people coming here to visit the temples of Borobudur and Prambanan but as I am not most people I didn't visit these places as am now trying not to spend any munny until I reach Oz.  I did spend the first day exploring the city and the second chilling. I preferred this place to Jakarta which was pretty much like most capitals the world over, dirty, smelly and uninteresting (to me at least).  We were lucky enough to be at Jogja in time for the celebrations marking the 254th anniversary of the founding of the city and the night time parade was really cool!

Jogja streets, a hive of activity!

254th birthday celebration parade

We left Yogyakarta at a respectable 10am little realising that the journey to Gunung Bromo was going to take 12 hellish hours in a cramped mini-bus with minimal stops on the way.  To say my arse was numb is an understatement of momentous proportions.  Gunung Bromo (or Mt Bromo if you prefer) is an active volcano and steams away merrily unfortunately an eruption was not on the itinerary so I only saw the smoking gun.

 

 Sunrise at Gunung Bromo

 

 

Mt Bromo is the one with the smoke coming out of it

Other than looking at the mountain bubbling away there wasn't very much to do for the day we were here but given the journey and early morning call I wasn't predisposed to do much anyway.   We were lulled into a false sense of security by leaving at a very respectable 10am for the 12pm bus to Bali little realising that the journey to Gunung Bromo was but a foretaste of the journey from hell that getting to Bali was going to be.  After changing from mini-bus to big bus and after a ferry ride and another 3 hours from the port we finally arrived at Kuta at around midnight with no where to stay (bummer!).  Lu did a sterling job and managed to get us a hostel so we were tucked up in bed (smelly and damp) by 2pm (result!!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

en-route to Bali

I only spent a day in Kuta which was quite enough thankyou.  If Bali is to the Australians as Spain is to the Brits then Kuta is like Benidorm and I was well glad to be out of there after but a single day.  That said, I was lucky in that whilst wandering around I came across a ceremony that either takes place each year or every 10 days I'm not sure which as my Balinese isn't up to snuff and the English spoken by the chap explaining to me what was going on left a lot to be desired but I shouldn't complain.

The crowd gathers waiting to see the show so to speak

 

 Tapong

 

 

 Watching the performance (seemed to have contained something funny in parts as people did laugh at times)

 

  Kuta is a surfer's beach during the day and party town at night (see what goes on in Benidorm for an idea of what goes on here.  Remember, what goes on in Kuta stays in Kuta

I haven't mentioned our accomodation until now as some has been really nice and others really rubbish but the Kuta hostel has to take the award for the most ingeneous way of dealing with drips from the ceiling we have seen thus far.  Whereas most hostels that have this problem simply ignore it, the Rita Hostel in Kuta has had some internal guttering fitted so that the dripping water was channeled to the bath or down the walls.  At least there weren't any drips!!

 Now the water simply runs down the wall!

 

Drips in the main room are channelled to drip into the bath.  It does have a plug hole after all!!

I left Kuta and took the night flight to Darwin arriving at 3am (in bed by 4!).  Spent the day getting some poles for my tent so I am now ready for the last leg of the UKtoOz element of my big trip.  Will report on that when I get to Sydney.


Truck News

A lot seems to have happened in the two weeks I left the trip in Thailand.  Chris and Rosie are confirmed as a couple (although they seem to still be in denial).  I base this on the fact that Lu seems to have put them in the same room a couple of times.  Chris and Christine are still 'good friends' but I think that is all there is to this as Chris has a Sheila in Melbourne.  Adam and Jenny have split and Adam has taken up with Nicky which is a real pisser for Jenny but at least she has Sarah for support.  Owen has left the trip and has flown to Sydney.  He has run out of dosh and needs to start earning again.  French Pauline is clearly devestated (not reaslly) but Sarah is happy so the world is in balance.

Lisa was hoping to travel from Jogja to Bali by herself as she has never done any soloing.  Her plans were dashed when she found Chris and Rosie on the same bus (not a couple? Ha!).  John M is looking to get from Bali to Darwin without flying but is having distinct trouble finding the shipping agents to find out about sailings (makes you wonder how Graham did it!).  James has apparently shown his true colours and 'made a friend' in Thailand and another two on the ferry to Jakarta (what's he going to do next we ask).  Neil has had enough and is now counting down the days until we get to Sydney.

Dell and Kim rejoined the trip in Jakarta after spending a number of weeks exploring Borneo and having a whale of a time.  A number of the Motley crew went straight to Bali from Singapore so missed the journeys from hell but that's there loss.  We should all be together again (bar the drop outs) in Darwin for the run to Sydney.

Matt (in Australia)
Phone Off
Thinking of you all (NOT!)