Siem Reap &Temples of Angkor,Cambodia Jan 2013

Tarzan Bundolo

Now i'm in Siam Reap. From there i was hiring tuk tuk-driver and was going to see Temples of Angkor.

Of source i wanted to go early in the morning to get nice sunrise picture and i was day before googling tips where to take pictures and so on. Of source i thought that i go straight to temple of Angkor and take there sunrise picture but i was reading on some blog that its not worth it: blogger said that if you go there there will be many buses of tourists taking pictures so taking unique picture without tourists is almost impossible. And that was true: when we did get closer to Temple of Angkor in 5 am i saw 1 kilometer long tuk tuk-train going to temple of Angkor and i was happy that i was picking smaller temple for sunrise picture, called Phnom Bakheng.

We go past tourist line with my driver and come down the hill where is bath to temple of Phnom Bakheng. I jump out of tuk tuk and start walking dark path with headlight. Atmosphere is calm but little spooky, middle of jungle alone with headlight. Crickets chirps and from jungle there is shining eyes looking at me, i thin
k it was cat, i hope so!!! (And mean small cat, not big one) 

I reach top of the hill and see first silhouette of temple against dark sky and getting more and more exciting. When i reach temple i'm excited like little boy, wondering around :)

First i think i'm totally alone but down the hill i see already another light coming this direction.

I try to take couple pictures in the dark but still too dark for my camera, they all just black.

I go around temple trying to take photos until i see stairs top of roof to temple. 

I go up the stairs and see that i'm not only one but no problem: against of hundreds of people in Angkor here is less than 10 people. Atmosphere is calm, still exited. Still even people there, no one speaks, just like atmosphere would crack just little noise and i feel big guilty for making too much noise just opening my bag's zipper :D

I listen sounds of jungle same time when sun is slowly rising and i start to see more clearly temple.

sunrise picture

Usually i'm lazy to take pictures but now i was so exited to see temple that i go around taking pictures like crazy. 

Others take pictures also in silence and between everyone there is understanding without words, they go out of picture even you don't say anything.

Sunrise was beautiful and i get taste of whole temple area, very active place, i feel like Indiana Jones :)

Sun is already quite up and i'm happy that i was more calm place taking pictures than Angkor. I take last pictures of temple and go back to my driver and heading to another temple.

So there i was going around temples 3 days and it would take eternity to write all of them and of source i was visiting Angkor wat which was most effective temple but whole area have must been very massive and fancy when there still was action!!!

When i was going around i had 3 days same young driver so i get know him better and we be friends.

So we spend a couple of evenings together between exploring area.

We went to local bar and i was laughing his friends singing (also driver) and next day we went swimming some locals beach and there came some local couple that my driver knew and a couple girls also. So we eat chicken, fish and rice that this couple brought with them, very good spices on food, were swimming and chilling in hammocks :)

After that we went to local disco for dance and that place was cold as freezer, don't understand why it has to be ice cold air con? (And i'm Finnish ice swimmer so i know what i'm talking about...)

But i was already booking to bus ticket to another town because still was harassed Siam Reap's crazy amount of tourists and was already seen enough temples so after disco i say good bye for my driver and he was really disappointed, would wanted me to stay longer. I say that if i some day come back we see again and pack my things ready for tomorrow and go sleep wondering what this trip is heading me to? :)

From Laos to Cambodia, Jan 2013

Ok. Last time i was in Thaek Khaek when i was writing my blog. From Thaek Khaek i was travelling on that 4000 islands without problems. That was quite paradise after cities (i don't mind cities so much) even there was more tourists that i thought.

Of course i was selecting smallest island that i found on my quidebook to avoid lots groups of tourists who lived on main islands. Of course there was them also and dream about little fishing village wasn't complete but still very nice place: bungalow with hammock just besides Mekong river, so perfect place for chilling :)

Just Reggae music on, to hammock chilling and from there taking pictures sunset and river with fishermen throwing nets on Mekong :)

Fishermen on Mekong

From Fishing village

This fellow i found there also :)

Kids with local sledding :)

then they saw me and "HELLOOOOO" <3

I was renting bicycle and was exploring island and there was really oriental houses around island when you just went further from tourist area so it was really cool :)

There was also couple nice waterfalls and small fisherman village another side of island that i had to check. 

On next day was exploring with bicycle again next island which was little bigger but quite similar than mine island except there wasn't fishing village, just tourist bungalows, beautiful place still.

So next days went with bicycle exploring places an from time to time had to use also hammock of course and one day i was trying tubing, means floating on Mekong river with big tractors inner tube couple kilometres, can there be more relaxing? (Maybe in hammock, yes)  water was streaming slowly and beautiful landscape, nice experience :)

When i get to shore back to my place i meet my boat driver who was taking me to start point on upper stream. He stands on shore wearing sunglasses and i also have sunglasses. Similar cheap plastic classes im wear that my driver but some reason he likes mine very much. So suddenly i ask him does he want to change classes? He was totally exiting so we changed classes and to me he was looking James Brown after that so. Say that to him and he laughs. I start to call him James Brown and he keep classes even shadows above house, i ques he really liked them. I got so good mood that you can get someone so happy with cheap sunglasses :)

Mr James Brown with my classes :)

When i had been about week on island i decided to go trying home stay in that fisher village another side of my island because during my bicycles i saw sign for home stay in that village and that was nice experience. I think i was just a few of tourists that spend there more time than just quick visit.

Houses were typical way built over pillars so first thing after leaving my bag on house was going down and putting my hammock on pillars and taking a nap

Kids wondering my hammock :)

First thing i realized after waking was little kids surrounding me and wondering my hammock. So i was taking pictures of them and showing pictures on kids and they were really exiting :)

On evening i was eating dinner with my family there. Food was good but local people doesn't choose parts of chicken like we do here, they just cut chicken to pieces and cook it like that. So that was still new to me that you can have bones and cartilage and stuff like that on food.

Experience having dinner was nice although language barrier was quite bad because basically they didn't speak English at all, i was showing them pictures about my family and that was quite it our conversations, rest of evening they watched tv and i was little bored because couldn't even understand tv.

Kids from home stay

On morning i thought that on prize was including some kind of breakfast also and when i tried to beckon man of the house that he was first confused, then his face brighten, he goes to another room and come back with beard razor :D So i don't have so good skills with speaking hands :D

I could have been longer time there but after week on island i have started thinking of continuing to Cambodia and fate (or more like currency situation) comes back on game again. I noticed that i'm running out my local money and didn't want to change anymore to more Laos money so i decided moving towards to Cambodia next morning. So i tried to thank my family, go back to tourist side and book bus ticket on next morning to Cambodia.

When i go on evening to my bungalow i noticed that next bungalow of me have moved 2 nice guys and was chatting with them long time on evening and suddenly find out that other guy is same aged man from my hometown in Finland. These guys had meet during trip and both were moving on next morning also but different directions. But this Jussi (Finnish guy) was also heading to Cambodia on morning so next day we traveled with same bus.

Jussi was more hurry on travelling so i think he went straight to Phnom Phen but i wasn't so hurry so i stopped straight after border to Stung Treng. There i was couple of days, seeing just couple tourists so hanging with locals which was nice :)

From there to Kampong Cham, couple days there and then Kampong Thom and then towards Siem Reap and temples of Angkor :)

Sa Bai Dee Laos, Laos Dec 2012

Ok, so now im in Laos. The whole trip from Pokhara to Vientiane was little adventure.

I was suppose to have flight to Laos in local time 13.50. But first i had to fly from Pokhara to Kathmandu during same day. My flight from Pokhara to Kathmandu was about 8 am and was suppose to take about 40 minutes so enough time i was thinking..... How wrong i was!!!!

I didn't have so much experience that time yet about local transport, if i would know i would be traveled day before by bus from Pokhara to Kathmandu.

Of source it didn't go like i was thinking at all. They were saying me that plane to Kathmandu can be little late but thing was that it was suppose to go around 8 am but because bad weather it started about 12 pm and my international flight was 13.50 so not so much time.... 

So i was really concerned do i miss my flight to Vientiane and didn't help my spirit at all some discussion last evening....

Last evening i was meeting another traveler, a young girl who was saying me after hearing i fly with local plane: "you are really brave flying with local plane" 

I was answering -"why?" -"because every time i have been in Nepal i had heard local plane crashing"

Excellent!!!! - i thought..... But as you can see i'm still writing and from Vientiane so i didn't crash or miss my flight....

Next adventure was in Vientiane when i was coming there about 9-10 pm and i was suppose to have driver from hostel to pick me up. But of source he never didn't show up :)

So i was thinking i have to change local money and take taxi. But of source changing office was close so late. So changing plan, i was thinking of using just atm. Which of source was broken also.

So i was thinking that i have dollars still but would be easier to use local currency on taxi so what to do?

Luckily there was also some German girl with same problem than me so we joined together.

She had money to taxi so we were planning to take taxi to another atm to get more money.

So we went to atm with taxi and was letting driver to go, i was thinking of continuing with tuk tuk.

Stupid mistake let driver go, i realized after atm that in that time no tuk tuk or taxi anywhere anymore and all places was closed already, it was quite late already.

But German girl said that she can send message some l friend who would come there and use his local phone to call hostel. But they answered that they cant pick me up even was agreement.

But this local man was offering to take me to hostel with his motorbike if just get some info where is hostel.

Of  source it was too hard woman for hostel giving instructions in English but luckily some local man came to talk with hostel woman and they send me motorbike from hostel to pick me.

So after couple nights i was moving slowly towards south Laos, heading to 4000 islands because was reading about that place and it was yelling my name :)

First Vientiane to Paksan, night there, and from there i was randomly taking bus ticket to Lak Sao because i was thinking that from there i was easy to go to Kong Lo cave.

But on way there i was looking map and realized that Lak Sao is too far from caves and no point to go so far. So i was making quick decision of jumping off bus before Lak Sao, i didn't even know where i was, just in some really small village :D

Village was to me quite oriental and i was thinking i could be longer there.

There was just couple turist there, a French couple, who were planning to go Kong Lo cave in next morning. So i was asking to join them on next day, i just had to change more money  because low currency again.

So next morning i was heading to only bank of village on 8 am. 

But it was closed. So i was asking local man when it opens. He said "today is Saturday so its close on Saturday and Sunday" 

But on bank there was only atm of village and surprising to me again, it didn't work me again!!!!

So i was calculating that i have just couple hundreds of dollars that i thought no-one can change there  and no local money. So i was thinking that i have to go next town to change money and leave that village. So i was asking local "bus station" that what time there is jeep going to Thak Khaek and they said its going 9 am. And clock was 8.45 am. So military style action, packing quicly everything and heading to Thak Khaek with Pick up jeep :)

On that village was little turist info still where i was meeting this Finnish girl Efe who had doing climbing about year. She was doing motorbike loop from Thak Khaek and stopped there. So Efe was saying that if i'm coming to Thak Khaek we could go to climbing and because i have done that years i agreed.

So i was turning lost of little village to victory and searched Efe from Thak Khaek and we decided to go climbing for 2 days. And it was 24-25th day of December, so in Christmas time i was hanging with rope, lol :D

But Efe was suppose to leaving already 25:th day heading back to Finland so i was staying alone one more night because it was idyllic place with bungalows and rock walls.

But this morning i came back here in Thak Khaek and now i have to plan what i do next. 

But that's next story.....

Annapurna and Thorung-la Pass, Nepal Dec 2012

So last time we were on Manang (3540 m) 5-6th trekking day so you can get used to highs. For me i was getting used to high again with my old friend, diarrhea :D Of source you wanted to know that again :P but that was just one day and nothing serious.

On 7th day we continued Manang to Yak Kharka where we supposed to stop lunch. On way to Yak Kharka there is people coming down because altitude sicknes, just to remind us that mountain wont surrender easily.

But we were stopping on lunch in Yak Kharka and from there continuing to next village for night, Ledar.

But on way to Ledar our loving father of nation, Vesa, who had started to get lung problems again, which he was suffering before trek and was starting to get really tired because didn't get oxygen so well.

But we were fighting to Ledar (4200 m) where we were night.

And 8th trekking day we continued Ledar to Thorung Phed, was nothing specific happening that road, of source view was awesome :)

In evening we reached Thorung Phed (4450 m) knowing that next day would be most challenging day of trip, passing thought Thorung-la Pass!!!!

So 9th day we were woke up 3.30 in night, breakfast and 4.30 hiking on cold night with headlamps, towards to Pass!!!

We had to start so early because on top you should be before mid day because of weather.

From 4450 meters to 5416 meters was plan so about 1000 meters going up on those hights, i can say that was little of oxygen!!!!

Lifting spirit was also knowing that it would be 9 hours climbing before next meal. So hardest training i had made maybe ever!!!!

But no point complaining, just climbing and about 2 hours after sun was also rising and view of that on those altitude was awesome :) But climbing was feeling to continuing life time and last 200 meters up i was climbing just with pure rage and Vesa was looking like he could fall on ground on any minute and molder there.

But eventually we reached top and feeling was good because we made it, was easy to smile even we started to get headache because of altitude. On last day is no more than couple of pictures because on top was so cold that camera was complaining about batterys, so i was just getting few pictures.

So me, Vesa and Vesas wife Enni were drinking tea on top and we started to climb down steep road towards Mukhinath, next village to stay night.

Even they said headache would be easier when going down it really didn't, was just feeling worse, so it was taking little mood but just taking medicine and it was ok.

After 9 hours of climbing up and down i was really hungry and legs was so tired that they were shaking if you stand still :D

So after eating we continued to Mukhinath ((3760 m) and on village there was advertisement of Bob Marley-guesthouse. So you can ques that i wanted there for night and really, RASTA KNOWS!!!!!

Of source there was most of trekkers who you were meeting on road during days of mountain!!!!

So feeling was awesome because all had reached Pass and everyone was asking how was passing and were thinking about peoples that haven't seen for a while. And were hearing hero-stories little less lucky trekkers: one girl who had hurting ankle before Pass and was forced to rent horse to get top, but because too hard horse to go down another side of mountain she had to fight down hours with bad ankle.

And another girl was having so bad vesicles that was trying to reach top just with socks before one couple was giving her sandals to get top :D

From Mukhinath we stopped walking on 10th trekking day and were taking Jeep to Jomsom (2720 m) and from there bus to Ghasa (2010m) 11th day from Ghasa to Tatopane with bus with plan to relax on Tatopanes hot springs a couple of days and surely we did it, just relaxing on springs, eating, sleeping and back to springs :)

Thorung La-Pass (5416 m)

Tea on top

Our guide

So after couple of days we returned here in Pokhara and on way back was meeting one American guy and last evening was celebrating with him and a couple of our guides of victory.
So that's it, now i'm planning to leave Vesa and Enni to their one year trip and continuing solo somewhere warmer country, Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos, don't know yet but you will hear next time :)

Annapurna circuit trek. Nepal Dec 2012

Ok. I think it's 5'th day in mountains. In beginning we were leaving on morning from Pokhara with local bus. Was experince to go misty roads with locals. Someone was carrying living rooster on plastic bag and i got the feeling that now we are going like locals do :) First was about 4 hours on bus and after that we waited to get Jeep. We were waiting about hour and were seeing hilarious view of 2 male cops walking hand to hand, nightsticks another hand. Local custom here is that men can walk hand to hand and also women, but not couples :)

So Jeep ride was taking maybe another 3-4 hours and on road we were stopping to help locals lifting up heavy transformer with the rope :) 

After that we continued for a while narrow and bouncing mountain roads, sometimes was little scary to see that about half metre was huge drop down from hill :)

First night we were spending on village called Chyamche (1430 m). On morning we started 6 hours hiking to next village Bagarchap (2160 m) 

After night there continuing to Chame (2670 m). Hikes on day was average 6 hours and on Chame it started to be quite cold because there is not so good insulations and warming on houses so we were sitting on Chame in my room, feeling cold, sitting under same planket on my bed, hot water botles on feet, and also dark because electricity went of. So we were sitting there with headlamps, feeling cold that we were paying really mutch to get cold and dark room :D

Shower

Toilet

Showers here are mostly cold rooms where you can get hot water if you imagine really hard or then you mix water with buckets and all the time is cold :D

On mornings pipes are so frozen that you dont get water, you just have to wait sun to open them :)

And when you wash laundry on cold water and all the time is cold it takes 3 days to "dry" your laundry, was just frozen underwear and socks on back of my backpack :)

But that was totally worth of it!!!! Seeing sunset in mountains after day hiking, with feeling no hurry anywhere. Being with people who still live naturall life middle of mountains. Seeing kids playing nose running in frosty ground in morning when starting to hiking again....those moments were like a dream, i thought soon im waking and going to work doing work that has no meaning.... but that was real!!!!! 

Even those moments when i was going middle of night freezing to toilet that was outside....but stopping to see millions of stars middle of the night, alone, and everything so quiet!!!! All those moments have made permanent mark to my hearth....

But to be continued...

 from Chame we continued to lower Pisang (3200 m) where i had to buy fleece pants because i was afraid i dont survive with my clothes :) 

From there we came here  Manang (3540 m) where we suppose to be this evening and tomorrow day, just get your body used to hights. 

So our trip is heading to highest point whitch is 5416 m high but i tell that later then, this is just raport that im alive and freezing to death :D

Cluster bombs and Pokhara, Nepal Nov 2012

So now happened also to me something that hasn't happened before on trip. I mean whole group did get Delhibelly aka sprinkler rectum, i mean diarrhea!'!!! For me it started a couple of aggressive vomiting and after that different types of cluster bombs on toilet. But for me it wasn't still so bad, just after eating stomach is like washing drum because there is some unwanted program is taking rotations and going toilet is easy because you don't really have to work there.

But part of expedition group (read Vesa) was taking that little more professional and was one night visiting on hospital local Dr Bombay aka "healing for the nation" aka "how may i heal you?" 

Doctor was so qualified that we did get Vesa better so we could start planning moving to Pokhara. 

I was ready go many days ago and leaving Kathmandu but because diarrhea we were forced to be longer on Kathmandu. Nothing more on Kathmandu than little shops and everywhere dust and dirt.

Well yesterday we came here in Pokhara, trip was taking about 7 hours with trembling bus over the mountains and immediately was better feeling because you did see something else than dirty town, finally something green!!!!!. Jungle on the slope on mountain and down was beautiful stream and country side 7 hours, not so bad because of view. And when you did see first shapes of big mountains with snow on top i was really getting exited!!!!

Well we were staying on Pokhara on little idyllic hostel, running by nice guy, Hemanth :)

So yesterday evening after dinner and nap i went walking on beach of the lake. (About 400 meters from hostel) 

So when i was enjoying the atmosphere on dark lake, watching  reflections of light on water and seeing all the stars i was really getting happy :) 

And this morning i was eating breakfast on roof of the hostel watching snowy mountains and sky gliders. Now i start feeling that i am finding here what i'm looking for :)

Now plan is start to make preparations to Annapurna base camp trip :)