Saturday, January 16, 2010

Cambodia to Chiang Mai, Thailand

Ahhhh I have so much to write about and only an hour of internet time so I'm going to have to try to practice a bit of restraint and not write as much detail. (I know some of you are sighing with relief :) )



After I posted last time, we ended up going into Siem Reap's market area for dinner where we had a great meal at a place called Khmer Kitchen. Khmer food has a lot of Indian flavoring, with curry and other spices that aren't so much East Asian. The night market area was really crowded, mostly with foreigners from all over the place. From what I gathered, it consists mostly of three streets: one market street that has cars and bikes driving on it, one ally way that's fully pedestrian, and one bar street. They sell cool little silver trinkets, pirated DVDs, pretty little dress/sarongs, jewelery, and pretty much any other random thing you can think of.



The next morning we woke up early and had Mr. Lai take us to a place called the "Floating Village." I guess after the Khmer Rouge killed so many Cambodians, some Vietnamese people took advantage of the shortage of fishers on the Tongle Sap (the largest lake in southeast Asia) and moved in.. not on land, though, on the water. All the people live in boats or house boats that are tied to trees that grow out of the marshlands around the lake. They have little paddle or motor boats that they use to get around, and slightly larger retail boats often circulate around selling groceries and goods. The markets, basketball court, clinic, and even the school are all also floating and only accessible by boat. When we got to near the Tongle Sap we hired a boat to take us out with a guide named Mr. Tao. Mr. Tao had gone to university in Siem Reap and studied English and how to be a tour guide, so we really had the pros on our side. He took us to a large, multilevel floating marketplace to show us how they held fish and crocodiles there for sale (live! ahh!). He said the crocs go for about 3000 US dollars each and are really good for their meat and for shoes. We went to visit the school, where we distributed pencils (fresh from costco) to the kids. The teacher was Vietamese, but he said that in the afternoon they learn Cambodian. A Korean tour group who went before us had just handed out toys and candy so they were a little more popular, but we got some good pictures.

After that we packed up and left Cambodia. It was pretty hard to go. The people are just so nice and the whole atmosphere is so pleasant and relaxed. It's hard to believe there was ever war there.



We flew through Bangkok and ended up in Chiang Mai by late afternoon, where we checked into the Tapae Place hotel and went to the riverside to find a place for Dinner. Compared to Cambodia, Chiang Mai is shockingly developed. It's packed with cars and feels kind of like a typical Asian city. There are still Tuk Tuks that serve as the cheapest form of Taxi, but the motorbikes are built into the whole structure so its a bit different. The other popular form of taxi (other than a car) is a pickup truck, with two benches on the inside along either wall, and a roof over the top. The back of it is open, and there are two long windows that run along the sides. They drive on the left side of the road here, and very fast, so its kind of a startling ride as you're jostled around in the back of one of these vehicles.



Today we woke up and met up with our tour group in the morning, which consists of four Australians and one American girl. They all seem about mid to late range 20s, except a father and son pair. Our tour guide is a very enthusiastic Thai man named Tony, who adviced us not to wear tall leather boots as we trek, and told us that we shouldn't swim in G string bikinis (so we don't offend the locals). He's really funny and animated. He set us up to go to a cooking class for the afternoon, which ended up being out in the countryside in a really pretty, idyllic little place. Only 5 of us went, and we ended up cooking 4 dishes each: Phad Thai, Tom Yam Gong, Spring Rolls, and Green/Red Curry. Our instructur, named Golf, was great and there were helpers who prepped everything for us. Naturally because of our phenomenal cooking skills, the food was delicious and very artistic looking.



Tonight we went to a vegitarian Thai place that donates money to help preserve elephant habitats. It was also very good (although nothing can really beat our cooking from earlier). Later we checked out a local night weekend market that had all sorts of clothes, shoes, arts and crafts mostly selling to local people. I bought a cool lamp that's probably not at all practical. It's pretty though and is made out of leaves. Hopefully that doesn't count for veggitation in customs.. haha.

Anyway, I'm going to try to put some pictures on and post this before my internet time runs out (this hotel is a little less accomodating than Villa Kiara unfortunately.) We leave tomorrow for a 3 day trek into the hills! I'll write after that and hopefully have some pretty awesome pictures to post. Hope everything is going well!!! Miss you!!

2 comments:

  1. Hey Emily. It's your cousin Grace, from Canada. Remember me? Since your father told me about your blog, I decided to come check it out. I'm pretty sure you're having a wonderful trip and the pictures are amazing. I'm going to Seattle in March and I hope I'll be able to see you then. Best wishes to you and your family!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi, Grace! Nice to hear from you! This is a wonderful trip. Hope to see you in Seattle in March!

    ReplyDelete