Western Thailand, Siem Reap, Battambang

I write this post from Battambang, Cambodia, having arrived in the country (Siem Reap, specifically) a few days ago, by bus from Bangkok. To be honest, I probably could have spent a slightly briefer total period in the south of Thailand, but I'm in no particular rush, the only real limit on my time being the mortality that, to a greater or lesser degree, usually looms on the horizon of my mind.

I did enjoy my remaining time for the most part; amongst other things I went for a day of rock climbing at Rai Leh beach in Krabi province, and went for a scuba diving daytrip around the Phi Phi islands. I don't know if I would go as far as to say that I was worse at climbing than I am at scuba diving, but suffice it to say that I was quite poor.

Overall, I found the south of Thailand a bit too resort-y for my tastes after a while, and Cambodia has been a welcome change in that respect - I've been enjoying the fact that it is somewhat less heavily developed here, which is in essence to say that the relative poverty translates into an enhanced backpacking experience for me. This makes me feel a bit guilty, but what else is new...

As I mentioned, I arrived in Siem Reap, gateway to Angkor Wat and associated temples, overland, by bus. I paid a little bit more for a direct bus, as opposed to switching buses at the border. This allowed me to leave my backpack on the bus while progressing through the various formalities, and also made it easier to avoid the numerous scams for which this crossing is notorious.

Siem Reap was really fun, I stayed at a great hostel with a pool, there's a great atmosphere in town and the free-flowing alcohol is cheaper than water (come to think of it, maybe that has something to do with the atmosphere). Obviously the highlight was visiting Angkor Wat et al, especially now that I've had some time to regain my appetite for temple-hopping. Even without knowing all that much about the history, a visit to these sites is an incredible, immersive, experience. One traverses steamy jungle vegetation, heavy with insects and birdsong, to encounter grand mossy towers, in various states of repair, often intertwined with the roots of ancient trees.

From Siem Reap, I took a boat to Battambang. The city, which is the country's second largest, can be reached by a 4-5 hour bus from Siem Reap, but I had heard fantastic things about the boat which takes a bit longer and is slightly pricier. The journey did not disappoint; we cruised along the river, scraping by trees and other vegetation submerged over the course of the long rainy season and passing countless floating villages, with children as young as four or five criss-crossing the river in small paddle boats. As the boat was full, a few of us had to sit up on top, where we were able to spread out and experience both the fierce tropical sun and the heavy, but thankfully brief, rains that are characteristic of this time of year.

Despite being the second largest Cambodian city, Battambang has a small-town feel and the riverside still boasts some picturesque colonial era French architecture. I took a great tuk tuk tour of the surrounding region with some other guests from the hostel, the highlight of which was a ride on the 'bamboo train'. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, faced with an almost total lack of transportation infrastructure, locals of this area began transporting goods and people along the disused tracks of a an old French train line from the 1920s. They used small bamboo platforms mounted on wheels from old tanks, powered by tractor engines, which could travel at speeds of up to 40 km/h. Today, goods are transported by road, but the bamboo train remains as a tourist attraction, and one can ride a seven kilometre segment from near Battambang to the next station on the line,and back again. Hurtling along the warped track was a truly unique experience and one I highly recommend. Sadly however, the line is due to be closed down in 2017, as a new Phnom Penh - Thailand railway line is being built. That said, apparently they've been saying for years now that it's due to close soon, so that information can probably be taken with a pinch of salt.

In sum, I'm really enjoying Cambodia so far, and looking forward to seeing the other regions (hopefully some beaches and trekking are on the cards).

Before I leave you with some photos, here's a short vaudeville routine you can perform with a friend at birthday parties and funerals:

Performer 1: "how do you say temple in Khmer?"

Performer 2: "wat"

Performer 1: "I said, how do you say temple in Khmer"

Performer 2: "wat is the way to say temple in Khmer"

Performer 1: "that's what I'm asking you!"

and so on and so forth, until rapturous applause ensues.

Love David

Temple ruins near Angkor Wat 

Ta Prohm temple 

A floating village 

Famous Battambang monument, relating to local folklore 

At the bamboo railway, as we stopped to dismantle our carriage to let a carriage going the other way get by

A Phare circus show. This is a show performed by teenage students of a foundation which runs an art and performing arts school for Cambodian children 

The Islands

After two weeks had elapsed, I once again found myself on a bus, thus triggering the Pavlovian blog writing response. I've spent the past fortnight in the gulf Islands of Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui, and I will briefly detail my experiences in each.

Koh Tao, the smallest of the three, is fairly compact and filled to the brim with diving schools; as I mentioned in my previous post, the PADI course was my main reason for visiting. Truth be told, I didn't do much there apart from the course, as I was quite exhausted at the end of each day and didn't have much energy to explore. As for the course itself, I found it quite challenging. I'm a poor swimmer and rather out of my element in and under water, like a fish flying an airplane, or a squirrel flying an airplane, or a cream cheese bagel flying an airplane. My life priorities changed for the duration of the course as my vague, back-of-the-mind daily goal of not drowning took on a greater immediacy. I was probably among the worst students they ever encountered, but I completed the course by the skin of my teeth. Hopefully the skill will come in useful during the remainder of the trip.

After Koh Tao, I hopped to Koh Phangan (well, I hopped to the pier, and took a ferry from there). Koh Phangan is best known for the full moon party which takes place like once a month maybe? I gather that the island fills up considerably around the event, especially during the peak tourism season. By design, I was there in between parties, and it was ideal - there was no need to constantly fight the crowds, but there was a decent amount of people at the hostel to hang out with. After the relative hard work of the PADI course, I spent my five days on Koh Phangan relaxing intensively, mostly at the beach and the beautiful inland lookouts, and altogether it was my favourite of the three islands.

I moved on to Koh Samui, the most developed of the three islands, mostly to go to the Chabad house for Rosh Hashana (Jewish new year) though I stayed for a few days afterwards. I went there for some of the meals and a bit of shofar (detached ram's horn used for ritual purposes) blowing. It was a bit large and impersonal and though people weren't unfriendly, I didn't find the atmosphere particularly conducive to conversing with other guests. Part of the fun of traveling is engaging in armchair/deckchair sociology. It's interesting to speculate why certain countries have strong backpacking cultures and others don't, even when superficially they are highly similar (eg. Germany as compared to Austria, the Netherlands as compared to Belgium). In a similar vein, people from different countries travel differently. From what I've seen so far, Israeli backpackers are much more likely to be in couples or small groups, and prefer to stay in bungalows or guesthouses rather than in hostels. In any event, I was feeling a bit under the weather over Rosh Hashana and the following couple of days, which definitely (negatively) affected how sociable and outgoing I felt. For the same reason,  I didn't do too much on Koh Samui, except for a speedboat trip around the Angthong Marine National Park, which included snorkeling and sea kayaking, and was a lot of fun.

Based on what I had experienced in Bangkok, I had been worried about the weather. Luckily, I've had mostly sunshine and clear skies since then - it was completely dry over the past two weeks, save for an hour or so of rain, and I can only hope that my good luck continues in Krabi, on the Andaman coast.

The plan is to spend another week or so in the south of Thailand and then depart to Cambodia. Monday will mark the longest period of travel I've ever undertaken, and I feel like I'm heading into uncharted waters, but it's going well so far and I'm feeling good about it. I'll try and post again soon, and my next post may contain an explosive revelation in connection with the US presidential election.

Jews - have a happy new year, gentiles - continue the existing year happily.

Love David

A small representative sample of photos: