Home via Singapore

Dinner at Lyn and Thor's hawkers centre

We hit Singapore a second time on this trip and again imposed on the hospitality of Lyn and Thor.  Lyn and Thor moved to Singapore 6 months ago from the Central Coast of NSW so that Thor could spend the twilight years of his career in exotic Asia. I have known Lyn and Thor since 1979 when they met as punters on a London to Kathmandu overland tour where I was the tour courier.
We headed straight to our Singapore home at Woodlands to see Lyn reclined with a slight injury, she had tripped and swan dived while showing her recently departed other guests around. In addition they were both getting over a bout of the flu, a souvenir that Thor brought back from a recent trip to New Zealand.
We relaxed, unpacked and soon after Thor arrived home from work. Lyn cooked us a beautiful meat and vegetable dish, our first western style meal in nearly a month.
The night was relaxing with a few beers and some nice wine on the upstairs balcony.  As we had been doing through South East Asia we headed to bed early.
We rose early the next morning for a swim in the resort/complex pool. That day was spent in the air conditioned comfort showing travel photo's of Cambodia and Laos. Lyn and Thor are in Cambodia as I type.
Lyn was still under the weather so Thor, Hilde and I took the metro and headed into the Marina Bay area of Singapore to watch the National Day Celebration, rehearsals. It is obvious by the people and the infrastructure in Singapore that Singaporeans do things properly. Their preparations for this annual event take over a month and several full dress rehearsals are done leading up to the event. This allows many people who can not squeeze in on the actual event the chance to participate in one way or another.

Thor holding up the most prominent landmark in Singapore, Skypark Marina Bay, or (big boat on top of the buildings)

 We took the lift up to the top of the big boat for a fantastic view over Singapore. When I was here in the 80's this was all harbour and has since been reclaimed. The building has not stopped and it is Singapore's showpiece.

Hilde and I atop the big boat, looking back towards the pool and Singapore's main docks. (thor)

 The view from the top of the boat is awe inspiring, construction of the new Marina Bay Gardens in the following picture. Also in that picture is the barrage, a dam like structure that holds out the seawater. This seawater bay was transformed into a fresh water reservoir.

The new Marina Bay gardens in foreground, the barrage centre and Keppel harbour in the background.

 We wandered around on top of the big boat for a while and intended to head to a harbour side hawkers market for a meal. A hawkers centre is an area set aside to eat, the diners can select their meals from a group of stalls where the food is prepared. For example you can get a dish from different stalls and retire to your table to feast in public. But, we could not get there as the roads to it were closed due to the rehearsals. Instead we went underground to the dining area below the Marina Bay big boat. It was not dissimilar to a western food hall.

The reservoir and the big boat at dusk (thor)

 After dinner we wandered around Marina Bay looking for a vantage point, during dinner we missed the army skydivers who jumped from a helicopter into the bay, but did catch the helicopters and fighter jets flyover, the also had a line of 7 artillery pieces firing off into the heavens. However the main attraction for the thousands of spectators was the fireworks rehearsal. The waters edge right around the Marina bay was 4 to 5 deep, with the front line itself was occupied by an endless line of tripods and camera's right around the waters edge.  It was an amazing experience, with this large crowd, not one drunk, rowdy or obnoxious person, no garbage dumped over every available piece of ground. It seemed that Singapore has a culture of politeness.

Marina Bay, the big boat, the big wheel and the fireworks. (thor)

 When the fireworks rehearsal was over I expected a crush of people to head towards the metro, as the metro and the bus system are the two main transport options in Singapore. But crush there wasn't we walked to the Station and away we went, obviously their were many more points of departure from the Marina Bay and all worked well. We arrived back at our Singapore home buggered, Thor went for a swim while we headed for the shower and bed.
 

The pool from Lyn and Thor's apartment, Thor is in the water to the left.

 Our last full day in Singapore was to be an easy one, we decided to take a taxi to the McRitchie Reservoir Nature Reserve walking tracks. Again what an amazing place, sitting in the middle of one of the most densely populated places in the word, total wilderness and not a sign of civilization. We came across several colonies of monkey's

Mother and child on the track

 Thor doing his duty.

A male alongside the track, looks a lot like Yoda, the star wars Jedi. (thor)

I was told to smile, resting  on the track.

 The walk around McRitchie

Across the road from Lyn and Thor's guesthouse is this little Hawker's Centre, we had lunch there on several occasions, this was our first dinner and we were not disappointed.

 On our last morning Hilde and i took the metro to Kranji War Cemetery, only a few stops from Woodlands. My mothers uncle, John (Jack) Matthews is buried here. He was a 24 year old corporal with the Australian 29th battalion during World War 2. His battalion became surrounded by the Japanese during a battle at Bakri in Malaysia some 150 kilometres south of Singapore. The Japanese were just about unstoppable during their march down the Malaysian Peninsula and the eventual capitulation by the British at Singapore.  After the 29th battalion was surrounded the commanding officer was killed and the remaining troops staged a breakout. Once that breakout was accomplished the remaining troops were told by the surviving officers to make their own way to Singapore in groups of ten men. Jack Matthews who had been wounded in the neck during the battle was in charge of seven men, 5 from his unit and two British gunners. All seven were captured near a  Kangkar village and transported north by truck to Sungei Mati where they were murdered by the Japanese and buried in a shallow grave along with all their equipment.  After the war their bodies were recovered and interred at Kranji. Some of remainder of the 29th battalion suffered similar fates, others made it to Singapore. The sister Battalion the 19th also became surrounded and had to abandon their wounded to the Japanese at Parit Sulong. The Japanese took custody of the 200 wounded mostly Australians mixed with Indian soldiers. The Japanese tied them together doused them in petrol and set them alight. Their remains dumped in a canal. Remarkably two escaped to tell the tale.

Jack Matthews grave bottom right, he is buried alongside the men who were murdered with him.

    Kranji War Cemetery is a short walk from Kranji Station, the cemetery contains the graves of 4,000 known allied soldiers, from Australia, Britain, India, Singapore and Malaysia and the Netherlands. There are 40,000 others with no known graves. 
   The visit to the cemetery was sad for many reasons, not just family but for the tremendous loss of life in the hands of a then cruel and inhumane people.

Outside the male toilet at Kranji Station, if you need paper you need to get it before entry.

The Kranji Station had a remarkable feature, outside toilet paper, if you missed it on your way in for a number two, you would be in trouble. I saw one young lady take about 5 metres of paper for her visit, she could have possibly needed that much, surely.

That afternoon we were lucky that Thor arrived home from work early to see us off and we headed to the airport for our final flight of the trip, again it was the spacious A380.

The End.

Siem Reap

As I mentioned before the Tuk Tuk was a beauty, he took us through Siem Reap to our guesthouse, Palm Garden Lodge. www.palmgardenvilla.com , a slightly different name, but the same place. The ride through SR was very different to what we had previously seen in Cambodia, it was clean and tidy and the streets were wide and seemed well planned. The last 400 metres to the villa was by a dirt potholed track through local housing. The Tuk Tuk jumped all over the place and we had to hang on tight.  The guesthouse looked neat and tidy and we met out hosts and moved in. That afternoon we walked into the old part of town and a section known as pub street, 50 cent draft beers signposted everywhere. It was looking to be a fun sort of place. We had a Cambodian lunch street side in a plush looking restaurant, I took the fresh spring rolls, Hilde had the Lok lak, a curry inspired dish with pork. Pork is one of the staple meats here, we see pigs alive and cooked being transported on the back of scooters all the time. After lunch we had a quick look at the old market and the nearby Central Market.
We were in for a shock, the stall holders went at us like rabid dogs hungry for blood. It was to be the start of four days of constant "Mr. Tuk Tuk?", "Madam, nice silver", "Sir, good food" The spruikers were everywhere and constant, mostly they received a polite, "no thank you." It was to get more severe from the scruffy little kids who worked the Angkor ruins, more on that later.
We decided on a USD$1 tuk tuk ride for the return trip to the guesthouse as the mud and water were not that appealing to us, the bouncing was better than the mud.

The tuk tuk from the airport had been arranged and provided gratis by the guesthouse, that afternoon we learnt that the driver did not receive any payment for that service, but hoped to be compensated by way of being our transport around the Angkor ruins. We had been keen to find our own tuk tuk guy who was fluent in English and we would retain for our entire stay.
Our guy knew a few basic words and had a family of 5 to feed and I believe this was to be his only chance this week to make any real money. We decided to go with him and arranged to depart at 8am the following morning.

Our tuk  tukguy arrived and surprise us with a different tuk tuk, old and raggedy. I asked where the other one was and he said that he had borrowed it and that this one was his.We also found that his child would be in the hospital all day, we took off to the Angkor ruins,

Our raggedy Tuk Tuk approaching the south gate to exit Anghor Thom 

 it was a beautiful ride and it was apparent that the entire area received attention to make it more appealing to the tourists. Most westerners toured in smaller groups either in mini vans, tuk tuks and pushbikes. We came to the entrance and found that we needed to pay either $20 each for one day, $40 for two or three days. We chose the three day option and a photo ticket was made and away we went. The ruins themselves are something else, too hard to describe in words, but the pictures should say it all.

A part of the overgrown Ta Prohm

We changed the route a little to avoid the coach loads of Chinese, Korean and Japanese who all haunted the ruins in large loud groups. The main Angkor Wat was bypassed and we headed straight to the South gate of Angkor Thom, this was most impressive, from there to Bayon, Ta Prohm and lunch near the Angkor Wat.

Another part of the overgrown Ta Prohm

Still another and the last part of the overgrown Ta Prohm

 By the time we made it back to Angkor Wat it was lunchtime, we sat in a roadside restaurant with a fresh fruit shake and a spicy local dish. By the time we were ready to walk into the Angkor Wat, most of the large groups had disappeared. We didn't have it to ourselves, but managed to avoid being smothered by the hordes.
The day was hot and exhausting, climbing all over and inside the ruins took it's toll on our energy banks. Not only the physical draining, mentally we were drained also. At each stop throughout the day we were swamped by people selling anything that could be sold. Children were the most numerous holding out trinkets, guide books and postcards, the tome was always the same, in a sorrowful voice, "only one dollar Mister/Madam"  Tiny barefoot children wearing just grubby shorts and torn tee shirts holding out a handful of postcards walking alongside counting off the cards in English, 1 to 15 and then they would start again repeating the process until either you caved in or started climbing the rocky ruins. One enterprising young lady kept repeating her sales pitch to me for various items, even stuff that she did not have but could get, finally I said, "sorry I want nothing" She said "Ok, I give you nothing, only $10."
All of the children would ask where are you from, when the reply "Australia" was made, they came up with G'day mate ect until one young guy said in a sorrowful voice, "the dingo took my baby"

Perverts are everywhere, this ancient wall statue provided the evidence, her bare breasts were polished smooth by the thousands of caressing hands

Hilde peeping from one of the windows on the highest Angkor Wat tower. The modesty Police were at the beginning of the staircase preventing entry to anybody who was too exposed.

The attention of people selling any and everything had been constant, as we left Angkor Wat this little girl stood silent holding her trinkets, Hilde made her selection, took what she wanted and placed a hand full of notes into her hand. She didn't utter a sound the entire time.

That afternoon we returned to the guesthouse to shower and change our sweat soaked clothes, we agreed to our Tuk Tuk guy for a second day as I could not say no to his look of hope when the question was asked. He was good though, we never had to look for him as each time we came from a site, he kept a constant watch for us and was headed our way with a wave and a smile. The tuk tuk guy was eager to look after us for the rest of the day, but as he had been receiving calls all day in regards to his sick child, we let him go and attend to her. In relation to child health I was to see over a dozen times during our stay, children being transported by scooter, tuk tuk and bicycle all with drips inserted in their arms with the accompanying adult holding up the intravenous drip bag on a stick. Dehydration must be a big problem with children.
The guesthouse had a small pool with nibbling fish, they attended to my sore feet for about a half hour before I headed to the shower and some fresh clothes.

A traditional Cambodian meal, all wrapped in banana leaf.

 We walked into Pub Street to check out a spot for dinner, we sat in one of the alleyways nearby, and enjoyed a local dish, all served in banana leaves.
The second  night was market night and we had great difficulty not buying the massive range of things on offer. Hilde was the selector and I was the negotiator. I found that without too much trouble I could get an average of 2/3 off of the asking price. After each purchase they always had a smile on their face, it was obvious they were still making plenty. I watched a group of Malaysians at a store and saw that the asking price by the stall holders was double that asked of us. A new era, either the Malaysian tourists are more wealthy or we westerners are much more mean.
That night we returned to the guesthouse, we had asked for one of the bedsheets to be replaced as it was old and worn and felt a little greasy, we found that the bed sheets had been replaced and the good one taken away, we now had two old and worn sheets, other than that the room was fine although not as good as any we had had so far.Our second tuk tuk day took us to a few of the different sites, the main ones Bayon, Angkor Wat and Prohm were done on the first day, the groups seemed to avoid the others as we mostly had them to ourselves. By lunch time we were tuckered out and headed back to town, the guesthouse was not living up to our expectations and as described in trip advisor. We found another one nearby, the rocky road would now be avoided. This guesthouse was only $10 per night more, it was of a 4 star hotel standard with a pool.
We wish we had found it earlier. We decided that our third day was going to be by pushbike, out tuk tuk guy was thanked and paid up. That night we struck up a conversation with a West Australian couple, they told us of their tuk tuk guy in Phnom Penh, how he had a facial disfigurement and rented his tuk tuk and bike for $5 a day, after a big days work he would be very lucky to clear $4. The couple felt sorry for him and bought him a brand new tuk tuk and a scooter to pull it, a cost of around AUD$1600. At about the same time this story was being related to me a smartly dressed young lad of around 13 was attempting to sell me anything from postcards, jewellery, tours, he went through his entire stocklist, each item "only a dollar" each time receiving my polite "no thank you" Until finally he said, "peace and quiet, only one dollar" He nearly got it for being so clever.
The next morning we moved out of the old and into the new Guesthouse, it was like a breath of fresh air, I wish we had done it as soon as we had some misgivings. The new guest house was Encore Angkor www.encoreangkor.com. It had a novel fire escape, the property had a large pool that was right alongside if you survived the jump into it, you them needed to survive the 30 large crocodiles, most over two metres in length. That croc pool was also alongside our guesthouse pool, although separated by a 2 metre high fence.

 Next door's pool and fire escape

 We hired pushbikes and headed back the the Angkor ruins, the roads were flat and had a great smooth surface.  When we were out there a tuk tuk guy saw me ride into a parking area and asked me if I wanted a tuk tuk, I said pointing at my bike, "I have a bike," he said the bike could come as well.

Hilde and I on our last day at Angkor Wat

 

 Sharing the roadway with other traffic between Angkor Wat & Bayon

Locals on their way to work at Angkor.

The entrance to the South Gate, Bayon.

The ride out to the ruins and back was around 15 kilometres, it was a very hot ride and it became hotter the more we rode.  Once we returned to town we needed something to cool us down, after a shower we headed across the road from the Guesthouse to a local restaurant. A mango shake hit the spot, the recipe was half ice, half mango flesh, two table spoons of condensed milk and two tee spoons of sugar. Blend it and there you have a mango shake.

A Mango shake

A small river ran through the old town, two new covered walking bridges spanned this river and local children used them to swim from and others  just sat and watched the world go by. This boy (below) equipped himself with some foam to aid flotation.

A local boy enjoying a swim with his swimming aids.

The recycling boy.

 We came off the bridge and saw this boy with his bike, fully equipped to collect waste paper and plastic, we saw numerous boys like him during our stay in Cambodia, obviously very poor and working hard for only a few cents a day. These boys never begged or tried to sell trinkets, they worked hard. I did as I had done with others, dropped a few notes into his hand for a job well done. For me it was the cost of a beer, for him a day or two's pay. A few minutes later I saw him buy a ice drink from a roadside stall using my money.

Probable brothers recycling returning from school

 Hilde and I returned to the Guesthouse to swim next the the crocodiles, (with a fence between us), I returned the pushbikes to the hire place and noticed the monsoon shower getting ready to sluice down the town, there was a slight sprinkle happening. On the way back I notice these two boys who were obviously headed home from school, it looked like they did some collecting to supplement their pocket money. It brought memories of my childhood with my younger brother Chris. I always had him carry the lions share. Here the older boy was even trying to have the little fellow manage the umbrella on top of the entire load.
Shortly afterwards the heavens opened and the rains came and the lights went out. The whole town lost power. Our last night in town was in darkness. We managed in the rain with umbrellas and our restaurant had a generator.

Breakfast on the final morning at SR in the Guesthouse forecourt.

That morning left SR on a cool sunny morning on a Silk Air Flight to Singapore for a last few days in South East Asia.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang went well, the formalities at the airport were a breeze and we took the airport taxi to our guesthouse, Muong Lao riverside. We were dropped at the Muong Lao guest house, but it looked nothing like the place I had seen on the website. The owner sorted us out and called a tuk tuk to take us to the Riverside version of the Muong Lao. The second one was as expected, on the banks of the Mekong river and our room had a balcony overlooking the river.

The Mekong view from our rooms balcony, in Luang Prabang, Laos

Our Guesthouse

That first afternoon we wandered about town and found our way, the rain came that evening and continued all next day. We climbed the towns sacred Wat located in the centre of town. The climb was very steep and constant, in the wet humidity it took it's toll. On the way down we ran into a small group of young monks. This town is full of Wat's containing monks, over 400 make the morning alms walk were they are given food by the locals and tourists, it is deemed to make you fell better when you donate. The young monks asked us to help with their English, when we agreed they whipped out their practice exercise books. The books contained their beautiful handwriting in basic sentences. These we corrected and helped them with some pronunciation.

Hilde helping her monk with mine closest to the camera.

At one stage my monk protested that Hilde was sitting too close to her student, they were sitting about 6 inches apart, he gestured them apart until he was satisfied with about a 12 inch gap. He said to me, "we are not allowed to have girlfriends."  That just showed their innocence, we were seated in a sheltered area within the confines of their Wat, at one stage 4 younger monks arrived, they were aged 10 to 13 years of age. They munched on snacks and when finished dropped the packaging into the garden and walked away. A big surprise!!!

The next morning the weather cleared and we gained a little freedom with our rental scooter. Rentals in Laung Prabang are expensive to the rest of Asia, Vientiane and Cambodia they rent for around 5 to 7 USD per day, at LP they are 20 to 25 USD per day. The story is that the locals are trying to limit the number of backpackers in favour of well heeled and better behaved tourists. 

Our rental at Laung Prabang.

The scooter took us out of town to a waterfall and a local weavers village, we were shown the whole process from the silk worms to the finished product.

A young Muong lady weaving at nearby village. 

After the village we headed right out of town, a ten kilometre slide on a muddy track to the elephant village. The ride out and back was very hairy, slipping and sliding through mud holes and avoiding collapsed sections of the roadway. We managed it ok although the bike needed a good clean. Here you can join in and learn to drive an elephant, take them into the river for a wash, or simply feed them some sugar cane. Hilde chose the lesser option, the big fellows frightened her. 

Hilde feeding an Elephant sugar cane. 

 The Mekong ferry driver and his very basic operations centre.

The Mekong ferry.

We returned to town for lunch and us we pulled up to our chosen restaurant the heavens opened and the afternoon downpour was hitting the town. Lucky for us the rain cleaned the bike and we remained dry. As soon as lunch finished the downpour ceased and we decided to cross the Mekong o the vehicle ferry. It is a very ancient thing that takes the odd car, but mostly scooters.  The other side of the Mekong was an eye opener, the opposite to what we had at Lunag Prabang. A short ride put us right back into the mud, this time up to our shins and the bike was now a nice Mekong brown. 100 metres of this was enough to turn us around back to the ferry.

T

The muddy track and the Local Police Station on the other side of the river.

We gave the bike back and arranged a boat trip up the Mekong for the next day, this was an organised day trip and we managed to find some others to fill our boat of 6.

The boat was a lot smaller and decrepit that what was sold to us. 

Our boat, boat driver and Captain at the wharf at the trips destination, a Buddha Cave.

The trip back.

Hilde handing out alms (Banana's) 

The next morning we were away from the guesthouse before 6am to get into position to see the monks parading for their alms though town. They came in groups of 30 to 40, a total of 400 monks. Each morning we were awoken by their drums at 4am. A large Wat is located right behind our guesthouse. 

An artists impression of the ceremony of the alms

Later that morning we headed to the big brother mouse store, an organization that helps with education in LP. Each morning they provide free English tuition to any person who wants it and at the same time they provide the opportunity for tourists to give that free tuition. In all respects it's a win for everyone. We both got a real buzz out of it, for me teaching was very new and rewarding, I can say my four guys taught me a thing or two also.

Trevor and his students at big brother mouse reading program

Hilde and her pupils

Our last days in LP we took in the last remaining sites. A short walk down the street was the oldest Wat. A van trip crammed with back packers to a waterfall for a swim and the customary photo's.

The local and oldest Wat in Laung Prabang 

A small part of the largest waterfall some 30 kilometres from Luang Prabang, a day trip with some backpackers 

Our time in LP came to a close with a short flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia, a Vietnam airlines Fokker that sat 78 and with only 16 punters aboard it was nice. Although they did cram us all into the same section in the middle of the plane.

At Siem Reap we were collected by a Tuk Tuk, one of the best I have seen.

The royal carriage

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