Bangkok, Siem Reap and Ankor Whaaat?

I am happy that we started off our little Asia adventure in familiar Bangkok, since we were there only 1,5 year ago, if only for three nights. At that time, we only had 10 days holiday and we were really on “holiday mode” and not on a “travelling mode” at all, we just wanted to go to our beach at Koh Chang haha. We did not discover anything of Bangkok then, it was such a culture shock (first time in Asia). This time we told ourselves that we need to toughen up and just throw ourselves out there. I think we succeded! For one thing we actually saw more then just one road, haha. 

Last time we actually thought that we lived by famous koh san road but eeeh, apparently not, we discovered that we didn’t even visit Koh San road last time we were here, we were strolling up and down Soi Rambuttri like two idiots last time thinking we were at famous Koh San. Jesus. Okey but this time we actually did visit Koh San (don’t really understand the fuss), we walked around in new blocks, walked to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho (sooo pretty, gotta love the Reclining Buddha) while on our way there at least 5-6 men shouted at us “you know its closed until 1 hee!?”. We read about this before, that people will stop you and tell you Wat Pho is closed so that you will do something else (which benefit them) instead.

We are travelling here during the low season which entails lower prices, less tourists but SO HOT weather. And then we are not only talking about high temperatures but the MOIST. It is around 85 % luftfuktighet  (eh, whats the English word? Moistyness feels very wrong). Erik handles the heat better than me, maybe because I have more fat to process especially around my hips haha.  After each time I’ve been outside I can literally squeeze out 1 liter of sweat from my clothes. I can drink 4-5 bottles of water and not even have to pee because I sweat it all out! Very practical come to think of it.

Two days ago we took the infamous land crossing between Thailand-Cambodia. Both of us were a bit anxious about this trip, because the Internet and Lonely Planet warn tourists that this is one of the most scammed areas in the south east Asia region. And sure, when we stepped out of the bus by the border hordes of men was telling us to “Go this way visa”, which was the completely other direction than what the big sign “Passport control” showed. Well, if we just ignored the people without an official uniform and just follosed the signs it was a fairly smooth process. We took the 8 hour direct bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap with Nattakan which was brilliant. We got breakfast, water, ice coffee, juice and lunch on board and the same bus waited for us after the visa procedure. Amazing!

We both love Siem Reap, a perfectly sized city with friendly people. Yesterday we visited Angkor Wat, which everyone do if they visit Siem Reap. For 15 dollars you have your own TukTuk driver for the day who waited for us by every temple. I first thought we could just walk around there without a driver or a bike but helloooo am I an idiot or what. It is so massive there, several kilometers between every temple. The Ankor Wat itself was the most impressive temple, so massive. We went to the top of the temple (the worlds largest religious building) and here is were travelling in low season comes in hand, because we waited in the queue for like 3 minutes and during high season one can wait for 40 minutes which is insane. We are both really happy to have visit Angor Wat but honestly, 1 day was enough for us. Many people buy a 3 day pass and I can just not relate to that (feels like a sin to say that out loud).

Tomorrow we will take a minibus to the capital Phnom Penh which takes like 6 hours. Looking forward to PP and another crazy intense city. There we want to go more in depth about Cambodias tragic history, visit the Killing Fields among other things. It would feel wrong to be in Cambodia or in Vietnam for that matter without gaining more knowledge about events that still shapes and shakes the people,

Oh, so pretty, eeeh not. Tourists tourists tourits everywhere :) Here at Grand Palace

The very beautiful Reclining Buddha

A sweaty couple at Wat Pho

So THIS is apperently Koh San Road. Woops.

The moment before an intoxicated Erik eat 1/3 of a scorpion

The face of Regret.

Phone quality- really happy we bought a camera before this trip. Here going through border control and getting a visa on  arrival.

This for us on the bus was a major luxury, haha 

TukTuk through Siem Reap

First Cambodian meal! Travelling for me is ALL about the food, yuum.

In Ankor Wat

Monkeys in Ankor Wat, showing their teeth to idiotic tourists coming to close. This picture was zoomed in, believe me.

The moment my pants ripped in half and we had to run to the closest market stand. Second pair in 3 days, no joke! I am apperently no Lara Croft ;(

Trying to take an "authentic" photo in Ankor without the hord of tourists is difficult. And this is even low season. 

Our take on an "authentic"photo where no other tourists are visible :P

Wow!

Such cool and magical place! A favorite :)

Byron Bay and its surrondings....

Tonight is our last day here in Byron Bay, we leave tomorrow after a full week in this beautiful, small, surfer/hippie paradise. I think of all the spots we have visited so far on our little journey this place has won a special place in our hearts! I will just let the pictures speak for itself below. I just realized I never took any pictures of the town center itself, but weeell it would not have shown any justice anyway! Just imagine many cozy (apparently my favorite word throughout this blog) cafés and restaurants, musicians on the streets, cute stores and just a general a relaxed beach vibe.

So far I have seen 1289 different bird speeches I have never seen before, wallabies, a koala, and weird stuff crawling around on the ground. We ended up in a night club were the theme was “paint party” (jesus, hello 2008) where the girls were topless (to Erik’s and the other guys in our company’s delight.) We rented a car with three other people that we met at our first hostel here and we drove to Nimbin (which everyone talks about here). In my opinion a superoverrated town (or in other words, just one street in the middle of nowhere) which is nicknamed the small Amsterdam in Australia. Well, living in Amsterdam it rather reminds me more of the creepy, small backstreet of Amsterdam. 5 ladies offered us their special cookies and one particular charming gentleman asked if we were interested in speed or maybe some LSD. After that very short-lived visit we drove through the gorgeous countryside and went for a hike to a waterfall. I can honestly say I am NOT a hiker, I get at least 4 blitsers on my feet after just walking, in proper Nike-shoes, for one hour. And this shit was not a normal hike, we honestly had to climb over major fallen rocks which was a particular hard challenge for me and the other girl since we almost are of hobbit height. Well it was worth it in the end, stunning. The guys jumped in the water and afterward witnessed that their balls had shrunk to grape-size because it was so cold so I did not feel bad that I didn’t jump in.

So has one might have guessed, Byron Bay was just the ideal place to celebrate my birthday. When I woke up in the morning Erik was already gone, and I had got a super cute video from my family where they sang to me (family tradition honored-check!). Then Erik told me to come outside (our new hostel is one of the best we ever stayed at, just by the beach and with a big back garden) and there he has prepared a breakfast with some of my favorite things in the world- egg and avocado! The rest of the day we just lay on the beach and played around with the big waves. In the evening we went to a restaurant (never do it otherwise) and had some Greek food. They had the BYO policy which many restaurants in Australia has, it stands for “Bring Your Own”. We could just buy a bottle of wine for five dollars in a liquor shop and bring the bottle to the restaurant. Such an amazing idea that I wish the rest of the world could adopt! Afterwards (with very many glasses of wines in our bodies) we went skinny dipping in the moonlit ocean, also something that was on my to-do-in-life-list. Just an amazing day in other words!

Tomorrow we fly back to Sydney where we will spend three more days, then on Saturday we fly up to Bangkok and then our South Asian adventure begins! It is low season there now, which means that the temperature during the day can rise up to +39 degrees and the air can get extremely humid. This will be a challenge in itself and will probably take a while to adjust to. But we are so looking forward to it! Only in one week from now we will be on the 8-hour bus from Bangkok to Siem Riep in Cambodia. But I think we will return to Australia one day, pff…how will we be able to get back to the normal office life in Europe after this trip is a question that remains…

Sydney!

Last Wednesday we flew over from New Zealand to Australia, Sydney. Gotta admit I was a tad nervous to go through the security check, mostly because people (like my mom and Erik’s grandmother) has given us some serious warnings after watching Border Security on TV haha. But of course it is waaay blown up on TV, the border control went super smooth and honestly the border control in Auckland was twice the size and much stricter.

It tooks us literally 30 minutes to collect our baggage, go through border control, take the train to the city center and to arrive on our hostel. We had a grand welcome, there was free drinks up at the rooftop. One hour later we got wasted on the famous goon wine (bag-in-box, extremely cheap wine that kind of tastes like vinegar). Brilliant welcome and an awesome hostel. Met some really nice guys (from England of all places, who would have guessed that) whom we spent the upcoming days with.

DAY 1

Erik and I went on a free city tour to get some orientation around the city. We have done this in almost every big city we visit, Auckland, Paris, Edinburgh etc. It’s always so good in order to get to know a city quick and get some interesting background story. In the evening we drank goon-wine again with our roomies and ate 2$ hot dogs at the rooftop.

DAY 2

Went to the Beach of all the beaches- famous Bondi beach! It was much smaller in real life, that was a bit surprising. But still a lot of amazingly hot surfer dudes and big waves so that made up for everything, thihih. We spent the evening at the rooftop again drinking more goon aaand…can’t remember the rest.

DAY 3

Took the ferry with the other guys to Manly beach. Unfortunately, it was sooo much smoke all over Sydney. Apparently there has been a controlled fire 110 km away by the Blue Mountains, and the smoke was everywhere. In the afternoon it got a bit better though. Manly was so nice, I think I might have preferred that place to Bondi beach. Very relaxed beach town vibe and SO much tasty sushi.

DAY 4

Took the train to the Blue Mountains, the weather was a bit grey and it was still a bit smokey after the fire so I didn’t know if it would be worth it or not, but for only 2,5 $ to get there and back it was SO worth it. So pretty, a very different place. Took a hike there. Interesting, considering the fact that we did 0 hikes in NZ which is the “land of the hikes”, seriously. In the evening we checked in to another hostel, literally across the street from the amazing one. It doesn’t have a rooftop, but I guess I can live with that for now ^^

TODAY

It’s raining. Haven’t done shit. Free pizza at the hostel tonight though. Will drink some goon. Jej.

TOMORROW

The sun will be back, so will probably go back to Bondi beach. The day after we will take a flight to BYRON BAY. Looking forward!

Over and Out!