May 2007

We had got a flight from Bangkok to Singapore on the 8th May and arrived into our prebooked hotel that morning... i was so looking forward to the hotel it was calledd Scarlet and when i booked it back in february it had been described as luscious, plush, decadent and had a bit of an arabian night theme going on... All these adjectives and more lived up to its descriptions!!
It was fab, it was trully heaven for the 2 nights we spent there after having been in backpacking places mostly (even though the hostels are great and super craic), girls check out the website if you ever get a chance to go visit it..

www.thescarlethotel.com/

Anyway enough of that, first on the list in Singapore was for Ger to buy a new camera..so we headed for Sim Lim Square which is just electronic heaven for those who get off on that type of thing... Ger was in heaven for several hours! I got my taste of heaven a little later when we went shopping then on Orchard road, full of all the shops from home - brill!

On day 2 we did our tourist thing and headed over to Sentosa Island for the day, you get the cable car over for $10 but we had only really wanted to go because of an article Ger had read the night before..

Basically Ger isnt really one for massages , feet rubbing etc so didnt get to fully apprecaite the wonders of thai, cambodia and chinese massages, however this article descibed a massage called a "nibbling massage" he was well interested... You go over to the island to the spa and ask for the treatment called fish reflexology and for $35 each you get 40 minutes of massage, 20 of these are performed by fish nibbling your tired feet!!

We both went in and they said to put your feet in a pool of water - quite large pool and when we did so millions of wee tiny turkish fish attached themseleves to our feet and ankles and proceeded to nibble away all our dead skin and freshen our feet... it was class, very tickly but class, however these turkish ones were only the warmerup band! After 10 minutes of this you walked to another massive pool and put our feet in and this time huge african fish attached to us and finished the job.. My feet have never felt as good when we were done and Ger loved it!

So at least now i know what kind of fish to get for an aquarium at home!!

That night we met up with a friend of a friend's, Paula Jane's friend Anne had moved out to Singapore a year ago and so she meet us at our hotel and we did a bit of a pub crawl thing going first to Asia view, which was a nightclub at the top of the Swiss hotel in Stamford, the views were amazing a well cool place,

Then we moved onto a bar called Loof which was basically the open rooftop of a building and by the time we left there i was a bit smashed but it was great craic and it was brill to have met up with Anne again..

Day 3 was leaving day but not til that night so we checked out and went to see if i could clear the hangover... so we headed to Raffles Hotel!!

Fab hotel its like a mini complex we fitted in perfectly with our smelly travellers shorts and t-shirts! but hey i wasnt leaving without seeing it..
Singapore is a lovely place mind funny though that some of their new architecture is copied from other cities around the world - in the process of building a Singapore Eye and this was there attempt at the Sydney Opera House..

Flight that night was to Cairns via Darwin and back to some old haunts from 9 years ago with the girls!!

We arrived at Phnom Penh by bus it cost us $10 but took about 5-6 hours, we were gonna get the boat but it cost $25 for the same length of time but there was a risk that we may have to get out and push as the water levels were very low..
Bus was grand though and we arrived at our acomodation the Bright lotus hotel no bother.. tuk tuks once more all over the place and on one of the days i counted 27 times i got asked did i want to avail of their services... intel wants to get those boys on the payroll for efficiency!

We headed first to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda - well they were right outside our hotel we could see them from our balcony so it wasnt much of a hike to get to..but yes you guessed it the ladies had to cover up once more... getting tedious at this stage! So myself and Jane had to "borrow" a tshirt and very flattering skirt from the offices and leave a fiver deposit in case we stole them... hilarious, the skirt alone i could have wrapped round myself and Ger twice..

The palace itself was gorgeous gold everywhere and even a few disco buddhas knocking about in the temples and altars around it - no photos were allowed but it was a buddha with a kaleidascope headress, neon lights and looked ike something out of Jamie and his magic torch or the magic roundabout...lol

We headed out for dinner that night to a place called Friends - was well cool as it is actually run by street kids who have been brought in and trained in skills to help them get jobs etc, food was super though and highly recommend it!

Day 2 in Phnom Penh was a very somber one as we visited the Tuol Sleng S-21 detention facility and the killing Fields used by the Kymer Rouge. Tuol Sleng used to be a primary school before it was taken over and housed 17000 prisoners who were tortured and beaten and eventually ended up being brought to the killing fields (Choeung Ek) as their final resting place.. so sad and extremely moving especially knowing that this all happened in our lifetime from 1975 and only 7 people survived out of the 17000...

Day 3 we went across the road again from our rooms to the national museum, this was grand but to be honest it was more of a relief to get out of the heat in the afternoon, happy hour didnt start til 5 so we had to kill some time..i started getting creative with my new camera i bought (canon IOS 400D) in the grounds thinking i was on report for the National Geographic what you reckon, i love the close up feature - sad eh!

The local was called the FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club) and it was a great spot right on the riverfront and the cocktails were fab..even Andy succumb to a few long island ice tea ( posh del boy lol)

Along the riverfront you could also spot sambo the elephant who got taken out for his daily walk each evening into the busy traffic for an aul stretch of the legs!

On our visist to the national museum we had been told that the commotion outside our hotel all day was because the king was coming to visit as it was the start/festival for ploughing - how cool was that he arrived right outside our door the following morning, along with 50 odd ambassadors of other coutries and countless security men... we went out on our balcony to take photos but in about 5 secs flat there were guards hollering from below and coming up the stairs after us to put us back in our appt! but we still mananged to sneak some...well it was the king of Cambodia after all..heehee

The weather had been roasting but a storm had been threatening for a few hours and eventually it arrived.. just about the same time me and Ger decided to head out to see the markets and for a bit of a stroll! It was class though, pink lightening was seen - not sure if thats real but we were told it was.. and lads on the back of motorbikes were water skiing down the roads in their flip flops because the roads had flooded so quickly..mind you there was a few lads not happy that still had to work as usually when it rians its an excuse to close up and go party in the rain! This dude was obviously on call!

We headed straight for the FCC happy hour after our soaking to meet up with my friends sister Bronagh living out there and proceeded to stay there til the wee hours - fellas fault though as the liverpool match only started at 11 so we had no choice really!
So you can imagine hangovers from hell the following day - myself and Bernice took ourselves off to a posh hotel to sit by their pool and try and sleep it off while the lads watched more footie..
We had booked our flight back to Bangkok for the monday night then and stay there for a night again before we headed away to Singapore. But i have to say Cambodia was my favourite place so far the people are so friendly and have the irish craic about them - would definitely recommend it..

Flew to Cambodia with all the lads and had arranged to stay at the golden banana - guys were well chuffed obviously... especially since Ger had just got his hair shaved and we slagged the boys it was the sister hostel to the blue oyster! weather was roasting but rianed at nighttime - tropical wet season but apparently this thunder etc and the guard dog nature of the pets at the hostel, sent them crazy and the dogs barked all night..so we were well rested for our first day of tours around the temples..
We arranged with the hostel to book out 2 tuk tuks for the 3 days we were there to drive us all about for $13 a day per tuk tuk... pretty good seeing Ger decided to help the lads "driver 125" out for the day...

We headed to the Bayon first up through the south gate of Angkor Thom, this was the temple known as faces in the forest and it was amazing...

And yes we went for another album cover shot inside the Bayon..

On day 2 we headed away to see Angkor Wat followed by Ta Phrom..
Angkor Wat is apparently the worlds largest religious building and it is well impressive..you can walk around it, climb up and spend hours just getting lost in it, fab place for hunt or hide and seek!

We even managed to get the monkey shot for you Paula here.. haha

The place is full of steps, fab views and Ger even managed to conquer his fear of heights... we reckon he must have been touched by the hand of Buddha to get up and down...

After lunch we headed for Ta Phrom - the tomb raider temple.. which has been left to nature and become overrun by the forest and trees..

I tried to help ....

In tomb raider apparently Angelina goes through a doorway followed by white butterflies?? i had Ger running around most of the afternoon after the white butterflies to get a photo of them but he didnt have his nike air on..did get the tree used though in the movie..

And everywhere you looked all you could see was Big Roots!!!!

And blue T-shirts!

We headed back for the sunset with the other 5 thousand camera enthusiasts! Really gorgeous place though just to chill out for an hour or 2 and the locals will even sell you a beer at the top.. class!

Day 3 started with sunrise at Angkor Wat at 5.15am but it was well worth it as the reflection is creates on the lake in front of Angkor Wqat was beautiful..

Camera crazy that morning - was funny watching everyone trying to beat each others zoom lens!

Headed out into the country more to see some temples called Banteay Srei which were like Ta Phrom but with a lot more carving detail and well cool - even though the girls tuk tuk broke down and we ended up in a cambodians family home being offered a drink first and then a mechanics garage next!

Sun was heading down so after we seen the temple we headed back for another fab sunset and managed to see the Terrace of Elephants and the Temple of the Leper King as well on the way..

Myself and Jane went shopping as well today - surprise surprise and got loads of fab stuff for the house - so cheap and it was well worth it if you can carry it!
The Golden Banana arranged our transport then from Siem reap to Phnom Penh for the following day so all 6 of us headed south...

Stay Tuned...

First day out and about we got the skytrain to the famous Jim Thompson house (Silk mogul), he was the millionaire dude that disappeared mysteriously in the 70's, but who has a cracking big wooden house now that tourists can walk around... not to mention the beautiful store attached to his house that sells all the silk products - which of course i had to see and a half hour left with a bag full of silk scarves small and large!

In sweltering heat and humidity we decided to visit the royal palace where you had to cover up and wear long sleeves and cover your legs - not good! Guys are normally ok with tshirts etc but me with a vest top on ended up with Ger's woolly v neck jumper (random..) and a pashmina wrapped around my legs, and i think i lost about 2 stone in the hour we spent walking around, apart from that the place was well cool..

Once we finished we wanted to head on north of the city to the teak royal mansion however we fell for the oldest line in the book and believed a tour guide called Mos when he told us it was closed and that he would arrange for us to visit other temples etc... this only turned out to be 2 suit shops, 3 jewellers and a chinese store! Pure gangster but hey funny though sitting in the back of a tuk tuk all day just so thay can get free petrol for us going into these stop off shops.. and then just to take us to random buddha temples that not even locals go to and that sell birds!!

The following day though we did make it to the big royal teak Vimamek mansion - cool because not a sinlge nail was used to put it together but yes again you have to cover up so very warm!! The irish influence was even in the house as the king at the time had waterford crystal in his jacks!!

The Dusit zoo is next door to the big mansion so Ger wanted to go in and say hi to his big bear relatives..! haha not a very good zoo though as most of the animals looked as if they wanted to leave with us.. bit sad really.. but Ger was well excited..

I thought this pic of a turtle was class it reminded me of dinner around the McParland kitchen table too..!

From the hostel we stayed at you could take trips out to Kanchanaburi to visit the bridge over the river Kwai, the death railway and the Tiger Temple. We left at 630 in the morning and it took 3 hours to travel out to the river Kwai this is a must see as the whole day was fab..we took a boat trip down the river and then walked across the bridge and then you can get on one of the original trains and go across it and onto the death railway - wooden tracks around a mountainside!

From here you go on to an elephant farm for some trekking if you fancy it and then onto the Tiger Temple. This temple is run by monks and they started by taking in wounded or orphaned tiger cubs but the place is huge now and they have all sorts of animals walking about freely now.. you gotta sign a form as well before you go in to say that they arent respnosible basically if you get eaten whilst walking about!! But there was about 16 tigers in the place and the handlers took your camera from you and placed you beside each tiger and took your photo for you while you petted the tigers! they are huge beasts too but it was absoulutely brilliant to be able to get so close to them even better to be able to walk away with all our limbs still intact..

We left Bangkok the following morning to fly to Siem reap, Cambodia. We meet up with a couple Andy and Jane who we met on our China trip and also 2 friends from Dublin so the 6 of us headed away for a week together.. great to catch up with Andy and Jane again even if Andy is a Man U fan... myself and Jane were able to spend our time shopping when the footie was on..lol
Bangkok wasnt as seedy as we had thought but highlight definitely was the bridge and the Tigers... oh yeah and finding the Dubliner pub where the spuds and gravy was fab!

Until next time..
love Deb and Ger

Hey - sorry its taken us so long for an update but we have been moving about so much recently..
We went on our safari tour of koh phangan and did the elephant trekking and visited some waterfalls and view points on the island was pretty cool...

The following day we just chilled and did some snorkelling - up towards bottle beach and Chaloklum is fab for snorkelling and the beaches are gorgeous..

Sunset on Koh Phangan was well nice..

Check out the elephant trekking the guy just kept laughing because we didnt have our "weight" distributed evenly enough!

We arranged to get the boat and bus back up to Bangkok - as it was far cheaper than a flight - 900 baht but it does take 12 hours to get there.. the boat was grand and it left us up to Chumphon where we transferred to the bus - big air con with movies so cool and also stops for dinner etc at Hua Hin.. we arrive in Bangkok on the Khao San road at about 130am and had to make our way to our hostel the HI on Sukumvit road - this was not easy! it was dark we were tired i needed to go to the loo and and hour and a half later after haggling with several tuk tuk drivers and one taxi taking us but then procedding to get out of his car turn on his full beams and was studying our lonely planet book to see how to get there!
Moral for that day was to make sure you get transport and accomodation sorted well before you arrive...leads to a lot more peace and quite!!
The hostel was super and cheap even for a double private room, so we booked in here for 5 nights..
The first day in Bangkok was spent shopping using the sky train - i was in heaven as the Siam centre has everything even though we only went to buy a replacement camera since the last one drowned in Gers shorts.. we both managed to leave with extra bags of goodies ( north face shop inside had a sale on!!)
The food court on the ground floor is great as well caters for everybody and after we decided to go to the Siam Ocean World in the basement - more for kids really but it has a super aquarium tunnel thing that is massive and full of rays, huge sharks and wierd looking creatures that probably resemble some folks on a saturday night trying to get home from Copperface Jacks in Dublin..!
Keep in touch folks and will uplaod photos on our next session - bye for now!

D&G