Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Taiwan - The Final Installement

101 Floors. 509 meters tall. Not as good as Petronas Towers though

Halfway to Taipei, Sab pulled out the camera and asked me to explain why we were actually on the train. 15 minutes later I had finished my monologue and really looking forward to leaving this country that had given us nothing but trouble. 4 hours after we left Tainan we arrived in Taipei to find ourselves rooming at a shitty hostel which was located at the end of an alleyway in downtown Taipei. The place was downright shocking. even for us and we have stayed in some pretty shitty places before. The clients living at this place were actually living there. The shortest stayer had been there two months. Sure it was cheap but it’s not exactly conducive to a home environment what with the pissed American and the stoned Canadian residing there as well.

The next morning Sab woke me up by pointing to an adjoining bed where a bony white guy was meditating. He didn’t move an inch for an hour as Sab and I just looked and pointed at him in amazement. WE got ready and headed down to the worlds tallest building. Taipei 101 is difficult to find. Sure it’s the world’s tallest building but with the concrete landscape that is Taipei it is very easy to find yourself lost in the canyons that are the streets of this mega city. We eventually found it and on first impression it wasn’t as impressive as the Petronas Towers. Now they were amazing but this tower seemed to have no purpose other than national pride. I liked it and went for a look on the outside observatory 390 meters above the ground but all I could really see was smog.



Later that day we secured flights for 8am the next morning but seen that the airport is 5okm out of the city, we weren’t prepared to stay another night at the hotel. We decided to find a place closer to the airport but with prices for a room going for about 80 Aussie dollars for the night it was way way out of our range…so we slept on the departure hall floor that night. When I say we I mean me. We were so desperate to leave this hellhole that one night sleeping on a cold cold floor at an airport was justice enough considering the events of the previous days.

I’ve never felt so excited to be going back to Hong Kong. My second home

Taiwan - Part Three

Shame we couldn't say the same about the company

Lonely Planet should tell you in its Taiwan guide “if you are planning to work in Taiwan there are only two things you need to take over for a memorable experience. These two things are your passport and some lubricant as I’m sure there will be a time where you’ll have to drop the strides and take one in the name of TESOL Education.”


We just got buttf*cked big time. Talk about a disaster, this may be in bad taste but Sab and I just had our “9/11.” Steve, the chimney smoking yet jovial guide who took us on a tour of Southern Taiwan called us the night before to say that he was picking us up at 11am. So I packed my bags and bid farewell to my little love palace that served as my short yet memorable abode for the past 4 nights. By the way I must say to everyone what I said to Sab, Asian porn stars need to get the Flymo out and trim the private bits as it looks like an overgrown forest down there and not conducive to erotic visual experiences. The stench of cigarette smoke still filled the air as Steve drove Sab and I to a local railway station where he guided us to the ticket window and told us to ask a passenger to tell us when we reached Tainan station. This was not the way a company should greet new employees but we were on their turf so we had to play by their rules.

We were sitting on a suburban train going to a city where no-one was going to pick us but we managed to find our way to a local taxi who took us to Sesame Language School. The school itself was a very “North American-esque” type of facility but that didn’t deter us from working there. We arrived at the school at 12.30 and we found out that our “appointment” with our new head teacher Angela wasn’t until 2. So why were we an hour and a half early? Either way this and sitting on a broken chair and falling straight on my ass was slowly turning the tide of my enthusiasm of being in Taiwan. The only highlight so far was actually getting to a baseball batting cage and having a good swing. It was a lot of fun and due to the major American influence in Taiwan, it was something I was looking forward to participating in on a regular basis.

Sab and I decided to go for a walk where once again we got completely lost. Typical. Then again whilst we were walking down a lane way everything was going fine and then…BANG!! My elbow was really really sore which was due to the silver SUV slamming his side mirror into my funny bone. It freaking hurt! Sab was freaked out by the noise of elbow on car and the stupidity of Asian drivers. They really are that bad. With all this happening even my resolve was being tested. We somehow made our way back to the school (our mobiles were in our bags back at the school) whereby we were greeted by a fellow staff member at the school who plonked two pieces of paper down in front of us. These were our teaching schedules.

We hadn’t talked about contracts, hours, teaching, visas, accommodation…anything and we had to teach at 4.30pm the same day? This was totally unacceptable and when four thick text books were out in front of us the calamity of the situation was taken to greater heights. This was the icing on the cake. Eventually Angela came in and tried to explain to us how the schedule works in the quickest time possible but when we asked more specific questions about how to teach the material the only answer we got was “well you two have experience.” Experience counts for nothing when you start a new job so with that after Angela walked away and let us get on with the task of preparing for our lesson, Sab just looked at me and said as deadpan as possible “Mark if you want to go back just say the word.” For a brief second I thought of Japan but it’s too expensive. I thought of Hong Kong but we had our time there which left home and the only response I gave Sab was “I don’t have my credit card.” “That doesn’t matter if you want to go let’s go.” “O.K. Let’s go.”


Our unbiased view of Tainan an hour after we arrived.

A weight had been lifted off our shoulders and we were genuinely excited about going home. I know we shouldn’t be but deep down inside us I think we were yearning for familiarities of home and not the strangeness of Southern Taiwan. Our minds were made up and I called dad at his work. Sab called her brother and by 3.15 that afternoon, we had said farewell to Tainan and on our way to the capital…Taipei.

Taiwan - Part Two

Considering I am writing this two weeks after it happened, I’ll try and keep the narrative as close to the actual events as possible.

After the disaster of yesterdays “scooter-gate” as it will be referred to from now on, I knew that I would have to go back on the horse and get a feel for this bike. So while Sab kept far, far away from the damn machine, I hopped back on with a clear goal of gaining more practice in the art of Taiwanese scooter riding. I found out early that like the day before, it didn’t matter what rules you broke, as long as you arrived at your destination alive then your trip has been successful. I told Sab that I would be about 45 minutes, it actually turned into an hour and a half as I got lost again.

It wasn’t too bad though. I learned how to run red lights and turn left like a local. Rather than waiting for the light to turn green and then turn left, the locals here cross the pedestrian crossing to the right hand side of the road then wait for the light to turn green so the actual distance of the turn was less. Considering the day before I wasn’t too keen on left turns (remember they drive on the “wrong” or “American” side of the road) so I would actually do three right turns to get on the street I wanted to go to…chicken you say? You try learning to ride a scooted in the second busiest city in Taiwan then give me a bell. One things fore sure 60 on a scooter feels about three times as fast as it does in a car.

Sure the scooters flying past me were doing at least 70 whilst I was sputtering along at 50 at times but with the feeling of no protection came the sensation of added danger and the feeling of speed. Even though it was only my second time on a scooter I was starting to enjoy it. I won’t be going anywhere near a powerful bike soon as the memory of one of my distant cousins slamming head first after stacking of a 50cc scooter into a barb wire fence and requiring 70 stitches when I was about 6 or 7 years old on my cousins farm was still fresh in my mind. My cousin was about 8 I think…bloody Shafters!

I may my way back via McDonalds and I’m getting sick and tired of eating this stuff but there is no where else except Subway where I know the quality of the food. Sure I was in Taiwan and like their mainland counterparts are able to eat anything. It was this theory of Taiwanese cooking that kept me away from the restaurants plus I was getting depressed.

Saturday was a carbon copy of Friday. Wake up to a dark room which ruined my body clock, see what’s on tv...have a squizz at the porn channels, shower, subway, scooter, internet, bed, more porn and BBC World and bed. Though later on Saturday night Sab and I made my way to the Lighthouse Bar and Grill where we had a nice time eating great pub food and watching Liverpool lose to a fired up Everton and I was actually enjoying being at this bar seeing a few expats around and hoping that in Tainan we would be able to find our own little bar and meet with the guys and gals for a few quiet ales and swap war stories of our kids. I’m looking forward to that.

Sunday was a carbon copy of Saturday except we watched the Italian Grand Prix at the Lighthouse Grill. Couldn’t be bothered exploring the city because I did it by mistake via getting completely lost on a scooter. I went to bed that night wondering what Monday would reveal to us as Sab and I were going to visit our new workplace…Sesame English School.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Taiwan - The story so far

I thought scootering was like this...boy was i wrong!

Taiwan has been one big head spin so far.

Actually to be honest our time so far has been one big mind-shag. It has felt like the forces of doom have dressed up in its sexiest night clothes and taken my cranium for an almighty rogering.

It's Saturday afternoon here in Kaohsiung and i'm listening to AFL Finals Football and its come as a welcome relief. It all started Wednesday night when Sab and I landed Taiwan side a little tired but looking forward to getting settled into a year of hard work and fun. I was in the country for 5 minutes when the lady at passport control had a good look at my passport. You see, China and Taiwan aren't the best of friends. China considers Taiwan as a "renegade province of China" where as Taiwan wants to be a democratic country in its own right. With this business going on and with my previous workplaces being in China and Hong Kong, i could understand the look on the passport ladies face when she asked me "Have you been to China?" Even though i have 7 Chinese visas in my passport i stumbled an answer of "Yeah i was there a couple of years ago" which i'm sure didn't convince the lady behind the counter.

After picking up our luggage we were greeted by Steven who is our guide around town and representative. He's a pretty easy going guy who treated us to the best accomdation the town has to offer. The smell of nicotine filled the minivan as we pulled up out the front of our hotel. Taiwan has no English signs on the street so its Dalian all over again. The hotel rooms that Sab and I are staying in have been tailored to a specific market. The pinkinsh red carpet, large double bed, no windows, small bathroom and 3 hardcore adult movie channels on the TV made Sab and i come to the conclusion that our accomodation is actually a "love hotel." Sure the sight of Japanese girls and boys on the job after a while gets a bit boring but it was just the first of a series of adventures.

Thursday morning after a very good sleep in a very copmfortable bed, it was time to look at our schools that were shortlisted for us. there were four schools in the area that each had two positions avaliable so what we thought was four different schools under the same compnay name in the one city actually turned out to be something completly different. With steven smoking like a chimney already at 9am we made our way to the city of Tainan which is 30 mins north of Kaohsiung to a school called "Sesame." The school was actually a lot bigger than we thought it would be and it looked very nice. There was an actual office where there were actual adult sized desks to work on unlike Topkids in Tin Shui Wai where we had to use the kids desks to do our work. With another three schools to see it was time to travel a further hour north to a city which is home to the most beautiful kindergarten i have ever seen. It was more like a hotel for the kids rather than an educational facility and the principal was a really nice lady. Actually she was very helpful and really wanted us to start work there but the place was just "too American" for us. It was the best kindergarten in the area and the principal asked us to read a book to one of the classes in North American accent. I tried but it just didn't feel right. The school didn't feel right so on the way back to Tainan i asked Sab "straight throught to the keeper?" She agreed.

By the way..who the hell is Johnny Appleseed?

Back in the minivan and it was off to another school in some part of the country. By this time the rains were really coming down so all the windows were up yet Steven continued to smoke which really cheesed me off. I didn't say anything as while we were driving in the rain Steve was telling us about the different schools and Sab and I were leaning towards "Sesame" yet there were two more schools. We eventually made it to the front of another school which looked like a carbon copy of the language schoolwe worked at in Dalian. The english teachers there all had poxy Yankee accents even though some were from Australia and had only been there nine months. I'm not American and even though the United States is a major influence island side, i'm not prepared to let go of my accent, i'm too proud and stubborn in that respect. Hearing a guy from Brisbane talk like a hybrid Greg Norman didn't sit well with me.

We skipped the last school as by that time Sab and I decided that we are going to work at Sesame in Tainan. We met our new head teacher who was very nice and said that the school would help with our visas and finding a place to stay plus other stuff. We made our way back to our love hotel and after watching a bit of TV it was time for bed and the adventure that Friday would have in store for us.

Aftere a very nice sleep in it was time to get a new phonecard as the one i purchased yesterday wouldnt allow me to make calls or send messages. It was concluded that my Motorola phone i have had for a year somehow got water damage during the holiday even though i had never ever used it in two months. I was pissed as this phone was a year old and i had to buy a cheap second hand phone whilst they tried to fix it. It seems i have no luck with technology. Even with a brand new Dell laptop i had read that there was a product reacall of laptop batteries (which included my model) as the batteries may explode. First my iBook and now my Dell. I have no luck and maybe i should stick with smoke signals.


get on a scooter. Having travelled all around Southeast Asia we have had plenty of chances to get accustomed to the world of scootering but we never took the chance. As we found out the night before when we met our teacher, our initial job will be teaching English classes to kids at campuses around Tainan and the best and so far, only way to get around is by scooter so we had no choice but to get on and try it. It as time to jump on our chopper..a 50cc hell raising machine. i jumped on first and seeing it was the first time ever on a motorbike i accidentally hit the gas when i was trying to reverse back and the bike went straight into another scooter and i nearly went head first into a van! There's a scene in the film "American Graffiti" where Terry the Toad slams his scooter into another Vespa. It looked exactly like that.

Then i took it for a spin around the block and sort of got the hang of it. I got off and Sab had a little go outside the front of the building where Steven works at. The scooted was running off vapous so we had to try and find a petrol station. We eventually found one and filled it up and then it was time to battle the traffic again and find a quiet place for Sab to practise. We found a small area of streets that had no traffic so Sab went to the task at hand. She rode off to the end of the street and went around the block. Just as she was coming back to the place where i was standing i head a yelp from around the corner. I walked up the street a bit only to see Sab coming toward me pushing the scooter. She looked in shock as she told me as she was coming around the second to last corner, she hit the gas instead of the brake and hit a parked car.

She had a small cut on her leg but the worst part was her leg had somehow snapped the key and the bottom half of the key was jammed in the ignition. We couldnt call anyone as the only way to lift the seat to get to our phones was by turning the key in the ignition switch. We were stuck in some part of the city with no one who could speak English. Every street looked the same and we can't speak Mandarin even though with the time we had spent in China. Eventually we pushed our bie past a repair shop who said it would take 1000NT dollars to fix. Considering we rented the bike for a month for 2000NT it was a bit too much. We pushed again until we came across a guy who tried to fix it with a pair of pliers, something i tried to do when it first happened. Somehow there was a large toolbox at a chemist two doors down from where the accident happened. I thought with my limited experience i could som,ehow pull the key out or at least turn it so we could access our phones...but to no avail.

The plies guy pulled the front of the bike cover off, cut the cord from the ignition system ant hotwired the bike so it would start. He then told us to follow him to a repair shop. WE had to pay 650NT for a new ignition system and keys but the bike was fixed. it was given a mini service as well and "plier guy" gave us his details in case we have more trouble which was very nice of him. We were back on our way then we were completley lost. With traffic everywhere and only 30 mins experience on a bike, we were both clueless about what to do. Sab has since stated on her blog that she was more frightened on the back of the scooter then kyacking. We travelled around the city for an hour trying to find a landmark or a building to point us the way home. During this time we nearly had a head on accident as we were going straight through an intersection and a guy turning left from the opposite direction turned left and decided to stop right in front of me. I swerved just in time otherwise we would have flipped over the bike. The scootering here is a combination of "Roman Holiday" meets "Mad Max 2."

the sky was getting darker and the rain started to fall as we somehow found a bulding which we knew was only two blocks from our hotl. We eventually made it back and Sab will not get on a scooter anytime soon. Last night i went to the internet cafe and trid to update the blog but my computer was playing up but i gave up. This morning i went for another run around town and thought it would take about 45 minutes. It took an hour and a half which was both good and bad. I got straight back into the traffic and getting into the nitty-gritty of scootering Taiwan style. The saving grace is that even though its a crazy way to travel, Tainan is a smaller city so i'm hoping that it will be easier to get around.

Thats about it for now. It's been a roller coaster so far so hopefully after we get settled in it will be a lot better because so far its been far from impressive.

Friday, September 08, 2006

So overall...how was it?

Amazing.

The places we have been to have ranged from spectacular to the downright "yeah not bad." Cambodia certainly has its charm and the people are by far the friendliest i've ever met. In fact by the time we got back to Phenom Penh and to our guest house we stayed at before leaving Shnooksville i was greeted by the grandmother of the guest house who in a what i can only put down to a sence of nostalgia went straight for a grope on my boobs...again.

This time around i wasn't as shocked as the grandma is a really nice , sweet old lady. Sab had a bloody good laugh though and the feeling of coming to the end of an amazing 2 months in Southeast Asia.

The feeling of starting a new adventure in Taiwan was fast approaching and i'm sure that it has something in store for us.

Monday, September 04, 2006

From the Capital to the Coast..we've got it all!

Great Mates, Great Weather...Serendipity Beach.

It seems that my mind and my sun burnt body have different thresholds to the untraviolet rays in our atmosphere. Even though i went for a swim in the most beautiful water i have had the pleasure to go dog-paddling in, even though i applied sunscreen to every part of my body and even though we were only at the beach for about three hours, i still got burnt and i'm shitty about it.

But more on that later.

The day after our depressing visits to the Killing Fields and S-21 prison, Sab and i decided that we would take the day to explore Sean Penn (sorry- that's our codeword for Phenom Penh) which was a futile task because every 10 seconds up comes a guy on a bike offering you his services. The simple pleasure of getting lost in the capital of Cambodia is non-existent due to the locals desire to take you anywhere and everywhere even though all you want is just to walk around at your own pace.

Our day started with a tuk-tuk ride to the National Museum and as lovely as the actuall museum building is, the inside was filled with ancient Khmer artifacts and various other centuries of Bhudda statues and little wooden rectangular boxes. Now i didn't mind this unlike Sab who thought otherwise. I would say the museum was nice to look at but not a must see unless you really like artifacts. The Royal Palace was not due to open until 2.30 in the afternoon so as a result we actually walked a few blocks to visit the Independence Monument (as in Independence from France in 1958) which lasted about 2 minutes as we took the now-stardard photo with Teddy Richards and had a bit of a look at it. As we made our way down to the riverside to find a place to sit and have a nice cold drink we came across another illegal DVD centre.

Sab has been looking for a British TV series called "Coupling." It's quite a funny show as evidence one night back in Tin Shui Wai where i thought i could get an early sunday night sleep but was kept awake by Sab's Betty Rubble-esque giggling at this TV show she stumbled across late that night. I couldn't get to sleep so i joined her and started laughing as well. Anyway with that little backstory you would think that she had found this little gem she had been looking for all over Asia but she hadn't. Sorry to get your hopes up.

The store did have a copy of Jean Claude van Damme's debut movie "Bloodsport" which had to be purchased for a time where i could relax when Sab is out of the house and i can watch some good old fashioned movie violence. It times like that you can really appreciate the depth to Van Dammes acting. Following more walking we ended up at a pretty schmick cafe where we just let the air conditioning work its magic. A couple more DVD stores followed (we can't go past one without having a look) and we pretty much followed our aim of bumming around the capital on foot.

Later in the evening we decided to get some dinner we were harassed (to put it nicely) by another of the kiddie street sellers whose offerings range from books you already have to books that you don't really want. This particular kid was so persistent yet charming in his tween type of way that we invited him for dinner and we gave him a couple peices of pizza. The one thing that i could offer him was my long awaited for MOTOR magazine (that's an Aussie Car Mag that i found in a bookstore in the Sean Penn) whereby he went though every page and then decided to just make himself comfortable at our table.


Cambodian kiddie reading the latest on the new Audi A6.

After our dinner we took a tuk-tuk along the Mekong to another cafe whereby we were going to watch two documentaries about landmines and Pol Pot. Here we were in Phenom Penh, a tow known for wild nihghts, both 27 years old and with our lives ahead of us and you could have misaken us for a couple of old grannies at home with blankets on our knees and a hot cup of tea watching a doco on the ABC. The documentaries were really good, so good in fact we were the only people watching them. It was in this upstairs room at the cafe and when the little mouse ran past the front of the screen adnd down the stairs, it was time to look at the watch and go "will this thing ever end? (but in a good way)."

By the way Sab found "Coupling" at a store across the road from where we ate dinner. She was very happy to say the least. Actually she was f*cking rapt.

The following day saw us bum around our guest house on the lake, confirm our airplane tickes to Taiwan as we found out that we have secured jobs in a southern city called Tainan but more on that later) and pack our bags that seemed to have gained an extra 50kgs in weight, possibly due to the BeerLao stickers we got at the brewrey and my little traditional Cambodia cow bell.

The bus ride to wait ... i have to go Google to check the spelling on this place...Sihanoukville was very pleasant as is the town. We made our way to the Monkey Republic Bungalows at Serendipity Beach where at last i could go swimming and lie in the sun and just relax. Don't get me wrong this holiday has been sensational but what better way to end it then at the beach where its's just you, the water the sand and the sky.

Except when you are in Cambodia.

The following morning (yesterday) Serendipidy Beach was a callin' and it was magnificent to see that crystal blue water as far as the eye could see. The day at the beach was tainted by the appearance of the local kiddies who wouldn't give us a moments peace. They were always coming up to us wanting us to buy books, bracelets, cow bells and fruit. I don't mean to sound like a Scrooge here but it seemed we were the only white people on the beach even though there were many more. We must have "gullible white dickhead" tattooed in invisible ink on our heads that only Cambodian trinket selling kiddies can see.



After getting a petticure from a lady on the beach (hey it was two dollars and i thought what the hell) i was offered bracetes, paintings, books, bookmarks (that had the Transformer like quality of changing into a bracelet) but all i wanted to do was sit there and read my book. Sab got her legs done and purchased enogh fruit to be initiated into the Melbourne Underworld. My saving grace for the day was the water which was the most beautiful i've swam in. So blue, so peaceful, so quiet..until a group of five 10 year old girls swam my way and decided to say hello...which brings me on to another topic.

Cambodian people are so friendly that its pefectly ok for them to squeeze my boobs. The first time it happened was at the firing range where the guy giving me the gun was checking me for a lump. I told Sab this but she didn't beleive me. Later on the grandmother at our guesthouse did it to me and i went off at Sab in our room. I was pissed off but Sab said here i'm sure its not offensive but i didn't care..my boobs were my boobs!

Back to the beach and after my swim and a walk up and down the beach i made my way back to our beach chair whereby i was peckish only to be told that the first two things i wanted from the menu couldn't be cooked as the place we decided to park our bums at was only new and the chef wasn't at work today. More haggling by the kids (including one that was angry at Sab for not purchasing pineapple off her when supposidly Sab promised she would) and a reddish skijn colour from my shoulders dictated that it was full time for our first crack at Serendipidy Beach.

Last night was spent bumming around our Bungalows whilst the what little sunburn i had on my back decided to manfest over night to something representing the colour of the surface of Mars.

So here i am today at the local Mini-Mart staying out of the sun and going to go for a swim (with a shirt on) in the cooler afternoon because even with sunburn, any Ausstralian who doesn't go beach side at any opportunity would be considered un-Australian.

Friday, September 01, 2006

There are two sides to the human race...

It was time to visit the darkside of Cambodia.

I must warn you this update is distubring and there are a couple of pictures you may not like but i felt i need to show them to give you an all round idea of what Cambodia has gone through.

After finding our guest house on the lake and a well needed rest, the day started out by making our way out on motorbikes again to a firing range. Now Sab and I had shot AK-47's in Vietnam and a Russian made Margo rifle in Laos so we thought lets finish the IndoChina trilogy by firing more bullets at a target. Don't worry we aren't going to come back to Australia and suddenly take up Roo Shooting but if you have had to come to this part of the world to experience the mindset we were in.

After a good 40 minute ride on smooth roads, we found our way to the shooting range whereby a "menu" of guns was avaliable from a Colt Revolver up to firing a Rocket Launcher for $200 US and for a few dollars more you could go out to the countryside and fire a rocket launcher at a cow...i swear to God. Even that was a major turnoff but Sab and i decided on a good ol' fashioned American hangun that i only know as the one Mel Gibson used in the "Lethal Weapon" films. Gees that gun packs a punch but in about 10 seconds it was all over and we were on our way to the first of the two major "must sees" of the capital...the Killing Fields of Cheong Ek.

After watching the movie of the very same name the night before i had a little idea of what to expect but nothing could prepare anyone for this place. The sheer brutality of this place overwhelms you especially when you see signs that tell you events that happened here such as a tree being used to throw babies against it to kill them, a mass grave where women and children were thrown into, a grave where all the heads of the bodies were severed. Add to the fact that there was a tree made out to look like a plam tree that actually was a saw that was used to slit throats and the Khmer Rouge often used blunt instruments to smash peoples heads in to save bullets and you get a small idea of the extent of the madness this regime created during its reign.

Over 5,000 skeletons are in the commemorative stupa and you can clearly see where instuments were used to kill the "traitors."

The sign next to the tree says it all.


During our walk around we wer guided by a local man who saw first hand the torture here. He was 15 at the time the Khmer Rouge took over the country and was able to tell us in detail how the soldiers would kill anyone and these soldiers were mainly young kids. Under the Khmer Rouge you had to work in the fields and thats it. If you were an intellectual of any kind you were sent here to meet your destiny. Even one Australian was executed here which really hit home. Our guide told us that one day while he was working in the fields he found a snail which he ate and was caught. Another soldier got a piece of sharp bamboo and stabed him though the leg. He managed to escape to northern Cambodia wher on his return his whole family was never to be seen again.

After the Killing Fields the second half of our trip took us to what loked like an old high school. In fact we were heading towards the infamous S-21 Prison which was the epicentre for Pol Pot's touture of "intellectuals." Walking around the gardens and past the double razor wire fence you have no idea of what you are about to see. This former high school was transformed into a ruthless complex of tourture ranging from water tourture, electric shock, nails being pulled out with pliers, getting whipped, beaten and forced not to talk at all..i mean at all. There was one interrogation room where you could clearly see a pair of blood stained hand prints on the wall and the moment i saw them i felt so helpless and shocked that i nearly cried. Here was someones pain right in front of me and whilst the War Museum in Saigon gave you an impression of what it was like during the war...at S-21 you felt what it was like in this room.


An old high school now the S-21 Prison where you were "re-educated"

The feelings i had leaving this place was that it was much a raw emotional experience that it is a compulsory experience to visit this place as everyone neds to know that even though we are capable of great things as a people we are capable of such horrible deeds that as Sab and I agreed that if we have kids (thats not together mind you) and we have the ability to travel they must know that places like S-21 and the Killing Fields existed. Every age group from babies to grandparents were held here and the hundreds of mug shots you can see all show one feeling..fear. Seriously, even thinking about it as i'm typing this makes me feel uneasy.

I've never felt so sad in my life until today. It affected me greatly and i'm glad that Cambodia hasn't tried to hide its history from anyone. They know they made mistakes and they admit them and they are open for people to see. Unlike Vietnam, Laos or China; Cambodia wants you to learn from its mistakes and tell the world events like this can happen and it didn't happen defending from a foreign invader...

It happened to their fellow countrymen .

Life inside the Temples....Day Three

"Quick let's get out of here before they find out."

I said this when i was quite drunk the night before.

At the end of my last posting i mentioned an experiment and here was my theory. Have a couple of drinks before bed and that will make us very tired and therefore get to sleep earlier (around 9 p.m.) therefore have a better nights sleep for when we have to wake up in the morning. Great in theory but i was drunk for the first time on our holiday at 11.30pm having a light le chuck off the side of our guest house.

The previous nights events started when i had my two drinks and Sab had hers. There were a group of people from Seattle on the table next to us and Sab and I like talking to Americans because we love to show off all our knowledge about America and make them feel like crap for not knowing who was Australias first Prime Minister was (it was Edmund Barton in 1901) or naming any of the major football teams in Australia like we can for American teams. GO SEAHAWKS!!

A few more drinks and some air guitar work to Dire Straits "Best Of..." Album and Sab and I were working beautifully then it all went downhill after Sabs introduction of tequlia. Sabs funny when it comes to tequila. She often talks about how horrible it is but when she is having a good session she won't hesitate to visit that well again. I don't like tequila (and later on when i told her this she said that i was a "wuss") but i drank it anyway and i was gone...


I'm pretty sure that CD i'm holding is "The Best of U2" I'm not too sure though.

After our dinner and drinks bill came and it only amounted to $3 US i was convinced that we had struck gold. "Quick let's get out of here before they find out." I was out of there as quick as a flash only to find our guest house had locked the gate and we couldn't get in. What happens if they find out? We will be forced to admit the error and wash dishes for six weeks! Then again all they had to do was stick thier head out the front as our guest house was only two doors up from the restaurant so my well planned getaway was pretty pissy in hindsight. Tequila does bad things to you.

The next morning i remembered we paid our bill and then had another couple of drinks and that explains the $3US bill.

After the chuck at 11.30 i found that i did get some sleep and found that i did get up at 4.30 a.m with a hangover so our experiment worked..and failed.

When you are in the back of a tuk-tuk at 4.30 in the morning on the way to Angkor Wat you should be pretty excited but i just wanted to get this jackhammer off my head and get back into bed. When we finally made our way to the front of Angkor i was amazed by the sight of this place. It is massive and being there in person you can appreciate the scale of this structure. As we walked inside and first saw those five towers shoot upward towards the night sky, a feeling of calm and majesty fell over the place. As the sun rose the number of people streaming in accelerated and it was by far one of the most amazing experiences of my life even though i was hungover in the process. None of my photos turned out very well but i still have the memories and thats enough for me.

Angkor Wat during a mediocre sunrise - It still has a pull over your senses

On further exploration of Angkor Wat you could gain a better understanding of the detailing and beauty of this temple. The builders of these temples were so precise and delicate in their designs that even with modern technology it would take decades to construct a temple such as this. With more wandering around completed it was a fantastic way to say farewell to two and a half days of temple exploration. I would love to get back to Angkor Wat during the dry season and have the chance again to see it on a beautiful sunny day but if i don't then i won't complain.

The ride back to our guest house was bumpy but as soon as we got there we were straight back into bed. We had a 12.30 bus ride to Phenom Phen and with that taking about 6 hours it wasn't the best day to be hungover. The bus ride itself was pretty good as was the street food that helped clear up the hangover quite well. Making our way into the capital of Cambodia i was filled with a sense of excitement and a little fear as coming from the majesty of Angkor and the Khmer Empire, we were heading into the heartland of the nightmare that was Phenom Phen and the madness that was the Khmer Rouge.

Life inside the Temples...Day Two


Excited was an understatement.

Today was the day finally Sab and I would explore the largest religious monument on the planet.

Angkor Wat was ours for the taking...

...but we would have to wait a day and here's why.

Our fantastic tuk tuk driver (who today was joined by his mate as Sab and I decided we wanted to go motorbike style around Angkor) suggested that we go visit a waterfall before we once again go Indiana Jones style temple side. Considering that the waterfall was in the general direction of our first temple of the day (Banteay Srei) we thought yeah why not. It was only another 15 kms past the temple and the rods so far have been above our standard so why not see what Cambodia can throw up waterfall style. After one of the bumpiest bike rides in history, my ass felt like it went 15 rounds with Mike Tyson. Those roads marinaded my ass to a state slightly above liquid. Once we gained feeling in our legs our tuk tuk driver told us it was going to be another 40 minute walk through the forest to see this waterfall. Sab and I weren't too impressed with this revelation as he could have told us this before we decided that our ass muscles were no longer needed in our lives ever again. The walk through the forest itself was quite nice but the waterfall itself was piss poor compared to the Kuang Si Waterfall in Laos.

Waterfalls Cambodia Style - It wasn't all that bad


Sabs feet started to blister again and the sky was still looking pretty grey as we walked back to the motorbikes and made our way to the temple known as Banteay Srei. This was the sacred feminine temple in Khmer Empire times and the architecture was as always...amazing. The preservation of this temple was one of the best we had seen and you could clearly see intricate carvings all over the temple. I tried to take as many nice pictures as i could but i thought i would buy a book instead. With a slight drizzle coming down and our asses still in shock from the ride from the waterfall to the temple our faith that we would be exploring Angkor Wat today was fast slipping away.

Then the rains came. It rained so hard that Sab and I gave up on seeing Angkor Wat and decided to buy a DVD instead of the place, more money down the toilet. As soon as there was a break in the rain we decided to take a chance and get on the bikes back to Angkor but as soon as we got going, the rains came down again. Actually you can see it for yourself...


Besides getting drenched by the rain, Sab and I decided that we would quit while we were down and go back to our guesthouse. The idea for getting up and seeing Angkor Wat at sunrise was great in theory but we decided to try a little experiment in order to make sure that we got up at 4.30 in the morning to make sure we wouldn't miss this one chance to see Angkor at sunrise.

In the aftermath of our experiment..we succeeded and we failed.