Cambodia

Time: 8:04am

Location: Kep, Cambodia

Weather: sunny, 24C

The last day of 2015 and in just a few hours we will be whisked across the border to Vietnam! We are going to spend New Year's Eve at Phu Quoc island. If I thought Thailand was chill, it's got nothing on Cambodia, especially here in Kep, a beach side town where all we see people do is lie around in hammocks all day. We spent a good part of yesterday doing just that, after going for a insanely hot walk in Kep National Park. 

After spending all day on a bus on Christmas Day, we finally arrive in Siem Reap in the evening. Exiting Thailand and then walking through no man's land with its multitude of casinos to the Cambodia side was such a chaotic experience that I will never forget. My first impression of Siem Reap was that it was quite westernized, from all resort hotels to the Christmas lights. Just about all restaurants also offer Western food (side note: while we've had a few great Cambodia meals, the majority is mediocre, especially the stands inside Angkor, which makes me miss Thai food immensely even if every meal leaves a fire in my mouth). The next morning we rented bikes and rode in the direction of Tonle Sap, the largest lake in SE Asia. The road deteriorated into dust as we were met with rural Cambodia, and it's clear that Cambodia is not as developed as Thailand. Even the countryside Thailand towns we passed on the bus had 7-11s, but here there were not much more than wooden houses on stilts amidst fields of rice, and I have never seen cows so skinny. Tonle Sap flows into the ever so important Mekong River which eventually empties out into the ocean, but every year during rainy season, the flow of water is reversed, making Tonle Sap flood into the outskirts of Siem Reap. We ended up taking a boat ride out to Chong Khneas, the closest fishing village, which wasn't the most picturesque but we visited an interesting school, fish farm and community market, all floating on the water. Our boat driver kept urging us to buy some rice to donate to the school (that he went to), but it was a whopping $50USD for the bag and we couldn't really believe it was worth that much. We've read about a quite a few scams associated with donating in Cambodia unfortunately. An even worse occurrence that I learned was about Cambodian orphanages. Many of the kids at these orphanages are not actually orphans but are taken away from their parents and put there so that tourists can visit them. It is horrible that they are being used as a revenue generating tool and orphanage visits hence are not advised. 

In the afternoon we checked out a modern temple, which was surprisingly deserted, before getting our tickets to Angkor Historical Park for the next day and our first glimpses of the grand Angkor Wat. It was just as magnificent as the pictures but as it was sunset, extremely crowded. The guards started shooing people out at 6pm but we managed to return a bit later and sat in solace on the front entrance watching the stars. 

We started our next morning at dawn pedalling to chase the sunrise over Angkor Wat. I have to admit it was a touch disappointing as we got there a little too late and the sun wasn't exactly over the ruins, which only happens twice a year I believe. Being inside the complex surrounded by the intricate carvings from another era ago instills an incomprehensible sense of awe. From Angkor Wat we moved onto my favourite Bayon, with its numerous faces peering out to the sides. Most of the temples in the park can be categorized into Angkor, Bayon or Bakheng-style (like a temple mountain). After few hours in Angkor Thom, much bigger than Angkor Wat, we went over to Preah Khan, which itself is gigantic, thinking we were going to do the small circuit. Soon we got so called "templed out" and with the heat getting the best of us, we just went to Phnom Bakheng (phnom meaning hill) and laid around waiting for the sunset. Phnom Bakheng is the prime sunset spot at Angkor and so popular that they start handing out tags hours before to limit only 300 people at the top. It's quite different from the others in that you walk about 15min uphill on a dirt trail before seeing any temple remnants. 

We finished out time in Siem Reap with some dinner at the Old Market, where I tried amok, a Khmer fish curry, before catching a night bus to Phnom Penh. It was my first time on a bus with almost fully-reclining seats which were pretty conducive for sleep. 

Waking up in Phnom Penh, we were instantly met with its hectic traffic and commotion. Phnom Penh only has a fraction of the population of Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi so I'm told it's a whole lot more congested in Vietnam. The city is named after its founder Penh who arrived by boat with four Buddha statues and built a hill, Wat Phnom, to place them there. There was quite a bit of French influence throughout the city and that was noted in a lot of the architecture. Cambodia is a country that has been battered by three decades of war and the atrocious Khmer Rouge regime, which can be said to be one of the worst massacres in history, and the capital city is just starting to slowly rebound back. Originally I had wanted to go to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a schoolhouse converted to a torture and execution center during the Khmer Rouge, but I wasn't feeling too well that day and spent the afternoon resting at the guesthouse. My friend who went said it was filled with somber and not a place for the faint of heart. 

From a short stay in Phnom Penh we headed to Kep which was a big change of pace. Kep and the nearby riverside town of Kampot is famous for their pepper and seafood so we hit up both the afternoon we arrived.  At Sothy's Pepper Farm, which is situated in the beautiful foothills of the surrounding jungle, we listened to Sothy herself explain how pepper is grown and how she came to acquire the farm after quitting her job in Phnom Penh. There were many international travellers partaking in work exchanges there and giving tours in all sorts of languages. We noticed that Cambodia but Kep especially has many many French visitors. Following a dip in the warm waters of Kep Beach, we went to the Crab Market and sampled some of the freshest crabs I have tasted (they grab straight from the ocean after we order!)

See you in 2016!

Thailand

Time: 9am

Location: on the bus from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet and then Siem Reap

Weather: 27C

My first Christmas spent in a tropical place and I even get to be in two countries on the day! Growing up, Christmas has always been associated with snow and cuddling up with a warm drink, I have to say that walking around with a t-shirt and shorts in the sweltering heat is quite a novelty. Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country, so no national holiday here, which is probably a good thing for us as all the businesses and transportation still run as usual today. That doesn't mean there's no holiday atmosphere! Bangkok has some amazing Christmas lights and jingles are played nonstop in the shopping malls. 

We arrived in Bangkok last Saturday night, stayed near the infamous backpacker's ghetto that is Khao San Road for two nights, which with the open air bars blasting deafening music every night, was already too many nights. 

On Sunday we spent the morning at the Grand Palace (of course), and then browsed through Chatuchuk Market before catching up over dinner with my friend Lilly. 

I have to admit that Bangkok is not my favourite place in the world, as it's not particularly scenic and the constant touting gets tiring, so on Monday we took a bus (the cheap kind that locals use, which was slow but interesting as there were no proper bus stops along the way but the driver would keep honking when it got to a town and people would somehow know to wait there to get on) to Kanchanaburi. Upon arrival we rented some bikes from our guesthouse and set off on a cycling excursion checking out the beautiful riverside town. Kanchanaburi (also the name of the capital city) is a province to the west bordering Myanmar (we were within 25km of the border at one point!), most well known for the railway and along with it, the Bridge over the River Kwai, which the Japanese built during World War II in order to send supplies to Burma and India. It's called the Death Railway because something like 90000 Asian labourers and 20000 prisoners of war from western countries were killed during its rapid construction, oweing to the treacherous working conditions. Quite a terrible event in history, and the Hellfire Pass Museum, which we went to on a tour on the second day in Kanchanaburi, does a really good job recounting the events. On the same tour we also visited Sai Yok Noi waterfall, went to a village in what seemed like the middle of the jungle for a delicious lunch, some elephant riding and bamboo rafting, and, rode on the train which today only runs for tourism purposes as a large part of it through to Myanmar has been stripped off. 

On Wednesday we took the bus to Ayutthaya, historically the second capital of Siam and filled with ancient temple ruins that were destroyed by Burmese attacks. I have lost count of how many wats we visited and some of them are still being used for worshipping today. They all have a similar design with a main central pagoda and surrounding chedis, and the scene of thousand year structures surrounded by modern architecture is truly fascinating. One of my favourites is Wat Yai Chaimongkhon which you could climb up into the prang for a bird's eye view of what the entire complex could have looked like. There just happened to be some sort of a festival when we were there and at night we got to enjoy some performances, more night markets, and even a very cool light show in front of the ruins featuring everything from fireworks, projecting screens to horses and elephants. Too bad we couldn't understand any of what they were saying as it would have been great to learn more about the Ayutthaya history. 

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, we started the day with a visit to the Ayutthaya floating market, which unlike more traditional floating markets where things are sold on boats, was set up on wooden platforms. Some more wats and a million photos later we returned to Bangkok where we rounded off our time in Thailand with some drinks at the Red Sky rooftop bar.

Final thoughts about Thailand:

-Tuk tuks are such funny vehicles and always brightly decorated. 

-The king is omnipresent and I learned the longest reigning monarch in the world?

-Everything is spicy! "Real" Thai food is not as rich as the Thai food I've had in other countries, but always filled with fresh vegetables, coconut something, and peanuts.

-Temples, temples and more temples, not one failed to impress!

-Bangkok is super well developed and quite similar to Taipei. The cosmopolitan atmosphere is very unlike the other places we went to, so many foreigner tourists and expats

-Thai people seem to generally take things at a slower pace, driving, cleaning, eating...

Will definitely be back to check out Thailand's northern mountains and southern islands, laagorn for now!

A new chapter begins

Time: 1pm
Location: Taipei
Weather: 18C

Today marks my last day of work at Topology Travel and the end of my first chapter in Taiwan! The past 2.5 months has been the best welcome to Taiwan one can ask for thanks to my wonderful new colleagues and friends, filled with learning, in-country travelling, and lots of eating (I've definitely gained a few pounds since being here). I am happy to announce I have secured a new job in Taipei from March 2016, and will be here for a while from then on, so lots more of Taiwan to come! But for now, tomorrow I head to Thailand to start a series of 4 trips, the first being SE Asia which has been top on my radar for the past few years. 

From when I last wrote I was on my way to Taroko Gorge. That day with the American cyclists, we went to Qingshui cliffs, my first taste of eastern Taiwan's rugged landscape, followed by a short hike along the Shakadang Trail. Unfortunately, the latter part of the trail is closed due to the previous typhoons (a commonality in many of Taroko's trails, although I did climb over some signs), but it was still spectacular with the turquoise water and jagged rocks and cliffs. In the afternoon we were dropped off at Tienhsiang, in the heart of the gorge, for the night, and while the guests went off to set up their bikes, I went for a walk around the small village. Along the Baiyang Waterfall Trail, which was suppose to have a spectacular water curtain but again that part was closed, I met a group of Taiwanese on sort of an elementary school reunion trip (how amazing they managed to stay in touch all those years!), and they even offered to let me stay with them had I not arranged accommodation.

In the morning, I had breakfast with the cyclists and then enviously watched them off on their ride down to Kenting. Tienhsiang has to be one of my favourite places in Taiwan so far, wild Formosan macques running around everywhere and yet so serene and beautiful. I spent the day hopping on and off the bus that runs along the road in the park (so awesome, where else in the world do you get reliable public transportation inside a national park?), going on just about all the short hikes at Lushui, Swallow Grotto, Buluowan and Eternal Spring Shrine. That evening I took the train from Hualien to Zhixue, where my Couchsurfing host Jane invited me to a talk at her church about the various traditional religions in Taiwan. It was given by a professor of religious studies and what I thought was very cool was how Taiwan's island and immigrant culture have big roles in influencing people's beliefs. Jane, who is a student at National Dong Hwa University, introduced me to her church friends and I got a taste of university life in Taiwan.

On Saturday, I caught the train back to Hualien, where I rented a bike for the day and cycled around the town. Although the weather wasn't spectacular, I still found Hualien, edged between the Central Mountain Ranges and Pacific Ocean, very pretty. I spent a good part of the morning at Qixingtan beach, and the afternoon at Hualien Cultural and Creative Industries Park where there was the East Coast Living Art Festival featuring many artisan booths and cultural performances (and of course DIY activities). Revitalization of historical sites into new tourist attractions seems to be a common trend across many places in Taiwan. In the evening, I trained back up to Yilan to my coworker's Jenny's hometown of Luodong, where she took me through the famous but very crowded night market, sampling many of Yilan's delicacies. 

Bright and early on Sunday, Jenny took me on a bike ride along the dikes near her home, before I went off to Luodong Foresty Cultural Park. During the Japanese occupation, This used to be a major lumber production site where they shipped the wood down from Taipingshan for processing, and has now turned into an outdoor exhibition/museum. Afterwards I took the train to Jiaoxi, where I had wanted to do the Linmei Shipan trail. It was just as well that it started raining then because the trail ended up being closed for repair, so I executed Plan B and went to the Lanyang Museum. Here's another prime example of Taiwanese hospitality: I was walking along the road from Toucheng train station when a bus driver stopped to tell me to get on and drove me with the rest of the passengers directly to the museum. A minute after I got on he stopped another foreign tourist and the entire bus exclaimed how well he was able to know exactly where people wanted to go. Lanyang Museum does a really good job of outlining everything about Yilan, from the geography to the history. I'm usually not a museum person but having personally been to and heard about some of the things on exhibit I found it pretty interesting. A recurring theme in Yilan is it's greenery, due to the vast amounts of rainfall that it receives, and the people's efforts to keep it green. 

Ironically, the next day I found myself back in Yilan, this time for work helping out on a tour of Indonesian visitors. We went to the Wufengqi waterfalls, did a fish foot spa (my first and most likely last as I really didn't like the biting feeling, regardless of how good they say your feet feel afterwards, which mine didn't), and then went to the National Center for Traditional Arts, which offers a glimpse of Taiwan's past with traditional handiwork and performances.

For my last weekend together with my roommate, Jenny invited us to join some of her church's Christmas festivities. On Saturday, we went to a Christmas carnival put on their church and even helped out by selling some of the food items. We started Sunday morning with a short bike ride from Jenny's Taipei home on the outskirts of Taipei (New Taipei City actually) to Bitan, a nice waterfront area along the Xindian River. We then joined her church's mass and youth group. In the evening, we went to an orchestra performance where a friend of Jenny's was performing, rounding off a wonderful in-town weekend. 

See you in SE Asia!

A birthday to remember and wow, it's December!

Time: 9:06am

Location: on the train on the way from Taipei to Xincheng

Weather: 16C, showers

Finally there are some signs of fall here! Last week for two days it got down to 13-14C and it was fun watching my coworkers with their big thick jackets and even hand warmers. I put on long pants and a jacket for the first time. 

Currently I'm on my way to Taroko Gorge with a group of American visitors who came to Taiwan for a bicycle tour of the east coast. The bike tour company contracted our travel company to help arrange some of the transportation and I got to do a few of the airport pickups. Tomorrow and the rest of this weekend I'll have the free time to go travelling in Hualien and Yilan so stay tuned for that in the next post. 

November 14th, I hiked up to the Maokong Gondola region on the edge of Taipei, which is famous for growing tea leaves, a big industry in Taiwan. I learned about the different types of tea at the tea promotion center and had lunch of fried rice made with tea oil. Towards the end of the day, I stumbled upon a trail to a small waterfall with a very interesting cliffside temple.  The next day, I went hiking with my coworker Irene to another place called Huangdidian in Shiding. There was quite a bit of scrambling with ropes and chains and a really fun ridge walk. We met a big group of hikers from Taichung who came up all the way here for a day trip so it must of kind of famous. 

I took two days off on Nov. 19 and 20th, and with that weekend, went to climb Yushan, at 3952m, the highest mountain in Taiwan AND east Asia (all of China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong). We took an overnight bus from Taipei to Chiayi on Nov. 18th, arriving at 2:30am and then slept for 3 hours at the Chiyayi Train Station before taking the first public bus to Alishan and then a shuttle car to the trailhead at Tatajia, around 2600m. On the first day, we made it up to Paiyun Lodge, 8.5km and about 3400m elevation. The trail was very easy for something pretty high. In Canada you would almost definitely need tools to climb mountains of that height even in the summer. We were a bit worried about altitude sickness having not acclimatized at all, so we walked fairly slowly and took lots of breaks. In the end I was completely fine save for a few instances of shortness of breath. Once again I was amazed with how developed the National Parks of of Taiwan is. Paiyun Lodge not only had running water, electricity, but also people, mostly Taiwanese Aboriginals, cooking meals for you and wifi! On my actual birthday (Taiwan time), we summited the north and main peaks, making it a memorable birthday! The north peak has the highest weather station in east Asia and it was cool talking to the 3-4 meteorologists working there. Just about everyone who climbs Yushan goes up to the main peak to see the sunrise, but we made the smart decision of not doing so because we wanted to sleep in (they get up around 3am for the sunrise) and it was raining both mornings (but the clouds magically parted partially in the afternoon of the summit day). On the way back to Taipei, we stopped for a night in Alishan, a touristy scenic national forest area where people go to watch the sunrise over Jhushan, ride the little train which was originally built by the Japanese for logging,  and appreciate some of the oldest and largest trees of Taiwan. 

This past Saturday, I went out for an overdue longish bike ride to the north coast in preparation for my bike tour of Taiwan in January. The rolling hills north of Danshui were a bit of a shock to the legs with Taipei being so flat, but the seaside views are beautiful and I was so happy to be out cycling again. I saw quite a few people surfing and windsurfing out in the wavy waters. 

On Sunday I went to a Meetup hike along Marian Hiking Trail in Jiaoxi, Yilan. In the beginning we saw the popular three tiered Wufengqi waterfalls. This trail starts at a Catholic Church located along the hillside and winds up a mountain where there's a cross at the end. Very interesting and apparently it used to be a pilgrimage route. There is also a well maintained cabin at the peak which is free to use and would make a great easy weekend hiking trip. 

Work wise I've been out on a few more Danshui walking tours and even successfully led my first Ningxia Night Market tour independently. I've learned that unfortunately I won't be able to coming back to work here in 2016 after my bout of travels so December 18th (yikes, just two weeks!) will be my last day. Definitely a bit of uncertainly and lots of planning for these next few months but I'm excited for whatever that's to come!