Signing Off

So for now the adventure comes to an end. Six months and six countries later and it’s time to come home. Although it feels like we’ve done so much it also feels like it’s all happened in no time. It seems like we should still be telling people ‘we’ve got five months left’. At the start of our trip especially we met people who were in their last legs of the trip and I couldn’t imagine what that would feel like as it seemed so far off, but now that’s me. Somehow I’ve been out here for six months. It’s been such an amazing trip and I’m so happy Elise and I didn’t really plan anything and just left it to chance. What I’ve learnt about travelling, or at least round South East Asia is that it’s best not to plan your trip out. You’ve no idea before you go how much you’ll like one place, or how long you’ll want to be somewhere for. Travelling around by bus, train even plane is so easy and cheap that it’s easy to just go as you please. We never planned or even thought that we’d live in Phnom Penh for two months of our trip. It just came about after doing one Thai class and some google searches one rainy day in a dorm room in Koh Lanta. 

Although it all (almost, all) has been amazing, there’s definitely some highlights. For meeting people and just the general vibe I loved Indonesia. It was our first stop so we were still new to it, but it was definitely the right place to make our first stop. As a place I absolutely love Singapore. It’s like no other city I’ve been to and when I was there I just wanted to stay there and never leave. And lastly I loved Cambodia. If talking to a backpacker I wouldn’t exactly say that Phnom Penh is a must, but it was such a different experience living there. As I’ve mentioned so many times on previous posts…

So to sum up it’s been amazing, I’m not sure what’s next and I’m very lucky to have met so many lovely people, been to so many lovely places and go home to see lots more lovely people! For now the blog will remain quiet but hopefully at some point in the future it will reopen for business with a new travel destination in the title… 

Vietnam round two

As I think I previously mentioned, or at least hope I did, Elise’s parents have arrived and our visiting us and travelling with us for three weeks. They’re names are John and Ellen, I feel I need to properly introduce them before I post anymore. (See below).



After one last emotional night in Phnom Penh we headed to Vietnam, for the second time this trip. With the weather forecast looking vastly better than last time we were ready to hit the South. 

We took a seven hour coach from Phnom Penh to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh city as it was more recently named. With hopes amongst the ranks to hit a beach soon we decided to stay only a few nights in Saigon. On our first night Ellen worked her usual magic on the World Wide Web and found us a place to eat. We found the place tucked down a little alley way. We enjoyed the set menu of five whole courses for only $6 each and the food was amazing! So amazing that we all wrote a message on the wall. 



Because of the limited time we decided to do a city tour the next day as it hit a lot of places including the war museum which was high on the list for Elise. The War Remnants museum was a really good museum, the only downside was the tour only gave us an hour there and there was too much to see in that time. We also went to the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Central Post Office which was built by Gustav Eiffel, the Reunification Palace which is where the war ended by a tank crashing through the gates, and also China town and a Chinese temple there called Thien Hau Pagoda which is based around the goddess of the sea.





And that concludes our short trip in Saigon. As a city I really like Saigon and a lot more than I thought I would. I hear it’s very popular with the expats and also has a dodgeball team…

From Saigon we got a sleeper bus in the day to Mui Ne which took a grand total of six hours. 





Despite the happy face on the above picture, Ellen was not thrilled with the sleeper bus! So we vowed from then on there would be no more. Mui Ne is a quiet little beach town which is very popular with Russians. We went here to get our beach fix. Although the hostel we stayed in was very nice with an equally very nice pool, we managed to reap the benefits of John and Ellen’s fancy beach resort, which is where we took refuge most days, either by the beach or by the pool. We did take a little trip to see the sights of Mui Ne where we visited the red sand dunes and the fairy stream. 





After we felt suitably beached we headed to Da Lat, which meant a long ride in a little mini van up some very windy steep mountainous roads. A lot of throwing up occurred on that journey, thankfully not from any of us, though it was touch and go for a while. Da Lat is known as the honeymoon capital and is a cute little city. On one day we did a tour around the local area. We went to an old train station, a pagoda, on the monorail, to a coffee plantation where we tried weasel coffee, to elephant falls, and to a minority village. All of this so happened to fall on International Woman’s Day which meant JB treated the women all day. 





The highlight of Da Lat was definitely going canyoning. Elise, JB and I went on the trip after Ellen decided it wasn’t for her. It was amazing we jumped into waterfalls, we slid down waterfalls, we floated along a ‘lazy river’ and abseiled down waterfalls! In the morning we did a few practice abseils down dry slopes which I found scary enough! But after lunch things got even more scary. For an hour I had been watching people go down this huge waterfall and then drop into the water and disappear. Because the rope wasn’t long enough once you got five metres above the water you had to just let go of the ropes and fall into the water! It proved to be even scarier still though as when you got a way down water pummelled you in the face! After having completed that one we had to face the final one called the ‘washing machine’. Because of the angle of this one we didn’t watch people go down for an hour before because we couldn’t see it. This was the easiest in terms of abseiling, we had to climb about five metres and then once we got to a certain point drop our legs and let the rope go fast so we rapidly fell into the huge waterfall. At this point you realised why it was called ‘the washing machine’ as the fall drags you under and you resurface some time later! It was an amazing day.





Finally it was back to Hoi An where we spent a few days at the tailors and shopping and eating amazing food. On our last day together as beans (what we collectively called ourselves) we did a cooking course where we tried all sorts of weird and wonderful foods from pigs ear to pigs brains! We then learnt how to make some popular Vietnamese dishes and ate so much we nearly burst! Sadly later that day we parted from John and Ellen as they were due to head back to Canada and so the reign of the beans ended.





Stunning scenery at Siem Reap

After a seven hour car journey on the most questionable road known to mankind, we made it to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh. Seriously the term road used here is at it’s loosest. ANYWAY the main reason people go to Siem Reap, apart from pub street, is for the temples and the site called Angkor Archaeological Park. Angkor is home to the stunning remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, dating back to the 9th Century. They include the infamous Temple of Angkor Wat and Bayon Temple. So at 5am the tuk tuk driver was waiting and off we went to start the day of temple touring, beginning with the sunrise at Angkor Wat. The day was long and tiring but what we saw was well worth it! I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking…







Saying goodbye to Emma the expat

It breaks my heart to say it but our time living in Phnom Penh is up! Since arriving at the start of January we’ve made a good go at making a home for ourselves in the city. We had our flat, had school, had a routine and tried to socialise with as many people as we could. The thought of temporarily giving up living out of a backpack at first didn’t exactly appeal too much and I couldn’t help thinking two months in one place may be too much, mainly because we hadn’t even spent much more than a week in anywhere for the previous three months! But now the experience has come to an end, I can say I’m 100% glad we decided to settle here mid trip – I think it’s the best decision we’ve made throughout our trip. It provided me with a totally different experience to travelling and not only that but I got a glimpse into expat life. Elise previously lived away in another place from home when she did study abroad in England so she was probably more aware of how fun/rewarding it is. But I don’t think either of us realised how easy and enjoyable it would be to ease into the pace of life here. Having a routine and a life in Phnom Penh was not just a nice change but it was our own personalised routine. We had our fruit and veg lady, our banana man and our regular tuk tuk driver. The experience has made me realise that if I wanted to move out of England more permanently and settle somewhere, so be Emma the expat full time, I could. 

At the beginning of our sixth week of Khmer lessons we left the course as we were officially moving out of Phnom Penh. Khmer is definitely as difficult as I expected. If we had just been learning to speak the language we’d maybe have felt differently as that’s probably the easier (still not easy) part. However we also learnt how to read and write in Khmer which is the really difficult part! So we don’t exactly leave fluent speakers of the Khmer language but we do have a nice grasp of a beginners level of the language, which is all we can ask for after just six weeks of study. I’ll definitely miss seeing Phara our teacher every day as he finds everything funny, which makes everyone else laugh too. I’ll also miss the Malaysian couple we sat next to, as well as our other classmates who all waved us off as we left IFL for the last time!

The best part of living here has been getting to know the expat community. As I’ve previously said we’ve been to various different expat-led nights such as nerd night and dodgeball. Though our biggest link to the expat community has to be Dennis. He’s introduced us to so many different people and it’s thanks to him we made as many friends as we did. Though despite providing us with friends he’s also become a good friend to us himself, and has been a big part of Phnom Penh for us! We are definitely going to miss seeing Dennis various times a week and being introduced to a new and exciting food place weekly! 

Phnom Penh is a quirky little city, with so many odd sights. It’s the capital of a developing country so it obviously has it’s issues, and after Cambodia’s past it’s not a surprise. The hardest part of living in Phnom Penh was the huge class distinction, between the rich and the poor. A lot of people have absolutely nothing and it’s not only plain to see but upsetting to see. It’s hard to put that into perspective as there’s a lot of NGO’s here all trying to help people in poverty in one way or another but knowing which are needed, or rather more necessary is hard, and something I find problematic. To help people it takes a lot more than giving a street kid some money and if I was to ever return I’d want to try and volunteer for something that helps people. The traffic and people’s general blasé attitudes on the roads also takes some getting used to. If I were ever to live here for longer I’d have to get a scooter which would be a daunting thought! There’s also no such thing as being a pedestrian. There aren’t proper road crossings and all pavements are taken up by parked scooters or rubbish! The sight of seeing a whole family on a scooter is one I will miss when I’m home. One of the best parts for Phnom Penh and just Cambodia in general, is the people. They are all so friendly and willing to help. There’s the usual Asia style laid-back-ness to the people but it goes further than that. People are always willing to share what little they have. In that sense, it’s a nicer pace of life. When I first came to Cambodia and started talking to people who had been here long term they often said things like ‘there’s just something about Cambodia’, and at the time I didn’t disagree but I didn’t quite get it. However as corny as it sounds I finally get it. Leaving was a lot harder than I ever thought it would be, and I feel some sort of pull to it. I don’t know when and if I actually will but I want to return at some point! But for now the backpack has been repacked, it’s also gained some weight, and I’m back on the road. First to Siem Reap then it’s off to Vietnam as we officially leave Cambodia… For now.