vietbodia 07

Donnerstag, 30. August 2007

siem riep + ho chi minh

So far so good. the days in siem riep were exhausting. so many temples in a short time. we had nice cycling trips to the countryside, thanks for that tiger. people on the countryside are so kind and warm in welcoming us to their villages. siem rieps nightlife must be developed even when youre sitting in the rooftop x-bar which is that location where you can stay longer than 1.00pm. expectations are not allowed. go there, wait there and fall asleep, the hang over is the same with or without partypeople. beware of the ladyboys and the female snooker champions. best wishes to nick ray the author of the lonely planet. By the way I hate u!
Now its ho chi minh what keeps me awake. saigon blue, cheers. tomorrow were heading for a shorttrip to the cu chi veitcong tunnels.

Donnerstag, 23. August 2007

Battambang – or Tvs are less expansive than children

Yesterday we’ve arrived in battambang which is located in the northwestern part of cambodia. With a population of only 158.000 ist the second largest city in the kingdom cambodia. If you wanna see rural cambodia that should be your choice and so it was mine. The busride fromm phnom penh took 6hours so weh ad to get up early and catch it at seven. Naive as I am I thought it might be possible to have sleep in the bus but no way. Besides the aircondition and the nerverresting horn the karaokevideoclips kept me awake. Not that bad for watching the rural landscape passing by. Battambang iss mall, calm, friendlyand short of tourists. Drivers are offering good prices and you might not be so vulnerable for rip-offs. So far my impressions. Having Daytrips to the nearby temples are musts and so we booked drivers for guiding us into the rural surroundings. Great at all to see temples ancient housings, small villages where the time seemed to run slow. Even I am only two days here, I had almost the best sights of the cambodian countryside, my best fruitshakes, the best fish amok ( kind of curry served with bread or rice) and don’t forget the fried grasshoppers and crickets filled with peanuts ( really they use to put roasted peanuts in their asses). Besides the fried frogleggs I must say I had my best food so far. Tomoorow we will join a khmer cooking course which includes to go to the market and buy local specialities and prepare them in a typical khmer kitchen. I will tell you what that experience was.

For the patient readers the headline comes as a riddle. So please I want you to solve it. Bhat, ( don’t know to write khmer) my driver told me a lot of personal things and one of that was about tvs and having children. I love this guy and you would do either. He wasn’t that able to call my name and put it to something between tien and tiaen which is pretty similar to a khmer name. Which meaning is hard to explain, even in german and I am still figuring it out and will ask him again tomorrow. Now it’s time for Aras( only the local cigarettes) and Anchors ( the local beer).

I still have format problems and so uploading pictures is quite a challenge, please excuse for that.