Pulau Tioman

I spent two amazing days  on Pulau Tioman (it was supposed to be three days but the tides screwed up my plans). The first day we went snorkeling in a bunch of different areas near the island. I got extremely burned, but only on my backside since I was face down the entire time. I couldn't figure out why I got so burned when I was reapplying sunscreen so often, and then I realized my sunscreen wasn't waterproof. Oops. Let the peeling begin!

paradise

snorkeling!

on the boat

The second day we hiked across the island to Juara Beach. It was a good five miles through the jungle, and I can honestly say that was the sweatiest I've ever been in my life. My clothes were completely soaked through, and I was still dripping sweat.  The jungle was so dense that the heat was completely trapped and there was no breeze at all (and very little light). Still, the hike was worth it. Juara is a beautiful beach, and we saw lots of animals along the way. 

view while hiking to Juara beach (this was after emerging from five miles of dense jungle terrain)

monitor lizard...these guys are all over the island

Juara Beach...South Pacific was filmed here. I can see why.

the requisite sunset photo

Pulau Tioman in the (very) early morning light

Melaka

traditional houses along the river

in a doorway

Melaka and the sea

Stadthuys and town square

bright pink dragonfruit!

and...back to the "developed" world

Having a bit of reverse culture shock right now. After three months in Vietnam and Cambodia, the obvious wealth of Kuala Lumpur is a bit shocking. But it also feels comfortable...more like home. I suppose that's because it is.

Petronas Towers

DEFINITELY not in Cambodia or Vietnam anymore

Lamborghini and Ferrari

cool fountain

Noodlr

In the midst of packing for my flight tomorrow morning, I decided to take a quick break to glance at some blogs I follow. Then I happened upon Noodlr. End of quick break. I spent the last 20 minutes obsessively clicking, and getting hungrier by the minute. Yum.

Kampong Cham

I spent 2 days in Kampong Cham, a small town in Eastern Cambodia.  It's picturesque and the people are very friendly.  Unfortunately, like in Battambang, almost everything was closed because of the new year. That included restaurants, grocery stores, and convenience stores.  I mainly spent my time there walking and biking around town.  There's an island in the middle of the river that I biked all over.  In the dry season, the only way to get to the island is by bamboo bridge. After my last biking riding mishap (I sort of fell in the river while riding along the Mekong Delta), I was pretty nervous about going over this very rickety, shaky bridge.  To make it worse, all forms of transportation are allowed, so there are motorbikes, cars, and horse-drawn carriages speeding past in both directions. I'm happy to say I made it across the bridge with no mishaps, and had a great time exploring. 

clouds over the Mekong

bamboo bridge!

self pic...needed to document myself on the bridge

pretty gate on the island

boats: in water and on land

man and horses

toll road, Cambodian-style

disgusting feet (after 4 hrs of riding around on dirt roads)

Obama High Power! (car battery)

this is how the locals travel. what up, safety standards?

this guy was actually sitting on a motorbike attached to the back of a truck

Battambang

First, let me say that my view of Battambang is slightly biased in a negative way because almost everything was closed due to the Cambodian New Year. In fact, this is my third New Year in 2010 - first, the regular new year (January 1), then Tet in Vietnam (February 14) and now the Cambodian New Year (April 14 - 16).

Anyway, back to Battambang. In my opinion,  it's just okay. The books say it's beautiful and charming. Sure, there are a few streets that have some nice colonial architecture, but it's really not worth making a trip all the way to Battambang just to see a few buildings. However, the town is a jumping-off point for a lot of different attractions in the area, and those are worth seeing. This was my last town traveling with the girls - Kelly, Anni and Alison - before heading off on my own.  We arrived in the early afternoon and checked into the Royal Hotel. We spent the afternoon just chilling in the room and I walked around the town a bit. In the late afternoon we met up with Anni and Alison's friends for a drink on the hotel's rooftop bar - beautiful sunset, cold beer and good company - what more could you ask for?

Battambang

Battambang Market

The next day we did a tour of the sights around Battambang. First stop was the bamboo train - the single-track railroad is used by real trains coming from Phnom Penh, but they only pass occasionally, so the locals created their own form of train to transport goods and people from town to town. It's made out of a wood frame and covered lengthwise with slats of bamboo. When two bamboo trains meet, the one carrying the lighter load is simply dissassembled and taken off the track to let the other train pass (we got to see this firsthand - look for the pic below).  We rode the train from one small town to another small town, rested at a roadside cafe, and then got back on our train and rode back.

Next stop was Prasat Banan temple - it's 358 steps to get to the top, and in the midday heat, it was torturous climbing up but I was glad I did. Prasat Banan is a complex of 5 small temples built prior to the temples at Angkor, and the view from the top is beautiful.  There were also tons of Cambodians making the climb to give offerings for the New Year.  Third stop was basically a limestone mountain with a lot of different attractions on it - religious temples, rotting artillery from past wars, and the killing caves where the Khmer Rouge tortured, killed, and disposed of bodies.  By that time we were hot and tired, so instead of walking we hired motorbikes to drive us all over the mountain - definitely a good decision.

Our tuk tuk driver was awesome, and doubled as a tour guide. He told us the history of certain places, explained all about the Cambodian New Year celebrations that we saw, and in the killing caves he even shared his own personal experiences during the Khmer Rouge which was very touching and also saddening. Overall, it was a great (albeit incredibly hot) day. The next morning I struck out on my own and caught the bus to Kompong Cham in Eastern Cambodia...details on that to come!

excited for our bamboo train ride!

chugging along

we encountered this bamboo train going the opposite direction, it was packed with a huge Cambodian family...they got off and let us go by, even though we were the lighter train

Prasat Banan...we climbed 358 steps to see this temple

killing caves...Khmer Rouge used to throw bodies down this shaft...

some of the collected bones

view from Phnom Sampeau

Phnom Sampeau

No wireless internet, no blog posts

I've been in rural Eastern Cambodia the past few days and wifi is still a foreign concept in these parts. I'm currently sitting at a computer cafe in Kratie, using what is probably the oldest computer I've seen since junior high.

To sum up, the past few days have included: endless hours on buses, biking across a very rickety bamboo bridge and around an island, getting pummeled by water balloons while riding in a tuk tuk, motobiking up and down a mountain to see the killing caves and temples, watching the rare irrawaddy river dolphins splash around, and multiple sunsets over the Mekong River.

Pictures and more details to come once I have access to wifi again...can't wait!

Angkor Wat - two days, nine temples

Angkor Wat was beautiful and majestic. I went for two days and saw nine temples overall. After a while, the distinction between each temple sort of starts to blend together, but the beauty and awe never fades.  They are just that impressive. The temples were all built from the 11th - 14th centuries, and some are in better condition than others.  I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, and while most of them are good, no photo even comes close to experiencing Angkor Wat in person. 

Flashpacking

Before this trip, I had no idea there were levels of backpacking.  I naively assumed that anyone who traveled on a budget, stayed in hostels or cheap hotels, and presumably, carried a backpacking pack, was simply a backpacker. Turns out I'm wrong, and there are multiple levels of backpacking. I mainly seem to be a flashpacker. As in, while in Siem Reap I paid $9/night to stay in a new, spacious hotel with a pool and A/C when I could've been paying $3-4/night to sleep in a dorm room with no A/C (and certainly no pool).  To be fair, the only reason I could afford the more expensive hotel is because I was traveling with people and we split the cost of the room.

Backpacking levels can also be seen by method of transportation (bus, private taxi, train, boat, airplane); where one eats (street food, market food, grocery store, cafe, restaurant); and accompanying technology (digital camera, ipod, laptop); etc. I'm definitely a flashpacker in most of those categories, although I have taken every method of transportation listed and bought food from all those places listed.  In terms of technology though, I'm a true flashpacker - I have a laptop and I judge hotels by whether or not they have free wifi. Still, a hotel doesn't have to be that nice so long as I can use the internet without leaving my room.

The point is, the term "backpacking" encompasses a huge variety of people traveling in very different ways, but we all identify ourselves as backpackers because it's a mentality as much as a style of travel.
With the exception of technology, my flashpacking days will soon be over...no more free tuk-tuk rides into town, or late night dips in the pool. And that's cool. Once I'm on my own, my standards will go way down. At least, they'll go down for the next two weeks until I get to Singapore where will not be doing any sort of backpacking at all - I'll be checking into the five-star Marriott Hotel and living in luxury for 2.5 days (courtesy of Marriott Rewards points).

But hey, I deserve it - I've been backpacking in some capacity for over three months now, and in Israel I'll be living on a kibbutz so I deserve a few days of non-backpacking, non-flashpacking travel.  Overall though, I've definitely been converted into a hard-core flashpacker, and it's now my preferred way to travel.

Angkor Wat at sunrise