We go to Cambodia: Catchup #2

Late in the day at Angkor Wat

Viking Man and I had talked for a long time about going to Vietnam, and in March 2012 we finally had a chance to go. I spent months meticulously researching the trip. I came up with a grand scheme that consisted of going from Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi and all the stops in between by boat, bus, and rail. It was a dream trip that would take at least two weeks.

Then we changed our minds and went to Cambodia. I didn't do any meticulous research, I made no reservations, there was no grand scheme. We flew to Phnom Penh with backpacks and a Lonely Planet.

'Can you take us here?' we asked a taxi driver at the airport, pointing to a hotel from the guide book. He took us there.

It was fully booked. Another place had one night available, and one night available at a sister hotel. So we stayed two nights in Phnom Penh. We spent our time at the National Museum, the S21 Genocide Museum, and some local markets. We skipped the Royal Palace for lack of appropriate attire.

'Can you get us bus tickets to Siem Reap?' we asked our hotel. They got us bus tickets, so we went to Siem Reap.

'Can you take us here?' we asked a tuk tuk driver, pointing to a hotel from the guide book. The hotel had availability for two nights. So we stayed two nights in Siem Reap and went to Angkor Wat, of course.

'Maybe we should go to the beach now,' we said to each other. So we booked a local flight to Sihanoukville and took a very bumpy tuk tuk ride out to the end of Otres Beach where we stayed for two nights in a bungalow.

'Can you get us bus tickets to Phnom Penh?' we asked our hotel. They got us bus tickets, and we returned to Phnom Penh. We stayed one more night before our return flight to Singapore.

I have nothing but good things to say about Cambodia. The people were gracious and friendly, the food was fantastic, the sights were remarkable. I loved this trip.

Tips for traveling in Cambodia:

• In Phnom Penh, stay at the Blue Lime or one of it's sister properties.
• The Genocide Museum is absolutely chilling but worth the visit.
• Unless you really love temples, one day at Angkor Wat is suitably mind-blowing.
• Do not charge excitedly into Bayon Temple and lose track of your partner's whereabouts! 
• When traveling by bus, do not put your backpack in the baggage hold next to a moped and an ancient styrofoam cooler box full of fish on ice. 
• Go with the flow and travel around--Cambodia has a lot to offer.

Melaka, Malaysia, Sept. 10-12

-Melaka Trip Album Link

This was a holiday weekend, so we should have known better, but still we waited way too long to book our trip. An island beach getaway was out of the question, the travel agents all but laughing at my enquiries. We finally settled on the UNESCO World Heritage City of Melaka. With no roundtrip coach tickets, no roundtrip train tickets, and almost no hotel rooms available, it didn't look hopeful. I waded through countless schedules and timetables and booking sites. I even stuck a toe into the unfamiliar waters of telephoning companies without websites only to have 'ticket finish', 'no more, lah', and 'fully book,' ring in my ears. I finally found two remaining seats on a coach to Melaka (the most expensive company), a room in a nice looking guesthouse (so, what's the catch--cockroaches? filthy sheets?), and train tickets back to Singapore, 2nd class only (train station located an hour out of Melaka).

The coach ride was efficient and uneventful. Our guesthouse turned out to be clean and comfortable and ideally located. And Melaka itself was very enjoyable. We stuck mainly to the historic sites and the night/weekend market. A note if you decide to walk to the Portuguese Settlement: it's roughly 7km from downtown (farther if you at first go to St. John's Fort, jig through a small neighborhood on the way back to the main road, and then miss the large sign saying 'Portuguese Settlement'), and it's not all that interesting. We concluded that at far as traditional villages go, Kampung Morten just north of downtown is where it's at. Needless to say, we took pictures of every single sign that said 'Morten'.

The train home was more eventful than the coach. Firstly, it's an hour by taxi to the train station (RM 50, maybe less if you're a good negotiator). Secondly, it doesn't really matter how far the train station is if you're told when you arrive that even though you have a booking code, you don't have a reservation. After some wild gesturing, loud excited verbal exchanges, several phone calls (I'd like to think that I wasn't rude, but I'm not sure that the KTM agent on the other end of the line would see it that way), and one big refusal by me to accept that I didn't have tickets on the fully booked train, I stood happily with two first class tickets to Singapore. It turns out that where my original booking agent had told me to pick up the tickets two hours before departure, she should have told me to pick them up twenty-four hours before departure. Since we had not done so, and since there is no pre-pay system, they had simply let the reservation go. I don't know how they got us seats on a full train, but they did, and I can only compliment KTM customer service, if not their booking system. The train was old and dingy, even in first class, and the air-conditioner was set on 'deep-freeze', but we got home, and that was certainly better than not getting home.

Highly recommended for a weekend trip.

Samcheok, July 9th

Bryce found an interesting looking cave to go to, so he and I hopped a bus to Samcheok, "world renowned as the 'Cave City,'" on Sunday afternoon. By the time we reached the cave nearly two hours later, it was raining nicely, and, on top of the humidity, it made the steep 20 minute hike to the entrance a grotesquely sticky experience. We then had to don jackets over our wet shirts to brace against the winter-like temperature inside the cave. In spite of the discomfort, the journey through the large cave was quite enjoyable. We saw such wonders as the summit of hope, cathedral of dreams, and bridge of hell, all named in true Korean style. Back in Samcheok, we decided to hang out at the beach for awhile before grabbing some food and a bus back to Gangneung.

Mureung Valley, June 11th

Hopefully you can stomach one more blog about me hiking in the beautiful mountains of Gangwon-do, though I'm sure it won't be the last. I put my quest to hike Noinbong on hold for awhile thinking I should see some new terrain. I got started kind of late on Sunday afternoon but struck out anyway. I took a bus 40 minutes south to Donghae where my guide book told me I could catch a bus every 10 minutes for a 20 minute ride to Mureung Valley. I waited for over 30 minutes and finally caught a bus that took almost 40 minutes. I didn't mind waiting, but it meant that I didn't start hiking until 5PM. Given the late hour, I decided to only do the 1.1km hike up to one of the temples. I might have been better off doing the 2.0km hike to the falls--it took me an hour to hike 1.1km. It was worth it, however. The steep climb provided spectacular views of the valley, and the trail wasn't very crowded. I stopped for a rest and some peaceful reflection at the temple, and it was very restful and peaceful--until a monk started cutting wood with a chainsaw, that is. I just had to laugh, then took off down the mountain. I had no problems with the buses home.

Rafting, May 28th

Bryce got a wild hair to go rafting, thinking it would be good to go before the weather turned too nice. So on a cloudy, rainy Sunday morning, Marc, Bryce and I hopped on a bus with a vague idea of what we needed to do find a place to go rafting (raeputing). First we took a bus north to Yang Yang, and from there we got bus east to Inje, a smaller city in the mountains (but then, what isn't in the mountains?).

We sort of stood around at the Inje bus station wondering what we should do next. We asked about a bus up the river valley and were told there was one soon, and in the meantime, Marc exercised his obnoxiousness on the locals. I walked around the corner to wait in peace, and Bryce went to find some water.

When we both returned to Marc, we found that he had cornered a young couple, and what do you know, the girl's father was the senior managing director of one of the adventure companies in the area. They offered to take us by taxi to meet him at his bungee jump, but we politely refused, saying we'd rather wait for the bus. Just joking! We jumped at the chance to meet Mr. Chu who ended up offering to drive us personally up the river at 2:00. That gave us an hour to kill during which we grabbed some food at a great little place overlooking the river.

At 2:00 we found Mr. Chu at the bungee jump, and he drove us up to his rafting location. We got outfitted with life-jackets and helmets (they had to rip the padding out of the biggest helmet so it would fit on Bryce's head) and then paired up with a group of Koreans in order to fill a raft. Our guide led some paddling practice on dry land so we could get our rhythm down, and then we hit the water. The Koreans got a kick out of counting the 'one-two' paddle rhythm in English, just for us. I quickly learned the words for 'forward' and 'reverse' and every once in awhile, the guide would yell 'Rolling!' and we'd rock the raft back and forth as hard as we could. There wasn't alot of really 'white-water', but the guide made things fun, and the people we were with were great. Everyone got thrown in several times which was frigidly shocking. Unfortunately I was not able to take my camera on the river, but thanks to the adventure company, I have a nice shot of us on the river. More pictures are available here for the date 5/28.

At the final destination, we showered and met Mr. Chu and the other Koreans for snacks. Mr. Chu said he had a friend from Gangneung who would take us home for a fee about equal to the buses, and we agreed. It was also alot faster than the buses, as the guy drove insanely fast down the windy mountain roads. I couldn't sleep for the sharp cornering, but neither could I keep my eyes open for exhaustion which made for an interesting ride home. I ended the day with a pot of tea with Liz at a rooftop cafe.

Sogeumgang, Odaesan National Park, Today

So, here I am, blogging about something that happened earlier on the same day! Em knows how exciting this is to me, as I am constantly complaining about being so backed up with my posts.

If you follow the 'k' in 'Park' to the tallest peak, that's Birobong. If you go diagonally down to the left, to the orangish flag, that's Sogeumgang.

Having had such a successful day out in Korea yesterday, I decided to attempt continuing that trend on my own with a solo hike. I enjoyed our last hike at Odaesan (Birobong Peak), but it really was quite a production to get out there, and I wasn't prepared to deal with the sketchy bus situation again. I'd got word about a direct bus from downtown to a different part of the park, so I thought I'd try that. However, it wouldn't be a 'Marge story', as Em calls it, if I had all the details worked out beforehand, and true to form, I didn't. I've become rather spontaneous in recent years when it comes to certain things, and sudden decision-making doesn't always include detailed planning. But whatever. I headed downtown around 10:30 with a vague idea of when and where to catch the bus. I at least knew it was the 303. I texted Marc to confirm the location knowing it was very unlikely I'd hear from him so early on a Sunday morning (turns out I never did). I found the main stop I thought it was, and sure enough, it said 303 on it but didn't have a timetable. After waiting until 11:10, I started getting suspicious and thought maybe I should try the main stop that was down a bit on the other side of the street. As I was waiting at the crosswalk, I saw the bus go by--on the other side of the street. For a split second, it crossed my mind to sprint into the street after it, but there's no way I would have caught it or not been hit by traffic. I took a moment to be grumpy but then got over it and continued walking to the other stop (if I'm not going to plan things ahead, I can't be uptight when things go wrong, right?). Sure enough, the 303 was listed on it as well, along with a timetable. I had just missed the 11:10 bus, and the next one wasn't due until 1:10! I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I used my spare time to grab some food and do a little reading in my Lonely Planet Korea (got some good ideas for more 'Marge trips'!). With twenty minutes to spare, I went to the stop, and this time, I caught it.

The bus route took roads out of the city I'd never been on before. Relying on taxis for transport doesn't allow for much aimless wandering about the city. It was very interesting to see a new part of it. The ride was about forty-five minutes. When I got off, I asked the bus driver what time it returned, and he waved me toward the bus stop sign. I got off and looked at it, and there was again no timetable.

Deciding not to sweat it, I started up the restaurant and shop-lined road that led to the trail. There were many people on the trail which I found mildly frustrating, but it was a lovely day, and people watching in Korea is always fun. I can't believe the things they wear on hot days. I was sweating healthily in my tank top and lightweight pants, but I saw men and women, old and young alike, wearing long pants, long sleeved shirts and jackets--zipped--and counted no fewer than fifteen people wearing gloves! And they don't sweat! It's unbelievable. The hike was short--2.2km one way--but beautiful, following the river up to a small waterfall. The trail keeps going to Noinbong Peak and then over to Sangwonsa Temple, but I didn't have time for that. Next time. At the falls, I asked a couple to take my picture. The man looked very wary of me. I sat for a few minutes and enjoyed the water (but not the crowd of people or buzzing flies) and then flew down the mountain like a ninja--I wanted plenty of time to figure out the bus.

I took off my shoes and sat on a rock outside a little restaurant by the bus stop. After twenty minutes or so, the restaurant man came out and tried talking to me. I asked him about the bus, and though I didn't understand what time it came, I was pretty sure he said there was one coming. Cool, that's all I need. A few minutes later he came back. 'Man you know-- immaterial-- aaah-- imitation-- aiiish.... invitation! You come, eat nice potato pizza, man you know.' I said no thank you a couple of times but then thought 'why not?' I motioned to him that I would put on my shoes and come in. When I went inside, I understood what he had been trying to tell me. The couple who had taken my picture at the falls was there, and they had invited to me sit and eat with them while we waited for the same bus. They spoke even less English than I speak Korean, but with the help of the very funny restaurant man, we chatted a little. And then, what do you know, the bus came! And I was home before dark! All around a fantastic weekend.

Lotus Lantern Festival, April 29-30

The last weekend of April marked Buddha's birthday and brought the Lotus Lantern Festival to Seoul. April and I thought it would be fun to head west to check out the festivities. We arrived Saturday evening, and after negotiating the subway and the streets of Insadong, we finally got set up in our room at the Emerald Hotel. We caught up with some fellow Gangneung-ians and grabbed some dinner, then checked out the big temple in Insadong before calling it a night.

April and I hit the streets the next morning around 11:30. We did a little shopping, had a little brunch, and texted our friends to see when/where we might meet. Our messages were met with resounding silence, and when we finally did get a response from Marc, he told us that he hadn't gone to bed until 10:00am, would we please leave him alone. No problem, we said, we're doing fine on our own.




One of the main streets of Insadong had been blocked off and was filled with tents and booths of all varieties--alot of them with a Buddhist theme, of course. There were also alot of hands-on crafts--I did some ink painting, April and I both made lotus flower headbands with a monk, and many people made lotus lanterns. We checked out clothes and jewelry, watched old men do beautiful calligraphy, and saw some fascinating stage performances. In the later afternoon, we met our friends who were up and moving, and another friend of April's from the Seoul area came down. Being exhausted, we moved from the busy street to a cafe for a slight repose before the parade.




The Lotus Lantern Parade was pretty much just that--a lantern parade. We saw monks carrying lanterns, old men and women carrying lanterns, handicapped people carrying lanterns, children carrying lanterns, young men and women carrying lanterns...there were a few floats in there too, but mostly ALOT of lanterns. I chatted with April's friend Barkley and snapped random shots of lanterns. Several hours later, I tired of the lanterns and found myself being drawn by an unseen magnetic force into the nearby Subway restaurant. I experienced ten minutes of heaven while I consumed real western food.

By that time it was getting pretty late, so I headed back the the express bus terminal sans April, who was staying a couple more days. On arriving, I was greeted with the unpleasant news that the last bus to Gangneung was sold out. I called Taylor, Gene, and Tania (who was going to Yang Yang, forty-five minutes north of Gangneung) to see if they had got tickets, and they hadn't--they were still a few minutes away from the terminal. A cab driver looking for a fare quoted me 40,000 won for the three hour ride. I told him I had two other friends, could he wait, and would it really be 40,000 for three people to Gangneung? He said yes. I called Taylor with that information, and in the meantime purchased a ticket to Yang Yang for Tania just in case that bus sold out too. When the guys showed up, the taxi driver hustled us off to the car. He ignored us when we kept trying to confirm the price which made us a little suspicious. Gene pushed the issue until he finally got the guy to tell us that it was 40,000 EACH. We said no thanks, and made a split decision to buy tickets for the Yang Yang bus that was about ready to pull out. As we raced back to the ticket window, Tania yelled that we could stay with her. It was 3:00am by the time we got to her place. She gave us each a pillow and a sheet and turned up the floor heat. I snagged a spot of floor and crashed. At 8:00am, we caught the teacher bus with Tania to the university she works at in Gangneung. From there we got taxis home, and since I don't have to work until 1:00pm on Mondays, I was able to catch two and a half more hours of sleep before I had to drag myself around the corner. Whew! After two weekends in a row of bus mishaps, I think I might avoid the buses for awhile.

Saturday, April 22nd--Odaesan National Park

The blossoms have been out for awhile now, but the temperatures have been less than spring-like. Last weekend, however, it was finally nice enough for a few of us to head to the mountains for what we thought would be a lovely, relaxing day of hiking. Attitudes were optimistic, Odaesan National Park the destination. April, Marc, Bryce and I met at the bus terminal at 11am to catch an 11: 40 bus to Jinbu. Please follow my story through the pictures below.
I knew it was going to be a good trip when Marc immediately took off his shirt to illustrate his opinion of the temperature on Korean buses. Poor April. It was a forty minute bus ride.
On arriving in Jinbu, we were directed to the bus that was to take us to the park. We found it easily, and it departed fairly promptly. The bus driver whipped us up the winding road with the help of the handy knob on his steering wheel. It was 9km of potholed, dirt road fun.
I took the opportunity to snap a shot of April while we were paused to buy park entrance tickets.
Bryce and I looked on as April and Marc had a pre-hike smoke. "What, guys? It's completely natural!"
The hike started with a .3km climb to Sangwonsa Temple.
We enjoyed the lovely architecture and picturesque setting.
I attempted to be creative and artistic.
The trail beyond the temple was not as much 'trail' as it was 'staircase'. Those of you who know me would never believe that I was lagging behind purely for photographic purposes, but I'll try saying that I was anyway. Colorful lanterns lined the way, adding to the already scenic climb.
I took many small breaks as we climbed...
...and climbed.
At this point, the trail turned from dry and rocky to wet and muddy.
The afternoon sun was beautiful coming through the trees, and the temperature was great--not too hot, not too cold.
The sky through the trees,
and distant mountains through the trees.
On one of our breaks we sat trail-side and told stupid jokes. I documented the welt on my forhead that was the result of a freak nut-throwing incident. And, no, I didn't need to be wearing earrings, but as Nathan Lane's character says in The Birdcage, 'One does want a hint of color...'
I snapped this photo thinking we were nearing the end, but it turned out not to be true.
This is not merely a photo of a particularly muddy spot but a representation of nearly half the trail--squish! (The other half was stairs.)
Almost there...
...and yes! There actually WAS a peak!
There were mountains for miles.
Me with the proof--Odaesan, Birobong, haebal 1,563m. Marc lit up for a peak-top smoke.
The hike down went much more quickly.
At 6:00PM we got to the bottom. We checked the very rudimentary bus stop sign and concluded that there was a 6:50PM bus. We waited...
...and waited...
...and waited...
...and waited.
At 7:10 we realized that there probably wasn't going to be a bus. We took a quick group photo and started walking (please recall here that the bus ride from the ticket booth was 9km).
We started walking in fading daylight.
We walked for two hours in the dark.
We were very tired but actually kept the crankiness to a minimum.
Fortunately we had some water left.
I was not above sitting in the road to stretch.
When we finally reached the gate, some friendly and more than helpful hotel keepers called us taxi. Bryce and Marc chatted in German with a couple of the guys while we waited. The taxi was a most welcome sight, and we didn't even mind that it was about twenty dollars for the ride into Jinbu.
In Jinbu, we caught one of the last buses back to Gangneung. We got in at 10:30. And since we hadn't eaten a real meal since 11:00AM, our first order of business was dinner. We shoveled dwaejigalbi down our throats in silence with our heads bent low over the table. That would have made the perfect concluding picture, but I didn't have the presence of mind at that point to get out my camera. The end.