JONO ... we are nearly on our way home now.
While here, we've been staying with friends which has been great, and I'm sure I've been to every shoe shop in Singapore!
We went to the "Night Safari" on Saturday night and although it was great, it was hard after a full day of shopping and tripping around. We watched one "Fire Dance" show and my (and every introvert) worst nightmare came true ... I got pulled up to make a fool of myself infront of the crowd. Tracie got some photos so if you are lucky you might see them.
We fly out at 10 tomorrow and will be home Friday morning.
See you all soon.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Parks
Yesterday we visited the Butterfly and Bird parks in central KL. These were pretty cool and we made sure we took lots of photos so we can talk them through with my Aunty Val when we get back ... she spent many years in KL researching 'bugs' so might find it interesting to see photos and talk about them.
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| Butterflies |
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| Bird Park |
Friday, October 31, 2008
KL
JONO ... I dont think there will be many photos from KL because the insides of shopping malls can be a bit repetative :-)
After arriving in the evening and finding a 'cheap' city hotel at a travel counter, we made our way in on the train. We soon found out that 'cheap' is VERY relative ... for us it was 5x what we had been paying up until now ... needless to say we only stayed one night (after having paid the deposit at the airport). We are now in a place that is on a par with what we have had in Vietnam and Cambodia for only 3x the price.
We are in the middle of Chinatown where the streets are turned into markets every night.
After arriving in the evening and finding a 'cheap' city hotel at a travel counter, we made our way in on the train. We soon found out that 'cheap' is VERY relative ... for us it was 5x what we had been paying up until now ... needless to say we only stayed one night (after having paid the deposit at the airport). We are now in a place that is on a par with what we have had in Vietnam and Cambodia for only 3x the price.
We are in the middle of Chinatown where the streets are turned into markets every night.Yesterday we did the patirotic NZ thing and found the NZ Embassy so we could vote (look out for Bill and Ben who are bound to take the country by storm!) . Then went in to the Petronas Twin Towers for a look around.
At the bottom is a very cool science museum setup primarily to teach about the oil i
ndusty. It has WAY more than that though and I'm sure if we had all day I could have spent longer there. As it was we were there for 2 1/2 hours. A couple of times I thought 'my nephews - especially Luke - would love this place!' I did manage to impress Tracie with my prowess in driving a mini digger (it was teaching about hydrolics work) ... but I'm sure the on looking kids didnt care ... they just wanted to push me off so they could have a turn!
The afternoon/evening consisted of shopping. Shopping obviously doesn't mean you have to buy anything ... otherwise it would be called 'buying' rather than 'shopping'. But after many hours of roaming around we did have a few things to take home with us. Some things are VERY cheap here but other things (like accomodation) are not. If we had some money to spend, it would be dangerous place to come!
We are off to the bird park now to take a look around ... then maybe will look at the IT/geek malls tomorrow.
The Silk Farm
TRACIE ... On our last day in Siem Reap we visited the Silk Farm. Apart from being impressed with the Farm itself (beautifully landscaped grounds, clean, modern facilities) and the tour that we were taken on (each person or family group etc gets their own tour guide who speaks very reasonable english), the process of growing silk was unknown to us, and was incredibly fascinating.
The silk moths mate (they have to separate them after three hours or else they will mate to the death!). The male dies after a couple of days, and the female lays a bunch of eggs, and dies sortly afterwards also.
The eggs hatch, and the silk worm eats mulberry leaves for something like a couple of weeks. They used to put the worms on the mulberry trees but now they bring the leaves to the worms. The worm, eats and eats until it goes yellow and fat!
When it's ready to go into the coccoon stage they are placed on large flat woven plate looking things, which the worms attach themselves to and begin spinning their coccoon, from their mouths. The thread is mostly continuous, and is up to 300 metres long when unravelled. The coccoons are yellow, with the female coccoons being fatter (they have weight problems too!).
20% of the coccoon's are allowed to hatch into moths to continue the next cycle, and the rest are placed in boiling water. This seemed mean, but they were only going to live three days anyway eh!
The first lot of water is 60 degrees, and then about eight coccoons are spun together to make around 200 metres of raw silk. If the moth was allowed to come out of the coccoon, all the threads would be cut in the process , making it impossible to make continuous thread. The next lot of water is 80 degrees, and the thread is much finer - about 100 metres of thread is harvested from this part.
At this stage, you can eat a cooked silk worm, which of course Jono did. He said it tasted like corn. Speaking of eating weird things, Jono tried snake in Siem Reap also. Now Jono can cook fish and snake - he BBQ'd his own dinner - very cool.
The silk yarn is then dyed. Many of the dye colours are natural. Banana leaves, raisins, bark, rusty nails!
The weaving process was just as amazing. Mostly women, are trained for about 12+ months before becoming an artisan. Plain silk is made at a rate of three metres per day. Patterned or multicoloured silk is 60 cm per day. 60 CM!!! The finished product was absolutely beautiful.
This was such interesting thing to learn about. I was absolutely enthralled for the whole thing.
The silk moths mate (they have to separate them after three hours or else they will mate to the death!). The male dies after a couple of days, and the female lays a bunch of eggs, and dies sortly afterwards also.
The eggs hatch, and the silk worm eats mulberry leaves for something like a couple of weeks. They used to put the worms on the mulberry trees but now they bring the leaves to the worms. The worm, eats and eats until it goes yellow and fat!
When it's ready to go into the coccoon stage they are placed on large flat woven plate looking things, which the worms attach themselves to and begin spinning their coccoon, from their mouths. The thread is mostly continuous, and is up to 300 metres long when unravelled. The coccoons are yellow, with the female coccoons being fatter (they have weight problems too!).
20% of the coccoon's are allowed to hatch into moths to continue the next cycle, and the rest are placed in boiling water. This seemed mean, but they were only going to live three days anyway eh!
The first lot of water is 60 degrees, and then about eight coccoons are spun together to make around 200 metres of raw silk. If the moth was allowed to come out of the coccoon, all the threads would be cut in the process , making it impossible to make continuous thread. The next lot of water is 80 degrees, and the thread is much finer - about 100 metres of thread is harvested from this part.
At this stage, you can eat a cooked silk worm, which of course Jono did. He said it tasted like corn. Speaking of eating weird things, Jono tried snake in Siem Reap also. Now Jono can cook fish and snake - he BBQ'd his own dinner - very cool.
The silk yarn is then dyed. Many of the dye colours are natural. Banana leaves, raisins, bark, rusty nails!
The weaving process was just as amazing. Mostly women, are trained for about 12+ months before becoming an artisan. Plain silk is made at a rate of three metres per day. Patterned or multicoloured silk is 60 cm per day. 60 CM!!! The finished product was absolutely beautiful.
This was such interesting thing to learn about. I was absolutely enthralled for the whole thing.
The Grumpy Tuk Tuk Driver..
TRACIE . I have been meaning to write about our arrival at Siem Reap. They had barely docked the boat when a bunch of guys came on board trying to get people to take their Tuk Tuk into the city centre. There were also more with signs saying things like "Let me take you into town, only $2".
We agreed we would ride with one young guy, to find that he was hawking rides for someone else. That was fine, so in we got and off we went. A little way down the road, the driver turned around and said "Tomorrow I take you for tour to Angkor Wat, $15.00". No, we said, we are not going to Angkor Wat. Apart from nearly falling off his bike in shock, he seemed quite upset, and after another minute, stopped the bike and turned around and told us that he if we weren't taking a tour with him he couldn't take us into town for $2.00, that it was 16km's and would cost $5.00. No, we said, you told us it was $2.00. But it was 16km's he said. Then we will get out we said, and that we weren't told that the $2.00 fee had conditions. Ok, $3.00 he said. Fine we said. So a snotty driver took us the rest of the way. He managed of course to get us to a guesthouse that would pay him some 'comission' but we obviously spoiled his day. He didnt spoil ours though!
We agreed we would ride with one young guy, to find that he was hawking rides for someone else. That was fine, so in we got and off we went. A little way down the road, the driver turned around and said "Tomorrow I take you for tour to Angkor Wat, $15.00". No, we said, we are not going to Angkor Wat. Apart from nearly falling off his bike in shock, he seemed quite upset, and after another minute, stopped the bike and turned around and told us that he if we weren't taking a tour with him he couldn't take us into town for $2.00, that it was 16km's and would cost $5.00. No, we said, you told us it was $2.00. But it was 16km's he said. Then we will get out we said, and that we weren't told that the $2.00 fee had conditions. Ok, $3.00 he said. Fine we said. So a snotty driver took us the rest of the way. He managed of course to get us to a guesthouse that would pay him some 'comission' but we obviously spoiled his day. He didnt spoil ours though!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The last few days...
TRACIE ... Have missed out a few things of the last few days, and thinking that we must be experiencing blogger fatigue, so totally understand if any of the one or two who are reading this, are over it as well!
As I said previously, the beach at SihonoukVille was wonderful. We ended up eating at the beach restaurant accross the road quite a lot, and the young assistant manager, Kosal, took a liking to Jono. Again, not a surprise - I haven't met anyone yet who doesn't like him. Anyway, we had some nice chats with him (low season, not many tourists) and he told us he was getting married in November. Again, it was awesome to connect with a local and spend a little time.
The hawker teenagers were a mixed bunch. Some pushy, some shy, some stroppy. It would be so awesome to teach them some skills, but a bigger problem than their sales techniques was that they were skipping school because at the beach they could make up to $20 US a day, perhaps more in high season. That of course beats going to school but the future in it doesn't seem so good. Not unlike some at home, typical teenagers seeing the now and unable to think big picture. As well as wanting to tell the teenagers how to be better sales people, I wanted to tell Kosal how to make his restaurant more tourist friendly! I didn't of course, but it was a great place to sit and read a book, despite the in-your-face youth!
From there, we bused back to Phnom Penh, then the next day took the bus to Battambang, where we did the bike trip (check out Jono's blog below, with his description of the amazing bamboo train). From there we took the boat to Siem Reap, where we are now, until flying out on the 30th.
Today we took the shopping plunge. We had avoided shopping so far because we are carrying everything on our backs. Didn't buy too much, but it was fun. I managed to find the cool coffee making thingy's we had lots of coffee from in Viet Nam. I also got my hair coloured at the local market (back to my natural colour minus the gray!) and for US $10, got a colour, a short shoulder massage, and my hair done in a french plait. They have this cool bed thing at the basin that you lie down on instead of sitting in a chair and feeling like your neck may snap at any moment. Cool.
While we were on our way to breakfast this morning a young boy of about six wanted to sell us stuff. He asked us where we were from and proceeded to tell us NZ's capital city, population, prime minister (he might have to update that one soon!), and queen. We thought he was very clever and quaint and bought some bracelets. Later today a young girl did the same routine. Funny. Clever still, and new to us so far!
Yesterday on the boat trip, we saw people washing themselves, their teeth, and their clothes, in the river. It was so dirty. I'm amazed that there isn't a lot of sickness and perhaps there is. This is just life for them.
Some more reflections about Cambodia (please forgive any repeats):
So much rubbish - people just dump their stuff in the street, down the bank of the river, in the river. Such a beautiful country with beautiful people, the rubbish is a shame.
The contrasts are amazing - a Remuera type house next to a shack. Perhaps people own land and when their circumstances change they just upgrade their accommodation rather than upgrading their geography/ friends etc..
So many smiles considering so much devestation.
So many hawkers, tuk tuk drivers, motorbike drivers, and beggars. I wonder how the country will be able to sustain itself in the future as more and more young people come into the workforce.
More photos ...
As I said previously, the beach at SihonoukVille was wonderful. We ended up eating at the beach restaurant accross the road quite a lot, and the young assistant manager, Kosal, took a liking to Jono. Again, not a surprise - I haven't met anyone yet who doesn't like him. Anyway, we had some nice chats with him (low season, not many tourists) and he told us he was getting married in November. Again, it was awesome to connect with a local and spend a little time.
The hawker teenagers were a mixed bunch. Some pushy, some shy, some stroppy. It would be so awesome to teach them some skills, but a bigger problem than their sales techniques was that they were skipping school because at the beach they could make up to $20 US a day, perhaps more in high season. That of course beats going to school but the future in it doesn't seem so good. Not unlike some at home, typical teenagers seeing the now and unable to think big picture. As well as wanting to tell the teenagers how to be better sales people, I wanted to tell Kosal how to make his restaurant more tourist friendly! I didn't of course, but it was a great place to sit and read a book, despite the in-your-face youth!
From there, we bused back to Phnom Penh, then the next day took the bus to Battambang, where we did the bike trip (check out Jono's blog below, with his description of the amazing bamboo train). From there we took the boat to Siem Reap, where we are now, until flying out on the 30th.
Today we took the shopping plunge. We had avoided shopping so far because we are carrying everything on our backs. Didn't buy too much, but it was fun. I managed to find the cool coffee making thingy's we had lots of coffee from in Viet Nam. I also got my hair coloured at the local market (back to my natural colour minus the gray!) and for US $10, got a colour, a short shoulder massage, and my hair done in a french plait. They have this cool bed thing at the basin that you lie down on instead of sitting in a chair and feeling like your neck may snap at any moment. Cool.
While we were on our way to breakfast this morning a young boy of about six wanted to sell us stuff. He asked us where we were from and proceeded to tell us NZ's capital city, population, prime minister (he might have to update that one soon!), and queen. We thought he was very clever and quaint and bought some bracelets. Later today a young girl did the same routine. Funny. Clever still, and new to us so far!
Yesterday on the boat trip, we saw people washing themselves, their teeth, and their clothes, in the river. It was so dirty. I'm amazed that there isn't a lot of sickness and perhaps there is. This is just life for them.
Some more reflections about Cambodia (please forgive any repeats):
So much rubbish - people just dump their stuff in the street, down the bank of the river, in the river. Such a beautiful country with beautiful people, the rubbish is a shame.
The contrasts are amazing - a Remuera type house next to a shack. Perhaps people own land and when their circumstances change they just upgrade their accommodation rather than upgrading their geography/ friends etc..
So many smiles considering so much devestation.
So many hawkers, tuk tuk drivers, motorbike drivers, and beggars. I wonder how the country will be able to sustain itself in the future as more and more young people come into the workforce.
More photos ...
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| Battambang |
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