Blogs from the Wilderness

On landing in Siem Reap my driver offered to take me on a dawn tour of the Angkor Wat temples the next day for a reasonable price. Unfortunately I forgot to set my alarm clock and overslept so the tour started at 7 o’clock instead. I won’t go into the temples as it’s all been said before, the hawkers were out in force and interestingly my guide told me that the company that runs the tourism for the temples is Vietnamese and they don’t invest in their upkeep; this seems to be done voluntarily by various archaeological expeditions. That evening I went with some of the hotel staff to a local dog restaurant to try their specialty, I tried a few pieces but while the meat is tasty, I found it tough and didn’t like the sauce that went with it.

The next morning I took the boat to Battambang, which is an incredible experience. The boat itself isn’t very comfortable, but you have to remember that it is also the local transport for the local river villagers, so we glided through many floating villages and were joined by most of our journey by a couple of monks. The boat broke down a couple of times but the driver managed to get it going again while the locals kept us from getting tangled in the reeds. At over 7 hours the whole trip takes a long time though.

Battambang itself is a large fishing town with an enormous market and plenty of French colonial architecture once I had spent a bit of time wandering around the town I hired a motorbike and headed up to the top of the hill for evening views of the rice paddies and to watch the sun set. After that, it was back into town for dinner and the night bus to Phnom Penh.

We arrived in Phnom Penh at around 5.30 in the morning and I sat down to wait for the booking office to open for my next boat trip. This time down the Mekong river to …, the first part of which is through

Cambodia cruising uncomfortably down the middle of the Mekong where we can see practically nothing.

Rosko recommends: The boat trip from Siem Reap to Battambang is amazing but very, very long.
Food of the stay: Dog is definitely an acquired taste

When we arrived at Chitwan, I thought that all my worst fears were going to be realised, we were going to be stuck in a big group with a bunch of people who don’t speak English and would be herded around like cattle; and therefore not see anything of the wildlife or the indigenous population and to top it all we were going to be forced to eat all our meals in the Hotel where we would be served from a bland buffet. Fortunately we were very wrong.

In the evening a bunch of Iranian Kurds sat around in a circle and sang Kurdish songs and took it in turns to get up and dance. A couple of Nepali lads and Nigel joined them everyone (including the non-iranians) was persuaded to sing at least one song and for want of anything better that came to mind, Nigel sang Swing Low Sweet Chariot.

Compared to the cool mountains Chitwan’s tropical climate was a shock, but we got to see crocks and Rhinos (although only the one caged tiger) but no Bears or Leopards or any snakes at all. The park is also rich in bird like and has the most enormous dragon flies.

Food of the stay: I had Mo Mo’s for the first time at the Nepali Kitchen in Sauraha and they were delightful.

Rosko Recommends: Spending a whole day in the jungle, the half day sessions are just not enough.

We arrived in Istanbul a day early on the 16th April, due to the train that we wanted to get being full, this wasn’t really a problem since we were bored in Thessaloniki.

Istanbul is great, there are hidden gems everywhere and as long as you don’t ask for help from a shop keeper you can generally keep away from the con men. There are though a couple of common tricks you should be aware of if you intend to go to Istanbul, and I’ll write about those later.

Arriving, the weather was already better; it had been cold and wet in Greece which didn’t help since the best thing to do there is go to the beach.
Of the markets, the best bazaar to go to is the Egyptian Bazaar, this is the spice market, and you can wander around for hours breathing in the different scents from the piles of spices in front of the shops. The grand bazaar is just an enormous tourist trap so there is no point in going unless you particularly want to buy fake Gucci sunglasses for overinflated prices.

The boats are a great way to travel around Istanbul, since the city is on a river and on both sides of the Bosphorus (the waterway that separates Europe from Asia). This is enables you to see large parts of the city without having to traipse around the streets and costs the same as a tram ticket (and less than the bus).

On the Asian shore you can walk up to the Beylerbeyi Palace which is a beautifully (and unnecessarily) opulent place that charges you to take you camera in, it is worth the extra cost though.

Tomorrow we fly to Kathmandu, but not before we go for a Turkish bath.

• Best walk: Along the Asian waterfront, you can walk for miles without getting shouting at by people wanting to sell you stuff you don’t want.
• Food of the stay: On the Asian side there are cafes’s selling Balik Ekmek (Fish sandwiches), the fish is freshly caught and grilled when you order it, and they only cost 4 Lira.
• Overrated food: Doner Kebabs, I had three of these while in Turkey and only one was any good (and I had to go a long way out of the centre of Istanbul to find it)
• Rosko recommends: The Egyptian bazaar, the Asian side (it’s a lot less in your face than the European side), and the Whirling Dervishes.

yep, it’s been a long time since i’ve put a proper post on here, but in preparation for my forthcoming world ski tour (kind of), I have updated a few bits of my blog – in an effort to make it more user friendly and to incorporate new fads that people are playing with at the moment.

So here are a couple of changes that I have incorporated for you viewing pleasure:

• Full screen images, by clicking on the [View with PicLens] link in any photo gallery you can see full screen images;
• Significant events, I have added a calendar that allows everyone to see where I’m going over the coming months – particularly useful for anyone who wants to join me on any part of my travels;
• Facebook feed, I have added applet that posts to my minifeed every time I create a new post, so now you can never escape from my blog… mwhahaha!

Thats it for the moment, I’ve been thinking of adding twitter to my blog, but, as I don’t know anyone who uses it at the moment I probably won’t.

There are shed loads of blogs out there and I haven’t told anyone that I’m here yet – so much for write it and they’ll come.

Apparently Technorati is the place to get your blog noticed, so I thought I’d sign up.

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