We had two options:
- Go to Cambodia in and out and go back to Thailand and re enter Cambodia the same day - Go to Battambang and Phnom Penh and then go to Sihanoukville. Cambodia does not have so many motorways and we had to go to Phnom Penh. If the first option would work! Not sure… It would have been easier and quicker but we could not risk it! We decided to go for the long journey! Our forms were filled up and now we had to pay in Bath!!!! We just paid our fine and we did not have enough Bath, so dollars were not accepted and we were missing 10 USD!!! To the question where is the ATM, we had to go back to Thailand!! It was a nightmare….Önder went accompanied with a Cambodian policeman to withdraw money in Thailand. Finally we paid and 10 minutes later we had our visa, 44$ for one month. We checked the expiry date: 19th July, we will double check the border when leaving Cambodia! WELCOME TO CAMBODIA! Our journey was about to start!!! As soon as we were outside the transit zone, still not knowing where we were, 20 people surrounded us to offer their service to drive us to the next town. We experienced such price fluctuations and eventually we managed quite a good price (12€ for 2, 4€ more than for locals) for two hours journey in a private minivan with 12 people. It was incredible 4 people in a front, two people share the driving seat, two the passenger seat. 4 behind and we were 3 at the back. As we paid more, the Cambodian driver did not overload our seats!!! The first hour in Cambodia reminded us a bit of India: garbage, traffic, honking, the animals…Landscape very flat and green… Welcome to Cambodia in the rainy season! We decided to stay in Battambang for one night as the next bus to Phnom Penh was at 10pm and it was only 4pm. When it comes to money, it was funny as Cambodian people speak in US dollars, we converted in Cambodian Riel and we paid in Bath!!! They accepted any of these currencies Half day in Battambang was enough: we went to the market, passed by a couple of temples and walked along the river bank! We had a nice diner: fried rice with chicken! It was a long day, we went to to bed early and we were ready to leave at 7am Battambang to Phnom Penh. We still did not hear from our next host that day. Let ´s wait until the next day. Carpe Diem!
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Day 2 A kind of routine was there: bringing Önder to the course, walking the dog and teaching B. whatever he likes after his reading session. That day, B did not want to do anything and blocked discussions, did not listen, raised his voice at me. I managed to do a bit of geography, playing his favourite games: "B. doesn’t know and know". The only thing he has to do is to point out on a map where the city, mountains or seas are. As B. did 4 questions in over 30 minutes. Meanwhile the CS were there, so it meant the end of the teaching sessions. The rest of the day was just games, having fun at the pool. The driving was better in the evening, still needed improvement especially the curve at the entry of the school. This time, I arrived up the curve but I bumped into the wall. The same as the day before: nothing happened to me or the wheeler. The decision was taken, I waited for him down the road!!
Week end and last days in Ban Chang
The week end was an easy one despite the heavy rain on Sunday. B. made some progress and has a positive attitude, even on Monday which is usually a black day for him, B came up to me and asked me what we will study? Amazing, our efforts and patience payed off. We hope for his best! The last days were fine, the teaching was great, I kept on jogging and swimming, walking the dogs and driving Önder. Meanwhile Önder had got his Thai massage certificate! Now we can open a Thai massage salon. I also prepared the next trip to Cambodia: Sihanoukville! Here we come! To conclude one month in Thailand: We decided to be in a Westerner environment therefore I did not see much of the culture, but Önder did as he spend about 10 hours in a Thai course amongst Thai people. One month is a bit short to have big picture of Thailand and our experience was limited to one region as well: - western structured (city, bus timetable, supermarket etc) and clean - people are very polite and smile all the time! - Tried to integrate in the society when you are with them. They considered a person a looser when eating on his own. Feeling relaxed we just had to wait for the next surprise. Önder guessed that we were going for a walking tour. I just let him believe it until the very next morning. It made sense as lots of people attended the class, fortunately we were divided into 3 small group, 9 people each. Önder understood as soon as the cook handed over a basked to everyone and said we will go first to the market and then go back to the cooking class! We had fun and learned a lot about Thai cooking and food! In three hours, we prepared 5 dishes - we ate them all... http://www.bangkokthaicooking.com/course.html Saturday was a big day: visiting the palace and the massage. The palace was a big rip off, 500 baths just to be able to see one third of it, the most interesting places are closed on week ends. We tried to make a complaint but Thai cannot cope with that. One guide shouted at us and did not want to talk to us. It was a bad argument for nothing. We left the place and convinced few people on our way back not to go in. The two hours Thai massage was a big surprise, we stopped first in front of a tailor shop and I just read what was on the window: two suits and get one for free. That was it, you will get three suits! Önder took it as a joke first and but was serious afterwards. He could not believe it! He was too funny to observe his reaction! I just pointed at the sign next to the shop and he realised that we were going to a spa! We started the day with “Joyeux Anniversaire, Önder”. We were excited to finish our tasks and headed to BKK. It took more time than we thought, roads in BKK were congested. On 5th we just went for pizza and celebrated Önder´s birthday with one beer and chocolate. It looked poorly but it is a great deal here! I was not worried about it as I booked two surprises: a two hours massage on Saturday and a cooking class on Sunday morning. After the class, we tried to buy a cover for our phone but we were not successful at all! We had a macha tea and our week end in BKK was about to end. We had a fantastic time, we enjoyed almost every minute in BKK except the palace. The owner of the hostel made it greater as she upgraded our booking and we had a deluxe room!
Back to Ban Chang for the last 10 days. We had to leave to start our next job near Trat. On the road again to the bus station, a lady stopped and took us! Thai are really reliable and helpful. 1 hour after we were in Trat, located near the Cambodian border. We needed to find a local bus to reach Ban Chang. A lady told us that it is near Rayong meaning we had to go back!!! We found out that Ban Chang was South of Bangkok and not Trat. We got it wrong since our host accepted us. We were fixed on Trat and all the information we received did not make sense at all but we stuck to Trat. We were in Thailand so there is no need to get stressed or make a fuss about it. A new lesson we learned that day: double checked!!! It is the first in 8 months, but it will never happen again. It was not a waste of time as we met nice people and we lived in the countryside 4 days. We finally reached Ban Chang, thanks for the drivers ´s help dropping us every time to the right place and explaining us how and what to do! Our next job consisted of homeschooling, walking the 2 dogs and participating in the cleaning tasks. Homeschooling was a daily challenge but weeks after weeks we managed to bring a positive attitude in the learning environment. We went for a jog every day around 6am with the dogs. A couple of time they walked back alone! We were so worried about them. We decided not to take them every day because they seemed to be bored. In the afternoon, we went for a swim and did some Thai cooking, quite not sure it was really Thai but it was with coconut milk and curry! The first week we met at the pool Thai people and got along with them. They helped us finding a Thai massage course for Önder, we also went for a meal with them. One of the lady is very active and do lots of extra activities. She invited us but we did not have time for that! Ban Chang in pics
Staying at Keerie and Seb´s place was good, we had time to relax. That period of the year is a fruit festival taking place outside the city, 10 km away from the center. We went there without having a clue how to get to the festival. Someone gave us a ride, tree on a two weehlers. We were lucky. The market was great, we could eat local fruits for free! Amazing! The durians fruits are just smelly as French cheese, we really do not like. Thai make chips out of it or cooked it with rice. A Thai woman helped with eating durian and rice. She took the spoon and put a full spoon into my mouth. I had to keep on smiling!!! Thailand without a market would not be Thailand. During the fruit festival, you also have a market where you can find anything: shoes, clothes, sport equipments, toys, phones, music, bags, flowers and furnitures as well.
We decided to spend 4 days in the capital, to calm down, explore a bit the city and adapt to a new culture. We visited more malls than we did in our entire life to search a new smartphone. It took us two days. The one we bought (Samsung E7, not available in Europe) was only compatible with nano sim card. We gave them back the very next day and we had to find an alternative to Samsung and Iphone, sold only with nano sim cards here in Thailand. After hum and haw, we bought 2 Huawei Honor, Chinese ones with better features than Samsung! You might ask for the prices, well the same as in Europe! No difference at all. We did that investment and now we had to deal with our new toys :) . Therefore we did not do much of sightseeings only China town, the golden temple, one of the biggest market and the national museum. We did not dare to try street food since we still had stomach problems…Indian spices were missing as well as chapatti!!! We made some plans to go to our next destination, Ban Chang, what we thought it would be near Trat, south east Thailand. Therefore we went to Chanthabury, 1 hour away from Trat. Meanwhile we learned some words: thank you, bye and good morning. In the land of smile, it is almost compulsory to say sa wa dee (hello)! During one week I was saying “I love you” to anyone as we were taught I love you instead of thank you!!! What a laugh!
What stroke us also in Incredible India is that your country looks like a huge garbage! Once again there is no system implemented to collect garbage or no dustbins in the streets. It has been a year that a campaign began in certain cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata or Pondichery where bins have been put on the streets and introduced to people. The question is do they know how to use it? As far as we are concerned, we throw our rubbish in a garbage but in India it is usual to trow it out of the window of a bus, a train or just in the street and then plastics and stuff will be burned on the road. The other issue that comes with it is the terrible smells and toxics. When writing about smell, it goes beyond burning garbage we also speak about men´s urine (men pee and pooh anywhere), cow dung etc. During our stay, how many penises did we see???? Too many!!!!, maybe toilets will save this problem! The last days temperatures reached 48 degrees, the smell was unbearable. People did not have a problem with it. We did and we found it disgusting. To make India a bit cleaner we could suggest you to remove cows, pigs, goats, dogs, even horses out of the streets! It will make it easier for everyone pedestrians, cars and above all the animals. Seeing goats or cows eating papergarbage or plastics made us very sad. Cows or animals in general are holy but could they not be worshiped in safer places and lived in a better environment, than live in the middle of the streets where chaos prevailed. There is absolutely no place left for them! The paradox is that in some states you do not have cows walking in the streets as they land in your plate!
We will come to an end even we still have a lot to write about: the public transport, custom, daily power cuts and the food. We also learned about the spices, how to make chappati and tandoori. Once I used a tandoori bowl to mix concrete! It looked alike! We enjoyed eating chapatti, roti, dal, rice, poha, pakora, momos, fried rice, ladous, kalachana and Bengali food and good day cookies. We lost up to 8kg withing the first 3 months! 148 days travelling in your country was quite an experience especially crossing the path of a 2 meter snake! "BAS", finish. It is time for us to continue our journey and to fly to the next country: Thailand.
Yours faithfully, ILA PS: As an Indian friend commented, we missed a couple of things such control and power. I added it as PS, see below. "Now, coming to the various points you mentioned. All of them actually are true, but we have been creating this mess for last few decades & some of them are rooted as part of our tradition & culture, which we as society don't want to change as it gives power to individuals to control things. So whether its about Woman empowerment, Dowry, Poverty... there is a constant struggle by powerful to have control of people (mostly underprivileged poor or woman). Surya |
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