Travellings

Furious. Money is always an issue for us out here. We’re trying to be deliberately careful with our budget (with the exception of Susie buying a £200 silk bed sheet) and banks keep on making this bloody hard. First of all, we’re getting charged about 5% every time we withdraw cash from a cash point. This 5% is roughly calculated at about 2.75% (the standard Visa charge for currency exchange) and 2% from Natwest - which happens to be the highest bank charge out of all the banks in England. In Thailand and Cambodia this wasn’t too much of an issue, because their ATM’s either wouldn’t charge a fee or you could get out large sums over the counter. In Vietnam, you can only get out a maximum of about 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 VND (£90 - £120) in one transaction via ATM, which each time incurs a fee of between 20,000 and 40,000 VND (60p - £1.20). So money in Vietnam has become a ball-ache. On Sunday, we withdrew 2 sets of 3,000,000 each for preparation to get money changed for our Laos Visas. Susie got one load of 3,000,000 from an Agrabank ATM, and I followed her up with another 3,000,000. We could hear the ATM counting money, but after 5 minutes it didn’t spit any out; the terminal just sat there on a “Please Wait” screen. Eventually, an error message popped up saying the transaction had been canceled. Annoying, but fair enough. I thought i’d just search around for another ATM with decent enough rates. HOWEVER. This morning after checking my balance, I’ve noticed that I’ve been charged the FULL AMOUNT as if the fucking ATM had dispensed my money! £90! If I had a bit more faith in my bank to resolve this, i might not be so stressed out today. But I don’t. And it’s going to mean another lengthy, expensive, crap quality call to Natwest today to sort it out. ...

I want a shave. Man I think this is the longest it’s ever been.

After a restless night in a jungle, a wakeup call from a rooster at 5 am, a walk in downtown Sihanoukville (which is officially a dump) I find myself on Serendipity beach, drunk on 3 glasses of cheap beer. At 4 pm. Everything’s funny when you’re drunk. And you find yourself fighting over 50 cents–with a kid peddler–over a bunch of bracelets that don’t fit you and/or look ugly. Here’s a picture of a boy to keep you entertained:

I can cook like a Khmer. I’m pretty awesome… … although Susie has issues cutting limes…

Fishy cheap labour? Tickles like pins and needles. Khmer seafood; cheesy…

After a long bus ride from Bangkok (6 hours) we arrived at the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet. I’m totally glad we did our research. Everywhere we’ve read said that this crossing isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be before the Khmer and Thai governments clamped down on scammers and started to police the area more, but for 2 people who very rarely go out of our comfort zones and hate confrontation, there was a large element of fear involved. ...

Day 1: Driver: “Enjoy your temples” Me: “We will! this looks AMAZING!! Angkor Wat is beautiful!” Day 2: Driver: “Enjoy your temples” Me: “Kinda tired, but yeah sure. My feet are a bit bruised from wearing crap sandals and hiking 2km uphill, and I have a distinct lack of money from the fact that beggars are everywhere, but yeah; I’ll enjoy them. Even though they’re all starting to look the same. ...

This train is long. We’re currently travelling east towards the Thai / Cambodia border. The train takes about 5 hours and only has 3rd class - which is cool, because it’s 48 baht (about a pound) for the whole journey. I’ve managed to tip my cap and sleep twice, although I now have a crick in my neck (need another massage :D). The countryside is beautiful mind, and we caught the sunrise as we left Bangkok at around 6am. Other than the Mosquitos, I don’t quite mind the journey. Let’s just hope that the border crossing goes smooth today… There are horror stories about Aran/Poipet, the touts and the scams… Eeeek!

I’ve often said that I “suffer” from vertigo. I generally get the “chill” when i’m up high, holding something like a camera, have glasses on, or are wearing a hat. It’s a very odd thing, and I’ve spoken to a few people about their fears of heights and how / why it usually manifests. One guy I was speaking to said that he has this overwhelming urge to jump over the side of whatever or wherever he’s at. I can kind of understand this destructive urge, I remember having something similar when I was growing up - albeit not so life threatening - where I took a penknife to my brand new bike. Can’t tell you why I did, but it happened. And it seems to have carried on manifesting itself through various points. ...

Leaving Ko Phangan today. A week here has been awesome, and has more or less been a holiday all by itself. We’re about £100 over-budget over the last month (can’t believe it’s been a month already!) but we hope to remedy that over the next 6 weeks; Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are all supposed to be cheaper, in that order. Thailand isn’t as cheap as we’ve been lead to believe :( ...