Our train to Ernakalum left at 10am (ish) from Kannur and so after another wonderful breakfast we sadly said our goodbyes to the friendly hosts at Kannur Beach House and to the other travelers and guests that had accumulated during our stay. We thought about staying longer but also wanted to move onwards.

The doctor’s got the same train as us and accompanied us in the reserved seat section. They had only paid for a non-reserved seat and so upgraded at a measly cost of 43rs for the 3 of them! Crazy that you can travel so far for so little here in India, train and bus travel is such a cost effective way to get around. Our journey took around 6 hours to reach Ernakalum and we were ready to get off the packed train when it did. Simply trying to get off the train can be quite a hassle (these are the downsides of cheaper public transport). When we got outside of the station our rickshaw driver from Mother Tree Inn was waiting for us and it took nearly an hour for the underpowered machine to reach the guesthouse in Fort Kochi. We didn’t end up at Mother Tree though, instead he took us to The Good Kharma Inn which is the sister guesthouse of Mother Tree. We didn’t mind and the young owner Anu was pretty amusing with it. The room came to 700rs/night with breakfast included, bargain.

We didn’t have much time to see any of Fort Kochi that night but we walked along the fort area people watching what seemed like hundreds of locals there for the evening. We also ate at the highly recommended Dal Roti; ginger, lemon soda and 2 paneer thali’s and we knew we would be back here the next night. The food is really good, the layout is pretty rustic and the maitre’d quite a character.

For our first full day in Kochi and after a satisfying scrambled eggs, toast and jam we took a walk out to the Chinese fishing nets located on the water front. It was pretty rammed full of cruise liner tourists that we weren’t feeling the authenticity of the nets at all, they are there really for tourism now and try to get you to buy fish from them and to go up and take photographs etc. From here we took a rickshaw to The Dutch Palace also known as (Manchetterry Palace) which we timed very badly as it seemed that all the cruise ship tourists had been bused in. We could hardly move in there and it’s not a very big museum at all, so for us we wanted to get out as soon as we arrived and managed to stick it out for 15 minutes before making tracks. At the Synagogue we were also faced with problems, they wouldn’t let us take our cameras in, regardless of whether or not we would take photographs there was no way we would leave our beloved Leica anywhere we weren’t!

However we did find some very nice items at Crafters in Jew town in the form of antique printing blocks which we thought would work nicely as decorative art back home. We actually wanted to get a wooden carved piece and found a beautiful old window cover but to ship it home would have been nearly 3 times as much as it was to buy! So we settled for the intricate designs of the printing blocks and bought 4 pieces for 1600rs. We also ate at the cafe upstairs mainly because we were hungry and didn’t want to be shopping around for food in a tourist area.

When we left Jew Town after exploring some more of the back streets we took a rickshaw to The Indo-Portuguese Museum only to find out that it was closed on Mondays! So instead we went to a shop on Lilly Street a few doors down from Dal Roti and bargained for a few more household items in the form of 2 very bold and contemporary block patterned bed covers and a material wall hanging. We followed our shopping trip by enjoying tea at Tpot Cafe another colourful rustic joint. We were finding more things that we liked about Fort Kochi! We once again ate at Dal Roti with a German couple we’d met at breakfast, this was followed by cheap Kingfisher at one of the drinking bars.

One our third day we went on a tour, our first tour in India and for 650rs each we paid to visit the Kerelan backwaters on a traditional wicker style boat. We opted to see the backwaters from Kochi rather than Allepey as we’d heard it gets very busy down there and so we hoped for a tranquil tour. We had a very friendly young guide who was also quite assertive and informative when required. With two boatmen using the punting technique we ambled through bigger canals down to very narrow ones throughout the day. It was a very relaxing tour, all we had to do was sit and take it all in. Along the route we stopped off at spice plantations, rope making, coconut farm and a calcium cement factory. A real mixture of the type of trade that occurs in the backwaters of Kerela. We also enjoyed our first banana leaf style lunch; the traditional way to serve a thali.

By the end of the day we were back in Kochi enjoying our final evening there, we had booked a train for the next day to take us to Varkala leaving at 9am. We ended up having food in the bazaar where a cool cafe place sits on top of the tourist information office. Although the presentation of the cafe is very in keeping with the yellow antique effect seen all over town, the dosa didn’t live up to earlier one’s we’d tried. We followed this with more tea at the Tpot (when we got back from the tour we nipped into Tpot for a juice and some of their delicious cheescake!) before heading back and preparing for another move the next day.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8, Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 processed in Lightroom 3)

We started off the day by eating a fairly good breakfast included in our accommodation at the hostel, we’re not sure how 4 mornings of eggs and toast would go down! We spent a short while documenting the hostel downstairs as it really is a lovely space. Following on we took the number 56 bus to the Chatuchak weekend market which took around 45 minutes to get to. It’s a much cheaper option than taxiing or getting a tuk-tuk there and cost 26 baht between us. When we got there we went straight to the information office for a guide of the area, there are more than 8000 market stalls in a 35 acre area of land so we thought it would be good to know where we were going and plan our route.  We wanted to pick up a few items ready for the south and some replacement clothes for one’s we’ve been wearing over and over since we started travelling in October.

We started by exploring the vintage/second hand section which is any stylists and fashion designers dream. It houses anything from vintage tea dresses to leather bags, retro sports wear and re-worked seconds into new garments. It has to be said that the Thai’s on are top of their game when it comes to vintage trading, they know what sells to Westerners and they have a good depth of stock. Helen was very close to picking up some old tea dresses for when we get back home but managed to resist spending the pennies. We crossed through many fashion stalls and picked up sandals, shorts, t-shirts and vests whilst taking a few shots along the way.

The most memorable photo for us from this collection is of the giant tattooed man sleeping next to his market stall, surrounded by badges, paintings, bags and handmade crafts. He was covered all over in tattoos, piercing’s and leather and was disguised by the goods that swamped him…There were certainly many characters around. We walked by the music area and watched young children playing on their violins and we passed through the antiques section too. Seriously though you can buy pretty much anything you want at this market, we’ve read about illegal animal trading going on here too so if you do see anything you’re not happy about you can always report it to the police that patrol the site. We think we got what we wanted though with little fuss and enjoyed some decent street food too.

Later that night we took the ferry south and made our way to the flower market, it’s a 24 hour place with fresh flowers being prepared day in day out. If you get there late or very early in the morning it will be a real hive of activity. We got there at about 6.30pm at night and wandered through the street area and also some back street warehouses where we saw some of the work that goes on behind the scenes. We did want to go to other markets but with only one weekend in Bangkok most of the better markets take place on Saturdays and Sundays and there’s only so many markets you can get to in 2 days!

We ended the evening at a lovely restaurant overlooking the river right next to our ferry stop in Thewet, we had great views but the service was a bit of a mess, good job we weren’t in much of a rush.

We were picked up at 8.30am or so from our guesthouse and much to our delight there were an extra 4 people booked on the trip and so we received $10 refund each off the original trip price. We were able to take our main bags and leave them at the Tourist Office securely whilst we would b out on the trip, after dropping them off we went on our way to the first stage of the trek.

There were 8 of us in total and we were a good mix of people with 2 cheeky tour guides carrying our food from place to place. We took a Song Thaw for about an hour towards the national park and stopped at a wooden bridge, this presented us with a problem; we couldn’t go any further in the vehicle over the bridge with all the food and people packed inside of it, so we off loaded, carried the food and walked to the village around 1km away. When we got there Mii was waiting with a scooter and took the food from us in preparation for the lunch-time spot.

After a short introduction to the village and our guides we walked for around an hour and a half and landed at our first cave of the tour. It wasn’t so big in size but was good enough to explore with head torches. Onwards from there we continued to walk through forest and farmland and ended at the lunch time spot which was at another cave, here there was also a lagoon going into the cave and so everyone stripped off and went for a swim. Helen wasn’t feeling up to getting into the water and was still surviving off re-hydration drinks. The lunch was served on a long picnic bench and we fought off the flies whilst eating barbecued fish, chicken, sticky rice and vegetables, it was okay but the flies didn’t help! We stopped at this spot for over and hour and then continued to walk to another cave. This cave was very impressive, for 15 minutes we all sat or snoozed letting the lunch settle in the peacefulness of the cave. Dave went off to explore a little and photographed the rest of us snoozing away. The tour-guides then led us through one part of the cave guided by torch-lights and out into another much larger section of the cave. There was water and a sand-bank that led towards a large exit point. At one side of the cave there are steps leading up to a Buddah shrine and fantastic views across the cave to the other-side where we snoozed. We were told that once a year there is a festival that happens in this cave and around 3000 people go there to celebrate for 3 days, as always in Laos style, we could only imagine what this would be like.

After leaving the cave we walked another 5 km to a Stupa and then a further 1km to the village where we were staying that night. The village farmed tobacco and we were surprised at the presentation of the village homes in comparison to those we had seen and stayed at in Cambodia. There are around 90 people living in this village with mostly young children under the age of 11. When we asked where all the older children were the response was that in the dry season they go to the town or city to work and send the money back to their family, coming back in the wet season to farm. The children were good fun to photograph but we got the impression they’re used to westerners coming into their village as they showed off, grabbed at the cameras and were quite cheeky. Still it’s all good for the purpose of photographing.

Our accommodation comprised of an eco-style hut with great views from the village of the surrounding mountains and we enjoyed chatting on the balcony of the hut whilst the sun went down. The bed’s were made for us with mosquito nets and bed covers provided. We will say one thing though; always carry a sleeping bag liner or inner sheet as they don’t clean their bed linen very well and we noticed a few bugs crawling around!

We played Putong with the locals (boules) and managed to beat the French couple from our group, one of whom plays it every summer with his brother!! Not bad! The locals cooked us dinner and we all ate together along with them on the balcony of the guesthouse. Later that evening we participated in a traditional Laos Bacai ceremony, this involved the group sitting around a circular table with a candle and flower arrangement in the middle. For each person there was a portion of sticky rice and chocolate bar that we would accept as a gift.  The head of the village came to each of us one by one accompanied by his two deputy leaders, he prayed for us, spoke of good things to come and all of us were predicted we would ‘live long liiiife’. He placed a cotton bracelet on our wrist and the gift was in the pal of our hands. Following him his deputy’s did the same so we ended with 3 bracelets each and many many wishes of a long life!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We left HCMC at 8am, as always it took a while to get out of the city as the bus kept stopping to pick people up but once we were on our way it took around 2.5 hours to get to the Cambodian border, we had quite a smooth route through passport control as the bus company took our passports, visa fees as well as a $5 admin fee which we only assumed meant that we weren’t hanging around as much as we were through both departure and arrival points within half an hour. It’s always a little nerve racking when someone takes your passport but it worked and next minute we were in Cambodia. After only 15 minutes or so the bus stopped for lunch for 20 minutes and then we left in the direction of Phnom Penh. On this side it took around 4 hours in the end to get to the bus station near one of the big markets in central Phnom Penh, we were a little bombarded by tuk-tuk drivers and saw one of them holding a sign for Sweethome Guesthouse which is where we had made a reservation, they’re not actually from the guesthouse itself but if you’re not booked in and they take you around they will get a commission from the guesthouse, we stupidly agreed to pay $4 for our fist tuk-tuk ride, he seemed to go the long way round we later discovered and we should have only paid a dollar each. It was find though and he got us to the guesthouse, we had a standard double booked for 2 nights with bathrooms for $10.

After settling in and being pestered for booking tuk-tuk tours with the hotel staff we went for a little walk in the city and took in the sunset over the Royal Palace. The guesthouse is very conveniently located south Royal Palace and of the main hustle and bustle of the riverfront, down a quieter street with some good choices of restaurants.

We made our way to the market and bought a very sugar laden fruit shake which helped with our current sugar-low state. It was also very filling and did the trick for a while before we got hungry. We stayed out for some food and ate at a very local noodle-street style restaurant, it only cost us a dollar for the two of us so it was nice to have a cheap start.

Back at Sweethome we arranged a tuk-tuk driver for the following day to take us, John and Lisa (John is Jules’s brother and we did the Halong Bay tour with them in Vietnam) to the Killing Fields and The Slung Treng Museum, we agreed a price of $6 each which we again later realised it was more than we should have paid. Anyway you have to figure these things out when you arrive in new places. We’re learning all the time.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

29th January – Sightseeing in Phnom Penh

John and Lisa arrived at just after 8am and our cheeky choppy tuk-tuk driver was ready and waiting with a tuk-tuk that appeared to be borrowed from one of his pals, they were all joking about the size of it and fitting us all in but it was fine. Perhaps the most amusing thing was that his fuel tank was made from a plastic container!!

It took around half and hour to get to Cheung Ek where the Killing Fields are, arriving early is again better as most tourists start turning up after 9am or so. The entrance fee is $2 per person and we decided to have a guided tour which you pay for based on donation. The area is smaller than we imagined, it was previously an orchard and retains many trees making the area quite serene. The large monument erected for the remembrance of the dead is a powerful reminder of what took place in Cambodia just over 40 years ago! Bones, skulls and clothes which have been found here can been seen, brightly coloured clothes indicated that you were wealthy or educated so therefore you did not stand a chance. Everyone who was brought here by truck was never going to leave!

We were informed by our guide about wooden structures that once stood and what happened inside, from admin to overnight people storage in sealed and dark cells as they couldn’t exterminate them all in one day! Even tormenting them by allowing them to hear the fate of others before their fate was concluded. Pits of mass graves remain and after each rainy season more bones, teeth and pieces of clothes come to the surface of the dirt. You can see pieces sticking out of the ground which makes it all the more real.

Absolutely horrific events took place here to ordinary citizens which makes no sense whatsoever, all in the idea of trying a new political system in order to make Pol-pot a god, produce rice to buy weapons and then spread their influence/extermination far and wide. Even the soldiers who, most of which were brainwashed children, were killed to try and cover up what had taken place.

We left here feeling sombre but with more understanding of the historical events that unfolded. The area is open to educate both foreigners and locals into the history of Cambodia, for people to learn and not let things like this ever happen again. The only downside is that the area is apparently owned by a private firm, maintaining the site but also quite possibly making money from the “tourist attraction” which is wrong and should be funded by the state in our opinion.

Our tuk-tuk driver was waiting for us and we headed off back into Phnom Penh to visit the S-21 prison, used for imprisonment, interrogation and torture of people. This had been converted from a school into the prison camp under the orders of Pol-pot and processed many people who ended up in the Cheung Ek killing fields. Vast empty rooms remind us of the horrors that also took place here along with photographs of victims who were meticulously catalogued and numbered ready for torture and extermination. There are also some written stories from people who are still alive today with stories of their participation in the Khmer Rouge army and their feelings on trial, retribution and the future.

After a sad and truthful morning we went back to grab some lunch at our guesthouse and waited for the Palace to open after their lunch break. We got to the Palace for afternoon opening, Helen wearing a sleeveless top had to cover her shoulders and then we were allowed in. It’s a 5$ entrance fee to the Palace and it is a big site so you can easily spend a morning or afternoon in there, it’s very reminiscent to the Royal Palace in Thailand and has played host to many kings over time, although in the past few decades the royal family have been based in China (or thailand), we heard guides talking of the current king being a monk, it’s always fun eaves-dropping into the tourist groups and making sense from it what we can. Some of the buildings are undergoing renovations; another occurring sight in many cities throughout South-East Asia and China. The main temples and Pagodas are open and the structures are beautifully exquisite in the late afternoon golden light.

We were at the Palace for the main bulk of the afternoon before ending up at one of the markets looking for simples things like sun tan lotion and shampoo, it was difficult finding anything we wanted so ended up going for a drink nearby. After more walking around the city and the sunsetting we found a restaurant mentioned in the LP which served some excellent Khmer food, perhaps a little more pricey and well presented than we were used to but it was good to have something different.

We said our goodbyes to John and Lisa who were moving north in the next few days. We had decided to put our passports in at the hotel for the Laos visas and bought a bus ticket to Koh Kong leaving at 7am the next morning.

Having had a great experience with the Chinese Cultural Center last week on the Great Wall of China hike we booked up another tour for the Silver Mountain and Pagoda Forest which are about 1.5 hours out of Beijing at a cost of 250 RMB each. We arrived early as usual due to not knowing how bad the traffic would be and relaxed with a coffee and green tea. Our comrades for the day arrived and we began introducing ourselves and making friends before heading off in the bus. Upon finally arriving at the village (a driver even in China without a sat-nav is useless) we headed for the hills with enthusiasm ready to stretch the legs and get some fresh rural air in our lungs.

The CCC guide Michael was the friendly coordinator from last weeks trip so he lead from the front and we followed, not knowing he had only done this walk once before last year in the summer-time following someone else. Soon we were shoulder deep in thorny brittle branches climbing into the rocky hills. Our faith was intact and spirits high as we ambled onwards towards the blue sky, the scenery was very good and the Leica and Pen were working hard. Before long it became apparent that we were not on the right “path” and could well be on the wrong side of a very large steep hillside with no sign of the Pagoda Forrest destination. Mobile phones from the CCC guides began ringing and a few of the hikers were getting nervous, it had only taken an hour to get up to where we were and wouldn’t take long to get down. Midday had only just passed when we decided to head down and get the bus to the Pagoda Forrest where the CCC would pay for our entrance fees. Whilst waiting for the bus we got to know the locals and their donkeys, ate local produce and drank coffee. These trips are a great way to meet fellow travelers and we got chatting to Dave and Chris from the UK and Jen from California, lovely people!

The Pagoda Forest loomed from the bus window and we proceeded to have a look around the site. The guide gave us 30 minutes to have a walk around, but this was clearly not long enough and feeling like naughty school children cheated by our previous adventure we headed into the hills to get to the top vantage point. It was worth all the steps to get there as the views were great. The eight renegades made it to the bus 30 minutes late but all was fine and we had a group photograph with everyone on the trip. The CCC offered us 100RMB each refund for the trip so that eased the pain of a tour that failed to match the Great Wall visit.

Helen’s friend Lizzie in the UK has a sister working in Beijing; Jess, who we organised to meet with later that evening, so after a quick freshen up we headed over to meet her at The Bookwork followed by a lovely meal at a nearby Yunnan food restaurant. It was lovely catching up and chatting away.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)