Read this blog: The one where we discover that shorter is higher Thursday 11th and Friday 12th April 2024 The day was to be taken up predominantly with travel so we went to fortify ourselves with breakfast at Wheelers again. This time Robert constructed his own breakfast by choosing items from a pick and mix menu [see Dish of the day]. As a Grab taxi is very reasonable and it was difficult to predict how long we might have to wait for the ferry, we decided to grab a Grab over the bridge to the station in Butterworth to catch our train to Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia. This would provide us with a different view of the crossing. Once in the capital, we went to catch the monorail towards our hotel. We were a bit apprehensive to find that not all the platform gates have been completed so there was a sheer drop down to the rails. We stood well back as the train arrived [see Video of the day]. We checked in to our hotel and as we were too tired to start sightseeing, we took a short walk to the Hard Rock Café. Robert had done his […]
2024 Asia
Read this blog: The one where we travel on the steepest tunnel train track in the world Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th April 2024 Using a combination of the Penang tourist map from the hotel and GPSmyCity, Robert worked out a route taking in some of the major sights. First we walked to the Church of the Assumption, the third oldest Catholic church in Malaysia. In front stands a small, open, domed Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima with vibrant blue stained glass which is reserved for private prayer. A church was originally established here in 1786, but the population of George Town increased steadily and in 1860 work started on the current cruciform church with two bell towers. It opened the following year in 1861. Next we passed St George’s Church. Built in 1816, this is the oldest purpose-built Anglican Church in South East Asia. A sign outside told us that it was closed for the public holiday. Since Ramadan 2024 began late on March 11 with the first fasting day being March 12, in most countries the three days of Eid al-Fitr were due to start on April 10th 2024. There were therefore quite a lot of businesses […]
Read this blog: The one where we reach our fifth country in South East Asia Saturday 6th to Monday 8th April 2024 We had one more full morning in Bangkok and as it was a Saturday we went to look at the Weekend Market, also known as Chatuchak Market. This is a vast retail space with over 8,000 market stalls spread over more than 14 hectares. You can buy almost anything here. There were plenty of shops selling vintage pre-owned clothing and Robert bought several more Hawaiian shirts [one actually made in Hawaii] to add to his collection. With temperatures well into the thirties, and the sweat free flowing, he did not want to try them on. [Once we got these purchases back to our room, Matilda felt that at least one of them was rather snug for Robert and so it might become a hand-me-down to her.] From here we went to Chinatown which is one of the largest in the world. It is also home to the oldest Chinese shrine in Thailand which dates from 1658. Chinatown was founded in 1782 when Bangkok became the capital of the Rattanakosin Kingdom. The immigrant Chinese who settled here were mostly Teochew […]
Read this blog: The one where Robert prefers to watch Friday 5th April 2024 The day started well. A young boy came down for breakfast while we were eating and to amuse him, the receptionist turned on the overhead model railway, which was complete with scaled versions of the Bridge over the River Khwae. We think we were probably more excited about this than he was. Having travelled over the bridge over the River Khwae Yai yesterday on the train, Robert wanted to go to the bridge itself to watch a train pass. He firmly believes that watching the trains is a more satisfying experience than riding on them. There is a station on the south side of the river called the River Kwai Bridge Station [see below] surrounded by stalls selling all manner of souvenirs. We have been struggling to find a standardised spelling of Khwae/Kwai. It seems the former is usually used for the rivers the Khwae Yai and the Khwae Noi which meet in Kanchanaburi. But it also appears that the Thai’s are happy to use the Anglicised version popularised by the 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai to make things easier for the tourists. […]
Read this blog: The one where we see a hundred grains of rice move two tons of rock Thursday 4th April 2024 Today combined two of Robert’s key interests: railways and WWII: its impact and legacy. As early as 1885 the British government had undertaken a survey to assess the feasibility of building a railway line linking Burma and Thailand. However, the route would have passed through steep jungle terrain and crossed many rivers. The project was judged to be too difficult and was abandoned. Over fifty years later towards the end of 1941, the Japanese invaded Thailand and then advanced into Burma in early 1942 in preparation for launching an attack on Singapore in February of the same year. The shipping route from Japan to Burma around the Malay Peninsula was 2,000 miles long [3,200 km] and was vulnerable to Allied submarine attack. An overland route was needed to ensure that supplies reached the Japanese Army in Burma. When Singapore fell, the Japanese took 110,000 Allied Prisoners of War [PoWs]. This was almost an alien concept for the Japanese who adopted the bushido warrior code which demanded death before surrender. Eventually it was decided that PoWs could be put to […]
Read this blog: The one where Matilda gives up luxury for monks Wednesday 3rd April 2024 The day started with a visit to the self service laundry. We may have tried to do too large a load as we had to run the drier twice which delayed our departure. Theoretically we now both have enough clean clothing to last the next fortnight until we return home. However, Matilda feels that going sleeveless is unwise in this climate and she should have packed more tops with short sleeves so may need to hand wash a few items to get her through. With clean laundry folded and packed we set off on the journey to Kanchanaburi. First we took the Skytrain. Then we had to walk a short distance to Thonburi Station where we bought tickets to Kanchanaburi. There are only a few trains each day and the majority of the journey is single track so sometimes the trains have to wait to pass each other at a station. Both Matilda and Robert tried to get on the carriage at the front of the train: it looked marginally more comfortable as the seats had slightly better upholstery. Unfortunately it was all reserved: […]
Read this blog: The one where we learn the correct way to queue Tuesday 2nd April 2024 We realised that a combination of the distances involved and the unseasonably hot weather meant we would need to use public transport in Bangkok rather than walking everywhere as we usually tend to do. Although it is normally hot in South East Asia in April, several locals have told us that it is significantly warmer here than expected for the time of year. This was not good news for Matilda, a pale skinned Western woman of a certain age more used to cold and rain than sunshine. Robert’s research had identified a water bus and we decided we would use this to get to the first of the cultural sights on Matilda’s list. The water bus proved to be a quick and easy way to get around. There is certainly no unspoken rule in Bangkok that boats will pass each other slowly or go at a speed which limits the wash and conserves the banks as there is, for example, on the Venetian laguna or the canal network in the UK. This is high speed transport. We got off and walked to Wat […]
Read this blog: The one where we want to be charged ‘on the meter’ Monday 1st April 2024 We travelled by GiantIbis coach again, this time from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, in a coach which was a little more modern, with just three seats across and more leg room. As before there were two drivers and one courier accompanying us. This seems to be company policy to avoid driver tiredness. This journey was scheduled to take about eight hours with three comfort stops as well as one to cross the border and get through immigration control. The courier gave everyone entry forms to complete on the bus to speed up the process but tourists travelling on a UK passport do not require a visa to enter Thailand, as a tourist. We had to get off the bus and walk to the Cambodian border control. Part of the route was along some railway tracks which looked newly laid. It may be that the cross border train will be reinstated. We were given lanyards to wear but we suspect this was so that the GiantIbis staff could identify us rather than for any immigration-related reason. The Cambodian border check point building was […]
Read this blog: The one where Robert is groomed by a rat Sunday 31st March 2024 The hotel receptionist had very helpfully phoned and made a booking for us and we had arranged with our tuk tuk driver from the day before to collect us in time to get to APOPO for the 10:00 tour. Unfortunately, he failed to appear. Showing him more loyalty than he had shown us, we waited for a few minutes in case he appeared. Apparently he was on another job. Fortunately there was, as usual, another tuk tuk waiting outside the hotel in the hope of picking up a fare. Although we arrived about 10 minutes late, luckily the tour had not yet started. Joining a group tour costs $10 per person and this is money very well-spent. APOPO was co-founded by a Belgian and the name is an acronym standing for “Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling” which translates to Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development in English. The acronym really is much easier. The tour starts with an explanation of how Cambodia became one of the countries most severely affected by landmines. There is still unexploded ordinance from American bombing in the 1970s referred to as […]
Read this blog: The one where Robert eats crocodile for the first time Saturday 30th March 2024 We arranged a tuk tuk, through our hotel, to take us to some of the sites in Angkor Archeological Park, leaving shortly after breakfast to try and avoid the hottest part of the day [see Video of the day]. There is so much to see that this plan was not entirely successful. The whole site covers around 400km² and it is difficult to do justice to such a vast and varied place of such historical significance, particularly in 42° heat. Cambodia has had several capital cities over the centuries. Between 802 AD until the early fifteenth century the centre of royal power was at Angkor. The capital was subsequently moved to Phnom Penh, later Longvek and then Oudong before returning to Phnom Penh in the nineteenth century. Angkor was therefore the centre of the ancient Khmer Empire for over 600 years. Unfortunately, the term Khmer has negative associations following the Cambodian genocide under the Khmer Rouge, but Khmer refers to an ethnolinguistic group which includes most of the Cambodian people as well as their ancestors and the rulers who built this extraordinary city. Angkor […]
Read this blog: The one where we catch the wrong coach … initially Friday 29th March 2024 From Phnom Penh we were booked to travel by GiantIbis coach to Siem Reap from where we would visit Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom – the remnants of the once great Khmer Empire. The bus was scheduled to leave at 08:45 and we had to get there at least half an hour beforehand so we had a relatively early start and booked a Grab car to take us to the coach station from the hotel. We checked in at the departure point, were directed to take a seat in the waiting area and after a while we handed our suitcases over and boarded the bus. We had expected it to be much busier, given our destination is one of the major tourist sites in Cambodia. Shortly before the bus was due to depart, a member of staff came running up to explain that we were on the wrong coach. Thankfully we managed to disembark and reclaim our luggage from the hold before it was too late. The bus which would actually take us to Siem Reap was significantly busier. The journey took about […]
Read this blog: The one where we visit a genocide site Thursday 28th March 2024 It is quite unsettling to be repeatedly accosted on the street by smiling tuk tuk drivers asking enthusiastically “Killing Fields? Killing Fields?” as though you will be in for a real treat. Although we were ambivalent about visiting, we felt we could not ignore such a defining part of Cambodian history and arranged a tuk tuk to transport us to and from the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre. It is difficult to know what to say about something so terrible but the Cambodians themselves are very open about the genocide. Tourists are encouraged to visit the site with the aim of ensuring that it can never happen again. The Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum [formerly known as the S-21 prison housed in two former schools] are the only two sites so far which have been turned into museums detailing the crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot. There are however several smaller local memorials including the former M-13 prison. Choeung Ek lies about 11 miles south of Phnom Penh city centre and is a former orchard and Chinese cemetery. […]
Read this blog: The one where Matilda looks older and loses her sense of humour Wednesday 27th March 2024 At the start of the cruise along the Mekong we had to surrender our passports [which made us both a bit anxious] to allow the cruise company to undertake the paperwork for our entry visas into Cambodia. On the morning we docked in Phnom Penh, all passengers had to present themselves on the Sun Deck at 07:00. Here our passports were returned to us complete with a tourist entry visa and an exit visa form. We then had to walk several paces across the Sun Deck to present them to the border guards for approval. The immigration official that Robert saw compared him to his passport photo and pronounced him, or perhaps Robert’s photo, to be “handsome”. By contrast, when Matilda presented her passport to the second border guard, he spent some time looking from the photo to Matilda and back again. He then consulted a colleague who looked at both Matilda and the photo and nodded but commented, “You were much younger then.” Sadly it’s true, the current photo has little or no grey hair and she will need to […]
Read this blog: The one where we see that Robert remembers the moves Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th March 2024 On the first morning on board, as we travelled from Cai Be to Con Phuong Island, the ship’s masseuse offered everyone a five minute neck and shoulder massage as a loss leader to encourage bookings. Uptake of the free service was brisk and both Robert and Matilda indulged. She certainly found some of Robert’s knots but the prices afloat were predictable much higher than we had seen on land. As we cruised further upstream, we passed floating fish farms run by families who lived on the water permanently. The cargo boats were often so heavily laden that we feared they were close to sinking with the wash running over the bow. The activity for the day was to visit a bamboo weaving community and a school but we opted to stay on board as the temperatures were set to rise to 36° and Matilda wanted to save her enegery for the 400 steps up to the temple which was scheduled for Day Three. We moored overnight near Tan Chau and the entertainment that evening was a screening of Good Morning, Vietnam. […]
Read this blog: The one where Robert tries natural viagra [snake vodka] Sunday 24th March 2024 We woke and breakfasted early and took a taxi to the Hôtel des Arts where all the passengers were to assemble for our cruise up the Mekong River aboard the RV Indochina Pandaw. While we waited, we were provided with the best cappuccino we have had so far on this trip. When it was our turn to register, we were told we had Cabin 317 and the Pandaw representative told us that it was “a very good cabin”. We suspected that he might say that to everyone, but when we asked other passengers, it seemed he hadn’t. It was then about a two hour journey by coach to the embarkation point at the stylish My Tho Marina where the building has been designed to look like a cruise ship from the 1930s with porthole windows and curved balconies. When Robert checked his paperwork, our booking was for Cabin 319, which was right at the back of the ship and next door to the one we had been assigned. He, of course, queried the change and we were told we had been moved to a […]
Read this blog: The one where Robert eventually gets the literary references Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd March 2024 We had identified several historical sights we wanted to visit, predominantly temples and pagodas. First we passed the Temple to the Hung Kings which is a small modern shrine in Công viên Tao Đàn or Tao Dan Park. Built in 1992, it already needed some renovation work in 2012, and is dedicated to the first Kings of Vietnam. It stands in one of the largest parks in the city quite close to the Independence Palace where mature and well-established trees provide some welcome shade. The Hung Kings are venerated for, among other things, teaching the Vietnamese how to grow wet rice. This small temple also has the dubious privilege of being the place where Matilda saw her first rat running past. It should not be confused with the much more imposing monument in the Hung Kings Memorial Park. Next we passed the Xá Lợi Pagoda [below left] which is the largest pagoda in the city. Built in 1956 it was the headquarters of Buddhism in South Vietnam and the centre of the Vietnamese Buddhists’ protests against religious persecution by the predominantly […]