Relaxing the Weeks Away in Kampot

We’ve been in Kampot, a small Cambodian province of 50,000 people. Justin has some friends from Vermont that live here full time so we thought we might as well pay them a visit while we were in the neighborhood. Due to French influences in Cambodia, Kampot is a town filled with baguettes, cafes and European architecture with an obvious Khmer (Cambodian) flavor. The heart of town, where we are staying is centered along a long boulevard and the river front. There are lots of nice restaurants, with a large Expat community bringing many styles of cuisine to the table. So far we have enjoyed the best Mexican food we’ve had since we left, real Belgian chocolate croissants and real American cheeseburgers. Every few days we go to “mama’s” a traditional Khmer breakfast spot where we tuck into hearty organ, intestine and spleen soup. Yum, that’s one way to start the day!

Sunset on the river

More often than not, at least 6 hours of the day are spent in our favorite cafe where we leisurely sip fruit shakes, affordable cappuccinos and lunch. Reading, homeschool, postcard writing and trip planning are activities you could usually find us doing during the day. When it begins to cool off we head down to the local exercise park, a 15 minute walk down the river. It’s nice to use the clunky metal treadmills and weight lifting apparatus while watching the sun sink behind the hillside.
On the way back in the general direction of our hotel we often stop for drinks and dinner.

Yes, this is a pretty lazy lifestyle, but we have done some sightseeing during our time here.
Justin’s friend Phil showed us some amazing caves just outside town. There were large caverns, tunnels we practically had to crawl through and impressive stalactites. We could have gotten easily turned around, there was not shortage of tunnels branching off and weaving different directions. There were lots of bats in there too! The best part was that we pretty much had the place to ourselves, and we could go anywhere we wanted with no restrictions.
A few nights ago we took one of the many river boats that run upstream for sunset. We got to see Cambodian river life while enjoying some sodas and the evening light. The main attraction was apparently the fire flies- 3 or 4 little bugs about an hour away. The coolest part to me was going under the bridges. Over the course of the cruise we went under 3 different bridges, and I wasn’t sure we’d get under them at first! It was a pretty close call, see for your self!

3 Days In Angkor Wat and The Landmine Museum

We have just finished up 3 days in the 8th wonder of the world, Angkor Wat. The first day we sight saw (sight seed?) from 10 to sunset, 7 pm. It was a long day! We went to some of the smaller temples to work up to the more elaborate ones, which we saved for later.

The next morning we woke up at 4 am! By five we were in front of the main temple Angkor Wat (The whole area is just called Angkor Wat after the biggest temple) for sunrise. Unfortunately we weren’t the only ones, there were probably 500 other people there! There was a pool in front of the temple so you could see a great reflection with the morning pastels. When we were done we examined the incredibly intricate Ba Reliefs, stone carvings depicting battles stretching 100s of yards along the outside of Angkor Wat. We stopped for a breakfast of soup before we continued to visit other temples, some perfectly resorted and others remote and untouched, chocked with HUGE trees and thick dangling vines. I felt like I was in Indiana Jones! We were only up for a half day because it was sooooo hot (90 and sunny! This is the coldest time of year!) so we went back to our hostel to drink fruit shakes and swim in the pool.

Nick feeling mighty small!

Yesterday we started at 7 and went back to Angkor Wat because we hadn’t gone inside. Nick was prevented from going up to the top of the building because he wasn’t old enough but he wasn’t missing much, everything up there was under construction. Next we went to Bayon temple, which is almost is big and a thousand times more detailed when it comes to stone work. There are at least 10 big stone towers coming off of it and each side has a giant stone face of the king on it. It’s really photogenic and the ultimate jungle temple. I can only imagine what it was like before tourists started coming, amazing!

I noticed that Angkor Wat had had wide open chambers and courtyards, but Bayon was different. It’s tiny narrow labyrinth of stone passages made it easy to get turned around. It was also nice because standing on the outside in some places you couldn’t see that the Buddhist temple was crawling with tour groups, because they were all hidden by stone. I think everyone was relieved to be done, we were “all templed out”.

Bayon Temple

So, we decided to change it up by taking a drive over to the land mine museum. The establishment is pretty small, it was started by an ex child soldier who served many different sides in all the conflict that happened in Cambodia between the 60s and 2000s. He had learned to set up mines at age 10, so he knew how they worked and felt horrible for all the innocent farmers and children he had unintentionally hurt or killed with undiscovered mines. So, him and his wife just started going around disabling mines for free, they cleared 10s of thousands of mines in their work, and now they have a whole team sweeping for mines with the latest technology. It was really cool to learn about and I’m glad we went.

Some of the disabled mines on display 

Today we got to sleep in for the first time in a while. We will hang out at the hotel pool until we get picked up to go to our night bus. We will go across the country while we sleep and will wake up to be in Kampot. Kampot is down in the south of Cambodia and is a small village where Justin has friends that live there full time. I think we will stay there for a week or 2.

One Day in Bangkok

Ever since our river tour of the city I had wanted to take a trip to the Temple of Dawn, Watt Arun. It is one of the most recognizable landmarks of Thailand with its incredably steep sides. Michele and Justin had booked us a hostel in Khao San Road, a back packer hub in the Thai capital. We had a lot of trouble convincing eager taxi drivers and insistant money makers that we intended to walk ourselves and were in no need of a pricey ride or service.

It was a little odd adapting from the sleepy vibe of Koh Panghnan to the hustle and bustle of ultra modern Bangkok but eventually we navigated the busy roundabouts and ferry docks to skirt other temples and cross the river to the Temple of Dawn.

The temple itself was quite crowded because it’s at the top of the list for short visits in Bangkok like ours. We took a few laps around the perimeter, climbed the angled stairs and squeezed past other sight seers to get a view of the river. What we hadn’t noticed at first was that the creamy white sides of the Wat were decorated with pottery and shell mosaics. Pieces of detailed dining plates were cut into large flowers and designs.

We couldn’t stay long because Bangkok is HOT with a capital H! We had to stop and hydrate with coconut drinks and ice tea throughout the day and it still wasn’t enough! A full day of bus travel to the Cambodian border was in store for the following day so we decided to turn in early.

We have had such a wonderful time in Thailand, everyone was sad to leave green papaya salad, white sand beaches, fresh fruit, Pad Thai and friendly calls of “Sawadee Ca!” (Hello in Thai) behind.
New updates from the Kingdom of the Khmer coming soon!

Family Favorites of Koh Phangan

We spent a month on a laid back tropical island that I do not think any of us will be forgetting anytime soon. Now that we have left we have trully grew to understand the old saying Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder. We all wanted to acknowledge what a great month we had, so we compiled a few of our highlights...

Diving-  We loved this so much we wrote 2 full posts on it! Justin and I planned to go again, but tropical storm Pabluk cancled our plans. Fingers crossed SCUBA adverntures Down Under are in our future!

Michele, Nick and Justin watch kite boarders from the resort 

Chill-  Ahhhh, after 4 months on the road the ability to take a nap whenever you want is very apealing. During our time renting a house we actually acomplished very little. However, when I asked Justin, who loves to get things done, what his favorite part of our vacation from our vacation was this was the first thing our of his mouth. We spent a lot of our time sunning by the pool, watching local kite boarders out in our bay. The hammok wasn't a bad investment either...

View of Bottle Beach from the Hiking Trail

Bottle Beach-  This involved a short motorbike ride from the center of our village to a trail head and then a 2 hour hike. We could have done it quicker if it weren't for one thing, the terrain. The whole island is basically a giant crystal rising above the waves, a crumbly crystal at that. It was mentally strenuous to calculate every step so that we didn't end up like many fellow hikers with bloody knees. The hike too and from the isolated beach [only acessable by boat, hike or dirt road only locals used] offered some nice views of the surrounding jungle. The beach itself was nice and long, but we weren't able to enjoy the water because of northern wind coming off Pabuk.

Koh Ma at low tide, you can see the sandbar linking the
small island to Koh Phangnan 

Snorkeling Koh Ma-  Amazing snorkeling was just a 15 minute walk from our bungalow. Koh Ma is an island connected to Koh Phangan by a sandbar, wether or not the sandbar is above the water is dependent on the tides. We only went a few times, not enough, but when visability vibrant coral is close to the surface. This was the best snorkeling we could find and it was a great way to send the afternoons. If we ever go back, we'll make sure to watch out for poisinous stonefish as Justin had a very close encounter with one!

Sunset Beach Adventures- Even though we were limited to traveling distance 2 at a time by our motorbike, everyone had a chance to go to some new beaches for sunset. Chaloklum Bay is in the north of the island and sheltered by hills so we miss out on night time pastels, but trips for drinks and horsdevours down to elegent beaches were really nice.

Visiting The Local Wat- Wats, Thai temples are common, but we had not actually visited one yet. I think it was the daunting idea of pulling on those long pants in the dark corners of the closet. One day we finally took a walk down to our local temple to see it was in good condition and shiny silver decorations on the outside twinkled in the evening sun. We were the only ones visiting which was nice too.

Trouble in Paradise! Preparing for Cylone Pabuk

Today started like any other. Michele woke at the usual time while Nicholas and I slept in a little longer. I was laying half asleep and you know how you sometimes hear your surroundings but don’t really comprehend them? Well that was happening to me and through the foggy, dreamy haze I heard Michele’s voice infiltrate my present state, “Something’s up.” I sat up and blinked away sleep. “The people next door just warned me about a storm, I guess people are evacuating the island.” That sure woke me up! Mom went downstairs to wake up Justin and we spent the next hour on multiple weather apps, collecting as much info as we could. We learned that a tropical storm had evolved into a tropical cyclone and is headed right for our tiny island. Michele and Justin discussed if we should stay or leave and we decided to stay, here’s why....

• Ferries might be overcrowded with people leaving because of the storm on top of normal post New Years exodus
• We didn’t want to be caught out on the ocean when 12-16 foot swells were in the forecast
• We are near enough to the beach that we’ll probably get some flooding but have the second story of a cement structure available 
• Justin got 10 candles for Christmas and power outages are a perfect excuse to burn them before our time on Koh Panghnan is up
• We have a gas powered stove so we can still prepare food

Now that we had decided to stay we wanted to be prepared for the storm to come. Our pantry was almost empty and we were completely out of fresh drinking water so Justin and I spent the morning running errands. First we took the motorbike down the road to a reverse osmosis facility to get lots of water. Next we drove down to Thong Sala (town with biggest shopping varieties and best deals) to buy food as well as flashlights. Beans, pasta, peanuts, produce, sardines and more went into our giant trekking backpacks to be carted home.

As we shopped we conversed other western travelers about Pabuk. They were at the grocery stores like us, and expressed their concerns about loose debris like sheet metal and wood just laying around. They also mentioned that the Thai people of the island seemed like they didn’t care. We noticed this too! Our land lady said this is nothing and dismissed it with a wave a hand. This was analogues to reactions of other resort owners, the boy where we buy water, the man at the gas pump and the lady who works the fruit stand. Maybe class 4-5 tropical cyclones are annual? Well it this turned out not to be the case when we learned this is predicted to be the worst storm in 56 years! We puzzled over what could be behind the lack of preparation. The culture which tends to be less stressful than ours or maybe we are over reacting? Everyone knows it is coming, but it will be interesting to see how the cyclone effects the island.

Kite surfers are enjoying the wind and waves! 

We will continue to watch the weather, the worst of it is forecasted to reach our island Friday and Saturday. If you don’t hear from us in the few days it will because we don’t have WiFi or electricity. We will continue to keep in touch until them.

We have taken proper precautions and will stay inside to school, read, and play cards. Too bad, we were just starting to enjoy the sunshine! 

Sail Rock!

The underwater stone chimney in the Gulf of Thailand knows many titles and has been described many ways.... “Best Site in the Gulf of Thailand” “Premire World Class Diving” “Menagerie of Schooling Fish” “breathtaking” “1sts Rate Corals” “Whale Shark Playground”  and many more.

We just called it awesome!

Sail Rock was where Michele and I would take our first real open water dive for our certification. Justin came along as he was already certified and Nick tagged along, hoping for some snorkeling between dives.

Justin does a predive buddy check with his partner Rod

 Our alarms woke us up early the morning of the dive. Our walk to the dive center seemed super long because we are all so excited to get out on the boat. After arriving and getting dad outfitted with equipment we got onto our dive boat at the pier and then started our one hour ride to Sail Rock. As we watched the island of Koh Phangan get smaller and blurred with ocean spray behind us, we could begin to make out the faint out line of Sail Rock (the cap of a huge underwater pinnacle) on the horizon.  I think we were all surprised to see how many other boats there were. “How are we all going to fit in the water?” I wondered.  They had to be at least another half dozen boats which unlike ours were crowded and bustling. The captain idled the engine and we geared up.

Sail Rock from the surface 

I was initially a bit nervous about my first dive, I mean, there are so many horrible things that could happen down there! I realized that  obviously we had been preparing for unlikely worst case scenarios but it was still in the back of my mind. No sooner than I thought, we were in the water. First, I was amazed. It’s hard to describe but the underwater world is just so alien to anything I’ve ever experienced before. We saw massive schools of barracuda and they didn’t even seem to notice us as they flashed by. We also observed a rather dangerous jellyfish but we were far enough away that it was no issue. On both dives there were a few Titan Triggerfish swimming around. For those who don’t know these territorial and beautiful finned predators have been known to chomp off the fingers, earlobes and other fleshy bits of divers who got too close. After Michele’s story’s of her past encounters, I was pretty wary of the fish.

Titan Triggerfish 

Big schools will blow you away

Diving is just so amazing. You feel like a bird rather than a fish. Weightless, soaring over a murky abyss below. We felt like astronauts on our own planet. We did 2 dives that day. Our dive master Michi found it amusing to ask how long we were submerged. 15, 20 minutes? In reality it had more like an hour! It’s crazy how time flys when you are having fun!

Whale sharks were in the area but we missed them. Everyone was fine with that, we hadn’t expected to see one anyway. What we had seen were barracuda, parrot fish, butterfly fish, urchins, anenomes, pink clownfish, jellyfish, titan triggerfish, giant groupers and so much more! 

Overall experiencing the natural fairy world that is Sail Rock was an aqua experience I will never ever forget.

Can’t wait to get back in the water!

Anika and Michele are PADI Divers!

Michele, Michi and Anika outside the dive school 

Just before Christmas Michele and I took an intensive four day class to learn how to safely and enjoyably be ambassadors to the marine world. Michele had been a certified diver a long time ago but she hadn’t dove in over 15 years so she wanted to refresh her prior knowledge. We took the classes at Chaloklum Dive School in our village, which was convenient and a fun experience.
On the first day we met our instructor, Michi, an older and very experienced diver from Germany, though he has spent the last decade here on Koh Panghnan. We spent the first half of the day watching instructional videos and reviewing the material through quizzes. Mom could recall certain information and I had borrowed a diver manual to study earlier in the week so classwork wasn’t too demanding. The first day we also learned how to assemble and disassemble our gear kits, before going down into the water to practice some basic skills. What I didn’t realize is how heavy all that stuff is! You have a tank, (the bulk of the weight) wet suits (2 in my case) and plus weight belts, which are straps with multiple lead weights on them. Walking the 15 feet into the surf is easier said than done!

The next day was similar, just with water skills in the morning. Mom and I practiced clearing our masks to get water out at depth, taking our masks on and off underwater and dealing with air supply issues, from inconvenience to emergencies.
The third day we did our first shallow water dive. There was a 450 yard swim from the shore to the reef we would be diving. This was more of a practice dive, the water wasn’t very deep, only 5 meters.  Everything we learned was measured in metric but it wasn’t too tricky because we have had a few months of travel to wean our minds off feet and yards.
This dive was mostly putting our knowledge together. It was fun too! We saw a cuttle fish which are less common this time of year and so many fish that I hadn’t seen snorkeling. Everything went smoothly and got us pumped up for our real dive at Sail Rock tomorrow.

Suiting up before a dive!

After lunch and cleaning and putting away our equipment I took my final exam. Michele didn’t have to as she had already been a diver. A 75% passes and I was in the 90% range. Michi reviewed the test with us and then taught us how to use dive tables. Dive tables are calculation instruments that divers used before dive computers. They are a little tricky to grasp the concept of but once you understand they are simple, it’s just math.

We went to bed early that night, to get a good sleep before Sail Rock!