Jakey Jake

Monday 22nd March
on the bus to Battambang, with a lot of nice french colonial architecture, apparently. WARNING!!!!!! : Battambang is the shithole of shitholes with no redeeming features unless you are into abject poverty. (aside from india which i have not yet been to but hear is not dissimilar). And here in concludes my discussion of Battambang.

Sunday 21st March
Woke up this morning severly parched and in desperate need of rehydration… Whats the best way to cure that on a 40 degree day?? go to a swimming pool, the sofitel to be exact. The manager decided he wanted to charge us 20 USD each to swim in the pool (considering your average hotel there costs about 5USD) we told him where to go. After a short wander we found another one that gave us all the free swimming we could enjoy in exchange for purchasing lunch from their restaurant. DONE!!! after swimming for a few hours, i realised i had forgotten to meet mel to go see the childrens play, oh well, i dont think i was in any state to deal with children anyway. So we went to a massage parlour for a reflexology massage (the feet) for 6USD we had over an hour of the most pleasureable and relaxing massage ever.. BARGAIN.. i fell asleep only to wake up to laughing cambodians talking about how big my feet were. We decided to end the night with another night of drinking at the same 2 bars, although we stopped off at a rather funky bar called the deadfish cafe (i think) which was really funky, but dead.

Saturday 20th March
Talk about hot, 38 degrees, argh! and we spent the whole day walking around. We started off at Angkor Thom we looked at the Bayon, the Baphuon, the terrace of the elephants and the terrace of the leper king. I never expected that this place was so massive, it was truly amazing. After this we went to Ta Phrom, certainly my favourite, it was the same amazing design and construction but this place was left to the jungle, with massive trees sprouting up through the middle of this temple. We followed this to the reknowned angkor wat. gigantic place but unfortunately with the heat and having walked all day i was pretty much over it, i climbed the stairs to the top of it, which were basically vertical you definately wouldnt want to put a foot wrong. what was needed after this tiring day of exercise?? BEER.. and where else to go?? the angkor what? We were kicking on there for sometime, when i started talking to this spanish guy who was talking about communist political systems. Mel, the bar girl, joined in and the next thing we were yaking away, she was talking about perth and how she came to Siem Reap to help underprivelaged kids, she was putting on a show with them the next day and she said she would take me along. We all decided to go to Laundry (laundry was having a special beach party and specially filled the entire floor with sand as well as putting in a little swimming pool at the back). That was pretty kewl, until i realised that i was a bit too over my limit and it was time for beddie byes….

Friday 19th March
today sucked, an 8 hour bus trip taking almost 10 hours due to having 2 flat tyres (we swapped busses in between the flats, luckily). somewhere between Seam Reip and Phenom Phen was a nice little village that had a few loudspeakers beside the road as well as a shop and some shaded seating that looked after us for a bit over an hour. Finally we arrived in Siem Reap, checked in to our hotels and freshened up from the 40 degree day. Then it was on the bus again, this time only for 8kms to Angkor, to see one of the wonders of the world. we passed by angkor wat to a small hill in the middle of angkor, Phnom Bakheng, which was esepecially good to see most of angkor from as well as to catch the sunset. There was a big climb to the top of it or you could hop on an elephant for 10 bucks, I just walked. Id never seen elephants up close like that before, they are pretty amazing looking creatures. Well the sunset wasnt so crash hot, it was too smoggy, so we went back to the hotel and had dinner and went to bed for an early start in the morning.

Thursday 18th March
Jumped on the bus to see a prison museum called “Tuol Sleng”. It was an old high school that was converted to an interrogation camp in ‘75 after Pol Pot took over. It was just sick what this fascist prick did to his country. The guy deserved to die a most truly brutal death. Its a shame that the UN didnt come to the party earlier and bring to trial those of the khmers that inflicted such horrific genocide. we walked around looking in all the rooms, you could still see the stains of blood splattering on the walls and ceilings. absolutely aborrhent, made me feel sick to my stomach. There seems to be a bit of a different vibe here in cambodia. The people seem a bit uptight and odd. fair enough i say, considering that they have been in civil war for the last 40 or so years. It seems a bit uneasy here comapred to vietnam, like everything is on edge. Hopefully angkor tomorrow will be a bit different. After the prison we moved on to the killing fields, a much nicer place (sarcasm)with over 8 thousand skulls stacked in a massive temple serving as a toswering tribute to those who were bludgeoned to death, inluding whacking babies against trees and then throwing them into pits. Truly sick people that did such barberous things to any other human being. Walking around you can see clothing burried in the ground, along with the debris of bones. I spotted some teeth and part of a jaw bone protruding from the ground. GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!! hopefully lessons like this will never be repeated, sick individuals with crazy ideas of utopia casually deciding to kill thousands if not millions of his own countrymen. what a wanker. It was time for a break and some new thongs. we went to the russian market and i picked up their biggest size which is probably a few sizes too small what to do after this??? how about taking out the rocket launcher for a session?? GREAT IDEA. never having shot a gun in my life i thought this might be the perfect opportunity to try it. so we headed out for an adventure. first i started off with a pistol. freaked me out a bit, but definately worth a try, although i cant aim to save my life. Mental note… dont join the army youd be dead in 2 seconds after this i moved up to the AK 47.. not a bad gun. time to try an M16?? Hell yeah why not?? pretty god damn powerful and loud, pushed me back a bit and i started to swing my aim, not good when there are people standing next to you… ooops sorry for killing you mate, wasnt used to the gun whats next eh?? how about a russian M57 machine gun?? OK ill give it a go 35 rounds of ammo… this thing was insane. apparently it has tracker bullets for those of you who might now what the hell that means?? blasted the shit out of the target. id say all in all if you had been standing in front of this thing you wouldnt retain liquid very well as you would be riddled with holes after the shooting range it was time for some gokart action. Nice little 1k outdoor track, im not much of a driver though. i got some tips after i lost the race, schumaker mate watch out… afterwards we stopped outside the royal palace to watch the sun set behind it. back to the hotel for a burger for dinner, then some pool before fiding myself in front of the pc checking my emails and writing this diary. NO ONE LOVES ME… cmon people where are the emails?? its just bills and crap, are you all secretly glad that ive left and never want me to return??? perhaps australia needs its own dictatorial fascist??? hehehehehe just kidding.

Wednesday 17th March
2 hour drive to the border with a short stop at a laquer factory to see how the production process works and they were hoping that we would make a purchase, no such luck from this boy, not really my scene although i have to admitthey were quite talented artisans. Crossing the border meant lugging our bags about 1 km between 2 gateways, with a lot of paperwork at either end. although it seems as though you can speed the process up a little with a nice little cash handout. Met our new tour leader, tear. His english wasnt the greatest so its going to take a lot of energy to listen and understand him. we drove a further 5 hours into Phenom Phen. Surrounding the city was a shitload of poor people in what was clearly a much more poor nation than that of Vietnam. Seemed to be a lot more beggars on the street than in Nam. after driving around the city a bit we stopped at a corn plantation to taste the local corn. then we headed off for dinner. It was true Khmer food, and i must say it was divine. i started witha green mango salad with dried seafood and cashews, followed by a pineapple that was cored and filled with rice, rasins, cashews, pineapple and pork… YARM!!!! followed that up with some fruit and had a couple of local beers of the angkor variety. Damn it im over drinking beer, makes me feel so bloated and it tastes shit too, but the wine tastes like its been sitting out in the sun all day long, mmm vinegar NOT. after that we trekked out to see the phenom phen nightlife. Full of pros… oh yay mostly some pretty bad bars although we found one where we could dance. On arriving we were padded down for weapons, a truly great sign of a good club. after dancing for a couple of hours we headed back to frenchies room to continue the party, and later retiring for bed about 1.

Tuesday 16th March
Woke up this morning probably still a little drunk, certainly very seedy. We were off to see the Cu Chi tunnels. Its an area about 60kms from saigon where a lot of vietnamese cong constructed over 200kms of tunnels in which to live in as well as providing a strategic advantage against the US and the South Vietnamese. How they lived in such cramped dark conditions is beyond me, but it was these tunnel systems which led them to victory against the US. We were able to fire off some AK47s and some M16s, i had to pass because i was out of cash after the tunnels i walked around saigon for a little longer before deciding i needed a nap. after that was dinner followed by apocalypse now which certainly hadnt improved since the last time i was there. through sheer boredom i decided to go back to the hotel, and the revolving restraunt. Damn expensive is all i can say but almost worth it for the view. Tomorrow we leave Vietnam and go to Cambodia. Country number 2 on the list

Monday 15th March
Arrived in Saigon this morning. We are staying in a hotel called the royal which is 7 storeys high and has a revolving restraunt on the roof with an incredible view of Saigon. im pretty buggered so i think ill have a nap, at least we have the movie channel here Everyone went on the mekong boat trip, since id done it before i decided to hang around saigon on my own. didnt really do much, took some breathing space and some time to think about things. Life is a very funny thing. one minute your up the next your down, even on holidays. Ive been missing home a bit, missing my friends, missing sarah, im pretty much over being in a group, so at times i just distance myself from them. Im finding it pretty hard to share a room with the same person and eating with them and doing things with them all day, you really do need a break, and im a pretty tolerant person. I guess its just part of the tour thing, at least ill have 5 diferent people on my tours and the rest of the time i can do my own thing. I spose one of the things i came over to do was to figure out what the hell i want to do with my life… but how do you go about answering that question??? hopefully seeing some of these places and understanding some of the cultures will help me work it out. in the meantime im here to see the world Vietnam is pretty amazing, it has a rather extensive coastline although i didnt manage to come across any decent surf beaches. The people are friendly and hardworking. i think it has something to do with their beliefs, with most of the populations religion being buddhist. It will be an interesting time for vietnam over the next decade or so as it shies further away from their communist ideals and moves more towards a free market economy, when foreign investment will stream in. Id be surprised if you can still get a massive breakfast with freshly squeezed juice for less than 3 dollars in a few years. who knows?? anyway enough dribble… everyone arrived back at about 7 and we went for dinner at the Ban Tanh market. Following this we went to Allez Boo were 6 of us ran up a bar tab of 960,000 Dong on singapore slings, needless to say we were feeling very jovial, unfortunately Saigons nightlife isnt as good as it could be, with some pretty dismal bars (although im guessing the locals had a better scene) so we decided to head back to the hotel where 2 bottles of vodka awaited. BAD IDEA…..

Sunday 14th March
One week has gone by, wow time flies. I spent all day on the beach with Elizabeth and Ely, it was such an awesome day, although all of us were very tired. I think i spent a bit too long on the beach as i turned a nice shade of red. OUCH! I said goodbye to the girls at around 3, they both needed some more sleep, but they said they would catch up with me in Switzerland so that should be good. Tonight we catch the night sleeper into saigon. Thankfully the beds were ok, however we had a few little guests… namely some mice. I had some ritz biscuits in my backpack and while we were watching apocolypse now they deicded to join us and the ritz would be a perfect accompanyment to the movie. cheeky little buggers. Bedded down at around 11.

Saturday 13th March
Busy day as we headed by bikes to the large buddah and the cham tower, followed by the mud baths. funnily enough it was about 35 degrees and the pools were about 38 degrees, as you can imagine the mineral pools werent too much fun. a couple of the guys thought they were cold swimming pools and decided to dive in, boy did they get a shock however the mud bath was very cool and refreshing. We met Elizabeth, Ana, Ely and Tovy for dinner at good morning vietnam for some delicious italian cuisine, pizza was the order of the day, albeit drenched in oil. Still it was delicious and would make a good base on which to have a number of drinks. We went guava bar and had a number of drinks there. Sarah came down and we had a bit of a chat, shes quite lovely, if your ever in Nha Trang stop by and say hi to her. Her friend Sofie manages guava bar too. Both of them are great value. We decided to head on down to the sailing club, tonight seemed a bit quieter than last night, probably because everyone was a bit hungover, including myself. I didnt stay too long but it was fun anyway. I organised to meet up with the girls again tomorrow, everyone was going on a boat cruise that i had already done and i decided to have a relaxer.