Lost and Found

These are some photos I particularly liked but had no place for in my previous holiday topics. I took 1,009 photos in all which is pretty ridiculous. 400 of these were in the two days walking around the Cambodian Temples. Way to many too upload here.

This will be my last post in the Big Adventure series, returning to normal transmissions from tomorrow. The whole trip seems but a fleeting memory now… Time to start planning my next Big Adventure.

I have been very lucky to travel quite a bit over the years, most of which in the years since I met my Fiancée, and spent nights in wonderful places. This trip was no different. All of the places we stayed were brilliant but each in a unique way.

In KL we stayed at The Traders Hotel with a view from all of our rooms of the 88 storey Petronas Twin Towers. The SkyBar at this place was also amazing. Shame their prices were SkyHigh as it severely impacted my Credit Card balance.

The Sheraton Langkawi was one of the nicest Resorts I have stayed in (first row of photos). The infinity edge pool with its own bar certainly got a work out. There was really no need to leave it. Oh, except of course to use the bathroom. Hopefully everyone took note of this.

The pièce de résistance was the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in Penang. When I looked at this place online I knew it was going to be a bit more expensive than other hotels we were booking, and certainly higher quality than what I traditionally stay in. But this did not prepare us for the grandeur that awaited.

They do not have check in, they have cocktails on arrival. Room service does not need to be called as you have a 24 hour butler at your disposal (which we were too busy to use). This place is the definition of luxury and has now topped The Henry Jones Arthouse Hotel in Hobart Tasmania as my favourite. I highly recommend it as a once in a lifetime destination. I am hoping to make it a twice in a lifetime experience by convincing my other half to go there next year. This time for longer than one night. Better contact Westpac now for an overdraft.

This part of our adventure is difficult to describe without pages of prose. There were so many spectacular sites that I just can’t detail them all here for you. I have added a few photos below in an attempt to capture this, but here are some of the highlights.

When we visited Melaka, the traditional Portuguese part of Malaysia, for the day we visited a very authentic back street alley filled with small shops and food outlets. It was great to see a relatively untouched part of the country hanging onto its colonial past.

The time we spent in Penang was also sensational, getting to see Cannonball Trees in the Botanic Gardens and fresh coconut vendors on the streets. The colourful Hindu temples were also a site to be seen. Very different to what we consider churches in Australia.

The Tonle Sap Lake in central Cambodia is home to thousands of traditional Khmer fishing people who live on the water in stilted houses and on house boats. I saw some crazy things including a floating Police Station and pig farm, and a small rural community built on the top of a silt dam.

I also managed to survive a Doctor Fish foot massage, where you immerse your feet in a pond filled with tiny Garra Rufa Carp who nibble at dead skins cells. A surreal experience to say the least, highly recommended

I have been fortunate enough over the years to accomplish a number of my dreams, most of them involving travel. Visiting Angkor Wat at sunrise has topped the lot. After setting out at 4:30am we managed to get there just in time as the sun rose behind the massive Khmer temple at 6:00am. I am not sure what a religious experience feels like but I am certain that this is the closest I have ever been to one. The photos below simply do not do it justice. It would have been even more awe inspiring had I not been sharing the experience with more than 5,000 of my closest friends (I kid you not…). It seems I am not the only one who has dreamed of seeing this monumental construction. But I must say I was happy to share it. There was more than enough temple to go round.

We didn’t get off to a terribly good start on the travel side. Our flight out of Sydney was delayed for 4 ½ hours due to technical issues, 3 hours of which we spent sitting in the plane on the tarmac wondering what was going on. But, as DC quite righty pointed out, it is better to find out about these things on the ground. After an identical repeat flying back from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney it was the first and last time I will fly with Malaysian Airlines. Seriously.

We had some pretty cool experiences though. In Penang we hired a guy for half a day who took us around the island to see some of the sites. He was quite a nice guy and explained a bit about the Penang culture having lived there his whole life.

In Cambodia I was on all manner of transport, from Tuk Tuks to Motos (motorbike pillion passenger), and from boats to mini buses. One great thing is that they have no road rage. Everyone is just as crazy as each other so there is no one to get angry at. They have a three lane system over there. The outer lanes are for directional traffic, and the middle lane is for who ever is there first. In the 5 days I was there I only saw one guy check his blind spot and that was because we were on a Moto and we had just seen another guy come off his Moto in front of us. Come to think of it, maybe he was just rubber-necking and wasn’t checking his blind spot after all.

One day I walked out the front of our Kuala Lumpur hotel and thought the guys had surprised me by renting one of my favourite cars for me for the day, a Lamborghini. It turned out that they are not that nice and it belonged to some Singaporian triad or something. Hope he didn’t notice my drool.

The second biggest highlight on our trip, after the wedding itself, was the food in both Malaysia and Cambodia. Those of you who know me know that I was always fairly prudish when it came to what I ate (SJ, you can relate I am sure…). That has all gone out the window. I was eating all manner of things including two vegan feasts at the wedding which were absolutely amazing. I feel so silly now that I was so naïve in my perception of vegetarian food. I have already spoken to my Fiancée about this and I am making a concerted effort now to start including more vegetarian meals into my cooking repertoire (something she has been trying to get me to do for years).

One of the culinary highlights was Nasi Lemak, a banana leaf wrapped rice meal which Malaysians generally eat for breakfast. I managed it for lunch, not sure if I could stomach it for brekky. Amok Fish was another which is a Cambodian Khmer traditional meal, with the fish generally caught on Tonle Sap, the second largest lake in the world (next to the Baikal Sea in Russia). I even managed to take a boat trip on the lake but more on that later.

We had a bit of a game amongst us to try and find the most bizarre food or product. Until now Jacki has been leading the game locating “Kickapoo Joy Juice”, a citrus flavoured soft drink which is actually quite nice. But, I have been able to trump this. In the Phnom Penh night market I managed to find deep fried marinated Tarantula. And, believe it or not, I tried it and even have photographic evidence to prove it. Now, I am not going to say it tastes like chicken as it doesn’t. It was too heavily marinated to really taste like anything other than crispy Hokkien noodles with garlic sauce… but a little bit hairier. The picture below is not set up, it really is a Tarantula (and no, it is not a Gummi lolly). See, I told you I am no longer the old Dave!

I even saw BBQ’d baby snake on a skewer, amazing what you can get for one US Dollar. No Snakeman in sight that day. Except the one selling it.

We were very lucky to meet some wonderful people when we were away. Our driver on our Melaka day tour was informative and well educated and we really liked him. As was my Tuk Tuk tour guide the day I visited Angkor Wat. It is great to see that people other than Australians can possess a self deprecating sense of humour.

A number of people have asked me how my holiday was and I explain that I probably did it the wrong way around. Malaysia is a holiday maker’s paradise with some awesome beaches, resorts and shopping. Cambodia, where I went last, is the complete opposite. Some of the scenes I saw were simply heart-breaking.

Since I arrived in Darwin I have seen some fairly low humanitarian situations with our poor and destitute indigenous population. None of this prepared me for how people live in Cambodia. Every time we stopped the bus or visited a tourist site (museums and the like) we were surrounded by begging children, land mine victims and those maimed during Pol Pot’s dictatorial regime in the late 70’s. The guides warned us all at the start not to give anyone money as it creates a cycle of dependency, but rather support missions like The Red Cross and the Cambodian Paediatric Hospital. This was easier said than done.

Outside one museum in Phnom Penh a gentlemen approached me who had been maimed by an incendiary land mine. These are particularly nasty inventions. Not only do they take off limbs when they explode, but they burst into flames and burn what is left of you. I don’t need to explain what this poor man looked like; I don’t think I have ever felt so much sorrow. Suffice to say I gave him all of the Cambodian Riel I had in my wallet, the equivalent of about AUD8.00. About 3 days average wage in Cambodia.

I will never again take it for granted when I arrive home to our clean, roofed, warm, water tight Sydney apartment. I will never again forget how lucky we are.

On Sunday I returned from Cambodia after attending Kony’s wedding in Malaysia the prior week. What an experience. I am not sure if any of you have attended a Hindu wedding but I highly recommend it. Having only ever been to Christian weddings it was an amazing experience. From the morning’s Blessing Ceremony, to the formal evening event it was all a truly unique day. Kony both looked absolutely fabulous in their wedding attire!

I think the majority of the people at the wedding were astounded to see most of the 14 Australian attendees all dressed in traditional Indian wedding garb. Especially a 6’ 2” blonde haired blue eyed one. We had so much fun that it is impossible to describe in words. I am not sure if I will ever be fortunate enough to take part in such an event again. I am so happy that I was invited to be part of Kony’s special days on both sides of the equator.

 As for the rest of the two week adventure there is too much information to go into in one blog post so I will break it into a few categories over the next few days. Suffice to say we all had a great time and enjoyed ever moment. I had some hairy experiences in Cambodia but I’ll save that for another post.

Given the nerd that I am I thought I would share a statistic with you. In all I was on 9 flights over the past 15 days including the one back to Darwin last night. That is more than one flight every 2 days. I am contacting the Guinness Book today to see if this is a new World Record. Here’s hoping that it is not like the Land Speed Record where you must repeat the record in both directions to prove you’re capable of doing it. I am very glad that there is 2 ½ weeks until my next flight.