BANGKOK: REDISCOVERED....

Or... shall we say we're hoping we'd rediscover it this time. :) We got to Bangkok last Monday after a very nice and relaxing 7 days at Koh Chang island. Even though it rained almost every day, it didn't rain all day. It would pour for a couple of hours and then clear up and the sun would be out again, hot and scourching, the type that makes my skin look almost black and Katy's bronze... We feel that after shorter (time-wise) but no less interesting or challenging than we expected backpacking, or again the correct term in our case would be "trolley-packing", this very relaxing week in Koh Chang is a good closure. We expect that the next week we might well be in Uzbekistan in our apartment figuring out what should we do first among many many things that we have to do. We are very excited and anxious about going there, but believe that it will be all good.

So far, Bangkok is not as stressful as it was last time we were here. Although upon arrival one taxi driver approached Katy trying to get us into his car and of course rip us off, but after we declined he did this airy kiss to Katy while I was grabbing our bags from the bus. I wish she kicked in his puny balls and I'd have added a few punches to his ugly greasy face. But I wasn't there when it happened and Katy is too classy for kicking an imbesile in his "punies". Aside from that we're good. The accomodation, which our friend Janice recommended is very well decorated. It wouldn't have been our first choice because we don't really care about it, but it's nice for a change. It serves all organic food and has many rules for the guests in order to keep it clean and estheatically pleasing. For example you're not allowed to have any food in your room, except for plain water to keep roaches and rats away. But of course we've been naughty and we snuck in yogurts, cakes, breads, a can of tuna (which we brought from Koh Chang, because we didn't have time to eat it there), and even fresh carrots, which Katy bought thinking she'd snack on them but because it's freaking 33 degrees in the room the carrots went rotten in one day, so we threw them out today. Anyways, we took all the naughty garbage, which would indicate that we're violating the rules of the guesthouse, out with us and disposed of it outside in the bin. haha~

In order to not to deal with the tuk-tuks and shameless taxi drivers who don't want to go by the meter, but want to negotiate the inflated "tourist" price, we bought a map of Bangkok with the bus routes and are planning to go around the city by bus to save us nerves and money. Honestly, it makes a big difference if you don't have to deal with the tuk-tuk mafia. Bangkok actually can be enjoyable, although still hot and sticky. We don't have really much to do here except for just hanging out and maybe going on some trips around Bangkok. We also have this idea of visiting the BangKwang prison for men about which we read a book, and which is a terrible terrible place. Of course all prisons are, but this one in particularly. Apparently you can visit the inmates and just talk to them and give them some food or money. And there are many foreigners there, so, we're thinking maybe we will find some Kiwis or Russians or maybe even the Uzbeks. Who knows...

Now, in order of appearance:

1. Our view from the bungallow we stayed in Koh Chang.

2. Our bungallow

3. Beaches and sunset shots

4. The dogs seem to enjoy the sea view as well as humans.

5. Mangrove forest and a man packing his daily catch to sell at the market.
6. Oh.. well.. just us.. I thought we looked cute here... ha~

7. Some food that we ate for about 3 days in a row... BBQed stuff... very good.. The garlic bread was so good~

8. After about a couple of days in bungallow Katy discovered a poo on our mosquito net. It didn't look familiar to us, i.e., didn't look like a poo of a rat or roaches or some other animal. I did some looking and searching around and we found a perpetrator. It was a huge gekko that was hiding behind some of pillars in the ceiling next to the wall. Towards the end of our stay this beautiful blue with orange spot sonofabitch (you'll see in a moment why I call him that) got so comfortable with our presence that he chose to pee all over my clean thighs and my silk-sack right about when we were going to go to bed. It just felt like sudden sprinkle of stinky uriny water. I looked up and what do you think he was sitting there looking down with his beautiful big eyes... little blue SOB!!!

9. In the department store we went yesterday with Janice. Katy liked that shirt but it was too expensive to buy so we just took a spy foto to copy it later... ha~

10. Contrast of buildings: slum, modern and artsy (weird?) and traditional Chinese... all stuck to each other.

11. Speaks for itself. I also had a foto of a cat sleeping in another phone booth, but somehow it disappeared from here... hmm.~

BACK TO THAILAND...

After having spent 10 days in Cambodia we felt that we've seen enough of it and spent enough in it. Compared to the neighbouring countries, even rich Thailand, Cambodia is SO overpriced. One reason being that all prices are quoted in dollars, and the others... who knows... maybe because stupid tourists still pay those prices, so, why lower them?... And it seems that one dollar bill is the most used one. Everything is "ONE DOLLAR~ ONE DOLLAR~". Even beggars ask you not for pennies but "One dollar~ One dollar~".
Anyways, the Angkor Wat was amazing. On our last day of a 3-days ticket, closer to sunset we wanted to get up in the air on a hot-air baloon, but because the rainy season has already started, the weather didn't permit us to get on it. So, we went back to Angkor Wat just to see it for the last time, and as we were walking in, everyone was walking out because of the expected rain, which poured regularly once a day, very heavily for about 2 hours and then would stop. We didn't really worried because we had our rain-coats with us, and it was worth staying a bit longer, not too much. When it started pouring down like "from the bucket" (word-for-word translation of Russian expression ha~), the Angkor Wat looked very mysterious and overwhelming. The moat surrounding it was absolutely beautiful too. It is a pity that I cannot take pictures in rain, otherwise it would be excellent shots.
The way back was windy and rainy and wet. Despite our raincoats we almost got all wet. Of course, as anyone knowing us, I was almost dry and Katy was almost soaked with water. It's a mistery to me how she can do things like that. :)
As we expected once we got to our guest-house, the rain almost stopped. The next day after that we wanted to go to see floating village on Tonle Sap lake, but we spent too long time in the Internet cafe and were too lazy and it looked like it was going to rain again, which it did and a lot, and so, we just stayed inside all day and bought tickets for Thailand for the next day.
Road to Thailand was long and bumpy. Cambodia has the worst roads in the world, oh well, of all countries in the world that I've seen. Katy says they are as bad as in Uzbekistan, (which is a personal insult to me), but Uzbekistan has far better roads than Cambodia, come and see for yourself. (A bit defensive here, huh? ha~).
Anyways, the driver who picked us up said that because it rained a lot yesterday the road to Thailand is all muddy and it will take ages for us to get to the border that we might miss our connecting bus and then ferry, so, we hired a sedan to take the four of us (another American couple) in old Toyota Camry to the border for extra charge. It was quick, but useless because although we got very quickly to the border, we had to wait for other people at the border to go to Koh Chang (the island) who was on that bus that we didn't go on. So, we waited for 5 hours on the bench and then in the minibus. We could as well take the regular bus to the border and save $10. Well, who knew. From there, it was fairly quickly ride on nice and smooth Thai road network to Koh Chang Island.

Koh Chang island is freaking huge. We spent one night in a nice room with the fridge and A/C and hot shower and TV and Coffee and Tea pot, and motorbike included, BUT.. no beach. So, the next day we took the bike and went around looking for the beach-front bungallows. And we found one right on the beach about 5 meters from the water, but no hot shower, no A/C, no TV, no fridge.... Just a simple hut, but with the view and sea breeze and the wave noise. The waives sounded very nice the first day and now it's just constantly noisy. But, probably pleasantly noisy.
Anyways, because it is raining season, not many people here, and the weather is not cooperating, although the sea is very warm and you can still swim, if you're not afraid of quite strong waves. I swam yesterday and it was nice.
Thinking that these are our last few peaceful days before the chaotic and people-swarming months and years in Uzbekistan, we just take it easy and do nothing but read and sleep and eat. Maybe today we'll drive to the other side of the island and maybe will do a bit of trekking to see a couple of waterfalls.

KBAL SPEAN & BANTEY SREI

Motorcycles are the major mean of transport in this part of the world and are used for transporting everything from chickens to babies.

Children going home from school ride their bycicles dangerously close to the trucks, motorcycles and cars.

A path to the Kbal Spean was very picturesque as opposed to the road leading to it. The road was basically firm clay, which turns into mudy slush I reckon during the rainy season. It had so many holes and humps in it that every time our tuk-tuk went over one, we felt like we were being punched into our kidneys.

Kbal Spean - arguably the most fine carvings in the world. What makes these ones unusual as well is that they are carved into the river bank. At first we didn't even notice them because we were looking for them on the big rocks around the river.

Of course there was a waterfall down the stream and of course I couldn't resist getting in it. And please don't mind my underwear. At first water felt a bit cold but once you get in it it was very refreshing.

It was so hot when we came down from Kbal Spean, which is by they 1.4 km up the mountain, that even cows were looking for some shade sharing it with waiting tuk-tuk drivers.

Bantey Srei - is one of the oldest temples in Angkor Wat and was built by the Hindu teacher to the king. This temple also has very finely preserved carvings in Hindu style. If only I could appreciate it for its historical value and not its esthetics. Unfortunately, I'm not a history buff and not an artsy type of guy to appreciate in full its meaning.

A few photos of people around Bantey Srei: a girl running around, the girls in uniforms who are present at each temple, but whose exact purpose still eludes me. All they seem to do is chat, talk on the phone and laugh at some jokes. And an older monk and a grandma with her grand-daughter?.

The Khmer scarf left by someone. When they use it the proper way

wrapped around their heads entirely, it looks sort of "guerilla"-cool.