19th June to 26th June - Life!

Not a lot to report really.
We visited the local congregation and endured an hours group in Thai and then the watchtower study in English. It was lovely to meet the brothers and sisters. Apart from our family there were only four others for the watchtower so we got lots of answering up done. We went again on the Sunday for the same watchtower!! We managed to stock up on some literature though and found out about some ministry arrangements.
Well we have changed our minds lots of times this week. We had all planned to spend the next few months here as the guy we are renting the house from has been promising us an internet connection and we love it here. Unfortunately this has not materialised and we have had to change our ideas as we are very fed up with visiting internet cafes every day. Also after visiting the KH we realise how different it is to sit through a meeting in French and understand some and to sit through a Thai meeting and not understand anything at all. Also there are no young ones for the girls to hang out with. So the latest is that we leave the house on the 6th July and visit a few more places like Koh Samui and Krabi before flying to Kuala Lumpur and then getting the train to Singapore. A bit of a compromise that as I want to go by train and Nick wants to fly. That way we are both happy and the enviroment doesn't suffer quite as much!
Our assembly in Australia is in Townsville, down the coast from Cairns, is at the begining of August so we have plenty of time to get settled and find a house and car. Lara is looking forward to getting to OZ but Candace will be sad to leave Thailand.
We bought a lovely set of bamboo wind chimes the other day as a souvenir and before we leave for KL we will be shipping back another box.

18th June – Central Festival

Bit of a monsoon day today. We had a huge storm last night and there are a few trees and power lines down. It’s still raining so we decide to visit Central Festival, a massive indoor mall. It apparently has 256 shops so we have plenty of things to look at to pass the time. Inside on the ground floor there is the biggest fish pond we have ever seen with frighteningly large goldfish in. We manage to last about an hour or so before getting rather bored so we head up to the top floor to check out the restaurants and find a bookshop with quite a good selection of English books. Lara gets a reading book and a French puzzle book and Candace finds a good book all about world flags. I find another couple of books about Cambodia, one fictional and the other about a woman who worked in a refugee camp in Thailand. We finish our morning with lunch at Starbucks.

10th June – 17th June – Life in paradise

Working, eating, exploring and finding more and more beautiful beaches is what occupies our days. The girls do some maths and reports on different places we have been and we swim every day.
The best beach we discover is Layan beach further north. It is deserted apart from some local fishermen so we spend three glorious hours sunning ourselves, fishing, reading and playing.
We finally find out properly about the meetings and plan on going to the Thai cong on Sunday as we can’t seem to get in touch with the brother for the English group.
One day Nick and I find a lovely little stall selling the most gorgeous clothes, so we decided to treat ourselves and splash out 1000 baht (£15) on two shirts for him, a skirt, a pair of trousers and three tops for me!
Another day we visit Patong as we have been told that it is a good place for dvds and stuff for kids. The girls find a pair of shorts each and we get some new movies to watch. Apart from that Patong is full of girly bars and dreadful tourist stuff and not a nice place. All the stall holders are quite aggressive and we quickly get fed up of the constant hassling.
We have some great BBQ’s after Nick discovered a shop selling firelighters. We also find another supermarket that sells more western food, so we treat ourselves to some cheeses, olives and sundried tomatoes. It is much healthier to eat like the Thais but we have missed our cheese!
We finally find the Kingdom Hall after driving around for over an hour and asking about a million people for directions. We are too late for the Sunday meeting but manage to meet some of the brothers and sisters and plan to go back on Tuesday night for the English Watchtower study and the group. It's a small congregation of about 55 with the whole of the island of Phuket to cover. We are looking forward to helping them while we are here.

9th June –

We thought it was about time that we tried to find out about the English group that apparently was here, so we phoned the bethel in Bangkok for a phone number. Unfortunately despite many tries there was no answer so instead we phoned again about the meeting times for the local Thai congregation.
We decided to visit some of the areas that were badly affected by the tsunami, like Patong and Kamala beaches. It was a strange feeling being there after seeing photos and news footage of the devastation. Most areas are now completely rebuilt and there are signs everywhere about an evacuation route and also warning you that you are entering a tsunami hazard zone and what to do in the event of an earthquake, to move to higher ground. It’s very sad that it is only now that there are all these warnings as almost 1000 people died in this small area alone, around 10,000 on this coastline of Thailand.

8th June – Life in the mansion!

We all had a filthy lie in this morning and all emerged around 10am! It was nice not to think about whether or not we had missed breakfast.
Stan, the owner of the house, had said we could go over to his other place and help ourselves to his DVD player. However when we got there it was a whole surround sound system which we didn’t feel like dismantling and setting up again at our place. Instead we decided to go to Big C and buy our own that we could then ship to Ryan in Florida for when we get there.
We found a lovely little German bakery and cafe for lunch just around the corner and then did some more exploring of our part of the island. We are right in the south between Nai Harn beach and Rawai beach. It’s nice and quiet here without the bustle and touristy stuff of the other places like Patong and Kamala.

7th June – Finding the house

The day started off well with Nick getting a good deal on a hire car for two weeks. We piled all our bags into the little Yaris with difficulty but were all really happy that we could now explore properly without having to worry about how much it would cost for a taxi. The only map we had was the one in the guide book so we decided to just drive and see where we got to heading South. We had to meet Wellta, the lady who had some houses to show us at 11am so we thought we would have a look around ourselves first to see what we could find. It seemed as we drove around that there were plenty of houses for rent, but we were looking for a particular combination, pool and internet. A few that we phoned said they had a minimum rental of six months or a year, we wanted a max of two months. Wellta showed us the house we had already looked at the previous night, which the girls turned their noses up at, and one that was absolute paradise but a bit expensive. We had just decided to go for the more expensive one, which we were going back to have another look at, when we passed a large gate with about ten houses inside. A sign in English read that one was available for rent. When we called the number and spoke to the guy he said that normally he rents it for 40,000 baht (£600) per month, but as he had been let down, it was empty and he was desperate to recoup some money so he would let us have it for 25,000 baht (£375)!!! We couldn’t believe our luck when we were shown around it. It was gorgeous with three big bedrooms, a beautiful pool and he also said he would try his best to arrange internet access for us. It was better than we could ever have hoped for, like something out of a magazine. We even have Sam, a housekeeper, with the house, who comes in everyday to clean, make beds, tidy up and look after us.
Having dumped our bags we headed over to the Tesco Lotus to get some supplies to cook our own dinner for the first time in over two months. We got a massive shop which unsurprisingly enough cost almost half of what it would have done in England or France!!
When we got back Sam had made up all the beds and helped us put all the shopping away. It was great to be eating in our own home for a change and a real treat to have so much space. We all agreed that travelling in and out of hotels for the past three weeks has made us not only appreciate what we have but also small things like being able to do our own washing and cook our own food.

6th June – Bangkok to Phuket

The train journey wasn’t until 7.30 pm so we had the whole day to fill. We went back to MBK to pick up the camcorder and also the second halves of the Lost 3 and 24 series’. Candace got a new skirt and Nick bought a long sleeved top for any cool nights we may encounter way in the future!
Everything was going well until we got to the train station and found that our tickets were for second class instead of first class. We had stressed to the guy who booked them for us at the hotel that we wanted first class where you get a cabin and some nice privacy. Instead what we got was a rather old train with seats that turned into beds with just a curtain across. There was no dining car and we were all extremely disappointed, especially me who had planned and researched the whole thing. The only choice was to grin and bear it or get off and go the following day which would mean us going back to the hotel and paying for another night. We decided to grin and bear it. They made up the beds for us quite early just after we had eaten so we all decided to bed down and read our books. The girls slept fine but Nick and I kept waking up with the noise of other people and for me, worry about the safety of our bags. We arrived in Surat Thani at 7.30am rather bedraggled and managed to grab a couple of yoghurts and chocolate bars for breakfast before catching the bus for the four hour journey to Phuket.
We had decided to stay the first night in Phuket Town as it sounded quite nice and cheap. The plan was to find a house to rent asap. So we found a cheap, clean but very basic guesthouse where we crashed for an hour or two before going out to China Inn for a fantastic meal, just what we needed. We went to see a house that I had been emailing a lady about and decided that it would do if we didn’t find anywhere better as although it had a pool and internet it was not very nice inside, needed a good clean and seemed to be miles from anywhere.
As we were all a bit dejected and absolutely exhausted we all decided to have an early night and hope to find better in the morning.

5th June - Bangkok

Finally able to catch up with some much neglected work today before heading out into BK for some last minute things. We needed to swop the camcorder as there was something wrong with the battery and as it was our last time in BK there were a few places we wanted to go like Asia books for Lara and a watch place for Candace.
Our plans to get the sleeper tonight were foiled when we found out that the only four seats were not together so after much deliberation we decided to stay another day and go the following night. The hotel booked it for us and we were all looking forward to what we thought was a 1st class cabin the following night. Little did we know the fun we would have!!!

4th June – Leaving Cambodia – Journey from Siem Reap to Bangkok overland

Taxi arrived at 8am for the trip to Poipet. When I had read about this trip previously I knew that it wasn’t a good road, unpaved in parts and pot holed. The reality was a four hour ride over what must hold a record for the worst road in the world. How the car was still in one piece and driveable was a complete mystery. It ranged from just very bumpy to total bone shaking madness.
The guide book had said that the best thing about Poipet was leaving it and it was totally correct. Dreadful place and thankfully all customs and departure stuff was dispensed with quickly and it was a short walk in the crushing heat, laden down with backpacks and souvenirs, to the Thai border. We had never crossed a border on foot before so it was quite an experience.
We managed to get a tuk tuk to Aranyaprathet for the train to Bangkok. There were only two 3rd class trains a day to BK and when we arrived at the station it was like traveling back in time to the Victorian era. The train was another story also, as how do you describe a six hour train journey on wooden bench seats?! The open windows provided great air conditioning and we certainly got to see a great deal as we inched slowly towards Bangkok. We met a nice Belgium guy who was a professional photographer so chatting to him passed the time somewhat. By the time we arrived at 8pm we had been travelling for 12 hours and looked and felt like it. Arriving at the Hotel de Moc (our home in BK!) felt wonderful and so civilised.

3rd June - Bantrey Kdei & Sunrise Village Orphanage

We tried calling some orphanages that we had found online but to no avail so Vandy said he could drive us to one and we could make an appointment to come back later and find out what to bring for the children. He took us to Sunrise Orphanage and the director told us that if we come back at 2pm we can see the children perform an Apsara dance and afterwards we could play and talk to them. So we thought we would go off to our last visit of a couple more temples and then come back. First we headed out to Bantrey Kdei as there were some more of the stone faces that Nick wanted to photograph. As it was out third day walking around the temples I don’t think we were able to appreciate it as much as we should but again it was amazing, huge and mind blowing.
We headed back to the Angkor Cafe for a quick lunch before stopping off at a convenience store to buy some little gifts for the children. There wasn’t a lot of choice but in the end we chose some huge bags of sweets to share and loads of glitter pens and pencils.
It is hard to describe our visit to the orphanage. In many ways it was like something out of a movie. First the children did their dancing which was beautiful and funny too. Then we were given a sort of tour and were then allowed to just spend some time with the children. We handed out the small gifts and one thing that impressed me most was when I held out a handful of these pens with the children gathered around me not one of them grabbed for it, not even the tiny ones, they all just gently took one and every last one of them said thank you to me. Nick sat at a table and drew pictures for them and some of the older ones just wanted to practise their English sentences on us. Most of the little ones just wanted to be picked up and held. Many times we all had lumps in our throats, especially for Nick and I when we met a beautiful girl the same age as Candace who told us she had been there for five years. The children are so very polite and really look out for each other, the older ones taking care of the little ones. As we got back into the tuk tuk after our visit nothing much was said, we were all rather quiet. Quiet and with a massively changed perspective on life.
It was hard to enjoy our meal that night as all we have seems too much. I didn’t even want to think about our previous life in France. It seemed so unfair that we should have way too much and these children, our children’s age, should have so little.

2nd June – Angkor Wat & Ta Phrom (Tomb Raider)

2nd June – Angkor Wat & Ta Phrom (Tomb Raider)
Up early again and off by 9am to visit Angkor Wat properly. It was a perfect day for photos, being blue sky with just a few clouds, so we took full advantage of it. First we walked around the walls with all the many detailed carvings on them before heading to the centre where we climbed the steepest steps I have ever climbed in my life. When I got to the top, gasping for breath the thought of having to come down again was extremely daunting. There is a very good reason why this is one of the most photographed places in the world as we saw from the top. It was amazing! I didn’t think we would see anything better than we saw yesterday but the sights just get more and more impressive. After a few hours exploring we head over to the Angkor Cafe for a cool air conditioned lunch as we have all sweated a few pints and are hotter than we thought it possible to be.
As Vandy pulls into the parking lot in front of the cafe we are surrounded by children selling stuff. One little girl tells me she will be waiting for me when we have eaten, so I promise to buy some bangles from her when we come out. The cool air hits us as we walk in but it still takes us a long time to cool down, we are helped by the lovely iced towels they bring us – nothing has ever been more welcome!
As we step outside the cafe about 20 -30 children surround us like ants. I have promised to buy from the little girl so get a set of ten bangles for $1. No sooner have I handed her the dollar than at least ten more kids are clamouring for me to buy from them, postcards, bracelets, scarves and more. I changed a $10 note into ones but it is soon gone. Nick is not faring any better and Candace has soon spent her $5 too. The children hand us notes they have written wishing us good luck and telling us they are very happy to meet us – obviously phrases they have learnt in school. The lovely thing we notice about these kids is that they look out for each other. One older girl points Nick to a young boy and says we should buy from him as he really needs help. We finally extricate ourselves from the group with far more scarves and postcard than we will ever need (guess what y’all will be getting for presents!!) not to mention about 70 bracelets!! I think we all had a big lump in our throats as we got back into our tuk tuk.
On to Ta Phrom and the setting for the tomb raider film. Again an unforgettable place with sights we will never forget with or without photos to remind us. We are constantly amazed at things we are seeing here whether the ancient sights of the Angkor temples or the heartbreaking everyday sights you see just driving down the road.
Dinner tonight was at the Red Piano where Angelina Jolie (apparently) invented the Tomb Raider cocktail that is their speciality. We passed on that but the meal was fantastic and it was lovely to relax for a while on their balcony and watch the sun go down over Siem Reap town. This is the poorest place we have been to but it is actually the nicest looking in some ways. There are many beautiful colonial style buildings and nicer houses than we saw in Taiwan, which is ironic really.
Again we all went to bed absolutely exhausted and rather sobered by things we had seen that day.

1st June – Angkor Thom

Got up early today to get some work out of the way before our driver came for us at 9am. We decided that we would visit Angkor Thom first and leave Angkor Wat for the afternoon. Vandy, our driver, took us first for our tickets which were a bit more than we expected at $160 for the four of us for three day passes, but as soon as we got our first glimpse of one of the gates to Angkor Thom we realised that it would be more than worth it. It is a vast place with sights straight out of a National Geographic magazine.
The temples of Angkor all together cover 500 km2 and the walls of Angkor Thom are 3km along each side. The main temple is the Bayon with 54 huge stone faces carved in stone to represent the 54 Cambodian provinces. We both cannot stop snapping photographs as there are so many awesome things to see. We end up spending the whole morning exploring Angkor Thom and then ask Vandy to take us somewhere for lunch. He takes us to his sisters cafe for a quick plate of Vegetable fried rice. It is an open air cafe though and we are sweating and gulping water like it’s going to run out. We plan on an air conditioned lunch tomorrow! After lunch we get waylaid by some of the children selling postcards, flutes, bracelets and scarves. It is almost impossible to say no to them as they are so adorable and extremely persistent. We end up with a few postcards and some pineapple. Unfortunately as we head back to the temples some more are lying in wait to ambush us and we end up with more postcards, three scarves and an elephant bag that I will never use! These children walk around with either no shoes or broken flip flops and their clothes are all raggy and dirty. They are all very small and can’t believe the age of the girls especially Lara who is the same age as many of them but towers over them.
We finish off at Angkor Thom and head over for our first look at Angkor Wat. The main entrance is a bit disappointing as there are so many people there but it still does not detract from the sheer size and magnificence of the place. It is the largest religious building in the world and was built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II. It is surrounded by a huge 200m wide moat which has been a protection from the jungle so it is very well preserved. As we are all rather tired by now we decide to just have a quick look and save the tough climb up the steps for tomorrow. We go around the back part and it is much quieter with less people. Nick gets talking to a young monk who is learning English at his pagoda. He asks us lots of questions and asks for our email address so we can write to him. I promise to send him the photo we took of him and his friend. Our first sights have been mind blowing ones we will never forget.
We just about had the energy after much needed showers to go to the Blue Pumpkin for a bite to eat before collapsing into bed.

31st May – Cambodia – Phnom Penn

31st May – Cambodia – Phnom Penn
Horribly early start this morning – 4am!! To get our flight to Phnom Penn. We all felt pretty crappy but also rather excited to be going.
Flying over Cambodia was amazing if rather surprising. It seemed like an awful lot of countryside with hardly any roads. It couldn’t have been better weather as there were no clouds, so flying into Phnom Penn we got our first glimpses of the country and it looked like nowhere we had visited up to now.
The airport itself was very small, smaller even than Liverpool and the visa process was very quickly done. Our pre-arranged driver was waiting for us with a comfortable looking Toyota Camry and so started our long trip to Siem Reap. The journey took four and a half hours and at times we wondered whether we would make it in one piece. The road is the best in Cambodia and if they have road rules we didn’t spot any apart from the fact that the biggest vehicle has right of way.
It was immediately apparent as we drove through PP that this was a much poorer place than anywhere we had seem in Thailand. We stopped about half way to use a bathroom at a restaurant and a very dirty little boy of about six came up to the car and asked for money. There was a snack bar outside the restaurant so I beckoned him over and with some hand gestures asked him what he would like. He chose a packet of mixed dried fruits, so I bought those and three packs of crisps for us. I handed him the fruit but he still stood there so I gave him a packet of crisps too. Even in Thailand we never saw children begging so it was a bit upsetting, although he didn’t look hungry, just awfully neglected.
After a very long drive we arrived at the Two Dragons guesthouse. Very clean and basic rooms with ultra helpful and friendly staff. We were all rather hungry so we decided to get a sandwich at the restaurant out front. Having been up since 4am we had all started to feel it so we decided to rest for a bit before going out exploring.
Unfortunately a huge storm ruined out plans for exploring so we caught up with some work and the girls had a snooze.
Everyone felt like pizza so we caught a remorque – moto (tuk tuk) to a restaurant we had read about in our guide book. All the streets are just dirt really, only the main ones are actually paved. There seem to be an awful lot of small children just hanging around. While we were eating our dinner a young boy came and stood outside the restaurant with a man who could have been his father or grandfather, it was hard to tell. This man had no eyes – not just blind – his eyes had been gouged out, probably during the Khmer Rouge’s reign. I think we were all so shocked that we didn't do anything. After we felt really bad that we hadn't helped at all.
I think being here is going to give us all a lot to think about.

30th May

Loads of boring shopping but great bargains as always. Had to get our US dollars for Cambodia and a new camcorder plus better footwear for the temple trekking and of course a new stash of Dvds!!!

29th May – Back to Bangkok

Pretty uneventful day – last look around Taipei and then we were off to the airport via bus to fly back to Bangkok.
So happy to be back here again. To sum up Taiwan – a great experience and definitely not a tourist spot so we really got to see a different life and culture apart from that usually promoted for foreigners. It was a beautiful country with lots of greenery and amazing mountains...............but apart from that basically a concrete jungle with lots of apartments and ugly town centers not very well planned out. Very glad we went but I would probably not bother going again.

27th May – Journey back to Taipei

Pretty uneventful, bumpy and hot journey back to Taipei. WE got the bus from Sun Moon Lake, fortunately we were early, just as well as it left ten minutes ahead of schedule! Only took about three hours and we managed to get the train to Taipei with only an hours wait. Got back about mid afternoon and checked into our old home – Delight hotel ! Nice meal at the Italian restaurant and an early night.