And these pictures can be found here.
They are not annotated yet. I'll get to that eventually...
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
I promised
To post my travel diary here.
Well. I am a man of my word, so it will be here - just not in the form of blog posts...
I have mixed in some photos with the text and made a PDF of it.
I do not get all the thoughts written down as I would like to. I feel frustrated! There are so many things I would like to put down in writing, so many details, so many meetings, so many events...
I give up. I succumb to the fact that the writings will not be complete and I will not be able to make the journey justice in my writings. So please take it for what it is - some small notes about the trip. Nothing more, nothing less. It is found here - "The Southeast Asian Diaries".
Maybe I'll try to write a more "complete" description of my journey at some time, but then it'll probably be in Swedish and published elsewhere...
Damn, I wish I was a writer and could put my feelings and thoughts in writing.
A more comprehensive photo album will be available at some later point as well. It takes a lot of time going through all the photos (~1500) and selecting the ones that do not bore the heck out of anyone "who wasn't there".
Well. I am a man of my word, so it will be here - just not in the form of blog posts...
I have mixed in some photos with the text and made a PDF of it.
I do not get all the thoughts written down as I would like to. I feel frustrated! There are so many things I would like to put down in writing, so many details, so many meetings, so many events...
I give up. I succumb to the fact that the writings will not be complete and I will not be able to make the journey justice in my writings. So please take it for what it is - some small notes about the trip. Nothing more, nothing less. It is found here - "The Southeast Asian Diaries".
Maybe I'll try to write a more "complete" description of my journey at some time, but then it'll probably be in Swedish and published elsewhere...
Damn, I wish I was a writer and could put my feelings and thoughts in writing.
A more comprehensive photo album will be available at some later point as well. It takes a lot of time going through all the photos (~1500) and selecting the ones that do not bore the heck out of anyone "who wasn't there".
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Back in Saigon
...or Ho Chi Minh City as it is called nowadays.
It is +31°C outside and 62% humidity. Venturing outside is like walking around in a steam sauna...
As you might have guessed I have started my journey home now. This is just a short stop-over and the flight back to cold Sweden is tomorrow morning.
I found some Vietnamese wine to bring home, not much though as I cannot bring more than 20kg in my suitcase and it is still full of clothes and the stuff I shopped in Cambodia.
But I bring one white and one red wine. The red wine was not that bad when sitting on a boat on Saigon river a warm night with nice company. I have no idea how it will taste back in the cold darkness that is Sweden...
Now it is time to find my way back to that nice little Phô with the good noodle soup for one last meal in Vietnam. I think I remember what street it was on.
It is +31°C outside and 62% humidity. Venturing outside is like walking around in a steam sauna...
As you might have guessed I have started my journey home now. This is just a short stop-over and the flight back to cold Sweden is tomorrow morning.
I found some Vietnamese wine to bring home, not much though as I cannot bring more than 20kg in my suitcase and it is still full of clothes and the stuff I shopped in Cambodia.
But I bring one white and one red wine. The red wine was not that bad when sitting on a boat on Saigon river a warm night with nice company. I have no idea how it will taste back in the cold darkness that is Sweden...
Now it is time to find my way back to that nice little Phô with the good noodle soup for one last meal in Vietnam. I think I remember what street it was on.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Last day of disco
Today is my last day in Cambodia.
Tomorrow morning at 07:00 the bus leaves for Phnom Penh airport and the trip to Saigon.
I have really enjoyed my time here in Cambodia. I must say it is a jewel in the bag of travels I've made. A most astonishing country, with so much warmth and friendliness. I will be coming back, that I am certain of.
I know I haven't posted much here during my trip, and I am sorry for that. However, I have decided to post my "travel diary" that I have kept offline when I get back home. I will add photos to it and try to annotate the pictures as well. I will post each day as a separate post.
Until then.
Tomorrow morning at 07:00 the bus leaves for Phnom Penh airport and the trip to Saigon.
I have really enjoyed my time here in Cambodia. I must say it is a jewel in the bag of travels I've made. A most astonishing country, with so much warmth and friendliness. I will be coming back, that I am certain of.
I know I haven't posted much here during my trip, and I am sorry for that. However, I have decided to post my "travel diary" that I have kept offline when I get back home. I will add photos to it and try to annotate the pictures as well. I will post each day as a separate post.
Until then.
Friday, February 13, 2009
A small piece of paradise
I have reached my beach resort - Sokha Beach in Shianoukville.
The beach is great. The sand feels good between my toes and the water is warm.
It is a really good resort. I guess you can stay inside the "fenced" area and not have to see the world outside if you don't want to. But the town of Shianoukville is really nice. The people are nice too. Of course there are beggars around, children with outstretched hands looking with sad eyes. It tears your heart apart. You cannot help them all, and I guess some of them are not really in that deep need... But apart from this it is a nice town.
There are a lot of backpackers here as well, but they tend to spend most of their time in the "cheap" part of town. I visit all parts, both the "splurge" and the "budget". I like the change.
I am almost finished writing down my thoughts from the trip, in another day or two I may start posting them together with some of the photos. But for now I will focus on working on my tan, unwind and continue to digest the impressions.
I really like Cambodia, despite all its flaws.
The beach is great. The sand feels good between my toes and the water is warm.
It is a really good resort. I guess you can stay inside the "fenced" area and not have to see the world outside if you don't want to. But the town of Shianoukville is really nice. The people are nice too. Of course there are beggars around, children with outstretched hands looking with sad eyes. It tears your heart apart. You cannot help them all, and I guess some of them are not really in that deep need... But apart from this it is a nice town.
There are a lot of backpackers here as well, but they tend to spend most of their time in the "cheap" part of town. I visit all parts, both the "splurge" and the "budget". I like the change.
I am almost finished writing down my thoughts from the trip, in another day or two I may start posting them together with some of the photos. But for now I will focus on working on my tan, unwind and continue to digest the impressions.
I really like Cambodia, despite all its flaws.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Today's post is brough to you in Horrorvision®
Today was a rough day.
Not physically, but mentally.
The day started with a visit to the S-21 prison. It used to be a school before the Red Khmer converted it to a place of torture. The atrocities... It is almost impossible to believe that a human being is capable of thinking up such cruel methods for inflicting pain in other humans.
The "Security of Regulation" - prison rules - says it all. You can almost smell the terror in the walls of the classrooms-turned-prison-cells.
And then. After the S-21 chambers of torture I visited the final resting place of the haunted souls. The so called "Killing Fields" outside Phnom Penh. This was just one of roughly 160 fields where prisoners were brought to have their lives put out. And not by simple execution... These people were beaten to death, cut to death, hammered to death, buried alive, pounded against the trunk of a tree untill their skulls cracked... I feel sick... But I believe these are stories that must be told and re-told, over and over - for we must not forget, we must not let such things happen again.
The picture below is of a skull in the memorial building. It contains roughly 8000 skulls, which is less than half of the people killed in this place (16-20 thousand bodies), and it is just a tiny fragment of all the people killed during the reign of the Red Khmer (somewhere between 1,5 and 2 million people were killed during those years - that was ONE THIRD of the entire population of Cambodia at that time!). It will take some time to digest this.
Time to sleep.
I dare not think of what my dreams will be like tonight.
Not physically, but mentally.
The day started with a visit to the S-21 prison. It used to be a school before the Red Khmer converted it to a place of torture. The atrocities... It is almost impossible to believe that a human being is capable of thinking up such cruel methods for inflicting pain in other humans.
The "Security of Regulation" - prison rules - says it all. You can almost smell the terror in the walls of the classrooms-turned-prison-cells.
And then. After the S-21 chambers of torture I visited the final resting place of the haunted souls. The so called "Killing Fields" outside Phnom Penh. This was just one of roughly 160 fields where prisoners were brought to have their lives put out. And not by simple execution... These people were beaten to death, cut to death, hammered to death, buried alive, pounded against the trunk of a tree untill their skulls cracked... I feel sick... But I believe these are stories that must be told and re-told, over and over - for we must not forget, we must not let such things happen again.
The picture below is of a skull in the memorial building. It contains roughly 8000 skulls, which is less than half of the people killed in this place (16-20 thousand bodies), and it is just a tiny fragment of all the people killed during the reign of the Red Khmer (somewhere between 1,5 and 2 million people were killed during those years - that was ONE THIRD of the entire population of Cambodia at that time!). It will take some time to digest this.
Time to sleep.
I dare not think of what my dreams will be like tonight.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Quick update (again)
I have no idea how long this connection will work, so I'll try to be brief.
I have so many experiences I want to share.
I have seen the sun rise above Angkor Wat, I have visited the "jungle temple" (Tomb Raider you know...), I have wandered around some more (I must consult a map of the Angkor area to recap the names)... Two days of traveling around the Angkor area.
A picture of me in the Jungle Temple. At last I managed to upload ONE picture.
Taken by one of the numerous Japanese running around there at the same time as I.
I have somewhere around 1200 pictures that I can use to terrorize all of you with later. Can someone say "Diabildsprojektor" and "släktmiddag"? ;-D
I have now reached Phnom Penh and I feel drained on energy. So much to take in, in such a short time.
Tomorrow I will do a tour of the not so fun part of Cambodian history - time for Killing Fields and the S-21 prison - the Red Khmer history.
This will be the round-up of the round-trip, so to speak. After tomorrow's horror-trip I will spend the evening somewhere in Phnom Penh and the morning after take a bus out to Shianoukville to spend a few days at the beach. I think it will be needed to digest this intese journey.
I will try to take the "wind down time" at the beach village to write down as much as possible about my trip and then post it all here when possible.
I have so many experiences I want to share.
I have seen the sun rise above Angkor Wat, I have visited the "jungle temple" (Tomb Raider you know...), I have wandered around some more (I must consult a map of the Angkor area to recap the names)... Two days of traveling around the Angkor area.
 |
Taken by one of the numerous Japanese running around there at the same time as I.
I have somewhere around 1200 pictures that I can use to terrorize all of you with later. Can someone say "Diabildsprojektor" and "släktmiddag"? ;-D
I have now reached Phnom Penh and I feel drained on energy. So much to take in, in such a short time.
Tomorrow I will do a tour of the not so fun part of Cambodian history - time for Killing Fields and the S-21 prison - the Red Khmer history.
This will be the round-up of the round-trip, so to speak. After tomorrow's horror-trip I will spend the evening somewhere in Phnom Penh and the morning after take a bus out to Shianoukville to spend a few days at the beach. I think it will be needed to digest this intese journey.
I will try to take the "wind down time" at the beach village to write down as much as possible about my trip and then post it all here when possible.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Quick update
Yes I am still alive.
Didn't manage to connect yesterday.
Yesterday was a trip up the Mekong river. Beautiful, and at the same time full of emotionally hard stuff to consume. The poverty is striking along the river. The families you see are probably better off than many, yet they have not got much.
We traveled for most of the day and got to see only a small part of the Mekong delta and river. The river itself floats through six countries, I will only visit two of them on this trip.
Today I visited the war museum before heading up to Cambodia.
Man... The emotions that are stirred from the images and stories in that place... It is breath taking. I don't think any one can visit that museum and leave without feelings of sadness and anger at how man is capable of committing such atrocities.
I will have to return to that topic once I have digested it more.
Now I will kick back and relax in a really luxurious hotel here in Siam Reap, so that I have enough energy to roam around Angkor Wat all of tomorrow.
I am really enjoying this vacation. (I heard that it was snowing back home, I am soooo not missing Sweden right now.)
Didn't manage to connect yesterday.
Yesterday was a trip up the Mekong river. Beautiful, and at the same time full of emotionally hard stuff to consume. The poverty is striking along the river. The families you see are probably better off than many, yet they have not got much.
We traveled for most of the day and got to see only a small part of the Mekong delta and river. The river itself floats through six countries, I will only visit two of them on this trip.
Today I visited the war museum before heading up to Cambodia.
Man... The emotions that are stirred from the images and stories in that place... It is breath taking. I don't think any one can visit that museum and leave without feelings of sadness and anger at how man is capable of committing such atrocities.
I will have to return to that topic once I have digested it more.
Now I will kick back and relax in a really luxurious hotel here in Siam Reap, so that I have enough energy to roam around Angkor Wat all of tomorrow.
I am really enjoying this vacation. (I heard that it was snowing back home, I am soooo not missing Sweden right now.)
Friday, February 6, 2009
Dig in
Today I visited the Cu Chi tunnel system.
Interesting.
And a bit claustrophobic... The tunnels were clearly not built for western people, even though we only visited "easy" parts of the system.
The air in the tunnels were stale and after only a couple of meters you felt the lack of oxygen which made the effort even harder. I was sweating and had as heavy breath as after a light run when I came out after something like 70meters.
Oh. And no, I did not go postal with automatic rifles on the shooting range afterward. It felt rather dull and I've done my share of shooting in my life already...
The upload-image-thing is still messing with me, so still no pictures. Damn. I tried switching to another WLAN but it didn't help.
Going out to the Cu Chi area is some two hours bus drive, you get to see both the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City and the country side. One thing that strikes me about Vietnam is that the poverty is not as "in your face" as it is in ex. India. Sure, you see the poverty, but there are no one taking a dump on the side of the road...
Now I'm off for some evening dining. So far no problems with the stomach. *knocks on wood*
Interesting.
And a bit claustrophobic... The tunnels were clearly not built for western people, even though we only visited "easy" parts of the system.
The air in the tunnels were stale and after only a couple of meters you felt the lack of oxygen which made the effort even harder. I was sweating and had as heavy breath as after a light run when I came out after something like 70meters.
Oh. And no, I did not go postal with automatic rifles on the shooting range afterward. It felt rather dull and I've done my share of shooting in my life already...
The upload-image-thing is still messing with me, so still no pictures. Damn. I tried switching to another WLAN but it didn't help.
Going out to the Cu Chi area is some two hours bus drive, you get to see both the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City and the country side. One thing that strikes me about Vietnam is that the poverty is not as "in your face" as it is in ex. India. Sure, you see the poverty, but there are no one taking a dump on the side of the road...
Now I'm off for some evening dining. So far no problems with the stomach. *knocks on wood*
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Ho Chi Minh City Central
They changed my hotel...
For the better. :-)
Should have stayed at a hotel in "District 5", which is a bit off - got a new hotel in "District 1" with walking distance to everything. Wouha!
Oh. And complimentary internet through WLAN. Sweet!
And I've got a balcony - small but still a balcony.
Not the best hotel room I've been in, but still; life is good...
Time for that shower and a quick "power nap" and then some hunting of food I think.
Note: For some reason the image-dialog times out when trying to upload images to the blog. So I'll skip that for now and will try again later.
For the better. :-)
Should have stayed at a hotel in "District 5", which is a bit off - got a new hotel in "District 1" with walking distance to everything. Wouha!
Oh. And complimentary internet through WLAN. Sweet!
And I've got a balcony - small but still a balcony.
Not the best hotel room I've been in, but still; life is good...
Time for that shower and a quick "power nap" and then some hunting of food I think.
Note: For some reason the image-dialog times out when trying to upload images to the blog. So I'll skip that for now and will try again later.
Ho Chi Minh City
Landed, got my bagage, found my way out of the airport.
Waiting for the bus to the hotel. Going to take a quick nap and a much needed shower before I hit the streets...
It is not that scorching hot yet, but it's only ten am and the skies are dressed with light clouds. Time to board the air con bus and try to catch a few glints of the city.
Be back later for more updates, just wanted to let you know that the flight went well.
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