Perhentian Islands
August 14, 2009
It’s pronounced Purr-hen-tee-ans… And actually, there are several islands… but two are the most famous: Pulau Besar, and Pulau Kecil. We had been trying to find accommodation for quite a while before heading there… in fact, 3 weeks before we decided to try out the islands, we started looking into lodging. EVERY place we contacted was full. WTF? As backpackers, we’ve been able to find a cheap bed most anyplace… why was this one being so difficult? Well, it turns out that August is prime season… all the locals are on vacation, plus all the tourists… crap… but, it’s also the best time to be there.
So, the good with the bad. We eventually found a place to stay called Coral View on the big island. After trying at least 20 places, we made the reservation without hesitation. We didn’t want to arrive and have no place to stay. Tripadvisor put Coral View as #3 on their list… so it couldn’t be terrible… wrong.
First, the boat ride… on showing up at the jetty, we waited until there were enough people to fill a boat… which was about 12. It was a long boat, and had two 200hp motors on the back. (They have two boats, the slow boat, and the fast boat. The slow boat takes about 90 minutes… the fast boat about 30 minutes.) When they started handing out life jackets, I kind of thought it humorous… but the driver said the ride was pretty bumpy today. So, I obliged him and put it on. About 2 minutes later, I was pretty happy for it. Turns out that 3 foot waves at 50kph send a small boat like ours pretty much every direction, mostly up, and down… very quickly. We were bouncing around so hard, my teeth where about to fall out from clenching them so tightly. Jenn loved it of course… It was pretty funny watching the older folks with their families try to stay calm and in the boat. It was a bit like a roller coaster, except probably more dangerous.
Upon getting to the big island (besar means big, which we later found out while ordering food), we were dropped off at a newly built jetty and told to walk around the point to find our lodging. We found it no problem, and the place was swimming with people. While we were in line to check in, 3 other couples were turned away because there were no rooms available. Thank goodness we had our reservation. When the lady took my information, she looked at the room list, and I was afraid she would tell us they didn’t have space. But, fortunately, she handed someone a set of keys and he led us to our room. It was terrible. It was dank, and small, and had two old twin beds, and a smelly moldy bathroom. We set our stuff down, and quickly decided to smile our way into an upgrade. A little bit of begging later, we were moved into a less smelly, but still dank room… but with AC!
Miserable accommodation shock behind us, we set off to the beach for the first time. We’d just stepped foot on sand when Jenn screamed. I saw her swinging her arms madly out of the corner of my eye, and then gesturing wildly towards a cat sized furry animal with a pointy snout. A Flying Lemur has miscalculated the physics of leaping from one tree to the next, and had landed smack dab on Jenn’s face! Once she recovered she immediately started babbling about the need for a rabies shot and seeking sympathy for her tender noggin (and ego). It never bruised up, but that sucker really smacked her – she had a sore face for three days! To be truthful, the Flying Lemur looked a little dazed too.
Well, the rooms sucked and you had to be constantly on the look out for strange flying creatures – but we were there for the diving after all. And the diving was great! Not quite as great as Pulau Weh, but definitely snazzy. We saw a three legged turtle for crying out loud! And big reef sharks, bamboo sharks, nudibranches, schools of squid, schools of barracuda, a well preserved shipwreck with an air pocket at 15 meters, and all the usual like clown fish, angel fish, stone fish, etc….
To anyone who is considering the Perhentians, we found Kecil Island to have better food, better beaches, better accommodations (at least from the outside and a price perspective) and a younger crowd. Oh, and if you recently got married at the Perhentian Island Resort, it was the dive masters at Coral View that stole all of the liquor at your wedding reception.
Lucas, trying to stick his head into a coral tube.
The ‘Big Red Tomato’ – a feisty little fish lived here. It had pecked out the eyes of many neighboring fish!
Not quite big enough to be a swim through…
Just one example of the amount of fish crusin’ the Perhentian Islands.
And us, goofing off in the blue.
More Photos from the Temples & the Floating Village
August 11, 2009
Between the two of us, we took about 700 photos in the five days we were in Cambodia. I know, crazy! Thank goodness for digital… We’ll share a few of our favorite photos on the three consecutive blog posts here, but for the full sets look to http://flickr.com/iamlucas
Floating Village Photos
More Photos from Around Angkor Wat
Photos from Angkor Wat
August 10, 2009
Angkor Wat
August 9, 2009
Angkor Wat is exactly not what I expected. I’d envisioned dusty jungle roads leading towards an anthropologists playground of ruins, with little or no rules, minimal preservation of sites and a disorganized tourism scene. Instead there is bus load after bus load of Korean tourists, check points at each site to make sure you’ve purchased the proper admissions, and a plethora of 5-Star accommodation choices. The temples are SPLENDID and the town is actually quite lovely with a developed riverfront scene, lots of restaurants and bars offer beers for fifty-cents. They’ve definitely figured out what tourists want in that regards. There is even a coffee shop where you can buy a Latte for the equivalent of $4.50USD (I had one of course!).
We’ve taken in all of the big name sites Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, etc and made time for less often visited places like the floating village, Ta Phrom and Ka Spean as well.
The floating village is a beautiful collection of brightly painted houseboats where a community of fisherman live. It’s extreme Cambodia, with children wearing tattered clothes and big smiles, pregnant women working away while four or five little ones play at her feet and of course lots of begging for money. Children four years old (maybe younger) are chucked out to the river in a floating tub about the size of a bathroom sink. They paddle up to your boat and smile, while making motions to indicate that they need something to eat. And while from the looks of things, they definitely do need something to eat, they for the most part look disarmingly happy with their lot. One minute they are begging, the next they are in a water fight with the kids in the neighboring floating tubs.
The same sort of scene plays out all around the Temples – ‘Misses buy this bracelet, 20 for one dollar’ or ‘Mister I paint this picture for you, only two dollars’. On our first day there we humored the kids and politely said no thanks but complimented their persistence. After the third day of it though we felt quite hassled. Sometimes we’d let the kids play with our camera gear to distract them from the begging. Probably the first time they’d ever been able to take a photograph. It’d make their faces light up, but as soon as they were done it was back to the begging. And their tactics! They’d memorized the president and capital of America, and knew all the major cities. They rattle them all off to you in an attempt to ingratiate themselves a little bit. Though to be honest, some of the tactics work and we ended up buying postcards (15 for $1), two paintings ($8), a scarf ($2) and just giving away near $10 at various points during the three days.
Phnom Penh by Day
August 7, 2009
We’d like to give a shout out to Nathan Horton who hosts private photography workshops out of his studio in Phnom Penh. With Nathan’s help we put aside some of hesitation to photograph people while traveling. As he reminded us, many of these people don’t get to see photographs of themselves very often, and they especially don’t get to see GOOD photographs. So pay them a compliment, ask to take their photograph and them let them see what a great memory you’ve captured. He advice paid off! We hit the streets with a whole new inspiration and got some great shots.
