SUNSET AT SIHANOUKVILLE

Having had some history lesson we headed for Sihanoukville (still in Cambodia) to take some Sun in its quiet and clean beaches with very clear water. We spent our Christmas there having Christmas dinner on the beach and enjoying local seafood including barrrrracuda.

In Sihanoukville we had our first adventure with a policeman. We were riding a motorbike and suddenly cambodian police emerged and stopped us. Salvatore was illegaly riding a bike without... a t-shirt! The officer was so gentle and didn't want to fine us but instead wanted some money for himself. As he didn't mention a specific amount of money we bribed him with $1, this included a chewing gum I was offered by the man :)

Saddly, the time to leave beautiful Cambodia was coming quickly. Last rays of the Sun and some more mango shakes and we were ready to go to Vietnam.

Same Same boat but different!!!

We forgot to mention about this famous cambodian sentence. You could hear it from every child that stopped us and trying to sell some bracelets, t-shirts etc. When we were trying to explain that we already bought on exactly the same the famous "Same Same but different" was said.



POL POT- YEAR ZERO

We were welcomed in Phnom Penh by tens of tuk tuk drivers waving to us and running along with our bus. Once the bus stopped they qued politely and were waiting for their turn to take tourists to their hotels.



Phnom Penh

It used to be the most beautiful city in Indochina but many destructive wars changed its look. In 1975 it was even completely abandoned becoming a ghost city. Now it's back to live again.

The first night in Phnom Penh we went to the bank of Mekong river - famous meeting point where you can enjoy food from all over the world and chill out drinking some Tiger beer. Having our dinner there we were amazed how cambodians love group dancing. People from little children, youngsters and older people were dancing together in the boulevard. We were enjoying these moments knowing that the next day we will be brought back to the brutal past of  Pol Pot era.

Year Zero

30 years after World War II finished another demon came. Pol Pot with Khmer Rouge clique within 4 years managed to kill 1/3 of cambodian population, i.e. 3mln people! Thousands of cambodians were killed just because they were educated or only for wearing glasses. The reason for this genocide was Pol Pot's crazy idea to bring Cambodia into ignorant, primitive agrarian cooperative.

This is another proof of history repeating itself and innocent people being victims of selfdestructive or utopic ideology.

Still in Cambodia ;)

Holidays in CAMBODIA

Here we are in Cambodia! Since we arrived in this beautiful country we could not wait to see the soul of the Khmer Nation, the most spectacular temple complex in the world - Angkor Wat.

After a long journey we arrived to Siem Reap. It used to be a small village but has been transformed into a tourist city filled up with hotels and guesthouses. The city doesn't offer too much but we enjoyed its peacefulness and smiling people.The city has become famous thanks to Angkor Wat temple complex - one of the seven wonders of the world.

Once we arrived to  the Happy Guesthouse we booked a tuk tuk driver fot the first day in Angkor Wat.

Angkor What?!

The temples of Angkor were built between 9th and 13th centuries. This huge and extraordinary monument ic covering area of 400 km^2!!! Surpriisingly has been discovered by western people in 19th century. Being inside those temples gave us feeling that is very difficult to put in words. Spirituality, art and nature are mixed together and are emphasized by the size of those huge temples. In few words you must to go there to feel it!!!

Our adventure in Angkor Wat started before sunrise. We left our guesthouse in pitch black and when we arrived to the first temple it was even darker. The driver stopped in the middle of nowhere. We could hardly see eachother and he said this is Prasat Pre Roup - as if we could see a thing!!! We managed to climb some steps without realizing where we were. Thanks to the light of a mobile we set up our camera and with every second huge lion statues started emerging from the dark. The early warm light of the Sun finished to shape up the rest of this incredible temple. Temples of Angkor started waking up.

After 3 days in Angkor and hundreds of mango shakes (must try) we are on the way to the capital of Cambodia - Phnom Penh.



Floating Market near Bangkok

Floating market was the last stop in Thailand. Well, nothing much was left from the traditional market place where local people were doing daily shopping on the river. It has been transformed into tourist place where you can buy some souvenirs and... beautiful fresh juice of coconut or mandarins - spectacular!!! Still, worth seeing and with a little bit of imagination you can go back in time and imagine how it used to be. It was funny to see traffic on the river where boats were hitting each other and sometimes you couldn't even move at all. The sellers had special sticks with a hook at the end, with a help of which they were bringing boats with tourists towards their ones and then trying to sell some products.
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BANGKOK cityscapes

Bangkok is a wonderful city ,we really like it.
Thai people are amazing ,really friendly and very polite and the food is great and very cheap ;)
We wished to stay a bit more here but the POLISH GOVERNAMENT doesn't allow us to stay more.........
Here are some of pictures of Bangkok at night

LEAVING KOH SAMUI :((

Laziness in Thailand

After trekking in Himalaya it was time for some rest so here we are in Thailand!!!
First couple of days we were sightseeing in Bangkok. We were lucky as the King had it's birthday so we had the chance to see how it is beeing celebrated. For the first time we saw lampions that you lit and the hot air makes them fly. So there were thousands of these lampions in the sky lighting in red. It was amazing! That night we thought we have to eat something special. So Salvatore was tasting grilled worms- according to him it tastes like zucchini. I wasn't so convinced so I was enjoying some local fruits like mangosteen and cashew apple.
Then it was a long journey to Koh Samui,one of Thai islands. So, 12 hours in the bus, 2 hours waiting for shuttle bus to the boat, 1 hour in the bus again and at the end 2 hours on the boat. In total 17 hours of the journey just to find out that Koh Samui is under water ;( It was pooring with rain so heavily that we didn't want to leave the boat. We just wanted to come back. At the end tiredness took over and we were just thinking about comfortable bed.
When we woke up it was still raining and the following day it was raining ;( So, to sink our sorrows we went for a ... Thai massage. It was spectacular!!! What is more it finally stopped raining! So Salvatore could start making first pictures to the sunset.
Now, everyday we are just laying on the loveley Thai beaches taking some Sun. Well, we are not so extremely lazy and we do some sightseeing ... on a motorbike :))

Lamai beach at 5:40 AM

THAILAND SEASCAPES

MIXED PHOTOS ( no time for description ........sorry)