15 October 2016 Admiral Marina, Malaysia
Our nice new teak deck is starting to show signs of mildew with the wood darkening in the grain and a few dark grey patches, so Glenys volunteered to wash it down. She made up a mixture of 2/3 cup of bleach; a squirt of washing up liquid and 3-4 tablespoons of Trisodium Phospate (TSP) in a bucket of fresh water. The TSP is a cleaner that is particularly effective against mildew.
Glenys swabbed the mixture onto the deck using a soft sponge and rubbing across the grain – rubbing with the grain scours out the softer wood in the grain, wearing the deck away more quickly. The idea is to leave the mixture to soak for ten minutes and then rinse it off with fresh water. It turned into a mission because the deck was very dirty and it took longer than expected to get it clean. She was a tired, grumpy bear by the end of the two hour job.
We spent the afternoon packing and preparing the boat to leave on a 16 day land trip to Thailand and Cambodia.
16 Oct to 1 Nov 2016 Trip to Thailand and Cambodia
We had a fabulous 17 day land trip to Thailand and Cambodian. Although we’ve already been to Phuket and will be returning there, Phuket is not really Thailand (it’s more like Blackpool), so we decided to include a trip to Bangkok and the Kanchanaburi region of Thailand.
Our time in Bangkok was dominated by the recent death of King Bhumibol of Thailand who died three days before we arrived, ending a 70 year reign. He was much loved by the people of Thailand and the nation had gone into mourning. Everyone was wearing black or sombre clothes; people were flocking to the Grand Palace to grieve; and entertainment was being restricted. On the drive from the airport, we saw numerous pictures and tributes to the king and the streets were lined with black and white bands of cloth.
As a consequence, the party hot spots around Khao San Road were subdued with bars unable to sell alcohol some nights and no loud music. The King’s body was interred at the Grand Palace, so that was closed to tourists and the roads around the palace were choked with grieving subjects.
Nevertheless, we were able to visit a few temples, seeing the Golden Buddha at Wat Traimit and the huge reclining Buddha at Wat Po. We also visited the fascinating Chinese market, the flower market and took a river trip on one of the long-tails. Bangkok is an interesting, bustling city.
After two nights in Bangkok, we caught a bus and headed to the west of Thailand to Kanchanaburi, which is on the River Quai close to the Myanmar border. We spent a day immersed in Second War history and particularly in the building of the infamous Thailand to Burma railway. Following the invasion of the Malay peninsula, the Japanese built a 415-kilometre railway to support its forces in the Burma campaign of World War II.
The Japanese used forced labour including 200,000 Southeast Asian civilian labourers (“Romusha”) and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs). During the 14 month long construction, 12,621 Allied POWs and 100,000 Romusha died of malnutrition, illness and torture. We visited the Bridge Over The River Quai; the Hellfire Pass Museum and rode the train along the Death Railway line back to Kanchanaburi - very sobering.
We then spent two fabulous days at Elephant World, which is a sanctuary for old, disabled, and abused elephants. The refuge started with 3 elephants eight years ago and now has 25. The non-profit organisation has a tourist program that doesn’t impact on the elephants; having no rides or shows, just an opportunity to observe and interact with the animals. It’s a nice place.
We prepared food for elephants, fed them, bathed them in the river and escorted one elephant into the forest where it spent the night. The following morning, we escorted the elephants back to the camp and followed two mahouts who led their two elephants through some bush to the river. We then had a magical two hours feeding the elephants and washing them in the river. It was a lovely spot, isolated from the rest of the activity in the sanctuary and we could imagine that we were alone in the jungle with our own elephants – amazing.
After heading back to Bangkok for a couple of nights, we jumped on a plane to Siem Reap in Cambodia, where we spent two interesting days wandering around a dozen of the 12th Century Hindu and Buddhist temples. The temples in this area were abandoned in the 14th or 15th Century and because the jungle grew over and around the buildings, they were lost for 300 years. Some temples have been restored, but others still have trees growing over and out of them. The film Tomb Raider was shot in this area at a temple called Ta Prohm.
After two days, we’d had enough of temples, so we went on a three hour horse ride through the rice fields, which was great fun. The horses were well trained and happily plodded through drainage ditches between the paddy fields. We had a brief view of Cambodian country life.
Catching another bus, we arrived in Battambang, where we rode on a Bamboo Train; saw the Killing Caves where the Khmer Rouge slaughtered 10,000 people; saw millions of Asian Wrinkle-lipped Bats streaming out of a cave and took a cooking lesson. One of the dishes that we prepared was a traditional Khmer dish called Fish Amok which was easy to make and very tasty. Battambang is a small provincial town, so two nights was enough and we pressed onto Cambodia’s capital city, Phnom Phen, which is manic.
On our first day, we focussed on the genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. We visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which is also called Security Prison S21, where about 20,000 people were imprisoned, tortured and, after they had confessed, were taken to an execution centre and murdered. We also learned that the Khmer Rouge killed over 2 million people during their four year reign - half died of malnutrition and disease, while the other one million people were killed by the regime.
The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities and forced people into labour camps in the countryside. The people were forced to work long hours, with barely subsistence rations. Anyone deemed to be against the regime was sent off to one of the 20,000 prison camps, tortured and killed. Intellectuals, previous government workers and various ethnic races (Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese) were targeted and imprisoned.
We also visited the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, one of the better known Killing Fields. This place has 129 mass graves, 86 of which were excavated and 8,985 corpses were exhumed. The largest mass grave was a grave containing 450 corpses. The government has built a large stupa containing the skulls and other bones of the 8,985 victims, which are displayed behind glass panels - it’s a very sobering place.
Once again we used an audio guide, which was excellent, guiding us around the site passing mass graves and even a patch of ground which has been partially excavated revealing human remains. One of the worst spots is a tree where, in order to save bullets, the soldiers killed children by bashing them against the tree and then throwing their bodies into a pit at the side of the tree. It’s very hard to understand the evil brutality of the Khmer Rouge regime.
Despite spending the last 18 months in Asia, we both found Cambodian an unsettling country. Every time we showed our faces on the streets, we were bombarded by Tuk-tuk drivers trying to extract dollars from us - it’s irritating.
The final straw was when we went for a stroll down to the river where it’s very touristy with lots of budget hotels, bar and restaurants. As we strolled along the riverside, we were approached by a bald man in saffron robes, who put bead bracelets on our wrists and blessed us. He asked for a $2 donation, which seemed a bit odd, but by this time I was off balance and didn’t want to annoy a Buddhist Monk. I gave him $2US, then as he walked away, I realised that he wasn't a monk and I’d been conned – I sulked for a couple of hours - it’s the principle of the thing...
There's a detailed diary of our trip to Thailand and Cambodia with more photographs in the Activities section of this website.
2 November 2016 Phnom Phen to Admiral Marina, Malaysia
We caught a Tuk-tuk to the airport, battling through the chaotic traffic. I found being in Phnom Pehn very frenetic and I’d become weary of being hassled every time we stepped onto the streets, so it was great to walk into the calm, air-conditioned, blandness of the airport.
The two hour flight was on time and pleasant. We grabbed a cab and were back at the marina by 15:00. Thankfully, the boat hasn’t sunk; or been overrun by ants; or been hit by lightning; or spontaneously burst into flames. We plugged in the air-conditioning, had a few beers, a sandwich and had an early night.
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