We stayed at Babel Guesthouse in Siem Reap which was a massive improvement to our hostel in Bangkok. A driver that works for Babel picked us up from the airport free of charge and all the staff we met were extremely helpful.
You can read about it on Lonely Planet (https://www.lonelyplanet.com/cambodia/siem-reap/hotels/babel-guesthouse/a/lod/b9b0441d-d831-460f-8b9a-f583833f2e04/355886). Profits made by the hostel are used to send their staff to schools and life skills classes.
The Khmer people are exceptionally lovely making Cambodia one of my favourite place so far. The country has changed massively in the past five years meaning that there are more hostel/bars and prices have gone up due to the surge in tourism. Some people think it’s a shame that the country has changed so much, but if it’s giving locals more jobs and opportunities, then it’s also a good thing.
Ben and I rented bikes and went cycling for hours along the river by the paddy fields, there were several ‘hammock bars’ along the side of the road where you could stop off mid cycle for a breather.
We then got up at 4am the next day to go on a ‘sunrise tour’ of Angkor Watt and a few other temples. The tour cost around $70 but included pick up from our hostel at 5am to Angkor Watt, breakfast, bikes, lunch and a tour guide. It was an amazing day, I don’t think we really knew what we were signing up for because it involved mountain biking through jungles which I’m not the most experienced at. We cycled for a total of 8hours and did about four different temples including the temple with the faces and the temple featured in the Lara Croft movie!
Another tour suggested to us by our hostel was that for the floating village, $36 for transport to the village, a boat through the village and all you can eat food and drink. I’m so glad we went with a group because honestly it can be pretty rough if you’re going as an individual.
Very young children sat alone in floating baskets will try and sell you snakes for $1 that they will have wrapped around their necks and there’s lots of women begging with naked babies. Babel hostel has warned us not to give money to beggars and to only donate to charities. Apparently it’s common for parents to take their children out of school to use them to get sympathy from tourists and by giving money you are encouraging the abuse of children. There was also this crocodile pit in the middle of one of the floating islands where they would just dump baby crocodiles that they had caught to lure tourists to the area.
On our last day at Siem Reap, Ben and I decided to cycle to the lake at West Baray. When we arrived we bought a can of coke from one of the stalls by the lake (they always give you a straw to drink from the can with - hygiene reasons). So, I took a swig of coke through my straw and the next thing I knew there was a big brown spider in my mouth. This resulted in me screaming/crying for about half an hour after I’d thrown the can into the air. That’s enough of Siem Reap for me.
TTFN X
We stayed at Glur Hostel & Coffee Bar (http://glurbangkok.com/oc2/) for five nights in Bangkok. I’m going to be honest - it wasn’t great. There was no atmosphere, the staff were difficult to communicate with and it didn’t have the typical things you’d want from a hostel like recommendations and guides of where to go.
We met two American girls called Julie and Corinna at the hostel who were lovely but other than that, the hostel was pretty dead.
Our first attempt at seeing the Gold Buddha and the Grand Palace was a disaster. The four of us got a boat over to the right area but then a tuktuk driver told us the palace was shut due to the death of the king (which was true) and offered us a tour for 100baht ($2) to several other temples instead including the Gold Buddha.
This is a very well known scam apparently, we should have probably done a bit of research beforehand. The tuktuk driver took us to these random temples that no one had heard of, suit shops, travel agents, jewellery shops.. the whole shebang.
None of us bought anything and after he’d wasted about 2 hours driving us around to places we didn’t want to go in the hopes that we would part with some money, he got very very angry.
We told him we’d give him the 100baht agreed if he’d just let us go, we knew he’d never take us to any of the actual destinations and after the awkward encounter with the travel agent who said ‘so what brings you here’ to which we replied ‘nothing, we were made to come here’.. everyone knew it was time to call it a day.
Ben and I did eventually visit the Gold Buddha and the Reclining Buddha later in the week, we just had to avoid any tuktuk driver that approached us on route.
Other experiences I had in Bangkok was a tragic Ping Pong show. Everyone I know who has been to Bangkok said ‘you have to see one!’ - but honestly, you don’t. It’s just bemused women doing tricks with their vaginas and dancing awkwardly to electronic music while an older lady tries to flash you her nips for tips.
I also tried Durian which is the stinkiest fruit in the world (banned in some places, including airports). It tasted great to me, a bit like mango, pinapple and banana mixed into one. I couldn’t really smell it to be honest but Bangkok did give me a bad head cold due to the smog and poor hygiene.
It was definitely worth a visit but not sure I will be returning unless I turn into a 19 year old boy overnight.
TTFN X
Through Airbnb we found a villa in North Kuta (Gang Rajawali, Kuta Utara) for £371 (£185.5 each) for ten nights. The host Wegha picked us up from the airport and brought us to the apartment. It far exceeded my expectations and is so far the best place we have found on Airbnb.
Our villa has a private pool, massive bedroom, ensuite bathroom and outdoor kitchen area. There is also a restaurant on the villa complex serving free breakfast every morning and then lunch/dinner if you’re staying in.
Everyday a team of cleaners completely strip down our apartment, changing bedding, towels, cleaning the pool etc. and this is all included in the price. There is also room service so you can order any meal from the restaurant straight to the villa as well as beer and fresh juices/smoothies.
There’s also a spa on the complex which does an hour long full body massage for around £7 - they even bring the massage beds to your villa if you’d rather.
Friends of ours who have traveled Asia have called out Bali as being the most expensive place. Compared to Japan where I was scraping at the pennies, Bali feels like an affordable paradise. For example, a local rice dish at the restaurant is about £4?? In Japan you’d be looking at about £10 at least.
We’re near Seminyak so we’ve spent the whole ten days exploring this part of Bali. Volcano Agung is on SOS alert of imminent eruption we haven’t been able to venture too far from where we are staying.
I say ‘exploring’ when to be honest, after Japan, we have been doing a whole lot of nothing. We’ve spent a lot of time in Beach Clubs like Potato Head (https://www.ptthead.com/) and Mrs Sippy (https://www.mrssippybali.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwpMLOBRC9ARIsAPiGeZCrlHXMYTqGMFDseI7T61AH5Zny-7RyC680gRmlY2AJ_y9qD-5j2sQaAm8YEALw_wcB). Had two massages, a facial, and eaten some really good food.
We haven’t been drinking much here but if you’re in the area and looking for a great cocktail bar make sure you check out La Favela (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g469404-d4717368-Reviews-La_Favela_Nightclub-Seminyak_Bali.html). The decor is insane, its like this indoor/outdoor three floor labriynth with fairly lights and secret seating areas. I wouldn’t say my cocktails were the best but 11/10 for effort on the venue.
Tomorrow we leave for Bangkok but have decided to come back to Bali near the final leg of our trip to cover ground that we haven’t during this stay.
Till then, TTFN Bali.
After having more of a day-out yesterday, we decided to have a night-out today. We headed to Amerikamura for some sushi and then explored the area for some new bars.
We found this one bar called Space Station in Amerikamura, it has no cover charge and is around 600yen a cocktail (£4) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/187209477967297/). You can stay as long as you want and they have every game console ever with a plethora of games for each one.
It’s free to play on any console you want, they vary from the newest xbox to retro Japanese consoles.
We ended up spending four hours in there and about £15. I ended up dragging Ben out of Space Station when I decided I was hungry (and our last train home is about 11:30pm).
The guy at the bar was Irish and most of the people in there spoke English, the owner is this America guy who actually owns all the games & consoles and just decided it would be a good idea to open a bar.
Photos to follow!
TTFN X
I skipped day 9 because we literally did nothing.
Today we went to Kyoto which is a known for being a traditional part of Japan. We had tofu ramen at Vegans Cafe and then headed straight over to the bamboo forest.
It was beautiful around there, young women dressed in kimonos walking around, shrines everywhere, and locals sitting on the grass by the river enjoying the sun.
TTFN X
I received a warning from our Airbnb host that there would be heavy rain today and that a typhoon would be hitting Osaka tomorrow (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-storm-japan/weakening-typhoon-talim-brings-heavy-rain-to-southwestern-japan-idUSKCN1BR05M). We weren’t sure how to spend the day with this in mind and decided to go for food at one of the top recommended vegan restaurants ‘Le Coccole’. (https://www.happycow.net/reviews/le-coccole-osaka-25584)
Le Coccole is a quirky looking restaurant, it reminds me of Milgis back in Cardiff. We arrived there at about 3pm and missed the lunch serving time but the lady felt sorry for us as its a struggle for us to find somewhere to eat as it is, and she made us food regardless. I had a vegetable curry (much better than yesterdays) and Ben had risotto.
It was a very wet day so we spent quite a while in the restaurant, speaking with the lady who owned it and looking through magazines she had about things to do in Osaka.
We then got a tube to Cafe Absinthe (http://www.absinthe-jp.com/cafe-absinthe) and decided to go get pissed to the point where a Sunday hangover would be likely. This way, if we get stuck indoors due to the Typhoon, it wouldn’t be a great loss.
The cocktails at Cafe Absinthe were about 1,100 yen and were really well made. We spent quite a few hours there before heading home on the last tube.
We picked up big bottles of water, snacks and breakfast for the morning from the local shop by the apartment - just incase we had to wait for the weather to improve before being able to do anything in the morning.
I think we’re going to get lucky and miss the typhoon to be honest, it seems to be hitting the islands around Japan rather than the mid area where we are staying.
TTFN X
‘Tower Of The Sun’ is a 70m tall tower in Senri Expo’ Park, created by Japanese artist Okamoto Taro. We weren’t sure what to expect heading there, we thought it might be quite anticlimactic heading an hour from where we were staying to see this weird three faced sculpture in a park. (https://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/spot/thempark/expomemorial.html)
Little did we know the sculpture leads you up to one of the largest Japanese gardens in Japan. The sculpture was amazing and I think we spent about six hours in this park. The park was sectioned into areas like ‘flower gardens’ ‘duck pond’ ‘treetops’ ‘waterfall’ ect, and it was so beautiful. We walked this wooden walkway through the trees which brought us out at various points in the park.
We stopped off for lunch at Shama, a vegetarian Indian restaurant near Yotsubashi Station. Wouldn’t really recommend.. I had the Saag Paneer and it was a little sad looking.
Then for the evening we headed to Shin-sekai which was recommended to us as being the night-out place to go to find the ‘real’ Japan (http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4012.html). It was nice but I think after Amerikamura and Dotombori, we agreed it did a similar job to the other districts - maybe a little quieter.
We hit over 20,000 steps today (we are averaging 14,000-18,000 a day as it is), and decided to head back to the apartment. We’ve been here three weeks and have spent just over a grand each - and thats averaging 1-2 meals a day! It’s an expensive place to be when you want to see it all, but it’s not like we will be here again. I think it’s just a case of doing the things we really want to, and maybe saying ‘no’ to an extra pint at the end of a night.
I hear the new season of South Park is out so I think that will be our evening!
TTFN X
I don’t have any photos of The National Museum of Art or the Sento we went to (for obvious reasons), so I’m just going to leave this here ^
For the morning we headed to the National Museum Of Art, Osaka (http://www.nmao.go.jp/en/). The “The Tower Of Babel” exhibition was on with the works of Peter Bruegel and Hieronymus Boss. The Museum is quite an amazing building to visit in itself and the exhibition was only 1500yen (so roughly a tenner).
I’m not the biggest fan of religious art which featured in a lot of the earlier work on display - but I like the more surreal stuff like Boss’ “Garden Of Earthly Delights”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights)
We went to sushi in Shinsaibashi for lunch. “Genrokuzushi” is definitely one to check out if you are in that area. Cheap and lots and lots of variety. (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g298566-d3787578-Reviews-Genrokuzushi_Sennichimae-Osaka_Osaka_Prefecture_Kinki.html)
-and then the best part..
People with tattoos are prohibited from going to Onsens so me and Ben have been researching since we arrived in Japan for one he might be allowed in.
We got told about this Sento (similar to an Onsen but more of a public bath house) that would turn a blind eye. So we went. (http://www.iloveyu.jp/osaka-kita-/)
I could tell Ben was nervous approaching the place incase he would be dragged out mid-bath bollock naked once another customer grassed on him for having tattoos.
They weren’t exactly friendly when we rocked up, but signaled for Ben to go off in the men’s section and me to go to the females so we knew we were in.
Ben and I agreed to meet back at the entrance in an hour because we would not be seeing each other again after walking through the changing room doors.
Inside the changing rooms I came across several Japanese women stark naked, having full blown conversations with each other while smoking cigarettes. I was the only westerner in there and was quickly encouraged by the receptionist to take off all my clothes and follow the stairs at the back of the room up to the bathing area.
Up the stairs there was a large ‘wash room’, you had to grab a stool and sit in front of a mirror and clean yourself before going in any of the baths. I didn’t mind this part so much as everyone was super open and confident. I’ve found that the Japanese don’t really stare either, everyone keeps themselves to themselves.
There were about six different baths in the room of different temperatures, a sauna room and a room with a tv where most of the guests congregated in. I didn’t venture into the TV room because everyone in there seemed to know each other and I felt a little awkward strolling around nude as it is.
I moved around to several different baths before feeling like I was about to faint from the drastic change in temperatures. How do they do this?! I sat back and watched what everyone else was doing and figured I’d copy them for a bit in case I was doing it ‘wrong’ somehow.
There was one individual bath tub that was usually occupied by someone, so I assumed that must be the ‘good’ temperature one. As soon as it was free I casually strolled over and touched the water with my hand. I felt this insane electric shock run through my arm and thought - shit - my muscles are spazzing up. So I tried touching it with my other hand to be sure, the same electric shot hit me and I stood there nude feeling sick as hell.
I tried all the baths once more before running back to the changing rooms, getting quickly dressed, and heading back to the reception to wait for Ben.
Right so I’ve done some googling - the electric baths are called Denki Buro and they are a legit thing here in Japan. They are pools lined with live metal electrodes. SOMEONE COULD HAVE TOLD ME THAT. I’m just glad I didn’t jump straight in. (http://www.japanvisitor.com/japanese-culture/bathhouse-sento)
Anyway, my experience of a Sento was definitely interesting, but I think traditional Onsens might not be as intense .. who knows. Ben and I are still on the hunt to find one that we can both go in ready for Kyoto.
TTFN X