Babs’ travels -The Peking to Paris Rally and other driving adventures.

August: several months since I last wrote anything here. Much has happened and many travelling adventures accomplished. India and Bhutan in April. A slightly manic tour in the US, visiting no less than 8 states, last month. Now, I am back in Cambodia for two weeks only. I am typing this on the bus from Siem Reap to Battambang, Cambodia's second largest city. I have been several times before but the maIn reason for this trip is to take the boat back to SR. This is only possible during the rainy season as the water is too low the rest of the year. Now it is full on rains; not that you would think that at this precise moment as I am looking out of the window at a bright blue sky. As in most of the tropics the rain comes in short, very sharp, bursts. It is actually a very lovely time to be here as it is so green. The endless rice paddies, that are usually brown when I am here, are emerald green and all the flowers are out. It is quite, quite beautiful, all fresh and with

I was in a tuk tuk with Henry one evening when he exclaimed  'what the f***!'   He had just seen a sign for the  'Pyongyang Friendship Restaurant' South Korean tourists possibly form the largest number of visitors to Siem Reap and the North must be trying to foster good relations through food and entertainment.  It has taken until this evening for me to go, along with Lori, who had never been either. Readers,  I have to tell you that the experience is almost worth the airfare to get here.  It is a bit out on the airport road, hardly in the thick of things.  Phiron, our driver, didn't think be should be going there and obviously thought we were nuts.  We arrived, at 7pm and entered a huge room, with a wonderful 7/11 ambiance, full of tables, many fully laid up, some not. There was also a stage area with a huge picture of a caldera as a backdrop. There were some instruments, a television screen and a large sound system.  Oh, and there were also two fully decorated

Progress. Tangible progress. The children at Knar School are finally getting cleaner and, more importantly, they are doing it by themselves now. A while ago I read an article about a personal hygiene project in an Indonesian village. It was a six months model. I thought that seemed ridiculous; that it couldn't possibly take that long. Now I completely understand that it is a reasonable time frame. If you live in a village where almost no one has soap in their house, access to clean water is almost non-existent and you might not even have your own well then good personal hygiene is difficult to achieve, if not impossible. Add to that the lack of education, the struggle trying to get enough to eat every day and the general acceptance that having a filthy body and wearing filthy clothes is normal and you can begin to see the problems. For most ,the idea of taking a bath is to wrap a krama around the body and slosh over some dirty well water. Thus, you are clean. It is t

I have just been as close to Hell on earth as it is surely possible to be.  Siem Reap is tourist town, being the service centre for Angkor and the visitor is well catered for here.  There are wonderful places to stay and great places to eat.  The main focus for the bar and restaurant area is known as Pub Street. It is not just one street but a small tangle of streets and alleyways where drinking holes and eateries jostle for business.  It is not an area that I frequent too much but there are a few excellent dining rooms.  It is all a bit too raucous for me, partially because of my age but, mostly, because it is not really the Siem Reap that I know and love. Directly across the street from Pub Street is the Siem Reap Referral Hospital.  All adults have to be treated here and you are classed as an adult when a young teenager.  There are two children's hospitals in town both run by NGO's where treatment and drugs are free.  God help the adult Cambodian population if this is thei

Last year I was in Vietnam for Tet, a fabulous experience.  This year sees me in Siem Reap.  The Chinese population here are not always very obvious, until Lunar New Year that is.  All the Chinese homes and businesses are gaily decorated with red lanterns, red paper pineapples, the plants are covered with lucky money envelopes and new shrines are bought.  It is amazing how many of the businesses that looks as if they are prospering are Chinese.  The main effect for most people is that all the Chinese owned shops are closed.  Even in Psar Leu, the main central market, many stalls are all shut up giving the usual bustling place a rather melancholy air.  It has been fun to see the Dragon Dancers going around the different parties with their loud drumming and colourful outfits.  They must all be exhausted as I saw them ready for action at 6.30 am when I was on an early morning bike ride and they move around all day for the three days of partying that is so essential for the Chinese communi

Can there be a better way to start the day than cycling alongside the Mekong? Well, maybe yesterday trumped it as I was sitting on an elephant meandering through pristine jungle in Laos. I am in Luang Prabang for a few days, with Lori, as I needed to renew my visa for Cambodia and had to leave the country. Good excuse eh? I have wanted to visit Laos for years, ever since I was at the Golden Triangle many years ago and looked across the Mekong at, what was then, a forbidden country. Luang Prabang has UNESCO World Heritage status and is a total delight. It is situated at the confluence of the Mekong and the Nam River and is surrounded by forest covered, spectacular peaks - a welcome change after flat Cambodia. When the plane was making it's descent it was hard to imagine there was going to be anywhere flat enough to land. LP is a beguiling place of gentle, smiling people, stunning old houses, many beautifully restored, marvellous scenery and the most somnambulant atmosphere

 just

Knar School is in a village 28 kms from Siem Reap.  Not many miles, but a world away in terms of the living conditions of most people.  It is a deeply impoverished area where there was still fighting up until about ten years ago. Many tourists pass through the village on their way to Banteay Srei, a beautiful Temple complex.  Most will just be aware of a picturesque journey through the rice fields dotted with the majestic sugar palms that are so characteristic of this country.  The houses that you see from the road can look pretty; simple wooden stilt house in lush greenery with the usual chickens everywhere and some cows and water buffalo.  But, as with so much here, scratch the surface and all is not what it seems. For the majority here life is a desperate struggle to get through each day with enough to eat.  Some have their own wells, many do not. the health care access is severely limited, unless you can get into Siem Reap.  Many adults and most children have never made that 28km

A snowbound Heathrow and  catching flu almost scuppered our plans but, we managed to arrive in Cambodia, as scheduled, on Christmas Eve.  Henry, who was leaving London before us was not so lucky as his flight was cancelled.  We managed to get him on another one which meant that he spent Christmas Day at Schiphol before continuing to Bangkok in the evening.  Poor Henry.  He had Christmas lunch at Burger King whereas we had ours at a noodle shack in, very remote,  Koh Ker having cooked a lunch for the kids at the school. They, of course, had no idea about Christmas, but we enjoyed it. Instead of over indulging ourselves on too much food we indulged those in much greater need. I had told Adrian about how much the kids eat when a special lunch is sponsored but, even so, he was shocked. Chopping cabbages and carrots and onions and slicing beef for over 200  hungry children can be a very jolly affair in an outside 'kitchen' with most of the extended Ly family and a few other volunte