Muay Thai Boxing + Ladyboy Show

The other night, we went along to a Muay Thai Boxing event in Chiang Mai with some Americans we have been bumping into since around a week ago. It seemed a great idea- I mean what double date involves International Boxer, Championship Boxer, Lady Boxer, Gambling Max and Cabaret Show!

Early on there were some younger and less pro boxers on stage giving it their all. Of the first 3 fights, one guy got concussed, another looked like he broke a rib thanks to a well timed knee. The third fight contained some very young fighters (pictured). We asked how old they were- the answer, 13. The one in blue shorts was short on reach, but not on skill and courage. He lost, but it was a tough 5 rounds.

The stakes were raised for the last fight- thats a 120 Baht ($3) purse!

Our guy (red shorts, awesome abs) struggled early, but as we saw all night the first round meant next to nothing and endurance was the key. He (just) took it out after it went the distance.

And Sarah's favourite part of the night, a Ladyboy Cabaret show. Bizarre.

My Watch Can Do Multiplication

Welcome to the 21st Century everybody.

It can also do addition, subtraction and division. Awesome. Can Yours?

Tuk-Tuk Troubles

The other day we went off on a trip to a waterfall in Luang Prabang with some guys we met in Vang Vieng. It should have been a quick ride but almost as soon as it began it seemed doomed. The engine took anywhere between 5-20 goes to start (and we stopped for fuel, and stalled it a couple of times). We then got stuck and had to push it past some muddy patched. We eventually got there and the driver (and 2 of his friends he had happened to pick up on the way) assured us he'd be there to pick us up later in the day.

3:30 PM and we met him as he'd said. I was a bit surprised to see him there, but we had only paid him half his wage.

3:40 PM We got bogged again and tried pushing it up a slope. Sarah stood with the other girls and took a photo or two. N.B. Even Sam, far-right, just eclipsed by Gaz, was pushing despite his broken toe. He was a lot more hesitant about getting it dirty/wet earlier in the day, then a few of the guys fell into the river when a bamboo bridge snapped, and I guess he gave up trying.



We made it up, but the gearbox was screwed... or something. When the driver wanted us to push it on the flat part of the track, we knew something was wrong. So while he again assured us he'd fix it in 5, we started walking.



4ish- A nice (and now 100,000kip/$12-richer) truck driver allowed us to hop in and turned around and hooned back to Luang Prabang. Not an entirely comfortable journey, but a fast one.

Taking Photos in Ban Nam Li

Yesterday, from Luang Nam Tha we went on a 2 day trek to vist an 'Akha' village along the river Li. The kids in the village were the most excited to see us- their shouts of "Sabaidee!" were loud as soon as we were visible to them 250m down the track. We were asking politely before asking any photos but before I even asked these kids took out their cameras and started snapping away at me. When we ate a meal with the chief of this 54-family village he told us about the difficulty of relocating to outside the Nam Ha National Park in April 2007. One of the positives with the new less-remote location is that none of the children had ever seen a 'falang' (literally 'French person', but used for all foreigners) before and now they all are comfortable with (but still intrigued by) us. They also have security of being within 1 day of the hospital, unlike the 3-day trek required in the past. Bundled with this is still the hard call about the impact on their culture that we, the annoying falang, with our plastic cameras, pathetic malaria-susceptible bodies and teeth-destroying lollies have. For now, there is a happy medium.

Sarah asked one woman for a photo, she declined (as Sarah would have I would think, in the same position) but this woman was intrigued by the camera and, after a bit of a play with it, she let Sarah snap her and her children.


I just had to include this one of our 7hr trek to get there. I think I slipped on every step of that slope.

Mobile Phone Booth...WTF?

Mobile Phone Booth may sound like an oxymoron at first, yes? Well not in Cambodia. We're actually in Laos at the moment but I have been meaning to write about this minor part of the Cambodian city life for a while.

The ubiquitousness of mobile phones has obviously been a major factor in the now-insignificant state of public phone booths in Australia. I still recall a lot of annoying complaints from people about them not being there when people really need them- perhaps referencing their higher use among the elderly and underprivileged (or perhaps emergency needs) to gain support. Any argument on that side would quickly be dealt with by printing statistics of the number of vandalised phone booths compared to the number of calls actually made on them. Quite easy to argue that a mobile network makes the public phone booth obsolete, yes?

Cambodia has a clever way to have both. While travelling around numerous towns we saw a number of these little phone-booth like boxes (and they aren't bigger on the inside, doctor). But no phone is visible, so what are they? On closer inspection, most contain a phone number stuck on the outside, a phone charger or two and not much else. The deal is that the booth belongs to a nearby shop owner, who provides their phone at a (bartered) fee, or you can plug in a (battery-exhausted) compatible phone if you like. The shop owner gets all the proceeds from the booth, so they will ensure it is maintained. Any vandalism is cleaned up by them. Finally, the brilliance of the market economy (and not talk-back radio callers) will limit the number of these around the place, as shop-owners won't bother to have them out there if they are rarely used.

Weird Stuff #2

So people have been telling me that the western world is speeding past me as I sit in Laos, a relatively quiet and peaceful country. However, I can tell you without doubt that Laos is a happening place too! I hear Australia just got the Apple iPhone? Well, here in Laos they have had the iPhone for ages. Not just one version, but 4 are available at this store:


They still know about The Olsen Twins. At a 300 year old sacred temple in Vientiane, the capital of Laos I was able to purchase these 2 dolls of them in attractive army fatigue.


Laos' favourite Beer, 'Beer Lao' is actually really good- and longnecks are around US$1. They also do a pretty good dark ale. It is without doubt, "Full of Taste.. Full of Strength".



They also have a fantastic and very progressive travel agent that understands each traveller's specific needs...


OK OK, so it is obvious by now that I was going to write a completely different and interesting post but ran out of time, as usual. In case any of you give me crap, I have purchased this T-Shirt, which I found in a shopping mall in Vientiane.

The CB Radio Lives On!

Since picking up a few antique copies of CB Radio enthusiast magazines a while back, I've been mildly interested in what happened. Like the thriving metropolis of Atlantis, what happened to the long lost CB Radios that were so useful once? Well, apparently the Cambodians still love them. As proof- there's a photo I snapped of some roadside advertising. The other day we were booking a bus from Battambang to Phnom Penh and what do you know- the (loose term used here) travel-agent whipped out his trusty CB radio and booked us in. Maybe he was affected by the hot ladies.

An Advertisement for Pheng

Sarah and I had a sad moment on Sunday as we had our last tuk-tuk drive with Pheng. Driving in Siem Reap is like robin williams- sometimes hilarious but always hairy. Pheng was great because, unlike other (car/scooter/tu-tuk) drivers we've seen and experienced first hand, he didn't beep constantly just to get others out of the way to get places faster- he did it for safety sometimes too! But seriously, he made us feel so comfortable on the roads, gave us cool water far more often than he needed to and was just an all-round nice guy.

He doesn't speak English fluently but he can more than get by with his vocabulary and listens intently. When we left him he gave us this (hand-written) card:

Email: typheng220@yahoo.com
Phone number: (855: 092815384)
My name is PHENG I'm a driver in Siem Reap Angkor Cambodia

If anyone is checking out the Angkor sites, drop him a line.

Weird Stuff #1

After a week or so in Cambodia, we've seen a lot of weird stuff. Here are the results of occasions where we had the good combination of seeing something odd and having my camera with me.

Apparently wrestlers make awesome bakers. Sarah says he is more of a superbaker... or something.

It is great to arrive in a foreign country and see your name... or close enough anyway. Welcome, LACHLA MEFAR LANE!

Happy Herb Pizza- 1 thing to note in Cambodia is that the adjective 'happy' when describing food means a certain happy herb can be added upon request.

All of the buildings in Siem Reap,some of them 4 or 5 storey resorts, are built using the same type of bamboo scaffolding. Workers comp, anyone?

Restoring Angkor

Hi, my name is Suryavarman the 2nd and I work at Angkor Temples. At Angkor we take $40 for your 3 day pass because we really need lots of money to restore these sites to the majestic beauty they were in thousands of years ago. Please consider we need to spend around $25 on corruption so that we can keep the park. So really we only ask for $15 from you for restoration purposes.

When we took over the conservation of the many temples in Angkor, some were nearly falling over. We took some sections apart block by block, labelled them and were planning to put them back together as soon as possible. Many non-profit organisations have been helping us with this project, because, as I said, we always need more money. For some towers it was useful to set up a solid base before re-placing the pieces on top. We also need the money to pay for a lot of gasoline to make electricity. Extension cords are also expensive, see!


Like most puzzles, we didn't know what to do with lots of them.


So we laid them all out on the ground, hoping that would help. We also tried starting with the corner pieces. This helped a lot.


I think we do a good job because people come from far and wide to see our temples. I hope you will come one day too. If you do, you want tuk-tuk ride? I take you all around for good price. Free water.

Arrival at Siem Reap, Cambodia

So Sarah and I have done the airport thing for 20 hours or so and arrived in Cambodia. After deciding to fork out a bit extra and go for the ultra-reliable Australian icon Qantas (over its obesity-promoting, food and drink-hustling, younger sibling Jetstar) we were of course hit by the recent Qantas strikes. However, it turned out for the better by a long shot as our Bangkok Air connecting flight from Bangkok --> Siem Reap wasn't until 8am and the 4 hour delay in Sydney shortened our freezing, sleepless and boring time in Bangkok airport by about half. If we had stayed longer, I may have been able to see BBC's report on the algae in china's olympic sailing location a 43rd time.

Anyway, as I was writing, we survived our time in what must be the world's cleanest, coldest and most boring airport, arriving in cambodia on Thursday morning. After getting our visa (this involves paying your money and watching your passport get passed down a chain of around 10 different officials (they are officials because they are wearing general-style uniforms with awesome shoulder pads) eventually being stamped and having your name called a la price is right. Except of course less Larry Emdur, more Stephen Hawking-level of speech clarity. We were driven to our awesome guest house, had a bit of a rest and wander, then headed in for the Angkor sunset. These guys know what the tourists do around here and will plan tours for you day after day if you'll let them. Just walk down the street at any time of day and a local (or as he would like to call himself 'driver/tour-guide') will offer his services for the next month- by saying, "You want tuk-tuk? No? Tomorrow? I take you around tomorrow all day?". So they know their stuff, and they knew we would want to see the sunset at a particular temple. We were expecting craploads of tourists, and we were all there together- armed and ready with our cameras.

Sunset. The view from the side: amusing.


The view ahead: still stunning.


The 2nd day we headed out with our trusty tuk-tuk driver Phaing to some of the recommended sites- Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat, etc. etc. They were even more impressive than my expectations, in particular the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom. Still lots of tourists there, but most of them stay on the strict in-and-out path that their tour guide and or group are on. We took some great opportunities for some off the beaten track shots by ourselves.
Some shots from Bayon:

Phaing has been fantastic- dropping us off, then finding us when we can't find his trusty machine amongst the others. When we do find each other, he's always there with the polite words, "Have you been finding me long?"

We're going for another trip with Phaing tomorrow, so I better get away from this machine even though I have much more to write on the effort to get up the stairs in the highest temple, the amazing restoration work, and hilarious temple-side sellers saying, "Australia? Your PM is Kevin Rudd OK you buy now?". Another day. Lachy.

It begins... before it even starts

We haven't even left yet and I'm already enjoying myself. I just received an email from our first hostel. The email was from 'Internet Software' (obviously known as 'Lee' to his friends).

It is hard reading this without either laughing, or thinking it is just another Nigerian scam.

from	internet software
to
date		Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 2:11 AM
subject		RE: Hostel Booking- arrive 9am 3rd July
mailed-by		hotmail.com

HI THERE

The room is available,

Thank you very much for your reply and confirmed that very kind of you

Yes, I will arrange my staff go to pick up you ,so when you arrived at the

airport you will see my staff hold your name at there with cold drink and

you will get other welcome drink ice lemon tea and free 20minuts massage

for well come at the hotel .

looking forward to see you on 3rd July .

Have a great day.

Best regards.
LEE.
Manager.