Thailand

Hello everyone! it's been a long time. Ended a wonderful month in Kampot and was quite sad to leave although very excited to move onto new adventures. Met with Heather for a whirlwind tour of Cambodia and Thailand in 2 weeks! Madness! But, we managed to do quite well. Saw the major sites in Cambodia, headed by bus over to Bangkok. Then flew into Phuket and arrived in time for the start of Songkran, the Thai new year. It was also a water festival and a lot of watergun spraying was involved! It was mad in Patong, but we stayed in a quieter beach Kamala. We also did a day trip to Raya Island which was beautiful. White sand beaches with clear blue waters! Then headed to Chiang Mai for the rest of the water festival and it was even crazier there! There's an old moat that's now a canal and a lot of water was used from there to douse everyone. I was pretty soaked for about the whole day. We should have some of those festivals in Canada during the summer. Heather left shortly after that to more adventures in New Zealand.
Met with Jenny a fellow traveller from Burma and chilled for a bit before she left for China. Finally met with Jan. Then we headed to Krabi for 5 days. It was a lovely place, great to relax, the pace was slower, people are nicer than in the cities, great landscape. I even tried rockclimbing a little bit! A bit scary but I had good teachers!
Now back in Bangkok and headed to Vietnam on Wednesday!

Goodbye Kampot!

Spent my last days in Kampot, they were really a wonderful farewell to this lovely town, by far my favourite place in Cambodia. Said my farewells to all the kids and the kitchen staff who I've spent most of my days with for the last month. It was really bittersweet. I'm looking forward to all the adventures over the next months but I'm sad that I won't see these really wonderful people for a long long time. Helped bake two cakes for the staff and the kids which they loved. They did a goodbye dance for me which to me also seemed like they were singing in their own way (these are all deaf/mute kids). I was really really touched. They also wrote me a card in English which none of them know very well at all let alone Khmer which also made me cry. Also went to the blessing ceremony of the new arts centre site in Kampot which hoepfully will be finished next year. It was lovely, singing at the site at sunset with Bokor in the background. Had many dinners with the director, Katie and her husband Hallam and their adorable baby boy Benjamin. Food in Kampot is really delicious.

Yesterday finally made it to Bokor hill station, site of the abandoned French resort. The whole place was surrounded by thick mist, you couldn't see further than 100 metres down. Very ambient setting for creepy buildings. The creepiest and coolest place was the casino. You can see how splendid it used to be back in the day, huge rooms and the beautiful mosaics and tiles still remain.

However, a lot of the building is falling apart and quite dangerous if you're not careful! The place is like a maze with half levels and staircases everywhere. Very creepy. Very "Shining" like place. The area is soon to be developed into a new resort for the rich, heard that Raffles is interested... very unfortunate as fewer people can afford to go there after. Not sure what they are going to do with the old buildings.

Anyways, back in Phnom Penh today, Heather arrives tomorrow!