I've been saving this blog title for a while - it stands for 'This Is Asia' - and it's something I say to myself, whilst shrugging, when things I see and experience here all get a bit too much (ok I have to confess that I may have slightly plagiarised this acronym from the film 'Blood Diamond' where it stands for 'This Is Africa'!! It still works though?!). Don't get me wrong, I'm in love with this continent - the fascinating cultures, unbeatable landscapes and scenery, heavenly food, smiling people...I could go on. However sometimes the constant power cuts, chronic lateness, dirtiness, starkly different behaviours and social norms of the people or the relaxed nature of some of the 'undeveloped' and 'developing' countries that Asia calls its own can be extremely frustrating, dangerous and occasionally even upsetting. It's all part of the fun of travelling of course, to experience other cultures.
Here are a few 'T.I.A.' moments from Koh Rong Island in Cambodia:
Wherever you go in Asia it seems as if you can never get away from dogs: stray dogs, rabid dogs, beach dogs, injured dogs, dogs being kicked by locals, dogs barking through the night, pet dogs, DOG MEAT and cuddly puppies to name a few. Our experience on Koh Rong was initially with the latter; we played with a litter of puppies in a restaurant whilst their mother dozed lazily in the corner. Later that day, whilst sitting on the communal balcony of our guesthouse desperately trying to escape our sweltering room, we saw all of the island dogs - around twenty to thirty - crowding together making a massive commotion and the mother dog we'd met in the restaurant earlier was crying out with the most heart-wrenching yelps I've ever heard. It transpires that two policemen visited the small island (due to a few recent attacks on tourists which made the police 'lose face'- a very bad thing in Khmer culture), saw that there was a new litter of puppies, stuffed them into a sack and DROWNED them further down the beach in the name of population control. I will never, never forget witnessing this and the wailing from the mother dog that continued long into the night.
Sara with one of the puppies.
Koh Rong boat harbour.
Moving on from the puppy incident (that we all had to eventually ban ourselves from talking about as it was too sad) I'll tell you about the one and only day that we forced ourselves to get up and do something in the daytime on Koh Rong amidst a hazy seesaw of awesome nights out and filthy hangovers; we arranged a cheap boat trip around the island to primarily see bio luminescent plankton after sunset but also to snorkel, fish and visit the pure white sands of the isolated 'Long Beach'. Well, it turns out that 'cheap' on Koh Rong doesn't even buy you an adult to operate the boat...three tiny boys between the ages of about six and twelve were driving twenty odd backpackers around in the sea. No adult in sight. It was all a bit of a laugh at first as we took in the beautiful scenery, had a swim in the warm water and caught small, beautiful, iridescent, pink fish to then have them served up to us an hour later barbecued and plonked inside a polystyrene container! After a fun, sun-filled day the kids who were driving us thought it would be funny to race another boat on the way back causing us to crash into them, violently tipping our boat only millimetres short of capsizing in the middle of the choppy ocean waves at night. Not such a laugh anymore. The boys then took us thirty metres from the shore of the main strip half an hour earlier than expected, told us nonchalantly "no plankton" (the reason we had all initially bought the ticket) and then made us wade through the sea to the beach in the dark with our bags held over our heads. We tracked down the father of the boys who had been sitting around doing nothing all day making a ridiculous amount of profit from his children's work and tried to voice our concerns, particularly in respect to the boat crash, but in the end we are merely visitors in this country and we have no right no interfere.
Yes, this IS Asia and drowned puppies, day trips run by small children and much worse things unfortunately do happen; I've seen a dog eat a dead body and had a monkey wee in my face in India, been spat on in Malaysia and had a scary experience with a taxi driver in Vietnam to name a few (however let's not forget the vile things that go on in Western cultures despite how 'modern' and 'developed' we claim to be...). Despite these incidents my time on this continent has been full of gloriously unexpected ups and downs and I did actually have one of the most fun weeks of my life on Koh Rong. Julie and Lizette unfortunately had to leave halfway through but by the end of our time on the island Sara and I knew all the Khmer and western staff, had some hilarious memories, felt half dead and were ready for a week in bed to recover!
Here are a few 'T.I.A.' moments from Koh Rong Island in Cambodia:
Wherever you go in Asia it seems as if you can never get away from dogs: stray dogs, rabid dogs, beach dogs, injured dogs, dogs being kicked by locals, dogs barking through the night, pet dogs, DOG MEAT and cuddly puppies to name a few. Our experience on Koh Rong was initially with the latter; we played with a litter of puppies in a restaurant whilst their mother dozed lazily in the corner. Later that day, whilst sitting on the communal balcony of our guesthouse desperately trying to escape our sweltering room, we saw all of the island dogs - around twenty to thirty - crowding together making a massive commotion and the mother dog we'd met in the restaurant earlier was crying out with the most heart-wrenching yelps I've ever heard. It transpires that two policemen visited the small island (due to a few recent attacks on tourists which made the police 'lose face'- a very bad thing in Khmer culture), saw that there was a new litter of puppies, stuffed them into a sack and DROWNED them further down the beach in the name of population control. I will never, never forget witnessing this and the wailing from the mother dog that continued long into the night.
Sara with one of the puppies.Koh Rong boat harbour.Moving on from the puppy incident (that we all had to eventually ban ourselves from talking about as it was too sad) I'll tell you about the one and only day that we forced ourselves to get up and do something in the daytime on Koh Rong amidst a hazy seesaw of awesome nights out and filthy hangovers; we arranged a cheap boat trip around the island to primarily see bio luminescent plankton after sunset but also to snorkel, fish and visit the pure white sands of the isolated 'Long Beach'. Well, it turns out that 'cheap' on Koh Rong doesn't even buy you an adult to operate the boat...three tiny boys between the ages of about six and twelve were driving twenty odd backpackers around in the sea. No adult in sight. It was all a bit of a laugh at first as we took in the beautiful scenery, had a swim in the warm water and caught small, beautiful, iridescent, pink fish to then have them served up to us an hour later barbecued and plonked inside a polystyrene container! After a fun, sun-filled day the kids who were driving us thought it would be funny to race another boat on the way back causing us to crash into them, violently tipping our boat only millimetres short of capsizing in the middle of the choppy ocean waves at night. Not such a laugh anymore. The boys then took us thirty metres from the shore of the main strip half an hour earlier than expected, told us nonchalantly "no plankton" (the reason we had all initially bought the ticket) and then made us wade through the sea to the beach in the dark with our bags held over our heads. We tracked down the father of the boys who had been sitting around doing nothing all day making a ridiculous amount of profit from his children's work and tried to voice our concerns, particularly in respect to the boat crash, but in the end we are merely visitors in this country and we have no right no interfere.
Catch of the day!
Teeny little lad operating the anchor.
Yes, this IS Asia and drowned puppies, day trips run by small children and much worse things unfortunately do happen; I've seen a dog eat a dead body and had a monkey wee in my face in India, been spat on in Malaysia and had a scary experience with a taxi driver in Vietnam to name a few (however let's not forget the vile things that go on in Western cultures despite how 'modern' and 'developed' we claim to be...). Despite these incidents my time on this continent has been full of gloriously unexpected ups and downs and I did actually have one of the most fun weeks of my life on Koh Rong. Julie and Lizette unfortunately had to leave halfway through but by the end of our time on the island Sara and I knew all the Khmer and western staff, had some hilarious memories, felt half dead and were ready for a week in bed to recover!
Us four girls on Long Beach.
We returned to the main land and celebrated our survival with a movie, snacks and long awaited air con ahhhhhhh.
No comments:
Post a Comment