BHGH

Where to begin...
Times in long beach are wonderful. The guesthouse is opening up and everyday we have one more bungalow for rent. Hopefully in a month we have everything done, including bar 105B, extension to my beach bar, soon to be restaurant and reception also and last but not least my own little corner above the before mentioned. :)
At the moment we don't have internet (electricity max 3 hours a night), so I wont be posting too many updates for a while. BUT I have opened a Flickr account and uploaded some photos there for you to enjoy.
Click here to see

With the widest smile,
Yours truly.

...Or not.

Sometimes things happen on a fast pace. Few days ago I was leaving Cambodia in 2 weeks. Well, not anymore.

There is a beach 7 kilometers long. On the beach is a single guesthouse named Broken Heart guesthouse. And that will be my place of work for the next 6 months! Place is owned and run by Finnish people so I'm all good.

And did I mention the beach has been voted as one of top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world?

So yeah, Australia will have to wait for now. I think I will head out and do something since it seems it is going to be another sunny day here in paradise also know as Koh Rong. ;)

I love my life.

FOKR

So I have been here in Koh Rong for what, a week now? Days flow by, sun is shining and it is absolutely beautiful. Though when sun is shining full blaze it's SO hot to work it's unbelievable! I have never been pouring sweat as much as while working here. But our group is amazing. The girls who run Friends Of Koh Rong spend their days planning curriculums and doing other office work. Us short term volunteers do the manual labour. Three times now we have also recruited travellers from the beach to carry some sand bags. When I have a better internet connection I will post some pictures of the school and whatnot.

Today we were a team of four and our task was to improve the path to Long beach, which is on the other side of the island. So off we went with 2 long stemmed machetes, the dullest small axe you have ever seen, some signs, hammer and nails and a 1,5l bottle of water each. It was good fun for a change to be in the jungle chopping vines and clearing undergrowth. And another hot day of course.
When we got to Long beach the view was in a word, stunning. Waves crashing in to a white beach that stretches out for 7km. And guess what? There is a bungalow village on the end of the beach where the path leads to and there I found the first Finnish persons on the island. All 4 of them. And 2 of them run the place.
If I had the possibility I would not be leaving this island for a long time. Needless to say that I quite enjoy my time here. :)
But my beloved bank credit makes sure I will have to put such plans until after Australia...

Koh Rong

Who would've thought that Cambodia is an awesome place for little island relaxation? This Island is a pearl at the moment. Lot of new guesthouses and such been build so give it few years and it's like any other island in the ocean.

I am doing this post as I wait for the hottest part of the day pass. In little more than hour need to go back to work. Because what else would you do on a paradise island like this? Little landscaping in blistering heat. And it's not planting pot plants or watering freshly laid grass. It's making base for a path with run down hoes, shovels and a pick axe. And I even get to pay them for doing this! This is so much fun I will do it for 2 weeks. :)
Also yesterday we had people from the village to help us out to carry bags of sand to the previously prepared parts of the path. Oh, and the school we are building is on a hill. And beaches with sand tend to be little closer to the ocean.

So if anyone wants to help me to help this little organisation (Friends of Koh Rong) to build a school for the local kids, I can channel money to them thru my bank account. :)
I personally payed 225$ for the 2 weeks of working. Ok, I'm getting accommodation, food and drinks (no alcohol) for it also.

If by chance some one actually wants to make a donation, pls let me know so I can get the money to them.

Also, pictures will have to wait for a better internet connection.

Wordless

Well, not quite. Here I go thinking that tonight is going to be an easy night with an early ending. Guess what? There is a local kid's birthday in my guesthouse tonight. As I am writing this from my room I'm feeling the bass thud against my chest and hum in my ears. Apparently even small kids here enjoy music as loud as western teenagers.

And I have my first major injury from the travels.

Infection in my left eye. It started last night when I suddenly realized that I had rubbed my eye beyond the point of no return trying to get dirt or something out. So I knew what to expect this morning and true enough, now I have a bit swollen, bright red eye. The local doctor was a package though. In the morning when I went in to show my eye saying: "I think I have an infection in my eye", The guy immediately propped me against an eye examination thingy and started glaring. After few minutes of intense staring and turning my eyelids inside out (quite painful actually when infected) he stated: "You have an infection in your eye."
And apparently eye exams don't require gloves down here.
But the story has a happy ending. Few minutes of pain and few more waiting and I leave with 9 dollars lighter and 2 different eye drop bottles heavier. One is antibacterial and other is just plain sterile drops. That oughta sort it out.

Now I need to get out of this room even when it's raining cats and dogs outside. Otherwise I might turn in to an old fashioned Finnish axe murderer. Or at least I will go chop their speakers to something suitable of making a fire.

The beach!

I almost jumped the motorbike when I had my first glimpse of it. How can a body of water make a man smile like that?
Anyways, a short post only with no pictures since the internet connection is not the best here. And I can't wait to take my camera for a walk now that I filled my tummy with some delicious prawn masala.
Checked the weather in finland today. I think I'm better off here...  ;)

How's the weather in your town?

Again one week has passed and I almost feel guilty not writing an update sooner. But I've been busy, u know!  I have been reading books, playing beer pong and pool in the evenings and such. :P Those I only did one evening tho.
One day we took off with two Israeli girls, both actually named Tali to go climb up to this pagoda. We had a little too late start and run out of time, but it was a good exercise anyway. Bicycling abt hour each way and hour and a half up a hill.

Lost in the jungle

The next day me and Tali (one seen above) rented a motorbike and went to visit Bokor Hill. Around 2,5 hour drive from which 2 hours up a hill. Lots of squiggly road and tight turns. Lucky the weather is as good as the bike and the driving is smooth. 

Also apparently in Cambodia the passenger can, unlike in Sumatra, get hurt since we both got helmets. Mine offered about as much protection as a 10-year old bicycle helmet. But better than nothing, eh? Anyway once we got to the top we had too options: turn left or right. To the right is a waterfall and to the left is some abandoned from older days. Some probably emptied during Khmer Rouge. We decided to save the best to last so off to the ruins.

Before this house there was a sign saying: "No sleeping here at night!" Just to make sure...

The weather was getting cloudy (read: foggy) so we didn't spend too long there but instead took off towards the waterfalls. 8 kilometers later we arrive and the weather was much better. Only a small drop in altitude and change of the mountainside did miracles. This waterfall was funny because I'm used to watching waterfalls from below, but for this the viewpoints were at the lip of the waterfall. Was really interesting looking at this perspective for a change. 

Down she goes

Yesterday when I was in my guesthouse immersed in a book I suddenly realize that someone is calling for me. From the neighboring guesthouse. I turn my head and see a smiling face peeking above a palm leaf fence that separates us. He invites me over and I discover a secret ninja-route to their side. along a tree trunk, narrow yourself to a board and climb to safety between a bench and the bar. The look on the bartenders face was quite something when I popped my head from there. And here I meet my first Finnish on this travel. Antti from Joensuu. They are playing a card game called Chinese poker, which looks interesting. After watching them play for a while I already got a grip on the rules and get to challenge the second to last in their just ended tournament. Several hours later I find myself still sitting in the chair playing. Lucky there was only family honor at bet, so monetary loss was minimal. A can of coke that being. And I didn't even lose all the games, so I still have some shreds of the before mentioned honor left. 

Today I decided enough slouching on the chairs reading books, so I took my camera with me and headed for a walk. Original idea was to go to the local market, stop by at Ganesha Eco Resort and walk back to town to do some banking and such. Only been once in Ganesha once and going there riding a tuk tuk in the darkness, little did I know that from our place to Ganesha via the market is 5,4 km. And I took off just after noon. 

Take a guess if I was sweaty 1,5 hours later when I arrived to Ganesha Eco Resort and ordered some mango and passion juice? Fresh of course. 

On my way I stopped to take a look in to the market and about 1,5 minutes walking in the market and I'm feeling claustrofobic. So narrow and low! Need to prepare for this better and come again. 

Ganesha is a nice place with bungalows scattered around a beautiful garden. The place itself is in the middle of the ricefields right next to a small river. So a piece of paradise. And the owner is a really relaxed, about 2 meters tall French guy.

Ricefields around Ganesha

And one of the bungalows

Clock was running late and I hadn't eaten a lunch so I decided to book a sunset boat ride and have some food before that. The food was this room temperature chicken and noodle salad, which was delicious. Almost at par with the famous Kampot pepper crab I had the other night. Mmm... Good stuff.

Manuel (owner of Ganesha) kept on saying that the sunset will be good and he wasn't lying. He joined me and 2 German girls (Germans are everywhere here) on the boat to watch the sunset. After that it was already too late for the other planned activities so call to a motordop (motorbike driver) and set sails back home. 

Does this make you at least a bit jealous?

Oh, right... On my last post I was talking about going to Siam Reap and Angkor Wat. About that... A few variables came up and I'm now here in Kampot, southern Cambodia. Next stop is Koh Rong (Island) via Sihanoukville. But when I will go there, I don't know. Now is the start of Cambodian holidays, so all public transport is fully booked, need to get at least 2 days in advance. and that lasts a week. And here in Naga House is a party coming in few days. Maybe I should just hang on to my little piece of treehouse dorm for a little while longer...

I have seen worse dorms. 4 beds and 3 dollars/night

Serious Business

Warning: Graphic content

Yesterday I got my camera back from the repair shop. 85 dollars, who cares if the part is not original. At least it's working again. So today was the first part of touristy stuff on my trip. A visit to the Killing Fields and S-21. That was some rough shit.

First off the Killing Fields. When walking through there listening to the audio tour of the place you start to realize the volume of things happened there. 300 Cambodians killed every night with machetes, bull axels and farm tools because bullets were too expensive. And to cover all the screams some loudspeakers blaring out propaganda music. Add to that a constant thud of diesel engine for power, confined to a windowless wooden room and knowing u had only a few days to live. Good night, sleep tight.
Now all the buildings are long gone, stripped away by people needing the material after Khmer Rouge had fallen. But the holes of the mass graves are still there. And they are everywhere. And then there is this 17 storey pagoda full of skulls and bones exhumed from the site.

The pagoda 

And its inhabitants. This section is only the skulls of young women, age 15-25

One of the many. A grave for 450 victims. The colourfull stuff on the poles are bracelets apparently to honour the memory of the victims.

Even his own men were not safe from Pol Pot's wrath. This one is only for his soldiers, all without a head and in full Khmer Rouge outfit

Even one of the regimes main men, "Dutch" broke down when visiting this site after the regime had fallen. On the front: mass grave of 100+ victims, all women and children, most women naked and raped. And in the background: The Killing Tree, which the soldiers used to kill small kids by swinging them by their legs and smashing their heads against the trunk. 

Clothes box feat. Rachel in audiotour gear

More disturbing stuff along the route. Bones washed up during seasonal flooding over the years after the 1980 big exhume of the mass graves

To save the "best" for last. This is the stem of a leaf from the sugar palm tree. Its edge is hard and sharp enough that it can cut flesh... Yes! You guessed it. In  Choeung Ek they used it to cut the throats of the captives if there was nothing else at hand.

As if this wasn't depressing enough. Next off is Security Prison 21. 

This is where it really hits you in the face. In the killing fields you only see bones and info boards and holes in the ground. A factory basically. Here is room after room full of pictures of the captives. During the time of operations the jail took in 17000 person in total, 1000-1500 at a time. And all of 7 survivors. 

If its not that, then its a bed with few bits and pieces on them. And on the wall a shaded picture of its last inhabitant, usually lying on the bed with a pool of blood under it.

The posessings of a prisoner. One of them is a leg iron to chain yourself safely to the wall to prevent sleep walking. Or moving. Because in general jails u were chained to the wall most of the time. Lot of the time you were not chained to the wall you were interrogated for serious crimes against the regime (read: tortured for false confessions).

Few simple rules on how to conduct your daily life in the prison

It is amazingly horrible what people can do to other people.

To end this post on a lighter note, Cambodia is treating me really good. The people are nice, the food is good and beer is cheap. Speaking of which, I seem to have run out. Better go get a new one before I start to suffer from dehydration. :)

This week in Top Banana doing nothing has done wonders to me. But being lazy all day is a full time job! One day I was going to take a short nap after breakfast and woke up 7 pm. That was the day Jetlag got me. After that things started rolling more smooth not feeling so tired all the time. If I had rushed off after few days I would prolly still be tired. Tomorrow I'm thinking of going to Siem Reap and get ready to do the other backpacker must in Cambodia: Angkor Wat. After that I can focus on the main thing, Looking for the real culture beyond the beaten path and see what delicious stuff this country has to offer. I haven't yet found the fried tarantula stand... But for tonight I think I will chill out and enjoy my beer.

Dead Weight

It has been just over a week since my travels started and quite a bit has already happened.
Times in Berlin were great. I did a bunch of tourist stuff like the East Side Gallery which is a piece of the Berlin wall covered in street art. On the other side of the wall was a really interesting photo exhibition about walls around the world separating people.

Mariko also took me to a sightseeing tour to the centre of the town including Potsdamer platz, Brandenburger gate and the Holocaust memorial. And along the way I got to taste some real Bavarian white sausage with sweet mustard which was delicious! Mmm.... Meat in tube form.

The area I actually lived in Berlin is called Neukölln and it is the best part of Berlin. Lots of Turkish and middle eastern immigrants so the shwarma and other restaurants are plentiful. Also a lot of Shisha bars wich only the old immigrant men go to puff the pipe and drink some coffee.
But back to the food. Along the way I got to taste other common Berlin foods such as Currywurst, Turkish pizza and Leverkäse (made by Chris) and all was good. Finland and Germany eat alike. :) I returned favor by making some brown sauce with minced meat (jauhelihakastiketta) and potatoes. Granny style.

I totally missed out the club life while there so I will go back there. Apparently the party starts thursday/friday and ends monday/tuesday. And I mean the bar is open all the way thru! Good luck trying to do that in Finland!

Anyway lets move on. Byebye Berlin and hello 7 hours in a bus towards Frankfurt. Nothing much to tell there. Nice clean and packed hostel called Five Elements in the middle of the ass and titties part of downtown Frankfurt. Spicy shwarma.

16.9. Monday 14:40
 Destination: Shanghai. 11 hours later and no sleep at all I'm there. And boy was I in for a ride.
25 fucking million people! 5 times Finland in one city! As soon as I get from the airport to the town it's around 9 am and its already 26 degrees celsius and rising. I need a drink. Drink vending machine. All I understand from it are the numbers below the products and the word cold. Good enough for me. Put the money in and press a button. Nothing happens. Frantically smashing every button on the machine until something pops out. I take out the can. "Cafe Latte" Motherf....! Right when I leave the machine in search of breakfast I bump into a local student named James. He says he can show me a nice place to get some food. Really nice guy and happy to meet me because now he can practice his english. Apparently I happened to come to Shanghai during a tea festival and James wants to take me to experience the chinese tea ritual. Into a tiny shop we enter and sit down in to a even tinier booth. A lady enters and starts preparing the first cup all the time talking in chinese about the history of tea in China and about the teas she is about to have us taste. How to hold the small cup and how to smell and drink the tea. All the time James translating what is happening. All very interesting and the tea is probably the best I ever had. Then I happen to check on the prices. POOF! My daily budget is blown on 3 different flavours of tea! Oh well, while in Shanghai... Next off to some soup dumplings. Really tasty stuff and way more cheaper.
Then before I know it I'm already on my way to the subway to see Bund area, the iconic business center. With James happily waving me off I climb on to the fully packed subway and start thinking: "was it 2 or 3 stops when I need to get out?" And Berlin subway is nothing compared to Shanghai subway. This area is all about Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Ferrari. I make most of it and use the toilet in Shanghai World Financial Center. Hi tech with washing modes and all.
If you are not willing to spend a lot of money there is not lot to do in Shanghai. Peoples Park is really nice and free, but almost everything else costs. Except food. You can eat a meal with few dollars.
Some say Chinese hospitality. I say Chinese I smile while taking your money.

Well that was only for a one day so it was manageable. Now I'm in a better place. Sitting in Top Banana guesthouse and its rooftop bar drinking green tea in Phnom Pehn. Yesterday was massive jetlag so I slept well into the afternoon. And poker evening. I think I'm gonna spend few days here just relaxing and getting my bearings.

On to the headline of this post. My camera broke down. Apparently  "MB MIRROR BOX SUB UNIT" is something that tends to break down on Sony alpha series. I will need to head into town to go see a repair guy. I just hope It doesn't take a month as the guy in Frankfurt feared. If so I need to think of other options, because there is no sense for me to travel and carry all that camera gear with me if I don't have a working body. 

On the road again...

...And it feels good!

The process of getting here has been surprisingly long but I'm finally here. It is funny how I didn't realize anything when I was selling all my stuff away and giving away the apartment I lived in. And not even when leaving Porvoo, but when I said goodbyes to my dear friends in Tampere it finally hit me: "I'm really not coming back here for quite a while!"

Last days in Finland flew by and looking at my mother from a moving bus made me a bit wistful. Leaving back so much yet having so little connections to the country I was born in.

But now I'm in Berlin meeting up with some of the friends I met on my last trip. I'm staying in an apartment with one of them and 3 of her flatmates. Last night we took a quick stab at the local bars and I felt the first hit of cultural shock. The local hole-in-the-wall -shop (open 24/7) had bottle openers hanging from the fridge they sold the beer out from, u can smoke inside bars and take your shop bought bottles in to a night eatery. And food and beer is WAY cheaper than in Finland. And tastes better. But that might just be that not being at home -taste. 

Now I think it's time for me to go hunt some breakfast and have a look around the town.