on safari

I have left Beijing a bit over two weeks ago because I couldn’t get a visa for the Olympics. I am currently staying in Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s pleasant capital city with plenty of green trees and blue sky. Green trees and blue skies might sound like pleonasm to you, but believe me after having stayed in Beijing for a while, I can tell the difference.

Last week I went on a field trip with Fabian to Dijik and Lyanga and I have discovered some of the most fantastic sceneries I have ever seen. Unfortunately internet here really sucks, so I only could upload very few pics.

Check out the full flickr foto set here.

Fabian was in Thailand for a week and we made a trip to the beach in Ko Samed and enjoyed the sun, the breakfast pancakes and the great Thai seafood.

View the full photoset on flickr.

Phnom Penh was great! So nice to eat tasty french food and to meet Malin and Johan who currently live in Sihanoukville. Cambodia has finally hit the road to modernisation with a real airconditioned shopping mall in Phnom Penh and plenty of construction work going on. However, sidestreets still tend not to be paved and the city has not yet lost it’s slow-paced lifestyle. Even motorbikes run really slow on the streets.

Her a few pics from my trip to Phnom Penh:

See the full photoset on flickr.

While in Phnom Penh this weekend my Moto driver Han explained to me on Sunday that Tuol Sleng was closed. Now, this is normally just a way for touts to encourage tourists to go somewhere else and receive commission. It seemed strange to me that Han would do that, and I tried to find out more about it, but he didn’t know any details. As I didn’t want to go to Tuol Sleng anyway, I wasn’t bothered about finding out. Anyway, now I know what happened: Mia Farrow’s anti China rally has brought about some turmoil. See the Bangkok Post article for details.

Yes, I finally get to go on a holiday! Next weekend I’ll be in Phnon Pen for my first Thai visa extension. Actually, my visa is not due for another two weeks, but with Fabian coming to Thailand on January 24 and me not wanting to overstay my first visa, I figured, I’ll get it done next weekend. I had a couple of options like Penang, Singapore, or Macao. But why should I want to go to another shopping paradise? For shopping in Asia, Bangkok is the destination of choice today, so Phnon Pen seemed much more tempting. It’s been over five years since I’ve been to Cambodia last time and I have very good memories of Phnon Pen, especially this one french restaurant by the riverside. Not sure if I’ll find it, but I will definitely try to, though there might be more food options available now than in 2002.

I only have two days, arriving on Saturday morning and leaving on Sunday evening, but I still hope to visit some of the places I missed last time, like the royal palace, the national museum and, of course, the killing fields. After visiting the very depressing Tuol Sleng prison last time, Fabian and I simply couldn’t deal with the killing fields and decided to skip them. However, I should go and visit next week as I truly believe that visiting places of historical disasters and tragedies is very important as it’s the only way to keep the memories alive.