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A break from Cambodia

It's difficult to fit Cambodia and travel into this post if I follow the guidelines of the course. Before I start thanks to all those who sent me advice I got concerning my angst at facing the monkeys in Cambodia. On one travel website someone recommended taking four water bottles to the temples, one for yourself and the rest for the more aggressive monkeys.

Onto the course. I learnt a fair bit about wikis this week. I didn't know that all information supplied to Wikipedia needs to be referenced so that it can be checked out. In other words most entries are probably taken from books or journals.

I did think some of the Library wikis looked useful such as Blogging Libraries Wiki or the one about best practice in Libraries.

I also liked the idea of using wikis for our own purposes as a great device for sharing information. Maybe a brainstorm on things we wish to include in next years budget would be useful. Planning anything as a group could be aided by using wikis.

When searching for Wikis on monkeys I found a Wiki site called Wikia and it had an entry about a character called Lord Monkey Fist who studies Tai Shing Pek Kwar, or Monkey Kung Fu. http://kimpossible.wikia.com/wiki/Monkey_Fist
Another bit of useless information. Maybe back to Cambodia next week.

Dreaming about monkeys

I've started worrying a bit about the trip and dreaming alot about monkeys. It's all because a Scandinavian guy at my work (we can call him Fred but that's not his real name) told me that he had fought a monkey in Thailand earlier this year. I can't believe this. What hope is there for world peace if a guy from the home of the Nobel Peace prize has a tussle with a monkey at the most sacred of places - a Buddhist temple....And it was all over a plastic water bottle. Not that a punch was thrown, more just a tug of war over the water bottle. He warned me to watch out in Cambodia as there's lots of monkeys in temples there. So I've started searching the internet for more information about monkeys and ways of defending myself.

I've also started adding RSS feeds to my account and some with a monkey theme. I'm calling them monkey feeds. There's one called '40 Random Facts About Monkeys' and another called "Video - Predatory Monkeys". I also found a feed within a Martial Arts blog called 'Are you smart enought to fight a monkey.' So, I've discovered that everything is out there in cyberspace and hopefully I'll arrive in Cambodia with a mountain of ideas in dealing with monkeys.

I've also added a couple of feeds on Cambodia, one being 'The official site for Tourism of Cambodia' and the other from the Guardian newspaper in England. With the latter I guess I'll receive a feed everytime an article is written on Cambodia. This could be very useful. And I've also subscribed to Pitchfork: Album Reviews, an online music site.

What to ride on in Cambodia

I'm still checking out the travel blogs. Better stop soon as I'll be sick of Cambodia before I actually get there.
Looked at the ways of getting around and the contraptions you can travel in and found a few photos on flickr. Apologies to elephants as they're not really contraptions. Here are some choices.

Just a tad small for us but I'm sure four could fit on Cambodian style.



Again a little small, but I suppose Lorraine could run along the side.





The minibus, a possibility but a coach may be safer for the longer trips.

Might have to get over my fear of heights and elephants. I could lead the elephant with Lorraine riding it.



More my thing. Tuk tuk, Cambodian style.

Travel blogs - a source of indecision

Have booked the tickets for Cambodia and can't wait until fly out date in January. Loved IndoChina a couple of years ago when travelling through Vietnam and Laos. My wife is coming along this time just to make sure I don't get into any trouble. We will definitely be staying a few nights in Phnomh Penh and several in Siem Reap which is the city close to Angkor Wat but in between we'll be flexible.

Lots to read up about before we go and I have discovered that travel blogs are extremely useful for this. Have already used them for learning about good places to stay. Sometimes, however, after reading too many you can become totally confused about your plans. A couple of years ago prior to travelling through Laos I read many blogs about the two day longboat trip from the Laos - Thai border to the beautiful city of Luang Prabang. Blogs ranged from describing the joys of meandering up the Mekong on a slightly over populated boat getting glimpses of Laos village life and staying over night in the quiet pretty village of Pak Beng ; to surviving the ordeal of travelling on a boat with twice the passenger capacity, half of them sick from the booze and the sun, your backside sore from the wooden seats (if you're lucky enough to get one) and then when you get to Pak Beng a sleepless night in a godforsaken dirty room.

 In the end I took the boat and both of the above versions had some truth. The boat for the first day was terribly overcrowded and the engine was incredibly noisy and it did seem at times that we wouldn't make it. I brought a cushion thanks to a blog, and enjoyed the trip while others struggled with the uncomfortable seats. I also got to the boat early thus avoiding having to camp on the floor around the engine or toilets. Didn't get much sleep in Pak Beng woken by drug deals outside my window in the early hours of the morning. Two boats instead of one were used on the second day and it ended up being a lovely trip. I learnt that blogs can be very useful but don't believe everything you read.