Blogs from North, Cambodia, Asia

Our last day in Cambodia was pretty bittersweet. We LOVED Cambodia but were excited to move on to Phuket and get some beach time in. Had to fit in as much as possible before we left! The Big Buddha in Phnom Kulen National Park is where a lot of locals come to pray and worship. Prayers are being spoken into the huge sound system reaching around the complex, and a stick of incense is burning in most everyone's hand. It is very crowded there, and you have to push your way up several sets of tall stairs to reach the top where the Buddha is lying withing a small building. You, of course, have to take your shoes up to walk to the top and, luckily, we had our buddy Kheung there to keep a close ... read more

We soon got used to being on our own again, spending another couple of days at the City River Hotel before moving on to Navutu Dreams, a small hotel out in the countryside. There is not a lot to do in Siem Reap itself but we did have a brilliant visit to the Angkor National Museum where they had an amazing array of artifacts, all well set out in adjoining rooms that seemed to flow perfectly into the next. One room had thousands of Buddha statues and it was a good opportunity to learn more about the history and mythological stories behind some of the Buddhist and Hindu carvings that we had seen. We hired an audio guide which was really useful but there were also plenty of reading and video presentations throughout the museum. There ... read more

6.5. Ještě jsem se nezmínil o samotném městě Siem Reap, které slouží jako brána do Angkor Vat. Ještě na začátku 20. stol. byl Siem Reap jen shlukem malých vesnic, které přirozeně obklopovaly waty (buddhistické kostely) kolem řeky Siem Reap (provincie, město i řeka mají stejný název.) V roce 1907 navštívilo znovuobjevený Angkor Vat dvě sta turistů během tří měsíců. V současnosti více než dva miliony turistů ročně a jejich počet údajně každoročně stoupá o dvacet procent. Je těžké určit jakékoli hranice m... read more

We can't quite believe it's only been 3 weeks since our last blog, it feels like so much longer because we've been to so many places and done so much (as the title suggests...). SO...The much anticipated soft sleeper train from Nah Trang to Saigon was a huge improvement from the hard sleeper, mainly due to the fact you could actually sit up on the beds, there was working air conditioning and fewer children. A successful train journey at last - personal boom! Unfortunately the soft beds couldn't make up for the fact that we pulled in to Saigon at the unearthly hour of 4am. A taxi took us straight to our hotel where thankfully we could check in and get a bit more sleep! We were only in Saigon for a couple of nights because ... read more

We arrived in Siem Reap and were met at the airport by our local guide, Wong Kimsien (Kim) who would be with us for the last few days of our Indochina Tour which ends in a few days. Our new guide Kim also had a sad story to tell of his family’s experience during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. As in Phomn Penn the people living in Siem Reap was ousted from their homes and sent into the countryside. Kim said that when he was six he lived with his mother who had to work in the fields all day and he was left alone to fend for himself. He said he quickly learning how to look after himself, he was always hungry but learnt which plants he could eat and which would make him ... read more

We are now BACK in the Land of Smiles!! Which we've dearly missed. Until now we've had a very interesting and educational week or so. It all started while we were still in Phu Quoc, Vietnam by visiting the Coconut Prison. This was a prison built by the American puppet regime during the Vietnam war. Most of the original structures have been torn down and replaced with replicas filled with real life looking dummies to depict the torture that was inflicted unto the Vietnamese prisoners. This place was graphic and horrid. We learned about how the prison operated and of the many techniques of torture. After the prison we went to Sao Beach which is now dubbed as our favourite beach of the ENTIRE trip. It was fabulous. Way nicer than our garbage ridden beach at ... read more