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Angkor Wat 1
View over the pond Hi again,
Hopefully tyhis can be quicker than the last email.
So getting to the cambodian border was easy enough, but once there things got a little out of hand. We headed straight to the casino to avoid the taxi touts that follow you around at the border. We had heard people get taxis for about 20US to siam reap and we were aiming to get that or lower, but taxi drivers wouldn't budge from 35US. They keep saying rd was very bad, bridge is broken blah blah blah. We kept saying oh yeah thats what you always say, so we headed of at about 5pm the driver wanted us to stay in a hotel over night and go in the morning because it was too late, but we were definitley going now so we headed off. The fiorst 500 meters was great paved road and then it just stops and its an horrendous dirt road with the largetst pot holes we have ever seen. In short int he first 5 km of winding roud, we dsaw a 4wheeel driver that had smashed open its petrol tamk on the rough rd and there was petrol running down the track.
At dusk we hit a young cow and hence lost a front head light which is ideal on rough roads at night. The taxi didn't stop for the cow, and we are pretty sure the cow didn't make it. Then we get to the first broken bridge, where the driver paid 4 dollars for a team of guys to hold the wooden planks on while we drove across. pretty crazy. The next broken bridge was completely mud, and the driver was going really slowly but we were still skidding all over the place and getting very close to the edge. the last and funniest of the bkoken bridges was the bridge had completely fallen down so they had built a rd beside it but is was completekly under water. The driver headoff through the water but misjudges where the rd was and we ended up stuck in the muddy water that was about knee deep in a ditch. I keep thinking fuck, we are stranded in the dark in the middle of a rice paddy. bugger. But then suddenyl a whole group of guys materialise from the broken bridge and the next thing we know we are being lifted still
in the car back onto the rd section that was under water. and off we go. pretty funny looking back. So we arriveed finally in Siam reap afer 5 1/2 hrs and about 160km of the worst rd ever.
We headed off around angkor the next day with a tuk tuk driver that we met the night before - phally. No words can decribe the magestic beauty of angkor wat, the bayon, angkor thom and teh surrounding temples. they are spectacular. I urge everyone to come here and see them in their lifetime. We had a massive first day doing the small circuit of temples. The next day we headed off to bantrey srei and kbai spean. These are a little different, one is carvings right into the river bed with a beautiful waterfall, and teh other ahs the best carvings of any of the temples at angkor. then off to the floating villages which altough interesting are a complete rip off and extremely touristy. It was also scott and i's 3 yr anniversary so we headed off to a nice dinner after.
Next day we heade off to beng melea - which is the true jungle temple
Southern Gate - Entrance to Angkor Thom
Mang statues holding up an enormous Naga. which has been left almost exactly how is was rediscovered by the french. Completely covered in jungle. Phally showed us around this one and it is challenging climbing around all the falled down sections but amazing also. THen to the flooded forest and fishing village of kumphong phluk. Were half way through our journey we had a small problem. the boay strted not working well, headed back to town very slowly, and along the way anouther small probeml the belt that runs the water pump ripped apart, so the little kid that was helping the bigger kid rum the boat strated pouring water into the pump to kepp the engine cool. altought steam contimued to come out of the pipe. I was convinced the engine was gpoing to exlode but it didn't and we made it to sure where we realised the small problem was that one of the blades of the rudder had completely broken off, So we hung out with the local kids for about an hour while the boat was fixed which was really fun. and its nice taht sometimes when things go wrong you get to experience something better than you normally would. we
eventuallyu we
Ta Phrom
Jungle Temple, Tombraider was set here made it back to siam reap, and we had planned to head off to phnom penh , but phlly invited us out fotr the day with his family, so we jumped at the offer and delayed our plans.
Sunday 20th, after a visit to the old market in siam reap where we saw live fish being filleted for sale and every single vegetable under the sun for sale we headed of with phally and his lovely wife and one year old son to the western barray. Which is an enourmous artificial lake pool/lake built in 1000 years ago which has never empied of water. It is a local hangout with khmer families on the weekend. Phally organised lunch opf bbq chicken and fish and rice and many beers. scotty and i also swam, and i had to hire clothes to wear in the water, thai and khmer people are very modest, bikinis, are not allowed in non foreingenr aresas. After lunch we headed to the cultural centre of cambpodia to watch traditional dances and see some displays of the local history. it was interesting but a bit tedious, there is a huge movement in cambodia to try to bring
Bantreay Srei
Best Carvings of all the Temples at Angkor. Check out the hands... back the trraditions that were lost during the khmer rouge years.
Later we met up with phally for a big night our on the town to celebtrate our new freindship. he is such an amazing guy. We went to a lcal kareoke restaurant and almost ate beef brains, and then to a disco tech club, which was very fun. Dances with some random khmer men, and saw scantily dressed khmers for the first time. Phally got completely wasted and we headed hopme pretty early for clubbing.
Next day tehre were many tears shed on the bus to PP after leaving our new khmer friend.
PP was interesting, but the royal palace and silver apgoda are beautiful, but clrearly are missing a great deal of their former granduer after the khmer rouge years. Found some amazing restaurants in both siam reap and PP and after the fairly average food int he NE of thailand and pretty pretty sick dfor over a week it was nice to be eating nutritious food again, and stop having nasty stomach cramps. The most moving thing that we did in PP was the S21 genocide and torture museum and the killing fields. These
Flooded Forest og Komphong Phloung
Hired a boat out to the flooded forest and stilt fishing village. THis is the boat with the 'little' problem. are both difficult places mentally to visit but a real must if you want to try and understand some of cambodias histiory. I won't tell the gruesome stories but think of the worst tortures and ways to die that you can, and then what they did id worse than that. The sheer numbers of people is diffucult to get your head around. in 4 years 1/3rd of the population over a million people had been killed or died of starvation and disease. its pretty intense.
Next day we headed off to sinoukville on the sothern coast of cambodia which is were we are now. it is lovely here, probably not a scenic as the andaman coast of thailand, but we are completely out of time and wont make it down there now. It is still amazing hrere, little islands surround the bay, its sunny and warm and there is plenty of beers and cocktail on the beach to be had. We met an amazing american couple on teh bus here and we hacve been hangingout with them ever since. They both quit there jobs and sold there house and are travelling for about 15months. yesterday we hired bikes and
Phally and his very cute son
Our new Khmer friend and his super cute son, just over one year old headed off exploring the surrounding beaches. didn't get as far as we planned about 8km of the 25km we had planned, but we had the best mexican food ever and somenice beers and fruit shakes on a deserted beach about 1km long.
Heading back to PP in a few days and then bangkok and home in about a week. So we get back on teh 4th and can't wait to catch up with everyone then. Sorry that there is still no photos but the computers here just aren't able to take DVDs. But there will be plenty when we get home.
Hope everyone is well,
love ness and scott
hope to hear from you soon.
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