Page 14 of Trabern Travel Blog Posts


Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap October 27th 2022

It rained again during the night. Quite a lot actually! When we went out to meet our driver, Lin, there were huge puddles in the unmade road outside and we had to pick our way to the Mercedes minivan to keep our feet dry. But, before we left our room for our day trip we had made sure that we would have everything we might need in our day packs. Raincoat, tick, water, tick, toilet paper, tick and the Go Girl, tick. What’s that? people might ask. Well, a week or so before heading to Vietnam and Cambodia I was stressing about the whole squat toilet thing and decided that maybe I needed a ladies urination device so that I could pee standing up! Some research ensued and, not only are these a thing, they go ... read more
Banteay Srei Temple
Banteay Srei Temple
Banteay Srei Temple

Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap October 26th 2022

When we ventured down to breakfast this morning it was feeling rather oppressive and the waiter told us ‘it’s going to rain today … in about half an hour’. Oh well, whatever will be, will be. We have been doing so well with the weather on this holiday we really can’t complain if we have a wet day. This morning we arranged for Cholna to collect us at 8.30am for an excursion to the Roluos temple group located about 13 kilometres east of Siem Reap. These temples are some of the earliest in the Siem Reap area dating to late in the 9th-century. First on this morning’s list was Bakong and, despite the dire prediction of our breakfast waiter, it was still fine as we pulled up at the east gate. Bakong was the first state ... read more
Bakong Temple
Bakong Temple
Bakong Temple

Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap October 25th 2022

Today we explored the temples in the old capital of Angkor Thom. After Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom is probably the best known and most visited area amongst the temples and ruins of Siem Reap. This city, surrounded by a large wall with enormous gates and a crocodile infested moat was once home to as many as one million people. It is worth noting that this was at a time when the population of London was fewer than 100,000 people. Our first stop was at The Bayon which is a richly decorated Khmer temple dedicated to Buddhism that was built late in the 12th Century or early in the 13th Century as the state temple of the King Jayavarman VII. The Bayon stands at the centre of Jayavarman’s capital, Angkor Thom. The temple is characterized by the ... read more
Bayon Carving
Bayon Carving
Bayon

Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap October 24th 2022

Today it was all about Angkor Wat, Siem Reap’s premier temple. Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world on a site measuring 162.6 hectares. It was originally built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12thcentury as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. Towards the end of the 12thcentury it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple. It combines the two basic plans of Khmer Temple architecture: a temple mountain (representing Mount Meru) surrounded by a galleried temple. We had an alarm set for 4.30am so that we could be out the front ready to meet Cholna at 5.00am to drive to Angkor Wat in time for the sunrise. We last did this in 2010 and have always wanted to return because we were there at the end of ... read more
Angkor Wat sunrise
Angkor Wat sunrise
Angkor Wat sunrise

Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap October 23rd 2022

Oh, dear, yesterday I started out with a bit of a headache, popped a couple of Aspros and managed to make it through the day OK. Last night, at bed time, I started to feel a bit congested and this morning I seem to have developed a proper head cold. Damn it! Our tuk tuk driver from yesterday afternoon, Cholna (sounds more like Jonah), ran us down to Pub Street last night and made arrangements to pick us up at 9.30am this morning to start visiting temples. First on our list today was Ta Keo. Ta Keo was the first sandstone temple mountain to be built by the Khmers. Its lack of carving makes it unlike other temples in the area and suggests that the construction was never finished. It is comprised of two terraces, a ... read more
Ta Keo
Ta Keo
Ta Keo

Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap October 22nd 2022

During the night I woke to what I thought was the sound of rain. It was hard to tell with the air conditioner running, but I thought it sounded different from the sound of a/c alone. Sure enough, this morning we were greeted with wet decks when we ventured out of our stateroom. There has been the threat of rain quite a few times during the week, but we have been so lucky that we have had no rain when we have been taken out on our excursions. Considering it is the end of the wet season, we have been blessed with beautiful, fine weather. The R.V. Bassac Pandaw finished docking at Kampong Cham while we enjoyed breakfast in the dining room for the last time. Our early breakfast finished we raced back up to our ... read more
Rubber trees at the back, dragonfruit cacti in the middle and kasava plants i the foreground
Prey Pros River
Prey Pros River

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kratié October 21st 2022

This morning we docked at Kratie Town during breakfast. We were able to watch from the dining room as we were tied up to the rickety timber platform that serves as the dock here. The street on the riverbank was lined with tents and people and had a festive air about it. Leng explained that officially the Water Festival is celebrated in Phnom Penh between the 10th and 12thof November, however it is celebrated earlier in the provinces. I think as soon as the water recedes from their farming land they have reason to celebrate because they can plant their crops. After breakfast we stepped down onto the dock and - keeping to the joists! – made our way over to the bouncy gangplank. After bouncing over the gangplank we climbed the uneven concrete steps up ... read more
Irrawaddy dolphin
Irrawaddy dolphin
Irrawaddy dolphin

Asia » Cambodia » East » Kampong Cham October 20th 2022

This morning after breakfast we disembarked in the bustling town of Kampong Cham and boarded a coach for a short drive to Phnom Pros Phnom Srei which translates as Man Mountain Lady Mountain. On the way Leng told us the legend of how the men and the women held a competition to see who could build the tallest hill and, of course, the women won thereby winning the right to have men take responsibility for proposing to them. We drove part way up the smaller hill, Phnom Pros, where we visited the Buddha Garden. In addition to several statues of Buddha there is an impressive library, a number of other colourful buildings … and monkeys! Fortunately the monkeys didn’t seem very interested in us so we didn’t have to worry about them bothering us. Leng had ... read more
Teaching Buddha on Man Mountain
Standing Buddha on Man Mountain
The Library

Asia » Cambodia » South » Phnom Penh October 19th 2022

We sailed from Phnom Penh this morning with only seven couples remaining on board. Until our arrival in Phnom Penh our number had included a group of four people working in the travel industry who were invited on board to find out more about Pandaw so that they will, hopefully, promote their cruises to clients. There was also a group of six Vietnamese and I never quite established if they were also working in travel or if they were a group of family/friends. We also said farewell to Sarah from Sydney who only had a short break from work and could only do the short cruise and a rather strange Indian guy who only seemed to want to drink and smoke. Seriously, by 10.30am when we were out on our excursion yesterday he was desperate to ... read more
Silkworms
Silk cocoons on the sticks
Silk cocoons

Asia » Cambodia » South » Phnom Penh October 18th 2022

We were up on the sun deck this morning just after 7.00am so that the immigration official could check our faces against our passports. The officer checking our faces actually had a sense of humour which is a most unusual trait amongst immigration officials! He looked at me, looked at my passport and announced ‘very beautiful’. Given that he also said this to Steve, he may not have been very discerning in regard to the standard of western feminine beauty, ha, ha, ha?? Anyhow, all of us were verified and cleared for entry to Cambodia. After breakfast we boarded cyclos for our ‘smoke free’ tour of Phnom Penh City and set off into the city with our Cambodian guide, Leng. Spelled Leng, but he pronounced his name as ‘Ling’ to my ear. Our itinerary said that ... read more
Ready, Set, Go
Wat Phnom Daun Penh
Wat Phnom Daun Penh




Tot: 0.117s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 7; qc: 63; dbt: 0.0474s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb