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Published: November 10th 2009
KL tower plus church
Celestial communication battlesLets get stuck in.
KL was not awesome. Everything went smoothly, all the flights and borders were ok to be fair but its a very dirty and ugly city. There is a huge mix of people from all over the region here, theres a chinatown, indiatown plus untold people from Japan and Korea and Thailand and so on. This would lead one to believe that the cultures and arts of these peoples would be brought with them but that influence is not clearly visible. What is visible is dollars and dirt. Thats what i saw. Most of this city is reserved for business and it really shows, Chinatown was neat though, i had a cool market and loadsa really weird but cheap food. I have no idea what alot of what I ate was but i like a good deal of it.
The flight over Cambodia and into Siem Reap was the true treat though, its was a beautiful day and all you could see were trees and the immense Tonle Sap lake, peppered with the tops of trees. Even though it must have begun receding by now it is HUGE. Every year the Meekong floods due to monsoon rains
and this causes it to flow through a tributary into the Tonle Sap river which in turn floods so much that the river flows backwards, again flooding the lake.
The river flows backwards.
Taking the slow boat up the river was a joy and very weird, like being in waterworld or something. We even crashed into a tree. crashing into the upper branches of a tree in a boat is incredibly funny nand not something I am likely to do again. Eventually we arrived at Kompong Phhluk which is a small village along the way. Given its situation the houses are placed on 7m high stilts to avoid major flood damage every year and in wet season all movement is via boat. This was a bit magic and the effect this would have on daily life and the general mindset of the villagers cant really be imagined but from where I sat it was idyllic. Between the village and the Tonle Sap lake proper is a sunken forest full of spiders and all sorts of strangeness I dont even know about. What I can say is that I wish sooooooo much I could have spent several days sitting in
a boat in the sunken forest just reading and soaking up the atmosphere. It was something special.
After some time we went back to Angkor Wat with Adam, as I had already been I didnt really take many photos but i did get to see it in a different light. There is no better place to have a picnic im sure and if I ever had a child they would have to spend alot of time there roaming around playing and exploring. Aside from being obviously a beautiful place and humbling in its genius it is the ideal recreational area for all ages.
Tommorow were off to Phnom Penh but now were going out to hang out with some local dudes and sing kareoke. Backstreet boys have been mentioned.
I fear.
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mum
non-member comment
thank you
Hi Pat, it is lovely to hear from you and your adventures. The photo's are very special and I also love the picture of the little girl boating in a basin. She looks very focussed. Her life has been so different from our lives in the West. Sorry that you didn't enjoy KL but I now know not to spend too much time there for the future. The temples look amazing and certainly worth spending time there and soaking up the atmosphere and discovering a new world. You look very happy and confident in the boat on the river and also in the tree despite the spiders. I think of you a lot and hope that your travels continue to be exciting and interesting for you. I look forward to hearing from you again and looking at your photos they will make quite an album. Take care and lots of love mum