Landmines and Angkor

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Sadly I decided to fall ill exactly on the 4 days I had planned for Cambodia so I couldn't do all the things I had on my list :-( I had this in India already and I remember having it in Bali 10 years ago, high fever for a night and then generaly feeling bad for a couple of days, half like a cold and half like a bad stomach but nothing breaks out properly. Anyway it made me spend more time at the pool than I would have wanted to!

I visited the Landmine Museum here in Siem Reap on my first day, at the end of a very bad road and built by a man who after having been in the army to learn how to use mines now devotes his life to helping villages and the people there to remove the mines from the fields. A very tragic side of Cambodian history and sad reality for a large number of victims still today.

On day 2 I felt well enough to go and visit the Temples of Angkor.

*** New Entry about Angkor Wat! ***
Back home I wanted to update this page as Angkor Wat definitely needs a few photos to show. It is such a fascinating site. You read that Angkor needs at least a few days to visit but 5 hours are enough to do a quick visit too. I saw the three main sites, Angkor Wat itself, Bayon and the Ta Prohm site which is the one where they are leaving the vegetation as it is.. spooky!
International organisations are working hard to restore the temples, the École Francaise d'Extreme Orient has been working on the temples since the beginning of the 20th century. Other sites are being restaurated by the Indian Government or German organisations.
*** end of new entry ***

There are two ways of getting around here, one is by TukTuk, the three-wheelers where you can sit in the back or by "Motodup" which is just sitting on the back of someone elses motocycle. They all do it and it's the fastest and cheapest way from and to the hotel! I did Angkor by TukTuk but otherwise I did all my "hopping downtown" by motodup.

Today I wanted to do a tour of the lake Tonle Sap but ended up reading and writing postcards at the hotel pool which was nice too.. I am staying at the Angkor Village Hotel which is definitely luxurious compared to the Chiang Mai and Phitsanulok guest houses.. It is lovely to have clean white towels again!

Tomorrow I'm off to the airport again where I will be flying to Bangkok and then to Ko Samui to then take a boat over to Ko Phangan where I will be staying at The Sanctuary for a week..

Bye for now!

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Photos

Landmine Museum
Cambodia still has a massive landmine issue and alot of organisations are working on clearing them so the farmers can use their land again.

Landmines
Here are some examples of mines that have been cleared

Angkor Wat at Sunrise
Everyone got up at 4.30 to be here and experience the sun rising over this fabulous site!

Taj Mahal feeling
The reflection of the three Wat towers in the lake reminded me of Taj Mahal. Thousands of people on the grounds but the site is no big that you don't see them.

Bayon
Over 80 big faces cut in the stone at Bayon watched you as you visited. Impressive.

Bayon again
The site was so photogenic!

Looking for Angelina Jolie
The film Tomb Raider was done at Angkor Wat, alot of the scenes here in Ta Prohm.

Siem Reap
Very, very touristy little town you need to stay at to visit the temples. But it's a decent place..

Great Restaurants at Siem Reap!
Due to the French history, Siem Reap has a tremendous amount of very good restaurants, cheap and expensive from French to Indian with Italian and of course, typical Khmer Cuisine. Bon Appetit!

My favourite Gekko Picture..
..taken at the Internet Café ;-)

Comments

[Adam]

hi there :)
Wah, Angkor does sound interesting, there was a prog on tv about Cambodia, they pointed out that temples were quite broken. I hope you are now feeling better, well at least you had a swimming pool nearby ;) Take care, Adam