Blogs from Angkor, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 15

Another day at Angkor was instore for us today. When we got up in the morning, we saw on the news that there had been a disaster at the Water Festival in Pnom Penh. Their festival lasted three days, and on the last day there had been a panic on a brdige when someone anounced it was about to collapse when it wasn't and over 350 people had been trampled or lost when they tried to escape by jumping into the river. We were going to be back on the bikes again at some point during the day and our guide gave us the option of what we could do and how much cycling we wanted to fit in. To our surprise this cycling thing doesn't seem to be as popular as we thought as he ... read more

Phnom Penh and the Water Festival: Arrived in Phomn Penh, The Capital of Cambodia, on Thursday Nov 18. We were imediately struck by how smiley the Cambodian people were as we were greeted with grins from every side as we took out tuk tuk ride (not easy to say, that one) from the airport to the hostel. The traffic was gain hectic and slow. The hostel was great with the river only a 5 min walk through thye civic squares. We had a few days to kill so we visited the markets and the National Museum. On the second day we looked round the S21 prison where the victims of Pol Pot's regime were tourtured before being meeting their end in the killing fileds just outside the city. It was incredibly moving to see the phots ... read more

Imagine this. Wide, open field. Causeway cutting across, leading to the central complex. Libraries on both sides. Reflection pools making for great sunrise and sunset photos. Naga, the multi-headed stone serpents welcoming us. Three levels. Corridors lined with carvings depicting the story of Ramayana. More bas reliefs of the Apsara dancers and celestial nymphs on the upper level. Imagine the pools of water all around the complex, as one prays to his Buddha by the corner. Lotus-shaped towers. Five in all. One main central tower. Four at each corner. Incense. Wat 3 levels? After the "coziness" of the jungle forest at Ta Phrom, the vast open fields and 3 levels of Angkor Wat seemed intimidating. "You guys going up to the 3rd level?", Elizabeth asks. And with screaming leg muscles and overactive sweat glands, we all ... read more

Hola todos! Another few weeks have passed. Many things happened. We met many people. We changed a few times of country. Suddenly, and unexpectedly we find ourselves in Cambodia. We figured that it would be a pity to be so close and not visit Angkor Wat! A few days ago, we were at the station in Bangkok, ready to book a ticket to go to Laos when we abruptly changed our plans and left for Cambodia. So for the fresh news, today we went to visit a floating village where people do absolutely everything on their boat and then we went to visit the last few temples of Angkor (of which you will receive pictures next time). Amazing! But let's go back in time a bit: the last message we wrote we were just about to ... read more

I awoke checked the watch to see it tell me it was the ungodly hour of 5:50, and then I checked the window, to see it was raining. I then went back to sleep smug in the knowledge that we had been correct to not opt to visit the temples at dawn today, as we would have experienced a wash out for our troubles. When I awoke for the second time it was a far more reasonable hour of 8:00, I woke Lou and we sorted our stuff out for the days temple excursions, and descended to eat our breakfast. After breakfast we returned to our room to pack our stuff up as we had to move hotel once again as the hotel was full and we had been too late to extend our stay (despite ... read more