Blogs from Angkor, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 90

I opted for the day pass to Angkor Wat, which Lonely Planet calls "a crime", but Lonely Planet's way too dramatic. Angkor Wat is Disneyworld for fat, middle aged package tourists. They're dreadful! All day long they stepped on my fingers and pushed me around and did not apologize. So Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world (or so I've heard), and THE tourist destination of south east Asia, and part of Tomb Raider was filmed here. It's dozens of enormous gorgeous ruins in the middle of the jungle and its absolutely swarming with tourists. And rich ones, too. You should see the posh resorts they pack into this tourist town in a third world country. A day was enough for me. I saw the highlights and I was just one of thousands ... read more

The following is a copy of something I wrote for the Pacific Rim Conference on Literature and Rhetoric hosted by The University of Alaska Anchorage. For more information on the conference, you can go to: www.pacrimalaska.org Technology and its Impact in Asia Cambodia As our plane made a nice long, low swoop over the Tonle Sap Lake before landing in Siem Reap in central Cambodia, the view from the window looked like Amazonia. A raging green forest floating on the largest lake of Indochina, a bird-watcher's paradise, an uncharted -or at least unblemished- jungle, a land of mystery. One of our destinations I had mapped out was to be in that wilderness, and I think, even from 4,000 feet, I recognized the temple at Kompong Phluk, a small island in the 'floating forest' inhabited by 2,000 ... read more

It is now 9.07pm in Siem Reap, and we are absolutely exhausted after a full day of trying to squeeze in the most of the Angkor Temples as possible. We got up at 4.15am (wow, even I can't believe it) and were picked up by our friendly driver, Sowin (he drives a Camry with automatic seat belts in the front seats! Eva was so jealous), in order to get out to Angkor Wat, agruably the most spectacular of the entire complex, for sunrise. We paid US$20 per person for our tickets (most of which goes to the oil company lucky enough to run the complex) and Sowin then dropped us at the entrance to angkor wat. Already at this time, the street vendors were trying to sell us coffee and breakfast, but we waited patiently for ... read more

We are here! Firstly, thanks Di for the only response to my sad and wonderful travel blog! Come on guys (especially the chilli eaters out there), send us back some love! We touched down at Siem Reap (pronounced See-em Ree-ep) early this morning, and have struggled through the first day (to stay awake, that is) with all sorts of adventures. We were all a little shocked to find that the International airport of Siem Reap was about the size of Armidale Regional Airport - Helyna felt like she had landed in country NSW, only with lots of humidity and African-movie like landscape. After a bumpy land, we disembarked the aircraft and were ushered around the tarmac and entry through what seemed the most indirect route possible. Once inside, we went through "customs" - two booths with ... read more

We arrived in Siem Reap on the afternoon of February 14th after a bus change in the middle of the highway with an opposing bus- seems strange but the system works! Upon arrival 20 or so tuk-tuk drivers swarmed our bus and one was holding a name card: Brakes Charlong and Rebecca Francis. Brakes??!! haha and how'd they get our names? We later learned that they took our names from our guesthouse registry (also where we bought our bus tickets) and phoned them to the guy there. the good news is that our tuk-tuk ride was free and he took us to a couple before we found one we liked at a reasonable price. He gets a cut of what we pay so it worked out for everyone. It is a funny feeling though to show ... read more