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Published: December 13th 2009
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Cambodia - Angkor Wat
Although, Angor Wat is the temple that is most familiar, I found it a bit disappointing Christmas and Cambodia
Here we are heading towards the end of 2009 and it finds us in Tierra del Fuego, the Land of Fire, in southernmost Argentina. It’s a beautiful place and flying in over the Beagle Channel was magical. The days stretch on endlessly, its not dark until after r11pm; so welcome after months of short days up in the tropics.
A guaranteed white Christmas lies ahead for us, as we’ll be sailing on a twenty eight day round trip to Antarctica.
Yes, we’re sailing, not for us the warmth and comfort of a Russian ice breaker. We're paying to crew on a 54 foot steel hulled yacht. To get to there it seems we'll have to sail around Cape Horn, where apparently the highest waves can be up to forty foot - (maybe I'll stand on Terry's shoulders?) but once there it’s very calm.
There'll be ten of us on board, including the skipper and a paid cook (hooray). One couple has booked it as a diving trip and the skipper has some spare dive suits for us. As you can probably imagine Terry is just beside himself with excitement/happiness.
So, as we’re off
Bayon
Angkor Wat may have been disappointing but the Bayon Temple was amazing. It has thirty seven columns each with huge, serene faces carved onto each of the four sides. Walking amongst them quite bought a tear to my eye; but then strangely at that time such a lot did. tomorrow, you’re all spared a Christmas message this year and here follows the next blog instalment from way back in November (08!)...
Cambodia
It goes almost without mention that Cambodia is a country whose people have suffered much and in recent memory. Not only the Pol Pot regime, the USA bombings and the Vietnamese occupation but topped off with years of civil war. All this ending only about ten years ago.
There are still millions of land mines, being recovered and as an inevitable consequence there are so many amputee victims from the mines. But somehow, despite this and the grinding poverty most people we encountered outside of the tourist traps were warm, friendly and ever ready with a smile.
And of course its home to the wonders that are the Angkor Temples at Siem Reap…..
Siem Reap
We flew in from Laos and realised that we’d been subject to a scam within minutes of leaving the airport.
Having phoned ahead to book a hotel we were delighted when they said they’d meet us at the airport. Imagine our surprise when we were gathered
Baphoun
So green, so lovely up in a Tuk-Tuk and taken to a completely different hotel. Seems the chap working the reception desk of the hotel we’d booked was diverting telephone bookings to his brother’s hotel. It proved to be quite an accurate introduction to Cambodia!
We were happy enough with the “Brother’s” hotel and stayed. Next morning we awoke to ducks quacking outside the window. How quaint we thought but no; these ducks had their legs tied together over a long stick and where on offer to local restaurants. I think it was also in Cambodia that we saw whole pigs lying on the backs tied to motor bikes. We never were quite sure if they were alive or dead.
But next day we headed off to the temples and what an extraordinary site and sight. There are so many temples all nestling amidst green, green jungle, over a huge area. Three days were happily spent going around them, mostly with an open mouth, just staring (and of course sweating).
Driving through the rural areas around the temples there are many villages and people getting on with their daily lives, most of which went on under their houses, which are
Bayon Temple
Angkor Wat is famous for having the longest Bas Releif carving in the world. But delicate also carvings cover most temples all built on stilts and every village even the most rustic, had a mobile phone shop. Ahh, mobile phones and South East Asia.
Phnom Penh
After days of touring the temples it was time to say goodbye to Fi, who had put up with us for three weeks and flew back to Bangkok and then home, only narrowly missing the airport closure. We headed off on the bus to Phnom Penh.
We got chatting to a local public health doctor on the bus, who was keen to tell us about the progress made in bringing HIV under control, which apparently had been introduced by the peacekeeping UN soldiers. He strongly recommended that we once in Penh we stay in the tourist area along the banks of the Mekong; once we’d scouted about the other accommodation we were more than happy to comply!
The Mekong river was in full flood and it was great fun watching the ferries trying to cross and being forced down river by the tide. And the oddest thing was the number of ladies wearing pyjamas, really pyjamas!
The corruption in the city was evident everywhere. Police
openly take bribes and we saw in the newspaper that five young men, who had been arrested for being drunk, were now in jail to be “Re-Educated”. It was oppressive and yet another opportunity for us to realise the value of the free speech we enjoy at home.
The Mekong bank side is also where all the touts and other beggars hang out. The plight of the amputee beggars around Siem Reap was already laying heavily on me and to then see the gangs of children sent out to beg by gangs was hard to see.
I spared myself a visit to the killing fields; it was strange to hear the Tuk-Tuk drivers relentlessly calling out "Killing Fields" or “Genocide Museum only ten dollars”. The ill wind has left behind a good source of income for them.
Sihanoukville
But even so I have to confess to being overwhelmed by it all and I found myself crying at the slightest thing. Our diagnosis was tiredness (which may seem daft when we're on a two year holiday - but this travelling malarkey can actually be quite hard work). So we took ourselves off
Ta Prohm
Ta Prohm, along with Preah Khan are two temples that have been left largely un-restored, with numerous trees and other vegetation growing in and around their walls. Hey presto a perfect backdrop for Tomb Raider.
The trees are worth a mention. They’re Tetraeles Nudi Flora Datiscacea (aka Spung) and can grow up to 150 ft and with diameters of about 10 ft. The wood is a core stock for plywood so these magnificent trees end up as boxes and crates. to Sihanoukville, on the southern coast, to just sit ohh and it’s also the easiest place in Cambodia to get a Vietnamese Visa.
but then I needed a rest and did not even leave the guest house for two days, even then did pretty much nothing for five days.
We returned to Phnom Penh feeling more robust and armed with our Visas we jumped aboard a barge waiting to take us to the Vietnamese border and thence to the Mekong Delta.
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Hilary
non-member comment
Happy Christmas
Christine and Terry Good to hear from you again - all those back at home start to worry when the gap gets too long. Back in blighty we have a heavy covering of snow this weekends and odds are shortening on a white christmas. Not so where you are! Best wishes for your second christmas and new year away from home. Hilary