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Published: January 23rd 2008
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Angkor Wat
What Anchor - we thought it was a pub! The day started early our guide came for us at 8. He was a funny little thing, very knowledgeable but a bit wierd, Tina thought he had a bit of sh*t under his nose! Anyway he knew his stuff! First we visited Angkor Wat which are temple ruins dating from the 9th to 13th century AD Khmer Empire. We had to have a pass with our photos on to visit them. We bought a 3 day pass but was "templed out" by day two (do you remember that feeling Jools and Bim!) Angkor Wat is the most famous but by no means the most exciting or memorable. I think it's fair to say that both our favourites was the Ta Phon which is where Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones was filmed. If you're a culture vulture and want to know more, read on, if you couldn't give a damn skip the next paragraph.
Angkor Wat was built by Suryavarman II to honour the God Vishu (answer to your question David! - you thought we weren't paying attention didn't you), anyway as I was saying.... Ankhor Wat was built as a funeral temple. The central temple, the tallest has 3 levels Tomb Raider
Lara Croft watch out - TOGA's about! all accessed by varying degrees of status. It's surrounded by a moat to protect it from invaders, and also symbolises the sea. The contruction symbolises the mountains and took 37 years to build.
Ta Phon - This is a very popular temple although never been reconstructed or renovated. Its a maze of narrow corridors and crumbling stonework (reminded me of the Forum in Rome). Trees and roots grow through the structures and are absolutely amazing. We really loved this place.
Angkor Thom is the palace consisting of the temple Bayon which has 216 gargoyle like faces staring down at you. It was built around 1200 by Jayavarman VII (good ruler according to our guide). The palace also consists of two terraces - the terrace of elephants and the terrace of lepers. It's built as a city which has 5 gates.
(2nd day) Banteay Srey is one of the most popular temples although 30 odd kilometres away from Angkor Wat. I can understand why - it's beautiful. It was built for the queen in pink sandstone and has some of the most elaborate carvings I've ever seen.
There were a few others we saw Prasat Kravan (a brick built temple), Preah
Piles
We meant piles of rubble with trees! Kahn and a few others but nothing to write home about. Here endeth the history lesson!
(Tina) In the afternoon after a really nice lunch in a Khmer restaurant over looking a lake (reminded me of home), we went to a floating village, very different from the floating market we had been to. As we approached this vile smell permeated the air, probably one of the foulest smells I've ever smelt, even worse than following Penfold in the toilet, yes that bad! You don't believe people live like this, you really do have to see it to believe it, we went down a very long and dusty track to get to the boat and it was lined with wooden huts of varying sizes and conditions all built on the river's edge on stilts, such poverty and filth.
We paid 25US$ for a private boat (although it was still very primitive) that took us to see the floating village, which consisted of schools, including basketball court, churches, and peoples boat houses, interspersed with jungle, once out on the river the smell eased a bit but not the disbelief that this is some peoples world. 90%!o(MISSING)f these people are
Beautiful Baby
Shame about the dad!
New addition anyone? Vietnemese boat people who fled there country about thirty years ago and have never gone back. The Cambodian government make no attempt to send them back although from the attitude of the guide the Khmer people would like to see the back of them. It was extremely upsetting to see this first hand but as on many occasions since we have been in this part of the World, you feel extremely priviliged to live the wonderful life we do, "there but for the grace of God" is a phrase that is never far from our thoughts.
On our way back to our guesthouse we stopped at the country house (that sounds very grand but you all have gardens sheds that are like palaces compared to this, it was nothing more than a shack) of our guide's daughter, she lives there with her mother and her mothers family. The guide is a part-time teacher at a college as well as studying and a tour guide, and the babys mum was his student, anyhow he got her pregnant but didn't want to be with her, she wouldn't get rid of the baby so he now visits the child every so often
People Live Like This!
You're lucky this isn't in "smelly-vision"! and pays 50us$ a month towards her up-keep. She is a beautiful 3 year old girl and he said to us that he would like us to take her to the UK and put her in an orphanage there because he believed that she would have a better life there than here. So if there is anybody out there who would like a new addition let us know? Only joking , we know your not allowed and she would have to be sent back when she's older, which would be very difficult to do, but you just want to get hold of these babies and take them away from all this.
After a heart-wrenching few hours we went for a bit of retail therapy and had a couple of hours wandering aroung the old market. Some beautiful things for next to nothing, (is it too early to buy another suitcase, I'm asking myself?), did buy a couple of bits for pressies and then headed back to the guesthouse for a well needed shower (via a bar for a pint), in a moto-romauk (a tuk tuk pulled by a motorbike).
(Lynda) I'd read in a few books or magazines
Floating Village
This makes it look glamourous - trust us it's not. about a Jamie Oliver type restaurant who give as risk young people opportunities to learn skills in cooking and hospitality ( I really wanted to go - right up my street!) So we got a tuk tuk and went there - well I was ashamed to walk in it was so posh! I looked at the menu and realised this was out of our league - A meal there was $22 compared to $3.50 the previous night. So we abandoned that idea and got the tuk tuk to take us into town. We hit pub street (which is the main street with bars and restaurants) had a really good meal for about $6 with drinks and mosied around having a drink here the there until it was bedtime. Such a funny image met us. The guesthouse was gated up and on the terrace by the entrance was, what looked like a giant net food cover. Inside the security guard was sleeping. (Don't think Julie would fancy "security" here!) We couldn't resist taking a picture!
Thats all folks! See you in Phnom Penh xxx
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carrie
non-member comment
sleeping on the job
i really hope that security guard is not being paid too much, he is supposed to be looking out for you! Nat had a fab time at olive oil factory yesterday the teacher said she would'nt stop eating it. And yes mum i have listened to maria-jesus's advice much to natalies annoyance. love carriexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ps i would love a little adoptee if you could fit one in.xxxxx