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Published: September 15th 2008
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Sept. 4 - 9, 2008
We had a night back at The Okay Guest House in Phnom Penh, after Sihanoukville, and they booked us into their sister’s Yellow Guest House in Siem Reap. Beautiful bus ride as we headed north from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap -smooth paved road, rice paddies, bamboo and wood houses on stilts. We did get a flat tire en route…so got to stop in the beautiful country side and see the people and the cows and the water buffalo.
The Yellow Guest House staff was very welcoming and Christoph, Julia, Al and Robin arranged with them for one of their staff, Mab, to be our tuk tuk driver for our 3 days touring the Angkor Temples. We were very excited as we headed into the famous Angkor ruins. So much ancient history and after seeing the great ruins of the Mayans, Al was interested in the comparisons that could be made. It is stunning. Hiring a tuk-tuk to tour us around was perfect as the site is very large and as much as 30kms to the farthest site.
We started out very early (left the Yellow Guest House at 0430 in the pitch
dark!!!) the first day of our three day tour to see the sunrise on Angkor Wat temple. We were some of the first to arrive -finding our way through the dark with our flashlight - and were shocked when we turned around after the light came up to see several hundred others behind us. All impressed but seriously in need of coffee. This first day took us through Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Prasat Bayon and the Elephant Terrace.
Our second day started with the magnificent Ta Prohm. Perhaps the most beautiful temple ruin in the world. This is entropy at its finest. Thank goodness the restoration zealots were over-ruled and the value of leaving this one alone was recognized. The trees show us that anything we humans do must eventually achieve equilibrium with nature.
Our tuk-tuk driver Mab continued to drive us to Banteay Kdei, East Mebon, Ta Som ( a mini Ta Prohm), Neak Pean and Preah Khan. It was great to be able to stop and stay as long as we wanted at each temple site and know he would be there to continue our drive. We finished off the second day watching the sunset
over Angkor Wat from Bakheng. As we walked upward along the path, men disabled from landmines played beautiful music. We climbed up the steep stairs to the top of the temple -with many other tourists! - and saw a glorious sunset.
The third day required a long tuk-tuk ride of 50 kms. out to the Valley of a Thousand Lingas - Kbal Spean. Christoph and Julia were in one tuk-tuk and Al and Robin in a second -so we could all face forward! Fabulous to see the country side. A beautiful hike up through the jungle to a waterfall and a very old site. Here the women and priests would come to bring good fortune to future families. Judging from all the Linga and the Yonis carved into the rocks here there must have been the odd bit of the old nooky in the bushes. The wonderful carvings at Banteay Srey, “Citadel of the Woman” (37 km. from Siem Reap) were next. Such detail. It must have taken thousands of carvers many decades to finish this one.
We finished off our third day back where we started - on the edge of the northern reflecting pool facing Angkor
Wat -with cold Angkor beers in hand (a relief in the heat!). The sun set over Angkor. And we were so glad we had three days to explore it. Still much that we missed but we were awed by what we saw.
This is by far the biggest thing that poor Cambodia has going for it. Although this was the slow season, the tourist traffic here was quite intense at many of the sites. Siem Reap the nearby town is now a city and growing quickly. Rumours of corruption are everywhere and we heard the Angkor Wat ruins had been sold to Koreans. Please Say it ain’t so.
All in all a must see if you are in the area. And Siem Reap was a fun city to explore. Great restaurants and bars and markets. We ate very well! We took another day after the Temple touring to just explore the city itself. Robin visited the Angkor Hospital for Children, started in 1999 by the famous Japanese photographer Kenro Izu. She was not able to go into the hospital but had a virtual tour in the “Friends without A Border” building on the hospital grounds. There is a
dengue fever epidemic on right now and, tragically, many children are affected and many live too far away to get to health treatment in time. Everywhere we have toured in the country side we see children and more children.
We headed off to Battambang next, on September 9th, to see some of western Cambodia. Unfortunately we were talked out of the boat trip instead of the bus. The bus trip was a gruelling 150km of road construction Cambodian style. We did see some interesting countryside and Cambodian rural life. More pictures and stories coming on the next blog!
Hope all is well with each of you!
Love Al and Robin
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David
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Wonderful Photos
Robin, Alan - I haven't checked for a while. The area sounds fascinating and the photos are great. We can't wait to talk to you and plan a visit to the area with you advice. You're still sounding well and seem full of energy. We're doing just great here too. Busy, but we're going to take some time to head out to visit family in Ab this weekend. Hopeful that Kelsey (38 today) and Sarah can come out for a few days before, but the markets are going crazy and he may not be able to. We're planning to drop into Nelson and Grand Forks on the return portion of our trip. I'll encourage everyone to log in, read and send a message. Love et al, David