The temples visit continued in the morning on Thursday 21st February, when we headed to the oldest temple, Banteay Srei, which is about 25km from Siem Riep (see first and third photo). It was built by Jayavarman V and finished in AD968. The complex comprises several buildings and has some fine carvings in pink sandstone. We also visited a much smaller temple, Banteay Samre, as it was not far from where our guide lives and which was very pleasant, as it was pretty much tourist free.
At the temples children bombard you at every corner trying to sell you all sorts of things - fruit, books, cheap jewellery. You also see a lot of men with a leg or an arm missing - victims of Cambodia's landmines. About 6 million land mines were laid in Cambodia over a period of 40 years, so a trip to the Landmine Museum was obligatory. The Museum was set up by Aki Ra, a former child Khmer Rouge conscript, you lay thousands of mines when he was in the Khmer Rouge. When the Khmer Rouge were toppled, he fought for the Cambodian Army and he then helped the United Nations to clear the land mines. Over the last 15 years, Aki has cleared about 50,000 land mines and has collected various bombs, guns and shrapnel, which are now housed in the museum. Aki Ra is doing fantastic work but there are 27,000 victims of land mines in the Siem Riep province alone and this figure rises daily. He estimates that it will take up to 50 or 100 years to find and clear every land mine.
In the evening four of us took a tuk tuk out to Lake Tonle Sap, which is the largest lake in South East Asia. Each year during the rainy season, the swelling Mekong River backflows into the lake via the Tonle Sap River. During the dry season, the lake's surface area is 2,500 square kilometres but expands to 10,000 kilometres. Our guide told us that it would cost US$ to get to the lake, but what he forgot to tell us was that the boat ride would be an extra US$15-25 (I quote that range as the group of four who went earlier than we did were told it would cost US$25, whereas we were told US$15). We bought tickets through gritted teeth but were really glad to do so. The trip includes a visit to the floating village of Chong Kneas, which gives an insight into life on the lake and homes in the Cambodian countryside. We went to the crocodile farm on the lake where children as young as seven or eight had snakes wrapped around their necks. I am not sure if they were alive or not but quite a bit of time was spent avoiding them, as the kids had a tendency to run after you with snake in tow! The sun setting on the lake was spectacular, with red and orange hues illuminating the fishing boats (see photos).
In the evening I had an incident with the washing, which I had dropped off a day earlier at the local laundry around the hotel. The laundry was recommended by our guide and I discovered that a very nice skirt which I had bought in New Zealand had either been misplaced or stolen. I did not get very far with the owners, as they spoke no English and the guy working at the hotel didn't speak very good English either. Unfortunately our guide was pretty useless (as he has been for a lot of things on this trip), so I ended up having to deal with the problem myself. The next day, though, our guide told us that he had a few things go missing at local laundries and the first thing to go missing were ladies' bras. I was absolutely livid and nearly thumped him one, as what was the point telling me after the event that things go missing?!! He could have at least warned us not to put things we really like into the laundry on the basis that they go walkabout. I don't think Blair really has a clue about being a good tour guide.
On Friday 22nd February (my brothers' birthday - Happy Birthday!), we had early start to take the bus back to Bangkok. The state of the road to the Thai border is a bit third world and the bus spent ages avoiding large pot holes in the road - in the meantime, the bags and cases were being thrown around all over the place. The road won't be tarmacked until 2009.
It was quite nice being back in Thailand and it felt very modern in comparison to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. The group went out for our final dinner, and we then headed with our drinking heads on to the bars on the Kao San road (where the backpackers stay). Just our luck that the Thai elections were taking place that day and on the Sunday, as most of the bars stopped serving beer at 6pm! After a long trawl, we did find a bar which was serving alcohol - buckets of vodka, whisky, gin and mixers. They must have had an effect, though, as I challenged a very good Irish guy to a game of pool and proceeded to pot 5 balls in a row. He did beat me by a couple of balls and breathed a huge sigh of relief, happy not to have been embarrassingly been beaten by a girl. Men! We also sampled a Thai disco, or a local meat market, where all the Thai girls were throwing themselves at Western men. It was quite amusing. It is a sight you see quite a lot in Bangkok - Thai women with Western men old enough to be their fathers.
The trip ended on Saturday morning and it was quite sad. Having spent 29 days with the group, we all gelled very well and had a great time (crap guide notwithstanding). I bought so many things on this trip and had to ship 11 kilos of purchases home. The post office was a dodgy counter in a shopping centre in Chinatown near our hotel, so fingers crossed it arrives home. I also managed to squeeze in a final two hour Thai foot and body massage before heading to the next leg, diving in the Maldives.
At the temples children bombard you at every corner trying to sell you all sorts of things - fruit, books, cheap jewellery. You also see a lot of men with a leg or an arm missing - victims of Cambodia's landmines. About 6 million land mines were laid in Cambodia over a period of 40 years, so a trip to the Landmine Museum was obligatory. The Museum was set up by Aki Ra, a former child Khmer Rouge conscript, you lay thousands of mines when he was in the Khmer Rouge. When the Khmer Rouge were toppled, he fought for the Cambodian Army and he then helped the United Nations to clear the land mines. Over the last 15 years, Aki has cleared about 50,000 land mines and has collected various bombs, guns and shrapnel, which are now housed in the museum. Aki Ra is doing fantastic work but there are 27,000 victims of land mines in the Siem Riep province alone and this figure rises daily. He estimates that it will take up to 50 or 100 years to find and clear every land mine.
In the evening four of us took a tuk tuk out to Lake Tonle Sap, which is the largest lake in South East Asia. Each year during the rainy season, the swelling Mekong River backflows into the lake via the Tonle Sap River. During the dry season, the lake's surface area is 2,500 square kilometres but expands to 10,000 kilometres. Our guide told us that it would cost US$ to get to the lake, but what he forgot to tell us was that the boat ride would be an extra US$15-25 (I quote that range as the group of four who went earlier than we did were told it would cost US$25, whereas we were told US$15). We bought tickets through gritted teeth but were really glad to do so. The trip includes a visit to the floating village of Chong Kneas, which gives an insight into life on the lake and homes in the Cambodian countryside. We went to the crocodile farm on the lake where children as young as seven or eight had snakes wrapped around their necks. I am not sure if they were alive or not but quite a bit of time was spent avoiding them, as the kids had a tendency to run after you with snake in tow! The sun setting on the lake was spectacular, with red and orange hues illuminating the fishing boats (see photos).
In the evening I had an incident with the washing, which I had dropped off a day earlier at the local laundry around the hotel. The laundry was recommended by our guide and I discovered that a very nice skirt which I had bought in New Zealand had either been misplaced or stolen. I did not get very far with the owners, as they spoke no English and the guy working at the hotel didn't speak very good English either. Unfortunately our guide was pretty useless (as he has been for a lot of things on this trip), so I ended up having to deal with the problem myself. The next day, though, our guide told us that he had a few things go missing at local laundries and the first thing to go missing were ladies' bras. I was absolutely livid and nearly thumped him one, as what was the point telling me after the event that things go missing?!! He could have at least warned us not to put things we really like into the laundry on the basis that they go walkabout. I don't think Blair really has a clue about being a good tour guide.
On Friday 22nd February (my brothers' birthday - Happy Birthday!), we had early start to take the bus back to Bangkok. The state of the road to the Thai border is a bit third world and the bus spent ages avoiding large pot holes in the road - in the meantime, the bags and cases were being thrown around all over the place. The road won't be tarmacked until 2009.
It was quite nice being back in Thailand and it felt very modern in comparison to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. The group went out for our final dinner, and we then headed with our drinking heads on to the bars on the Kao San road (where the backpackers stay). Just our luck that the Thai elections were taking place that day and on the Sunday, as most of the bars stopped serving beer at 6pm! After a long trawl, we did find a bar which was serving alcohol - buckets of vodka, whisky, gin and mixers. They must have had an effect, though, as I challenged a very good Irish guy to a game of pool and proceeded to pot 5 balls in a row. He did beat me by a couple of balls and breathed a huge sigh of relief, happy not to have been embarrassingly been beaten by a girl. Men! We also sampled a Thai disco, or a local meat market, where all the Thai girls were throwing themselves at Western men. It was quite amusing. It is a sight you see quite a lot in Bangkok - Thai women with Western men old enough to be their fathers.
The trip ended on Saturday morning and it was quite sad. Having spent 29 days with the group, we all gelled very well and had a great time (crap guide notwithstanding). I bought so many things on this trip and had to ship 11 kilos of purchases home. The post office was a dodgy counter in a shopping centre in Chinatown near our hotel, so fingers crossed it arrives home. I also managed to squeeze in a final two hour Thai foot and body massage before heading to the next leg, diving in the Maldives.
No comments:
Post a Comment