Angkor, Wat the ?!...
Trip Start
Jul 19, 2009
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17
20
Trip End
Dec 29, 2009
Chau Doc, Vietnam
Monday, November 30, 2009
Our first stop was Siem Reap, home of the world's largest religious building, Angkor Wat. For the first couple of days we explored the city by tuk-tuks, seeing temples full of monks, going to great bars and restaurants and visiting all the various markets, where the kids learnt to barter, which they thought was great fun. We bought so much stuff our final purchase was another bag to go in the hold of the plane !!!
We were up at 5am to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. The scale of it only became clear as the sun came up - the site is 1.5km by 1.3km ! Built in the 1100s, it once housed a million people. It is unspoilt, compared to the other temples, as neither the jungle, nor wars touched it, due to its importance. We walked along corridors hundreds of metres long, covered with ornate carvings and our guide explained a little of the meanings of them all. It remains an important symbol to the Cambodians (it's on everything from their flag to beer cans) and of course now has a role as a major source of tourist dollars.
From the biggest temple we went to the most incredible - Ta Prohm. This temple was taken over by the jungle and huge roots smother the stonework, like the tentacles of the monster from Alien. It was rediscovered in the 1960s and now there is an ongoing war between the jungle and the renovators. In places the branches and roots are so intertwined with the temples, they cannot be removed, giving a very otherworldly feel. Tomb Raider was filmed here and the whole place has a real Indiana Jones vibe.
Then the highlight of the day for the kids - an elephant ride. Anita, Jacob and Millie climbed up and went on a tour around the Bayon temple at Angkor Thom, which we later saw fully. This temple has hundreds of enigmatic faces carved into it and the view from the elephant was excellent. The kids and I then got to feed the elephants bananas, which was fun, though Millie was pretty scared. More temples followed, ending with sunset at Angkor - all in all one of the best days we have had thus far.
We also went to Tonle Sap, which is the biggest lake in South East Asia and home to a million Vietnamese and Cambodians who live in floating villages. These are a combination of boats, houses on stilts and bamboo platforms. There are schools, football pitches, petrol stations and even churches floating on the water - incredible. Our boat took us around the area and we were regularly approached or even boarded by locals on little boats, either selling drinks, bananas, snakes - or just begging for 'one dorrar'. It was heartbreaking stuff to see kids as young as Milllie fending for themselves, including a little girl rowing a bath tub offering to let people take pictures with her snake, with the continual cry for 'one dorrar'.
To be fair, there is a lot of relief work and excellent charity work going on, with Non Governmental Agencies doing some great work. We went to a photography exhibition where the artists were street kids, who were in a charity funded school and all given cameras to take pictures in a national competition. A few days later Anita and Jacob went to the school and were shown around. Our kids donated a few of their toys to them, which was very generous of them. In Phnom Penh we also dined at a restaurant, where all the chefs and waiters were street kids, which was fantastic.
Phnom Penh is just 40mins by plane from Siem Reap and is Cambodia's capital city. It is home to the Royal Family and about a million motorbikes. We visited the Royal Palace - the highlight of which is the silver temple, which has a floor made from over 5000 silver tiles - the result of melting down all the silver coins when the country converted to a notes only currency ! It also houses a 90kg gold buddha encrusted with over 2000 diamonds - needless to say Jacob was impressed ! We also toured the national museum, home to lots of the treasures formerly housed in Angkor Wat and the other temples.
From Phnom Penh we were taken by boat up the Mekong Delta today to Chau Doc in Vietnam, from where I am writing. Not long ago this was one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world and I had a few Apocolapse Now moments as we sped up the river. We are now staying in one of the best hotels in the country - a stunning French-owned colonial building, where we have TWO rooms (kids in the twin room, us in double with connecting doors).
But as our boat left the jetty and we were enjoying welcome drinks and the kids were opening their presents from the hotel (!) we had another 'OH MY GOD WHERE'S LAMBY ?' moment. This time he was trying to escape up the Mekong to Saigon, having stayed on the boat ! A phone call and 15 minutes later, the boat captain brought him back to us, to add another chapter to his book of adventures.
Tomorrow we are being taken to explore the floating markets and fish farms before spending the night with a local family in their house, which should give us a great insight into Vietnam. From there we go to Saigon and begin to head up the coast.
Hope you are all well and getting Christmassy - got to say it seems odd to think that December starts tomorrow and that we'll be home this time next month.
