Thailand, Laos and Cambodia Trip Report
Mar 15th, 2008, 06:51 PM
#81
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I love your three day temple tour list! I might use it
At the end, please tell us if you would have switched it up in any way, or added/deleted temples.
I am really enjoying your report. Thanks for keeping the details in.
At the end, please tell us if you would have switched it up in any way, or added/deleted temples.I am really enjoying your report. Thanks for keeping the details in.
Mar 15th, 2008, 07:52 PM
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Our favorite temple was Ta Som. When we were there, it was unrestored... one of those temples with the trees growing through it simultaneously holding it together and pulling it apart. We especially loved the gate at the back of the temple, which looks like the entrance to some magical land, with the roots growing around and through the carvings. We visited twice, and had were often the only visitors. To sit in the quiet of the jungle within a Khmer temple was so lovely. Just before we left Siem Reap, they started some stabilization work on the temple. I've wondered since whether it has retained that wonderful wild quality of the unrestored temples.
Jun 11th, 2008, 10:13 PM
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I'm sorry I left this report midway. I surely want to complete it.
Siem Reap, Cambodia December 2, 2007
Ok, this is long. Go grab a coffee!
Dara was back as our guide today. The agenda for the day was to visit some far off temples, less frequented by visitors. The itinerary for the day was:
* Kbal Spean
* Bantey Srei
* Beng Mealea
* Rolous group of temples.
Part 1: Kbal Spean
At 8AM, we drove out of Siem Reap and it was our first taste of the Cambodian countryside - absolutely lovely! There were rice fields with houses on stilts and water buffaloes in the fields. The houses are built on stilts to provide shade in the hot Cambodian afternoons and to protect the houses from floods. It was picture perfect. The highways seemed to be well maintained. We later learned that the highways most frequented by tourists are maintained (often with support from more developed countries) whereas the others are left out. After 45 minutes of driving, we drove past the Bantey Srei temple and then the road became a dirt road and as the car sped, there was red dust flying everywhere. At this point we were approximately 100 kms from the Thai border.
After 30 minutes of driving on this dust road, we arrived at Kabal Spean. It is located on the top of the Kulen hills, where the Siem Reap river originates.The stones for the temples of Cambodia came from these hills; cut into slabs, transported downriver and then a combination of elephants and workers hauled them to the construction sites. Even at this remote spot, there was someone sitting (utterly bored) to check our passes.
Kabal Spean has 1000+ shivlings and also a few carvings of other Hindu gods. The reason for having these Shivlings at such a location was the following: The river Ganga flows from Kailash Parvat, the abode of Lord Shiva according to Hindu mythology and thus the water is holy. Since it was practically impossible to get the water of the Ganga to Cambodia, the king built these Shivlings so that the water could touch them first, thereby becoming holy and then flow to the Khmer cities.
The hike up to Kabal Spean is on a muddy path through the forest. At many points, we just had to figure out how to climb up, which was a lot of fun but also hurt my already injured knee. Along the way, Dara and I talked a lot, mostly about his life: Growing up in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime, memories of his father (a teacher who was killed by the Khmer Rouge), his days in the post-KR army, and then how he became a tour guide and now runs his own guesthouse in Siem Reap.
We saw jungle vine which is very strong. It is the same vine that was used to pull the stones to build the temples. Once we got to the top, we saw the shivlings and many are on the riverbed. We walked around taking pictures. There is a fascinating natural bridge that was formed over the river, so it looks as if the river is flowing and then suddenly disappears beneath the earth, and further along it re-appears. There are even more shivlings down below. We met a German/Indian couple from Singapore and so we spent some time talking about each others’ travels.
On the way down, Dara and I talked more about our respective lives.
Dara: I could not afford a roof for my guesthouse at one point. People stayed at five-star hotels. My guesthouse was 1000-star.
From Kbal Spean, we drove back on the dirt road to Bantey Strei.
Part 2: Bantey Srei
Bantey Srei is unlike most of the temples that we had seen so far.
* It is made of pink stone, instead of the gray/bluish sandstone of other temples.
* The architecture is closer to that of temples in India.
* The size of the complex is much smaller and so are the buildings.
* Almost every wall has carvings on it, to a point where it felt as if they were forced
* The doors are so small that the people had to bend forward to enter the building. (All these buildings are now off limits)
Walking around the complex, even in the heat (it was near noonish) we could not take our eyes off the beautiful carvings on the walls (mostly depicting scenes from the Mahabharatha). It was all so fascinating! There is a pool in front of the temple and the views of the entire complex in front of the pool are fabulous!
However, it was sad to learn that no country has picked up restoration efforts at this lovely complex.
Outside the temple, we met Ponheary (Dara’s sister) and talked to her for a while. We also met a couple from the RTP-area and spoke to them for a while as well. I bought a book from one of the street vendors. Dara asked us if we were hungry and since we were not, off we went to our next destination – Beng Maelea!
Part 3: Bang Malea
Bang Maelea is usually not on the list of most people who visit the temples in Cambodia. And for good reason: Getting to Beng Maelea is neither easy nor cheap. It is more than an hour away from Siem Reap (and Bantey Srei) and the road is not paved for some parts (especially if you go from Bantey Srei).
The road to Beng Maelea took us through a lot of rice fields and mango plantations and we saw many vacation homes of people from the cities. Nice houses. It reminded us of houses in smaller towns and villages in India. The road was, of course, a dirt road. Initially it did not have stones, but later the entire road had large stones. As we got onto that road, Dara even mentioned that in case we have a flat tire not to worry, since there is a spare one. We replied. Great, but we hope something does not go wrong. The dirt road was mostly empty and we passed fruit orchards on one side and empty fields (and a view of the Kulen hills) on the other side. And almost 80% of the way into the road – BAM!!
We pulled over to the side and the right hand side rear wheel had blasted! I’ve never seen a tire blast like that. Hong, our driver, quickly put the spare one on and we were off. Luckily, the road after that was not as bad. We then reached the post where we had to pay $5 each (for Heena and myself only. Dara/Hong did not need a ticket) to enter the area. This is separate from the $40 we paid to enter the Angkor complex. It turns out different companies mange these complexes and hence the extra cost.
The temple is down to a rubble. Initially we thought it collapsed due to negligence and the Khmer Rouge stupidity, but it turns out that the actual reason was pillagers! They broke the temple foundations with the
hope of finding priceless artifacts, but instead found themselves buried in the rubble. Good riddance, ya! It has recently been de-mined, but we saw workers still looking for mines around the temple.When it was still standing (and the idiot pillagers had not looted it) it was a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu.
When we got to Beng Maelea, there was a sugarcane juice vendor outside the temple – just like India! We got 2 glasses of fresh sugarcase juice from him. I know you're thinking we were crazy to drink juice off the street, and that too in a remote part of Asia, but it was worth it We walked along a road, across the moat (all temples have moats) and finally reached the temple. It finally dawned on us how ruined this temple is. There is no real way to even enter the temple anymore. There is a wooden walkway built and that’s the only way to enter the temple (in reality the wooden walkway is "over" the roof of the collapsed structure). There were security guards around who ensure that you do not stray off the path and blow yourself up by stepping on an unfound mine. As soon as you get to the temple, a guard will accompany you (regardless of whether you have a guide with you or not) and lead the way. They are mostly poor villagers who make some money from this job (and tips). So our guard led the way. The wooden plank is build on the top of the temple (or whatever remains of it), but you can hardly tell. It was slightly weird and we really felt we were walking in a ruin. Suddenly, the plank ended. And we thought, oh that’s it! We felt disappointed that we drove this far, burst a car tire, skipped lunch and paid so much money for a 5 minute walk on a wooden plank, in a temple we could make no sense of?!? Oh man!
Then suddenly, Dara jumped into a window, and asked us to do the same. “There is a way from here!”, he said! Instantly we were excited since we knew this would be fun! So we climbed through the window and the guide and Dara guided us through a pile of rocks (up and down the pile) and into the center of the temple (more like the northern part of the center). It was amazing and a lot of fun. We exited the temple from the north side and walked around the front of the temple (facing east). Amidst the growth of trees and pile of rocks it was hard to tell this was the entrance. But the classic depiction of “samudra manthan” told us it was. All in all, we must have spent over an hour at this temple. It was awesome, and we felt it was totally worth the time and money. I highly recommend a visit to this temple.
Part 4: The Rolous Group
After Beng Maelea, we then drove towards Siem Reap (different road, not the tyre blasting road). Our next desitnation was the Roulous group of temples.
The road was quite good and we mentioned it to Dara. He said: “This road is Japanese style until Siem Reap. Then it is Cambodian style”.
Along the way, I asked Dara a lot of questions about life in Cambodia and how it must have been during the Angkor era, after Angkor era and how it is now in terms of everyday life, infrastructure, education etc.
The first temple that we went to was Lo Lai. It has a modern monastery next to it, that is still in use. This temple is not restored and there were holdings put in place to prevent the buildings from falling down. On the walls were inscriptions in Sanskrit (but written in Khmer script). As we exited the temple, there was a group of orphans asking for donations for their orphanage. They were all smiling and very courteous. However, we later learned that the people who manage these orphanages make the children stand out to get donations and pocket the money many times. Sad.
Our next stop was Preah Ko: This was mostly built by the king for his ancestors (parents/in-laws). It was very beautiful and we loved it.
Lastly, we went to Bakheng. It was almost time for sunset and as the light made the stone shine gold. It was simply so beautiful. We climbed up this temple and admired the beauty. It is one of the sunset spots but we did not want to hang around for it. We were tired (so was Dara – according to Heena he was tired of answering my questions). So we drove back.
At the hotel we said our final goodbye’s to Dara and Hong. Dara thanked us for our time and interest in the temples and for coming to his country. I was so impressed by this man and his love for his country and its’ heritage.
In the evening we went to Currywalla for dinner. We were hungry and wanted some real food that would fill our tummy (for me this usually means paneer – haha). We had a meal of Samosa, Mattar Paneer, a Veg. Thali and coke (Coke never tasted better). We then walked around the “night market”. It was nothing close to the Chiang Mai night market and everyone sells exactly the same stuff – and its all of mediocre to cheap quality. The three days of touring was catching up with us and we decided to go back to the hotel and relax.
Siem Reap, Cambodia December 2, 2007
Ok, this is long. Go grab a coffee!
Dara was back as our guide today. The agenda for the day was to visit some far off temples, less frequented by visitors. The itinerary for the day was:
* Kbal Spean
* Bantey Srei
* Beng Mealea
* Rolous group of temples.
Part 1: Kbal Spean
At 8AM, we drove out of Siem Reap and it was our first taste of the Cambodian countryside - absolutely lovely! There were rice fields with houses on stilts and water buffaloes in the fields. The houses are built on stilts to provide shade in the hot Cambodian afternoons and to protect the houses from floods. It was picture perfect. The highways seemed to be well maintained. We later learned that the highways most frequented by tourists are maintained (often with support from more developed countries) whereas the others are left out. After 45 minutes of driving, we drove past the Bantey Srei temple and then the road became a dirt road and as the car sped, there was red dust flying everywhere. At this point we were approximately 100 kms from the Thai border.
After 30 minutes of driving on this dust road, we arrived at Kabal Spean. It is located on the top of the Kulen hills, where the Siem Reap river originates.The stones for the temples of Cambodia came from these hills; cut into slabs, transported downriver and then a combination of elephants and workers hauled them to the construction sites. Even at this remote spot, there was someone sitting (utterly bored) to check our passes.
Kabal Spean has 1000+ shivlings and also a few carvings of other Hindu gods. The reason for having these Shivlings at such a location was the following: The river Ganga flows from Kailash Parvat, the abode of Lord Shiva according to Hindu mythology and thus the water is holy. Since it was practically impossible to get the water of the Ganga to Cambodia, the king built these Shivlings so that the water could touch them first, thereby becoming holy and then flow to the Khmer cities.
The hike up to Kabal Spean is on a muddy path through the forest. At many points, we just had to figure out how to climb up, which was a lot of fun but also hurt my already injured knee. Along the way, Dara and I talked a lot, mostly about his life: Growing up in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime, memories of his father (a teacher who was killed by the Khmer Rouge), his days in the post-KR army, and then how he became a tour guide and now runs his own guesthouse in Siem Reap.
We saw jungle vine which is very strong. It is the same vine that was used to pull the stones to build the temples. Once we got to the top, we saw the shivlings and many are on the riverbed. We walked around taking pictures. There is a fascinating natural bridge that was formed over the river, so it looks as if the river is flowing and then suddenly disappears beneath the earth, and further along it re-appears. There are even more shivlings down below. We met a German/Indian couple from Singapore and so we spent some time talking about each others’ travels.
On the way down, Dara and I talked more about our respective lives.
Dara: I could not afford a roof for my guesthouse at one point. People stayed at five-star hotels. My guesthouse was 1000-star.
From Kbal Spean, we drove back on the dirt road to Bantey Strei.
Part 2: Bantey Srei
Bantey Srei is unlike most of the temples that we had seen so far.
* It is made of pink stone, instead of the gray/bluish sandstone of other temples.
* The architecture is closer to that of temples in India.
* The size of the complex is much smaller and so are the buildings.
* Almost every wall has carvings on it, to a point where it felt as if they were forced
* The doors are so small that the people had to bend forward to enter the building. (All these buildings are now off limits)
Walking around the complex, even in the heat (it was near noonish) we could not take our eyes off the beautiful carvings on the walls (mostly depicting scenes from the Mahabharatha). It was all so fascinating! There is a pool in front of the temple and the views of the entire complex in front of the pool are fabulous!
However, it was sad to learn that no country has picked up restoration efforts at this lovely complex.
Outside the temple, we met Ponheary (Dara’s sister) and talked to her for a while. We also met a couple from the RTP-area and spoke to them for a while as well. I bought a book from one of the street vendors. Dara asked us if we were hungry and since we were not, off we went to our next destination – Beng Maelea!
Part 3: Bang Malea
Bang Maelea is usually not on the list of most people who visit the temples in Cambodia. And for good reason: Getting to Beng Maelea is neither easy nor cheap. It is more than an hour away from Siem Reap (and Bantey Srei) and the road is not paved for some parts (especially if you go from Bantey Srei).
The road to Beng Maelea took us through a lot of rice fields and mango plantations and we saw many vacation homes of people from the cities. Nice houses. It reminded us of houses in smaller towns and villages in India. The road was, of course, a dirt road. Initially it did not have stones, but later the entire road had large stones. As we got onto that road, Dara even mentioned that in case we have a flat tire not to worry, since there is a spare one. We replied. Great, but we hope something does not go wrong. The dirt road was mostly empty and we passed fruit orchards on one side and empty fields (and a view of the Kulen hills) on the other side. And almost 80% of the way into the road – BAM!!
We pulled over to the side and the right hand side rear wheel had blasted! I’ve never seen a tire blast like that. Hong, our driver, quickly put the spare one on and we were off. Luckily, the road after that was not as bad. We then reached the post where we had to pay $5 each (for Heena and myself only. Dara/Hong did not need a ticket) to enter the area. This is separate from the $40 we paid to enter the Angkor complex. It turns out different companies mange these complexes and hence the extra cost.
The temple is down to a rubble. Initially we thought it collapsed due to negligence and the Khmer Rouge stupidity, but it turns out that the actual reason was pillagers! They broke the temple foundations with the
hope of finding priceless artifacts, but instead found themselves buried in the rubble. Good riddance, ya! It has recently been de-mined, but we saw workers still looking for mines around the temple.When it was still standing (and the idiot pillagers had not looted it) it was a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu.
When we got to Beng Maelea, there was a sugarcane juice vendor outside the temple – just like India! We got 2 glasses of fresh sugarcase juice from him. I know you're thinking we were crazy to drink juice off the street, and that too in a remote part of Asia, but it was worth it
We walked along a road, across the moat (all temples have moats) and finally reached the temple. It finally dawned on us how ruined this temple is. There is no real way to even enter the temple anymore. There is a wooden walkway built and that’s the only way to enter the temple (in reality the wooden walkway is "over" the roof of the collapsed structure). There were security guards around who ensure that you do not stray off the path and blow yourself up by stepping on an unfound mine. As soon as you get to the temple, a guard will accompany you (regardless of whether you have a guide with you or not) and lead the way. They are mostly poor villagers who make some money from this job (and tips). So our guard led the way. The wooden plank is build on the top of the temple (or whatever remains of it), but you can hardly tell. It was slightly weird and we really felt we were walking in a ruin. Suddenly, the plank ended. And we thought, oh that’s it! We felt disappointed that we drove this far, burst a car tire, skipped lunch and paid so much money for a 5 minute walk on a wooden plank, in a temple we could make no sense of?!? Oh man!Then suddenly, Dara jumped into a window, and asked us to do the same. “There is a way from here!”, he said! Instantly we were excited since we knew this would be fun! So we climbed through the window and the guide and Dara guided us through a pile of rocks (up and down the pile) and into the center of the temple (more like the northern part of the center). It was amazing and a lot of fun. We exited the temple from the north side and walked around the front of the temple (facing east). Amidst the growth of trees and pile of rocks it was hard to tell this was the entrance. But the classic depiction of “samudra manthan” told us it was. All in all, we must have spent over an hour at this temple. It was awesome, and we felt it was totally worth the time and money. I highly recommend a visit to this temple.
Part 4: The Rolous Group
After Beng Maelea, we then drove towards Siem Reap (different road, not the tyre blasting road). Our next desitnation was the Roulous group of temples.
The road was quite good and we mentioned it to Dara. He said: “This road is Japanese style until Siem Reap. Then it is Cambodian style”.
Along the way, I asked Dara a lot of questions about life in Cambodia and how it must have been during the Angkor era, after Angkor era and how it is now in terms of everyday life, infrastructure, education etc.
The first temple that we went to was Lo Lai. It has a modern monastery next to it, that is still in use. This temple is not restored and there were holdings put in place to prevent the buildings from falling down. On the walls were inscriptions in Sanskrit (but written in Khmer script). As we exited the temple, there was a group of orphans asking for donations for their orphanage. They were all smiling and very courteous. However, we later learned that the people who manage these orphanages make the children stand out to get donations and pocket the money many times. Sad.
Our next stop was Preah Ko: This was mostly built by the king for his ancestors (parents/in-laws). It was very beautiful and we loved it.
Lastly, we went to Bakheng. It was almost time for sunset and as the light made the stone shine gold. It was simply so beautiful. We climbed up this temple and admired the beauty. It is one of the sunset spots but we did not want to hang around for it. We were tired (so was Dara – according to Heena he was tired of answering my questions). So we drove back.
At the hotel we said our final goodbye’s to Dara and Hong. Dara thanked us for our time and interest in the temples and for coming to his country. I was so impressed by this man and his love for his country and its’ heritage.
In the evening we went to Currywalla for dinner. We were hungry and wanted some real food that would fill our tummy (for me this usually means paneer – haha). We had a meal of Samosa, Mattar Paneer, a Veg. Thali and coke (Coke never tasted better). We then walked around the “night market”. It was nothing close to the Chiang Mai night market and everyone sells exactly the same stuff – and its all of mediocre to cheap quality. The three days of touring was catching up with us and we decided to go back to the hotel and relax.
Jun 12th, 2008, 03:12 AM
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Bob & Karen,
Forget Au Bon Pain - my very favourite breakfast from Southern Thailand, for people with cast iron stomach, is the Khanom Jean Nam Ya Gai. Delicious and I'm sure your hotel can arrange some for you.
When will you be back in BKK? We just won, from AMEX, an all expense paid for trip to Chiang Mai staying at the brand new posh Veranda hotel. Hope it doesn't clash with our dinner!
Forget Au Bon Pain - my very favourite breakfast from Southern Thailand, for people with cast iron stomach, is the Khanom Jean Nam Ya Gai. Delicious and I'm sure your hotel can arrange some for you.
When will you be back in BKK? We just won, from AMEX, an all expense paid for trip to Chiang Mai staying at the brand new posh Veranda hotel. Hope it doesn't clash with our dinner!
Jun 12th, 2008, 01:24 PM
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Rahulm-as noted on the Solo Traveller returns... post by Ekscrunchy, a new penalty has emerged from the abyss. Specifically, the penalty arises from trip reports that are started and well under way and then there's a significant delay in their completion. E's thread may be such a transgressor. Yours may as well. however, I do note the essential benovolence of Pandas and you may have a viable excuse or reason. Originality counts heavily in excuses.
Jun 13th, 2008, 06:55 AM
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Ugh.. ok.. I just woke up and so if this is not good enough I dont know what can be... I had no electricity... I was saving money for my next trip to Asia. Hence no computer access. But I had it written down on paper. I even titled it - fodors report!
Jun 14th, 2008, 09:29 AM
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Cambodia: Day 4 Fishing Villages
Siem Reap, Cambodia
(Notes from my journal)
This was our last full day in Siem Reap. We kept this day largely unplanned and just wanted to see some of Siem Reap and, if possible, the Cambodian countryside.
In the morning, we woke up and went to The Blue Pumpkin for coffee and breakfast. The coffee and croissant was OK. It was nice to hang out there for a while. Then we went to the “Old Market” where there were a lot of tourists and locals shopping. We then got a horrible foot-massage somewhere there. Finally, we went to Khmer Kitchen for lunch. Fried rice, spring rolls, Khmer style curry with three soft drinks. Simply delicious and spicy (and for only $5)! After lunch, we headed back to our hotel. Gordon suggested to skip the touristy floating villages(which, by the way are not even Cambodian settlements) but instead, to go see a Cambodian fishing village. It’s not as touristy but promised a flavor of life in Cambodia. That sounded like a good idea and Gordon helped find a guide and we were on our way!
The guide took us in his tuk-tuk on the same “Japanese style” road. This time the feeling was different since the tuk-tuk is open and the dust hits you in the face. We could not even open our mouth without covering it (out of fear of swallowing dust, or worse, bugs). We then took a turn and passed through many small villages and it was quite pretty. Finally we came to a stop and he parked the tuk-tuk and said, from here we walk since the road is damaged. After a 10 minute walk, we reached an inlet and hired a boat and off we went. The boatman put a chair for me up front on the “deck” and I had a fun time sitting there until it got really windy.
After 35 minutes we arrived at a fishing village (Kompong Polok). There are ~5000 people living in the village and all the houses are built on stilts in the water. The only way to visit your neighbor is by boat!
We stopped at the local monastery, which was also the house of the head monk. Unfortunately, the head monk was out and hence we could not meet him. However, the house was open and our guide, Mahrom, took us to the top most terrace from where we could get a view of the surrounding area. I asked him questions about life there for a while. Almost everyone here is into fishing. They have no electricity but they all have modern amenities (esp. televisions) run on batteries and/or generators. They get everyday essentials from boats that come around selling whatever wares they need (vegetables, soap, wine… you name it).
After walking around a bit more, we got back on the boat and headed to the Tonle Sap lake. One of the reasons we took this trip to Kompong Polok and not the floating villages is because this part of the Tonle Sap lake has water for only 3-4 months a year (and it did when we were there). The rest of the time, its dry land. This is because as the Mekong river flows down from China, and during the rainy season it swells up and the waters flow back up into the Tonle Sap lake. We passed a lot of mangroves and finally hit the lake. Its huge!
The boatman stopped the boat in the middle of the lake and we spent about ½ hour chatting with each other about this and that (mostly their life in Cambodia). Then we headed back.
As the sun began to set (and I hate sunsets), a weird feeling began to dawn on me. Our trip was almost coming to an end. I was not ready for it. I had planned to come to Cambodia for 10+ years. I finally did. I saw the most amazing temples. We loved SE Asia. The people, the food, the place, the vibe. Everything. I was sad to be leaving soon, but happy that we had the chance to meet learn so much, meet some amazing people and experience these wonderful places.
Mahrom driver dropped us back at pub-street and get got dinner at a Khmer restaurant. The food was very good and they were very accomodating to our vegetarian needs. We then walked back home, along the Siem Reap river. It was lovely.
We went to bed early that night, since the next day, we planned to leave around 7 am. Next stop: Back to Bangkok!
Siem Reap, Cambodia
(Notes from my journal)
This was our last full day in Siem Reap. We kept this day largely unplanned and just wanted to see some of Siem Reap and, if possible, the Cambodian countryside.
In the morning, we woke up and went to The Blue Pumpkin for coffee and breakfast. The coffee and croissant was OK. It was nice to hang out there for a while. Then we went to the “Old Market” where there were a lot of tourists and locals shopping. We then got a horrible foot-massage somewhere there. Finally, we went to Khmer Kitchen for lunch. Fried rice, spring rolls, Khmer style curry with three soft drinks. Simply delicious and spicy (and for only $5)! After lunch, we headed back to our hotel. Gordon suggested to skip the touristy floating villages(which, by the way are not even Cambodian settlements) but instead, to go see a Cambodian fishing village. It’s not as touristy but promised a flavor of life in Cambodia. That sounded like a good idea and Gordon helped find a guide and we were on our way!
The guide took us in his tuk-tuk on the same “Japanese style” road. This time the feeling was different since the tuk-tuk is open and the dust hits you in the face. We could not even open our mouth without covering it (out of fear of swallowing dust, or worse, bugs). We then took a turn and passed through many small villages and it was quite pretty. Finally we came to a stop and he parked the tuk-tuk and said, from here we walk since the road is damaged. After a 10 minute walk, we reached an inlet and hired a boat and off we went. The boatman put a chair for me up front on the “deck” and I had a fun time sitting there until it got really windy.
After 35 minutes we arrived at a fishing village (Kompong Polok). There are ~5000 people living in the village and all the houses are built on stilts in the water. The only way to visit your neighbor is by boat!
We stopped at the local monastery, which was also the house of the head monk. Unfortunately, the head monk was out and hence we could not meet him. However, the house was open and our guide, Mahrom, took us to the top most terrace from where we could get a view of the surrounding area. I asked him questions about life there for a while. Almost everyone here is into fishing. They have no electricity but they all have modern amenities (esp. televisions) run on batteries and/or generators. They get everyday essentials from boats that come around selling whatever wares they need (vegetables, soap, wine… you name it).
After walking around a bit more, we got back on the boat and headed to the Tonle Sap lake. One of the reasons we took this trip to Kompong Polok and not the floating villages is because this part of the Tonle Sap lake has water for only 3-4 months a year (and it did when we were there). The rest of the time, its dry land. This is because as the Mekong river flows down from China, and during the rainy season it swells up and the waters flow back up into the Tonle Sap lake. We passed a lot of mangroves and finally hit the lake. Its huge!
The boatman stopped the boat in the middle of the lake and we spent about ½ hour chatting with each other about this and that (mostly their life in Cambodia). Then we headed back.
As the sun began to set (and I hate sunsets), a weird feeling began to dawn on me. Our trip was almost coming to an end. I was not ready for it. I had planned to come to Cambodia for 10+ years. I finally did. I saw the most amazing temples. We loved SE Asia. The people, the food, the place, the vibe. Everything. I was sad to be leaving soon, but happy that we had the chance to meet learn so much, meet some amazing people and experience these wonderful places.
Mahrom driver dropped us back at pub-street and get got dinner at a Khmer restaurant. The food was very good and they were very accomodating to our vegetarian needs. We then walked back home, along the Siem Reap river. It was lovely.
We went to bed early that night, since the next day, we planned to leave around 7 am. Next stop: Back to Bangkok!
Jun 14th, 2008, 12:05 PM
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HappyCheesehead: Thank you for the encouragement. I am sorry for not updating for a while. I always planned to finish it but the last few months were really busy and I did not get a chance to do writeups from my journal.
Jun 14th, 2008, 12:14 PM
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Back to Bangkok!!
Tuesday December 4, 2007, Siem Reap Cambodia, Bangkok Thailand.
Even though we were booked on a flight at 1 pm, there are many flights from SR to BKK throughout the day (all on Bangkok Airways) and we hoped to get onto an earlier one. We were at the airport at 7:30 am and were able to get seats on a flight at 9:50 am. We walked around the airport (took us 5 minutes) and then spent some time at a bookstore - reading travel books, of course. I mostly read up on Singapore and Malaysia, which I'm thinking is our next destination.
There was an outlet for Artisans D’Angkor so we spent some time in there. The stuff is nice, but expensive. We did eventually buy something.
At 8:30 we were really hungry, and got some extremely-overpriced tasteless coffee and croissant (since we had skipped breakfast) at some place on the airport. I am being a bit critical since 2 coffee’s cost us almost $5 and they were flat and almost no flavor. After some really amazing coffee in Lao, this was a total letdown.
Our plane ride was fairly uneventful (what do you expect on a 35 minute flight?) and most of our time (my time really) was spent devouring the tasty cheese+cucumber sandwich they gave us. It was that good! My wife who was not hungry, happily gave me hers as well and I happily accepted it.
Back in Bangkok.
Ah! Almost felt like coming back home. We love this city so much! The taxi ride was quick and the check-in at our hotel fast. We just dumped our bags and ran out into the city. This time we felt like we knew everything! We took the boat to the Saphan Taksin BTS stop and then the BTS to Prong Pong station on Sukhumvit. Our destination was “Kwan Imm Jay”, a Thai/Chinese restaruant that served only vegetarian food. We got off and after walking a bit found the place. The food was really good, but portions were small (we thought the portions were small everywhere, but I’m dead sure its just because they serve extra-large portions in America). They gave me some thai chilly powder to bring to the US. Awesome. I still savor it and use it only on "special" occasions. More like a Bangkok memory than anything else. And ya, its pretty spicy.
So instead of ordering more food, we decided to walk to Dosa Hut, a couple of Soi’s away. (A soi is sort of branch off a main road). We were at Soi 24, and the Dosa place at Soi 19. Not far ya? Well we walked past all the big and famous malls of Bangkok, loving every minute of it (not the malls! The feeling!). Maybe, it just felt like walking in Bombay and that’s what we loved. We got to Soi 19, only to find that the restaurant had moved to Soi 13 (or was it 11). Dammit. But once we decide we want dosa, we’ll get it no matter how much pain we have to endure! (We've driven 2.5 hours just for one dosa in the past)
So we kept walking and along the way, we got some fruits from a street vendor and my wife was happy street shopping and I was happy soaking in the scene, crowd, traffic – everything. Everyone was dressed in yellow. December 5 (the next day) was the Kings’ 80th birthday and there were going to be grand celebrations. One thing we noticed in Thailand is that people love their king a lot, and on any given day you will see a lot of people (Thai, Indian, Caucasian) wearing yellow (the Kings color) t-shirts.
We finally got to whatever-soi-it-was and found the place. We had the best samosa and sweet lassi we must have had in 4.5 years and 2 tasty dosa’s.
Our main reason of going to the Sukhumvit area was to visit the Erawan shrine. This shrine is built on the side of the Erawan Hyatt hotel. It is dedicated to Lord Brahma (the creator of the universe in the Hindu trilogy). This time, instead of walking to the shrine (again a few Soi’s away) we took the BTS to Chit Lom station; through the Erawan Hyatt and we found it. There were a lot of people praying (especially a lot of youngsters, since it is believed that praying here will bring good luck in exams). I also saw many non-Thai, non-Asian people offering prayers! We bought some flowers and incense sticks and offered our prayers. You can also buy wooden elephants and the priest/guard (I’m not sure if it was a priest or guard, since he was dressed in a guard type uniform, but was “inside of the shrine” and taking offerings from devotees) would put it near the statue and then hand it back. We then sat there watching everyone for a while.
Right outside the shrine we saw a coconut water vendor, who had coconuts in ice. So the water should be ice-cold! Yeah! We got one and the water was the sweetest we’ve ever had! Had to get another! It was so good – refreshing and filling.
Mission accomplished (shrine visit, good dosa and samosa with lassi, and veg thai food consumed, topped with great coconut water) we decided to head back to the hotel for the cocktails and hanging out in the towers lounge. Back in our room, we sat by the window for a bit, reminiscing our whole trip and how much we love Bangkok, watching the sun set... with views of the Chao Prahya below us... Wat Arun in the distant background...
(could life get any better?)
Tuesday December 4, 2007, Siem Reap Cambodia, Bangkok Thailand.
Even though we were booked on a flight at 1 pm, there are many flights from SR to BKK throughout the day (all on Bangkok Airways) and we hoped to get onto an earlier one. We were at the airport at 7:30 am and were able to get seats on a flight at 9:50 am. We walked around the airport (took us 5 minutes) and then spent some time at a bookstore - reading travel books, of course. I mostly read up on Singapore and Malaysia, which I'm thinking is our next destination.
There was an outlet for Artisans D’Angkor so we spent some time in there. The stuff is nice, but expensive. We did eventually buy something.
At 8:30 we were really hungry, and got some extremely-overpriced tasteless coffee and croissant (since we had skipped breakfast) at some place on the airport. I am being a bit critical since 2 coffee’s cost us almost $5 and they were flat and almost no flavor. After some really amazing coffee in Lao, this was a total letdown.
Our plane ride was fairly uneventful (what do you expect on a 35 minute flight?) and most of our time (my time really) was spent devouring the tasty cheese+cucumber sandwich they gave us. It was that good! My wife who was not hungry, happily gave me hers as well and I happily accepted it.
Back in Bangkok.
Ah! Almost felt like coming back home. We love this city so much! The taxi ride was quick and the check-in at our hotel fast. We just dumped our bags and ran out into the city. This time we felt like we knew everything! We took the boat to the Saphan Taksin BTS stop and then the BTS to Prong Pong station on Sukhumvit. Our destination was “Kwan Imm Jay”, a Thai/Chinese restaruant that served only vegetarian food. We got off and after walking a bit found the place. The food was really good, but portions were small (we thought the portions were small everywhere, but I’m dead sure its just because they serve extra-large portions in America). They gave me some thai chilly powder to bring to the US. Awesome. I still savor it and use it only on "special" occasions. More like a Bangkok memory than anything else. And ya, its pretty spicy.
So instead of ordering more food, we decided to walk to Dosa Hut, a couple of Soi’s away. (A soi is sort of branch off a main road). We were at Soi 24, and the Dosa place at Soi 19. Not far ya? Well we walked past all the big and famous malls of Bangkok, loving every minute of it (not the malls! The feeling!). Maybe, it just felt like walking in Bombay and that’s what we loved. We got to Soi 19, only to find that the restaurant had moved to Soi 13 (or was it 11). Dammit. But once we decide we want dosa, we’ll get it no matter how much pain we have to endure! (We've driven 2.5 hours just for one dosa in the past)
So we kept walking and along the way, we got some fruits from a street vendor and my wife was happy street shopping and I was happy soaking in the scene, crowd, traffic – everything. Everyone was dressed in yellow. December 5 (the next day) was the Kings’ 80th birthday and there were going to be grand celebrations. One thing we noticed in Thailand is that people love their king a lot, and on any given day you will see a lot of people (Thai, Indian, Caucasian) wearing yellow (the Kings color) t-shirts.
We finally got to whatever-soi-it-was and found the place. We had the best samosa and sweet lassi we must have had in 4.5 years and 2 tasty dosa’s.
Our main reason of going to the Sukhumvit area was to visit the Erawan shrine. This shrine is built on the side of the Erawan Hyatt hotel. It is dedicated to Lord Brahma (the creator of the universe in the Hindu trilogy). This time, instead of walking to the shrine (again a few Soi’s away) we took the BTS to Chit Lom station; through the Erawan Hyatt and we found it. There were a lot of people praying (especially a lot of youngsters, since it is believed that praying here will bring good luck in exams). I also saw many non-Thai, non-Asian people offering prayers! We bought some flowers and incense sticks and offered our prayers. You can also buy wooden elephants and the priest/guard (I’m not sure if it was a priest or guard, since he was dressed in a guard type uniform, but was “inside of the shrine” and taking offerings from devotees) would put it near the statue and then hand it back. We then sat there watching everyone for a while.
Right outside the shrine we saw a coconut water vendor, who had coconuts in ice. So the water should be ice-cold! Yeah! We got one and the water was the sweetest we’ve ever had! Had to get another! It was so good – refreshing and filling.
Mission accomplished (shrine visit, good dosa and samosa with lassi, and veg thai food consumed, topped with great coconut water) we decided to head back to the hotel for the cocktails and hanging out in the towers lounge. Back in our room, we sat by the window for a bit, reminiscing our whole trip and how much we love Bangkok, watching the sun set... with views of the Chao Prahya below us... Wat Arun in the distant background...
(could life get any better?)
Jun 14th, 2008, 06:50 PM
#97
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There and back!!
Wednesday December 5, 2007, Bangkok, Thailand. Taipei, Taiwan. San Francisco, CA
We got up early and had a great breakfast, packed, checked out and got a taxi to the airport. We had to hassle over the price a bit. Eventually ended up paying 400 Baht.
Since it was a national holiday that day (Kings birthday) the roads were empty and the cab driver only had to take part of the freeway. He saved some money that way, but it was fine with us since he’s also out to make a living and as long as he did not get us stuck in traffic and took us to the airport on time, we did not care.
As usual, thanks to my rushing to the airport habit (something I picked up after I missed a flight out of Toronto and subsequently had to spend 11 insane hours at Heathrow - a side benefit was that they routed me through Bangkok and I got to spend 4 hours on the airport. THis was when I decided I had to come back someday! But I digress...) we were ahead of time. Checked in, passed immigration and walked around the airport a bit. They have a lot of stores trying to sell you all sorts of stuff.
Finally went through security and got to our gate about an hour before our flight. We instantly realized how stupid an idea that was. While the new Bangkok airport is nice it was not designed with travelers convenience in mind (or at least cattle class travelers like us). The area where the terminals were was closed and there was no place to sit! Hardly any benches. We finally found a spot to sit and wait for our flight. We were hoping to at a coffee or something, but there was nothing available and we did not want to go through that crazy security check again.
Finally we boarded our flight to Taipei.
The flight itself was uneventful and we had a lovely Indian meal of 2 Paneer dishes and rice and some south indian sweet. I saw Bourne Ultimatum while Heena watched Darjeeling Little.
In Taipei, we freshened up, walked around the airport and I made myself sick sampling the pineapple cake/puff thingy that they have. We also found a subway and eased back into North America with a sandwich.
The flight home was really uneventful. We just slept most of the way (bad idea). We landed in San Francisco at 2:30 pm. Immigration was easy. We got our bags and outside the airport we found a shuttle van to take us home.
Welcome to a fast paced life: Life in all the countries we visited was slow. People were easy going and smiling. Our van was fairly empty (it could seat 11 people total) with only 5 passengers in all (2 of us and 3 other ladies). One of the ladies made a big scene out of there being too many people in the car and she wanted to get to work and would get late...
Anyways, after we got home, we freshened up a bit and were not at all sleepy (thanks to my stupid idea of sleeping on the plane). So we took the ferry to Larkspur to friends' place for dinner and also to pick up our car. They had graciously prepared an elaborate dinner and also had my favorite Paneer dish! It was the best welcome back home.
Wednesday December 5, 2007, Bangkok, Thailand. Taipei, Taiwan. San Francisco, CA
We got up early and had a great breakfast, packed, checked out and got a taxi to the airport. We had to hassle over the price a bit. Eventually ended up paying 400 Baht.
Since it was a national holiday that day (Kings birthday) the roads were empty and the cab driver only had to take part of the freeway. He saved some money that way, but it was fine with us since he’s also out to make a living and as long as he did not get us stuck in traffic and took us to the airport on time, we did not care.
As usual, thanks to my rushing to the airport habit (something I picked up after I missed a flight out of Toronto and subsequently had to spend 11 insane hours at Heathrow - a side benefit was that they routed me through Bangkok and I got to spend 4 hours on the airport. THis was when I decided I had to come back someday! But I digress...) we were ahead of time. Checked in, passed immigration and walked around the airport a bit. They have a lot of stores trying to sell you all sorts of stuff.
Finally went through security and got to our gate about an hour before our flight. We instantly realized how stupid an idea that was. While the new Bangkok airport is nice it was not designed with travelers convenience in mind (or at least cattle class travelers like us). The area where the terminals were was closed and there was no place to sit! Hardly any benches. We finally found a spot to sit and wait for our flight. We were hoping to at a coffee or something, but there was nothing available and we did not want to go through that crazy security check again.
Finally we boarded our flight to Taipei.
The flight itself was uneventful and we had a lovely Indian meal of 2 Paneer dishes and rice and some south indian sweet. I saw Bourne Ultimatum while Heena watched Darjeeling Little.
In Taipei, we freshened up, walked around the airport and I made myself sick sampling the pineapple cake/puff thingy that they have. We also found a subway and eased back into North America with a sandwich.
The flight home was really uneventful. We just slept most of the way (bad idea). We landed in San Francisco at 2:30 pm. Immigration was easy. We got our bags and outside the airport we found a shuttle van to take us home.
Welcome to a fast paced life: Life in all the countries we visited was slow. People were easy going and smiling. Our van was fairly empty (it could seat 11 people total) with only 5 passengers in all (2 of us and 3 other ladies). One of the ladies made a big scene out of there being too many people in the car and she wanted to get to work and would get late...
Anyways, after we got home, we freshened up a bit and were not at all sleepy (thanks to my stupid idea of sleeping on the plane). So we took the ferry to Larkspur to friends' place for dinner and also to pick up our car. They had graciously prepared an elaborate dinner and also had my favorite Paneer dish! It was the best welcome back home.
Jul 9th, 2011, 06:05 AM
#98
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My sincere apologies to resurrect this post. Finally got around to uploading all the photos from this and captioning quite a few of them. Here they are:
Thailand: http://rahee.smugmug.com/Travel/Thailand-2007
Laos: http://rahee.smugmug.com/Travel/Laos-2007
Cambodia: http://rahee.smugmug.com/Travel/Cambodia-2007
Hope you enjoy them!
Thailand: http://rahee.smugmug.com/Travel/Thailand-2007
Laos: http://rahee.smugmug.com/Travel/Laos-2007
Cambodia: http://rahee.smugmug.com/Travel/Cambodia-2007
Hope you enjoy them!
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