Wonderful trip report! Thanks so much.

C2-you're exactly spot on. The trip report is like reliving the experience. My guess is that the regular posters on this forum derive much of the same pleasure to a lessere degree with every post.

chelsea...can you tell us more about
amansara and your guide??? i want to return to siem reap next year and your guide made your trip even more memorable by letting you experience things most people never even see. ( we broke down a couple of times on our journey thru asia and also had some interesting adventures with locals).

great report...cant wait to return

Great report. I want to do the monk chat when in chiang mai this trip. Do you have to go at a certain time or on a certain day or is it anytime you get there? Thanks.

I will try and post photos if I can figure out how to do this. Any ideas on the best website to use for this?

Gloriaf - I think the monkchat is every morning but it ends at noon because the monks have to return for prayer. We did this in the plaza by Wat Chedi Luang. There is a big banner hung up that promotes "monk chat". We were a little reluctant at first, because we were not sure what to say. Luckily our guide encourged us to participate and we had a lot of fun. The funniest thing that happened was our guide wanted to know what the word "wimp" meant. The monk borrowed the Thai/English dictionary from his friend looked it up and started cracking up. He then bookmarked the page to show to his friends later.

Divediva - Our guide's name was Mr. Vann Denay. He is currently under contract to the Amansara, but may be free to take on other clients as well. He is a university educated young man from the Kampang Thom province and is very knowledgable about the Angkor history. He taught us a lot about the buddhist/hindu philosophy in temple buidling and by the end of 3 days we were really feeling like we were starting to get it. He also was very attentive to our desire to get a sense of the local culture and way of life. Each excursion he incorporated some opportunity for us to interact with the locals. Most memorable were the beautiful children. I highly encourage you to buy school suppies or books for the kids that you can give out when you visit the little country villages.

chelsea,,,,i have very good luck with www.shutterfly.com for posting my pics...

Okay - Photos now available on ofoto including photo of the famous RATT. Please post your e-mail address if you want me to share the pictures

send to me please: [email protected]

would love to see them -- [email protected]

I'd love to see your photos, fab report! - [email protected]

Many thanks chelsea2!

Thanks for the great report. Would love to see your photos.

[email protected]

Love to see them. [email protected]

Please add me to your photo list - [email protected]

C2-great pictures. Thanks. Off to BKK-SR-Krabi on Friday. We just bought a digital camera, so it's unlikely we will have anything worth keeping. My aesthetic sense is minimal and Beth usually plays a supervisory role. My photographic expectations are small. You pictures made SR seem wonderful. They increased my anticipation.

I'm going for the first time in March and would love to see your pictures, please add me too! [email protected]

Chelsea,
it was very nice to read your report!!!

I am going to BKK, Chiang Mai and Siem Reap in February!
I would love to see your pictures.
my email is: [email protected]
Thanks!

Chelsea,
do you have contact information for Mr. Vann Denay?
I contacted Amansara few weeks ago, and just LOVED all the info they sent me, and their temples visit seem to be the most carefull of all. It must have been quite an experience for you, very nice that you shared it with us! Although Amansara is WAY over what I can afford, I would love to follow their "temple visits style", and doing it with one of their guides would be perfect. If you have contacts for Mr. Vann Denay and donīt mind sharing, please let me know!

Chelsea,
Thanks for the lovely pictures!

well, since I was the one that begged you for pictures in the first place, I guess I should see them!

[email protected]

Chelsea, I have not received the photos and it appears that others have that posted after I posted -
[email protected]
Thanks!