Trip Report: Family4Travels to Thailand and Cambodia: monks, massages and mahouts; tigers, temples and Tonging!!
Apr 16th, 2008, 11:48 AM
#62
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I'm glad that you enjoyed your dinner at China House. They have clearly worked on the logistics and smoothed things out.
Bob should never be quoted. While he is an expert on restaurants, his grasp of the English language is tenuous at best.
Bob should never be quoted. While he is an expert on restaurants, his grasp of the English language is tenuous at best.
Apr 16th, 2008, 01:32 PM
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So glad I found this report, jgg. After you replied to my Bavaria post, I clicked on your name to see where y'all have been since Barcelona. Thailand and Cambodia-I'm impressed by your adventurousness! This spring break, my two older kids went on a choir trip to Italy, so no big trip for us. I'm planning a July trip to Germany now. You're way ahead of us on the adventure scale!
Apr 16th, 2008, 01:32 PM
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Although I have not been to the new china house it has long been my absolute favorite restaurant in bangkok. I'm glad they worked out some of the kinks after the reopening. Looking forward to getting there for at least one dinner and one lunch (love the dim sum).
Apr 16th, 2008, 10:12 PM
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missypie- glad you found the report. I've been debating whether to post a short thread on the Europe board with a link to the report, thinking maybe others might be interested in branching out.
In addition to trying to finish up this report, I am working out the details for a 2 week trip to Munich/Prague/Salzburg in June - we will be going with my parents to celebrate their 50th anniversary!
rhkmk - yes, I'm thinking Christmas cards as well. Last year we had a great picture of the 4 of us on camels in the Sahara desert (Morocco), so I'm thinking elephants this year!!
In addition to trying to finish up this report, I am working out the details for a 2 week trip to Munich/Prague/Salzburg in June - we will be going with my parents to celebrate their 50th anniversary!
rhkmk - yes, I'm thinking Christmas cards as well. Last year we had a great picture of the 4 of us on camels in the Sahara desert (Morocco), so I'm thinking elephants this year!!
Apr 17th, 2008, 12:06 PM
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rhkmk - Haven't decided yet where we are headed next year. Part of me is ready for something a little less adventurous, although our list of potential places is a mixture of adventure and more sedate. However, can't think of any more animals I want to ride!!
Just realized I put the pictures on the shutterfly site but hadn't yet posted the trip report installment to go with it.
Here goes:
Day 6 – Mahouts and massages
Today we were up early to start our mahout training at 7am. There are 3 other people doing it with us. First, we walk out to where the elephants have spent the night. The mahouts ride them into the river and give them a bath. One note before I go on, despite what I had read here, they do provide mahout pants for you to wear. We had all brought sweats to wear, but that turned out to be unnecessary.
After their bath it is our first lesson on how to get onto a elephant. It isn’t easy, although later on we will learn multiple ways to get on or off an elephant and some are a lot easier than others!! We ride them over to the elephant camp. Once there we feed them a ton of bananas, which the kids really enjoy. You can come down and feed them bananas anytime they are there without doing the mahout training. The elephant camp appears to be a little village where the mahouts and their families live. They have a little shop where they sell items and they were weaving while we were there. We hadn’t brought any money there which I regret because the wood carved elephants they had at their little shop were the nicest ones I’d seen, and I just never got back down there.
We are taught several mahout commands and get back on the elephants and take them through a little obstacle course. Then we go on and off the elephants learning all the different ways to get on or off. As I mentioned, some are a lot easier than others.
From here we rode the elephants back to the front of the hotel, where we got off and had breakfast. It was about 9am. We had only signed up for the half day, which was perfect for us as we were looking forward to some relaxation and exploration. If you sign up for the full day you would go back out with the elephants from 1-3:30pm and I believe get a chance to bath them in the river.
We had made spa appts. for early afternoon. Stephen and I had 1.5 hr. thai massages and DS had a 1 hr. foot massage. He convinced us that all great soccer players get their feet massaged (and it seems to have worked for him – he scored a goal on his first game back from vacation). DD preferred to soak up the sun by the pool.
The spa is beautiful and we had wonderful massages. It is truly amazing how those petite women can exert such pressure on you. They provide loose cotton pamamas to change into, delicious ginger tea and a foot rub/wash before they start.
After the massages we all enjoy a nice lunch by the pool. Lauren and I decide to go to the small town of Sop Ruak about 1 km away. The guys want to stay at the Anantara and rest. There is a shuttle bus but the times don’t really correspond with when we want to go. I reconfirm with the concierge that it is just 1km away and we decide to walk. As we walk along we start wondering why we decided to do this. There is, of course, no sidewalk, and once you are past another small resort on the other side of the road there really is nothing until you start to reach the town, plus it is quite hot. Then we came upon a group of men working on an electrical pole (with the wire hanging down) that was a bit disconcerting. When we first arrived in the town we hit “restaurant row”, a line of open air thatched roof eateries. We noticed that many of the shops on the other side of the street were closed. DD said “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.” Well, I said, let’s just keep going. This tiny little town has a GIANT, and I mean GIANT golden Buddha in the main square sitting on a GIANT golden boat. So, I said let’s just wait until we get the to the golden Buddha. As we got closer to the golden Buddha more stores were open. We stopped and bought ice cream cones and then worked our way through the open shops. We bought tons of stuff (a bag, skirts, tops, embroidered mahout pants). We ended up having a nice time, and needless to say the walk back seemed a lot shorter than on the way there. The hardest part was walking back up the Anantara’s long steep driveway. It was fun to note the Chiang Saen Immigration Center in Sop Ruak as this is where you can rent longtail boats to take you to Burma or Laos.
We had dinner that night in the Anantara’s Thai restaurant. Everything was excellent we shared coconut soup, duck curry, beef with oyster sauce and a snowbass.
Link to pictures: http://www.family4travels.shutterfly.com/action/
Go to Thailand Day 6
Just realized I put the pictures on the shutterfly site but hadn't yet posted the trip report installment to go with it.
Here goes:
Day 6 – Mahouts and massages
Today we were up early to start our mahout training at 7am. There are 3 other people doing it with us. First, we walk out to where the elephants have spent the night. The mahouts ride them into the river and give them a bath. One note before I go on, despite what I had read here, they do provide mahout pants for you to wear. We had all brought sweats to wear, but that turned out to be unnecessary.
After their bath it is our first lesson on how to get onto a elephant. It isn’t easy, although later on we will learn multiple ways to get on or off an elephant and some are a lot easier than others!! We ride them over to the elephant camp. Once there we feed them a ton of bananas, which the kids really enjoy. You can come down and feed them bananas anytime they are there without doing the mahout training. The elephant camp appears to be a little village where the mahouts and their families live. They have a little shop where they sell items and they were weaving while we were there. We hadn’t brought any money there which I regret because the wood carved elephants they had at their little shop were the nicest ones I’d seen, and I just never got back down there.
We are taught several mahout commands and get back on the elephants and take them through a little obstacle course. Then we go on and off the elephants learning all the different ways to get on or off. As I mentioned, some are a lot easier than others.
From here we rode the elephants back to the front of the hotel, where we got off and had breakfast. It was about 9am. We had only signed up for the half day, which was perfect for us as we were looking forward to some relaxation and exploration. If you sign up for the full day you would go back out with the elephants from 1-3:30pm and I believe get a chance to bath them in the river.
We had made spa appts. for early afternoon. Stephen and I had 1.5 hr. thai massages and DS had a 1 hr. foot massage. He convinced us that all great soccer players get their feet massaged (and it seems to have worked for him – he scored a goal on his first game back from vacation). DD preferred to soak up the sun by the pool.
The spa is beautiful and we had wonderful massages. It is truly amazing how those petite women can exert such pressure on you. They provide loose cotton pamamas to change into, delicious ginger tea and a foot rub/wash before they start.
After the massages we all enjoy a nice lunch by the pool. Lauren and I decide to go to the small town of Sop Ruak about 1 km away. The guys want to stay at the Anantara and rest. There is a shuttle bus but the times don’t really correspond with when we want to go. I reconfirm with the concierge that it is just 1km away and we decide to walk. As we walk along we start wondering why we decided to do this. There is, of course, no sidewalk, and once you are past another small resort on the other side of the road there really is nothing until you start to reach the town, plus it is quite hot. Then we came upon a group of men working on an electrical pole (with the wire hanging down) that was a bit disconcerting. When we first arrived in the town we hit “restaurant row”, a line of open air thatched roof eateries. We noticed that many of the shops on the other side of the street were closed. DD said “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.” Well, I said, let’s just keep going. This tiny little town has a GIANT, and I mean GIANT golden Buddha in the main square sitting on a GIANT golden boat. So, I said let’s just wait until we get the to the golden Buddha. As we got closer to the golden Buddha more stores were open. We stopped and bought ice cream cones and then worked our way through the open shops. We bought tons of stuff (a bag, skirts, tops, embroidered mahout pants). We ended up having a nice time, and needless to say the walk back seemed a lot shorter than on the way there. The hardest part was walking back up the Anantara’s long steep driveway. It was fun to note the Chiang Saen Immigration Center in Sop Ruak as this is where you can rent longtail boats to take you to Burma or Laos.
We had dinner that night in the Anantara’s Thai restaurant. Everything was excellent we shared coconut soup, duck curry, beef with oyster sauce and a snowbass.
Link to pictures: http://www.family4travels.shutterfly.com/action/
Go to Thailand Day 6
Apr 17th, 2008, 12:16 PM
#72
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How about ostrich riding in South Africa for next year's trip?
http://www.sa-venues.com/activities/ostrich-rides.htm
It will be tough to top the elephant Christmas card!
http://www.sa-venues.com/activities/ostrich-rides.htm
It will be tough to top the elephant Christmas card!
Apr 17th, 2008, 02:08 PM
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cruisin red - who knew???!!!
Day 7 – Anantara cooking class
We start out this morning at 7:30am meeting our chef for our cooking class, Nan, in the lobby. It will just be the 4 of us in the class today. He takes us into Chiang Saen to visit the food market. He said the market actually opens around 1-2am!! He shows us a lot of different items, particularly those we will be using to cook with. We don’t actually purchase anything, which is just fine with me as there are so many flies buzzing around the food. Not sure where he did get the food from, but it’s better that I don’t know. One stall had a twirly-gig contraption that was meant to blow the flies away. We notice a lot of interesting things for sale such as frogs, eels and turtles.
DH asks if there is a good place for coffee so he takes us to a coffee cart and DH and the kids enjoy iced coffees.
Next, we drive to a 750 year old ancient temple with ancient walls around it. The hotel has packed us a simple breakfast of oj, croissants, and fruit. This is a relaxing place to take a break. Before leaving, Nan has us give flowers and burn incense and candles at the Buddhist shrine.
We get back to the Anantara a little after 9am, and Nan tells us to return at 10am when we will start cooking. The day we had arrived here we were asked to choose what we wanted to cook. We were given a list of nine items, 3 appetizers/soup, 3 entrees and 3 desserts. We had never cooked Thai food before so we chose to learn to cook some of our favorites – Tom Yum soup, Phad Thai with prawns and fried banana with coconuts.
They have a beautiful cooking class kitchen (sorry I really don’t think my pictures do it justice) with a big station up front and 4 smaller stations in the room. In addition to Nan there were two other people there to help us. First, we sat up at his station on stools and watched him make the dish as he explained things to us. Then we would all go to our individual stations to make the dish, next, we would all sit at the table to enjoy them. Then go back and watch Nan for the next dish, and so on. Nan was great and extremely helpful when we all had questions. The helpers would organize your station with the necessary ingredients, pots, pants, utensils, etc. for each item and take them away to be cleaned when you were done – if only cooking at home was this easy!!
We got to keep our aprons, hats and recipe books, which included many additional recipes. We all thoroughly enjoyed this, and learned a lot. We were done about 1pm – a fabulous way to spend the morning!!
From here we all relaxed by the pool or napped in the room. We had dinner at the Italian restaurant again. Very good meal, although my duck was a bit overcooked.
Link to pictures: http://www.family4travels.shutterfly.com/action/
Click on Thailand Day 7
Day 7 – Anantara cooking class
We start out this morning at 7:30am meeting our chef for our cooking class, Nan, in the lobby. It will just be the 4 of us in the class today. He takes us into Chiang Saen to visit the food market. He said the market actually opens around 1-2am!! He shows us a lot of different items, particularly those we will be using to cook with. We don’t actually purchase anything, which is just fine with me as there are so many flies buzzing around the food. Not sure where he did get the food from, but it’s better that I don’t know. One stall had a twirly-gig contraption that was meant to blow the flies away. We notice a lot of interesting things for sale such as frogs, eels and turtles.
DH asks if there is a good place for coffee so he takes us to a coffee cart and DH and the kids enjoy iced coffees.
Next, we drive to a 750 year old ancient temple with ancient walls around it. The hotel has packed us a simple breakfast of oj, croissants, and fruit. This is a relaxing place to take a break. Before leaving, Nan has us give flowers and burn incense and candles at the Buddhist shrine.
We get back to the Anantara a little after 9am, and Nan tells us to return at 10am when we will start cooking. The day we had arrived here we were asked to choose what we wanted to cook. We were given a list of nine items, 3 appetizers/soup, 3 entrees and 3 desserts. We had never cooked Thai food before so we chose to learn to cook some of our favorites – Tom Yum soup, Phad Thai with prawns and fried banana with coconuts.
They have a beautiful cooking class kitchen (sorry I really don’t think my pictures do it justice) with a big station up front and 4 smaller stations in the room. In addition to Nan there were two other people there to help us. First, we sat up at his station on stools and watched him make the dish as he explained things to us. Then we would all go to our individual stations to make the dish, next, we would all sit at the table to enjoy them. Then go back and watch Nan for the next dish, and so on. Nan was great and extremely helpful when we all had questions. The helpers would organize your station with the necessary ingredients, pots, pants, utensils, etc. for each item and take them away to be cleaned when you were done – if only cooking at home was this easy!!
We got to keep our aprons, hats and recipe books, which included many additional recipes. We all thoroughly enjoyed this, and learned a lot. We were done about 1pm – a fabulous way to spend the morning!!
From here we all relaxed by the pool or napped in the room. We had dinner at the Italian restaurant again. Very good meal, although my duck was a bit overcooked.
Link to pictures: http://www.family4travels.shutterfly.com/action/
Click on Thailand Day 7
Apr 17th, 2008, 02:52 PM
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Sounds like you enjoyed the elephants. It really is cool to ride one bareback like that, but it's so tall! The mahout pants are a new thing, for sure, because they did not have them when we were there for anyone, nor did anyone in the many photos I've seen have them either. I had specifically asked about them before going, and was told they did not provide mahout suits to guests, but those who completed a three day course would receive a certificate and a mahout should with your name embroidered on it. We received the shirt at the end of day 3, very nice. It is VERY good that they have mahout pants now.
Apr 17th, 2008, 05:59 PM
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isn't nan fantastic....we had so much fun that day.....did they also take you to the wat overlooking the golden triangle above CS?? it was a fantastic vantage point...
interestingly, just yesterday i had an e mail from the canadian guy, who lives in moscow, who sharred the cooking class with us....he will be in boston next week and we are going to meet up with him...such a small world...
interestingly, just yesterday i had an e mail from the canadian guy, who lives in moscow, who sharred the cooking class with us....he will be in boston next week and we are going to meet up with him...such a small world...
Apr 18th, 2008, 11:21 AM
#76
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Kim - definitely an improvement for them to provide the pants!
rhkmk - no we didn't go to the wat overlooking the Golden Triangle - bummer! Enjoy your visit with your friend and let him no Nan is still cooking up a storm!
Day 7 – Doi Tung and Doi Mae Salong
I had contacted Sgt. Kai about guiding in Chiang Rai. He is a highly rated guide. He is based in Chiang Mai but often takes people to the Golden Triangle and Chiang Rai so thought I would contact him about a Chiang Rai only trip. He said he could do it, although it might be one of his other guides.
We met our guide, Sutthi, and our driver at 8:30am. Our first stop was at a favorite temple of Sutthis where there were several wild monkeys around. They appeared much healthier and happier than the monkeys we saw with Tong in the fishing village. It appears that people come regularly to the temple and buy food there to feed the monkeys.
Next we stopped at Doi Tung, the King’s mother’s villa. She spent much of her later years in Switzerland and you can definitely see that influence in her house. Here is the second thing that we never read on Fodors. At Doi Tung you need to be dressed with long pants or skirt and short sleeves. They gave DD and I mahout tops and pants and the guys mahout pants to wear. You don’t need to wear them in the garden just as you walk around the house. The villa is very beautiful, made out of a lot of teak and pine. Her furnishings were actually quite modest and reminded me of my own grandmother’s furniture. We then meandered through the garden which was truly stunning, with flowers from all over the world.
We then drove up to Doi Mae Salong a Chinese village and a tea factory. Unfortunately, the tea factory was not in operation as it was the dry season so not enough leaves at the moment. We were able to sit and enjoy tasting some tea, and we purchased tea and honey. We then drove back down into the Chinese Village where we stopped for lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Sutthi ordered for us and we had an excellent meal of soup, pork, chicken with ginger and a mushroom dish. I got a kick out of the sign in front of the restaurant that said “Clean Food, Good Taste.”
We walked down the street and did some shopping in the small market area. DS and I bought some jewelry. We really enjoyed this little village.
Next we drove to an Akhbar Village. Luckily it wasn’t too far out of the way because frankly it wasn’t that interesting, Not to be rude, but it was mostly just some people lying around. Sutthi showed us the inside of one house, but that was basically it. In the future, I would just skip a stop like this. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but Sgt. Kai had just included the stop in the itinerary.
We really enjoyed our day with Sutthi. He was a very kind who was always laughing at his own jokes!!! He seemed the most open to talking about Thai politics, etc. which we really enjoyed.
We headed back to the Anantara and got there about 4:30pm. Just relaxed before another nice dinner.
Link to pictures: http://www.family4travels.shutterfly.com/action/
Click on Thailand Day 8
rhkmk - no we didn't go to the wat overlooking the Golden Triangle - bummer! Enjoy your visit with your friend and let him no Nan is still cooking up a storm!
Day 7 – Doi Tung and Doi Mae Salong
I had contacted Sgt. Kai about guiding in Chiang Rai. He is a highly rated guide. He is based in Chiang Mai but often takes people to the Golden Triangle and Chiang Rai so thought I would contact him about a Chiang Rai only trip. He said he could do it, although it might be one of his other guides.
We met our guide, Sutthi, and our driver at 8:30am. Our first stop was at a favorite temple of Sutthis where there were several wild monkeys around. They appeared much healthier and happier than the monkeys we saw with Tong in the fishing village. It appears that people come regularly to the temple and buy food there to feed the monkeys.
Next we stopped at Doi Tung, the King’s mother’s villa. She spent much of her later years in Switzerland and you can definitely see that influence in her house. Here is the second thing that we never read on Fodors. At Doi Tung you need to be dressed with long pants or skirt and short sleeves. They gave DD and I mahout tops and pants and the guys mahout pants to wear. You don’t need to wear them in the garden just as you walk around the house. The villa is very beautiful, made out of a lot of teak and pine. Her furnishings were actually quite modest and reminded me of my own grandmother’s furniture. We then meandered through the garden which was truly stunning, with flowers from all over the world.
We then drove up to Doi Mae Salong a Chinese village and a tea factory. Unfortunately, the tea factory was not in operation as it was the dry season so not enough leaves at the moment. We were able to sit and enjoy tasting some tea, and we purchased tea and honey. We then drove back down into the Chinese Village where we stopped for lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Sutthi ordered for us and we had an excellent meal of soup, pork, chicken with ginger and a mushroom dish. I got a kick out of the sign in front of the restaurant that said “Clean Food, Good Taste.”
We walked down the street and did some shopping in the small market area. DS and I bought some jewelry. We really enjoyed this little village.
Next we drove to an Akhbar Village. Luckily it wasn’t too far out of the way because frankly it wasn’t that interesting, Not to be rude, but it was mostly just some people lying around. Sutthi showed us the inside of one house, but that was basically it. In the future, I would just skip a stop like this. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but Sgt. Kai had just included the stop in the itinerary.
We really enjoyed our day with Sutthi. He was a very kind who was always laughing at his own jokes!!! He seemed the most open to talking about Thai politics, etc. which we really enjoyed.
We headed back to the Anantara and got there about 4:30pm. Just relaxed before another nice dinner.
Link to pictures: http://www.family4travels.shutterfly.com/action/
Click on Thailand Day 8
Apr 18th, 2008, 11:41 AM
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Day 9 – Travel to Siem Reap
Today is another travel day. Our flight out of Chiang Rai doesn’t leave until 1:30pm so we sleep in a bit. We have scheduled a hotel van to take us at 11:00am for the one hour drive to the airport. On our way there we drive on this road that has pineapple stand after pineapple stand. Each the same, each with one woman in front. Not sure if they are all from the same plantation or not, but it seems difficult for them to differentiate themselves.
We arrived at the airport and founnd out our flight was delayed 1 hour. We will still have 2 hours at BKK to retrieve luggage and get rechecked in on Bangkok Airways to Siem Reap, so we were hoping that the flight wouldnt be further delayed. By the way, on the way to CR on Air Asia we were not charged for overweight baggage, but on our way back we were. I know we did purchase some things but not enough for all the bags to go up. I think they were just nice on the flight in. We got treats at the DQ in the airport.
There is an area in the airport set up with comfy Lazy-Boy type recliners with a sign saying “Reserved for monks”. Our flight left just one hour late which gave us the full 2hrs. in BKK to get from one flight to the other. However, we were a bit surprised by the long line in BKK to go through immigration to leave the country. It took us over half and hour.
The Bangkok Airways flight was fine, only about 55 minutes, and they even served a meal (sandwich). However, with all the forms you have to fill out to enter Cambodia I spent the whole time filling out 4 copies of each form. I had tried to do e-visas on line before we left, but kept having problems so just decided to get it upon arrival. We did not have to wait long at all and it was fun to watch the row of important looking people look at and stamp our passports. Picked up our luggage and there was Ponheary and her driver waiting to pick us up. The Siem Reap is a fairly new airport and extremely nice – we were quite impressed. They dropped us off at Hotel de la Paix and we were set to meet her at 8am the next morning. We were tired and hungry, but it was late, so we decided to eat at Meric the hotel restaurant and we had a nice dinner.
Today is another travel day. Our flight out of Chiang Rai doesn’t leave until 1:30pm so we sleep in a bit. We have scheduled a hotel van to take us at 11:00am for the one hour drive to the airport. On our way there we drive on this road that has pineapple stand after pineapple stand. Each the same, each with one woman in front. Not sure if they are all from the same plantation or not, but it seems difficult for them to differentiate themselves.
We arrived at the airport and founnd out our flight was delayed 1 hour. We will still have 2 hours at BKK to retrieve luggage and get rechecked in on Bangkok Airways to Siem Reap, so we were hoping that the flight wouldnt be further delayed. By the way, on the way to CR on Air Asia we were not charged for overweight baggage, but on our way back we were. I know we did purchase some things but not enough for all the bags to go up. I think they were just nice on the flight in. We got treats at the DQ in the airport.
There is an area in the airport set up with comfy Lazy-Boy type recliners with a sign saying “Reserved for monks”. Our flight left just one hour late which gave us the full 2hrs. in BKK to get from one flight to the other. However, we were a bit surprised by the long line in BKK to go through immigration to leave the country. It took us over half and hour.
The Bangkok Airways flight was fine, only about 55 minutes, and they even served a meal (sandwich). However, with all the forms you have to fill out to enter Cambodia I spent the whole time filling out 4 copies of each form. I had tried to do e-visas on line before we left, but kept having problems so just decided to get it upon arrival. We did not have to wait long at all and it was fun to watch the row of important looking people look at and stamp our passports. Picked up our luggage and there was Ponheary and her driver waiting to pick us up. The Siem Reap is a fairly new airport and extremely nice – we were quite impressed. They dropped us off at Hotel de la Paix and we were set to meet her at 8am the next morning. We were tired and hungry, but it was late, so we decided to eat at Meric the hotel restaurant and we had a nice dinner.
Apr 19th, 2008, 08:32 AM
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Thanks Bob, although they do have their moments!!
Day 10 – Angkor Wat
At Hotel de la Paix for breakfast, the cold items are in a buffet and then you order hot items from the menu (still included in the room rate). This was actually nice, except if you are in a hurry and have to wait for your food.
We head out to Angkor Wat and get our first glimpse of Siem Reap in the day. We immediately liked it. It was much more charming than any other town/city we had been to on this trip.
Lucky for us we arrive at Angkor Wat early enough that there are not too many people. We enjoy walking around and particularly listening to Ponheary’s stories of the Khmer Rouge – fascinating. DS did get a little bored, but was anxious to get his picture taken in the exact same spot as a picture he has in his Ancient World History textbook – a picture of two monks in front of Angkor Wat. We saw a few brides preparing for wedding ceremonies, which was interesting to see their colorful dress. There was also an interesting spot where people had started piling small stones atop each other to make small temples. Ponheary said that this was to encourage people to leave the small relics in the complex rather than take them home with them.
We arrive back at the hotel about 11:00am and plan to meet up again with Ponheary at 4pm. Mid-day showers for all, then I bring my little list of restaurant recommendations to the concierge and ask her which one she thinks we should go to for lunch. She recommends Viroth’s. We take a tuk tuk there as it is located across the river. Our driver drops us off and then says if we like he will be back in an hour to pick us up. As soon as we drive up we instantly think we are going to like this place. We just loved the décor and we also found the food fabulous. The glass noodle salad with shrimp was the best dish I had had so far on the trip, and the lemon granitas were fabulous. We were enjoying ourselves so much that we decided to order dessert. Our tuk tuk driver waited patiently as we took longer than the appointed hour.
We go back and rest a bit before having to meet up with Ponheary at 4:00. At 3:45pm the sky started to get very dark, by 3:50pm it is raining. By the time Ponheary picked us up it was pouring!! This is what my BIL would call a “frog strangler”!! Our plan was to go to Angkor Tom and Ta Phrom, but Ponheary says it is raining so hard that we may not be able to get out of the car but just drive around. It continues to absolutely pour. It is amazing to see the people riding their bikes in the rain. I kept thinking it would be great if it stopped raining while we were out there because then we would be there and everyone else would be gone. Unfortunately, it continued raining for about an hour. The roads were flooding and becoming little rivers. Actually, it was kind of neat to be driving around the temple area when it was raining so hard. We will just have to come back tomorrow to walk around the temples.
We head back to town and decide to go to Artisan’s D’Angkor. By the time we get there it has stopped raining. We really enjoy watching the craftsmen/women at work. At the gift shop we purchased several things and they gave us a great woven basket to carry everything in. Ponheary takes us back to HDLP. We freshen up for dinner and walk down the street to Café Indochine. The food was good, I particularly liked the fried squid with black kepong pepper, however, the service was a bit spotty when a 2 busloads of people arrived. For dessert we stopped at Café de la Paix attached to the hotel.
Link to pictures: http://www.family4travels.shutterfly.com/action/
Click on Thailand Day 10
Day 10 – Angkor Wat
At Hotel de la Paix for breakfast, the cold items are in a buffet and then you order hot items from the menu (still included in the room rate). This was actually nice, except if you are in a hurry and have to wait for your food.
We head out to Angkor Wat and get our first glimpse of Siem Reap in the day. We immediately liked it. It was much more charming than any other town/city we had been to on this trip.
Lucky for us we arrive at Angkor Wat early enough that there are not too many people. We enjoy walking around and particularly listening to Ponheary’s stories of the Khmer Rouge – fascinating. DS did get a little bored, but was anxious to get his picture taken in the exact same spot as a picture he has in his Ancient World History textbook – a picture of two monks in front of Angkor Wat. We saw a few brides preparing for wedding ceremonies, which was interesting to see their colorful dress. There was also an interesting spot where people had started piling small stones atop each other to make small temples. Ponheary said that this was to encourage people to leave the small relics in the complex rather than take them home with them.
We arrive back at the hotel about 11:00am and plan to meet up again with Ponheary at 4pm. Mid-day showers for all, then I bring my little list of restaurant recommendations to the concierge and ask her which one she thinks we should go to for lunch. She recommends Viroth’s. We take a tuk tuk there as it is located across the river. Our driver drops us off and then says if we like he will be back in an hour to pick us up. As soon as we drive up we instantly think we are going to like this place. We just loved the décor and we also found the food fabulous. The glass noodle salad with shrimp was the best dish I had had so far on the trip, and the lemon granitas were fabulous. We were enjoying ourselves so much that we decided to order dessert. Our tuk tuk driver waited patiently as we took longer than the appointed hour.
We go back and rest a bit before having to meet up with Ponheary at 4:00. At 3:45pm the sky started to get very dark, by 3:50pm it is raining. By the time Ponheary picked us up it was pouring!! This is what my BIL would call a “frog strangler”!! Our plan was to go to Angkor Tom and Ta Phrom, but Ponheary says it is raining so hard that we may not be able to get out of the car but just drive around. It continues to absolutely pour. It is amazing to see the people riding their bikes in the rain. I kept thinking it would be great if it stopped raining while we were out there because then we would be there and everyone else would be gone. Unfortunately, it continued raining for about an hour. The roads were flooding and becoming little rivers. Actually, it was kind of neat to be driving around the temple area when it was raining so hard. We will just have to come back tomorrow to walk around the temples.
We head back to town and decide to go to Artisan’s D’Angkor. By the time we get there it has stopped raining. We really enjoy watching the craftsmen/women at work. At the gift shop we purchased several things and they gave us a great woven basket to carry everything in. Ponheary takes us back to HDLP. We freshen up for dinner and walk down the street to Café Indochine. The food was good, I particularly liked the fried squid with black kepong pepper, however, the service was a bit spotty when a 2 busloads of people arrived. For dessert we stopped at Café de la Paix attached to the hotel.
Link to pictures: http://www.family4travels.shutterfly.com/action/
Click on Thailand Day 10
