Sunday 23 December 2012

Cambodia: Dec 16 - 19

Cynthia:

Throughout our travels we've seen temples and pagodas and shrines. But now we've experienced the mother of all religious buildings in Asia and indeed the largest religious structure in the world: Angkor Wat.

We only scheduled 3 full days to spend in the area of Angkor Wat and in retrospect I could have easily spent more time exploring the multitude of thousand year old ruins from the Khmer dynasty. Our time in Cambodia was also memorable in that we met up with some dear friends and co-supper club members, Jeff and Katrina with their sons Simon and Adam, who were embarking on a two week tour of Cambodia and southern Vietnam. Because of a flight delay on their journey to Asia, our plans for two days together was reduced to one. Kudos to all of them for withstanding our eager company-starved chattering as they fought off their jet lag.

Photo journal:

Day 1: Spent the afternoon and evening on a noisy "long tail" boat touring a muddy river and a local village on the water. The houses and community buildings are all on stilts to accommodate the high water of the rainy season. Midway through the tour we transferred to a shallow canoe type boat and two local women paddled us through a watery mangrove forest. The tour ended at the lake where the sunset over the water. For an informative summary of the fascinating Tonle lake, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonlé_Sap.
Our boat before it got stuck.
The boats spray a lot of water from the shallow river. We got wet once from another boat's spray.

You can tell its dry season.  It's hard to imagine the water level getting that high!
The village children learn to swim and maneuver boats at a very young age.
This girl was upset with some nearby boys.
Paddling through the mangrove forest.
This girl was in the stern for our paddle through the mangroves.

Sunset over Tonle lake near Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Day 2: tour of the crumbling ruins of Beng Malea, an ancient Khmer Palace. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a guide and there was next to no signage which left us with many questions about these ruins that were slowly being invaded by wandering tree roots. It was an incredible sight and the boys loved clambering all over the rubble under a shady leafy canopy.

Greg took this shot of another tourist posing.



I love the way the tree roots follow the grooves of this frame.


A local scarf seller.
Day 3: our day with Katrina, Jeff and their boys was nicely pre-arranged starting with a 4:50 am pick-up by guided tour bus. (I must confess, I don't think our family would have had the gumption to roll out of bed so early had it not been on our friends schedule!) We made it to the magnificent Angkor Wat (with about 500 other tourists) in time to see the sunrise. It was really breathtaking. The rest of the day was spent touring Angkor Wat and several other temples in the area.

The picture we got up at 4:40 am to capture.
We weren't the only ones.
Four boys gazing at ancient Angkor Wat.
A demon holding the head of a giant snake.
We thoroughly enjoyed spending a day with Jeff, Katrina, Simon and Adam.
One of the many large trees growing about the adjacent ruins of Ta Prohm.

We also visited the very inspiring and moving Cambodian Landmine Museum and Relief Centre. I won't go into detail about the history of and ongoing battle against Landmines in Cambodia but suggest you visit www.cambodialandminemuseum.org for the incredible story of the heroic child soldier turned Landmine clearer who founded the museum and the relief centre. In lieu of Christmas presents to each other and to our families this year, Greg and I made a donation to this worthy cause.


Exhibit of of a rudimentary prosthetic leg.
We're now in Hoi An, a lovely old touristy town on the central coast of Vietnam. We plan to spend Christmas here, enjoying the beach, the historic buildings, great food and 15 cent local beer! That said, we find ourselves missing our families and friends back home and have already talked about the grand potluck supper party we want to hold when we get back. We miss you dear readers and we wish you all a new year filled with peace and joy and a very Merry Christmas!

With love,

Cynthia, Greg, Max & Thomas



6 comments:

  1. Hi Greg & family! I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed your posts and "travelling" with you! What an amazing adventure you are having. Merry Christmas to all of you from frosty Winnipeg ( this morning it is -48 with the windchill)
    Jan Leslie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Katrina Lee-Kwen5 January 2013 at 09:19

    We really enjoyed spending a day together. We are so jealous you are still travelling and we are back home now. Southern Vietnam was great and I wish we had more time to see the rest of the country.

    Safe travels and see you soon!
    Katrina

    ReplyDelete
  3. It stands apart in the midst of goliath fig trees and other immense creepers hiding the stone establishments of the structure.Cambodia

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was surfing the Internet for information and came across your blog. I am impressed by the information you have on this blog. It shows how well you understand this subject. https://worldsaver786341288.wordpress.com/2021/04/02/cambodian-generosity-through-a-tycoon/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just admiring your work and wondering how you managed this blog so well. It’s so remarkable that I can't afford to not go through this valuable information whenever I surf the internet! prince group cambodia

    ReplyDelete