Breakfast and out for a 9 o'clock pick up for another day temple site-seeing. Again, they do kind of merge together, especially since today's offerings were less impressive than yesterday's. There was one that was a little overgrown, and a companion temple to the Tomb Raider temple. Thi was relatively quiet, so had more atmosphere, though wasn't as overgown. There was one which was originally a large complex of fountains (including ornately carved heads of various epcies as water spouts), and another we remember was the very old Hindu temple in brick which had elephants at each corner of the outer walls, guarding the building. Probably might have trouble if invaders came riding mice-drawn chariots. I shall add more detail later once I correlate pictures and the guidebook
Lunch was at the same tourist trap place as yesterday, and fairly unremarkable.
We were back quite early as we had done enough templing by 3ish, so Tee got an early finish. He did offer us the chance to go to the Angkor Wat Museum in town, but this didn't seem to be a good deal as the temple pass (which gives you three days' acess from seven) costs $20 each, whilst the museum (which, according to the guidebook) has little to show, though quite well presented and costs $12 each. We headed back and just vegged by the pool for a couple of hours.
Thi evening we were in town in time for dinner at 7:30 locally at a place called Soup Dragon which serves good Vietnamese food. but also has a large screen to watch football on as Newcastle's first home game of the season versus Aston Villa. So we had good beer, good food and the spectacle of the Toon disassembling the Brummies 6-0. What a truly magnificent start to the evening. We wandered further for a couple of more drinks including bars called Angkor What? Banana Leaf and the Warehouse. Then it was back to bed for a fairly early night as we were off the next day to Battambang by boat for apickup at 6am!
Showing posts with label Cambodia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cambodia. Show all posts
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Saturday, 28 August 2010
More temples than you can shake a stick at
(edited to correct the timeline. The bamboo train was a couple of days later)
Our first full day in Cambodia. Breakfast was OK: buffet with eggs cooked to your request. We had arranged a tuk-tuk the night before and met our driver for three days whose name was Tee. He was to take us around the temples,
We headed off to our first temple. This was within the massive complex of Angkor Thom, which is utterly massive. The whole area is bigger than downtown Siem Reap. The first one was Bayon with its enigmatic smiling heads on each pinnacle. The temples of Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat and the others in the large area around Siem Reap date variously from the 9th century to the 11th, essentially when we in Britain were worrying which shade of wode was going to be in this season. The temple at Bayor was amospheric, despite there being a fair number of tourists around, and the amount of detail carved into the roack from which they were made is stunning, even now almost a millenium later. We saw more structures within Angkor Thom including the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King before moving onto another couple of temples. We managed to fit lunch into this at some tourist trap restaurant that our driver took us to, no doubt receiving some kickback, but this is normal for this part of the world, especially in areas so popular with tourists.
The temples through the day did kind of merge into one, and I can add further details when I upload pictures and cross refer with the guidebook. It's not that the temples didn't all have their own distintive haracteristics, but it's that there were so many. One temple that does stick in the memory is the one that featured in Tomb Raider, with its buildings and walls infiltrated by roots from big rainforest trees which look like rivulets of liquid rolling over the sandstone more than vegetation
Our final destination of the day was the wonderful Angkor Wat. This temple you cannot forget for many reasons. It's the building that's synonymous with Cambodia. Indeed, so proud are they of it that they actually have it on their national flag. It's also the largest religious structure in the world. It was heaving, as might be expected, but we had a good look around. The bas reliefs are stunning, with scenes from Hindu mythology (the Ramayana and Mahabarat) and local legend. This runs round the outside of the inner wall, further inside there are the famous towers to look at, and you can climb up and into the higher central one. Like a lot of these things, pictures speak louder than words and we do have some pictures to upload. However, our main camera ran out of power as we arrived here and we aren't able to upload pictures from the other camera as it's an Olympus which have a non-standard sized memory card so we have to wait until later to do those.
We got Mr Tee (pity the fool who didn't get to see Angkor Wat today) to drive us back. We were in desperate need of a shower and change of clothes. It had been a very hot day, and we had been climbing up and down pyramid-like temples (all that shape to represent Mt Meru again important from Hindu myhtology), drenched in sunblock (factor 50, of course), and DEET, caked in dust from the crumbling roads. A dip in the pool was fantastic.
That evening we headed out again to sample the delights of Pub St. We ate Khmer again, this time having the local delicacy of fish amok (not a haddock riot, but fish cooked in spicy coconut milk and served in banana leaves). We also watched some live football beamed over from the UK. Globalisation has a lot of downsides, but sometimes the global village is a good place to be living. Well it is if you are a privileged Western European at any rate
Our first full day in Cambodia. Breakfast was OK: buffet with eggs cooked to your request. We had arranged a tuk-tuk the night before and met our driver for three days whose name was Tee. He was to take us around the temples,
We headed off to our first temple. This was within the massive complex of Angkor Thom, which is utterly massive. The whole area is bigger than downtown Siem Reap. The first one was Bayon with its enigmatic smiling heads on each pinnacle. The temples of Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat and the others in the large area around Siem Reap date variously from the 9th century to the 11th, essentially when we in Britain were worrying which shade of wode was going to be in this season. The temple at Bayor was amospheric, despite there being a fair number of tourists around, and the amount of detail carved into the roack from which they were made is stunning, even now almost a millenium later. We saw more structures within Angkor Thom including the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King before moving onto another couple of temples. We managed to fit lunch into this at some tourist trap restaurant that our driver took us to, no doubt receiving some kickback, but this is normal for this part of the world, especially in areas so popular with tourists.
The temples through the day did kind of merge into one, and I can add further details when I upload pictures and cross refer with the guidebook. It's not that the temples didn't all have their own distintive haracteristics, but it's that there were so many. One temple that does stick in the memory is the one that featured in Tomb Raider, with its buildings and walls infiltrated by roots from big rainforest trees which look like rivulets of liquid rolling over the sandstone more than vegetation
Our final destination of the day was the wonderful Angkor Wat. This temple you cannot forget for many reasons. It's the building that's synonymous with Cambodia. Indeed, so proud are they of it that they actually have it on their national flag. It's also the largest religious structure in the world. It was heaving, as might be expected, but we had a good look around. The bas reliefs are stunning, with scenes from Hindu mythology (the Ramayana and Mahabarat) and local legend. This runs round the outside of the inner wall, further inside there are the famous towers to look at, and you can climb up and into the higher central one. Like a lot of these things, pictures speak louder than words and we do have some pictures to upload. However, our main camera ran out of power as we arrived here and we aren't able to upload pictures from the other camera as it's an Olympus which have a non-standard sized memory card so we have to wait until later to do those.
We got Mr Tee (pity the fool who didn't get to see Angkor Wat today) to drive us back. We were in desperate need of a shower and change of clothes. It had been a very hot day, and we had been climbing up and down pyramid-like temples (all that shape to represent Mt Meru again important from Hindu myhtology), drenched in sunblock (factor 50, of course), and DEET, caked in dust from the crumbling roads. A dip in the pool was fantastic.
That evening we headed out again to sample the delights of Pub St. We ate Khmer again, this time having the local delicacy of fish amok (not a haddock riot, but fish cooked in spicy coconut milk and served in banana leaves). We also watched some live football beamed over from the UK. Globalisation has a lot of downsides, but sometimes the global village is a good place to be living. Well it is if you are a privileged Western European at any rate
The Road to Cambodia
What kind of time is 4:45am to get up? I had a McBreakfast at the airport, sad to say (and it wasn't even that nice!).
We boarded our Air Asia flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Two hours, plus lost an hour as Cambodia is one hour behind Malaysia, despite being further east, paradoxically. The arrival hall is gorgeously done out in Khmer style, complete with statues of gods on various transport methods (elephant is the one you see first). It was good they had some nice sculpture to look at as they took some time to sort out your entry visa.
We were met by a driver from our hotel who tried to giveus the hard sell to get him to drive us around the next day. We weren't having it as we wanted a tuk-tuk (see later). The hotel was reached down a dirt track in the heartof the city, but what a gorgeous and idyllic place it was. A lush garden surrounding a swimming pool, with the most wonderfully friendly staff. Though it was little later than 9am we were able to check in straight away.
We dumped our stuff and had a wnader into Siem eEap, having breakfast at a French-style patisserie, dodging the offers of tuk-tuks wherever we went. This is a feature of Cambodia, offers of tuk-tuks, offers of a massage (legit type, often involving fish nibbling your feet), or ragamuffin children trying to sell you postcards or bamboo bracelets. It isn't major pestering, as a simple "no thanks" does the job. After this we wandered further into the city to get an idea of the orientation. We found a couple of wats to have a look around, similar to Thai style, though maybe a little less ostentatious.
Back to the Central Boutique Hotel for a breather then out for some lunch at a small cafe nearby where we had noodles/fried rice. Chatting to the owner, she had a American husband, though we didn't figure out the whole story. I did, however, win a free beer as my ringpull (one of the old fashioned ones you pull off) had a symbol for some competition where you could win up to something like 500,000 riel.
This is something to mention: currency. Cambodian currency is the riel as I just mentioned. However, they commonly use the US dollar such that, when you get money from the ATM it is in dollars. There are 4000 riel to the dollar, and when you buy something that isn't in full dollars, you get the change in riel (so a 1000 riel note is 25c).
We got back to the hotel and had a bit of a swim in the lovely pool. Then, doing a quick bit of research, I also found that there were aerobics classs at 5:30 in the evening which was something I was determined to have a go at, so I set of to look for them, just finding them in time. It was fun, if hard in 30deg heat and very high humidity, but only cost the measly sum of 1000 riel (or about 17p). Most of the clientelle were women, many of them quite old, but that's nothing new as far as my fitness regime is concerned.
I got back, and we got ready togo out for the night, and see what the begining of the weekend had to offer in Siem Reap. There are no shortage of nightspots, with the main drag for nightlife being called Pub St. We ate at a place called the Khmer Kitchen, which did the local specialities, not that there is any shortage of this around teh place as you might expect. The main dish was Khmer curry which was fantastic. Not disimilar to Thai style curries, but less hot, and with less obvious lemon grass and coconut milk.
We drank a few more drinks (mostly beers, but they d a good selection ofcocktails too) at a variety of places. Best of all the place is very cheap, with it being low season, and most places offering a happy hour all the time with draft beer being often 50c a glass. Cocktails too are usually chap to start with or on 2-4-1 offers.
We got a tuk-tuk home. Cambodian tuk-tuks are different from those you see elsewhere in that they are in effect moped-drawn chariots. That is to say, the passenger compartment is a trailer (sitting 4or 5 people) hitched up to a moped. It's a good way to travel, and relatively cheap. A quick one dollar ride home and we were in bed
We boarded our Air Asia flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Two hours, plus lost an hour as Cambodia is one hour behind Malaysia, despite being further east, paradoxically. The arrival hall is gorgeously done out in Khmer style, complete with statues of gods on various transport methods (elephant is the one you see first). It was good they had some nice sculpture to look at as they took some time to sort out your entry visa.
We were met by a driver from our hotel who tried to giveus the hard sell to get him to drive us around the next day. We weren't having it as we wanted a tuk-tuk (see later). The hotel was reached down a dirt track in the heartof the city, but what a gorgeous and idyllic place it was. A lush garden surrounding a swimming pool, with the most wonderfully friendly staff. Though it was little later than 9am we were able to check in straight away.
We dumped our stuff and had a wnader into Siem eEap, having breakfast at a French-style patisserie, dodging the offers of tuk-tuks wherever we went. This is a feature of Cambodia, offers of tuk-tuks, offers of a massage (legit type, often involving fish nibbling your feet), or ragamuffin children trying to sell you postcards or bamboo bracelets. It isn't major pestering, as a simple "no thanks" does the job. After this we wandered further into the city to get an idea of the orientation. We found a couple of wats to have a look around, similar to Thai style, though maybe a little less ostentatious.
Back to the Central Boutique Hotel for a breather then out for some lunch at a small cafe nearby where we had noodles/fried rice. Chatting to the owner, she had a American husband, though we didn't figure out the whole story. I did, however, win a free beer as my ringpull (one of the old fashioned ones you pull off) had a symbol for some competition where you could win up to something like 500,000 riel.
This is something to mention: currency. Cambodian currency is the riel as I just mentioned. However, they commonly use the US dollar such that, when you get money from the ATM it is in dollars. There are 4000 riel to the dollar, and when you buy something that isn't in full dollars, you get the change in riel (so a 1000 riel note is 25c).
We got back to the hotel and had a bit of a swim in the lovely pool. Then, doing a quick bit of research, I also found that there were aerobics classs at 5:30 in the evening which was something I was determined to have a go at, so I set of to look for them, just finding them in time. It was fun, if hard in 30deg heat and very high humidity, but only cost the measly sum of 1000 riel (or about 17p). Most of the clientelle were women, many of them quite old, but that's nothing new as far as my fitness regime is concerned.
I got back, and we got ready togo out for the night, and see what the begining of the weekend had to offer in Siem Reap. There are no shortage of nightspots, with the main drag for nightlife being called Pub St. We ate at a place called the Khmer Kitchen, which did the local specialities, not that there is any shortage of this around teh place as you might expect. The main dish was Khmer curry which was fantastic. Not disimilar to Thai style curries, but less hot, and with less obvious lemon grass and coconut milk.
We drank a few more drinks (mostly beers, but they d a good selection ofcocktails too) at a variety of places. Best of all the place is very cheap, with it being low season, and most places offering a happy hour all the time with draft beer being often 50c a glass. Cocktails too are usually chap to start with or on 2-4-1 offers.
We got a tuk-tuk home. Cambodian tuk-tuks are different from those you see elsewhere in that they are in effect moped-drawn chariots. That is to say, the passenger compartment is a trailer (sitting 4or 5 people) hitched up to a moped. It's a good way to travel, and relatively cheap. A quick one dollar ride home and we were in bed
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Day -3. More prep and musings on British life
It's the home straight. Three days before we fly, two days before I officialy go on holiday from work at 5:30pm on Tuesday. All the main tasks are sorted: getting a haircut (yes, both of us), having the car serviced and MOT'd, buying a couple more useful gadgets like an MP3 speaker. So now it's just the packing to worry about. That, and preparing for what we will be missing and what makes coming home worthwhile.
Football is something that is a consideration when we are away. The Championship officially began this weekend, and the Premiership season opener, the Community Shield, was on today. This was previously called the Charity Shield, but I suppose, given that the charities probably had less to spend at the point of need than the collected players earnt that week, it's probably a bit of a misnomer. Saying that, the philanthropic trust that is McDonalds were crowing, by way of advertising hordings, about how many coaches that had been installed for youth and grassroots football. I'l bear that in mind that next time I get a Big Mac whilst musing over how shit we were at the World Cup thanks to the intervention of the American obesity merchants.
One of the things about this sort of holiday is how you get to a place and think it's idyllic (apart from the massive poverty, healthcare problems and deprivation of the local populace, obviously), and you think how cool it would be to live there. As an expat, obviously. I mean, I'm not stupid, you do want to maintain a living standard close to that to which you are accustomed. Anyway, the point is, you know that it's pie in the sky (not much call for Clinical Biochemists in Batambang, Cambodia, where the healthcare system is pretty strained), so it helps to keep a sense of what you are looking forward to when you get home.
Reasons to come home:
British beer
The football (at a sensible time)
Television
Sunday roasts
Of course, dark, bitter beer isn't really missed when it's 37 deg outside and you need something ice-cold and wet; when you can get the football easier than ever online, with Satuday games on telly at 10-11pm, so when you're at the pub; when you have Youtube for any programmes you miss; and the fact that they do actually roast meats in a lot of countries. Really, though, without the dour British weather and the shortening day as we lurch towards winter to make all those things feel better, they are worthless. Obviously.
Two gym days left, following a step class this morning I managed to drag Jane to Huddersfield Total Fitness. That's her last activity before we go, that's for sure. Me, I don't want to hammer things, but I do want to do a couple of sessions. It is what I do, after all.
Anyway, we had our last Sunday roast, which was a fantastic piece of lamb with new spuds, broccolli and roasted butternut squash, as well as home-made mint sauce. It was something wonderful, something you don't get in SE Asia. Meh, who am I kidding? There's nothing we are going to miss from our Brit life being away, be it for 3 weeks or 3 years. There is so much to love about British life, but there are as many compensations for living elsewhere.
Next post wil probably be made en route to SE Asia, at the airport (though never say never) which, as far as I am concerned, is when we really are ON HOLIDAY!
Football is something that is a consideration when we are away. The Championship officially began this weekend, and the Premiership season opener, the Community Shield, was on today. This was previously called the Charity Shield, but I suppose, given that the charities probably had less to spend at the point of need than the collected players earnt that week, it's probably a bit of a misnomer. Saying that, the philanthropic trust that is McDonalds were crowing, by way of advertising hordings, about how many coaches that had been installed for youth and grassroots football. I'l bear that in mind that next time I get a Big Mac whilst musing over how shit we were at the World Cup thanks to the intervention of the American obesity merchants.
One of the things about this sort of holiday is how you get to a place and think it's idyllic (apart from the massive poverty, healthcare problems and deprivation of the local populace, obviously), and you think how cool it would be to live there. As an expat, obviously. I mean, I'm not stupid, you do want to maintain a living standard close to that to which you are accustomed. Anyway, the point is, you know that it's pie in the sky (not much call for Clinical Biochemists in Batambang, Cambodia, where the healthcare system is pretty strained), so it helps to keep a sense of what you are looking forward to when you get home.
Reasons to come home:
British beer
The football (at a sensible time)
Television
Sunday roasts
Of course, dark, bitter beer isn't really missed when it's 37 deg outside and you need something ice-cold and wet; when you can get the football easier than ever online, with Satuday games on telly at 10-11pm, so when you're at the pub; when you have Youtube for any programmes you miss; and the fact that they do actually roast meats in a lot of countries. Really, though, without the dour British weather and the shortening day as we lurch towards winter to make all those things feel better, they are worthless. Obviously.
Two gym days left, following a step class this morning I managed to drag Jane to Huddersfield Total Fitness. That's her last activity before we go, that's for sure. Me, I don't want to hammer things, but I do want to do a couple of sessions. It is what I do, after all.
Anyway, we had our last Sunday roast, which was a fantastic piece of lamb with new spuds, broccolli and roasted butternut squash, as well as home-made mint sauce. It was something wonderful, something you don't get in SE Asia. Meh, who am I kidding? There's nothing we are going to miss from our Brit life being away, be it for 3 weeks or 3 years. There is so much to love about British life, but there are as many compensations for living elsewhere.
Next post wil probably be made en route to SE Asia, at the airport (though never say never) which, as far as I am concerned, is when we really are ON HOLIDAY!
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Day -8, just over a week to go
PROLOGUE
Location: Horbury, W Yorkshire
No, we aren't off just yet, but it will be soon. All of our accomodation is booked, as are all our internal flights, as well as our long haul flights (naturally, since our holidays are usually based on wherever we get a flight to). Jane is responsible for itinerary whereas I'm in charge of logisitics. We are up to date on jabs, have malaria meds which we probably don't actually need. I will try to ease off on the travel nerdism, especially about equipment, but it is something I like about planning a trip. A lot of the fun of the buildup is getting the stuff together you need to take but I can become a bore on the subject. I mean, I'm not sure anyone really wants to know about our new camera with a huge zoom (Panasonic tz7), or that the new shoes I bought were Nike Alvord VIIs which are trail running shoes, even if I did want something that was good for some light jungle trekking, but light enough for some jogging or even aerobics which they are suppsed to do al fresco by the Mekong in Cambodia. Yes, I do have a hankering to do some aerobics in foreign climes, especially after seeing an outdoor class underway in Laos a couple of trips back that I missed out on taking part in.
Anyway, there's little else to do now, but wait and get our stuff together before we start packing. There's mundane things like haircuts and getting the car in for its annual service and MOT. We have a spare weekend to go after two when we were playing host to both our parents (don't get me wrong it was fun as any excuse for a meal at a decent restaurant is always welcome). There's a lot of lists to make: what to pack - which has sublists of things like toiletries and documentation, lists of thing to do in the house, like watering plants. Fact is, this is just marking time until the holiday actually starts. We aren't likely to forget anything major, and the act of packing takes little more than half an hour, but the fights have been booked for 7 months, so it's not unreasonable to be pretty excited by the impending adventure.
We have to bear a few things in mind already. We travel on the first day of Ramadan, which might be considered not the wisest time to visit a Muslim country, but they have a significant Chinese community where we will be able to eat any time, no to mention get booze. One of our previous trips we spent a day in Kota Bahru in the NE coast of the peninsular which is a pretty devout area, and it was only in the Chinese cafes there that you could get a beer so it's not unprecendented. As well as this, the fact that people eat in the evening following a day of fasting means that the evening meal takes on a special significance so there are some fantastic places to enjoy Ramadan evening banquets. Still, it does mean that bacon will be pretty scarce on the Malaysian part of the holiday.
Jane has looked up the entertainment for our outgoing flights which became available online at the begining of the month. I see this as cheating, like peeking at your Christmas presents on 23rd december, though she did tell me they have Shutter Island and Iron Man 2 which I'm happy to hear. I'm surprised she hasn't looked up the food, or the names of the air cabin crew. I don't call them anything, I just press a button to get their attention and order a bloody mary (the only time I ever drink a bloody mary is on a long haul flight, don't know why).
OK, enough already. This is just a preamble, and I may post one or two more in the next week, and I know it's a bit dull because I haven't done anything or have any pics to display, but please stick with it.
Location: Horbury, W Yorkshire
No, we aren't off just yet, but it will be soon. All of our accomodation is booked, as are all our internal flights, as well as our long haul flights (naturally, since our holidays are usually based on wherever we get a flight to). Jane is responsible for itinerary whereas I'm in charge of logisitics. We are up to date on jabs, have malaria meds which we probably don't actually need. I will try to ease off on the travel nerdism, especially about equipment, but it is something I like about planning a trip. A lot of the fun of the buildup is getting the stuff together you need to take but I can become a bore on the subject. I mean, I'm not sure anyone really wants to know about our new camera with a huge zoom (Panasonic tz7), or that the new shoes I bought were Nike Alvord VIIs which are trail running shoes, even if I did want something that was good for some light jungle trekking, but light enough for some jogging or even aerobics which they are suppsed to do al fresco by the Mekong in Cambodia. Yes, I do have a hankering to do some aerobics in foreign climes, especially after seeing an outdoor class underway in Laos a couple of trips back that I missed out on taking part in.
Anyway, there's little else to do now, but wait and get our stuff together before we start packing. There's mundane things like haircuts and getting the car in for its annual service and MOT. We have a spare weekend to go after two when we were playing host to both our parents (don't get me wrong it was fun as any excuse for a meal at a decent restaurant is always welcome). There's a lot of lists to make: what to pack - which has sublists of things like toiletries and documentation, lists of thing to do in the house, like watering plants. Fact is, this is just marking time until the holiday actually starts. We aren't likely to forget anything major, and the act of packing takes little more than half an hour, but the fights have been booked for 7 months, so it's not unreasonable to be pretty excited by the impending adventure.
We have to bear a few things in mind already. We travel on the first day of Ramadan, which might be considered not the wisest time to visit a Muslim country, but they have a significant Chinese community where we will be able to eat any time, no to mention get booze. One of our previous trips we spent a day in Kota Bahru in the NE coast of the peninsular which is a pretty devout area, and it was only in the Chinese cafes there that you could get a beer so it's not unprecendented. As well as this, the fact that people eat in the evening following a day of fasting means that the evening meal takes on a special significance so there are some fantastic places to enjoy Ramadan evening banquets. Still, it does mean that bacon will be pretty scarce on the Malaysian part of the holiday.
Jane has looked up the entertainment for our outgoing flights which became available online at the begining of the month. I see this as cheating, like peeking at your Christmas presents on 23rd december, though she did tell me they have Shutter Island and Iron Man 2 which I'm happy to hear. I'm surprised she hasn't looked up the food, or the names of the air cabin crew. I don't call them anything, I just press a button to get their attention and order a bloody mary (the only time I ever drink a bloody mary is on a long haul flight, don't know why).
OK, enough already. This is just a preamble, and I may post one or two more in the next week, and I know it's a bit dull because I haven't done anything or have any pics to display, but please stick with it.
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