Another long flight

Today was mostly flying. We got to the airport in plenty of time this morning, and everything went smoothly. The flight felt incredibly long, I wasn't tired enough to sleep much and felt very restless. Heathrow was as busy as when I left it, and we had to queue for ages to get through passport control and wait for our bags -- take me back to Bangkok! It was very late when we got into central London so we only had time for a quick dinner.

Tomorrow it's back to Swansea --- but only for 4 days before I head off to Dubai. YAY!

Last day :-(

When I woke up this morning I couldn't believe that it was the last day of my holiday already -- the time has just flown. We headed back to the Canon centre first thing and Matt was delighted that his camera had been cleaned and the firmware reinstalled at a bargain price. We then headed to the Wat Traimit - the temple of the Golden Buddha. The Golden Buddha is 15 feet tall and weighs 5 and half tons - and it's all solid gold. At some point it was covered in plaster in a trojan horse style disguise but the disguise was so good it was forgotten about and it was only in 1955.

We then headed towards the river and caught a boat to the Khao San Road area where we had lunch. From there we walked towards the Grand Palace. We had a bit of an annoying experience on the way -- we were approached by some people who tried to give us some seed to feed the pigeons. I wasn't keen on this at all as I hate pidgeons but they kept pestering us and shoving seed into our hands and saying happy new year. We didn't want to insult anyone and were worried that it was some sort of tradition for Chinese new year so eventually we gave in and a few handfuls of seed. Things turned nasty then when they started trying to make us pay then for the seed. One of the guys followed us quite a long way and Matt ended up having to get a bit aggressive with him and give him 50 baht. This was alot more annoying than all of the begging we had experienced in Cambodia.


We finally made it to the Grand Palace. This is completely breath-taking -- everywhere you turn there are stunning buildings decorated in gold. There's even a replica of Angkor Wat. The Emerald Buddha is housed here. This is the most sacred statue in Thailand and is actually carved from jade rather than emerald. Wat Phra Kaew, the temple which houses the buddha was packed with worshipers on their knees.

After spending a couple of hours and the Grand Palace and taking hundreds of photos, we headed towards Wat Pho and the temple of the reclining buddha. The reclining buddha is gold plated, 46 meters long and 15 meters high....it really has to be seen to be believed.

The last week must have caught up on us because by late afternoon we were both wiped out. We headed back to the hotel for a few hours. Later on we had a really delicious dinner at the Lemongrass restaurant very close to our hotel, and the headed to Patpong to experience a different side of Bangkok. The less said the better!

It was quite a late night and but we don't have an early start and I didn't want our last day to end.

Shopping and the night market

Today was a bit of a lazy day but I think we both deserved it after the past few days. We had a late start and then headed to the Canon Camera centre to get Matt's camera cleaned and repaired. After that we headed to Siam to take a wander around the massive shopping centres there. I was thinking of buying a new lens for my camera but wasn't really sure which one I wanted to decided against it.

On the way back we decided to indulge in a massage as they're so cheap here. I was worried about hurting my sunburn so decided on a reflexology foot massage. I was a little bit surprised when I was massaged right up past my knees and on my thighs -- thankfully my knees are feeling better today, but yesterday that would have been extremely painful. I was even more surprised when she moved on to my shoulders, neck and arms. Thankfully she mostly avoided the sunburn but I could hear Matt sniggering. I got a laugh too though, when his masseuse starting digging her elbows into her shoulders. Ha ha!

In the evening we went to the Suan Lum night bazaar. This is a really nice place to spend an evening with market stalls selling cheap clothes, shoes, souveniers and all sorts of other stuff, and a huge open area where you can sit and eat and drink and generally chill out. The liverpool match was on the big screen again so Matt was happy, we had loads to eat, a few beers and I picked up a few things in the markets. I'm very glad to have visited here as it is closing down at the end of April to make way for some yet to be announced commercial development.

After a quiet day today, I'm ready for a bit more sightseeing tomorrow so we'll probably head to the Grand Palace as well as a few other places - Matt is going to be my guide since it's only few weeks since he's been here before.

The last day at the temples

I was questioning my sanity when the alarm went at 4.40am yet again this morning. But it was our last day so we were both feeling pretty enthuasiastic about getting up and making the most of it. On the advise of the driver and having red the guidebooks we decided to go to Srah Srang for the sunset. We watched and took as few photos as the sky gradually grew brighter. People started to move on so we headed towards to tuk tuk. On the way some of the local kids were chatting to us, and one of them warned us not to go as the sun hadn't actually come up yet. She said she's there every morning and she pointed to a corner of the lake where she said the sun would appear. We weren't in any hurry so we decided to hang around from another while -- and wow was it worth it. A few minutes later a burning red sun appeared from behind the trees and rose slowly -- it was really spectular and well worth staying for.

Once we were sure that the sun had definitely risen and we had seen everything there was to see, we took the 30km journey to Banteay Srei, which means 'citadel of women'. This is a stunningly beautful temple and I think it was my favourite of the whole trip. It is a small temple surrounded by a moat which still has a little water in it, and is one of the most elaborately decorated of all the temples. We were lucky to have beaten the crowds at this temple, we seemed to be about 10 minutes ahead of about 4 busloads of Japanese tourists and it was very crowded when we left. We had some breakfast outside the temple and then headed back to the hotel for a rest and to finish packing up. We asked for a late check out last night but the hotel didn't agree to it, so the plan was to go back, get organised, then take a taxi back to the temples for a few hours in the afternoon.

After a power nap, we packed up, checked out of the hotel, had lunch in town and wandered around the market. Bizarrely when I was asleep I had a dream that we should go back to Ta Prohm as we didn't see it very well the first time, and after I woke Matt said that he was thinking we should go back to Ta Prohm. So the plan was Ta Phrom and then Angkor Wat for one last time. Ta Phrom the second time round was much more enjoyable as it was less packed and we managed to stay together. The weather was very changeable, one minute it was sunny, then hot and humid and cloudy and then the heavens opened. But soon it was back to blue skies again. We then headed back to Angkor Wat -- the weather was much nicer today than the first day and the temple looked truly stunning with blue skies behind and the blue water in front of it. We had a drink in the markets nearby and I picked up some souveniers. For the second time that day some of the local girls complemented me on my 'beautiful' white skin -- even when I showed them my red and blistered shoulders they didn't see white skin as much of a problem. The cosmetic industry really has it made - the shops here are full of skin whitening cream, where you would see fake tan at home. We wandered around Angkor Wat for about an hour but unfortunately the sky clouded over before sunset and there was nothing left to see.

In our three days in Siem Reap we have kept extremely busy and seen a lot but there is still a lot more I would like to see, and even seeing the temples in different light at different times of the day is a different experience. There are other temples further away from Siem Reap which are reputedly worth a trip -- I definitely want to come back some day.

We headed to the airport and arrived there very early but were lucky enough to be put on an earlier flight to Bangkok. It was still very late when we got to the hotel, and we were both shattered. The hotel - the Davis - is very nice though and it will be nice to have a couple of days here. We had a late dinner and went to bed. I was looking forward to going to bed without setting the alarm, until we discovered the Liverpool Barcelona champions league match was being shown on the TV so we had to wake up in the middle of the night for that. They won though, so it was definitely worth it!

Day Two at the Temples

This morning when the alarm went off at 8am I felt almost as bad as yesterday morning but not quite. We managed to drag ourselves out of bed and have breakfast at the hotel before being picked up by the tuk tuk driver at 9am.

Today was the day for the outer temples. The first temple of the day was Pre Rup, a name which literally means "turning the body" in reference to a cremation ritual. This is another temple mountain with lots of steep steps to climb and my legs, and especially my knees were absolutely aching after yesterday. I made it to the top though and was much less scared than yesterday -- probably because of the pain. There are some lovely views from the top and it was a lovely morning with nice blue skies.

After Pre Rup is was a short journey to East Mebon. This temple is on an artificial mound and would once have stood in the middle of the East Baray, a massive reservoir which is now completely dry. It's hard to imagine what it would have looked like in it's day, it's towers reflecting in the huge reservoir which was 7km long and 2km wide -- must have been stunning. Today Mebon is marooned in the rice fields. The remains of elephant statues are positioned on the four corners of the two levels facing outwards as guardians.

At this stage we started getting a bit templed out and seemed to be spending less and less time at each temple. We were both feeling pretty tired and were hoping for long distances between the temples so we could rest. The next temple as Ta Som -- this is a small buddhist temple, which is badly dilapidated. It's quite similar to Ta Prohm but much smaller and less busy. What made this temple memorable for me was a small boy sitting in the window when we arrived. He was so cute and loved us taking photos of him. Further into the temple we had one of many encounters with begging children (presumably older brothers and sisters of the first child). These children are at every temple and constantly try to sell postcards and every memorabilia to tourists. They are extremely cute and use every trick in the book to try to get you to part with your money....they count the postcards in every language you can think of (yes, they did have a few words of Irish!), they ask you where you're from and then say 'Ireland: Capital City Dublin'. It's hard not to feel sorry for them, and be tempted to give them a dollar or two but there are hundreds of them and as soon as you buy something from one of the them loads of others surround them. What I don't understand is why they spend so much time trying to get me to buy stuff, while taking one look at Matt and staying away from him -- I must be a softer touch!

Preah Neak Pean was next, about 2km along the road. This temple was once an island in the middle of the Jayatataka Baray reservoir and is different to any temple we have visited so far. The temple is smaller than any other the others we've seen and is located in the middle of the central pool, a square pool which is surrounded by four smaller square pools. To the east of the island in what would have been the main pool (this still sometimes fills with water in the rainy season) is a horse sculpture which appears to have human legs and seems to be swimming towards the shrine. This temple was an interesting change from the other temples we had visited this morning.

The last temple of the day was Preah Khan - the temple of the sacred sword. This is a big temple in good condition and we spent quite a while wandering around here. By the time we had finished in this temple it was early afternoon and definitely time for lunch. The driver dropped is off at cafe near Bayon where we had a breakfast yesterday morning. Once again, while waiting for our food, the local children decided to befriend me and try to sell me stuff. Matt was tried and grumpy and not saying much so I decided to chat to them, asking them their ages and if they go to school. They are older than I expected, they looked about 8 years old, but said they were 12. It really made me laugh when one of them answered my questions but when I asked the other one his age he said 'I tell you, you buy'....obviously he has been taught sales techniques from a young age!

After lunch we were feeling tired and templed out so we decided a change was in order. The driver recommended a visit to the Tonle Sap, and this was recommended in the guide books too. After a very long and bumpy tuk tuk journey, we finally arrived at the floating village of Chong Khneas. We were charged $20 for a cruise around the lake -- it seemed expensive for what we got. We rode out through the floating village out onto the lake -- it's not actually float, it's on stilts but there's a school, a police station and shops and the people move between them in boats.
Near the shore most of the people are Khmer, but further out on the lake the houseboats are occupied by Vietnamese people. We went a little bit out onto the lake where we stopped to watch the sunset, except it was at least an hour until sunset. As soon as we stopped, we were joined by another boat selling us drinks, and somehow without being sure I how, I ended up buying drinks for the driver and the kid who was guiding us. After about half an hour just sitting there (I was feeling a bit sea-sick) we went to GECKO, the Greater Environment Chong Khneas Office where we saw a fish farm and a crocodile farm. Both of these were there solely to attract tourists and seemed very cruel -- there were loads of small crocodiles in a very small cage. We watched the sunset from here and it was really beautiful - made the overpriced boat trip worth it I think.

When the sun was set we headed back to the tuk tuk and were a little annoyed that we were practically blackmailed into tipped the guide and the boat driver - they said if we gave them money they would stay in school. By the time we got back in the tuk tuk we were both really exhausted and the journey back to town seemed very long. All we wanted to do was go to sleep but it was a busy evening as we had to pack for the morning as tomorrow's our last day in Cambodia and we went for dinner on Bar street. And we've agreed to get up for sunrise again tomorrow -- another 5am start -- Argh!

Day One at the Temples

The alarm went off at 4.40 am and I felt absolutely terrible. Really didn't want to get out of bed. But I did and the tuk tuk was waiting for us outside at 5. We went to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. It would have been good to have remembered to bring to torch as it was pitch dark when we got there, and we couldn't see a thing. We just followed some other people with torches and assumed we were going the right way. The sun rose behind Angkor Wat as we watched, it was nice but nothing stunning. Afterwards we had a walk around the temple itself. This is a massive temple in incredibly good condition and there's loads to see -- almost every stone surface has some sort of carving on it. We climbed up the very steep and deep steps to the top of the temple. I was fine going up, but as soon as I got to the top and turned around, I literally got the fear. Started shaking and feeling sick and had no idea how I was going to get back down. Thankfully one set of steps has had a rail added so while Matt practically skipped down (show-off!) I clung to the rail and took about 10 mins to get to the bottom. Pathetic!


After Angkor Wat (and it felt like it should be around midday even though it was only about 8am - and it was warm enough to be midday too!) we headed to the ancient city of Angkor Thom and the temple of Bayon. This temple has 54 towers, on which are more than 200 massive faces. This is another big temple and we probably spent another hour wandering around it. Then it was time for breakfast.

After breakfast, the tuk tuk driver dropped us at the North Gate of Angkor Thom and we walked back to the centre, passing the Terrace of the Leper King, the Terrace of the elephants, Baphuon and Phimeanakas. The terraces are platforms which are elaborately decorated with carvings of elephants, tigers, lions, snakes and fish, just to name a few. Baphuon and Phimeanakas are relatively small temples, both of which are being restored at the moment. It wasn't even lunchtime but it had already been a long day and the sun was splitting the stones. We were making great progress though having seen all of the inner temples, and thankfully the crowds weren't anything like they had been the night before at Phnom Bakheng.


We decided to visit one more temple before lunch and the driver recommended Ta Prohm, another spectacular temple which has been made famous by the fact that a scene from Tomb Raider was filmed here.
What's unusual about this temple is that the jungle hasn't been completely cut back, and some of the stone structures have massives tree roots growing around them. This temple is a bit of a maze and it's difficult to make your way around it. Unfortunately I managed to lose Matt (or he managed to lose me) so spent a lot of the time looking for him. It was also incredibly hot at this stage so I'm not sure I saw all of what Ta Prohm as to offer. I made my way to the Tuk tuk and thankfully spotted Matt a few minutes later.


Then it was finally time for lunch. The driver took us to a restaurant overlooking Srah Srang, a giant reservoir. I was getting extremely tired at this stage, and after I had eaten I put my head down on the table and actually fell asleep for 10 minutes. While I was sleeping Matt read the guidebook and discovered that there's a third level at Bayon which we completely missed. Doh! We decided to head back there later on in the afternoon, but first we went to see a couple of more temples, Banteay Kdei and Ta Keo. Banteay Kdei was used as a Buddhist monastic complex until the 20th century so it is less over grown than some of the other temples. I was fascinated to see some buffalo swimming in the nearby water. Ta Keo is another temples with lots of steep steps and once again I was pretty scared but I'm improving. Was still like a granny getting down them though.

After that we headed back to Bayon to see the third level....well worth the trip back...you come face-to-face with the massive faces. Then we decided to head back to Angkor Wat for sunset. Unfortunately it was quite cloudly so we couldn't see the sunset, but at least we got a couple of nice photos over the moat at the front. The temple looks a completely different colour in the evening light to what it does in the morning.

We were wrecked tired in the evening and it wasn't a good time to get completely lost looking for the Dead Fish restaurant. The food was lovely but we were both completely exhausted after an extremely long but very enjoyable day.

Journey to Siem Reap

Woke up early this morning and headed off to book a taxi to Siem Reap - at $60 for a 4 and a half hour journey it was a bargain really. Once we got that organised we picked up some breakfast and some sandwiches for the trip before going for a wander around the Royal Palace.

We headed back to the hotel for 11, checked out of the hotel, and the taxi was waiting for us. The journey to Siem Reap was uneventful -- by the grace of God. The driver drove like a lunatic and overtook everything in sight. I was feeling very sick and tried to sleep but didn't really manage it. We got there eventually though and checked into the City River hotel. It all went fairly smoothly except for the fact that Matt had very cleverly thrown away his Cambodian visa. Luckily they accepted a copy which he had printed before he left home, and they didn't seem to notice that this one hadn't been stamped at the airport. It also annoyed me that even though the booking was in my name and paid for with my credit card, they insisted that Matt signed for it.

We booked a tuk tuk to take us straight to Angkor Wat to watch the sunset. There are three day tickets to see the temples but if you buy one after 5pm you can watch the sunset for free on the first evening. So we caught our first glimpse of Angkor Wat across the lake. It was chaos around the main temple, with tuk tuks, buses and taxis everywhere -- I think the Chinese New Year drew extra tourists. On the tuk tuk driver's recommendation, we walked up to Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset. Unfortunately it was way too packed to be worth the trek and it was really hard to get a good view of the sun setting. I hope the next few days aren't going to be that packed!

After the sunset we found our tuk tuk (not as easy as it sounds, there are hundreds of them) and made our way back to the hotel. We went out for dinner in the Khmer Kitchen, a restaurant highly recommended in the Lonely Planet -- and rightly so. I had a fantastic traditional Khmer curry with chicken and potatoes.....Mmmm. Then it was back to the hotel for an early night....we're being picked up by a tuk tuk at 5 in the morning to go and watch the sunrise. We must be mad!

The Killing Fields

Today was my first and only full day in Phnom Penh. We woke up late-ish and decided to skip breakfast so we would have time to visit the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. And what a harrowing start to my holiday that was. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the museum where we saw hundreds of photos of men, women and children who were tortured there. The building was a school up until 1975 when it was converted by the Khmer Rouge into a prison and interrogation centre, renamed Security Prison 21 (or S-21). There are cells where the prisoners were kept in very inhumane conditions, interrogation rooms where prisoners where tortured showing photos of how the torture would have been carried out, examples of the instruments of torture used as well as hundreds of desperate looking mug shots. It is estimated that 17,000 people were imprisoned in Toul Sleng and there are only 7 known survivors. What shocked me most was that this happened in our lifetime (more Matt's than mine) yet I know little about what happened or why it happened.

When we finished at the museum, we had a quiet lunch across the road at the Boddhi Tree restaurant. After that we caught a tuk tuk to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and I had my first real experience of crazy Cambodian driving. There don't seem to be any rules of the road around here. When you come to a junction every just keeps going slowly, some of them on the wrong side of the road, and by some sort of weird miracle nothing crashes. Another thing that stands out to me is the number of motos (scooters) here. Everybody seems to travel around on them....I've seen up to 6 people on one moto. Mothers carry tiny babies in one arm, and hold onto toddlers with the other hand, while bigger children hold on to her or their Dad. I've seen guys holding babies in one arm and steering with the other hand. Madness! I'm too scared to go on one.

So after quite a long bouncy ride in the tuk tuk we arrived at the Killing Fields.
This is the place where the prisoners from Toul Sleng were killed and buried in mass graves. There are a few plaques describing what happened there, for example that to save bullets the prisoners were often beaten to death. We walked around the fields where there are huge holes where the mass graves have been opened and the remains exhumed. There are human bones scattered around the place. The main monument contains a glass case where 8000 skulls are arranged by age and gender. It's hard to imagine that these are real skulls and not just some exhibit in a science museum.

After wandering around the Killing Fields for a while, we were ready to head back into town and to the Russion Market. As it was late afternoon a lot of the stalls had already closed and I found it to be very claustraphobic and warm, but I picked up a couple of things before we headed back to the hotel for a rest.

We decided to pop out to try to book our trip to Siem Reap tomorrow, but unfortunately the bus we wanted was fully booked. While considering our options we went for wander on the riverbank and decided to do a sunset cruise on the river. One boat owner came up to use and offered us a trip but we didn't like the look of the boat so we wandered on to the next boat. It turned out to be a group of Austalian missionaries taking a bunch of Cambodian orphans out on a trip. The invited us to join them and we went for it. I really enjoyed this trip. We chatted to the Cambodian teenagers and learned a few words of Cambodian, and also chatted to the missionaries. They were really generous people sharing their food and drink with us, and refusing to take any money for the trip.

After that, it was time for dinner. We ate at the Veiyo Tonle restuarant. The profits from this restuarant go towards running a local orphanage. The food was great and we had a few beers while watching some of the orphan children doing some traditional Khmer dance. A lovely end to a good day.

Tomorrow we're off to Siem Reap. We've decided to get a taxi as the express bus isn't available and the other options take hours on end. It's Chinese New Year tonight though, so we weren't able to book a taxi, so we'll be up early in the morning to find one. Fingers crossed!

My first stamps!

I made it! The flight from Bangkok was extremely long and I didn't sleep much because my seat wouldn't go back at all -- you wouldn't think it would make much difference but it's extremely difficult to sleep when sitting completely upright. But I finally got to Bangkok. There's a new airport in Bangkok and I was extremely impressed with the efficiency of the place....within less than a half an hour of landing I was through passport control (where I got my first stamps in my new passport :-)), had picked up my luggage and was checked in for my flight to Phnom Penh.....a far cry from Heathrow Terminal 3 yesterday. I was pretty tired but it was great to be able to walk around a bit and stretch my legs a bit. The flight for Phnom Penh left on time and took less than an hour. I was delighted that I got my Cambodian visa online before I left home -- it meant that I walked passed all the visa queues and went straight to passport control and got more stamps.

Matt was waiting for me at the airport and we jumped in a taxi and headed to the hotel, The Pavilion. Matt had already been in Phnom Penh for a couple of days so we took a wander around the town and the riverside and he showed me some of the sights. We had a really nice dinner and some beers in the Chiang Mai Riverside restaurant. We had a couple of set menus. They serve the dishes in smaller portions over here which is great as you get to taste more food without ending up completely stuffed, as I normally do when I go for Thai. I especially liked the red curry -- really sweet and delicious. Matt says he can make better now that he's a gourmet Thai chef after taking a cookery course in Chiang Mai, but I'll reserve judgement until he actually cooks for me.

By then I had been up for about 36 hours without any proper sleep, so I was ready for an early-ish night.

The first leg: Swansea to Heathrow

So excited! After a busy couple of weeks organising everything, I'm ready to go. Today I drove from Swansea to Heathrow, and gave Rhodri a lift. I was completely shattered after a very busy week, not to mention the fact that someone woke me up at 5am 'cos he didn't write down the name of the hotel I booked for him and also couldn't work out the time difference! Grrr! We squeezed Rhodri's skis into my little Punto and got to Heathrow in good time (or so it seemed). Took ages to get from the Hertz office to Terminal 3 and the queue for check-in was massive, not to mention getting through security, so I ended up getting to the gate just as the flight was boarding....Phew. Delighted to finally be on the flight though, and hoping to sleep the whole way. A bit nervous about delays has I only have about two hours to make the transfer in Bangkok.....fingers crossed!

A Clean Passport

I've got a brand shiny new passport with no stamps at all and I haven't been anywhere for ages so I thought it was time to plan a few trips.

So I'm off.....to Cambodia and Thailand first and then to Dubai in a couple of weeks. It's all a bit hectic so I've decided to start a blog to keep track of it all....

Enjoy!