Angkor Temples Complete

 This morning just before 8 am, our tuk tuk driver arrived at our hotel and we started off for a day of touring the Angkor temple complex. It's very common to get a wave from little kids on motorbikes with their parents who are off to work. It seems that people often take their children to work with them and that there's some sort of informal system for looking after them. Not really sure how it works.

 Tourists can go for elephant rides if they wish.

 Once we got through the ticket gate, our tuk tuk driver (a good guy) advised us of what was possible in a day. We consulted the map and programmed his cellphone number into my phone in case we couldn't find him. Then he left us at the Bayon temple in the Angkor Thom complex and arranged to meet us a little further up the road. Angkor Thom is composed of at least 8 temples and other buildings and pools. Angkor Thom is over 10 square kilometres by itself.

 We spent a little more time in the Bayon with all the faces staring down from every angle.

After that, we walked up to the Baphoun, a pyramid shaped temple representing some mountain from Khmer mythology.

 Lots of big trees around here.

 We continued along the 350 metre Elephants' Terrace, a 7 metre high platform used as a viewing stand for public ceremonies and parades. The base of it is covered in carvings. In fact, just about everything at Angkor is covered in intricate stone carvings. It's hard to imagine the work that went into all of this. A lot of the stone was apparently quarried 50 km away and transported down a nearby river on rafts.

These smaller buildings are across from the Elephants' Terrace. Buildings like this are scattered all over. They don't even count. Anywhere else they would be a major tourist attraction by themselves.

 After visiting two smaller temples, Thommanon and Chau Say Tevoda, just outside Angkor Thom, we went back to Ta Prohm, the Tomb Raider temple. It hasn't been fully restored and there are trees growing on it and jumbles of stones all over. Real Indiana Jones territory.

Ta Prohm with Canadian.

 Ta Prohm.

 Along the paths to many of the temples there are little bands playing who are victims of landmines and are raising money for other victims of landmines. It is very common to see people in Cambodia missing limbs. In Canada and in Europe, we often get tired of being hit up for money by professional panhandlers, some of whom are just scamming because it's easy. Here, there are some real hardship cases with no other means to live. It's common to see Khmers giving money to beggars, probably because there isn't the same social security net that we are accustomed to in Canada. A dollar here means very little to us but a lot to someone with nothing.
After Ta Prohm, we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant. It was overpriced and no doubt our tuk tuk driver got a free lunch for taking us there but that's okay. Again, it might seem like a scam in Canada but it's kind of an informal system here to share the wealth. After lunch and a short visit to another temple and reservoir, we went to a highlight, Angkor Wat, the biggest religious building in the world. Angkor Wat was built in the 1200s, I think, around the same time as the big cathedrals in Europe. The Khmers had a very advanced civilization to be able to do this.

 Anita (covered up to be protected from the mid 30s sun and to be respectful in religious buildings) crossing the moat to the wall of Angkor Wat. The moats and reservoirs here are immense. The Western Baray, a big reservoir, must be at least 6 km long and maybe 1 1/2 wide, all dug by hand. The Khmer empire depended on big rice harvests which they ensured with lots of water.

 Me on the steps of an inner part of Angkor Wat. All the tourist steps are really steep and are over top of the original stone steps which are even steeper.

 Part of the outer courtyard of Angkor Wat.

 Looking down from the tallest accessible part of Angkor Wat to Anita sitting and chatting with a guide and his client in the shade. It was very hot and Anita didn't feel up to climbing another set of steep stairs. It made me a little nervous too.

The view east from the top. The outer wall is inside the moat so it's not possible to see the whole thing in even one direction. Since this photo is approximately from the centre, it hopefully gives an impression of the immensity of Angkor Wat. It would be good for us in the west to realize that our achievements and beliefs are a small part of what exists in the world.
We got back to our hotel about 3 pm, hot and tired but happy with what we'd experienced. We'll pack now and then walk down the street to a good Khmer restaurant that we know of. Tomorrow we get up at 5 am to be ready for our driver at 6. Off to the beach.

Angkor Temples and Apsara Dancing

 Our first stop at the Angkor complex yesterday morning was Banteay Srei, the Citadel of the Women, said to be so named because the extensive stone carvings are too intricate to be carved by the hand of a man.

Next, we stopped at Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world. We're going back there tomorrow so we'll post more pictures.

 After lunch, we went into the temple complex of Angkor Thom. This is one of the 4 bridges and gates across the moat. The whole Angkor complex is immense. Angkor was a city of 1 million people when London was a town of 50,000. Khmers are very proud that they built Angkor but now after the Khmer Rouge, they're basically starting over. When you see what they've done in the past, you can have no doubt that they will progress very quickly from a very poor country right now into a much brighter future.

 This is the Bayon, just one of the temples inside Angkor Thom.

 There are 216 huge faces staring down at the Bayon.

More faces. Everything at the Bayon is very solid, huge and somewhat surreal.

 Anita is trying to bend her fingers back like the traditional Khmer Apsara dancers in the stone carving.

 This is the temple of Ta Prohm, the so-called Tomb Raider temple. The movie, featuring Angelina Jolie was filmed here. In the picture are me, Anita, Tim and his Thai friend Dao (sp?) who was here with some Thai professors on a bus tour.

 Ta Prohm.

The Bayon from a distance.

 After a shower and short rest at the hotel, Tim, Dao, Anita and I went to a buffet dinner and traditional Apsara dance performance downtown. Very different dancing - slow, controlled and lots of hand movements with fingers bent backwards. Great show.

Here we are getting our pictures taken onstage with some of the performers after the show.
This morning, Tim and Mike went back to Phnom Penh in our rented van with driver. We'll miss them. Tim has been a fantastic host, showing us things and taking us places that we otherwise would not have seen. We've had a great time with him, Mike and Ernie. We're always joking that we shouldn't say too much about how nice it is in Cambodia and how friendly the people are (with a few exceptions). Before he left home, someone told Ernie Perrier that "They'll steal your money and then slit your throat". That's been one of our recurring jokes. We've been thinking we should keep telling people that so that we can keep this beautiful country to ourselves.
After Tim and Mike left, we went to a travel agent in town and reserved a taxi Friday morning to drive us to the border at Poipet and another to drive us from the Thai border to Bangkok airport (total cost $130 for a 6 hour drive). Then we fly south to the island of Ko Samui in the Gulf of Thailand for some rest (haha). We're staying there at a beach resort to celebrate Anita's birthday (February 6th) for a week before flying back to Bangkok.
Tonight we're going downtown by tuk tuk ($2) for dinner. Tomorrow morning we're going to rent a tuk tuk for the day ($20) to drive us all around the Angkor temples to spend some time in places we may have missed. We didn't stay long in Angkor Wat so we'll be sure to go back there for a couple of hours.

Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

 On our last evening in Sihanoukville (Saturday), we met Mike and Tim down at the Purple Bar on the beach and enjoyed the sunset one last time. Lars, the Swedish owner, has great potato pancakes and meatballs on the menu so we ordered that.
After dinner, we took a tuk tuk up to Snooky's Bar near Tim's place where they had an open mike night with a lot of expats getting up to sing. Mike sang backup for one guy for a song. Anita and I didn't last too long before we walked up to the main street and found a tuk tuk to take us back to the Orchidee Hotel.
The next morning we packed up and checked out at 11 am. Our bill was $250 for 9 nights with breakfast buffet every morning. The 4 of us (Ernie was already back in Phnom Penh) got tickets on the mini-bus that left at 1:30. The bus is a 15 passenger van that was packed full. There is no room for luggage so they fit it under the seats and in the aisle. A bit crowded but it works. This is luxury compared to some of the vans with Khmers in them. We saw several regular size vans with about 20 people or more inside and 4 or 5 sitting on the roof, driving down the highway in heavy traffic.

 As soon as we hit Phnom Penh we headed for our favourite watering hole to meet up with Ernie and entourage. Here's Gangnam Kim, Ernie, Alin, some girl with Mike, me, Anita and Tim. After a couple of beers we took a tuk tuk back to the GGP Hotel where we had stayed before.

After a shower, Anita and I went to a traditional Khmer restaurant that Tim had recommended. You have to remove your shoes at the door and sit on cushions on the floor. We were on the 2nd floor overlooking a little pond thing. Great food. After dinner, it was such a nice night that instead of using a tuk tuk, we walked about 25 minutes through the city back to our hotel.
Ernie is not interested in the temples at Angkor so he stayed in Phnom Penh. Tim, Mike, Anita and I had a rented van and driver reserved for the drive to Siem Reap near Angkor. We left at 7 am and got here about 2 pm.

 We picked up some lotus to eat.

 Once you tear it apart, there are seeds like beans inside. Very tasty.

 We bought 2 deep-fried tarantula spiders for $1. In the end, we gave them away. They didn't look that tasty.

 Tim was skyping his brother, Ernie Coulas, with a cellular connection on his laptop. Ernie had a chance to chat with these little girls in the market all the way from Combermere.

There were lots of foods available at the market in this little town on the highway. I'm not sure if these are ducklings or some other unfortunate birds.

 This is a bridge on the way to Siem Reap that's over a thousand years old. It's used only for motorbikes now but during the war the Khmer Rouge drove tanks across it. Solidly built.

 Anita likes these tall haystacks. There were lots of them along the road.

 After a delicious lunch in a Khmer restaurant in Phnom Penh, Tim, Anita and I took a boat out to a floating village on Tonle Sap lake, the biggest lake in southeast Asia. The driver let us all take a turn driving the boat. During the rainy season, the lake floods away out into the surrounding flat land. The flooding can add 10 metres of depth to the water, making the lake huge. Many of the people living in the floating village are Vietnamese fishermen from the Mekong Delta. Not all Khmers are happy about these foreigners moving in here illegally.

 Getting a little downtime on the deck.

Some of the kids out at the floating village. They have snakes that you can hold if you give them a little money.

 A Catholic Church in the floating village. Quite a few Vietnamese are Catholics. There's also a Buddhist pagoda out there.

 A crocodile farm at a floating shop. A couple of years ago some crocodiles escaped during rainy season and moved into the flooded streets of Siem Reap. I think the crocodiles ate some people and some people ate some crocodiles, making it a tie.

 Floating houses.

 A floating school donated by UNICEF that's seen better days.

 The tourist boats depart from this landing.

For miles around the edge of Tonle Sap lake, the land is flat and lush. This area would flood several metres deep every rainy season.
After we picked up some beer (50 cents a can) and wine (Chilean, $5.50 a bottle) we finally checked into our hotel, the Apsara Holiday. It's very nice, comes with buffet breakfast and costs $40 per night. Anita and I will be here for 5 nights before moving on to Thailand. Mike and Tim will be here for 2 nights before heading back to Phnom Penh.
Tomorrow, we explore the temples of Angkor, just 7 km from here. I've been wanting to see them for a long time.

Fantastic News From Home

I know we're risking sounding like one of those insipid Christmas newsletters but this is too big to ignore. This morning we woke up and checked our email. There was a message from Josh telling us that the movie that he had written with his friend Matt Johnson had won the grand prize for feature film at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. This is a really big deal! We have no idea where it will lead or what it will mean but it's quite an honour. We're proud parents. That's it, we're done bragging (for today, anyway).
After breakfast, Tim drove his motorbike and we followed in a tuktuk up to the house where one of his Cambodian friends lives. She works for a travel agency, has a 15 year old daughter and also a 4 month old son with her new husband. Their house is on a rough little back street with vacant land nearby. From the outside the house was very modest, built of wood and with a tin roof. Inside it was fixed up as nicely as they could afford and was spotlessly clean.
Tim has known this woman for over 3 years. She speaks fairly good English and is clearly an entrepreneur who is intent on making life better for her family. Her husband is only 28 but he was a Buddhist monk from age 15 to age 25. He was educated by the monks but has no certification to prove it so that's a hindrance to him in getting job interviews. However, he was clearly intelligent and a good guy. It seems likely that they'll be able to make a decent life for themselves.  He was willing to talk about Cambodian politics but she seemed very uncomfortable with that type of discussion.

Here we all are under the low roof at the back of their house. Tim and I had a little trouble fitting under there.

The baby didn't quite make it into the first picture so here he is. Obviously a free thinker in regard to what to wear for company.
This afternoon we went for a walk down Occheuteal Beach and bought some pineapple and mango from a young fruit vendor. I gave her a tip so she threw in a cut up banana as well, not wanting to take the money for nothing. Nice girl.
Tonight we'll go out for our last dinner in Sihanoukville. Tomorrow we're taking a minibus to Phnom Penh where we'll stay overnight at the GGP Hotel again before leaving by rented van for Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor Wat.