Sunday, December 9
Tomorrow we leave for the beach, looking forward to some quiet time in the sunshine away from the city.
Thursday, December 6
Today Mike and I went on a tour to the Tiger Temple, where we hoped to see some large and maybe baby tigers who have been rescued and are taken care of by monks. It was a long day and the tour included the original floating market, which in my opinion is a tourist trap. I had thought we would actually be able to see some of the produce boats etc., but cruising on the canal wasn’t included in the cost of the tour. Next stop was another tourist attraction which we had no interest in - the elephant park, where some people decided to take the elephant rides (we’ve done that already in Nepal), then on to “the most exciting show on earth”, a silly side show of snakes. Finely we got to the tigers (see photographs). The temple is 130 km from Bangkok, and the ride back to the city took forever. Once we got over the river and to the edge of town, we got out of the van and took the sky-train to NANA. The day was interesting and we met three very nice English people, one girl, Leena, had just graduated from medical school and the other couple was just traveling the world for the next 6 or 8 months. They have been on the road since early September too. We got some great information from them for our future trip to Africa.
Wednesday, December 5
Heading back to Bangkok - this time flying.
Tuesday, December 4
Siem Reap
A day relaxing and catching up on e-mails etc, until the afternoon when we walked around the city to see the sights and do just a bit of local shopping. As I said before, an easy city to walk and again, it wasn’t too hot. The plan was to end the walk at the “Alley” for dinner, but since I’m a bozo, we had to go back to the guest house first to get my regular glasses so I could see in the dark.
Blast it - he beat me again!
Monday, December 3
Angkor Wat etc.
Spent most of the day visiting Angkor Wat, which is an amazing place. Took way too many photographs, won’t bore you with all of them, just a few will be posted. Angkor Wat was build in the 12th century and once served as the capital city. This is probably the most recognizable of the Wats. We spent around 2 hours roaming around the ruins. It wasn’t too crowded or too hot, both a blessing as far as I’m concerned. Our driver, Lyny took the time to tell us about the history of our stops. We also visited Angkor Thom, which has a bridge over a moat and the bridge has numerous statues of heads; Ta Prohm, where trees are growing out of the ruins (if they were to be removed, the ruins would undoubtably fall down, and the Bayon, my second favorite for the many faces built into the towers. We ended our day with a walk up a small, but steep, hillside to another Wat were we waited for the sunset.
A great day, one that I will remember. By the way, Mike won at rummy again tonight.
Sunday, Dec. 2
Bangkok to Siem Reap
What a trip, and not in a good way. The transportation from Bangkok to the Thai/Cambodia boarder took forever in the minivan. Once we were close to the border, the van stopped at a small rest stop where we got our Cambodian visa forms filled out and the process started. Then off to the boarder in another van to immigration where we stood in line in the heat and sun for almost 1 hr 15 minutes to get our passports stamped to exit Thailand, then on to the Cambodia side and another long line for the Cambodian visa to be stamped, and in my case fingerprints taken. In Mike’s line, the fingerprint machine was broken. Once we had all the stamps, on to another place where we got on yet another shuttle to the Cambodian bus terminal to get our taxi to Siem Reap. Shared the taxi with two nice women from Bangkok who were coming for a short vacation. They were very pleasant and we discussed were we’ve visited and what we’ve done. They both spoke excellent English.
Finally arrived in Siem Reap. We’re glad that we had made the decision before leaving Bangkok to fly back.
The Cashew Nut Guest House was a welcomed sight. Greeted by Allen, the manager, with cold towels and water. He told us about the hotel and the area, made a suggestion for what we could/should do during our three day stay. We had already made arrangements with the tuk-tuk driver to pick us up on Monday at 11:30 for a tour of Angkor Wat and the other temples.
After getting cleaned up a bit, we walked to the center of town for a cold beer and dinner. Siem Reap is fairly small and very easy to walk around. We ran into a few children begging, but not too many, but saw a number of older people who were obviously effected by land mines (since they were missing limbs). Two or three groups of men playing traditional musical instruments and singing, offering CDs for sale. Continued our rummy tournament on the rooftop of the guest house - Mike won, if anyone is keeping track.
