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Sa Dec and Cai Be

5 January 2015 / admin

Day 16 Wednesday 31 December 2014

We have been away from home over two weeks – this is probably the longest holiday ever, but as I no longer go to work it is perhaps more appropriate to say that this is the way we live now!

Sa Dec has a large retail market which we walk through. The photos cannot really do it justice as it would be boring if I posted a picture or each vegetable stall or each fish stall which replicate along the length of the market. However merely one example of each hardly gives a fair representation either. Also dashing around but not recorded are people delivering meals (usually some soup) plus the inevitable scooters weaving in and around the market. https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7iyAjJ for the photographs.

At the far end of the retail market is a wholesale market and of course supplies come here in bulk before being broken down. I suppose that Covent Garden was once like this. I believe now that there is little direct trading at Nine Elms or at the other large markets in London, all of which have declined as the supermarkets have gained dominance.

Marguerite Duras lived part of her early life in Sa Dec and her most famous book concerned a relationship with a wealthy chinese man she met on the way to Saigon. We had been shown the film the previous evening, but frankly I saw no merit in the story and gave up about halfway through! The wife persisted to the end but no good came of it. A few years ago it was realised that the house of the chinese man’s father remained in Sa Dec and it has been restored and can now be visited by passing travellers such as ourselves. An interesting foot note but little substantial meaning.

We rejoin the local junk used for the journey from our cruiser to the town to travel a little further to see a church of a local important religion – Cao Daisim (or Dao Daisim). Whilst relatively recent, being less than a hundred years old the religion beings together the teachings associated with Ying and Yang from China, the later developments of Confucius, Buddhism and Christianity, noting the significant overlaps and common teachings across these separate religions. The religion has its home north of Saigon (see Sunday 4 January) and has a large number of adherents across the southern areas of Vietnam. It was originally supported by the government and was not permitted after 1975 but has in more recent years become far more substantial.

In the afternoon we visit Cai Be. The catherdral of St Joseph marks the continuing strength of the Catholic religion in the region and the area outside has various additional statues and has bought neighbouring land to permit expansion. This has been achieved by money sent from church members now living abroad who are able to send money back to the church to provide the additional memorials.

It is noticeable this afternoon that a number of the group is smaller than usual with others choosing (as we did earlier on ) to stay aboard the mother ship. Before we left home one of my wife’s main concerns was the transfers to and from our cruise vessel to land as this nearly always requires the use of a smaller motor vessel, capable of seating about 30 and for which we are required to wear life jackets (so we won’t drown – merely die of the pollution in the river) but each transit is between two vessels both bobbing around. Pleasingly all of the transitions are made without a problem – except to my head. Once again it is proven that I am significantly oversized as I clobber my head (despite the regular warnings given by all of the crew providing assistance) on the roof beam of the junk. This time quite hard. I cannot say I wasn’t warned. They are of course built for people who generally are probably six or more inches shorter than I am. This size problem will arise again.

Wandering in the group along Cai Be street enabled at last the picture of a small outlet selling wooden furniture. Compared with some of the other larger scale enterprises we have seen this is modest and I am only glad that we do not have time to stop and buy (also I am not so sure how comfortable the chairs would be). A separate album for Cai Be: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7iyxU3

At the end of our walk is a factory producing variously popcorn, rice wine and fine rice paper. The production processes are explained to us. The rice wine here is not so near fire water compared with the Laos sample but on the whole I think I prefer a small cup of sake. We wander around the processes and Jackie observes that the girls pressing the toffee are doing so with bare hands whilst the sweet popcorn is being packed by girls sitting on the tables. I am sure they all wash regularly.

Jackie is particularly taken by the production of rice paper, wanting some authentic paper for a dinner party when we return but oddly it does not seem to be on sale here! There is a shop but nothing catches our fancy.

After dinner it is time for “Mekong Prestige has got Talent” where normally the crew entertain the passengers. But we have a surprise. Among the Japanese contingent there is a trained dancer who has offered to perform and we have already see her twice during the day practicing. She performs well and it is extremely brave of her to do so.

The crew have various party pieces – “YMCA” from one section, a great singing voice from the ship’s purser and the chief engineer is also a master magician with pieces of rope joining and splitting magically. We are promised a disco and entertainment until the new year but all this fresh air and travelling means we go to bed.

In our cabin we note we are tied up alongside a form of pier and that on the quayside there are numerous containers. If this is a passenger terminal then it is being seriously under-invested and gives a little weight to the comment made by the tour guide (Matthias who did a grand job over the entire week with three distinct groups speaking English, German and Japanese) that the facilities along the river are being stretched by the 16 cruise vessels now being operated along the Mekong. When we went to the Nile some 20 years ago the numbers operating were much higher and there were facilities everywhere to tie up rather than using transfers.

Tan Chau

4 January 2015 / admin

Day 15 Tuesday 30 December 2014

We are now firmly back in Vietnam but this is still part of the Mekong and the Mekong delta and is in many ways different to Hanoi.

Historically this area did not become part of Vietnam until the French colonial period when the borders were redrawn (again). Hanoi and the surrounding area has long been Vietnam. The marriages between Vietnamese kings and Cambodian princesses led to gifts of land in the centre of the country being dowries and therefore becoing part of a larger Vietnam. Cambodia was a strong and huge country at the time of the Angkor constructions but subsequently weaker. The name Siem Reap actually reflects the town being conquered by Siam (Thailand).

Our visit this morning is to Tan Chau to see a floating fishing farm. These have become incredibly important in feeding the Vietnamese in recent years and we are shown the way in which the families live on a floating “raft” with the fish farm suspended below, with cage with wire netting on three sides but the fourth side closed with wood to prevent the full force of the river flowing through the farm. The farm we saw was responsible for some thousands of tilapia fish which were about half grown and will eventually reach close to 1kg each in weight over a nine month period.

Photographs can be found at: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk3Mcbh2

Special boats have been developed to move the young into these individual farms and for the grown fish to be taken away, still alive, so that the quality of the fish is maintained until the last possible moment.

Leaving the fish farm we return to solid land for a while and we walk between houses and gardens inspecting the growing peppers and a variety of other plants and fruits plus a lot of ducklings before embarking on a rickshaw ride. As elsewhere the presence of satellite dishes means that battery powered tvs means these people do know what is going on in the world. I suspect the bicycle powered rickshaws are retained solely for the tourists and we progress to two further visits. A basket weaving factory where the noise must drive everyone deaf very quickly.

The individual parts often have to be dyed red (the colour of the day) or green and are then fed into the weaving machines by hand, Hugely labour intensive and the potential for error high so the operators have to keep a close eye on the feeds and we see the machines being stopped and errant colours being removed to ensure the patterns are right.

These rickshaws are not designed for big fat western bums like mine. To mount them we stand on a beer crate (upside down) and then insert our bums on the back seat. We then lift our feet up to rest on the seat facing the other way (we are so big it is a single seater). Now I cannot tuck my legs up like that because of my size so it is a question of finding a comfortable position with one leg tucked under the other. And there is nothing to hang on to apart from the seat. After a few minutes my nerves subside and I do manage to capture a couple of pictures of people passing us by and of another rickshaw rider. I need a smaller bum and more flexible legs!

The second visit is a silk weaving factory where our new most excellent guide explains at length that this factory is particularly good at weaving black silk. However production today is at a standstill due to a power failure – which is probably just as well as the noise would probably be impossible.

The machines are Jacquard and the design is driven from a continuous loop of what looks like punched cards which ensures that the design and pattern repeat regularly throughout the cloth without the careful attention of an individual machine minder – we are told one minder can look after two machines! There are 70 machines on site. A long step from the silk weaving capabilities seen in Laos earlier in the holiday.

Another afternoon cruising down the river.

Navigation Day

4 January 2015 / admin

Day 14 Monday 29 December 2014

We spend the day steadily heading along the river towards Vietnam. During the day we cross the border and our passports (which were collected at the start of our journey in Siem Reap) have to be put through passport control.

One of our number (the aforementioned Brazilian) has apparently suffered a leak in her Manhattan apartment which has been discovered and requires urgent attention so she disembarks in Pnhom Penh before we sail and heads for the airport and a local flight to Saigon and then back to NY. Some of us suspect there may be more to this than meets the eye as she gives my wife a “Ciao” as she departs hardly having spoken to her since we boarded.

My day is however improved by a trip around the lower deck containing key matters to making it a successful journey and also to the bridge – so there are photos over at Flickr. https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7k1Tqc

This is the newest cruiser in the fleet having been delivered on 31 December 2013 and entering service on 6 January 2014 so it has improvements over the earlier vessels. In particular the crew now have small shared cabins under the kitchen (so on level 1 – the same as our cabin) and do not sleep in the level 0 under our cabin. They have external access to fresh air which must be far more preferable to the original arrangements.

Food stocks are largely refreshed at the southern end of the journey as the boat is Vietnamese owned (and laoding at the north end difficult as it does not reach Siem Reap at the momen) but fresh vegetables are bought at most stops and some fish I think.

Being a floating hotel the water supplies are important. Cooking itself uses bottled water. Water supply for the cabins is taken from the river and double cleaned by various methods before use. A partial supply is then treated a third time before being used for cleaning of kitchen surfaces and so on. The waste water is collected and the solid waste is pumped out at the southern end of the journey, whilst the liquid waste is treated and is returned to the river cleaner than the water brought on board. Hot water for the cabins is achieved by using power from solar panels.

There are two large diesels running when we are under way and there are also two power generators but only one is used at a time but both are used regularly. Fuel consumption rates are not small either.

Moving to the bridge the controls are fairly simple. There are only two screw propellors – no side propellors – and sideways movement or turning the boat is achieved by using them in different directions. Our speed is faster downstream at about 17 km/h – this reduces to about 12 when against the current, so time spent navigating is therefore greater when travelling in the other direction.

There is a wheel but most of the activity is controlled by a small joystick being pushed either left or right as this gives a finer degree of control. The crewmember responsible largely navigates by sight in the daytime but there are radar scanners and other equipment to hand – although it all seems remarkable bare in the bridge.

There are three staff on duty normally – an engineer in the bay next to the engines (he ought to wear ear protectors as he will end up deaf!) and two on the bridge. Actual shift lengths vary slightly as it depends on the length of each period of navigation but are typically not more than 3 hours at a time.

Crew wages are considered good for Vietnam – but the vessel only operates for part of the year. However there is turn around at both ends and so the ship is effectively in non-stop operation during the summer. It seems however that a lot of the team (particularly in the kitchen) are return members from last year as they are given the first choice for the next season.

The front of the boat also seems to have a small herb garden – just like a Vietnamese house.

We carry on sailing.

Phnom Penh

3 January 2015 / admin

Day 13 Sunday 28 December 2014

This time we have not moved overnight and we are still resting at the pier side – underneath which we can see immense amounts of rubbish – somewhat typical of this untidy city which we are formally touring this morning as we are with the main party.

We are taken first to the Royal Palace where the current elected King lives. It takes some understanding but the king is elected by a Royal Council and it is not a hereditary position as in the UK. Although apparently there are two important families which are considered. The current king is 61 and lives a life much like a Buddhist monk – simply and maintaining the ten key buddhist attributes. He has no children and is not married.

Today’s photographs can be found at https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7cjEek

He lives to one side of the Palace area but we are shown to the Throne Room where the gold throne is occupied only once during each reign when the King is crowned. The Room is also used for official receptions and for greeting foreign dignitaries and in front of the Throne is an ordinary chair used for non-crowning events. It is a magnificent room but we are not permitted any internal photos; there are some external pictures on the Flickr page.

We wander through the rest of the palace site seeing some of the remaining assets, including some paintings in a gallery which were partly damaged during the period of Khmer Rouge control in the late seventies. During much of this time Phnom Penh was an abandoned city – indeed all the cities were emptied and under Pol Pot no-one was allowed to do anything other than live and work on the land.

On the other side of the grounds is the Silver Pagoda which has a solid silver floor. Most of the floor is covered by carpets and internally we see a gold buddha with (I think) 246 jewels mounted on it. Also within the Pagoda are numerous gold buddhas which have been given to the Kings – an amazing collection. There are also other precious items. External photos only again.

The trip heads to the Museum of Fine Art – which we enter but decide to rest rather than study. We gather there are some exceptional items of Khmer Art within, but the weather has turned warm (well for us – about 30 deg C – which means it is winter here!), so need a small break and would have liked a cup of coffee but could not find a coffee shop at all.

Our final calling place this morning is the Central Market; the building is of French construction a little over 100 years old and is stuffed to the gills with traders. In the central domed area jewellers, watch and sunglass sellers. The most amazing selection of Rolex, Patek Phillipe and Breitling I think I have evere seen. No Jaeger Le Coultre so the wife did not get the Reverso she wants.

Elsewhere in the emporium are just about anything you could want. We both look at handbags and I am tempted by a Mont Blanc bag. We also wander through the food area and the clothing but give the electronics a miss. There is a picture of one of the many flower stalls. Beautiful.

The morning completed we return to the cruise vessel.

After lunch we have a second more chilling excursion this time to S-21 which was once a school but in the time of Pol Pot became a detention and torture centre and from here many were despatched to Choeung Ek (see previous post).

There remain two of the famed seven who were initially believed to have survived the camp, subequent research later put the total at over 100, although an absolute number will never be established. The belief of the regime and its troops is that they never arrested an innocent individual and therefore if they were there, then the individual must be guilty.

Again I felt that recording the cells and means of confinement (which were brutal and inevitably painful) photographically would show a lack of respect – but I did take one picture of the way the interrogators addressed the victims as recorded by a large board at the site. I do not believe the terror or pain can even be imagined by those of us who have never experienced it.

In the evening we have a wonderful presentation by Mr Jean-Michel Philippi who by day is currently Professor of Linguistics and the Royal University of Phnom Penh but is a very engaging speaker on Cambodian history from 1953 to 1993, although the time he has does not allow much of the latter part of that period to be covered in great detail. Should I manage it some observations on this talk will appear in my “Musings” elsewhere. He does however have his blog at kampot.wordpress.com and if this matches the quality of his talk it would be worth reading.

He had two brief films showing Phnom Penh during the Pol Pot era. As the vehicles drive through the streets, they are eerily empty and a huge contrast to the sites seen earlier in the day. A quite unbelievable demonstration that the cities had been emptied.

Thinking back to my own University days I can only wish that all lecturers were so engaging.

Tonle Sap and Phnom Penh

3 January 2015 / admin

Day 12 Saturday 27 December 2014

There was a programmed visit this morning but this included a school visit and silk weaving. We had seen silk weaving earlier on our travels and I felt it unlikely that a planned school visit would be particularly educational. My wife agreed with me and so we remained on board and I spent the time on some earlier days of this blog.

Link to photographs: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk75PokW

Rivages du Monde who operate the river cruisers jointly with a Vietnamese company have dropped the Killing Fields visit from their own itinerary as it was felt that combined with the S-21 the impact was overpowering. Our booking with VJV did include it in the itinerary at the time of booking (this may well have changed). Our itinerary was honoured – so whilst the other passengers went to visit Wat Phnom in the afternoon we were off to the site of one of the Killing Fields – Choeung Ek – which lies on the edge of the City and is also close to the river’s edge.

There are no pictures of our visit. All of the buildings at the time of the deaths have been removed and the mass grave areas, not all of which ahave been excavated, are marked. They have audio guides and marked locations around the (to me) surprisingly small area of land. The audio guides have been well produced and relate the stories of events in the period of the Pol Pot regime and the terrible deaths inflicted on this site.

There is a peaceful area where one can sit alongside a small canal to listen to some of te stories of those who managed to avoid death during this period of dispossession and in one case escape to USA and return as part of the team overseeing the first elections.

Centrally on the site is a building which houses human bones – skulls are visible through the glass doors – of some of those who died. We do not feel we can enter as it somehow would further disturb those no longer with us. Whilst we have not visited the scenes of mass murder arising during the Second World War, the events in Cambodia, as retold seem removed as there is no underlying schism of religion, race or politics which drove the happenings of which this is the result.

Around the site even now bones and rags of the departed rise to the surface and are collected by the staff. Perhaps the most horrendous and chilling area surrounds a tree against which babies were thrown in view of their mothers.

It is as if all sense of reason and logic had left the Khmer Rouge army and the people. There is more on this aspect tomorrow.

The day ends with another Khmer Apsara dance troupe – this time of children and once again the coconut and other dances are portrayed – remarkably well. This tradition is obviously set to continue in Cambodia for a long time.Ap

Tonle Sap River

2 January 2015 / admin

Day 11 Friday 26 December 2014

This morning we have moved along the Tonle Sap river to see Kampong Chhang (and convincing a spell checker of the need for the second h is difficult). When the Pol Pot takeover happened one of the key instructions was to remove all Vietnamese into Vietnam – Cambodia for Cambodians (which sounds a touch too like Nigel Farage for my liking – but somehow I cannot see Pol Pot having a pint down the pub) and they were driven across the border.

Accompanying photographs: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7bqFsv

When the Cambodians returned to the towns from the country they were allowed to occupy and become owners of property so the Vietnamese were dispossessed of their property. However they have subsequently returned to Cambodia as migrants and so have created floating villages in Cambodia as they cannot return to the land. Kampong Chhang has one of the largest floating villages with omething like 900 families living in poor conditions on the river. I am not sure how but the community exists and finds ways of ensuring the somewhat ricketty floating rafts remain afloat. Toilet facilities are limited – straight into the river and of course this does not aid pollution levels. We were told that the Government is seeking to find them land within Cambodia and to resettle them – but this will prove difficult as they seem to have a natural affinity for the water. Everyone has a little boat with (sometimes very) noisy motors to power their progress around the harbour area.

Then we land to visit the market in the village itself. Our guide, who is moonlighting this week – he is normally a civil servant, seems keen to make us believe that some of what we are seeing are Cambodian delicacies – but I am not so sure. The food seems plentiful, even bountiful, and whilst we accept that less pleasant items were consumed during the diffiult periods it is hard to credit all he says. He eventually manages to identify a snake on a skewer but none of the travellers try it – the wife warns me off from going anywhere near it.

Against this he claims that the homeless Vietnamese on the river all have smartphones – maybe not iPhone originals but cheap Chinese copies and there is evidence of suppliers everywhere. The other aspect is that of relatively small children around who are not immediately attached to a parent or adult – riding bikes, watching the tourists (not detectives) and even testing some english – usually just hello! – but friendly and smiling. Such visits are no doubt regular events but there seem to be less parental worries about child safety (see the recent Paddington film for mention of “stranger danger”).

Along the main drag the buildings have a real sense of faded grandeur – decay and decline in places alongside others which have been improved and are being looked after and extended. On the other hand we see at least three statues along the way that have received no care and attention at all.

We pass along more of the floating village before returning to our cruiser. Amongst other things we see a hall decked for a wedding and water side suppliers.

Having moved a little down river we go ashore for a trip on a cart pulled by ox. Perhaps the traditional mode of transport in the countryside it is now I suspect largely used for tourists. We journey from the riverside a good mile or so at a decent walking pace with children walking behind us. We sit facing backwards with my wife between my legs. The lack of suspension soon tells on the backbone. The cute little girl walking with us is rewarded by a dollar from my wife. We eventually turn into a temple, one of the few not completely destroyed by the communist regime, although it was vandalised and saw other use during the period.

For the next stage of our journey we transfer to rather more comfortable coches and we head across the countryside to Oudong where there is a very impresive buddhist temple (where we are all duly blessed. This is the Vihara of the Wat Kampong Leu Pagoda which retained some very beautiful wall paintings.

However disaster struck outside the temple as my wife’s new camera had decided to malfunction – and it was her Christmas present. She had been snapping away madly since arrival in Hanoi and is regularly uploading her output to facebook as a record of events. However the iris which covers the lens refuses to open. Possibly some dust has got into the mechanism as it is very dusty.

I do however manage to get some photographs – there are some wonderful statues in the grounds of the temple and in the surrounding area.

The area does have the benefit of some major employment in at least one (and possibly more) garment factory. This does however require workers and they have a form of co-operative transport – not a bus, simply a trailer loaded with people all going back to a single village. We pass a small number of these and we are told that they are not insured but are needed as the only way to get from a remote village back to the factory and back.

There should be an Oudong album on Flickr which covers the second visit mentioned. https://flic.kr/s/aHsk6HzCL4

Tonle Sap Lake

1 January 2015 / krw

Day 10 Thursday 25 December 2014

Happy Christmas and for us a day of transition. We leave Siem Reap by cruise boat to head south along the Tonle Sap lake and river with seven days of cruising ahead of us.

Although pre-warned the low level of water prevents the river cruiser – Mekong Prestige II – being able to negotiate the Tonle Sap lake and so we are loaded into a motorboat which is not particularly comfortable (not enough knee room for tall western sized people) and told that we have a three hour or so journey to the river cruiser.

There are no pictures of our activities today – it was not quite what we wanted! It took more like four and half hours to reach the cruiser and not far short of our destination those travelling on the small deck were forced indoors as we saw the first rain of the holiday.The lake is huge and for most of the journey land was only visible on either post or starboard at the horizon. And the other horizon is water as far as the eye can see.

The commencement of our trip is enlivened by the party sitting in front of us (an apparently excitable Brazilian) and the ladies behind us have an entertaining discussion as both appear to have been allocated the same cabin. After a while we decide nothing can be done until we get there. I certainly get the impression that the Brazilian thinks she might be travelling on the Queen Mary rather than a river cruiser!

Eventually we have land on both sides again and we transfer from the motor boat to the cruiser. She is a well appointed vessel as we had expected (she is less than a year old). Whilst we might struggle to get across the crew have to get our huge suitcases on board as well – and nothing goes in the drink which is good news. However due to the cabin mix up one of our cases goes astray so unpacking is a little slower than we might have liked.

Before long we are sat at dinner and the tensions relax. There is a wide offering and four courses – and even cheese for the end of the meal for me. We are going to eat well for the next week. And I rather think we shall sleep well.

Siem Reap Day 2

1 January 2015 / krw

Day 9 Wednesday 24 December 2014

Another early start and our guide whisks off to Tar Prohm temple. This is famous as it was used for one of the Indiana Jones films and unlike some of the other sites we can see the impact of the jungle growth on the site. Approaching the outside of the temple there is a tree which has managed to grow seemingly on the stone blocks – the roots run around the top of the blocks and then eventually dive into the cracks to find sustenance underground.

Elsewhere in the complex it looks like the Spong trees (Spong is a wonderful word bringing to mind the Goons) balanced on walls, look the other side and the roots run down the wall and then through cracks into the ground.

Photographs are here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk78FKKX

As with other temples the original gods were hindu related. Some restoration continues but I believe there is an intention here to retain a nod to the overground state as it is intended to reflect some of the lost nature of all of the temples. They were lost until the mid-nineteenth century after the capital was moved elsewhere from Siem Reap; it is now thought after a 30 year drought followed by very heavy rains which overwhelmed the drainage system – sounds like global warming and then an inevitable correction. And once the centre was weakened Cambodia as a whole changed.

Our next stop is further away – but worth the journey, We go to Banteay Srei which is a very well served tourist point – parking, toilets and all organised very well to see a smaller sire which has been well preserved. This is busy. The carvings here in the stone are much deeper and have survived well.

There is one story of a carving we are told where the “good” god has to unravel a spell cast on a devil who cannot killed in daytime, or at night, by a man or a woman, nor by an animal, neither indoors, or outdoors (there may well be other conditions!). So the good god becomes half man, half bull, and kills the devil in a doorway at day break; thereby finding a way around the curse!

When I look at the photos again I may find other points on which to comment.

Our return to the hotel (our least favourite of the trip) shows another odd event. We have a third bed in our room. So the hotel fails for a poor breakfast choice (hard boiled runny eggs have soft whites), a dirty sheet on our first night on Jackie’s side of the bed and now an unwanted extra bed, which we ask (and it is) promptly removed.

We spend the afternoon close to the pool in Siem Reap enjoying some sun as it is a awful lot warmer than our earlier locations. We might even get a little browner.

And we have been promised a Christmas Eve extravaganza. So cocktails in the normal outside restaurant – the staff have been busy creating a snow scene all around. Then we head out and around the back of the swimming pool for the food and the entertainment. The wife has a dislike of flying bugs – mainly because they always bite her and not me! Anyway this area seems to be inundated with the most spectacular group of insects ever encountered.

Around us are numerous different food stations and this ranges from pasta being cooked in front of us, a charcoal grill which is so busy I cannot get near, bakery, salads. The kitchen staff have been working flat out all day. We move around gathering food and then sitting down – whereupon we become sitting ducks for the insects. The wife nearly loses a glass of wine at one point!

The entertainment at this point is a little disappointing – a couple of girls singing to backing tracks and I could have done without Hotel California being murdered. Poor. We were also promised dancing and it became clear that this was where the moeny had been spent. It was the same high quality team we had enjoyed the previous evening of Apsara dancers. Yay, the coconut song again!

We decided an early retreat to bed was in order.

Siem Reap – Day 1

1 January 2015 / krw

Day 8 Tuesday 23 December 2014

Siem Reap is a huge tourist place. Much, much larger than Luang Prabang. The draw here are the temples built in 11 – 14th centuries and which then were lost and became covered in overgrowth until rediscovered by the French when they were in power in the mid-nineteenth century.

At the time of construction Cambodia was a much larger country and covered much of what is now considered to be Vietnam to the south east, Laos to the north and Thailand to the west. The borders have frequently moved as a result of invasions and disputes and the current borders largely derive from the French arrangements in the nineteenth century.

Our hotel has obviously been selected by the operators for convenience to the main attractions, Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat and not for the quality of the breakfast. Hard boiled eggs which have solid yolks and runny whites (how do they do that I wonder?) and despite the French influence in the region the knack of good fresh bread (particularly croissants) seems to have been lost.

Never mind – hotels are secondary to the sites and our guide redeeems himself for the previous day and we are off to Angkor Thom where we stop outside the walls and indeed the moat. The construction of these sites was (to my mind) amazingly well engineered. The weight of water in the moat around the development holds it all in place, all very clever. The target for today is the Bayon temple which stood at the centre of the complex. Originally the temple had 54 towers, each with four faces above – 216 smiling faces. Not all survive but all were individual. The photos also show the associated carving throughout the temple. Again the work was amazing and given its age it is all based on the Hindu religion and Hindu stories. There are several clever photos possible of people kissing the smiling face which others achieved!

Angkor Thom photographs are at https://flic.kr/s/aHsk3ycgfh

Outside the Bayon temple we are taken to the location of the Royal Palace, now long gone at the rear of which there were two swimming pools – and even now both contain water, although perhaps not as clean as they were once.

The engineers who designed the entire area used the main river flows into the lagoons / moats around the major Angkors but also to provide strength to the ground to ensure the building weight was held in place and also to ensure that water continued to flow and therefore provided good clean water downstream as well providing all that was required by what became in the mid-fifteenth century a huge city which controlled most of the entire indo-china peninsula. These people were clever.

Outside is the elephant terrace – a partially enclosed area with elephants engraved along the walls which was probably used as a parade ground and at the end of the terrace another area known incorrectly as the Leper terrace. Modern investigation has shown that the statue at the top of the area was a respresentation of the god of justice who decided on individual descent to hell or elevation to heaven! His fingers were missing and so it was believed to be leprosy – but merely damage it seems! Beneath the statue however were the remains of a creamtorium which has been partially reconstructed. This elevated section is also opposite the drive to the fifth “Victory” gate where the King would sit to welcome troops returning from battle.

Following a little light shopping our excursion continues with a gondola trip around one corner of the moat. This is a peaceful interlude but enables us to gain some idea of the scale of the construction. The water is currently ten or so feet below the top of the surrounding banks showing that we are now in the dry season and the capacity to hold extra water without flooding the area. On the inner side there is a high wall so the city must have been considered impregnable. Once we pass the point at which the water flows into this moat from the network system our oarsman is obviously working much more easily. We progress around the corner but do not stop to see the temple at the corner.

We turn around, so harder work against the current until we again pass the inlet and drift back to our starting point. Calm and cooler in the heat of the day.

Time for a break to avoid the heat and we leave the hotel again at 3pm to hear for Angkor Wat the very famous temple. We walk across the entrance bridge, again another huge moat and water supports the construction inside. Buddhist monks occupied the temple throughout and these are still on site in more modern facilities close by. Approaching the temple it looks as if there are only three towers but step to one side in front of a smalll lake and there are five – and if the reflections are working well then 10! Monkeys abound – living on the droppings from the tourists.

Separate album for this: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk6uwRFX

The temple when originally built was for the hindu religion and therefore the carvings reflect Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and the associated stories. However the influences came from India with Buddhism and the top of the temple had the Hindu features removed and replaced by a Buddha. So there are close links to our visit to India last year.

The original steps to the top of the temple look to be impossible – they are steep and the each step is very narrow plus there are no handrails! I suppose middle age feet (and I do not mean people younger than us) had smaller feet. Never mind; the authorities have erected some slightly more modern steps, with handrails and we pull ourselves up the steps and into the top of the temple. The views down make the people very small below. We wander around the top taking photos (some of these appear on the Flickr page as usual) before we descend and regroup. We head for the inevitable stalls and for the first time manage to get Angkor coffee – which is lovely and nutty as well as coffee. For me without the sweetening of the condensed milk which I am told makes it even better.

We return to the viewing point across the lake as we are told that like the Taj Mahal the temple can change colour as we approach sunset and sometimes it gains a wonderful glint. This obviously needs a completely clear sky (our lovely guide shows us some recent examples) and sadly there is a cloud in the wrong place at the wrong time. OTOH on reviewing the pictures later the change in colour which I had not seen at the time does appear in one of my pictures.

With the evening settling in we return to the hotel – but there is further entertainment. We head out to the Aspara dinner and dance. There are pictures of the menu and the food at Flickr (I will add links when the technology allows), plus a couple of pictures of the dancers.

The food was excellent, in particular we recall the marinated fish. The dancing was also excellent and we were treated to a number of dances – the fishermen, where boy gets girl (eventually), the coconut song and the dance of the Monkey king plus some others. A talented troop and they deserve our approbation.

The music however plus our discussions with our guides overe language and the need for significant tonal inflection to distinguish similar words, leads me to be believe however that ears work differently here as the music may have recognisable time signatures but tonally the music always sounds “different”.

By the time we reach bed we are tired. {This is the second version of this post; rewards will be offered for anyone who finds the original – it was much funnier}.

Luang Prabang to Siem Reap

27 December 2014 / krw

Day 7 Monday 22 December 2014

Until now all of the holiday arrangements had run well; timetables had been observed, guides knowing well what they were doing and it all has gone very smoothly.

We get to the very nice small airport at Luang Prabang and check in. Just as we complete this a notice is posted at the desk and we are going to be delayed by nearly two hours. The guide offers to take us back into town – but we decline – who knows the flight might suddenly be right time again. He does however notify his office and we hope the message reaches the other end.

So we head through the passport control – only to find that there is not much in the way of refreshment the other side. Anyway I am a fat unfit b******, so missing a meal will not do me that much harm. And the passenger information systems continue to tell us that the flight was leaving on time even when we were clearly nearly two hours past that time.

We see the arrival – it is the same plane as the one on which arrived from Hanoi a few days earlier. It unloads and reloads rapidly so that departure is pretty rapid, recovering some of the lost time.

Consequently our flight arrives in Siem Reap nearly two hours down and thanks to ebola we have to fill in another form to say we have not recently been in West Africa – which means we take ages to exit the airport. The passport control team are not particularly speedy either. Once outside our guide is not in evidence and we carry out several checks before electing to get a taxi to our hotel.

The route to our hotel takes us along what seems to be the main drag from the aiport with numerous hotels, all of which have lots of glittering lights, snowmen, reindeers, Santa Claus and Xmas trees – here it seems there is some acknowledgment.

Our hotel is the Tara Angkor which is graded 4 star, but to our mind is perhaps a little lacking in some respects. Dinner in the hotel and the prices are again unbelievably low. The wife has a burger for about $4 whilst I stick with rather more local food.

Amazing how a day doing nothing is tiring. So time for bed.