2nd tour of duty Cambodia

Part 5

Phnom penh 22/2/09

The boat trip from Siam Reap to Phnom Penh took about six hours going across the Tonie Sap tidal lake which has quite a big floating village on it.At the start of the trip there were locals selling water and snacks for the trip if you waited right until the last moment when the boat leaves the dock you can get your snacks reduced right down to about 10% what they were hanging out for 15 min's before!

I sat on top the whole way,awesome.

We did a tour of the silver pagoda and the royal palace.

Chris and Debs got involved with some fitness dancing.

We stayed at the OK hotel,which was catered for western travellers and was'nt to bad,very laid back and did  some good meals. Better than the plate of Tarantula's that was offered to us at the market.

The next day was a sombre one and a real eye opener at the killing fields of the Khmer rouge and a visit to the high school that was converted into a torture prison s-21, i dont want to go into much detail but the memories will stay with me for ever.

Next day we would be catching a bus to Saigon Vietnam.

Part four,2nd tour of duty Cambodia

CAMBODIA.

21/2/09

We landed in Siam Reap,which means Thailand defeated!!,no wonder there were hostilities going on between the two armies at the border!
we found a hotel,that was very ordinary[bathroom flooded] and when we walked down the stairwell we spotted a crocodile farm next door,with hundreds of crocks basking in the sun waiting to be turned into handbags! We changed hotels the next day with one that was cheaper and cleaner!

That afternoon we went and got are 4 day pass for all the temples and went to a temple that people flock to for the sunset over Angkor,we paid for an elephant ride up to top with a real gentle elephant,once at the top the handler let us feed her,showing what leaves were her favorite we spent some time patting and feeding her and she loved the attention she was getting. The sunset was magnificent but it was standing room only! After a great Khmer curry for dinner we woke up the next day for a taxi tour of some of the temples and a visit to Kbal Spean which is a spectacular carved riverbed,set deep in the jungle, Kbal Spean means 'River of a thousand lingas'. It was a bit of a trek up to where it starts but it was well worth the effort to get there,but it was hot!

We did a tour of a few of the temples in the area each one was unique in its own way,but we were getting peed off with traveling around in a taxi,we weren't getting the real feel of the country in a air con cab! So the next day we arranged a tour around with a moterbike cyclo.

We explored some awesome temples including the one used in the Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie,but my favorite was it had a library building that was like an Mediterranean Colosseum how can that be when these two cultures wouldn't have crossed paths? The temples had stunning carvings in the stonework and were mesmerising, it was very hot and we just couldn't drink enough water and eat refreshing pineapples. Each temple was unique and some had very steep stairs to climb to reach the top!

But the most known temple of the lot Angkor Watt was breathtaking with all the stone carved reliefs, we spent a long time here soaking up the atmosphere of a culture long gone.

Tomorrow we are off to Phnom Penh by fast boat

Camping, cold mornings and star trails

12/6/10

Went camping out at Canungra and did some expermenting with my new camera,the nights were cold and the morning freeeeezing! but it soon warm up during the day and had a great time with the family and friends.