Siem Reap
This is going to be a big post...so make sure you're sitting comfortably with a cuppa, and that the boss isn't hovering nearby :-)
Our visit to Siem Reap was bittersweet. This was the place I most wanted to visit on our Asian trip, we celebrated two birthdays, and this was to be the end of Mum's journey with us.
We decided to take a private taxi between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Our earlier experience with the roads in Cambodia, overcrowded buses and the amount of luggage we now had between the 5 of us meant that the $50 US fare was well worth it. We also cut the journey from an estimated 7 hour bus trip to just over 4 hours.. and believe me our driver wasn't speeding :-)
Again we were astounded at the state of the roads, and are unsure whether its a result of the landmines or just lack of maintenance. Dust and pot holes galore, at times you wonder if there is a road there at all. You pass utes full of people (at least 20 passengers cramped together) all wrapped up with head scarves to keep out the dust, (any other country on earth and they'd look like terrorists) god knows how they don't bounce right out the back.
Its seems that anyone can set up their own 'petrol station' too, all you need is a table and trestle, some glass coke bottles, and fuel to fill up your bottles. It took us a while to figure out that there was petrol in the bottles, I assumed originally that it was very faded coke - or something that only the locals dared drink :-)
Arriving in Siem Reap we stayed the first two nights at a backpackers run by a Norwegian consortium, and made our plan of attack for visiting nearby Angkor.
Angkor, an ancient city about 15 kms outside of Siem Reap, was built over several centuries, and then 'lost' for a 1,000 years. The site stretches about 25 kms and is made up of umpteen temples, libraries, palaces etc with each successive king trying to outdo the previous with his building efforts. How they managed to lose it is beyond me, but I can only imagine how the explorers who discovered it again must have felt.
If you were passionate about archeology and history you could spend weeks exploring Angkor, but not wanting to dilute the effect of the most important sites (there is a condition here known as 'Templed Out') and to be fair to the children we decided to limit our visits to three sites (Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat, and Ta Phrom) spread over three days.
We chose to visit Angkor Wat, the most famous of all the sites on our second templing day. It was Mark's 40th birthday, and figured what better way to spend his special day than to visit one of the 7 wonders of the world (we did also move to a flash hotel with a pool!)
If you have the Pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China on your 'must see before I die' list then Ankgor Wat should surely be on that list before them. Even now I'm struggling to find the words to describe the scale, the detail, and the magnetism of Angkor Wat. Grand walkways, a huge moat, and 60 degree staircases leading to the main enclosure. Due to the heat we had waited until later in the day to visit and were nearly the last to leave. We were escorted around by a young monk who took a shine to Petra (what a surprise!) and wanted to practice his English. There's plenty of exploring and climbing for the children to do at the sites and each time their only complaint was the heat.
We finished off Mark's birthday by going out to dinner, something really novel considering we had been travelling 51 days, and had been out for dinner 50 times already! But we made it special by dressing up in some of the new clothes we had bought, and going to a first class restaurant. The food really was first class, but with lizards all over the wall, stains on the table cloths, and Petra playing chase/hide 'n' seek with the waitress we knew we were still in Asia :-)
On our third visit to the temples we went to Ta Phrom, the temples here have been left in pretty much the state they were found in, complete with trees growing right out of some temple roofs. This apparantly is where part of Angelina Jolie's 'Tomb Raiders' movie was shot (the locals are proud of this bit of trivia) and Mark is using this an excuse to hire the movie (again) just so he can recognise the scenery?!?
Having completed our temple itinerary and to celebrate Mum's birthday on her last day with us, we decided to go up in a hot air balloon and view Angkor Wat from 200 metres in the sky. The balloon is filled with Helium and permanently tethered with steel cables that let the balloon up and bring it back down again. It holds approximately 20 people and goes up for 10 mins at a time. It was quite an experience, but due to strong winds it was easier on the stomach to look out to the distance rather than back to the ground to check out those steel cables :-)
We took in a traditional Cambodian dance show and buffet dinner that evening and again all dressed up in our finest. Although it was Mum's birthday, we all knew that her departure was looming and so had a few practice runs at tears.
The next morning the buffet of the night before turned out to be our undoing. We had been travelling nearly two months and suffered only slight tummy upsets. Today Mark and Mum were complaining of stomach cramps with a couple of mad dashes to the bathroom, and poor Brannan was wiped out (luckily no vomiting) with diarrohea, it got so bad that when we had to leave for the airport we dressed him in disposable underwear padded out with loo paper (sorry Bran I couldn't resist writing about that!) Its currently the low tourist season in Cambodia and we were practically the only people at the show and dinner the previous night, we now wonder how long the food had been sitting around...
Well the tears began before we even made it to the breakfast table on Mum's last morning, and continued long after we waved her goodbye. At the airport itself, I'm sure they'd never seen a sight like it (my Dad had refused to come to the airport when we left NZ). I knew it was going to be a painful goodbye and I wasn't disappointed. We were so lucky to have shared some of our travels with Mum, and after she left I really began to wonder why we weren't just heading home to NZ too. It has taken us several days to get used to being only 4 again, with Brannan and I on several occassions getting a 5th chair at dinner tables.
The rest of the day was very sombre, and we decided to move onto Thailand the next day to begin the final chapter of the Asian trip.
Our visit to Siem Reap was bittersweet. This was the place I most wanted to visit on our Asian trip, we celebrated two birthdays, and this was to be the end of Mum's journey with us.
We decided to take a private taxi between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Our earlier experience with the roads in Cambodia, overcrowded buses and the amount of luggage we now had between the 5 of us meant that the $50 US fare was well worth it. We also cut the journey from an estimated 7 hour bus trip to just over 4 hours.. and believe me our driver wasn't speeding :-)
Again we were astounded at the state of the roads, and are unsure whether its a result of the landmines or just lack of maintenance. Dust and pot holes galore, at times you wonder if there is a road there at all. You pass utes full of people (at least 20 passengers cramped together) all wrapped up with head scarves to keep out the dust, (any other country on earth and they'd look like terrorists) god knows how they don't bounce right out the back.
Its seems that anyone can set up their own 'petrol station' too, all you need is a table and trestle, some glass coke bottles, and fuel to fill up your bottles. It took us a while to figure out that there was petrol in the bottles, I assumed originally that it was very faded coke - or something that only the locals dared drink :-)
Arriving in Siem Reap we stayed the first two nights at a backpackers run by a Norwegian consortium, and made our plan of attack for visiting nearby Angkor.
Angkor, an ancient city about 15 kms outside of Siem Reap, was built over several centuries, and then 'lost' for a 1,000 years. The site stretches about 25 kms and is made up of umpteen temples, libraries, palaces etc with each successive king trying to outdo the previous with his building efforts. How they managed to lose it is beyond me, but I can only imagine how the explorers who discovered it again must have felt.
If you were passionate about archeology and history you could spend weeks exploring Angkor, but not wanting to dilute the effect of the most important sites (there is a condition here known as 'Templed Out') and to be fair to the children we decided to limit our visits to three sites (Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat, and Ta Phrom) spread over three days.
We chose to visit Angkor Wat, the most famous of all the sites on our second templing day. It was Mark's 40th birthday, and figured what better way to spend his special day than to visit one of the 7 wonders of the world (we did also move to a flash hotel with a pool!)
If you have the Pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China on your 'must see before I die' list then Ankgor Wat should surely be on that list before them. Even now I'm struggling to find the words to describe the scale, the detail, and the magnetism of Angkor Wat. Grand walkways, a huge moat, and 60 degree staircases leading to the main enclosure. Due to the heat we had waited until later in the day to visit and were nearly the last to leave. We were escorted around by a young monk who took a shine to Petra (what a surprise!) and wanted to practice his English. There's plenty of exploring and climbing for the children to do at the sites and each time their only complaint was the heat.
We finished off Mark's birthday by going out to dinner, something really novel considering we had been travelling 51 days, and had been out for dinner 50 times already! But we made it special by dressing up in some of the new clothes we had bought, and going to a first class restaurant. The food really was first class, but with lizards all over the wall, stains on the table cloths, and Petra playing chase/hide 'n' seek with the waitress we knew we were still in Asia :-)
On our third visit to the temples we went to Ta Phrom, the temples here have been left in pretty much the state they were found in, complete with trees growing right out of some temple roofs. This apparantly is where part of Angelina Jolie's 'Tomb Raiders' movie was shot (the locals are proud of this bit of trivia) and Mark is using this an excuse to hire the movie (again) just so he can recognise the scenery?!?
Having completed our temple itinerary and to celebrate Mum's birthday on her last day with us, we decided to go up in a hot air balloon and view Angkor Wat from 200 metres in the sky. The balloon is filled with Helium and permanently tethered with steel cables that let the balloon up and bring it back down again. It holds approximately 20 people and goes up for 10 mins at a time. It was quite an experience, but due to strong winds it was easier on the stomach to look out to the distance rather than back to the ground to check out those steel cables :-)
We took in a traditional Cambodian dance show and buffet dinner that evening and again all dressed up in our finest. Although it was Mum's birthday, we all knew that her departure was looming and so had a few practice runs at tears.
The next morning the buffet of the night before turned out to be our undoing. We had been travelling nearly two months and suffered only slight tummy upsets. Today Mark and Mum were complaining of stomach cramps with a couple of mad dashes to the bathroom, and poor Brannan was wiped out (luckily no vomiting) with diarrohea, it got so bad that when we had to leave for the airport we dressed him in disposable underwear padded out with loo paper (sorry Bran I couldn't resist writing about that!) Its currently the low tourist season in Cambodia and we were practically the only people at the show and dinner the previous night, we now wonder how long the food had been sitting around...
Well the tears began before we even made it to the breakfast table on Mum's last morning, and continued long after we waved her goodbye. At the airport itself, I'm sure they'd never seen a sight like it (my Dad had refused to come to the airport when we left NZ). I knew it was going to be a painful goodbye and I wasn't disappointed. We were so lucky to have shared some of our travels with Mum, and after she left I really began to wonder why we weren't just heading home to NZ too. It has taken us several days to get used to being only 4 again, with Brannan and I on several occassions getting a 5th chair at dinner tables.
The rest of the day was very sombre, and we decided to move onto Thailand the next day to begin the final chapter of the Asian trip.
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