Seim Reap, Koh Chang, Bkk and Home!

Angkor Wat Cambodia




Well, it has been interesting and there are differences in different countries and even within the country.
Siem Reap, the home of Angor Wat - one of the wonders of the world was a series of temples,palaces and possibly even mausoleums built anywhere from about 1000-1400AD. It covers a vast expanse of land, and feels not unlike Stanley Park with its big trees and spaces of green grass and occasional roads through especially when you are out on the bicycle just enjoying the atmosphere. We visited ruins for 3 days - 2 on tuk-tuk and one on a bike. The irony of how man puts so much effort to make such magnificent structures reaching up and detailed carvings of life in stone. The decay caused by the environment - including trees growing up through some of this, and the effect of elements on the outside wearing it down as well as intentional destruction during the era of Pol Pot and his reckless idealistic regime to create 'the perfect agriculture based society including no money and no intellectuals' through genocide.... Nature and mankind -so much effort and how they conflict with each other. Angor Wat is a world heritage sight and now much there is much effort to restore it. Also the town is sprouting 5star hotels and numerous guesthouses every month. More and more people are travelling and visiting right now. It was refreshing to see that some of the blind and disabled are forming musical groups and trying to eke out a living. Also people selling trinkets and postcards, etc. There are so many people missing limbs in Cambodia and so many challenges. Tourists are coming, things are changing, organizations are trying to make a difference. Education is progressing - though not as much as Vietnam (in my estimation) and some people are very successful and enterprising. Still difficulties for a long time yet...

From here to Koh Chang, an island in Thailand for relaxing by the beach. Again the theme of more tourists and consequently many new 5star hotels, guesthouses, restaurants and bars. One gal I met suggested that every 6 months that you would not recognize it from the previous 6 months. Maybe an exaggeration but everywhere in Vietnam, Cambodia and this beach in Thailand has indicated that tourism is an anticipated and real boost to the economies right now.
Again we stayed in a brand new small hotel. Here we enjoyed 4 days relaxing at the beach. I enjoyed a Thai massage (or workout?) each day - they are rather addictive for me - a place just off the beach. Clive even managed one massage (not Thai but rather oil where they do move the skeleton about but rather massage the muscles)! He wasn't running back for more - hey he had the experience though.
Here in Koh Chang it all seems a little more first world. Maybe not seeing all of the disabled persons any more just made it seem that way. I do like relaxing on the beach. By the time we have breakfast and I do my yoga it is nearly noon! So much to do in a day...find 3 meals - we never missed a meal the whole time that we were gone!, walk the beach, get a massage, feel the sunshine, beer at sunset. We did go snorkelling at several islands for a day and enjoyed that. The coral was pretty good and saw quite a few fish as well - a day on different beaches!

What a shame that the end is rushing towards us so fast. We had considered (or I had) the north of Thailand or even Laos but we just ran out of time. Two weeks before the end, I started to calculate what we could do without rushing too much. I think that Clive is ready for home - he is great when there are no hassles but finds home pretty comfortable. Knowing that home is in a deep freeze and I am in a dreamworld makes it good to go home but maybe a week or more on the beach would be lovely. ...such are the choices...

Another sunny day and a bus to Bangkok - sun every day all day since Dalat except for one or two short downpours in Saigon so the weather has been wonderful. Bangkok and Khao San Road, a hangout for younger people and holiday makers for two days. We zipped out to a couple of sights and wandered the hectic street for a couple of evenings. That was enough here. They are also building some pretty nice new hotels but occupany was down due to the troubles earlier in the month with the closing of Bangkok airport. We found a super taxi driver (I have his card) as so many drivers do not want to use the meters. Also the tuk-tuk (motor scooters with a trailer body to take passengers) is nearly extinct - just a few left to hassle the tourist and take them to shops and do their method of charging about 3times the taxi fare and unwilling to negotiate. Interesting... probably none will be there on our next trip to Bangkok. Also fewer street vendors than last time and more nice hotels.

Time for Clive and I to separate. Clive flew home through Seoul and I came via Singapore, LA. Had part of an afternoon and an evening to look around Singapore. What a place!! So many new skyscrapers, clean streets, interesting to wander - from the riverside and cool bridges to various temples including Hindu, Tao, Buddhist, Christian. The Singaporians (or the few that I met) seemed intensely proud of Singapore. They consider themselves tolerant of other religions and peoples. They provide some tertiary education to Asians from other countries, some immigrants from Asian countries are given the opportunity to immigrate. Pretty tough rules here - the death penalty for murder, drugs, possession of firearms and kidnapping with the intention to murder. More hangings here than anywhere else in the world. Also it was explained to me that people are forced to save (through deductions on salary) for accommodation so that the goal of home ownership can be achieved by most everyone. Interesting enforced savings and the rest of the western world tries to give youngsters credit cards. It seems that there are quite a few laws and the people so far seem to like the lifestyle that it has given them. As someone said to me - we have to be fiscally responsible and watch our debt (or lack of) as a nation since we are a financial centre.. This is a small island to support over 4 million people. I guess that they are finding ways to do it. They seem very proud that a big resort and casino is opening next month.
I enjoyed my experience in Singapore - but again it is a city and all brand new so probably only a stopover destination.
Then it was several flights and a long time to get home to central heating and freezing outdoors.

Sihanoukville - still

We have relaxed at this beach city for the past few days. Wonderful warm sunshine, clear blue water, fine sandy beaches....and then some contrasts. There are many peddlars and beggars on the beach selling manicures, pedicures, massages, sunglasses, fruit, bracelets, crayfish and so on as well as beggars that are without a limb or blind so it is kind of mixed. There is lots of development going on here and I understand that only 4 years ago that there were no cars here. Now the standard Lexus, BMW, Toyota and so on are here. It seems that the Russian mafia owns the Snake House - a restaurant with lots of glassed in snakes to view while eating. There were 3 Hummers in their yard. They are building a huge disco with an old plane in the centre that will have rooms to rent. Apparently they are building a bridge across to some islands and expect to build the most expensive resort in the world. Anyways lots of entrepeneurs here! Here from someone today who tells he that he is a retired CSIS person and he tells us that the police chief's wife has a brothel with 35 women employees. Sex trade is pretty highly developed here. Also there are so many charities working here and information for the tourist to buy only from children attending school, etc so hopefully there is a better alternative to begging. I had a massage from the Seeing Hands place today - they employ and train blind people to give a massage. They drive them to and from work and allow them to live doing trained work. These people lost their vision either from missiles or from disease and some were born that way.
A difficult society with such wealth and such poverty and such corruption - and so many people aiming to get in on the development from abroad. Hopefully it will maintain peace for time but it does not fill one with certainty. Quite a few people enjoying it here. As I say beaches and so on are great but then there is the ever present problem of the environment and garbage disposal and clean water and sanitation.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Well, we enjoyed the Mekong trip - the ricebasket of Vietnam. Clive did not enjoy the last day and the hard seat. For me it was long but the first 2.5days were relaxing and well organized.
Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, seems a great place. Big wide streets, great restaurants (do you detect a theme everywhere?) with the help of Lonely Planet - and cheap lager beer. It is easy to navigate and quite relaxing with a few sights to see. We did go to the Genocide Museum which was a school and then a prison. It documents some of the atrocities and gives stories and faces to a few of the people murdered during the Khmer regime of '75 - '79. Also a society that abolished money and education and many other things - but not the work of the proletariat! and then killing people for no reason. How many societies experience this horrific genocide! But then I guess people disagree at all levels - from war and international disagreements all the way down to friends and families. Some thread of disagreement and competition. The result nowadays is a society where there are lots of Lexus, BMWs and we even saw a Hummer; and then people without limbs or blind and begging everywhere. There seems to be lots of wealth and lots of poverty - in contrast to what we saw in Vietnam. There seems to be international aid and seemingly lots of corruption. Hopefully the average citizen will fare better as time goes on.

About the food.... some changes since Vietnam - missing the strong strong coffee with condensed milk, the tables always had soy sauce and hot sauce on them, the flavours were always pleasant and pretty mild - more upscale usually better cooked. Here in Cambodia there is a more Thai influence - last night we had fish with the lime juice, sugar, salt and pepper for a sauce. They use lots of coconut milk and the rice seems a little sweeter. These countries are not afraid to use sugar in their cooking. In the city the food seems better than at the beach - swings and roundabouts but we are enjoying.

Another thing that you see as soon as you enter Cambodia is lots of shrines, Buddhist temples and so on being constructed from cement. Trying to rebuild a devastated country.
The first night we could not understand the ATM and then we learned that everything is done in American dollars unless you get change for less than $1. Anyways that is so easy now. None of the l7,000 /vietnamese dong to the American dollar and 13,000 dong to the Canadian dollar.