Vietnam Visions – Visit 1

After my successful and stress free crossing into Vietnam, I arrived at Ho Chi Minh City feeling as though the best was definitely yet to come.

I stayed at the Ngoc Thoc Guesthouse which is run by a rather lovely lady and her family. They organised my tours and transport whilst I was in Ho Chi Minh. The hostel is clean and the family is friendly to a fault. I had a very pleasant few nights there.

I organised a half day tour to Cu Chi tunnels with my hostel. It cost me $5 (excluding the 90000 dong entrance fee to the tunnels) and I think it was good value. I got collected from my hostel and was amused by the tour guide for most of the day. The tunnels are a few hours drive outside of Ho Chi Minh City but you go through some good countryside on the way so it doesn’t feel too torturous.

When we arrived at the tunnels, we were pretty much herded to a movie room where we were shown a film about how and why Cu Chi became the centre for guerilla forces (a.k.a. the Viet Kong). There was a cut away showing the different levels of tunnels that people lived in during the war inside the movie room. You can see it below.

There were three levels. Level one was approximately three metres underground. Level two was approximately seven metres underground. The deepest level was approximately ten metres underground. Each room in the tunnel system had was specific use. There were rooms for sleeping, cooking, washing, eating, weapon making/repairing and strategising (I’ve probably missed some too). The tunnels were ventilated and several thousand people survived living in them for many years.

The tunnels were incredibly well disguised and entrances were difficult to spot. Here’s an example of a hidden entrance. You can see our tour guide demonstrating how the guerilla fighters could seemingly vanish into the ground.

The tunnels are very narrow and the secret entrances even more so. Had an entrance been discovered by western forces, I don’t think they could have got their hips/shoulders into the holes!

Some of the tunnels have been widened to accommodate tourists and there is a section 140 metres long that you can scramble through. It was quite surreal to think that people had lived, married, reproduced and died in the same tunnels less than 50 years ago but that now, tourists were making their way through them in droves.

The tour of the tunnels also covered the kinds of booby traps that were set in the forest by guerilla forces in Cu Chi. Some of them really make you wince and it’s easy to think them overly brutal but these guerilla fighters were mostly farmers and villagers unwilling to sacrifice their land. They were utilising every resource they could to keep their families and homes safe.

The Cu Chi tunnels is an interesting look into how and why guerilla forces functioned in the Vietnam war. I would say it’s worth going for a look if you can get a tour for less than $6-7. Our tour bus dropped us off at the War Remnants Museum on the way back.

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Some of the images from the War Remnants Museum I have used are very graphic and upsetting. Consider this your opportunity to stop reading. No nasty comments will be approved. You’ve been notified.

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There are large examples of war outside the museum building in the form of helicopters, planes and tanks. You can see below a chinook helicopter used by the USA during the war in Vietnam.

Here is a tank, again used by the USA, and a close up of the tread. You can see from the gouges and general missing tread that the tank has definitely seen a fair share of ‘action’.

Once you get inside the museum, the exhibits are smaller. You’ll find mostly pictures, documentation, maps, timelines and fact sheet type displays. Some of the photos I saw reduced me to tears. Here’s an example of one of them. I chose to show this photo as I think it shows just how scarring war is for those who died and those who survived be they soldiers, family or bystanders.

The sheer brutality applied during the war in Vietnam is incomprehensible. I realise that, as the museum is in Vietnam, it’s probably a more one sided view than is healthy but the facts and images I saw were not photo shopped or embellished in any way. They were very concise and to the point. When exhibiting about a village massacred by US special forces, the display simply stated how many men, women and children had been killed. That’s all.  Just a body count. Maybe there is no extra explanation they can give for the deaths as it’s never been understood why the village was targeted. I don’t know. I just know that I read body count after body count.

Apart from the universal horrors of war, the museum also looks at the immediate and lasting effects of biological warfare. During the war in Vietnam, the USA coated massive parts of Vietnam in Agent Orange. This chemical killed all plant life it touched. You can see below the devastation it caused.

Agent Orange not only killed vegetation but also inhibited regrowth. You can see a before and after picture of the effects of agent orange below. The image on the right shows lush vegetation along the river bank. The left shows a desolate landscape and the result of agent orange.

The final, and possibly most horrendous effect of agent orange is to humans. It has the ability to mutate DNA with no outward effect on the carrier. The effect is only seen in the offspring of a carrier. Agent Orange mutation carriers give birth to children that can have a range of physical and mental disabilities. I am not going to go into the details here but recommend you look up the facts for yourself. Essentially, completely innocent parties are still suffering every day for something that happened before they were a twinkle in their Daddy’s eye. It is simply horrifying.

The last part of the museum is dedicated to a prison. After seeing Tuol Sleng in Cambodia, I had lost hope of there being any humanity in a Vietnamese war jail. I will admit that, by now, I was pretty spent. The day had been completely harrowing so, when I saw a guillotine inside the jail, I decided not to look or read any more. I just couldn’t take any more in.

I took a very slow walk back to my hostel from the museum that night in the pouring rain.

The next day, I went to Reunification Palace. It’s a very cool building that is still used for important state functions. Here it is.

The palace has free guided tours in several languages and they’re well worth taking.

The palace used to be the residence of the President. It has many rooms for formal meetings and entertaining. Here’s a state room.

Below is an entertainment room. You can see in the background there is a bar in the shape of a barrel. It’s very 70s.

One of the more surprising rooms was the personal cinema.

In the president’s living section, there’s a lovely garden set in an open, atrium style part of the building. The garden is surrounded by bedrooms and a dining room. Must have been pretty sweet to be the president.

On the roof, there is a helipad which was used to evacuate when necessary. The two red circles show where bombs landed on the palace during the Vietnam war.

Beneath the palace is two levels of bunkers. They were used by the president and his team for planning and shelter when necessary. You can still see the maps on the wall.

When North Vietnam secured the capital in the south, tanks crashed through the gates of the palace and secured surrender of the president. Here’s the scene then.

Here’s the scene today.

Reunification Palace cost me 30000 dong to go round and it was worth it. I would recommend a visit.

Quite close to the palace is Notre Dame cathedral. I couldn’t go inside but I had a walk around the outside. It really doesn’t seem like it fits in Ho Chi Minh.

Ho Chi Minh City is a busy city and although I didn’t see everything it has to offer, I was ready to leave after my few days there. I departed for the beach on an overnight bus. More on that next time.

Border Bureaucracy – Cambodia to Vietnam

Traversing the border from Cambodia into Vietnam is far less manual than the Thailand to Cambodia affair. The key difference is that you can get an international bus. Joy of joys! Instead of making your way to the border on one form of transport and then sourcing onward transport in the next country, you can get a bus directly from Cambodia and into Vietnam. I took a Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City bus run by Sappaco for $12.

My bus departed Phnom Penh at 9:00. By 11:30 we were being stamped out of Cambodia. Marvellous, right? Well it wasn’t worry free. Let me explain my first timer insecurities about the whole process which should hopefully ease any worries you have if you do the same journey.

Firstly, my passport was taken. Not having my passport on my person makes me feel quite unwell unless I know it is locked up somewhere. In this case, it was in the hands of a Cambodian man whom I did not know from Adam. At the time, I was mystified about why I wasn’t clutching my passport but I realised quite quickly what was happening. You are not allowed into Vietnam without a prearranged visa for many nationalities so, the bus company needed to make sure that if you need a prearranged visa that you had one. Otherwise, the bus could arrive at the border with 40 passengers eligible to cross and 1 passenger with a lack of visa problem. Not ideal. UK passports need a visa in advance. I got mine from the embassy in London but I believe you can get one from any Vietnam embassy. Do triple check. Do not leave visas to chance.

Passports were taken on boarding the bus. They were returned just before being stamped out of Cambodia. Once you’re stamped out, it was taken again to check you’d been correctly removed from Cambodia.

To enter Vietnam, you must be carrying all your luggage. Whilst the passengers were getting their bags, the man with all the passports went ahead to the Vietnamese immigration desk and the official began stamping all of the passports through (even though the passport owners were not present for inspection). At the time, I was being shuffled to immigration with my luggage and no passport thinking ‘well this is not going to end well’ until what had actually happened dawned on me, We were simply being herded over the border in the most time efficient manner, plain and simple. As passports were stamped into Vietnam, the bus driver called forward the appropriate passenger, they got their passport back and got on the bus. It makes perfect sense really.

Once we were all aboard again, it was a hitch free drive to Ho Chi Minh. We had arrived by 15:00 and it was pouring with rain.

I can highly recommend taking an international bus for border crossing where they are legitimate. Cambodia to Vietnam is legitimate. I’ll report on others as I find them.

Cambodian Climes – Chapter 2

After my adventures in the temples, I continued on to Phnom Penh. It’s a six hour (ish) bus journey from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh and it cost me $8 with Phnom Penh Sorya Transport (PP Sorya). The ride was comfortable enough but, on arriving in Phnom Penh, I discovered my backpack had been searched and my USB pen drive stolen. The pen drive was the most valuable thing in my backpack and I suppose that’s why it was taken. Moral of the story, do not leave anything other than clothes and toiletries in your backpack. If you have valuables, take them to your seat with you and do not leave them on the bus when/if it stops.

I stayed at Eighty Eight Backpackers in Phnom Penh. It’s a bit far away from everything and I found the prices to be a little too high. The staff are friendly enough and the common area/bar really is good to meet people in. The dorms were clean but noisy. The one I stayed in basically overlooked the bar so if you wanted an early night or a lie in, forget it.

I had several thing I wanted to do in Phnom Penh. I wanted to visit the killing fields of Choeung Ek, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S21 prison), The National Museum and Independence monument.

My first stop was The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. It’s quite a way outside of Phnom Penh so you’ll need a moto/tuk tuk (we paid $12 for a Tuk Tuk to the killing fields and were then dropped off at Tuol Sleng Genocide museum afterwards). Admission is $5 and includes an excellent audio guide. You follow the audio guide as it directs you around the killing fields. The stories told are almost unbelievable. Once I had started hearing the stores, I really didn’t feel much like taking any photographs so I have none to share with you. There is much more information on the Killing Fields website here. I found it incredibly hard to walk around the killing fields and listen to the audio guide. I can’t really say it was a ‘good’ visit because what happened there was atrocious so to label it as ‘good’ feels wrong. I would say it’s an important thing to see and that if you can go, you should.

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum left me feeling much the same. Admission was $2. The prison was originally a school of four buildings. Once the school became a prison, three buildings were used to house prisoners in tiny cells and one building was used to torture and interrogate prisoners. I really didn’t want to take any photos but I did because I wanted other people to see just how awful the conditions were (you can see ever more upsetting images on the Tuol Sleng website here). Here are a few images of the wooden cells prisoners were kept in.

There were 2 rows of cells per floor of around 28 cells per row.

Remember, these ‘prisoners’ had done nothing wrong, really. People were regularly arrested by the Khmer Rouge for being educated, having a trade skill or because someone who had been tortured into a false confession implicated them in a fictional misdemeanor.

One building was left as it was found when Phnom Penh was liberated in 1979. You can see the razor wire used to prevent any kind of escape. Here’s a view from out of one of the cells.

The other three buildings have been changed in order to host a truly graphic set of photographs, Khmer Rouge records and survivor accounts.

Reading some of the ‘confessions’ was heart breaking. I remember one man had been arrested because he lived in a province which had complained there was not enough food for everyone. That’s all. He lived there. He may not even have been complaining himself, he simply lived somewhere that had got a reputation for complaining.

Again, I can’t say this is a ‘good’ place to visit or that I enjoyed it. I didn’t. It was harrowing and I felt unable to speak for a good long while after we’d left. Given the choice again, I would still go to Tuol Sleng because I don’t want to forget what happened there.

Phnom Penh doesn’t have all that much to see in my opinion and I found the City itself quite hectic and stressful. It was also blisteringly hot. About the only thing I didn’t see in Phnom Penh was the Royal Palace. I’d seen the Palace in Bangkok and imagined the Palace in Phnom Penh wouldn’t be all that different. Also, the Palace is only open 7:30-11:30 and 2-5. It’s all outside and, unless you go early in the morning, there are long queues. This coupled with the heat meant I decided not to go. I did go to the National Museum though which is just around the corner. This is what it looks like.

It’s $5 to get into the Museum and it took me about 45 minutes to walk around. The signage in English is good and some of the exhibits are interesting. I liked this crown set just after you walk in.

Most of the exhibits are artifacts recovered from various Khmer ruins across Cambodia. Having just spent three days looking at Khmer ruins at Angkor, I can’t say I was over awed with the museum but I did still enjoy it. There’s plenty of sculpted Gods to look at and lots of good signage to explain who they are. I can’t remember the name of this God but I felt sorry for him as he was missing lots of arms.

I also liked the enormous Garuda waving at you as you enter the museum.

Once you’ve walked round for a while, I can recommend taking a little rest bite in the gardens at the centre of the museum. They are very picturesque and there’s a coffee place too.

The last section of the museum wasn’t so heavily focused on the Khmer statues and branched pout a little. There was a wooden boat cabin used by royalty and I thought this piece of decorative carving was particularly beautiful.

The National Museum is worth a look but don’t expect to spend hours and hours there. It’s just not big enough for that.

Lastly, I toddled off to see the Independence Monument. It commemorates Cambodia’s Independence from France in the 1950s. It stands in the centre of a busy junction. Here it is

And that is it really. I went to Phnom Penh and, to be honest, I didn’t like it nearly as much as Siem Reap. The Tuk Tuk and moto drivers were pushier and creepier (I was stalked more than once) and I did not find the locals as willing to help me out if I was a bit lost. I felt much more inclined to sit in the hostel rather than venturing out to find a bar in Phnom Penh than I did in Siem Reap so really, I probably didn’t see as much as I could have but, that’s because I didn’t really want to.

Traversing the Temples – Dawn at Angkor Wat with a side of Angkor Thom

I had always planned my third day at Angkor to be my dawn day. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, it was my birthday (I couldn’t think of a better thing to do than watch the sun rise on my birthday). Secondly, I had always wanted to save the best of the temples for last and thirdly, I didn’t want to face such an early morning so I’d been delaying it.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat was a 4am wake up for me on a bicycle. You might get a bit more of a lay in if you’re taking a tuk tuk. I had prepared the night before by visiting the bakery and getting myself something for breakfast and a snack. I was pedalling by 4:45 and, if I’m 100% honest, that was a smidge too late. I took the most direct route up to Angkor Wat. Please see the long straight line on the map.

Night was already retreating by the time I got to Angkor Wat and chose my spot. Angkor Wat is set on an island, almost, so you have to cross a large bridge to get to it in the first place then traverse through a ‘u’ shaped entrance gate. All very massive and grand. There were hundreds of other people there to see dawn so finding a good spot was harder than expected. I settled on standing on the wall of the entrance gate. Here’s the shot I got just after I arrived. You can see the sun is well on it’s way.

I sat, ate my breakfast and swatted away wildlife. About 40 minutes later, I could definitely see the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. An awful lot of people were starting to leave the temple too so I hung around for a while longer.

A spectacular number of people left the temple immediately after dawn and I decided that post dawn was probably a good, quiet time to look around Angkor Wat. I started the long trip across the stone walk way towards the trio of Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat’s main courtyard is surrounded by an outer, covered walkway on all sides. You can see one side here.

Angkor Wat is huge so these walkways go on for a very decent amount of time. Here’s the inside of a walkway.

Finally, I’ll show you what is on the walls of these walkways. What you see is exquisitely carved stone which tells a story as you walk down the corridor. The craftsman who carved these stones would have been very proud that people are still enjoying their work after so many years.

Angkor Wat is the grandest temple in the park. It is set in larger grounds and has some very imposing features but, as far as what I enjoyed about the temples goes, being the biggest didn’t make it the best. It’s still an amazing temple but I didn’t enjoy it as much as others.

As I didn’t finish Angkor Thom the previous day, I still had two temples to see there. By 8am I was heading for Bayon. So was everyone else it seemed. Bayon was teeming with people and not quiet, organised people. There were groups of 25 or more all screeching and yelling at each other as they tried to make their way around the temple as this mass of harpies.  Here’s Bayon from the outside.

Bayon is a little confusing. It kind of rises up to a central citadel part but has lots of different bits on the lower levels which feel like they’re in the wrong place. I got very disoriented around Bayon (could have been the temple or it could have been that the harpies melted my brain) but did eventually manage to navigate to the top. Here’s the proof!

Wherever you go in Bayon, you are watched. Bayon has faces carved everywhere. They see everything but they seem quite cheerful about it which is good.

Bayon is a big square to walk around. There’s a few decent sized courtyards where you can find individual structures to explore if you need to get away from the crowds. I don’t think Bayon is ever quiet but I do think I went on a very bad day (a Saturday) as the crowds felt unmanageable. Nevertheless, a fun walk around.

Once I’d seen Bayon, I was down to just one temple. It was round the corner from Bayon in Angkor Thom and, along with Ta Keo, one of my favourites at Angkor. Say hello to Baphuon!

Baphuon was a pile of rubble for a long time.  A lot of time, money, effort and brains went into getting Baphuon back on it’s foundations. It was worth all the effort in my opinion. This temple is great! You get to Baphuon by walking down a very long, raised walk way. You can see it here.

There’s a sort of entrance gate half way down the walkway but you have to disembark the walkway to get into Baphuon. The temple is tall and square. There’s three man levels. To get to the top level, you have to climb steep wooden stairs (2 flights of) but I would if I were you. The view is amazing.

You can see the walkway here again extending away from Baphuon, it really is a very long walk!

I think I liked Baphuon because, really, it shouldn’t still be there. It should be a pile of rubble that earthquakes left it as but it’s not. Brains and brawn have brought it back to life because it’s an important part of history. It’s a comeback kid and I like that.

So, I saw the temples of Angkor. I did it over 3 days and I did it on a bicycle. I would recommend it to anyone.

Traversing the Temples – Angkor Small Circuit

Day two of temple madness dawned bright and early. I was on Dory by 7:30 am and making tracks to Angkor Historic Park. I took the same route into the park as the previous day but instead of going green (i.e. taking a right and doing the grand circuit), I went red (i.e. I turned left and took the short circuit). Please see the same pilfered map as last time for further clarification.

I’m pretty sure I did the small circuit backwards by taking the same route in again but I wanted to see smaller temples first and the forwards route takes you through the big ones which I wasn’t ready for yet.

The first temple on my backwards small circuit route was upon me pretty quickly. Actually, the entrance is slightly before you turn. The temple is called Banteay Kdei and here’s the entrance you can see from the road (get used to the faces, you’re going to be stared at a lot from now on in these temples).

Banteay Kdei was a fun temple to venture around. It’s not quite big enough for you to worry you’ve missed something but it’s not small enough for you to feel like there’s nowhere to hide (should you need to because you’ve run out of ammo and you’re down to your last medi pack). There’s some pretty awesome nature:architecture interactions too.

Some bits of Banteay Kdei need more help than others to stay standing. A lot of the temple has been or is undergoing conservation. Other parts look like they’ve been ‘bodged’. See what look suspiciously like big cable ties holding this roof up for proof.

Once Banteay Kdei was done (in about an hour), I was back on my blue beast headed for my next Lara Croft impersonation session except, I really could pretend to be Lara in the next temple as it was used in the rather shockingly bad film ‘Tomb Raider’. On to Ta Prohm! In the movie, Lara is air dropped in by the Army and then drives a massive 4×4 around. I preferred Dory.

Ta Prohm is big. It’s huge actually. I wandered around it for just over two hours. You think you’ve just seen it all and then you discover another entrance or an extra section. One of my favourite parts was this completely conserved arched roof walkway. It was an actual pile of rubble before the smart people applied their brains to it.

This is one of the best conserved pieces in Ta Prohm. It’s in a fairly open area of the temple where tourists gather in droves for pictures next to a tree woven interestingly around a wall. Unfortunately I didn’t get any good photos of the tree wall because of the hoards of tourists so the nice looking shrine thing will have to do instead.

I did manage to get one decent photo of different but equally cool tree roots against a wall but only because the people hogging the good shots spoke Cantonese and I was able to ask them to move out the way (thank you Hong Kong).

Ta Prohm really is an impressive temple and I enjoyed it an awful lot.

Make sure you allocate enough time for the temples because I was surprised at how long it took me to look around them to my satisfaction. Sure, I could have rushed around them but then what’s the point in going? Go at your own pace and, if you do have a tight schedule, don’t try and see too much. See fewer temples but see them properly.

Once Ta Prohm was done, I ate lunch and then moved on. The next temple is, possibly, my favourite one at Angkor. Ta Keo is a health and safety inspectors nightmare. The stairs are incredibly steep and worn, there’s more trip hazards than you can count and some bits look decidedly like they might drop on your head. Here’s Ta Keo from a distance.

Naturally I took it upon myself to scale as far up Ta Keo as I could. The stairs are truly very steep and narrow. A few were no wider than my hand. Some verge on knee high and require actual climbing to ascend. Coming down is far more scary than going up. Here’s a picture from the top of Ta Keo. High innit?

Ta Keo took me about 45 minutes to climb my away around and what fun it was! It was fast nearing the very hottest part of the day though. I had planned to see the temples of Angkor Thom too but it was looking ever more unlikely. The sun was beating down too hard so I amended my mental schedule and decided I would do three of my five things in Angkor Thom and off I cycled.

My first stop was the terrace of the elephants. It is a huge, raised terrace with elephants carved into the supporting wall for the entire length. Here’s a little picture of the elephants facing off.

Once on the terrace, I was headed for Phimeanakas. This temple is set some way back from terrace so you go through several impressive entrance gates on your way. Phimeanakas is also surrounded by a wall for the most part so there’s plenty of smaller entrances set into the wall that you can find. Here’s the entrance gate I took.

Phimeanakas itself is small but tall.

You can climb it via a set of wooden steps found at the rear and its worth the climb, it’s a good view. You can see the two lakes that flank Phimeanakas. One is considerably more covered in green life than the other. Here’s a picture of the clearer lake.

If you follow the signs around Angkor Thom, once you’re done with Phimeanakas, they lead you down via the terrace of the leper kings. You can actually walk in the cavity between the outer and inner parts of the wall which feels rather like being in a maze. The outer wall is very heavily carved indeed. Here’s a shot I got of it

By the time I had walked around this section of Angkor Thom you could have stuck a fork in me. I was done. The terrace of the leper king was my signal to head back to the hostel where I could wring out my soaking clothes and shower off immense amounts of temple dust.

Day two cycling Angkor was complete and only the behemoths remained.

Traversing the Temples – Angkor Grand Circuit

The temples of Angkor. Almost voted as a wonder of the world and quite rightly so.

These temples are spread out across a large site and there are two main ‘routes’ you can take to see them. There’s the grand circuit/tour and the small/mini circuit/tour. There are temples further afield too but I didn’t go see them so I’m going to pretend they don’t exist. Please see this pilfered map:

Before you get into planning which route to do first, you need a ticket.

Tickets are for one day, three days or seven days. The three and seven day tickets do not have to be used on consecutive days. You have seven days to get your three days in and a month to get your seven days in. The price is $20/$40/$60. The ticket counter is on the main road to the temples. You can’t miss it (please see pilfered map for location). I went for a three day ticket.

Next decision, how will you see the temples? Will you hire a tour guide? Will you buy a book? Will you hire a tuk tuk ($13/day max), get a minivan ($30/day max), walk (not advisable as the park is huge) or bicycle ($1-$2/day depending on how good the bike is)? My regular readers will already know how I chose to see the temples. By bicycle, of course.

I selected a 3 geared bicycle and paid $1.50/day. The bike had a basket, front (dynamo powered) light (which came in useful for my sunrise day) and a lock. There are tonnes of shops in Siem Reap with bicycles for hire. Just walk around a bit until you find a bike at a price you like. I could have rented one from my hostel but there’s were $2/day and I’m a tight arse. Here’s my ride. I named her Dory.

I started with the grand circuit (which is the green line on the pilfered map). I decided to start at the small temples and work up to the big boys. This was the correct decision.

I left the hostel at about 7:30 am. It takes around 20 minutes to get from Siem Reap to the park entrance. The roads to, and inside, the park are good roads and easy peasy to cycle on. Once in the park, I headed to my first temple, Prasat Kravan. It’s not a biggy but it is a good place to start because it only gets more impressive from here on in.

I also stopped at Bat Chum but it was rather heavily under renovation.

After Bat Chum, theres a fork in the road. Left is mini circuit, right is grand circuit. I went right and saw Sras Srang, the huge lake surrounded by old walls.

You’re next main stop on the grand circuit is Pre Rup. I liked Pre Rup a lot. It’s one of my favourites at Angkor. Health and safety has not arrived in Cambodia yet so there’s plenty of clambering and climbing to be done. I think that’s why I liked Pre Rup so much. Once you’ve gone up it, there’s a great view but the picture I’m showing you was taken from ground level.

Once you get stopping and starting, it’s really very manageable to cycle around Angkor. It was really hot when I went. I’m talking 38 degrees celsius every day. Just resign yourself to sweating buckets, drink plenty of water and take food with you. These are the secrets of cycling Angkor.

The next stop for me was East Mebon. It was a little bigger than Pre Rup but not as much fun time climbing to do.

From here on in, the temples get bigger. The next one is Neak Pean. It’s quite a walk from the road to get to this one and you also have to cross an impressive amount of water (notice no hand rails, I wasn’t joking about H&S).

One you’re across the water, Neak Pean isn’t so impressive. The area is cordoned off so you only have access to one measly side and it’s not a good side either. Here’s the best shot I could get. Unfortunately a little anti climactic.

I was a little disappointed after Neak Pean so decided to be nonchalant about the next temple, Preah Khan. I needn’t have been, it was lots of fun. I think this picture is from Preah Khan but I’m not 100% so no angry comments please.

Preah Khan is a big temple. There’s four entrances that lead to a central hub. All the entrances are different so make sure you walk around all of them. I have a terrible sense of direction and think I only saw three of the four but my favourite was this one.

First of all, there’s an extra building tucked away near this entrance. Secondly, it had this awseome tree tumour holding up/pulling down the wall. Very, very cool.

Preah Khan really is big. It took me an hour to look around it (I did do a fair amount of pretending to be Lara Croft though). I did all the other temples in half to three quarters of an hour but not this one. I only didn’t stay longer because I had begun to bake in the sun.

On the way out of the park, I cycled past Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat but I did not stop to look. They were to be my final day adventure.

Day one concluded in a sweaty mess. I was back at the hostel for about 2pm. A 7:30 am to 2:00 pm day completed the grand circuit for me.

Cambodian Climes – Chapter 1

After my uneventful border crossing into Cambodia, it was on to Siem Reap.

Siem Reap is the closest city to the famous Angkor Historic Park where you find some of the best Khmer temples still in existence but that’s not all that’s going on around the city.

I stayed at HI Siem Reap hostel and was incredibly pleased with my choice. The location was fabulous, the dorm was clean and the staff were immediately helpful and welcoming. I spent 6 nights there and would happily have spent 6 more. Consider this hostel if you are looking for places in Siem Reap. The pool table and hot tub are also excellent.

Anyway, back to my main point; Non temple based things to do in Siem Reap.

The first, and my most highly recommended, thing to see is the Cambodian Landmine Museum. The museum is about 25km outside of Siem Reap. Our tuk tuk (from the hostel) cost $15 there and back. It’s $3 to enter the museum but this fee goes straight to keeping 36 Landmine victims with a roof over their head and in education.

The museum has a fairly unassuming entrance but inside you will see and read things you find hard to believe and accept.

The founder of the museum is a man called Akira. He was a child soldier of the Khmer Rouge begore he defected to the Vietnamese army. He tells his story throught the museum and it’s a very heartfelt and honest rendition. Akira doesn’t hide anything. What you see is his truth and it’s very humbling when you acknowledge that one man has mastered his pain in order to try and heal others. Akira is a great man who continues to do great things. Every single item in the museum was recovered and defused by Akira in his mission to make Cambodia safe.

The first sight is a huge container full of various mines, bombs and munitions. Every single side is packed full of things that kill but the tower itself is surrounded by a nice tranquil pond. Such is life I suppose.

There are severl rooms in the museum. You can get a printed guide which leads you to each section and explains more about the exhibits. I would highly suggest you get a guide from the introduction room and follow it’s instructions.

The rooms vary in content. Some look at why the mine types found in Cambodia were used and how they work. Others look at recording and clearing mine fields but the majority of the museum is dedicated to revealing what human suffering comes alongside the landmine legacy in Cambodia. There are many first hand stories of landmine explosions in the museum but, for me, this child’s painting summed it up.

Once you have walked around the museum, you’ll probably feel very somber but, despair not. The museum is there not for blame or shock factor but to educate and help heal what has been left so broken. It’s a fabulous museum that robs your faith in humanity with one hand before giving it back with the other. I would not miss it.

The next activity was not only excellent but also incredibly free.

There is a workshop in Siem Reap called Artisans D’Angkor. Visitors are welcome to walk around quite freely and see the various crafting skills first hand. The idea behind the place is to get people from villages outside of the city to learn a craft which they can make a living from. This helps the rural population build an industry and stops overcrowding in the city. It seems to be working.

At the workshop, there is painting onto silk, painting onto wood, wood carving (rubberwood, rosewood and teak), stone carving (sandstone and soapstone) and metal working. Each skill has it’s own room.

The silk painters are all either unable to hear or unable to speak. Charts of sign language are found on their walls alongside various instructional posters. There are also a few tourist type boards dotted around the work rooms but, mostly, the paraphernalia is for the use of the craft people.

Here’s a picture showing the different painting stages a rubberwood statue goes through from bare wood to finished article.

There is more intricate wood painting that happens on site. See below for a painter creating pure beauty onto wood tiles.

The stonework rooms were by far the loudest, as you might expect. Each crafter had their own work to be getting on with. The sandstone pieces varied in size from small hand sized items to enormous, bigger than man sized, statues. Here’s an elephant I took a liking too.

Some of the sandstone crafters are actually busying helping with conservation work at various Angkor temples so they spend time between the temple and the workshop.

The soapstone items were generally no bigger than a decebt sized vase but I think that’s because soapstone is just less robust than sandstone so large pieces are very complex and tricky to make.

The workshop is interesting and definitely an eye opener. Everything in the gift shop has been made on site by the crafters and, had I not been travelling for such a long time, I would have bought a few things.

Associated with the Siem Reap workshop is a silk farm. The farm is about 16km outside the city but a free shuttle bus and tour leaves from the Siem Reap workshop twice daily (10:30 & 1:30 I think). You have to sign up before hand and when it’s full, that’s it. It’s definitely worth a visit too.

The silk farm tour takes you from worm to finished products. Speaking of silk worms, here are some.

It’s actually a silk worm cocoon that provides silk thread. There’s two types; a yellow coloured, rougher, raw silk and a whiter coloured, finer, silk. Raw silk is the outer cocoon, fine silk is the inner cocoon. Heres a snap of raw silk being extracted from the outer cocoon. You basically dunk it in hot water and use the contraption you see here to tease the silk off.

Once the silk is off, you need to get it onto spools but, before you can do that, you must untangle the strand. Here’s the master untanglers at work.

After you have the silk untangled, you can dye it and wind it onto spools. This is all done at the silk farm and you can see all the machinery and processes on the tour.

Once you have dyed and spooled silk thread, it’s time to weave. Theres lots of people involved in weaving. Theres people who set up the looms, people who sort the patterns out, people who rewind thread onto smaller spools if needed and probably lots of other people I forgot about too. Basically, there was room after room after room of people working on just weaving and the various stages. Eventually though, something like this is created.

After seeing how manual and intensive the whole process is, I desperately wanted a silk scarf but I’d only ruin it going around the world so I abstained from buying.

All in all Artisans D’Angkor workshop and silk farm are a definite yes, go see it, thing in Siem Reap.

The final place I went to is the Khmer Ceramic Centre. It’s nowhere near as good as Artisans D’Angkor but its free and their gift shop is also good. You can see pottery being made and there are courses you could do if you want to. I didn’t do a course. I wandered around, read the signs and lamented the things I couldn’t buy in the gift shop.

There’s also cooking courses and day trips you can take to a floating market from Siem Reap but I just ran out if time.

Other things I found in Siem Reap:
Angkor Herb – Pub Street – Tasty fried rice for $1.50
Old Market – almost nothing you can’t buy. Haggle to approx half the asking price. Less if you can.
Blue Pumpkin – Pub Street – baked goods make excellent breakfasts/lunch to take with you. 30% off after 8pm. Amazing ice cream.
Angkor What? – Pub Street – beer. Lots of beer.
X Bar – rooftop bar with a half pipe and pool tables.
The Warehouse – charity quiz on Thursday nights at 8:30. Proceeds to the landmine museum.

So, Siem Reap, it’s not all about temples.

Border Bureaucracy – Thailand to Cambodia

I crossed the border from Thailand to Cambodia at Aranya Prathet (Thai side) and Poipet (Cambodian side). Here’s my account.

What you will need:
1) Common sense
2) US Dollars (at least 30; 20 for your visa on entry and 10 for onward transport)
3) Your passport
4) 1 passport sized photo

- I got the bus from Korat bus station at 6:30am and arrived at the border at around 10am. You can not get international busses that take you from Thailand all the way into Cambodia.  The best you can do is the border.  Places offering international busses from Thailand right into Cambodia are essentially big fat liars.
- The bus cost me 210 bhat.
- The bus was scheduled to stop at Aranya Prathet but then there was one more stop called Rongkleu Market (Immigration check point). If your bus says this stop is included then do not get off the bus at Aranya Prathet. The bus officials might try and get you off the bus at Aranya Prathet so that they can hand you over to tuk tuk drivers but don’t let them. If your bus says it goes to Rongkleu Market then you just sit your bottom there till you’re at Rongkleu Market. It’s a 5 minute walk to the Thai immigration from there.

If your last stop really is Aranya Prathet, a tuk tuk to the border will be (at least) 80 bhat and will probably deliver you to a scam hot spot.

Once you are at the border:
- Decline any offer of a Cambodian visa if you are eligible for one on entry (check this before you get to the border.  UK passports get a visa on entry). If you are eligible for visa on entry, you are not obligated to have a Cambodian visa before you get stamped out of Thailand. If you aren’t eligible for one on entry, you need to get one from a Cambodian Embassy before you head to the border.
- Only follow the official signs above your head that direct you to immigration. Taking directions could lead you to a scam so, be polite when you decline but, just follow the official signs and the queue of traffic.
- Leaving Thailand is to the left. There’s normally a big queue of vehicles waiting but just cross through them and head for the left side of immigration. 
- Fill out your departure card. I did mine on the bus. If you didn’t, fill it out here.
- Get stamped out of Thailand.
- Walk into Cambodia and follow the signs for visas.  There is a building on the right clearly marked as the visa place.
- Fill in the form, give your passport photo and $20 to the man at the window. Should they try to get any extra money out of you (they had a stencilled sign saying $20 + 100 bhat on my visit which they pointed to frantically), just look confused and point to the official sign above the counter window that says a tourist visa is $20. If you look confused enough, they give in fast. My man took about 30 seconds to decide I was too stupid to persevere with.
- Visa in hand, follow the signs to passport control.
- Fill out your arrival card.
- Get stamped into Cambodia.

Getting away from Poipet
I continued to Siem Reap. Here’s how I did it.

- Took the free shuttle bus to the international bus station just outside Poipet.
- Paid $10 for a seat on the minibus to Siem Reap (I was told the minibus would drop me at my hostel).
- Waited an hour for the minibus to fill.
- Took 2.5 hours to get to Siem Reap.
- Was dropped off well outside central Siem Reap. All passengers refused to leave the minibus until we were delivered to our hostels.  Driver used excuse that busses are not allowed into Siem Reap.  Complete hogwash. Ignore this argument.
- Were assured the army of waiting tuk tuks would be free of charge.
- Got into ‘free’ tuk tuk and was delivered to hostel.
- Tuk tuk asked to be paid, kindly asked him to bill the minibus company and walked into hostel.

There.  Thailand to Cambodia.  If you have common sense, the right money, forms and some balls, it’s a doddle.

Thailand Times – Trip 2

I spent 2 days at Khao Yai national park with the incredibly lovely Greenleaf Guesthouse and tour. Based in Pak Chong, the Greenleaf guys offer reasonable rates for rooms and tours around the park. You can choose a half day tour, a full day tour or take both at a discounted price. You can also arrange to be collected from the bus or train station. Value and service all round. Here’s my account of my days in the wilderness.

I started with the half day tour. The schedule says you will see a natural spring water pool, visit as sacred cave beneath a temple which is home to bats (and other creatures) before watching two million bats exit a cave at sunset. Sounds good, right? It was so much better than advertised. For a start the guides were fantastic. They were knowledgeable and could spot wildlife a mile away. The first cool think was this beetle. Look how unamused he appears!

We spent a little time at the natural spring pool but it wasn’t all that interesting. I’m going to dive into the good bit, the temple cave. The cave really is used for worship and meditation so there were shrines inside. It was pretty warm and stuffy down there. It’s also used by bats as their home. There are a few hundred bats living in the cave. They hang on walls and ceilings but, because of the dark, it’s hard to get a good picture of them. I managed to get a picture of bats in flight which I like but none of them just ‘hanging’ around.

The cave floor was covered in guano from the bats. This is collected every few months and sold. I was impressed with the variety of creepy crawlies we saw in addition to the bats.

The first was a spider. I do not like spiders. They are scary and sinister. This one is a tarantula just sitting around in his web, waiting for a sucker to fly/crawl into his trap.

I was quite brave because I crept right up to the spider in order to take that photo. Points for me!

My bravery didn’t stop though. We found two arachnids in the cave. The first was Glenn (who you just met) and the second was Sid. Sid is as scorpion spider. He has two fake legs that mean he doesn’t look altogether spidery but, he is. I held Sid. In my hand. I didn’t drop him or scream. Here’s Sid.

The creeping and crawling has barely begun dear reader. It goes on and on! Next was a type of centipede. I’ve forgotten the name of this particular centipede so we shall call him Frank. You can tell Frank is as centipede because he only has 2 legs per body section. They’re lovely long legs attached to a svelte, colourful body.

Girly parts of my brain think Frank is a bit of a looker (I mean just look at how he pulls off that colour combination) but the rest off my brain thinks Frank is f?!$#*g scary.

Now, let’s talk about Adam. Adam was the least scary thing I saw over the whole day. He’s a millipede. He has 4 legs per body section. I held Adam for a while. He tickled me terribly. I’m Adam’s pal.

Who’s next? Well that would be Lee! Lee is a very attractive lizard seen here in powder blue and orange. Isn’t he just dashing?!

Here is where I have to halt the personalised introductions because there’s a couple of million bats in the next photo. I wasn’t you to look for the patchy black swirl and line in the sky. That smoky looking line is thousands upon thousands of bats all flying out of their cave to feed.

There were 2 lines. One came from a cave to the rear of the mountain and then joined with the line from the front cave. These two lines streamed from their respective caves for a good forty minutes. In that time we saw approximately two million bats set out in search of an evening meal. We stayed until the sun had well and truly set so that we could witness the feast. Bats dived down very close to our heads in order to eat the flying insects emerging from grassy fields around us. Simply amazing.

Another highlight of being so far away from civilisation was the moon. Just look at this.

Beautiful beyond compare and a great way to conclude a day of terrifying bug hunting.

The full day tour began the next day at 8am. I readied myself for another day if amazing nature. I was not disappointed.

First of all, there were monkeys all over the road. Their novelty soon wore off as there were just SO many of them! This fellow took a liking to us and stalked us down the road for a bit.

The Khao Yai national park is very large but it didn’t take long for our eagle eyed guided to spot some wildlife. To be more specific, it was a great hornbill bird pair, male and female. The male did a rather better job of hiding behind branches and trees than the female so I have a picture of her to share with you.

There are other species of hornbill living in the park but this is the largest one.

Not much further down the road we heard strange calling. Our guide was quite excited because we’d happened upon a family of white handed gibbons crossing the road above us in the trees. There were three in the family: Dad, Mum and baby. We saw them swing right across the top of us. I managed to get this photo of Mum and baby before they vanished into the jungle.

The whole day tour involves a three hour trek through the jungle before lunch and I was obviously anticipating much more nature to attack me. We had been provided with leech socks for the occasion which instantly made me feel at ease…….

Leeches were seen and picked off the socks during the course of the trek but they weren’t the interesting things. About half an hour into the trek, we heard gibbon calls again but, they weren’t from the same white handed gibbon family as before. These calls were coming from a black gibbon family. I couldn’t tell the differene between the two family calls but I could hear the difference in the male and female calls. The males have much shorter, sharper ‘whoop’ noises than the females. The ladies tend to ‘woooooooooooooooooooop’ and the men ‘woop’. Women gibbons like talking as much as all other females it seems. Here’s a picture of a black gibbon making his way through the trees.

I was constantly looking at the trees, vines and plants during the trek as it’s hard to believe that nature actually works like that. I thought a lot of it looked like a film set but, it wasn’t a film set. The beauty of nature had been busy at this jungle for thousands of years. Honestly, just look at this tree branch. It looks like something from a Lord Of The Rings film but it’s real in the jungle!

There were obviously many animals in the jungle. We saw many of Adam’s relatives crawling through the leaves beneath our feet. We also saw an impressive specimen of Sid’s kin. This is Sally. She’s rather more deadly than Sid so we left her alone on her web in what I presume is a foul mood.

Once again, our hawk eyed guide spotted a gem for us. The next picture is of a sleeping snake. It’s a white lipped pit viper and he was snoozing in a tree about 10 feet above the ground. Our guide assured us that the white lipped pit viper is one of the less deadly in the park as you had 48 hours to get to the hospital before the venom would kill you……a cobra’s venom can kill you in 3 hours and they live here too. Fabulous.

We all made it through the jungle alive and not having been attacked by anything. There are still a few tigers and elephants in the park. The tigers are very rarely seen. The elephants are seen more often but still not all that regularly. We did not see either during our trip despite our guides best elephant finding efforts but I was not disappointed at all.

There are other beautiful things see at Khao Yai that won’t poison or bite you. We went to see one of them. It’s a rather lovely waterfall but as we visited in the dry season, it is not as spectacular as it normally is after the rains. I think you’ll agree it’s still a sight worthy seeing.

The Greenleaf guesthouse and tours team truly were faultless. I have not a single bad thing to say about either tour or the guest house room I stayed in. They are all friendly and accommodating. Move over, they truly love their jobs and the creatures they hunt for day in, day out. I cannot recommend them highly enough if you are shopping for a tour in Khao Yai book with Greenleaf, you will not be disappointed.

So that is it, I shall leave my last word to Simon. Here he is, just chilling on my shoulder.

Thailand Times – Trip 1

I have begun my big adventure. I’m on my way around the world.  First stop was Thailand. The currency is Thai Bhat and you get abot 44 bhat for 1 pound.

I arrived into Bangkok and successfully navigated to my hostel on Kaoh San Road. This area of Bangkok is famed for being the backpackers party scene. Hostels (a.k.a. guesthouses) cover the area. I staued in one just off Kaoh San Road called the Rainbow guesthouse. It was sub par. The mattress was like rock, the dorm was not clean, the bathrooms were not a pretty sight, the beds felt (and sounded like) they would collapse any second and there was a hole in the wall. However, I was only paying 200 bhat per night so really, what was I expecting? I spent 2 days and 3 nights at the hostel. I would not go back.

Day 1 in Bangkok was spent having a jolly walk to Dusit. Dusit has a zoo and palace gardens you can look at. I didn’t fancy the zoo and I couldn’t find the entrance to the gardens. All in all, I walked about 7km in the blistering heat for no sights.  On my trudge back, I found a temple to go in so I did. I now know it was the Wat Benchamabophit. It was actually quite pretty and I sat for a while cooling down. It wasn’t a bad view.

The temple itself was imposing and ornate as you can see.

After cooling down, I got a cab back to Kaoh San Road. The trick with cabs in Bangkok is to make sure the driver flicks the meter on. If they don’t, make sure you challenge them about it and get the ride on the meter. Cabs are relatively inexpensive so long as you don’t fall for the fixed price cab scam.

I spent the evening on Kaoh San road. I ate 50 bhat worth of noodles and drank beer. Kaoh San Road is as advertised: party street for backpackers.  I tired of it pretty quickly and retreated to bed as the walking of the day had left me somewhat tuckered out.

I did some more walking on my second day but it was not as extensive as the first day. I sauntered to the Grand Palace. The King and Queen of Thailand are truly loved and revered.  It is not acceptable to speak in a derogatory or insulting manner about them. The Grand Palace is a complex of many temples, shrines and buildings enclosed within a high white wall. You must be appropriately dressed to enter the palace. Full length trousers/skirts and shoulders covered are essential. You can hire the correct clothing for free when you place a 200 bhat deposit per item (this is what I did). Entry to the Palace is a hefty 500 bhat. An audio guide is 200 bhat for 2 hours hire. I honestly think it’s over priced. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a spectacle to look at but that’s all you can do, look at it.  There is no signage explaining any of the significant buildings, there’s no real information provided by the map you get and actually navigating to the buildings can be tricky as sign posts that are present don’t seem to go where you expect them to. Nevertheless, I would recommend paying up, all be it begrudgingly, and going to see it.

I muddled around the main complex and found the jewel in the crown of the palace, the emerald Buddha. It’s housed in the grandest building.

The Buddha itself is perched atop a tall column of offerings and is quite small but, seeing as it’s made entirely of emerald, that makes sense when you think about it. No photography is permitted inside the emerald Buddha temple.

There are also plenty of other buildings to look at.  All are gilt and/or glittering. I particularly liked the one that looked like a gigantic Hersey’s kiss.

Some of the tiling mosaic work is gorgeous too.

And some of the guardian statues have faces I only see in nightmares.

They seem more cheerful when they sparkle more, don’t you think?

After you’re done in the main complex, you head down an alley of smaller buildings. These are throne rooms and a couple of museums. I liked the museum cataloging the renovation of the main buildings.  You aren’t allowed to take photos of the exhibits but it was fascinating to see the original versions of what I’d just looked at in the main area.

There’s also a museum exhibiting lots of Queen Sirikit`s outfits over the years. It also describes briefly the work she has done to introduce fabric making as a viable trade in rural Thailand.  Again, no photos allowed but an interesting walk round.

The Grand Palace complex is definitely worth looking round but I do begrudge paying £12 (plus another £5 if you take an audio guide) for the privilege.