Travelling up the coast, Vietnam

So then, finally, the beaches! We've had some difficulty zeroing in on beaches whilst travelling. Strange as it may seem, we should have already gotten bored by them... Not so, however, as it was Brazil when we last had good beach access (yeah ok, there was that 1 time in Bali - at the idyllic private beach resort). Our decision to stay clear of Thailand didn't help matters (we were looking forward to the island-hopping round Phuket, Ko Samui etc.), and other countries, whilst hot, didn't really present good beach opportunities over an above some cultural sites. Given all of this, we decided to spend a little more time in Vietnam and sample all it's facets. We'd read and been told some of it was like Thailand 20 years ago. Not sure if thats a good thing or bad thing...



Mui Ne

Our first stop on the 'open tour' (read hop-on hop-off, all the way to Hanoi from HCMC) bus was a small town called Phan Thiet, in the district of Mui Ne. Here is where a string of resorts and guest houses compete for stretches of beach as well as those seeking to take advantage of strong winds and have a go at kite surfing/parasailing and the like. The beach itself was nice, and clean but only if the resort was bothered to clean it. Otherwise the street sellers, fishermen and locals could take the shine off it somewhat. Through an unfortunate quirk in the booking of the bus to the next stop, we actually stayed in 2 resorts.

The first was nice enough, but a little far out from the main strip and livelier restaurant/bar scene. It was squarely aimed at budget travellers. Navita and I definitely got our kicks from the sun and beach. We lounged by the pool, sat under huts on the nice sandy beaches, and read many a novel whilst sipping on Mojitos. All good fun, but somehow it fell short of delivering that true beach experience, mainly due to the ridiculous bug problem (mosquitoes and very virulent ticks!) and very stale atmosphere at meal times / evenings (I won't blame you if you think I'm a spoilt brat by the way!).

Our second resort was actually booked through necessity upon finding out there was a problem with our onward bus journey. Actually this resort hit the sweet spot, and we stayed a few extra days. Combined with the World Cup ramping up and the beach bars all showing matches on huge beach front screens, Mui Ne ended up being a great destination for beach fun. We even came across a surprisingly good Indian restaurant called Ganesh, whose waiters doted after us (we didn't see a single other Indian enjoying these beaches whilst we were there!)

Nha Trang

Known as the party and beach capital of Vietnam, we reached Nha Trang in the evening and booked ourselves into a hotel. Here resorts are replaced with hotels/shops/residential buildings and a somewhat more active night life compared with Mui Ne. All Navi and I bothered ourselves with was where we'd eat, what book we'd read next and which part of the beach we would sit on today. Believe it or not, this didn't get tiring! We found a great stretch of beac near the hotel called the Sailing Club, which had everything you could want for a day at the beach. Superb!

We did look into diving again, but the dive sites weren't providing new enough dive experiences so we knocked it on the head.

We did, however, go on a day long island-hopping boat tour which started off a little slow but actually ended up being quite fun. The tour took us to 4 islands. The first was to an island which is home to an aquarium. The aquarium was small but actually good and had some large fish which we hadn't seen before along with some great tropical sharks. The second island had live coral and allowed us to snorkel. I managed it with dysfunctional equipment so it wasn't that much fun. Close to the 3rd island, and the going gets good; we moored up for a Vietnamese feast on the boat. So much food! After lunch, we were treated to the Best boy band in Vietnam... apparently! I kid you not, they assembled a make shift 4-piece band and 'serenaded' (actually it was more a case of 'who is strangling the cat?!') us with Wonderwall by Oasis and other pop songs. Hilarious fun! And then we had free cocktails handed to us from a floating bar as we rested on rubber tubes in the open sea - idyllic!



The highlight for us was awaiting on the 4th island - what was meant to be a 1 hour relaxing time on the beach-side sun loungers ended up being the biggest adrenaline-fuelled thrill-seeking experience of our trip. We went parasailing!! - for those of you not sure of what this is: Alkesh and I are strapped on to a parachute which is then launched in to the wind, steered by a speed boat on the water. Our 5 minute ride gave us the feeling of flying up over the islands and sea we'd spent the day exploring. It was awesome! - an unforgettable experience!



Finally invested in some wide rimmed hats to shelter us from the never ending heat!


Hoi An
The small city of Hoi An was our chance to experience the way life used to be for the Vietnamese, before modernisation and Westernisation took ahold. On our first evening we explored the central quarter - it was lovely, decorated with many lit lanterns and structures along the riverfront. The locals were friendly and welcoming as we browsed the many handicraft and souveneir shops. Many of the buildings in Hoi An are quite old and it made for a very pleasant evening stroll - somehow, even the heat was bearable!



Hoi An is known for 2 attractions in particular. First off, is the abundance of cheap tailors. It is a remarkable enterprise - many outlets, armed with the latest Next catalogue from UK, create the latest designs for suits, shirts, trousers, skirts, cocktail dresses and even winter coats - all for cheap prices. One could have had an entire new wardrobe stitched! - Navita wishes we had the time, money and luggage space to have done this!



The second attraction for travellers visiting Hoi An: it is the foodie capital of Vietnam. We found the most amazing Vietnamese restaurant for our first night's dinner and then enjoyed it so much, we went back the 2nd night! The menu had so many interesting items that we hadn't previously sampled in our time in Vietnam. And even for Navi as a vegetarian, there were lots of delectable choices. We tried to get ourselves on to a cookery course at this restaurant but unfortunately they were all booked up for the next few days. We really enjoyed our time in Hoi An, and wished we could have had a few more days here to enjoy the culinary and tailoring opportunities!

Hanoi
Marking the end of our open tour bus route from HCMC, we finally made it to the capital city of Hanoi. This coincided with the overwhelming realisation that our travels were coming to an end. After almost 2 months in S.E. Asia, we've got just Tokyo (1 week) and India (2.5 weeks) left.

We organised ourselves for a city sightseeing day tour. The main area to explore in Hanoi centres around the Old Quarter. This area originated from an amalgamation of several villages, each with their unique trade ranging from pottery to hand-stitced paintings to shoe-selling. The result is a confusing maze of small alleys, packed with stalls - one street for selling toys, another for selling wood-craft. It was fun to just spend the late afternoons, soaking up the atmospere. The tour took us to visit several pagodas and temples, in particular the Temple of Literature - were students studied Confuscianism. Hanoi is centred around a big lake, Hoan Kiem lake, named after a legend where the King returned his battle sword to the lake by offering it to a golden turtle.



Also on the day tour, we visited the Ho Chi Minh complex. The highlight was this emperor's mausoleum constructed in 1975 to house his body. Vietnamese honour 'Uncle Ho's' achievements in the independence and reunification of their country; so much so the goverment chose to embalm his body rather that follow his wishes of being cremated. It was eery to see his body so well maintained. Of course, security was uber-tight and photography not permitted.



During our time in Hanoi, we also took the opportunity to see a performance of an ancient Vietnamese art - water puppetry. This is where puppets are animated in water, handled by hidden men and long sticks. Our performance was accompanied by a traditional Vietnamese orchestra - they had some fantastic instruments that we'd never seen before.



As is often the case with our time at the end of a country, Hanoi was also a chance to do the usual tasks of blog-writing and laundry. We split this up with catching the England game after an Indian curry - how very British of us! We've really enjoyed the slower pace in Vietnam - chilling on beaches, observing day to day life and culture, not to mention some great food. Tokyo will definitely be a complete change of scene... just the small matter of a series of connecting flights to get us there (Hanoi - Bangkok - Ghangzhou - Beijing - Tokyo)... see you on the other side, folks!!

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

Hello! It's seems like ages since we last posted, but that's probably because the pace with which we've been taking in our trip through Vietnam has slowed to more of a 'hey man, take it easy!' kinda speed. That's been a very welcome change and we've fitted in our beach 'fix' to prove it...

Our transit to Vietnam was via the popular and inexpensive bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City which took 6 hours and included a ferry crossing somewhere on the Mekong River. Simple enough, and prefered to the alternative which was a boat down the Mekong (our boat trip to Battambong was quite enough, thanks very much!). Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon, abbreviated to HCMC from here on) was buzzing with life, tourists and traffic! After the relatively modest town centers in Cambodia, we were encouraged by what we saw (more motorbikes than you could ever imagine!) and proceeded to find our hotel for the next few days. Now I'm not 100% sure why, but Navi and I let Ho Chi Minh pass us by a little - maybe it was the heat or some sort of 'travellers burnout'. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed and saw the main sights (described later), but there was a definite feeling of laziness about our start to Vietnam.



Normally a new city means FOT followed by dinner, staying out, walking around and doing more of the same over the following few days, when we aren't doing some activity or the other. In the case of HCMC, we decided that what we actually wanted to do was find a cafe/restaurant/whatever, dig our heels in and watch the world go by. The reality was a little different but most entertaining nontheless. Due to cheap availablity of everything from books, software, DVDs and everything in between, and helped by a very uncooperative TV in our room, we decided to rent a DVD player for 3 days and buy Season 8 of 24. Jack Bauer's last and sure to be a corker, given everyones obessesion over Facebook only a couple weeks earlier. 24! I mean, are we travelling or what?! Hehe! Anyways, before I bore you to death with this little story, Navi and I convinced ourselves that we were doing the right thing, and proceeded to spend the next 3 evenings hiding from everyone, quickly eating our free hotel dinners and watched the entire season! Very, very nice. What's next? We promised ourselves this was a one off... Boooooooo!

Right then, onto the real stuff.



War Museum
We'd booked a day trip which included the all important War Remnants museum and other less impressive sights to try and understand the national perspective of the 'American War' (as the Vietnamese refer to it; known to you and I as the Vietnam War). Aside from the museum, the rest of the day's sights were nothing too special. It was ok for us - we'd been templed out in Angkor, and were less interested in the local markets and buildings in HCMC, instead wanting to learn as much as possible about Vietnam's recent history - another terrible event that until now as merely been the subject of history books and stories.
The War Museum stands proud as a reminder of what Vietnam has endured, following the French rule, and the struggle for unification/independance that led to Vietnam War. It was fascinating and humbling to see the Vietnamese perspective (perhaps with just a pinch of 'propaganda'), something that I don't think you'd get from the more accessible movies and text that the West has produced on the war. We learnt about 'agent orange' which was the herbicides and defoliants used by the U.S. military in its biological warfare program, and it's destructive effects on the current and future generations. We saw original artefacts such as weaponry of all sizes including tanks and jet fighters, photos of victims, civilians and their terrible suffering. Most importantly for me, we saw a timeline of events that led to the war, the war itself and the aftermath of it's 20 year operation. We were a little rushed through the museum so couldn't take in as much as we'd really wanted, but armed with this introduction we looked forward to the following day's tour which took us to the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Cu Chi Tunnels
These are the famous tunnels used by the Vietnamese military command and villagers for 20 years during the war. Everything was done underground, in a 121km network of tunnels and up to 3 levels of bunkers each designed for a specific need. Our journey to the tunnels took over 2 hours each way, but was well worth the trip. Our guide was knowledgable, aimiable and engaging throughout the day. Over 16,000 Vietnamese did everything in these tunnels during the 20-year-war: lived, cooked, survived, battled and healed the wounded. There's plenty of info on the net about the tunnels but here are some interesting facts we picked up.

• Methods to cook food without smoke appearing above ground included elaborate filtration systems which released smoke at the top of hills during the morning fog. If the opposition were to have spotted smoke, the tunnel-dwellers would have been bombed for sure so discretion was paramount.
  
• Human waste (without being too descriptive 16,000 peoples poos over 20 years... it's quite a problem!) was disposed of in the adjoining river with munitions boxes full of waste that were dumped at strategic points in the river - all transported underground of course.
• Various levels within the tunnels, 3 levels as deep as 12 meters helped prevent sound from escaping up above, trap doors used to avoid attacks with gas and water. Again, if the enemy had heard any sounds, death was guaranteed.
  
  
  
  
• Tunnels were often booby trapped in ingenious and horrible ways, and no maps were ever created requiring all authorised people to memorise their part in the 120+ km of tunnel.
• Malaria and fatal snake bites were a large contributor to deaths whilst in the tunnels.

Around the tunnel entrances and exits were examples of camouflaged work shelters: some used for workshops where unexploded bombs were made into more useful smaller ordinance; some used to make shoes from old tyres; and others used to demonstrate the terrible human traps that were used to maim and kill soldiers.



They were made all the more gruesome by using the victims own bodyweight against them, as they plunged in to te covered holes.

We also had a unique opportunity to walk through a short stretch of the tunnels which was challenging given the small crawl space and the sheer humidity. I managed it and emerged in a bunker. I didn't, however, have a go on the shooting range. Many boys were making their dreams come true by firing AK-47's and other frightening weapons. I mulled it over, but found the thought a little unsettling.

The day at the tunnels was fascinating, but whilst we were very much in tourist-land wanting to learn as much as we can, it was hard to shake the uneasiness by which these traps and the tunnels themselves were very real instruments of survival that have occurred in the relatively recent past.

Next stop.... THE BEACH!!!!

A handicapped handicrafts workshop, allowing the disabled a chance to work and live normal lives.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Our final stop in Cambodia was to be the capital city of Phnom Penh. Compared with our previous 2 stops in the country, this was like a metropolis, relatively-speaking! In our S.E. Asia travels, Alkesh has been quite jumpy about the crazy traffic antics seen on the roads - no such thing as 'safe stopping distances' or lane control - no, no, each man for himself! In fact, funnily enough, the Lonely Planet book says that motorbikes here 'won't stop for you, but they'll try and miss you'! Wonderful! Anyway, traffic-mayhem aside, Phnom Penh had it's share of roundabouts and monuments, shopping malls and large hotels... no major skyscrapers but still clearly a commercial hub.

Our hotel was well located, close to some key tourist attractions as well as the well-developed river front. This area had a wide promenade and opposite the river was a long row of bars and restaurants to suit all tastes and budgets. We spent most of our evenings here, sampling happy hours and different cuisines. We found a great Indian restaurant serving hot pakoras which were delicious! This morning we had a real English fry up with Heinz beans no less. Other cuisines we've eaten have of course been Khmer, pizza, Mexican etc. We also have spent some time with a fellow traveller who came on the boat with us from Siem Reap to Battambang. Since leaving Australia, we've mainly stayed in cheap hotels / guesthouses and we're somewhat missing the social aspect of hostels where it's easier to meet and chat with fellow travelers.

Having traveled for some time now, and learnt what tourist attractions we like, and what we don't like, Alkesh and I had a select list of sites we wanted to visit whilst in Phnom Penh: a mix of harrowing recent history from the Khmer Rouge regime with the seeming opulence of the current Cambodian culture!



National Museum
The only museum we have visited in Cambodia, this one was set in a lovely location with manicured gardens and ponds and beautiful Khmer architecture. The big collection mainly consisted of precious elements from the Angkorian temples - elements that had they been left alone in the temple would surely have been damaged or stolen. We saw impressive statues of Buddha and Vishnu, fighting monkeys, ornate lintels and pediments. There were also fine examples of the ancient Sanskrit / Khmer inscriptions.



Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda (a.k.a. Temple of the Green Buddha)
Perhaps a little unnecessary, but surprisingly we quite enjoyed seeing the grandeur and opulence of the Royal Palace (still in current use). Tourists were allowed to roam round some of the buildings. Amongst well-maintained gardens, large buildings with the characteristic Khmer pointy roofs and ornate gilding surrounded us. The Silver Pagoda is so named because it's floored with 5000 silver tiles, each weighing over 1 kg. It is also known as Wat Preah Keo which means the Pagoda of the Emerald Buddha, thanks to a Buddha statue made of Baccarat crystak. There is also a life-size gold Buddha, weighing in a 90kg and decorated with 9584 diamonds, the biggest of which was 25 carat!
Alas, no pictures were allowed in side the magnificent Silver Pagoda.



After the soothing day of light tourist sites, we braced ourselves for a far more hard-hitting second day as we sought to find out more about the atrocities carried out during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Some background for you first of all:

• In March 1970, Cambodia's then Prime Minister Sihanouk was overthrown by General Lon Nol.
  
• Sihanouk took up residence in Beijing, China from where he set up a government-in-exile that allied itself with an indigenous Cambodian revolutionary movement, dubbed as the Khmer Rouge. Violence engulfed many parts of Cambodia.
• In the following years, Khmer Rouge recruited many rural Cambodians to join it's forces as 'combatants'.
• On 17 April 1975, the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh. Khmer Rouge ruled from 1975 to 1979 - it's leader was Pol Pot.
• During the regime, Khmer Rouge implemented one of the most radical and brutal re-structurings of a society ever attempted. It's goal was to transform Cambodia into a giant peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative.



• Within days, the entire populations of Phnom Penh and other provincial towns were forced to march into the countryside and work as slaves for 12 to 15 hours a day.
• Well-educated intellectuals (who threatened the concept of an agrarian society) were systematically wiped out.
• Under Pol Pot's rule, Cambodia quickly became a vast slave labour camp.
• Finally Khmer Rouge rule was brought to an end by the Vietnamese, who liberated the almost-empty city of Phnom Penh on 7 January 1979.
• The exact number of deaths during the regime (3 yrs, 8 months and 20 days) is still unknown - most accepted estimate is at least 1.7 million people perished at the hand of Pol Pot and his followers. Some believe the number is as high as 3 million.
  

Tuol Sleng Museum - Security Prison 21 (S-21)
Once a centre of learning, Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's scurity forces in 1975. They transformed the classrooms into torture chambers, renaming the facility S-21. At the height of it's activity, some 100 victim were sentenced to death every day.
As we walked around the eerily still grounds of the former school, we felt sick at learning about the atrocities that took place here. Babies were killed because their crying was too noisy.



Children were killed because the Khmer Rouge feared that they may seek revenge when they grew up. Men were tortured daily for up to 6 months, interrogated for information of traitors, before being killed - many died before that due to starvation and slave labour. Families of intellectuals were kept in small rooms, packed together in groups of 50-60 per room. The Khmer Rouge had devilish ways of torturing their victims - I cannot bring myself to write them here.
It was a sombre visit - so much destruction. The whole of Phnom Penh has been re-built in the last 30 years; the mean population age is just 21 or so because so many of the older people were killed during the Khmer Rouge regime. It's amazing to see how the country exists today, with such a dark and bleak recent past.



Killing Fields of Choeung Ek
Most of the 17,000 detainees held at the S-21 prison were executed at Choeung Ek, some 14km southwest of Phnom Penh. Prisoners were often bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting precious bullets. Victims were buried in mass graves, some with hundreds of corpses.





During the Khmer Rouge regime, 167 Security Prisons were set up and so far some 343 killing sites have been discovered. Over the past 3 decades since the end of the cruelties, over 19,440 mass graves have been uncovered.
It was a sad sight. Alkesh and I are shocked to think something this terrible could happen in modern day - in our lifetimes.


And so that brings us to the end of our time in Cambodia. It has been very interesting but we've seen so many different facets of Cambodia: from the ancient Angkorian temples, to modern day rural Cambodian life; from the delights of current Khmer art and religion to the sickening events from the 1970s. Amongst all of this, the people of Cambodia remain strong, positive and happy. Incredible!

Battambang, Cambodia

Boat trip to Battambang
A well known route for travelers leaving Siem Reap is via the Sangker River and a 9 hour scenic boat ride to a small French colonial town of Battambang. With promises of seeing true rural life here, we cheerfully made our way to the docks and our pickup point 30km or so from Siem Reap. It's true to say the journey was indeed scenic, but the ride itself was definitely a little on the rough side. We and a few other tourists had basically been put onto a transport boat which was also being used by the locals and for this reason we prepared ourselves for an interesting journey.



Sure enough, we saw the true Cambodian rural life. It seems the river is the source of pretty much all of the day-to-day life. Houses, hand built, either float on sheet after sheet of bamboo or other wood (all with TV ariels I noticed!). Some on wooden stilts just high enough to avoid the high water during the wet season, and some even making a home out of their tatty boats, extending the back to make extra living spaces. All have been built with materials that have been either scavenged, or the wood taken from fields.



We saw the river being used to transport goods and services to the other locals, creating their own little micro-economy, presumably based on exchange of goods in addition to purchases with money. On a rest stop we also got a first hand look at the people also using the river as their means to wash: dishes, themselves, number 1 and number 2 (!), and use it as their household waste bin... A little alarming since many a child was carelessly splashing around in the water, clearly enjoying themselves in the process. Yuk!



We were traveling on the river during the dry season, and as such, water levels caused delays in the journey due to ad-hoc steering around shallow patches and the occasional in-situ repair of the vessel. We had one such repair which I think was due to a propeller blade being damaged due to the shallow water. We came upon a village, stopped by a workshop and it was immediately fixed and welded back on to the axle, whilst we were in boat!



It was a long and testing journey, as conditions were pretty cramped, but we're really glad to have seen the vast wide open flood planes and the kind of life that is lived by so many here. I had never quite seen anything like it before.

Battambang
Glad to arrive in Battambang, we made our way to the hotel and took the rest of the evening really easy. Navita and I lucked out on a deluxe room for the price of a basic room, can't complain!



We decided to spend a full day here and check out one or two of the local attractions. Actually, this ended up being a more informative and somewhat humbling experience than we had expected. We hired a tuk tuk driver for the day who also doubled as a knowledgeable guide of the area, and he took us to see some interesting Buddhist temples and told of how Hinduism and Buddhism feature in modern Cambodian lives.



We got taken to a home where rice paper, what you make spring rolls from, was made using traditional techniques and saw a rather unusual 'bamboo train' used to run to and from the next town on worn and warped old French railway tracks. The train is assembled and disassembled in minutes and consists of a lightweight bamboo platform with a 6HP engine bolted on!





As it transpires, our tuk tuk driver had actually lived through the Khmer Rouge regime when he was a boy. Navita and I were aware of this dark part of Cambodian history, 1975 to 1979, but were preparing to learn more in Phnom Penh. Our driver, took us to a memorial monument to those who were executed by the regime in killing fields and laid to rest in mass graves which the memorial had been built on. He told us harrowing stories of his time during the regime and how he was the only member of his family to survive. It was our first glimpse into the Khmer Rouge, and having it explained by someone who experienced torture, siblings and parents being slain, and made to work as a slave, we felt quite humbled. What do you say to something like that?

Memorial building window openly showing bones and remains of mass execution victims.


Our time in Battambang was at an end, but we're glad to have visited. The next leg of our journey through Phnom Penh and Vietnam is going to be very different to anything we've both previously seen, as we learn about the Khmer Rouge regime and Vietnam war.

Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor, Cambodia

Leaving behind the comfort of a flat, A.C., skyscrapers, friends and family, we boarded our flight bound for Siem Reap, Cambodia - the base for our 3-day exploration of the world-famous Temples of Angkor! We were bracing ourselves for a bumpy transition back in to the world of 'backpacking'... and the contrast hit us as soon as we left the airport. Rural country life surrounded us - open rice fields, arid land, locals on all modes of transport (basically anything with an engine - tuk-tuks, scooters, bicycles and much more), food stalls and street hawkers lining the streets, hot sticky air, a mixture of sights and smells. The heat and humidity was oppressive and A.C. was unheard of (except, thankfully, for our hotel room - which was our sanctuary!).

On one of the evenings, over dinner, we got to see the classical Khmer apsara dance!




Siem Reap, with it's proximity to the temples, was quite a touristy area - and yet, especially after the 'brash-ness' of Kuta Bali, it felt laid-back and rustic. Everyone spoke good English. The locals were good-natured and friendly, but we quickly had to get used to the constant pestering of 'Mister Mister, you wan' tuk-tuk, yes? You visit temples tomorrow?'. One had to be firm and resolute in walking past. Likewise with the craft markets - if you so much as hesitated with a sideways glance to the beautiful Cambodian silks, several stall owners swarmed round you, drawing out metres of textile and promising 'Good price for you Mister'. Our hotel was close to the main market (selling fruit and veg by day, crafts in the evening), as well as the main restaurants, bars and food stalls' streets. We explored the area gingerly (owing to the heat and exhaustion from a 4am start) on the day we arrived and on future days, after sunset when it was cooler.



As we expected, cost of goods was cheaper here. Although the official Cambodian currency is the Riel, US dollars were readily accepted for almost everything. Moreover, they had a canny way of charging in dollars, us paying in dollars but giving back the small change to us in Riels! We sampled quite a lot of Khmer (the word commonly used to describe Cambodian people, culture and language) food - in restaurants and more traditional food stalls on the side of the road. It was similar to Thai food, using a lot of coconut milk as the base, but spicier than typical Thai cuisine. We also discovered the pleasure of ice-cold mango milkshakes - filling and refreshing for breakfast!





Our 3-day stay in Siem Reap centred on visiting the temples. We hired a tuk-tuk to take us round each day, taking in the best sites and sometimes leaving early to catch sunrise or coming home late after sunset. Unlike what you may imagine a classic 3-wheeler (a.k.a tempo, bajai) to be, Cambodian tuk-tuks are literally shaded spacious carriages attached to a motorbike - this makes for a much more comfortable ride. We enjoyed touring round in our tuk-tuk - the breeze and shade were always welcome, and it was a great way to watch the rural life as we drove around!



The Temples of Angkor are vast and impressive! Whilst I don't think we could have done 7 days of touring (as some people do), the variety is great, and it definitely pays to take time to visit some of the temples further afield. Some temples are quite far apart, which makes walking or cycling yourself almost impossible - certainly in this heat. We decided to save on the cost of an accompanied guide; instead we purchased a great photo / guide book with lots of great info about the history, architecture and culture of each temple in Angkor. It suggested routes to explore and what to look out for - Alkesh and I took it in turns to play 'guide' at each temple!

Neither Alkesh nor I realised just how far-reaching and pervasive the ancient Indian kingdoms had spread in olden times. The Indian language, culture and religion was heavily inter-twined with ancient Khmer life - resulting in a predominantly Buddhist population today; but their Buddhism bears resemblance to Hinduism in several ways. The Angkor period lasted from the 8th to the early 13th century and featured a long succession of Indian kings ruling over their people and land. Personally, I felt very proud to see Hindu culture so well-preserved in a country so far away from India. Moreover, Alkesh and I are fortunate to have seen a similar Indian influence in Bali... we'll be pros by the time we get to S. India in July!



Each new king, however short his tenure, felt the need to relocate his kingdom's capital and build a new temple and perhaps even a new city. This is what gave rise to the vast array of temples in and around Angkor. During much of the Angkor times, the predominant religion was Hinduism - particularly the worship of Shiva and Vishnu. There was a brief period of Buddhism but this was quickly quashed and Hinduism returned.

After the end of the Angkorian period, many of the temples lay empty and unused - open to the elements and thieves to become derelict. One very important exception is of course Angkor Wat - perhaps the most famous of all - because it has always been a place of worship since its opening in the 11th century. It wasn't until the Western explorers of the 18th century 're-discovered' (not that Cambodians had ever forgotten their legacy) the temples, that an international-wide effort was enforced to repair, maintain and protect the temples. Painstaking efforts went in to restoring the beautiful ancient Khmer architecture and reinforcing foundations to avoid collapse. The results are breath-taking for sure!

This was a common view - handicapped landmine victims hoping to be self-sufficient by playing traditional Cambodian musical instruments.


In reading our guidebook and exploring over 15 temples in 3 days, we learnt quite a bit about the ancient Khmer architecture and commonalities in the structure of the temples. Here are some highlights:

• Almost all temples had east-facing entrances.
• Gopuras were used to mark entrances, often at all 4 cardinal points of the square / rectangular plan of the temple - again, the east-facing gopura was always the most ornate.

• Moats usually framed the temple and its surrounding land. Many of these have now dried up.

• Like with the Inca architecture we saw in Peru, Angkor temples did not use mortar (only a vegetable compound for bricks); instead relying on interlocking stones.
• Main materials used were bricks, sandstone and laterite. Sandstone produced the most refined carvings; laterite (a muddy clay type susbstance which was easy to work with when wet, but dried hard) was used for foundations and base structure. Any carving work on bricks often had to be done using lime-mortar which was then stuck on.
• Many of the temples we saw followed a temple mountain structure. This consisted of a series of concentric square levels, one on top of the other. The upper-most platform featured 5 towers / shrines - 1 in each corner, and 1 in the middle. This overall structure was used to depict Mount Mehru in India. Stone steps leading between each level were steep and built in such a way to give the illusion of height, greater than it was in reality.

• Other structures similar to several temples were: 'libraries' (normally shrines in their own right, rather than a depository of religious manuscripts) and galleries - long vaulted-roof corridors, often following all 4 sides of the temple walls.

• Door jams (i.e. the sides of the door frame) and steles (the foundation stone, exclaiming the details of the opening of the temple) featured detailed inscriptions in Sanskrit and Khmer, the former often outlining religious verse.

• Above all doorways, columns supported a flat rectangular slab known as a lintel. Above this, rested a large triangular piece called a pediment. Lintels and pediments were always exquisitely carved; the latter often featuring scenes from the popular Ramayana and Mahabarata, as well as many other Hindu deities and the occasional Buddha!

• Some of the walls of the temple were covered in bas-reliefs - tens of metres of carved stone depicting entire stories, such as daily life, battle scenes and the very popular churning of the sea of milk.

• Finally apsaras were also often depicted in the carvings - these were Indian spiritual dancers for the gods.

On the morning of our 2nd day visiting the temples, we rose extra early to head out for sunrise over the most-visited temple of all - Angkor Wat. It's size, well-preserved state and ornate carving make it the most visited of all temples! Whilst the romantic notion of sunrise behind the temple mountain eluded us, it was great to catch a glimpse of the empty site at first light. We spent over 3 hours exploring all the areas of this magnificent temple!



Here is some background facts and figures:

• Angkor Wat is a Hindu temple complex (dedicated to lord Vishnu) that was built for King Suryavarman II in early 12th century as his state temple and capital city.
• It is a great example of a temple mountain, also including great long galleries featuring beautiful and detailed bas-reliefs.
• The complex is contained within a moat and an outer wall that is 3.6kms long.
• It is the largest temple in the world!
  
• The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "City Temple''. However the original name for this temple was Preah Pisnulok.
• Unlike many other temples in the area, Angkor Wat is oriented to the West, where you find the main entrance gopura.
  

Thanks to our guidebook, we deciphered so much 'hidden' meaning behind all of the carvings and architecture of Angkor Wat - it meant we really got to understand and enjoy the temple to its full! It was a great example of the beautiful Khmer art, craft and architecture! One of the most interesting aspects for us was exploring the exquisite bas-reliefs on all 4 sides of the galleries. One wall was entirely devoted to the Churning of the Sea of Milk. It featured the great naga being pulled on in both directions by asuras and devas.



Another wall depicted the Great Battle of Kurukshetra (from the Mahabharata), showing the mutual annihilation of Kaurava and Pandava clans. Finally, on the southern gallery, we saw the only historical scene of all bas-reliefs in Agkor Wat: it is a royal procession of King Suryavarman II.

On our last day in Siem Reap, we visited Angkor Thom (featured in Laura Croft: Tomb Raider!). Although not as famous as Angkor Wat, the outer walls complex is far greater than anything else in the area (an area of 9 km squared). Angkor Thom was a great example of a royal city (in fact it is the last and most-enduring capital city of the Khmer empire!), featuring within its boundaries several temples (the most famous is the Bayon) as well as the foundations of the royal palace and several other historically- and culturally-significant buildings. Angkor Thom was established as the capital of Jayavarman VII's empire in the late 12th century. The southern gate entrance to Angkor Thom featured naga-carrying giant demons and gods.



The Bayon's most striking feature was it's face temples - great towering shrines, topped with 4 headed faces bearing down on all.



Aside from these 2 awesome sites, we visited lots of other temples: some small, some big, some in a state of ruin, others beautifully restored. Here are some other temples, well worth visiting according to us!

• Banteay Srei - the most beautiful carving all in a pinkish hue of sandstone.

• Ta Prohm - a Buddhist temple left in the state it was 're-discovered' in the early 20th century... with massive tree trunks and roots growing right through the temple structure.

• Neak Poan - small and unsuspecting, it was great to see a very different temple plan, based around a number of ponds. It was here that we also got to see archaeologists and workers labouring to excavate and restore aspects of the temple's former glory.
  

Like with Machu Picchu, this has been a great highlight of our trip - one that speaks of an amazing ancient civilisation and powerful empire. Words, pictures and even Alkesh's wonderful videos can't do it all justice!