The last Day In Siem Reap…

Ahhh I feel like I need to go on holiday again now so I can start writing up other adventure posts! This is a mash up of the last evening and final morning of our trip, just random photos, because no holiday is complete without random pics!

Batmobile tuk-tuk anyone? There was also a disco tuk-tuk which was amazing, played really loud crap Cambodia pop music and had disco lights and a glitter ball, sadly I was so blown away by it, I forgot to take a photo when it went past!

This is the place Ebi-kun wanted to eat, mainly because he wanted to try crocodile, ostrich and kangaroo - you know, those famous Cambodian kangaroos?!

Back in '99 this was a dirt cover street with just a handful of places to eat, now it covers 4 blocks and is the place to go at night.

And yet another smoothie!

This is my favourite Cambodian dish, I have had it every time we have been, sometimes more than once! Stir-fried chicken and pineapple, served in the pineapple, soooo gooood.

Last minute shopping at the night market…

The next day we wandered around town, these bamboo bikes looked pretty cool, they were outside a beautiful quilt shop. We ummmed and ahhhed on whether to buy one but decided against it because we were worried about getting it back - we didn't have space in out bag for a quilt.

I love visiting markets and supermarkets in foreign lands, they are so interesting…

Who knew that there were so many different types of rice?

And fruit, oh how I miss the fruit…

Final meal was at The Red Piano which is famous because of the Tomb raider film, Yasutoki finished the holiday off with Lok-Lak, which is stewed beef and rather delicious.

Washed down with a large jug of beer of course!

Our trip home was long! We flew from Siem Reap to Luang Prabang and then to Hanoi where we had a 4 hour wait before getting the flight back to Narita. In the morning, Ebi-kun was complaining of not feeling well, by the time we got to Hanoi he had a fever again and we only had one lot of medicine left. We gave hime what we got and hoped for a safe flight back. He slept all the way and luckily he had a couple of days before he needed to go back to school, so he was all better again by the start of school.

It was an amazing trip and I really can't wait until we can head off again! Where next I wonder…

Landmines and Butterflies….

Our final afternoon we decided to give the ruins a rest and have a look at something different… the landline museum. The story behind the museum really should be made into a film. Aki Ra was taken by the Khemer Rouge at around the age of 5 and trained as a child soldier, his parents were killed and he is not sure of his real name or even his birthday. He spent most of his youth fighting as a soldier and planting mines, in his words "land mines became my friends, they were a way to keep me safe and to catch food." Then one day Aki Ra defected to the other side and then spent years fighting against the Khemer Rouge, finally the Khemer Rouge were defeated but Aki Ra had lost his childhood, to him all he had known was fighting and death.

By this time, Cambodia was is a terrible state and land mines were everywhere, Aki Ra, who was now quite the landmine expert started to disarm them. Often for no payment or for as little as the villagers could put together. Whilst he was doing this work he saw a lot of children injured or orphaned because of the land mines and so he started to take them in and turned his home into a school.

In 2007 the government put a stop to Aki Ra's work, although he was doing a noble job, there were others digging up mines and selling the mines and parts for profit on the black market, the government wanted to put an end to it. So in 2008, Aki Ra set up the formal NGO, Cambodian Self Help Demining, which is a separate NGO to the museum and school (relief facility) and so, he continues with his work.

To date, Aki Ra has cleared over 50,000 land mines… just think about that number for a minute, 50,000 land mines, isn't that insane? How many mines were laid in the first place?

Not only that he has taken in 30 children and called them his own, now he heads the organisation that trains and sends out Cambodians to continue his work, of removing land mines, one mine at a time. In 2012 Aki Ra was awarded the CNN Heroes Award.

It is quite a somber place to visit, I wondered how Ebi-kun would take it, not an easy subject to talk to an 8 year old about but so important that he knows that these awful things went on and still go on in the world. He read a lot of the information, I could see him taking it in, he asked some questions and then I let him be, knowing that when he was ready he would want to know more. Playing at being soldiers doesn't seem as attractive anymore.

After the landmine museum we stopped off at the Banteay Srey Butterfly Centre, different place to the cafe we went to a couple of days before.

They had loads of different types of butterflies, so pretty but not easy to get a photograph of!

When you arrive a guide shows you around, explains all about the butterfly farming and how they breed the butterflies…

They had boxes full of different caterpillars, like this guy…

And some really big stick insects…

It's not very big so we were only there for an hour at tops, then we headed back to town for some lunch, Ebi-kun trying yet another type of smoothie, he could probably write a book about the smoothies of Cambodia and Laos!

It was a pretty full on day because after lunch we went to the National Museum, no photos allowed for that but it was quite an interesting place. Then on the way back to town, Yasutoki wanted to stop at the Hello Kitty Angkor Shop - yes, that really exists! Inside is like stepping into a Japanese omiyagi store, I couldn't believe it! There were lots of samples, Ebi-kun tried everything at least twice! The cookies and other goods were also Japanese prices, they were totally marketing to the Japanese tourists…

Finally we got the driver to drop us off in town, so we had a mooch around the arts market before heading to Pub Street to get some dinner.

Banteay Srei and being a responsible tourist

Our final full day in Siem Reap, we decided to go out of the way a bit and visit the beautiful red sandstone temple of Banteay Srei. We had bought a 3 day pass which was $40 and could be used at any of the Angkor complexes for 3 days, but you don't have to use them in succession, also kids under 12 go free but you need to show the child's passport to prove their age.

We didn't visit this temple in 2003 but we did go way back in 1999 and we had a bit of a shock arriving this time. As I said in previous posts, most of the roads were dirt road before, and getting out to this temple was a very dusty, long ride, taking about an hour on our last visit. This time we zipped along in about 40 minutes on the smooth surfaced road! If you hire a driver, expect to pay extra to come out here to cover the extra petrol costs.

As we drew up we could hardly believe our eyes, before we had been the only people at the site and the driver stopped the car literally outside the gate of the temple, now there is a complex with shops, cafe, information station and toilets and it is a 5 minute walk to get to the actual temple. So much for trying to get away from the crowds!

What makes this temple so special, is the absolute amazing cravings in the red sandstone. It was built in the 10th century and is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, the temple is often referred to as "The jewel Of Khemer Art"

Patience was needed as we walked around, reduced to the tourist shuffle! And again, parts of the temple was inaccessible due to restoration work or they had stopped the tourists getting nearby to protect the carvings.

Like the other temples, you need a good guide or book so that the carvings come to life, with the stories and little things to look out for such as Kala or Garuda plus the fun of trying to find the most beautiful carved Aspara or the only one that shows her teeth when she smiles.

This little girl wasn't begging, I think her mom was working in the grounds, she was just hanging out but it does remind me of an important thing regarding orphanages. Like in any poor country, Cambodia suffers from scams and one of them involves tourists being taken to visit orphanages. The kids in these places are kept in awful conditions, which of course makes you feel terrible and so you open you wallet and make a donations. The trouble is, the kids are kept in that condition EXACTLY for that reason, they don't benefit from the money you donate, it is a sick money making scheme. 

If you visit Cambodia, please don't visit any of the orphanages, instead donate your money to a recognised charity where you know it will be put to proper use.

In fact, this visit, we saw very few beggars, I wonder whether the situation has improved or whether the government has swept these people in need under the carpet as it were and has them hidden out of view to save face?

We did see bands like theses at all the temples. The men are all disabled, either from birth or maimed during the war or by land mines. They have been trained as musicians and so instead of begging, they sit and play music at the temples, you can donate money as they play or buy their CDs. 

One place we didn't vista this time was Tonle Sap Lake and the fishing villages. Originally the villagers were Vietnamese fishing villages that live and work on the lake but the main village has become a tourist trap. The operation has been taken over by a Korean company, they own the boats and set up 'authentic' shops and cafes which you get taken to on the tour. Many of the villages have lost jobs because of this and non of the money gets pumped back into the local community.

We believe in responsible tourism and yes, we would have loved to show Ebi-kun the village, the amazing house boats and the houses on stilts, we don't want to contribute to the way things are being run. 

Our driver was lovely and wasn't afraid of sharing his views of what was going on with the country! One thing he told us was that the company that sells the tickets for the Angkor complex was Vietnamese and all the money made from the ticket sales went back to Vietnam. Well, I did a bit of googling about this and it sounds like some mis-information was going on there!

The company that does all the ticketing is called Sokimex, it was founded in in 1990 which is an ethnic Vietnamese Cambodian. The company originally had a deal with the Cambodian government that they would pay the government one million dollars a year for the ticketing rights and the rest of the profits they get to keep. This caused a bit of a hoo-haa and a new deal was brokered 15 months later. The money now gets split between the government, the Apsara Authority which deals with the restoration and up keep of the ruins and Sokimex. I couldn't find details of the percentage of who gets what.

Sokimex did make some changes such as banning the souvenir sellers from the grounds which was not good for the locals but they also put an end to the reselling/stealing and scamming of entrance tickets. The lesson here is, if you want to be a responsible tourist, don't take everything your moto/tut-tuk driver tells you as gospel!

Temples and butterfiles…

Of course, the main attraction to Cambodia is Angkor Wat, which I believe is the largest religious monument in the world and was built by King Suryavarman II in the 12th century…

It was much warmer than Laos, so we were finally able to make use of the shorts and T-shirts we had packed!

Ebi-kun was really excited to look around, he had read all about the Churning Of The Ocean Milk and wanted to see the real thing, I noticed so many people just walking right past the carvings, yet they are one of the most important parts of the temple. It takes a good couple of hours to wander round and take them all in an I highly recommend a good guide or a decent guide book that teals you about each scene.

Here is Vishnu on his turtle giving directions to the 88 Devas and 92 Asuras who are using the serpent Vasuki to churn the sea.

Some areas of the bas reliefs are in amazing condition but some haven't faired so well. There are also bullet holes dotted around the place from when the Khemer Rouge used the temple as a base.

The detailing and workmanship is really special…

The first time we visited there were no rules and just a dodgy handrail for going up to the top section of the temple. Now, children under 12 are not allowed, they have a proper up and down system going and they only allow a set amount of people up at a time, very much one in one out type of policy. Since Ebi-kun wasn't allowed up and the queues were horrendous we skipped going up this time.

Another difference was that these days you are able to wander around the forest surrounding the temple, before it was strictly 'stay in the temple grounds' and land mine signs were everywhere beyond the walls, it looks like they have all been cleared these days.

For lunch we headed back into town to the Butterfly Garden Cafe, a lovely peaceful spot with a garden full of butterflies…

We had a relaxing lunch, noodle soup and fried rice…

And a chicken and cashew sandwich. Unlike when we were in South America, we have never worried about getting sick from the food here, Cambodians are strict about their food hygiene, even when cooking in poor conditions they keep everything clean.

As we were eating lunch, I noticed a bunch of kids had arrived and we playing around, I figured it was lunch time at school and they had come home for lunch. Then I realised they all has a basket. The cafe owner gave each child some bread and some money and the kids released a load of butterflies from their baskets, so it looks like they were being paid for collection them - this is speculation!

You wouldn't think you were in the middle of the town would you?

After lunch we had a bit of a mooch around the old market, it hasn't changed much but the driver told us that these days, what they sell in the market is no longer made in Cambodia, most of it is imported from Thailand and China. Everything is still cheap but we decided that we would be picky about where we bought from.

We did notice that quite a few 'boutique' style shops have popped up, this one is run by a young Japanese woman and they sell lovely organic handmade soaps and skin care goods. The shop was beautifully laid out and it is fair trade, money from the shop goes back into the community. Yasutoki needed to get 'omiyagi' (gifts) for his co-workers - it is the Japanese way! and bought quite a lot from Kru Khemer.,we also tried some of the soaps, they are lovely!

Tome raiding In Ta Phrom…

Ta Phrom is my favourite temple in the Angkor complex purely because of the adventure feel that you get when you are there. It was were many of the sciences from Tomb Raider - the film was filmed and it is just so cool! We did have a bit of a shock when we turned up though, they had put in wooded walk ways and one large area was being renovated so we couldn't go near it. There was lots areas that were taped off - presumably for safety reasons and some of the trees had been cut down.

Obviously Health and Safety have made it to Cambodia! To think that the first time we went you could clamber over any of it and get lost in the ruins!

The trees are amazing, many growing right through the ruins! How exciting it must have been to re-discover these places.

I understand that they have to make it safe, I just hope they can do so without the whole place losing its character. The tour groups seemed to be following a specific route, so we went the other way to do some proper exploring..

A small boys dream come true! Indie eat your heart out.

The 'famous' doorways now can only be reached by boarded walkways so you can't actually stand in the doorway anymore but there are still plenty of cool places to find…

It is hard work all this exploring!

When we visited in 1999, as you walked around any of the ruins you ended up with a trail of kids all asking your buy something, postcards or bracelets for "1 dollar, 1 dollar". When we returned in 2003, the kids were no longer allowed inside the ruins grounds but occasionally you would hear a rustle of leaves and out of the jungle a couple of kids would appear, but on their guard. As soon as a security guard was spotted, they were off like little rabbits! This time we didn't see any kids inside selling but there were adults selling books or prints, they seem to have had permission (possible paid bribe money) to be allowed to do it.

Now, when you step outside of the walls of the ruins you get mobbed by kids and adults all trying to sell you things, everything still seems to be 1 dollar though! This little girl was very persistent, she was about 4 years old I guess…

When we were done, we stopped by to see Angkor Wat, the light is better in the afternoon that the morning but it was a muggy sort of day so we didn't get great shots. Not to worry, we have loads from the previous visits!

For dinner we found a lovely fusion restaurant but later discovered it was owned by the Koreans. According to our driver, the Cambodian people are not happy with the Vietnamese, Chinese and Koreans because they come in, set up shop and the money goes back to their own country instead of them investing in Cambodia. This is the opposite of what countries like Australia, Japan and India do.

The food was good thought and it was a lovely setting, I wasn't a fan of the 'hovering' waiters though!

After we had filled our boots we headed back to the hotel, where I discovered happy Hour was until 10pm and cocktails were $1.50 each…ohhhh yes, happy indeed!