Mark Green's Blog, page 2
March 7, 2014
The Temples of Angkor...
Angkor Wat (and the other temples in the vast complex) take two.
It seems strange updating my blog about our visit to Angkor so long after we visited - looking at my journal it’s now almost a month ago. So many experiences since then, in Cambodia and Vietnam. But here goes…
I think I may already have alluded to the ‘rules of the road’ in Cambodia - it’s all about size. The bigger you are, ie. Juggernaut, the louder the horn that screams: “I’m coming through, GET OUT OF MY WAY!” Next, pick-up trucks, bussess, cars, motorbikes / scooters and way down the list, cyclists, with ‘Farangs’ - white strangers right at the bottom of the pile. It’s Darwin’s survival of the fittest on wheels at breakneck speed, where the only rule is, keep moving, don’t stop unless you want to get squished! After that, pretty much anything goes: Ride on the pavement? Sure, no problem. Pull out without looking and let everyone else move around you? Of course! Ride head on into the opposing traffic - you bet! So long as you lean on the horn to tell everyone else that you’re executing a crazy manoeuvre then it’s all fair. I’m sure I heard Nerky’s war cry behind me on many occasions when we needed to cross the road: “Yeeeeaaaarrrrhhhhh!” Or it may have been been me - difficult to tell - I usually found the best tactic was to shut my eyes, turn in and pedal faster… You get the picture - chaos that strangely seemed to work, although we did see a few prangs, fortunately none of which were nasty. But I bet it happens, a lot.
Anyway, having taken inspiration from friends Mel and Matt who spent a year cycling around the world, we figured the temple complex roads would be quieter so we decided to rent bicycles for all three days to explore Angkor. If I tell you that the first day we pedaled a round trip of about 20 miles, that should give some idea of the scale of the other temples scattered around Angkor Wat. Here’s a few pics before I sum up our experiences there.
The Angkor Temple Complex
It’s difficult to describe the temples of Angkor because no amount of photo’s can do justice to the scale of the complex. Here are a selection of photo’s for now and I’ll attempt to describe the temples and our experience in more detail in the next post, perhaps when I can find an internet cafe that id a bit more user friendly!
Soooo, it’s been a while since my last blog - technology...
Soooo, it’s been a while since my last blog - technology is wonderful when it works! It seems strange to flick back so far in my journal, 10th February in fact to follow on from Battenbang. We arrived at Siem Reap, home of the Ankgor temple complex full of excitement and energy in our legs, which probably explained our enthusiasm to polietly decline a Tuk Tuk lift to the hotel, located around 2 - 3 miles from the bus station. Tuk Tuks are for wimps!
Around an hour later we no longer thought Tuk Tuk’s were for wimps and given the temperature, we probably shouldn’t have been so determined to walk, especially given the Sloow down sign… By the time we’dstopped for water and a rest for the tenth time (see pic of Nicky and backpacks) we were ready to throw the towel in, until we realized that two hundred metres from our resting place in the shade was our hotel - result!
February 13, 2014
The finished result - Lok Lak - yum yum!!
The finished result - Lok Lak - yum yum!!
http://markdavidgreen.tumblr.com/post...
One of the highlights of our stay in Battenbang was the cookery course at The Smokin’ Pot Cambodian restaurant. Head chef Vannack patiently guided Nicky and I with four other apprentice cooks to prepare and cook three traditional Khumer dishes. The cooking followed on from a walk around the market…
One of the highlights of our stay in Battenbang was the cookery course at The Smokin’ Pot...
One of the highlights of our stay in Battenbang was the cookery course at The Smokin’ Pot Cambodian restaurant. Head chef Vannack patiently guided Nicky and I with four other apprentice cooks to prepare and cook three traditional Khumer dishes. The cooking followed on from a walk around the market to gather fresh ingredients - a real eye opener, especially when he selected the fish he wanted, still wriggling on a large display tray. He gave the lady a nod, then chop chop, fillet fillet, cook cook.
Phnom Sampeou - The Killing Caves
Armed with our bicycles, rented for a very reasonable $1 a day from the guest house, we set off for the 25km trip to Phnom Sampeou and the shrines dedicated to the victims of the Khmer Rouge at the notorious Killing caves. This was a strange unsettling experience, not just because of the obvious atrocities committed there, but also because of the (slight by Siem Reap standards) of pestering for money from one of the local kids at the entrance to the tombs, which for this and several other reasons we decided not to go into. It just felt wrong somehow, especially when we’d read in a guide book compiled by the guest house that tourists in recent years had taken arm and leg bones as souvenirs and now the remains on display are locked in cages. As the guide book said: “unbalanced tourists” - not quite the diplomatic words I’d have used, have they no soul?
The grisly nature of the caves aside, the mountain contained the most amazing cavern with stalactites which is home to hundreds of thousands of bats. Nicky and I spent some quiet moments there away from the unsettling capitalism that although probably necessary to a families livelihood, somehow tainted our visit. In the peace of the cavern we took some time to try and let the enormity of the Khumer Rouge genocide sink in. I have a feeling there will be many more moments like this as we continue to explore this beautiful, tragic and uplifting spirit of Cambodia…
