Cambodia Nov 2011

Well we finally made it to Cambodia after a two day trip along the Mekong Delta from Vietnam.  Saw floating markets and villages, rice toffee caramel and popcorn factory, and minority village where they were slaughtering a cow for a wedding, YUK!!!  Stayed overnight at the boarder, Chau Doc in a floating hotel and made our way the next day via fast boat and slow boat to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Slow Boat to Cambodia

While staying in Phnom Penh we went to visit the Killing Fields which was very very sad, you try to make sense of it all but is very hard to take in...After this we visited the S21 Prison which was formally a school where the prisoners were held before being transported to the Killing Fields. 

During the first few days of our stay in Phnom Penh there was a huge water festival taking place for locals to celebrate the end of the rainy season...It was really colourful and very busy walking around the streets at night..  Steve also saw the King and he waved at him, and he waved back ha ha!!!

Big Wheel, Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh Palace

After Phnom Penh we headed up north to Kratie staying off at Kompong Cham for 2 nights.  While there we hired push bikes out and cycled some of the Mekong discovery trail on an Island in the middle of the Mekong.  Great to see no vehicles there, and only locals  no tourists apart from us riding our bikes!!! What a difference we really enjoyed it...

Steve showing off again to the locals!!

I'm lost!!

In Kratie we took a "Tuk Tuk" to see the Fresh Water Irrawaddy Dolphins and a great Sunset, the best sunset yet....

Ahh look at him...

Who's there??

Beautiful..

Now it's time to go and see some Temples heading to Siem Reap and Ankor Wat.  Ankor Wat is the heart and soul of Cambodia.  The largest religious structure in the world, it is the Khmer's national symbol, the epicentre of their civilisation and a source of fierce national pride.   Siem Reap nice place to visit, very touristy, think approximately over 2million tourist visit per year, WOW!!!  Many temples to be seen so we booked a 3 day ticket to get round as many as we could fit in without getting too templed out...

Day 1, we hired a Tuk Tuk to go to the furthest away temples starting with the beautiful Pre Rup Temple then moving on to Banteay Srei Temple, after this we made our way to the River of a Thousand Lingas at Kbal Spean which involved a 2km hike up a steep hill.

Pre Rup Temple

 Day 2 we hired push bikes and set off from our hotel at 4.30am to get to Ankor Wat Temple for Sunrise, which was great but could of been better if it had not been a cloudy morning.  Explored the mighty temple while it was still quiet and saw a famous American Basket Ball player but not sure who it was he was having photos taken with people he he!!  Moved on to the walled city of Ankor Thom within which was the fantastic Bayon Temple with many faces.

Ankor Wat

Bayon

Day 3, we again hired a tuk tuk and headed out to the monuments of Roluos which are among the earliest large, permanent temples built by the Khmers.   We only had half a day as we were templed out so ended this with temple kiss x

Bit of Elephant loving

Loving the moves Andrea

End of Temples kiss x x

After all those lovely temples we headed on down to Battambang to have a ride on the Bamboo Train (norry) which is a light bamboo frame powered by a 6HP gasoline engine and runs along warped french era single track line.  When two trains meet the less loaded one is quickly disassembled to let the other one pass while the passengers stand on the side waiting to get back on...

How cool is this!!

Putting the train back together..

Finally we are heading to a beach, Cambodia's premier seaside resort Sihanoukville.  How different this place is to the rest of Cambodia, busy, full of westerners on holidays, travelling and working here.  With Seven beaches to choose from.

Go on give us a smile!

Great sunst with a beer!!

While here it would be rude not to stay on one of the many tropical islands that dot the waters of Sihanoukville.  Some have gorgeous, empty beaches and bungalows to stay in overnight.  We stayed on Koh Rong Island, for 2 nights in Paradise bungalows.  Not quite 5* paradise but they were good value bamboo bungalows, our first taste of living in a bamboo shed with a bed and a 12" Gecko as a room pet...He he!!!!

Paradise Bungalows

Koh Rong Beach