@travellingwiththeateam

This morning’s alarm call was at 4.30am in readiness to get to Angkor Wat in the early hours to watch the sun rising over the temple.

Watching the first morning light catch the temple outline is a wonderful sight and one we felt very fortunate to experience.

By 7.15am we were leaving the temple via the Eastgate and headed to the jungle covered Ta Prohm, made famous by the movie Tomb Raider with Laura Croft, aka Angelina Jolie!

Entering the ‘tomb raider’ temple site was more of a jungle experience, as we walked along paths crossing huge vines growing overhead.

Coming upon the temple we were struck by the giant strangler fig trees growing out of the roof of the building. Nature has interwoven itself to such a degree, that were these old trees to be removed most likely the buildings would collapse.

Looking at the trees roots, they are like tentacles that spread over the surface of the temple walls engulfing the structure. Had we been told they were left over props from the Hollywood movie we would have quite believed it!

So much of the temple is in ruins, however preservation work has been undertaken in the last 30yrs in an effort to try to piece together the ancient ruins. It’s a delicate balance and one we believe they have managed, with only parts of the site repaired with the rest left to slowly decay gracefully.

Mighty century old trees sit amongst the temple structure creating a twisted beauty that will stay long in the memory.

As we twisted and turned around the remaining buildings, it was as if we were exploring the site for the first time not knowing what we would come across as we entered another room or opening. Truly a great experience.

This evening is our last in Cambodia, and for some the last one of the whole trip, so it was only right we went out for a few drinks to celebrate.

After a drink with the whole travel group, a few of us headed to Pub Street in the centre of Siem Reap for a bite to eat and cocktails.

After a few cocktails at a Cambodian restaurant, we went to a bar called GOD, another of Shaun’s finds where we were treated to some more drag queens working their magic. A fun way to finish our stay and to say goodbye to some of the friends we have made over the last month.

Tomorrow we have a 10hr bus journey back across the border to Thailand and on to Bangkok. Suspect we will be sleeping a good majority of the time. Hopefully there will be a few familiar faces to greet us when we arrive back at our hotel, as a couple of the guys are flying the route and will be there a few hours before us. Until then.

Today was always going to be special and so it proved. We have both been looking forward to seeing the world famous Angkor Wat as part of this tour and it was definitely worth the wait.

It’s a glorious place, comprising the grandeur and harmony of fabulous architecture and definitely lives up to the hype.

It truly is a lost city in the middle of the Cambodian jungle.

Its scale is hard to comprehend being almost 9sq km.

The ‘lost city’ comprises various temple sites, Angkor Wat being the most famous, established in the 12th century then comprising of over 1 million people, which at that time represented c. 0.1% of the world’s population.

The Hindu/Buddhist temple is the largest religious structure in the world and as you walk into the grounds it has a celestial feel despite the years of neglect and its most recent 20th century restoration.

In truth my words won’t do the place justice, so instead I will let the pictures do the work instead.

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After 3hrs touring around Angkor Wat we moved on to one of the lesser known temple sites, Bayon which has seen more deterioration as a result of his original building design and structure. Its stand out feature was its 4 sided heads that used to sit on every tower looking out in all directions. Today only a few of the weathered faces remain, but of those that do it’s still a reminder of the wonderful skill and design of the Khmer empire sculptures and artists.

After a busy morning, we had a short break at local restaurant looking out across one of the moats around Bayon and we relaxed with a cool lager from our friends at Cambodian beer.

Having seen the splendour of Cambodians past, our afternoon visit to a floating town on Lake Tonie Sap showed us the other side of the country and its struggles with poverty and poor hygiene.

Sadly due to limited rainfall the river’s water level was very low and this magnified the struggles the local people have with limited recycling, meaning much of their waste making its way back into the river. This meant for great mounds of plastic bottles washing up on the banks.

Our river cruise wasn’t quite what we expected and served to highlight the country’s struggles with balancing tourism demands against the people’s basic wants and needs.

Once back at the hotel, we had a relaxing late afternoon and made a visit to a local bakery for coffee and cakes. We’re pleased to report that both were excellent and a pleasant reminder of some of the ‘home comforts’ we miss.

We had a pleasant dinner with Shaun, our fellow Brit traveller at a nearby Cambodian restaurant, before retiring to bed at 10am in readiness for a 4.30am start tomorrow and a return visit to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise.

Another early morning start, with a 7.15am departure on a cycling food tour around Battambang.

Due to the heat and the distance on the bike, Michelle decided to take the more sedate and relaxing option of following behind on a tuk-tuk with a couple of the other girls.

Andy was in his element and pleased to be back in cycling mode and with Rapha tagged water bottles!

Our first stop on the food tour was a visit to a local family who have been making rice paper for the last 3 generations. Andy got to ‘help’ by placing a couple of the rice papers on the bamboo stand to dry in the sunshine. It’s hot work and a long day for the family who start each day at 3.30am.

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Next stop was a visit to a family who make dried banana and mango fruit & crackers. This was one of our favourites, as the mango was so chewy and delicious.

The lady cut the bananas into slices on a board and interweaves them before drying them in the sunshine ready to be sold at the local market.

Cambodia is a real foodie paradise, especially for fruits with over 11 different varieties of bananas alone. All have a slight different sweetness and taste.

The smorgasbord of bananas and mango dried fruit & crackers was delight for the tastebuds and is so healthy and filling.

After saying our thanks and goodbyes, Michelle then re-boarded the Tuk-Tuk and we departed to the next place, a rice wine business a short distance up the street.

The rice wine is seen as being more medicinal in Cambodia and is served to all the family, to help with fatigue and tiredness after a days work or to a mother after childbirth or even a small child to help with sleep or illness.

The wine came in three varieties, original and the most potent is spiced at 40% proof, followed by the fruit flavoured with bananas and pineapple at 25%, and lastly the snake infused which supposedly helps men vitality & stamina in the bedroom (!), and is 35% proof. All were potent, especially at 10am in the morning….

Our guide explaining the process of filtrating the rice to make the wine. A process that from start to finish takes just 5 weeks.

The cycle ride took us out of the city to the country areas where we got the opportunity to see how people live and work. All seemed happy and contented despite the challenges of earning a living in a country where the costs of living are rising by the day.

We made two further stops to try bamboo sticky rice, sold to the locals as a snack for breakfast or lunch, which is cooked early in the morning within a bamboo stick and sold as a meal you can open and eat whenever you like during the day. It proved to be a firm favourite for Andy who ate all of his coconut infused rice before getting back on his bike.

We also got the chance to try coconut water along with pineapple and mango at a local’s house. Having just been picked and then been chilled before serving it was so refreshing.

Our last stop was at a local Buddhist temple where we were greeted by some unusual objects erected by the monks to show the people what might happen if you sin this life! They make for interesting viewing and proved to be very symbolic and amusing.

Next to the ‘hell zone’ was an area for the kids, with dinosaurs and animals, this one we recognised from our time in Oz…

Before leaving the temple grounds, we managed to get a group photo of us and one of the local monks.

We had a fun morning and after the exercise we returned to the hotel for a last dip in the pool, before changing and getting back on the bus for a 3hr drive on to the infamous Siem Reap where we will be staying for the next 3 nights as we get the chance to explore the beautiful jungle Angkor.

After arriving in Siem Reap, we had some at the hotel pool before heading out for dinner.

The centre was a lot more touristy and included an ominous strip called Pub Street.

We found a bar selling Tomb-raider cocktails and local Cambodian beers and got settled to avoid a rain storm.

Next stop was dinner at a funky Cambodian restaurant where the food was of Michelin standards.

With dinner polished off it was time to find a bar and Shaun’s contacts paid off again, leading us to a drag queen bar, certainly he was v happy we visited…!!!

Tomorrow is the highlight of the tour with a visit to Angkor Wat and surrounding temples.

We woke early today and left Phnom Penh and took a private coach to the city of Battambang. The journey was 6hrs and on the way we stopped at a local potter in Kampong Chhang to learn about the craft of pottery making at local workshops.

The potter created pots without a wheel and with her own hands.

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Michelle got in on the act and shaped the pot, before we both got the opportunity to leave our names as evidence of our creativity!

The potter was a lovely smiley lady, who showed us her national dress and also how to balance the water pots on her head.

In order to get in on the act, Michelle was able to get dressed in a sarong and headdress and balanced one of the pots on her head.

Shaun, one of our English compatriots on the tour picked up the water carrier and then performed his best ballet holds standing on one leg!

Post some R&R on the coach, we arrived mid-afternoon in Battambang and the joy of a hotel pool.

This afternoon we took full advantage of the hotel’s pool and sun lounger and relaxed in the sunshine. After a beer at the Classy (real name of hotel!) rooftop bar we headed out by tuk-tuk for dinner at a local homestay.

Battambang is the second city of Cambodia, but feels a long way from Phnom Penh, with a much more local country feel. It’s a pretty riverside town with French colonial architecture and relaxed & friendly Khmer people.

At the homestay dinner we were treated to an array of great Cambodian delicacies including fried eggplant with a spicy dip, before moving on to a light curried chicken bbq with sticky rice and noodles, before finishing with mango and pineapples. The host, a local lady and her family were so friendly and welcoming introducing us to their three young children who were dressed in pyjamas ready for bed as soon as we left around 9pm.

Tomorrow we are up early again for a morning cycle trip around Battambang on a food tour.

Today we confronted Cambodia’s tragic past with a guided tour of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S21), a former school converted by the Khmer Rouge to a torture centre.

It’s estimated that over 20,000 people were held and tortured here.

The discipline of the security – ‘don’t try to hide the facts by making excuses…don’t pretend to be ignorant…answer the questions immediately….when getting lashes or electrification do not scream or cry out….do nothing sit still and await the orders….if you didn’t follow these rules then the punishment was 10 lashes or 5 electric shocks!! Barbaric beyond belief.

Out of the 20,000 who passed through the torture camp, only 7 survived and they are shown in the picture above. The rest were killed or tortured, then sent on to the killing fields. Across Cambodia there were over 375 killing fields where the bodies of over 1.5m murdered people, equating to 1 in 4 of the total of the then population. People were arrested for being skilled, intellectual or even for just wearing glasses! Pol Pot the leader of the Khmer Rouge believed that everyone should be equal and live off the land. His extreme views and latter on his paranoia led to him having family, friends and comrades killed as he believed they were spies for the CIA or KGB.

The rest of the rooms housed images of those people who passed through S21 and either died from their torture or left to be sent to the killing fields to be murdered. The images were terribly upsetting, but we are glad to have seen and gained a better understanding of the pain and suffering the victims of Pol Pot experienced. It’s a sobering lesson that all should see and thus avoid future atrocities such as those going on in the Ukraine and Palestine at present. The suffering is not worth it.

We were incredibly fortunate to meet in person one of the few people to survive their stay at S21. Chum Mey is now 94yrs old and only survived as a result of being able to work and fix a typewriter that meant he was kept alive. He escaped the Killing Field’s only down to the fact the invading Thai army came face to face with Khmer Rouge as he was on his way to be executed.

It was wonderful to hear his story and we bought his book that charts his life, notably the loss of his wife and 4 children as well as his brothers and sisters to the genocide of that time.

We both felt quite emotional after leaving the museum and this continued when we arrived at the ‘killing field’ of Choeung Ek where Pol Pot’s young soldiers, often no older than 16yr carried out his orders to kill the prisoners. As this was being done without the knowledge of the locals, they weren’t able to use guns to kill their victims and instead they were stabbed, suffocated or mutilated before their bodies were covered in a poisonous liquid that brought on death and helped to reduce the smell of rotting bodies.

The mass graves covered a 2 hectare area and included up to 450 bodies at a time. These were often shallow and over the years the remains will come to the surface during the rainy season. As we walked around you could see small human bones poking out of the ground along with their old clothes.

Walking around understanding the atrocities that were committed, there were echoes of what the Nazis did to the Jews during WWII. The scale of the killings and the brutality they inflicted is staggering and almost beyond comprehension.

This tree is testament to the twisted and unfathomable way the Khmer Rouge dealt with the killing of young babies and their mothers. The mothers were forced to watch as the babies were held by their feet and the heads banged against the tree until death. After that the mothers were raped then had their necks slit and they were pushed into a shallow grave. It’s difficult to put into words how this happened and why.

This has been one of the most hard hitting days of our travels to date, experiencing what the people of Cambodian went through over a 4yr period from 1975. It’s shocking, but the people have accepted their past and are keen to look to the future, but without forgetting their recent history.

After the seriousness of what we’ve seen and heard about today, we decided to have a more relaxed and fun night just the two of us. We took a tuk-tuk down to the riverfront and by chance came across the funeral procession for a high ranking monk whose body has been lying in state for the last 100 days.

The road was closed and there were hundreds of monks and dignitaries in attendance.

Part of the celebrations took the monks down to a boat on the Mekong River and they headed out surrounded with flowers and gifts to be dispatched into the water.

Tonight we decided to have a break from Cambodian food and treated ourselves to a pizza in a roof top bar.

The adjoining table to us were celebrating a birthday and kindly donated one of their cakes, so we finished with a sponge cake dessert.

Tomorrow we move on again, with a 7hr coach journey to Cambodian’s second largest city, Battambang, where further adventures await!

Today we travelled by public bus across the border, through rural Vietnam and Cambodia and onto Phnom Penh, the capital city.

The city sits on the junction of the Mekong and Tonie Sap rivers and boasts fine French- inspired architecture.

After checking into our hotel, we went on a Tuk-Tuk tour around the city, visiting Psar Thmei, the largest central market in the SE Asian region.

The market was designed by a French architect and is an art-deco style. The flowers and fresh fish & meat were an available in abundance and on a scale we haven’t seen since we left Bangkok.

Some of the fish that was on sale, was still swimming around in the buckets and we watched as they the fish were scooped up into plastic bags when sold.

Some more fruit….

Locals eating ‘tapas’ bbq’ed in front of them.

Savoury pancakes and deep fried rice balls.

More bbq’ed fish and veggie – smelt fantastic and was just 1 dollar a skewer.

After the cooked food, we came across a bevy of traditional designed cigarettes in every make and colour. Felt like going back in time to the early 2000’s prior to the smoking ban in the UK.

After the walk around the market, we went past a small Buddhist shrine and then jumped back on the Tuk Tuk and went to the main central square to view the small hill and Royal Palace.

After a couple of hours seeing the sights, and having had an early lunch, we were keen for food and decided to head to a restaurant close to the river and check out the views.

The centre of the city was buzzing with locals playing sports – Badminton seems to be very popular and there were several makeshift courts along the main boulevard drawing in a crowd. Alongside this were kids playing football with a bamboo styled ball – Andy was keen to hang around and get a game, but relented when we got close to our restaurant for this evening.

Before reaching the restaurant we passed a monument for the deceased former King, who died back in 2012 after a long and eventful reign which involved his connections to the Khmer Rouge and the deaths of over 2m Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. More of that tomorrow.

After a filling dinner, we headed around the corner and found a roof top bar for some extra curriculum cocktails and beers as we looked down on the city and river from 6 storeys up. After a fun time with some of our travel group we headed back again via Tuk-Tuk in ready for a busy and thought provoking day tomorrow.

We will be visiting the genocide museum followed by the Killing Fields of Choeung Ekon where up to 9,000 skulls sit within a stupa marking the execution ground for the torture victims of Tuol Sleng.

Today was a spare day outside of our wider tour of Vietnam, so we decided to take an independent trip to see the Cu Chi tunnels.

The Ben Duoc tunnel was a base of the Regional Party Committee of Saigon, where the Viet Cong and the guerrilla militia lived and fought in the war against the Americans. It’s a unique architecture with a system of tunnels deep in the ground, used for accommodation, meetings and fighting. The tunnel system highlighted the resilience of the Viet Cong along with their intelligence as a symbol of revolutionary heroism against the American army.

The ingenuity of the Viet Cong in fighting the Americans on their terms and using surprise as a key weapon is astounding. Throughout the tunnel system were small man holes where they could appear to pop up out of nowhere. We each got the chance to hide in the small tight holes, which have in fact been enlarged by up to 30cm in width to accommodate the larger wider Western tourists.

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The tunnels linked various villages and homes, with differing routes, often zig zagged to avoid discovery. As a result two or three Viet Cong would spring out and surprise American soldiers, then disappear again like ghosts.

The Viet Cong would communicate to each other using gun fire, and would remain disguised throughout battle so no one could recognise them and betray them to the Americans. They even wore back to front shoes, giving the impression that their footprints were going in the opposite direction to cause more confusion and send the Americans going the wrong way when searching.

More man traps causing death or at best serious injury/maiming. These long sharp spikes were shaped to impact arms, legs and the torso.

After viewing the Viet Cong traps, we were then introduced to the confronting noise of the firing range, where we were given the opportunity to fire some serious guns. This proved to be incredibly loud and mental to watch. Boys with their toys springs to mind!

We then got the opportunity to crawl through a section of the tunnels. It was so claustrophobic and hot down there, not a pleasant environment even for a few minutes, never mind the many hours the Viet Cong must have spent in all weathers and conditions.

As we walked back through the jungle it was interesting to see the diversity of the plants and trees, all of which have re-established themselves after the area was flattened by heavy bombing, napalm gases and flame throwers as well as Agent Orange spray.

The area covered by the tunnel network extends to over 250km, most of which is still in existence but with limited access.

On our way to Saigon we stopped at a local factory where disabled locals work on the production of wooden etched laminated artworks.

The quality of the art was very impressive and of a high quality. Sadly due to our ongoing travels we weren’t in a position to buy.

Once back in Saigon we went to visit one of the monuments to Ho Chi Minh.

With all that walking and culture, a coffee and dessert were much needed. We found a great place Miyama, selling strong coffee with cheesecake.

After purchasing some traditional Vietnamese fold up cards, we headed to the old post office to get local stamps and send them back to family at home, the old fashioned way.

Next door to our hotel, is a shop selling accessories for cats and dogs, as well as the real thing too. We got to hold & play with some of the prized animals who were oddly dressed in clothes and a nappy.

At 6pm tonight we had our meet and greet for the Cambodian section of our tour. We have three new members, all female, two from the US and one for London. It’s good to have some fresh faces and we are looking forward to get to know them over the next week before we return to Thailand.

Tonight’s dinner was at Home Saigon, where we both had the best local food we’ve experienced since arriving in the city. A good way to finish our stay, as tomorrow we head to the border with Cambodia and say goodbye to Vietnam. We’ve loved our brief stay in this fine country and look forward to returning in the near future.

Another early morning start, with a 2.5hr drive down to the Mekong Delta and a boat trip around the islands.

We boarded a private boat to Ben Tre to visit the coconut gardens and stop at a local home to sample tropical fruits and coconut jams.

We then took a tuk-tuk tour around the villages and learnt about rural life and the industry created around coconut products like brooms and coconut fibre mats.

Next we visited a bee farm to try a few of the products they make from honey, including honey tea and also royal jelly.

After another short trip on the boat taking in the views of the Mekong, we went to try the local wine, infused with snake, a lethal combination if there ever was one!

To help with the fermentation process, the cobra can be left in the bottle for up to 5yrs.

The tuk-tuk tour took us through the main section of the island on our way to our dinner stop, in the heart of the delta. We (others!) sampled regional specialties including the famous elephant ear fish.

After dinner, we cruised down one of the inlets in a kayak rowed by one of the locals. Sadly the rain had arrived and we had to put on rain macs for the first time in a long while.

After an enjoyable few hours we boarded the boat one final time and were treated to coconut water, before returning to dry land.

After a fun time back on the Mekong, we returned to Saigon. After a quick shower and change we got together for our final night out on the Vietnam part of the tour, when we said goodbye to Ian, Christina and Dave who were each heading home.

Once the meal was over, as it was a Friday night we decided to go and explore the famous bar & restaurant street, called Bui Vien, where the party was already in full swing.

Wow, what an overload, bright lights, music pumping, podium dancers everywhere and people harassing you to come in each bar. Not seen anything like this for a very long time.

Whilst it was exciting at first, it had a seedy element with young girls hanging in front of the bars, clearly offering more than just company!

It took us about 15mins to ‘fight’ our way along the stretch of large bars before we eventually came up for air and were able to escape the chaos.

Another side to the city of Saigon nevertheless.

Tomorrow we have arranged a private trip to go north of the city to Cu Chi tunnels, used by the Vietnam Cong during the 21yr war with the Americans.

Very early morning start, with an alarm call at 5.30am in readiness for our flight at 8am down to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon.

Before leaving Hoi An, we managed to grab a final photo in front of the paddy fields in front of the hotel. Despite being just 6am, it was already feeling hot (32c) so we were pleased to be getting jumping in to an air-conditioned coach.

Saigon as the locals still call it, is Vietnam’s capital of commerce and culture. After landing we did a sightseeing tour of the city, passing the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Opera House.

Our first stop was the War Remnants Museum to discover some of the sobering stories of the 20yr long Vietnam/American War.

Vietnam became an experimental place for inventions from US military engineers. Their purpose was to use human to test their inventions for later use in other battle fields.

Sobering statistics from the Vietnam conflict – loss of life & bombing numbers.

The pictures and stories of the events of the Vietnam war paint a very sad picture of humankind. Not sure how I’d feel to view this as an America – it highlights the cruelty they imposed with no just cause.

After departing the museum, there was a feeling we should see another side to our Saigon experience, with a walk down book alley, one of the few places where motorcycles cycles are banned.

After our visit to book alley, we walked past Notre Dame Cathedral Saigon, which sadly is under repair and covered in scaffolding.

Opposite is the main city post office, built by a French architect in the 1880’s who was also connected with the construction of the Eiffel Tower.

After a busy morning, we had developed a hunger so lunch was our next priority.

Lunchtime affair, Pho and Saigon lager, a winning combination.

With the afternoon to ourselves we decided to visit the Reunification Palace, the home for the pre-1975 Vietnamese government prior to the introduction of Communism.

We then took a tour of the palace with the help of an audio talking us through the history of the building and the events leading up to 1975.

On tour duty, headphones readied and stepping into the 15k and above.

After the culture trip, we took it down a notch and made for an upmarket coffee shop for a caffeine kick before continuing on to ‘walking street’ Nguyen Hue before moving on to Bui Vien walking street where the bars and restaurants can be found.

After a brief bit of retail gazing in one of the covered markets, we ended the night with a visit to a street food market near our hotel. Had a fun time and ate some great Indian curry along with a couple of Saigon beers.

Our last stop, the street food market. Good way to finish a busy and thought provoking day. Looking forward to our visit to the Mekong Delta tomorrow and another day on the waters

Andy was back on his early morning run routine, with a 10k jaunt around the nearby paddy fields.

After a relaxing breakfast, we headed back into the picturesque town of Hoi An for some souvenir shopping and more exploring.

We spent the morning wandering around the back streets of Hoi An and taking in the beautiful temples, shops and cafes, before heading to the river to find a suitable stopping point for a coffee and some contemplation/rest!

The Vietnamese have nailed strong coffee and do it so well. We spent an enjoyable hour in a restaurant called the Green Mango, part coffee shop and part ‘husband day care centre’!

Early afternoon we returned back to our hotel, via buggy for some much needed R&R by the pool.

After lulling by the pool and taking advantage of the happy hour(s) at the pool bar, we returned to the town centre for dinner and to catch the lanterns one final time before we leave tomorrow for Ho Chi Minh City.

Today’s rest day was much needed and we are looking forward to getting back on the travel trail in Ho Chi Minh City and seeing what the city has to offer.