Myanmar and Dubai

Were now safely in Dubai. In our £80 a night 2 bedroomed. 2 bathroom, living room kitchen serviced apartment. It's a mad place here- why live in the desert in air conditioned bubbles. Is that what civilised society aspires too?

So Myanmar?

We both enjoyed it - from a travel snob viewpoint it was great to go when the country has just opened up to tourism and you get to see the 21st century view of the blank canvas.

On the positive side there is huge potential here not just for tourism . The country is large and has all of the ingredients - mountains, rivers, beaches and culture. The people are as ever very friendly and not at all angry about the repressed state they have been living in. And the road infrastructure is pretty good and should allow better travel then in the neighbours of Laos and Cambodia. The hotels are also pretty good although there are nowhere near enough of them. Ang and I kept thinking of the backpackers we saw queuing at the embassy for visas and wondered what on earth they would do here , as there is certainly no 'scene' here.

Three things for my memories that need improving.

Firstly Burmese food is poor- it's supposed to be a Thai Chinese blend but its not. It's very bland uninteresing food with little flavour. All of the group were glad to leave it behind. Menus are the same from place to place , not that there are many restaurants, and everything does taste the same.

The main cultural references are all temples and stuphas . Bit boring after a while. And you do wander around getting annoyed with the amount of money people spend and donate to the temples, the sheer amount of gold they donate and plaster on the ubiquitous statues of Budha. goodness knows how many huge reclining buddhas we saw but too many! they should spend the money on their drains and infrastructure and developing a rubbish collection system.

The poor dogs. Most animals in Burma have a purpose and are well looked after. Huge numbers of chickens, pigs, cows etc all attached to families. They generally look happy and well fed - even if their purpose is clearly defined as being food. But the poor old dogs are everywhere . Pretty much 95% of them all look well fed and they do usually belong to a family and pick up food as everyone is eating and living on the streets. But they obviously don't see vets so they have flees and are not sterilised so they are permanently in pup and the population is way too high. There needs to be less of them. However they do seem very happy and good natured and are well treated by the people. They wander around when you are eating at restaurants but I never saw a single dog pinch food from a table or a market stall - they are extremely good natured and wait for it to be put on the floor. And the interbreeding has created a single Asian mongrel dog wherever you go. Poor things.

Dubai

Back on Thursday, just eating and golfing in Dubai to go.

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Myanmar Photos

Here in Dubai on Monday with normal wifi

A typical kitchen in the local villages. Not a lot of kitchen surfaces to work off and very smokey. Many of the kitchens we saw were separate from the main house or in lean toos on the side

Three photos from Inley Lake. The first is the traditional fishermen. They do dress like this and fish like this - not just for the tourists. Note the giy on the left with the paddle through his leg. The second shows them beating the water to drive fish into their nets.

And the third shows the rows of veggies - these are rows and rows of tomatoes.

 

 

A view from the roof top of the Mandalay hotel over the Irawaddy.

Another Inley Lake shot showing its Venetian qualities

The Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon with its 60 tons of gold - all laid via gold leaf!

And finally from Myanmar this is....

A public phone box. Mobile phones do exist for a few but only on the glove rent network but for most this is it. Our guide said this was how he used to organise the trip , can you imagine how hard that was.

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Hill Tribes and Yangon

We left Inlay at 9:30 am on Monday. This was our first start after 8 am since we started the trip . We had a 1 hour bus trip to Heho airport. It was a small domestic airport and it fitted the description of small. Flying domestic in Myanmar is a bit different its like getting on a taxi, you can carry fluids on board and your bags get carried from the bus to the aircraft by the same porters. It all seems very haphazard but we had 6 flights in all and the bags all stuck together and were delivered quickly.

The flight to Tai Chilik took a couple of hours as we went via another airport to pick up some other passengers - like a taxi. We arrived around 3 in the afternoon to a much more stringent area. We were heading into the former Golden Triangle where Opium used to be heavily grown. The area only opened to tourism 3 years ago and we went through 3 or 4 immigration checkpoints on the 4 hour drive to Kyaing Tong. We needed permission to pass through and had to have a return stamp.

We were staying in a basic guesthouse in town - it was not too bad , clean and a great shower. The main purpose of the 2 days was to trek and visit the various hill tribe villages. In this area village life is pretty medieval and hasn't changed much in centuries. The villagers belong to different tribes and retain their own customs. We all felt as a group that the tribes were doomed - satellite tv had already hit and mobile phones too. Smartphones are on their way to Myanmar soon and you can already see the influence on the village youth.

Tribal villagers in their day to day costumes. One annoying thing was their pushy sales techniques , they were all selling the same tat and kept on popping up throughout the walk

A typical hillside village - the blue building is a Catholic Church as this village was Christian

 

The hill trekking was lovely. It was great to get out and about but it was a long way to go to see. I think it would have been better to do more trekking in Kalaw .

Thursday (10th) we made the journey to Yangon. This involved the same 4 hour drive to Tai Chilik through the checkpoints and then a 4 hour flight - we had to go via 2 other airports stopping on the plane every time so 11 hour day to get back to Yangon.

Friday we went sightseeing around Yangon. We went to see the Lady's house and to visit her political office. The Lady is Ang San Suu Chi but the Burmese call her the Lady. Our guide explained to us that prior to her release from house arrest the Burmese were banned from saying her name - so she called The Lady. We also visited the Shwedagon pagoda which is the most reverred in Myanmar. More gold - lots of it. The main stupha has 60 tons of gilding on it. And this guy belong to a religious order who believe they should pray by staring directly at the sun and praying- mad as a box of frogs!

On and as you've guessed I can load photos again!

 

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Kalaw and Inle Lake

It's now Tuesday 8th. Still no Internet so this will no doubt be late published . So since last Thursday I've succumbed to the first brief bout of s&d - after 8 weeks its not too bad. It brought me down on Sunday afternoon so I had to rest at the hotel for the afternoon and miss the wine tasting trip. Yes they are starting wine production here - climate is pretty good and initial wine verdict from Ang is promising.

Thursday 3rd. We had a long day driving from Mandalay to Kalaw. It's about 180 miles up into the hills. Kalaw is an old British hill town perched in the hills which is pretty enough- but not on the level of the Indian ones. That's something you realise when you travel around , every country has its offerings in each category but you can become a bit blasé with your reviews. So here the Bagan temples were good but not in the Angkor category. The stuphas and monasteries are lovely but I'd always go for Ely cathedral yet Inle Lake (more later) is fabulous and top of its category.

Friday 4th. Being in the hills gave us the chance to walk up to a local village for a few hours. It's the first decent walk we've had and was lovely. Kalaw itself is around 4,800ft up so this village was perched above it. On the way up you could see it was a fertile rich place with plenty of crops. Lots and lots of orange trees, avocados , pumpkins, tomatoes - everywhere. When we got to the village it was evidently quite rich as many of the houses were being rebuilt in brick. Whenever you visit Asian villages you get filled with the community feeling as they all seem to be working together rather than working on their own land. And they are delighted to see you offering cups of tea , which you take a calculated guess as to how clean the water is.

The hotel in Kalaw flattered in appearance. From the outside it was like an English country house but the rooms were a bit tiny and badly designed.

And just above the hotel was a military training camp with its own 9 hole golf course. The army is quite keen on golf so there are a number around - not very good from what I've seen but ... It also shows how much things have changed here in that I can wander around a military camp with no questions asked.

Saturday 5th. We took the 2 hour drive to Inle Lake, which is a 20km lake perched 3,000ft up supporting a wide range of communities. We went onto the Lake in 4 separate boats - it's tourist Mecca here so there were tens close to hundreds of similar boats all making the same trek. You drive for around 30 minutes to get onto the Lake and then pick your tourist activity

• The fishermen who paddle using their leg wrapped around the paddle. Apparently it's easier to steer and fish like this PLUS they can better se where they are going
• The many villages around the lake with their specific skills, weaving, silk making , boat building. Great opportunity to people watch and contemplate your place in the world.
• Dine at the restaurants in the villages. They had wonderful views of the lake and the canals running off it - almost Venetian
• Paddle through the floating gardens. The lake isn't very deep in many area only 4 feet or so in the dry season. The local villagers use the mud and algae from the bottom mixed with floating grasses to float gardens on the lake. Onto this 'soil' they have crops of tomatoes, marrows, beans . And not just 1 or 2 plants - it's commercial gardening on a grand scale. Hopefully will post some photos.

Sunday 6th.

Back onto the lake for more tourism and a stupha visit. S&d just hit me at this point so it went downhill for me. But once I was sitting in the boat I could take in the sights ok.

Ang went wine tasting in the afternoon. She said it was wine tasting and not drinking as it was only a sip of each. But the views over the lake were lovely and some of the wines show promise - keep an eye out in Tesco!

 

Monday was another travelling day - but that's the next post

Friday update - now in Yangon with wifi but my camera adapter is now 'not supported' so no photos -boohoo!

 

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Mandalay part 2

The afternoons pony trek visited a local island across the Irwawaddy. The island has few cars but 100 or so pony carts each owned by the families on the island and for £5 you get a trip around to visit the local sites - read temples, stuphas....

But the real fascination is always to see the local life .in many areas here you get plagued by street sellers. These are usually the young women who try to sell you hats t-shirts bracelets paintings you name it. And there are WAY too many of them for the number of tourists so once they get the sniff of blood they hunt you down.

We got approached by the girl in the photos below when we landed on the island trying to sell us bracelets. She was pleasant but persistent. Phrases such as ' lucky money' 'how much you pay' ' you come back' ' I remember you' . Anyway we smiled and said no thank you. She then preceded to cycle after us around on her bike. Ang felt sorry fo her so we gave her 1500 Kkyets - £1.25 rather than the 3,000 she wanted for the bracelet. AND we didn't take the bracelet as we didn't want it. It didn't make her happy.

They can be a real pain but they do it because they REALLY need the money for food and shelter so it's hard to be to hard faced.

It's now Thursday 3rd 6:50 am and we are now off to Kalaw 2 days, Lake Inle 2 days and hill tribes for 3 days so not much chance of any blogs as we expect no Internet.

Happy New Year from me and Ang!

 

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Mandalay

So NewYears Eve came and went. The BBC reported that Burma joined in the international celebrations for the first time. It was the first time they has open air public celebrations here for 50 years and it was live on Tv. Our NYE was spent in the sky bar of our hotel which had a lovely view if the Ayawaddy river (Irrawaddy in English). But having the schedule we did we were off and out the next day at 8am so no revelling by any of us!

New Years Days early morning excitement included

• A drive up Mandalay hill to survey the surroundings and visit the hilltop temple. Amazed to report it. Was gaudy and golden! It was the scene of a a WWII battle where the allies had to retake the hill to gain control of the local area.
• A trip to see the worlds biggest book at a temple. It wasn't a big book merely 728 inscribed stone slabs each in its own mini temple.
• An afternoon cruise down the Irawaddy to visit an ancient town. The ancient town was a bit 'same same ' with more stuphas and temples . But the cruise was excellent. Lovely top deck views in comfy seats. Nice cold drinks on the way back and watching the people live their lives. The picture is above as we now have slow Internet again. Mandalay seems to have more power cuts than anywhere else so at 6am I'm being woken up by clicking power outages

New years Day evening meal was a trip to a local restaurant . I haven't really commented on the food here as there's not a lot to say really. There are very few restaurants to visit - here in Mandalay with 1 million people there are only 10 or so that we could go to. Lots of local street cafes but as George our guide says ' not recommended'. The food is pain and healthy - lots of vegetables and fish - but uninspiring so nothing to blog home about . Ang isn't doing a cooking course!

 

January 2nds highlights included a visit to an old 1.2km teak bridge and a pony cart ride around an island.

 

The bridge was a lovely experience . The bridge itself was rickety and a health and safety nightmare but there was so much life going on around that I could have stayed there for hours. Lots of local fishermen farmers, rice growing, children, duck farming and cafes to watch the world go by. But no time for us as the next temple beckoned!

 

Anyway I can't get photos loaded so ill post this and quickly try a smaller post

 

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The road to Mandalay

We left Bagan early Saturday for the 2 hour boat trip up the Irawaddy river. As soon as we got off the bus Ang acquired new friends. These kids grabbed her arms and wanted to walk with her. I think they have never seen a blonde pale skin before.

We got on the boat for a very pleasant journey up river in the blazing sun! Amazing we had to keep reminding ourselves it was December 30th. As we pulled in to the jetty the female porters were ready to unload the boat - below. One lady crouched on the bank was still doing her washing and didn't move much when we docked. Mind you the river was very muddy if not a bit dirty too. But if its the best you've got.

It's quite poor here as its not very good for agriculture and it doesn't rain much. The road infrastructure is still pretty good but it doesn't mean much if you're poor.

We went to visit a local village to see how they made incense sticks . It was a dusty place with around 600 houses - pretty much all bamboo or wood. The kids were fascinated by western visitors and followed you round holding your hand. We were lucky that there was a novication ceremony about to take place. This is the ceremony when 6 or 7 young boys join the monastery for a short or long period. It's a big deal to the parents and all the village. The parents of the novices feed the village in a feast. We came across the ladies of the village who were sifting the rice for the feast. As you can see a real community event.

After that we drove another few hours, boat across the river then onto the back of a truck to visit some sandstone caves to see more Buddha statues. I wasn't too impressed as there was too much litter and it looked a bit sham olio . And then back in the dark to our hotel.

Up at 6:30 for the drive to Mandalay only stopping to see some temples and these 2 large Buddhas on the hillside. Honestly they have Buddha OCD - you have never seen so many statues. One temple today had 550,000 Buddha statues in it! How many is enough?

So now here in Mandalay for New Years Eve.

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Bagan

It's now Monday 31st and we've arrived in Mandalay. Back to the Internet . We've had more non stop days since last Friday. We arrived in Bagan the site if the thousand temples. Bagan is the number one tourist destination in Myanmar . It's certainly the most tourist favoured destination we've seen with plenty of hotels and restaurants catering for softy westerners

Friday night we went to the top of one of the temples to watch the sunset over the plain. Really amazing to see so many temples. There are over3,000 temples spread out over a 20 sq km area. We asked our guide why so many in such an area. Burmese people believe the greatest thing they can do in life is to build a temple - that's one reason. Secondly there were many kings living in this area from 9th to 16th century and they needed to build lots of temples to ' make merit' , to outdo the earlier kings and to atone for earlier sins. So judging by the number like lots of kings they killed a lot of people!

Oh and we also got to see a lovely moon rise

Saturday morning we visited 3 or 4 of the biggest temples. Many of the temples are small and solid but a few are larger with inner rooms with large Buddhas and painted murals which are very beautiful. But after 10 or so it becomes a bit much. So we left Saturday lunch to visit a lacquer factory and for Ang to get some new friends!

 

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Some photos

This is the missing photo from Christmas Day. Obviously a batch of Royal Mail pink elastic bands in production.

And below that a day to day taxi wandering around the countryside. This one isn't too full as there is further room up top. The suspension is reinforced to take the weight - even with all those people on board it's not bottomed out yet,

A typical stupha. They all seem to be covered in gold. Some government official must have the gold paint rights

These are the lorries we used to get up to the golden rock. The ride was an Alton towers deluxe ride - hang on to your hats

The Golden Rock above with a viewing platform just below it. And below a SMALL section of the crowd looking on. Most of these people were there for the night.

 

 

 

 

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Wednesday to Saturday - Bagan and more

We have 1990s Internet here. A page takes 30 seconds or so to load and getting photos on is not possible. So I think I'll save them and post them in Dubai.

After a different Christmas Day we set off back towards Yangon on the bus. The bus was a 40 sweater which had been recycled from another country I.e. old. We were heading to the Golden Rock - a famous Buddhist shrine. So the journey involved a 3 hour bus journey to the base of a hill. We then jumped in the back of tipper lorries - the kind which deliver 20 tonne loads of sand. There are 50 or so of these lorries with basic benches fitted in lines across the back. When full of Burmese there are 50 people jammed in the back of the lorry for the ride up the hill . We had our own truck - bit of an experience. It's a pretty steep hill, with bends and hairpins and they race up the hill with you hanging on for your life. No real elf'n'safety . Having survived this its another 45 minute walk to the top up a flipping steep road.

 

Our hotel was perched on the top with lovely views - or so everyone else told us! The hotel was full and we got the worst room ever - it was small , smelly , no view, the bed was rubbish , sheets smelled mouldy - easily the worst hotel room of the trip! So spoiled the experience somewhat and we had little sleep too...

 

The golden rock is just that - a rock perched precariously on the top of a mountain which is gold. It's gold because thousands of pilgrims come up the mountain to cover it with gold leaf. And all around it is a scene from Buddha does Disneyland , hundreds of people set up camp for the night paying respects and all of the paraphernalia that goes with it . Again too loud and garish for me but brilliant to watch the people.

Thursday back down the mountain in reverse and another long drive to Yangon stopping to visit some stuphas and temples on the way. Then up at 3:45 ,(yes 3:45) to leave the hotel at 4:30 for our 6:15 flight to Bagan where we are now. We're staying at the 'Amazing Bagan Resort' which is lovely. We've been out to see the temples over the last few days of which more later but have managed to catch up on sleep and washing which is great. We leave tomorrow for a boat journey on the Irrawaddy on the 'road to Mandalay' - this and the Bagan temples will be the next blog

 

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Christmas Day 2012

Only my second Christmas away from home and a memorable one - for the experience of seeing what these are made into:

 

Sadly blogger won't load photos in Myanmar - the Internet is painfully slow

 

 

Oh and I'm writing this on Friday 28th having just arrived in Bagan where we finally have wifi!!

Were now with our group of 16. We have 2 from NZ. 1 from the US and 13 English. A nice bunch of people but pretty homogenous. On these trips you tend to get sucked onto a roller coaster of tourism . Everyday breakfast at 7am, out at 8am onto a bus and away. It's a full day - back in at 6pm out again at 7:30 for a meal which takes ages as we are a) a big group and b) the Burmese are new to restaurants so food gets delayed, misserved and then the bills need sorting. So no real chance to rest or post blogs.

Anyway back to Christmas Day. We travelled south to Mawlamyine an old capital of Burma ( how many old capitals do countries have? I suppose London, Winchester, then other cities were capitals of various strains of England )

Christmas Day up early then onto a boat across and down the. River onto Bilyugin island - 32kms across so not really small then. We then got into the back of pickup trucks on benches and bumpily drove through the island to visit some homes and villages making a variety of things. Pipes - made using a wooden lathes and a variety of hand turning tools, walking sticks using the same lathes, bamboo hats made using bamboo leaves . That was interesting enough before rubber bands. The picture above is of rubber bands in the middle of the manufacturing process. The various coloured sheaves above are wrapped around a wooden pole - a bit like a coloured condom I suppose. They are then put out to dry, slipped of the pole and sliced into rubber bands. Amazing. There are thousands if the things bagged for export - a real cottage industry. And different farms / families make different thicknesses, colours or whatever. I suppose you think of them being made in some horrible sweatshop. And although its not fun or richly rewarding work it's not to bad outside in the sun, at home on the farm with your family isn't the worst thing in life.

Anyway 3 hours later then back on the truck 1 hour, then the boat 1 hour and up to the Khyaikthanian pagoda , built in 875AD, which overlooks the town and is a good place to watch the sunset. Our first site of Burmese pagodas and not that keen on them. They are big brash and loud. Burmese love gold paint and gilding and big statues which takes some getting used to. Apparently Kipling wrote his ' road to Mandalay' poem here.

So not a bad day with no real Christmassy things on the agenda.

Another thing which strikes you when you come to Asia is the dependence on the big rivers which flow through. They are hugely impressive and huge- 1 mile or so wide in places - and bringing water, food, transport and goods all in 1 go. I'm sure cars and lorries will take over one day for greater prosperity but not necessarily to improve the sense of community the rivers bring. It's a brilliant people watching experience to watch the world drift by on the river.

Anyway I'm going to try to post this blog with 1 photo to see if it will upload , as its really slow Internet, then i will try to post some other photos later.

 

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Thoughts on Myanmar

We arrived here on Sunday 23rd and its Christmas Day today. We've now travelled with our group down to Mawlamine 180 miles south of Yangon.

So for my own benefit here's what we've seen

Phones don't work. There is only 1 cellphone network which is owned by the government so 'foreign' mobiles don't work. So we can't make any calls without buying a new phone.

The Internet works but slowly and only some sites. No western news sites work or it seems anything with any news content. Some travel sites work, wiki sites work but I haven't yet worked out what does or doesn't. Update as you can see by the late posting of this the blogger site isn't easy to upload too. We've had limited Internet access

Men almost all wear sarongs - very few wear trousers.

They drive in the right in Myanmar - opposite to UK . However most cars are right hand drive so its a really strange way to drive. That's because most cars are second hand imports from Japan and Korea . The lorries and buses tend to be Chinese so steering wheel on the left. Very strange. It's beginning to change as the Chinese influence grows and cars begin to import from there.

Arriving at the airport in Yangon was a scene of clean , modern calm - with blokes in dresses . The taxi to the centre and our hotel was a scene of cleanliness and calm. Two and three lane roads, manicured parks and gardens, no litter and NO TUK TUKS AND MOTORBIKES. Which was strange. Our guide George has explained to us that motorbikes aren't allowed in Yangon, neither are cycles. So cars only- and as I've said cars are second hand only. The price of these has dropped from $50,000 to $25,000 as the government drops restrictions on imports - actually they license people to import cars ( the suspicion within Myanmar is that the people who get licensed are the government members who get rich from this)!! Out in the country scooters and bikes are more widespread - these cost $400 to buy. It shows the power of a socialist government when they can suppress the people to such an extent to limit there ability to travel, trade and prosper

The consequence of this is lots of pick up tuck buses driving around completely overcrowded - people hanging off the back and on the roof!

We've stayed in 2 hotels so far and their good quality hotels are pretty average, as you would expect. The tourist infrastructure will take time to build up , hotels , guesthouses, reasonable restaurants don't exist so eating out is a challenge with limited choice.

Another noticeable difference is the lack of trading. In most other countries in Asia people are trading everywhere on the streets. Markets are everywhere , people set up little shops in their house fronts and sell sell sell. It's not the case here. I guess due to regulation. So the streets are quieter (still dark as limited street lighting) . But the ability to pop out and get some water, a beer , get your washing done isn't yet in place.

Myanmar is richer than Cambodia and Laos. The road infrastructure is much much better than those countries. In Yangon and the surrounding areas the roads are pretty good. Out in the country the houses look the same as other places with high dependence on farming and plenty of bamboo houses but it looks more organised and less cramped

 

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Onwards - Myanmar

Ang asked me to point out that the last sentence on the last post should read ' But my advice is do NOT come to Sihanoukville .....'

So that's nearly 6 weeks done and the self-organised bit of the holiday nearly over.

Tomorrow (Saturday 22nd) we leave Sihanoukville on the 8am bus for Phnom Penh. It's a 3-5 hour journey dependant on traffic. We're then off to the hotel we stayed in to pick up our Buddha- we've bought an 8kg wooden Buddha. So repack the bags at the hotel and off to the airport. We are flying with Air Asia which is RyanAir for Asia so we've had to purchase extra baggage allowance.

Then off to the airport for the flight to Don Muang airport Bangkok. Taxi around Bangkok to our hotel. Then up at 6am for the 5 minute taxi to Suvarnabhumi airport and of to Yangon (Rangoon) where we meet our group at 1pm Sunday.

Internet is a bit iffy in Myanmar so blog postings may be a bit random so apologies.

And of course , from me and Ang, a Happy Christmas to everyone. Hope it's what you all want.

 

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Sihanoukville - 18 to 22 December

Sihanoukville or Kompong Som as the locals call it is a comparatively new beach town. It is home to Cambodias only deep water port - hence the reason for its creation in 1950. It had reasoable investment up to the early 70s and then the civil war and Khmer Rouge put paid to it. its suppoably on the way back now as a destination beach resort.

In the guidebook it says '. With its stunning white sand beaches and azure waters' the local guidebook describes our local Victory beach as ' a fantastic small clean beach with just half a dozen bars offering beach snacks- various developments in the area make definitely a place to visit' . Really? REALLY?

If you are the kind of person who likes Benidorm ' go to Benidorm as its miles better than this'. If you are the kind of person whose skin crawls at the thought of Benidorm , this place would make you ill. Sadly it's bit of a dump without any quaint areas, or litter free areas and sprawls over 3 or 4 miles of murky , smelly litter strewn coastline. Do you get the impression I don't like it?

Independent monument. I'm sure it looked nice once. But it's now tired, unkempt and dirty.

A view from 'our hill' down towards 2 of the 'beaches' and downtown. It shows how sprawling the town is.

However, we came here for a 3 day rest prior to 3 weeks on the go in Myanmar. After a long 11 hour bus journey on Tuesday arriving at 11pm we arrived at Pagoda Rocks resort which sits on the hill overlooking town. It's out of the way and really lovely. Given what I've said about SK we are glad to be out of the way. We've got a bungalow - 1 of 15 - with plenty of space and our own balcony.

The hotel also has a lovely pool, nice restaurants and nice staff. A lovely place to unwind and relax for 3 days. And as you can see by my postings I've had plenty of time to get things up to date.

So if you do find yourselves in Sihanoukville it's worth staying here. But my advice is - do come to Sihanoukville . If you want tropical beaches on the Gulf of Thailand go to Thailand!

 

 

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Ta Phrom - Preah Khan and others.

On Monday 17 we went back to do the long circuit of inner temples. The long circuit was the name given by French archaeologists to a 17 km circuit taking in the next inner ring of temples.

So we visited Prasat Kravan, Banteay Kdai, Srah Sang, Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, Preah Neak Pean, Preah Khan and back to Angkor Wat. I've only listed them all so I can refer back later and add the names to the photos!

II can't jot all my thoughts down - each temple was brilliant to see. Pre Rup was impressive for its size and the majestic lions ( we've both a photo if this) . Srah Sang was a huge reservoir ornately finished in stone.

But I though I'd make some notes on Ta Phrom ( visited last week) and Preah Khan. Ta Phrom is the more famous - mainly because of the trees growing from the roofs making for good photos. It also featured in the Angelina Jolie tombraider films sexing it up a bit. And it's undergone some restoration ( currently with money from France and India).

Ta Phrom was another Budhist temple built by Jayavarman VII - he of Angkor Thom fame. The French explorers who found this place nicknamed it 'jungle Wat' and have deliberately tried to maintain it as close to the state they found it. So the temples have been preserved and reinforced with the trees remaining on top

One of the famous shots of the crocodile tree. You can see the roped off areas as behind the camera it was closed off with a big crane re-assembling and preserving another structure

Another Japanese tourist poses for the photo. You can see below that although the temple is open to visit there are still plenty of building blocks to put back together.

Preah Khan is not so famous but IMO is at least as impressive. Again built by Jayavarman VII it served as a temporary capital city and housed 1,000 religious teachers. It was originally a Buddhist temple and later was vandalised by Hindu rulers. Many temples were. The Hindu vandals went around chipping the heads off the carved Buddhas !

Preah Khan is spread over 2 sq miles with a 2 mile long wall surrounding it. It is currently undergoing restoration by the world monument fund (WMF) with many personal donations by wealthy Americans .

As an idea of how much work has to be done. The 2 mile wall has 72 garudas ( carving of a large mythical bird) holding Nagas (serpents). You can sponsor the restoration of one of these for $25,000 . And that's just the wall!!

The WMF is restoring the temple and as such is removing the trees that are in the way. The photo below shows a severed tree rot which will be removed. And you can see the HUGE numbers of bricks which require a jigsaw reassembly.

One reason it is so important is the detail of the carvings in and around the temples. Above is a section of bas reliefs of the Hall of the Dancers (Apsaras) . Above this you can see some small domed areas that used to have Buddhas which were chipped away by Hindu vandals

And on this photo you can see more bricks requiring putting back together. And zoom on the photo to see the intricate carvings which are everywhere. I took lots of wide shots. My travelling colleague and slave takes the close ups!!

Siem Reap. We've now been twice and will come again. It's absolutely fantastic. As the years pass Angkor is gradually being developed and improved. So even 5 years later Ang and I enjoyed the temples as much as last time. And the hospitality industry is improving so you don't have to worry about staying in a hovel and eating rice all day ( if you ever did) . A huge range of all kinds of hotels await from $10 guest houses to $500 suites. And western cuisine abounds including the ubiquitous coffee shops. If you are of a far flung travelling bent you must visit here!

 

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