Saturday 29 December 2007

Malaysia - SAMELAN 2007

So, on the 16th of December we arrived from Siam Riep- Cambodia to Kuala Lumpur, and contarary to popular belief there are absolutely no, None, Koala bears here at all, trust me, i looked, all i found was furry looking Singhs, that were more like Grizzlly bears not like the cute fluffy kind found in toy shops.

On first impresions it looked like any other top notch airport, but the visa stamp was the fastest we have ever got, no funny looks, no bribery, nothing. As planned, our lift to the Samelan (sikhi camp) was waiting for us outside, once we got there we were off to Klang on the outskirts of KL and the start to an amazing week.....

Monday 24 December 2007

Cambodia - the sequel

Cambodia - more than the temples of Angkor. More than its violent history of land mines and Khymer Rouge.

Our dear friend Angad Singh (er...that status is still to be verified!) advised Gurcharan to go check out the shooting range! (not quite sure why our dear friend would advise my husband to do that!!) But it was quite an experience!

On out last evening in Cambodia we decided to do a river cruise.

Wish we had another day in Siem Reap - it felt like we still didn't manage to get the full flavour out of the town itself as we were too busy traveling to Angkor. It was quite saturated with tourists though. Seems like the tourist trail starts and stops in Siem Reap.

Exceptional People (Cambodia)



While travling, you come into contact with many people, some nice some not so nice, but occasionally you meet people who go beyond the call of duty and just really look after you.

One such guy was Alan, the owner of Deva Raja Bungalows in Sianoukville, Cambodia. Firstly Cambodia has some fantastic beaches which are still to developed like the beaches in Thailand, so its still quite easy to find your own secluded beach.

Although we only stayed with Alan for two nights, we went to see home for advice almost daily, which he gave without hesitation. while staying at Deva Raja we felt more a part of a small family then staying at a hotel, i think maybe Nigel, Alan's dog had something to do with that!

Alan and his team. The dog, Nigel, was the most adorable thing ever!!!! :o)


So if you find yourself or are thinking about staying in Sihanoukville give Alan a call! check out the website .... http://www.devarajavilla.com/

Through Alan we made contact with Chinda, a Bruce Lee lookalike (when he wears his raybans!) tuk tuk driver in Siem Riep. If you are to visit the Angokor temples you will be visiting them with a tuk tuk driver, through experience it helps if your driver can speak and understand english, we had experiences where the tuk tuk driver can not understand that we want to go to the hotel etc, which can be a little annoying. Chinda on the other hand was very professional, always on time and reasonably priced. In Siem Riep there are a great number of tuk tuk drivers jostling for customers, so we thought it would be right to help Chinda out by letting potential visitors to the Angkor temples have his details.

Chinda with his beast (no, not Gurcharan, I meant his tuk tuk)


Name: Chinda
Based: Siem Riep
Number: +855 (0)12 606 156

He can also collect and drop off to the airport/bus station etc if needed.

Saturday 15 December 2007

Cambodia

A sunset, a fresh coconut drink by the beach with your adorable husband - what more do you need?! :o)





Ankor Wat - we managed to wake up and make it to the temple to witness one of the most beautiful sunrises! (which meant we had to be at the temple by 5.30am!!!)





Its been a while since the last update, but we have been in Cambodia for tha last two weeks. To summerise, Cambodia has been full of suprises, we have seen the hardships the people have faced, seen some stunning natural beauty and seen some of mans greatest accomplishments in the Temples of Angkor.

We started off in the capital city of Pnomh Penh, which i found to be be very clustered and chaoitic, much like any other capital city. Coming from Singapore it was required to readjust to the way of life of people in a far poorer country.

In Pnomh Penh we went and visited the killing fields and Toule Seng, for those of you who dont know, do a quick serach on the Khymer Rouge, which was communist movement which killed over two milllion people between 1975 and 1979. Really messed up and saddening that this happend relatively recently.


We also visited the royal palace and the national museum which was really filled with things from Angkor.

Sionoukville, from the capital city we took a 5 hour bus journey to the coast. We only came down to get a vietnamese visa, but anded up cancelling going to vietnam and staying much longer at the cambodian coast. What a coast it was, there are many beaches, all of which are different. the first beach we went to was Serendipity beach, a cool and busy backpacker beach with many beach front shacks serving food and drink.
Gurcharan lounging around on Serendipidy beach - those seats are soooo comfy!



Madam likes being pampered she does!




She is one of the most insistent hawkers out there! she did so much hard work to get me to buy her beads that she had to sleep on my sun lounge! One minute we're talking the next she's sleeping next to me on the lounge! awwww! so much hard work!





The next day we went Sokha beach, a resort dominated beach for the rich kids, but it was far more quiet and cleaner then serendipity.

on the third we visited the top end of Occheteal beach, which was near enough deserted, maybe only 15 - 20 people on the long white sandy beach which was lapped by calm clear waters. Lovely!

Kampot.

We visited, for a few nights the sleepy town of kampot where you wont even find a cash machine, this nearly put us into a difficult situation! There is not much to do except kick back and relax, which we gladly did. the days consisted of lounging, eating, reading, eating and watching the sunsets through our bedroom window over the river and Bokor mountain.

To break the routine we visited some nearby caves, which was nice, and some little kids claiming they were guides tried to fleece us, but we prevailed, gave them something though as the families are very poor here.

Siam Reap- (which means the defeat of the Siamese - or thai!)

this is the tourist town where you will stay to project you into Angkor. This place is so different to the rest of Cambodia in that is so tourist oreitated, there are so many bars and retaurants, un countable Indian Resturants, internet shops and tour operators. But its quite nice to have these facilities after so long with limited or none of the above!

by the way we got bumped on our hotel booking the night before we arrived, but we managed to get to stay in a one year old hotel, which has a huge room, ac, hot showers and clean for $15 a night and right next to all the major restaurants etc!

Angkor!

There isn't anything to say except WOW! A true master piece of art and architecture which has survivied to this day, and preserved so that people like me and you can go visit and get up close to the exquisit detail which has been crafted in producing these temples.

There isn't much written history but it is known that the temples were made in devotion to the Hindu gods, which was the dominant religion in the region at the time, after the demise of hinduism the temples were still worshipped in by Buddhists, and even to this day Buddists still worship here, which is nice to see.

The hindu religion came to the area due to traders from india coming here to trade in the early days. the locals adopted the religion, traditions and also the art forms. this can be seen in the sculptures and reflief work on the temples.

After 500 years the temples were abanoned to the jungle, this happened after the defeat of the Khmer's to the Thai's. in the early 20th century interest from mainly the french meant that the temples are being restored since.
Some of the temples are well preserved and have been reclaimed from the jungles, but a few have been left, stone entertwined with trees and vegetation make you feel that you are walking in to a lost civilisation.