Showing posts with label Cambodia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cambodia. Show all posts

02 Jun - 05 Jun 2010 Phnom Penh

Kingdom of Cambodia
Street 13 45 cnr. Psar Chas 118
Comfortable twin room for US$ 8.- per night. Friendly Chinese Cambodian staff.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Dara Reang Sey Hotel in Phnom Penh, which we would recommend, and for directions:









Hiring Chang’s remorque-moto, a two-wheeled carriage pulled behind a motor scooter, negotiating the deal of KHR 16,000.- or US$ 4.- for a one-hour sightseeing tour and cruising central Phnom Penh, a load test for our visual, auditory and olfactory senses, between (i) the city's leafy French quartier north of Wat Phnom, (ii) her lively Chinatown which stretches from south of Wat Phnom all the way to the striking Royal Palace, and (iii) her just recently rejuvenated river front on the west bank of the milky and sluggish Tonlé Sap River.


“Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.” 


Discovering several pescetarian and vegetarian highlights of the traditional Khmer cuisine: (i) for breakfast, Khmer noodles aka num banh hok, rice noodles topped with cold fish gravy, flavoured with spicy prahok (fermented, salty and very smelly fish paste) and served with crisp raw veggies including cucumbers, banana flowers, water-lily stems, bean sprouts and fresh herbs, such as basil and mint, (ii) delicious amoc (baked freshwater fish with coconut, lemon grass and chilli in banana leaf), and (iii) grilled eel with tamarind sauce from the Tonlé Sap Lake, all this washed down with draft Angkor Beer (KHR 2,000.- or US$ 0.50 per pint) and the ubiquitous cold black coffee (KHR 1,000.- or US$ 0.25 per glass), both always “on the rocks”.


“As long as there was coffee in the world, how bad could things be?”


Exploring in two-heel drive the tourist sights of Phnom Penh: (i) being dazzled by the 5,000 real-silver (!) floor tiles of the Silver Pagoda, part of the Royal Palace, (ii) checking out the huge dome of Psar Thmei, the Art Deco masterpiece that is Phnom Penh’s central market, and (iii) visiting Wat Phnom, the 14th-century CE Buddhist temple which sits on a 30m-high tree-covered knoll (…and taking a look southwest at the fortress that is the new US embassy and wondering to ourselves how it is that the security-conscious US State Department managed to find the only site in Phnom Penh tactically overshadowed by a hill).


“Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.”


Taking Mekong Tours’ private pick-up van from our hotel in Phnom Penh’s Chinatown to the jetty at Neak Loeung and continuing from here by means of a rugged river boat (US$ 10.- per person, including the pick-up from our hotel) from Neak Loeung on the mighty Mekong River and its scenic side canals to Châu Đốc, a small town in the heart of the Mekong Delta, in Vietnam, thus bidding farewell to the hospitable Kingdom of Cambodia and entering uneventfully the Post-communist Socialist Republic of Capitalist Vietnam through the convenient and well-organised Kaam Samnor-Vinh Xuong border crossing.



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19 May - 21 May 2010 Koh Tonsay
07 May - 13 May 2010 Sihanoukville (Otres Beach)

Click below for a summary of this year's travels 
2010 Map Konni & Matt 

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Konni & Matt Travel Photos


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26 May - 02 Jun 2010 Siem Reap


Kingdom of Cambodia
Spacious, clean and rather cheerful double room, with wifi, for only US$ 7.- per night. Friendly young staff.


Click below for an enhanced aerial view of the Tropical Breeze Guest House in Siem Reap, which we would recommend, and for directions:









Helping our Khmer driver/guide Bunchhoeurn to pay off his debts (his mother-in-law had lent him the total of US$ 1,900.- for a brand-new remorque-moto: US$ 1,200.- for a strong 125-cc Honda Dream motorbike plus US$ 700.- for a locally built, canopied trailer) and hiring his reliable and friendly service for US$ 11.- per day in order to visit the 12th-century CE Temples of Angkor, Cambodia’s eighth wonder of the world and a huge UNESCO World Heritage Site (three-day pass for US$ 40.- per person): (i) exploring the Angkor Wat, the most breathtaking of all the Angkorian monuments and the largest religious structure in the world, and being struck by both its imposing grandeur and its fascinating decorative flourishes and extensive bas-reliefs, (ii) contemplating the serenity and splendour of the Bayon with its 216 coldly smiling, enigmatic faces staring out into the jungle, (iii) gaping in wonder at the well preserved Banteay Srei, a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva which is cut from stone of a pinkish hue and which includes some of the finest stone carvings seen anywhere on earth, (iv) witnessing nature reclaiming the stones of the mysterious ruin of Ta Prohm with its many strangulating root formations, (v) getting lost in the maze of vaulted corridors, fine carvings and lichen-clad stonework of the ultimate fusion-temple Preah Khan which is dedicated to the Hindu trinity of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, as well as the Buddha, and temple-hopping some smaller fry in-between, like (a) the pools of Preah Neak Pean, (b) the Ta Som with its huge tree, completely overwhelming the eastern gopura, (c) the 50m-high and unfinished Ta Keo, (d) the Eastern Mebon with its neatly arranged holes which attached the original plasterwork, and (e) the Banteay Kdei whose four entrances are decorated with big half-man-half-bird garudas; uff!



Getting a bird’s-eye view of Angkor Wat and flying with a tethered helium balloon 200 m up into the blue sky over the temples and rice paddies (US$ 15.- per person for the ride).



Applauding to an outstanding performance of the traditional Khmer nymph dance aka apsara dance, which is famous for the stylised, slow and graceful hand and foot movements of the apsara dancers with their opulent stupalike hard hats, at the Temple Club +85515999909 in Siem Reap.



Laundering our dirty linen for US$ 1.- per kg, washed and dried, with the help of our guest house’s laundry service.

Taking the air-con Paramount Angkor Express bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh (320 km, 6 1/2 hours, US$ 5.- per person), Cambodia’s rough capital, a city of extremes of poverty and excess, of chaos and charm and of malice and friendliness.


2010 Map Konni & Matt


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24 May - 26 May 2010 Battambang

Kingdom of Cambodia
Modern and clean double room with wifi for only US 5.50 per night.
Friendly and professional staff.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Royal Hotel in Battambang, which we would recommend, and for directions:





 




Exploring Battambang’s distinctive early-20th-century CE French architecture, the town's colourful markets and well-maintained Buddhist temples (our favourites: Wat PhiphetaramWat Damrey Sar and Wat Kandal), which survived the Khmer Rouge period relatively unscathed, thanks to a local commander who ignored orders, and meeting quite a number of agents of virtue, often obese, with their characteristic obscene attributes: (i) an expensive, mostly pristine-white 4x4 car with fancy, mostly sky-blue logos attached to both front doors, (ii) a fixed salary with expense allowances which is 5 - 20 times higher than the Cambodian average remuneration, and (iii) the irresistible urge to save the planet smack bang in Battambang by “empowering the disadvantaged youth”, “developing the underprivileged women” and “motivating the local entrepreneurs” (but, according to a Cambodian friend, "...in reality they have only brought to Cambodia two main things, inflation and AIDS...").

  “Oh the sisters of mercy they are not
Departed or gone,
They were waiting for me when I thought
That I just can't go on,
And they brought me their comfort
And later they brought me this song.
Oh I hope you run into them
You who've been traveling so long...”



Teaming up with French fellow traveller Christine, hiring Bat’s chauffeur-driven canopied remorque-moto, paying him US$ 12.- for an extended half-day tour and exploring together the tourist sites in the surroundings of Battambang: (i) Phnom Sampeau, a complex of temples on a fabled limestone outcrop, c. 12 km southwest of Battambang, (ii) Phnom Banan whose five towers are reminiscent of the layout of Angkor Wat, (iii) the Khmer heritage houses in the village Wat Kor, (iv) Cambodia’s only winery, Chan Thai Chhoeng, and (v) the inevitable “bamboo train”, basically a 3m-long timber frame, covered lengthwise with slats made of ultra-light bamboo, that rests on two barbell-like bogies with the aft one connected by fan belt to a small petrol engine.



Taking the wooden Sok Chamroen Express boat (US$ 17.- per foreigner, one way), a floating shack, from Battambang to Siem Reap, the convenient base camp for the assault on Angkor Wat, thus (i) following downriver the scenic Sangker River, a brownish life-support system where villagers brush their teeth, fish for their daily catch and defecate into the river’s not-so-holy water, (ii) getting stuck for hours in the mud shallows of the river mouth (with a crew that had an inverse Midas touch: everything they touched turned to shit), and (iii) crossing finally the Tonlé Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, to the floating village of Chong Khneas and on to the Siem Reap pier in Phnom Krom (about 10 km south of Siem Reap) - altogether a Cambodian odyssey of over 16 hours.



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22 May - 24 May 2010 Kg. Chhnang

Kingdom of Cambodia
Kompong Chhnang
Sokha Guest House +85526988632
Adequate twin room for only KHR 21,000.- or US$ 4.95 per night.
Friendly staff.


Click below for an interactive road map of Sokha's Guest House in Kompong Chhnang, which we would recommend, and for directions:









Exploring the leafy town centre of Kompong Chhnang with its Buddhist Wat Yeay Tep temple and the town's two busy signature markets, (i) the bustling central market aka Psar Leu and (ii) the low-key lower market aka Psar Krom, and having quite a number of pleasant encounters with incredibly open-minded, friendly and curious Khmer people: from true-hearted market women (lekker Khmer rice-noodle soup aka num pachok for only KHR 1,000.- per bowl) to a clever start-up beer importer (ice-cold Vietnamese beer for KHR 2,000.- or US$ -.48 per can) on to gangs of friendly school children who politely wanted to practise their language skills on us.
"Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another. Indeed, he would have found it difficult to tell, among the many places he had lived, precisely where it was he had felt most at home..."

Teaming up with French fellow traveller Christine, chartering together a narrow wooden skiff (US$ 10.- for the 2-hour long tour) and cruising at a leisurely pace the maze of moored rafts and anchored house-boats at two different floating water villages (the ethnic Vietnamese, Buddhist village of Phoum Kandal, and the ethnic Cham, Muslim village of Chong Kos) on the Tonlé Sap River, an aquapolis where everything floats: (i) the dwelling houses with their verandas, (ii) the veggie and fruit vendors, (iii) the primitive workshops, (iv) a fuelling station and (v) even the village mosque is kept from sinking by old boat hulls, plastic barrels and bunches of bamboo.


"All water is holy water."


Taking the air-con Sorya Transport Company bus from Kompong Chhnang to Battambang (c. 210 km, 5 1/4 hours, KHR 20,000.- or US$ 4.70 per person), Cambodia’s second largest city.



Click below for more blog posts about Cambodia
Konni & Matt Travel Photos


Recommended gear - click below for your Amazon order from Canada:
   
For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here 
For Amazon deals from the United States, please click here 
For Amazon deals from the United Kingdom, please click here