Days 15-17: Kep and Surrounds

Kep - Fri 31/12

We are now down on the south west coast of Cambodia at Kep. We're losing track of the days here ... but we think this is day 17.

Thanks again for your comments Wendy ! Don't believe everything you read on the blog ... some stories take on a life of their own ... and yes, the girls have not forgotten returning to training, but perhaps they are dreading that just a touch.

But back to a couple of days ago ... after our last shopaholic day in Phnom Penh, an early rise the next morning for the bus trip to Kep. Back in a mini bus for this trip, so just on our own and we were able to decide when to stop - and only 3 hours for this journey on much better roads that up north. Any road in Cambodia in a continual string of little towns and villages along the way - the photos hopefully capture samples of the sights along the way.

Kep is a fascinating place - check the map, but is right near the southern point of Cambodia on the gulf of Thailand, very close to the Vietnamese border. Not sure of all the history, but during the time of French colinisation this was the "French riviera" of Cambodia.

Kep was apparently another victim of the Khmer Rouge, as scattered along the foreshore are the skeletons of what were clearly magificent French homes a number of decades ago. Only the concrete walls of some homes remain, while others only have the foundations left. The walls that still stand are pock marked by gun fire, and the ones in the best condition are now occupied by new Cambodian squatters.

Scattered among the ruined houses are some that have been restored (mainly by government agencies), plus new tourist resorts that are slowly emerging. Where ever there are tourists, there are always locals as well trying to sell something - but you can already see that not too far down the track this area will be a "new mecca" for rich tourists prepared to fork out big bucks to stay in ritzy seaside hotels.

As for the seaside itself - the shoreline is very pleasant, with sub tropical forests extending right down to the seaside. As for the beaches ... as with many countries, what the locals consider a nice beach is woeful compared to our Aussie beaches - usually just a narrow strip of coarse sand or sometimes just rocks

This morning (Friday) we drove to Angkul beach (secret beach) to see supposedly what is the best beach around. Unfortunately, one of the major problems of modern Cambodia has completely spoiled this beach as well. The big problem with translating traditional village life to a modern context is that they just do not know how to deal with rubbish.

In traditional villages where all things were biodegradable, there was probably not a problem. But throw in modern materials, particularly plastic, and most villages are littered with rubbish and junk just lying around everywhere. There is no concept of rubbish collection and keeping a village tidy. Anything and everything is just discarded and lies around on the ground.

Angkul beach was no exception - one end of of the beach had a village, with all the fishing boats tied up at the shore - the combination of what the fishermen discarded from their catch, plus all the garbage blowing into the water from the village just made the place very unpleasant.

You will see a couple of nice looking pics in the photos - amazing what the camera can hide, these are a bit further down the beach where it looks a lot better - but from what was just behind the camera, no one felt the desire to swim.

This sort of encapsulates the ongoing problems of Cambodia - how to you blend the traditional village life with modern materials and practices without making a complete mess ? Both economically and of your environment ...

On that note, it's hot and time for a swim - in the nice clean resort pool.

Day 15: Culinary Aventures

Phnom Penh: Wednesday 29/12

As previously blogged, tonight we returned to "Friends", one of our favourite restaurants so far ... and especially favourite for the yummy desserts they produce, desserts not being a part of the standard Cambodian diet.

Apparently it is important for the world to know that Loz consumed four desserts on her own ... would you believe it, four desserts ?!

Perhaps that explains the sort of dazed and very full look in the pic ?

And also, Jaymee was attacked by an insect ... several times ...

But she survived ...

Day 14: Cambodian History - Palace and Museum

Phnom Penh - Tuesday 28/12

After a tough day yesterday at Cheoung Ek and S21 learning about the short but destructive reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the late 1970s, a much more cultured day today.

First, we visited the Royal Palace, set very close to the Mekong River in central Phnom Penh. This is where the King is in residence when "in town". The original Palace was built in 1434, but the royal family later moved to another part of Cambodia. It was then rebuilt on the same site in 1866 and stands to the present day.

The Palace is set in a very large complex with many ornate buildings and immaculately manicured gardens - as one would expect in a Royal Palace.

The photographers went nuts on the lovely views that allowed combinations of the gardens and beautiful buildings. Others that were not so appreciative of the opportunity for creative photography wondered how on earth anything that simple could take so long.

Ah, the generation gap ...

On the way out of the Palace there is the opportunity for a Cambodian music lesson - an elderly man conducts a three piece orchestra - he organises two people on the drums and merimbula (or Cambodian equivalents), then accompanies himself to form a three piece band. It is amazing to hear quite a reasonable sound after a 30 second lesson ! You can check the pics for who gave it a go.

After the Royal Palace, our second stop on our culture tour was the National Museum - this is quite a small museum but contains many artifacts retrieved and preserved from around the temples of Cambodia. Many of these artifacts were buried by villagers during the time of the Khmer Rouge to prevent them being destroyed and have now been returned to the museum for an important record of Cambodia's history.

There are artifacts dating right back the 9th - 10th century which was the period the earliest temples were built.

After the museum visit we had a short lunch then back to the hotel for an afternoon of R&R - which seems to consist of a short swim in between as much Facebook as possible.

Ah, the generation gap ...

Dinner was planned at another special restaurant called Friends that trains underprivileged local youths in hospitality.

On the way to dinner, we dropped back to the Mekong River waterfront just outside the Royal Palace to see what the sunset was going to be like. The waterfront is bustling with people at dusk as the air has cooled down and this is the most pleasant time to be outside. And we were rewarded with a fabulous sunset behind the main Palace gate - see the pics on that one as well.

Dinner at friends was magnificent - the style is "tapas", so you order a series of small dishes that can be shared between people. The food was a style with traditional Cambodian flavours but with a western style - so sort of modern Cambodian. A little more expensive that traditional local food, but so delicious we have decided to go back for our final night in Phnom Penh before heading to the beach at Kep.

This blog is being posted on Wednesday and we have a free day today to pack and be ready to depart - we have been down to the local markets this morning for the last shopaholic session, then this afternoon is again R&R by the pool (and no doubt more arrrgghhhhhh Facebook).

The new few days at Kep are going to be much quieter - this is the pure "holiday" part of the trip - so there will only be a couple more blogs a few days apart to let you know what we are up to and show some pics of the Kep region.

So keep an eye out, but the next blog will be in 2 - 3 days time.

Day 13: The Atrocities of the Khmer Rouge

Phnom Penh - Monday 27/12

Firstly, the blogger(s) in Cambodia would like to thank Wendy Pearce for her extensive comments and weather reports from home - nice to know someone is reading all the blogs, especially the long ones. In fact, Loz was a bit teary while reading the comment ... she is fine though, don't worry Wendy.

Anyway, enough on that, on to more serious business.

Today was certainly the emotionally tough day for our time in Phom Penh as we visited the two key sites related to the activities of the Khmer Rouge when they defeated the Republican Army and took control of the city in 1975 for the next four years before their eviction by the Vietnamese army.

Firstly we travelled out to the "killing fields", now known as the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre. This is the centre where the Khmer Rouge transported all their prisoners from Phnom Penh by truck during the night and executed them during hours of darkness so people in the surrounding villages would not know. The site was a former Chinese cemetery ... but the Khmer Rouge were killing so many people that they began just digging large holes and throwing bodies in as mass graves. Around 9,000 people were transported and killed at Choeung Ek by the Khmer Rouge.

The site is now dominated by a large Buddhist stupa (memorial tower) that contains 17 levels with glass sides filled with skulls and bones exhumed from the mass graves on the site. There are also smaller memorials around the site marking the important points on the site where buildings formerly stood or significant mass graves were discovered.

While all of the graves have been dug up and the bones placed in the memorial, there are sections of the pathways where bones and clothes are clearly visible in the dirt. There were so many people killed here, the actions of the rain in the wet season will continue to uncover bones and clothing for years to come. It's very eerie and sobering to look down and see human bones poking through the dirt under your feet.

Over 5,000 skulls now rest in the tower - many bodies will remain buried forever around the many graves of the killing fields.

We then returned to central Phnom Penh to visit the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum - this is the former school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a torture centre and was known as "S21" (which was the number of the school when it was a school). When people suspected of being "intellectuals" that the Khmer Rouge were trying to wipe out were first arrested, they were bought to S21 to be interrogated and tortured. When they had "confessed" many people were transported to Choeung Ek to be executed.

The Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records about S21, as evidenced by all the photos that are displayed of the victims, who were individually photographed for records. The records show that over 10,000 Cambodians were held at S21, most of whom were killed.

This museum remains living evidence of the genocidal activities of the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot ... and to this day, only one of the many still living Khmer Rouge leaders has been convicted of any crime.

This part of the history of Cambodia and the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge is a long and complex story - if you are interested, the Wiki entry for the Khmer Rouge is worth a read.

After a pretty emotionally draining day, we returned to our hotel for some R&R before heading our for dinner at a Khmer restaurant. Julie had taken groups to this restaurant before with no problem, but several of us seemed to pick dishes that were just so spicy hot we could not even eat them ! Loz chose what seemed like a particularly innocuous dish of morning glory that absolutely burned your lips off.

We then had a stroll along the Mekong river front where many people like to enjoy the cool evenings. But even that can go wrong as evidenced only a few weeks back at the water festival - we rode in our tuk tuk over the bridge where over 400 people died in a crush when the crowd panicked after the bridge started swaying a little. The bridge is still there and looks just like any other bridge - it's amazing to think that is was packed so full of people that when a few people panicked, so many people were just crushed to death.

So after a tough day today, tomorrow will be more cultural with visits to the Royal Palace and the National Museum.

Ed: Added note - I realised after I added this post that when we think about the killing fields at Choeung Ek and the 9,000 people killed there, this sounds like a lot ... but this is only the tip of the iceberg. The Wiki entry for Khmer Rouge states, "Modern research has located thousands of mass graves from the Khmer Rouge era all over Cambodia, containing an estimated 1.39 million bodies. Various studies estimate the death toll most commonly between 1.4 million and 2.2 million, with perhaps half of those deaths being due to executions, and the rest from starvation and disease."

Days 11-12: Exploring Phnom Penh

Siem Reap to Phnom Penh - Sunday 26/12

Our Christmas Day started early, having to be ready to catch the 8:30 am bus from the bustling Siem Reap bus station down the main highway to Phnom Penh.

After running the gauntlet of hawkers at the bus station, insisting that you needed bananas, bread, a pineapple and other assorted things to eat for the journey, we settled in for the 6 hour trip.

Now, when we say "main highway" ... that's still by Cambodian standards ... most of the road still was two lanes at the most and for the entire journey still carried all forms of Cambodian transport - cars, buses, tuk tuks, bicycles, buffalo carts, farm tractor carts and many vintages of antique truck.

Watching our mini bus driver weave in and out around all these vehicles in Siem Reap was entertaining enough, watching the same thing from the front seats of a 45 seater full size bus was even more amazing. Somehow we did manage to reach Phnom Penh early afternoon with both the bus and all other vehicles unscathed.

After settling in to our new hotel (The Billabong - owned and run by an Australian), we headed out for Christmas shopping. Our tour Kris Kringle was a hoot before we headed out for our special Christmas dinner at a local restaurant called Hagar - this restaurant was setup by a Swiss charity to train and help disadvantaged women have a job in Phnom Penh.

After a hearty Christmas buffet, is was relatively late to bed but we all had a nice sleep in for Boxing Day.

Our first activity for the morning was a "cyclo tour", a one person tuk tuk driven by pedal power where the passenger sits in the front and the driver pedals from the back. This is another organisation helping disadvantaged people, but this time for men. Our cyclo drivers gave us a tour of the sights near our hotel, including the Wat Phnom temple, the Independence monument and the Royal Palace.

After our cyclo ride, we switched back to tuk tuks and visited a couple of the organisations that Julie's school trips have previous worked with. Firstly we visited the rehabilitation centre that Ellen worked on many years ago to help build a playground for the kids - unfortunately this centre now looks very run down and all the hard work done by Templestowe College looks very uncared for. Julie suspects the land in ear marked by the government for another development in the near future.

We also visited the Starfish Foundation, the school centre that this years school group had worked in - this is still very much an active centre, offering Phnom Penh's poorest children the chance at an education - if you helped sell chocolates this year, the money went to the Starfish Foundation to support their work. We just happened to visit on a Sunday so unfortunately school was not in session, but it was great to see the centre.

We had lunch at a very pleasant cafe, associated with Hagar and also supporting disadvantaged women, before the girls hit the shops again at the Russian markets - this is the oldest market is Phnom Penh and a chaotic maze of narrow alleys crammed with stalls ... who knows what really happened in their but the backpacks were bulging once everyone emerged.

Then it was back to the hotel for a cool down swim before the second cheapest dinner of the trip at a local chinese dumping house - we were quite obviously the only white faces in the house (albeit a very small house) as this was definitely not a tourist place to eat.

Tomorrow is a long day as we will continue our learning about the sad part of Cambodia's recent history.

Day 10: Quad Bike Tour and a Fish Massage

Siem Reap - Friday 24/12

Ed: I thought it would take a day or two to catch up on blogs following our trip north, as we tend to go to sleep quite early due to the early morning rises ... however tonight is Christmas Eve and the hotel is running a party until 11 pm ... and right now we are listening to an excrutiatingly bad karaoke like singalong out on the pool deck ... while the girls are not amused as they want to sleep ... the singing from the "band" is so bad it's funny ... absolutely impossible to sleep, so may as well get the blog right up to date !

This morning was another special activity just for our group - quad bike riding !! Another early start at 6:30 am with a short tuk tuk ride to quad bike headquarters, an business setup by a French gentleman. The girls were all given a short "driving test" to make sure they could ride a quad bike - the machines were very simply to ride as they were automatic, so just a throttle and a brake.

A quad bike tour is a fabulous way to get out and see part of Siem Reap that are impossible to access with a bus. To make the tour safe, you are led along back streets and small lanes out into the country side and along country tracks that are only negotiable with a bike of some sort.

We toured in single file along the tracks, passing through many small villages and even more rice paddies and crop fields of various sorts. One of the stand out features of Cambodia is the genuine friendliness of the people - we were warned we might get a sort thumb from operating the throttle of a quad bike, the RSI was more likely in the wrist as every small child along the way wanted to wave to you ... it was just fabulous.

Our tour was four hours long and we moved along at a fair clip, so must have covered something over 75 kilometers during the morning. We stopped at various places along the way for breaks, including a long break in the middle at a special orphanage that the quad bike company has associated itself with.

The Chres Village School and Orphanage is another organisation started by a former soldier to benefit orphans and poor children from surrounding villages near the school who's parents cannot afford any sort of education. The owner of the quad bike company found the school when setting up the routes for his tours and formed a relationship with the orphanage founder.

Stops at the orphanage are a permament feature of the quad bike tours and some of the elder children show you around the explain about the school. This helps them practice their English and also engages visitors into understanding the benefit of education to the children. Many visitors from quad bike tours have subsequently donated money to help the school build new buildings and facilities - one new classroom at the school for a class of about 25 children costs about $1,500 ...

Following the orphanage visit, we continued on around many more narrow tracks, more villages and more rice fields - you can get more idea of the scenery from the photos.

While this was certainly the most expensive activity of this trip by Cambodian standards, we all agreed it was certainly a highlight, both from just having fun riding a quad bike, but also what you saw along the way out in the small villages.

It was quite dusty out around many of the trails - Jaymee definitely won the most grubby prize, having started out in the white t-shirt and finished in one that looked a peculiar share of orange.

After several showers to attempt to remove the orange dust from our bodies, we headed into town for our final dinner in Siem Reap and a wander around the markets.

The girls final piece of fun for the night was to try a "fish massage" - this is a "thing" that has found it's way down to Siem Reap from Thailand. There is a certain species of small fish (who knows what it actually is) that likes to nibble on dead skin - so the hawkers in the markets set up "fish massage" tanks into which you dangle you feet and the fish give you a lovely pedicure ... of sorts ...

For the princely sum of $2, you get to dangle you legs into a fish tank and let the fish nibble at your feet ... Tessa and Ellen R gave up after about 15 minutes saying it tickled to much, followed by Ellen K ! Celeste was in and out but Loz went the distance, although we did not examine the outcome too closely ...

Chris and Julie opted for the more traditional foot massage by hand ... also for the princely sum of $2 for a 30 min foot massage ... pretty ecomonic compared to Australian prices.

And to top the evening off, a few of us indulged in a yummy banana or chocolate crepe from a street side vendor in a traditional food cart - roll out the batter by hand, on to the hot plate with butter, add the flavouring with a touch of condensed milk, expertly rolled into a piece of paper and hey presto, instant tasty dessert for the standard Cambodian charge for many things on the street ... $1.

So as soon as this lousy karaoke finishes ... the attempt at Lady Gaga was especially hilarious ... it's zzzzzz and we are off to the bus station in the morning to travel to Phom Penh.

More blogging in a couple of days ...

Days 8-9: Northern Cambodia and Visit with Aki Ra

Siem Reap - Thursday 23/12

Ed: This is a long blog, but hope it is worth the read ...

The last two days have comprised a long but rewarding trip up to the very north of Cambodia near the Thai border.

This was a very special opportunity for us as a group, as tensions between Cambodia and Thailand have made the border area unsafe for tourists until very recently. Our tour guide (Mr John) assured us that the area was now safe and would allow us to visit a unique temple called Preah Vihear that is perched on a hill right on the border.

 It was a long bus trip north and we learned a lot about the recent tragic history of Cambodia on the way. We visited the site of the Khmer Rouge headquarters for General Tamok, a general to Pol Pot who ultimately was responsible for Pol Pot's arrest. There are still buildings on the site with paintings of temples on the walls done by Khmer Rouge soldiers. General Tamok became well known for his part in Pol Pot's ultimate downfall and we also visited his tomb nearby.


We also visited the site where Pol Pot himself was created following his death ... Mr John said that Pol Pot was so disrespected that when he finally died without facing any charges for his crimes against Cambodia, his body was cremated using old car tyres.

After a long day we arrived at our guest house for the night - this guest house was so new that only the living area was complete, the building for the kitchen and dining room was still under construction. This was real rural Cambodia - despite being brand new, the door to one room was completely askew and there was a large crack between door and jam ... the beds were rock hard ... there as no shower cubicle, just a hose in the bath room to spray yourself with (no hot water of course) ... when we returned from dinner, there was a cow in the middle of the road outside the guest house, refusing to move for any traffic ... it was just a hoot.

After a night with no sleep (rock hard beds), we rose at 5 am for a quick bite and a hour's ride in a four wheel drive up the mountain to Preah Vihear temple - this temple is sure to be a major tourist attraction in the future and a new road is being built up the mountain - however, we travelled on a partly built new road and the old road near the top and even a four wheel drive struggled to get up the steep bits.

The Prah Vihear teample is just spectacular and worth the visit - the whole temple is about 800 meters long and built up the mountain ridge with four sections connected by a paved road. The top section of the temple is perched right on the top of the ridge with spectacular views out over the valley floor - we just made it right to the top for a spectcaular sunrise, see the photos for the evidence !

From the top of the ridge, you can see the Thai flags on buildings just across the valley - so this is literally on the border.

We were very happy to be walking down the hill through such a large temple (not up), yet again marvelling at the amazing structures that were built so long ago - this was another temple built in the ninth century, yet so much of the structure us still intact. It is fascinating to think that so with much conflict especially on the border, the fighting troops appear to have avoided deliberately damaging the temple.

After a visit to Preah Vihear, we returned to the valley floor for the final part of our time in northern Cambodia. In a previous blog, we mentioned our visit to the Land Mine museum where we learned about Aki Ra, a former Khmer Rouge soldier who has now dedicated his life to clearing Cambodia of land mines and had also established the Land Mine museum and orphanage.

Our guide had said that Aki Ra was working in northern Cambodia and he might be able to arrnage for us to meet him ... we weren't quite sure what this meant but our mini bus pulled in a village in the middle of no where and Mr John announced we were "waiting for Aki".

After a 20 minute wait in this small village, a four wheel drive approached and we were amazed to find that Aki Ra himself jumped out to introduce himself. After another short drive, we were all asked to pile into Aki's "truck" and we bounced a kilometers further off into the bush to find ourselves arriving at the area which is the current land mine clearing project Aki is managing.

Aki now works for a newly established organisation called Cambodia Self Help Demining (CSHD), which is a properly established NGO for demining with all modern safety standards so they can received international funding. This has been a big change for Aki who used to work very much as a "loner" and to some extent was not popular for doing his own thing. However, he now realises the benefits of working as an NGO, as CSHD now employs 20 workers on the current project under Aki's expert direction. He hopes to continue to expand CSHD, as he estimates it will take another 10 - 20 years for Cambodia to become completely land mine free.

We were privileged to have Aki give us a personal explanation of his current project to clear an area that the local province wanted to re-estalish and important road and see a demonstration of how the demining was done.

Aki Ra was nominated this year for the 2010 CNN Hero of the Year - he did not win the award, but is now being recognised world wide for his amazing work and contribution to the future of Cambodia and is now seen as a local hero. As we drove back to our bus, Aki revealed to us that we were the first tourists to ever have ever visited the site of an active land mine clearing project.

As a final note to parents from Chris & Julie - we did enter a land mine area, but we can assure you that it was safe to do so. Our tour guide Mr John is very cautious about where he takes his clients and was with us at all times. This was a unique "once in a lifetime" experience for all of us to actually meet Aki Ra at his current land mine project and certainly a visit that we hope the girls will remember for a long time to come.

So after a long and tiring couple of days, we returned to Siem Reap for our final couple of days before heading to Phnom Penh.

Day 6: The Land Mine Museum

Siem Reap - Monday 20/12

After a long day yesterday out on the lake, a much shorter day today with some R&R time in the afternoon to relax by the pool.

We travelled a short distance out of town first thing to visit the Land Mine Museum, a facility set up by a man known as Aki Ra to show the history of land mines and other armaments that have been dropped on Cambodia that continue to cause deaths to this day. The centre also includes a rehabilitation centre for the poorest kids that have been injured themselves or orphaned by land mines.

Aki Ra is a former "boy solider" himself, who was recruited into the Khmer Rouge and then defected to the Vietnamese and then the Cambodian army. After a life in the army, he realised the devastation that so many armies had caused to his country and now dedicates his life to clearing land mines. His personal vision is a Cambodia free of land mines.

Aki Ra has personally cleared tens of thousands of mines and has now set up an organisation that employs a number of people to continue this work. The Land Mine Museum is a sobering experience that reminds us of the many countries that have waged war in Cambodia over many decades. This includes the United States who inflicted massive damage on Cambodia during the Vietnam war but still today have not signed the Ottawa Treaty, an international treaty to ban the use of land mines and other weapons

We believe we may have the very special opportunity to meet Aki Ra when we visit the north of Cambodia in a few days time - this is sort of the local equivalent of meeting Nelson Mandela, so if it happens we will be very privileged.

Following the museum visit, we visited the Banteay Srei temple, one of the oldest temples in Cambodia having been built in 967 AD. This is a very small temple, but is unique as it was constructed mostly from pink sandstone. This not only gives the temple a unique colour, but sandstone is quite soft and easy to carve, it has some of the most intricate carving work of any of the temples we visited (even though it is the oldest).

After our final temple visit, we returned to Siem Reap town for lunch at the Peace Cafe. This cafe was setup by an Australian under the auspices of Fair Trade and is now run by locals. The Peace Cafe is all vegetarian so was very much enjoyed by Ellen R !

The afternoon was for lazing by the pool and we will head out for an early dinner in Pub Street this evening before the girls hit the markets again.

Tomorrow is another R&R day before we head up toward the Thai border, so our next blog will be in a few days time.

Day 5: The Cambodian Countryside

Siem Reap - Sunday 19/12

Today was a special day for the girls as this day is not included in the "normal" Julie tour of Cambodia. It was a chance to get out into the country side and experience a piece of what life is like everyday for Cambodians.

Well off the beaten track, we bounced down a narrow road into a village of about 180 families who are subsistence farmers growing mainly rice. Our guide had organised a ride for us on traditional water buffalo wagons with large wooden wheels and definitely no suspension. Water buffalo are the "workhorse" of Cambodia and they are used to pull wagons and do the ploughing in the rice fields.

The girls took turns driving (with various degrees of success !) and we trundled around the narrow roads and then through the rice paddies where the locals were harvesting some of the crop. We met the local chief of the village who had been kind enough to invite us into the community for a visit.

We jumped back in our van and drove 20 minutes or so to the start of a water canal that appeared just to start in the middle of nowhere. In the dry season this canal is a road, but in the wet season (which we are just at the end of now) the water rises and the road becomes a shallow canal.

We boarded a long boat and journeyed down the canal for some distance before it slowly widened out and we entered a river. Scattered along the river are floating villages, where people have built their houses on floating platforms of reeds. These families move up and down the river during the year and fish the river for their food. It was quite funny to see a platform with a house and then a secondary platform next to the house might have a chicken pen or even a small vegetable garden planted on it. Aid organisations have even built floating schools that are a part of these communities to give the children a basic education.

After passing through a number of villages, the river opened up into an enourmous lake that is Cambodia's largest fresh water lake, Tonle Sap Lake. We cruised into the main lake briefly, then returned to the river mouth for a final surprise.

Nestled on the edge of the river were four small canoes ready to take us into the river edges between the trees and experience the quiet of the shady swamps away from the main river (yes parents, it was all safe - you can see from the photos we all wore life jackets !). We saw a number of small red squirrels and scamper through the tree tops and some black monkeys in the distance that made themselves scarch very quickly. After a very tranquil paddle around the river swamps, we returned to the long boat for the journey back up the river to our starting point.

Our final visit on the way home was to the Siem Reap silk farm - this is genuine end to end production of Cambodian silk. We enjoyed a garden tour to see the mulberry trees specially grown for the silk worms, through the worm hatchery to see the silk worms being grown and spinning their silk cocoons, then through the production stages of harvesting and spinning the silk to make clothes and other items. The entire end to end process happens on the one site and in a few local villages around the farm where the spinners work.

After a quick refreshment stop at the ice cream cafe in the silk farm, we returned to the hotel to freshen up - on the way there was a quick stop at the huge reservoir that supplies water to Sien Reap. Our guide said this was a good place for the girls to buy bracelets from the kids at the small market at the reservoir - once one person bought something, you will see in the photos that the girls were surrounded by kids wanting to sell their bracelets !!

Tonight was our night for a special dinner dance put on at the hotel where we enjoyed dinner and some traditional Khmer dancing ... Ed: perhaps a little additional cultural appreciation required by the girls ... ???

So tomorrow is another day - we head to the Land Mine museum to learn something of the tragic past of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime.

p.s. If it is not clear - you can view a small selection of photos from each day by clicking on one of the pictures on the left - this will launch you into a slide show of that days pics .. as you would expect, there are hundreds each day to choose from, so this is just a quick selection for the blog ...

Day 4: Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Siem Reap - Saturday 18/12

The first shock to the system this morning as we had to be up at 5 am for the trip out to the famous temple of Angkor Wat for the sunrise.

Dawn emerges slowly out of the darkness over the towers of the temple - we'll let the photos speak for themselves on that one.

The next two hours were spent exploring the vast reaches of this massive temple - Angkor Wat is the largest Hindu temple in Cambodia, built in the 12th century. You climb to three different levels of the temple, with the highest level being the five towers - one in each corner and the largest central tower being the centre of the shrine. The top level is the most holy of the temple, and we were fortunate that visitors were allowed up the final steep climb to the highest level on the day of our visit.

Angkor Wat is simply spectacular in it's scale and the endless corridors of carvings that were all done by hand by 1000 artists over many years as the temple was built. There are also some sections where the bas reliefs on the walls were just never finished - something interrupted life at Angkor Wat just before every final detail of the temple was completed.

After the spectacular views of the grounds from the top of the temple, we descended (slowly !) and moved on to visit Bayon temple.
Bayon temple is much smaller, but well known for it's sculptures of the "four Buddhas" that adorn each of the four faces of each tower in the temple. There are nearly 300 faces of Buddha around the temple. This is a compact temple, but with much narrower corridors and walk ways ... by the time we got here all the other "soft" tourists who had gone home for breakfast were back, so it was quite crowded.

After a very early morning, back to the hotel for nanna naps and lunch ... the plan for this evening is to visit the night markets for ... SHOPPING !! We expect six girls to go nuts in the myriad of staffs and hawkers in the markets ... and we'll try and squeeze in dinner.

More to come in the next few days !

Days 1-3: Sien Reap and the temples of Angkor

Siem Reap - Friday 17/12

Well, firstly apologies for the delay in posting an entry to let everyone know how we are going - it's been a hectic first couple of days and by the evening we tend to collapse into bed rather than update blogs !

The trip up was uneventful for the girls and Chris - everything went to schedule and we met up with Julie at Siem Reap airport on Thursday morning. We spent the afternoon settling, with an orientation walk around the town and then a nice long swim in the hotel pool, followed by dinner at the Red Piano ... this was the restaurant that Angelina Jolie reportedly enjoyed while filming Tomb Raider in Sien Reap.

After collapsing into bed, we were up bright and early for our first full day. First up was the buddhist temple of Angkor Thom, built over 40 years starting in 1180 AD. The first thing that strikes you about these amazing temples is that they were built nearly a thousand years ago, yet so much of the structures are still standing.

Our highlight at Angkor Thom was an elephant ride from the gate into the main temple - most of the temples have huge grounds and are surrounded by moats to protect them. The walk from the gate to the temple is often 500 meters or more, so the ride was much appreciated ! And the elephants enjoyed their reward at the end of the ride of a feed of bananas from the girls.

As our tour guide Mr John kept reminding us, there are 1080 listed temples in Cambodia - and no doubt many more not listed, so it's hard to describe every one. So we'll just let the photos we upload give everyone an idea of the temple structures ... although the scale of some of these buildings are hard to capture in a photo.

We enjoyed lunch at the Singing Tree, one of the small restaurants in a lane way run by a local co-operative. One of the confronting elements of eating in the lane ways is the stream of hawkers who come past trying to sell things - many of these are kids or men who are land mine victims and have lost legs or arms. One of Julie's "new friends" is Sophan, a 17 year old boy who lost a leg from a land mine while gathering fire wood for his family - he was disowned by his family, but is now sponsored to go to school in the morings. He then spends the afternoon selling books in the streets to earn money to live on. While Sophan's story is tragic (as it is for all land mine victims), they all just get on with life and do the best they can.

Our afternoon visit of the day was to the Ta Prohm temple, which is famous for having some of the key scenes from Tomb Raider filmed at it. The Ta Prohm temple was neglected and unused for a very long time, allowing the forest trees to seed and grow. Some of the trees straddle the temple walls with their long roots reaching down the walls into the ground.

Dinner was early and then crash for the night ...