We had a very early morning flight so we had to get up around 4:30am to check out. The hotel had a bagged breakfast ready for us. All of us somehow made it downstairs on time to get our breakfast bags and board the bus to get to the airport. As early as we left the traffic was still pretty heavy considering how early it was. At the airport we got our bags together and said goodbye to Trun our local guide. We proceeded to check in and go to our gate to wait for our flight. We were flying to Siem Reap Cambodia to visit several of their well known temples. Siem Reap is the capital of the region known by the same name, Siem Reap. It is located in northwestern Cambodia and is a popular resort area. It's location makes it the perfect starting point to visit the many temples in the Angkor region. Once we arrived we had to get our travel Visa's for Cambodia. That was handled by Ray and our new local guide, Sopay. This process for everyone in our group took about 45 minutes. Once we were all officially welcomed to Cambodia we headed to a restaurant for lunch. Siem Reap being a small town was a real contrast to Ho Chi Minh city we just left. We saw some similar sights on our drive from the airport that we saw in Vietnam. The basket man The man above is the one to see for baskets of any size. He was driving what was called a "Tuk-Tuk". We saw them all over Siem Reap. They were used as taxi's, cargo carriers as above and other interesting uses. The basic Tuk-Tuk As you see from the photo above the Tuk-Tuk is a motor scooter connected to a cart or wagon depending on what it was being used for. This one is set up as a taxi. We saw many street vendors in front of shops like these And of course local produce along the road Another thing we noticed is that all of the animals we saw were very skinny. That includes cows, water buffalos, dogs and chickens. This cow we saw walking in a parking lot, a little thin in the skin I'd say After a very nice lunch we headed to see the Banteay Srei Temple before going to our hotel. We passed several interesting hotels on the way including this happy one. The Smiling Hotel, a very happy place to stay The Banteay Srei temple opened in the 10th century and was dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. It is made mostly of Red Sandstone which can be easily carved like wood. Throughout the temple are elaborate and beautiful decorative carvings. In the 11th century Banteay Srei was expanded and also rededicated to the Buddha god Siva. The temple was re-discovered in the early 20th century and was renovated in the 1930's using a process called anastylosis. This is an reconstruction technique where a ruined monument or building is renovated using the original building material as much as possible. An example of the decorative wall carvings A closeup of some of the beautiful wall carvings A doorway with elaborate carvings at the top It was larger than I first thought but much smaller than what was to come tomorrow Ah the happy couple visiting the temple Just incredible carvings After we finished and walked back to the bus we noticed a number of children kicking a ball to each other. As we got closer to them we noticed the ball was actually a sandal. They were so poor they didn't even have a ball to play with. Our guide told us that the children go to school for only about 3 hours a day. They have to do some kind of work to help their family out. There were quite a few of them trying to sell us guide books both at the entrance to the temple and the exit. It seemed quite obvious to us that the people in Siem Reap were poorer than what we saw in Vietnam. Our guide Sopay told us about their standard of living and it was lower than what we were told in Vietnam. We left and headed to our hotel the Sofitel Angkor Siem Reap. As we arrived we noticed a group of young people in traditional dress ready to welcome us with a dance. A traditional dance to welcome us to the hotel As our tour manager was getting us checked in we were led into a bar for a welcome drink. After our drink we were given our room keys and we went to drop off our stuff. We decided to relax at the hotels pool. It was very refreshing and relaxing spending about an hour there before changing for dinner. A covered but open walkway from the lobby area to our room The grounds were beautiful A walkway over the water led to this nice open lounge area The dinner was a huge buffet held on the hotels outside terrace. It was a veritable smorgasbord of all kinds of grilled meats, vegetables, noodles, oh yes sticky noodles, exotic salads and of course several very yummy desserts. One of the food stations at our dinner After dinner there was a traditional Cambodian dance show put on for us. The dance show lasted about an hour. After it was over we returned to our room for the night. We have a full day tomorrow visiting several temples so we wanted to get plenty of rest. Next time we Visit to Angkor Wat.
0 Comments
|