Wat? Angkor Wat

After escaping the fast paced rat race that was the Four Thousand Islands we headed overland to Siem Reap in western Cambodia.

Siem Reap is a pretty popular tourist destination boasting hotels and an international airport. The reason we were there though was to see the Angkor Temples which were built around the 12th century. The most famous temple is Angkor Wat - it is the largest religious monument in the world.

We were up early and back on push bikes sweating up a farang (white person) storm.


The temples are only 7km out of town so we headed to the main gate and bought 3 day passes ($40 USD each). The Angkor Temples are very large and they are truly amazing.

After the Khmer (Cambodian nationals) empire was dominated by the Thai's the temples fell into disrepair before being "discovered" by a french botanist in the 18th century. The photo below is of us at a temple called Ta Prohm (where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed), a huge tree has sprung up over one of the walls.


Three days at temples is a long time by anybody's standards. We developed a routine where we would explore in the morning before avoiding the heat of the day by hiding inside a temple exploring and listening to our iPods. We tried to do our bit to help put the temples back together but it was hard when the rest of the work crew didn't show up...


With no help forthcoming we decided to take matters into our own hands...


As the day draws to a close alot of the tourists flock to Bakheng Hill which has a good view of some of the other temples, and of the setting sun. In the photo below you can see everyone perched like seagulls.


Random Fact
- The temples are leased by a Vietnamese petroleum baron who happens to be friends with the Cambodian King - thus depriving the impoverished country of the largest sum of tourism revenue.

Highlights:
- Seeing the variety of tourists on display. Everyone from the camera mad Japanese/Chinese/Korean to the older men dressed just like Indiana Jones minus the whip.
- Baiting the hawkers. Where there are tourists there are people trying to sell them things they don't want and don't need. A great game is to pretend you don't understand and generally feign confusion.
- Paying the guards "extra" to let us into the very top of Angkor Wat. It is currently closed to the public as it is being repaired.

Lessons Learned:
- Start the day early and avoid being out and about during the heat of the day. Inside a nice airy stone temple is the way to go.
- iPods help pass the time whilst exploring and if you turn them up loud you can't hear the hawkers.

Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands)

We left Vientiane on an overnight sleeper bus and arrived in Pakxe in Southern Laos the following morning. The bus had been a bit on the expensive side and when we saw it we quickly understood why - anything which claims to be "King of Bus" has to be good.


The minivan to Si Phan Don was tedious as the driver made a series of errors which saw us having to spend several hours at the Cambodian border before being dropped at the wrong dock, Don Kong instead of Don Khong (why name two places close to each other like this?!) back in Laos!. Short on cash and on patience we negotiated a reasonable deal for a boat which involved a stop at a money exchange en route to Don Khong.

We arrived at Don Khong in the afternoon. Thanks to our driver we had completed a 20 hour famine before we managed to eat lunch. Don Khong is a nice island catered towards the more mature tourist. We had a good rest after a long day traveling.

The following day we hired bicycles and did a circuit of the island. We took the long way around and ended up biking 32 km’s, once again on one speed bikes and in the heat of the day. It’s safe to say the ride helped our tans a lot.

The lack of young people (or the abundance of oldies?) meant that later that day we headed to a ‘backpacker’ island – Don Det.

Don Det is a great place. The lifestyle is amazingly relaxed, there are things to visit and the prices are the cheapest we have seen.

We went across the island and checked out the waterfalls. They weren’t as beautiful as the ones we’d seen in Luang Prabang but they had alot more volume to them and were far more menacing.



Because we have a streak of daring in us (and because we've had lots of jabs) we decided to roll the dice against dysentery, cholera and typhoid and go swimming in South East Asia's sewer, the Mekong.


Our bungalow was perched right on the edge of the Mekong and came complete with hammocks which made it the perfect place to laze around and watch the sunset.


Don Det doesn’t have any cash points or money exchanges so we were forced off of the island when we ran out of cash. We paid a deposit for a bus to Siem Reap in Cambodia and left the following day.

Random Fact:
-Don Det doesn't have an electricity connection from the mainland. When it gets dark the locals fire up the generators until about 11pm.

Highlights:
- The local delicacy which is steam cooked, minced fish (bones and all), wrapped in coconut leaves. Very salty.
- Dirt cheap accommodation - $4 NZ for a riverside bungalow with sunset views.
- Beating the locals at table tennis - they had nothing to combat the forearm smash, with several balls striking the opposition in the head - awesome.

Lessons Learned:
- Avoid paying for transport up front. We would have avoided the border debacle if we hadn’t of paid all the money at the start of the ride.
- Laolao (rice whiskey) is supposed to be smoother in Si Phan Don. This isn’t the case and it’s as rough as anywhere else in Laos.
- Take plenty of cash because money isn’t available on the islands. We left because of a lack of funds, but the four nights we had on the island were enough.
- Shower whilst it's light outside and you can see whats going on.

Capital City - Vientiane!

After five days in Vang Vieng we'd had enough. We boarded a bus bound for the capital city of Laos, Vientiane.

It was naive of us to believe that Vientiane would be a metropolitan oasis and provide us with our much craved fix of busy city life. Instead Vientiane charged us big city prices for not much in return - but it wasn't all bad.

We spent the best part of our first day at a gym - after Vang Vieng we were craving some healthy living. We did a workout, cooled off in the pool, and then had an hour long traditional Laos massage all for about $10 NZD. Les Mills could take note of these prices!

The following day we hired bicycles and set off to see the sights. First up was Patuxai which translates to Victory Gate or Gate of Triumph.


The Patuxai was built using American funds. The US had given Laos money to build a new airport, however the Laotian government of the day used the money to build the monument instead - classic! For a fee we climbed to the top and the view was worth the effort.


Next on the sight seeing agenda was Pha That Luang - better known as the national symbol of Laos. We timed our visit perfectly to arrive during the full force of the midday sun. We were sweating up a storm whilst fending off hawkers but it was worth it.

Aside from checking out the sights we obtained visa's for Cambodia - the next country on our visit list. The visa process was a very interesting experience - we biked to the embassy at 10am only to be told to come back at 2pm. At 2pm we arrived back and met some irate Israeli's. They warned us that the official on duty would try and charge us extra for the visa - usually $20US.

Sure enough the little scum bag tried to make us pay him $30US. We tried to reason with him but when that failed we put on our angry voices and tried to physically intimidate whilst sitting down. This paid dividends as we got our visa's for the correct price - yay us!

Random Fact
- At sunrise and sunset a public aerobics class takes places on the banks of the Mekong. Everyone is out of time and it is very entertaining.

Highlights
- Seeing a bright yellow Lamborghini in a communist country - Mr Chairman is that allowed?
- Saying good bye to Vientiane - it's not a bad place, there just isn't much to do.


Lessons Learned
- This is it - what you see is what you get, there is no hidden night life, there are no markets, go to bed and get some sleep.
- Cambodian visa's - stick to your guns and you wont get ripped off.