Cambodia Vacation

2/08/2015     Since our flight out of Guangzhou (pronounced “go-on-joe” to my non-Chinese ears) wasn’t leaving until that afternoon, we all took in some sites in the city.  First we went to the Canton tower (1969 feet high), reported to be the second tallest tower in the world (tallest one is in Tokyo) with the second highest observation deck (highest one is in Dubai).  It is an engineering marvel.  On top of the deck is a sky drop ride which some of the teachers paid extra to experience.  After this we had the bus take us to the Guangdong Folk Arts Museum (Chen Family Temple).  We especially enjoyed the intricate stone, wood, and ivory carvings here.

The Canton Tower

Clyde on top

Looking Down

 From Guangzhou we flew to Hanoi, Vietnam, then Siem Reap, Cambodia, and then to Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, then back to Guangzhou, and them home to Chengdu.  But to keep the countries straight, I will break from the time line a bit.  So I will start with Cambodia.  If it isn't a third world country, then it sure is a lesser developed one.   Tourism is about all they have going for them and it is a good boost to their economy.  Hotels and food are pretty cheap. We saw lots of young non-Asian couples in Thailand, Vietnam and here.
       

02/11/2015     CAMBODIA     They built a small airport in Siem Reap just for the tourist trade.  Upon arrival we were each charged $30 US, had each hand fingerprinted, and our temperature taken by infrared thermometer reader.  Although they have their own currency, they prefer US dollars since 1979, when the US dropped about 3 billion dollars in foreign aid here.  We were picked up by the most tricked out tour bus I have ever seen – It was covered inside with grandma blue printed fabric with scallops and ruffled curtains.  Our guide was a very soft spoken young man.  I’d say our hotel was less than 3 star and when we turned down the bed a few baby roaches started running across the sheets.  The roaches didn't last long!  The breakfast was nothing to brag about either. 

Siem Reap is right next to the huge ancient abandoned complex called Angkor (which means city).  It was bigger and more elaborate than anything we have seen in Mayan Central America – definitely a must see once in your life.  We started with the royal city of Angkor Thom at the south gate by crossing a bridge over a moat guarded by gods on one side and demons on the other.  Each set is carrying the body of the 7 headed snake called naga (remind you of Harry Potter?)  The gate is a tower with four faces carved on top, each one facing a different cardinal direction.  We were told it took 700 thousand people and 45 thousand elephants to build this one city in the complex.  The buildings were put together with stone blocks first, and then covered with carved sandstone.  There is ongoing restoration being done by other countries (mostly France) but still an awfully lot of stones were just lying around.  We saw the Bayon, Bapuon, the Terrace of the Leper King, and Elephant Terrace.  Words just can’t describe this place, the shape, the structure, the carvings.  I can’t show you everything we saw, you would just have to check out a book.

Angkor Thom - the South Gate - notice the stone faces

Bayon - extra for the elephant ride

Bapuon

It was cool in the morning but got much hotter as the sun rose.  We took at break at noon for lunch at what reminded me of a Tiki treehouse.  After it cooled off a little we went back to see Angkor Wat (Wat meaning temple), the most famous of the structures here and the largest temple in Angkor.  It is located in a flat field surrounded by a hand dug moat representing the oceans surrounding the earth.  A royal palace and an entire city used to be in that field.  The building is like a pyramid of three levels with the top representing the mountain of the gods.  It is possible to climb the much of the monuments, unlike some of the structures in Central America.  It is called the world’s largest religious monument.  We spent about an hour wondering through its concentric galleries which were covered with murals of historic events.  A person could spend months visiting each site here and we only had two days.  We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in the night market.  Clyde bought a white cotton shirt (like a lot of the BYU men did) and Anne bought a pair of elephant pants (like a lot of the BYU women did) and two books about Angkor.

CandA at Angkor Wat

Stairs to the upper level

As far as they will let you climb

02/12/2015     This morning while it was pleasantly cool, we visited more ruins including the one where the “Tomb Raider” film was made called Ta Prohm.  And they all looked to me like scenes from the second Indiana Jones movie “Temple of Doom”.  They left the trees (strangler figs and silk cotton), roots and all, in some of them because taking them out would do more damage.  The restorers have tried to leave this one in its “natural state”, the way it would have looked to its discoverers.  It was like being on a Disney set only this was the real thing.  We found a large snake skin which had been shed in the rocks.  Then we were taken to a plain one, Pre Rup, more out in the open and a man-made lake called the “Royal Bath” – Srah Srang.  Trying to describe what we saw in Cambodia is like trying to describe the Grand Canyon to someone.  It has to be seen to be believed!  All of these structures were abandoned hundreds of years ago and taken over by the jungle.  Scientists have some theories why, but nothing is certain.  Can you imagine stumbling on something like this for the first time?  We had free time after the tasty lunch.  We chose to go to the Angkor National Museum.  It was so well laid out with multi-media presentations and full of statues and reliefs rescued from the sites.  We walked back to the Mexican restaurant in the night market for dinner – this time hamburgers and chocolate shakes.  WooHoo for American Food!

Ta Prohm - kind of creepy

CandA at Ta Prohm

Ruins in the natural state

02/13/2015     We would have loved to spend another day at the ruins but our tour guide had other plans.  We were driven to a very poor village and we handed out small things we had collected or bought, including unopened hotel toiletries we had been asked to save.  Some people live near a lake in houses on stilts, while others live on the lake.  We went to see the floating village of the Chong Khneas who live on the Tonle Sap Lake (largest fresh water lake in Asia).  However, the water was so brown with dirt that a sinner may have been able to walk on it!  We went on a boat ride around the lake and saw these people had gardens on small barges towed behind their floating houses.  Their toilets consisted of a piece of cloth for modesty draped over an extension on the back corner of the house.  Everything just drops into the lake.  A number of the people drink the water untreated from the lake.  We even saw some pigs on a barge.  There was a floating two story school with the playground on the top and a floating church.  The poverty we saw was disturbing.  We had another great lunch and then were taken to the airport for our flight to Vietnam. 

Cute kids looking for a handout

Village on stilts

A floating school house