Janet was working in Phnom Penh, so I went to stay for a few days - then we went up to Siem Reap/Angkor Wat

31/07/2000 – to Phnom Penh

Dragon Air (Airbus) to Phnom Penh (PP) – 2 hours – OK flight, arriving over PP (still well high – about 15/20 mins before landing) all you can see on left and right of plane – to the horizons – is water!! Not sea, nor lake – but flooded land – can see trees, and the outline of fields, sometimes roads, but basically nothing moving down there, no boats, no cars. Then it becomes clear that water that is grey/black, is flood/rain water, and the Mekong River (very big/wide) is red colour, you can see the river winding through the grey/black water – weird!! A combination of too much rain and flooded rivers. There are about 3 rivers going through PP and each of them is about 10 times as wide as the Thames at Westminster!!

Asked Sek Eng about this – he said – “rainy season” – so it must be like that most years – the country is underwater!!

Drove into PP – very slow drive (25 KPH) because of motor scooters, pedal bikes etc.. all over the place. French road rule “priority to the right” still seems to apply here – watched Sek Eng (and other taxi drivers later), driving on right side of road, coming to a T junction and wishing to turn right – they will NEVER/EVER look to the left, to see what is bearing down on them – they will look to the right, to ensure they are not turning into a bike or car on their inside.

Road names – Russian Boulevard, Chekoslovakia Road, Vietnam Rd, Khmer B’ld etc.. Country names…to Sofitel Hotel – very big, on River Bassac with big ship moored at end of grounds – gambling casino. Janet went to work – I stayed in – hot!!

1/08/2000 – PP

Janet to work – me walked up river (Tonle Sap river) for about 1 hour – didn’t reach bridge over to Mekong Island. Dinner at French/Thai restaurant – very nice.

2/08/2000 – PP

Do nothing

3/08/2000 – PP

Lunch with DHL – and then to Russian Market for bootleg software – all 2 US$ per CD.

Went round Royal Palace......

Not as big or good as Bangkok, but there is a "Silver Buddah" which stands in a room which has thousands of silver (real silver) tiles on the floor, the Buddah is life size standing and is ?solid? gold and has 4,000 diamonds all over it.

4/08/2000 – PP

Do nothing.

5/08/2000-Saturday

Early morning – fly Royal Cambodia to Siem Reap (SR) – 737 – good 35 min flight – over bloody great lake north of PP – so even more water to see, cannot see any temples from air at SR – Som Finn is taxi driver – very slow cautious – 3^rd gear at 15KPH!! To something like Thok Lok Noklok Hotel – big but only 15% occupied – OK’ish – Published rates are US$ 100 per night – we get it for 60 – lots of Spanish – straight out to Angkor Wat – US$ 10 for half day taxi.

Big moat inside steps down to the water, steps are about 1.5 Km long on each side, causeway across this is rebuilt on right side – but still falling into water on left side. Steps all round moat edge on left side are not rebuilt, but are on right side – big jobs!! Across causeway/moat which is 190 metres wide – through gate in the enclosing wall (1 Km by .8 Km), looks haphazard building from within – but its stood up for centuries, so must be OK. Then along another avenue/causeway 400 yards long, past libraries etc..

The main Causeway with libraries at left and right.

To main central enclosure,

lots of bas-reliefs on walls which stretch for hundreds of yards and are very intricate – but its all of dancing Indian like ladies, with animals all over the place – cannot work out what is supposed to be going on – and can overhear tour guides saying things like “ this demon is called xyz and he takes the form of a dragon, which is attacking this army, who are hiding in the lotus grove etc…” all rubbish!!

Climb up the central core of Angkor Wat as high as I can get – look up inside central tower – about another 30 metres to the top – no way up – just look – climbing is a bit precarious.

Yes it was warm......

Impressions: bloody big, the towers you see from afar are well eroded and should be much more defined, should have been a good sight 1,000 years ago. The stone is grey/black – I expected browny/red – not a nice colour, looks like dirty London buildings. Very impressive for the date it was built (about 1150), lots of statues etc.. are missing or eroded away, uneven floors – a must see, GREAT!!

6/08/2000

Taxi driver is Piron – son of Som Finn – better English – also very cautious driver. To:

Angkor Thom which is a collective name for most of what follows. It’s enclosure is 3Km on each side – big wall all around. Gates have faces on 4 sides;

One of the gates at far right - the statues are on both sides of the road and portray "the churning of the oceans".

entrance gate...

Bayon is good – hundreds of towers – all with 4 faces on, not as big a Angkor Wat, but lots of great carvings

and the faces;

Baphoun which is being rebuilt, so cannot go in (big job) – at back can just identify reclining Buddah, hundreds of feet long – which was never finished (hence – not easy to see)

Preah Palilae – cannot remember, but basically we were walking in the forest from temple to temple keeping to the paths but at one point we came to a big puddle – didn’t want to walk through, nor around it – thick grass but off to left were rows of stones being assembled before being rebuilt into a temple – so I reckoned we could jump from row to row – only 15 inches high from ground and about 2/3 feet apart – at third row – bloody great snake was down in the grass – grey/green about 1 metre long and smaller than your wrist around – but did it move quick!! And so did we!! the BIG EVENT, from there to;

Elephant Terrace and Leper King Terrace;

Prasat Pre - very delicate/detailed;

Ta Prohm after lunch – very good – has not been reclaimed from the trees – this is the one you see pictures of – with massive trees taking over walls and buildings – excellent!!

Janet and I sitting at bottom of tree roots.

  See me?? Again at bottom of roots.

They are very impressive trees, especially growing out of the temple ruins!!

It rained....

So we went inside.... damp/musty - but there again it is a rain forest!!

Evening dinner was at traditional dancing place – open air – OK food but girls and the dancing was very good!!

7/08/2000

Back to Som Finn – drive 35 Km (nice to be out in the rice fields but poor living conditions – no electricity etc..) to Benteay Srei

Janet liked this gate-guard.

Think the humidity got onto the lense...

Very small temple but its mainly red/brown and has very intricate carvings which are very well preserved.

Grand Hotel (Raffles owned) for lunch – good.

Preah Khan in the afternoon main thing is a 2 storey structure with round columns, supposed to have a “Mediterranean feel about it” – not brilliant and apart from that – very dilapidated even though hundreds of thousands of dollars have been donated for its upkeep from companies like Amex etc...

8/08/2000

Long day traveling – 14:00 taxi to Siem Reap airport – funny Russian plane with propellers, sit anywhere – crap seats, crap windows, noisy and booming, then the a/c came on and it was dripping everywhere – and looked like smoke pouring out of a few outlets – very third world!!

Wait in PP for a couple of hours then Dragon Air to HK

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