Our leisurely morning began with late breakfast! Got a manicure and walked a couple minutes to the park by the King’s Residence and found a tuk tuk driver, David, who took us for a very cheap and very cool hour ride around the city!  We learned he is Christian and was told the gospel by a visiting pastor.  Buddha was a man who died,  he didn’t rise from the dead. Jesus did.   He wanted to follow the one who raised from the dead!  Nice way to spend an hour! 

Royal pagoda

a shrine like the Tomb raiders one. but just 1 tree and very small!

Oldest temple in Siem Reap

and the memorial to the dead common the killing fields

Tuktuk, the way to go around Siem Reap

crowds are low because is the hostilities at the border with Thailand.

Now a relaxing afternoon at our lovely hotel,  preparing for a travel day tomorrow,  flying to Chaing Mai

Our tour topped the day with an excellent buffet dinner and we tried several more typical Kymer dishes.   The tropical fruits are especially good

After dinner,  the dancers presented several traditional dances.  Here is just a sample. Their hand positions and slow movements were amazing to watch! 

All the dancer took a bow at the end.   I was amazed at the strength they have in their legs to move so deliberately,  slowly,  gracefully!  and the hand movements were almost unbelievable!

It was a great show

Angkor Thom means big city and is the sight of many temples.   We visited a large open area called the elephant terrace, and overlooking it,  the terrace is the leper king, a couple of the gates. Phimeanakas temple and Bayon Temple here

the temple releafs were vibrant here,  well defined and with less vandalism damage than Angkor Wat

The heat and walking today were brutal for us Coastal Californians, but we made it through!  6 miles walking today,  with temps near 95.  Thankfully we had 3 hours to rest before dinner…. more on that to follow!

This temple was made famous by the Tomb Raider movie with Angelina Jolie.  The complex was covered in jungle.  It is often called the jungle temple or Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider temple.

The Spueng trees grew all over the walls and infiltrated the rock.  Now, the trees hold the temple together.   If they were too be cut. the walls would fall.

This section has been reconstructed on cooperation with international groups and UNESCO to preserve as much of the Angkor Heritage as possible

Today was our BIG day, visiting the Angkor Wat Heritage area,  which includes many temples!  Angkor Wat is one of the most impressive ones but Angkor Thom is actually a larger area.  Angkor translates to City, Angkor Thom means big city and includes many temple sights.   The other temples I will post separately.

We stopped early at Angkor Wat, since our guide heard the crowds were gone.   Today was the Equinox, and crowds of locals came early to watch the sun rise exactly over the main tower.   They had dispersed to go home for breakfast, so we were able to visit ever before the heat is the day.   it reached over 90 today and the heat took it’s tole on me! 

Depending in your perspective you can see 1,3,4, or 5 towers!  Even 10, in the reflecting pools views

Emmett climbed top the very top and has pictures from his views there posted at our Facebook group.  I had a cramp in 2 toes and the few minutes rest,  and a bit of massage,  while he adventures farther was really beneficial for me! 

The carvings and designs on the walls were impressive and some quite unique.   The ballistrades are not smooth,  and the design allows breezes to swirl inside the building.  They are specifically designed also to cast shadows in the early light of the silhouette of the Angkor’s towers,  one,  three and five towers.   Amazing.   our guide showed us pictures of these shadows as the sun was already too high for us too see them. 

looking back from the temple side towards the main gate

We did upgrade our lodging in Siem Reap since we added another extra night there to relax.   Boy am I glad we did!  The Koulen Hotel,  very near the Royal palace.   We will explore more in the daylight tomorrow.

I’m going to enjoy this stay! 

Tomorrow morning we start early,  8:30.  if we were diehard adventurers,  we’d be up before dawn tomorrow and at Angkor Wat at sunrise.   It is the equinox and a special time there as the sun rises…. or so I’m told!  It will be a crowded day there.

After checking in we caught out first tuktuk ride and went to the walking area called Pub Street,  where the night life is happening!  There are many restaurants to choose from too. 

We are a wonderful Kymer dinner.   They export cashews, so I had a cashew and chicken stir fry.  Emmett had a fish soup and a chicken coconut dish.   The passion fruit smoothies were refreshing and delicious!   We got our steps in,  despite the long bus ride,  by walking the 10 minutes back to our beautiful hotel. 

Everyone was delicious! 

our afternoon was all on the road,  a 6 hour trip via a very comfortable bus,  north to Siem Reap where we will spend the whole day tomorrow at Angkor Wat!  The style of houses along the road was interesting,  raise to allow cool air flow,  often painted with signs.

there were also several of these “temple gates”, I believe these show there is a wat or temple compounds for the village off the main road

We stopped for a 30 minutes break for some lunch at this rest stop.   Our was equipped with some”swing type shakes,  some hammocks,  game boards,  and covered lunch places.

Our very comfortable coach was equipped with AC, WIFI, and reclining seats, a pretty comfortable ride for 314 km to Siem Reap, the ancient capital and location of Angkor Wat.

We passed large rice fields,  small farm gardens and small businesses, and irrigation projects

It was a pleasant enough ride!  more comfortable seats,  and with AC, electric plugs to recharge phones!  But our 2nd travel day on a row!  We arrived after dark but glad to sleep 3 nights in a row in the same hotel!

Our early morning your of the city was very interesting,  as I knew very little about the Kingdom of Cambodia.   We visited first their monument of independence, celebrating their independence from France.   They celebrate for 3 days,  Nov 9-12

It is on the center of a round about at the head of the large plaza with statue of the first king

The largest part of our route was on 1 of the 3 compounds on the Royal palace,  where the king is crowned,  meets dignitaries,  and performs ceremonial duties.   Their king is elected,  by the way,  not an inherited title but comes from 1 of 2 families.

No pictures were allowed inside the throne room but we did get to enter

some of the Royal garments and parts of the longest painted mural in Cambodia depicting a story of the early king

We visited the National Museum of Cambodia next.

The word Phnom means Hill and the word Penh is a lady’s name who helped the local peasants establish the city.   We visited the pagoda to her,  and the city

People were paying her as we entered.   The lady in Red was chatting with a statue of Penh, explaining something on her phone!  quite a sight!  We walked down the other side of the hill and around the bar to our driver.  

We ended the morning with lunch at a nice restaurant near the bus station,  and found out was directly above the dock where we arrived yesterday via boat from Viet Nam.

our lunch was delicious,  Fish in Lemongrass and duck with vegetables in lemongrass.

We started very early this nothing on the Hau River,  a tributary of the Mekong at Chau Doc,  our port town to board our speedboat to Cambodia.   

The day starts early do that you can get through the immigration process on the river at the Vietnam Cambodian border.  Before our stop at the Vietnam border,  our passports were collected by the agent. plus our Vietnam paper visa and $37 USD. At the border we exited the boat while immigration processed us out of Vietnam. 

When everyone’s paperwork was in order,  we reboarded our boat for the 5-10 minutes trip to the Cambodian border .  Our passport had remained with our agent on land,  taken physically to the next station where the officials began processing them.  

We disembarked while that process was going on,  about an hour or so.  Each of us received our “Vietnam outbound” processed passports and presented them personally to an agent. were photographed,  along with our passport and visits.   That agent then took the passport,  stamped it a few more times and the visa sticker was  pasted in, plus an in immigration card stuck in which we turn on exciting the country.  It was a cumbersome (on purpose) process….  probably to justify the cost!  when we received our finally processed passport back,  they were reviewed one more time by another agent before we reboarded for another 4 hours on the river to Phnom Penh.

A Few sights along the way,  the river widened but still much like the Vietnam section,  with rice barges being loaded. small fishing villages along the share and small boats fishing.  At last,  Phnom Penh

We will have a tour tomorrow so just a few views from our hotel.   We look down on the Royal Palace!

our Okay Boutique Hotel

Emmett took an after dinner walk to see the night market!  it is about a mile long! 

Early pick up tomorrow for a half day tour in the city and then we have a 6 hour bus ride to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.  What an adventure!

There are native crocs in Vietnam, and there are 3 farms where crocodiles are bred and raised,  for meat and leather.   Our lunch stop today was at Crocodile land to visit the animals,  and have some croc for lunch!  We saw some of the beautiful leather products too, … cheaper than Gucci, but more expensive than I want to spend.

Our lunch,  Catfish with orange sauce,  spinach soup,  stir fry veggies,  noodles and crocodile curry hot pot.