8th Jan- Main Ankor temple day

Chet was keen we made it to the best spot ahead of the chinese tourists so we were up at 4.15am and soon sat in pitch darkness waiting for the dawn to illuminate Ankor. It was a special way to first see this most famous temple and the largest religious building in the world! 

Walking around the edge of Ankor we saw the beautiful moat from the north gate then spent quite some time photographing monkeys in the morning light who were climbing over the main ruins and stealing bananas where they could!

Incredible bas-reliefs filled it, some had been vandalised previously, some was being restored. As the sun rose the tourist numbers increased and we headed back to base for a late breakfast. Left with a sense that I could have spent hours there.

Sunbathe, swim and 1 strange Khmer massage later (didn't know I could bend in those directions!) and we were off to see Banyon temple, the temple of 216 faces, 4 facing different directions on top of each pillar, each pillar representing a province of the Khmer empire. This place was incredible! Especially with the late afternoon light. From here, along the elephant walk to the Leper temple (as the Budda statue had a hand missing and there was a legend about it though it might have just been damaged!)

Evening spent playing bar games with tour leader Mark's competitive and energetic Cambodian girlfriend.

7th Jan- Phom Penh to Siem Reap

Bit behind now, blaming it on the blog being in a foreign language and only just figuring out now how to change it! 

So, we left Phom Penh and headed up country to Siem Reap. It was great to see some of the countryside with their traditional houses- 1st floor raised in case of flooding, cattle, rice paddies, sugar palms (only grown in Cambodia apparently). 

Very hot and sunny. We stopped at one village where they cooked and ate spiders so some in the group decided to try (ew!). Next stop our first temple, the locals were friendly and pleased to see us. Lunch by a beautiful lake then another temple stop at one from the 10th century hidden by jungle. 

Arriving at our hotel it was a quick turnaround to visit Banteay Kdei for sunset. We met Chet our temple guide for the next few days and headed out to see our first main temple, lovely atmosphere. 

Dinner of baguette and curry (french influence!)

6th Jan Phnom Penh

After a yummy breakfast we're off to see the Royal Palace (King's residence and temples) this is the posh part of Phnom Penh- beautiful, lush grounds, stunning buildings. The piece de resistance is the Silver Pagoda the floor covered in more than 5000 silver tiles, weighing 1kg each. Most covered up for protection but some can be seen. This houses Cambodia's own Emerald Budda (again not made of emerald) bejewelled with more than 9000 diamonds. There's also a bed once used by the king on his coronation day designed to be carried by 12 men with gold work alone weighing more than 23kg! Impressive stuff.
Then we visit Pen Watt, temple on the hill containing a statue of lady Pen who founded the city.
From the best sites we go to the worst with a visit to the Genocide museum. This was a school originally but during the Khmer Rouge was turned into a prison and torture centre. Our guide Soka sits us down in the shade and starts to explain about the Khmer Rouge and what happened between 1975-79.  It's an awful story with unbelievable violence and cruelty but the numbers are beyond comprehension and it's his personal part of the story which upsets us most. The feel of the place was awful and I avoid looking too closely because you reach a point when you've heard as much as you can. The Cambodians had been to hell and back. Our guide's story of labour camps, not enough food and being orphaned is by no means uncommon, there are few Cambodians of the older generation left due to Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. We could only ask "Why?" again and again but in the end no-one seems to know.
After allowing our spirits to recover a little over lunch we complete the story by visiting the Killing Fields, one the sites at which the Cambodian people were brutally murdered and buried in mass graves. A monument filled with skulls, walkways between covered mass graves are incongruous with the trees and bird song. As before it's the small things that can get you most and spotting 2 human teeth beside a grave somehow made more of an impact than all the skulls.
An emotional, draining day yet important to know about however hard.

5th Jan

Barely over the jet-lag it's up at 4.30am to catch plane to Phenm Penh, Cambodian capital. Disturbing in- flight meal of egg, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes mixed with chicken and green peppers. Croissant, yoghurt and fruit to make sure all bases truly covered!
Scary immigration, passport passed along a line of 15 people (could have been a comedy sketch) then returned and time to have finger prints and photograph taken!
I was met by the tour leader, Mark, and we were soon at the hotel after passing through the strangely low-rise city, passing hundreds of motorbikes, tuk tuks and an ox cart!  I meet the rest of the group: Yvette, Martin and Marina, Daniel and Sarah all very nice and we go for a short walk around the city.

4th Jan exploring Bangkok.

How better to start exploration of Thailand's capital than jump aboard a Tuk Tuk- a sort of cart on wheels pulled by a motorbike, quite nippy and quite often overturned!
We visited the Grand Palace a huge complex of temples, more were added by successive kings as they fancied. The main temple Wat Phra Kaeo is home to the Emerald Budda (actually made of Jade) which is Thailand's most sacred site and draws visitors from worldwide.  The whole place was spectacular, individually set apart each building would have been impressive, jumbled together with sometimes only a few metres of space between them as they are is stunning. Guarding each entrance are big Yaksha Demons, on the inside wall of the main temple complex is a long painting depicting the story of the Ramayana, painted before paints actually existed so all the colours were natural and now re-touched in the same way.
It would have been possible to spend hours taking in the details of the statues and things such as doors embedded with mother of pearl, 1 temple was completely gold covered in thousands of tiny tiles each covered in gold leaf. 
Then onto Wat Pho another sort of complex containing the Temple of the Reclining Budda 45metres long, gold plated, soles of feet inlaid with mother of pearl, even more temply-statue-budda-ey things surrounded, beautiful settings.
After lunch of noodles, Oh presented me with a coconut to drink. Green, large and full of milk they bear little relation to English ones which are much older, the coconut meat is more jelly-like in these. Then aboard the boat (you have to leap on quite quickly, health and safety be stuffed!!) to Jim Thompson's house. Man famous for putting Thai silk on the map, building a traditional house (well actually moving it from the north of Thailand) and then disappearing into the jungle whilst visiting friends never to be seen again.
Foot sore, hot and exhausted after a short rest it was time to sample Thai street food under Oh's guidance and then experience a foot massage given in a deckchair at the side of the road, lovely!

3rd Jan

So after a hectic and rather stressful time leaving England I was finally on the plane. 11 hour flight London to Heathrow, very nice plane with individual TV screens and recent films, useful as sleep was not forthcoming. They asked passengers to close the window blinds for the night time flight to help them sleep "and to stop anyone outside looking in"!
Was met by Oh who was to be my guide in Thailand, he was very smiley and chatty and possibly slightly mad.  After a quick swim in the hotel pool to try and shake off a bit of jet lag he took me out for dinner in the Banglamphu part of Bangkok. The famous road Thanon Khao San is pedestrianised at night and is lined with bars and shops and massage shops and filled with carts selling street food, and fake driving licenses and degrees. This is the traditional backpackers area but recently bit more upmarket and more expensive. It was a great atmosphere with all the senses being stimulated.