Finally Some Photos

I've finally gotten a somewhat stable internet connection and managed to post some of our remaining Vietnam pictures.  Click on the link on the right side for "Central & Southern Vietnam"

I've also uploaded some of our Angkor Temple pictures as well.  Click on the link on the right side.

I've also created a map "Our Route So Far..." that shows the route we've taken up to this point. You can access this on the right menu as well.

I've also turned on the comments for the blog so you can leave a note at the bottom of a post by clicking on the "Comments" link.

Ruminations on Temples, Touts & Tourists!

We've spent the last couple of days whipping around Cambodia in a Tuk-Tuk revisiting many of the temples we saw last time we were here (5.5 years ago) as well as a few we missed.  The weather hasn't been too bad.  Hot but not unbearably so but still very humid.

The temples were great to see again but didn't seem as spectacular as the first time we visited.  I suppose that is always the case when you go back somewhere you've been before.  The first time you are there everything is new and exciting and unexpected whereas subsequent visits you know what to expect.

One of the things that made the temples not as interesting was the amount of reconstruction being done to many of them including Angkor Wat.  It is hard to be as impressed when there is scaffolding all over a temple.

Angkor feels much less adventurous this time around.  All the roads in town and all the roads to the temples are nicely paved as opposed to the dusty, dirty, potholed roads that we traveled before.  There are ticket checks at all the temples and it feels much more organized now.  You used to be able to clamber all over many of the temples whereas now many areas are roped off and inaccessible now.  The temples are still impressive but it feels more like visiting Disneyland than it does some far off remote part of the world.

There are also many, many more tourists than there were 5.5 years ago which takes away a little of the uniqueness of the experience.  One of the upsides of so many more tourists is the plethora of great restaurants around Siem Reap now.  Last time we were here there wasn't nearly the selection of great restaurants there is now.  That part of the increased tourist traffic we are very much enjoying.  That and the 50 cent draft beers for happy hour!

Finally the touts in Siem Reap are much worse than they were.  They aren't overbearing but they are annoying.  When you walk a few hundred meters down the street and 15 tuk-tuk drivers ask if you need a ride it can get a bit annoying.  Did they not see you saying "No thanks" to the first 14 guys??  I understand they are just trying to make a buck but it still gets annoying pretty quickly.

We are off to Phnom Penh on Thursday and then have a day there and on Saturday will begin the long slog to Laos.  That should be fun!

Cambodia Update

Well we arrived in Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) today from Battambang.  We only spent two days in Battambang but it was probably one of our least favorite places so far, very dusty, dirty town with not a heck of a lot to see.

The  best part of Battambang was organizing a tuk-tuk for the day and going for a tour of the countryside.  We saw a couple of neat Wat's (Temples) and an ancient ruins site that was supposedly a model for Angkor Wat.  It was a long hike up 338 stairs to reach the ancient ruins but we made it!

A lot of our time was spent getting to these sites and we were COVERED in dust by the end of the day.  We also looked at going on the bamboo train  which is a gas powered "train which is really just two axles and a platform over the top with a gas engine attached that go careening along the abandoned railroad track.   When two trains meet the one with less cargo is taken apart and pulled off the track then reassembled once the other train goes by.

The other strange thing about Battambang is there were NO tourists there.  We saw about 6 other westerners in our 3 days and 2 nights there.  Our hotel had about 50 rooms and I swear a couple of nights we were the only guests.

Today we took the bus from Battambang to Siem Reap.  This used to be considered the worst road in Asia but it has only recently been paved and we made the 200km trip in 3hours.

Siem Reap has changed greatly since Betsy and I were here on our honeymoon 5.5 years ago. Most of the roads are paved and not dirt, they have proper ticket offices now to get your Angkor tickets and they are building new hotels, restaurants and shopping like crazy.  You can't even recognize the place anymore.  It feels more like Las Vegas or Disneyland than the eighth wonder of the world!

Internet is horrible in Cambodia, I have pictures from the south of Vietnam waiting to upload but can't get a good enough connection to upload them so one of these days there will be more pictures.

Rockin' Phnom Penh

We've spent the past couple of days in Phnom Penh and I have to say I like the city.  We decided to splurge a bit on our hotel and are staying at an excellent boutique hotel with a nice pool just behind the Royal Palace.  Pretty cool that a splurge costs $50/night.  But at $50 this is the most expensive hotel we've had yet on our trip.

I have a bunch of pictures from Vietnam ready to upload but the wifi connection here is horrible so hopefully we'll get a better connection in the next few days.

We spent yesterday going to the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Prison (S-21).  It was a very moving experience and I am going to try and do separate post just on that.

Last night we went to the Foreign Correspondents Club for dinner.  This was a place made famous during the civil war as it had a great balcony overlooking the Mekong that the journalists would all hang out and drink/eat at.  It was quite lively last night and we had excellent pizza along with cheap beer and cocktails.

We also got our Lao visas sorted out so instead of having to fly into Laos (where we could get a visa on arrival) we now can travel overland through Cambodia into southern Laos.  That will be a haul but should be interesting.

Tommorrow we head to Battambang, the 2nd largest city in Cambodia but one not frequently visited by tourists.  We don't really know what to expect there but it sounds pretty laid back. We might rent some scooters and go explore the countryside.

After that we head to Siem Reap, we'll spend a few days seeing the temples of Angkor before heading back to P.P. for a day or two to begin the long slog up to Laos.