JUST PICTURES

This is the engine of a long tail boat.  Mostly I put picture up for Matthew.  This is how they power the speed boat like things that travel up and down the river systems and in the canals.  On the left hand side of what you see in this picture sits the driver who puts the egg beater like thing in the water to propel us forward.

 

 

This is the egg beater like thing that is in the water - it is basically a propeller on the end of a very long pole and can create quite a rooster tail when we are picking up speed.  They really go fast on the river.

 

This is the whole boat put together.  The are quick and efficient and can take up to 18 people.  They are fun to ride in especially when going fast - but soooooo noisy.  I don't know how the people who live along side the canals can stand the racket - over here there seems to be no such thing as a muffler and with these rather large engines....well, you can imagine.  Oh and they are constantly on and off with the gas - so they tend to sound a lot like 4:00 Charlie from old tv show M.A.S.H.

 

 

This is what a feeding frenzy looks like. When we stopped by a temple where fishing is not allowed on our long tail boat ride, we had loaves of bread that we broke up and threw into the water - catfish by the score or maybe some other kind of fish - I'm not sure but they practically climbed into our boat to get some.  It was quite a performance and lots of fun to do.

 

 

 

The other fun thing that happened on our trip in the canals was "a floating market".  A floating market that came right up to our boat to sell us some souvenirs and other assorted stuff.  He had some cold drinks, pencils, bookmarks, hats and the usual wares that you find on the streets in Asia.  It was funny and a bit fun - I bought some bookmarks from him.  As he approached our boat he said, "floating market coming to you!"

 

That's it for now!

JUST WORDS....

We managed another outing on transit and went to the BTK Mall.  It is a combination of stores and market type stalls.  The stores are fixed prices and the stalls are the bartering system.  We have made a few good purchases by holding a mess of bills out and saying – I don’t have any more. Works sometimes and sometimes you just have to walk away.  Most of   the time they are glad to make a sale.

The Hilton has been our least satisfying hotel experience of our journey.  It is definitely the most beautiful, but the least friendly.  The internet that we thought would be excellent, is not.   It is pay per use.  First one like that – free in the public areas, but then you are waiting for a portal and now there is none.  We are trying to negotiate a later check out for our journey tomorrow.  We get picked up for the airport at 8:00 p.m. for our 11:30 departure.  So far we have to be out of our room by 2:00 – we will try for a later time.  If that works, then maybe my opinion will change of this hotel but only slightly.

 

This morning’s journey will take us to the Grand Palace, the flower market, the reclining Buddha and the Jade Buddha and then we are on our own for the afternoon.  Right now, our tour guide says she will be late by as much as one hour so we are sitting in our room waiting for the phone call.  Certainly not the great experience we had for the 15 days in Cambodia and Vietnam.  I know there is traffic, but she lives here – not terribly impressed.  The upside is, it has given me some time to do a bit of catch up writing.

 As you can see from the window pic – the view is amazing.  I tried my luck with some night shots and although they will be good enough for my scrapbooking, they don’t look like much on the blog.  This is a much more modern and bigger city than I had imagined and especially after Saigon and Phnom Penh I just didn’t even imagine this.  The air quality is Phnom Penh was definitely the worst – here not as bad – still not the air like we know in beautiful BC but we haven’t had to put on a mask since then.

 

 

 

 

 

FIRST DAY AND NIGHT IN BANGKOK, THAILAND

Here we are in Bangkok and so far a bit slower than the rest of the holiday.  When we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted with the most spectacular view of the city.  We are on the 22nd floor of the Hilton Millennium Hotel and the window in our room has to be 7 feet high and 15 feet long.  We are not overlooking air conditioning units and mechanical areas like I have only seen before - here we are looking at a Millennium dollar view.

 

So our first afternoon and evening we were on our own with the only other 2 people that decided to opt for the add on excursion to Bangkok.  Candace and Tom from Chicago are our travelling companions for the next days.  We spent yesterday afternoon going to visit Jim Thompson's teak houses/museum not far from where we are staying.  It was a great chance to use public transport.  Bangkok has a sky train similar to our own - only the station names are really weird and the characters that is their language are weird too.  Fortunately the anglicised name is written in the alphabet that we recognize and that helps tons.  The fare from our hotel to the station we needed was the equivalent of $1.30.  So not a lot of money. 

It was an interesting way to spend an afternoon.  For dinner, at Candace's suggestion we went to a restaurant called Harmonique....sounded amazing - ok so we were in for a surprise.  First surprise was the look of the restaurant itself.  Second surprise was the bathroom.  When "ladies" are sitting down to ....(well you know) right at nose level is the men's urinal.  Nice.  But the food was good, inexpensive and the beer was downright cheap and nice and cold.  Way to go Candace!

Then to a market to further exhaust ourselves and then home to shower and fall into bed.  I slept like the dead!

Today we had our tour in the morning.  First up was a long tail boat ride up the river and into the smaller canals.  It was a lot of fun - we stopped and fed fish outside of a temple.  It was a feeding frenzy.  There must have been thousands and they were climbing on top of one another to get the bits of bread that we were throwing in the water.  It was quite an experience. 

Then we went to the Temple of the Dawn.  What a beautiful temple.  It is very  tall - you were able to go up the stairs and walk around for nice city views, but the steps were very steep, very shallow, much taller than normal steps and no railings - a good reason not to make the climb as far as I was concerned.  Besides I had some great chances to take pictures where we were.  The temple is ornamented with pieces of Chinese porcelain in all kinds of floral decorations - it looked amazing.  Bells were tinkling and the sun was glinting and I was seated in the shade with a small breeze - It was wonderful. 

MOVING AROUND THE CITY

So today a post about types of transportation.  We have travelled around in Cambodia and Thailand in a variety of ways.  Some of them were easy to use and others...not so much.  Our tour guide, Tony was great to have given us the opportunity to experience each different way.  The first we tried was the Tuk Tuk and it was the easiest - kind of like a buggy ride - I posted a picture the other day.  This is definitely a preferred way to travel except for the exhaust and honking horns.

 

Then we rode on a cyclo - that was a little more challenging, but fun as we toured around Phnom Penh by this means.  We were able to see so much as we were up front and feeling quite comfortable once we were aboard.  My cyclo driver thought he was in some kind of race.  He kept passing the other cyclos and at times it was a little harrowing ... but here I am telling the tale, so you know that I lived.

The braking system on a cyclo is weird to say the least -  it is a cane looking thing at the back - the part that you sit on they can steer it all over the place it is on a swivel from the bike part ... and the drivers like to bring you realllllllly close to the next cyclo and then stop with millimeters to spare.  It was harrowing at times but overall, I felt perfectly safe once I got in it.  Just getting in and out was the challenging.

 

Now for the most awkward one of all, the Rickshaw.  Yikes - we were told that later this year, all the rickshaws from this town are going to be put in a museum cause they were much too old to be on the street.  Thanks for letting us know that ahead of time.   I really couldn't wait to get on this one at all.  Diana very kindly took a picture of me as were going around and about - and I was glad that she did even though I think I have the same expression on my face that I had when I rode the camel in Egypt.  These things are scary - but once again after about 20 minutes we got off and with shaky legs, we left that experience far behind.

 

They look fairly harmless when you aren't in them....but just look at it - how the heck are you supposed to get in gracefully - YOU CAN'T..

 

Talk to you from Bangkok!

 

 

FLOATING MARKETS AND OTHER STUFF

We have seen and done so much and with limited internet connectivity and when we were connected, it was so slow, I have not been able to do the blog as often as I would have liked.  So, in no particular order, I will tell of some of our adventures. 

We were out a few times on a sampan boat that carried all of us.  One adventure took us down a canal on the Mekong to see the floating market place.  It was not quite as I expected from pictures I had seen, but this one was for fruits and vegetables.  From a pole on the bow, they hang a sample of what they are selling so you can easily row your long boat up to make a purchase.  For instance in this picture I show some unknown Asian vegetables and I think that in the second photo you can see how crammed in everyone is. It was a busy place for sure. 

floating market

The sampan also took us to a village where they were making bricks.  I still find it very fascinating that there are specific villages for specific things.  We saw a village that wove cloth, a village that made silver articles, a village that wove straw mats and the brick village.  We visited a candy making place and a place that made rice crackery things.  We made purchases at most places, but not at the brick factory.

Along the Mekong we noticed that every boat has eyes.  As legend has it, the Mekong was full of crocodiles or alligators and other beasts and so to protect the people in the boats that were travelling along the waterways, eyes were painted on the bows to show these river monsters that the floating craft was a bigger beast than they were so they better beware and leave well enough alone!  The plan must have worked cause there aren't any crocodiles or alligators in there now.

We have visited temples of all kinds and one thing is perfectly clear to me - I hate the smell of incense - It is everywhere - but especially in the temples.  They light incense like some of us would light candles - to remember someone who has passed or also to accompany a prayer.

 

 

 

 

 

Trying to understand the traffic signals is nuts, but at least in Saigon, there are traffic lights.  They count down from when red will turn green and when green will turn red.  Drivers here anticipate the light turning green and are usually half way through the intersection before it actually happens.  People here drive with their horns all the time.  Most of the time it is to say, I am coming up behind you so be prepared.  They don't honk in anger.  Pedestrians do not have the right of way.  In fact the streets everywhere we have seen are a free for all with motorcycles, cars, trucks, bicycles, push carts and people walking.  We have only seen a couple of accidents and nothing serious which is amazing considering what the streets look like at any time.

Another interesting thing is that on the rice fields or farm land, family members who pass are buried on the family farm land.  There the spirits of the departed will watch over the farm and the family members.  We saw a lot of the tombs as we were driving from the boat into Saigon.

Well, I want to get this posted with pictures before it is time to go out for dinner.  We have a good internet connection now that we are in the hotel in Saigon.  Two nights here, 3 in Bangkok and then home - yes I am looking forward to home!

 

 

MUSINGS WHILE WAITING FOR CLEARANCE AT THE CAMBODIA VIETNAM BORDER

We are having a lovely day of river cruising.  Athough the temperature is once again very hot and the humidity is very high, as we are making our way down the Mekong River, the breeze created by moving is lovely and cooling.  In the air everywhere are floating spider webs.  If you are sitting at the front of the ship on any deck, you are likely to have some lacy strands attach themselves to your face and body.  I am pretty sure that each of these white strands contains a small travelling spider – but I’m ok with that.  It’s kind of like standing near the thing that spins the sugar to make candy floss at the PNE.


Yep, beetles, spiders, crickets and silk worms

It is possible to be just as wet from sweat as it is from rain.  We walked through a rain storm the other day and found that one out.  We had just come out of the U ME Spa after a $14 mani/pedi and it was raining.  Since it was only about 3 blocks back to the ship, we decided to walk which isn’t easy especially when motorcycles, food carts, shop stands, tuk tuk drivers and other people are all standing about.  When we arrived back at the boat, we were wet from the outside in and the inside out.

 

Monks are people too.  We received a blessing by Udon Monks during one of our outings.  It was beautifully chanted and during the blessing flowers and petals were thrown out to us.  It was a really nice ceremony and when it was over the monks interacted with us a bit.  One of them took out his cel phone and took a picture of all of us.  I managed to take a picture of him laughing and enjoying our company. 

You can watch the weather arrive.  I’m sure that because it is the rainy season storms can come up at the drop of a hat.  We are in the middle of one right now.  It is bouncing off the deck.  On these ships, the only public areas are outside.  So with the torrential rains and wind that accompanies the storm, the only place to go is inside the cabin.  Here are some factoids about the ship:  The library contains 68 books (I counted them) The gift shop items are displayed on 4 small shelves surrounding the purser’s desk (more weaving, silver and pepper and tea).  There is one public toilet and it broke today – thank goodness there is one in each cabin.  The bar (yes only one of those too) has 5 bottles of free spirits, 24 bottles of premium liquor, wine, beer, pop, juice and coffee or tea.  The wheelhouse is about 40 square feet.  There are 4 decks and no elevator. 

If the itinerary includes a village visit to see artisans or an orphanage or an elementary school or or or…maybe have your wallet ready to make a purchase or a donation.  It’s never a lot and I truly don’t mind – just be prepared when I get home to receive your hand crafted gifts graciously lol…and maybe a picture of the person who crafted the item.

Beauty is everywhere!

SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL TO THE WEAVERS' VILLAGE

We travelled over many bumpy roads again today to a village where the women do weaving.  You can tell how many weavers live in the stilted house by the number of looms under the house.  Just walking by, you can hear the click of the shuttles as they are thrown back and forth creating the beautifully crafted scarves, runners and shawls.

 

The people follow you around asking that you please buy from their stall at the end of the walkabout.  Ultimately we are supporting the local economy and helping send the children of the families to school.  They work so hard and in the poorest of conditions, but they are happy and smiling and proud of their work.  It was impossible to buy one item from every single vendor, but believe me I gave it my best shot…in the words of one of our travel companions, “Well, I just bought 5 scarves and 2 runners that I don’t need”.   I can tell you, I did the same.

We were allowed to go inside one of the family’s stilted houses.  The floor is made of bamboo and it was a little disconcerting to walk across it when you can see down to the ground 20 feet below.  The slats are so skinny – thank goodness bamboo is incredibly strong.

flooring
 

Inside Kitchen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 



TV in the Living Room



 

 

 

 

 

 

The furniture was spartan in the few rooms and consisted of a living room, 2 bedrooms, a separate room for grandma and a kitchen. That’s it – but please look and see the TV in the living room!  Under the house were hammocks, the looms tables and chairs – they live under there during the heat of the day and when the water isn’t very high – it is cooler than the house.



Outside Kitchen





Bedroom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Periodically, I will throw a few of these random photos in of things I find interesting or strange.  Maybe you will enjoy them too! 

 

Local Bus

Drinking Boxes (Bags)

Gas Pump

Gerry Can at Side of the Road Stands

Taxi Cab for 4

 Well enough for now - hope you are having happy days - all is well here in lotus land!

ORPHANAGE AND VILLAGE VISIT

This morning we left the floating hotel for a tour of the Twin Holy Mountains. Here if there is a hill that is higher than a termite mound…they call it a mountain. We saw many statues of Buddha including the great reclining Buddha – at least a replica the original is in Siem Reap.  We were told there were 60 steps – and I immediately thought oh sh** not again.  But to my utter delight – they were going down.,..thank you Buddha!   The highlight of this temple for me were all the monkeys.  What a treat - there were adults, babies and juveniles.  How wonderful to see them.  I took so many pictures.

Soon we were off to an orphanage.  We were each paired with a child who took us around to show us the area where they do some paintings for sale and make handicrafts for sale.  Basically they nourish the children, teach them to make handicrafts, educate them and then if they are good enough, they can earn 100% scholarship to collage.  The children come to this orphanage in a few different ways.  Their parents are both deceased; they only have 1 parent due to death, divorce, or abandonment; parent or parents cannot afford to care for them – perhaps due to illness.  The children seem very happy, clean and polite.  It is interesting that our guide for this part of  the journey said that the first pencil and papers he had to write with came from Unicef.  So the little Hallowe’en boxes did help.  I bought several paintings and some of the handmade sewn purses and bags.  I was able to get a photo of the child who make the item holding it.  A lovely and wonderful experience.

We returned to the ship for lunch and set sail for Chong Koh – a small village where we will have an opportunity to have a walking tour purchase some of the locally woven silks and cottons.  So as soon as we got ashore, we were bombarded by the local craftspeople wanting us to come to their display to purchase their goods.  Mostly they were all the same, but of course crafted by different households.  Every family was as deserving.  Finally I had about 4 people following me around.  Helping me navigate the muddy gumbo (we just had a heavy rainfall moments before), answering their questions about my family and my children.  Just trying to keep my attention during the walkabout in the village so that I would purchase something on the way out. 

We were able to go inside of one of the stilted houses.  It was fascinating – hardly any furniture, but a television et.  There were two kitchens one under the house and one up in the house.  During the dry season, they use the kitchen under the house, but when the waters are high, they are using the kitchen in the house.   During the day, the families spend there time living outside and under the house because it is too hot upstairs, however they do go up there to sleep.  Bathing is done in a big clay pot outside and sometimes they have an outdoor outhouse, otherwise it is …. just outdoors! 

So after our walkabout, our feet were covered in mud and now it was time to buy some wares.  I managed to buy something from each of the 4 followers and then finally gave a few $1 away to the other children.  Then back on the ship to journey down the Mekong to Phnom Penhm.

 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL VISIT

We were up and out of the hotel by
8:30 to go to the  elementary school that Viking Cruise Lines sponsors.  The ride was very interesting – travelling down dirt roads in such rural areas.  The soil is so very red here – must be full of iron.  Got some great pictures out of the bus window using the extreme camera shake setting on the camera.  Seeing the families travelling together on the motor scooter is always interesting.  Dad driving – sometimes a little child in front of him and then a bigger child in the middle and mom on the back.  No helmets but this is how they get around.

When we got to the school, a little girl came up to walk with me and show me around.  Her name was Vannatheab.  She read an I Spy book to me and showed me the different rooms. 

There was a library – sadly with very few books and books that would not be very good for the children who are learning to read.  There were many empty shelves.  Made me wonder if there are some discards in the school I work at that would have some various ESL beginning readers that I can somehow send to help fill the shelves.  They also had a computer room with some older but not ancient computers and evidently they have internet. Then there were 2 other classrooms where the children were repeating phrases from the blackboard.  Then the children sang two songs for us – If you are happy and you know it and then a song in Khmer language.  They were so cute.

We went back to the hotel to check out and get on our way to Kampong Cham to board the boat for our river cruise.  It was a long ride – about 4.5 hours.  We were about half way through of some kidney shaking road surface when we stopped at a happy place (place with a bathroom) and then back on the bus for the rest of the trip.  Tony – our tour guide for the two weeks – said ok we are finished with the smooth part of the ride now we get Cambodian back massage.  My goodness, he wasn’t far off the mark.  There were lots of pot holes and we took them all at great speed…but we did arrive alive and boarded the RV Saigon Pandaw for our Mekong River Journey.

 

We did a cruise around the area, but docked back at Kampong Cham for the night.  Never really thought about it, but we dock at night and scenic cruising during the day – that’s the difference of a river cruise.

So, after dinner, there was a movie about Pol Pot, but I was so very tired I just went to bed.  He was a nasty person anyway and although I would have liked to take part, I was in no shape to.  I just needed some sleep.

Til tomorrow…

TWO TEMPLES IT MUST BE SUNDAY

Even though we left the hotel at 8:30 in the morning, it was still very hot.  We were only a short ride away from the temple.  There were lots of people there already.  We walked around the grounds and then into the temple and were immediately impressed by it's size and the number of buildings. 

We were allowed to go to the 3rd floor and it very nearly killed me to do it in the heat and the steep stairs.  I did make it however and was glad I took the opportunity.  The amount of bas relief on every wall and pillar is stunning...and the detail that is still visible a thousand years later took my breath away - no wait a minute - it was the damn stairs!  I don't know how many pictures I took - but it was lots.  We were only allowed to be up in the temple for 20 minutes.  They limit the number of people and the length of time for a visit because the are not sure the structure can withstand unlimited amounts of people at any one time.  So, nuf said - now just enjoy the pictures of this Unesco World Heritage Site

So there are some pictures to show you today.  I thought I would not talk a lot but just let you see what we are seeing..  It appears that I have taken 444 pictures.  There are certainly discards, but it has been easy so far to just click away.  So glad I bought an extra battery.  At least I leave with 2 fully charged ones every time we go somewhere.

Daily Laundry

Meridian Hotel in Cambodia

Peanut Sellers at the temple

Stairs up to the 3rd Level at Angkor Wat
YES I WENT UP AND DOWN

Looking Down and over the canopy

Temple Angkor Thom (smling buddah temple)

Tuk Tuk Ride

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

i

Bantereay Sei (Woman's Temple)



Angkor Wat