Bangkok & Anchor Waht (Cambodia)

Bangkok

We flew into Bangkok in the dead of night and to the worst floods Thailand has experienced in 40 years. The roads where passable for the most part driving to our hotel. The following night we met our tour group for a introduction dinner when the heavens over the Thai capital opened with torrential rain mixed with a thunder and lightning show which was awesome.  Unfortunately we had to brave the rain to get to dinner and in that short distance from the entrance of the hotel to the street we were soaked to the skin in the warm rain which felt very weird!

We introduced ourselves to everyone and we delighted to find that our tour group is really good with all 13 people the same age as us and up for the laugh. The next day on our bus trip to Cambodia we were all chatting and a couple of the guys commented on how good looking one the receptionists in the Bangkok Hotel was when the tour guide interrupted to inform the guys that she was in fact a lady-boy! The look on the guys face was priceless!!

Siem Reap

The city with over 200 temples and one of the most famous in Asia: Angkor Wat. That temple took 30 years to build with over one million workers. It is really cool and on a mega scale. The moat around the temple is about 30m wide and 1.2x1.5 km around.  The temple was built for the God King in Cambodia 1000 years ago. The carvings in the temple are still easily viewed and are really detailed. The temple has 10m deep foundations with lava rock used as the main building material for it's durability and the structure is clad with limestone for the decorative carvings. We also visited the Jungle Temple which was used to film the Tomb Raider Film, it is deep in the jungle and half collapsed from all the trees which have over the years jutted up and grown roots throughout the building. 

In the Siemp Reap village we had dinner in a local families house to try the traditional food. The family uses the money from this meal to provide the local children with clothes, books & food money to go to the local schools. They are currently supporting 11 children and teach them English everyday. It was one of the most delicious meals we had in ages and afterwards we got to meet the children who came in and sat with all of us for a chat.  They are so cute and so funny.  They showed us a traditional game that we all played together which was a lot of fun.  

Unfortunately due to the flooding the number of mosquitos has greatly increased causing an outbreak of Dengue Fever amongst the local children in particular with many of them losing their lives. We were warned to completely smother ourselves with deet. The city streets were completely flooded here and to get to dinner we waded through the water on the second night. The restaurant had traditional Cambodian dancing which was really interesting.  We had a good night with the group enjoying the ridiculously cheap alcohol (1.5 euro for a bucket of vodka & coke) or 1.5 euro for a cocktails. It was a late one!

So we are off to the capital city of Cambodia. Hope all is well at home chat soon. 

Roy