The festivities and Siem Reap sight seeing

Mid December it was time for my next visitor! 

"True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island... to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing." - Baltasar Gracian

The next couple of weeks were spent planning our trip to Vietnam and sight seeing around Siem Reap, alongside some work for us both, general catching up and some fun nights out. 

Our first major trip was to Kulen mountain, back on all the winding and bumpy roads up to the stunning waterfall. Four of us headed up there and had an awesome day in the falls, swimming around and trying to avoid the nibbling fish!

"I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it." - W. C. Fields

On the way back we headed for a look around Beng Mealeas temple too. I don't have any pics as I had only been a few weeks before.

I had a few more days of work to do and a latino party to attend...

...so stayed back in Siem Reap whilst bestie headed off for Phnom Penh to see S21 and the Killing Fields.

With a couple more parties under our belt and Christmas eve spent at friends it was soon time for Christmas Day - an amazing buffet with free-flow sparkling wine at a lovely local hotel. 

Most of those celebrating Christmas in Siem Reap were there! The food was lovely, not so much Christmas fayre, but BBQ, Tepanyaki, sushi, western food and some turkey! We did a secret santa - with a twist - all the gifts go into the bag and you get to either chose a gift nor steal someone elses, this was great fun, but people did get quite competitive! 

"The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value."- Charles Dudley Warner

[or how much you had to fight to keep it/ win it back!]

The buffet started about 11am and finished at about 3pm, at 5pm the bar started serving half price drinks and canapes, so there was no need to move on until about 8pm. 

We would have stayed longer, but as we were a large group and getting into the festivities, shall we say, we were forced to move on early.

It is always hard to be away from UK home- family and friends- at Christmas, but sharing it with such a great group of people makes everything really special.

"When I eat with my friends, it is a moment of real pleasure, when I really enjoy my life." - Monica Bellucci

We didn't get up too early on Boxing Day thankfully, and the plan was to head to the temples on the moto...

 ...we did some of the smaller ones and over the week visited Angkor Wat at dawn, Ta Prohm and Bayon again. This time I tried some black and white / sepia shots...

"Without poetry, stories would be told in sepia." - Ellen Hopkins

Angkor Wat

Bayon

Bayon

Bayon

Neak Poan

Ta Prohm

The last few days of December were pretty hectic work wise as I was wrapping up an annual campaign and helping to finalise the NGOs localization process, plus we had a huge ten year anniversary party between Christmas and New Year to organise and attend. 

Finally everything was done and on the day before my birthday we flew to Vietnam...

"I need a six month holiday, twice a year" - anon

Back to daily life

Mum left and life went back to my version of weirdly normal work and play.

The cats were both neutered, Leeuw was very sore to sit down for a few days and despite being high as a kite for a few hours after the op Liefy staggered around the house, daze and glazed and continued to try and climb up the mosquito netting. I tried my best to keep her still and quiet, but there was no chance.

I couldn't bear to take piccies after their op it seemed so unfair, but here they are happy and healthy recently.

"Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God." - Christopher Hitchens

I was lucky enough to be taken to a charity gala dinner  in support of a local children's hospital. The lady in the blue dress was sat at our table and is (apparently) a very famous TV presenter here. I think she liked sitting with us as none of us knew who she was and we were just normal with her! It was also very strange being at one of these events and not organising one! Great fun!

A few of us also had a very silly night out making temples out of Jenga bricks, you may have to be more familiar with the temples, but we thought our impression of Beng Melea was particularly amusing.

"Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment." - Horace

Mini Angkor Wat

Mini Beng Mealea.

As you can see a fairly quiet few weeks before my bestie came out for Christmas, New Year and my birthday!

"I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life a lot more fun." - Charles R. Swindoll

A day out on Tonle Sap Lake

Our final trip was to the Tonle Sap Lake. This lake is huge and is at the centre of Cambodia, stretching all the way from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. It is a huge part of the countries infrastructure, economy and food source. There are also several floating villages on the lake where people live and work, and of course it is a great tourist attraction. 

"Many drops make a bucket, many buckets make a pond, many ponds make a lake, and many lakes make an ocean." - Percy Ross

[Many, many drops make up the Tonle Sap]

We hired a driver from a good guide friend of mine, who gave us instructions on prices and saw that the driver made sure we didn't get ripped off. The cost for a boat should be around $18, but sometimes guides and the operators make deals and individuals can be charged anything up to around $30 each. We got a good price and got on our little boat.

"Being on a boat that's moving through the water, it's so clear. Everything falls into place in terms of what's important and what's not." - James Taylor

On our way...


This is the kind of boat we were on...




As we set off onto the lake our guide pointed out a new hospital that was being built for the residents of the floating villages.

Some of the people who live on the lake going about their daily life.

A graveyard, our guide joked in rainy season all the bodies would float away and you would see them on the lake - he was so deadpan we actually believed him for a moment!

"Don't die old, die empty. That's the goal of life. Go to the cemetery and disappoint the graveyard." - Myles Munroe

Most of the houses and shops on the lake are painted in this blue colour, I think this was the police station.

The local church.

A shop selling everything you could possibly want!

Local homes...

Looks like these people were involved in fishing.

This is the local school. As you can see there is some Vietnamese writing here also, as many of the lakes inhabitants are of Vietnamese origin.

The far end of the school and the basketball court.

To be honest, we found the trip and the interaction with the school rather disturbing, About a third of the journey out the guide is supposed to take you to the school to visit the children, give them sweets and rice for the kitchen and gifts for the kids and take photographs with the kids. I asked if every boat leaving that harbour did the same - and the answer was yes. I also asked how the kids ever learned anything with constant disruption to their learning, there was no answer to that. It essentially felt that these kids were being exploited in order to bring money, food and gifts into the community via the school and no learning was taking place. My work and many other schools and NGOs have strict policies about not allowing tourists to interact with children, taking photos of minors, what constitutes exploitation and not disrupting learning. The guide was pretty shocked when we refused a visit to the school in preference of leaving the children alone to learn.

Think about it, if these were your kids, would you be happy with boat loads of tourists tramping through your kids schools four times an hour and your kids learning nothing...? So, its not ok to do it as tourists either!

"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom." - George Washington Carv

Here are some more of the community buildings / centers, shops and restaurants - all floating...

The lake really is so vast you feel like you are out at sea - here is one of the ferrys / pleasure cruises.

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water." - Rabindranath Tagore

We were offered a trip in the small dug out boats in the mangroves, but at a cost of $20 each (later found out it should have been $5 each) we knew we were being ripped off, there was no deal to be struck and much as I don't mind paying a little extra here and there and tipping a guide for a good job, I don't like being ripped off to my face, so we skipped this section too.

The lake is lovely and the floating villages interesting, our guide was interesting and informative, but the whole set up really exists to milk the tourist and exploit the people there, which made us pretty sad.

Some of the homes really are lovely...

...and others you really can see people are struggling to make ends meet.

There are the houses on the edge of the lake, that aren't floating, but are built on stilts to keep them out of the water.

This was a look out tower across the lake.

The 'Water traffic police Technique and solving' hut ?

Even on the lake, temples and pagodas are important.

This boat was going super fast and was powered by what looked like the sort of reverse hoover you blow your leaves with in the garden.

A leaf blower.

There were these huge traffic signs all over the lake as well on massive poles giving Captains instructions, never seen anything similar before.

Off the lake and back on dry land this is what the houses looked like from the road - ready to float and on stilts, but currently above the water...

"Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Sooner than you would know it was time for sundowners and mum to fly home after an awesome trip!

Thanks for an awesome time mum!

"The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege." - Charles Kuralt

Khmer BBQ, Mini Angkor Wat and a local pagoda

On one of the nights mum was over we tried the Khmer BBQ. 

A round metal dish on a personal gas stove arrives at your table. You use pork fat to grease and give flavour to the center piece and here is where you cook your meat, we had beef, chicken, fish, squid, crocodile and pork). In the dip on the edge of the metal dish you boil stock / soup with veggies and noodles. Very different from British BBQs, South American Parillas and Namibian Braai's but delicious in their own right.

"My first outdoor cooking memories are full of erratic British summers, Dad swearing at a barbecue that he couldn't put together, and eventually eating charred sausages, feeling brilliant." - Jamie Oliver

"I love barbecue, it's my favourite thing to eat." - David Nail

We also took a trip down my street to mini Angkor Wat, based on an artists backyard and costing $1.50 a visit this cast in concrete model of the main temples is rather fascinating...

"One man is equivalent to all Creation. One man is a World in miniature." - Albert Pike

"You know you've made it when you've been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls - it's a bit scary, actually." - Cate Blanchett

The guy really is a great artist!

Such an unusual thing to have down the street!

We also popped into one of the local pagodas in town and captured some beautiful sights...

 

Our next and final trip was to Tonle Sap Lake...