IT’S HERE!!!
I’m going to try something different this time around in regards to holiday photo sharing; a slide show. It’s pretty simple, you can manually choose a photo to view from the bottom of the large gallery image, page through each image with the arrows at the top of the gallery view screen or simply wait for the next photo to come up.
Here we go!
The first city I stopped at was the large, northern city of Hanoi. It was here that I fell into a gutter, was side-swiped by a motorbike and was pick-pocketed within 24 hours. It was a glorious time!
The second city was Ninh Binh, well known for its natural limestone formations called Tam Coc and quiet back-roads, perfect for cycling.
The third stop was the central coast town of Hue:
The fourth was the beach-town of Nha Trang:
And my final stop, Ho Chi Minh City:
I spent the second half of my holiday in Cambodia, where I met up with an old friend of mine from Japan. Apart from being a fantastic travel companion, it was nice to see Angkor with someone that you already know.
My first stop was Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Located about 6 hours by bus from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. I was to spend a couple of days there before meeting Mark in Siem Reap, the “gateway” to Angkor.
Phnom Penh is a busy little city with a notorious reputation for violent crime and all manner of unsavoury activity. Like many travel related rumours, I found this to be completely untrue (and I got to mucking around some pretty dodgy areas, alone at night and didn’t feel too unsafe).
My first stop in the city was the Tuol Sleng Museum and Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Formerly Tuol Svay Prey High School, Tuol Sleng was converted into Security Prison 21 (S-21) by Pol Pot’s security forces in 1975. It was the largest detention and torture centre in the country at the time and nearly all of the prisoners at the facility were tortured and transported to the Killing Fields for extermination. The rusty metal beds and black and white photos of victims on said beds (you could match the patterns on the head/foot boards to the ones in the photos) were a horrifying reminder of Cambodia’s past and the dark side of us all.
Ankle irons used to chain detainees to bed frames and each other
The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek were an equally grim reminder, featuring a beautifully constructed stupa housing some 9000 human skulls. Most of the skulls exhibited some manner of blunt force trauma; a convenient Khmer Rouge killing tactic to save expensive bullets. It is estimated that 17,000 people were killed here between 1975 and1978. Excavation of the mass graves still continues.
After this sober reminder of humanity at its worst, I took a stroll through Psar Tuol Tom Pong or “The Russian Market” and headed back to my part of the city for dinner and sleep.
The next day I took a nice, leisurely stroll through the Royal Palace, home to the internationally renowned Silver Pagoda, so named for its floor – covered with five tonnes of silver tiles. The 90 kilo, solid gold, life-size standing Buddha (crusted in 2086 diamonds including one weighing in at 25 carats) and the smaller but no less impressive jade Buddha, carved from an enormous chunk of (you guessed it) jade, were also impressive. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside, so you’ll have to trust me when I say that they kick much ass.
The Royal Palace
One of the many flowering plants around the complex
My next stop was the national museum with its fantastic collection of Angkor period art (again, no photos allowed) and a stroll around Wat Phnom.
The next day I was off again to Siem Reap for 7 days of fabulous Angkor goodness.
Unfortunately, I didn’t feel terribly compelled to keep comprehensive logs of temples/places we visited in Siem Reap, so I’m going to try something new on this blog for multiple photos – a slide show. Click the thumbnails below the gallery photo to select a particular photo or just sit back and watch them go by.
As you can see, many of the temples had vastly different architectural styles and construction.
Cambodia offered more than beautiful temples, the Khmer people were friendly, gorgeous individuals:
And the colours and textures from markets to homes was at times overwhelming:
All in all it was a fantastic holiday and I would certainly encourage those who can, to travel to Vietnam and Cambodia – it is well worth it.
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