World Travels
Sponsor a Family:
Make a difference in this world: help save a family from absolute poverty.
Posted on 01/24/2010
The plan was to travel by bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, switch buses and carry on into Vietnam and onto Saigon. However after arriving in Phnom Penh and speaking with our travel agent, another choice of travel presented itself. Turns out a boat had just left Phnom Penh for Chau Doc (which is a Vietnam town on the Mekong River) and a phone call to the captain convinced him to turn around and pick us up as he was returning to Vietnam empty anyways! So luck and Providence were on our side as the boat ride into Vietnam from Cambodia along the Mekong River, in a 1st-class passenger boat with only 2 passengers! more...
Posted on 01/23/2010
Arriving at the docks at the Siem Reap end of Tonle' Sap Lake, we disembarked onto a small jetty and immediately had our bags lifted by three short, squat Cambodians who deftly carried the luggage up to the waiting transportation - they demanded $1 US per porter, which I happily paid even though the lads had grabbed our luggage before they asked for the sale. Our tour agent had arranged for one of their local tuk-tuk drivers to pick us up and take us to a hotel. As per usual, we paid the fellow a good tiip for taking us around to a number of hotels until we found one that struck the right balance between cheap and good. In this case the Angkor Holiday Hotel -- I highly recommend staying at this hotel while in Siem Reap. It is on a main road, is well located and well managed. more...
Posted on 01/22/2010
Angkor Wat was just a dim outline in my imagination before I set foot there. Actually I could not have imagined the very real sense of mystic power that emanates from this very old and very amazing piece of historical artifact. From catching sunrise behind Angkor Wat with hundreds of other tourists from all over the world, to climbing around the ancient Bayon heads of Angkor Thom, there is a palpable sense of the sublime. more...
Posted on 01/22/2010
Angkor Thom is the ruins of a once powerful city built by the former Khmer empire in the 12th century. The most amazing thing about the central temple complex is that the huge blocks of stone are stacked up to 3 stories without the use of mortar! Climbing around this temple is a really good chance to experience something close to awe. For me the awe is in the thought process of designing the place and also the management skills needed to get the right people more...
Phnom Penh to Siem Reap by Boat
Posted on 01/21/2010
A quick half-hour on the internet researching the boat trip from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap will provide all that is necessary to know what to expect about this trip. The tour agents in Phnom Penh charge $30-35US for a ride on a passenger motor boat that speeds along the Tonle Sap River and then Tonle Sap Lake all the way to the docks near Siem Reap in under 2 hours. It is a pleasant way to get in between the two destinations and take in the river culture and scenery. more...
Posted on 01/20/2010
A must-do half-day point of interest in Phnom Penh is the Royal Palace. It is probably one of the more recently built royal palaces in the world constructed only in 1866. The buildings of this palace complex are exquisitely detailed treasures that are a photographer's dream! Even at midday there are so many good shots to take of magnificently ornate Cambodian architecture style against a rich, blue sky. more...
Posted on 01/20/2010
The Choeung Ek Genocide Centre is a memorial of some of the victims of ultra-communist Cambodian dictator Pol Pot's murderous rule of the country between 1975 and 1979. Cheung Ek was a former commune that became a "killing fields" by the henchmen of Pol Pot. Victims of the Toul Sleng torture and interrogation centre were sent to this place to be executed. It is estimated that around 200,000 Cambodians' lives ended in these types of places and the total number of deaths from other causes especially starvation is around 2 million under Pol Pot. more...
Posted on 01/20/2010
Arriving in Phnom Penh on a rainy day in January is one of the highlights of my life. I have always wanted to see Cambodia (and the rest of Indochina) and now I have my chance! Cambodia is poorer than Thailand but not as poor as Myanmar and it looks to be only slightly more developed than Laos. Below are photos of my excursions around the city. more...