Hi all,

Anyone seen Lara Croft, Tomb Raider ??? This is where it was filmed. We left Singapore Friday morning and arrived here at 10AM, so we got quite a lot out of the fist day. We spent it all at Angkor Wat which is the main temple in the area here around Siam Reap. It is built around the 9-11th century, about the time of Notre Dame in Paris or the Domkirke in Stavanger to put it in to perspective. The temples vary in condition from a large pile of rocks to almost in as-new condition. Souvenir shopping is as always plentiful with the locals selling postcards and miscellaneous carvings, paintings, books etc. Prices are very good. Most seems to be priced at US$1 including local beer. The little kids selling postcards surrounded us as we were watching the sunset, and Lynne was playing games with them for an hour and forgot all about the sunset. Poor as anything we have ever seen before, but friendly and playful as any. Very nice people. We will spend another 2 days here before we return to Singapore on Monday night. A couple of more temples to get in and then have a look at the town of Siam Reap and the floating village in the Mekong river.

We went to a couple more temples in the Siem Reap area. Angkor Thom which is a 3 x 3 km walled city with the large temple in the middle. Of course the town is gone, but the temples, terraces and the royal palace are still standing in various degree of degradation and restoration.

We then drove to another temple about 30 Km away from Angkor. This is called Bantey Srie and is built in red sandstone rather than the tan color one found in and around Angkor Wat. Tuk-tuk all the way. Nice airy ride.

Following day, just one last temple to see where the roots of the silk cotton, banyan and fig trees had overgrown the temple walls and building sending their roots between the stone slabs, over time, pulling the stone slabs apart and destroying the temple; pretty impressive sight.

In the afternoon we went to see a floating village. Driving the tuk-tuk down the badly maintained gravel road was a shaking experience. The poverty along the roadside is the worst I have seen, although Lynne and girls remind me that the riverside dwellers in Chennai, India were much more desperate. The Cambodian families live in small straw huts of various sizes down to 2x3m. Apparently the whole area floods for about one month a year and all the people have to move away and start again building their village once the water withdraws. Open sewage and the fish smell was too much even for my stomach; pretty horrible, but still worth the experience. We then got on a “small” river boat and headed down the river and out to the floating village. All the houses, shops, workshops and even a church are built on barges made of bamboo and wood. Conditions of the houses and the general living standards were miles ahead of the village just on-shore, but still pretty basic. Stopped for a beer at the floating restaurant complete with fish-tanks, crocodile farm and souvenir shop.

All 3 evenings we were in Cambodia we went to Angkor Wat at sunset time. We befriended a bunch of local kids and brought them clothes that Sophi and Bianca have grown out of. Sophi mentioned that the time with the children was far more worthwhile than the temple visits.  The kids were good fun and appreciated the time we spent with them and the gifts given. Lynne brought a bunch of baby-bottles, toys, paper, pencils and clothes that we handed out at the church, kids at the temple and at the Landmine museum. Plan was originally to find an orphanage, but the only one I saw was SOS Children Village (I assume SOS Barnebyer in Norwegian) and it was about as fancy as our $250 a night hotel, so they did not get any. I am sure there are less fortunate orphanages around, but we could not find them and the people we gave to was definitely in need of some help.

On the last morning we went to a memorial for the killing fields and the land mine museum; sobering experience seeing a glass building full of human remains. Pol Pot killed about 1.5 million people during the regime of Red Khmer in 1975-1979 or there-about. People are still getting blown up by land mines in the rice-fields and the museum had literally thousands of mines lying around. Not the most impressive museum building we have visited. One building with corrugated iron roof full of weapons found in and around the region.  The museum takes in children that have suffered and lost limbs from the mine blasts, still occurring as the land has not all been cleared.

Arrived home to Singapore after flying home via Da Nang in Vietnam. They would not let us off the plane, so not a very exciting visit to this country.

In short this was a vacation with experiences never seen anywhere else. I would highly recommend a trip.

As I am writing this we are heading to Bangkok and on to Pattaya where we will stay till Saturday. My parents will stay on for another week before returning to Singapore.

Hotel we are staying is called Cabbages and Condoms Resort. Not quite sure what the after dinner mint will be, but with a name like that you can only imagine. It’s supposed to be a nice resort. Well let’s see.

Good bye and take care y’all.

Atle, Lynne, Sophi and Bianca