Results tagged “Cambodia”

Part three of my top 100 travel photos, starts in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from where I headed back to Vietnam and towards Hoi Anh before going to Hue and crossing into Laos to catch the end of the Laos New Year Festival.

11. Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Without a doubt, Cambodia's star attraction, the temples at Angkor. As the best maintained temple, Angkor Wat is the most easily recognised and is featured on the Cambodian flag. While taking this photo, I was standing amongst a crowd of close to 100 people waiting for the sunrise.

12. Wat near Tuol Sleng, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

13. Vegetable Garden, Hoi Anh, Vietnam

I went out on a bike ride with a friend I'd met on the bus coming into Hoi Anh and saw some of the poorest people in Vietnam, working their hardest to eek out an existence.

14. Fishing Trip, Hoi Anh, Vietnam

My friend Vuong invited us to his place for lunch one day. He suggested we go on a fishing trip with his mother one day, to explore the waters around the town.

15. That Ing Hang Stupa, Savannakhet, Laos

I came into Laos on the last day of Bpee Mai (Songkran aka Thai/Laos New Year), a three day festival that consists of a daily water fight. Worshippers went here during the festival to pour oil on each of the Buddha statues in the area. It is believed that some of Buddha's remains are stored here.

The photos for this post and more like it are found in the photo galleries for Angkor Temples, Tuol Sleng, Vegetable Farm, Hoi An and Savannakhet.

Part two of my top 100 travel photos, this collection involves Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam (an amazing island with lots of beaches that's fun to explore on motorbike). The second set of photos comes from Phnom Penh in Cambodia, where I was pickpocketed and robbed of my wallet, credit card and money. Please add your feedback in the comments section.

6. South Beach, Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

While exploring the Island, we found a beach with crystal clear waters and palm trees all around. The water is shallow and the sand is white, the food is cheap and the people so friendly and hospitable. There were five of us on the entire beach at the whole time, something that you can't say about the big Thai beaches and islands.

7. Restaurant, Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

A small restaurant overlooking the water, right next to the pier where the fishermen sell their days catch. Featuring Phu Quoc's cheap and famous seafood, a definite favourite of Vietnamese and travellers alike.

8. Sunset, Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

I happened to be travelling the island with a photographer, we were riding through the island on the way home as the sun started to set. They say there are really only two good times to take photos, sunrise and sunset. We were passing the tree and lake on the side of the road, Bao noticed it and was already of his motorbike with camera in hand before I even realised what was going on. With him, I learned a lot about photography and composing amazing shots.

9. Monkeys at Wat Phnom, Phom Penh, Cambodia

Coming out of a temple in Cambodia, I see a mother monkey with her baby. Animals and children are great subjects for photos, a baby monkey, that's a no brainer. I started snapping away. The monkey's were barely a metre away from me. The flash startled the mum, she defensively ran up to me and bit me as soon as I snapped the photo. I didn't get rabies, but I stood back a little further the next time I was taking photos of monkeys.

10. Royal Palace, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Some photos are repeated hundreds of times. Any tourist destination will have every place captured from every different angle and available on flickr before you even set off. The trick with these places is to set up the shot so that the crowds aren't visible. If you show up in the early morning or late afternoon or when the weather looks like it could get worse, you can get the shot. Sometimes you can just pretend you work there and move everyone out of the shot, if you act with enough authority, people will move.

The photos for this post and more like it are found in the photo galleries for Phu Quoc, Phnom Penh and the Royal Palace.

In the evening I book my ticket to Saigon, purchase the books I wanted for 5USD and meet with Xuan for dinner at an African bar with a football player by the name of Smith. When we arrive, the owner, also Smith, greets us like long time regulars.

I eat African food for the first time a dish comprising of Juju, pidgin name for a rubbery mouldable substance similar to bread, some fried chicken and one of the most amazing spicy sauces I’ve ever tasted. African food, the Smith’s explain is eaten with the hands and I have a great time doing so.

Xuan and I part ways at the end of the night and I tell him if I’m in Beijing, I’ll pop by.

Moc Bai border between Vietnam and Cambodia (on the Vietnamese side).

The following morning on the bus, just after crossing into Vietnam, I see my first proper Vietnamese rain. Vietnamese rain is heavy, rapid and loud. It floods the streets and the shopfronts that I’ve grown to miss while in Cambodia. In a country with the most motorbikes in the world, it becomes incredibly uncomfortable to travel in the rain. Every time our bus passes a moto, water splashes onto the driver and I get the feeling the driver is taking a small pleasure from this.

I plan on meeting up with Vincent when I arrive (who I met on the way out of Saigon while looking for a bus to Can Tho) and heading towards the beach town of Nha Trang in the following days.

In the afternoon I visit Tuol Sleng, a secondary school that was converted to a prison. Anyone deemed an enemy by the Khmer Rouge was detained, tortured and ultimately executed here and at many similar prisons. Of the 20,000 inmates, only seven survived.

The place is a brutal reminder of the tortures that happened between 1975 and 1979. A photo gallery displays photos of the many inmates. Male or female, young or old, it didn’t matter there were young boys and old women tortured and executed here. Photos show how many of the people died and the torture paraphernalia is displayed.

The prison cells were incredibly cramped and the balcony was covered in barbed wire to prevent prisoners from committing suicide.

The place is overwhelmingly depressing, most people viewing the exhibitions are in a sombre mood; they don’t smile, they don’t acknowledge anyone else around them, they only walk around the school and try to visualise the atrocities that took place.

After visiting the prison, I take a long walk as I ponder what leads people to force such brutal conditions on each other. This place will have a lasting effect on me.

Xuan and I come back to Phnom Penh from Siem Reap and get a guest house in the expensive river front area. The room is twice the price of those at the lake, the ceiling is low enough that I have to crouch and the cockroaches are the size of mice. On the plus side, it’s in a great location.

I try and purchase a couple of books from some of the street kids (Into the Wild and The Motorcycle Diaries), but the kids won’t accept 4USD for both – the kids in the Angkor temple region only wanted 1USD per book (including most lonely planet guides to the area).

In the morning, we pay a visit to the royal palace, the guidebook says entry is 3USD, the guidebook lied and we pay double.

One of the Cambodian folk bands teaches me how to play their version of the xylophone and we jam for a bit. They don’t know any blues so we stick to traditional music (alternating bass GA and rhythm an octave higher GACDE at an upbeat tempo).

The guard outside doesn’t let me have a play with his rifle, even though it’s clearly not loaded. On a side note, I confirmed that there is a rifle range near Phnom Penh where you can fire AK47s at chickens or a rocket at a cow for 500USD. The karma hit won’t be worth it.

The following morning, we take a boat tour of a floating village on the Ton Le Sap Lake (which forms part of the Mekong river). Our boat driver (Vet) tells us about the poor students that attend some of the schools in the village. The orphans sleep in the school overnight.

Vet says the best way to help is to buy some books and pencils from one of the floating shops. At $15USD for 10 notebooks (several times the price of notebooks in Aus) we decide against buying the notebooks as it’s clearly a ploy at ripping off the multitude of tourists.

After we leave the floating shop, we arrive at a floating restaurant with a fish and crocodile farm. We don’t buy anything and are anxiously awaiting our next stop, a visit to one of the floating schools.

This is one of the schools in the Vietnamese section of the floating village. This school has 216 students who all have brand new notebooks. Our boat driver tells us that many people give donations to the teacher of the class and he spends the money on himself. When we meet the teacher, I instantly dislike him; he’s more interested in asking for money than teaching his class. His job is more of a supervisor than a teacher and I feel sorry for the kids not getting the pleasure of having an amazing passionate teacher that inspires them to learn more. I wish some of the teachers I knew back home would get a chance to see this class.

We end the boat trip after the school visit and are sad to be leaving. We sleep through most of the bus trip back to Phnom Penh.

On the bus to Siem Reap, I’m chatting with a couple of Canadian girls about their travels and read some of my lonely planet guide book (turns out you can get them for $1-$2 USD).

I don’t know the way to the Siem Reap guest houses, so I tag along with a small group, two British girls, two British guys and a Chinese guy who’s currently an expat in Phnom Penh.

Kirsty & Carly have travelled south-east Asia and have six months on their world trip and have both spent time volunteering in Africa. Matt & Miles have also been travelling for a couple of months, guitars in hand – I miss playing.

Xuan is working for an organisation that allows students the opportunity to get work experience abroad.

We head down to the temples the following morning to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat (along with several hundred other people who’ve read the guidebook).

Our Tuk-Tuk driver had the shits with the price organised and the early start to the day and sarcastically dares Miles to climb on the roof of the Tuk-Tuk. Miles obliges and the driver is pissed thinking the roof is damaged, he curses “fucking British tourists” and we have a bit of a laugh.

The other Tuk-Tuk driver is much friendlier and allows the guys to drive the Tuk-Tuk around. Big mistake! The friendly Cambodian police write him up for breaking the law and the guys pay the imposed “fine”.

We also see some temples, many photos in the gallery.

Carly, Miles, myself, Xuan, Mat and Kirsty.

Sunrise over Angkor Wat.

Posing at Bayon temple.

One of the many kids selling trinkets (two flutes, $1USD).

I travel to Phnom Penh the following morning and spend lunch chatting with a gentleman fifty years my senior. He was one of the only Germans living in Israel back in the sixties (illegally), has hitchhiked from the Middle East to Nepal, is on to his 22nd passport and knows a lot about everywhere in the world, including Kamchatka (a town in the Russian far east that I hope to visit some day).

In the afternoon, I succumb to the guidebook craze and purchase the latest Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia Lonely Planet for 4USD, mostly to figure out where I’m crossing back into Vietnam.

I take a photo of a mother monkey with its baby. The mother is not happy and bites me when I turn around. B*tch!

In the evening, I have one of my less fortunate moments of the trip; I am robbed by a pack of women pickpockets. After my Saigon motorbike experience, I’ve been avoiding motor bikes and tuk tuks along the trip; walking back to the guest house after dinner, I manage to find myself walking down one of the streets littered with working girls. Two of them approach me and grab my hand trying to lead me to follow them, then another two grab my other hand, another three grab onto my body and I’m now walking along, dragging seven women with me. Next thing you know, they all disperse. I do find this to be a rather hilarious experience and want to write up a post about the differences between how Cambodian and Vietnamese girls  try and get your business.

I stop laughing half an hour later when I find my wallet stolen and return to find the girls have disappeared. Fortunately, one of the locals gives me a lift to my guesthouse, another lets me use the internet in his bar.

A big thank you to Natalie and Stephen for helping me out getting my stolen cards cancelled (true friends indeed). I vow to leave for Siem Reap in the morning and never return to Phnom Penh.