Angkor Temples - Cambodia

Our flight from Vientiane in Laos to Siem Reap in Cambodia was quick and easy, and the airport in Siem Reap is new and modern. Siem Reap was a smaller town, but has developed quickly over the last several years, as it is the city where visitors stay when touring the Angkor temples.
The backpacker area is very westernized, with many restaurants and coffee shops.
Something interesting to note: Nearly everything in Cambodia is paid for with $USD. Cambodia does have it's own currency, but you normally only receive it as change, especially when less than $1. Many of the atms in Cambodia spit out american dollars, and most prices are quoted in them. Partly because of this, Cambodia is a bit more expensive than Vietnam or Laos...

There are dozens of Angkor temples around Siem Reap, and by about the second or third day, a lot of people are all templed-out. We toured hard though, and enjoyed the sights.


Angkor Wat at dawn.
Levée du Soleil sur le temple d'Angkor














Il doit être 6h du mat et il fait deja chaud!













That's a glistening! Cambodia was definitely the hottest/most humid place we've visited. As most tourists do, we started each day in the early morning, because even by 8-9am, it's starting to get hot. Honestly, we've never sweat so much in our lives!
































Most of the temples were built before ADA standards specified the maximum rise for a step. The steps going up the temples were almost always very steep and extremely shallow, making it difficult to go up and down.















Very difficult!
































Here's a view from our tuk tuk (2-wheeled cart pulled by a scooter). Luckily we had him to take us around, because most of the temples are a few kilometers from each other, so they are too far to walk, and it was way too hot to ride bicycles!









This is the temple of Bayon, which features 216 large faces, facing each of the cardinal directions. This might have been our favorite...











Ta Prohm temple.

Jakarta

We were excited to shop in Jakarta, as the guide book said that electronics were a particularly good value. Since many gadgets are made around here, we thought we could get a good deal, but in fact the deals are as good and sometimes better in the US! I'm sure, coming from Australia or Europe, it's a nice deal, but we've come to realize how cheap many things in the US are...

Centre commercial a Jakarta...decu par les prix...pas mieux qu'au USA parfois meme plus cher...

Pulau Weh

Pulau Weh is an island at the North West tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. We were staying in a bungalow at Ibioh beach, which was an area not terribly affected by the tsunami because it is on the East-facing side of the island.
Unfortunately we don't have too many pictures from Pulau Weh since we spent the majority of our time 18m under the surface, but you can imagine how nice it was to be there.



This was the view from our hotel. The water is so clear and blue, and the reefs are amazing.













Where we stayed. Essentially all of the accommodation there is in the form of bungalows. It's cheap there, $7 per night, but there is no hot water, no western toilets, and no shower (just splash a bucket of cold water over your head...). Despite the difference in standards, we really enjoyed staying here and wish we could have stayed longer.







Here we are with our scuba instructor, Salim. Both of us took the course and obtained certification for the PADI Open Water Diver. This included 5 dives, and I don't think we could have picked a better place to do it. Each of our "training dives," where we had to demonstrate skills, took place around the most beautiful reefs we've ever seen (a great way to start your scuba career). We saw a couple of sharks, many barracuda, moray eels, a giant napoleon fish, and dozens of other gorgeous fish/aquatic life.




Heading out for a dive...

Lake Toba

Given the recommendation from our friend Chris Rockett, we wanted to check out Lake Toba, the largest volcanic lake in the world. The lake resides in an extinct volcano, with a Singapore-sized island in the middle, the remnants of the volcano's cone.
Apparently, Lake Toba's Samousir island was a tourist hotspot in the 90's, until Thailand stole it's thunder. Now it's very quiet, and mostly empty hotels are the norm. Luckily this meant cheap accommodation, as we stayed in a decent hotel with a nice balcony over looking the lake for $5 per night (for 2 people).
It's a very relaxing destination, and not much goes on there. The locals are all very musical, and when walking around you frequently hear them playing guitar and singing traditional songs.


Sunset view from our hotel room balcony.


Coucher de soleil depuis le balcon de notre chambre d'hotel a $5. Salle de bain et au chaude s'il vous plait!










Sunrise view from our hotel room balcony.













Lake Toba is a great place to relax and do nothing, especially for us after spending so much energy seeing dozens of temples in the hot hot Cambodian heat. However, we did get the motivation to rent some bicycles and go for a ride around the island, leading to some other nice views...







Does anything look odd in this picture?




Magic mushrooms are part of the traditional culture there, so nearly every restaurant sells them, either cooking them up into an omelet or making a not-so-tasty tea.
Anyways, when in Rome...

Phnom Penh - Cambodia

From Siem Reap, we flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city, but unfortunately we only had a little more than 1 day there before our next flight. We did get to see a good bit of the city though, and some of the main sights to see.


In the morning, we went to the Killing Fields, several kilometers outside of the city. This relates to a complex story in Cambodia's not so distant past. Essentially there was the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia from about 1975 until 1978, during which genocide took place and thousands of Cambodians were killed. Because the regime prioritized poor, uneducated farmers, the largest majority of those killed were educated and from the city centers.
The Killing Fields is a shocking sight to see, even in comparison to places like Auschwitz. While thousands of bodies have been exhumed from the dozens of mass graves there, nearly everywhere you look between the large holes in the ground, you can see bones and pieces of clothing sticking out of the ground. We paid for a guide at the site, who told us that both of his parents had been killed there. He showed us around, and while explaining the story, would frequently point to the ground at a tooth here or piece of bone there.
There is also a structure built there to house most of the bones collected there. As you can see in many of the skulls, the victims were frequently bludgeoned to death instead of shot, in order to save expensive bullets.


Les champs d'execution juste en dehors de Phnom Penh ou s'est perpetre un genocide de 1975 a 1978 par le regime des Khmer rouge.
Des milliers de personnes ont ete tues dans tous le pays.

En deterrant les fosses communes, on s'est rendu compte de l'horreur qui s'est passe... Pour sauver des balles, les executions se faisait a coup de hache, pelle, et autres outils...




Many of the skulls were missing their front teeth. Our guide told us that the front teeth were frequently pulled out as torture before the person was killed.


Un mausolee se dresse au centre des champs d'execution, ou sont disposes les os des victimes.
On peut remarquer que les cranes n'ont plus beaucoup de dents, elles ont ete retirer lors de torture precedent l'execution.







Some miscellaneous pieces of bone stuck in the ground.



Des morceaux d'os recouvrent le sol...









Clothing partially buried.





Des restes de vetement encore enterres, toutes les fosses communes n'ont pas ete ouvertes.







Here is a tooth.



De nombreuses dents se trouve sur le sol, ainsi que des os de nouveaux nes, femmes, enfants...








Following the depressing Killing Fields, we went to S-21, a former high school in Phnom Penh that was converted to a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime. Most rooms in the prison are sparse, usually only containing a metal bed frame and a black and white picture on the wall, depicting a tortured victim, chained to the bed frame. Some of the rooms have small cells built into them, and others have hundreds of pictures, mugshots of the prisoners. Most of the prisoners there either died in the prison or were taken to the killing fields to be executed.



S-21, un lycee au centre de Phnom Penh reconvertis en prison/salles de torture sous le regime de PolPot. C'est la que les prisonnier etait entreposes avant d'etre amener au champs d'execution.









































Pictures of the prisoners showed the vast age range.

















On a lighter note, here's a typical gas station that you see frequently in SE Asia. It's really just a stack of bottles (usually old Pepsi or Sprite bottles) filled with gasoline. Someone will pull up in their scooter, and the attendant will use a funnel to pour some gas into their tank.

Laos

From Hanoi, we flew to Luang Prabang, in the northern part of Laos. This is Laos' second largest city, but still feels very small. The people are friendly there, perhaps part of the Buddhist culture.

Speaking of which, every morning at 6am, the Buddhist monks, mainly teenage boys who have moved to Luang Prabang from poorer areas of the country, walk the streets in line, collecting rice from the villagers. This occurs everyday, and many of the villagers wait each morning on the sidewalk outside of the house, with a large pot of rice. As the monks pass, each monk receives a small clump of rice, which accumulates to be their food for the day.



Le nombre de temples/moines par habitant etant trop eleve, au lieu de faire le tour des temples pour offrir du riz au moines boudhistes, les habitants de Luan Prabang attendent la procession de moine tous les matin aux alentours de 5h30 6h. Le boudhisme pratique au Laos est different de celui d'Indes. Les moines ne cuisinent pas et sont nourris par les habitants avoisinant le temple. Il ne sont d'ailleurs pas tous vegetarien puisqu'ils ne peuvent pas refuser la nourriture qu'on leur donne.













Laos has a very beautiful countryside, and a short ride from Luang Prabang leads to some fantastic waterfalls at Kuang Si. There is a large waterfall which is in 3 main sections, and afterwards leads to a series of small falls and pools. While the water is a bit cold, swimming in the pools is a great way to relax and enjoy the scenery.











Piscines naturelles, tres rafraichissantes!













Also located near the falls is a Asian Black Bear habitat...















From Luang Prabang, we took a bus ride for several hours across the mountains and valleys of Laos, enjoying the views and trying not to get carsick as the bus swerved rapidly around tight turns on steep cliffs.
8h de bus de Luan Prabang a Vientiane, la capitale du Laos. La seule route qui relie les deux plus grandes villes du Laos ressemble a une petite route de montagne tres sinueuse et pas bien large en comparaison avec la taille des precipices qu'elle longe. Paysage magnifique, pas bien desservie par la photo ci-contre.



Ultimately we arrived in Vientiane, the capital city, but unfortunately we only had one night there before we flew to Cambodia. Vientiane is more westernized than Luang Prabang, but this led to some very nice yet still inexpensive meals, mainly french cuisine influenced by the colonial period.
Lever du soleil a l'aeroport de Vientiane.
Depart pour Siem Riep et les temples d'Angkor.

Overnight Boat Trip on Halong Bay

Vu que l'on avait pas trop le temps d'organiser ca nous meme, on a reserver ce tour de la baie d'Halong avec une agence de voyage. C'etait un bon moyen de rencontrer d'autre backpackers et d'echanger nos bons plans.

We took a 2 day, 1 night boat trip on the Halong Bay, a few hours outside of Hanoi. The sights were amazing, and we met some cool people on our boat, but too bad our bed on the boat had bedbugs. Luckily we didn't get bitten though...

Here's a tiny house in the bay. Many people live in these floating houses.

This is a floating village. They have schools, banks, and other facets of society...

On vous passe les photos des grottes eclaires au neons bleu, violet, rougeet vert, facon DysneyLand...

Many of the rocks jutting out from the water contain caves. This was the largest cave. It was lit up with many colors inside, and ended up looking like the Indiana Jones ride from Universal Studios themepark.

Some of the people who live on these floating islands make a living by rowing around to the bigger boats, selling produce and other food/drink.

We took a small boat off of the big boat, and took a quick trip around some of the islands. We are about to go through that little hole in the background.

Here's a view from the small boat.

Sunset on the Halong Bay.

The next morning, a peaceful fog set through the bay.

We took a kayak trip around some of the islands and caves.

There are a lot of tourist boats like this on the bay.