Phnom penh

after 3 nights at siem reap, after having a wonderful time visiting the temples we decided to take the temple break and started to plan on phnom penh. siem reap to phnom penh is a long journey. takes about 6 hours. there are buses but many of the travellers have suggested to travel on day time rather than take the night bus. coz the roads are scary and narrow and a lot of accidents happen.

travelling in a bus during day time tat too for about 6 - 8 hours...nah!!!!!
we were thinking of other options when our guide sprang up with the idea of going with our driver who is goin home .luckily he is a married guy and visits his wife once in a month kinda!!! so we grabbed the chance and paid him 60 dollars.

by bus it would be a mere 30 dollars..but this one was luxury. a Lexus SUV and he promised to take us around phnom pneh for the rest of the day..
so deal fixed.

 on the way we stopped to take some photographs....children having fun in the pond

 this young lady is selling steamed rice cakes with jaggery...yummmy it is!!!

our driver and a very good friend Rith ( in the middle)

the national monument at phnom penh
so we reached phnom penh in 6 hours , had a city tour, dined at a good restuarant and back to hotel.

floating village tonle sap lake

Floating village
Chong Khneas is the name of famous floating village at the edge of the lake. It locates at Southern part of Siem Reap town about 15 Km, and takes only 30 minutes by vehicles to the boat dock where there are always boats waiting for visitors. The boat trip through the floating village takes approximately two hours. You will explore the different of Khmer, Muslim and Vietnamese floating households and the floating markets, fisheries, clinics, schools, basketball course, pigsty and other boatloads of tourists.

i have heard of scams in here..but of course you need to pay 20 dollar per person..but if you have a trust worthy guide with you.then all is fine..i never encountered any prblem..the village is worth seeing.

 the boat station / jetty

 a boy selling something ...i dont know whats in the box

 thats our guide in the middle

a floating school

 there are lots of floating shops and you can stop them and buy which is something cool.

 a typical house

The boat trip usually  stops: one at a touristy floating 'fish and bird exhibition' with a souvenir and snack shop..this pic was taken from the top of the snack shop.

dont know much about the other stop :P

and finally The Lake is the largest fresh water in South East Asia !!

temples Angkor wat

ANGKOR WAT

Angkor wat temple is the main temple in the angkor site which is probably the biggest temple in the worlds with hundreds of small temples .the temple is  used by bhudists today even though it is a vishnu temple.

400 sq.kms !!! thats what this temple streches to..whoa!!!

many ancient statues have been decapitated and their heads sold to private collectors ..says our guide

a private agency runs the tourism in angkor wat and they say he is even richer than the king .

and one last thing ..ankor wat temple was painted!!! but only few traces can be seen today.

 at sunset

 waiting for the sun to set :P

the reflection is so damn beautiful.

 all kinds of photo experiments :P

inside the temple..when light falls at around 5 pm.the temple  turns golden

the temple is huge ..and u can just run faster to see it all in a hours time...or you can come in the morning and be there till evening...yet this temple is bigger to see all in a day..perhaps a week..tahts waht my fellow travellers said :P

temples - bayon

bayon temple is a must visit when you plan the temple trip. one of the ancient temples built by king jayaraman, this temple has about 20 odd faces.

the entrance to temple has been modified by  the archeolgical survey by providing wooden walkways.

it is generally accepted that the four faces on each of the towers are images of King Jayavarman VII, which means the omnipresence of the king. And it also symbolizes the four smiling face as charming smile, sad smile, glad smile and beautiful smile. There are about 200 faces.

Bayon is known for its huge stone faces of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, with one facing outward and keeping watch at each compass point. The curious smiling image, thought by many to be a portrait of Jayavarman himself, has been dubbed by some the "Mona Lisa of Southeast Asia." There are 51 smaller towers surrounding Bayon, each with four faces of its own

 Since the Bayon Temple was constructed in stages over a span of many years, it appears to be somewhat of an architectural jumble. When seen from a distance, at first it can seem like a rather formless jumble of stone, but on the inside, there is a maze of galleries, towers and passageways on the three different levels.

 the faces all have the same strange smile and closed eyes, pehaps in the meditation pose :P

Temple gate- angkor thom

AngkorThom

The gate to the city of ankor that is what i understood about angkor thom. you can see the 3 faced vishnu statue along the road. each side of the road you can see statues of gods and demons. according to hindu culture to get the nectar of immortality gods and demons agreed to join hands  for once to churn the ocean. for this they approach the snake king and he agrees to be the string. so the demons pull the tail and the gods pull the head...

that is what is figured here in angkor thom.

a close up of god :P

rajeev helping the demons in churning the nectar :P

close up of the gate.

 there are children everywhere...selling magnets. i got to know that government is trying to stop  the begging business which is something serious. we would give this little girl a dollar  and the moment we leave, a guy would come out from the woods and take it from her...or she would run to some guy who would be waiting for the money.

 a woman selling soveniers

imtiaz with kids selling postcards and magnets.

we passed  through the gates of angkor once the captial of khmer empire and our next destination - BAYON

Temples - Ta prohm

we took angkor temple pass..20 dollar per person for a day and started our temple safari . the first stop was TA prohm temple made famous by the tomb .raider movie. the entry to the temple was through a 4 faced vishnu in shape of a cross. a further 300 metres walk in the jungle you reach the TA prohm temple.

entering the Ta prohm temple

this is a photographers paradise..one cant resist the scenic trees and rock temples together. there were lots of tourists and even children selling sovinirs like magnets for Dollar one.. seemed like everything started with one dollar.

 a girl selling magnets


inside the temple its the wow moment. trees tangled with the rocks..as the guide said its a fight between the rocks and the trees..the fight has started years ago and still continuing..the tendrils of the trees have strangled the rocks..some of the rocks have fallen apart bringing smaller temples with it..and some rocks have been kept intact by the tendrils..strange ways to protect and destroy.

the chinese are the number one for posing …i waited for almost 10 minutes for this lady. she almost took 100 pictures.

the tomb raider was shot in this temple..so even to take pictures at this window/ gate which is covered by the tendrils of the tree..you need to wait..not just the chinese!!

children having a wonderful time

the gallery

ruins

 woman selling bhudish lucky bands

finally we took leave..TAPROHM is something that will be etched in our memory till the last ..i just loved this temple.

Siem Reap

We landed at the Siem Reap airport around 2 PM local time from Kuala Lumpur. We just walked to the terminal, no buses. small airport but neat and tidy. The first thing I noticed was the Khmer script is very similar to the Malayalam and Tamil script and the building reminded us of cochin international airport
We got into the terminal and the immigration was no fuss, with soldiers manning the station. Got our luggage and got some US dollars changed at the exchange booth just after the baggage carousel and instantly felt rich – for about  $1 we got nearly 4700 Riels.
we thought of renting a tuk tuk, but later came to know that cambodians doesnt like their 2 wheeler been called tuk tuk, instead they call it Remork’. its a moped atached to a wagon. fortunately or unfortunately we couldnt find one and we booked prepaid taxi to our hotel.
the driver knew bits and peices of english yet he and we managed
the drive was cool..the streets looked like india with paddy fields and small houses.

 siem reap airport..# small is beautiful#


After checking in at my home hotel we had lunch from the hotel itself. The food was good. AMOK – the dish was fantastic. After lunch we bought a packet of Marlboro cigarette – the first buy from Cambodia…it cost around 4900 riel…a dollar and a few cents…: P
Money is been calculated in dollar and riel. So if you buy something in dollar expect riel in balance. There were remorks around so late in the evening we decided to go night market. The ride cost us around 2 usd.
Night market is a good place to buy some cool tees and souvenirs. Bargaining is cool too…we bought some shawls which were pretty cool.
After exploring night market we proceeded to the pub street. Pub Street is a 100 meter long street with pubs on both sides, restaurants, bars and shops… foot massage and fish massage parlours are there ..worth a try.

pub street..just about 60 mts in total.but good nice pubs and restuarants.

fish spa...worth a try...fish eating the dead skin in between our toes..:P