Cambodia- Angkor Wat

Due to the PAD airport occupation in Bangkok in late 2008, our planned trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and run a 5km race was disrupted. Luckily, the tourism industry was hit hard, and we were able to re-purchase our flights for half price! (Thank you Bangkok Air!) Friends had already gone over Christmas break, so Megan and I set out on our weekend adventure together with Flat Matt in tow! 

Note: Flat Matt is a flat version of my nephew Matthew who is in Grade 4. Each student made a small, flat version of themselves and sent them to various people/locations around the world!! I think Matt definitely went to the coolest place!! He should be the envy of his flat classmates ;)

Note2: Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat), is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

We arrived in Siem Reap around dinnertime on Friday night after school. After being ripped off on the price of my Visa by the Cambodian government not 5 minutes after landing, I don't know why I was surprised that our driver took us to the wrong guesthouse. Oh well, we can live in anything for two nights, and it was only $15 a night so we sucked it up. Siem Reap is very, very small with not a whole lot to do, but a surprising number of places to eat. We had some pizza and 50 cent draught Ankor beer for dinner, and strolled through the night market that looking exactly like any market in Thailand. We took a tuk-tuk back to our guesthouse and hit the sack, knowing we had a 4:30 am wake-up to look forward to.

Since we only had a day and a half in Cambodia, I wanted to see sunrise over Angkor Wat. For those of you that don't know, my traveling companion is NOT a morning person. Quiet as she was, she came along without complaint. Walking into an ancient ruin in the middle of nowhere Cambodia in the pitch black is definitely an experience. Just a reminder of how nothing like this would ever be allowed in Canada. We stumbled our way through the darkness over the unven bricks to the reflection pools of Angkor Wat. Unfortunately, the sun didn't actually rise that morning - and we were left with a cloudy view. Exploring the temple was amazing, as there were very few tourists there (perhaps they checked the weather reports!!) 

 

We met our tuk-tuk driver back out front and he hustled us around the surrounding temples for the rest of the day. My favourite was The Bayon, which has about 260 faces carved into the stone of the temple. Every inch of stone is carved so intricately...it was amazing. We saw a bunch of other temples...including Angkor Thom, and one that has been taken over by jungle that was shown in one of the Indiana movies (that was Flat Matt's fave!) It was a tiring day, but so worth the trip!

 

That night, after a long afternoon nap, we tried some authentic Khmer (the name for Cambodian people) food for dinner. I had baked pumpkin and chicken which was delicious! We wandered down the tourist-y pub street after dinner and enjoyed some cheap beer and people watching on the patios.

 

Sunday, we decided not to go see more temples, but to hang out in Siem Reap and relax. We left our sketchy guesthouse for good and walked downtown, stopping for fresh mango from the roadside fruit market of course! (I'm addicted!) We wandered in an out of art galleries and little shops, had an afternoon foot massage, and patio hopped all day. I read, wrote postcards, relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine. Very nice. We even ate breakfast at Red Piano, the bar that Angelina Jolie frequents, when in town.

It was a fun trip, and I hope Flat Matt had as much fun as I did!

Day Trippin' on Winter Break

 

Upon my return from Hawaii…I was insanely jet-lagged and spent a few days in bed. Once I finally got up, Megan and I decided to show her mom around Thailand and do some day trips we never seem to have enough time to do.

 

One day we went to the Ancient city of Ayutthaya. It was the old capital of Thailand before being invaded by the Burmese in 1767. We took the third class train for 2 hours and 15 baht  - about 50 cents Canadian. We explored the ruins of the royal palace and many other old wats (temples). Most of the Buddha statues are missing their hands and heads as the Burmese chopped them off because it was thought to hurt the spirit of the Thais.  It was really neat to see the old buildings and all of the Buddhist influence.

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Another day we took a trip West near the Myanmar border. Kanchanaburi is a city in Thailand that is famous for it’s Bridge over the River Kwai. It was a place impacted during WWII, and was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army. They commissioned the building of a railway in Thailand which later became known as the “death railway”, as the work and terrain was so treacherous, over 100,000 labourers lost their lives. We went to a pretty brutal WWII museam that actually had Canadian Tire money in a display case that held currency used in different countries during the war. Ha! We saw the bridge, took a train ride along the death railway, went to  Sai Yok Noi waterfall and lastly visited Tiger Temple. This is a place where monks care for orphaned tigers and other animals…but is definitely a tourist trap. I do look forward to coming back to Kanchanaburi with a Grade 6 trip I am supervising!

Christmas in Hawaii

Spending so much time in the heat of the tropics, I decided I needed to get away….to a different beach!! It was a family reunion of sorts – Rob’s family came in from Nagoya, Japan, I flew in from Bangkok, and the rest escaped winter in Canada. Oh and Obama flew in from the mainland to be with us too…how lucky! We spent Christmas together for the first time in way too many years, and it was great!

 

We were staying on the island of Oahu, on the world famous Waikiki beach. The weather was gorgeous (a nice escape from Bangkok hell), and it was SO nice to see some of my family. One day we drove around the island stopping up at the North Shore and Sunset Beach to swim. We had a roadside “plate lunch” of grilled shrimp…yummy. Kai and Rein had a lot of fun playing in the waves, and Rob and I were happy that we were not taking our surfing lessons in the winter swells. Chris and I did a lot of shopping, reluctantly dragging Rich along at times. It was so nice to finally fit into clothes again! Asia and I do not agree on sizes. Rob and I took a 2 hour surfing lesson – he was awesome, the Pacific kicked my ass!! It was really fun though, and I will definitely try it again soon. I just need to gain a little upper body strength before I brave it again.

 

The whole family took a day trip to Hanauma Bay, a bay set in a volcano crater with tons of coral reef and tropical fish. We snorkeled and played on the beach, very fun. I had a blast with Lo and Tea, playing, swimming and eating Cold Stone Creamery – the best ice cream ever! My mom enjoyed having me make a mess in our condo…and Gord had someone to pick on again. All was well.

 

Being in America, I decided to do as the Americans – EAT! It had been forever since I had steak and real pizza and caesar salad….yummy. We celebrated birthdays and went out for Vietnamese food…better than the food I ate when I was in Vietnam. During our meal was an island wide blackout that lasted 13 hours! (Luckily, Obama got generators so he wasn’t in the dark). My last day there I had a cheeseburger from Cheeseburgers in Paradise. ..a great end to my vacation. (Love how my blog is about food??!!)

 

Christmas was nice: a home cooked turkey, Hiroka’s Japanese appetizers and Thai dessert. A blend of cultures for a blended family. Perfection. 

Exploring Northern Vietnam

My best friends arrived in Thailand in early October to come visit me and go on an adventure in Northern Vietnam. A group of teachers I have met this year and my friends departed Saturday afternoon (after introducing my guests to Thai foot massage) for Hanoi. After a nice delay (typical of Air Asia) we arrived in Hanoi and were met by our driver. I decided that a tour was the best plan for our group of 6 so we didn’t waste time getting lost or fighting over what we wanted to see!

 

After my first taste of Vietnam’s traffic, we arrived at our hotel and went next door to grab a drink at a cool little pub. The next morning we were met by our tour guide Cha, and did a Hanoi city tour. We went to the Temple of Literature (the first University in Vietnam), Ho Chi Min Mausoleum, and Hanoi Prison (where John McCain was imprisoned for 9 years). The prison was really neat because the French built it, but then at one point the Vietnamese kept Americans imprisoned, and then the Americans also kept the Vietnamese imprisoned. Crazy! It was nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton". We had our first Vietnamese food which was quite good but lacking the Thai spice! The afternoon was spent at the Museum of Ethnology which was by far my favourite part of the day. That evening we went to a water puppet show. It was the creepiest and weirdest thing I have seen in a long time. The actors are in a tank of water behind a screen and they move their puppets through the water while scary music and song goes on. Very odd. All in all it was a nice day of sightseeing. 

        

          

At night we were transferred to the train station to take an overnight train to Sapa, one of the Northern most cities. The train ride was quite interesting and I was extremely happy to be in “first class sleeper” though back home it may be considered third or fourth class. Haha.

     

Nine hours later we were picked up at the Lao Cai train station and took a one hour drive through the mountains up into Sapa. Our van was stopped once due to a herd of water buffalo crossing! The countryside looked a lot like Cinque Terra, Italy, very lush and farmland plots built into the side of the mountain.

    When we got to Sapa we checked into a beautiful hotel on the edge of a mountain. The architecture was really neat as it was all of these old run down  French colonial buildings. At any point in time you could have guessed you were somewhere in Europe.

    

    

We spent the next two days trekking through the mountains and visiting hill tribe villages. We saw the black Hmong villages and how the people lived. The girls do not go to school but they hike hours into Sapa to sell their handicraft. They wear traditional costume and get by on very little. The Vietnamese government actually pays for the Viet ethnic minorities health care and for them to attend school.  There were some beautiful sights along the way and a gorgeous waterfall! One of the days we were hiking it started to rain really hard and the paths were limestone that was very slippery when wet. It would have taken us three hours to hike back up into Sapa and would have been quite dangerous. The solution? Hop on the back of motorbikes in one of the villages and motorbike up the mountain in the rain. SCARY but very fun! Sapa was my favourite place in Vietnam and it was the first time in months I have had to wear a sweatshirt. I had forgotten what it feels like to be cold!

    

  

   

We took the night train back to Hanoi and had a free day in the city. We wandered around the Old Quarter shops and markets and art galleries. I bought a very cool abstract Buddha head “painting” but it is made out of leaves and I got to meat the artist and see how it was done! We also stopped in a history museum and sat by the lake for a while. It started to rain while we were out and the worst of Vietnam came out. The traffic is insane as there are no rule, very few traffic lights and no pedestrian crossing ANYWHERE. There are motorbikes zipping in and out everywhere and everyone honks their horn constantly as a warning they are coming. You cross the street by taking a step in and walking slowly and steadily across while trying to make eye contact with every driver coming your way. They will dodge around you but it is important that you make no sudden movement of you will for sure get hit. How frightening! Honestly, the driving is so erratic…completely out of control. It makes Bangkok look like a country road. In the rain the streets become gross with street “sludge” and garbage and it is quite disgusting and dirty. After being caught in the rain one night walking back to our hotel I refused to go back out for dinner as I was covered in street sludge. I for sure got worms from that trip. (Side note: De-worming is advised every 3-6 months in SE Asia!).  This experience ruined the city of Hanoi for me.

        

   Early the next morning we went to the Perfume pagoda, a temple built into a cave. It was a couple of hour drive out of the city and then an hour row down a river. Oh and then another couple hour hike. Yes!  I might finally be in shape. It was a cool sight to see and another nice hike. We ate lunch down at the base of the mountain by the river and this is the meal that I am convinced led me to get violently ill upon my return to Bangkok!

        

The last two  of our trip were in Halong Bay, A UNESCO world heritage sight in the South China Sea. We had a private “junk” (boat) to ourselves, and a personal crew. We sailed through the thousands of islands on the turqoise water. We did some sea kayaking and went spelunking (the recreational sport of cave exploration…for all of you that didn’t know!) and swam in the South China Sea. We saw some floating houses and a school in these tiny little fishing villages (they actually live on the water year round) and went to a pearl farm. The food and drinks on the boat were delicious, as was the relaxing on the reclining chairs on the sun deck. It was a nice end to a great week. I dreaded going back to school on Monday, but thanks to my Vietnamese food poisoning I did not return for 4 days!