Cambodia - Dec'24

 

After spending sometime in Thailand, we crossed the border on foot and went to Cambodia. It was an easy border crossing. 

Note: If you apply for your Cambodia VISA online it costs $36, however if you come to the border and then apply for the VISA, it will cost you $30. So if you want to save 20% on the VISA fee, please walk to the border without an online VISA. 

We were in a small van with 5 other Europeans.

The Krong Poi Pet Thai-Cambodia border is pretty crowded and things happened quite haphazardly. 

We ended up in Siem Reap safely and successfully. Pub Street of Siem Reap offers decent food, music and beers. 

We have now understood that every South East Asian city has a hippie/ traveler street. If one is craving for pizza, pasta, burgers or wants a break fromAsian food, then they can head here. :-) 

We visited the Angkor museum before visiting the Angkor Wat the next day. 

There were lots of Hindu idols and scriptures in this museum. 

We realised that, just the Angkor Wat temple site is a huge place. And, the complete Angkor Old City was a 400 sq kms site. We were excited to visit it the next day.

Again the cleanliness and no-honking was a lovely surprise for us. 

We left our hotel at 4:30 AM in the morning to reach Angkor Wat and be the first to see the sunrise. 

Note: The best way to visit the old city of Angkor is to get a TukTuk, which is actually a trolly stuck behind a scooter and it will cost you $20 for the whole day!

Our hotel was good at pushing us to wake us up and dragging us out of our beds. Angkor Wat does look beautiful when the sun was about to rise and we were lucky to be in the first row. 

A lot of people brought massive fancy cameras and lenses. We made some friends and they were pretty decent iPhone cameramen. ;-) 

As we looked back at where we were standing, there were hundreds of people there, as the sun came up. 

As we walked into the Wat, we saw the vastness of the place.

The symmetry of the place was unbelievable.

It felt like we were in the 10th century. It in fact is a ruin and has been kept as a ruin since many decades.

I loved how they had built this temple in the 10 century, knowing that we would visit it in 2024. How did they know that? Just how? 

From Angkor, our driver took us to Bayon. We also saw the Amritmanthan where the Asuras and Devas churned Amrit from the sea. 

A lot of countries have been helping Cambodia to safeguard and renovate the temples.

I loved the face of the kings on the temples.

Again, it feels like they built these massive temples and then just didn't take care of them. 

There was another temple taken care by the Indian government and the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) has been helping Cambodia to rebuilding and renovation. This was the Ta Prohm temple, also know as the Tomb Raider Temple. 

The temple is extremely old and now, nature has taken over this temple. 

I also think, this temple wasn't completed. Some of the drawing seems to be just drawing and the carvings were unfortunately never completed. 

Mother nature rules here. 

You can walk from one section to another and it feels like a broken Hollywood site.

Some sections are still okay to walk along though.

I loved this photo where the tree is towering over everything. In few centuries, even the wall that is standing at the back will fall. 

As the sun came up in the sky, the heat became almost unbearable and we asked our guy to take us to the last temple. Banteay Kdei Temple was our last however one of the largest after Angkor.

One must try to take the day slow and I would suggest people to do these temples over 3-4 days. 

The ruins are absolutely stunning. 

We then left Siem Reap and went to Phnom Penh. 

The National Museum of Cambodia was lovely. They also had a lot of idols from Siem Reap here. 

I especially loved the idols of Kauravas and Pandavs.

It was beautiful and pretty lovely garden too.

We also visited the Prison-21 in Phnom Penh (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum). This was a prison and a torture camp for the people who didn't agree with the Communist Pol Pot regime on Cambodia. It was really tragic place to visit. However, the people of Phnom Penh don't ignore their history and want everyone to understand the mistakes made by previous leader and want the next generation to learn from those mistakes.

These were the last 14 prisoners left in the prison camp 21, when the Communist regime was toppled in 1979. 

Few of the guys who survived the regime wrote their tales. 

This was quite a moving place. But sometimes it's important for us to visit such places and learn from them. 

Note: Please get an audio guide for this visit. 

We then visited the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre, also known as the Killing Fields of Cambodia. This was the scariest of times for Cambodians and it was very enlightening to see that we now have peace in the country and the people are moving forward. 

Note: Please get an audio guide for this visit. 

The memorial was beautiful from afar. 

These were the fields where the Khmer Rouge killed people just because they could. Some of the stories we heard during our visit were extremely moving. 

There was a tree, where the mothers and their kids were separated. And because the bullets were expensive the kids were killed by banging their heads on this tree. I haven't heard of such cruelty ever in my life. 

Tribute to those who lost their lives and family members during this time.

Some of the human heads that were found here.

We came back to the town and prepared for our next journey. For almost the whole journey, we both were quiet and just remember what would have happened during those years and how 33% of the population of a country was genocidally killed by the Khmer Rouge dictators.

Thailand's growth and its obsession for cleanliness

We recently completed our travels in Thailand and their obsession for cleanliness is mind boggling. They are remarkably looking at every fallen leaf and picking it up from the streets and pavements to make everything spic and span all the time. 

We saw these elephants (video above) en route to the hotel and even they were walking on clean pavements.

 We reached Krabi, it is a small beach town and if you see the cleanliness here, it is pretty exceptional.  

We then jumped on a mini truck ride to our hotel and the streets in the town were outstanding well kept and didn't bump into any pot holes. As people of Indian origin and with British passports, this was a new thing for us! 

Even the Highways are astonishingly of Western European standards, and in some cases better than European standards. However, in England we do see filth along the motorways, over here; we didn't see any garbage on multiple bus rides that we took. 

Even in Bangkok, that is a very busy city; probably the busiest in South East Asia, they were able to keep pavements clean for people to park their bikes and get some sort of dinner sorted. Also the restaurants haven't encroached on to the pavements. 

In Chiang Mai, we visited the Royal Gardens and they were spectacularly manicured gardens and looked extraordinary during our visit. 

When visiting the White Temple of Chiang Rai, the whole journey looked like a movie set coming into the temple. Also within the temple, there was hardly any dirt or garbage seen anywhere. 

If one visits the temples in India, they feel like a dumping ground and around the temples one would see the temple offerings were thrown in heaps. Why? 

Now that was around the touristy area. When we took the train and came into Bangkok, the station is ready for the next level of growth. They have their main railway station Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal ready for the high speed railway. 

This station is better equipped than any Indian Train station or airport. India is doomed. Thailand is about 15-20 years ahead of India. How did India lose the race to Thailand? 

And within the Bangkok city they have exceptionally well maintained parks and canal systems. People with kids and with grandparents jogging and running in early mornings & evenings. Can anyone show me one city in India with such clean canals or river systems? 

These parks (Lumphini Park's video above) then get full in the evenings with people doing their exercises and enjoying their time with each other. It's an easy & cheaper way to create a healthier society. People of all capabilities and ages visit these parks to exercise. Indian government has no interest in making lives of the citizens healthier & the politicians are more corrupt than the British when they ruled India! 

Even the malls are more aesthetic than the Indian malls.

....and better looking and more posh. 

Those who say "India is growing" are as delusional as the cows grazing grass in the fields. The other countries have already grown and have surpassed India by decades. All India can do is dream about their past and gloat about it.

Thailand

 

So here we are, on a trip to Thailand. 

Phuket > Krabi > Koh Samui > Koh Tao > Bangkok > Chiang Mai > Chiang Rai > Bangkok > Siem Reap (Cambodia)

We chose a route which would allow us to explore the southern beaches of Andaman Sea, then Bangkok city and then go to the Northern Mountains. And, finally take the bus to Cambodia. 

Patong Beach in Phuket. The Bangla Road is pretty busy 24 hours a day for 365 days!

Gorgeous sunset

We hired a bike and off we went to explore some other beaches.

..only to then get caught by the police & get fined , for not driving with a International Drivers Licence! Embarrassing! 

Kata Beach in Phuket

We then hopped on a bus and went to Krabi. 

The beaches of Krabi were extremely beautiful.

The long boats are a unique touch to Thai beaches.

and the lime stone cliffs too.

After Krabi we went to Koh Samui. To our surprise we were there on one of the festival days; Loy Krathong, Thailand's Festival of Lights. It coincided with one of the biggest festivals in India on the full moon day in November. One would light the candle and float these floats in the water.

We did see some massive ones in the town centre.

The Lamai Night Market has food, t-shirts, hats, fruit, beers, shakes, and more to offer.

The island also offers beautiful temples one can visit. Please be mindful of the clothing when you visit temples.

The temples are extremely clean.

The Big Buddha of Koh Samui. After Koh Samui we went to Koh Tao. 

This is where we caught up with some really bad weather.

There was a storm brewing and no one was in the water. We ended up going to the beach one day only and rested indoors for 4 days.

The rain was persistent in Koh Tao.  

We then took the boat and then the train to Bangkok. 

Bangkok boats of some absolutely gorgeous temples. 

The amalgamation of Hinduism and Buddhism in Thailand was quite evident. In a Buddhist temple of could see idols of Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma. 

Here we see Garuda. The vulture god of Hinduism.

 

Outside one of the Buddhist temples.  

Wat Arun in Bangkok.

We crossed the Chao Praya River, to get more views. 

Lord Rama was at the entrance of one off the Wats. 

Off we went to Chiang Mai and crossed the historic city of Ayutthaya.  

At the Chiang Mai station. 

The monument of the Three Kings in Chiang Mai. 

The Wat at night, with the moon shining in the background. Sometimes the camera doesn't capture what one sees with their naked eye. 

We also visited Doi Suthep in the mountains of Chiang Mai.  

The Royal Park Rajapruek was about 30 minute drive from the city centre. 

It has beautiful gardens , ponds, lakes and walkways.  

The biggest attraction was the Orchid Park. 

Again, the photos don't do justice to what we saw at the park. 

The next day we went to the Blue Temple, White Temple and the Black house. 

These are really modern temples and do symbolise a society ready to look at religion and temples with a new perspective. 

En route to the white temple we also saw the big buddha. 

The entrance of the White Temple was quite different than the other places we had visited.  

The temple was something out of the world. Also, the architect has a very beautiful eye to how one can make this place more photogenic and touristy. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I am not as opinionated as others, but I loved the aesthetics of the place.

Accidentally we ended up wearing white that day!  

Everyone here looks stunned! 

And the next day, we went to the waterfalls Khun Kron. 

There was a constant spray of water when we stood there. 

The clock tower of Chiang Rai. 

We then took the night train back to Bangkok. 

The scooter drivers run Bangkok city. They are the lifeline and if one has to go from A to B, one must take the scooter. The traffic is really bad, the buses are slow (although they are AC) and the metro doesn't connect every important part of the city. Trupti and I hopped on 2. Check out the number of scooters in the background. 

Democracy Monument in Bangkok.  

Also, the Tuk Tuks are the other mode of transport that are the bloodline of Bangkok City. 

Christmas isn't far and we will be missing the English Christmas this year and will be celebrating in t-shirts and in the tropics.