Sunny Koh Samet- Our Little Vacation From Traveling...Yes We're Spoiled.

To finish off our time in south east Asia we dedicated a solid week to sit in the sun on the tiny island of Koh Samet ( sometimes spelled Samed). It proved to be everything we hoped for with a couple of restaurants, a 7-eleven, a cheap room and a few very fine beaches to lounge on while improving our tans. We fell into an extremely relaxed schedule that included homemade breakfasts, then coffee down the street before eventually making our way to the beach by around 11:00. We’d lay sweating on the beach (the sun was HOT) as long as we could manage before going for a swim and returning to town for a late lunch of great Thai noodles from a little hole in the wall shop we found. After retreating to our air-conditioned room to rehydrate and reapply sunscreen we usually manage to make it back into the sun for a few more hours of sun before the call to happy hour to celebrate a hard day’s work (do we really have to come back??) 

Yep.

We stumbled upon a model shoot on the beach. Go figure.

In between sessions of beach sitting we also met an incredibly kind local woman. Lex, a 22 year old from Chanthburi Thailand, who moves to Koh Samet each year during the high season to sell ‘pancakes’ (crepes) from her little cart. We gave her plenty of business (peanut butter & banana)  and after a few days we became friends. A couple of times she insisted in taking some time off of work to show us her favorite beach, tour the “fish farm” or play some pool down on the beach. When not serving up crepes she knits gifts for her long term customers who return to the island each year. On our last day she gave Sue a purse she’d knitted over the last few days. Couldn’t have been nicer and her pancakes were dangerously delicious.

The rope tow out to the fish farm. More of attraction for the Thai-tourist from nearby Bangkok, we wouldn’t have ever know about it without Lex as our tour guide.

More of an outdoor aquarium than a fish farm as the fish aren’t actually sold or eaten, just displayed. There were some surprisingly large specimens for the rather small enclosures including a sea turtle and zebra sharks.

During our ritual breakfast of cornflakes, pineapple and yogurt the same dog would appear to scratch its behind on Sue’s chair.  Every morning without fail, and only Sue’s chair.

Some of the large beachside resorts had nightly fire shows which were quite impressive.

The nightlife beach strip, each place tried to outdo the next with their lanterns.  

After the blissful beach time we headed back to Bangkok to catch our flight out. If you watch the news you’ve probably heard about the crazy flooding hitting Thailand and threatening downtown Bangkok. At the time of writing this our area of downtown was still dry and with any luck we’ll be on the plane to Hong Kong before the worst of it arrives. However with floods predicted to hit most of the city and speculation that the water could stick around for weeks, the hotels and  stores all over town are building sandbag barriers with some of the more serious shop owners building miniature cement walls to protect their storefronts. 

Bamboo Trains and Boomboxes in Battambang, Cambodia

After the three days spent rushing from one temple to the next, to the next in Siem Reap we headed for the much quieter and less touristy city of Battambang, Cambodia. after having most of our days scheduled out by the hired guide/driver it was quite nice to return to our typical schedule of wandering street markets and shops to pass the time between eating meals. Besides sleeping in and long breakfast we also managed to see some of the more interesting local attractions like the bamboo train.

 To work off some of the many accumulated meals we headed to a park one evening after hearing about the local workout scene. Around 5pm everyday several jumpsuit wearing, speaker hauling, aerobic instructors set up shop in the riverside park. For about 25 cents anyone can join in  on one of the workout sessions. Graham opted out after seeing each small class was made up entirely of 5 foot tall, middle aged/elderly Cambodian women and was worried he'd be unable to contain his laughter as he towered above them while attempting to "jazzercise". Sue however, being the workout veteran she is, had little reservation in joining in and despite being the only foreigner in any group in the park, she was soon front row center pumping it out. The white girl in workout clothes proved to be something of an attraction and several locals stopped to watch for a bit, eventually a TV camera even appeared for a few moments, though we have no idea what it was about....Meanwhile we got a spectacular (dry) lighting show with huge bolts dancing across the sky as class ended. Sue got her workout and a bit of local culture to boot.

A "norry" operating on the Battambang bamboo railway, which locals claim is the only one world wide. Though it still serves as a primary mode of transporting goods and people to some more remote villages farther up the line, the railway has capitalized on its moderate fame to become a true tourist attraction and private cars are obligatorily hired out rather than riding with the locals :(

The little cart, made of a wooden frame with bamboo slats for flooring, is powered by a small motorcycle engine and bounces down the rickety French-era tracks at about 15-20 MPH. 

The true genius of the system is its solution to the problem of single track railways and what to do when two "trains" meet going opposite direction. Due to it's simple and fairly light weight construction, the entire vehicle can be "disassembled" in about 30 seconds and moved off to one side.

The cliff-side temple of Phnom Sampeau sits atop a mountain that was the front lines of the civil war against the Khmer Rouge.

A shrine filled with bones inside the "killing caves" near the temple. Apparently the Khmer Rouge would throw victims to their deaths from a large whole in the caves ceiling.

The view from the temple.If we haven't already mentioned it, Cambodia is a pretty flat place.

We took a side trip Phnom Banan and found part of the lower entrance roped off by landmine warnings. After making an extra wide detour around the area we spotted a mine clearance expert dressed in the full bomb squad gear and armed with a metal detector sweeping path not too far off this main courtyard. Quite the reminder to stay on the path and shows how the problem is still a current one and not yet just part of the history books. 

After climbing a very long and steep set of stairs we came upon the 11th century ruins of  Phnom Banan. The 5 towers are claimed by locals to be the original inspiration for the design of Angkor Wat.  It was a tranquil spot, but slightly less impressive considering the temple bananza we'd been on a few days back.

With our recuperation from Siem Reap complete and having lazily experienced a regular Cambodian town, we map out our escape to the beaches of Thailand.

Swimming in Siem Reap and all the temples of Angkor

We spent 3 days temple hopping  around Siem Reap, Home of Angkor Wat and dozens of other ancient ruins. We woke early on 2 of the days to meet up with our hired driver, jumped in our tuk-tuk and explored temple after temple til we dropped.  On our last day we rented some bikes and visited the sites just outside town, including Angkor itself and Ta Prohm (the idea was to save best for last).

One minor detail was that most of downtown Siem Reap was flooded due to the intense monsoon season affecting SE Asia. Thailand's been hogging most of the news coverage, but things have been equally bad all over the neighborhood.

However, life mostly continues as normal with most business staying open behind a wall of sandbags, though the kids seemed to be enjoying the new public pool.

Temples, temples and more temples. The detailed carvings were amazing (though lots of it has been restored). The diversity of the architecture and purposes throughout the ages gave each site a unique atmosphere.  Banteay Seri, above, constructed in the 9th century was one of the earliest examples of preserved detail.

The Cambodia Land Mine Museum run as NGO founded by a former Khmer Rouge soldier. While he was forced to plant mines in his childhood,  he's now personally been responsible for disarming over 50,000 mines and his organization continues to educate villages and help de-mine one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. 

Baneay Samre Temple, Graham's favorite.

Bayon Temple famous for it's 54 towers displaying 216 giant smiling stone faces said to resemble King Jayavarman VII.  This was Sue's favorite.

Baphuon, with its long elevated walkway.

Graham on the elephant terrace.

Some of the temples are interwoven by huge silk-cotton trees bulging through ruins

Angkor Wat, unfortunately the iconic 5 tower silhouette was marred by some construction awnings, but still remarkable to behold.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world at over 11 million square feet.   

Bas relief carvings that circle the entire outer wall of Angkor Wat and many of the other temples seen above.

Mama monkey doing her job

The South Gate of the Angkor Thom complex.  

Ta Prohm, a classic example of nature reclaiming human construction.

The temple is said to embody how many of the temples looked when Western explorers first rediscovered them, though Graham was mostly looking to discover Angelina Jolie dressed in her tomb raider outfit.