Siem Reap Part 2

Well, I can't believe it's our last night here in Siem Reap. The last four days have been tiring but very enjoyable.

Monday afternoon we paid a visit to the Children's Sanctuary which is an orphanage established by a couple from Dean, just outside of Ballarat. We dropped off some things being that we were on our way through. The children of course were gorgeous and my heart just broke for them and their circumstances. It is awesome that people genuinely want to make a difference and rather than complaining or just talking about it, they put themselves 'out there' and took action to help these kids out. About fifteen children live at the Sanctuary and they are grouped with a nanny to provide stability, consistency and love and to replicate a familial home environment. Some other people were visiting from Australia and they did some brief teaching before we all played with the kids in the yard.

having fluffy balls piffed at me

tunnel ball

getting some IT assistance

As it was time to head off the kids started their own little 'concert'. They started singing the alphabet, B-I-N-G-O, hokey pokey, twinkle twinkle, heads shoulders knees & toes, five little ducks etc. etc. It was great - one little kid in particular was going off tap.

hokey pokey

The next day we headed off to Angkor. There are apparently over one thousand temples in the area and I think we saw around six. The biggest temple in the area is Angkor Wat. It is the big kahuna! I could not get over the size of these things or the detail of the carvings on just about every surface. We had a very informative guide who knew just about everything there was to know - who was fighting who, the reasons they were fighting, which god was which etc. I think the bulk of the temples were built between the 9th and 12th centuries. Some took one-hundred plus years to build others less than fifty. If you ever come over here Angkor is on the must-see list for sure! There were literally hundreds, possibly even thousands of people venturing around the complex. Em said that when she came here in 2003 there was barely anyone around.

Em feeding the elephant

nosing it up with Buddha 

nature overtaking man-made creation

these dudes are apparently Chinese because they have beards...

@ Angkor Wat

chillin with the monks

we think our guide fancied himself as a bit of a photographer - I must admit he got some cool shots

Us and a lot of other people waited a few hours for a sunset THAT NEVER CAME...

I was glad this sign was up because I was just gonna wash my hands in the urinal after using it

It was an amazing day, and hard to take everything in. The sheer size, detail and stories behind every building and every wall were enough to make my head explode. I figured they could have saved a lot of time had they not put so much detail in to just about every brick. Apparently the bricks were carted by elephant. They had holes which had been drilled so iron bars could be inserted to help with transport. The magnitude of the temples was hard to fathom had they been built with the technology that we have, let with the very basic tech that was available in those times.

There were a lot of little kids trying to flog off stuff to the tourists - I was tempted many times to buy something off them for $1 US. They were selling everything from postcards to bracelets to musical instruments to lonely planet guides to Cambodia.

Speaking of little kids, tonight we went out to the floating village. This is located on the Great Lake or Tonle Sap. There are around 2000 people living on houses which are literally floating on the lake. The lake is 140km long and increases in size exponentially during the wet season. During the wet season all the houses are towed deep into the bushes to ensure safety from the waves.

both these kids for some reason had snakes (which apparently didn't bite) and the girl was asking for 'one dollar, one dollar, one dollar'

On the way out of town we almost got wiped out by another tuk tuk. Our driver had locked the brakes up and was trying to stop Flinstones style! We also had to take a detour I think because the road was being resurfaced. The road we took was extremely bumpy and had a lot of areas with loose and deep sand so it was pretty hard going for our driver but he did a good job. It worked out well in a way because we got to see some agricultural areas which we would not have otherwise seen. The floating village was basically hundreds of houses and other buildings which were moored against the bushes growing in the lake. The village is quite established and had a primary school, English language school, catholic church, bar and shops. It's hard to believe that this is how they live...

the houses are mounted on rafts kept afloat by empty fuel drums

hundreds of tourists were ferried out to make the most of the sunset, there were at least 3 viewing platforms set up for this purpose

Our guide said that all of the villagers are Vietnamese. I sensed that they weren't really wanted here. He also said that the Cambodian government assists them a fair bit when they have limited access to food and resources.

Earlier today Em and I went to the market again and tried out a fish massage. Em got used to it in the end but my feet must have been too sensitive and I never fully relaxed. The fish eat the dead skin off your feet and are meant to provide a massaging sensation. We also got a 'proper' massage that cost $8 for an hour.

We had a brief tour of Artisans d'Angkor where local artists carve, paint and sculpt their wares.

Tomorrow we head off to Battambang where Em will commence her workshops. We're travelling with some other teachers who we've met up with in Siem Reap, in a minibus. I feel like we only just arrived but still am looking forward to seeing some other parts of this beautiful country.