Siem Reap- Cambodia

I was lucky enough to be rostered for a flight to Cambodia, visiting both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. Paul joined me in Siem Reap for the weekend. Cambodia as you know is one of the poorest countries in the world, but we found the people to be so friendly and welcoming. We stayed at a beautiful Hotel called Victoria Angkor Spa Resort, the hotel reminded us of home, it was a "colonial out of Africa" decorated hotel, so beautiful check out the following website: http://www.victoriahotels-asia.com/eng/hotel-in-cambodia/angkor-resort-spa/pictures

We spent the whole of Saturday with a fantastic guide who spoke excellent english, he took us to 3 famous tourist sights. The first was the Floating Village, here the population live off the lake, there is a floating hospital, school, police station and even a floating church. The people living in the floating village are a mixture of Cambodians and Vietnamese, for food they fish at night and during the day they try sell fruit and drinks to tourists.

We then headed to the famous Angkor Wat temples, they are part of a World Heritage sight and is one of the largest religious monuments in the world. The temples were built around the 11th centuary and took 37 years or so to be completed, now after surviving a war they are still standing but a lot of restoration is going on at present. We climbed up very steep steps to get to the top, a little scary but worth it for the beautiful view. Paul and I are not the temple or museum type but this place is definately worth a visit.

Many of the Budda's inside the temple have had their heads chopped off, thought to have happened during the war, most other statues have been preserved in various museums around the world.

Our next stop was the War Museum in Siem Reap, we had a fantastic guide, his name is Kaom, a true inspiration. Kaom watched his parents die a sad death, they were blown up by a land mine when he was 9 years old, he lost his arm in the blast and was fortunately taken in by the monks and spent the rest of his youth with them. Now he is an adult and longs for a good decent paying job, however due to his dissability the only job he can get is a guide at the museum and he relies on tips to survive. He is a very positive person and holds no grudges, amazing considering all his been through. If you are ever lucky enough to take a trip to Siem Reap then please ask for Kaom to be your guide and also our Driver/guide Tong was fantastic and friendly, he is studying to be a tour guide and really knows his stuff, his number is 012 919854















The museum was certainly an eye opener, during the Khmer Rouge war there were more land mines layed than the actual population of the country, land mines to my surprise come in all shapes and sizes, some are even plastic aimed to injure and not kill. Being plastic however the mines are difficult to detect, especially now as efforts are still continuing daily to de-mine Cambodia. The statistics are horrific but these days an average of 500 people are still injured or killed every year by mines. Kaom showed us all the different types of guns and mines used in the war. The sight of the war museum used to be an active minefield but now it has been cleared and de-mined.

We had dinner in some interesting restaurants in Siem Reap, the famous Bar or Pub Street is a great vibe and full of interesting places, around the corner we found the Dead Fish Restaurant, food was excellent, especially Khmer traditional Cambodian food, one dish in particular called fish Amok which is a fish curry, delicious. These signs in the photos were at the entrance, note the ghekos on the "we don't serve... sign."







When it rains in Cambodia, it pours, so much water falls in such a short time that the streets flood. Obviously the drainage aint to good either. The locals however are well prepared for the afternoon showers, they have what they call "Bin raincoats", made out of dustbin liners all over for sale.






Our last evening we had dinner at an Indian restaurant called the Kamasutra, great name we thought and food was devine

Trip to Beijing

I went to Beijing for the first time for work in August . As you all know Beijing is hosting the 2008 Olympic Games so at the moment it is a huge contruction sight. The first day I was there the pollution was so bad, as you breathe you can feel your lungs burning. You can see a film of dirt covering the leaves of the trees, its very bad. However the next day was perfect weather and what I believe to be rare blue skies so I decided to hit the streets and explore a few of Beijing's sights

The Forbidden City
Tian'anmen Square

Wangfujing Street The most popular way to get around Beijing is on a bycycle, at least one positive thing towards saving the environment

We stayed at the Peninsula Hotel in Beijing, super fancy as you know, just wanted to share with you the picture of the TV in the bathroom, oh yes you can have a bubble bath and watch the Bold and the Beautiful (-:

Happy Birthday Pauli

On the 27th August 2007 (yes sorry its taken a awhile to update blog) We all got together at Jaspas in Sai Kung for Dinner.

Liam and Davy

Joe and Paul comparing facial hair growth, yip this is after shaving yesterday ha ha

Sailing in Hong Kong

Johan and Anne invited us to join them on the Cathay/Swire yacht for a day of sailing. We left Causeway Bay Marina and headed for a small Island called Potoi. We had a Sailor on board, but Paul and Johan decided they would start learning to sail unfortunately there was a slight shortage of wind so the motor did most of the work. (-:

Having Lunch at Potoi Island was interesting, at first sight it looks a little dodgy but the restaurant is run by the locals who seem to have been there their whole lives. The food was surprisingly great and very fresh, cheap too.