Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Cambodia

The Trip from Bangkok to Cambodia

Just had a week of holidays, so I spent the time travelling in Cambodia and Vietnam. One of the biggest hassles were figuring out how to get to Cambodia. It is not the easiest country to access, but we ended up flying to Bangkok to make our way from there. The route from Bangkok to Siem reap in Cambodia is somewhat infamous for its bad roads, many scams, numerous vehicle break downs and somewhat tedious boarder crossings. Via buses, tuk-tuks and taxis we made it in about 11 hours, which is not too bad. Actually, besides getting forced to pay more at the boarder for our Cambodian visas (we stayed there for over two hours trying to haggle the price down), the trip was rather uneventful. You have to pay for the visa in American dollars, so my personal theory is that they wanted more money because the dollar is rather weak at the moment.

Patrick posing with our taxi driver just across the boarder. Ah, beautiful Cambodia...

Angkor Wat
Our main reason for going to Cambodia was to see the temples of Angkor. The temples are over 900 years old and pretty amazing. The temples make you realise how rich this region, both culturally and money-wise, once was. Weird to think about in today's poor, war-thorn Cambodia.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat.


Floating village
I also visited a floating village in Siem Reap. Pretty much just boats, houses or sometimes a combination of the two, on a big fresh water lake. Met some really nice, local people here.


Post on Vietnam coming soon.

5 comments:

AnneGro said...

Fantastiske byggverk. Må visst få meg et kart på kontoret så jeg kan "se" reiserutene dine:) Ha det kjekt. I dag er det 11 grader og vår ute. klem fra mamma

AnneGro said...

Det er kjekt med bildene, god fotograf og godt kamera:)

Anonymous said...

haggling with locals, that is an achievement in itself! the pictures look really ancient, look like a very historic place to visit.

minioligo said...

i <3 cambodia!! :D

Anonymous said...

Du er heldig!! oppleve så mye spennende. Angkor Wat skulle jeg gjerne se. Fantastiske bilder. Blir litt smått å dra til tr.våg på påsketur. Men- vi har vår i vente, Fa.mor