Cambodia – January 15th, 2016
Woke up this morning to our balcony window covered in bugs and our balcony floor a carpet of dead moths – the crew mentioned that is always like in this area for 3 months of the year.
Today it brought us to the hillside location of Wat Hanchey a temple dating back to the 7th Century – there is only one original tower left the rest of the temple has been reconstructed. There are 391 steps leading to the temple, but motorbikes were available if you were not up to the challenge, so it was “climb every mountain” time. The murals inside the Temple were spectacular had an issue as to where to point my lens
We found a vendor selling fresh squeeze cane sugar juice, cold and refreshing, so we enjoyed a glass. This brought memories of my child hood drinking Guarapo in a hot humid Cuban day.
Upon our return we were part of a Buddhist blessing ceremony, I presented the gifts – Buddhism is more of a way of life than a religion in which the main message is what you put into the lives of others comes back into your own – Karma.
We cast off upriver to our last destination Kampong Chang a provincial capital.
We are entertained on board by kids from the Organization for Basic Training a non- Governmental agency staffed by volunteers and funded by private donations and ship passengers – the organization teaches kid from a local village English, arts, music, and Cambodian Folklore, which was basically erased during the zero years, aka Khmer Rogue regime.
It was a lovely smiled filled performance of song and folk tales – the kids ranged in age from 8 to 16. afterward, they introduced themselves and talked a bit about their families and what they want to be in the future – learning English will help them better themselves.
On our last excursion with the cruise ship, we visited Wat Nokor a colorful monastery built on the ruins of a 12th-century Angkorian-era temple. David took a walk on a bamboo bridge over to an island on the Mekong – the bridge is rebuilt every year and it’s used by pedestrian, motor scooters, cycles and small vehicles – I thought it was going to be single person and ropes, so I waited above the embarkment.
Last night a good bye from the crew – a lovely dinner an appetizer of a purse prawn that how should I describe it “More”
During our excursions, there was always a different crew member taking pictures like any other tourist, to our surprise, they were taking candid pictures of us. After dinner, a slide presentation was announced and it was 7 days of candid pictures as we explore this tragic but beautiful land – some people were more feature than others, Shirley a lovely English mentioned I had star quality for a guy who hates his picture taken I a had a major role.
A copy of the video was given as a parting gift, upon settlement of our bar tab 10,326,371.00 Cambodian it includes bottles of wine, cocktails, and our new addiction Vietnamese ice coffee.
Tomorrow Siem Reap and the adventure continues.
