Cambodia

(Dieser Artikel ist auf englisch, weil ihn die Mitglieder der Intrepid-Reisegruppe vielleicht lesen moechten)

I am now in Saigon a.k.a. Ho Chi Minh City. We have traveled there entirely by land (and by boat) from Bangkok, where our tour started with a bus ride to the Thai-Cambodian border at Poipet where our group leader's stories about Cambodian corruption got instantly confirmed by the extra $5 we paid for faster visa processing... After another 3 hours or so we reached Siem Reap where we would stay for three nights. Siem Reap is located right next to the Angkor Archeological Park and seems to be Cambodia's tourist center for this reason: there are lots of modern hotels, bars, restaurants and the ubiquitous souvenir shops. The Angkor Park itself contains many individual sites (temples, cities, ...) of the Angkor Empire and is most famous for the temple of Angkor Wat (where we watched a particularly unspectacular sunset) and the city of Angkor Thom, containing many more interesting places. The temples are in various states of decay (and reconstruction) and some of them had been converted from Hinduism to Buddhism and back many times, resulting in an interesting mix of symbolism. There are about a million pictures of the temples on the net that are all better than mine, but here you go:

Cambodia is a very flat country (a "pan" with mountains at the borders) with the Great Lake "Tonle Sap" in the middle. It is currently dry season which means that most of country's rice fields look gray and deserted, only a few are irrigated and provide a saturated green for contrast. The lake's water level fluctuates accordingly. Here is what it looks like without water:

Another trip from Siem Reap brought us to the "floating" village of Kampong Phulk at (or in) the lake where about 800 families live in houses built on stilts up to 10m in height. In the wet season the Tonle Sap's water level rises to just below the houses' floor and transport is only possible by boat, but now we could just walk on the ground below. Buying and distributing schoolbooks to the village's children sure was a unique experience..

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We continued to Phnom Penh, where the depressing part of our trip awaited us and during our Visits of the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields mass graves the group didn't talk much.

After a bunch of other activities in the city (Cyclo-tour, Silver Pagoda, Emerald Buddha, Royal Palace, Partying at the Mekong Promenade) we left after two nights via boat, crossing the Vietnamese border on the Mekong river and finally arriving in Chau Doc where we did a motorbike tour to the top of a nearby mountain and tested the local dalicacies of rat and snake, fruitbat being sold out. We continued to Saigon, which feels a little bit like Italy: warm climate, christian churches, crazy traffic.

I have just bought a (photocopied) LonelyPlanet guidebook for New Zealand for a mere 130000 Dong and will now start looking for a nice accomodation in Auckland. Cleaning my shoes with a toothbrush to comply with the crazy biosecurity laws is next.

Thanks to Tom, Lynda, Rebecca, Kieren, Matt, Brendan, Michael and especially Limny for an amazing trip!