Monday, April 4
Trains travel to Copenhagen was extra exciting because we got to be one hour delayed en route. Luckily we had good time, so we made it! The seats in the plane were perfect, but it was not to much sleep. We arrived in Bangkok at. 05:00.
Tuesday, April 5
The flight to Phnom Penh was easy, but the taxi ride to the hotel showed that traffic in Phnom Penh is about to collapse. There is rush hour traffic all day and all sit constantly stuck in traffic jams. However, we came back and at. 13 arrived Ratha with her little daughter. She took us on the afternoon sight seeing. First stop was Toul Sleng also called S21. It was formerly a school, but from 1975-79, where Pol Pot raged, the place was used as a prison and toturanstalt. His regime reached a total of executing more than 2 million. Cambodians. There were many school groups among the visitors. It must be something special to have to explain the rising youth, about what happened. Next stop was the Russian market. A traditional market with the incredibly narrow "streets" where you can buy almost anything. Last stop was Wat Phnom Pagoda. A famous pagoda located on a hill in the middle of the city. Here we include the man who had wild birds in the cage. You could buy a bird and then release it as a kind of religious act. We ate at a nice restaurant close to the hotel and then we went to bed early. Tomorrow is the visiting Rathas village.
Posten must be! You will be never tired of looking at the insane traffic.
Henning D and H. Henning in a tuktuk
School classes visited Toul Sleng
Toul Sleng prison
Russian market
Photos from Rathas facebook
Ratha and Elisabeth
Ratha and daughter
Rathas daughter
Wednesday, April 6
Now it Rathas village which her family owns 40 km in the countryside. Rathas mother owns the houses, Rathas brother, who is a lawyer, manages the village. We were picked up in the car of the Ratha and her brother. We enjoyed the opportunity to see the countryside outside the city. We ate our packed lunch - chicken with rice and exciting sauces! So there should be shared clothes out - 15 kg! Children and adults swarmed to the place where we were and got dressed and soda. Then we harvested 1 1/2 bag of fresh mangos in Rathans "little" plantation. The weighted so much that one of the bags broke and had to be repacked. The last part of the afternoon we used to visit the royal palace. We were lucky and saw the big rehearsal for a ceremony that would take place in the evening. We think that it was the king who was to undertake a ceremony on the occasion of the New Year. There was asked gilded throne up in the large ceremonial building, which were parades, military band, and it was teeming with dignitaries. We had to go a roundabout way, when we were going home because security officials cleared the main square in front of the Royal Palace. In the morning bus to Siem Reap.
Rathas gathers Mango
From Rathas facebook
Henning
Elisabeth and 2 * Henning
children stand neatly in a row
Lunch in village
Royal Palace
Thursday, April 7
Henning had found our favorite tuk tuk man from last year, although there must be hundreds of them in the part of town where we lived. He organized a friend, so we were picked up in good time of 2 tuk tuk'er. There were problems with the aircon on the bus, so it rained a bit on us on most of the trip, but the road was much better than last year. After a light lunch, I contacted Chhiev our guide here. 16.30 was the departure of sunset over Angkor. This year it was a new place - Pre Rup Temple from the 10th century. Built in Champ-style.
Sunset over Angkor
Angkor
relief image of Angkor
Friday, April 8
We were picked up by tuk tuk at 4.00. We should reach the sunrise over Angkor Wat. 6:15 the sun was so high that we were given the "red cone" to see. More and more tourists each year. After half an hour we went and ate a packed breakfast. We visited Angkor Wat as today's first temple. It is the largest and most impressive throughout the Angkor area. Next stop was the royal city of Angkor Thom. We went through the gate and was then driven to Bayontemplet with many faces. Chhiev explained about the many friezes of Khmer history. There are many stairs, so it went up and down. After Bayon we saw a Hindu temple, and the temperature was approaching 40 degrees. We walked past the royal pools and so also the place where the big elephant fights took place. The lunch was delicious, and so we lacked just Ta Prom with all the trees. To be traveled a while down there, so we were well sweaty and tired when we got back to the tuk tukken. One Henning tried the pool when we got back. In the evening there was a party. Sophal and Chhiev with his two girls (17 and 14 years) were the local guests. It was a delicious gourmet dinner with a nice menu.
Companies The large group of travelers in front of a tree root in Ta Prom
Saturday, April 9
We were picked up by børn brother in the tuk tuk and started to visit a monastery where they had found mass graves from the Pol Pot regime's time. Now it is again a monastery, and has made a monument in order to commemorate the dead. Therefore we drove to børn home where he has crocodiles in the backyard. He has only a few small home. Most of the production is moved out of the country to his brother. During the Ton Le Sap River, we visited Sophaels house. Her daughter in 1 1/2 years was not entirely comfortable with the strange white guests. The rest of the day was spent packing and transport to the airport so we could fly to Saigon.
It is Sophaels girl on the right. She could not quite like the strange guests. Sister's daughter was more curious.
family Chhiev
Ton Le Sap