Thailand & Cambodia are awesome!
- Thread starter warpus
- Start date
warpus
In pork I trust
I doubt it's gold leaf trim everywhere, but it probably depends on the temple. The only thing I've been able to figure out via google is that chedis tend to use gold leaf.
There's actually pictures of a golden Chedi coming up next, but I have no idea what it's made of. I wouldn't really know what to look for.
warpus
In pork I trust
Did somebody say golden chedi?
Every once in a whole you'll catch a picture which has been through my camera's postprocessing algorithms.. It usually only kicks in when there are extreme lighting conditions.. but can also be triggered manually by focusing the camera at a light source or something very dark, and then taking a picture of something else... to give just one example.
I love experimenting with my camera when I travel - I end up learning a lot about it. Here the sun was starting to go down and there was a lot of shade behind the gong, so I knew it'd be an interesting spot for a picture.
By one of the eastern gates to the old town I found this:
Every once in a whole you'll catch a picture which has been through my camera's postprocessing algorithms.. It usually only kicks in when there are extreme lighting conditions.. but can also be triggered manually by focusing the camera at a light source or something very dark, and then taking a picture of something else... to give just one example.
I love experimenting with my camera when I travel - I end up learning a lot about it. Here the sun was starting to go down and there was a lot of shade behind the gong, so I knew it'd be an interesting spot for a picture.
By one of the eastern gates to the old town I found this:
warpus
In pork I trust
Goodbye to Chiang Mai
One of several city gates separating the old town from the new:
The water you see in the picture below is from the moat that surrounds the old town.
Other things I encountered on my walk back to the hotel:
The bus service I had booked for the next stage of my trip included a pickup at my hotel at 6:30pm, departure on a larger double decker passenger bus at 7:30pm, and 5:30am arrival in Bangkok.
And then a 7:30am bus to the Cambodian border, and then some sort of transportation from there to a place called Siem Reap.
Why'd I book such a crazy bus adventure through 2 countries, instead of flying? Well, I read a bunch of stories, and the general consensus seemed to be that a bus journey through the Thai-Cambodia border can be quite an interesting experience. So I wanted to try it, but I also wanted to minimize travel time, if possible.. so I didn't want to spend a night in Bangkok and "waste a day". Plus if you take the bus, you can meet more interesting people.. right?
So I got on that bus and the person sitting beside me is an older Chinese lady. Sweet, somebody small and quiet looking! She had several plastic bags with her, with various other bags inside them. Those bags in turn contained things I could not quite make out.
As soon as the bus left the station, she sat back, closed her eyes, put her hands on her ipod, which did not have any headphones attached to them, and put on some sort of a classical Chinese lullaby type thing, out loud....
She sat there and hummed along to it, and I sat there beside her, eyes wide, thinking that I had made a horrible mistake...
One of several city gates separating the old town from the new:
The water you see in the picture below is from the moat that surrounds the old town.
Other things I encountered on my walk back to the hotel:
The bus service I had booked for the next stage of my trip included a pickup at my hotel at 6:30pm, departure on a larger double decker passenger bus at 7:30pm, and 5:30am arrival in Bangkok.
And then a 7:30am bus to the Cambodian border, and then some sort of transportation from there to a place called Siem Reap.
Why'd I book such a crazy bus adventure through 2 countries, instead of flying? Well, I read a bunch of stories, and the general consensus seemed to be that a bus journey through the Thai-Cambodia border can be quite an interesting experience. So I wanted to try it, but I also wanted to minimize travel time, if possible.. so I didn't want to spend a night in Bangkok and "waste a day". Plus if you take the bus, you can meet more interesting people.. right?
So I got on that bus and the person sitting beside me is an older Chinese lady. Sweet, somebody small and quiet looking! She had several plastic bags with her, with various other bags inside them. Those bags in turn contained things I could not quite make out.
As soon as the bus left the station, she sat back, closed her eyes, put her hands on her ipod, which did not have any headphones attached to them, and put on some sort of a classical Chinese lullaby type thing, out loud....
She sat there and hummed along to it, and I sat there beside her, eyes wide, thinking that I had made a horrible mistake...
warpus
In pork I trust
On an overnight bus to Bangkok
Thankfully enough the old lady ended up being not so unpleasant! She shut off the music after 3 or so songs. I could not figure out if what she had done was some sort of a ritual she always went through whenever she travelled, whenever she sat down beside someone new, whenever she was stressed, or whatever, but it turns out that her plastic bags containing other bags contained some snacks. They weren't really that great, but I accepted a couple from her so that we could bond and become better co-passengers or whatever.
It was not easy to sleep in my seat, even though it was actually pretty comfortable.. I sort of lied back with my eyes closed for a couple hours and even started dozing off a little bit until finally at 1:30am the lights came on suddenly and we're pulling over to a rest stop area, so that we can eat. A half an hour stop for a midnight snack.
I stumbled around the plaza half asleep, not really sure what I had been told about my ticket by the bus driver. He definitely told me something, probably that I can exchange my ticket for food.. which I vaguely remembered hearing about. The rest area was sort of like an open air market, with food vendors cooking various things, an open convenience store type setup with lots of bags of weird snacks, a couple fridges with drinks, benches to sit on, a bathroom... and lots of people.
I walked around all the stalls and did not see anything I wanted to eat. I didn't see any weird snacks I wanted to buy either. So I bought some pringles. I'm open to new experiences, but at the time pringles and a bottle of 7up was exactly what i needed. And in terms of snacks I was used to, it's pretty much all they had.
At 5:30am the bus pulled into Bangkok. I flagged down a cab and showed the cabbie the exact address of my destination.. and the name of the building complex.. and I pointed out the general part of the city where it was, on a map. I figured that would be good enough.. It was not. My cabbie drove around at times aimlessly, every once in a while looking at the instructions I had given him, repeating the name of the building complex over and over in a very exaggerated, thoughtful and at times quizzical tone, which made the whole thing absurdly comical to me, in part because the name was "Heha complex". At one point he stopped at a red light, got out of his cab, and walked around to nearby cars and pedestrians, asking about "Heha complex". Nobody seemed to know where it was.
Once we eventually got there I gave him a large tip for putting so much effort into getting me there and for almost making me laugh by making the situation unnecessarily absurd.
It was just after 6am and I was starving. I picked up my bag and walked down the street, hoping to run into food.. The first thing I ran into was a 7-11 with a food cart right outside the entrance selling what appeared to be meat on a stick. I inquired about the meat. Pork. I might as well try the pork on the stick, I thought to myself. I cautiously bought one and bit down. Right away I realized that I was eating by far the best pork on a stick I have ever had... and in fact some of the best pork I've ever had as well. I went back and ordered 4 more.
A medium sized van showed up about an hour later, at 7:30am. I threw my bag in the back and climbed into the only available seat, the co-pilot one beside the driver. We headed east, towards the Cambodian border.
Thankfully enough the old lady ended up being not so unpleasant! She shut off the music after 3 or so songs. I could not figure out if what she had done was some sort of a ritual she always went through whenever she travelled, whenever she sat down beside someone new, whenever she was stressed, or whatever, but it turns out that her plastic bags containing other bags contained some snacks. They weren't really that great, but I accepted a couple from her so that we could bond and become better co-passengers or whatever.
It was not easy to sleep in my seat, even though it was actually pretty comfortable.. I sort of lied back with my eyes closed for a couple hours and even started dozing off a little bit until finally at 1:30am the lights came on suddenly and we're pulling over to a rest stop area, so that we can eat. A half an hour stop for a midnight snack.
I stumbled around the plaza half asleep, not really sure what I had been told about my ticket by the bus driver. He definitely told me something, probably that I can exchange my ticket for food.. which I vaguely remembered hearing about. The rest area was sort of like an open air market, with food vendors cooking various things, an open convenience store type setup with lots of bags of weird snacks, a couple fridges with drinks, benches to sit on, a bathroom... and lots of people.
I walked around all the stalls and did not see anything I wanted to eat. I didn't see any weird snacks I wanted to buy either. So I bought some pringles. I'm open to new experiences, but at the time pringles and a bottle of 7up was exactly what i needed. And in terms of snacks I was used to, it's pretty much all they had.
At 5:30am the bus pulled into Bangkok. I flagged down a cab and showed the cabbie the exact address of my destination.. and the name of the building complex.. and I pointed out the general part of the city where it was, on a map. I figured that would be good enough.. It was not. My cabbie drove around at times aimlessly, every once in a while looking at the instructions I had given him, repeating the name of the building complex over and over in a very exaggerated, thoughtful and at times quizzical tone, which made the whole thing absurdly comical to me, in part because the name was "Heha complex". At one point he stopped at a red light, got out of his cab, and walked around to nearby cars and pedestrians, asking about "Heha complex". Nobody seemed to know where it was.
Once we eventually got there I gave him a large tip for putting so much effort into getting me there and for almost making me laugh by making the situation unnecessarily absurd.
It was just after 6am and I was starving. I picked up my bag and walked down the street, hoping to run into food.. The first thing I ran into was a 7-11 with a food cart right outside the entrance selling what appeared to be meat on a stick. I inquired about the meat. Pork. I might as well try the pork on the stick, I thought to myself. I cautiously bought one and bit down. Right away I realized that I was eating by far the best pork on a stick I have ever had... and in fact some of the best pork I've ever had as well. I went back and ordered 4 more.
Spoiler :
I actually had a dream about this thread last night. Go figure.
And yeah, pork skewers (usually eaten with sticky rice) are one of the things I miss most about not living in Thailand. Even when you can get them here they are criminally expensive.
And yeah, pork skewers (usually eaten with sticky rice) are one of the things I miss most about not living in Thailand. Even when you can get them here they are criminally expensive.
warpus
In pork I trust
The satay ones you can get in restaurants just aren't as good, even in restaurants in Thailand. Street vendor ones can be hit or miss too, from my experience at least. I had a pretty crappy and almost inedible one on my way to Cambodia actually, at a rest stop.. All street meat in Bangkok on the other hand was very good, especially the pork skewers. I have not eaten pork that good since.
Terxpahseyton
Nobody
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To disturb an animals while it is eating is never a wise choice...
warpus
In pork I trust
I did pet an elephant while it ate...
My guess would be that the elephant in the gif was abused and eventually snapped.. which made me wonder when I was riding them (and petting them).. What if some of these elephants have been abused? What if one of them snaps?
In the end I told myself that these are the exact same worries I should have when riding a horse.. and a lot of people ride horses, and the horses almost never go crazy. I know that's not fully (or at all) logical, but it made me feel safer.
edit: As in "I have no idea if elephants ever snap.. .. .. Elephants probably almost never snap!"
Does any of that make any sense? Who knows. It made sense to me at the time - now it just sounds stupid. It's time for another update either way.
My guess would be that the elephant in the gif was abused and eventually snapped.. which made me wonder when I was riding them (and petting them).. What if some of these elephants have been abused? What if one of them snaps?
In the end I told myself that these are the exact same worries I should have when riding a horse.. and a lot of people ride horses, and the horses almost never go crazy. I know that's not fully (or at all) logical, but it made me feel safer.
edit: As in "I have no idea if elephants ever snap.. .. .. Elephants probably almost never snap!"
Does any of that make any sense? Who knows. It made sense to me at the time - now it just sounds stupid. It's time for another update either way.
warpus
In pork I trust
Into Cambodia
At 11:30am or so we were finally at the Cambodian border.. or were we? The van stopped at a restaurant with outdoor seating, where we had the option of ordering lunch while we filled out our visa paperwork. I must have been delirious, because I didn't order anything even though I was pretty hungry.. opting for a couple drinks instead. Why? So that I could properly enjoy Cambodian cuisine once we got there, instead of filling up on cheap at-the-border Thai food. I lived to regret that decision, but it made a lot of sense at the time.. up until the moment I had to sit there and watch other people eat.
It turned out that the visa paperwork needed to be submitted with 2 passport style photographs. I didn't have anything of the sort, which is when I learned that the visa paperwork needed to be submitted with either 2 passport style photographs or the equivalent of about $6. I guess corruption can be useful after all!
The border crossing at Poipet was very busy and seemed very disorganized; it took us a lot of time to get through all the different checkpoints. At times it seemed like a circus.. Street vendors, large trucks pulling in here and there, large groups of people congregating and moving in various directions.. and even a casino right in the middle of the "neutral" part of the street. How good the odds could have been in that casino is anyone's guess, but I had to stick to my group of bus people either way. The bus driver wasn't allowed to go past a certain point, so the 5-6 of us sort of stuck to each other and made an unspoken pact to assume the form of a herd.
I'm not sure how long exactly it took, but long story short I'm in a taxi with 3 Japanese ladies and we're on our way to Siem Reap.
Link to video.
During a short break I was able to snap a couple pictures of a young boy helping out with the selling of fruit. He's a Chelsea supporter, just like me!
"We need five more fruits over here!"
At 7pm I was finally checked in at a guest house in Siem Reap, Cambodia! It was about a 5-10 minute walk to the main strip in the city, which I was not really that interested in that night. All that was on my mind were food and sleep.
While unpacking I took a picture of the wad of money I got when I exchanged a bit of Thai money at the border... Yep, this is my spending money for 3 days:
Each one of those is a 5,000 bill. And if I'm not mistaken what you are looking at is 500,000 Riel, or about $120.
The thing with Cambodia is that they really like American money. Every single restaurant I went to preferred to receive American money and had everything listed in US$ at least or both US$ and riel. But see, I was told that it's for some reason better to use riel. If you pay for things in riel instead of American dollars, you'll get ripped off less often, they said. Who? I'm not sure, but that's what I had in my notes.
Another annoying thing about paying in riel is that everything was advertised in American dollars.. while all I had were 5,000 riel notes.. and $1 = 4,000 riel.. So the math wasn't difficult or anything, but it was pretty annoying.
"Cambodia's an interesting place" were my thoughts (I bet) as I dozed off into sweet sweet sleep (at 10pm)...
At 11:30am or so we were finally at the Cambodian border.. or were we? The van stopped at a restaurant with outdoor seating, where we had the option of ordering lunch while we filled out our visa paperwork. I must have been delirious, because I didn't order anything even though I was pretty hungry.. opting for a couple drinks instead. Why? So that I could properly enjoy Cambodian cuisine once we got there, instead of filling up on cheap at-the-border Thai food. I lived to regret that decision, but it made a lot of sense at the time.. up until the moment I had to sit there and watch other people eat.
It turned out that the visa paperwork needed to be submitted with 2 passport style photographs. I didn't have anything of the sort, which is when I learned that the visa paperwork needed to be submitted with either 2 passport style photographs or the equivalent of about $6. I guess corruption can be useful after all!
The border crossing at Poipet was very busy and seemed very disorganized; it took us a lot of time to get through all the different checkpoints. At times it seemed like a circus.. Street vendors, large trucks pulling in here and there, large groups of people congregating and moving in various directions.. and even a casino right in the middle of the "neutral" part of the street. How good the odds could have been in that casino is anyone's guess, but I had to stick to my group of bus people either way. The bus driver wasn't allowed to go past a certain point, so the 5-6 of us sort of stuck to each other and made an unspoken pact to assume the form of a herd.
I'm not sure how long exactly it took, but long story short I'm in a taxi with 3 Japanese ladies and we're on our way to Siem Reap.
Link to video.
During a short break I was able to snap a couple pictures of a young boy helping out with the selling of fruit. He's a Chelsea supporter, just like me!
"We need five more fruits over here!"
At 7pm I was finally checked in at a guest house in Siem Reap, Cambodia! It was about a 5-10 minute walk to the main strip in the city, which I was not really that interested in that night. All that was on my mind were food and sleep.
While unpacking I took a picture of the wad of money I got when I exchanged a bit of Thai money at the border... Yep, this is my spending money for 3 days:
Each one of those is a 5,000 bill. And if I'm not mistaken what you are looking at is 500,000 Riel, or about $120.
The thing with Cambodia is that they really like American money. Every single restaurant I went to preferred to receive American money and had everything listed in US$ at least or both US$ and riel. But see, I was told that it's for some reason better to use riel. If you pay for things in riel instead of American dollars, you'll get ripped off less often, they said. Who? I'm not sure, but that's what I had in my notes.
Another annoying thing about paying in riel is that everything was advertised in American dollars.. while all I had were 5,000 riel notes.. and $1 = 4,000 riel.. So the math wasn't difficult or anything, but it was pretty annoying.
"Cambodia's an interesting place" were my thoughts (I bet) as I dozed off into sweet sweet sleep (at 10pm)...
warpus
In pork I trust
I was checked in by 7pm, and was downstairs in the bar/restaurant area eating a 3 course meal by 8.
I think I had springrolls, amok, a generous portion of beer, and some sort of a dessert. The food was much different from Thai food as far as I was concerned, but it was also very good. I ended up eating at the guest house a bunch of times. I also have vague memories of a Cambodian idol type show on TV that everybody seemed to be watching very intently while I ate.
warpus
In pork I trust
Angkor Wat
Angkor is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "god-king", and lasted until the late 14th century, first falling under Ayutthayan suzerainty in 1351. A Khmer rebellion resulted in the 1431 sacking of Angkor by Ayutthaya, causing its population to migrate south to Longvek.
The ruins of Angkor are located near modern-day Siem Reap city, in Siem Reap Province. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together, they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture.
That's what wikipedia has to say about Angkor, the group of temples I was about to spend 2 days exploring. Not all thousand of them of course, just the main ones.. The plan was to rent tuk tuks for 2 days and have them take me on a predetermined route, around a list of temples I wanted to see .. and a list of temples they recommended that I see. Time permitting of course.
Day 1 of Angkor temple exploration started with Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat is the world's largest religious complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site, can be found on Cambodia's flag, and is the only temple in the area that faces west.. All the other ones face east (and nobody's really sure why)
It's also quite magnificent.
Angkor Wat has a 200 metre (220 yard) wide moat around it, which is about a kilometre and a half or so per side. The main entrance (and only entrance I think) is via the western bridge.
To better illustrate that, here's a visualization of the area from high above.. (look at the bottom for Angkor Wat)
That picture doesn't really do the amount of temples in the area justice.. A lot of them aren't labelled and that's really only the main cluster. It's really an insane amount of temples, and most of the ones I visited were distinct in some way or other.. Each one was definitely worth seeing (but at the end of it all I was a bit templed out)
After crossing the moat, the first thing you encounter is a set of 3 gates through the 3.4km (almost 2 mile) long wall.
At the gate, looking back towards the west..
Most parts of the complex were quite open - you could walk almost anywhere..
I was ecstatic when I finally saw this:
Angkor is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "god-king", and lasted until the late 14th century, first falling under Ayutthayan suzerainty in 1351. A Khmer rebellion resulted in the 1431 sacking of Angkor by Ayutthaya, causing its population to migrate south to Longvek.
The ruins of Angkor are located near modern-day Siem Reap city, in Siem Reap Province. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together, they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture.
That's what wikipedia has to say about Angkor, the group of temples I was about to spend 2 days exploring. Not all thousand of them of course, just the main ones.. The plan was to rent tuk tuks for 2 days and have them take me on a predetermined route, around a list of temples I wanted to see .. and a list of temples they recommended that I see. Time permitting of course.
Day 1 of Angkor temple exploration started with Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat is the world's largest religious complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site, can be found on Cambodia's flag, and is the only temple in the area that faces west.. All the other ones face east (and nobody's really sure why)
It's also quite magnificent.
Angkor Wat has a 200 metre (220 yard) wide moat around it, which is about a kilometre and a half or so per side. The main entrance (and only entrance I think) is via the western bridge.
To better illustrate that, here's a visualization of the area from high above.. (look at the bottom for Angkor Wat)
That picture doesn't really do the amount of temples in the area justice.. A lot of them aren't labelled and that's really only the main cluster. It's really an insane amount of temples, and most of the ones I visited were distinct in some way or other.. Each one was definitely worth seeing (but at the end of it all I was a bit templed out)
After crossing the moat, the first thing you encounter is a set of 3 gates through the 3.4km (almost 2 mile) long wall.
At the gate, looking back towards the west..
Most parts of the complex were quite open - you could walk almost anywhere..
I was ecstatic when I finally saw this:
SS-18 ICBM
Oscillator
Hey, don't leave us hanging here. The close-up and interior shots are the most-awaited ones. 
warpus
In pork I trust
Hey, don't leave us hanging here. The close-up and interior shots are the most-awaited ones.
It's a non world cup day today, so I should be able to post some pics once I get home.
warpus
In pork I trust
Angkor Wat 2
It was half an hour to noon, so the place wasn't as packed as it could have been. Great timing, even though it was totally not planned.. I just slept in and took my sweet time getting ready in the morning.. Mind you the itinerary I worked out for the day only included 6-7 temples, so getting to the first temple at 11am was not a problem either.
Here's another shot of that statue from the last update:
Is that the sort of stuff you want to see more of ss-18 icbm?
I'm going through the pictures chronologically and posting the ones that make it through my rigorous Q&A process. There's a bunch of indoor shots and closeups of murals on the walls and stuff like that, and definitely a lot of pictures of the centrepiece towers... Definitely more outdoor shots though - I don't think you were allowed to take pictures with your flash on. The sun also made lighting conditions interesting and at times frustrating..
And at times awesome.. Such is the power of the sun
There were people in that structure in the picture below trying to scam me into paying $20 for a book I didn't want but kind of sort of started to think I'd buy it if it was cheaper. They saw the hesitation in my eyes and pounced.. I stood my ground and they ended up leaving after I started ignoring them and walking around looking at stuff.
I hate to ignore people, but nobody was going to get in my way of my exploration time, especially not people trying to sell me stuff. And I figured out the best weapon to fight them with - pretending that they don't exist.
It was half an hour to noon, so the place wasn't as packed as it could have been. Great timing, even though it was totally not planned.. I just slept in and took my sweet time getting ready in the morning.. Mind you the itinerary I worked out for the day only included 6-7 temples, so getting to the first temple at 11am was not a problem either.
Here's another shot of that statue from the last update:
Is that the sort of stuff you want to see more of ss-18 icbm?
I'm going through the pictures chronologically and posting the ones that make it through my rigorous Q&A process. There's a bunch of indoor shots and closeups of murals on the walls and stuff like that, and definitely a lot of pictures of the centrepiece towers... Definitely more outdoor shots though - I don't think you were allowed to take pictures with your flash on. The sun also made lighting conditions interesting and at times frustrating..
And at times awesome.. Such is the power of the sun
There were people in that structure in the picture below trying to scam me into paying $20 for a book I didn't want but kind of sort of started to think I'd buy it if it was cheaper. They saw the hesitation in my eyes and pounced.. I stood my ground and they ended up leaving after I started ignoring them and walking around looking at stuff.
I hate to ignore people, but nobody was going to get in my way of my exploration time, especially not people trying to sell me stuff. And I figured out the best weapon to fight them with - pretending that they don't exist.
warpus
In pork I trust
Angkor Wat 3
By the way, you are able to take a virtual tour of Angkor Wat yourself using google maps street view. That link should take you right to the middle of the whole complex and allow you to move around like a virtual tourist.
By the way, you are able to take a virtual tour of Angkor Wat yourself using google maps street view. That link should take you right to the middle of the whole complex and allow you to move around like a virtual tourist.
warpus
In pork I trust
Angkor Wat 4
