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February, 2004
Angkor Wat, Cambodia
 Next on our itinerary we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia. It's
where Ankor Wat is located. I was excited about the opportunity
to visit it. I hope many of you will look up photos on line
and see what it is. I know our photos are poor quality
compared to what is available from National Geographic. We
only had three days in Cambodia. I was surprised at the
number and quality of hotels that have been built to service
the growing tourist industry. You can spend from $5 to 250
night.
We've started on Malaria pills. This is the first place we
will have visited where they are required. The regimen is for
28 days after leaving the effected area. Andrew is counting
out the number of pills!
Visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia is a dream
come true. I don’t remember when I first saw pictures of the
temple. It was probably during the Vietnam War. Most of us
wouldn’t have even heard of Cambodia before Nixon ordered our
troops into the country. After the war ended the dictator Pol
Pot seized control and started the “Killing Fields”. Cambodia
suffered greatly during the 1970’s.
Those dark years were hard on the people and the monuments at
Angkor Wat. Many of the temple areas were overgrown with
jungle again in the 20 year absence of archeologists. Many
buildings are being restored today. The Japanese Govt. has
sponsored with UNESCO, the rebuilding of numerous sites.
During our short time in Siem Reap, we visited all the major
sites in the area. We marveled at the size and architecture of
this ancient Khmer city.
Cambodia / Thailand
2 Journal ...»
Bangkok, Thailand
 Arriving
in a city at night gives you a chance to see how vast it is in
size. Bangkok is huge and littered with high rise buildings in
all directions. I hadn’t realized that it was this big.
Bangkok is renown for it’s traffic jams, so arriving in the
evening saved us that experience.
We checked into our hotel and went out at
9:30 to find something to eat. Walking down an unfamiliar
street at night, in a new city probably isn’t a good idea. The
sidewalks were busy so we felt safe enough. In the first
block, we were greeted by a great, big rat. Now that will put
anyone on edge! The second corner is full of “girlie” bars,
where they called greetings to us and AD especially. We found
a McD’s a few blocks later. Exhausted by the day and the city,
we wondered where we had come. On the return trip, we were
greeted by more rats, one was trying to carry a dead pigeon
away for it‘s dinner. So we dubbed our short walk, which we
make multiple times a day to the sky train “The Rat Walk”.
Thankfully, this was our only experience with them so far.
 We
had a 3 day/2night nightmare in western
Thailand and the River Kwai. I will let the photos and next
journal entry tell that story. It's amazing
how deceptive a travel agent can be. We are going to report
the company who arranged our Thailand tours when we return
from Cambodia. I don't like loosing my cool with people but it
happened a number of times while we were on the River Kwai. It
amazed us how bad the conditions of the accommodations were,
when others on the river looked so nice. The programs on the
tour were not described correctly and the food was awful.
The war memorials to the POWs who died at the hand of the
Japanese during WWII were very moving. There is an excellent
museum dedicated to those who lost their lives building the
railroad. We want to see the movie "Bridge over the River
Kwai" again when we can. Of course the photos of the POW's
will be fresh in our minds...it's going to be a much different
perspective than seeing Alec Guiness in the movie. First of
all, they only had loin cloths to wear.
Thailand Journal ...»
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