Photos Added

I finally went through my photos and added my favorites to the earlier blog entries.  As I was going through I realized I hadn't included any of the lotus field we visited, so those are below.

Bangkok

I had a short but sweet visit to Bangkok. We drove all day with a border crossing with a nice long wait to get into Thailand. Once in Bangkok it turns out that our hotel was actually in a great spot this time and was super modern. It was difficult to want to leave the hotel at all but we had dinner and drinks on the popular nighty life streets just a 10 minute walk from the hotel.

This morning I got up early and went to the Royal palace and to see the emerald Buddha. I went in right when it opened so I had plenty of time to battle through tour groups and got shopping in before it was back to the hotel to shower, check out and make my way to the airport.

I am boarding my flight home from Taipei note. Can't wait to get home.

Battenbang

We left Siem Reap at 8am to head to Battenbang Cambodia our last city. We go there at just about noon. Our hotel looked really nice from the outside which was a great change from the last one. They greeted us with a disgusting drink and nice cold towels that smelled very strongly of menthol. Our rooms were not ready yet to we went into town for lunch. It was a great place actually. They did fresh juices so I had an apple, carrot and ginger juice with a Cambodian version of a bahn mi.

Hanna, Emma, Erica and I were all on the same afternoon tour of the city so we had a couple of hours to walk around first. It was super hot and we walked pretty constantly the whole time but it was worth it. We saw a pagoda with Buddhist monks living in it and several of the French colonial houses. I was hot and tired when we got back but we left almost immediately for a tuk tuk tour. 

Our first stop was a rice paper making family. It was a similar process to the coconut paper but for their fire they use the rice husks leaving almost nothing unused from the rice. Then we went to see rice noodles being made by a family for surrounding restaurants. They started my grinding rice, then making it into a paste. The best part was the 75 year old man who was pressing the paste into noodles using a huge stick over the pot of boiling water. Once cooked and cooled the noodles were coiled into bundles and put into baskets for the restaurants.

Next it was out to ride the bamboo train. You kind of have to read about it because it is amazing that they even run. They are fast but bumpy and with no rails. It was quite an experience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norry?wprov=sfla

We had a cooking class next. It turns out out was with our tuk tuk driver. In his house on an amazing rooftop kitchen space he taught us to cook Cambodian chicken curry, spring rolls and fish amok. It was a amazing experience.

Angkor Wat and temples

Today was an amazing day. Filled with visiting temples and seeing traditional apsana dancers.

To catch you up. Phnom Penh turned out to be a really good city.

Yesterday was spent on the bus going to Siem Reap. It ended up being a very long day as the bus broke down and we were stuck on the side of the road under some shade for 2.5 hours. We then had to rush our planned stops at the insect market and the silk factory. We were all happy to be off the bus. Spent the evening on Pub Street and at the night market.

Today was temples all day. We started with Angkor Wat which is impressive for it's sheer size.















Then we visited the women's temple Banteay Srei. This was my favorite as it had beautiful detail and everything was in proportion with great lines between. I could have stayed for ages here.

Our last stop was the Buddhist temple Bayon which has Buddha heads everywhere, they sort of made me laugh with the half smile every where I looked.

Dinner tonight came with a show of apsara dancers who moved their hands and feet in ways I didn't expect. It was a very interesting show.

Tomorrow is Angkor Wat at sunrise, then the temple from Tomb Raider and the floating village in the afternoon.

Floating village: