And We're Back
So, October, has been notably quiet from this end. Mainly because I haven't gone anywhere. It is, however, a month of holidays including the mid-Autumn Festival, Divali, and Hari Raya. I wandered abouts Singapore attending the various events as well as ventured over to the Asian Civilizations Museum. Oh yes, quite a lot of culture. In any case, I'll just fill this post with some photos for your enjoyment.
Kampuchea
Mid semester break means an opportunity to travel around the region. After a stop in Bangkok I headed to Cambodia to visit Phnom Penh, Battambang, and Siem Riep. I'd recommend that route for a couple of reasons, but the most important being: Phnom Penh has neat temples and museums but it's memorable for Tuol Sleng prison and the Killing Fields. Therefore, if you want to end your trip in a state of depression you'd end it in Phnom Penh, but if you want to remember Cambodia for its majesty, end it in Siem Riep.
Cambodia is a lovely mix of so much that it's hard to put the entire experience in words. The majesty of old civilization is juxtaposed with obvious continued, widespread poverty. The French colonial influence is dominant everywhere while the scars, the deep deep scars of war and the Khmer Rouge remain. Taking a bus through the countryside, boat rides through river communities, tuk tuk and motos around the countryside one gets a view of Cambodia that you don't see from tour buses. In many ways I think that was my favorite part of the trip.
From Phnom Penh after visiting the Silver Pagoda, the Killing Fields, the Russian Market, Central Market, the Tonle Sap River, we headed north to Battambang (the second largest city after Phnom Penh) where we stayed a night and continued on towards Siem Reap. Siem Reap is the jump off point to see the temples of Angkor from which Angkor Wat is the best preserved and most well known, but there are a number around including: Ta Prohm, Preah Khan, Angkor Thom (includes Bayon and Baphuon) among many others. In addition we also included stops to Kbal Spean and Banteay Srei. People often only see the end product of the trips and don't realize how difficult it is to get to certain places. Case in point, Kbal Spean is known for its River of Lingas, to get there, however is a 10 km ride on a motorcycle over an unpaved potholed road that gets muddy and nearly impassable in the rainy season. The hike up is through picturesque landscape however and is worth the trip up.
Now, you want to see the photos, so please do
here 
