Slum Dong Millionaires

August 10, 2017

It always amuses me when you order a coffee at Starbucks and the 'barista' says; "awesome". My standard response is "really, you think an order for 'a tall pike for here' is awesome? What if some day something awesome actually happens then you'll be stuck to find an adjective to fit." Usually the kid looks stunned and I say try "far out" like I did at your age[That is 1965 PB. pre barista] that will leave you some slack later on.

I've used up my list of superlatives describing our experiences to date so that when Angkor War appeared out of the rising sun it left me almost speechless, Angkor Wat is quite simply staggering.

Angkor Wat is a temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world, with the site measuring 402 acres. It was originally constructed as a temple to the god Vishnu, gradually transforming into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the 12th century. It was built by the Khmer King in the early 12th century in present-day Angkor the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. It is reported,[ by me], that the first archeologist on the scene threw up his arms and declared "my career is in ruins".

Where to begin? According to Lonely planet "there is no greater concentration of architectural riches anywhere on earth." The most annoying issue when visiting the temple complex is choosing what to see. You cannot see everything unless you dedicate a large part of you resources and your vacation time to it.

Angkor is the earthly representation of Mt Meru, the Mt Olympus of the Hindu faith and the abode of ancient gods. Angkor Wat is the heart and soul of Cambodia. It is literally heaven on earth.

Angkor had a population of over 0ne million people when London England was a town of fifty thousand.

The temple of Bayon features 215 giant carved faces.

The size of the trees piercing the ruins gives an idea of how ancient the site is.

The amount of detail is simply amazing.

Siem Reap was a very pleasant surprise. We weren't expecting much but it is truly a little charmer with old French shop houses, tree lined boulevards and a lazy river meandering through it. But it's also the gateway to Angkor Wat and as such is the epicentre of the new Cambodia. A country desperate to redefine itself after the despoilment of the Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge years, a fairly recent and particularly nasty chapter in their history which they are desperate to erase.

Pub street in Siem Reap. Loved the fifty cent draft beer.

Cocktails on the street.

The national museum of Angkor history.

The famous Raffles hotel. Not ostentatious. Nothing but class.

Inside Raffles.

We took an excursion to the famous floating village of Chong Kneas, it's an otherworldly place built on tall stilts to deal with the incredible flooding of the lake and river during the rainy season. One point two million people live on the largest lake in southeast Asia and all of them are fisherman. The lake doubles in size during the rainy season and there are small islands of floating vegetation all over that could easily foul up the boats propeller and rudder.