Borann Auberge des Temples Siem Reap

... and moving piles of rocks. I confess I often had a tear in my eye watching them the day of the party....watching the obvious bonding between the father and Pick as they worked together, watching the proud look on Ameah and Bracke's faces as they watched their father working, watching the mother giggle like a young girl as she played with Pick during a break, and watching the smiles on the faces of Srey Ya, Dty, Srey Tien and Srey Dine as they ...

... of several tall buildings. The doorways were ornate, but the darkness on the other side of the doorways make such a startling contrast that you thought you'd get sucked into nothingness if you weren't careful. Who knows, you could wake up some ancient monster from it's eternal slumber... I know, too many movies!

... pace here noticeably slower than Thailand, both people and traffic, and I enjoy that.

- Everytime I talk to someone, and hear their story, it tugs at the heartstrings. My driver, Adam, is from the countryside around Siem Reap. He is 26, and he doesn't know when his birthday is. Someone told him the year he was born, and that is how he knows how old he is. Apparently this is especially common in the country, to not know your birthday ...

... humour to ward them off; we've had to say "No thank you" more times in a week than we have in our entire lives
- There are too many tuk tuks and not enough customers, which means you get harassed for a tuk tuk ride at every 10 meters. At least, they are polite and don't keep on insisting.

The need-to-improve-badly:
- We've not experienced it first hand but based on our books and according to locals to whom we've talked, there is a LOT of corruption ...

... set of Tomb Raider).

Banteay Srei: beautiful pink sandstone and very intricate carvings.

Bayon: giant, peaceful faces carved into the temple’s towers.

Preah Khan: huge complex of structures, this felt more like an ancient city than the other temples.

After the day with the Tuk-tuk driver, we rented bikes and toured around the "park" ourselves. Between dodging crazy motorbike drivers, adorable yet sad ...

... ga ik naar het vliegveld om woensdag middag rond half 12 weer in Amsterdam te landen. Voor wie niks te doen heeft en zin en tijd heeft om naar Schiphol te komen, ik heb een terugkomdrankje in m'n tas ; ).

Maar ik zal nog even vertellen over de afgelopen week. Het strand was niet zo'n succes maar ik ben samen met Chris -een Canadese student geneeskunde, een nogal nep gastje maar wel enthousiast al met al wel leuk om mee te reizen maar ik ben ...

... before heading to Ta Prohm - the temple made famous by the film 'Tomb Rader'. No Lara Croft though - sorry Guys!




A feature of Angkor are the constant attempts to sell you 'cool drink', 'postcard', 'bracelet', 'scarf' and lots of other things you don't want. Rhianne and I were complete soft touches, especially when it came to the kids, and over a drink in the afternoon we managed to attract about 6 local kids. We made the fatal mistake ...

... off and we arrived at the border crossing with Cambodia without incident at about noon.

Of course, the bus stopped at a small restaurant near NOTHING so everyone had to buy their expensive food ($2USD for a meal that should have cost $1USD). Many of us were planning on getting our visas at the border, which is allowed for the usual suspects: Brits, Ozzies, Kiwis, Americans, Canadians, etc. They basically held us there and refused to allow us to go to the border unless we already ...

... fail, mean ecological and, by extension, social disasters.


By the time we reached Bangkok it had begun to rain. This was very unusual for this time of year and nobody we met could explain it. Parts of the capital had flooded and people stalked the streets looking silly with plastic bags on their heads and around their shoes. We both came down with colds.


Unfortunately we had one week left in Thailand and I was still waiting for my new Visa card to ...