Day 27: Siem Reap, Cambodia, Sun, 34°

Wat Rong Khun aka The White Temple!

So yesterday after breakfast our friendly driver picked us up at 8:30 and drove us out to the famous White Temple! You might recall that when I wrote about our visit to the Blue Temple I said I’d give a bit of background about both. They are related.

It sort of goes like this. In the mid 1990’s a temple that was in disrepair and full of bats was demolished with the intent to rebuild it. The foundation stones of a new temple were laid and construction started. However, the project ran into funding issues in early 1996 when Thailand suffered a brutal economic crash and construction ceased.

In 1997 a designer named Arjan Kositpipat who was a prominent Thai artist stepped in to complete the temple wanting as a Buddhist offering to do something special to honour Buddhism, the local people and the Thai King who he particularly liked. The connection with the Blue Temple is that one of his students rebuilt and redesigned this temple. Hence the similarities that I think you’ll see in my photos. I also read that several of his other students were also involved.

They don’t allow any photos inside this particular temple, but they didn’t say one couldn’t take photos through the windows. the inside isn’t particularly special, and I think they just want to sell images in the gift store. That use to be the way of things elsewhere in the world, but with digital cameras this is fast disappearing most places.

Like Gaudi’s work the Segrada Familia in Barcelona, this huge site continues to be a work in progress. Unlike the Barcelona monument, the designer here is still alive and involved.

We walked on to see some of the other areas of the park. there is a beautiful wall constructed to house a gallery, and to my mind the outside was pretty well done.

The backside was quieter, and we took a break to sit in the shade and to enjoy the tranquility.

We walked on to his art gallery and found the building to be somewhat impressive as well.

And we were finished, at least with what interested us. a text and our driver arrived and dropped us back k to town where we found lunch at a small kitchen.

We finished off the day with a meal in a sort of tapas bar.

A Change Of Country:

Up early this morning just after 6 as we are getting picked up at 7:00 and need to get through morning traffic in time to drop off AM’s bag by the 7:50 cutoff. It’s an automated luggage check in what ever that is?

May pick us up on time, but as we were driving out to the airport, an alert came up on my iPhone that I had left my left earbud back at the hotel. I was quite surprised because I keep my iPods and gear fairly well organized. I’m usually very careful with that sort of thing, and we have such a small amount of gear that I can only think it fell off the bed at some point. The case and right bud were with me which is why I had no idea that the left pod was missing. Crap!

We arrived at the airport and May contact the hotel and asked them to look for the earbud. She said she would drive back to the hotel to see if they had found it, and then bring it back out to us at the airport. I gave her some extra money for her trouble, and we went inside and checked AM’s one bag through. 

We heard back from May that the hotel was unable to find it and would not let her in to search the room. My tracker shows that it’s clearly in the room. May said that she would follow with the hotel for it. Perhaps I will get it back, however, that seems highly unlikely. I checked online and I can buy a replacement earbud from Apple. As they say, a first world problem. 

At the airport the bag check in-process was automated, but they do scan the bag before it goes onto the airplane. As usual something had to happen, and they thought they had found a cigarette lighter in AM’s  bag. They brought her bag out and went through it a little bit and then scanned it again. Having decided there was nothing dangerous in Annemarie‘s bag it was checked through. 

We went through the regular security and again it was just a simple scan of our bags and nothing more. They didn’t ask to see our liquids or my knife. Correction, AM went through a separate security line and she asked about her liquids. They agreed that they should probably see them. Haha, it’s always AM.🙄 Again my bag wasn’t checked for size or weight though we understand they are very rigorous about it. So far so good!🤞

Now on board the airplane for a one and a half hour flight to Bangkok where we have a three hour wait before we can fly onto Siem Reap, Cambodia. There are two airports in Bangkok and you have to make sure that you’re going in and out of the correct one. Fortunately, today our flights both arrive and departure from the same airport, thus saving us a long transfer. When we fly home next week we will depart early morning from the other airport. 

During the flight a man sat in the aisle seat beside AM with his wife and two daughters across the aisle. He told AM that they were from a small town in the area and his daughter had gone to university. This was his wife’s first time on an airplane! It reminded us of the privileged life we sometimes take for granted. A nice exchange after he learned some English from his daughter.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of smoke in the air from the sugarcane burning and traffic pollution. So visibility from the airplane down to the ground is essentially nil. Too bad because it’s otherwise a fairly clear day with just a few clouds in the sky. The views would’ve been amazing!

It’s been a big problem in Thailand this year and government efforts to curb the pollution have been largely unsuccessful. 

Descending into BK.

Arriving in BK we went through the usual process, but somehow missed checking AM’s bag, even though we specifically asked before security. Oh well. Security actually looked at the x-ray machines here, and again no one asked to see our liquids.

With 4 hours to wait until we can board our flight we decided to go to the lounge and use the last 2 of our annual allocation of 12. They reload 12 new passes in April for the coming year. It’s a wonderful benefit from our credit card. Thanks Rob!

We’re very much looking forward to our short, but active stay in Cambodia. AM arranged for a car from the hotel pick us up at the airport for US$40 which is the going rate for the one hour transfer. However, I’ve just searched and found a shuttle bus that’s cheaper, and we are looking into it for the way back out in a few days because we have more time available before our flight to BK.

Through our hotel, we have managed to arrange our visits to Angkor Wat. Everything pretty much revolves around the temples and there are a plethora of options available from a tuk tuk to a bicycle to an air conditioned car to take you around. Our daughter Caitlin who has been to the site on a tuk tuk and knowing AM’s heat issue has suggested the latter option.

There is a wide range of prices too, and AM has looked closely at this (thanks). Ordering through our hotel was considerably cheaper than similar offers through Viator and other online sources. Tomorrow a very early morning visit to Angkor Wat 4:00AM pickup😱) which will leave us free to sleepily look around town in the afternoon. The second day they’re going to take us on what is locally called the Big Tour which begins later and also finishes around 13:00. As we will have an English speaking guide plus driver, we have asked if it’s possible to go further a field or extend our visit in the park. They have assured us that that everything is possible. As usual, just pay a little more US$ which is the base currency in the Cambodian tourist trade. We have thoughts about other things we might like to experience. 

The Cambodian visa entry process was interesting. Basically a US$60 tax to get into the country and a lot of running around. But we are here and our driver Phanna met us and he will be our driver while we are here. It’s almost a bit embarrassing as we never travel in this style, but with limited time in Cambodia it will allow us to have greater flex to experience as place I have wanted to visit for decades.

We have a 4:00AM wake up call tomorrow to be on the road by 4:30!😱

A fun short story. On the way back from the airport a police vehicle with sirens and lights flashing zoomed past us followed by a motorcade with emergency lights flashing. Our driver said that it’s a VIP of some sort and promptly put on his flashers and followed right behind them. All the cars on the road in front pulled over for us and we got to the hotel about 20 minutes earlier than expected! We like this driver.😊

Pretty excited to finally be here!

Cheers!

Geoff 🍻

Addendum: I found my missing earbud loose in the top of my day pack. The lid to the case must have fallen out when I was walking, Crisis averted!