The Britts Abroad

What a great holiday.   Temples at dawn, home for fresh juice and Vietnamese spring rolls for lunch, a day sleep or a swim with the kids, and out to explore the Siam Reap village  on tuk-tuks in the afternoon.

Some more details here, but Siam Reap is the small town outside the temples of Angkor, and home of course the famous Angkor Wat.  Built between 800AD to 1100AD, Angkor was the seat of the Khmer empire. There are around 1000 temples, about 35 of which you can visit.  We got through about 10 over 3 days before temple fatigue kicked in and retired permanently to have cocktails by the pool.

The whole thing is extraordinary, but there are some funny touches which make it just unique:  over time it has been changed from a Buddhist temple to Hindu, so you can still see the marks of 700 year old vandals as they replaced the poor Budda’s with statues of Hindu gods.  Fantastic.

The fully library is here, but the favorites below – you can click on any of them enlarged.

Classic photo’s of Angkor Wat at dawn (allegedly the most photographed building in the world.

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The kids came back for a sunset viewing and generally wreaked havoc. 3 small kids, 31 deg heat, religious monument, large echoing chambers to shout in – what could possibly go wrong.

  

Unlike Giza, where you stand and admire the pyramids from the footsteps of a Hungry Jacks, opposite Angkor Wat there are just fabulous scenes of Cambodian life.

                    

The harassment on the streets was almost welcome – small kids who were selling home made crafts part time – speaking in fluent English, Japanese or Mandarin as the sale required.  The little girl on the right is Oscar’s age and had a pitch that would make a  Qld property developer proud – makes you pause.

   

Mark’s favourite temple was Bayon, which was the official state temple of the King Jayavarman VII and is situated in the centre of Angkor Thom.  It is famous for the enormous stone faces on every side

  

 

 

At Bayon,  the kids also managed to convince Aunty Kate to shout them an elephant ride around the temple. Despite constant complaints about it being bumpy, it remained the highlight of the trip.

 

 

 

 

Next door, Sarah and Kate tried to scale this “mens” entrance to the sky temple. 

Mark wandered around the back and climbed the ladder.

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah’s favourite was Pra Thom – an amazing temple which was left in the jungle largely as it was found as "the one which had best merged with the jungle, but not yet to the point of becoming a part of it".

Kate’s favorite was Banteay Srei, a 10th century temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva.

Banteay Srei is famous for its pink sandstone and its detailed bass reliefs / carvings which remain incredibly intact. The Monkey’s below are in some sort of monkey bar brawl, and their thousand year old teeth are still showing bared.

   

This is our man Shiva.

 

 

Back at base, the transport of choice quickly became tuk-tuks. 

 

 

 

The kids thought that a motorcycle car was the coolest thing that they had ever seen.

Siam reap old town market – another fine place to bring tired kids in the hot sun – rookie mistakes all round.

      

Never one to miss a lame photo opportunity, we have actually convinced both kids that Daddy was actually repairing the Temples while the girls had coffee.

 

On the last day, we visited a floating fishing village – the homes are floating barges which sit on the mangrove swamps. 
 

This one is of a Vietnamese floating school.  You can see the kids in there on a Tuesday afternoon having class.  Their transport vessels are tied to the classroom.

The fishing village also had a crocodile farm – and some rubber bands to put around a snout to protect small arms.

          

Lastly, before you get temple fatigue or we blow your broadband data caps, these are just random photo’s that we loved.