This may have been our best vacation yet. To give the general outline of the trip we flew to Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand. It is low season in these areas because there are monsoons during this time of year. This worked to our advantage because there were barely any tourists and the price of hotels was significantly cheaper.
Day one: We flew from Narita to Singapore and arrived at night.
Day two: We went to breakfast at a swanky coffee shop. This is the bridge we crossed to get there and here are the couches in the coffee shop and our awesome breakfast. This was a twist on eggs benedict. One of the muffins was filled with some sweet stuff.
Singapore is a very clean modern city with many attractions that suit families. There are theme parks, malls, and lots of night life. We decided to go to the botanical gardens and we only saw a fraction of it in 3 hours. It is HUGE. They had a separate orchid garden with the most amazing orchids I have ever seen. Here are a sampling of pictures.
This picture is for my mom who loves birds of paradise.
Quinn and Sam in front of a giant frond (not sure if this is the right word)
We were very surprised to see many males holding hands. The females hold hands also. But you do not see males and females holding hands. Very different then what we are used to in the west. It is very common type of behavior and does not hold the same connotation as it does for us.
Another picture for my mom. I knew we would have good luck on this trip after seeing such a beautiful pineapple.
This is the national flower of Singapore.
Here is a pitcher plant. It is carnivorous and there were a couple of flies in one.
After the gardens we went to little India and Arab street. We ate at a hawker center which is little food stalls selling dishes for 2-4 dollars. Here was a sign indicating spice level.
Day 3: We had breakfast at an open air cafe. Then we went to Sentosa Island. This is a giant tourist TRAP. It is terrible. Never go if you can avoid it. The only cool thing was this fountain. All the beaches here are man made and look out on all the cargo ships coming into port.
Sentosa island was a bust but we did not let that deter us. We went out to an Arabic restaurant and had awesome food. Everyone was smoking hooka but we did not partake. We took an overnight bus to Kuala Lumpur (5 hours) took at one hour taxi ride to the air port and and flew out to Cambodia just as the sun was coming up. We stayed at an awesome hotel called the Golden Banana. It is gay friendly and all the people who worked at the hotel looked like pool boys dressed in tanktops and baggy pants. Everyone bought a pair of the pants and Quinn threatens to wear them every day for the rest of his life. Up on the balconies there are private jacuzzi tubs and showers in addition to the indoor shower.
Day 4: We spent most of the day lounging around the pool and going to the market to do a little shopping. We went to dinner but the best restaurant in Siem Reap was right at the Golden Banana. They brought the food to us whever we were in the hotel. Poolside, in the louging area, in the room.
Day 5: We went through a tour company called spice roads to see the Angkor Wat temple compex. It was a 3 day fully van supported cycling trip with a temple guide, cycling guide, and driver/bike mechanic. There were six of us in the group. On the first day we set out to the temple complex. I cannot remember the names of all the temples but I will try to recall some of the facts that we learned. Our guide was very knowledgeable. For those of you who are not familiar with Siem Reap and the surrounding temple area, these temples were built in the 11th and 12th century by various kings when the Khmer Rouge empire was at its height. After the empire fell the jungle overtook the temples and they were rediscovered by the French in between 1910-1920 at which time the French cleared the forest, pilfered the gems and what was left and took some of the stone sculptures. Much of the stone has been given back and is now on display in various museums around the world. The whole experience was awe inspiring. Much of the temples are made of sandstone and have intricate carvings that can still be seen. It is amazing to think that these have only been rediscovered in the last 100 years. I couldn't believe there weren't more tourists there. It was like having a personal tour of the past.
Many of the temples are a mix of Buddhism and Hinduism. These kings were smart and covered all of their bases. Each of the temple compounds has four entrances one to the north, south, east and west. There are also four faces carved into each of the entrances facing North, south, east and west. Here you can see at least 3 of the faces.
Many of the Budda statues are replacements or their heads have been replaced as they have been damaged or stolen.
Here is a close up of an Apsara. These dancers are pictured throughout all of the temples.
This temple is famous because the trees are growing in and around the temple. During restoration they left the trees and roots as they had fused with much of the structure. You can't really get a sense of the perspective in these pictures but most of the roots were thicker than two or three people put together.
We didn't go in this temple but saw it as we were cycling by.
This was another entrance into the compound. Cars drove through here. Lining the road were people statues with missing heads.
This temple has 32 different towers. Each one represents a different province within the empire at that time. They were built in relation to the size of the province. The more people living there, the bigger the tower.
Each of the towers has a face carved into it on the N, S, E, W. You can see at least 3 faces in this one.
This is the biggest temple in the area: Angkor Wat. It is the biggest temple in the world. There are two bridges to the temple called the rainbow bridge. The first is from the underworld to earth and the second is from Earth to Heaven. This is part of the Hindu religion. There are also Budda statues in the temple. Monks lived in this temple up until less than 50 years ago.
Day 6: This day we went through countryside prior to seeing the temples. We passed people carrying pigs both alive and dead on their motor bikes. These little piglets had not met their ultimate fate yet.
Kids loved to wave and say hello just as they did in Vietnam. The people in Cambodia were overwhelmingly friendly. They call Thailand the land of smiles but Cambodia had even more smiles. People were so helpful and interested in learning more English. I absolutely loved the people of Cambodia. We are already planning a trip back.
This temple is more well preserved because it was made of a harder type of sandstone. It was so hot that we didn't take many pictures but the detail of the carvings were awesome. The red color of the sandstone was also very impressive.
We didn't have room on the way back so the two guides sat together! They were great.
We went on a hike up a mountain to see some carvings. On the way back we had a torrential downpour and were half walking and half sliding down the mountain.
That night we treated ourselves to $7 massages. We all were in one room together for a Thai/Cambodian massage. It was more funny than relaxing. We just made jokes the whole time and chatted with the massage girls. It was fun.
It was still raining when we left so we rode in a tuk tuk. It nearly overturned into a giant puddle!
Day 7: Another day of amazing temples. This one is dedicated to the King's family. If you look at the fourth picture there are monks sitting in front of the temple. They are chopping down the tree for firewood.
This was an orphanage where the kids were trained in leatherworking and English. They sell the leather artwork to support the orphanage. Here are the kids that made the artwork that we bought. The boy on the left was given a bad vaccination and his legs are no longer functional. He was unable to walk.
The lotus flower is everywhere in Cambodia and they use these to decorate the hotels and restaurants and everywhere else there might be a tourist. Here is a pond full of lotus flowers.
Tonle Sap Lake is the biggest lake in southeast Asia. There are many Vietnamese people living on the lake because they cannot own land in Cambodia.
This little girl and her brother drove up on a speed boat and the little girl jumped onto our boat to sell us drinks. It was an amazing feat. She was an adorable vietnamese 7 or 8 year old.
This is a floating school. There were 3 schools on the lake.
The next day we left for Malaysia. This will be continued in another entry.
We saw a lot of subdivisions in KL and some in Thailand that were just rows and rows of identical houses. I am glad to see the standard of living is improving in those countries but it will suck if they look just the same as any suburban area in the US does.
