Angkor Wat c12th - Cambodia
Inspire Me Asia
“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it”
Quote Sorce - Rudyard Kipling
Cambodia - India - Vietnam
Northern India -Rajasthan & Uttar Pradesh
The further north we got the more muddy & earthy the beer got, and the muddier it got the spicier the food got. Traveling with Crohn's disease and spicy food do not a good combination make, but not once did we get the dreaded Delhi belly.
This has to be one of the strangest trips we have ever made and boy was it fun.
We travelled around Northern India in an Austin Ambassador taxi - locally made, just me and the driver - he insisted I sat in the back. I had no idea where we were going - every now and again we would arrive somewhere and a local tour guide would appear to show me around and then I would have free time to do what I liked. Later I would be dropped off at a hotel and picked up in the morning - eat - sleep - repeat, I wished it didn't have to come to an end. I could have lived that adventure over and over again.
The driver was a chatty soul and was keen to learn more about where I came from, and I about him - after all we had ten hours a day to kill, as we travelled though countryside to the next amazing fort, palace and temple of which there are so many. We watched football at a disused railway station on a big screen set up of the occasion, went shopping in small gold souks and saw the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Place of the Winds, and so much more. We went to temple and prayed it was all an experience.
He couldn’t work out why I had no children and he self concluded I must have a medical problem as he couldn’t accept I just didn’t want them. When he found out I wasn’t married that was it, every shop we went into he told the shop keeper and a big discussion ensued on who I could be married off to. He even offered his own daughters hand in marriage - I respectfully declined - I never even met the girl! But Indian and Western values on marriage are very different, I have no idea who has got it right. Finally giving up on marrying me off he decide to try to make me like a deity, if I brought him a taxi (It wasn’t a lot of money for me - but obviously a fortune for him) he and his family would make a shrine to me in his home and pray to me as a god every day. It was tempting offer, but one I again politely declined. He was such a character but that is what travel is all about, you are never on your own and there is always someone new to meet and stories to be told.
Cambodia - Temples & The occasional scooter
Cambodia is both a chaotic and peaceful place all at the same time and a fusion of cultural mishmashes - and seeing Father Christmas fizz past you riding a scooter on Christmas Eve, all to the background cacophony of hooters and airhorns has to be seen and heard to be believed, and not just Santa of course, but the wife, and three kids including a baby. Didn’t even know Santa was married?
Our trip from the amazing ruins of the Khmer at Siem Reap and our boat journey down the Tonie Sap River and lakes with the villages on stilts, nets out to catch tiny fish, is one that will stay indelibly marked on our memories. It’s also an assault on the ears so take ear plugs for the boat.
Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia, and it is home to the art deco Central Market, glittering Royal Palace and the National Museum's historical and archaeological exhibits. We enjoyed our luxury trip to the Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling - 2 for 1 in happy hour, and honestly it was better than the original in Singapore - which is also great and worth a visit. It was the waiters in quasi military blanco uniform a grand piano playing and the swishing of fans with the relentlass heat which made it like something out of a movie scene.
Battambang is a town at the end of the Tonei Sap river which is in many ways unremarkable, a tourist stop after the river journey but it does have a nice little shopping parade. One of the highlights of this part of the trip is the exodus of 3 million Wrinkle-lipped free tailed bats (Chaerephon plicatus) from the caves just above the town. Locals say the caves were also used as execution and torture chambers by the Khmer Rouge. We had made our way to the spot and our tour guide was just about to park up when a flashy 4x4 with radio blaring pulled in before us. We had to park elsewhere. Moments later the occupants barged past us to get the best spot, and made their way right up to the mouth of the cave.
Our guide held us back, with a smile on his face saying that was not a good place to be and bad Calma would befall them. We found a better spot to the side and awaited the spectacle.
At first it was just a few scouts and then a steady flow of bats, it was a bit of a disappointment really and then suddenly it erupted - hundreds of thousands - millions streaming out, and then suddenly we heard shrieks from the party that has pushed us out the way and nicked our parking spot, as three million bats took a pee after the night in the cave - Calma indeed and yes we laughed our socks off. The guide was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Vietnam - War Remnants & a Nation reborn
Vietnam was at the time of our visit a country in transition with a communist government who seem obsessed and to some extent understandably so with the USA. The people however it seems have moved on and are getting on with life - it it is a vibrant exciting and fast moving place.
It is becoming more westernised and commercial - a capitalist culture, but at its heart it is still an agricultural and spiritual country, undoubtedly changed by the tragic events of the Vietnam War.
We visited the War Remnants Museum which tells the shocking story of Agent Orange and other atrocities committed by the USA forces at the time, and it tells a very different story to the ones told in the western world; a reminder that we also have our propaganda - just that ours is a little more subtle.
Groups of school children turned up, all immaculately turned out, in military style outfits for their day trip and treated us to songs. It is was very moving. We will post a video and picture soon - it is so cute!
We visited the Ho Chi Min trail and learned how they built them, which was like most things surprisingly simple, they just used the existing technology they had been using for hundreds of years to construct water wells, all they did was sink two wells and then join them up at the bottom, the clever bit was getting rid of the earth so you didn’t know they were there, and for this the Mekong river came in handy.
We tried the tunnels and got “debagged” in the process trying to get out of one of the tiny hatches - guess they weren’t built for western frames. The other tourists took great delight in capturing my misfortune with photos!. Good job it was pre social media.
We tried the M16, AK47 and .30 Calibre Machine guns and was very pleased no one paid to “blow up a cow” with a LAW 66 anti tank weapon..
It is not hard to escape the Vietnam war in Vietnam, but the food and drink, the kindness and hospitality of the Vietnamese peoples was outstanding. As a teenager growing up in those war years, and fed on diet of Vietnam war movies it was just something we had to see.
I am glad to see and report that Vietnam is coming out the other side stronger and more independent than ever. Long may it last.
Vietnam
Tin Can Fighter Plane
Da Nang - Mech Bastards -Orginal Zippo Lighter
Photo’s and Video clips of Ho Chi Min Trail
Khmer Rouge Scarf
India
Large Vintage Chapati Roller
Bears Cigarettes Tin
Small carved wooden deities
Colourful Ganesha Statue in Green & Gold
Small Elephants in ebony
Cambodia
Two Orginal Photos by John Mcdonald of Khmer Temples
Toy Mouse / rat
Christmas Eve video clips
What can you find in the Museum from these locations.
Khmer Rouge scarf - museum collection (Modern reproduction)