Feb 19,20 Koh Chang Waterfalls

I found an online guide to Koh Chang waterfalls – did I already mention Koh Change is a very mountainous island? We visited two of them in the last two days.

The first was Klong Plu Waterfall – Walking the 2 mikes up to the waterfall was quite an effort in heat, but totally worth it. We did it twice (!) because the first time we walked up to the trailhead the National Park was closed by the time we got there. On Sunday we tried again and finished the 1/3 mile trek in the woods – very hot – and were rewarded by a lovely tall (165’) and skinny waterfall with a great, cool swimming pond. We were in the water pretty quickly – I loved it and got a kick out of the large, black fish swimming right along with us! Initially there were just a few people there but it got a bit crowded after a while. Unfortunately almost everyone spoke Russian so not much of a chance to enjoy sharing touring stories. It was a lovely visit and we walked back for even more exercise!

Yesterday, Monday, we decided to go to a waterfall in Klong Son close to where the ferry dropped us off. It was described as have 10 tiers with pools below most of the tiers so we grabbed a truck-taxi (you sit in benches in the back of the pick-up) and headed north on the hilly, windy road. Our taxi took us all the way up the secondary road (4 miles?) and we arranged for him to come get us in 3 hours. We walked up to the home-stay building toward the path to the waterfall where we saw a rope across the entrance and a sign that said closed! We had heard that that there might not be much water but thought the hike in the forest would be nice anyway so since there was no one around to talk to we just ducked under the rope and started walking.

What a great place to be! We surprised a couple from Spain at the first pool and talked a while and otherwise had the waterfall/pools/streams to ourselves. We climbed on and over rocks, up steep hills to get to the next pool and swam in the largest and kept going.

Climbed up to get to top and then back down

We returned about 15 minutes early and while waiting for our ride a dutch couple joined us – they had their own rental car and were just starting to explore. After they left for their hike we started walking toward town figuring we’d meet our taxi on the way. We kept going and ran into another elephant ‘farm’, and finally got a ride from another truck just into town and later the Dutch couple gave us a ride back to our resort.

Elephants on the road as we walk back to town.

Today we move from our 4 day stay at Bhu Tarn Resort to another resort further south. We liked it but it’s time for a change. Here’s last nights sunset and the floating bridge we used to get to our resorts restaurant and the beach!

Feb 16-18 More days in Koh Chang

Not much to report – we aren’t motivated to return to places we visited last time in Thailand so are enjoying the relaxation here on the beach (or near it) in the 2nd largest island of Thailand. But it’s hard to tell that it’s large because most of it is mountains and we’ve only traveled along the edge of one side so far. (The road doesn’t go around the island. )

Today we are heading to one of the nearby waterfalls – starting to get adventurous again!

Feb 14-15: Two days in Koh Chang

On our first full day at the Katcha Hotel we walked along the White Sand beach area of this very large island of Koh Chang from beginning to end – maybe a mile or so walking in the sun and water. We’d just jump in to cool off. Then swam in the hotel pool, read… tough life!

The man on the right was planning out a cabin he is building for his father in Australia!

Yesterday the 15th was our snorkeling trip day. We woke to thunder and prediction of rain, but tickets were non-refundable so we got on a back of a truck for transportation up and down mountains (whee?) to the marina at the other end of the island. After boarding the boat we waited another 45 minutes for others to join us while it rained. We stayed pretty dry until everyone was on board and we were on our way. Then the rain really came down and the canopy didn’t help much. But Dirk and I covered ourselves the best we could and weren’t too worse for wear during the hour and a half trip to the first island. (I actually fell asleep at one point!)

The snorkeling was pretty good – a lot of fish and pretty coral but the sea was a bit murky. We stopping at a small regional park to have a walk in the sand and then to another nearby island which had a lot of fish! At one point there was a school of triangle fish – about 50 in a 2-3 rows, just maintaining their position – weird and wonderful. I should try again to learn to use an underwater camera! Then we headed back, stopping once more but the seas wasn’t clear enough to stay very long.

We also enjoying chatting with some other snorkelers (who spoke English that is) – 3 folks from France and a man and his very active son from Denmark.

Feb 13 – Siem Reap to Koh Chang

We bought tickets to take us from Siem Reap to the island of Koh Chang – one ticket included traveling to the island in Thailand once we crossed borders – great idea! Not so good in reality – it was a very long, hot day with our tour managers not communicating with each other and many delays. But we finally made it to our hotel, about 12 hours later! The last photo is from the beach where we are finally having dinner.

Cambodia customs with sign suggesting we stay apart but not enforced. However if someone talked too much they were actually sent to the end of the line!

Feb 12 – Siem Reap

We are taking it a little easy on our last day in Cambodia. We are getting laundry done and went to the Angkor National Museum to see the exhibits related to the amazing temples, cities and palaces we’ve seen here.

The Gallery of 1,000 Buddha Images reflects the past and present of Cambodia starting in the 12th century and provided Buddha stories and statues of every sort.

Many stone Buddhas from 9th to 13th century

Other galleries focused on the history of the Khmer Civilization, their beliefs through history and the great Khmer Kings of the 9th through 14th centuries. Besides statues there were movies and maps – very well done I thought.

Stone represents the three forms of the main Hindu gods

Other than that we swam, walked a bit, ate in the cool area called Pub Street and prepared for our departure.

Feb 11-Part 2 – Dinner Theatre

For a treat and cultural experience we decided to go to the Apsara Dance and Dinner Theater I had seen mentioned a few times. We arrived early and noticed that the seating was on the floor – didn’t look very comfortable, but it turned out there was a hole under the long tables for our feet. No problem. While a standard Khmer Cambodian dinner was served (I called ahead for us) a traditional wood xylophone was played – interesting and maybe we were a little too close to it. 🙂

When most people had finished the traditional Khmer dance performances began. There was more than an hour of dance that conveyed stories of the past. The music was traditional as well and at first was atonal to my ears but by the end it was part and parcel of the dance and my ears had adjusted. The costumes and dance were excellent and we enjoyed it quite a lot.

Feb 11, Siem Reap-Angkor Wat

Since the Angkor Wat temple complex is very significant in Cambodia – it’s on their flag – it is also a local traditional to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat (at least for us tourists). So we did it – got up around 5:30am to get a tuk-tuk to be at Angkor Wat by 6am. Not only was the sunrise nice but the experience of seeing people from so many countries in one place, enjoying the experience their own way was pretty great.

After breakfast and spending a few hours setting up our next destination, including a trip to a tour office, I set out in the afternoon heat to explore a few more temples (Dirk stayed at the hotel – too hot!).

I wanted to see a 9th century, red sandstone temple, Prasat Kravan, only about 8 miles away so negotiated with our local tuk-tuk driver and off I went. It was unusual in that there was just one building with towers so only took a few minutes to explore. The bas-relief was different – it was built out with carved bricks!

Since the site was small I searched for another nearby temple site and the driver suggested Banteay Kdei and off we went – only about 10 minutes away. This was a Buddhist temple for monks built around the same time as the Bayan temple and the front gate also has faces in the stone. However this complex is in bad shape and is undergoing restoration. There are two galleries with towers and three other buildings as well. I again enjoyed the bas-relief art as well as the woodsy area with a stream below.

Entrance – with huge stones, as seen in all these temple complexes and cities

Some of the 6-8 towers – in risk of falling

I was quite warm when I returned to the hotel and quickly went to the pool. Then rested and went out for a special treat later… see part 2 of Feb 11.

Feb 10, Siem Reap, Cambodia

On Friday our guide Kim took us to the Kampong Khleang Stilt Community that is based along side of the very large Tonte Sap Lake about an hour from Siem Reap.

The homes in this unique community are all built on very high stilts due to the monsoon flooding that occurs every year. They are unable to use local roads, child are boated to schools and generations have learned to live with the flooding of their village. Houses are large and multiple generations will live in one home. Fishing is their main industry and it was fascinating to watch some of them empty their nets after a day of fishing.

Our tour included a long, leisurely boat ride along their home river, viewing the maybe a hundred stilt houses, walking around the main village that does have a street and a temple, and then going out into the huge lake where we couldn’t see some of the far shores. For the tourist industry that comes to see the village, floating restaurants have been built on the lake to add to the “experience”.

Fish net device that releases caught fish

Feb 8 Siem Reap Cambodia

Today we started our tour of the temples, palaces and impressive ruins of Angkor Wat and some of the hundreds of temples built from the 9th to 15th in this area. The UNESCO World Heritage site “Angkor Archaeological Park” is the largest religious monument in the world, in an area measuring 402 acres. Within a few miles of us are 15 or so major sites (each with many multiple monuments) and a there are still few more major sites within about 35 miles.

Today we first visited the Angkor Wat temple complex, the most well known of the sites and containing the largest and now intact buildings. (Much restoration has been done). For a few hours we walked through a number of buildings including climbing to the highest point (in 90+degrees!) – the bas relief art throughout the temples showed amazing appreciation of beauty.

Sidebar – Angkor Wat: Originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu for the Khmer Empire by King Suryavarman II during the 12th century, it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the century; as such, it is also described as a “Hindu-Buddhist” temple.

After lunch we went first to the temple Ta Praham (built in late 12th century as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery) where much restoration is still taking place in spite of the huge overgrowth of silk-cotton trees destroying many of the building that weren’t already blasted during the Khmer Rouge days (the temples were used for ammo storage). This site area was used in a Tomb Raider film and Dirk and I are in front of one our the scene’s creepy doors.

By the way, we did this tour by tuk-tuk, the small carriage pulled by a motorcycle – this one had room for 4 people. After about an hour we headed to our next temple complex, Bayon.

In the Bayon complex we saw uniquely decorated towers and walls that my photos don’t do justice to. This was built as a Khmer Buddhist state temple in the late 12th/early 13th century and occupied the center of the rulers capital city, Angkor Thom.

What stands out here are the 4 smiling or serene faces on the many towers that are part of the buildings and also the bas relief art that depict every day life rather than stories of Gods. Amazing, and again lots of work needed if the temples are ever to be repaired.

We started around 8am and finished our touring around 3 and were so ready to jump into the pool! And glad we had seen some of wonders of this area.

Feb 6&7 – To Cambodia

It took us two days to get to Cambodia after leaving our tour in Can Tho. After the floating market tour and breakfast we were dropped off at a bus station while everyone else headed back to Saigon-HCMC.

Our nice (!) bus took about 4 1/2 hours to get us north to Cau Doc so we can travel to Phnom Penh Cambodia by Fast Boat!

Scenes along the Mekong and Dirk in the excellent bus (finally)

We stayed in Cau Doc in the very classy Victoria Hotel and in the morning walked down to the dock to our boat.

The boat is fast and comfortable (a little too warm at times) and we could sit outside in the back as well. Nice (long) trip. And now we have two more times we’ve done customs from a boat.

A bad-jaj (motorcycle with a double seat behind) took us to our hotel Sarina which is outside of the tourist area but very nice. (I booked us closer to the airport because we thought we’d fly to our next destination but the prices are insane so here comes another bus ride!) We walked around a looking for lunch – trouble finding any food mid-afternoon outside of the tourist area- not too much English- veggies and rice – a-ok!