FOUR WEEKS IN GERMANY

Highlights of Germany were the Tanz- and Folk Festival in Rudolstadt, a two weeks trip through former East Germany, a couple of days in Denmark and spending a few days in Dresden. Germans drink and eat far too much, we struggled to keep up and also put on a few kilos but can’t wait to go back for Christmas...

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THAILAND

I recently uploaded our pictures from our short stay in Thailand which included a week in Koh Tao where Phil finished his advanced diving course and a few days in Bangkok where we primarily went shopping.

Thailand wasn’t our favourite destination compared to other parts we have seen in South East Asia and therefore we weren’t too sad when we entered the plane to head back to Europe after nearly 3 years....

TRAVEL MAP CAMBODIA

SIEM REAP/ANGKOR WAT (CAMBODIA)

We kept Siem Reap/Angkor Wat as the highlight to the very end and it was worth it. We spend the first day visiting a silk farm and spend the rest of the day in the market shopping. It’s so much fun to haggle.

Next day we got up at 4am, took our bicycles and see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We set ourselves an itinery and after seeing 3 temples we were pretty tired and had enough till we entered Bayon. It’s a breathtaking architecture and by then our favourite. We watched locals feeding the monkeys and nearly missed the sunset at Phnom Bakheng.

We hired a tuk tuk for the second day as Banteay Srei and Roluos Temple group are much further away from Angkor Wat. We saw some fantastic sandstone carvings and also the first temples in the area. At the very end we went to see Angkor Wat. It’s huge and very different inside than we expected. It even reminded us on Roman architecture with the inside baths and monastery look.

As it was our last day/night in Cambodia we decided to buy some of those $5 vodka red bull pitchers. Who would have thought that we are still drinking 4am in the morning having to catch a bus at 7am? How we managed is magical with not even losing a single item while packing. We were even still buzzing while heading towards the boarder in the taxi.

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BATTAMBANG (CAMBODIA)

We stopped in Battambang to visit some of the temples in the surrounding areas, our built up for Angkor Wat.

Again the motorbike rental seemed the most practical and of cause cheapest way to do that. We managed to do that tide program within a day: Wat Ek Phnom, Phnom Banan, Phnom Sampeau and also visited an old Pepsi company. It was shut in 1975 after Pol Pot took over and was never reopened again. There is still some old machinery in there and hundreds of empty bottles. The care taker took us around and even let us in the building after Phil begged him for getting an empty bottle. Hope we won’t break it while travelling.

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KOMPONG CHHNANG (CAMBODIA)

We stopped here for a day only to see the floating village and the only pottery place in Cambodia.

The banks by the floating villages were overfilled with rubbish, not a pretty side. The ceramic at Ondong Rossey is very simple with no glazing but we found a teapot and a little bowl for so little money.

Food was a little harder to find, no tourists-no restaurants. We bumped into an nice NZ couple in their 50th who are travelling around on a motorbike for 6 months. We were amazed and hope we will still be that adventurous when we are older.

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CHI PHAT (CAMBODIA)

What is there to do in Chi Pat? People in Krong Koh Kong heard about it but don’t really know anything about the place. All we read was Wildlife Alliance started to set up ecotourism in the community to prevent further hunting and logging.

Rather taken the advertised boat we took on the journey on motorbike to give s the chance to turn back if we had too. We found the right turn into the gravel road leading to the village but it didn’t end there. There were many different ways to go and we had to wait a few times before anyone came along to ask for directions. It was also slippery and raining but Phils motorbike skills were amazing and we didn’t fall of once. The last stretch was nearly unbearable with big mud pools and the afternoon heat. Our last obstacle was the ferry ride over the river where Phil had to balance the bike over a small piece of wood. It took us nearly 2 ½ hours for 20km of dirt road.

We weren’t disappointment by the Chi Phat establishment, staying in a homestay at our first night on an orange farm with battery operated electricity and a really friendly family.
We decided to hike for 2 days/1 night including camping in the jungle with sounded promising. We hired a guide “Le Heng” and a cook “Mr Hung” who knew the bush well. They made fires from scratch and put up our camp quickly as it started pouring down with rain. We slept in hammocks under a tarpaulin in the bush which we always wanted to do but never had the opportunity. We saw 3 snakes and gibbons; unluckily it wasn’t quite the season to see any animals as they don’t need to come to the lagoons in the wet. The 21km hike on the 2nd day was tiring at the end but our cook treated us with a fresh coconut from his garden when we returned.

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