Last hurrah in Halong Bay

The final leg of our trip brings us back to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam and then to the famed Halong Bay (one of the 7th wonders of the world according to a source on wikipedia and definitely a proud Unesco site). We took the 4 hour bus ride, which should have only been 1.5 hours, but due to the poor road conditions and lack of traffic rules, it becomes a haul. We arrived to find our boat, among 100's of white ships of various sizes, to be a modern, luxury cruising ship. The "Victory Star" for $160 per person for 1 night, had the best hot shower I could have ever asked for, as well as other amenities, (although none left the impression like that shower did); such as cold towels handed to each passenger boarding, 7 course meals, our own private balcony off of our room, squid fishing at night, cooking classes, kayak trips and a guided tour through a floating village. This was the real vacation for me and I luxuriated in it. Halong Bay in itself is a beautiful site to behold, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The Victory Star

Enjoying our balcony

Picture by Adam

Picture courtesy of Adam

The last hours in lovely Cambodia

After our busy day touring Angkor Wat, we spent the rest the next day walking around the lovely city of Siem Reap. It was still very hot and humid, but the scenery distracted us from this discomfort. We walked along the banks of the river and went to into the most interesting boutique shops (I should mention, US dollars was the preferred currency in Siem Reap, this surprised us, but we were told that tourists get ripped off if they use the Cambodian Riel due to the poor exchange rates on the street). We also visited the post office and the museum of Angkor Wat (interesting historical background especially after just visiting the temples the day before). Afterwards we went to a Cambodian restaurant suggested by our much lauded guesthouse called "The Khmer Kitchen". I had a delicious meal of stir fried fish, vegetables and rice, while Adam had a very spicy looking curry. I only wish asian food tasted that good here in this country! Cambodia offered us some of the best food from the trip, very tasty with interesting flavors, although keeping with SE Asian tradition, every dish was very light, yet filling. At the end of our day after dozing on the rooftop lounge watching the sunset, we packed up our Tuk-Tuk and headed for the airport.

Cashew Nut rooftop lounge view

Sunset view

 Angkor Wat Museum, I'm 3rd from the left. 

Khmer country

Next stop was one of the 7 wonders of the world (although by now, I believe it's more than 7 and I just Wikipedia'd it and it wasn't even on any of the updated lists... So forget it : ). Anyway, this was an introduction to my post about visiting Siem Reap, Cambodia, home to Angkor Wat. We arrived by plane and our hotel sent us our very own tuk-tuk driver holding a sign with my name on it waiting as we departed the airport. I absolutely love that! I wish everytime I arrived at a destination someone would be standing there holding a sign welcoming me with a free ride and a smile. We then tuk-tukked to our lovely guesthouse "The Cashew nut" in downtown Siem Reap and received the best reception we had ever received in SE Asia. He offered us everything we needed and things we didn't even think we needed. So in the check-in process, we gave them our dirty laundry for quick turn around service, we ordered fast, cheap and good room service (we were pretty hungry), was given a full list of restaurant recommendations, temple recommendations and what order to see them in, postcards and stamps, free bottled water, wifi password and yes, the most important, a working hot water heater! 

The next morning we awoke at 4am for our sunrise walking and biking tour around Angkor Wat with grasshopper tours again (see Bangkok post). 

             Angkor wat at sunrise 

Left side; original pathway, right side; French restoration 

        Rear view of the main temple 

            Guards at Angkor Thom 

         The bayon, my favorite temple

                 Tomb raider temple

  Adam's shot of sunrise over Angkor wat 

        Famous wall art of Angkor wat 

Apsaras: today Thai dancers base their movements and costumes on these wall carvings 

        Beautiful colors of Angkor wat 

We are supposed to be kissing his cheeks! 

After a 12 hour day which included hot, humid temple visiting and muddy and slightly dangerous off road biking we ate our first proper Cambodian food and loved it! We were done and was glad to return to the cashew nut for a rest. 

Facts about Angkor wat; 

1. It was built in 1113 by the Khmer king who at that time practiced Hinduism.

2. Later when the kingdom religion switched to Buddhism, the temple remained intact out of respect to the previous king and the Hindu religion. (Imagine that)

3. The Angkor Wat temple itself was built in 35 years.

4. In 2010, Angkor wat had 2.7 million visitors, in 2011, 3.5 million and for 2013, they are estimating 4 million visitors. 

5. It costs $20 per person to see the temples for 1 day and $40 for a three day pass. 

6. Siem Reap means the "defeat of the Siamese" which today are know as the Thai people. 

                  Our bike ride... 

Don't reject the crooked road and don't take the straight one, instead take the one traveled by the ancestors. 

– Cambodian Proverb

Royal ceremony, or not.

Our final day in Bangkok led us to the grand palace and the home of the emerald Buddha (who is actually jade). We had been pre-warned about scams aimed at tourists in Thailand and finally in Bangkok we were thought to be perfect marks. In venturing towards the grand palace, one man told us it doesn't open until 2pm (it was 10:30am) due to a "royal ceremony". They say this in hopes you'll get into their tuk-tuk so they can tour you around the rest of Bangkok until the tourist site "opens". We luckily ignored him and moved on. A couple of blocks later, another man mentioned that my Keene sandals were not allowed in the palace property since they showed my feet skin. This is complete bullshit too since all temples/wats in SE Asia that we visited required that you remove your shoes before entering. Luckily, we ignored them and made our way to the former palace of the Thai kings. 

        Wall murals in the grand palace 

              Hot, humid, sweaty

             Changing of the guard

After the palace, we visited the textile museum with an exhibition honoring the queen of Thailand, Queen Sirikit exhibiting all of her fashions over the years. She did relief work in the villages by re-introducing craftwork production and the gift shop was filled with their impressive products. It was an impressive museum and with  that we left Bangkok and headed for Siem Reap, Cambodia.