Photos #8 - Siem Reap & Tomb Raiding

Monkeys aside, Siem Reap is also a great little town (very touristy but that is not always a bad thing) and of course the temples of Angkor are like nothing else...

Wall of rain coming into town (left), and a typical street scene... more functional that pituresque, but not without its charms

 Local markets, always one of the best places for a glimpse into life wherever you are

Friendly locals... one the source of much entertainment when the girls found him in the hotel, the other the source of much amusement as she displayed her authority as reigning princess of Pub Street, while we watched from our favourite spot in Red Piano.

An amazing view at every turn... and (right) one of  many reconstruction efforts... to their credit, in Angkor the projects are usually cooperative efforts with foreign experts rather than DIY replicas built on old ruins

 

 May be the last update for a week or two as I need to grab a new hard drive to back up my photos after this trip... still Thailand and Bali to go though. Cheers to all who are still watching and for all the feedback... more to come!

An interesting aside...

As I have been plugging away here with photos and various other things I have once again been watching an episode of the extremely interesting three-part BBC doco series 'All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace' (On BBC Knowledge, Ch 74 here)... a blurb:

A series of films about how humans have been colonized by the machines they have built. It claims that computers have failed to liberate us and instead have distorted and simplified our view of the world around us. Although we don’t realize it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers.

Here's a preview -



A compelling piece of work created by experimental and documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis, it may make you think about a few things... (which we know is the opposite of what TV normally does...). It also pleasingly features a skillfully put together, diverse and highly effective soundtrack, with favourites such as Nine Inch Nails, Burial, The Kills and Leonard Cohen plus an eclectic bunch of others...

I am always struck by the layers of detail and mood that Trent Reznor can pack into a piece of music, he has certainly come a long way from the noise, angst and shock value of the early Nine Inch Nails albums we listened to in high school... He showed his gift for the theatrical with the score to David Lynch's typically twisted 'Lost Highway' way back in 1997, and while he certainly isn't the young rocker he once was, he hasn't lost his touch - look no further than his recent win of an Oscar for the astonishing (and epic) 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' original soundtrack.

Photos #7 - MONKEY FIGHT!!!

Siem Reap and such later... the most incredible ancient temple complex in the world is well and good, but nothing beats a monkey fight... nothing...

All starts off quiet, just another morning for the monkeys, hanging at their enormous temple... it's been raining a bit, and there are not enough tourists around yet to bother going and starting to steal their stuff

Oh wait, look, there's some... Monkeys come to say hi

But it's still pretty quiet. What to do... Monkey does some stuff with water

Monkey thinks deeply about water. Water is interesting.

Other monkey is like "I did that with water yesterday"

Monkey on a ledge is like "Man, nothing is going to happen today..."

But then everything changes...  some other monkey turns up, and sh!t gets real...

Words are exchanged...

Suggestions are offered...

Differences of opinion are expressed

Negotiations break down...

And it's ON!!...

After this it all just turned into a flurry of teeth and fur and shrieking until a ball of four monkeys just clean rolled off the side of the temple and fell about ten feet into a puddle, where they kept on brawling... the poor guy at the centre of it all got bitten and scratched up pretty good, but he did get away relatively intact

Here is a graphical representation of the incident as carved by some anciet Khmers:

Photos #6 - Phnom Penh

Early morning bus to the border and then on into Cambodia... and across to the capital... much more heat, much more wandering

(Left) Thunderhead rising - the view from Moon Bar atop a riverside hotel        (Right) National Museum

Popcorn - popular...

S-21: the most infamous of nearly 200 Pol Pot regime "prisons"... a converted school in central Phnom Penh. 12-15,000 'enemies of the state' including travellers and foreign journalists, but mostly local Cambodians, are estimated to have passed through its doors, many to be tortured and killed. Among the more disturbing relics of the Genocide Museum, the signed 'confession' of NZ yachtie Kerry Hamill (brother of rower Rob) who accidentally sailed into local waters in 1978 and was tortured and murdered as a 'foreign spy'.

 (Above and below) View from the top floor of the Foreign Correspondent's Club, our bar of choice in the Cambodian Capital... note to self, the Phnom Penh FCC is a nice classy bar but jandals and shorts are fine... the one in Siem Reap is a fancy fancy hotel and restaurant, and jandals and shorts may make you look like grubby backpacker scum

My spiritual home in Cambodia... Citadel Knives... sadly didn't have time to go to the workshop out by the airport, but looks like an awesome place for a daytrip. The lady was kind enough to take a bunch of my money though.

Photos #5: Farewell Again, My Vietnam... (Exit, stage left... )

After enjoying Hoi An an extra night we said farewell to local friends -

 And made our way back to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) via the shiny new Da Nang International Airport

  

Reminders of the past never too far away though... old US reinforced hangars now with new (old) occupants...








And one final evening to enjoy the frantic pace of my Saigon, with its snakey river, crazed traffic, balmy evenings, and of course one last round of ice cold drinks on the roof of the Rex

(Right) Smoko time opposite the Rex... a roof bar all of his own. The lovely 'historic' building he sits on is in fact yet another new luxury hotel and mall complex, rising between the Rex and the Continental on the other side... once the site of the historic (but uncared for) Eden Building and the famous Givral Cafe. At least in this rare case, the new building is a somewhat fitting replacement rather than an eyesore.



Photos #4 - Onwards to Hoi An

Before you start on #4 just note I have added more to #3...

Leaving Hue again with much regret, we got ourselves on a day train for the few hours to Da Nang, a glorious trip on a nice day, with some of the best views you will get anywhere

  

Da Nang in the distance

After our little taxi and bus adventure (see main text) we made it to Hoi An and the lovely little riverside resort on the far side of town.  

Our first recon trip to town in the evening was interrupted by another deluge, but next (and every) morning Hoi An was bright, clear, and hot as all heck... with thunderstorms every night... Perfect. For centuries a centre for trade with China, Japan and beyond, and still brimming with traditional arts, crafts and tailoring, the wonderfully preserved old village is a rare find in SE Asia and a true look back through the last few centuries.

(Ok overdoing it with photos again, but it's just a photogenic town... and I love it when I make a good picture)

 

And yes, we happened upon a Vietnamese wedding ceremony... hard to fault that for a perfect moment