Hello Kampuchea

Thanks Cambodia for all you have given to us

Le 27/02/12, 11:13

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We are back alive in Paris !!!

Seriously, when we have taken the bus from Kampong Cham to Phnom Penh, the driver was so crazy that I've thought of the possibility that we could die !!

We are back now, the mind full of wonderful memories. I need to thank Motherland for all.

1/ Thanks for all the tuk tuk and moto-dop drivers for your strong will to be THE driver that we will choose Razz Miguel, as a foreigner, was the most popular to drivers, he will tell you when you will come to see the 2000 pictures taken Smile



2/ Thanks Motherland for helping us understand Cambodian life style. Modest houses are opened so you can see all people's life.



3/ Thanks for feeding us very well !!!


That's a crab with Kampot pepper, the best crab we have ever eaten !!!

4/ Thanks to my family for welcoming us so warmly



5/ Thanks to the trees for the shade you give



6/ Thanks to the beauty of rice fields



7/ Thanks Buddha and all the deities for guiding our steps everywhere Razz



8/ Thanks Angkor for having let us enter into your world


This is one of the Angkor Thom doors

9/ Thanks to the beauty of water



10/ It was great to see mosques in Cambodia, they are beautiful.



11/ We want to say a special HELLO to all the children who told us "hello" everywhere: from their modest house, from the temples, from the river, from the road, etc... Thanks a lot for your smiles !




WE WILL COME BACK ! We need to discover Eastern Cambodia and meet my family in Battambang => I will write again in this blog for our second trip !
Thanks to you all for reading us !!!!

Voir les photos : Cambodge - Cambodge ]

Posté par Migkha

Second day in Kampong Cham

Le 24/02/12, 15:38

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Last night I have seen a missed call from Uncle Kim, so I have decided to call him this morning... I was worried because one of my aunt from Pursat called me to suggest we come back earlier to Phnom Penh to rest... When I called Uncle Kim he was finally pleased to know that we appreciate our journey in Kampong Cham. He has even suggested that we had better come back to Phnom Penh for the end of tomorrow's afternoon, so that we don't wait to many hours before going to the airport.
Yes we leave Cambodia tomorrow ......... Triste

This day, our tuk tuk has brought us to visit a Pagoda made of wood.
On our way we stopped to visit a modern Pagoda which was built 60 years ago: I find this pagoda special for the colours used to represent the usual divine characters.


Then we have crossed villages and beautiful landcapes to get to the Wood Pagoda.
This is a sample of the road we have crossed.

This is a sample of landscapes crossed.

And finally this is the Wood Pagoda. It was built from 1855 to 1905. Our tuk tyk said that during the Khmer Rouge Period, it was used as a hospital.

Now, the Pagoda is quite damaged because of wood eating insects... This is inside the Pagoda.


To finish, the tuk tuk has brought us to a village specialized in making traditionnal scarfs and "sarong". While we were visiting, some inhabitants came to meet Miguel. They were like "We want to visit the handsome French guy" and they have decided to stand looking at him while asking me a lot of questions in khmer during maybe 15-20 minutes... Miguel knew they were all staring at him without understanding a single word, and he kept standing up waiting for the end of the conversation Smile
And finally our tuk tuk brought us back to our hotel.... the end of the trip is close... so sad !!!
If I find tomorrow a place with wifi in Phnom Penh, I want to write later a conclusion of this wonderful trip with new pictures. Stay tuned...

Voir les photos : Cambodge - Cambodge ]

Posté par Migkha

Kampong Cham with a super tuk tuk guide !!

Le 23/02/12, 17:29

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Our first day in Kampong Cham was just amazing, close to perfection thanks to the tuk tuk guide I have managed to contact. Thanks to him we have seen a lot of incredible things. For this time I will show you more pictures because they are special.

We have visited an Angkor style temple where a modern temple has been also built in order to honor Buddha. Indeed Angkor style honors most of all Hinduist gods.

On our way we have met buffalos having a bath.


We have visited a traditionnal village opened to tourists. We have seen a woman making a scarf.


We have discovered a 'cotton fruit'.


We have discovered and tasted homemade sugar.


Then we went to visit temples located on hills. On our way, we have discovered an incredible library. Yes what you see is really a library !!



This pic represent the 200 steps to the temple called 'the hill of women'.


And finally we have crossed a bridge of the Mekong river made of bamboo. It was so scary... even big cars can cross it...



We are looking forward to the 2nd day of visit !!!

Voir les photos : Cambodge - Cambodge ]

Posté par Migkha

Back in Phnom Penh and 5 days left in Cambodia...

Le 22/02/12, 15:41

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On Tuesday afternoon, we were back in Phnom Penh from Sihanoukville.
According to my dad's cousin plan Uncle Kim, who helped us discover Phnom Penh the first time, we were supposed to go to Pursat again the day after, than come back to Phnom Penh before leaving to Paris.
Unfortunately, my family in Pursat was not available anymore to welcome us, so that makes 5 days left in Phnom Penh. Uncle Kim finds good to rest in Phnom Penh before taking 2 planes to come back to Paris.
Resting ? Being in Cambodia to rest is not our thing, even more when we have only 5 days left ... We felt so much in love with the Cambodian country that we could not imagine 5 days in Phnom Penh. We have started our thursday afternoon by searching for a new place not too far from Phnom Penh to visit ==> we have found it: we have decided that we will spend our last days in Cambodia in the East at Kampong Cham located around 120 km from Phnom Penh !!! Then I ran immediately to buy bus tickets to Kampong CHam. We will leave on Thursday Smile

Today, we have visited Phnom Penh for the last time. We have discovered a kind of khmer cemetery and we have crossed a market. We've had lunch in our favourite places to eat: in khmer houses which ground floor is opened as a kind of restaurant with 3 to 5 tables and where family food is served. It's cheap, delicious and the family is always kind. We love it! As for me, it's one of my favourite moment in Cambodia.

Market


Cemetery

Voir les photos : Cambodge - Phnom Penh ]

Posté par Migkha

Kampot, the trip of the 'impossible'

Le 20/02/12, 16:40

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Well, well, well... This day will especially stay in our memory...

We have always wondered, by reading bus times of departure from 6 AM to 1 PM, how can we visit a city in 1 day, that is to say, isn't it possible to leave early in the morning and come back at the end of the afternoon ?

We asked the question at the reception of our hotel school. For example, we asked how to go to Kampot just one day ? The student was like "??? ... I don't know, maybe I can book something, but I will ask my teacher than he will confirm you Smile " Obviously with the same cutest smile that only khmer girls have the secret...

The day after, the teacher made us a proposition: we can book for you a mini-van. It leaves at 9 AM and can bring you back at 3 PM. That would make a few hours to visit Kampot, so we said ok.

The D-day, the van arrived at 8.10 AM. Fortunately we were awaken but we were starting breakfast. 10 mn later, we thought we were the first to get in the car but it was full of passengers who waited for us... The driver was a crazy driver like every Cambodian on the road. Also, when he arrived at a last place to pick last passengers, he decided not to stop because he couldn't see anyone. I could understand that while he was explaining at the phone in khmer why he didn't stop. I thought we had better watch out if we want to come back...

1h30 later, we were in Kampot. This is a quiet fishing city where it is nice to have a walk. We have eaten there very good crab and octopus Smile

Fishing boy of Kampot



At 2.20 PM we were already standing at the place where the mini van was supposed to pick us up at 3 PM.
At 3.45 PM and after 3 calls to the hotel to say that it is not there, we decided to walk to the taxi and bus station, not really surprised of the situation.
A first taxi proposed 40$ to bring us back. We did not answer. A second taxi came and proposed 5$ per passenger. We said YES ! He answered: ok I try to find another person for the ride than we'll go. It was ok, we had a lot of time, no problem. 5 mn later he was already ready to go. But we were 5 passengers: we were 4 in the back and another one at the front. Then he drove a few minutes and stopped in order to ... take 2 more people that went to the front: 2 people at the driver's place and 2 people at the front seat.....
THAT's the Cambodian taxi to experience one time in your life!!!
1h45 later the taxi left everyone to the center of Sihanoukville. It seemed that the direct transfer to our hotel was not included Triste We finally had to take a moto-taxi for 1,50$... That's how in one day, we took quite all kind of transport!!

We go back to Phnom Penh tomorrow. It's nearly the end of our vacation in Cambodia.. Triste
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Voir les photos : Cambodge - Kampot ]

Posté par Migkha

Victory Beach

Le 19/02/12, 16:35

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As planned, we have visited the Victory beach which is regarded as the most quiet beach of the area.
That is true and we have spent a pretty good afternoon there. There is not a lot of people, there are only a few restaurants and big hotels... and surprise no children-sellers. That's why this beach remains quiet and that's great !
The water was at least 37°C because we felt no difference between the water and the felt temperature... in fact it was possible to dive straight into the sea !
We have decided to have dinner at the beach before going back to the hotel.
The place is so quiet that we had to call a tuk tuk to pick us up to go back to the hotel!

Thanks Mig for this amazing pic and for all the others of course Se marre

Voir les photos : Cambodge - Sihanoukville ]

Posté par Migkha

Sihanoukville and the Don Bosco School Hotel

Le 18/02/12, 16:09

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We have decided to end our trip by spending some lazy time in the South of Cambodia around beaches.

We confirm, after our last trip to the island of Majorca where we did everything but swimming, that we are defenitely not made to do beach vacation!

We can walk a few minutes on the beach, then we don't know what to do. Even more when we are welcomed by each bar-restaurants proposing western food all along the beach. For the first time Miguel has shown to a stranger that he was upset: "We like khmer food" is answered. I was like "waow! so that is Miguel's dark side..." Smile

However, we have appreciated the many shops selling stuffs helping poor children. We have bought two cute little paintings made by children, small enough for our small home Smile

We also appreciate the hotel where we stay right now. It is a hotel school named Don Bosco Hotel School.
The hotel is clean, quite and the staff is adorable. Indeed the staff is made of khmer students. The profit of the hotel is used for their education. They try to train their English so hard that I don't say a single word in khmer even if it means we have to repeat 5 times the same thing and let them repeat twice what they have heard because they want to make sure they have well understood. The students are too cute ! I love it !!

Tomorrow we plan to visit another beach. I might write something about it, it depends if we get too much bored or not ! Smile

Voir les photos : Cambodge - Sihanoukville ]

Posté par Migkha

Angkor temples and Siem Reap

Le 15/02/12, 12:53

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We are back in Phnom Penh now and after 6 days in Siem Reap without the possibility to write about the days we have spent, I begin here a long new post.

Day 1 : The smile of khmer children
We took a bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap at 7 AM in and we arrived at 1 PM.
The travel was 6 $ per person. We had chance because we were seated on the side where the air conditioner was not broken, on the other side water fell from the air conditioner directly on passengers...
On our arrival, the tuk tuk from the guesthouse I had booked from Paris picked us up.
We arrived in a beautiful house owned by a family where 3 rooms are available for visitors.
When the father, the official owner of the guesthouse, welcomed us, he offered us two bottles of water because I was able to speak khmer Razz and then his son took us to our room.
The room has a great air conditioner because the temperature is perfect and it is not noisy !!!! That was the main problem in the hotel we stayed in Phnom Penh for a higher price per night.
We rested a little then we decided to start our visit at 3 PM.
Our special tuk tuk, the son in the family, asked us where we wanted to go. I answered that we don’t know what to do at this time of the day. He suggested to visit the lake Tonle Sap by boat where he said there is a good sight. We said ok. Then he drove the tuk tuk 1 hour to get us to the place there. We crossed a lovely village where children liked to say hello to us, beautiful landscapes of rice fields, and then we arrived at destination.
Many boats were there ready to take tourists. But the place seemed so unknown that there were just a couple of tourists. We were pleased to discover un unknown place. We entered into the boat and we crossed a poor but beautiful village of houses all along the sides of the lake and we could see the life of the inhabitants on the lake, using boats to go from a place to another. We also had a lot of hellos and smiles from children while crossing this village. It was amazing.


Back from this trip, the tuk tuk took us to a restaurant of Siem Reap which propose a buffet until 7.30 PM then a show of tradional khmer ballet from 7.30 to 8.30. The buffet like every buffet is not excellent but the show was great.


That was the first wonderful day we have spent in Siem Reap and I will never forget the children’s smile, and the kindness of the guesthouse family.



Day 2: 1st visit of Angkor Temples : The “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10” song
Miguel has bought a 3 day ticket to visit Angkor temples. I could access for free because my origin is Cambodia even if my nationality is French.
For the first day of visit, we saw 7 temples from different art style, century and religion.
Our tuk tuk chose for us 7 “little” temples. We think that he wanted to keep the famous Angkor Vat for the last day of visit to make us pay attention to smaller temples.
He brought us first to Pre Rup temple, which is an old temple built in half of 10th century.


At this time, the religion is Hindu and this temple represent the Pre Rup Art Style.

We were pleased to be one of the first visitors so it was easy to take pictures during 30 mn before the first car of Korean tourists arrives.
Inside the temple there were little girls and boys trying to sell us anything for 1$. We were not prepared to it. We didn’t want to buy anything but we felt very sad to say no to all these children who kept saying “you have 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 cards only 1$”. Finally in every temples we have visited these day, children always came to us to “sing” the “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10” song. Despite the sadness, we have met the funniest little girl who could “sing” this song in every language. She followed Miguel until far, trying every European language of the song, so far that Miguel could take pictures of her. When she gave up, Miguel told me he was about to crack and give her a bill for he was so broken hearted.

Here’s a picture of this little girl


However, if you ever go or come back to Cambodia, try to remember that is not helpful for khmer children to buy them something. This attitude contributes to their poverty because giving them money like that prevent them from going to school... Please remember...

Day 3: 2nd visit of Angkor temples -> Trying to follow the peaceful and compassion faces of the Bayon Temple among Korean tourists everywhere ...
We have started this 2nd day of visit by the great Angkor Thom or Bayon whose name is well appropriate (Thom means Great in khmer).
At first sight it was for me incredible to see such highness. I was almost crying... The tuk tuk has made a very good choice to let us see “smaller” temples the first day.
This temple represents the highness of the most popular king that Cambodia has never had. He was kind and cared for his people. We tried our best to take good pictures despite the important number of tourists. The Art style is Bayon and the riligion was then Buddhism.


The following temples we have visited were also “popular” temples like Baphuon or Ta Prohm, the temple where trees are growing up upon. It was a very hard day to take pictures but we did our best.



Day 4: The climbing day
Our tuk tuk has planned to let us see temples in Roluos area in the morning then the famous Angkor Wat to finish.
I have read about a site called Kbal Spean at 50 km from Siem Reap where you can cross a jungle and see a river called The River of 1000 Linga and a waterfall. I wanted to see that site so I’ve asked the tuk tuk to bring us there. He said that it’s far but it’s ok. After a more than one hour ride, we arrived on the site and I was very excited to cross a jungle for the first time and climb it until the river which is 1500 meters far from the beginning of the route. It was worth to change a little the plan: the river is just amazing !




In the afternoon we visited Angkor Wat. The temple is so large and high that we had to climb it too. Unfortunately our visit was quick because too many tourists spoil the sightseeing and that always make us run away as soon as possible. That's how our climbing day ended.

Day 5 : classic tourism

This was a day of shopping and the visit of 2 very interesting museums: Angkor workshop and Angkor National museum.
In the fisrt one we could see how the work of people who restore Angkor temples.
Here's a sample of how was the Angkor Wat temple:


This is an important scene sculpted in Angkor Wat representing the scene of creation of the world, according to Hindu religion.
The second museum is a great way to understand Angkor art and its evolution.

Day 6: the lazy day

Nothing to declare ... Razz

Voir les photos : Cambodge - Siem Reap ]

Posté par Migkha

Stay tuned ...

Le 13/02/12, 4:57

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Hi all !!

I'm writing now from a cyber coffee of Siem Reap for we don't have access to Internet in our guesthouse.
I will post more pictures and bla bla bla when we will back in Phnom Penh in 2 days.

See you later Smile

PS: Siem Reap is great !!
Here's our guide to visit Angkor temples Razz

Voir les photos : Cambodge - Siem Reap ]

Posté par Migkha

Beautiful Pursat

Le 08/02/12, 17:21

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Our day at Pursat in the village where my dad was born was great !!
This area is so green and natural. It's a big difference from Phnom Penh for sure ! I have met there a lot of members of my family: my dad's brothers and sister and also a lot of new cousins.
They only know me by very old pictures taken when I was 2 and 9 ! So they were very pleased to see me for real. They kept saying that my face looks like my dad's a lot, but the way I laugh sounds exactly like my mother.
Again, it was a great emotion for me.

I let you see 2 more pictures: the house of my dad's sister and a primary school.



Voir les photos : Cambodge - Cambodge ]

Posté par Migkha

We are alive !!!

Le 07/02/12, 16:08

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Hi all !!!

We are alive !!! It is 8.30 PM now and this our last night in Phnom Penh before we come back from Siem Reap on Wednesday 15.
We have spent 2 great days in Phnom Penh.
At the arrival on Sunday at 10.30 PM, my Uncle Kim was there. He brought us to a hotel in Phnom Penh. He came with two more people and introduced me to them: the two boys are in fact my cousins, the sons of my dad's brother !!! What a surprise and emotion to meet so close members of my family !! They can speak English and with my uncle they could bring us to visit Phnom Penh and eat in very good places! I have also seen their place and it was great to meet the rest of the family and eat homemade food Smile

Tomorrow, they plan to bring us to Pursat into the home of my dad's family.
We will stay just one day. I will tell you later what it is like.

As for Phnom Penh it is like we imagined: very hot, crowded, traffic jams...

See you later !

Traffic jam

National Museum

Voir les photos : Cambodge - Phnom Penh ]

Posté par Migkha

OMG !!! It's gonna be really hot !!!

Le 02/02/12, 17:10

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I have just looked at the temperatures but I have not imagined such high temperatures !! We will have at least 25°C (79°F) in the morning and around 35°C (90°F) in the afternoon....
We still have to find walking sandals and cool bags to keep water with us !
I remind it's D-2...

By the way, this is us in the picture Smile

Picture taken in Sicily

Voir les photos : Cambodge - Phnom Penh ]

Posté par Migkha

Bienvenue ! Welcome !

Le 01/02/12, 16:58

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Hi everyone !!

I will go to Cambodia for the first time in 3 days for 3 weeks with my boyfriend Miguel.

With this blog I would like to share with you, my friend and family in France and US, our experience all along the trip. Sorry for my English mistakes.

This trip means a lot to me. I will finally discover my motherland and I want to thank Mother Cambodia for who I am right now. Even if the history has made me born in France for a better life probably, I want to meet Mother Cambodia, understand her, and promise her that I will always do my best to carry a happy life and always be thankful for my happiness.

Don't hesitate to comment my articles. I hope you will like my blog.

Voir les photos : Cambodge - Phnom Penh ]

Posté par Migkha
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