Delhi Belly and an overnight train trip to Udaipur.

Oh... words cannot express how I feel and maybe it is best that you don’t know.

I am now living on Imodium for breakfast, Hydralytes for lunch and Lactobacillus acidihilus for dinner.

Two days in Delhi.

See the pics.

SickLee

Qutab Minar - world's tallest brick minaret at 72.5 metres

The Red Fort - the fortress palace and capital for the Moghuls until 1857

 

Rickshaw in Old Delhi

In the traffic at Old Delhi Markets - Chandni Chowk

Local ladies in their beautiful saris - some saris can be 9 metres long.
Our guide's wife has more than 200 saris. This seems to be the average for urban women.

Waiting for the train to Udaipur on a Delhi platform

War Museum in Cambodia.

We decided to go and see the war museum, and were shocked to find out that the site it was sitting on was a killing field with more than 200 people found in this grave. Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge and during his rule more than 2 million Cambodians were killed because they didn’t suit the style of life he had planned for Cambodia. This is called genocide when so many people from the one country are deliberately killed. It is so awful.

 

If you brush away the leaves you can see the hidden landmines.

 The man that was showing us around was once a soldier fighting the Khmer Rouge, and he says he wasn’t a good one because he had been shot 3 times and blown up by land mines 6 times . He showed us his missing leg and we felt the metal shrapnel throughout his body. He was 3 years older than mum and dad and was covered with scars; even a piece of bone off his missing foot flicked up and blinded him in one eye. In 2006 his wife and daughter stepped on a land mine and both died. We were told that there are still 4 million active land mines in Cambodia today. We felt very sad for this man.

 

The museum was all outdoors with a mango orchard growing between old tanks, big cannon style guns , and amphibious landing crafts most of which had been been blown up. On each sign it told us how many people had died in each vehicle. Our favourite thing was the huge helicopter in the front yard that the Khmer Rouge had bought off the Vietnamese for 16 million USD to drop bombs on their own people.  When I left this place I felt very sorry for all the people who died and were injured. We see so many people in Cambodia with no arms or legs.

Russian helicopter

122mm   K38

Rocket launcher

Madison and dad

Angkor Wat.

During our stay at Siem Reap we visited the temples of Angkor Wat 3 times to take in their majestic beauty, awesome size and incredible age.  Our first visit we were lucky to share with Gail and Peter on a perfect sun shiny day. Most of our photos were taken on this visit.

We returned a second time after we found we all had many more questions unanswered about the history of Angkor. This visit was on an unbearably hot and muggy day which ended in a dramatic thunderstorm.

Our final visit was to catch the radiance of an Angkor sunset.
We found out quite by luck that we were in Angkor on the exact day of the vernal equinox this year.
On this day in March, the temple of Angkor Wat features solar alignments in which the Sun appears to rise out of its central tower from an observation point located at the western end of the long causeway that leads up to the temple gates.

I can't claim to have taken this photo as I was never up at 5am on the vernal equinox.

At breakfast before our second visit we wrote out some questions of what we wanted to find out about Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples.

We found the answers to our questions from reading notice boards around the site, asking the guide who showed us around, a book we bought called ‘Ancient Angkor’ by M. Freeman and C. Jacques, the July 2009 issue of National Geographic, various internet sites (in particular Wikipedia) and from our Lonely Planet Guide.

Where is Angkor Wat and how big is it?

Angkor Wat is the largest of a series of temples built in the Angkor region.  Generally when foreigners mention Angkor Wat they refer to the overall complex of temples in the Angkor region.

The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland to the north of the Great Lake (Tonlé Sap) and south of the Kulen Hills, near modern-day Siem Reap (13°24′N, 103°51′E), and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992.

Angkor is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 13th centuries.  It is spread over an area of approximately 400 sq km, including the surrounding forest. Although its population remains a topic of research and debate, newly identified agricultural systems in the Angkor area may have supported up to one million people.

What does Angkor Wat mean?

The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "City Temple".
Angkor comes from the Sanskrit word  नगर  nagara meaning capital or city.
Wat is the Khmer word for temple.

Why was it built?

Angkor Wat was built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. Surrounding temples were built for previous and successive kings.

  

When did they start building?

The actual temple of Angkor Wat is the largest and the most elaborate of the city's temples. It is the world's largest religious monument.  It was built in the early 12^th century (between 1113 and 1150) with later additions.

The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "god-king", until 1431, when Ayutthayan invaders sacked the Khmer capital, causing its population to migrate south to the area of Phnom Penh. During this period of about 550 years the entire city of Angkor was built so that would mean they started building in 802 AD

Did part of it get lost in time?

At the fall of the Khmer Empire in 1431 many temples were destroyed and its inhabitants were driven to the south. From then on Angkor was abandoned and Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom were left to ruin. It was not until 22nd January 1860, that a French scholar discovered the past glory of Angkor. He read about Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom in a book titled Cial Envoy named Chou Ta-Kuan. At the time of the discovery, there were more than 600 tall temples and other structures at Angkor Wat.

What type of tree grows through some of the temple ruins?
Many of the pictures of Angkor show the temple Ta Phrohm with its tree roots growing through the stone work. This is also the site of the movie 'Tomb Raider' with Angelina Jolie. We enjoyed exploring this temple and discovering the echo chamber.

Tetrameles nudiflora is a species of plant in the Tetramelaceae family. It is found in Queensland (Australia), Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is the only species in its genus Tetrameles.

Many of them have grown to immense proportions of height and width. The common name for this tree in Cambodia is the Spong Tree. It is regarded as a weed as it provides no benefit or produce. The wood is unusable.

What does ‘Apsara’ mean?

Apsaras are beautiful, supernatural women. They are youthful and elegant, and proficient in the art of dancing.

Apsaras represent an important motif in the stone bas-reliefs of the Angkorian temples in Cambodia. In harmony with the Indian association of dance with apsaras, Khmer female figures that are dancing or are poised to dance are considered apsaras; female figures, depicted individually or in groups, who are standing still and facing forward in the manner of temple guardians or custodians are called devatas.

We all loved spending time at Angkor.
Maisy enjoyed making up stories and imagining how the people lived here. She questioned so many of the structures asking what they were used for and when we couldn't find out the truth she was always willing to offer an elaborate explanation.
Charlotte loved the carvings and bas reliefs, especially the apsaras and even the battle scenes. She took crayons and paper to do crayon rubbings of some of the images. The large bayon faces were her favourites and she bought a small painting of one from the markets.
Paul could not get enough of the ruins and exploring the crumbled pieces, searching for the lost gems and finding intricate pieces to hold and know that a craftsman had carved it a thousand years ago.
I loved Angkor Thom and walking through the dark inner chambers. The haunting peacefulness and sense of age and wonder were such incredible feelings, I did not want to leave.
The temples of Angkor, and the Cambodian people impressed us so much. We savored our 8 day stay here. It was a beautiful, relaxing and spiritual place to be.

We stayed at the most perfect little hotel / resort just out of the main town of Siem Reap. The surroundings were tranquil and perfectly manicured, the staff blended in with the scenery and then just appeared as soon as you wanted something. The price was unbelievably low and then they offered us a free 2 hour massage each on the day we left.

http://www.koolhotel.com/

MysteriousLee

Cambodian Tuk Tuk by Madison.

Labelled diagram of Tuk Tuk by M@D!$oN

Ho Chi Minh City and the Cu Chi tunnels.

The streets of Ho Chi Minh City at 5 o’clock in the afternoon were like nothing I have ever seen or could have believed.  The sheer number of motorcycles moving and intertwining in a mass of controlled chaos was just not possible, but there it was, all around me. 

Travelling from the north of Vietnam and hearing the history of the Vietnam war first from the Northerners who revere Ho Chi Minh it was difficult to call this place Saigon as all of the locals do. Officially known as Ho Chi Minh City since the fall of Saigon in 1975, the city and its people are a reminder of the war that all Vietnamese my age and even younger can remember all too well.

I have been telling the girls parts of the book I’m reading now “The Girl in the Picture” by Denise Chong. The story of nine year old Kim Phuc, severely burned by napalm and photographed running naked away from an air strike on her village (mistakenly by her own people). The photo was published worldwide in 1972 and sparked the public outrage over America’s involvement in the war.  They have seen pictures of the horrific burns from napalm and always point out to me the people they see with similar burns.
We only saw the visible scars.

Photo taken by Nick Ut    AP    June 8 1972
www.kimfoundation.com

With only a few days in HCMC, a must see was the Cu Chi Tunnels.
These tunnels, 50 kilometres from the city are a memory of the incredible  tunnel network dug by the Vietcong in the 1960s and added to over the years of the Vietnam war. The girls lowered themselves into trap doors in the forest floor, we saw gruesome killing traps made of metal and bamboo spears and then the girls and I  crouched and shuffled our way through a section of the dark and claustrophobic tunnels to experience the conditions the Vietcong lived in for months at a time. They truly had an indomitable will to survive.

 

These tunnels have been enlarged for wider Westerners,
even still, my trim little girls found it hard going,
crouching down and moving forward in the dark.
The small section we did was tough and scary enough.

The hotel we stayed in was decent and in a good location;
www.viendonghotel.benthanhtourist.com.vn/?lang=EN

ShockingLee

CC BD in HCMC.

On the day before my birthday we were in Nha Trang and just after I woke up, Maisy told me that she had bought me tickets to go to Vinpearl Fun Park for my birthday. Vinpearl is an island off Nha Trang in Vietnam. The only things on Vinpearl Island are a resort and a massive fun park. To get to the island you need to go on the 3 kilometre cable car which is 60 metres above the ocean.

You can see the cable car pylons on either side of the ocean liner

We got to the cable car by a green taxi and on the way a motor bike almost crashed into us. The taxi driver had to swerve really suddenly and we all went flying across the back seat. No one wears seat belts anywhere in South East Asia but we were all OK. Next we got our own cable car carriage over to Vinpearl.  From the start of the cable car ride, Vinpearl looked just like a normal island, but as we got closer it looked like heaven for an almost eleven year old.

As soon as we got to the island dad and I went straight to the rocking Pirate ship. There was hardly any queue so we walked straight on. When everyone was on, the man operating the ride handed everyone a green sick bag. There was a lady sick on the ride before ours.

We didn’t know where to go next, then mum spotted the chain swing ride that spins around. She thought that would be a lovely, slow and gentle ride, but it went crazy and at rocket speed. Mum was screaming, “Stop the ride, I want to get off!” Maisy went all quiet. Dad had even had enough by the time we got off. I loved it. Mum felt sick and had to lie down on the grass. Dad recovered quickly and headed for the roller coaster.

After a good old merry-go-round ride we went to a 4D cinema to watch a 15 minute Aladin movie. We sat in seats that moved to match the movie while wind and water blew in our faces. It was absolutely awesome.

Next was the dodgem cars and yet again a Vietnamese girl fell in love with Maisy and had to tell her how cute she was and have her photo taken with her.  I don’t know what it is but everywhere we go people think Maisy is adorable… Anyway, on the dodgem cars dad smashed us with his driving skills.

After all the dry rides we decided to go to the water park. To get to the beach and water park we had to walk through a shopping plaza.

We thought the fun park was the best, well the water park was unbelievable. There were about 30 different  water rides. We first went on a rainbow water slide to warm up on. We had a race to the bottom and of course dad, being the heaviest, won with a massive tidal wave finish. Mum lent in close to take a photo and she was saturated by the splash of water.

Dad and I wanted something scarier so we went on the Kamikaze. This ride starts really,really high and is the longest waterslide ever. I went first. Even though it looked scary it wasn’t at all and I wanted to go again and again.

Then Maisy, dad and I went on the Tsunami. This was by far the scariest ride. You sat in a tube and went straight down over an edge then back up and down and up and down until you splashed out at the end. I was screaming my lungs out  and Maisy was sooooo scared. Even dad screamed like a girl.

It then felt like mum was missing out so we asked her what she wanted to do and so we all sat in tubes and floated around the Lazy River. It was very nice.

After the Lazy River ride we met a French man and his son. They needed 4 more people to go on the Family Tube ride, so we went with them. We were expecting a fun ride but it was wild. We all sat in a massive tube and went down a really fast ride. When dad or the French man were on the top side going around a bend, the whole tube felt like it was going to tip over and we would all fall out on top of each other. It was sooooo sooooo much fun. We did it again and screamed even louder.

As soon as we got off the tube ride the wave pool started. Maisy and I grabbed a tube and went in. We went right to the front where the waves were the biggest. I don't think anyone else in the pool had been to Nippers or spent as much time at the beach as us. We had so much fun jumping, laughing and surfing our tubes.
We did a whole lot of other tubing rides after that.

There was an excellent aquarium there too and we had a good look around.

We were all really exhausted at the end of the day but we still had the trip back on the cable car to look forward to.

It was an awesome birthday present. Thank you very much Maisy

On the actual day of my birthday we all got up really early to fly to Ho Chi Minh City.

Maisy was upgraded to Business class and got all the luxury on my birthday.

I shopped all day at the Ben Than market and then we bought 6 different little cakes.

Love from Charlotte

XOXO