In Seoul, South Korea, we came across a confectioner's stand in the Insadong area of the city. The guy was a hilarious character, and put on quite a show making this very good candy.
Enjoy!
Sam
ps- my apologies for the one flipped frame. I was able to splice multiple clips and flip the video, however, one frame near the end was quite pesky and didn't give in. Still worth seeing!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Auntie Sam, I jump on bed!!!
S
Nephews are one of life's great joys, though a nice, calm wake-up they are not! My Mason decided that my bed was a fabulous trampoline and made good use of it. The joys of three and a half year olds!
Sawyer, at 7 weeks, is a bit more sedate and quite a warm little motor (fabulous for Auntie Sam, who is not used to Colorado cold!) "I wuv brother," says Mason. What a good big brother he is!
The goodies from Asia were a hit, including the stuffed animals and the elephant 't' from Cambodia. Yes, this one's in constant motion!
On a side note, my sister-in-law told me about her conversation with Mason a week ago, just following the loss of my dog. After my brother hung up with me, Mason asked why I was sad, and Cortney explained that my dog died. He thought for a minute and said "I bring my Tigger to her." (Tigger is his much beloved golden-doodle puppy whom he loves/loves to abuse.) It was a very sweet offer and I was incredibly touched.
This morning was quite cold, and I learned that a cold three year old is quite snuggly. Definitely the makings of a perfect morning!
S
Nephews are one of life's great joys, though a nice, calm wake-up they are not! My Mason decided that my bed was a fabulous trampoline and made good use of it. The joys of three and a half year olds!
Sawyer, at 7 weeks, is a bit more sedate and quite a warm little motor (fabulous for Auntie Sam, who is not used to Colorado cold!) "I wuv brother," says Mason. What a good big brother he is!
The goodies from Asia were a hit, including the stuffed animals and the elephant 't' from Cambodia. Yes, this one's in constant motion!
On a side note, my sister-in-law told me about her conversation with Mason a week ago, just following the loss of my dog. After my brother hung up with me, Mason asked why I was sad, and Cortney explained that my dog died. He thought for a minute and said "I bring my Tigger to her." (Tigger is his much beloved golden-doodle puppy whom he loves/loves to abuse.) It was a very sweet offer and I was incredibly touched.
This morning was quite cold, and I learned that a cold three year old is quite snuggly. Definitely the makings of a perfect morning!
S
Friday, November 26, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Day 13: Last day in Seoul
We woke up early to squeeze out what we could of our last day in Seoul. We had breakfast at the hotel then headed out to the subway. We went up to the Bukchon area which is considered the middle of the nation's capital city. It was very quaint and had a lot of beautiful old homes as well as a lot of cute little museums and galleries including a Chicken Museum, and a Kite Workshop, that was unfortunately closed. We took a tour of a Buddhist art museum, and walked through several of the side streets in the neighborhood.
Next we headed over to Changgyeonggung Palace, the other large palace in the city's center. It was impressively large and had a bunch more little buildings and homes, but really was more of the same from the palace we saw yesterday. There is a Hidden Garden (not so hidden, I guess) near it, but unfortunately you can only go with a tour guide and the tour started 30 minutes before we had to leave. So instead, we decided to head back to Insadong to get some of that Dragon's beard candy. We got to watch our new best friend give a demo, and recognized us instantly and warmly. He was quite a ham and I got video of it which I'll try to add together and post (for some silly reason, I cut it into a couple of videos.)
We headed back to our hotel, checked out and made our way to the airport, and are waiting for the looong flight home now. This has been such an amazing trip. When I'm back I'll post some pictures as well as provide some more of the things that we enjoyed.
Hope you've enjoyed traveling along with me! Until the next adventure...
Sam
Next we headed over to Changgyeonggung Palace, the other large palace in the city's center. It was impressively large and had a bunch more little buildings and homes, but really was more of the same from the palace we saw yesterday. There is a Hidden Garden (not so hidden, I guess) near it, but unfortunately you can only go with a tour guide and the tour started 30 minutes before we had to leave. So instead, we decided to head back to Insadong to get some of that Dragon's beard candy. We got to watch our new best friend give a demo, and recognized us instantly and warmly. He was quite a ham and I got video of it which I'll try to add together and post (for some silly reason, I cut it into a couple of videos.)
We headed back to our hotel, checked out and made our way to the airport, and are waiting for the looong flight home now. This has been such an amazing trip. When I'm back I'll post some pictures as well as provide some more of the things that we enjoyed.
Hope you've enjoyed traveling along with me! Until the next adventure...
Sam
Day 12: Seoul, South Korea
We arrived in Seoul at 5:20 am, after a sleepless flight (well, I was sleepless, anyways!) We tried to book a tour to see the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone between North and South Korea ) with no luck. Even though the website and the flyer at the stand said no reservations required, they insisted they needed one. Since the tour ends at 2, there just won’t be enough time tomorrow so we’re out of luck.
The cab ride from the airport was interesting on many levels. First, because he was by the the craziest driver we’d had yet! I was expecting Seoul to be a larger, more modern Hanoi, and couldn’t have been more wrong. It is very modern, but was not dirty or polluted at all! The air is clean and it’s very nice. It took an hour to get to the hotel. The lobby is very cute, and we left our bags and set out for breakfast and especially coffee! We ate next to the hotel then headed out to visit the palaces. On the way we came across an interesting place and stopped to check it out. It’s the Namsangol Traditional Korean Village, a cluster of old homes stands. It is five traditional Korean houses from the house of Yeong-Hyo Bak, one of eight great families in Seoul that were moved into the traditional village.
We then headed out to visit the palaces. We’ve been finding Asian culture really interesting in many ways. First, the concept of personal space. There is none. And coming from the US, I find myself often bristling when people are pressed up against me, or aim at me walking, particularly when there’s plenty of room around. It’s interesting to see this concept play out in the homes and shops as well. Walking around Seoul, we didn’t see one shop of a certain kind, but multiple shops in clusters, or neighborhoods. There was the clothing area, the textile area, the sewing machine parts area, pet store area and even a prosthetic store area! We laughed as occasionally a ‘rebel’ store would appear, like we saw a blinds store in with the textiles area. What a shock!
Houses were also clustered with apartments in a grouping, and nice homes. My friend read that the homes were numbered as they were built and as a result can be out of sequence, and we saw several instances of that. We walked down a street and saw house 29, then house 84 then house 66.
We had a couple of funny bathroom ‘incidents’ that I’ll share as well (and several that I won’t, for decency sake!) First, I’m noticing that women simply do not shut bathroom stall doors! It’s the strangest thing but quite a few times now I’ll go into a stall only to find it in use and the lock wasn’t closed, and often the door isn’t even shut! Then my friend had a funny occurrence when he walked in a bathroom and there were two buttons, a red and a green. Green opened the door, and he went in, then hit the red door to close the door. Immediately the lights went out. Completely! He finally found the green button to open the door, but never figured out how to get the lights on with the door shut. Given my findings with the women, maybe that’s why they don’t close the doors? I don’t know.. Then in the ladies’ bathroom I found an ‘etiquette alarm’. Intrigued of course, I pushed the button and heard a fizzing sound then smelled a slightly floral fragrance.
We got to the first palace which was closed today, a place called Changedoekgung Palace, so headed to the second and got quite lost. We tried but could not find a good map, and given that the signs are in Korean characters, we had no clue except for a general direction. At one point we needed to cross a major road and couldn’t find a crosswalk anywhere! Thanks to the kindness of strangers! A jolly man with a bike helmet waved to us, beckoning us to follow him. He took us to a small elevator and we followed. When we got down, he pointed us in a direction, then waved goodbye and went in the opposite direction. Apparently there is underground crossing for major streets! It was very nice of him to show us the way!
We then came across a market, and wandered around a bit. Just like on the street there was the clothing area, the textile area, the food area.. and we saw lots of rather interesting things including pig’s snouts, bugs (for eating) and some various animal body parts that I have no idea what they were, nor do I care to consider it for any longer!
We wandered through a large college campus then decided to stop at a Starbucks for some caffeine and warmth. We then headed back out and were told to take the subway to the palace. Interestingly, we haven’t seen a ton of people walking, given the size of the city. We figured out the subway system, which is actually quite decent, and found our way to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. We bought tickets and ran in just as some brightly dressed people were marching in to some beautiful traditional music. We then took a one hour tour with a Korean gal who was funny and very good. The palace is a small part of what it once was, and consists of over 20 buildings beautifully painted, along with some very nice and large courtyards.
I was quite exhausted by then but did catch a good bit of the tour, which was very good. We then did a quick walk-through of some of the two free museums next to the Palace including the Folk Museum and the National Palace Museum of Korea, then headed back to the hotel for a power nap. We realized that we were not sure exactly where the hotel was from the subway perspective, so took a cab back. After our nap and a quick shower, we were on our way to the Insadung neighborhood, known for its restaurants, shops, galleries and other stores. We walked it end to end twice looking for a restaurant that my friend had found recommended by several sites online, but never found it. We asked several people too!
He bought a beautiful painting on rice paper, and I ended up buying two rings that were really interesting, one silver and onyx, and one that is actually tin and a green stone (jade?) Both are quite different looking. We were starting by then and found a really good restaurant and ordered quite a meal including Bibmbap (sp?) a very traditional Korean dish of a fried egg, rice, sprouts, carrots, greens and beef. It’s laid out beautifully and you mix it all together with some hot sauce. It came in a cast iron bowl and the rice was crispy in parts from cooking. We also got potato pancakes, which had a beautiful herb leaf of some kind, and pork wraps. The pancake was very good and the pork wrap was so-so.
We headed back down the street and decided to go to a tea shop to unwind. It was very cute and quaint and smelled wonderful. He got a Traditional Medicine tea which was quite powerful. It had nuts and dried fruit floating in it, and I thought it tasted of strong liquor. Mine was Five Taste Tea, which turned out to taste very much like plum tea (which I’m not a fan of, unfortunately.) We got green tea rice cakes which were ok dipped in the tea, and they brought some interesting cakes that had the texture of cheetos mixed with a slightly sweetened sticky rice.
It got quite cold with the sun gone, so we decided to call it a night and headed back via the subway. On the way out we stopped to look at a stand that we noticed earlier making some kind of thing we weren’t sure of. Turned out it’s a candy-like thing called Dragon’s beard or King’s beard. It’s tough to describe but has a wispy white coating that is the consistency of a very fine string and flaky over a textured nutty-like center. When we asked what it was, the guy opened one from the freezer to let us share it and boy it was great! We’re definitely stopping back there tomorrow! He asked where we were from and we answered ‘the US’ and then he asked what state and we said “Arizona”. He smiled and said “Diamondbacks!” Which is the baseball team in Phoenix. It was so funny that he knew that. Then he asked my friend "Are you a handsome and famous American movie star?" We laughed out loud, and I commented that now I was going to have to deal with him and his swelled head! We took a picture of him and assured him we’d be back.
I did forget to mention, I believe, that not only were we offered marijuana in Hanoi, but we were offered marijuana and opium in Siem Reap, Cambodia! So far, no offers in Seoul and we leave mid-afternoon tomorrow!
Good night all.. last morning tomorrow then we head out for the long flight home!
s
The cab ride from the airport was interesting on many levels. First, because he was by the the craziest driver we’d had yet! I was expecting Seoul to be a larger, more modern Hanoi, and couldn’t have been more wrong. It is very modern, but was not dirty or polluted at all! The air is clean and it’s very nice. It took an hour to get to the hotel. The lobby is very cute, and we left our bags and set out for breakfast and especially coffee! We ate next to the hotel then headed out to visit the palaces. On the way we came across an interesting place and stopped to check it out. It’s the Namsangol Traditional Korean Village, a cluster of old homes stands. It is five traditional Korean houses from the house of Yeong-Hyo Bak, one of eight great families in Seoul that were moved into the traditional village.
We then headed out to visit the palaces. We’ve been finding Asian culture really interesting in many ways. First, the concept of personal space. There is none. And coming from the US, I find myself often bristling when people are pressed up against me, or aim at me walking, particularly when there’s plenty of room around. It’s interesting to see this concept play out in the homes and shops as well. Walking around Seoul, we didn’t see one shop of a certain kind, but multiple shops in clusters, or neighborhoods. There was the clothing area, the textile area, the sewing machine parts area, pet store area and even a prosthetic store area! We laughed as occasionally a ‘rebel’ store would appear, like we saw a blinds store in with the textiles area. What a shock!
Houses were also clustered with apartments in a grouping, and nice homes. My friend read that the homes were numbered as they were built and as a result can be out of sequence, and we saw several instances of that. We walked down a street and saw house 29, then house 84 then house 66.
We had a couple of funny bathroom ‘incidents’ that I’ll share as well (and several that I won’t, for decency sake!) First, I’m noticing that women simply do not shut bathroom stall doors! It’s the strangest thing but quite a few times now I’ll go into a stall only to find it in use and the lock wasn’t closed, and often the door isn’t even shut! Then my friend had a funny occurrence when he walked in a bathroom and there were two buttons, a red and a green. Green opened the door, and he went in, then hit the red door to close the door. Immediately the lights went out. Completely! He finally found the green button to open the door, but never figured out how to get the lights on with the door shut. Given my findings with the women, maybe that’s why they don’t close the doors? I don’t know.. Then in the ladies’ bathroom I found an ‘etiquette alarm’. Intrigued of course, I pushed the button and heard a fizzing sound then smelled a slightly floral fragrance.
We got to the first palace which was closed today, a place called Changedoekgung Palace, so headed to the second and got quite lost. We tried but could not find a good map, and given that the signs are in Korean characters, we had no clue except for a general direction. At one point we needed to cross a major road and couldn’t find a crosswalk anywhere! Thanks to the kindness of strangers! A jolly man with a bike helmet waved to us, beckoning us to follow him. He took us to a small elevator and we followed. When we got down, he pointed us in a direction, then waved goodbye and went in the opposite direction. Apparently there is underground crossing for major streets! It was very nice of him to show us the way!
We then came across a market, and wandered around a bit. Just like on the street there was the clothing area, the textile area, the food area.. and we saw lots of rather interesting things including pig’s snouts, bugs (for eating) and some various animal body parts that I have no idea what they were, nor do I care to consider it for any longer!
We wandered through a large college campus then decided to stop at a Starbucks for some caffeine and warmth. We then headed back out and were told to take the subway to the palace. Interestingly, we haven’t seen a ton of people walking, given the size of the city. We figured out the subway system, which is actually quite decent, and found our way to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. We bought tickets and ran in just as some brightly dressed people were marching in to some beautiful traditional music. We then took a one hour tour with a Korean gal who was funny and very good. The palace is a small part of what it once was, and consists of over 20 buildings beautifully painted, along with some very nice and large courtyards.
I was quite exhausted by then but did catch a good bit of the tour, which was very good. We then did a quick walk-through of some of the two free museums next to the Palace including the Folk Museum and the National Palace Museum of Korea, then headed back to the hotel for a power nap. We realized that we were not sure exactly where the hotel was from the subway perspective, so took a cab back. After our nap and a quick shower, we were on our way to the Insadung neighborhood, known for its restaurants, shops, galleries and other stores. We walked it end to end twice looking for a restaurant that my friend had found recommended by several sites online, but never found it. We asked several people too!
He bought a beautiful painting on rice paper, and I ended up buying two rings that were really interesting, one silver and onyx, and one that is actually tin and a green stone (jade?) Both are quite different looking. We were starting by then and found a really good restaurant and ordered quite a meal including Bibmbap (sp?) a very traditional Korean dish of a fried egg, rice, sprouts, carrots, greens and beef. It’s laid out beautifully and you mix it all together with some hot sauce. It came in a cast iron bowl and the rice was crispy in parts from cooking. We also got potato pancakes, which had a beautiful herb leaf of some kind, and pork wraps. The pancake was very good and the pork wrap was so-so.
We headed back down the street and decided to go to a tea shop to unwind. It was very cute and quaint and smelled wonderful. He got a Traditional Medicine tea which was quite powerful. It had nuts and dried fruit floating in it, and I thought it tasted of strong liquor. Mine was Five Taste Tea, which turned out to taste very much like plum tea (which I’m not a fan of, unfortunately.) We got green tea rice cakes which were ok dipped in the tea, and they brought some interesting cakes that had the texture of cheetos mixed with a slightly sweetened sticky rice.
It got quite cold with the sun gone, so we decided to call it a night and headed back via the subway. On the way out we stopped to look at a stand that we noticed earlier making some kind of thing we weren’t sure of. Turned out it’s a candy-like thing called Dragon’s beard or King’s beard. It’s tough to describe but has a wispy white coating that is the consistency of a very fine string and flaky over a textured nutty-like center. When we asked what it was, the guy opened one from the freezer to let us share it and boy it was great! We’re definitely stopping back there tomorrow! He asked where we were from and we answered ‘the US’ and then he asked what state and we said “Arizona”. He smiled and said “Diamondbacks!” Which is the baseball team in Phoenix. It was so funny that he knew that. Then he asked my friend "Are you a handsome and famous American movie star?" We laughed out loud, and I commented that now I was going to have to deal with him and his swelled head! We took a picture of him and assured him we’d be back.
I did forget to mention, I believe, that not only were we offered marijuana in Hanoi, but we were offered marijuana and opium in Siem Reap, Cambodia! So far, no offers in Seoul and we leave mid-afternoon tomorrow!
Good night all.. last morning tomorrow then we head out for the long flight home!
s
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Leaving the humid jungle, arriving in Seoul!
Last day in Siem Reap, and we’ll be heading to Seoul Korea this evening. We woke up to the sound of loud music which started at 5 am. Apparently my friend had a visitor in his room, and the frog that we've seen outside several times made an appearance! We ate breakfast at the hotel and met Jac. We learned that the music is part of a local wedding ceremony in the neighborhood. We hired a car to go to Pnom Kulen Mountain, as the tuk tuk can’t make it up the mountain. It was a long drive, a really long drive, and a good bit of it was a very rutted dirt road. I was cursing the coffee I drank for sure!
I forgot to mention the high level of foreign investment here ranging from private individuals to non-profit organizations. Quite a few homes have signs either like “The American Wilson family lives here” or “Donation by Cares for Cambodia.” Many of the donated items are wells, schools and homes. There’s also a lot of construction, but we didn’t see a lot being actively worked. Jac explained that much of it was started a few years ago but has not been completed. He showed us a large hotel that has been under construction for five years!
A couple of things I forgot to mention previously (this is what happens when I don’t bring my travel journal with me!):
First, at the monestary that we visited yesterday, we saw a memorial to the killing fields in Cambodia, where thousands were violently killed and buried in unmarked graves during the Polpot/Khmer Rouge regime. It was a large building with glass sides filled with bones and skulls.
The second thing I’ve forgotten about is the fact that when we toured Angkor Wat, Jac told us that the scientists who excavated and repaired it were trying to determine how they got the blocks to stay together without mortar, and they found sticky rice between the stones! Rather ingenious, I think, though makes me wonder about eating it!
We got to the mountain and parked, and the humidity was so heavy it could be cut with a knife. There was a strong smell of lilies in the air, though unfortunately, I’m quite allergic! We saw lots of Buddha shrines, as we’ve seen all along this trip. We walked through the market of stalls and up a long set of stairs to where the sleeping Buddha lies. Jac said they don’t know exactly how long its been there, but for at least a thousand years. It was cut from a large bounder at the top of the mountain.
We then walked down and through the jungle a bit, and saw the largest spider I have ever seen. It was black and yellow like the last one we saw, but the leg-span was like that of a small bird! It had a huge web too. We then went to see the thousand Linga under the river, which was a really long set of carvings. I don’t think I’ll do it justice, but linga are an ancient item that is a square with an oval in the center that sticks up that the ancient people believed if you pour water over it, it has healing powers. The bottom of the stone riverbed is carved with a thousand of them.
Next we walked through the jungle further and came across a small village that had a lot of children running around. We continued walking over a wobbly wood suspension bridge, then through a really old ruin, that Jac said was undocumented so he didn’t know anything about it, to a large waterfall with several viewing points. The last was the most spectacular, and we climbed down a long set of stairs and and over several wood planks nailed into the rocks to view the waterfall. The spray felt so wonderfully cool with the humidity! We then stopped and tried a banana cake, which was roasted in a banana leaf with bananas and sticky rice. It was really good though quite sticky! We also stopped on the way to try some red banana, which were good. Only about four or five bites to them, and they tasted a little different than plantains but not much different.
We headed back, and while the drive didn’t seem quite as long, it still was lengthy. I enjoyed the trip but don’t think I’d recommend it. Certainly not as much as our last three days. I’m really sad to leave Cambodia as I’ve enjoyed it tremendously.
We made our way to the airport and were happy to still have the air conditioned car as we’re dressed in jeans since Seoul is much colder. the first flight got in early to Hanoi, but unfortunately, you can't check in until 2 hours before. We were sitting on some metal chairs without armrests just next to check-in, and a Vietnamese man sat down next to me. Then another squashed in between us! So I'm sitting on 3/4 of my chair, and he keeps looking over at me as if to say 'why aren't you moving over more?' Welcome to Asia, where the concept of personal space is very, very different!
Time to go check in!! Thank goodness.. my New England sensibilities and need for personal space are at their limits.
S
I forgot to mention the high level of foreign investment here ranging from private individuals to non-profit organizations. Quite a few homes have signs either like “The American Wilson family lives here” or “Donation by Cares for Cambodia.” Many of the donated items are wells, schools and homes. There’s also a lot of construction, but we didn’t see a lot being actively worked. Jac explained that much of it was started a few years ago but has not been completed. He showed us a large hotel that has been under construction for five years!
A couple of things I forgot to mention previously (this is what happens when I don’t bring my travel journal with me!):
First, at the monestary that we visited yesterday, we saw a memorial to the killing fields in Cambodia, where thousands were violently killed and buried in unmarked graves during the Polpot/Khmer Rouge regime. It was a large building with glass sides filled with bones and skulls.
The second thing I’ve forgotten about is the fact that when we toured Angkor Wat, Jac told us that the scientists who excavated and repaired it were trying to determine how they got the blocks to stay together without mortar, and they found sticky rice between the stones! Rather ingenious, I think, though makes me wonder about eating it!
We got to the mountain and parked, and the humidity was so heavy it could be cut with a knife. There was a strong smell of lilies in the air, though unfortunately, I’m quite allergic! We saw lots of Buddha shrines, as we’ve seen all along this trip. We walked through the market of stalls and up a long set of stairs to where the sleeping Buddha lies. Jac said they don’t know exactly how long its been there, but for at least a thousand years. It was cut from a large bounder at the top of the mountain.
We then walked down and through the jungle a bit, and saw the largest spider I have ever seen. It was black and yellow like the last one we saw, but the leg-span was like that of a small bird! It had a huge web too. We then went to see the thousand Linga under the river, which was a really long set of carvings. I don’t think I’ll do it justice, but linga are an ancient item that is a square with an oval in the center that sticks up that the ancient people believed if you pour water over it, it has healing powers. The bottom of the stone riverbed is carved with a thousand of them.
Next we walked through the jungle further and came across a small village that had a lot of children running around. We continued walking over a wobbly wood suspension bridge, then through a really old ruin, that Jac said was undocumented so he didn’t know anything about it, to a large waterfall with several viewing points. The last was the most spectacular, and we climbed down a long set of stairs and and over several wood planks nailed into the rocks to view the waterfall. The spray felt so wonderfully cool with the humidity! We then stopped and tried a banana cake, which was roasted in a banana leaf with bananas and sticky rice. It was really good though quite sticky! We also stopped on the way to try some red banana, which were good. Only about four or five bites to them, and they tasted a little different than plantains but not much different.
We headed back, and while the drive didn’t seem quite as long, it still was lengthy. I enjoyed the trip but don’t think I’d recommend it. Certainly not as much as our last three days. I’m really sad to leave Cambodia as I’ve enjoyed it tremendously.
We made our way to the airport and were happy to still have the air conditioned car as we’re dressed in jeans since Seoul is much colder. the first flight got in early to Hanoi, but unfortunately, you can't check in until 2 hours before. We were sitting on some metal chairs without armrests just next to check-in, and a Vietnamese man sat down next to me. Then another squashed in between us! So I'm sitting on 3/4 of my chair, and he keeps looking over at me as if to say 'why aren't you moving over more?' Welcome to Asia, where the concept of personal space is very, very different!
Time to go check in!! Thank goodness.. my New England sensibilities and need for personal space are at their limits.
S
Goodbye humid jungle, hello Seoul!
Last day in Siem Reap, and we’ll be heading to Seoul Korea this evening. We woke up to the sound of loud music which started at 5 am. We ate breakfast at the hotel and met Jac. We learned that the music is part of a local wedding ceremony in the neighborhood. We hired a car to go to Pnom Kulen Mountain, as the tuk tuk can’t make it up the mountain. It was a long drive, a really long drive, and a good bit of it was a very rutted dirt road. I was cursing the coffee I drank for sure!
I forgot to mention the high level of foreign investment here ranging from private individuals to non-profit organizations. Quite a few homes have signs either like “The American Wilson family lives here” or “Donation by Cares for Cambodia.” Many of the donated items are wells, schools and homes. There’s also a lot of construction, but we didn’t see a lot being actively worked. Jac explained that much of it was started a few years ago but has not been completed. He showed us a large hotel that has been under construction for five years!
A couple of things I forgot to mention previously (this is what happens when I don’t bring my travel journal with me!):
First, at the monestary that we visited yesterday, we saw a memorial to the killing fields in Cambodia, where thousands were violently killed and buried in unmarked graves during the Polpot/Khmer Rouge regime. It was a large building with glass sides filled with bones and skulls.
The second thing I’ve forgotten about is the fact that when we toured Angkor Wat, Jac told us that the scientists who excavated and repaired it were trying to determine how they got the blocks to stay together without mortar, and they found sticky rice between the stones! Rather ingenious, I think, though makes me wonder about eating it!
We got to the mountain and parked, and the humidity was so heavy it could be cut with a knife. There was a strong smell of lilies in the air, though unfortunately, I’m quite allergic! We saw lots of Buddha shrines, as we’ve seen all along this trip. We walked through the market of stalls and up a long set of stairs to where the sleeping Buddha lies. Jac said they don’t know exactly how long its been there, but for at least a thousand years. It was cut from a large bounder at the top of the mountain.
We then walked down and through the jungle a bit, and saw the largest spider I have ever seen. It was black and yellow like the last one we saw, but the leg-span was like that of a small bird! It had a huge web too. We then went to see the thousand Linga under the river, which was a really long set of carvings. I don’t think I’ll do it justice, but linga are an ancient item that is a square with an oval in the center that sticks up that the ancient people believed if you pour water over it, it has healing powers. The bottom of the stone riverbed is carved with a thousand of them.
Next we walked through the jungle further and came across a small village that had a lot of children running around. We continued walking over a wobbly wood suspension bridge, then through a really old ruin, that Jac said was undocumented so he didn’t know anything about it, to a large waterfall with several viewing points. The last was the most spectacular, and we climbed down a long set of stairs and and over several wood planks nailed into the rocks to view the waterfall. The spray felt so wonderfully cool with the humidity! We then stopped and tried a banana cake, which was roasted in a banana leaf with bananas and sticky rice. It was really good though quite sticky! We also stopped on the way to try some red banana, which were good. Only about four or five bites to them, and they tasted a little different than plantains but not much different.
We headed back, and while the drive didn’t seem quite as long, it still was lengthy. I enjoyed the trip but don’t think I’d recommend it. Certainly not as much as our last three days. I’m really sad to leave Cambodia as I’ve enjoyed it tremendously.
We made our way to the airport and were happy to still have the air conditioned car as we’re dressed in jeans since Seoul is much colder.
I forgot to mention the high level of foreign investment here ranging from private individuals to non-profit organizations. Quite a few homes have signs either like “The American Wilson family lives here” or “Donation by Cares for Cambodia.” Many of the donated items are wells, schools and homes. There’s also a lot of construction, but we didn’t see a lot being actively worked. Jac explained that much of it was started a few years ago but has not been completed. He showed us a large hotel that has been under construction for five years!
A couple of things I forgot to mention previously (this is what happens when I don’t bring my travel journal with me!):
First, at the monestary that we visited yesterday, we saw a memorial to the killing fields in Cambodia, where thousands were violently killed and buried in unmarked graves during the Polpot/Khmer Rouge regime. It was a large building with glass sides filled with bones and skulls.
The second thing I’ve forgotten about is the fact that when we toured Angkor Wat, Jac told us that the scientists who excavated and repaired it were trying to determine how they got the blocks to stay together without mortar, and they found sticky rice between the stones! Rather ingenious, I think, though makes me wonder about eating it!
We got to the mountain and parked, and the humidity was so heavy it could be cut with a knife. There was a strong smell of lilies in the air, though unfortunately, I’m quite allergic! We saw lots of Buddha shrines, as we’ve seen all along this trip. We walked through the market of stalls and up a long set of stairs to where the sleeping Buddha lies. Jac said they don’t know exactly how long its been there, but for at least a thousand years. It was cut from a large bounder at the top of the mountain.
We then walked down and through the jungle a bit, and saw the largest spider I have ever seen. It was black and yellow like the last one we saw, but the leg-span was like that of a small bird! It had a huge web too. We then went to see the thousand Linga under the river, which was a really long set of carvings. I don’t think I’ll do it justice, but linga are an ancient item that is a square with an oval in the center that sticks up that the ancient people believed if you pour water over it, it has healing powers. The bottom of the stone riverbed is carved with a thousand of them.
Next we walked through the jungle further and came across a small village that had a lot of children running around. We continued walking over a wobbly wood suspension bridge, then through a really old ruin, that Jac said was undocumented so he didn’t know anything about it, to a large waterfall with several viewing points. The last was the most spectacular, and we climbed down a long set of stairs and and over several wood planks nailed into the rocks to view the waterfall. The spray felt so wonderfully cool with the humidity! We then stopped and tried a banana cake, which was roasted in a banana leaf with bananas and sticky rice. It was really good though quite sticky! We also stopped on the way to try some red banana, which were good. Only about four or five bites to them, and they tasted a little different than plantains but not much different.
We headed back, and while the drive didn’t seem quite as long, it still was lengthy. I enjoyed the trip but don’t think I’d recommend it. Certainly not as much as our last three days. I’m really sad to leave Cambodia as I’ve enjoyed it tremendously.
We made our way to the airport and were happy to still have the air conditioned car as we’re dressed in jeans since Seoul is much colder.
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