Leaving Cambodia

After the lovely elephant ride we were brought back to the hotel, had just enough time to have a nice shower and change before we had to vacate the room. We did however have quite some time to fill in before we leave for the airport. In hind sight we wasted a golden opportunity to take a tuk tuk into the city for a wander round and see more of this tourist city, but we didn't think we had enough time so we just sat and read in the foyer, very relaxing and probably what I needed at the time, but time wasted I think now.
Christine told us she and her Mother Pauline would not be returning with us, but instead would be flying to Thailand to a bigger better hospital, the air ambulance was paid for by their insurance $22,000US, thank goodness they had such great insurance, it is the type we all hope we have but hope never to have to use.

peg is good friends with Pauline and she went by tuk tuk to say goodbye to her friend who must be very ill indeed. heart attacks and breathing difficulties plus pneumonia we believe. We feel for both of them, it is not the way they intended to finish their holiday. Photo of Pauline from earlier when she was feeling well and enjoying herself.

 I went into the hotel shop and decided to buy a silver Rat! In memory of the fact that the people in Cambodia around the rice paddy's eat masses of the Rice eating Rat, the meat is sold at the markets and is not a small rat such as we might know, it is as big as cat - plenty of meat on it. As far as I know we never ate any of this meat!
We indulged in more of their wonderful Ginger tea, I have become quite addicted to it, odd since I do not like to drink tea at all, but this is so different,  the teapot has long thin strips of root ginger steeping in boiling water and comes with a tiny jar of liquid honey which in itself is yummy enough to drink on its own! I am going to miss this drink when I get home, but I may well have a go at making it myself.

Eventually its time to get aboard the bus for the airport, as we drove there we had to pass over an ancient Angkor bridge still in full use. The driver stopped long enough for us to snap a couple very quick of photos before we went on to the airport. Nice of him.

At the airport we also had a wait so peg and i went off shopping in the duty free shops, we both bought a silver elephant in memory,of our lovely elephant ride this morning, I don't buy many souvenirs as we only have a smallish home  and they just become clutter, but I do have a small animal collection that now has 2 more pieces in.
We were flying to Singapore for our free stop-over and everyone else was in transit on way to their homes in Australia, so there were some hugs goodbye, as we had got quite close to some of them. We had also enjoyed some of Cambodia, the Pol Pot saga was rather off putting and I still seem to hear the clamor of millions of innocent victims
calling to me, but more quietly now.

The day of the Elephants!

Oh happy day the day of the elephants has finally arrived, I have been waiting for this. It is also our last day in Cambodia and although I still don't feel well am coughing a great deal and have some asthma, also I am so exhausted, this has been the most exacting trip we have even been on it is go go go from morning to night, every day. 
I am so excited about riding the elephant, I just love elephant rides, siding on the back of a great gentle beast lumbering along like the king of the castle!

We have another of our delicious breakfasts then back to pack our luggage ready to return home, then down stairs over the lake and on to the bus. Erle is not going with us, he has chosen to ride quad bikes around the paddy fields and out into the scrub behind the city.

We arrive to find lots of lovely small Black Asian Elephants awaiting us and masses of other tourist, they have the kind of seats that take two passengers, Christine teams up with Heinz and Peg and I team up for another one. 
There is sort of structure with lots of steps up to a small platform to help us get on board the animal. Much easier than some I have had to climb up the back leg to get on. 
There is a couple of people selling small green pineapples that apparently elephant love to eat as a special treat. Most elephants today are having special treats and loving them One bit and they disappear. 

 Ours definitely got her reward.

 


Our turn comes and we are both lined up and eager, Peg is on first and them me poor old elephant her name is Samba and she is 37 years old, the mahout tells me she has had many many baby calves in her life time, she is so gentle and obedient. 

We are off to wander slowly around the whole complex of Angkor Wat, and over the causeway into the complex at one point, through the forest also. 

Oh it is so wonderful the view from up here is so much superior to ground level. 

We laugh our way the track, having Samba stop every now and again for photo opportunity and to lord it over all those on the ground having to walk, like we did a day or so ago.

It is early morning and still cool and pleasant, we pass a small sort of shrine along the way, much more modern than the main temple where the sun is streaming in through the trees so pretty, and a whole wall of carved elephants known as the Elephant walk.

It was over all too soon, even though we had nearly an hour I think, Peg and I could have done it all again and still loved the ride.

While I was having the time of my life, Erle was out racing around on a big Quad Bike, wearing a good helmet and a face mask for the dust,  also enjoying himself. Not my kind of thing but he did have fun and dusty and dirty, I guess its a man thing! Surprised to see several of the women in our group did this activity too.

Royal Palace

After the revelations of the morning at the Killing fields and S21 Genocide Museum, Erle said he was staying on the ship no Royal Palace visit for him, he said he would go for a walk around town on his own. But I was ready after lunch for another excursion with most of the others.
We went by rickshaw this time as the palace is not very far away, they must know that we need them as they are all waiting at the dock.
 When we got there first things we see are a number of crippled men in wheel chairs begging, some with out feet or legs I guess they are landmine victims. Our guide said please do not give them money or tomorrow another dozen or so will be here, so most of us refrained, but not all, some of the men were really pathetic.
There are also Monks in their bright orange robes, also begging kind of, we don't give to them either.
Even from the outside the Palace grounds are impressive, huge, there are about a million pigeons all over the place because it is against the law to kill them, messy things too.

Plenty of big impressive buildings inside the gates all with  tile roofs like we saw being made at the brick factory. There are many stupas of all different sizes and shapes, also very elaborately decorated inside  of them is a Kings body, these are their Royal tombs.





It is now extremely hot and muggy we are all quite uncomfortable but we keep on walking after the guide trying to listen, the Palace was built in 1866, most of the complex is open to the public except where the King actually lives. This is the man who was great mates with Pol Pot probably in league with him, after all masses of assets and money must have been left behind all the 2/ 3 million who were killed.




We go into a building to view his coronation garments, there were many more of them,  shouldn't have photographed this but I did, and the multi coloured dancing girls costumes, there were extravagant gifts and treasures covered in jewels and made of gold or silver.


 One building was even made of a great deal of silver including the floor, we were not allowed to tread on the silver floor we had to walk on soft mats but we saw it all.


There was monkeys running around not at all scared of people awaiting the opportunity to grab cameras phones or hand bags so we gave them a wide berth.

It seemed to get hotter and hotter mainly because there is a lot of concrete to reflect it back at us, and many of us were not feeling particularly well, there seems to be flu bugs going around - in hot temperatures like this, none of us expected it, there is also tummy bugs, but they are sort of expected.

 There were many more buildings of all kinds around.

We were all very keen to get back to our rickshaws, but first we went to look at the ancient Elephant house and grassy area exercise yard, no elephants left now days but there is a life size snow white elephant in the house, white of cause because the white elephants all belong to the King.





After a quick dash by rickshaw I couldn't wait to put on my bathing suit and jump into the ships swimming pool with Erle, it was lovely and refreshing.
Erle then suggested we go look at the markets he had stumbled upon during his walk, so out we went to wander around the market a little, didn't buy much, but we had a look. I then had a rest before dinner.
Our day was still not over, after a lovely dinner there were young children dancing and singing as entertainment, but I am afraid we were just too tired to be bothered, and went off to bed early.

The day of the elephant.

The day of the elephant.
We read on the activities board that there was to be an Elephant coming to the resort for the day, wow, I just love to ride elephants I will be there I thought. And I was!
Right after our wonderful breakfast buffet with my specially made omelet, we headed out on to the soccer field to find the elephant. Many others specially with children had already made their way to the field so I stood in line in the hot sun with them to await my turn. When my turn finally arrived I was told the rides were really only for the children and their Mother, I was very disappointed and offered to borrow a child, in fact many offer their children to me for the ride. But in the end the Mahout agreed to allow me to ride with him by myself. So I climbed up the stairs and clamoured on to her back and had a lovely ride. The elephant was so quiet and gentle and the mahout treated her very gently too, she had no torn tattered ears from being ‘trained’, when the mahout wanted her to turn or to lift her feet on lie down, he just gave her a gentle tap with a stick with a marble on the end. So good to see the elephant was treated with kindness.
Most of the morning had drifted by as we watched the elephant so it was back to the dining room for a lovely lunch.
We took the camera down the beach with us when we went for a swim, there was a native fishing boat catching fish quite close in, near the rocky point where the fish are regularly fed, they should have got a good catch!


We really enjoy swimming in the warm clean clear waters of this bay, we often saw pretty fish swimming with us. After our swim we wandered over to the beach bar for a cocktail to drink while we watched all the other people swimming and sailing. Such a very pleasant way to pass the time. We noticed a table set up under the trees with lots of lovely snacks, set out for everyone to nibble on, all free as is everything, all the food and the drinks, it does make you indulge quite a bit more than you usually would, I have to say.
Stopped by the elephant with some grass I had plucked along the edge of the lawn and fed the elephant, she liked that and so did I as she gently lifted the grass from my hand with her trunk.
We retired to our nice cool room for a relaxing siesta and reading our books. We noticed a cute little squirrel on the balcony, it was very much smaller than I expected, hardly bigger than a large rat, with black fur and a lovely chestnut coloured tail, we decided to put some crumbs of cake out for it so I could take a photo. A really bad naughty thing to do, we are not supposed to encourage the wildlife by feeding them.
Met up with Scott and Rafaella again for cocktails before dinner and to watch the sun go down and have a great chat about nothing much; very enjoyable!
Dinner was just as good as last night, though every night there are changes to the menu all the food is so good we struggle not to make complete pigs of ourselves! Again we were dining with a couple of the staff members, they also have to watch what they eat, all of them say they have put on weight since they have been working here.
After dinner we all went to the big Show, this time it is Michael Jackson Night and very well done, moon walking right across the stage while singing and there was plenty of great dancing. All in all a great show, rather noisy but that was ok. A quick latte and off to bed.