Travels

So, where were we? Oh, yah, Angkor. As I said before, a pretty amazing place. Here are a couple more images from Banteay Srei. Not too shabby for 800 years old, huh?

Banteay Srei.

Banteay Srei Detail.

On the way back to Siem Reap from Banteay Srei, we stopped at the land mine museum. “Unexploded ordinance” (UXO)—including land mines, unexploded large bombs, and unexploded “bombies” or anti-personal cluster bombs—is still a big problem in Cambodia. Every year, dozens of people are killed or injured by these deadly remnants of the wars. (UXO is a big problem in parts of Lao as well, most notably in Xieng Khuang and along the Ho Chi Minh trail. But more about that another time.) The museum is staffed by people who have been injured by land mines, and the organization that runs the museum also runs an orphanage to look after children whose parents have been killed by war or UXO accidents. The partially Canadian funded organization behind the museum and orphanage is also actively engaged in searching for, and disposing of, UXO.

With literally millions of bombs dropped, and mines laid, in Cambodia since the ‘60’s, it will be decades before the UXO problem will be solved. The piles of UXO at the land mine museum and the land-mine-injured staff were a sobering demonstration of the scale of the problem.

Land Mine Museum.

Right now Cambodia is also struggling with its worst-ever outbreak of Dengue fever. The hospitals are overflowing with hundreds and hundreds of sick kids, many of whom have the most serious form of the disease. The country certainly has more than its fair share of challenges.

While Angkor may be the star of the show, we were also captivated by the “floating village”. Here people still live on the water the way they have done for hundreds of years, moving their homes, businesses, schools, churches, and hospitals in response to the level of the Tonle Sap Lake as it changes throughout the year. Not surprisingly, the main business is fishing, but you can also buy groceries from floating shops, buy gasoline from floating gas stations, play basketball on a floating court, or go to classes in a floating school.

Floating Village.

Cambodia held many surprises for us. I, for one, would be keen to return again to visit more of the country, and to see what other surprises it holds.

As we took off from Siem Reap in the Lao Aviation Chinese-made MA-60, the ground below us appeared to be half water and half land. At least there was lots of water for this year’s rice crop. Here’s hoping they have a bumper harvest.

From Siem Reap we flew north to Luang Prabang. As it was now “low season”, the city was considerably quieter (and drier!) than during our visit in April for Pi Mai. It was still hot however, and we took every opportunity to stop for cold Beer Lao as we wandered around checking out the temples, night market, etc in this World Heritage City.

Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang.

Using Luang Prabang as a base, we made a couple of side trips into the surrounding countryside. On one trip, we went to a jungle resort a few kilometres outside of town that was complete with its own elephant camp. I eyed the park-bench-like seats on the backs of the elephants with suspicion, fully expecting them to roll off the beasts like a saddle on a horse with a loose cinch. And it’s a lot farther to the ground from the back of an elephant than it is from the back of a horse. It was even more disconcerting when the mahout jumped off our elephant’s neck to chase through the undergrowth after some iguana-like lizard that’s supposedly good eating. Didn’t he know that we’d never been to elephant driving school, and that the elephant didn’t even understand English? (What do you say to a runaway elephant anyway? Whoa there, trigger?) I was relieved when the mahout returned and used one of the elephant’s ears to hoist himself back onto the critter’s neck.

Elephant Riding.

On another day, we hired a minivan to take us on the day-long trip through the rugged mountain country of Oudamxay north of Luang Prabang to the small town of Pak Beng. Here we stayed overnight at another lovely jungle lodge before boarding a boat the next morning for the 160 km journey down the Mekong River and back to Luang Prabang. It was great to spend a day on this river of legend, and to see the countryside of northern Lao from the water. Along the way, we stopped at a village that specializes in making lao-lao (rice whiskey). I figure they should contact NASA. You could use the stuff for rocket fuel.

Near Oudamxay.

Mekong River at Pak Beng.

We also stopped at the Pak Ou caves just outside of Luang Prabang. The caves are filled with hundreds of statues of Buddha. As luck would have it, we arrived at the same time as several dozen orange-clad Thai monks. It was interesting to see their combination of devotion as they prayed, and irreverence as they joked, giggled, and took each other’s pictures.

Monk taking a picture with his cellphone.

View from Pak Ou Cave.