Happy New Year

It's Tet, Vietnam's equivalent of Chinese New Year and  all the indications are that it's best to get away from the transport chaos and inflated hotel prices that come with the holiday period .  I've taken a very long bus ride to Siem Reap in Cambodia this time joined by my daughters Charlotte and Alice.  The bus journey was long, tiring and very, very cold as the driver had the air conditioning turned down to an icy blast for the 15 hours it took us to make the trip. 
Siem Reap and the templates of Ankor are worth the journey and the hotel had a pool.  We had two days looking around Ankor and a day resting in the town. We took a tuk-tuk on the first day and cycled on the second.  It was hot but not too hot and cycling down the shady roads was a pleasure.  You pay a lot for the access but once in you can clamber over everything without anyone stopping you and they are impressive.  The souvenir sellers can be annoying, pushing postcards, guide books and t-shirts at you that you don't want but otherwise it's a very peaceful experience.  The whole area is kept clean by a small army of workers in green uniforms who spend their days sweeping up leaves on the sides of the roads in a vain attempt at  tidying up a tropical forest.  At least some of the $20 a day fee goes into the local economy.

We left Siem Reap by  boat to Battambang crossing the massive Tonle Sap lake and winding through a narrow river to the town.  Eight hours of bird and village life watching along the bank, engine noise and hard wooden seats.  There were scenes of unbelievable poverty along the way where families live in crude wooden shacks and catch the tiny fish that fill the water.  Sadly plastic bags are everywhere marking the high water mark on an otherwise very natural scene.  Perhaps the cleaners of Ankor would be better employed here.

After a long, noisy day we arrived in Battambang and walked the few hundred meters to the hotel area taking pleasure in stretching our legs after sitting so uncomfortably on those narrow benches all day. For a fraction of the price and half the time we could have taken a bus but, as I keep telling the girls, we wouldn't have had the experience.

Battambang is a town for locals with a handful of backpacker hotels and restaurants in contrast to Siem Reap whose sole function is to cater for tourists of all pockets many of them rather deep judging by the number of 'international spas' springing up all over the town.  It's a bit scruffy and dusty but very cheap.  The main street is busy with cars and motorbikes but the side streets are quieter and the restaurant owners are happy to see tourists sitting in their restaurant chairs reading and not buying much throughout the hot afternoons.  We had a ride out into the countryside this morning to a couple of temples on top of small hills with great views of the countryside around them but other wise the day has been lazy, with us not doing much at all.  Tomorrow we leave for Phnom Penh on the 8am bus for a mere 6 hours.