Children of Bassac - Plae Pakaa

This is the best show! We drove down to Phnom Penh from Battambang then in the evening my dad took us to see the show called "Children of Bassac".  My dad knows the Bassac area because he had worked with the government of Cambodia help improve the Bassac Community which is one of the poorer Cambodian communities. My dad's Cambodian friends also suggested we watch this show.

Children of Bassac is about Apsara dance from Khmer and other Cambodian cultures.

Kayaking down Sangkae River

The next day we woke up and took a kayaking trip down the Sangkae river where we saw the country side.  We got to see how people live along the riverbanks.  Kids waved and were shouting "Hello...What's your name?" We saw vegetable gardens, fisherman fishing, bathing and kids having fun playing in the river. Sangkae river starts in Thailand down to the Tonle Sap Lake.

Battambang and the Bamboo Train

We got picked up from the hotel early in the morning and drove from Siem Reap to Battambang which was a long drive.  Once we arrived in Battambang we took a Bamboo train. Well it turns out this is a funniest way of travelling.  You sit on a flat bamboo which is on wheels and ride through the rice fields and villages, they put your bags at the back of the train.  When another train comes from the opposite direction the train with fewer passengers stops then the passengers get off the train and the operator disassembles the train and let the other carriage go through. This train is fast!

My dad and I are getting on a train.

We are getting ready to go

Bye...

Another train station where one of the trains is about to take off

Happy Birthday Kwanda

Happy Birthday to my cousin Kwanda!

Fiki and Kwanda

Today is my cousin's birthday.  Kwanda is a Christmas baby she is turning 3 today.  Both Fiki and Kwanda are coming to visit us this year i cannot wait to see them.   Kwanda, Fiki and myself  grew up together at Gogo and Khulu's house we miss each other a lot!

Merry Christmas from Angkor Wat

Merry Christmas to everyone!  This morning i got a big surprise from Santa Claus.  He gave me everything i asked from my list.  I was worried that he was not going to be able to find us in Cambodia.
It turns out mom woke us up at 5:00AM Christmas morning to go back to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise.  What a nice way of starting Christmas day from getting presents, beautiful sunrise and sharing Christmas  day with the Khmer people who are almost all Buddhist.  These are pictures we took of sunrise at Angkor Wat Temple.  I hope you also had a wonderful Christmas!

We then went to visit few other temples and villages including the Banteay Srei and Preah Khan temples.

 Tomorrow we drive up to Battambang which is by the border of Thailand.

Siem Reap Province, Cambodia

Two days before Christmas we took a 6 hour bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap it took forever to get to Siem Reap.  The next day we woke up early in the morning to go visit the temples.  We visited temple of Ta Prohm, Ta Keo, Bayon and Angkor Thom.  These temples are beautiful! Our guide explained to us that long time ago people used to sell clothes, spices, gold and silver in the Mekong and Tonle Sap Delta which is the biggest lake in Asia. Because people from Cambodia, Thailand and India were  buying and selling things to each other Cambodians were introduced to Buddhism and Hinduism. These are some of the pictures my dad took of the smiling Buddhas at the Bayon temple.

This is the Terrace of Elephants

These are at Ta Prohm where they made the Tomb Raiders movie. The trees spouted from the top of the temple and their roots have grown down sometimes splitting the stones apart.

We then went to Tonle Sap Lake and the floating village of Me Chrey along the way we drove along the countryside where people grow rice.  We took a boat ride and we saw floating villages.   To me this was a big surprise, when you see the pictures you may understand what I mean.

Phnom Penh

Yesterday we took a bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I got sick on our way but we made it! We had to take a ferry to cross the Mekong River which reminded me of Mombasa, Kenya.

Cambodia is a poor country it reminds me a lot of Burkina Farso in West Africa.  On our arrival we realized that my dad suprised us and booked us a hotel right next door to Cambodia's presidents' house - security is very tight! We went sightseeing, on our way we saw a couple of Buddhist monks, well, it turns out some of the monks smoke and drink beer here (i didn't know that monks can do that, monks here seem relaxed and like having fun).
See a picture of me with sitting next to a monk - they are friendly people.

We spent most of our first day visiting the main symbols of the genocide. At the genocide prison (S.21) we met one of the few genocide survivors who wrote a book about his time in prison.
Chum Mey wrote a book called "Survivor" where he talks about Pol Pot and how he escaped the prison.

We then went to the "Killing Fields" which is Cambodia's main monument to the genocide.  I have to say Cambodians are VERY VERY beautiful people they remind me of Africans.  It is sad to think about the genocide but the people here are happy and are moving on.

The pictures below are the ones we took in the "Killing Fields.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.