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A short flight and we are in Siem Reap – it is HOT!! We are staying at a really nice hotel called Tara Angkor Wat. It has a great pool (which will be needed) and is nicely decorated for Christmas:

A leisurely lunch at the hotel produces more delicious Khmer food and then it’s off to the night market and a few drinks on Pub Street!

Being chauffeured around in an air conditioned car is just what the doctor ordered in the 30c degree heat of Siem Reap. After smiling for a photo which appears on your ticket (1 day = $37), we headed for Angkor Thom. The entrance and gate is very impressive and is lined with statues:

On the other side of the entrance gate we we’re greeted by lots of monkeys.

You could also chose to get to the temple by elephant (for $20) but those elephants looked exhausted.

Onward to the Bayon temple:

This is “the one with the faces” – if you zoom in you’ll see them…

This place is magnificent and even though it’s our first temple to visit it may just end up being my favourite. I could look at it all day and keep taking photos.. amazing!

We had some free time to walk around and check out the different faces from different angles

There was also lots of interesting carvings:

From there we walked to another temple – Phimeanakus and climbed to the top:

This next one we viewed but weren’t allowed to climb:

Then it was on to the elephants terrace, where back in the day it was like a colosseum where the royals watched sport, not killings thank goodness.

Next we headed for Ta Phrom aka The Tomb Raider temple. I’ve never seen the movie with Angelina Jolie and don’t really have any interest but I might have to watch it just to see the location.

The way the trees have taken route on the temple walls is fascinating and it was really cool to see.

Most of the trees are “spueng” trees – It’s amazing to see their sprawl and how they’ve basically swallowed up the temple!

Next was the big kahuna.. Angkor Wat. Our guide, Mike (not his real name) brought us to the back entrance initially and we made our way through the temple to the front. View from the back:

This turned out to be a great idea as we were at the front for sunset. It did mean that we didn’t see the amazing full-on view until the end of our day though so the suspense was terrible!! Worth it for this though:

Walking through the temple there are amazing carvings that have survived and there is lots of restoration going on.

The climb to the very top was steep but gave more great views of the temple and a sense of how big it was – literally awesome!

It happened to be the 25th anniversary of the site becoming a UNESCO world heritage site so there was a big celebration going on outside that it was hard not to get pulled into. Kids dancing and waving and marching with a band.. it was great fun.

The money shot!

It was a long day and we were tired but we rallied for a tuk tuk ride and another great dinner.

Day 2 we were picked up again and drove about an hour outside of the city to the floating villages on the largest fresh water lake in Asia – Sap Tonle lake. First we saw houses on stilts that are in the more shallow part of the lake which crazily will be dried up in a few months.

This was where our guide was raised. He pointed out his old house and his school (photo below):

As we sailed out further into the deeper water the houses became floating houses. A lot of people live out here and there was plenty of busy life going on. As the water dries up the houses up and move to the deeper parts of the lake.

Local shop:

We had a packed lunch with us and we stopped to have it in someone’s house – it was kind of bizarre but the family were very welcoming and it was nice to see the houses they live in – this one was very fancy with tiled floors! We had a great view out to the lake too.

On the boat ride out, Suzanne and Mike were standing out front and I was happily sitting looking out the side. I noticed a kind of burning smell and was wondering how people managed to cook on their boats and in these small homes. Next thing the driver makes a run past me to the back where the engine is and I can see smoke bellowing out the back. He leans down and pulls out what looks like a pink cardigan which is in flames and he throws it into the lake behind him… holy smoke.. it could have been the end of us and I was totally oblivious enjoying the calm surroundings!!!

After the lake visit we went to see another temple. Beng Mealea is known as one of the more mysterious temples. Apparently it was built to the same floor plan as Angkor Wat and it was consumed by jungle until recently some was cleared away. It is full of piles of huge stones with no major plan to restore them to their former glory.

And again there are trees growing all over it

On our last full day we had no organised tour so we picked a couple more temples to visit and headed off by tuk tuk:

First we headed to Phnom Bakheng which sits on a steep hill with a view (somewhat limited) of Angkor Wat

Then it was on to Preah Khan which was way bigger than we were expecting. It was a huge temple and there was lots of hallways to either side branching off the main walk way. Another very impressive feat of architecture! We walked from east to west so we had a nice view of the sun shining on it and met our tuk tuk driver on the west side to take us to lunch.

After lunch and a spot of shopping we hit the pool for an hour and then I had a massage before going for our final dinner. The next day we had only half a day to say our goodbyes to Siem Reap .. we did some shopping at the local artisan shops close to the hotel – Christmas presents sorted – and had a final lunch – our best in Cambodia at Haven and that wasn’t just because they played Morrissey!

A couple of glasses of wine and a fond farewell we set off for Vietnam…

We arrived to Phnom Penh in the evening, tired after a busy half day in Bangkok. Our hotel – Villa Langka was a cute boutique hotel with an open air reception and restaurant area. We relaxed on the comfy sofa with a cocktail and a nibble and geared ourselves up for a full day of touring the next day.

Our day started with a visit to the royal palace where the king currently resides. It is colourful, sparkly and bright but much calmer and less cluttered than the royal palace in Bangkok. The current king is in his 60’s and not married. He was a ballet dancer in Paris and is very interested in the arts. It’s unlikely he’ll ever marry so they’ll have to look to a different line of the royal family when he’s gone. The locals appear to be fans but he has no power over government and doesn’t seem to do much in the way of helping or inspiring the local people.

On the grounds of the palace is the silver pagoda which inside has a floor completely made of silver (over 5,000 silver tiles), although most of it is covered in carpet. They have a jade Buddha which is an exact replica of the emerald Buddha that we saw in Bangkok and apparently the emerald Buddha was Cambodian and the Thais stole it!!! The pagoda is full of Buddha statues and other deities.

There are two main stupas one containing the ashes of the former king (current kinds father) and the other the kind before that (the current kings grandfather):

There were some very interesting trees and flowers around the grounds. This is the beautiful lotus tree:

We also got the chance to see some local musicians play traditional music:

Next we headed to the killing fields at Choeung Ek. This was a really tough place to visit and this is not going to be a fun post. I am going to post photos so be warned.. it’s upsetting – THIS IS NOT A FUN POST.

On the 13km drive from Phnom Penh to the killing fields, our tour guide gave us some history of Cambodia. It’s definitely been a nation with its troubles and you’ve got to feel sorry for the regular people trying to live a normal life and get by. After a civil war that killed approx one million people the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 under the leadership of Pol Pot. He, along with his Khmer cadres set in motion a plan to purge the country of educated people and then families and bring the country back to a peasant based idyllic (in their eyes) society. Approximately two million people were killed during their time in power. If there was an enemy of the state to be killed (let’s say a teacher), they killed everyone connected to them including babies so as to avoid any future chance of revenge.

It’s really hard to fathom that so many people were killed like this in my lifetime. I was 3 years old when the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975. I know there have been other genocides in my lifetime and I know this kind of thing is happening today but this is the closest I came to seeing the evidence and really feeling it and it was horrific. At this specific place which became known as the killing fields, prisoners who had been tortured at a prison in Phnom Penh were brought to be murdered and thrown into mass graves. We walked around the fields and the mass graves are clearly obvious with some bone and clothes still visible as you walk by.

Our guide pointed out a tree that had been covered with blood from where babies heads were bashed and another tree where a speaker was placed with loud music to drown out the screams and roars.

Around 20,000 people were killed in this one spot… I wondered where the other million plus bodies are and the answer is all over the country. There is a small museum with some interesting photos and information on the Khmer leaders. It’s tough to read and generates so many emotions – sadness, disgust, anger…

There is a memorial stupa in the centre of the area. It contains glass shelves with layers of skulls, bones and clothes of the victims killed here. They are organised by sex and age. You can lay flowers and light incense to pay your respects and oddly enough they allow photographs to be taken. I got the sense that they want the world to see these pictures and to ask questions so that people can be educated and hopefully this doesn’t happen again (will we ever learn).

It was a quiet somber journey back to the city. This has to be tough on the guide, a young lady, who takes tourists here regularly. She told us that most of her mothers family were killed and that her Dad was nearly arrested but for some reason another guard let him go… scary stuff.

Continuing the horror we headed to Tuol Sleng prison also known as S-21. This was equally if not more horrific a place to visit. We walked through cells were prisoners were tortured and killed. There were photos taken on the day of liberation showing dead and half dead bodies as they’d been left, chained to beds, shackled to chairs with blood etc. It was truly horrific. This place had formerly been a school but the Khmer Rouge did not believe in educating children other than to brainwash them about their ideals. It closed lots of schools and made this one its most notorious prison.

On our way out we met with two survivors of this horrific place. It was such an honour to meet them and shake their hand.

In an effort to shake off the doom and gloom of the earlier part of the day we headed to the national museum for a bit of Angkor culture. A lovely old red building, it housed mostly stone statues and carvings from the Angkor temples.

Last stop on the tour was the Wot Phnom temple. Up on a hill looking over Phnom Penh it houses a statue of Madame Penh who allegedly found the city and of course some Buddha statues. Oh and did I mention I got a great takeaway tea!!

With our lovely guide – Pique – the diamond of Phnom Penh

Before we left the temple I had my fortune read by shaking some prayer sticks in front of the alter:

I was told that as long as I remained good (and you know I always try to be good) I will have happiness, good health, wealth and honour… I like the honour bit!

Back to the hotel for a drink after a very somber day and a trip to a “good cause dining” restaurant which was delicious (more of that on a separate blog post). Next morning off to Siem Reap!

En route to Cambodia we had an overnight in Bangkok. This will be the shortest entry for the trip!! We Landed around 9.30pm and by the time we got to our hotel on Sukhumvit the bar was closed … crap!!! Our plan was to have a drink, I mean you’d have to it’s Bangkok right!! The very sweet lady behind reception told us that the hotel tuk tuk driver would drop us to the main road where there were bars so without even checking our room we left our bags so we could grab one in the closest pub we could find. So guess where we ended up – of course, an Irish bar!!! The drunken leprechaun (next door to Hooters!!). A drink and a snack and we were happily satisfied.. no major craic and we were knackered so we headed back to get a few hours sleep before we launched ourselves on the town for the kings birthday the next day!!!

It’s amazing what you can see in a few hours with the right attitude and the right pair of shoes. After a lavish breakfast at Hotel U Suk we took the sky train to the national stadium and cabbed the rest of the way to the royal palace. We weren’t sure what to expect with it being the kings birthday.. I’d read various different things from “it’s free in to all the attractions ” to “everything will be closed as it’s a national holiday “.. neither were true! We had to pay in (no problem but note it’s 500 bt into the palace – that’s about 20 quid!) and the place was mobbed. There were people everywhere.. a million tour groups walking around with various different flags waving and half of the crowd didn’t even seem to be going into the palace they were circling it (pilgrimage maybe!!)..

Anyways we started with Wat Phra Kaeo and saw the massive reclining Buddha and all the other cool pagodas, statues and everything around.

I particularly liked the list of buddhas that I remember seeing back in 2004 on my first visit where I was obsessed with understanding each Buddha and the position and mudra (hand positions). As I write this I’m looking forward to looking back on the photos I took back then.

Next we made our way through the throngs of visitors and after some confusion made it into the palace grounds. The priority was the Emerald Buddha. Now this is a very famous statue of a Buddha – it’s small but it’s placed on a very impressive layer upon layer of gold. No photos allowed but the temple itself is impressive and you can take photos of that:

We spent a fair amount of time looking at the murals which cover a huge amount of wall space around the temple grounds:

The kings actual residence and soldiers:

Leaving was challenging.. some exits were “Thai only” – seriously! We made it outside, said happy birthday to the king and we were on our way. A nice lunch and off to the airport.

On the way to the airport I was fascinated by some of the buildings and the construction work..

• It is the only country in the world that measures Gross National Happiness and the people seem very proud of it.
• Both UK and US plugs work in a lot of the hotels.
• Most Bhutanese men wear the traditional dress called gho and the women kira. When going to school or church they are required to wear it.
• Older Bhutanese men and women chew a disgusting thing called beetlenut – it smells awful and makes their teeth look red and bleeding.
• As you drive past houses you can see chillis drying out on their tin roofs.
• Always have toilet paper in your pocket – there’s rarely any in the bathroom.
• There are ornate entrances at random places along the roads:
• 
• Road signs are very entertaining in particular those on the road telling you to be safe and the anti smoking and drugs ones.. oh yes and smoking is illegal.. my kinda country! Examples of some of the road signs: “Bro be Mr Late not late Mr”… “Speed is a knife that cuts lives”… “After rum driving no more fun”… “First smoking, next drugs – say no to tobacco”..
• There are police/emigration checkpoints at a number of bridges within Bhutan!
• They have a lot of vertical prayer flags as well as the regular horizontal kind – these horizontal ones seem to be unique to Bhutan.

Our last day in Bhutan was just marvellous…

I had a list of Paro stuff to cover that wasn’t on our tour and Kinlay was only too happy to accommodate us so we set off that morning after a final brekkie and some final goodbyes to some of the group who were catching earlier flights. There were just 3 things on the list for what we called the “O’Doherty memorial last day tour”.. a temple surprise surprise, another temple (7th century and privately owned) and some yak scarf shopping!

The first temple, Dumtse Lhakhang was built in 1433 and had 3 floors representing heaven, earth and hell. A caretaker came and opened it up for us and other than his prayers we had the place to ourselves. We had to climb some precarious wooden stairs (essentially ladders) with flashlights but it was worth it as they had the most amazing murals on the walls.

A final swing of some prayer wheels outside and we were done.

Next was the privately owned Puna Lhakhang which Kinlay didn’t know of. After a quick discussion with some locals at the temple they pointed us across the road to a house on some land. As we approached, a young boy waved us in and directed us around the house past some ladies brushing their teeth and washing clothes outside at a water tap! A lady appeared and Kinlay asked her if we could see inside the temple. She opened it up and had no problem allowing us in, shoes off of course!

It was a great find.. a full on temple with statues and everything we’d come to expect and it was literally in this family’s back garden. The lady explained (and Kinlay translated) that they have festivals here and the locals come to pray and give offerings. She opened up a large cabinet that went the length of one of the walls and it was packed with ancient scripts (108). There was one that we got to see up close and touch.. it was somewhat damaged, written in Bhutanese and honestly it looked like something that should be housed in a museum and turned over with a tweezers! It was amazing to be allowed in to see the place and we were all thrilled to have gone off the beaten track to find it. We thanked the lady with a small offering and were on our way.

A final stop in “downtown” Paro to buy some yak scarves (Christmas pressies!) and my Chenresig compassion Buddha and we were more or less done. We had a delicious final lunch at The Travellers Rest restaurant and a beer to bid adios. Back on the bus we presented Tenzin our bestest driver with a solar powered prayer wheel for the dash of the bus:

What an amazing trip – I loved everything about Bhutan (well maybe not all the toilets!!) and will remember this trip for a very long time.

Next country Cambodia.. well with a short stop off…….. oh and I met the Bhutan youth cricket team in the airport!!

I can’t seem to help it but each time I mention this place I call it the birds nest. My brain just doesn’t seem to allow tiger and nest to go together. Anyway on our second last day in Bhutan it was time for the big one that everyone had been waiting on and that hopefully we were now acclimatised for – The Tigers Nest officially called Taktshang Goembo. We had an early start and were on the road at 7am. It looked so far away starting off – it’s 4km straight up … I was anxious to start moving and check this place out.

You can take a horse up but all of our group decided to walk. The views as we climbed were beautiful and of course I kept taking shots of the monastery as it came more and more into view.

Halfway up there’s a stop called the cafeteria where you can have a bathroom break and some refreshments. There’s some prayer wheels to swing and It’s also a great spot for a photo of the monastery.

Continuing the climb it looked like we were nearly there but then we had to go down a load of steps only to come back up on the other side!!

In between the up and down there was a beautiful waterfall:

But we got there eventually and it was well worth it.

No photos were allowed once we got up there and we had to go through a security check and leave our bags in lockers before going inside. High tech security checkpoint!!:

We saw some really old temples and statues and after gazing out at the views below it was time to start the descent. It took half the amount of time to come back down and all of our tour group made it up and back with no problems which was a great achievement.

But our day wasn’t over yet we had another place to visit – Kyichu Lhakhang Temple. Built in 659 it is one of the oldest and is considered one of the most beautiful in Bhutan. At this temple they were having a festival and there was a huge table full of food offerings. The locals offered us some local “bread” that was made especially but it was literally like a brick!!

There were some great prayer wheels to swing here:

Back at hotel Olathang, after a little rest we watched a show by a national dance society. The costumes were amazing and some of the skits were interactive!

All round this was an amazing day!

Arriving back to Paro :

we headed straight for the Paro dzong, also called Rinpung dzong.:

From the dzong we got a view of the Ugyen Pelri Thang which is the queen mothers palace. The dzong also looks out on the airport so we watched a plane land. There were lots of interesting pictures on the walls. (Hilary O’Dwyer- Surprised Tiger shout out!)

I love the story of the four friends which appeared multiple times on the walls : The “Four Harmonious Friends” is one of the most universal and beloved tales in Bhutan. The image of a bird, rabbit, and monkey standing on each other’s shoulders on the back of a patient elephant portrays social and environmental harmony. Paintings of the “Four Harmonious Friends” appear in Bhutanese homes and other public buildings.

As the story goes, the bird finds a seed and plants it. Then, the rabbit waters it, and the monkey fertilizes it. Once the seed sprouts and begins to grow, the elephant protects it. After some time, the small plant grows into a big, beautiful tree full of healthy fruit. By working together and using their individual talents, the four friends are able to reach and enjoy the fruit.

Another night at our favourite Hotel Olathang- this time in a different type of cabin:

Our accommodation in the Haa valley was the Risum Resort run by the Haa ladies! Haa is quite remote so we were really out in the wilderness! The rooms were individual cabins and they were huge… if you fancied an ole shuffle in the bathroom this was the place! (Miriam O’Toole – Italy flashback!)

We started our Haa adventure at the white temple also called Lhakhang Karpo.

We had to wait for a monk to open the place up for us!

I spotted a photograph to the side of the main statue of a young child in full Lama gear sitting on a high throne.. he looked like little Buddha so I asked Kinlay who it was. He told us that this child was found to be the reincarnation of Tenzin Rabgay (founder of the Tigers Nest monastery) and that he’s now 25! Another thing for me to google and find out more info on!

Haa is small but it’s very picturesque so we had some time to check out the small village along with the cows roaming the main street.

The local kids were happy to say hello and smile for their photo!

A house on the Main Street:

More yak spotting from the bus:

Next we made our way upwards to over 3,800 metres to the Cheli La pass. It was a beautiful day so we got a great view of the Himalayas

The prayer flags all along was really amazing to see

Onward to the main attraction in this neck of the woods – The Kila Nunnery. The bus could only get us so far and then we got to hike a good portion up the mountain

The obligatory prayer wheels:

There were incredible views of the mountains and surrounding valley

Thimphu is the capital of Bhutan with just over 100,000 people of Bhutans 800,000 total population. Back on the crazy roads there was some excellent animal spotting : langur monkeys

More yak:

Then some other kind of monkeys:

When we arrived in Thimphu we headed for the memorial chorten which was busy with tourists, a bit of a first for us in Bhutan.

There were some great prayer wheels here and some great local characters

Next something the whole group were really looking forward to – Bhutans national animal – takin! The Royal Takin Preserve was the place to see them:

We also saw various different types of deer:

With Thimphu being the capital and takin on my mind, I hoped this might be an opportunity to find me a yak burger!! Sure enough after a bit of shopping around town and directions from our trusted guide we found the spot and I happily munched a yak burger with fries and local beer. I was in my element and it meant I could skip the buffet dinner that night and have a bit of quiet time at the really nice hotel we were staying in. I needed my strength for the next day.

The next morning bright eyed after a great sleep (which is rare for me) we set off in the bus up and up and up the mountain to Buddha point to view the fairly new giant Buddha :

After a spot of art and local handicrafts shopping we stopped by the local archery grounds and got to see a game in progress. It was very amusing to watch. The board the players are aiming for is miles away.. well 150 metres but that’s so far to shoot an arrow. It was so funny to watch them as the opposing team does a dance at the board before and after each shot

Next stop was the centenary farmers market which had all sorts of local produce

The national library was next. I do love a good library but it was a bit on the small side – seeing the Bhutanese scriptures in local language was interesting and the building was nice but it was no Trinity college!

The drive from Punakha to the Gangtey valley was a memorable one. The roads ran high over the valley and were very twisty. Our driver did a brilliant job though and he stopped for all sorts of photo opportunities – this was one of my favourite: yak, yak, yak

Our first stop was the Black necked crane visitor centre where we spotted some of these beautiful birds through telescopes but we would have a chance to see more on our nature valley walk tomorrow. We headed for our hotel called Dewachen (de wachen you and de wachen me!!) which was a really beautiful set of buildings built into the side of the mountain.

The next morning we did our Gangtey nature trail walk across the Phobjikha valley. It was an easy hike across some beautiful countryside and we saw lots of the black necked cranes.

Further on we came to a monastery and school for young monks. As we approached we could see that they were sitting in their robes on the grass outside praying.

There was a small shop where they sold incense which they made there at the monastery.

From there we climbed uphill and had the chance for a group photo among some amazing vertical prayer flags:

A couple more kilometres through some nice trees smelling the clear fresh air and we reached the Gangtey Goempa monastery.

It’s a large monastery with monks quarters around the edges. The main building is surrounded by prayer wheels which were dutifully swung.

That night we had a home stay dinner which involved a lesson in making momo’s. Our hosts were very welcoming and after some rice wine, beer and the most potent dessert I think I’ve ever had, we had a bit of a sing song.

Our guide and driver taught us a Bhutanese song and then we turned that into our very own hit called Guru Rinpoche! Now I haven’t mentioned him much so far and that’s probably because I haven’t gone into much detail about the inside of the monasteries we visited, mainly because you’re not allowed to take photos and it’s hard to remember all the details. That said, Guru Rinpoche is responsible for finding a lot of the monasteries visited across Bhutan and Tibet. He became somewhat of a hero of mine and we sang our Guru Rinpoche song multiple times throughout the trip.