As if eight temples yesterday weren’t enough to more than satisfy my RYA [Recommended Yearly Allowance] for 2013 of piles of old stones, today we were timetabled to see three more. The icing on the temple was a 4:15 AM alarm in order to be ready for a 5:00 AM departure to join the crowds of other tourists intent on waiting for sunrise over the star Cambodian tourist attraction, the majestic temple of Angkor Wat.

Selin, our guide, told us that Angkor Wat is visited by 10K tourists per day in peak season. In low season, the number drops to about 4K. We are here towards the later stages of peak season and the daily count now would be about 8K a day. They aren’t all mad enough to pitch up before the sun has risen but a good amount of them do. Torches, tripods and cameras in hand, we had our $40-a-head 3-day passes checked by officials and were shepherded in at 5:30AM to the prime Angkor Wat sunrise viewing spot across one of the reflecting pools – the one that still has some water in it. Mercifully we were early enough to be in the vanguard and got good pole positions. As Francine began setting up her tripod, we settled down patiently for our 1-hour wait for Mr Apollo.

The sky behind the towers of the Angkor Wat temple looked disturbingly clouded, to me, and, to cut a long wait short, Mr Apollo pulled a nifty disappearing trick when he should have been appearing; sunrise never really did happen. Poor Mr Apollo was covered by the cloud. Certainly the sky lightened and some silhouette-type shots were possible but a more orange backdrop would have been much more photogenic. As the light did build I noticed another little gotcha: there were a couple of very large areas of Angkor Wat roofline adorned by ugly green tarpaulins covering restoration work. Too much daylight and the full frontal shot would be ruined. Quelle domage!

Remembering something of yesterday’s Temples 101 lesson, Angkor Wat was a Hindu-built temple. I was vaguely amused, however when, after full daylight had begun, I saw a small group of Buddhist monks taking pictures of themselves before the Angkor Wat backdrop and studying the result on their digital camera.

With our temple count now standing at nine, we went off to another two to bring our grand total to 11. I stayed outside the final temple studying dragonflies on the moat while Francine dutifully went inside with our culture guide.

Now was when we started seeing the real Cambodia, to my mind. Cambodia has the largest fresh water lake in south-east Asia where many fishing communities scratch out a living. Some are floating villages but we were bound for one, Kompong Pluk, built on 7mtr/24ft stilts. The stilts are necessary to cope with the change in water level between dry season (now) and wet season. We were heading for a picnic lunch aboard what loosely falls into the category of a boat. As the water level drops in the lake’s tributary rivers, so the boats move down closer to the lake.

Our ride down the river felt like a mixture of floating and sliding over silt/mud, so low was the water. The boat controls were rudimentary but the young crew of two seemed to understand it inherently. With the elder one of the pair driving and what I can only describe as a small school child fending off and assisting by punting using a pole much larger in diameter than his tiny hands, we completed a very interesting ride down stream past stilted-house fishing communities. It was a truly fascinating and sobering education.

Having successfully reached the large lake itself, our engine was cut (I prayed that it would restart) and we drifted while our boxed lunch was served:

• fried crispy spring rolls
• mango salad with ocean shrimp and Khmer herbs
• chicken with cashew nuts
• steamed jasmine rice
• seasonal fresh fruits

all presented in a delightful woven basket and very good it was, too.

For lunchtime entertainment, we were treated to a display of the local fishing technique: two guys were dropped off from a boat with a large net suspended between poles and with this deployed, they proceed to walk along. Clearly, in dry season even the lake is not very deep.

Our way home took us back past the stilted accommodations of the fishing folk and into a land-based Cambodian village. Here we stopped to walk along the local street and learned that the houses do not have electric city (I loved that – no mocking, I don’t speak a single word of Cambodian, after all) but the people used car batteries to power electric light. Not having electric city, the batteries run flat but someone in the village has a generator and acts as a recharging station. Here are a number of batteries being recharged.

To me, this last half of the day meant so much more than countless temples of yesteryear. This was an education. This is how 80% of Cambodians live. This is what most people in Cambodia are all about.

Technorati Tags: travel,Cambodia,Angkor Wat,photography

Pardon the Americanism in the title; for those unfamiliar with yet another slip into Americanization, 101 refers to a starter class rather than being a count of the temples which are here. I knew we were coming to Cambodia mainly to see one of the seven wonders of the world, the temple of Angkor Wat (that would be tomorrow) but what I was not prepared for, nor did I know they existed in such quantity, was today’s culture fest of eight ancient temples. So, if we can get round eight temples in one day, it may be that there are 101 temples in the vicinity. Who knows? Well, our guide Selin probably does. It seems that there is a mountain close by providing natural stone for temple building, or so Selin informed us, hence the superfluity of temples. I asked her if the mountain still existed. 😀

Eight temples in one day gets a tad tedious. Actually there are a few minor temple variations: one or two temples are actually built of red brick rather than stone( maybe the mountain had already been used up?); some temples are Buddhist, some are Hindu and some have been both as the Cambodia’s religion changed with that of the head honcho; some temples, including Ta Phrom where Lara Croft did a bit of well-publicized tomb-raiding, are covered in tree roots as the forest regains control whilst other temples remain forest free. Essentially, though, all these temples are similar piles of old stone to a heathen such as myself.

There is another notable distinguishing factor between temples: some are swamped by tourists while others remain relatively tourist free. Being famous for Tomb Raider, Ta Phrom is sinking under the weight of thousands upon thousands of tourist feet. One carved head at Bayon features in the Lonely Planet guide so all the bozo tourists simply have to have their picture taken standing before it. Personally I’ve never understood this behaviour but it takes all sorts.

The favoured mode of transport to get the majority of tourists to this plethora of temples is the remork-moto, a chariot pulled by a small motorbike and almost always referred to(incorrectly) as a tuk tuk after the similar mode of transport popular in Thailand.

After a long day in the heat trekking through in and around eight temples made them pretty much merged together and I can’t remember all the names but a post such as this would be incomplete without a smattering of photos depicting some of them, so here’s a couple of the more picturesque ones with as many tourists as possible omitted.

The area is not all piles of old stone, however, there is interesting life here also. At the temple above right we watched a local man fishing in a modestly sized pond. He would stand still watching for fish, then skilfully cast his circular net which had been draped over his arm in folds. There was also something for us Odo-nutters as we found a beautiful new (to us) dragonfly living in what had been an old swimming pool. Don’t quote me but I believe this guy is a so-called Pied Percher (Neurothemis tullia).

Boy did the first beer go down well … and fast. The second one didn’t last a lot longer. To replace the calories we’d used up doing templeville, in the evening we wandered downtown and shared a meal for two billed as a “Khmer Curry Set”, which consisted a mixture of four curries with rice all served in banana leaves (stapled together). That went down very well, too.

More temples tomorrow, including the biggie, Angkor Wat. 😯

Technorati Tags: travel,Cambodia,Siem Reap,temples,nature,dragonflies,wildlife,odonata,photography

It was a leap of faith for us to book Jetstar flights to and from Cambodia while we were still in the UK. Let’s face it, it was an act of faith to pick Cambodia as a destination, anyway. In these days of ticketless travel, an email and a reference number have to suffice as a ticket but they don’t quite give you the warm, fuzzy feeling that you are actually booked on the flights, especially those that emanate from a city 8000 miles away. There is something reassuring about an old-fashioned physical ticket. Nonetheless, we pitched up at the appointed time in Changi airport where we were, apparently, expected, and got checked in to Jetstar flight 3K599 to Siem Reap in Cambodia. So far so good.

Jetstar is like an Australian (it’s operated by Qantas) version of easyJet and has a south-east Asia hub in Singapore. Two hours later we landed in Siem Reap and used our Cambodian e-visas, also arranged over the Internet from the UK, successfully to enter the country. Leaving the terminal, my initial impression of Cambodia versus Singapore was a little hotter (32°C) and somewhat less humid. Singapore is, I’d say, not as humid as New Orleans but, then, neither is a bath full of hot water. Singapore is getting there, though. Outside the Siem Reap terminal we were met by our delightful tour guide, Selin, also booked online in yet another leap of faith in the UK. Our plans were e-working – great stuff!

Given all the temples – and I do mean ALL the temples – Siem Reap is the tourist capital of Cambodia. Siem Reap, incidentally, means victory over Thailand [Siem = Siam, Reap = defeated, or some such]. We clambered into our personal MPV with our personal driver and personal guide and were whisked off to a very comfortable, pleasantly small hotel called Viroth near to downtown Siem Reap itself. Our room was on the ground floor complete with a private patio by the pool. Nice! (The right picture is the street outside Viroth.)

We’re in Cambodia for 2 full and 2 half days. After a quick freshen up, our guide, driver and small bus returned to take us off to begin our first half day with a sunset “gondola” ride on the moat of one of the many temples, in this case Angkor Thom, for a G&T or three. I was expecting some cheap gin-like liquid but, no, Silen (our guide) produced a bottle of Bombay Sapphire and used it to very good effect. Excellent!

We were the last gondola out for the evening and past several others returning, all of whom seemed as content as we were. As you can see from the background of our rather serious looking gondolier, the theme of white-grey tropical skies continued.

Game on!

Technorati Tags: travel,Cambodia,Siem Reap,photography

Day 2 in Singapore started in much the same way as Day 1 in Singapore, at about 3:00 AM when my body clock, adjusted by an 8-hour time shift, decided it was morning and I should jolly well be awake. I spent the next four hours lying on top of the bed under that most tropical of housing icons, a ceiling fan, wondering how long the next half hour would feel. Such are the joys of long-distance travel.

Finally, when everyone else was awake and sorted out, our host, David, decided to take us for one of his initiation tours of downtown Singapore; he’s qualified tourist guide here so is a great person to have around. Unfortunately, it seemed that at least half the entire tourist population of South-east Asia had begun their mornings with the same thought. First of all, we were forced to make three circuits of the Padang before finding a parking spot, where David has never before had trouble. Pedestrian walkways across bridges were blocked by hoards of (largely Japanese) tourists pointing their (largely Japanese) cameras at various Singaporean landmarks. We’d headed for the now well known Merlion which was also frequently obscured by people who think an iPad makes a suitable American replacement to Japanese cameras. All iPads, of course, must be held higher, away from the face, for large amounts of time while Mr. Bozo squints at it’s highly reflective screen wondering if the correct tourist attraction is actually in view. Added to all this, the sky was in one of its completely white moods and all such photographs are crap, anyway, whatever they are taken on. Above right is a shot of the aforementioned Merlion, a strange blend of fish and lion, with a slightly stranger building topped by a bent boat in the distance, to show what I mean. Curious! (There are some advantages of height – you can get above heads and iPads.

To get anything half-way reasonable on pixels in this light, it’s necessary to cut the sky out and capture more low-level subjects. Here’s a couple, both to do with the Singapore River. One shows a couple of so-called bumboats doing what bumboats do before a colourful old River frontage now composed of bars and restaurants. The other is a charming statue – I don’t usually appreciate “art” – depicting five children using the river as a playground (or should that be playwater?).

After a disappointing lunch of over-cooked tuna in a tuna burger (the tuna was thick enough, how did they manage that?) at one of the restaurants above, we zoomed off to leave the crowds for the peace and serenity of one of Singapore’s many parks and garden, in this case Kent Ridge Park or KRP, as it is inevitably known by the TLA-loving Singaporeans. Things looked bad to begin with, the park appearing to be closed off by building barricades, but there was still pedestrian access so all was well. There are two good dragonfly ponds here, both being much more natural habitats than the manicured ponds of the SBG (Singapore Botanic Gardens). Life was much more peaceful and harmonious; instead of the seething hoards downtown, here we spotted only a handful of other humans. There were more dragonflies, I’m pleased to say. The most intriguing was the tiniest damselfly we’ve ever encountered, called (we think) a Variable Wisp (Agriocnemis femina). This delightful little critter is a mere 20-ish millimetres long, less than one inch. The poor thing appears to be infested by a couple of even smaller flies, too.

To get home, we were to get to grips with another of Singapore’s favourite TLAs, the MRT [Mass Rapid Transit] system. After a steamy walk to the station we tried to buy two tickets to Kembangan only to have our S$10 note rejected by the machine. After much head-scratching we finally figured out that S$5 was the largest it would accept. Duh! Having changed our note, we also had to change trains once and made it back safely.

Technorati Tags: travel,Singapore,wildlife,nature,dragonflies,odonata,photography

Close encounters of the Odonata kind began today. We are at the back end of the so-called north-east monsoon and the weather is, shall we say, interesting. The sky today was very overcast but it wasn’t actually raining so our very gracious host offered to kick our Odo tour off by driving us the famed Singapore Botanic Garden, the SBG.

[Sidenote: Singapore is besotted with TLAs – Three Letter Acronyms. Major roads all have TLAs –  there’s the ECP: the East Coast Parkway, for instance. Thus, my Singapore Dragonflies of our Parks and Gardens book refers to the botanic garden as the SBG; KRP = Kent Ridge Park, and so on.]

The SBG focuses primarily on plants, as the name suggest, but with water plants involved, there is fresh water that attracts some 33 species of Odos. It is quite well known for it’s dragonflies. Since our host, David, knows the we saved some time not only by being driven there but also by being led straight to the main pond where David confidently announced, “welcome to your first Singapore dragonflies.”

It takes a while for me to get my eye back in after a winter break from spotting. It also takes a while to get to know how to drive the camera effectively with Odos as the subject. Nonetheless, both Francine and I were soon in the groove and beginning to fill our memory cards with shots of completely unfamiliar prey. Our most spectacular, because it is so different to anything in our neighbourhood, was this Common Parasol (Neurothemis fluctuans).

I was particularly thrilled to find one colourful damselfly that I was particularly keen on snapping. The photo isn’t the best but I think you can see what a stunning little critter this Ornate Coraltail (Ceriagrion cerinorubellum) is.

I think there are three ponds at the gardens but, with everything so new and with jet lag kicking in, we investigated just two before returning home to try and find out what we’d got. The most interesting find, assuming my id. is correct, was this Scarlet Grenadier (Lathrecista asiatica). It’s most interesting because it does not feature in our literature (2010) as being present in the SBG. Lucky find or mistaken id? I’m fairly confident, for a stranger.

The SBG has three main ponds, I think. We looked at just two on this first visit. This one is the small pond near the Ginger Garden and features the Amazonian water lilies. It’s a big place and Francine needs her tripod if she’s to capture some of the flora. With that and another pond to visit, clearly we’ll have to go back.

We snagged nine winged suspects in our first modest attempt – good start and already worth the trip.