Thailand & Cambodia

Sean:  Hi Everyone

From Nepal we flew to Bangkok and headed out to Ta Muang to see Bob, Dao, Maria and Chrisy [i.e. my brother, sister in law and 2 nieces]. They were all in excellent form. Maria seems to really like school and Chrisy likes playing badminton, playing with her friends and singing Thai pop songs. Their house is in a great spot on a quiet street, and just around the corner from grandma.  Bob and Dao plied us with bad jokes and delicious food (respectively) before we headed off on the train back to Bangkok then on to Aranya Pratet on the Cambodian border.



Maria, Dao, Bob and Chrisy testing out the strength of the hammock.

We're now at Siem Reap in Cambodia.  Cambodia so far seems a lot like Thailand, the people are very laid back, you can get things done without much hassle, the roads are dead flat and they do great tofu, rice and vegetables. We have spent the last 2 days cycling around local villages in the area and are still trying to acclimatise to the Southeast Asian heat and humidity after the coolness of the Himalayas.   Yesterday we cycled to the floating village, where they even had a floating school with a floating playground and football pitch (not full size, but impressive).

This is the primary school building of the floating school, with playground on top deck.
The secondary building was further out in the lake. I'm not sure how they got out there, but I assume there was some sort of ferry.

This is a nice change from the Khmer Rouge days, when there was, in the words of a guy working at the hotel who lived through the whole Pol Pot era as a child:  "no school, no hospitals, not much food and no love." Unfortunately his father had been killed by the Khmer Rouge for being a teacher and 2 of his siblings had died from no access to medical facilities. Very sad.

That's all for now. We'll try to keep you posted during our last 3 weeks.

Lia Hai