Thailand & Cambodia - February 2006

We had several good reasons to plan this trip – I had United Airlines frequent flyer points to use up, we were tired of winter, and we promised ourselves a trip as a present to us for our 42^nd anniversary.  The only unfortunate part was that United put us on their Star Alliance partner, Singapore Airlines, and we had to fly to Bangkok via Singapore which added about four to five more hours to a long trip.  Rita had a paid ticket so she flew Singapore Air all the way while I had to change to Thai Airways for the trip from Singapore to Bangkok.  So we left Athens on Friday, February 17 and arrived in Bangkok Saturday morning just 30 minutes apart.  We met up okay in the baggage claim area and took a taxi to our hotel, the Centre Point Lang Suan in downtown Bangkok.  As soon as we checked in we had a shower and short nap before calling our friend, Mike, whom I worked with in Brussels.  Mike now works at the Embassy in Bangkok.



In the afternoon we walked to Mike’s apartment and met his Thai girlfriend, Kratai.  Mike had an excellent suggestion that Rita and I go get a Thai massage at a place near his apartment which turned out great.  For an inexpensive amount we each had a two-hour massage that worked all the jet-lag and kinks out of us.  In the evening we all went to the Good View restaurant on the river for a great meal of spicy Thai food and Singha beer.  Then Rita and I turned in early after our long flight with little sleep.



A word about the climate; our normal daytime temperatures were in the upper 90s to nearly 100 degrees with high humidity.  This is the dry season so although a few times the sky darkened, the expected rain never materialized.  Back in Athens the temperatures were hovering around the 40s for highs.



Sunday we had a nice, big breakfast at our hotel and then met Mike and Kratai for a tour of the old Siamese capital of Ayutthaya, located about 60 miles north of Bangkok.  Ayutthaya was sacked by the Burmese in 1767 and was one of the most important cities in Asia in the 15^th and 16^th centuries.  We took a tour bus to Ayutthaya and on the outskirts we first toured the Wat Chaiwathanaram temple built from 1630 to 1640.  Then we went into the old town where we saw the 15^th century bronze Buddha at Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit, the Wat Phra Si Sanphet temple complex and the Wat Mahathat temple.  Following this we were taken to a boat that sailed for three hours down the Chao Phraya River to Bangkok with a nice Thai lunch on the way.



Very early Monday morning we had to check out of our hotel for an early flight on Bangkok Airways to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  This was our first time in Cambodia – a new country to add to our list.  Cambodia was the main purpose of this trip.  Back in 1970 when I was working in Saigon I wanted to take R&R to see Angkor Wat but it was off limits.  For years Angkor Wat was a dangerous place to visit and only opened up to tourists again in about 1995.  Today there are several nice hotels in the little town of Siem Reap and there are many tourists, mostly South Koreans and Japanese.



We arranged our trip through American Express at the US Embassy in Bangkok before we left Athens.  Included in our tour was VIP airport treatment which meant that an expeditor met us and immediately rushed us through passport control and customs to our car and driver.  We were pleasantly surprised to find out we were the only two on our tour – that is the two of us, a driver, Mr. Arith, with a nice Toyota sedan, and our tour guide, Mr. Pok Samnang (call me Sam).  We soon learned that Sam grew up in a UN refugee camp for ten years on the Thai border and learned to speak excellent English in the process.  Sam turned out to be a great guide.  He knew the best places to visit in mornings versus afternoons, mainly for taking photos.  He also knew the best places to take photos and he knew the history of each temple.  I doubt we could have found a better guide.



We were taken to our hotel, Le Meridian, but our room wasn’t ready so we left our luggage and started touring.  We went to some of the older temples first, what are known as the Rolous group, dating from the 9^th century.  First we toured Prah Koh, then Prasat Bakong, and finally Prasat Lolei.  Next we were taken to a Cambodian restaurant for lunch.  Cambodian cuisine is similar to Thai except not as spicy.  We had the local Angkor beer with lunch then back to the hotel to check in and take a short siesta.  Sam and the driver met us again at 3:00 pm (a daily routine) to continue our tour.  In the afternoon we went to Angkor Wat temple, the main 12^th century temple that is very large and impressive.  There are massive galleries with stone carvings telling the epic stories of Vishnu, Rama, and their wars.  Early temples in this region were Buddhist but later the Hindu kings ruled and in many cases they chiseled out Buddha’s images and replaced them with Hindu gods or dancing girls.



We left Angkor Wat about 5:00 pm, went back to the hotel to shower and change clothes, and met our driver and Sam once more.  We were taken to a nice restaurant that also had a Cambodian cultural show which included dancing that resembled Thai dancing.  It was nice but we were tired and happy when it ended to return to our hotel and bed.  The hotel found out it was our anniversary and our bed had two hearts fashioned out of rose petals and a solitary rose on the sheets when we arrived.  We hadn’t told them so we suspected our sneaky daughters.



Tuesday was our actual anniversary but we had to rise and shine to get on with the daily program.  The routine was to eat a nice breakfast in our hotel, meet Sam and driver at 8:00 am, tour until lunch, return to hotel about 12:30 or 1:00 pm, rest until 3:00 pm when we would meet Sam and driver again for the afternoon tour, stopping about 5 to 6:00 pm and get picked up again about 7:00 pm to be taken to dinner.  It was enough to spoil a person.



Tuesday we started our tour driving through the South Gate of Angkor Thom which was the royal city and had a population of about a million people in the 12^th century.  We toured the Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King (misnamed).  These terraces were carved with intricate features and were used by the royal court to watch elephant polo and tightrope walkers in the big field they overlooked.  From the terraces we walked to see the temples of Prah Palilay, Phimeanakas, Baphuon, and my favorite, Bayon with the giant faces.  The driver met us and we drove to Baksei Chamkrong for a short visit to this temple.  In the afternoon we saw Prasat Kravan, Srah Srang, Bat Chum, Banteay Kdei, and Ta Prohm which is impressive because it has been deliberately left to be overgrown by “sprung” trees.  Ta Prohm is also where much of the movie “Lara Croft, Tomb Raider” was filmed.  It was quite impressive with the tall trees and flocks of parakeets flying around.  Finally we toured Takeo, Chau Say Tevoda, Thommanon and the East Gate before calling it a day.  We declined to watch sunset at Phnom Bakheng and opted out of our scheduled dinner to have a nice Italian meal at our hotel restaurant to celebrate our anniversary.  In the evening, room service brought us a bottle of champagne, compliments of our daughters - those sneaky girls.



Wednesday was our last day of temple touring and we started out with a drive out of town to the pretty temple of Banteay Srei where the sandstone is a bright pink, sturdier, and, as a result, the intricate carvings have suffered the least from the elements.  We drove through a village where we stopped to watch the villagers make sugar candy out of tree sap.  We saw water buffaloes, cashew and mango trees, dried up rice fields, and houses on stilts.  We stopped at the nearby temples of Banteay Samre and Pre Rup before taking our lunch and afternoon break.  In the afternoon we went to Prah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon and then back to Pre Rup where Rita and I climbed to the top to watch the sunset over the temples – a ritual in this region.  Our dinner this night was in the old French Quarter of Siem Reap at a nice restaurant called In Touch.  We sat on the balcony overlooking another famous restaurant, the Red Piano, and drank Tiger beer. 



I should say a word about the local population, especially the children.  Whenever we would stop at a temple there would be a row of makeshift shops selling all types of souvenirs, mostly cheaply made.  Small children from about three years old to teenagers would run up to you asking you to buy something.  They didn’t beg but always had something to sell.  And all sales are in US dollars – the local riel is not worth much to them – they want dollars.  Conversations would go something like this:  “Mistah, Madame, please would you like to buy my (fill in the blanks – flute, books, silk scarf, T-shirt, bracelet, etc.).  Just five dallahs!  Please, Madame, please, buy from me.  Just four dallahs.  Think about it Mistah.  When you come out you remember me and I’ll give you my best price, okay?  Please Mistah, please Madame.”  They were cute, enterprising, and made more than a few sales to us suckers.  Cambodia is still a poor country.  To give you some idea how poor, there are no McDonalds or Starbucks in Cambodia.  Wow!



Thursday was a bit more restful, sleeping in late with our only visits to a school that teaches young people the crafts of stone and wood carving, plus painting and silk weaving.  It’s called Artisans d’Angkor and we picked up some nice souvenirs here.  We also visited the central market place with more of the same things sold at the temples.  In the evening we said our goodbyes to Sam and Mr. Arith who took us to the airport where we caught our flight back to Bangkok and back to the hotel Centre Point where we left our large piece of luggage.



Friday morning Rita and I set out to walk in the heat, humidity, and haze of Bangkok.  It reminds me very much of Houston – heat, humidity, crazy traffic, cockroaches – you get the picture.  This was my third trip to Bangkok since I first visited in 1970.  In 1985 we all visited as a family and saw many of the tourist sites so we didn’t feel obligated to see all of them again this time.  The number of large, air conditioned malls was surprising with most of the name brand stores found in USA and Europe.  We also came across many familiar fast food places like McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, Hagen Daz, Baskin Robins, Auntie Annes, Swensons, Outback, Sizzler, Mr. Donuts, Dairy Queen, Subways, Au Bon Pain, Sonics, Dunkin Donuts and 7/11 stores on every corner.  From Europe we saw Boots chemists, Tesco and Carrefour stores, and Lenotre cafes.  Also, all the major hotel chains are represented here now.  It’s not the same Bangkok I remember.



We walked to the Jim Thompson House and Museum which we hadn’t visited before.  Jim Thompson is a local legend, an American architect who, during WWII went to work for the CIA and disappeared in Malaysia in 1967.  However, he single-handedly rebuilt the ancient craft of Thai silk making and made a small fortune in the process.  His house was actually six Thai country houses moved together in one location and connected together into a nice setup.  Today it is a museum and sells many expensive Thai silk items.  There is even a nice restaurant where Rita and I had a good meal while overlooking a pond filled with large koi and other tropical fish.  In the evening we met up with Mike and Kratai again and went to the Huntsman bar in the Landmark Hotel for a nice steak dinner, draft beer, and a great three-girl singing group.



Saturday Rita and I did feel obligated to see some of the old tourist attractions so we took a taxi to see the Wat Pho temple complex with the large reclining Buddha and Thai massage school with old drawings of massage and acupuncture points.  We also walked to the nearby Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo with its temple of the Emerald Buddha (really jade).  The evening was a highlight because we met Mike and Kratai, plus a small group from the US Embassy, at the famous Oriental Hotel, which is consistently voted the best hotel in the world by many trade groups and travel magazines.  We had a gin and tonic in the garden before boarding a small, posh boat for an evening cruise and dinner.  The food was excellent and Mike brought along several bottle of Australian red wine.  It was a nice end to our stay in Thailand.



Sunday we took it easy as our flight left in the afternoon from Bangkok where we transited Singapore once more (nice airport) before catching our ten-hour flight back to Athens.  Our trip ended on a somewhat funny note in that Rita and I had planned to meet in the Singapore airport at the large orchid display we saw earlier.  Well, my flight was delayed out of Bangkok so much that for most of my trip I was ushered into first class so I could be rushed out of the aircraft in Singapore and make my connection.  In Singapore I was met by one of those electric carts with annoying beepers that rushed me from one terminal to another where I had to rebook my ticket.  I told the driver that I was to meet my wife by the orchids but didn’t know if she would be there since we were running so late.  Sure enough Rita was still sitting there waiting for me, the cart picked her up and rushed us to our gate which had just started to board.  We made it in time and so did our luggage.