My mother was a stamp collector, but since she downsized there was no room for all the stamp books and related paraphernalia.
She still likes to look at different stamps, so I’ve bought a couple from every country I’ve been to (except Vietnam, since I could never find an open post office).
So that was my only mission today, and completed in about 30 minutes leaving the rest of the day to get a bit sunburnt by the pool and eat a pizza. What cultural highlights.
Early start tomorrow to fly to Singapore. I’m expecting something very different.
It’s hard to start writing about my experiences at Angkor without resorting to trite superlatives. I had no real expectations, other than I knew I would see what’s stated to be the world’s largest religious monument, Angkor Wat. Of course I’ve seen pictures, mostly of stunning sunrises and sunsets.
Nothing prepared me for the scale, intricacy and (to use an appropriate term) majesty of the site as a whole. Angkor is more than just the Wat, prime draw as that is. With a history stretching from the 9th to 15th centuries, it’s a testament to the millions of people who lived across at least 1000 square kilometres, site of the founding of a kingdom and a complex interplay between Hindu and Buddhist religions.
As soon as a good connection allows, I’ll post many (many) pictures I took across two days in a separate gallery, but I’ll summarise here the places I visited.
Pre Rup Temple
Completed 961 AD for Rajendravarman II. Dedicated to Shiva, the Hindu God of Destruction.
Neak Pean, the Entwined Serpents
Completed second half of the 12th century for Jayavarman VII. Dedicated to Avalokitesvara, the Buddhist Lord who looks Down.
Accessed across a vast man-made moat, this temple includes five pools, four small at polar points around a larger central pool. The four pools represent the four elements, wind, fire, water and earth, and each is guarded by their representative animal, elephant (north), bull (east), horse (south) and lion (west).
Preah Khan, the Royal Sword
Completed 1191AD by Jayavarman VII to honour his father Dharanindravarman II. Buddhist with later Hindu influences.
Principally an administrative and learning centre, this temple can be considered a university complete with library and study halls.
Library.
Banteay Srei
Completed 967AD by courtiers Vishnukumara and Yajnavaraha. Dedicated to both Shiva and Vishnu.
Unusually for Angkor temples, this is constructed of red sandstone which is easily carved and hence has intricate decoration.
Phnom Bakheng
Completed 889–910 AD by Yasovarman I. Dedicated to Shiva.
Raised high on a hill, symbolising Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods, this is perhaps the second most-popular site for watching sunsets in Angkor.
Angkor Wat
Completed 1150 AD by Suryavarman II. Dedicated to Vishnu, the Hindu God of Preservation.
Obviously the most famous, this is a simply enormous temple, surrounded by a 5km lake and with outer walls 3.6km. It rises on three levels with five towers at its centre.
Ta Phrom
Completed 1186 AD by Jayavarman VII to honour his mother. Dedicated to Prajnaparamita, the Buddhist principle of Perfection of Transcendental Wisdom.
Most famous as the “Tomb Raider” temple, this was abandoned when the Khmer empire collapsed, and was left to decay as nature reclaimed the site. Enormous thitpok and strangler fig trees have grown over the site.
Angkor Thom
Established late 12th century by Jayavarman VII as the capital of the Khmer empire.
More a city than a temple, likely to have sustained around 100,000 people, one in every ten-thousand people alive at the time lived here.
Bayon
Completed late 12th century by Jayavarman VII. Dedicated to both Hindu and Buddhist deities.
Famous for having around 200 carved faces on 49 towers, this site also features vast gallery walls depicting everyday life and historical events from the Khmer empire.
Having left Chiang Mai behind, it’s Siem Reap for a few days. My flight from Bangkok was delayed and I was a bit worried about getting through visa processes and immigration in time for my booked transfer from the airport (the new airport is quite some distance from the city), but all worked out.
Siem Reap
… is not quite what I expected. Yes it has a night market and a “Pub Street” but also a smattering of rainbow bars, one of which (Bar Code, familiar to some from Europe) had an entertaining drag show going on.
I don’t have the time or patience right now to add pictures (since it’s already a day ago when I’m writing this), but will do later.
(Edit: here you go)
Tomorrow (today, actually), is first day of two in the ancient city of Angkor and its surroundings. I’ll do a joint post for that with about a million pictures.
Hmmm. I tried again to find the hipster street west of the old city. But I went via the Lanna Traditional House Museum. This is an area of the Chiang Mai University grounds where there is a small collection of wooden houses from across many years, typical of the kind found in northern Thailand.
It was pretty interesting (not super interesting, because for each house there’s only a short paragraph about when and how it was built).
Obviously the houses were not all conveniently built in the grounds they’re in now, but it illustrates how (relatively) easy it is to deconstruct a wooden house, and move it elsewhere. I’m not actually sure if you can do that with a Huf Haus but still.
When that was done I thought about the hipster street, decided I was already too sweaty (very humid here the past two days) and went back to my hotel.
For there I needed to shower before my most important activity of the day: a 90-minute traditional Thai massage. Thai massage (I learned) is considered by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage and ninety minutes of it sure did something tangible to all those muscles I’d grittily tightened during eight days of riding around Laos. It was so good. Normally I’d hate going to a fancy spa-massage place but this was lovely and good use of 40€.
Of course one can get a massage from any number of roadside establishments for a lot less but I felt I needed pampering and indeed I was.
Final night in Chiang Mai so nothing crazy this evening, just a nice meal (two dishes, actually) at this local place I like and the chance to talk briefly with a very solid piece of German manliness, who told me that while he was on Koh Phi Phi he’d drunk twelve beers and then taken part in an amateur Muay Thai fight.
Reader, I was smitten (but he was straight so y’know, I’m not married yet).
Despite Because of my second-place win at the pub quiz last night I’ve been feeling a little under the weather today.
And looking at today’s post number, it’s rather obvious why: I haven’t had a day since I started all this when I haven’t had at least one beer.
Oops.
I’m not turning into a raging alcoholic but I rather forgot that I’m on a six-week journey not a week in the Canaries.
So I’ve had a day off today, and will do tomorrow and probably Friday (which is a travel day anyway) and give my processing organs a rest.
I eventually dragged myself out to get some food around the corner and then remembered about the “canalside night market” about twenty minutes walk away.
Wasn’t really all that special, a rather grotty canal with various stalls and cafe bars alongside it.
But also some more aloof cats (I know, all cats are aloof but Chiang Mai cats are the aloofest).
Illuminated fish floating above the canal. I doubt there are any in the canal. And some wall (part of what’s left of the original city wall). A kind of moat runs around the entire old city.
Not the most exciting day, if I’m honest but some nice downtime in Chiang Mai. I like this city, it’s my third time here and markedly busier than my last visit in November 2023.
I started the day with a trip to a park very close to my hotel. At the start of February it was the Chiang Mai Flower Festival, and there’s still a lot of nice plants in the park, some a little past their best, but also a lot of orchids being show-off orchidy.
At least in comparison to flower displays in Vietnam, these ones are actually planted in the soil, and still attractive to look at. It was nice to spend about an hour wandering around, politely pausing to let Korean tourists take photos of each other against the walls of orchids.
Aloe flower, if Apple’s lookup is to be believed. A fancy swan. A fancy bear. Moth orchids. Moth orchids. Vanda orchids.
I walked further towards the “hipster area” of Nimmanhemin Road but seems I turned off too early and didn’t reach the point where I found the reason people go here (fancy coffee bars and artisan shops) so maybe I’ll head back another time. Very typically of Thailand the pavements are mostly an afterthought and I was wearing my sandals which are not great for walking any great distance.
“Well wear better shoes then, you dumbass,” you might say. Indeed I would but my trainers were at the laundry place that I know does good work. They (and clothes) were delivered back to my hotel this evening, minus all the dust they picked up in Laos. Extremely impressed that for 200THB (€5.50) they went from this:
Dust-encrusted AirMax 95s.
To this:
Near-pristine.
Almost like new. Very impressed.
Also: cats. Lazy cats.
Annoyed that I disturbed him. Shy. Too big for the basket.
Probably another lazy day tomorrow, then when the motorbike hire place I want to go to opens on Wednesday, I’ll hire a scooter and head up to the mountains with a specific purchase in mind. Ooh, mysterious.
Nearly forgot to write a post today (oh no, I hear all zero of my readers say).
I’ll be brief anyway, since it’s mostly a travelling day. Laos is over (😪) and I’m in Thailand (Chiang Mai) for a few days. The flight was a few minutes over one hour, on a tiny turboprop. Second-best thing was being given a little extra legroom by the check-in clerk. First-best thing was the in-flight snack: cake.
Take that, all other airlines with your poxy snack crackers or half a sandwich. Lao Airlines serves cake and you are all on notice to up your game.
Cake. Yes I started eating it Neanderthals-style before realising there was a knife to cut it into civilised slices.
Chiang Mai
Third time here. I really like this city, even though on approach I had some concern that the annual burning season had started early (it is rumoured to have done so in the south of the country). But the haze turned out to be just “normal” pollution and at ground level it’s standard sunshine and heat.
It being a Sunday, the huge Sunday “walking street” market is on. Actually this is one of the good ones, the side streets have most of the food offerings, and the main street is a little higher quality fare than usual. Absolutely no sign of knock-off branded products which is a real surprise.
Absolutely no sign of rubbery fish cakes at any food stall which is also a surprise and not a welcome one 😡.
Meanwhile, my dusty clothes are at the laundry, along with my dusty Nikes, which will either never come back, come back smaller, come back ruined or (🤞🏼) come back looking like new, for the princely sum of 200THB (€5.60).
My journey back from Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang was without incident or mistake. Anyone would think I’m getting the hang of follow this road, turn left, follow that road, stop which is great for the last day of biking.
Route 1C west of Nong Khiaw is probably the best quality I’ve experienced in Laos, outside of the main towns and cities. The asphalt-to-pothole ratio is remarkably high. A shame that it only runs for 28km before that turn left onto route 13.
Route 13 is (apparently) then most important road in Laos. It runs almost the entire length of the country north to south. Wherever there are built-up areas, there is road decay. Wherever trucks turn or corner, there is road decay. It’s great when it’s good, awful when it’s bad.
By the way: I have a whole section of my RAM currently dedicated to just how bad Google Maps is. I’ll save it for now because this is a nice post.
I’d love to tell you that I got some nice pictures on the way, but I didn’t. I took two, in a 30-second pitstop because once you’ve passed three trucks in convoy, you don’t want to have them catch up again.
Yeah, OK, it’s the Mekong.
Honestly I was so over it and going probably a little too fast in places, but in any case, I made it to LP in just over three hours, in time to get a fresh cut and shave from Mr 50,000kip barber, and deliver the bike back to Harry. We had a nice chat, him again offering praise and some astonishment at my choice of route. But he’s right: it would be rubbish to have nothing to say about a journey.
Sunsets
On a slight whim, I power-walked down to the river bank to catch the sunset. It’s always slightly surprising how fast the sun sets, and I thought I might miss it. I found a wall to sit on, far from the shoreline but then I spotted some steps leading down to the edge of the river.
And there I crouched as the sun descended from behind some clouds, dipping then behind the treeline on the opposite bank. It was all extremely lovely, and I think a beautiful end to my (let’s not forget) spontaneous leap into Laos.
Boats on the Mekong at sunset. Sunlight reflecting off clouds. Sun almost receded beyond the treeline. A tourist boat returning to harbour.
