Weekly Photo Challenge – Carefree

This week’s topic for the weekly photo challenge is – Carefree and my interpretation of it is – being without a care or worry in the world. So my image for this theme is one that I took while on a cruise on the River Mekong in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This cruise was a memorable one with beautiful sights of Phnom Penh against a glorious setting sun while relaxing on the deck with wind blowing through your hair. This picture reminds me of being free on a summer afternoon to just cruise on water, with no worry or any responsibility in the world. Or in a word – just being carefree 🙂

Carefree

Things to Do in Cambodia (apart from the temples)

Whenever you talk to people about visiting Cambodia, the first thing they say is – “visit the Angkor Wat Temples” and if some people know a bit more than they talk about visiting the Khmer Rouge rule and the killing fields etc in Phnom Penh. But after my trip to Cambodia, I discovered that this country has so much more to offer (apart from the normal touristy stuff mentioned in various websites and guidebooks) that one should definitely incorporate in their travel itineraries. So I have decided to list down a few things that I feel you should definitely keep time for whenever you decide to visit this beautiful country.

• Interact with local people – This is one of my most recommended things to do here. The local population here is very poor (yes I felt that even after coming from India) and have suffered immensely under the Khmer Rouge rule (every person you meet here has lost numerous family members to this tragedy). Still they are open to talk about the history, about what happened, how they lost their family, the politics, how they survived against all odds, etc etc. And the best part is that during this entire conversation, they talk about moving forward and their future plans for their kids. So much so that you really feel like lauding them for their courage, hard work and positivity. This encounter also helped me thank god once again for what I have and am in life. Also, if you are into portrait photography, then you will find very interesting models in people and kids around here.

Monks at the temples of Siem Reap

Reaching Siem Reap from Poipet

Cambodia is not a very easy place to reach, more so if you are budget traveler and looking to save money. It is not as well-connected by flights and the tickets are normally quite expensive. So, for my own budget trip, I had to put in numerous hours of research on the net and speak with loads of people and travel agents to decipher the best and cheapest way to reach Siem Reap. Since I had put in so much of an effort, I decided to write a detailed post on the best ways to reach Siem Reap from Bangkok for my other fellow travelers who too are struggling as I was.

Since the post is very long I have split it into 3 parts –

1. Part 1 – Bangkok to Aranyaprathet (Aran) Border (Thai border) by train, bus, mini-vans or taxi. – Already done and available at http://wp.me/p29z7S-iT
2. Part 2 – Visa requirements, Visa on arrival Vs e-visa in Cambodia, the Border Crossing and the various scams near the border at http://wp.me/p29z7S-jo
3. Part 3 – Transport from Poipet Border (Cambodia border) to Seam Reap by bus or taxi.

This post is part 3 of this 3 post series and in this I shall cover on how to travel from the Poipet border to the city of Siem Reap. This journey (Poipet to Siem Reap) takes about 2 – 4 hours (depending on your mode of transportation) and is best covered during day light hours.

Pic courtesy – http://www.jasminelodge.com

Travel from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet Border (Thai border)

Cambodia is not a very easy place to reach, more so if you are budget traveler and looking to save money. It is not as well-connected by flights and the tickets are normally quite expensive. So, for my own budget trip, I had to put in numerous hours of research on the net and speak with loads of people and travel agents to decipher the best and cheapest way to reach Siem Reap. Since I had put in so much of an effort, I decided to write a detailed post on the best ways to reach Siem Reap from Bangkok for my other fellow travelers who too are struggling as I was.

Map Courtesy – http://www.canbypublications.com/siemreap/srtransp.htm

Being vegan in Phnom Penh

In quite a few countries being a vegetarian traveller is tough. To top this, being an Indian vegetarian traveler (one who doesn’t eat any kind of eggs, fish, sea-food or meat) is even tougher. While it’s a challenge to get food, its even more difficult when people don’t even understand what we eat. Hence when we planned our Cambodia trip, we were very mentally prepared that we will not get any food. However we were pleasantly surprised to find these two really nice places that served tasty “vegan” food to us.

1. Boddi Tree Umma (http://www.boddhitree.com/) – This is a small restaurant just outside the Tuol Seng Museum. We went to this place for lunch and by then had pretty much lost our appetites (after seeing the sights of torture in the museum). However this place just pepped us up – both with the ambience and the food. This place is named after a tree under which Buddha “saw the light” and has a beautiful courtyard seating as well as an indoor seating. This was started in 1997 and supports Khmer kids and families in difficult situations. They have a good selection of curries and sandwiches and the price is very reasonable. We tried the Cambodian curry and fried rice, which were super tasty and we were so busy eating that we just missed taking pics of the food 😦

Boddi Tree Umma

Photo Essay – Sunset on the Mekong

In my previous post that I had written about our cruise and life on the Mekong river –  http://wp.me/p29z7S-ix  . However during this cruise we also managed to click some pics of the setting sun and it’s amazing colors. I am sharing the same in this post –

1. Contemplating –

Sunset and the silhouette

Photo Essay – A cruise on the Mekong river

On our trip to Phnom Penh we booked and went on a short cruise on the Mekong River, to see the ways of people who make a living on this vast river.

There were a couple of options available for a cruise, like you can visit some other local islands that are only linked by ferries, or the silk island (this is extremely touristy), or a normal 2 hour cruise, etc. We just booked a regular cruise as we didn’t have much time and we were on a budget; but this too was super fun. This river was also quite a bit of a surprise to us. For starters, it is huge more like a sea than a river and this size was just in the dry season so I fail to imagine how it will be after the rains. Additionally, we learnt a lot about the local life on the river here and below is a glimpse of the same through a black & white lens.

1. There is an entire community here that lives on boats as the one in the pic below and fish for a living. They only dock for selling the fish, going to markets for shopping and to the places of worship. Else the entire families live on the boat.

The house boat on the Mekong river

Photo Essay – Trees of Cambodia

In Cambodia we saw numerous beautiful and old trees and flowers. I have already posted about the flowers at http://wp.me/p29z7S-i3, and this is a short photo essay on the various trees that we saw here.

While Cambodia is also seeing its fair share of deforestation, there are still numerous old trees around the temples and in some surviving jungles. These old trees have also created some unique shapes and backdrops, which I am sharing with you.

The tree with a face

Photo Essay – Beautiful Flora of Cambodia

During our Cambodia trip, we had a great time exploring the 2 beautiful cities of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. But along the way we also discovered that this country has some beautiful trees and flowers especially around the old temples of Siem Reap. While I’ll post a separate posts on the various trees, below is a small photo essay of the various flowers that we saw.

While I know the names of some flowers, I don’t know the names of quite a few. Hence any botanists here, please feel free to drop comments and advice.

water cabbage

Crossing the road in Phnom Penh

Though I come from India, I will still say that the traffic on the roads in Phnom Penh is quite notorious. It is predominantly in the form of bikes / motor bikes and they do not follow any traffic rules. Hence crossing the roads here can be quite a nightmare. You have to keep looking in every direction (at any given point in time) as traffic can attack you from any side. It is like crossing a road filled with a herd of bullets and you are trying to cross in various matrix like postures. 🙂

Anyway, here the traffic signal is the best of all. When the man is red he is stationary, but when he is green he is actually running. Seems to me that the message is – Dont stop, or look around, just run for your life. 🙂

Enjoy the video of this traffic signal –