The Marina Bay Sands

I didn't plan on posting about Singapore, not because it isn't a nice place but because we were there to spend some time with one of Benoit's friends who lives and works here. To be honest, the city is very nice. Clean and green and well-organized, unlike many other Asian cities. And if you like good restaurants, shiny shopping malls and fancy clubs, this is the place to be! The reason why I am posting some pictures anyway, is the Marina Bay Sands. Years ago, I read about this building, when they were still constructing it and back then I wouldn't have imagined being on top of this amazing hotel one day. The coolest thing about this place is, without any doubt, the rooftop swimming pool. It's for hotel guests only but Benoit's friend managed to get us in as well, not quite the legal way but this made it all the more special! Watching the sun go under from the pool was absolutely unique and unforgettable!

Back to the beach

Four days of touring temples is exhausting, especially when it's 35 degrees and humid as hell. With no swimming pool or other solution to cool down around, we started dreaming about white beaches again. This meant spending an entire day in the bus, going down south, but it would be one of our last bus trips in Asia, so it wouldn't hurt too much. Sihanoukville, the beach town we had chosen, was slightly disappointing; not very charming and its main beach was awful, full of rubbish, empty beer cans and rats. We had to make quite an effort in finding a nice place for our swimming and sunbathing.

Just in front of the Cambodian coast, there are plenty of small islands with pristine beaches and visiting them is the right thing to do when you're staying in Sihanoukville. 

One of the things I love about Asia, besides the culture and the food, is the possibility of being pampered for no money. Getting a massage seems as important as brushing your teeth and you'll easily have a one hour body massage for eight dollar or less. On the beach, dozens of women offer to take care of your hands and feet and in Cambodia, I had it all done for 4 dollar. Even Benoit had his feet cleaned for two dollar, even though he didn't enjoy this as much as I did, haha...

Okay, it's not all joy and happiness in Asia. People try to scam you all the time, intending to bring you to places you don't want to see or sell you things you don't want to buy. You have to bargain almost everything, in some places even food! There is also a lot of poverty, especially here in Cambodia and you'll often feel bad and uncomfortable about it, especially when kids are involved. Around Siem Reap, a little girl came to me and tried to sell me some postcards. She definitely wasn't older than four and when she asked me where I was from, she started counting till ten in fluent Dutch and French. Later, I heard her doing the same in German, Italian and Spanish. Even though  this kid really impressed us, we felt sad for her as well, as it was obvious someone had been training her hard to make her sell those cards. To ease our conscience, we're trying to eat in 'good cause' restaurants (restaurants where street or poor kids are being trained to become chef or waiter) and we're buying our souvenirs in charity shops.

(This is the last post on Cambodia. We have spent some days in its capital, Phnom Penh, from where we visited the 'Killing Fields' but we have no pictures of that - it just felt very inappropriate to use our camera there)

Beng Mealae

Beng Mealae is another temple in the Angkor region....I know, there's probably been a lot of pictures of temples on the blog, but it kind of is what Asia is all about. People here are very religious and there are just thousands and thousands of amazing temples to visit. But this one is a little different... First of all, it's located 70 km from the main Angkor Wat temple and it took us 1,5 hour by tuk-tuk to go there. Secondly, it hasn't been renovated to the same extent the others have, which gives it a real Indiana Jones feel, being in the middle of the jungle, overgrown with trees and lianes. It's not an easy visit, we had to climb, jump, crawl and even swing to be able to see all the hidden places of this huge stone complex but this made it all the more interesting! Beng Mealae was definitely a highlight on our temple tour!  

(Please don't forget to admire the fourth picture, it took Benoit hours and a lot of French swearing to finish this '3-D'-version of himself.)

Angkor

We are in Cambodia! After a 10 hour bus trip from Laos, we arrived in Siem Reap, the gateway to the famous temples of Angkor. We devoted our entire four day stay to visiting all of the fascinating architectural master pieces in this area. Even though it was extremely hot and super humid, we really enjoyed cycling from one temple to the other under age-old trees. We have visited many, many temples on our way through Asia but we both agreed that nothing can compare with the beauty of Angkor. 

Unfortunately, the most famous of it all, the mother of all temples, Angkor Wat was under construction, as you'll see on the first two pictures. Every decent guide book will tell you it's an absolute must to visit Angkor Wat early in the morning, when sun rises, which is around 5 am. We've seen amazing pictures of the temple under a red, golden sky and I absolutely wanted to have something like that. So on our last day, we woke up at 4 am, hopped on our bikes and cycled the 8 kilometer from Siem Reap to Angkor Wat. When we arrived, a whole herd of tourists had already taken position, left of the main entrance in front of the lake (that's where the guides tell you to go). And then we waited....for a sun that refused to rise like in the pictures. It was grey and cloudy, there was no magic at all and my supposedly iconic shots turned out blurred and grey instead of golden and mystical. 

But hey, apart from this minor disappointment we really had the best time in Angkor, admiring giant tree roots in Ta Prohm, the temple you might know from the Tomb Raider movie and looking in the eye of the friendly stone faces of the Bayon temple. 

Si Phan Don (4000 Islands)

The southernmost point of Laos is called Si Phan Don, which means 4000 islands. This area forms the border with Cambodia and consists of a series of very quiet islands in the Mekong. We stayed 22 hours on 'Don Kong' and almost three days on smaller 'Don Det'. Why did we flee Don Kong after less than one day? Because we were bored to death! There was literally nothing to do, nothing to see, no one to meet and worst of all...no internet, scary right? Haha! I am sure many people are dying to spend one or more days in such a deserted place, but to us it felt uncomfortable and we wanted to leave asap.

The pictures below are taken on Don Det, a far more interesting place, even though life here moves slowly as well but with a little more atmosphere and charm. As on the other island, there are no cars, everyone cycles, some use a scooter and we just walked, all day long...Through rice fields and along the river...Enjoying the sun, slurping down fresh watermelon shakes... It was the perfect ending to our two week stay in lovely Laos!