Ta Prohm aka ‘getting that Lara Croft feeling’

 
1) heading up to Chong Khneas by long boat

You’ll see some fabulous sights in Cambodia as the world there is very different than the world here in Toronto. Kids go to school but 3 hours day, 6 days a week. Not because they don’t want to go to school but the Khmer Rouge time decimated the professional classes – teachers included – and there just aren’t enough teachers to go around. Teachers are also woefully paid. Kids head to school either in a morning shift or an afternoon one. On Thursdays, everyone heads to school in the morning and their chore that day is to clean their schools.


2) what does s/he see?

3) G films us heading up river


 
4) Siem Reap’s main market


5) kids are kids everywhere … even in Chong Khneas


I also believe that children in Cambodia learn to ride a bike long before they ever learn to walk.


6) young monks begin their morning rounds begging for food in Siem Reap

 

7) Siem Reap market; 8) need a hat?


9) G prepares for a fish massage of his feet; 10) afterward deep-fried snakes anyone?


11 & 12) inside and outside the main market

  
13) heading up north we come across monks making the rounds on this vehicle complete with loud speaker to get the farmers in from the fields



14) everywhere you look, kids on bikes heading to school; 15) the morning laundry rounds


16)  heading to town with a load of wood


17) tending the paddies


18) wow… this little – dead – piggy is going to market!

Even more in the wilds is the awesome temple of Ta Prohm. A Buddhist temple dedicated in 1186AD to King Jayavarman II’s mother, it is a rabbit warren of overgrowth and tumbled down messiness.


19) a naga at Ta Prohm; 20) I couldn’t resist shooting the Asian tourists in a PPA pose


21) the library at Ta Prohm


22) Ta Prohm; 23) the site is rampant with young kids who ought to be in school but are panhandling instead


24) these two were chased off by temple guards – note they even had a slingshot (as did the temple guard I might add); 25) perhaps he’s looking for his future?


26) these trees have completely overrun Ta Prohm; 27) Blee with her temple assistant


28) very surreal and beautiful I thought with the morning mist rising


29) we stopped at the “Bamboo Rice Village’ heading back to town (I ate but it later caught up with me); 30) bamboo rice options for kilometers


31) see what happens when you eat too much bamboo rice made out in the villages!


32) heading into Preah Ko ; 33) Blee gets up close


34 & 35) more of Preah Ko


36) wandering the backstreets of Siem Reap; 37) tuk tuk break break


38) out on Tonle Sap Lake


39)  fisher nets on Tonle Sap lakeshore; 40) our boatman brings us ashore


41 & 42) building a new long boat on the shore of Tonle Sap Lake


43 & 44) life along the shore of Tonle Sap Lake
    

45) boats head down to Phnon Krom; 46) as we head up to Chong Khneas


47) out on the lake at Chong Khneas


48) almost to the ‘floating village’; 49) fishermen free the fish from the nets


50) the floating village with the floating temple in the distance

51) the crocodiles get fed


52) young mothers whose husbands were killed during the wars ply the waters with their children hoping to make a dollar or two; 53) and young boys do the same


54) a typical boat; 55) relaxing along the shore

 
56) son and dad/grandfather?


57) volleyball is hot even here


58) more boats heading back to Phnom Krom; 59) and more boatmaking


60) where’s he going?!


61) kids having fun along the shore


62) caught this guy bathing


63) see you later Cambodia


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2 Responses to Ta Prohm aka ‘getting that Lara Croft feeling’

  1. Fatcat723 says:

    That is a section of the world I know very little about. Thanks for the educational trip! I hope you survived. Lara Croft always does.

  2. CurryPuffy says:

    I flew Silk Air too! How do you like the muggy weather?

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