Travel Virus

The main tourist attraction of Cambodia is Angkor, the ancient capital and city of thousands of Khmer temples. Millions tourists come every year but it doesn’t fee like. The temples site is so huge that you only find some crowd in Angkor Wat, the most famous temple. We went there for sunrise, but the sun was shy that day and didn’t show up. Never mind it’s still good to explore the temples at 6 in morning when the air is fresh and not many people are around.

My favorite temple is Ta Phrom, wild and conquered by the forest… feels like Indiana Jones discovering forgotten treasures! It’s amazing to see the huge trees growing around, inside and on the top of the temples!

Bayon is also one of the must see temples, with thousand faces looking at you, very picturesque!

Banteay Srey, also called the women citadel, is a temple complex 38 Km from Angkor Wat, but worth the trip: it’s made of pink sandstone with very fine and minute carving, extremely rich in details.

Overall all the temples are beautiful and different from each other but on the same artistic line, some Hindu, some Buddhist, some very tall, some very large…

What is amazing about Angkor is the huge number of temples spread in an area of around a hundred kilometers, there are beautifully carved temples at every corner, often hiding under the greenish forest, the atmosphere is unique, reminiscence of the Khmer splendor.

Since the climax in XXI century ,Cambodia has been subject to continuous decline, touching the bottom with the Khmer rouge regime. In 1979, when Pol Pot regime felt under the Vietnamese army, there were only 300 people left in Cambodia with a higher degree (Henry Kamm, 1988, pg.11). Emerging from the stone age is not easy when in a whole Country there are only 300 educated people, and schools and hospitals were destroyed when not used for tortures and mass killing. Khmer people are now slowly recovering from the hell where Pol Pot took them only 30 years ago, but it’s a long way that needs international support.

I’m exploring Cambodia, an amazing Country with striking contrast. A incredibly rich past with the immense and beautiful Khmer temples of Angkor, and an incredibly sad recent history of cruel tortures and killings by the Khmer rouge (see CNN report). In the 70s the population of Cambodia when from 7 million people to 4 million! An immensely sad number of people dead by the Khmer rouge (est. 2 millions), U.S. secret carpet bombing during Vietnam war and consequent famine and starvation.

Cambodia is now a safe and slowly developing country with 50% of the population under the age of 18!! It’s still very poor but with big hope for the future (I think). It’s the land of the beautiful Angkor temples, and many other beautiful and immense temples of the Khmer empire, about 1000 years old, with well preserved carvings. The temples are spread in an area of 160 km, and they are really astonishing.

Cambodia also offers beautiful scenaries always featuring water: the Mekong river,  floating villages in the many big lakes, boat rides between the main cities… and very friendly (but sometimes desperately poor) people.

I like Cambodia way much better than Vietnam, it’s a place that will touch your hearth, a place that you have to see once in your life (but hurry up, before mass tourism arrives). My suggestion is to dedicate at least a week or better 10-15 days to explore the deep contrasts of this land: don’t go just to Angkor Wat, you would miss so much!

It has been 11 days already that I’m around Vietnam, and tomorrow I’m traveling to Cambodia!
I had good time in Vietnam although it’s not the most exciting country in the world. It’s relatively safe and cheap (when you are not ripped off), has some decent beaches and historical sites.

I particularly enjoyed visiting the Mekong river, it’s so huge and all brown, quite impressive! We took a lovely boat ride in the small canals with the incredible vegetation of palm trees, coconuts, mangroves, jackfruits… very peaceful and wild! I wish I had more time there!

Hoi An was good for tailor made cloths and Hue is nice for the historical sites, where you have a forbidden city bigger than the one in Beijing!!

I didn’t particularly like the north, and I wouldn’t recommend Hanoi and Ha Long bay, just tooooooo touristic, thousand and thousand of tourists all doing the same things at the same time!

In finally in Vietnam! I’ve been exploring the city of Hanoi, in the north of Vietnam and for Easter Monday we went to Halong Bay. Sooooo many boats of tourists, definitely a tourist trap, but a nice one. It was weird to swim in green water and fog but quite pleasant. The city of Hanoi is interesting and very crowded but people are relaxed. Now heading to the south…

I’m in Singapore!!
and I really like it, it’s very modern, hot and exotic at the same time. Actually i was surprised that the most part of Singapore looks very “american” in terms of the cleanliness, housing, streets, organization, etc. But there are some parts of Singapore that are really different such as the beach (Parway Parade) and especially little India. At the moment I’m stay in little india, by Jennifer, that has been very extremely nice to me in helping me getting settled here. She’s been extremely kind to give me an overview of the city, tips, advices, make me try the typical food like Laksa and Durian ah ah
Thank you Jennifer!!!!
Today i finally found a good room to stay and I’m looking forward to my Singapore life!

On my way to Singapore I stopped a couple of days in UAE, and it was great! I enjoyed Abu Dhabi a lot, especially the Grand Mosque (in the pic) is really awesome! Aju has been extremely nice in taking me to the best places of the Emirates, with such a special guide I had really great time
We’ve also been to Dubai and I finally saw the famous Burj al Arab! We also visited the Atlantis and the Dubai mall which has a huge fish tank like in an aquarium.
The two cities have a rather different atmosphere… Dubai has millions of cranes, it’s a crane itself maybe and very “american” somehow, while Abu Dhabi I felt it a bit more authentic and arabic. Anyway they are both good places to visit!

I just visited my friend Rani and her lovely family

I’m afraid I didn’t manage to take a picture of all the three kids together, they are too fast or I’m getting old…

I also visited Marylin and Dennis, they also got a sweet grandchild, Geneva, and I’m looking forward to take her to Geneve in Switzerland when she grows up a bit

Tomorrow I’m leaving to Asia for the next 11 months!