I leave the Calgary airport at 8:30am and then travel through Vancouver BC and Osaka Japan to land in Bangkok late February 2nd. My dad has been to Thailand and Bangkok many times before, so he has pre-booked a place for us to stay that he's familiar with there. He says we'll probably be pretty tired when we arrive, so I guess after we land we'll be off to bed as soon as we drop our bags!
For the next few days we're going to tour around Bangkok, visiting some markets and museums and seeing the Emerald Buddha at Wat Phra Kaew which is the holiest temple in Bangkok. There is also apparently an elaborate mural displaying the story of Ramakian, which I would really like to see. My dad also recommends we head over to the Wat Pho Thai Traditional Medical and Massage School, for a traditional Thai massage that is apparently worth every baht (the "baht" is the official currency of Thailand). I'm excited to see what the markets are like in Bangkok, as I've read a lot about them in my Lonely Planet book and the web. Thailand is famous for its silk, so I'm sure some exotic pieces will follow me home, as gifts for friends if nothing else! There are also some good theatres in town that may be fun to go to if we have time, but once our Cambodian Visas are ready, we'll be off on the next leg of our journey!
At the crack of dawn we'll catch the early morning train out of Bangkok to Aranya Prathet, which is 4km from Poipet, which is the Thai/Cambodian border crossing. Once into Poipet, we head over to Siem Reap which is the large town by Angkor Wat. In Siem Reap there is an interesting workshop that I'd like to see, called the House of Peace Association, where traditional leather Thai shadow puppets are made. Of course with my love of all this cultural stuff, the traditional puppets would be very cool to see. There is also a silk farm about 16km west of Siem Reap, which shows all the stages of silk production, which might be neat, despite the creepy little wormies. ;-) But I've read that the finished silks show traditional Cambodian designs, so that would be worth all the chills of seeing vats of squirming worms!
The main attraction will be Angkor Wat of course, and we'll probably get at least a 3-day pass to tour the extensive grounds for the monument. Angkor Wat was built under the reign of Suryavarman II, who ruled from 1112-52 AD. Further temple projects by Jayavarman VII, produced the Bayon and other temples within his ruling city of Angkor Thom. The French first stumbled on the ruins in the 1860's, and since then it has been a popular tourist spot, except of course during the Khmer Rouge period. Now it is safe for tourists again, and is enjoying a lot of popularity, although they say you shouldn't stray off the tourists paths because of all the unexploded land mines dropped by the Americans during the Vietnam war, which ruins much of the Cambodian farmland and still maims hundreds of people a month.
I hope to get some really good photos in Angkor Wat and in the Bayon, but if you'd like a sneak preview before I get back and post mine, check out the Angkor Wat website and Travel Pictures Gallery.
After Angkor Wat, we're heading over to Battambang which has some lovely French colonial architecture to see. The Battambang Museum looks like a nice stop, and apparently has some nice lintels and statuary from all over the Battambang Province.
From here we'll hop the bus or share a taxi down to Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia and hosting 1 million citizens! Here I want to make a stop at the National Museum, which has artifacts from the Angkorian period, including statues, bronzes and pottery, so it should be quite a site to see! There is also the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, which is floored with over 5,000 silver tiles each weighing 1kg! Inside the Pagoda is (another) Emerald Buddha, this one said to be made from Baccarat crystal, and in front of that a life-size gold Buddha decorated in 9,584 diamonds. There is also a Buddha relic displayed, and 5 more Buddhas made from bronze, silver, 2 gold and 1 marble. There are also illuminated manuscripts housed there (yippee!), and an image of the Buddha either made from glass or on glass at the Silver Pagoda that I'd like to see... it was the inspiration for the design at top left of this mini-site. :-)
Other cool stops in Phnom Penh that I'd like to see or try is the Russian Marketplace (more shopping!), The Seeing Hands Massage (which is supposed to be amazing), the Apsara Arts Association and School of Fine Arts, which bahth teach the art of traditional Cambodian dance (apsara means "heavenly nymph" in Cambodian). Our stay in Phnom Penh will last probably about a week, then we'll grab some Visas for Laos before we leave, and then we're off again!
From here we'll head by bus to Kompong Cham, a city on the Mekong river and little northeast of Phnom Penh. At Kompong Cham we'll catch a slow boat and begin our trip up the Mekong River towards Laos, and enjoying the river scenery. We'll make a small stop in Kratie, where you can see rare freshwater dolphins called Irrawaddy Dolphins, which should be pretty amazing as they are an endangered species (they believe there may be as few as 60 left on the Mekong River).
Continuing up the Mekong, we'll pass through Stung Treng, where we'll have to grab an Exit Permit to get into Laos we arrive at the Laos border. Back on the boat we'll go, and cross the border at Koh Chheuteal Thom, and then continue up the river to Nakasong and then to Pakse by bus. A nice stop on the way may be at Champasak, which has an old Wat nearby called Wat Phu. But we'll have to see whether the bus stops there or maybe there's a tour we can go on, if there's time. From Pakse well head west, back into The Land of Smiles.
Crossing from the Laos-Thai border, we'll head into the city of Ubon Ratchathani, which as a fine museum with stone and bronze implements, pottery, musical instruments, statuary and textiles. There are a few other Wats in town that may be nice to visit, but at this point I'm not sure what sort of time we'll have left. If we're close of time, we'll be catching a flight over to Bangkok for our return flight home, but if time is not so bad we may bus or train the distance and see the scenery a bit as we go. Nakhon Ratchasima (Khorat) is Thailand's second largest city, and it's from this province that Thailand's best silk is made. There is a silk market in Khorat that may be nice to go see, if we stop here and there's time. But if we're short on time, it's back to Bangkok to pick up anything we saw from our first visit but decided to leave until our return, and then we're on our way home!
Early morning on February 23rd we begin our trip homeward, stopping through Hong Kong and Vancouver BC, and finally arriving back home in Calgary Alberta at 2:20pm... interestingly still on the 23rd, as we'll be flying "backwards through time" with the time zones. Dad says to prepare for a good 24-hr sleep from jet lag, and then it's a couple days rest, and off to teach my Workshop at ACAD on the 26th and 27th! Then in the next few weeks after that I add the photos from my trip, notes from my travel journal, and possibly scans of any artwork or sketches made during my travels. Hope you enjoyed reading the "preview" of my trip... stay tuned for the follow up! :-)
