Author Topic: Vacation  (Read 145237 times)

ses

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #960 on: July 08, 2014, 11:25:10 PM »
Amazing pictures Sandy!
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Junior

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #961 on: July 08, 2014, 11:31:13 PM »
I am unspeakably jealous.
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Sandy

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #962 on: July 09, 2014, 06:01:01 AM »
 :)

It was a lovely trip. Thanks for the nice words everyone.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #963 on: July 09, 2014, 07:55:44 AM »
I lost at the Darcy sign. Looks like you had an awesome trip.

Monty

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #964 on: July 09, 2014, 10:22:41 AM »
Great photo's Sandy, glad you enjoyed the backyard, it is pretty awesome :)


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JakeIsntFake

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #965 on: July 09, 2014, 10:24:43 AM »
So cool, Sandy.
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tinyholidays

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #966 on: July 09, 2014, 11:23:49 AM »
Me too. So funny. What a lovely time it looks like you had!

Tequila

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #967 on: July 09, 2014, 02:34:33 PM »
I hope the trip was as great as the pictures make it look.
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Lobby

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #968 on: July 09, 2014, 02:43:25 PM »
Wonderful pics Sandy!

You inspire me to post some long overdue pics from my trip to Cambodia earlier this year. I'm no great photographer tbh, this is just pics taken with my mobile, but I hope they can convey at least a small hint of the experiences I had over there.

So let's go:



Phom Penh. The scooters and the cords hanging over the road are quite typical. And yyeah, that's me.



A visit to the Killing Fields right outside of Phnom Penh. I cried as I listened to the testimonies in an audio guide. This tree was used to kill little babies. Now it's covered in prayer bracelets. It was very tough to see and listen to this and I won't go into details. I've never been to a holocost camp but I imagine it's a bit of the same.



We then moved on to see S21, a former school in Phnom Penh that was turned into a prison during pol pot where they used torture to get "confessions". An estimated 17 000 were imprisoned there during Pol Pot. Only seven survived.



Textile workers in Phnom Penh having their lunch. We did a kind of non-touristy day. We had a private guide, a woman who has worked for NGOs and knows English very well and knows her ways around, often assisting journalists and such. She brought us - on ou request - to the other side of Phnom Penh, the kind of life that "ordinary" people live. So we went to a factory area where our H&M t-shirts are made and - with her as an translator - had a chat with the workers during their lunch. I could talk about this for long, but let's just stay with that it left my 19 year old in deep thoughts.



Most Cambodians belong to the buddism, but there's a small group of muslims, the cham people, who live under very harsh conditions. Our guide brought us to a settlement under some boats by the river in Phnom Penh. Right behind where the pic is taken the Chinese are building a luxury hotel. And once it's finished in two years, those people will be driven away, noone knows whereto.



After the tough start in Phnom Penh (which I wouldn't have wanted to miss for anything, but it's not something that attracts a lot of tourists) we went to Cambodia's main attraction, Angkor Wat. I took hundreds of pics of temples, but well, you can google and see for yourself and probably see much greater pics than mine. We spent two days there and saw at least ten temples - but there are hundreds of them and each one different. It's stunningly beautiful and belongs to the World Heritage for a reason.



My favourite temple was the one where Tomb Rider was recorded (or a part of it). Overgrown with huge trees. It was very, very beautiful.



This was also beautiful, a temple that was filled with faces of Bhudda - hundreds of them.



But we did some more than just temple hiking. This is a visit to a stilted village, Kampung Pluk, where people live the same way as they've done for a thousand years. We were there during dry season, but during wet season, those houses are at sea level so to say.



They made their living mostly on fishing, as far as I get. And on tourists, obviously.



Seeing all the poverty, you feel an urge to pay back. I had read up a bit on the webs about good and bad ways to do (sadly there's a lot of charity tourism that does no good at all). Giving blood to a child hospital was apparently a very good thing to do, so we went there. Sadly I was rejected (too few blood cells, they gave me iron suppliments and I felt ridiculous, I was the one supposed to help out, rigt?). But Tuva, my 19 year old, was accepted as a doner, for the first time in her life. She felt very good about it afterwards: "it's as if I've left a part of me in Cambodia".



Travelling as a mother and daughter, you're not the ideal combo for spending the night out partying. But it seemed to be a good place for it.



After this we went back to Phnom Penh, where we had another guided tour, this time a bike tour to the countryside, which was lovely. In this pic our guide is telling us everything about rice growing; he comes from a family of rice farmers.



Another pic from our tour to the countryside outside of Phnom Penh. Waiting for the boat to cross the river.





We had a memorable theatre experience in Phnom Penh! Barefoot and bedded!



Monks... They were everywhere, in their colourful clothing. This is a group that is on their way to visit the royal palace, as tourists. One of hem is carrying an ipad which he holds up and takes pics with. They didn't always fit in to what you think a munk would be. But they were present, everywhere, reminding you of another way of life.



This pic is taken by my daughter, who is a much better photographer. The boy is holding a little ball with feathers which she just has given to him after playing around with a bunch of street kids for a long time. It's a game that is played everywhere, you stand in a circle with your friends and kick this little ball to each other. Some players are incredibly skilled.



This is when our final, lazy beach days begin. Or you could call it a period to meditate on everything we'd seen. First we went to the touristy village Sianoukville by the coast....



and then we took a boat for a few hours to a small, very very quiet island, with no wifi, not even a working telephone line, where we spent five nights.... just existing.



The beach was like in the advertising. For real.



The hotel bar was the most relaxed I've ever ecountered...



... and midday, when it was too hot to be on the beach, we lay in our hammocks on the porch.

To summarize it we spent two and a half week in Cambodia, but it felt like a lot more. It was that kind of journey, you know.










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tinyholidays

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #969 on: July 09, 2014, 03:02:19 PM »
Wow, Lobby. Five days in hammocks at a beach hotel bar sounds just right. What an amazing life experience you and your daughter had.