OZ - On our way home

We're going home. We're on our way home.

"I dig a Pygmy by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids... Phase One in which Doris gets her oats."
Is how the song actually starts. And it is a Paul and Linda McCartney song if I am not mistaken. Nonetheless, we are on our way home. The three of us.

So the first thing to do was change the front line picture from the sunset over the Gulf of Thailand to the shot from our condo window here in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia.

We got out of Bangkok nicely no real issues to speak of. Hopefully all of our stuff got packed and is now on its way to Canada. A long trip for sure. We packed a sea container. Yeah, we bought some sh** here in Thailand. First to the docks in Lam Chebang outside of Bangkok and then over to Vancouver. By rail to T.O. and eventually to Johnathan Drive.

The response to the Bridge Blog and the subsequent email from Deeds has been as heart warming as the actual visit we made. We can get this done, thank you to all.

Life on the road will be different. This first stop in Oz will take us all the way to April 6. We have a few plans already. Going to an island called Moreton later this week. A resort located there and will do some awesome snorkeling, maybe start our diving license, you never know.

Back to the mainland was and is not totally decided yet, but we sure do like this locale and the digs are perfect. Only a sand wedge (blog humour) to the beach from the above picture. We hear the surf pounding all night long. Deeds lives for this. Temp here today is 27 and the overnight last night was 17. Absolutely perfect. The best day you ever had back in T.O. in July, this is it. No humidity to speak of and there is always a good breeze blowing. And they don't call it Surfers Paradise for nothing.

Soon to be Lifeguards. Practicing with boogie boards

I am out of the hockey loop now. Only able to check scores as the teams head towards the final weekend. But I have noticed one very disturbing item that my friends back home have failed to notify me of. What with my preoccupation with the Habs nailing a top five pick for the first time since Carey back in 2005. I had not been paying attention to the other teams without potential. Low and behold here come the Toronto Maple Laughs. Falling like a stone. My gosh weren't some of you professing to be saving me a spot on Yonge Street for the Defile de la Coupe. Wow, whahappen? Looks like the Buds missed another playoff. Huh, who woulda thunk what with Burkie at the controls for 4 years that this would be the result. 
Oh well, not to be disheartened Leaf Nation. I know how you feel. (actually not really, just sayin that).
Good draft picks are there. Hope for next season, still there. Kessell, still there.

Talk soon

Oiy, put another shrimp on the barby mate.

The end is near

Good morning folks. Wednesday, March 21, 2012. Five more sleeps.
We start to shed things today. Our part time housekeeper Wandee, it is her last day today. Been with us since November, 2010 when we moved into our big apartment. Lena sheds her status as a traveler as she is busy applying for school next fall at Dalhousie. Deeds has only two more days of work at Thanachart Bank. I have one last game of golf on Thursday at Bangkok Golf Club with my mates.

Just to prove to you these people are real, I actually took a pic the other day for old time sake.
Larry, Tom, Hal and At. Yes, they let you play in fivesomes in Asia. Can be very slow.



I hear the weather back home is wonderful. Into the 20's. Wow. And here come the playoffs too. What a great time to be back in Canada. Well, soon enough for all of us. We are really looking forward to our trip finalizing the around the world adventure. But most of all we are really looking forward to friends and family back home.

I told you about Deeds having a special blog coming up, well it turns out she would rather leave that task to me, so here goes.
I have to take you back to Cambodia. We had a great three days there. Our last day in the afternoon we were scheduled to go to a school in the country, about 35 km from Siem Reap. The objective was to see this school that taught English to Cambodian children and also to see an effort that one of Diane's work colleagues had taken on in this village. He had funded the digging of fresh water wells for local residents.

We had lived with our tour guide now for two and a half days. And at this point his edges were starting to rub a bit if you know what I mean. He had a few idiosyncrasies that did not sit well with Madame as well, mostly he said what he wanted to say when he wanted to say it. The fact that you asked a question seemed only to be a minor irritant to him, although in his defense he always, eventually, seemed to answer the question.

So we wanted the pool, it was deadly hot in Cambodia. 40 to 44 degrees, with an unbelievable level of humidity. Suwana wanted us to go to the village. So Deeds was pressing, "So Suwana, what is the plan (anyone who knows Deeds has heard these words before), what exactly are we going to see at this school." This comes from our pairing down the tour in the first place. Like not going to see 14 temples and staying with the 4 biggies, or not going to see traditional dance show with dinner and just going downtown on our own and ignoring that sort of normal, done that tourist stuff.

Suwana. " Well we shall go to the village and see the school your friends told you about". Deeds. "Yes, but exactly what else, what shall we see, do, talk about, you know what is the plan" (Deeds looking to cut major chunks out of this guys day so we can get back to the pool. If you read the earlier blog you know we were up at 5 in the morning for sunrise over Angkor Wat, now we were ready to relax. POOL, you hear me Suwana.)
Suwana. "Well those are all very good questions Diana, but we shall see when we get there." "How much longer then", "Oh only 20 more minutes", this is through the barren terrain of baked out Cambodia. Unlike Thailand they have no money for irrigation, or water dams, storage, etc. They only have one rice harvest here. It starts with rainy season in April/May and they harvest in October. The rest of the time there is no water for crops. Remember that the Kingdom of Cambodia has just come out of decades of war dating back to the American War (Vietnam). It emerged as a monarchy in 1993 and now has begun the march out of third world status. The country is ripe with corruption. Thus little economic benefit from government activity gets down to the level of the people.

This is were we come in, with a little help and not to much talk from Suwana.

After Deeds finally realizes that Suwana ain't gonna tell her what is next we settle in for the ride. We arrive at the school and were met by the head of the local six villages. Suwana had planned this. He then took us over to a school with little children learning English. They all jumped up and yelled "Good morning sir" as soon as we were in the room. We were heart thumped. And then on it went. They took us from room to room, some younger kids and then to a room with 13 to 18 year old all learning to speak English on their own time. All saying good morning in their loudest voices, smiling at us. They came to English school from 8 am to 12 and then went home and went to public school from 1 to 4. They were all adorable, smiling and heart wrenching.
Outside the cicadas bugs were deafening. It actually hurt my ears.
We went on to see another English school under construction donated by a Chinese man from Hong Kong.
The cost of the school was $10,000, not sure of cost of the land it sat on. We were feeling a little helpless but understood that the lay of the land was what they were attempting to show us. How these people with a little help were pulling themselves up by the boot straps.

So now with our hearts in the right place we went to see one of the water wells that Diane's colleague had paid for in the village. Cost of a well is $150 and it was our plan all along to pay for a well in this village. Really the reason why we had taken the journey, had agreed to come to the village.
We met the family that had the well in their front yard. The well is shared by all the families around it. They poured out of their house to meet us bowing and smiling and chattering to us, what they said we did not know but we totally understood. They were bubbling with joy to see Canadians come again to their village.

Head of the villages, Grandad, granddaughter with baby, son and wife.

 The well too

The sign they erect with the well.

So we were all set to give our guide the $150 and have them dig a well in the villages and put our name on it. It means a great deal to people to have easy access to drinking water, water for a great garden that is just to the left of the top picture. They were overjoyed to see us and to think that their village would get antoher well.

We were leaving, remember we had POOL on our mind, but something was still calling us. Not sure who or why but as we were saying goodbye to the head of the villages we said to the guide. "Suwana, ask him what is the biggest thing that he needs right now. Something that the villages must have." They talked and we were told that there was an old bridge that joined the villages close to where we were. And where the schools were. So they took us to see this bridge. Here is a video that I shot on my phone. Take a watch.

During rainy season you cannot even get across this bridge it is so bad. That wash fills right up over top of the bridge. And for sure no kids are riding their bikes over top. Everyone has to go way around to get to the main road we came from.
The cost to replace the bridge with a concrete structure is $1,500. This new bridge will last probably 100 years. And you could have your name on it along with the Canadian flag for all to see.

So how would we finance this? That was the question. We started to think about asking each and every visitor that came to BKK to see if they would chip in. 38 visitors, $20 each would be $760. Perfect. It would be easy for us was what we said. Why are we thinking about it. We are so ready to do the rest. Or we could take one or two other major contributors along with us. It doesn't matter. We will see how this works out later. Right at that moment we knew we had to tell them they had a new bridge.
(So if you were here expect to recieve a note/request for some support.)
It is a Deedles thing afterall.
This bridge needs to be completed before this rainy season, no sense waiting another 14 months, so we have already fronted the money to the village to begin the construction. We will worry about the signage later.

Here are more pics of the bridge.

All wood construction

A few gaps in the covers

Construction rep on left. Security guard? Don't even know where he came from.

These are other shots we took of the bridge showing the poor state of repair.

Suwana and Deeds

The two of us

As we were leaving Diane and I felt a great feeling of accomplishment having pushed further to try and have an impact. The wells are a great contribution and that might still be in our future, but we feel good about a lasting contribution to the villages. We headed back to our hotel with a smiles on our faces that finally matched the Cambodians we had met. And now the POOL.

The pool also turned out to be a great afternoon as we met a couple from Holland, had lunch with them and beerz. Was something Deeds and I had talked about, cause we don't seem to go out of our way to meet people when we are places. Being more the loners. It was different and nice.

So the journey to Cambodia is coming to an end. Our guide comes to pick us up at 5:30 for our return to the airport. When Deeds attempts to get in the truck Suwana says, "No go yet Diana", Deeds wheels and is about to have her final say with him when he holds out his arm towards the entrance of the hotel drive. Coming up the pavement are a band of Cambodian men. Led by the Head of the villages. It included all six village heads who have joined him to come the 35 km into Siem Reap to thank us.

The seven village representatives with Deeds and I. Suwana on the far right.

The feeling for the two of us is overwhelming. They are so grateful. They present us with a letter, also signed by two of the area monks expressing their gratitude. What an unbelievable experience for us.
What a great trip. WOW.
Talk to you soon
Sawasdee Krup

Late a Day

Hi folks, sorry I missed the Monday posting. It's been a hectic couple of days around here. I told you that Deeds and I were off to Cambodia for three days. Specifically to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat.
What a place. Temples going all the way back to the 11th century. Very intricate stone work and a lot a lot of rebuilding and repairing of damaged temples to do.
Many of the sites we went to had country sponsors. Germany and India were two that we saw that had archaeological teams on site helping the Cambodians try to put some of these temples and holy sites back into viewable condition. Money is the biggest issue. You still have to pick stones up and put them back where they were 600 years ago. This takes equipment and manpower, which all costs money.
We stayed in a very nice hotel with a great little pool. Only $50 a night. And the food at the hotel was very good as well. We ventured into town one night to go to "Pub Street". That is what it is called. Full of pubs and restaurants for the many tourists who come here to see the temples.
Temples, wow. 238 of them in the Angkor Archaeological Park and surrounding area.
We saw 4 in 2 1/2 days.
Most famous of course is Angkor Wat.

Seen here on our last day. We got up at 5 and met the tour guide at 5:30 so we could be at Angkor Wat for sunrise behind the temple. No coffee, no Timmies to pick up on the way in Siem Reap.
Clouds! And this is what you pay the big money for. Sun behind the temple and reflection of the temple in the pool in front. Probably 200 people there. Our guide was over at the food court in the parking lot having pancakes and bananas. We went over and said, Hey, all cloudy so not much more to see let's go. "Ohhh, you have more to see, wait, is very good, take more picture", as he slurped his hot coffee and munched on pancake. So we walked back for another 15 minutes of standing around watching fools trying to take pictures with their phones. When we went back he had his laptop open and was showing all the other guide buddies his facebook page, where he had, as he had told us for the 23rd time in 2 days posted more of his pics and comments. "Ayyyeeee, we go now", I said. "Ohhhhh you should walk down the path to the center point and front gate, very many picture for you too take", he said. More slurping of hot coffee and talking and pointing at his laptop with buddies. So off we went to finally head back to the hotel and some breakfast.
 This is a shot of Angkor Wat from the back of the temple as we exited the temple on day 2.

The rest of our last day was absolutely fantastic, but I think I will digress to the beginning of the trip. Also I will let Deeds talk about the end of the trip in a last post from Thailand that she has planned. More later but let me digress.

 We started our temple tour at Bayon. Main building above. If you only see two temples it is Angkor and Bayon. A major rebuild and restoration underway here as well but with all the visitors must be very hard to do. 

Too prove we were there they always wanna take ur picture!

One of the most famous pictures to be taken at Bayon.

Most amazing thing at all the wats is the profusion of broken pieces missing from the building, lower left.

As always there is a place where people can go and pray in front of a present day Buddha image. This was the set up out the back of the temple as we exited through a forest out to the waiting car.
You will notice I did not say quiet forest. The cicada (sakata) bugs around here are unbelievable. Must be as big as raccoons for the noise they make.

At the top of the temple windows all around

 Did I mention that we got to do a lot of climbing up vertical staircases. These temples were made for little footed Asians. Not so easy for big foot like your blogger to make it up and down.

Back in the day the roof would have been covered in wood. Long since rotted and fallen down.

The palace wall separating temple from the forest now.

Out side we wait for our ride.

Here comes the hard part, only four days later. We went to another temple and I forgot to take the obligatory first picture showing the name of the place. When I find out I will post the name for the curious. This temple is famous because of the soft red sandstone that it is made of. Not the hardy good stuff like Bayon or Angkor. As well, alot more restoration needs to be done here.

Approaching the front of the temple

Very intricate carving of the stone

 

 

 

An example of the stonework.

And then finally from here we were travelling back towards the town of Siem Reap. We were to possibly see a sunset from the top of a temple. Something Deeds and I were not looking forward too as it meant climbing another set of vertical steps up 150 feet. Lucky for us this was the scene when we got there..............

Got room for two more?? Don't think so.

 

So home we went for the end of day one in Cambodia. Well not quite. We did get into a little wine and some Angkor beerz down on Pub Street. Not a lot though. The weather was brutal. 42 degrees. Humid and we had been up since 5 that morning. Tomorrow is another day.

Day two started early at  Ta Promh. Another restoration project. This one apparently 8 years into a 10 year fix with help from Germany. Well it looked to us like they had more than two years worth of work left but who are we to say. Only reno we ever did was an addition to our house, oh and the basement, and the kitchen - twice. So maybe we are qualified to comment??!!

Anyway we learned here that one of the causes of busted temples is trees. They grow pretty big here and for about 600 years as well. When they die and they do, they fall down, sometimes on top of a temple. 

Maybe thy should think more about cutting down a few trees, like we did when we had our reno, since I am some kinda expert as we established a little earlier, but I digress again. 

So the big trees, either strangler figs or banyan take over the temple. At Promh seems to have been purposely left to show the takeover of nature that can occur when a wat is abandon. Some repairs and rebuild has been done here but it looks like the attraction is too great for them to remove the big trees.

Strangler fig

Lots of stone to be moved here.

Big tree, big roots climbing over everything

They chip away at the root here so you can see the image hidden behind. Not magic, just tourism 101

 Only one more wat to visit after this one as we head to lunch. Next up. Angkor Wat.
Now a lot of you have probably seen pics of this site. Here in Bangkok at the Royal Palace they have a mini version of this temple on the grounds, it is that sacred to Buddhists. I won't go into all the details of the place as there is plenty on line for all of you who are interested, otherwise here are a number of the pics we took. Some at the side, or half way up or as far up as you can go on the temple. Yes Martha there was more climbing to be done. And girls, you have to wear a full dress when you get to the top. And no hats please.
So here is what we saw.

At the front gate

First view from the western south side.

Help for upkeep from Germany

Why are their boobies all shiny? Good luck to rub them!!

Up on the second level

On the second level

The lotus flower towers

Join the line up to climb to the third level

 

A view westward from level 3 to the main gate and the forest beyond

On level 3

 Some of the most intricate stone work at Angkor Wat exists on the first level. The story of Vishnu the Hindu God which the temple is built for is told all around the outside walls as releifs such as those below.

So there ya are folks. Our tour of Angkor Wat reduced to a blog page. And there are things I didn't tell you about. Like the cruise we took in a fishing type boat out to see a real floating village. They had a floating school which had a floating gymnasium. We saw kids playing volleyball, which is very big here, on a raft that is screened in on all sides. There are about 125 houses out in this village. All anchored out in Tonle Sap Lake.
And of course don't forget about the special blog feature coming from Deedles. You will love that!
And of course ya gotta know, we are so excited. Leaving Thailand in just 13 days. Wow.
Sawasdee Krup