An enlightening and emotionally draining day. We started at 8.30am and our first stop was the Royal Palace which is still the residence of the King on the rare occasions that he is in Phnom Penh. He spends a great deal of his time in France or China. The actual residence is not open to the public but the coronation hall can be viewed from the open doors and windows. One of the former waiting rooms, where the King would prepare before being taken by elephant to th...

What a great morning. Our boat was docked next to small village and as we are having breakfast we can see the oxen being harnessed to the cart in readiness for our group to take a ride through the countryside. The children are at the shore ready to greet us with lotus flowers, drawings and craft items they have made. They are so genuine and friendly. These kids are not begging or asking for anything, just a little bit of our time. We slide onto the ox cart. Just ...

This morning after breakfast we board a local boat to go to a local village. Around 1000 families live on floating houses and around 400000 people live in the province. Our eyes are opened to a totally foreign lifestyle. The houses on the river are floating on bamboo and fuel drums. Some of them are also shops or businesses, mechanics to fix the boats or sell fishing gear and petrol. There are kids and dogs, chickens and cats all living in the houses. The kids ar...

This morning we are awake at 5.30 due to some interesting electrical occurrences. It happened a couple of times in the night as well. There is a crackling sound and a flash of light. We can't smell anything so there is no fire but it's really weird. Now that we are awake we may as well start the day as our wake up call was booked for 6 anyway. Because we are on the road by 8 we have an early breakfast, check in for the cruise and finish up in the room. Our coach...

This morning we are going to Angkor Thom. Angkor means big and Thom means city. Angkor Thom is the last capital if the Khmers. We enter the city through the South Gate. The city is surrounded by a 12 km man made moat which is 3 km long on each side. Unlike Angkor Wat this is not a religious area, it was where the monks and kings lived. We visited the Terrace of the Leper King and the Terrace of the Elephants which was ornately carved with elephants. The terrace w...