Honeymoon – Page 2 – Blogged Down By Life

Our Asian Holiday – Day 4

Posted on September 7, 2013March 12, 2015 by Chad Dobbs

Day 4: Our final morning in Cambodia was spent wandering the street markets for a new travel bag for Carly. While packing her well-used suitcase the seam tore apart and with an hour until our driver arrived to take us to the airport, we went on a mission.

Luckily for us she found a bag that would accommodate her increasing number of clothes and soon we were on our way to the airport and on a plane bound for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

As we descended, the size of HCMC was astounding. It’s a huge city with an even bigger urban sprawl; life looked busy from our vantage point in the sky. Unfortunately for us we were about to spend the next hour and a half sitting at passport control waiting to have our visas issued. The paperwork was completed and submitted; we just had to sit and wait while a single person processed multiple plane loads of passengers wanting to enter Vietnam. Eventually we passed immigration and met our clearly pissed off driver who then proceeded to drive at break neck speed through the ridiculously hectic HCMC traffic.

Within an hour we arrived at our hotel and soon set off for a look around the nearby markets. Luckily for us we were inside the market pavilion when the heavens unleashed an almighty monsoonal storm.

Braving the downpour, we ran across the road and tucked into a fantastic dinner of Phõ followed by a tour of the downtown night markets. All in all our first night in Vietnam was a good one.

Our Asian Holiday – Day 2 to Day 3

Posted on September 5, 2013March 12, 2015 by Chad Dobbs

Day 2: We woke up to a sunny morning in Phnom Penh and enjoyed a lazy breakfast on the top of our hotel overlooking the Mekong River. Our guide and driver arrived and took us to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap. Our flight was a quick 45min leg where our new guide Con and his driver were waiting.

We checked into our new hotel, The City River Hotel, just a few blocks away from downtown Siem Reap. A quick lunch in the hotel restaurant and we were off for a tour of the famous Angkor Wat temple.

We drove through Siem Reap and to the Angkor Wat tourist centre where our photos were taken and visitor ID’s issued. A quick 10min down the road and some history lessons from Con, we arrived at Angkor Wat with the thousands of other tourists; mostly Chinese and Vietnamese. In the land of Cambodia this whitey is a rare and much taller animal.

It is really a huge temple at Angkor Wat, the scale is only surpassed by the detail that is on every piece of stone and wall.

We left Angkor Wat for another temple at Pnom Bakheng built on top of a large hill overlooking the Siem Reap province. We were allocated an hour to scale the hill and climb the steep stairs to the top of the temple before enjoying the sun setting over the Great Lake. We made the steep climb in little over 15mins with no heavy breathing or excess sweating; unlike the other tourists in their terrible footwear and heavy clothing.

The top of the temple itself was ridiculously hot and after watching dozens of Chinese tourists climb all over an ancient temple and throw up peace sign selfies, we left for our dinner and dance show in Siem Reap.

The dinner was an Asian style buffet with some Western foods thrown in to appease the people not keen on trying something different. During the meal we watched an Asara dance that was pretty impressive and then headed back to our hotel for an early night.

Day 3: We went for a quick stroll around the markets near our hotel after a light Asian breakfast. The markets were bustling with vendors and I picked up a cheap cap for my journeys.

Our guide and driver picked us up and we headed out to Angkor Wat once again. This time we toured the South Gate of Angkor Thom and Preah Khan.

Later we headed off into the jungle to look a few smaller, less preserved temples. These temples were a lot quieter than the main area at Angkor Wat. I can only assume that due to the extra walking required certain groups just cut them from their itinerary. For both Carly and I it was a more enjoyable experience seeing the temples and ruins that the jungle had taken back.

In the afternoon we spent some time in and out of the balcony pool at the hotel drinking beers and enjoying the sun. As a huge storm started to roll in with retired to our room for a siesta before heading out to the night markets, pub street and a nice dinner.

Our Asian Holiday – Day 0 to Day 1

Posted on September 4, 2013September 21, 2013 by Chad Dobbs

What a whirlwind the past few days has been for Carly and I. The Wedding went off without a hitch and was a huge day and night for not only us but for our family and friends. Carly spent the morning getting ready with her Bridesmaids, family and the Twin flower girls. I spent the morning drinking coffee, wandering around Elwood before finally spending some time with my Groomsmen, Mark and Evan by watching Robocop.
.:Meredith O’Shea is the most amazing photographer ever! Just do what she says!:.

Day 1: We flew out from Melbourne just after midnight on Tuesday morning and flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The flight itself was fairly painless and we both managed to get a few hours sleep before landing in Kuala Lumpur. The next 3 hours were spent wandering the airport checking out the duty free shopping before we spotted a Starbucks and leeched off their free Internet until our next flight.

We arrived in Phnom Penh just after 10am on Tuesday morning, 13 hours after we departed Melbourne. Sweet Baby Jesus it was hot!!! I like the cold, thus why I like Canberra; so needless to say arriving to 37’C with 10’000% humidity was a shock to the system. We paid for our visas, passed quickly through immigration and customs and were soon sitting in an air-conditioned car with our driver and guide for the day.

Our first stop for the day was the Killing Fields of Choenung Ek. In high school I did a fair bit of study on the recent history of Cambodia; in particular the Khmer Rouge regime. Although I have seen a lot of terrible and horrific things first hand over the past decade it is still quite sobering to experience something so huge that it has restructured a nation’s identity. The Cambodian people don’t shy away from discussing the days under Pol Pot’s genocidal rule; they embrace that this terrible chapter in their recent history has changed them forever and they strive to overcome the challenges of the past.

Our next destination was the Ohana Hotel across the road from the Mekong River. We checked in and grabbed a quick lunch before a quick walk through the nearby markets.

Our driver and guide picked us up a couple of hours later and we drove to the Royal Palace for a quick tour of the amazing gardens and buildings. Our guide Sam At was full of knowledge about his country, King and recent history. Sometimes he would even ask questions to see if we were paying attention.

For our final tour of the day we headed to the National Museum for a quick look around at the thousands of statues of Buddhism and Hinduism that Cambodia has amassed over the past several centuries. To be honest we were fairly statued out; but it was still a good opportunity to see how Cambodia has adapted yet kept its national identity after so many years of upheaval.

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying a quick siesta before heading out for a walk on the banks of the Mekong River, a stroll through the markets and quiet dinner near our hotel.

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