Cambodia and Thailand

We arrived in Sihanoukville, Cambodia on March 24th all set with a Viator tour called the Highlights of Sihanoukville.  It was interesting to watch the fishing boats "putt putt" past our ship and look across at the houses on stilts dotting the edges of the peninsula.  It was also interesting to see the big cargo ships in port.

We watched various vehicles come to the port hoping to attract passengers for the day.

Taxi drivers literally chased after the buses bringing passengers from the commercial port to the drop off area.

Our tour guide had a smile as big as his face.  He was very cheerful and proud of his Cambodian heritage.  We were with about 14 other travelers in our van.

Immediately we noticed lots of garbage on the streets.  It seemed to be everywhere.  We thought Vietnam was trashy until we arrived in Cambodia.  We asked the guide about it.  He said they pick up trash every day but the trucks are small and can't handle the amount.  The water must not be good as there are so many empty, plastic bottles in the trash mix.  Of course, when we travel, we only drink bottled water also and usually bring our own from the ship.

We were first taken to a fishing village.  The boats had already come in with their catch for the day.

We were told not to give money or gifts to the children begging or charming the tourists as it only encourages them to continue begging instead of going to school.

This garbage pile in the water was the first of many we saw. 

I wondered why we saw so many "pets" if the people were so poor.  Our guide said they are not "pets" but are used for protection against intruders and thieves.

We were taken to two Buddhist temples.  In spite of their poverty, there are many ornate temples and at this site, they are adding a new building.  They barely have enough food but the people are very devout and continue to donate to temples.  The temples are not built by the government but with private donations.  The first temple was Wat Krom Temple.

Next we were taken to the Phsars Leu Central Market.  This is the center of daily life and culture.

Below is our van which somehow parked across the street from the market to pick us up after our brief "free" time to explore.

Next we went to Wat Leu Temple which was built on a hilltop and overlooked the city.  The view was beautiful!

There were many monkeys jumping among the trees and on the rooftops of buildings.  There were also many young monks.

It was fun to watch a lot of monkeys all around us at the temple site.

It is such a contrast to the temple structures to see the dirt, garbage and poverty right next to the ornate statues.

Below is one of the young monks walking somewhere.  They go out each day and ask the locals for food.

Next they took us to a famous waterfall called Khal Chhay but since it was the very end of the dry season there wasn't much water.

Since it was the weekend, there were a few families picnicking with lunch.

It appeared to be a popular attraction with many vacant booths for vendors.  There were a few vendors open during our visit.

You can barely see the waterfall in the background behind Steve.  It was a good opportunity for a little hike.

As we stood on the bridge which spanned the river, a puff of wind blew my visor hat off.  It sank rather quickly in the brown water.  So sad for me as I had ordered it special for our trips.

This is a swimming pool.  No one was there.  We don't know if it is a "has been" or not.

Most of these vendor booths were empty.  We were guessing it isn't the season for this recreation area.

Our guide then took us to one of the beautiful beaches.  This one is Otres Beach.

The beaches were beautiful and the water was warm.  That was my favorite part.

It was lunch time so many of the members of our group had lunch at a little open air restaurant on the beach.  We had absolutely no appetite for food in Cambodia but we wanted to contribute to the local people.  Steve opted for a beach massage and I had a manicure while sitting in a lounge chair.

There was a LOT of construction in Sihanoukville.  The Chinese are building tons of hotels and casinos.  They will build a big hotel complex behind this fence.  They bring Chinese workers to build the hotels and will use Chinese workers to run the hotels.  They have earmarked this city to create a Chinese tourist destination.  Our Cambodian guide felt since they use all Chinese goods and workers, they are not really helping the Cambodian people.  He was not a fan.

Some of the buildings under construction still use the bamboo scaffolding.

These golden lions are a famous landmark in the city but no one seems to know what they represent, other than there is a roaring male and a docile female.

There are stretches of pavement for a new highway.  Suddenly it ends for awhile.  Then there will be a new stretch of pavement.  Strange.

One more taxi photo at the end of our day.  Cambodia reminded us of our first visit to China with a lot of poverty, construction with bamboo, garbage, etc.  The area we first saw in Shanghai 12 years ago has totally changed.  Maybe this Cambodian city will be the same.

On March 25th, we arrived at the port of Laem Chabang, Thailand which is about a 2 hour bus ride from Bangkok.  Since we had not been to Thailand previously, we opted to take a ship's tour into the big city.  There were rows and rows of cars parked at the port for shipment somewhere.  It reminded us of the port in Dubai.

We passed many industrial and commercial enterprises on our long drive into Bangkok.

When we arrived, we were taken to this river port to board our boat which will take us on a cruise of the Chao Phraya River and various sites along it.

Our first stop was the amazing Wat Arun, Temple of Dawn, which is a very distinct temple, made with many porcelain tiles imbedded in a cement type material. It is very intricate.

I believe our most interesting stop was at the National Museum of Royal Barges.  People were very busy refurbishing the barges to be used in a royal ceremony this summer 2019.

We had to pay an extra fee to take photos of the barges.  They were amazing and are still in use for special royal events.

This little hut was right next door to the museum and people live there.

The river has always been used by the local residents for transportation and commerce.

We passed by the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha which are very famous sites.

There are many modern and beautiful hotels for the thousands of tourists who come to Bangkok.

We were taken to one of them and enjoyed a wonderful lunch buffet.  The view of Bangkok from the restaurant was panoramic.  We enjoyed our lunch very much.

This is the view as we crossed the river on our bus ride back to the commercial port of Laem Chabang.

That evening local musicians and dancers provided us a traditional Thai presentation on our ship.

The next day we took a shorter excursion to a city called Pattaya about 1 hour away.  It was a fishing village until the Vietnam War when its beaches were discovered by servicemen wanting to get away from Vietnam on their R & R.  A thriving city with a huge mall and many hotels now attracts tourists.

We enjoyed free time walking around the area and exploring.  Steve had a massage while I had a foot and shoulder massage.  They are cheap in Thailand.

The mall was beautiful.

We were amazed by all of the wires hanging from various poles.

Our last day in Thailand was spent on the island of Ko Samui where we were tendered from the ship to the port.  We love having priority tendering with our platinum status on Norweigian.

We opted to try our luck with a private taxi since I really wanted to see and ride an elephant and those options were not offered by the cruiseline.  Our gamble paid off and we were able to get a taxi driver who took us to ride the elephants and then drove all around the island and showed us other interesting, well known sites.

Steve was content to watch as I rode the elephant but since it was a 30 minute ride, he decided to join me.  I was happy that he did.  I loved this part of our adventure.  The elephant keeper was willing to show us some extra things that our elephant did.  They are obviously very good friends and fond of each other.

Bags of dung near the little houses where the keepers live with their families.

The elephant is going to eat the pineapple he is taking from the keeper.

The keeper hopped down from the elephant and used my phone to take many photos of us.  When we tipped him after the excellent ride, he didn't know what to do.  Hopefully he understood that we were appreciative of his extra care.

This was one of Ko Samui's famous waterfalls.  They are more spectacular during the rainy season.

This is a local handicraft market near the elephant sanctuary.

There were many women's clothing shops like this one below in Thailand.

There were beautiful beaches.  We took time for a short walk but didn't take time to swim.

We got a kick out of the many shops with huge, colorful, blow up beach toys.

We stopped at a site with several temples and they are continuing to build more.

We loved the bright, beautiful flowers that were blooming around the island.

More wires everywhere.  I really wanted to photograph some of the hundreds of coconut palm trees.

This was the taxi driver and his wife.  She recruited riders at the port since her English was pretty good.  He gave us an excellent tour but his English was rudimentary. Ko Samui was our favorite stop in Thailand.