Author: Mike

Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture and Cathedral

Today I went into Da Nang city and visited the Museum of Cham Sculpture. It houses over 300 pieces from Vietnam’s indigenous Cham people from the Champa Kingdom. The sculptures date back from the 5th century to the 15th and I saw pieces depicting apsaras (heavenly nymphs) and the Gods Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu and Ganesh.

Across from the museum is the Dragon Bridge, the longest bridge in Vietnam, which gets illuminated in the evenings and even spits out fire at the weekend.

I then walked to Da Nang Cathedral which was built for the city’s French residents in 1923. It is the only church in the city and serves the local Catholic community of over 4000 parishioners.

Goodbye Cambodia, hello Vietnam (again)

Today we left our lovely hotel in Siem Reap and Cambodia and flew to Da Nang in Vietnam.

Martha – I liked the tuktuk rides and we went to lots of temples. It was hot and very busy. I would like to go back again.

Martha

Angela – Cambodia was a place I had never visited before, I’m so glad that it was part of this trip. It was such a great experience to live in Phnom Penh and ‘go to work’ whilst I was volunteering for SpeechTherapyCambodia, followed by our Angkor Wat explorations – loved it!

I liked Cambodia because of the new food and the temples. I also liked the swimming pools at the hotels.

Sam

Mike – I didn’t know what to expect with Cambodia but from what I have seen, I have thoroughly enjoyed it. The highlight for me was our visit to the Angkor Wat area, which was amazing.

🎵 At first I was afraid, I was petrified, kept thinking I could never survive this tuktuk ride; But then I spent so many trips thinking yes we can get through that space, and at a pace, and I learnt the tuktuk is ace… 🎵

Angela (to the tune of ‘I will survive’)

Pub Street

Pub Street – the name says it all! Filled with pubs, restaurants and shops, busy with visitors from all over the world, it’s very different from where we would normally go in the evening.

We’d just eaten at a really yummy Italian restaurant and had a wander afterwards to take in the sights on our last night in Cambodia!

Angkor Thom and Bayon

I went up to Ankgor Wat again early on and then walked the few kilometres to the Angkor Thom area, visiting more sites along the way.

  • Rong Lmung
  • Phnom Bakheng
  • Phnom Bakheng
  • Baksei Chamkrong
  • Road to South gate
  • View from bridge near South gate
  • South gate of Angkor Thom

The walk was fine apart from a downpour of rain where I had to take shelter under some trees. When the weather improved I carried on to Bayon where I met Angela and the kids who arrived later on. (Angela says: We recognised that perhaps our enthusiasm for the temples was slightly more than Sam and Martha’s so I stayed and played with them and we got a tuktuk later on to meet Mike at Bayon. Bayon turned out to be my absolute favourite of all the temples, just love those faces).

Bayon was built in the 12th century and contains many towers decorated with faces. This was to be our last temple in the Angkor area so the plan was to stay for sunset and get some nice photos.

Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy but we still got some great shots.

Markets!

During the day I went for a wander to the Central Market. This yellow Art Deco building was built in the 1930s and has an interesting central dome with 4 halls branching out from it, with stalls selling all kinds of stuff.

In the evening we went to the night market which is near the Tonle Sap River in the city. Here we had some cheap food which the kids enjoyed.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

(One for the adults)

The Tuol Sleng Museum used to be a secondary school but in 1975 it was converted into a prison and interrogation centre by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. They renamed it “S.21” (Security office 21).

The classrooms on the ground and first floors were divided into individual cells. The rooms on the second floor were used for mass detention.

Thousands of victims (peasants, workers, technicians, engineers, doctors, teachers, students, buddhist monks, ministers, Pol Pot’s Cadres, soldiers of all ranks, foreigners and more) were imprisoned, tortured and killed, along with their wives and children.

I had the afternoon to walk around and listen to an audio guide of the various rooms and exhibits and stories. It was very heavy going but definitely a worthwhile experience.

Angela was able to go a few days later as we didn’t think it was appropriate for Sam and Martha to experience it at their age so we both went separately.

The story of the prison in a dark period in Cambodia’s history has to be told and one that we will never forget.