Our Family Travel Logs: 2016

We spent 3 nights in Siem Reap famous for its temple complex of Angkor Wat in Northern Cambodia - the hottest place we have been too. Luckily the lobby staff at our atmospheric hotel the Victoria Angkor greated us serenely with cold towels and drinks each time we returned to the hotel. It pays to have a nice retreat after early morning temple visits and then emerge again refreshed for cooler afternoon explorations.

Siem Reap has modernised its international terminal for the million's of tourists a year that visit however you still walk in off the tarmac and immediately feel the full brunt of Cambodia's heat in April. We had a tight schedule of touring the sites with a guide Arun who was very passionate about his country's history and recent past including Pol Pot's devastating regime. Arun's father was interrogated and disappeared and his sister died of illness and starvation at the time of his rule. Its also confronting to see the land mine victims from that era performing in bands at most populated tourist sites. Warnings are still in place regarding mines to prevent walking off into un checked areas.

Cambodia's tourist industry is also proactive in preventing the abuse of children in the country, information is given to advise against giving money to begging children to encourage families to send their kids to school. That said when you frequent popular tourist sites like 'Pub Street' in the Old Market area begging is obvious and hard to walk by. Sexual exploitation of children is also overtly being addressed asking tourists to report concerns to agencies that can intervene.

We loved exploring the temples in Siem Reap and learning about how sophisticated the Khmer people were in architecture and culture 1000 yrs ago compared to the rudimentary architecture of Europe at the same time. The centuries of conflict and climate change have led to the decline in what was once a lush civilisation. Unfortunately the swell in tourism hasn't quite filtered down to the people yet who still don't have electricity in out lying areas, corruption and external control have moneys flowing out and not being returned to developing the infra structure.

Angkor Wat, Bayan Temple, Ta Prohm, Banteay Srei and Boeng Mealea temple were definitely the highlights loved seeing the tree covered ruins and imagining what it would have been like to see them for the first time when Western adventurers first explored the nation.

Victoria Angkor Resort' Siem Reap is built in the French Colonial style fantastic place to stay opposite a park and next to The Raffles Hotel in the Old French Quarter.