I woke up just before 6am and thought I should take the opportunity to do some laundry. It’s first come first served and I figured no one else would be down there at 6am but someone was there ironing “like a psycho” I told Mom. After 35 mins when I went down to turn over laundry the same lady was there and she had moved my laundry up to the dryer but didn’t start it (she wanted to put something else in the washer) - so I started it and set my timer for 35 mins and we went up for breakfast.
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| 6:41am |
At the end of our hall is a coffee bar with a big fancy coffee maker that will do lattes, cappuccinos and has DECAF! So I’ll try that out tomorrow morning.
They warned everyone who hadn't done an Asian river cruise that the mooring does not look like in Europe where you get off on a nice concrete launch but here you might be walking up the river bank - we moor on our side of the ship so I took this shot this morning from our balcony.
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This is what we use to hear Nin while he's doing the tour.
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Paige called, she has an ID to go to the
bar tonight and asked me if it looks like her.
Um, no. |
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| Our ship from the shor |
After breakfast we got ready for the first excursion today which is a trip to a Buddhist temple for a water blessing from the monks. You had 2 options you could take the stairs or you would take the shuttle bus. Mom took the shuttle and I walked up the stairs with probably 15 other people. There were 300 stairs and they were STEAP.
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| Zoom here, those steps go a long way! |
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This was the 2/3 of the way up rest in the shade.
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| View from the top |
The complex up here is a converted citadel that now has a monastery and also homes for homeless and displaced families and animals (cows, pigs, dogs, horses, etc).
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This is a statue of a monk, lol.
We all thought it was real for far
too long. |
The water blessing was done in their traditional language. Buddhism arrived to Cambodia from India at the beginning of the 1st century BC. Nin explained again that it’s not a true religion but a teaching philosophy. Buddha is not a God but was a real person, a Prince who had obtained enlightenment when he was 35 yrs old and died when he was 80yrs old. Buddhism teaches to do good to receive good. There are 4 noble truths - longevity, nobility, happiness and strength. There are more than 5200 Buddhist temples in the country and 110 monks live here in Angkor Ban ranging from 6-80 yrs old.
The holy water blessing was done in the Chanting Hall.
Sean, another tour guide, explained that the blessing has protective powers bringing you from dark to light, from unhappy to happy.
Buddhism has 5 precept - Do not kill, do not tell a lie, do not consume alcohol and drugs, do not commit adultery and do not steal.
One of the monks was texting while waiting for Sean to explain about the ceremony - which Nin said was a 'bad monk behaviour' though I'm not sure he saw this one he had just told us before. Maybe they need to update the precepts on technology.
The Buddhism that is practiced in Cambodia they don’t believe in reincarnation (Sri Lanka, Laos, Thailand, Mianmar are the other 4 countries that practice this same Buddhism). China, Vietnam etc believe the Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of Buddha.
Buddhist monks have a list of 148 must not do’s including holding a rice bowl to collect alms while Buddhist nuns have a list of 280 must not do’s including no holding hands with a man. Monks go into the community and collect alms in the morning. Nuns don’t leave the complex because they have been targeted in the past and raped by Indians.
There is no specific timeframe for being a monk you could practice for a week, a month, 3 years or a lifetime. Once you don’t want to be a monk anymore you take off the robes, there is no shame. Nin was a monk for 2.5 years, Sean was a monk for 4 years.
I took the shuttle back down the stairs - I find going down steps is harder than going up, it hurts my knees.
When we got back to the ship we quickly got changed and headed up to the top deck to find a spot by the pool in the shade. The pool itself is only slightly cooler than the air but after dunking under it was a little refreshing to cool off my head. And, I'm using my Longchamp bag again so now I'm feeling better about that splurge purchase - it's not that it's a LOT of money, but it's a lot of money for a travel beach/tote bag so I'm glad that I really am using it as much as I thought I would. I'm not sure where everyone was this afternoon but we enjoyed the top deck, got a shady area and there were still plenty of seats available.
We went down for lunch right at noon (because 'we could eat' - which was a saying Dad used all the time even though we had stuffed ourselves just hours before) and decided not to get dressed for lunch so went to the outside patio-like deck for the 'light lunch' which was a duck soup with noodles and a roast beef sandwich. The breads and pastries here are outstanding. We've commented a few times it must be the french influence from the 90 years they were colonized/protected (depending on your perspective).
I took a few photos of the boats we saw on the water today - some of them are zoomed so not super clear.
After we got changed we had about 45 mins before the second excursion of the day - I commented as did a few other people that it was nice that these excursions were short today and gave 3-4 hours between them so that you could relax. I went down and booked us for manicures and pedicures on the ship tomorrow afternoon. Anyway, we went to the lounge, rather than sit in our room - the plan was to read but we ended up sitting with Jackie and Carol who are from Kentucky and chatting with them the whole time. They're also in Group 1 so we see them quite a bit but we haven't had time to talk to them so that was nice.
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The bartender came up to me and let me know that he only had 1 non-alcoholic beer left but he would go to the supermarket tomorrow and get some more. And when they brought out our palette cleanser between courses today at dinner (delicious lemon sorbet) they said 'no alcohol in yours, they usually have a little rice wine but none in yours'. So now I think they think we don't drink AT ALL, which is fine I don't want to mess them up and really don't care if I'm drinking NA versions of what everyone else is having. They brought me NA sparkling wine (which is too sweet) for the toast and then I added ice and soda and made a spritz out of it.
Anyway, back to our day - we moored again at the side of the riverbank and walked up a concrete embankment to stairs to the village of Angkor Ban. This village was spared destruction during the Khmer Rouge because it was used as a supply outpost. All of the people were displaced to the fields but when they came back they were able to reclaim their village and didn't have to rebuild. This was one of the only villages along the Mekong that was spared.
The home that we visited has been owned for 3 generations. The family that lives there now it was originally owned by her grandparents. The village was visibly lacking men and Nin said it was because the men were in Phnom Penh working (the Capital city which we are visiting tomorrow and docking at later today overnight). They travel 2 hours by scooter to get to work and 2 hours home, but the road is nicely paved and the scooters have no traffic and they are used to this life, he says, so it's good.
If a family has daughters they have to build a bedroom in their home for each daughter. So this home had 2 bedrooms (3 daughters but only 2 old enough to get their own room at one time). If there are no daughters then everyone sleeps and lives in the same large room while the kitchen is down below and there are communal washrooms with septics. They do have running water which comes from Phnom Penh and there is a spigot outside the house.
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| They have 2 daughters married |
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The spaces in the floor allows
for airflow |
We went to a school "taught" english, but the nice thing was it gave the students and opportunity to practice their english and hear different accents. The teacher made an excellent point - he's speaking to them in english with a Cambodian accent, so they're learning english with a Cambodian accent. So a few people went up and read a passage with their accent which the children seemed to mimic - especially you could hear it when a guest from Australia spoke and they repeated.
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Its really hot again today while we are
in the village |
When we got back to the ship we did a change and I had a shower. I'm not sure that you've noticed but I'm wearing the same outfit out for every excursion so that's what I'm wearing in my photos because a) it covers my shoulders and knees b) it's light and doesn't seem to get super sweaty (even though my bottom layer touching my skin is sweaty) c) when it's damp it dries quickly and d) it's already dirty, lol.
We went up to the lounge around 5:45pm and sat and had a drink, Binh did a briefing for the following day at 6:45pm in the lounge. He advised everyone not to buy any gold or electronics or jewellery in the Grand Market because they're fakes and junk. iWatch might be $7 but will stop working within 2 hours. He also warned that we might have another ship dock up to us in the middle of the night and not to be alarmed or upset if you are looking into someone elses room in the morning (and to be aware and close your curtains!).
Dinner was nice, we sat with Timi, Douglas and Margaret (who we haven't sat with before, they're in a different group) and Conrad and Jo joined us as well. I had chicken satay, cream of zucchini soup and then a ground pork stirfry with rice (which was delicious) and finally for dessert there was something with caramel but I can't remember what - it might have been just vanilla icecream. Yes, it was. Vanilla ice cream with caramel and hard toffee pieces.
Dinner goes from 7-8:45pm approx so when we left it was pretty much bedtime. I briefly spoke to Sophie, she feels like she did well on her Accounting mid-term so that's good.
I spoke to Jay as well. He texted and said "Can you send me the Amazon code you just got?" so I sent it to him and he said "it was for a gift for you, so I decided not to buy it on Amazon so you can't see...who's credit card ends in 3055?" I was in the middle of something so answered quite a bit later and said "mine". So turns out I bought my own gift - I'll find out what it is when I get home!!
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