Have to backtrack a bit here and since it’s been more than a week now since the even the impressions and feelings are fading fast so will record the events mostly.

Decided to book the tour through an agency since both these attractions were about 2 hours out of town and although we could have “roughed” it a bit and got their on local public buses I doubt we could have squeezed both in one day.

The day started with a visit to the floating market. It was fun to ride in a speed boat through a kind of third world Venice – a village on the banks of a small dirty river and the market itself was rather busy and colourful. Unfortunately it was not a “real” market where people would trade veggies and other goods with each other but simply a tourist attraction where everything was sold for the tourists and no real local trading was going on. The whole market was really just one big show to attract and make money from the tourists but it still felt pretty authentic and we got some great quintessential “Asia” shots of old  ladies in their straw hats in boats selling their wares.

 

The tour guide then offered a cobra show before lunch but our group were less than enthusiastic about it so we were taken to a wood carving gallery and workshop instead. It was interesting to see how the 3D wood carvings and the intricate furniture is made although it did dispel the magic around it for me because what they do is stick a piece of paper on wooden surface, have someone draw the design and then they chip away along the drawn lines. Still the results are pretty impressive and I would certainly like a this amazing kind of furniture and decor in my house. The funny thing is that now that I am in Cambodia I can see that pretty much every old hut/home around town and a lot of cheap restaurants have these absolutely amazing carved wooden furniture that in Thailand and back in Sydney sells for thousands of dollars – and here it’s just your “ordinary” kind of furniture that many otherwise impoverished families own – the world works in mysterious ways that’s for sure.

Then after lunch it was on to the World War II museum and the famous river Kwai bridge where thousands of people were killed by the Japanese during the war. Not much I remembered here except that they have a whole heap of artifacts and some funny sculptures depicting the bridge construction scenes. Me being me, I had to be part of every scene of course.

And last but not least for the day was the Tiger Temple where you can have your picture taken with a tiger and pet tiger cubs. It was fun and all and probably fulfilled one of my minor life ambitions but it was the first time I truly felt like a tourist when taking the tiger pictures. There was this big line of tourists and the whole experience was like being on a conveyor belt: line up, they take you by the hand, lead you to every tiger one at a time, take several shots, next tiger, again several shots, and there would be 20 tourist doing the “photo circuit” at the same time. It was the end of the day thought and we got to see how the feed the non carnivorous animals of the park: a truck drives up and dumps sacks of potato on the ground and a stampede of buffalos, wild boars and cows comes in and eats it all while you try stay out of the way. Who need to go to Africa if you can be part of the Tiger Temple feeding time frenzy?.. Highly recommended.

Thus ends the day of many experiences and impressions and the first real TOURIST day of I believe many more to come. Now I only need another 3 days to write posts about the last week of travels and I’ll be up to date…right…