10 February - Sihanoukville, Cambodia

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Early departure today for the Ream National Park by Boat tour…. And double bonus Conny, Josef, Anke and Klaus were on the same tour!!!

So no trip would be complete without one or two Buddha’s, a temple and a monument… So this one is no exemption! Before we get to the sights… a little about our guide… He spent some time explaining his culture… how you can’t have babies if you’re not married- they are illegal, that you can’t marry if your ‘animal year’ signs aren’t compatible, and the woman stays home (does the shopping, cooking and taking care of the house) and the man goes out and works… Anke believes he got jilted or some other bad experience

First stop was to a statue (completed in 2022) Preah Thong (Kaundinya I) and Neang Neak (Queen Soma) along Sihanoukville beach to display Khmer culture and attract tourists.  It’s made of 60 tonnes of copper and is 21 meters tall. It really is beautiful… but i kept hearing in my head…. If you build it they will come… They are really trying to set this up as a tourist destination, but COVID threw them for a loop… lots of partially completed ‘resorts’

It had really nice architectural lines…


Then to the obligatory shrine… very colorful 


Colorful Buddha

Rock Buddha

They were doing a bit of remodeling too!! 
 
Old tiles

New tiles










Then we saw the ‘giant tree’. It mush be true it was labeled as such…i guess everything is relative

I should have stood next to it for scale :)








And finally the nature walk and boat tour… that did end up in a ‘working resort’




And finally the best for last…. The great Crab Escape 


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