Day Six,

Up Bright And Early,

for a lesson in Tai Chi, on the sun-deck,

we decided to sit this one out,

and go to the dinning room,

for breakfast,

they say a kettle never boils if you watch it, well it is the same for toasting toast,

lots to chose from,

including cheese and fresh fruit,

the egg/omelet station,

next to it,

a soup/noddle station,

English breakfast for us,

again we were lucky to be able to tie up onshore,

today we are going to the pre-Angkorian temple of Wat Hanchey,

some of the buildings date from the 8th or 9th century,

whilst others since then have been added to the site,

one of the many statues in the grounds,

one thing about our trip, it is a guided tour with guides giving insights into local life and customs, at each stop we were given a brief but concise account of what we were visiting,

one of the many temples in the grounds,

but this is the main building,

but first back to the oldest,

the original statue inside was stolen many years ago,

but was later returned and is now kept at the National Museum in Phnom Penh,

in the door way some text has survived,

I had to have a pose,

the inside of the main temple is ornately decorated with the story of Buddha,

I am not sure if this is true in all aspects of Buddhism in other countries, but we were told that here there are two types of reclining Buddha, one where He is sleeping and one where He has past away, if His hand is away from His head He has died, as above and He is being mourned, if His hand is placed with His head resting upon it He is resting, 

all along the sides of the building,

artisans have spent countless hours,

telling the story,

of his life,

and times,

until he reached enlightenment,

in the centre of the building,

the main shrine,

outside there were a number of fruits showing local produce,

and locally made farming implements, the spikes of this made of rebar, (short for reinforcing bar),

and other items such as fish traps,

there is a school for monks in the compound,

but first a look around,

this is the Abbots home on the left,

which is a part of this complex,

we made our way back to the school,

where novices are being taught,

there were more classrooms to the left of the one we were visiting,

all bright keen eager faces,

but it was all too much for one!

most young boys go into the monk hood for 90 days,

some for less, some for life,

we were introduced to two of their teachers,

as we left we were bid farewell,

we made our way back across the compound,

passing three people,

in conservation,

looking down to the river,

and a panorama of it,

Diana strikes the pose,

as we over look what I guess is the lotus pool,

a fellow traveller kindly took a picture of us,

we made our way to the coach for the next part of our journey,

passing many buildings on the way,

Diana poses by a ox and cart, she is so close because they are not real oxen!

up here there was a lovely breeze,

we are on our way to Kampong Cham to visit Wat Nokor, passing a roadside motorbike repair shop,

the archway we passed was so narrow for the coach, although it does not look it there is barely inches to spare on both sides of the coach,

as we entered there was a square,

with the Buddhist flag flying high above it,

the temple dates from the 11th century,

with many figures,

still guarding it today,

like this one atop of one of the buildings,

the main building,

has many features still in place,

as we made our way through it,

we chanced upon this huge tree,

if only it could speak, what tales it could tell,

we moved further into the building,

where there was another small courtyard,

with two entrances leading inside,

to another walled area,

with a temple beyond,

at each corner a large building,

with mystical figures on the roof of some of them,

inside the temple,

the floor roof and columns decorated with different scenes,

in contrast one small shrine in a corner that can be seen in the garden of many Cambodian and Thai homes,

I waked through this entrance,

to find myself in a passageway which in both directions lead to nowhere,

I made our way along the inner courtyard,

passing a shrine every so often,

luckily many of the carvings,

and features have stood the test of time,

but one cannot help but marvel at what this complex would have looked like when newly finished,

the rest of the group had of course disappeared,

I guess they had got lost somewhere,

but wait a second, that is Diana in the doorway,

lucky for them that I found them,

sugar palms,

behind the lotus pool,

back to the Jahan,

with us looking on,

two very bouncy boards were positioned between the boat and bank and fasten together,

next a telescopic support was placed under them,

metal supports and ropes were placed in prearranged holes,

pulled tight and a safe and secure gangplank was made,

we were checked in and and shoes numbered to be returned later,

the pool was now full for a swim,

but we just decided,

to have a sit,

a coffee for myself,

a orange juice for Diana,

we were then downstairs in the lounge,

treated to a cultural show,

by some of the local children,

that were being helped by some NGOs and the Heritage Line,

after the show each one after singing then introduced him or herself with a brief history of their family and what jobs they dreamed to be doing when they left school, a doctor, dentist, tour guide, policeman and not surprisingly one or two wanted to work on the boat!

we arrived back on-board for lunch,

all of the staff happy and smiling as always,

every day the salads and other courses varied,

especially the desserts and cakes,

main course for myself,

followed by cheese and biscuits,

before docking one of the local ferries plies it's route,

we pass a local temple,

then monks are invited on-board to bless the crew, the ship and the passengers,

it was an uphill struggle, we are visiting the Angkor Bann village,

we moored up again by the bank, 

which saves having to use water taxis,

the temple grounds were spotless,

I am not sure how long this complex has been here,

but it looked perfect,

one of the monks looks to see what is going on,

the main building,

with statues along the front wall,

two of the novices passing the time of day,

we made our way out of the temple complex,

 into the town itself,

passing houses and people as they normally live,

Heritage Lines tries to be as unobtrusive as they possibly can,

I though this was neat, if you look at the top of the house,

you can see when it was built,

not every house has this feature, 

but many do,

we walked through the village,

no one came rushing out,

we were seeing rural life,

as it really was, 

a bicycle park, there must be a school nearby,

and there was, another chance for the children,

 to practise their English skills,

we were then taken to a ladies home,

to show us how she lived,

as an aside she is not paid,

 and none of the children or adults expect any payment from visitors or the cruise line, 

they are just happy to show visitors what life is like,

and how their homes are made,

after thanking her,

we walked further in town where we saw some ladies cleaning peanuts, 

but these were not for eating, these were for growing the next crop, by the way peanuts are not nuts, nuts are defined as a simple, dry fruit with one seed (very occasionally two) in which the seed case wall becomes very hard at maturity, true nuts include pecan, sweet chestnut, beech, acorns, hazel, hornbeam and alder, but peanuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, horse chestnuts and pine nuts are not nuts, so the health warning on a packet of peanuts ('may contain nuts') is, strictly speaking, untrue, peanuts are in fact legumes, peanuts, along with beans and peas, belong to the single plant family, Leguminosae, so if you are peanut allergic it might be as well to avoid beans and peas as they are in the same family,

under the pot one of the cookers we looked at in the pottery village, they are in fact very efficient,

we continued past more homes,

until we came to the market which was quite small as it was only a small village,

the road was long, but we cheated and took a right,

past a few more homes,

with their dates of build,

on top,

of them,

we retraced our steps,

past the temple and flags,

to rejoin the ship,

cast off,

and we were under way,

as the sun set,

for dinner tonight we meet on the sun-deck,

the cocktail crew were kept busy,

as we looked over the river,

as another cruise ship passed us in the night,

we were approaching another bridge,

so searchlight on,

next downstairs,

to the dinning room,

tonight a sit down meal,

Oh! the agony of choice,

mine was made as was Diana's,

crab claw with shrimp mousse,

main course, 

grilled pork fillet crusted with kampot pepper,

'Cheers!',

on to dessert,

delicious, we had a few more drinks at the table, then for us we were off to bed.