Hungaria and Slovakia

Finally we have some free time (without missing out on tours) and an opportunity to try and get up to date. The difficulty now is remembering what we did where and when.
Our first day on board we spent in Budapest, my favourite city up to now. Maybe that is because it was our first reaquaintance with old world culture, but I think it may also have been because Budapest has such a rich mixture of cultural treasures. On the Buda side of the river were the fortresses and churches of the wealthier people of yesteryear, when the Pest side was flood prone and left for the peasants. More recently buildings have arisen on the Pest side, which became the commercial centre. The people on both sides of the river love their statues and monuments and it would be hard to find a spot where you cannot see one or more of these on squares, in parks or on building fronts. we were also able to visit a beautiful Reformed church on the Buda side, right opposite the Parliament house on the Pest bank. We heard that it had some 500 people come for worship every week.
During the night our boat sailed on to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Here we went on a "communist tour", where the guide in a humerous way  informed us about the blessings of communism. Fortunately the communist era bus we were to have taken refused to start in the 40 degree heat, so we got an airconditioned modern bus instead. Bratislava was a poorer and paler version of Budapest. Like the latter, most churches were dedicated to St. Stephen, who was (one of?) the first to bring the Gospel to the area. Slovakia is mostly Roman Catholic.
The pictures below are of Budapest and Slovakia.

Some photos from Siem Reap

We had a great time cathching up with Stan and Nicole in Cambodia. Here we visited the orphanage they have been aiding, a war museum, the famous Angkor Wat temple, and the markets. At the market we had fish clean up our feet.

Getting on board

It's embarassing, but since we came on board we seem to find little time to attend to our blog. There are daily excursions and activities, and we have also been trying to catch up on our sleep. The latter because we first boarded our ship after 3 in the morning. Our journey from Kuala Lumpur had been relatively smooth, except for a long wait in Dubai. However, in Prague we changed airlines and Malev Airlaines cancelled our flight. Instead, hours later, they flew us to Warsaw, 180 degrees the wrong direction, and from there to Budapest. Here the airport was virtually empty, with everything closed and no representative from the travel company to greet us. Fortunately we were able to find a minibus that took us to the harbour and allowed us to pay for it by credit card, as we had no Hungarian forints.

Budapest is a lovely city; I liked it best of all the places we visited. There are some vary imposing castles and palaces along the river and up the slopes of the Buda side of town. We were moored close to a Reformed Church, built on the river bank opposite government house, and we had an opportunity to look around. It was more high church than our churches, but apparently they have a weekly ateendance of around 500. Their program looked encouraging, with a lot of emphasis on youth work. We had a long walk through the city, enjoying the sights, though it got pretty warm - just under 40 degrees.

Sorry, but I am still having difficulty uploading photos (and they are out of proportion), but hope to have some more posted next time. Here are a few I managed to uploao from our Cambodian venture

Stan and Nicole show us Siem Reap

An unasked for massage

    

After this little boy (Pal) gave me an unasked for massage I thought he deserved a reward.

Melbourne to Siem Reap

We will add photos later if we can get the ap going. Wel arrived at Siem Reap airport, a pretty place where the passengers started taking photos as soon as they got of the plane. SR is in the middle of a swamp, lusciously green and the people so friendly.We were welcomed by the tuktuk driver Hong, sent to pick us up by Stan and Nicole. It was good to see them and to find them up -they have taken to really relaxing and ten am was abit too early. It wasn't long before they introduced us to the orphans they have been teaching thesef last few months. They are obviously well loved as the kids came out yelling with glee. Since Stan and Nicole bought the sign the little orphanage has had some tourists come by and give lessons in english. one, named Alec, even built a chicken house out back. While the chicks are growing 'pa' has to sleep out back to guard them. I don't envy him. Muddy pools of water filled with mossies. They are so poor but even they've been victims of robbery. Pa and mum look after 27 children, some orphaned, some with parents too poor to take care of them. Stan and Nicole took us via tuktuk to war museum to meet Sinath whose sad story is in stannicoleblogspot. Yesterday we toured the Angkor Wat temple complex. Fascinating and tiring.