Cambodia 2015 Pt V: Bokor Hill Station

Posted on August 25, 2015 by tokyofox

My main reason for going over to Kampot was to visit the Bokor Hill Station area and my original plan was to take a $12 tour bus to see it all. However, the night before the very nice hotel manager at The Columns introduced me to a retired American guy called Benji (now living in Thailand) and we agreed to take a taxi together to allow for more time and freedom at some of the sights.

Bokor Hill National Park is about 45 minutes drive from Kampot and accessed by a road which is perhaps the best road in Cambodia in terms of its condition and state. Domnak Sla Kmao was the first point of interest and set a prescedent for what was to come. I love to be able to roam around abandoned buildings which offer glimpses of yesteryear and this former royal residence was a good appetiser for what was to come.

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Cambodia 2015 Pt IV: Kampot

Posted on August 23, 2015 by tokyofox

Put off by the seven hour bus ride that took us from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap we decided that time was of greater importance than money and so took a Bayon Airways flight ($80) on the return journey. That was quickly followed by a taxi ride to Kampot ($45) and so we were already in the river town before 1pm whereas with a couple of buses it would have probably been late night! Continue reading →

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Cambodia Filming Locations: Lara Croft Tomb Raider (2001)

Posted on August 20, 2015 by tokyofox

This film adaptation of a popular video game has probably been forgotten by many but it’s legacy certainly lives on in Cambodia where it is mentioned day in-day out by the thousands of tourists who descend on main location Ta Prohm to see it’s fascinating tree roots which have swallowed up parts of the temple complex.

The action in Cambodia starts on 40 minutes as Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) is on a mission to retrieve half of the triangular MacGuffin. Before Ta Prohm though, there are a couple of other temples playing cameo roles. Having called in a favour from the Special Forces, she is parachuted down (in her Land Rover no less!) and waves goodbye to the plane which helped her from the Central Sanctuary at Phnom Bakheng.

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Cambodia 2015 Pt III: Lesser Temples Of Angkor

Posted on August 17, 2015 by tokyofox

As nice as the previous days cycle tour of the main temples was, it didn’t really offer anything too new so I was more excited about taking a tuk-tuk around what is known as the Grand Tour Circuit. I may have titled this piece as the lesser temples and though they are less popular on the tourist circuit than the Small Tour Circuit ones they are all still very impressive.

It felt good to be able to just drive on past the crowds at Angkor Wat on our re-visit to the Angkor Thom vicinity which we both wanted to see again as we didn’t have enough time the previous day to explore much beyond Bayon. It was still nice to take another look around that temple’s gothic towers which are decorated with over 200 faces.

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Cambodia 2015 Pt II: Main Temples Of Angkor

Posted on August 14, 2015 by tokyofox

The main reason tourists go to Cambodia is of course to see the temples of Angkor and there are three main temples which are considered a must on any travellers itinerary. They are Angkor Wat itself, Bayon and Ta Prohm a.k.a. the ‘Tomb Raider’ temple which we did on our first day in Siem Reap along with one other place.

Having been to many of the places I want to visit in Asia, I am now starting to repeat a few countries (which I never used to do) in order to show my wife around some of these great places and Angkor was one area I wanted to show her. On the back of a seven hour bus journey the day before and a long cycle ride from our hotel in Siem Reap she may not have been too keen at first though!

We didn’t get on the road till 10:45 am and, having got our passes ($40 for a three day pass not that we would be using it beyond two days!), we arrived at Angkor Wat about an hour later. This is the world’s largest religious building and the first stop for many visitors not only due to it’s fame but also because of it’s location.

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Cambodia 2015 Pt I: Killing Fields & Tuol Sleng Museum

Posted on August 11, 2015 by tokyofox

After an absence of 8.5 years I finally returned to Cambodia with my wife in tow and first up on our itinerary was Choeung Ek a.k.a. the Killing Fields. Ideally, not the greatest way to spend my birthday but as this was to be our only full day in Phnom Penh, there wasn’t much choice.

One of my only regrets from spending so little time in the capital city all those years ago  was that I never got to go to this grim place where such monstrosities took place in the late 1970’s under the Pol Pot regime.

Warning: Some readers may find some of these pictures and stories disturbing. 

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30 Years On And Not Much Has Changed!

Posted on August 8, 2015 by tokyofox

It was exactly three decades ago on August 8th, 1985 that I bought my first ever Leicester City replica shirt for the sale price of £5 from a local sports shop. The shirt had already become obsolete at that point but that kind of thing didn’t register then and besides I bought the new home shirt for double the price only a few days later.

30 years on I tried to take a similar photo of myself at the Tokyo Fox Global Operations Centre, albeit one with a slight Japanese twist. The price of cakes is very high here plus it’s a bit sad to buy yourself a birthday cake so that has been replaced by a bowl of (much cheaper!) udon noodles known as kitsune which just happens to also mean fox!

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TF Flashback: Ten Days In Fiji (2002)

Posted on August 4, 2015 by tokyofox

“Where the hell’s Fiji?” is what Marlon asks his best friend Truman (Jim Carrey) in ‘The Truman Show‘ (1998) in response to his pal’s admission to having itchy feet. He goes on to explain where the South Pacific Ocean country is using his golf ball showing that you can’t get any further away before you start coming back.  Continue reading →

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Review: Films Set In Japan – Unbroken (2014)

Posted on July 30, 2015 by tokyofox

Due to the content of this film it has never come out in Japan and probably never will (other than maybe a minor release). Elsewhere though, it was released last Christmas but as it didn’t get reviewed on Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review show on BBC Radio 5 Live, this inspirational true story completely escaped my attention until very recently.

Some Japanese nationalists asked for the film and the director to be banned from Japan which usually wouldn’t matter too much but given that the director in this case is the very high profile Angelina Jolie that is unlikely to ever happen, especially given the public thirst for such A-list celebrities visiting these shores.  Continue reading →

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Tsukuba 2015 Pt II: Mt Tsukuba

Posted on July 27, 2015 by tokyofox

With three mountains ascended in Hokkaido in June, the idea of climbing mountains has been very much in my mind of late, and it was actually Mitake-San that I was planning to do but when my wife said she wanted to go to Wan Wan Land in Ibaraki-ken the idea of climbing Tsukuba-san was a big reality.  Continue reading →

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