Head-Smashed-In is pretty much exactly as it sounds. Its a first nation site about 175 km's south of Calgary just north of Fort Macleod. Its a few hours drive but 100% worth it. The drive is mostly just through plains and grasslands however I did it mid April and the weather, while cool, was nice, the skies clear and I got to plug in my Spotify and sing as loud as I wanted. So I guess I kind of killed two birds so to speak. I got to see Head-Smashed-In but I also got to drive and play my own music without fear of disturbing others. Good deal really.

Like me I'm sure your first instinct is that the name comes from the buffalo being crushed at the bottom of the cliff, but it doesn't. Apparently at one point the tribe was driving buffalo over the cliff and a young brave wanted to see it up close. He wedged himself in under a ledge to see the buffalo falling but misjudged and was crushed in the process. When they found him they named in Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump as sadly his skull was crushed from the buffalo carcasses.

You know that sometimes asking questions is well received and other times its not? Of course I want to understand everything so I'm always asking something. Today - my questions got me directed to Mr Little Leaf, a first nation elder (sorry using the Australian term there as not sure what the Canadian first nation term is) who is of course local to the area and a pure Blackfoot. It was just after opening and he was free as a bird as he put it. He very kindly walked me through the entire facility, telling me stories not just about the jump but his own family and the history of the local Blackfoot.

What a score!

While the facility itself is amazing, having my very own guide and hearing first hand so many amazing stories made my experience truly spectacular.

There were so many conditions that had to be right for the jump to work. Wind, temperature, where they were in the season and of course training the younger people of the tribe to contribute. Too early and they often didn't get enough meat and fat off the animals, too late and they risked the buffalo moving on and not getting anything.

They would situate branches stuck into rock piles in the direct of the cliff. These branches would wave in the wind and rustle further spooking the buffalo. Many warriors would line the drive lanes, hidden under grasses and skins just waiting for the run to start. Once directed they would jump up and add to the drama that kept the buffalo on the lane.

A few of the best trackers would slowly creep up on the herd dressed in wolf skins. They weren't trying to scare the beasts, they would keep their actions slow and deliberate until the buffalo's were well and truly in the drive lanes without realizing it. They would play on the buffalo's instinct to protect their young knowing that once the first of the herd started to run - the rest would follow. It was an amazing achievement especially when you know that they used every single part that they could of the beasts.

Meat was cut and dried and then mixed with the fat and juniper berries (which helped to preserve it) into what looks like pulled beef. It was ground down into almost a powder and then stored for the winter. Skins & fur made clothes and equipment. Bones made tools and medicinal remedies. There was pretty much nothing they left behind. No recycling required! The only thing they did tend to leave was the skulls.  No-one could really tell me why but Little Leaf did say he thought it was mostly a time constraint and also to honor the animals. The skulls didn't have long enough bones to be really useful and of course once they had hundreds of dead animals they had limited time to slaughter and store the meat so something had to give. That makes sense too.

It is estimated in the day that 60-70 million buffalo grazed this area. I couldn't seem to get an accurate square mile estimation, but Little Leaf assured me that the land easily supported that number. This particular jump was last used around 1820 some time. The introduction of guns meant that the Blackfoot didn't have to work as hard to kill the beasts and the practice became obsolete.

If you do the centre, be sure and do the lower trails after you leave the building. Once you have heard the stories its easy to hear the tribe celebrating and the thunder of the hooves. I shit you not - you can feel it. I'm sure its just in your brain but it is almost impossible not to image what it must have been like on those days.

One of the best things I've done and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. Keep your mind open, look at all of the exhibits as they all tell stories and put yourself back into that time, in the fall and imagine the excitement that must have been around in the build up to the jump.

I know I'm harping on about this but if you want a reasonably chilled experience of anything, go early!

The Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto is the best possible example of this, however its always open - so get up early and go before the crowds. I went on one of my first days in Kyoto and after that I went every morning as my exercise. Its a hard haul up to the top and back down and it took me around an hour and forty every day. Some days I paced it out and some I dawdled more but its a good walk and really worth it to go right up to the top.

The Shrine is world famous for its thousands and thousands of Vermilion gates which lead up and behind the main temple buildings. The thousands of shrines in the park are dedicated to Inari the Shinto god of rice. Foxes are important to the story as they are though to be Inari's messengers and you can't go too far without seeing some kind of fox representation.

Starting up the mountain is a more difficult decision than you think. Left or right path?? I wasn't sure if there was any significance to either so I just kept right the entire way up the mountain.

The gates are donated by individuals and business and can range up to over one million yen for a larger gate. The donators details are inscribed on the gate and as you head up the gates get sparcer toward the top of the mountain. There are multiple shrines and temples dotted around the hike and if you get lucky you can see priests using the temples for offerings and praying.

I ended up spending a week in Kyoto and LOVED it. You do very much feel like you are dangerously close to temple overload by the end of it but it is worth it. It's a beautiful city and even in February in the depth of winter when its raining and cold, its still stunning. There is so much to see and do, however what you absolutely can't miss is the trip out to Arashiyama.

I stayed at Len Kyoto (which was one of my favourite hostels in my entire trip!) which is in Kawaramachi so very central in Kyoto. There are of course a multitude of ways to get out to Arashiyama but my recommended route would be to get yourself to Katsura Station and then get on the very sweet little old train carriage for the last leg of the journey.

Once you arrive at the station it is very easy from there. While its a huge tourist destination you can easily avoid the crowds by going early. I was out there by 7:30 am and for most of my morning it was just me. Its very popular with the domestic tourists but they don't tend to walk too far so mostly because I headed out to the farthermost temple, I spent a lot of the morning walking on my own and got some amazing pics because of that. When I got back to the station area late morning I was actually stunned at the amount of people around. I just hadn't seem them outside the main area.

Otagi Nenbutsuji temple is at the very end of the temple path in Arashiyama. I would say its probably 3.5-4kms from the station but of course you are following the maps and wandering in and amongst other temples so it could be up to 5-6km by the time you factor that in. I love walking and didn't feel like it was too far and white it is pretty much as far as you can go in the precinct it's totally worth it.

The temple was started in the 8th century however was damaged by both floods and fires and was moved to this location in 1922. Around the 50's it was then very badly damaged by a typhoon which took years to rebuild. In 1955, a new head priest was appointed. His name was Kocho Nishimura and he started the procedure of renovating and rebuilding the temple. Kocho wasn't just a priest, he was also a sculptor and he came up with the idea of having temple supporters carve their own statues for the temple. These statues are called "raken" statues - which represents the disciples of Buddha. They were all added over a 10 year period from the early 80's to early 90's with each one being completely unique. There are 1200 of them and trust me some are really amazing. There is a tennis playing statue, drinking buddah's, grumpy old men, cassette holding statues, children and so many more.

So its not just raining, it is chucking down but I'm determined to persist and seeing as there is no-one around I want to get some decent photos of the bamboo paths - if that is even possible in this rain!

My "shit selfie" is not yet a thing (it goes on to become a real art form later in my trip!) so I do believe that this is my very first horrid selfie. Remember - no-one is around and I'm trying to take this in a 2 min break in the rain without getting my phone soaked. I'm sure you will all agree - epic fail on the selfie front! I look like I'm doing my weird Elvis impersonation but Cest La Vie - here I am in the forest. Evidence!

What most people don't realise is that the bamboo path in Arashiyama is a lovely walk, but its not the only area in Arashiyama that has a bamboo path. At the back of one of the larger temples there is a lovely walkway through a bamboo forest, however - I'm not telling you which one. I'm going to leave it that those who wander will find it.  So I'm out, in the rain, trying to decide if I'm going to wait out the rain and risk getting inundated with hoards of people or take the photo's regardless and do my best in Photoshop if necessary.

It doesn't seem like a hard decision I know but I must again reiterate - its flogging down!

I'm looking like some kind of pervert I'm sure fiddling with my camera under my plastic wrap so that I'm ready when the rain finally lets up, when surprise surprise it seems to and the photo gods smiled upon me and blessed me with this pearler! So the early bird does often get the worm it seems. From a technical standpoint - its not a great photo but I am all about the content and I love it. This was maybe 2 mins all day where it wasn't pouring and this lovely young monk was gracious enough to allow me to take his photo. I was understandably very excited!

Once you get out away from the station area there are limited cafe's and stops but the few that are around are excellent and despite the horrendous weather this was one of my favourite days in Japan. Spend the time, do the walk and appreciate each and every temple for the differences they embrace.

A lot of people have heard of the Banaue rice terraces and I think from memory they are some kind of  world heritage site maybe. What a lot of you probably don't know is that unless you are there just before harvest the photo's will be quite different from what you see online. Denwil (who I'm still not super impressed with at this point) told us about the situation and said that was why he hadn't put that in our itinerary because Batad (having to walk in) was much nicer at this time of the year and we could see many more local people as well. It wasn't for tourists as much and for that I was grateful. He had started to restore his value...

Trekking in to Batad isn't technically difficult. Its just walking for the most part and while there are ups and downs (down going in of course) for the first hour or so we are walking down to the village and then around the edge of the terraces to the highest vantage point. This is a spectacular view of the valley and Brad immediately embraced the fact that they had beer and we all sat in this tiny shack just watching the view for a while. I had had a very nasty reaction to something I ate for dinner (I think there was probably soy in my chicken) so I had been very sick the night before and not at all trusting of my digestive tract at this point. Denwil kept trying to get me to drink coke insisting it would "clear out" the trouble but that was exactly what I was afraid of. Its not like there are any bushes to rush behind in the rice terraces!

So we finished out drinks (water for me) and started the long trek down into the village. NOW - while I say its not technical at all and its not - its just stairs - it is very very VERY steep and there is nowhere but down if you slip so you really have to keep your wits about you. The locals skip down like its nothing of course but my hatred of down made me very slow and of course I'm sure enforced Denwil's "fat" theory but down we went and while Brad did have to help me a few times we made it down uneventfully and to the homestay around early afternoon.

Our home stay was a great little local house and we met three other guys who were also staying there. Jake spent the entire time trying to get the local house do to trust him which is a pointless exercise as they are well aware of how strangers can treat them, however we did manage to feed her some sneaky left overs (not that she needed it she was very well looked after) which reinforced to ourselves our ability to tame the wild beast!

Denwil took us to meet his in laws who live in the village which was really nice, aside from their very drunk next door neighbor who has (obviously) a rice wine drinking problem. The traditional houses are made from ironwood and square in shape. They are about 4 feet off the ground and have little ladders that can be pulled up at night to stop the domestic animals getting up we were told, but I'm sure there was probably some real reason for that - not so that you can't wake up with the pig sleeping next to you.

I still wasn't trusting of my burbling belly so rice for dinner for me but the boys hoed down on some more chicken curry and we all went to bed fairly early. Noah and Jake shared a room and Brad and I also and the rooms were more than comfortable and the bathroom and shower were also clean which is always a great thing when you've been sweating your arse off for the day.

After a lovely breakfast for the boys (still not a great stomach for me) off we went to the waterfall and then up out of the valley. I could see Denwil watching me and I would be lying my butt off if I didn't love the way he kept looking down the valley for me and then realising I was standing next to him, or one step behind him the entire way up. Suck eggs Denwil - didn't your mother ever tell you not to judge a book by its cover. Fat I may be but I can do up for ever you twat!

So we get about two thirds of the way up and there is a waterfall. I'm seriously doubting my decision to eat rice for dinner last night and when I spot the Comfort Room (what they call the loo in the Philippines) at the little shack at the top of the waterfall path - I know I"m staying there for a while. I don't care if its the dodgiest loo this side of Calcutta - I'm sure I'm going to need it in an hurry shortly and there is no way I'm going to get caught short (so to speak) half way down to a waterfall I really don't need to see anyway. So I stay there and the boys head off to the waterfall. They are back in about an hour and turns out it was nothing special anyway so my decision to stay close to the loo meant I didn't miss anything at all. 

We work our way out heading up and around the top of the terraces and I had a short 5 min game of basketball with some kids at the school at the top before we leave Batad and head up the track back out of the valley all together. 

The terraces are amazing for sure but what is interesting is that the division of labour is very exact. The women pretty much plant the rice and the men harvest so when you see dozens of women bent over in the fields - the men aren't slacking off. Well actually I guess they are - but come harvest all you will see is men so their turn does come around.

We spent 7 hours driving back to Cairo from Hurghada so we were not particularly fussed about heading to a museum for the afternoon. Well I wasn’t particularly fussed. I don’t do museums really. I have this super strong sense of smell and museums always feel and smell like dead things to me. Not a fan of museums.

However: we had been talking to Egyptians everywhere we went about the Egyptian artifacts that have been on display globally and what was their views on getting them all back to Egypt. 100% of the people we talked to felt very strongly that all Egyptian artifacts should be immediately handed over to Egypt based on the premise that they had actually been stolen from the Egyptian people originally. While I fully understand that opinion, and I do agree, I always asked if they considered that being able to see such spectacular items in their local museums actually brought people to Egypt.

The locals always voiced the opinion that having everything in Egypt meant that tourists would have to come to Egypt to see them. My concern is that once everything gets handed back to the Egyptians (as I 100% think it should be) is that with such limited resources Egypt won’t be able to fund these “Touring Museums” as the other wealthier countries have done and lets face it there is a certain amount of out of sight, out of mind to factor in here. I know that Egypt realises that they need to fund the restoration and care of all their antiquities, however those traveling exhibitions are always expensive and crowded. While ownership should be give back to the Egyptians, I believe that specific artifacts displayed in the big museums world wide would give people a taste of the incredible things Egypt has to offer and possibly help to restore their tourism. You see little pieces of the culture and it's got to inspire you to actually go to Egypt and see more I would have thought. But that’s just my opinion….
​
Anyway I digress....

So we head off to the museum expecting to spend an hour or so inside and be impressed by a few specific artifacts and less so by others. Its possible I’ve never been more wrong. The size of the collection is absolutely gobsmacking. You just can’t comprehend how much stuff they have there. They seem to be  woefully underfunded and its really concerning that in 10 or 15 years, a lot of this stuff is going to be pretty much rotted away if a better storage system doesn't come about, but they are so very proud of the artifacts they have (as they should be) and are trying really hard and eagerly accepting help, which is the best start for them after such turmoil.

The skill of these ancient cultures is stunning. They joinery techniques, the metal work, the agriculture knowledge is really something to behold. Of course the gold is always a big draw card but the art work, the everyday items and the transportation options they had is really inspiring actually. We had an amazing afternoon and loved it so much we went back the next day. We sprung for a guide the following morning. We told him we wanted 2 hours, we wanted to see the out of the way stuff, the carvings, the cultural items etc and he worked his magic expertly. We were in the museum for 2 hours and 10 minutes and we saw everything we wanted to with the information that made it all make sense. I would really recommend it. Without him we would still have seen everything but the little bits of knowledge of how they used that harvester or linen cloth really makes your comprehension of the lifestyle so much greater.

Egypt is hot there is no getting around that, however if you get up at 4am and head out to the Valley Of The Kings to do the morning ballooning you will escape that heat for at least a few hours. In addition to that you will experience the dawn over a stunning landscape and get to see the amazing temples, tombs and palaces that the royal Egyptian families have constructed.

The Valley Of The Kings is acres and acres of pharaoh's tombs, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that. What you don't know however is that local people still live there. Its not some giant fenced off monument (well some of it is), local people still live in the hill side caves and tombs. I'm not sure they are supposed to, but once you are up in the air, as the dawn arrives, you can see all the local people emerge from their underground hillside homes and start their daily routines.

The landscape itself looks like something out of Star Wars and you wonder how these ancient civilizations with millions of members survived here. While you are at the edge of the Nile delta, its hard to believe that water would have ever been easy to come by here and the landscape is so desolate.

The valley floor has been honeycombed out for living quarters to what must have once been tomb workers but is now displaced Egyptians. You can't seem to get a straight answer, but by all accounts it does feel like people are not supposed to be living here, but as long as no damage is done, the proverbial blind eye kicks in. Its so refreshing that normal everyday people have made these caves their home and that they have zero intention of causing any damage at all to any of the world famous tombs and monuments. There are many places in the world that the locals would be spray painting rhetoric anywhere it was likely to be seen, however that doesn't seem to be happening here which is so nice to see. The other side of the coin is that as you are flying over, you can really imagine what it must have been like in Queen Hatshepsut's days. Well you can get a small feel of it. I guess a million souls working on the temple would look a lot different to the hundreds that live here today, but it does make it easy for your mind to wander to what must have been...

All the way around Egypt, Haytham our guide kept talking about the Queen Hatshepsut (asking us to remember "hot chicken soup" as a way of remembering her name). While her relevance in the Egyptian history was starting to resonate around this time, once you see that temple - it all make sense. What a magnificent building. The sight lines are so clean. The pillars are so defined. The size is astounding, but most of all the quality is amazing.

It did make me wonder though if the "roman columns" we all know were maybe originally an Egyptian thing that was taken back to Rome, or alternatively if an Egyptian brought the concept back to Egypt after returning from the Mediterranean. You can forget how intrinsically linked these areas all are. The Mediterranean sea is not exactly vast and of course travelers must have been coming and going for years, way before records were kept so I guess its possible that the roman colonnades were actually fashioned after an Egyptian building technique. Maybe.....

Anyway.... I digress....

So Queen "Hat Cheap Suit" (my version of hot chicken soup), was quite the woman. It seems that in ancient Egyptian culture, it mattered not at all if you were a male or female ruler. If you were royal you were royal - Queens held no lesser power than Kings. Providing of course I have understood that correctly. I know that today's Egyptian customs and culture has been formed by the wide and varied influences that this region has experienced in its life, however I have since wondered how a culture that once held women in exactly the same regard as men has evolved to be primarily a Muslim culture, in which traditionally men are considered to be far superior to women. That's just me mulling it over though....

Deir al- Bahri, otherwise known as the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut seems to just appear out of the desert plain and weirdly while its clearly man made in a surrounding of harsh desert, somehow it fits. It is one of Egypt’s finest and most photographed monuments, and while the juxtaposition of Temple Vs Desert is probably one the reasons its so appealing, strangely it just fits. You feel like you should expect a classical style Mortuary Temple in the middle of that desert. I can't explain it, as impressive as it is, it does feel like it belongs there at the same time.  I guess the feeling is that it was carved out of the hillside so that may be why it feels like it belongs.

While a balloon landing is always slightly tense, the kids surrounding the balloon landing site made it particularly tough. Obviously the pilots are completely used to it but to see grown men chasing these kids off with sticks seemed really harsh. Once you land though they are like locusts. The minute you step off the basket you are overrun. There 's probably only 20 kids and it comes to light that they know you get a breakfast pack on your return so they are actually fighting for the food (which is so sad), but they are so aggressive and this is the only place in Egypt where I came close to loosing my shit. They hang off you and are constantly grabbing and yelling and while you can understand why, (hunger is a powerful motivator) it almost ruined our morning. We got our driver to translate for us and tell them that they were welcome to our breakfast packs but they must stand quietly, not fight over them and SHARE! Nope - not vaguely interested. It is clearly survival of the fittest in the Valley Of The Kings. With Brad, Brad and Les running interference, I moved out to the outer group that consisted of kids of maybe 3-5 who were too small to compete in the melee and dished out my food amongst them. Sadly though when the others realised what was going on I was literally fighting off teenage boys to keep these little kids safe. That was a really weird morning.

More Info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortuary_Temple_of_Hatshepsut
http://www.ask-aladdin.com/Temples-of-Egypt/hatshepsut.html

Sadly all great things must come to an end and we had to eventually disembark the Felucca in Daraw.

We spent the day touring various temples and ruins including Kom Ombo & Edfu. It was at this point that it became really clear that all Haytham's info on every place we had been was finally starting to all come together. We were starting to hear familiar names, and stories were making heaps more sense and all starting to tie together. It can feel a bit mundane when your Egyptologist is telling you everything from each separate temple or pyramid but about a week in it all starts to tie together and instantly you have the relevance you have been lacking before. Stick with the guide - it all makes sense around here!

I'm not sure why but I was pretty excited about Luxur. I think I just didn't really have any knowledge of Egypt so of course Luxor is the name you hear so I expected it to be really impressive. I have to say I was kind of disappointed with Luxor. I think it was really strange to finally be in the city with everyone else and after being pretty much on our own with almost every temple and ruin to ourselves, it was a bit hard to be impressed by Luxor when we had seen what I considered to be much more impressive temples.

The avenue of the Sphynx's is very cool and you can really imagine walking up the carriageway between these impressive sculptures for three miles between Karnak and Luxor. This website has a great pic of what the Avenue of Sphinx's might have looked like. ​

What a few people may not realise is that while the temple was built by 4 different pharaohs it also holds a granite shrine dedicated to Alexander The Great. That Alexander he did get around.

It must have been a spectacular example of people and animals in its day and yet again the scale is overwhelming. What an amazingly talented race of people. Through all of Egypt you see the various cultures on display but I really felt that this was Luxor's calling card. They temple at Karnak is amazing but Luxor feels much more of a collaborative effort of all the influences that created the Egyptian culture. 

We did have a great evening touring the site and a great dinner afterwards and Luxor is very much part of the Egyptian story but in reflection, I could have missed Luxor and not missed much I felt. ONLY because we had seen so much and been right off the beaten track all over the country I think.​​​

Our first full day in Cairo we headed straight to the pyramids. We were staying in Giza so it was just a hop, skip and jump over to the main entry of the Pyramids of Giza.

I have to say here that the Egyptians are suffering horribly from a massive drop in tourism after their revolution 3 years ago and while its awful to see and talk to them about it, it actually make our whole trip so much better for us. No crowds, no lining up, no pushy shovey - just a nice morning strolling around learning about the site and the monuments.

The whole "how did they do it" seems kind of irrelevant once you are there. Yes they are HUGE blocks and the pyramids are amazingly tall, however up close it seems not totally impossible to have built it with only man power. Especially when you find out how much man power they actually had.

The pyramids themselves are actually stepped and its only the final plastering (for want of a better word) that covered the inclines and made them a finished smooth surface. That has mostly  been eroded away so the pyramids now are huge stone steps and I imagine you could still (probably with the help of a step ladder) scale them to the top.

There is of course the usual "you buy, you buy" but tourist face on hand, we didn't have any real trouble. I am of course always terribly disturbed at how animals are treated outside the western culture and I may have gotten into with with some idiot who hit his horse across the head with a stick but that's another story I guess.

We did take the camel ride around the back of the pyramids so Cairo was in the distance which seems solely for a photo op once you get there. I have to admit that while it seemed like a good idea at the time, if I could have jumped off and stayed in one piece I would have.  I was frigging shitting myself. Camels are tall! Really tall. It's a long way down. Not to mention aforementioned camel is controlled by a 6 year old kid who spent the entire 25 mins arguing with his brother and ignoring the camel. At one point it started to trot but rest assured my "I'm in a SAW movie" screaming did bring the kid back and I did eventually survive the 40 mins atop a grumpy, badly behaved Cairo Camel.

My husband is involved in the Marine Industry and when he hear in passing our guide talking about a boat, signed us up for an extra side trip to see some boat in a shed. I almost didn't go. If you knew how many boats I've looked at in my life you would understand. Turns out this one was a good call.

The Khufu boat is a full-size intact ship that was built for King Cheops to use in the afterlife.  It is described as the worlds oldest intact ship and if it was launched today would not only float, its design would mean it would be capable of being sailed safely and at speed. It was built, disassembled and then placed piece by piece in a pit beside the pyramid for use in his afterlife.

The museum is very well controlled and once we had left our bags and donned our shoe covers, we are able to go in and wander freely. The story of the discovery and how the boat was rebuilt is pretty amazing. They even have some rope that was found with the hull that is still intact today.

They say that the sphinx is one of the most photographed images in the entire history of the globe. It certainly is impressive so I can understand why.

No-one really knows when the Sphinx was built or by whom, however the view held by modern Egyptology is that it was built around 2500 BC for the pharaoh Khafra, who was the builder of the second pyramid to be constructed at Giza.

Between 1925 and 1936, French engineer Emile Baraize of the Antiquities Service excavated the Sphinx exposing it to the elements.  As the statue was built of such soft sandstone, the fact that it remained buried for so long actually preserved it for modern man to appreciate. 

Today the wind, humidity and the smog from Cairo are having an effect and the already damaged monument is open to the effects of erosion. The Egyptians are making a huge effort to ensure the statue remains for many centuries to come and while we were there, scaffolding was in place around the facial area. Very disappointing photo wise but if it saves it for everyone else, I'm OK with that. Does the world really need another Sphinx photo? I think not...

In saying that here is one I prepared earlier....

,I felt kind of confused today. Egypt has a wealth of history and amazingly is right in the middle of some significant events for multiple religions. You can see examples of Coptic Christianity, Islam, Catholicism and I'm sure many more that aren't clear to me. I'm well known as a non practicing Atheist however I always appreciated the lengths to which those dedicated to their beliefs will go to protect them. It is really something to aspire too and I have the utmost respect for those who have put themselves in mortal danger to protect their way of life.

Our first stop today was the Hanging Church. In my non educated, I don't care about anything christian mind, I thought that meant that the church was literally going to be hanging somewhere. I know - ignorance plus. Turns out the church is considered to be hanging because it was built mostly underground with only the very top structure above the earth. The nave is suspended over a passage so its my interpretation that is where they "hanging" reference comes into play. The exterior of the church is very "mission" in feel however once you enter, the art work inside is really something to see. There is so much going on though that it is almost gaudy inside. Some of the crosses date back to the 12th century, and the stone work in the columns and arches is distinctly Moorish. The mosaics that line the courtyard are very clever and tell the story of Jesus and Mary's journey. Once you get inside its hard to know where to look everything is so incredible, and while it doesn't really mean anything to me, I can see the quality of both design and application.

The church is also built over the stone crypt where legend says Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus stayed in during their flight to Egypt. For some bizarre reason the crypt was actually open the day we were there. Our guide Haytham who is an Egyptologist and has been guiding for years had never seen it so it was pretty special to be there and experience it with him. The biggest thing that was enforced to me being underground in this tiny space was that as humans we still have a lot to learn about tolerance.

​It seems to me that most religions are based around care and tolerance of others but in practice, we are still centuries later, persecuting those who don't believe what we do. Seeing this minute space where a family hid from persecution, no matter whether you believe they were religious figures or not, is heartbreaking. This was at its very core a family of refugees hiding in fear. Not cool. Not then. Not now. Not eva. Its about time we started LEARNING how to treat each other.

The Alabaster Mosque is truly remarkable. I loved it. In saying that though, I do seem to love all Islamic buildings. They seems to have really embraced the "building for location" mentality and that is never more so on display than in the Mosque in Cairo.

We had just come from the Hanging Church and the difference in feel is quite distinct. Obviously that was a church and this is a mosque, however the open area's and simplistic spaces make it very easy for all Muslims to practice their faith no matter what the weather. It was easily 35-40 degrees that day and it was so cool inside the main prayer room that we could sit quietly and observe in the heat of the day.

Cairo itself is a giant dust bowl and while I embrace their water conservation policy, it is a real shame to see that the mosque ​​doesn't seem to be maintained externally. The inside is immaculate, however years and years of dust coats everything outside and you can't help but wonder if all those pollutants are causing irreparable damage to the alabaster. It is truly a remarkable building and I loved our few hours there.  

Public bus, private bus, a border crossing, 8 hours driving and we arrived in Siem Reap.

You expect a small sleepy town that primarily services the surrounding temples, but MAN were we mistaken! On the way into town there must be conservatively 15-20 5 star hotels. All concrete monstrosities that have maybe 10% Cambodian flavour and 90% Korean influence. The minute you step outside your hotel (or for us tiny little guest house), you are accosted with Tuk Tuk drivers, restaurant hosts, money changers and the like.

While this is most definitely Asia, and you have to expect these things, what I didn’t expect was the jump off point to Angkor Wat and Ta Phrom to be so so so overly commercialized. I can’t believe that people come to Cambodia and expect, actually no DEMAND, a 5 star level of service. I’m not sure what came first – The hotel or the Tourists!

I can fully appreciate that a lot of people don’t like to travel like we do but it seems very disrespectful to me to come to see 1200 year old temples in a community still so devastated by war and want to go 5 star all the way. And of course this level of $$ encourages the locals to become completely financially driven and if you want to be a traveler and not a tourist – you can just forget it.

In saying that, the temples themselves are AMAZING! The similarity (while I’m sure anyone with any kind of Archaeology interest would disagree) to the Incan and Mayan cultures seemed very significant to me. Same central courtyards, same time frame of building, same quality of stone masons (actually the Incan’s had it all over everyone in that department) is eerie indeed. It's so interesting to me to see ruins of roughly the same era that are on opposite sides of the globe but have such striking similarities.

Our local tour guide Fila organised his dad to pick us up for the day in his little tuk tuk which we were so grateful for. We got up at 4am to head out to Angkor Wat and did the whole reflection pool photo with all the other early risers. While I love photography, my mandate is always the experience, not necessarily the shot, so while all the other photographers were still waiting for the perfect shot over the reflection pool, we headed off with our miners light on our heads into the gloom inside the temple. 

OMG - one of the best decisions of my life. For about an hour or so we were the only people inside the temple. In the dawn, as the sun rose and the colours changed, and the silence dropped away, for about 60 minutes we had it all to ourselves. It was just us and Angkor Wat. An unforgettable hour for sure.

Once you are inside the temple you can immediately imagine the life that must have gone on inside these walls. I look around the main square and you can see from the bollards along the side of the walkways that this was a covered in water. Not very deep but clearly the floor of the outside parts of the temple was underwater. I wondered if it was just monsoon protection or the water held some kind of significance. Sadly I couldn't find anyone that knew.

I think what a lot of people don't realise is that the Angkor Wat park is more than just that one temple. The ruins are enormous and you could easily spend an entire day (including the 4am start) exploring. We were very lucky to stay ahead of the crowds and had most of the ruins to ourselves. 

Ta Prohm lives up to the Tomb Raider mystique with ease and is a photographic gem! The moss covered, vine strangled ruins are exactly as you imagine and its hard not to pretend, for just the smallest time, that you are Lara Croft. Just for a minute...

Angkor Wat is so much more than one temple. The entire park is mind blowing. The architectural styles, along with the quality of the actual buildings are really something you have to see. If you can spring for the Sky Venture microlight experience. We had done microlights before but to be flying over Angkor Wat in not much more than a hand glider with a motor is an experience in itself. Take a jacket that day though - its cold up there.

• Get up early, do the 4am start. 
  
• Plan to spend the entire day in the park.
  
• Find a local tuk tuk driver to hire for the day - its really worth it.
  
• Take some snacks (for your driver as well)
  
• Tie a scarf or something you will remember onto your tuk tuk. Its really hard to find yours in a sea of tuk tuk's when you come back from one of the ruins.
  
• HAVE SOME RESPECT! When we were coming out of Angkor Wat we saw so many young people in singlets and bum freezer shorts. This is a spiritual place for the Cambodians. Be Respectful. Cover shoulders and knees.