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CAMBODIA - Ankor Wat
Apart from America, and the Grand Canyon, what are the world's top sites? Cambodia's Ankor Wat (and you can spend three days seeing other temples, called wats. Man made temples, huge statues and walls painted with big faces with big eyes (like Nepal), overgrown with trees.
Ankor Wat is a wonderful walled city surrounded by a moat. It is a full afternoon's trip, and might fill the whole day, as it did for us, after we had a swim at our hotel. First stop was buying your three day pass to assorted temples (wats). Then driving out to it from your city hotel.
Walking along the approach, walking around the four walls and up and down stairs and into the main courtyard. You stop to learn about statues and frescoes, with a guide or guidebook, stopping for photos. You also stop for drinks, and maybe a meal. Then there is shopping for guidebooks, photos, souvenirs. Lastly, finding your tuk tuk who had moved to another car park, and taking the tuk-tuk motorcycle trishaw ride through traffic back to your hotel.
It is handy to have a phone, your driver's phone number, a photo of him, and his name - as you might hire the same driver via your hotel, for three days, rather than having to bargain six times a day, out and back in the morning, afternoon and evening. He can find your restaurant, given a map or business card by the hotel.
VIETNAM - Halong Bay
Joint top first visit in Asia is Vietnam's Halong Bay. Giant stone outcrops, covered in greenery, in the bay, on a good day with reflections in the water. Overnight small cruise ships go up and down all day giving ever changing views while you have elegant lunch and dinner on board. You can book a package tour from any city, which will take two, four or six of you in taxis or minibuses from your city to the bay where you board the ship, spend one night or two or three, depending on time and budget.
Our hotel advised us to wait a day or two until the weather improved.
In both coutnries, Cambodia and Vietnam, I was surprised by the numbers of Chinese people running businesses, hotels, shops, supplying the goods to sell as souvenirs. As a result you will find lots of Chinese names in Cambodia and Vietnam.
Here is a statue in Hanoi to the founder of the LY dynasty in Vietnam.
On your travels, in real life or on Zoom meetings, you may encounter people from other coutnries with unusual or familiar names. It is worthwhile checking the origins of the names. I checked on Cambodia and found explanations of Chinese and Indian names used within the country by minorities living there.
Wikipedia helpfully gives long lists of Chinese family or clan names and first names and their derivatives in other languages. I have spent a long time going through them and selected the most interesting and memorable ones for you.
For example:
| កែវ | kaew | Keo | (2nd most popular surname in Cambodia) meaning glass or jewel or crystal |
| ខាត់ | kʰat | Khat | Chinese |
| ខាយ | kʰaːy | Khay | 凱/凯 (triumphant, victorious) |
| ខៀវ | kʰiəw | Khiev | 喬/乔 (Chinese "qiao", vietnamese "kiều") |
| ខ្លូត | kʰlout | Khlot | generic name for melon-like fruit |
| គឹម | kɨm | Kim | 金 (Korean "Kim" / Mandarin Chinese "Jin", meaning gold) |
| ឃីម | Khim | ||
| ចន្ទ | Chan/Chhan/Jan | Sanskrit word canda (चन्द) meaning moon |
| ជ័យ | cɨj | Chey/Jey/Jay | Most popular surname in Cambodia, the Cambodian word "chey" meaning "victory" or "victorious", derived from Sanskrit Jaya (जय) |
| Duong | Chinese 東/东 (east) |
Indian
Jaya - from Sanskrit, victorious
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_name
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. If you are looking for information or entertainment, I have many more posts - and blogs. Please share links with your family, friends and colleagues.
If you want to practise your English, join an English speaking toastmasters club. In the past two years I have been a member of six clubs, two in England, three in Singapore and one online only club which was started in Singapore but moved to late night Singpore, 9 to 11 pm, instead of the more usual meeting time of 7 to 9, so that visitors and members from the UK and USA as well as other countries could join at a more convenient time. You can even attend two meetings on a Friday evening.
(Clubs also exist for other languages, including French, Spanish, Mandarin (Chinese), Tamil (Indian and Sri Lankan). The printed materials are available in several languages.
During Covid-19, the clubs are meeting online.
The Singapore International online Toastmasters club.
I am top middle. two of the speakers have the Chinese surname Lim, one is called Lee, another is Loh and another is Chia, all popular Chinese names.
Chia - a varition on Jia, which was a place name
Lee - plum tree
Lim - Lin, Lim, Lam mean forest
Loh -
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chia_(surname)
UK
Harrovians
First and third and fifth Monday evenings every month.
HOD
Singapore:
Braddell Heights Advanced
Meets first Wednesday evening (singapore time) 7 pm to 9.30; and third Saturday afternoon 2 to 5 pm.
Wednesday October 6th 2020, educational workshop by Thomas Chen.
Tampines Changkat Advanced
Humorous speech contest Tuesday October 6th 2020, 7 pm Singapore time.
Tiarel
Online Only
Singapore
Singapore Online Dynamic
Every Friday evening, on zoom, at 9 until 11.30 Singapore time.
For more information see the Toastmasters International website through which you can send a message, or see Facebook, Linked-In, Meetup and Eventbrite.
Toastmasters International Find A Club
See earlier post What Do The Names Of People You Meet Tell You?
Please share links with your colleagues, family and friends.
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