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Published: December 26th 2006
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Our available options for transport to
Siem Reap included air, overland by bus or high speed boat up the Tonle Sap river, the latter two options we were told taking about five hours or so….lies, lies, all lies. There is no more scenic way to travel through a country than by boat we thought, so without further research we purchased tickets for the Rambo Express boat and showed up on the docks early the next morning. The Rambo is a long narrow low slung boat that speeds up with river crammed with up to 100 passengers sitting side by side in close quarters below deck. Climbing aboard, we quickly realized why all of the passengers were sitting on the top of the boat; downstairs was akin to a long gas chamber filled with noxious fumes and a claustrophobic seating arrangement. We didn’t hesitate to join everyone above deck, a severely uncomfortable place to be for over six hours, but the lesser of the two evils. Many of the passengers, including us, rode out the duration of the trip up top exposed to the water spray, wind, sun and the narrow steel deck which was impossible to get comfortable on. About half
Angkor Watt
Dude, did you remember to bring my orange robe? way through the trip, flipping through my guidebook I came across the following page regarding our transportation to Siem Reap:
“The Fast Boats are losing customers fast now that the road is in such good condition. When it costs $4 for an air-conditioned bus or $25 to be bundled on the roof of a boat, it is not that hard to understand why. The first stretch of the journey along the river is scenic, but once the boat hits the lake, the fun is over as it is a vast inland sea with not a village in sight. Express boats (Rambo) to Siem Reap are overcrowded and often appear to have little in the way of safety gear. Most tourists prefer to sit on the roof of the express boats, but don’t forget a head covering or sunscreen (didn’t have) as thick as paint otherwise you might want to sit inside. Unfortunately, not everyone can sit inside, as companies sell twice as many tickets as there are seats. The boats are very small and dangerously overcrowded to the point that one or two have sunk”. - Lonely Planet I showed this to Jimmie and all we could do
was look at each other and laugh, sitting trapped and squirming about uncomfortably as our boat sped along and the sun roasted us to a rosy red color. Finally six and one-half hours later and with 1st degree burns, we motored into Siem Reap up a small waterway through some interesting floating villages. Our boat came to rest along a mud bank where hundreds of locals were jostling and yelling to try and get a taxi fare into town. Luckily, our Phnom Penh driver had called his contract for us, so we had our own driver named Boon eagerly awaiting our arrival on shore. On the drive into town, we got acquainted with Boon who thought Jimmie’s name actually was “Fokker” (our Alias) so we just went along with it because it was entertaining to hear him say things like (use your best Asian accent here) “Fokker, where are you from?” “Fokker, what time should I pick you up in the morning?” We are easily amused.
Arriving in the afternoon, we cut straight to the chase and headed several miles outside of the town for sunset at the celebrated and illustrious Angkor Watt temple. Once we got past the
Sra Srang
Sunrise over the lake initial astonishment of how many tourists were here, we looked upon the most magnificent and colossal religious monument ever built. I have read and seen much of Angkor, but you cannot appreciate the immense scale of the site until you are standing here in front of it. Angkor Watt represents the pinnacle of temples constructed by the Khmer empire which spanned 600 years starting in 800AD. At its height, the Khmer empire spanned from Vietnam to Burma and boasted a city of one million people. Now, the temples are a great source of pride for the Cambodian people. The hopes of the nation rest on the tourism they generate as they try heal the deep wounds of the past and move towards a more optimistic future.
The following morning we met Boon in the predawn hours and drove to watch the sunrise at the calm and peaceful lake of
Sras Srang before heading over to the temple of
Ta Prohm, one of the more distinctive and awe inspiring sites in Siem Reap. While thousands of other tourists were making the sunrise pilgrimage to Angkor Watt, we were rewarded by having complete morning solitude and seclusion in which to enjoy
Sunrise Coffee
Waiting for the sunrise at Sra Srang. this mysterious and ghostly temple site. Most people will recognize Ta Prohm as the scene of filming for the movie
Tomb Raider. With no one around to keep us in line, Jimmie and I did some tomb raiding of our own, crawling around on the temples, piles of rubble and sinewy network of tree roots woven over and around the temples. What makes Ta Prohm so amazing is the encroaching jungle which has swallowed this vast temple over the past few centuries. These massive tree’s grow throughout the buildings with their bulging roots strangling the ancient crumbling ruins. Adding to the atmosphere here are long dark narrow hallways and exterior walls damp with green moss. A dense jungle surrounds the site and the thick canopy of trees allow only beams of light to shine through onto the ancient ruins.
After Ta Prohm, we drove around to several other impressive sites including
Pre Rup, Banteay Srey, and the unique and gothic
Bayon temple which contained some of the more decorative faces of ancient god-like men and women. From Bayon, as we headed back to our hotel for a mid-day snooze, we saw a bunch of monkeys on the side of
Ta Prohm
Swallowed alive the road and stopped to get a closer look. Unlike my experience a few weeks ago at Monkey Island in Vietnam, these monkeys were pretty well behaved and let us get really close, even feeding them bananas by hand. There were probably fifty or more of them on the edge of the jungle where we stopped and we spent a good half hour just watching them at play. We both got some pretty good candid photos which you will see below. Following a brief nap back at the hotel (this temple touring is hard work) we headed back out to Angkor Watt to take in our last sunset here and commune with this magnificent temple. Aside from Temples, which is the main attraction of Siem Reap, the town offers a beautiful mix of quaint markets, restaurants, bars and leafy tree lined streets set along a small muddy Stung Siem Reap River. Like Phnom Penh, we wish we had another day or two here to fully appreciate the town and perhaps some more of the rural countryside settings, but we had our friends Adam and Oleg to meet in Bangkok, our home for the holidays. I think I'll be taking a
Ta Prohm
Eerie courtyard scene five or six day break from writing now, but will be sure to report back with more from the beachy islands in the Gulf of Thailand and the Southern Andaman Sea.
Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family back home. Thank you all for following along my amazing journey, your comments and messages have been a great source of inspiration and support! Much Love.
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Caroline
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You should write a travel book!!
I just spent the last hour reading your entire trip...what an amazing journey..not only are you a inspiring writer but also a picture perfect photographer.....a man of many talents! What a great way to end the year and begin a new one....looking forward to hearing more when you return...Happy New Year Love to you, Caroline