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Published: March 30th 2007
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Sunrise
Over Angkor Watt, worlds biggest religious building . . . We got into Cambodia on one of the cheap bus trips from Bangkok (after 2 uneventful nights back in Bangkok), 250 B right the way to Siem Reap. The journey until the Cambodian border was fine, then after a stifling trudge / wait through customs and after being overcharged for our Visa (standard unfortunately) we were shown to the bus of death , ancient and in awful condition, at least we had a bit of room though as there was no luggage compartment to put our bags. We set off and this bus took us to another bus , which was in fact the one we would be traveling in. This vehicle was even worse, much smaller , much older and no aircon or working fans. Our window didn’t open either and had been wired shut due to a huge crack, of course it spared us the clouds of dust. It also needs mentioning that it is really really hot, stupid us have turned up in the hottest month of the year temperatures in the late 30's with 80 - 90 % humidity.
The real fun started after we set off, the roads in this part of Cambodia (Poipet
Angkor Watt
The East Face of Angkor Watt - Siem Reap must be some of the worst in the world. The bus went duh-duh-duh-duh-duh and shuddered and bounced over this pot hole covered dirt track at a snail’s pace. Someone tells us a local airline bribes the Cambodian government not to repair that road to boost ticket sales, is that too far fetched? who knows. Somehow Claire fell asleep in ten minutes , an impressive feat , it took us six hours to reach Siem Reap which is only 150 kms from the border. That’s about 25 km/h average speed. So 11 hours after setting off from Bangkok we rolled into town a bit shaken. It was surreal as the naff road turned to tarmack and then was lined with some of the biggest plushest hotels seen since Vegas. This is Cambodia’s boom town.
To be fair it was a pretty interesting journey, Cambodia seems a long way behind Thailand and Vietnam and the skinniest cows eating rubbish by the side of the road and the slum rural housing ain’t like back home. This is a very poor country and its awful to see so many scruffy children begging on the streets. What can you do?
Angkor Watt
The view across the causeway. The usual happened and we were delivered direct to a guesthouse instead of the scheduled bus station as they are on commission. But this is the reason tickets are so cheap and there ain’t any other way of getting there without flying so it didn’t bother us at all and the place was fine. So we stayed one night and moved the next day into town to a place called the Garden Village which was really good and cheap.
Siem Reap itself is basically the base town for the famous temples of Angkor, and that’s why everybody is here, including us.
We hired a guy called Sokhorn to drive us around the temples in his Tuk Tuk (actually it was a Honda dream with a carriage bolted to the back but close enough) for about 7 quid for the whole day. He spoke flawless English and was a bit of a guide as well as transport.
So, here is a bit of an "in a nutshell" history lesson on Angkor, sorry to bore you but it’s necessary. Between 1200 n 800 yrs ago there were some people who ruled over large parts of Southeast Asia called the
Corridor
One of the many corridors at the temple, they must have just walked around alot. Khmers. This area of Cambodia was home to their Capital city called Angkor and had a population of about a million people, at a time when people in the UK were basically just living in squalor. The Khmers were pretty big on building stuff out of sandstone, particularly lots of Hindu and Buddhist Temples (depending what mood they were in as they changed the state religion a few times) and they built a zillion of em in the Cambodian Jungle. Eventually the city had to be abandoned because of attacks from neighboring countries but lots of the temples are still there today, in quite good condition considering houses we built in the 60’s are already falling down around us.
The thing to do round here is to watch the sunrise at Angkor Watt (the worlds largest religious building, built in 1250) so this meant a 4:30 am start (arrrgghhhhhh!), along with 500 other people, but I’m sure you will agree from the photo it was worth the trauma.
Following this we hit the walled city of Angkor Thom which contains a temple called the Bayon with over 200 stone faces looking down at you.
After this
East Face
The East of Angkor Watt it was a look at a few more temples (how did you guess?) the most impressive was Ta Phrom which has been left as it would have looked when Angkor was rediscovered a hundred year ago. Trees grow through and on the temple walls and the place is falling down around you, think Indiana Jones. They actually filmed parts of the Tomb Raider film here (apparantly).
Suffice to say after 8 hours of at these ruins we were Templed out, so headed back to Siem Reap for a few Angkor beers (just to keep the theme going) and to avoid the now incredible heat. Amazing stuff . . . . . . . . see for yourself.
If you are bored at work / home you can find out more about Angkor at www.new7wonders.com and you can vote for it to become one of the new 7 wonders of the world. It should be and I don't know what some of the other candidates are doing there, mentioning no names.
Siem Reap itself is not a bad town, its tourist central but still has a bit of character with lots of locals living in and around the
Tower
Close up of one of Ankgor's towers area. But it only is as it is beacuse of Angkor.
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dad
non-member comment
Watt stunning photos! (pardon the pun)I'm sure that the face in the middle is Billy. Sounds like a bit of a boneshaking journey, but it must have been worth it. How's the cambodian beer? love dad (and mum)