Angkor Wat

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After Phnom Penh I caught a bus out to Siem Reap to see the Angkor Temples (maybe you’ve heard about them?). They are a massive group of temples which highlight the power and legacy of the ancient Khmer Empire. The bus ride there was only 6 hours, which by this point in my travels I can do without even a wince. The girl who’s sitting beside me (from London) has troubles with the air con (even though is 30 above!!) so I have to turn mine down.... cause she’s cold? Oh well worse things can happen. We arrive in Siem Reap around 6pm and I take the first hotel I find near Pub Street (knowing that’s where the parties at) and check in.

After a shower and some rest I head out to see what the action is. I end up at a place called The Temple where they have good food, and a happy hour beer special. Also at 8:30 they had traditional Sasha dancing upstairs so I checked that out. The dancing was interesting, a bunch of Cambodians in traditional costumes moving in exotic ways ....ok I’ll be honest it was only as interesting as I was bored but it’s good to do culture things. Later that night I met a guy (I don’t think we even exchanged names) and we headed over to Angkor What Bar. We had a few and for whatever reasons the bar wasn’t that hopping. Because I had the time, I took the first day to enjoy the town of Siem Reap, and took in a massage. I treated myself to the four hands massage, where two people massage you for an hour at a steep price of $10. Afterwards I walked along the river and started planning my trip to Angkor the following day.

I managed to hire a motorbike taxi (aka moto) for the day and ended up paying $10 each day. There was cheaper moto’s around but the guy I choose spoke good English and looked trustworthy. Also as he has been to Angkor so many times, he already had a convincing itinerary. I decided to get up at 5:00am the next morning and that he would take me out to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat, the biggest of all temples.

First day - Angkor Temples.

Getting up at 5:00 is much harder than I remember it to be, but I managed. The first day you have to buy a pass, its $20 a day or you can get a three day pass for $40, to me the choice was obvious. We arrive at the temple grounds just before 6:00, and there is hundreds of people, all jockeying for a good spot to watch the sunrise. Apparently I’m not the only one here I thought to myself. Having been to Tikal (Mayans) and Machu Pichu (Inkas), I must say that I was rather disappointed during the first few hours. I had watched sunrise at Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious building, but didn’t get any divine inspirations or anything like that. There were just too many people taking photos of themselves in front of this and that, as though if you not in the picture, maybe no-one will believe that you were there. (I’m guilty too from time to time).

From Angkor Wat we headed over to Angkor Thom. The entrance to Angkor Thom was already taking some of the disappointment away; a monumental gate stands 20 meters and are decorated with stone elephant trunks, and crowned by Bodhisattva faces. In front stand 54 giant statues on each side of the road, one side has the gods, the other demons. OK this is starting to get pretty cool, however the crowds still abound. Once inside the fortified city of Angkor Thom, there are a few religious temples. In no way am I going to describe each one, but one that I liked was Bayon, it had 216 faces carved atop of towers all facing out into the jungle. That one was cool.

I spent maybe an hour walking around the grounds of Angkor Thom and then headed off to what would seam temple after temple. Each one unique and yet at the same time not so much. I’m not really that interested in all the details, I just liked climbing around them, taking some pictures, finding some neat carvings and rooms, and then later asking what I would like to know. After a few of the temples go by the heat of the day was really getting me down, especially because I was climbing to the top of each one. Even though I wanted to go home, my driver suggests that we at least go see one more.

We head off to see Beng Mealea, this is one Temple that has been completely overrun by nature. I felt like Indiana Jones while exploring it, I was only missing the cheeky kid. Tree’s grow from the walls and vines twist through chambers and fallen corridors. All along the way are impressive carvings of all sorts. I spent an hour just at the one temple. Afterwards I head back to the motto and because I was so excited about the last temple, he states that I’ll have enough energy for one more, I accept. That one was good to, but now I want to go back, naturally along the way home, he stops at just one more. I must say I am glad my motto guy was so persistent, the temples were nothing as what I had already seen that day, but at least he was making it worth my time to appreciate everything.

We get back to town and he asks me if I would like to go to a Cambodia bar later? Sure, what’s the worst that can happen in a local bar? He picks me up at 9:00pm and we head out into the side streets, across town. The bar itself was pretty neat, it only has raised private huts, maybe 30 in total each with its own table, fan, and lights. Mau (my motto driver) and I talked about how Cambodia is now and when he grew up during the Khmer Rouge regime. He taught me some Cambodian words and it was really interesting. Beer girls come around and ensure your glass is always full, and try and keep you buying more jugs. Well the jugs only cost a $1.00 so after......we’ll say too many, I start to think how am I getting home? He insists that he is ok to drive, and given my options I choose to believe him. He drives really slow anyhow. I did get home without incident.

Day Two - Angkor Temples.

We started at a respectable 9:00am and he convinced me to go out to this remote temple just on the outskirts. As I wasn’t really enthused by the crowds I agreed. The Temple was called Banteay Srei, and is suppose to be one of the best. The belief is that this temple was made by woman, as it has the finest stone carvings seen anywhere on the planet. I would agree that the carvings are very detailed even still today, many of the demons, are detailed enough that you could count there teeth. I did enjoy the temple but it was just as crowded as the bigger temples closer to town (because its said to be so good), and because I was on a motorbike, and he drives slow, my sore bottom to get there wasn’t worth it to me. A tuk tuk, or faster driver would have been better.

On the way back, he stops at a Mine Museum which I didn’t know was there and happily paid a dollar to get off the bike for a bit. One guy that used to plant mines for the Khmer Rouge has dedicated the rest of his life to de-mining and educational programs. It’s cool that he’s supported by a Canadian organization. So he has put together a complete mine museum, with stats on which countries have mines, and who decided to ban them. The U.S is not one of the countries that decided it was inhumane. It was actually sad to see the pictures of hurt villagers, often kids, and farmers who have been “affected” by these mines.

We were still a long ways out from the rest of the temples, so I ask if I can drive. He doesn’t really understand why I would want to drive, but I say that I like to for fun as the road there is not busy. He lets me, and within 3 minutes is asking me not to drive so fast. I did stop and let him drive again, and he continued to go painfully slow. Long story short, I don’t believe he had ever gone faster than 50km before he let me drive, because I was scarring the shit out of him. He’d only go 45km on perfect pavement; I was used to going 75-80 back in Indonesia where the road was half as good.

We end up seeing a bunch more temples for the rest of the day, and I bug him about letting me drive, and he says how I’m crazy, and it was all in good fun. Mau had saved some very cool temples for the second day, and I was impressed. I think he took me to some crappy ones the first day, in order to save some good ones for the second day, which was a good strategy. At some of the temples there will be mine victims playing Cambodian music and it gives the temple a neat feel as though you were there hundreds of years ago, and thats how it would have sounded.

Later that evening we headed back to the same bar as the night before and I had pulled out my camera to take a few pictures. Well the beer girls went balistic, they all wanted to have thier pictures taken, and about 30 pictures later I managed to put the camera away. Later in the evening they asked if I could print some of them. I didn't know how feasible it was, and I had planned on leaving the next day, so I didn't promise. It turns out the next day I decided not to leave and printed off 20 pictures for $2.00. When I arrived back at the bar the girls where supper happy to get pictures of themselves, and I had to play referee as they all were fighing about who got what ones. After only a few drinks I headed back for a quite night, and caught the bus back to Phnom Pehn.

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Photos

Misc Temple?
I can't be expected to remember every one.