Christmas in Siem Reap - Vegas of Cambodia

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December 27th 2006

Published: February 6th 2007

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Jason and Jane

Lion at Sunset

First day sunset on the hill.

Firstly - apologies for the late publication - have both been very slack in keeping the blog up to date... Anyway, cast your mind back to December as I describe Siem Reap...

Talking Temples on Tuk Tuk

By Sir Ewan Tuktuk and Lady Wanna Koldrin

OK - the thing to do in Siem Reap is tour the temples. Ankor Wat is simply the beginning of this. Because of the presence of the temples, Siem Reap is heavily touristed, to the point where Jane and I started having identity problems (hence the byline). Eventually we realised I was being offered a form of transport and Jane was constantly being offered a refreshing beverage. An improvement of sorts on Battambang where she was told she was beautiful because she had such a long nose (I guess it is an improvement...)

Anyway, Siem Reap was Vegas by comparison to Battambang, with a chance to stop eating nothing but rice and curry. We found a great little hotel/guesthouse (appropriately called Home Sweet Home, except I think home costs more) where we got a large airconditioned room with ensuite for the princely price of US$10 a night, and also found the best place to eat in town was across the

Intrepid Jungle Explorer

She looks just like Lara Croft...

road. For future reference, the Hawii Pizza place is the name of the restaurant, which did not only pizza, but fantastic chicken or imported steak ( local steak has worked hard throughout it's life and you will see the benefits of imported Aussie beef). We ended up eating there more than we technically should have, but there is a limit to how much you can compare fish curry around town.

After a chilled out day, we got our stuff together on the 21st and decided to go see some temples. Our Tuk Tuk driver was a young bloke called Mr Bean, who was recommended to us by Mr Tin (our driver from Battambang). Mr Bean is a young man from Battambang, trying to make it big in the tourism capital with the aid of his 100cc mike and trailer (TukTuk). He probably horribly overcharged us, but it was hard to bear a grudge because he was such a nice guy and so laid back. His approach to temples was similar to mine and Jane's, being that they look great and you don't really need to know all the history to realise that. He was however in the process of

Nice temple

Just about managed to crop out the other tourist in this pic of the first temple we saw. Famous for its carvings.

educating himself on important temple facts, which we could see by the way he laid out in the back with a guidebook every time we got out to see a temple. When we returned, he looked refreshed, as one would after waking from a nice afternoon nap in the sun, however he was attentive enough to find us in amongst the crowds of tourists and get us out to the next spot.

We bought a three day ticket to the temple area, which was easily enough for us. Luckily we decided not to go to the big name temples on the first day, but instead to explore some of the smaller ones further out. This was a good move because they seemed quite exciting, and it was great being able to clamber all over thousand year old monuments fairly unmolested (although there was still a moderate number of tourists present even at the quieter temples). At the end of Day One we went up to the top of a hill to a small temple from which you could watch the sun set over Ankor Wat. This sounds beautifully serene, however we were not the only ones with this idea.

Now for the leftover bits

Like a bad IKEA product, all the temples were strewn with leftover bits that the restorers were still looking for a place to fit them.

In fact, there were probably over a thousand people up there at least doing the same. Kind of spoilt it, especially when hearing the comments from one of the fellow British travellers beside us, who felt the Boddhi tree blocking the view should have been cut down by now (ignoring the fact that it was a cool tree and didn't need cutting down, the Boddhi tree is the tree Buddha supposedly found enlightenment under, hence most devout Buddhists tend to curb their chainsaw wielding instincts when they see one).

Sunrise over Ankor Wat

Somewhat sceptically we arose at some ungodly hour and joined a sleepy looking Mr Bean in the huge que of TukTuks heading to the temple complex. When we got there, there was already quite a crowd, which continued to grow to probably thousands. However, despite all of this it was still a mind blowing experience. Ankor Wat is seriously BIG, and particularly beautiful. It was apparently built in only 37 years, which means it will probably have been finished much faster than the new Wembley stadium. Hate to think how many indentured labourers were expended in the process though. However the benefit of such grandeur is

Ankor Wat at Sunrise

The Stereotypical Photo, taken by alost everyone who visits Siem Reap...

that it could easily house the thousands coming in and still have enough space for you to find your own little piece of silence. The other great thing was that once the sun had risen and everyone had taken their stereotyped picture, they all tend to disappear quite quickly, leaving you free to wonder over the place on your own. Despite us both being fairly sceptical about the great monuments of the world, we both felt that this was one that deserved all the hype. The best thing was that you could go pretty much anywhere within the complex, and explore at your leisure. Not sure this will always be the case though, as they will have to either limit tourist access soon or embark on a program of mass repairs as the stones themselves get worn down by the tourist traffic. Thinking through the ethics of all this, I decided what use is a fantastic monument no one gets to see, and having reconciled my ecotourist guilt I proceeded to happily clamber all over the place.

After a few happy hours there, we went on to Bayon, the next most famous temple (with all the faces). Again, it

And the crowd waiting to take the same photo

Yup, hoards! Spot the Jas in the middle...

surpassed my expectations. The faces were great, but even better was the chance to wander around the rambling halls and passages while easily avoiding the large groups of Japanese and Koreans travelling around in their tour buses.

After seeing the official Tomb-raider temple - complete with large number of tourists from every corner of the world, we had nearly had enough of the crush. Our third day of our pass we decided to use by hiring a pair of bicycles for the princely sum of US$1 each a day. We cycled in to the park, then wondered around in a fairly haphazard fashion, finding a couple of the smaller temples out in the bush. These were definitely not as visually impressive, but the fact they were out of the main tourist circuit made them much more attractive. As my route planning led us down a long dirt track through a couple of outlying villages we managed to attract a number of amused observers. After a good days cycling we returned to the main drag, and met up with a group of kids who were particularly taken with Jane. Finally we managed a quick sneak into Ankor Wat through the

More of the crowd

No Jas in this one...

back door for the sunset. Amazing place.

Land-mine Museum

As a contrast to temples we decided to walk out to the Siem Reap landmine museum. Cambodia's wonderful legacy seems to be unexploded ordinance from pretty much every country in the world! This means that many years after the troubles, they still have hundreds of people each year killed or maimed by landmines and bombs, mostly curious children playing in the fields. The land mine museum is famous, predominantly as it is prominently displayed in the lonely planet, this is a museum founded by a bloke with a pretty grim history. He was a child soldier both for the Khmer Rouge army, and then later for the Vietnamese army when they came through and liberated Cambodia. The switch sounds like it was probably made for reasons of self preservation. Anyway, having laid a number of mines in his army career, after peace arrived he seems to have been motivated by either guilt or good intentions to remove as many mines as he could. He disarms minefields by feeling for them with his feet or a pointed stick, and then digging them up. Apparently through this technique he can get rid

Contemplative Jas in Ankor Wat

Posed photo - noooooo!

of mines at a cost of about US$2-3 per mine (this compares to a cost of >US$1000 by the official removal agencies). He also teaches his techniques to local communities so they can clear their own areas. As well, he also takes a number of children who have been injured or orphaned by mines into his care, and they act as guides in the museum. The museum works on a donation basis, and acts to fund his philanthropy.

It's almost impossible to explain what it was like getting shown around a huge number of mines etc, and being told of the different ordinances, by a bloke who had lost his own leg to a mine. We both felt like hardened medics when he (our guide) started telling his story, as he seemed to be doing well enough in the world with a good home and prosthetic leg he was good on. However, when he got to the bit in his story when he explained that the explosion he set off by running ahead also killed his two siblings, we felt like proper gits! The amazing camouflage and menace of the explosives also left you wondering just who invented these.

Faces at Bayon

Cool - loads of these at every corner...

I was however slightly amused to note that of the nations being named and shamed by not signing the moratorium on mines not only was the United States and Russia there, but also Tonga, Tuvalu and Micronesia - did make me wonder if they knew it existed...

Christmas in Cambodia

A weird place to go for Christmas you might think. And you'd be correct! As almost everyone is Buddhist, Christmas doesn't mean much to the locals. As a sceptic, it doesn't mean to much to me either, however my lovely wife is a big fan, so we went looking for Christmas. It came in the form of commercial enterprise. A couple of the pubs were doing a Christmas roast lunch, complete with waiters wearing Santa Hats. When we asked them about the hats they all laughed and explained they had no idea why they were wearing such silly outfits, but that their bosses had asked them to do so. Eventually we decided to spend our Christmas afternoon in a butterfly garden, where we quietly sipped on drinks and ate good food, before mooching downtown to see the excitement of the day - of which there was none...

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