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Published: June 12th 2004
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Some time during 2004, I was thinking I should do some overland travel in Souteast Asia. Since I had gone over from Singapore to Bangkok a few years ago, a trip starting from Bangkok this time seemed to be the natural choice. I wondered if I could travel from Thailand all the way to China.
When I had done my research, I found that there might not be enough time for me. So instead of travelling completely overland, I decided to cheat, i.e. to fly a few sergments here and there. Finally, my route became: Bangkok-(plane)-Siem Reap-(plane)-Ho Chi Minh City-(overland and with intermediate stops)-Hanoi-(overland)-Guilin. This trip almost took me a month.
As I had only stayed in Bangkok only for a short while, I would start to write from Cambodia. There will be separate entries for my different destinations in Vietnam.
I arrived Siem Reap on a flight from Bangkok. During check-in and the boarding of the flight, I was more than once corrected by the staff for the pronounciation of my destination. The Thai call it "Siam" Reap. I had no idea then. Only after I had arrived in Cambodia that I found out the reason.
City Gate
Entrance to Angkor Thom "Siem (pronouced as the English word "Sam") Reap" is a rude word in the Thai language. But what is more is that "Siem Reap" in Khmer literally means "The Thai (Siam) defeated". Apparantly, the relations between the two nations did not look good in the past and the Thai don't seem to like this name.
Siem Reap is the service town for the nearby Angkor Temples, so almost every visitor coming here is after the ancient ruins. To write a little bit on the history of Angkor, it was the capital of the once Khmer Empire that existed between 1200 and 600 years ago. At its peak, the empire's influence extended to present-day Myanmar, and religously, the Khmer was influenced by Hindu religions from the Indian Subcontinent (so did many areas of Indo-China). The empire went to decline after the 1200s AD and Angkor was subsequently abandoned in the 15th Century. Only until the 1860s, explorers from the West "rediscovered" the ruins in the jungle, thus starting the expeditions to and later restoration of the sites.
When I arrived in Siem Reap, I had a little cultural shock as transport there is mainly by motorcycles, which, as I
Bayon
One of the many smiling faces found out later, could take as many as 5 people on one bike. At first, I was not brave enough to ride at the back of a motorcycle and I asked to travel with a car. There was a little trouble at the airport as, for some reasons, the people there were not too happy to rent me a taxi. Later, after my settling in the guesthouse, the son of the owner only reluctuntly borrowed a car from someone else to take me to the ancient sites--at a highly inflated price of course. This cultural shock of me lasted 2 days, and on my 3rd day in Siem Reap, I was already riding a motorcycle (which was necessary in order to travel through much of Indo-China).
I started sightseeing on the second day. The entry fee to the Angkor sites was not cheap by local standard, as it had costed me USD 60 for a three-day pass. For comparison, my first breakfast in a nice restaurant was less than USD 4, which I discovered later had already been overcharged. Just a side note, all large sums in Siem Reap are paid in USD, and only small changes are given
Bayon
The whole structure in Cambodian currency.
My first stops were inside the Angkor Thom (i.e. the Great City), which included the sights of the City Gate, the Bayon, the Baphuon, and the Phimeanakas. There, a teenage boy talked to me, explained a bit about the history of the site and asked me to follow him. At the end, he took me to a jungle, and demanded from me USD 20. What?! Unfortunately, it seemed I would have to pay that in order to find my way out. After a few rounds of negotiation, he agreed to take my HKD 100 note. (Yes, he wanted my HKD note!) The lesson here is that, sadly, don't be so trusting.
Since it is really hot in Siem Reap during the mid-day, it is a general practice for the tour industry there to take the guests back to the hotels and return to the site near the sunset. That was my schedule also, but in the afternoon, it is also the time when thunderstorms come. So visiting the site then was a bit tricky, as we had to watch the weather all the time. At one point, I was riding on the back of a
Baphuon
Ancient power centre motorbike when there was rain on both sides of the highway. Amazingly, I did not get wet and the view was absolutely beautiful.
So back to my itinerary, I visited the Angkor Wat in the afternoon. Angkor Wat is said to be one of the largest religious structures in the world and it is also the symbol of the present-day Cambodian nation.
The next day, I took the motorbike to Kbal Spean, which is a spectacular riverbed with carving some 30 km out of Siem Reap. I liked this site very much as it is a lesser-visited part of Angkor. In the afternnon, I went for the big circuit, which includes a number of temples en route. The most famous of them is the Ta Prohm, which is being swallowed by the jungle and offers great photo opportunities. At another, the Preah Khan has a structure that ensembles the Greek architectural style. No one knows why such building is there.
My time in Angkor was nearly up, and I took a last visit to the market in Siem Reap. It was no doubt a town full of tourists, but in some parts one can still see the
Angkor Wat
World's largest religious structure lives of the ordinary local people. Cambodia is not a rich country, and its people still have to deal with what is left from the dark history 3 decades ago. Beggars with one leg are one sign of it. A sight called "the killing field' is another.
I flew to Ho Chi Minh City to begin my adventure in Vietnam shortly. Unfortunately, I was not going to other parts of Cambodia, which I believe will give me more insights into the country. However, before I left, I was wondering how humankind could commit those atrocities to one another not long ago, in a country where the people today do not look very different from you and me.
Or are we indeed different?
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