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Published: November 11th 2008
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After witnessing the modern city of Phnom Penh I had envisioned Siem Reap to be very similar but on a smaller scale... I was quite wrong. What lead me to believe this was that this small city is the base to visit all the temples... like Angkor Wat etc... in the area, so a big spot for tourists and backpackers alike. I first found out that Siem Reap was a little under developed when we got off the bus at the bus station and got in a tuk tuk to take us down the road to a hotel in the city. Well it wasn't exactly a road but a wide mud road with dips, ditches and pot holes all over the place, and there were three of us in one tuk tuk with all our luggage... there were times when I thought that, well we all thought that we were going to tip over right into one of the many muddy puddles covering the street... we just got a few banged heads on the roof and had to hold on tight. But we survived! I do have to say that it added a little entertainment to the whole journey... but I
don't think I would have thought the same if we toppled over. Luckily the roads improved nearer in the city. Although small and and not fully developed on a large scale there were many fancy resorts on offer and even more bars and restaurants aimed at foreigners... most located down and around the cleverly named 'Pub Street.'
The two Aussies I was with actually booked a room in a hostel, so I checked it out as well and found it to be quite nice... so I stayed there as well. We were still in low season so I wasn't busy. But the place had a lot to offer... loads of chill out areas with TV/DVD's, pool table, internet and a swimming pool... but they also had good size portions of food which was a welcome change from the smaller Asian size I was used to. The Other benefit of traveling with the other two was that the tuk tuk price for the day was $15... whether there is three of you or just one, so I made it slightly cheaper to venture out.
You have to get a pass for the temples, $20 for one day and $40
for three... this is how they get you! We decided on the three day pass because well, we would be saving money in a way wouldn't we? The first day was amazing, see saw all the main temples... Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohn, plus many more. It was an impressive day of templing. The sheer size of Angkor Wat was incredible and the setting of it was also pretty cool because it was surrounded by a moat using an old stone bridge to connect it to the other side. Bayon in Angkor Thom was another favorite... it was completely covered with faces all over the building, the many watching faces. And then there was Ta Prohn, the temple they used in the film 'Tomb Raider.' This may have been my best temple, not only did you have to walk a few hundred meters through the forest to get there providing it with a lost mythical feel, but it was also quite extraordinary in its look. It was old and crumbling, a true ruin... but the most spectacular thing was the huge trees growing actually on top of the building, the roots would run down the walls of the
ruin and then onto the ground and were in full view... completely. More picture of this will also be up soon!! Another temple with a little something different to offer was Ta Keo. It was only small but you had to... if you wanted to... climb up these extremely steep steps in order to reach the top... it was quite scary and felt a little dodgy, but of course I went right to the top to catch the view which wasn't that great in distance out but the distance down was another thing all together. It was a slow and careful decent.
The majority of the bigger and famous temple were overrun by tourists slightly taking that mystical fell away... you have the gray stone temples in your view but then you see the blights red and blues of tourists t-shirts walk in front, this was not a good contrast and I even think it would have been better for people the wear some low key duller colours so they could blend it a little more (the monks in white or orange were OK though). They almost in some way reminded me of old English castles, the huge crumbling
ruins of years ago... but obviously there is a vast difference in the architecture and also the fine detail that covers these stones providing decoration so beautiful. It the larger part of Angkor Thom I was nice to be able to leave the paths a little and such some of the small but empty temples, also as there are unexploded land mines in Cambodia (not sure if any are here?) I really didn't want to risk getting my legs blown off just to see a few temples... we stayed to the faint paths. We even prayed to Buddha by bowing our heads to him three times with an incense stick provided by a woman in the temple... she then demanded a dollar... never something for nothing in this country.
There other one annoying this is the persistent selling and hassling by the young Cambodian girls. I could handle the sellers in Vietnam, they didn't bother you for long, but the girls here would never stop... you want to buy postcards? 10 for one dollar, no, maybe bracelet for your girlfriend? Sometime you can have a little fun with them... I like to try and change my response to keep
me amused. I tell them 'I can't read so don't need any books'... or that 'I have all the books in the world,' 'I have 200 postcard on my camera I don't need any more.' But my favorite one that I say to them is... 'how do you say heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel no in Cambodian?' I needed to change it up so that it would stop me from going crazy.
It was quite a day all templing though and that was only day one. I needed a drink after that! We went to Pub Street that night which was a small little western corner of town... you didn't see many if any locals there at all... well apart from all the prostitutes in the bars. Me and this Alaskan guy actually ended up playing pool with some and there were quite cool... I'm not sure how many of them were girls or boys out of the 8 or so that were there but I started off by telling tell that they would have to pay me $20 dollars if they wanted to have sex with me... this got us off to a good start as I didn't have them trying anything
with me and they also found this to be quite funny! It was a fun but unusual experience.
The next day I felt a little worse for wear but we templed anyway. Unfortunately though after our expedition yesterday these temples just didn't match up, my temple standard had gone up by the last day and these ones just couldn't reach the bar. We felt a little templed out after the two days and decided not to do day three... instead we relaxed in the hostel and had a needed and earned lazy day.
Apart from the temples there isn't that much to do in Siem Reap, even the big resorts wouldn't let me play tennis because I wasn't a guest (something I had not yet come across as all of them usually do). So the day after I booked my bus ticket to Bangkok, ready to see Thailand. There has been a big dispute between Thailand and Cambodia on the border over some of the land and a temple (the land is Cambodian but both lay claim to the temple which is more accessible via Thailand and they want to make it a World Heritage site which would
make it hard for Thailand to claim it), and it has escalated a bit in the last few weeks and some advised to take a plane, but I'm on a budget... the bus was the only way forward for me.
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Mummy
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spectacular photos
Hi Sam, your photos of the temples are amazing. What incredible architecture, I love all the faces. Glad you managed to get yourself in to a couple of photos,too, you're looking well. speak soon. Mx