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Published: November 14th 2008
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Misty Morning at Angkor
The road leading to the old capital city Siem Reap As border crossings into Cambodia can apparently be a bit of a pain my decision to fly and organise a local guide (Mr 50 Cent) worked a treat. He met me at the airport then led me to his motorbike (which had some sort of cart bolted on the back) and then we were off. So, 'why the name?' I asked him. Strangely not to do with the music he was into, he was a James Blunt fan, so in the stoney silence that followed I was left searching frantically for some common ground...
First impressions of Siem Reap were that it all seemed pretty rural with fields and farmhouses as well as lots of smiley locals. When we did hit the centre there were a few scatterings of plush hotels, a hospital, a school, more tuk tuks than tourists and then with some bars down a place called... 'pub street'. Clever. The town actually felt a teeny bit like Chiang Mai, only a lot smaller and with not as many markets or tour operators organising trekking tours. Well basicallly it had a straight river which ran parallel to the road that reminded me of
Chiang Mai....a bit.
So, what is the reason that so many people flock to Siem Reap every year? Could it be the weather? Could it be the food? Could it be the janitor? (No, it's nothing to do with Hong Kong Phooey) - it's the home of the magnificent 'Angkor Wat'. Still don't know? er the biggest religious site in the world...one of the '7 Man Made Wonders Of The World', a UNESCO World heritage site, the thing that appears on their national flag (a long shot admittedly)... Ok ok, it's where the idea for the setting of tomb raider came from with the trees growing over the buildings.....Let's just pretend you knew and move on..
Background - Temples of Angkor So, I'll kick off with a few facts and bit of history...It was constructed between the 9th to 15th century originally for the King Suryavarman II as his state temple and also also the capital city. 'Experts' believe it was biggest pre industrial city more than 20 times it's nearest rival (somewhere in Guatemala).
There were supposed to be over a thousand buildings/temples ranging from the most famous 'Angkor Wat' to some that
Local brew
served at the local pub 'The Anchor' (not really) were just rubbles of brick (I planned to skip these). There were also some of the other famous ones namely 'Angkor Thom' (aka Tomb Raider) Baphoun and the Bayon. And yours truly had planned to do this 'Angkor thing' in a day an a half....
The tour starts here.. The two main things that most people do when visiting the temples is to watch sunset over (forgotten it's name) and then sunrise over Angkor Wat. So despite liking a lie in I thought 'When in Rome...' and told Mr 50 Cent the bad news that he wouldn't be having a lie in tomorrow either.
As I jumped on the back of the '50 Cent mobile' at around 5am and hurtled towards Angkor Wat I was hoping that we'd get lucky with the sunrise. Then I thought, actually it doesn't really matter if we get a rubbish one cos it's quite good fun anyway. I was pleased that I had this shift in opinion as I saw the sunrise behind a cloak of clouds 20 mins later. It was then off to stroll round the site to take it all in. There were a host of
impressive engravings, fantastic structures and steep steps (see pics).
My trip to Angkor Wat will also be remembered for overhearing what has to be the most stupid thing ever said by an adult. Bear in mind we've all been there to see the sunrise, getting up early, waiting with our cameras to snap the key moment (the fact the clouds got in the way is not important. Honestly). So an hour after sunrise a guy points in the 'other' direction at a yellow balloon on a rope filled with helium (like you get over buildings that want to attract attention) and asks his guide...... 'Is that the sun?'... I took a picture for the blog and moved on....
Next up was the area that used to be the old capital city. It had an fantastic entrance, a road lined with busts (not that sort you pervs). It was also guarded by some fierce monkeys which made taking photos from the top a tad tricky. Inside the main area were more buidlings, sculptures, engravings and some pretty steep steps. When I got to the top I wanted to abseil down.
Then a few more temples before the impressive
Is that the sun?
I promise you... Angkor Thom. This was the highight for me (and I haven't even played Tomb Raider or watched the film) so in addition I also took some video clips which should be on you tube soon. Then more temples and then some more.
After returning to the city pretty tired I thought I'd have a cheeky massage and this time I opted for a four hand one. Sounds dodgey eh, but in fact it was all above board. Honest.
For food I opted to sit at a roadside cafe (better than the one in the last blog) and take in some local dishes for a dollar each. By the way, I haven't forgotten the name of their currency, they do actually use USD as their currency of choice....even the ATMs dish them out.
Locals are keen as ever to sell you something or be your transport for the day. However the local kids selling books have an interesting charm offensive...after you tell them where you're from they start telling you about the population and the last 4 Prime Ministers. Anyway it worked on me so I bought 3 books I didn't want and carried on eating my spring
Angkor Thom
aka Tomb Raider rolls. For those of you still trying to work it out, it is Brown, Blair, Major and Thatcher...
Over the past few days I had been reading a book called 'First they killed my father' by Long Ung to better understand the recent tragedy that had beset many Cambodians as would be apparent with the capital city Phnom Penh (the home of the killing fields/S21 prison) being my next stop.
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Bec
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Ankgor wat looks amazing you don't get buildings like that in nam!