Siem Reap - Amazing Temples and high Tempers

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Crossing the boarder from Thailand to Cambodia we thought it would be relatively painless as we had decided to travel by minivan which had strangely been ‘pimped’ out with a DVD player, neon lights and a huge speaker system allowing us to watch several movies and listen to head banging German techno for the 7 hour journey. However, this wasn’t too be…….While planning our over land crossing we had heard of a scam being performed by the Thai’s were they stop at a fake visa office a couple of miles from the boarder crossing and say they will help you complete your visa paper work for a small fee. On cue we pulled into a lay-by / makeshift restaurant and they asked for our passports and 1200 baht (£24) for the visa, as we were aware of their little scam we told them no thanks and told other travellers that you were able to get the Cambodian visa at the boarder for $20. Many backpackers didn’t have to confidence to follow our advice so caved into the Thai’s scam and handed over their money; however a small group of us stood firm and told the driver to drive us directly to the boarder which obviously didn’t make them happy as they were losing their commission. When we got to the boarder we were literally dumped out of the bus and casually pointed in the direction of the boarder while the other group of people who had paid for the visa were escorted like VIP’s. As we went from office to office obtaining the appropriate stamps and health checks we were becoming more and more frustrated as it was 35C and seemed to be taking so so long. Once we had left Thailand and crossed no-mans-land we came to the Cambodian visa office where we hoped to get our cheap visa, again this wasn’t to be as it seemed that the Cambodian were also into scamming the white tourists. Even though it clearly states in huge writing that the visa was $20, they were demanding 1000 baht (approx $35) and even though we argued until we were blue in the face they refused to listen and forced us to pay the inflated rate……Bastards!

Once we officially entered Cambodia we went to look for our minibus that was to drive us to Siem Reap, but as we had taken so long processing our paper work they had decided to ditch us, leaving us stranded at the boarder. Feeling hot, tired and frustrated we waited and eventually they came back after several phone calls to their office.

No sooner had we calmed down from the previous scam, we were faced we another one we had to argue about. When travelling between places a favourite scam throughout the whole of Asia is dropping foreigners several miles out of the town/city forcing them to pay a tuk-tuk driver to take them the remaining distance normally for an extortionate rate. Again this happened to us, but as it was raining and he only wanted to charge us $1 we didn’t mind that much.

The main reason why Siem Reap is so popular with tourists is because of the famous temples of Angkor, described by the Cambodians as the 8th wonder of the world! As the town is situated only a few miles from the temples it has been rapidly developed into a tourist hotspot with fancy restaurants, loud bars and hundreds of tuk-tuk drivers offering guided trips around the temples. As we liked our little tuk-tuk driver who had driven into the town centre we decided to pay him to take us around the Angkor temples and nearby attractions. For the reasonable price of $12 - $15 you could hire a tuk-tuk for the whole day, providing a reliable and fun way to see the sights.

Our day started with our driver picking us up at our hotel and driving us 30 minutes into the local countryside, passing rice paddies, water buffalos and hard working farmers. We were heading towards a floating village, which we assumed would be free or relatively cheap, but when we arrived they were trying to charge us $15 each for a boat trip to the village, which we thought was extremely high considering the temples only cost $20. After refusing to pay the fee we did a casual U-turn and went directly to the famous temples.

The temples of Angkor are the capital of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer empire and the centre of spiritual devotion. The hundreds of temples that survive today are but the sacred skeleton of the vast political, religious and social centre of an empire that stretched from Myanmar to Vietnam, a city that boosted a populated of one million at a time when London was a little town of 50,000 people.
Today the temples are a Mecca for locals and tourists from around the world, and even though the touristim is good for the local economy the impact on the quality of these ancient ruins is clearly visible.

Once we had our security photos taken and paid our entrance fee we were whizzing towards Angkor Wat, the mother of all temples, which even though James had seen before it still gave us both that Wow factor! Built originally as a funeral temple by king Suryavarman between 1112 - 1152AD, it is the largest religious building in the world and really blows you socks off! We spent the next hour walking around the temple, trying to get the odd photo that didn’t include several hundred tourists in the background. After exploring every nuk and cranny the temple had to offer and running around pretending to be Lara Croft from Tomb raider, we headed towards the equally impressive temple of Bayon famous for the 216 gigantic faces watching over you. Built around 1200AD in the exact centre of the city the unsettling faces with their icy smiles seem to follow you around where ever you go.

While we were walking around the temple a local guy followed Kim and provided her with a walking commentary on the history of the temple, and sure enough asked for a contribution for his efforts which Kim didn’t mind giving as he was very informative. Actually throughout the temples you can hear the cries of young children pestering the locals with “Sir, one Dollar!!, please you buy from me” Anything you wanted, from pictures to fizzy drinks was always $1. And when we tried to explain that a can of coke for $1 was very expensive, they just wailed “One Dollar!!!”. After being followed by the same kids for the best part of half an hour, we caved in and bought some refreshment before running away to escape them.

After the usual lunch consisting of rice and veg we jumped back in the tuk-tuk and headed over another of Angkor’s more famous wonders; Ta Prohm which looks like it fell straight out of a film set and was actually used in the making of Tomb Raider. Inside the temple is a maze of narrow corridors and crumbling stone work most of which has been taken over and strangled by huge roots from the trees and provides for some fantastic photo opportunities. As the roots grow and get larger more of the temple gets consumed making it feel quite. Like a lot of people this was actually our favourite temple as it really does make you feel like a glorified archaeologies weaving between the ancient stones and nature.

After 6 hours of walking around the temples we were fully templed out and glad we choose the 1 day pass instead of the 2 or 3 day. As we had the tuk-tuk driver all day we asked him to take us to the Cambodian Landmine Museum, but he was a bit reluctant at first as it is located 20Km from town and stressed it would take 45 minutes to get to. We didn’t mind the ride and found it quite enjoyable whizzing deep into the countryside as it allowed us to see how the poorer families lived and how dependent they are upon the land as a source of income. Eventually we arrived and spent the next hour learning how the estimated 6 million active landmines are causing so much misery and havoc throughout the countryside of Cambodia. The landmines were planted by the Khmer Rouge throughout the brutal civil war between 1975 - 1979 and the effects can still be seen clearly today with hundreds of people walking the streets with a limb or two missing. At first this really shocked us, but as we became more exposed to the unusual sight we toughened up. A lot of these disabled people flood to the towns and cities to beg for money. Its very hard to be as ‘stone faced’ as we tended to be with other beggars, especially when you have a disfigured stump being waved in your face, so tended to hand over some loose change as we felt very sorry for them.

Driving back into town James remember he had his novelty oversized glasses in his bag and decided to wear them the entire journey back. This caused large groups of villages to burst out laughing and hysterical kids to run after us waving. For the following two days we didn’t do much and used the time to chill out around Siem Reap and catch up on some sleep :O)

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Photos

Little girl preparing our dinner
She cant be much older than 4 and was using a huge knife!