Siem Reap and those little temples of Angkor

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29th November. Bye bye kampot! With heavy hearts we packed up and got a bus back to phnom penh. When we arrived we were greeted by the usual hoard of tuk tuk drivers. They managed to get to us despite the bus driver-s efforts at keeping them back with barriers! Usual haggling ensued then off we went. However our tuk tuk driver was a bit lost so we had to shout directions from the back, starting to feel like locals now! We tried to go out for a picnic after checking in but this turned out to be a bad idea. It was ridiculously hot, so we got another tuk tuk back and then sat watching the killing fields movie with dinner.

30th November
Another long bus journey but to new places, Siem Reap. At a rest stop along the way we tried a Khmer sandwich (fish paste? And shredded veg??) and bought some biscuits most of which we gave to a cheeky street kid. When we arrived we found a hostel, checked into our 4 pound a night room and headed to the sunset bar for a 30 pence beer! We knew we wanted to hire a tuk tuk driver to go to the temples so we did a bit of internet research to find a recommended one and a few emails later we had our driver booked.
With this sorted we headed out to grab some food and we were hustled into a stall area and given/forced to take a menu by a very intimidating Cambodian lady. We literally couldn't argue! Luckily it was cheap and good BBQ food. So a bit of cooking our own meat again this time on a metal thing shaped like a Mexican hat. Water and vegetables went in the hat brim and meat on the main hat part! Pretty good but not as good as Vietnamese BBQ. We then headed to "pub street" which seemed to be a fairly new development in siem reap and was basically a street with lots of bars on selling cheap beer and playing very loud music and showing football on big screens. We settled down in temple car which was cool and had pitchers of beer for 2 dollars. Unfortunately once it turned 10pm the N.B's style club music came on (N.B's is a bar in Northampton). We did get to enjoy the sight of a drunk Cambodian in his mid 40's with his fake burberry shirt undone busting some moves. Then we headed back and played football in the sand pit at our hostel until a dog tried to join in by trying to bite our ankles. We sent the dog away but we think he went and told on us because he trotted back out soon afterwards with a member of staff who told us we couldn't play. Spiteful dog!

1st December
Today we were picked up by our tuk tuk driver Soyean who was very polite and thanked us for picking him. He explained that there were hundreds of tuk tuk drivers in siem reap now and so it was hard to get work. We've certainly seen evidence of that with tuk tuks lining all the streets and tuk tuk drivers lying in hammocks in them, shouting out to passers by to offer their services!
Anyway off to see the temples. Before seeing any temples we needed to get our tickets and have our picture taken to go on our ticket. Soyean said Michael looked like a pick pocket in his photo and then laughed at Michael for not shaving. I knew i was gonna like this guy! Our first stop was the big one Angkor Wat and it was incredible, pictures won't do it justice. Only spoiler was the scaffolding on the middle peak, but then as a Miller it wouldn't be a sightseeing trip without a bit of the stuff. We haggled for a book about the temples to use as a guide having been told what price to pay by Soyean.
Then it was a whole day of temp-ling interspersed with chats with Soyean about Cambodian life. Our last stop of the day was at a temple where we had to climb a hill up to the top. We rushed to overtake tour groups of Chinese. When we got to the temple we had to "spiderman" climb the temple to get to a viewing spot for a beautiful sunset.

2nd December
Beep beep beep! Up at ridiculous o'clock 4am. Time for another cold shower, all our showers have been cold water only so far. We were greeted by Soyean and we jumped on the tuk tuk. Foolishly we were only wearing t.shirts and it was freezing without the sun out. Me and Michael tucked our arms into our t.shirts and just about survived the journey! When soyean saw what we were doing he thought it was hilarious and pointed to his warm jacket. "Yep stupid brits right?!" i said. He said "no...well maybe!" He then told us best spot for viewing and gave us his phone which had a light as we had forgotten our torch (stupid Brits 2). As we were walking off he told us "I think the mosquitoes are going to like you." We smiled nervously wondering what he meant. It didn.t take us long to find out. When we got to a good place for tidying sunrise, just by a small lake, we were swarmed by them, literally 1000's of the buggars, we'd forgotten our mosquito spray (stupid Brits number 3).anyway despite the bugs we enjoyed sunrise before heading back to the tuk tuk. Off to see more amazing temples. Outside all the temples were people selling "pineapple, sir?" "mango, lady?"and lots more children selling postcards and other things. No sign of parents, a lot of parents send their children out to work because westerners are more likely to buy from them. This morning we had forgotten our money (stupid Brits number 4, it was a very early start though) but the children wouldn't believe us until soyean convinced them. We went and had breakfast promising the lady at the cafe we would come back and pay later before heading back for a quick nap. More temples in the afternoon including the ones where Tomb Raider was filmed. These were some of our favourites they had lots of huge trees growing over them. That evening Soyean took us out for BBQ and joined us to eat. He was celebrating getting a job and earning 4 dollars whilst we had gone for a nap. The BBQ was a cook and eat all you can for 3 dollars each. We had a great meal, soyean refused to eat any rice (as it would take up room that meat could fill). We tried to pay for him but he wouldn't let us and then he dropped us off and drove himself home, hoping he wouldn't be in trouble with his wife for having a few beers!

3rd December
Today was our final day at the temples. First we took a long tuk tuk ride with soyean to a waterfall. On the way we stopped at a cafe where lots of Cambodian men were sitting around drinking very sweet coffee and watching karaoke on TV. There was an old man there who we were told had problems with his memory etc because he had drank too much rice wine. Although were not sure if that was just an excuse made up to avoid explaining what he was saying when he was pointing and laughing at us! Soyean bought us a tea and a coffee, which Michael said was disgusting (not to soyean though obviously). Once we arrived at the waterfall we found out it was going to be a bit of a tricky slippery climb to the top! One woman passed us at the bottom and informed of that i would really struggle to climb up in my flip flops. She was covered in dust and looked like she'd stacked it quite a few times. Anyway we managed to get to the top. The top was a little disappointing, more like a stream than a waterfall. I started feeling pretty dizzy at the top as well so we had to start heading down to get me some sugar! On the way down i started getting dizzier and a bit spaced out. Luckily i only slipped on my bottom once and Michael didn.t even laugh at me, well not until later.at the bottom a can of sweet sweet asian coca cola sorted me out and then off to Banteay Srei temple which was really cool with lots of intricate patterns. Finally was another beautiful sunset at the top of a temple. At the top whilst i was taking photos Michael went for a wander. He was approached by a police man who sneakily showed him his police badge and asked "You wanna buy? It will help you a lot, help you cross border." Despite this temptation Michael decided he would probably struggle to get away with posing as a Cambodian police man so politely declined. After sunset it was one last tuk tuk ride from soyean to our hostel where we said our goodbyes, holding back the tears!
That evening we went to watch football on pub street. As usual there were lots of street children trying to sell things amongst the drunken masses. Also there were the usual women and children teams trying to get people to buy them expensive milk (they then sell it back to supermarket at lower price so supermarket and them make money). One girl was giving me a pretty good sales pitch but i declined. When i said i was impressed by her good English and thought she must be very clever she said "no i am not, i am nothing i am no good" and walked off into the night. Utterly heart breaking, she looked about 8 years old. It left us in a rather sombre mood. Cambodia sure does stir up a hell of a lot of emotions.

4th and 5th December
After 3 full on temp-ling days we decided to just spend a couple of days taking in the city wandering around the markets and streets. As usual we were greeted with shouts of "tuk tuk sir?" and "massage lady?" everywhere we went. On the 5th i started feeling a bit rough with stomach cramps and needing a few more trips to the toilet than usual! However we still managed to go to a cooking class and rustle up some good grub! We were the only two in the class which was great! First we were told how to cook whilst we took notes then we were set free to cook. It got a bit hectic as we were cooking a few dishes at once and also all the seasoning was in unlabelled dishes. Luckily the chef caught me just in time to stop me putting sugar into our curry instead of salt! We muddled through somehow and ended up with a lovely fish amok and chicken curry, and a rather odd tasting sweet potato dessert!

6th December
Today we set off on a countryside bike tour with a local guy who is trying to support families who are working to support themselves by making rice wine/weave baskets etc. It was only me and Michael again so we got to ask lots of questions. We rode past rice fields into small villages greeted with choruses of hello from children. First stop was to get a drink of sugar cane juice. This was prepared for us by a lady whose family owned a farm and were working their way out of poverty. She used a machine to crush and squeeze the sugar cane to get the juice which was served to us in a plastic bag with a straw. Funnily enough it was very very sweet! We managed a few mouthfuls but had to leave it at that before we headed off again. We went down dirt tracks and sandy lanes (me slipping and sliding everywhere) before arriving at a couple of houses on stilts. Most houses are on stilts to avoid flood damage and to keep unwanted animal guests out! Here an elderly lady and two younger ladies were weaving baskets from rattan. We were joined by a couple of friendly dogs and some children whilst we were shown how they make the baskets and how they sell them and more. Next we met a woman whose family makes rice wine. This stuff is lethal we could smell it a long way off. The long process of making the wine was explained and then we tried some...it blew our heads off. It was 70% proof. It can be as strong as 80%. Nothing was wasted in the process with left over rice going to the very happy looking pigs living behind the rice wine hut! We headed off for lunch next at a lake where the locals hang out. We laid in hammocks chatting to our guide about cambodian life, buddhism and monks before being tucking into bbq chicken and fish. After a quick nap in the hammock we cycled off to meet a family making souveneirs. The eldest woman suffered from polio and was in a lot of pain. Luckily the youngest girl was able to go to school rather than work as they made enough money from their business, a whooping US$1 per day. Following this it was a long cycle back in the hot hot sun. Cambodia sure is hot!

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Photos

Kids on big bikes
we saw lots of much smaller kids on bikes this size, and lots of adults on tiny tiny bikes. We figure you get one bike for life and you have to choose big or small, we both decided we would go for big and grow into it rather than small and outgrow it!

Ta Phrom Temple
Loved this temple with big trees growing over it!

Comments

[Pat Miller]

Top chefs!
Great blog; some lovely photos. It sounds as though you really loved Cambodia and its people. Your tuk-tuk driver for the temples trip sounds like he was a real asset. Love, mumxx