Running Amok in Siem Reap

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31 Dec: New Year’s Eve Day

I woke up looking forward to taking a break from temple ruins and instead spent the day exploring present day Siem Reap. As the tourists, tuk tuk drivers and tour busses flowed out of town for a day of heat, dust and perspiration I meandered through the backstreets and narrow lanes from my accommodation to Pub Street and the central part of town.

By morning Seim Reap central is unlike any other small town centre I’ve been to. Prior to 12noon there are only a few locals about and even fewer tourist faces to be seen. The Pub street and Market precinct is setup to cater to the tourist trying to escape the midday heat and sun (or rain in the rainy season) and later indulge in assorted pleasures at night – be that Cambodian cuisine, music and dancing, drinking, unique pedicures by fish (a photo in a future blog to come), inexpensive street massages; and for the more carefree, daring, bold, just plain stupid and unfortunately even some very unscrupulous tourist more risqué experience - anything from soft core drugs to the very apparent and unfortunate sex trade industry.

I’m getting ahead of myself and will begin by describing the town by the early morning peace that filled the central precinct. At 8am there is very little visible activity along the street, there is the odd courier making deliveries to the restaurants and bars, and in these venues you can hear and just make out in the shows a few staff making ready for the day. There don’t appear to be any offices in the area so there are no locals on the street – I assume any professional work must occur in a different part in town. Aside from a very few entrepreneurial retailers selling tourist souvenirs most retail shops are still closed, and remain that way until around 11am. The air in Siem Reap is sweetest in the morning, before the heat of the sun has fermented the waste in the garbage bins (creating unexpected fleeting traces of fragrant and odoriferous whiffs), prior to the multitude of street food vendors starting up their BBQs and the crush of sweaty locals and tourists mixing in the streets congested by the fumes of countless tuk tuks vying for their business.

By 8:30am I’m sitting in a café that by night can accommodate 80+ people, but for breakfast I’m king and share it with no one – I’m the sole focus of the staff. A simple, but delicious breakfast consisting of a baguette and scrambled eggs is served. I leisurely work through breakfast as I try to record my thoughts and experiences into my travel journal. In this casual state of mind I lose track of time and realise that I’m now running five minutes late to my next activity – a cooking class.

On my first night in town I had signed-up for a Cambodian cooking class, and after enjoying the local cuisine over the past few days I was looking forward to making my own epicurean delights this morning at Temple Club.

The three hour class, which actually ran overtime as we were having such a good time, consisted of a market visit to purchase some fresh ingredients, preparation of three dishes and then dinning on these dishes at the end of class. All of this for the very low price of US$10 – great value for money.

We were able to choose three dishes of our choice from a menu of twelve or so different options. I selected fresh spring rolls, chicken amok and a banana dessert. The kitchen staff were great teachers and ensured we got right into the action; and where possible showed us traditional methods for chopping, dicing, mixing and presenting the food. It was a unique experience using one of their very old and well-worn stone mortise and pestle to work over some of the ingredients – you could feel the history of thousands of prior meals prepared with this utensil; cooking on open gas flame was another interesting (hot!) experience.

My most enjoyable dish was the Chicken Amok the national dish. It is a curry of sorts, but with a much milder taste than Indian curry. Because it's also coconut based, amok is probably more comparable to Thai curries, although more mild. Although the flavor does not scream for attention, it has that subtle taste that is comforting and relaxing. There are no surprises with amok, just a simple and good hearty dish. I think amok is a dish that is worth trying while you're in Cambodia and will be a dish I continue to make in NZ.

It was an eclectic group that morning in class; an Australian mother and daughter who are now living in China, a woman from NY City who currently teaches English in Korea and a couple from Australia who do work in high schools teaching a cultural diversity curriculum (OZ has recently experienced a significant amount of cross culture tension between immigrants and locals). We lunched on our dishes and chatted about our travel experienced in the cool comfort of the deep and well shaded kitchen/dining area that was open on three sides to the outside breeze (most venues in the Pub Street area were open on two or more sides so as to allow natural ventilation).

With lunch complete and no dishes to do I headed off to the local history museum. As far as museums go I’d highly rate this one for its well thought out and explained exhibits – specifically focusing in on the history of the rise of the civilization that formed Angkor. I found it extremely interesting to learn more about the process of the culture and architecture being informed by Hinduism, then converting to Buddhism and eventually it all working itself out into a blending of the two.

It was fantastic getting a closer look at some of the more impressive/important stone carvings and sculptures that had been removed from the temple ruins into this air conditioned space. The highlight for me was seeing the exhibition room that contained assorted relics with ancient sanskrit writing.

Unlike the gothic and renaissance cathedrals of Europe, which for me feel supercharged with the nearly tangible presence of the builders of these structures and the multitude of generations that worshipped and lived their daily lives in and around the buildings - the temples of Angkor didn’t leave me with that that same feeling. I struggled to equate human habitation and experience with the temple ruins, I was left feeling more like these were a work of sculpture created by one artist rather than sacred shrines that hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people had experienced in their heyday. However, I found with these written texts the whole human element was present for me, I could envision the mason or scribe carefully working his tools across the stone face recording important events and notifications for future generations to see. The writing line style was so fine and perfect you’d have to think that they’d used a machine to write on the stone. Unfortunately, cameras were not permitted in the museum so I have no photos of these objects.

In was now late in the afternoon and I headed back to my accommodation to chill out for a few hours prior to the chaos of New Year’s eve celebrations. By this time the central precinct was already buzzing with tourists coming back from their tours and revellers were staking out their positions to ring in the New Year.

New Year’s celebrations went on late into the night and both the locals and tourist equally got into the spirit. Words of caution… avoid Cambodian fireworks – I’m now almost certain they are nothing more than gunpowder bombs!

Sometime shortly after midnight I decided that in addition to seeing in the New Year in Cambodia I would make the trek to Angkor Wat temple at 5:00am prior to the first sunrise of 2013 over the temple – needless to say I didn’t get much sleep that night!

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Photos

Temple Club Cambodian Cooking Class
For US$10 you get a trip to the the markets, 2 hours cooking time and then a three course meal. I highly recommend taking cooking classes while traveling.

Food Prep
I made: Fresh Spring Rolls, Chicken Amok and a Banana dessert.

New Year's Eve
Oops, left the lense cap on :)