Day 320 - ancient temples and heart wrench in the land of the fallen domino

Over the course of this trip I’ve found that I’ve particularly enjoyed and been inspired by spending time in those countries at the lower end of the affluence scale and therefore, on paper, Cambodia should be my perfect travel destination - it ranks as having just about the lowest income per capita of any country I’ll visit. Of more significant note though is that, above all other countries in south-east Asia, it has such a rich culture and history woven through and scarred upon it that, despite efforts to progress, life for its people still bears constant reminders to the country’s turbulent past. I had no doubt that emotionally it would be a tough country to travel.

But before we dived into the sad and turbulent history of the country, Sarah and I wanted to see some of the culture left over from its glory days. So we started our travels through Cambodia in the north-west of the country, making straight for the country’s number one tourist destination - the ancient temples of Angkor near Siem Reap.

A 4.30am wake-up the following morning, a short tuk-tuk ride to blow away the cobwebs and we were blessed with a stunning lilac sunrise over Angkor’s most famous temple - Angkor Wat… in my book a very worthy contender for one of the seven wonders of the world.

The Kings of the Khmer Empire began building temples at Angkor soon after the establishment of the empire in 802. This constant expansion and improvement of their seat of power continued, culminating with the construction of Angkor Wat and several other notable temples between 1112 and 1219. During this time the Khmer empire stretched from Cambodia to encompass lands in modern day Malaysia, Thailand, Burma and Laos but it is believed that the huge building and infrastructure works undertaken during this period stretched the economy and labour force to such an extent that in subsequent years the empire began to decline. By the 1500s the Thais (from Sukothai and Ayuthaya in modern day Thailand) and the Chams (in southern Vietnam) had weakened the Khmer Empire to such an extent that it retreated, moving its capital to Phnom Penh.

To even begin to do justice to the temples at Angkor we’d been told that we’d have to spend at least 3 days in the area - and it’s a punishing 3 days at that: the heat and humidity are stifling, there’s a lot of walking and climbing required to get the most out of the temples and there’s a HUGE amount of information to take in. Add to that that if you want to see sunrise you’re going to be up early every day, there are people everywhere and you’re going to spend the rest of your hours hassled non-stop by children who just won’t give up trying to sell you something - and you’d almost think it wouldn’t be worth it. But as we discovered, finding a few minutes when the chaos temporarily diminishes, and then being in the right frame of mind to have that one moment of solitude where you can marvel at the surroundings, dispels all petty grievances that come with visiting one of the world’s most touristy relics.

Since neither Sarah or I knew much about the ancient Khmer civilisation and we therefore didn’t have a hope of interpreting much that the temples stand for we decided to take a guide for the first day - primarily to show us round a few of the more major temples and give us a bit of a history lesson. So we started off with the most famous: Angkor Wat - the jewel in the crown and the largest of all the temples (arguably the biggest religious structure in the world), before progressing on to the Angkor Thom complex and the Bayon - a sprawling mass of stone with over 216 huge stone faces gazing down from its 54 towers. Finally we ended at Ta Prohm - the one temple in the main complex that has been left (just about) as it was when it was “discovered” (and for us Angelina fans a major setting for the key scenic shots in Tomb Raider!).

We went it alone the next day and took ourselves round Ta Keo, Preah Khan, Preah Neak Pean and Ta Som before heading back for a more leisurely stroll around the big three from the first day and ending with sunset at Angkor Wat. Despite being exhausted from the early starts and hot days we managed to find a low-key restaurant for some excellent local food (amok - baked fish with coconut, lemon and chilli) and then, as part of the tourist trail, ended up dropping in on a show to see some traditional Khmer dancing which, what with all the unnatural “arched-backwards” hand poses, actually proved to be pretty enchanting.

On our final day we booked a trip out of town with Sophanna, a driver who a friend of mine had recommended - he took us to a few of the outlying temples including the exquisite Banteay Srei (a small but extremely detailed temple intricately carved out of pinkish stone), Banteay Samre, and Beng Mealea (an even more remote temple in the jungle which had been billed as even more Indiana Jones than Ta Prohm but which, due to a “private ownership” entrance fee and a boardwalk all around it, sadly lacked in atmosphere somewhat).

The “what was your favourite temple?” discussion raged long and hard all week so for what it’s worth I’ll put down my major highlights as being Preah Khan, the Bayon, Banteay Srei, Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm in that order (Preah Khan makes number one as it’s a sprawling enough labyrinth to wander far from the crowds and is where I had my “wow we’re at Angkor” moment of solitude!).

Amongst all this sightseeing and mainstream commercial tourism there was a very humbling side to being in Siem Reap which we were able to see thanks to Sophanna - we asked him to show us something of local life and so he took us to a makeshift village just outside of the sprawling luxury hotels and very “un-Cambodian” centre of town. Here he showed us the conditions that a lot of the Cambodian people typically live and struggle in. A small temporary plot of land in the woods comprised a few makeshift abodes - four posts and a plastic sheet were what stood for a home to these people, the roof barely large enough to cover a bed for the entire family to sleep in with a small seating and cooking area at its side. The majority of the family were absent - the father, unable to find work and with no land to farm, spends his days trying to fish and catch food for his family, the mother takes the children to town to try and make some money selling anything from souvenirs to bottles of water to the tourists. The Grandfather sat silently in a chair staring into the distance and didn’t even seem to register we were there.

Beside those makeshift surroundings a concrete platform with a gushing water pump in the middle of it stood out as an obvious luxury - running fresh water is rare here. And behind the platform was a board identifying the donor.

One thing that I imagine most people who travel abroad to poorer countries than their own wrestle with is the idea of charity - do you stop somewhere for a while and volunteer to help out, do you dip your hand in your pocket and dish out change at every opportunity or do you try and select a few worthy causes and make the effort to make a decent donation when you can afford to. To be honest I did actually plan at the outset of this trip to take some time to volunteer but, given I’ve been moving quickly, I’ve struggled to find anywhere that could accommodate me at short notice and that doesn’t wrap a criminal amount of money up in the administration and promotion - and rather selfishly I’ll admit I’ve wanted to see as much as possible on this trip. As a result I’ve tended to err towards the latter - trying to find causes that have touched me as I’ve travelled and seeking out those where I can almost see the money going to work (rather than being swallowed up in administration). Cambodia has a wealth of those on offer if you keep your eyes pealed.

Most of Sophanna’s business as a driver comes from the hotels in Siem Reap and given the opportunity he does his best to raise awareness of the conditions locals live in just a few miles from the affluence of such a touristy town. Some of his customers are inspired to make a donation and Sophanna, using free time when he can’t find work, selects needy communities and arranges for the installation of the likes of a water pump. The donation required to have one of these pumps installed - less than the price of a cheap compact camera.

If I hadn’t known better, the somewhat sceptical side in me may have believed that this had scam written all over it. But Sophanna is true to his word - the pump he showed us turned out to be the one donated by the friend of mine. At any rate having seen firsthand how a relatively small amount of money to us can, used correctly, make such a huge difference in Cambodia, Sarah and I decided to club together and make our first joint purchase... 10 days later Sophanna sent us pictures of a family standing next to their new pump with our names on the plaque beside it (sadly I wasn’t allowed to put “lots of love from Nacho Libre” on it!). If any of you are going to Siem Reap and would like to book Sophanna for the day email him here.

From Siem Reap we had planned to boat upstream to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh but unfortunately the dry season meant that the river was too shallow so we opted for the local bus instead. And as a result we were treated to the pleasure of a bumpy 4 hour drive, serenaded the entire way by the shrieks of Cambodian Karaoke that even headphones on full volume couldn’t drown out. Glares from Sarah when I woke up after my 3 hour snooze through it all couldn’t help but make me laugh!

Whilst we’d been in Cambodia I’d read a book called River of Time by Jon Swain - a journalist based in Phnom Penh during the last years of the American war in Vietnam (who was portrayed in the movie The Killing Fields by Julian Sands). His descriptions of the city in the early 1970’s - with the last remnants of colonial Indo-china being dusted away, the Americans foraying into Cambodia in their quest to prevent the Domino Theory, and the onset of war and possible regime change looming ever closer - paint a picture of a vibrant, sensual and adventurous city where life was lived to the extreme… Today Phnom Penh, indeed Cambodia as a whole, is still picking itself up from the atrocities carried out by the Khmer Rouge.

On 17 April 1975, the Khmer Rouge - under its communist leader Pol Pot - seized the capital and re-set the clock. They called it Year Zero - a radical attempt at social engineering designed to wipe out any trace of history and revert to an agrarian society. The outside world was shut out and, within days, the fighting army of the Khmer Rouge (which included indoctrinated children as young as 13) commenced a forced evacuation of the cities and sent every single person, including the ill and elderly, to work a 15 hour a day peasant existence in collective farms in the countryside. Families were separated to enforce the belief that the family unit was not essential and that the Angkar (the name given to the Khmer Rouge governing body) would provide for all. Dissenters were killed and fear was promoted by the regime to such an extent that family members and friends turned on each other - doing and saying anything for self-preservation. Those with a connection to previous governments or anything resembling an education (doctors, lawyers, academics and even those who wore glasses) were executed.

Ultimately the regime was doomed to failure but it’s stranglehold over the country from 1975 until its toppling by the Vietnamese at the start of 1979 devastated the nation to such an extent that they couldn’t fight back - over-work, starvation and disease effected almost all. The population of 7.5m in 1975 was reduced by up to 2m by the time the regime crumbled. Many of the dead were executed at the hands of Khmer Rouge soldiers.

During our time in Phnom Penh we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - it’s housed in a former school building that in 1975 was turned by the Khmer Rouge into Security Prison 21 (S-21). This became the largest torture centre in the country and during the life of the regime some 17,000 people passed through it before being sent to die at the nearby killing fields at Choeung Ek on the outskirts of the city.

We felt that taking a guide would be a good way to bring to life some of the stories behind the old classrooms-cum-prison cells of the school. A quiet, elderly looking lady at the entrance offered to show us round for half an hour and so we followed her round the institutional brown and white chequered hallways, passing numerous classrooms that had been turned into cells and torture chambers, and stopping occasionally to hear stories of the Khmer Rouge and their horrendous methods of punishment (such as babies and children being bagged and beaten against trees or walls in order to save bullets). All the while we passed row upon row of photographs showing the pained and haunting faces of those that had passed through S-21 on their way to death under the Khmer Rouge.

It was a very sobering experience and neither of us could say much throughout, but the point where I really wanted it to be over was when she was showing us a map of all the detention centres, re-education camps and killing fields that had been established throughout Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge. Pointing out the various regions of Cambodia she sombrely reeled off statistics about the number of dead in each one. And then pointed to one camp and told us that that was where her husband had been killed. I couldn’t bring myself to do anything but stare into her eyes as, mechanically, she explained that she’d also lost her 2 children the same year.

The rest of the visit went by in a morose haze - I felt awful for the unjust loss she’d suffered and wretched that I’d effectively paid her to re-tell this story which I’m sure she must tell to everyone she takes round. I couldn’t bring myself to dwell on whether she puts herself through it every day because she makes good money from it or if, somehow, it helps her deal with the past. So many of Cambodia’s people over the age of 30 must have similar stories - but hers will stick with me for a very long time.

The Phnom Penh of today is back on its feet - just. Infrastructure is still quite basic and there is still considerable poverty on display (shockingly also some extreme wealth which goes to show that faces and governments change but some people still can’t resist abusing power). But it’s a nice city to visit, situated as it is beside the Mekong and Tonle Bassac and Tonle Sap rivers. Amazingly some historic French colonial buildings and the structure of the Royal Palaces (if not the treasures inside) survived the Khmer Rouge’s desire to wipe the slate clean and the return of Buddhism means occasional sightings of the peaceful orange robed monks that add colour and spirituality to this corner of Asia.

On the negative side, as a visitor we were subjected to constant hassle from beggars, street vendors and tuk-tuk drivers (who park their tuk-tuks in groups and lie sleeping in the back whilst seemingly retaining a sixth sense that enables one of them to jump up the moment you walk by). This I’ve never really had a problem dealing with - even if in the likes of Phnom Penh it means saying no to someone every 10 paces - people have to make money and actually there have been a few occasions when we’ve laughed with tuk-tuk drivers about the absurdity of it all. What does get to me over time is when morality slips somewhat and you find the people you deal with day to day are looking for ways to take your money and then cut corners on the deal. Tuk-tuk drivers who conveniently forget the price you agreed on, tour operators who cut down the itinerary at the last minute, hostels that say they offer something and don’t. I’ve noticed it more here than any country so far. There isn’t really an excuse for it but I guess if any country can be forgiven it Cambodia can. Sadly for me though I hear it’s only going to get worse as we head for our next stop - Vietnam.

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