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Published: December 1st 2009
by Kerry
So.. Cambodia was our last stop in mainland S.E. Asia. It seems like we've seen a lot and we have! Anyway, see our next blog for our general 6 month round up.
Siem Reap & The Temples of Angkor
After a 4 hour bus ride from Bangkok we walked into Cambodia from Thailand at the Aranya Prathet/Poipet border in the late afternoon. To our relief it was a very quick and painless process to get the visa and cross over. We'd read about problems paying for the visa resulting in massive overcharging so we handed over the "extra" 200 Thai Bhat that the border guard asked for (about 4 quid between us) without hesitation and felt that we'd done O.K. Not wanting to stay in Poipet any longer than necessary we took a shared taxi straight to Siem Reap with an Irish couple who'd been waiting a couple of hours for another couple of people to share with. So, very fortunate for us that they were there. We learned on the journey that they'd been over charged for their visa about 4 quid each.
For those that don't know, Siem Reap is home to the
awesome temples of Angkor, the main Angkor Wat (Wat means temple) being a source of great pride to all Cambodians to the extent that it adorns pretty much everything: the national flag, national beer, bottled water etc.
So of course we spent a jolly good load of time haring around the various temples of Angkor. Like most tourists we got up (almost) at the crack of dawn and hired a tuk-tuk for a daily rate a couple of days running. We saw 9 temples plus a museum on day one and the remaining 4 that we thought would (still) be interesting the next morning - we were back in time for lunch. And that's only mentioning the ones that we actually got out to explore in detail. We saw a good few more on the drives between sites.
In case you're interested, these are the ones we covered, in order:
Day 1: (between around 7:30am and 4.30pm with an hour off for lunch)
* Bayon (in the Angkor Thom complex)
* Baphuon (in the Angkor Thom complex)
* Chau Say Tevoda
* Thommanon
* Ta Keo
* Ta Prohm (the one used in Tomb Raider)
* Banteay
Kdei (our favourite one)
* Sras Srang (the smallest one)
* Banteay Srei (15 km outside of town)
* Landmine museum
We also stopped off at the East gate of Angkor Thom for a closer look and admired the terrace of elephants while our tuk-tuk whizzed past it.
Day 2: (between around 8am and 1pm)
* Angkor Wat (the Daddy of all Wats)
* Preah Khan
* Preah Neak Pean
* Ta Som
While we didn't actually get bored wandering round all of these we were very ready to stop at the end of the last one and we didn't take photo's of all of them - they're not THAT different when you look through a camera but I'd say that if you bother to travel to Siem Reap they ARE pretty much all worth braving the heat to see.
When I put "the Daddy of all Wats" next to Angkor I really mean it. Sadly we did not get up to the temple with views over Angkor Wat so only saw it at ground level but I'm pleased to say that we could still see why it is as famous and revered as it is. It is
on a scale that is just ridiculous and built in a manner that from the inside you can only see the bit that you're in so you can't get a true feeling of its size. Each layer is enclosed by high walls and although you can walk in a straight line from the entrance to the centre you cannot see one from another because there are many changes of level in between. Kind of like being on different floors but not. It really made me feel like a lab rat in a maze designed by much larger beings. This feeling is enhanced by the fact that the steps leading up to the main building (sorry, don't know the word) are each about 2 foot high - see photos.
We were so exhausted after all that sight seeing that we spent another 3 days in Siem Reap doing pretty much nothing. It's a very easy town for Western tourists to lose a few days in as it has a well established bar & restaurant scene with home comforts like burger & chips easy to find coupled with dirt cheap beer & cocktails. Well, we had been travelling for over 5
Temples of Angkor
one of the gates into the Angkor Thom complexmonths at this point!
Kampot
"Kampot is home to Cambodia’s pepper culture. Kampot pepper is renowned as one of the world’s finest and in Colonial days a French Chef in Paris wouldn't dare offer diners a meal without Kampot Pepper."
from http://www.kampotpepper.org/ Incidentally we were blissfully ignorant of this fact until we went there. We went mainly to see Bokor national park and its old hill station which we did with a group on a day trip. The day before our trekking trip we hired bikes and cycled about 15km round trip to see a waterfall which turned out to be just a river with a massive electric damn in construction at the end. It was a lovely cycle through lush farmland with local kids (and some adults) shouting enthusiastic hello's at us most of the way there and back so we had a lovely day anyway.
Luckily we were not too stiff the next day as our Bokor day trip involved a 2 hour (ish) trek up the hill though a very scant trail involving a lot of climbing, to the distress of a couple of young lasses who exclaimed that they'd never
Temples of Angkor: rubble
quite a lot has been trashed through various wars been mountain climbing before - bless! It was knackering but we had the memory of The Great Wall hike to remind us that it wasn't actually that hard. I'm sure I'll never do anything as hard again! Actually the descent was a little more hairy as it was pretty steep.
The view from the hill station at the top was very nice, a sheer drop looking over islands off the coast, and despite the "Danger! No entry" signs our guide encouraged us to have a wander round the wreck of a building which is apparently used for a big party at New Year (Western NY that is). This is the same guide that told us to be careful because we were taking the illegal path up the mountain and therefore no park rescue could be called if any of us took a tumble. He also assured us that the ranger armed with an automatic rifle at our rear was there to protect us in case any of the "strong" animals of the forest (bears, tigers) or poachers approached us. Then he gave the gun to an Australian bloke in our group for a macho photo - at which point
Temples of Angkor - Ta Prohm aka Tomb Raider
I had to queue to get into this spot for a photo we discreetly moved out of the line of sight and hoped the safety was on.
Our tour guide, Tree, was very good and amazingly hard. As well as giving us a general history of Bokor he shared stories of his past which involved losing his family to the Khmer Rouge as a teenager then hiding out living in the jungle for 3 years (as they would have killed him too) before joining the Veitnamese army (not a lot of choice) at the fall of the Khmer Rouge and then earning a living clearing land mines before becoming a tour guide.
Sihanoukville
We went for some R&R beach time. The beach wasn't our scene (crowded with bars up to shore line) so we hung out around our guest house. We did nothing but chill for 3 days. Our day revolved around what meal time it was or was approaching. We had early nights & (relatively) late mornings. We didn't see anything of the town itself and ate at the same place 3 times because it was good. We never wandered more than a couple hundred meters from our guest house.
We had a great time.
[h2
left]Phnom Penh
In keeping with our time spent at Sihanoukville we haven't done a great deal here. We had a full 4 days to kill before flying out to Bali, Indonesia (tomorrow morning) so split the sights into 2 parts. We spent a half day seeing the walking distance things that we thought would be nice: the Silver Pagoda with a floor of solid silver tiles that houses diamond encrusted buddhas and Wat Phnom which is really close to our guest house. Incidentally the silver pagoda is within the palace complex so we saw a couple of other buildings there too.
Next day we took a tuk-tuk to see Tuol Sleng and The Killing Fields. For those that don't know Tuol Sleng is an old school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison (in 1975) and used for holding and torchuring those that were a threat to their system (including women & their children) and The Killing Fields is one of many mass grave sites outside of town used by the Khmer Rouge to dispose of the some 2 million bodies that were killed during their reign (the number is estimated so differs by source but it's generally
quoted as over 1.5 million and possibly up to 3 million). Both sites have been preserved by the Cambodian government as a reminder of the atrocities that went on to keep it fresh in the world's eye in order to help prevent such a thing occurring again (anywhere in the world).
For us one of the main highlights of Phnom Penh has been the food. Khmer food is pretty good but we've really appreciated things like $6 USD steak with (Kampot) peppercorn sauce and the availability of blue cheese which we have not seen much of in Asia.
Other Cambodia insights: Tuk-tuk drivers - they are the most chilled that we have seen in Asia. Yes, there are always about 5 more than necessary if you glance in either direction and they ALL ask you if you want to use their services as you walk by. This is pretty much the same everywhere we've been. BUT they are somehow nicer about it so we've managed to remain polite to all of them in stead of ignoring them after the first day which we felt necessary in other places, for our own sanity. The cries of "Tuk-tuk
Angkor Wat
feeling ant/mouse like lady" and "Hello! Tuk-tuk" don't really bother us here. We just smile and say no thank you. It seems perfectly normal. They tend to smile back and continue a conversation that they'd left off.
Note, I do not mean to slight tuk-tuks elsewhere. They're part of the experience. Just saying that Cambodians are our favorites.
It's really flat. We've never seen a capital city that is so flat before. Unfortunately this contributes to serious flooding every year but luckily the wet season is over now so we've only had sunshine and dry streets.
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