Siem Reap and Angkor

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I didn't exactly love Cambodia when I first arrived. Poipet is well known for its visa and transport scams but I'd organised an e-visa beforehand so I didn't have any trouble getting in. Once there though, its hard to get to your next destination without being ripped off unless your willing to wait until the next morning when the regular buses apparently run. Any later than 8am and your only option is to take the free tourist shuttle to the 'bus station' run by one company who charge rediculous prices to take you anywhere. I took a share-taxi with an older English couple and an extreme American guy who speed talked the whole way to Siem Reap where the service included drop off at your accomodation. The entire drive went through nothing but barren, dry, brown fields. I stayed at the Garden Village which has $1 dorm beds (although its not a dorm room, its a bunch of mattresses in the courtyard out the back) but I stayed in a private room for $3 and it was awesome! Sure the walls and floor are made of thin woven bamboo with holes, theres spiders and webs everywhere, its swarming with mosquitoes, and there was a collection of something that might have been rat poo, but once your on your (very comfortable) mattress on the floor inside the enourmous mosquito net/tent, its very cosy! Walking round Siem Reap takes some getting used to - I thought Bali was the worst it could get but here I barely finish saying 'no thankyou' to one moto or tuk-tuk driver, massage, meal, or a look in their shop, before I have to say it again to the next person. Around the temples its far worse though and wandering around town afterwards was like a dream in comparison. At least in town they accept 'no thankyou'. Around the temples people follow you and repeat the same thing over and over, the price dropping so low they can't possibly make any profit. On a few occassions they would hand me a bracelet 'for free' and run off if I tried to give it back - I'm confused by this money making tactic. On some occassions I also offered to give them money with nothing in return (I have too much stuff as it is) but they didn't like this idea very much either.

I spent a day at the temples but since I was doing it by push bike I only saw the main ones close to Siem Reap. I started the day at 4 am, getting up exessively early for the sunrise so I could walk to the other side of town and rent a 'white bicycle' whose proceeds go to charity rather than use one of my own guesthouses bike rentals. I had noticed Cambodians aren't the safest drivers and often drive in the wrong lane for long periods of time while overtaking even if there are cars coming, but I couldn't work out why they were all driving on the wrong side of the road straight at me so early in the morning when there was virtually no traffic. Then I realised that in Cambodia, you drive on the right hand side of the road. Oops, my bad. I got to Angkor Wat about half an hour before it got light and sat by the pond waiting to see something. I was worried riding there that I wouldn't know where to go but this was no problem - you just follow the herds. There was no amazing sunrise with colours, it just got lighter and lighter, but it was still a nice view and you can't see the scaffolding at dawn.

Once it was light I walked around Angkor Wat then continued on a mix of the 'grand' and 'mini' tour routes stopping at pretty much every little ruin or temple on the way. My favourite by far was Ta Prohm even though its also a big tour bus favourite and there are massive groups everywhere. This is the one parts of Tomb Raider were filmed at and there are little platforms infront of the most impressive tree root intertwined with temple spots for photos. Even though I felt like I was taking my time, I'd seen everything by around 3pm and was too exhausted to hang around being hassled for the extra hours until sunset. I thought about riding to the temple thats around another 25 km away but my bike wasn't in the greatest condition. It was considerably worse after Bandeay Kdei and I was convinced the boy who ran off saying he would cry if I didn't buy anything from him had sabotaged it in some way.

I spent alot of time wandering round the night markets which aren't full of food as you'de expect, but souvenirs and clothes so striktly a tourist thing. They become increadibly happy if you buy something but exstatic and treat you like some kind of god if you refuse a plastic bag. This means they actually understand how bad plastic bags are so why don't they just stop offering them unless someone asks? On my second day I had fun at the post office. I've read about the Cambodian postal service so I was prepared to get ripped off but I was still shocked at the price. The ladies kept shooing me away when I was trying to make sure they at least put stamps on and tariffed the stamps so hopefully the packages arive or else I gave those lovely ladies a generous gift of $33.50 instead of perhaps the extra $25 or so they overcharged me. The post office was about 20 minutes from my guesthouse and the first time I got there I realised I forgot to bring the things I wanted to send so I spent the whole morning walking to and from the office.

In the afternoon I went to Chong Kneas, the floating village a little way out of town. I booked a(n eco-) tour since it was the same price as going on your own and was the only one so I had a local guide all to myself and we went by tuk-tuk instead of a bus. I've known about floating villages for years but have been to stupid or ignorant to realise why people would build houses on water - it seemed very inconvenient but it's because they are too poor to buy land to build a house on. Many of the people living here are illegal immigrants from Vietnam and some of the 'houses'are literally just a small fishing boat. The main source of income used to be fishing but years of unsustainable fishing practices hasn't left very much and whats there is very small so their future is not looking good. This is why they have turned to tourism and converted their fishing boats into 'tourist boats' charging high fees per person for short boat rides around the village. The government has also been digging a man made chanel to make it easier to access the village in the dry season purely so tourists can visit. The 100 or so boats that take people out every day use ancient engines the Japanese have thrown out burning the lowest grade deisel possible and churn up the bottom as its only 1 - 1.5 m deep at this time of year, making the water even more polluted.

Although Siem Reap is really touristy I still liked it and could have probably stayed longer. It was nice just wandering the streets (any street but pub street that is).

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Photos

The entrance to Angkor
now that's a moat!

Comments

[Karen]

Great travel blogs, Madeleine, very entertaining!

[m.i.a.]

the berri public library is not ready for your blog posts. everytime me or felicity come here to read them one of us ends up snorting coz we are laughing so hard and then we get the 'shush' look from the librarians! out of control - that tomb raider shot with the head torch needs to be printed and put on our fridge is all im saying!