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Published: August 23rd 2008
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Siem Reap & Angkor
Howiyiz, well we are only a few days in and we are loving Cambodia! We chilled out the first day in Siem Reap, had a wander around town, visited a wat, got stuck into some Cambodian food (yum) and encountered the first of the kids & amputees selling their wares. We were expecting to be mobbed from what we'd heard, but were surprised at how little we were bothered - little did we know that the kids really go to work at the temples! We did buy a book from a bloke with a missing leg, but tried not to buy from the kids, as their parents send them out to work, rather than to school. Its pretty hard to resist them though - they are cute in every sense of the word! You need a heart of stone...
We did the grand tour of the temples of Angkor Wat in a tuk-tuk/ramorque moto which was brilliant, if not really, really hot. Without wanting to state the obvious A.W. is amazing, the highlights being Bayon and Ta Prohm (think Tomb Raider) and also some smaller little gems like Ta Som, East Mabon and Pre Rup.
I'll let the photos speak for themselves - we are getting quite good at actually featuring in some of our photos so its not all rock and scarey trees - although the rocks & trees are much more impressive than we are!
We got completely mobbed by the kids at the temples and they are so gorgeous and pretty persistent. In the end one little boy completely broke my heart so I bought some post cards from him. Within 30 seconds we were mobbed by his mates! That learned me. That evening we bought some colouring pencils & paper and sweets in preparation for the second day of mobbage.
The next day we hired bikes and braved the crazy traffic, heat & humidity of Siem Reap and cycle the 6km or so to the temples. It was the best decision - we had so much fun cycling around and saw a lot more I think too. We had a minor crisis when Simon cycled into a pothole just as we arrived at A.W. but we found a bloke sitting under a tree operating a repair shop and for $2 we were soon sorted. We went to Ta Prohm
and spent ages wandering through the tumble down ruins that have strangling figs trees burst through the stones. Its so deadly! At lunch we encounted some fiesty kids again, but held firm in not buying anything from them. Initially they didnt really go for our offer of sweets initially but in the end the came back for seconds!!
We stumbled upon a wat hidden behind some trees - its so easy to imagine how the temples remained hidden for so long, they just disappear into the forest - and we went to have a gander. There were two little kids snoozing at the alter and they woke up when I approached and gave me some insense (spelling?) - so I took off my shoes and had a bit of a Buddist moment with them. Meanwhile, Si had found a monk and was chatting to him, & he also gave him some insense to "offer up some thoughts" as well - Pamela, did you ever think you'd see the day! I gave the kids some colouring pencils and paper and they were tickled pink and got stuck right into the drawing. We left a donation at the alter before we
left.
On the way out of A.W. we saw a large group of moneys (so cute - one had climbed on my bike earlier in the day) frolicking around and cleaning one anothers bums (not so cute), buffalo and a HUGE pig sitting in a swamp wallowing away! Brilliant. We wanted to do the balloon ride over Angkor Wat as well, but its closed in the pms because of the wet season. Speaking of which, it rained like it was Ireland the other night!! The cycle home was crucifying due to the not so comfy saddles (our arses were in ribbons) and the heat - we were completely skanky when we got back to the guesthouse.
Tonle Sap Lake
The next day we went to see the floating village of Chong Kneas on the Tonle Sap lake. The lake increases in size by 5 times in the wet season, so its about half full now. The houses along the shore & floodplains are all on stilts to allow for the change in water level and during the wet season the people fish, but during the dry they farm rice paddies. The floating village however moves around the
lake, depending on where is most sheltered - all the buildings are built on top of platforms that float on large bamboo trunks - we saw everything from a floating houses, workshops, schools, a catholic church and even a floating basketball court! If you saw these houses, you'd never give out about the size of apartments in Dublin again - they were tiny and made from anything and everything by the looks of some of them. But a few of the houses actually had TV, its bizarre - but given the Cambodian love of karaoke TV shows, not surprising. The markets are on small boats that are rowed from house to house. We visited the obligatory restaurant/fish farm/crocodile farm which was pretty cool, but there were jaysus huge bee/wasp things and it was all i could do not to throw myself into the Tonle Sap to avoid them. But that would have been slight more dangerous, given its used as a "natural" toilet - uuummmm. In fact, we saw a wee fella hanging his arse over the side of a boat giving it a good rinse! And they drink the water from the lake too - our guide said they
Ta Prohm
Scarey trees! are used to it, but if we drank it we'd be very ill - just in case we were tempted, like! The local kids are clearly not put off by the fact that they pee in the lake as they were throwing themselves in left, right and centre for a bit of a swim.
On the way back to town we stopped at another wee temple, where a documentary about ancient Khmer royalty for Nat Geo was being filmed. Local dudes dressed up in ancient Khmer outfits - fetching! The local kids clearly used the temple as a playground - pretty amazing playground I have to say - and were running around, jumping out of windows and off ledges, rushing past us as they screamed "hello, hello" at us over and over again. They followed us everywhere, so of course they had to get some sweets!
Tomorrow we are hiring the bikes again to take a cycle back down the road towards the Tonle Sap, as it looks really, really brilliant and the slow pace should give us a good chance to see a more real and rural side of Cambodian everyday life. After thats its on to
Phnom Penh for a couple of days, and after that, well we don't know yet....
Have more photos, but the interweb is acting the rollix, will try again later.
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Angela Gaughran Murphy
non-member comment
Wonderful
Dear Aoibhies and Simon, That was a great read indeed and a wonderful escape to your world of the moment! Must admit I am a tad jealous. I'll be looking forward to your next entry.......Stay safe and watch dem potholes. kisses and love, you auntie Angela