Advertisement
Published: March 21st 2008
Edit Blog Post
War Museum
Liam, Chris and our Guide at Siem Reap's War Museum. Well, we made it to Cambodia! For me it's 4 countries in 4 weeks (for Chris and Liam it's 5 in 8), which has meant lots of time on the road, by that's why it's called travelling!
I must admit that it was sad leaving Thailand. Although we had spent the best part of a week in Bangkok itself and had pretty much 'done' it, I liked Thailand far more than I expected to and could've easily spent longer there, ideally in the more secluded areas like the hills of Chiang Mai. The islands of the south are generally now just holiday destinations for Brits and Swedes and felt a little too touristy for it to feel like proper travelling, but in their defence all had beaches and views that were second to none and they were a great chance to get some colour into the skin (vital to appear more experienced to the street-sellers we've since encountered EVERYWHERE!).
Cambodia definitely has it's own identity, too, and it's immediately apparent when crossing through the border, which we did at Aranyathrapet, near Poipet. People's faces seem to change immediately, although subtley, at the border, as we also found crossing from
War Museum
Tanks and Artillery in the grounds of the Museum. Malaysia into Thailand. The same, although certainly not quite as subtle, can be said for the state of the roads. We had been forewarned of a somewhat bouncy journey from Poipet to Siem Reap - our first stop - in fact, the bus driver said we should consider it a luxury that we didn't have to pay extra for our forth-coming 6 hour total-body massage! It was a massage of sorts, but not the invigorating experience of the parlours of Bangkok, more of the spine-crushing, teeth-jarring, numb-bum type. When we arrived in Siem Reap, we were taken straight to the Hilton Angkor Hotel. I'm afraid it's title was all it had in common with the famous luxury hotel chain, but by travelling standards it certainly wasn't roughing it and was an ideal base from which to see Siem Reap and the world-famous nearby Temples of Angkor.
The first day we decided to take it slightly easy, and did not jump straight into the main attraction. Instead, limbs still aching from the previous day's pummelling, we chartered a tuk-tuk for the day (for just US$20!) and visited the nearby War Museum, where we had a fully-guided tour from an ex-soldier
War Museum
The 3 of us by a Helicopter used in the Cambodian Civil War in the war. He started by listing his injuries, and after 5 minutes without pausing for breath we started to get some idea of the brutality of the conflict. He even let us touch the ball-bearings and shrapnel in both his arms and leg, although this wasn't the worst bit, as when we joked that at least his other leg was ok he pulled up his trouser-leg to reveal a prosthetic limb. It transpired he had lost all of his immediate family in the war, and just four years ago had lost his wife to a landmine whilst she was out picking mushrooms for dinner. This bloke had had it tough. Through his broken English he gave us a very detailed account of the machinery and weapons at the museum, and although sad it was incredibly interesting and gave us a pretty good insight into the Civil War there before we were to head south to the Killing Fields and S-21 Prison near Phnom Penh. The mood of the day was lightened with a long-boat trip out to the floating market in the afternoon, where we stopped by a couple of shops and a restaurant, as well as a fish
Floating Market
Typical view as we crossed the lake, home to the floating market. and crocodile farm. Following that, our driver, Peter (a typical Cambodian name?!) took us to the hill beyond Angkor Wat from where we watched the sunset. Although we didn't make it early enough the next morning, sunrise is supposed to be better here, as the temple faces Westward and so does not have the setting sun behind it, but the golden light of the sun on the front of the temple was still an awe-inspiring sight and filled us with excitement for the next, full day exploring the ruins!
As soon as the sun dipped beyond the horizon, we raced back to the hotel in our little tuk-tuk for a quick clean up, and marched straight off to a traditional Cambodian evening of buffet food and Apsara dancing. We all certainly got our money's worth - 5 trips to the buffet for just US$12!!! - and enjoyed the dances. although we might have struggled with the under-lying meaning of some of them. Although thoroughly stuffed, we forced down a couple of pints of the local brew - Angkor Beer - in true English spirit, and got our heads down for next day's tour of the Temples of Angkor.
Crocodile Farm
Mean B*stards! First up on the itinerary was the largest of the temple complexes - Bayon. It was certainly a good start with a very impressive first view of it and a literal hike up the 2 foot high steps to the top. It was hard enough dragging ourselves up there in the 35 degree heat, so god only knows how they actually built it!
Before we knew it though we were up and down steps, fallen stones and smashed columns like mountain goats, and soon started to rival the thousands of japanese package-tourists by snapping away with our cameras at every chance. It's hard to describe in words the scale of a single temple, let alone the entire range of the ones we visited, by they are truly are a miracle on a par with, if not exceeding the Pyramids, in terms of their sheer size and mass of stone that had to be shifted to create them. Hopefully the photos you can see will do them more justice than i can by just writing about them.
We agreed that Ta Prohm - the temple used in the film Tomb Raider - was the 'best', as it has been
Sunset at Angkor
The ruins we had to climb to view sunset at Angkor Wat left totally unrestored, with huge silk-cotton trees growing up from the walls and roofs, their roots seeming to drip down the stone like molten wax.
The last temple we visited - and the most famous - was Angkor Wat itself. Although we had seen the sunset from the top of the hill, that did not compare with viewing the golden temple in the twilight from within the grounds. By then, the crowds had, surprisingly, died down and we were able to take some really good shots of the temple as if we were the only ones there - enjoy!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0247s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Oaksey
non-member comment
Thanks!!
Hey Benny, I hope you're all ok. I just received my lovely gift; thank you! I'm really pleased with it. For the new flat I recently bought an Africa picture (also with elephant in it) so have kind of started a theme. Also bought some candles for my mantelpiece (not to sound too grand) which are exactly the same colour as the green on the pressie. I'm sure that was all really interesting news for you. Good stuff!! Don't really have much news I'm afraid, Laura, Bels and Charlie are being kept updated with your progress. We went to watch the Oxford-Cambridge boat race the other day. Went along, in the rain, got soaked and stood on the wrong side of Putney Bridge so missed it all. Absolute losers. Keep updating the blog guys, it makes my working day sat behind a desk a lot more fun. Take care! XX