Wonders and Contradictions

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Day 33 - November 11, 2008
Shop and Travel, perfect combo

Our flight to Cambodia is in the afternoon, so we spent the morning shopping some more. Guess where we went? Platinum Mall, where else! Gim said our shopping is getting out of control, Maria says it’s just right. We had to buy an extra luggage, too (see? Gim says).

Then we went to Cambodia. Cambodia is just a 1 ½-flight from Thailand, and this proximity explains the overlap in their histories, as well as the similarities in their skin color, language, and calligraphy. However, because of the series of turmoil in Cambodia, the whole country is taking time to get back to its past glory.

We checked in our hotel, but it was fully booked, so we checked in a different one, called International Angkor Hotel (it’s so bad we don’t remember the name exactly). It was dirty and tiny. Didn’t like it (crinkle nose).

On first look, Phnom Penh is dirty, dusty, and smelly. We arrived on the first day of the Water Festival, which is the biggest yearly celebration in Cambodia, bigger than New Year’s. And what a chaos it was! Thousands of Cambodians flock to Phnom Penh to witness the 3-day event held usually on Tonle Sap River. It features dragon boat racing in the morning, and after sunset, it boasts of the parade of barges with super-bright, colorful lights punctuated by fireworks in the night sky. This commemorates the end of the rainy season and the start of planting season, also the unusual phenomenon of reversal of the upstream flow of the Tonle Sap river back to its usual flow.

The throng of people at night is intimidating. Gim thought that there are almost like 2 rivers, the Tonle Sap and the river of heads bobbing and moving on the streets in two opposite directions. It’s overwhelming. Gim was excited, but I was just plain scared. Amidst the maddening crowd, we found a spot reserved only for tourist, the perfect area to view the fireworks and the boats. Around the guarded and barricaded spot, the locals are pushing against each other to get a better view. Ironic, isn’t it.

Day 33 - November 12, 2008
A Sad Day for Realizations

We checked in a different hotel, the Royal Guesthouse, recommended by Lonely Planet. It’s really cheap ($10/night), but very clean and cozy. We liked it.

In the morning, we checked out the dragonboat racing. It wasn’t too exciting. We went to the Royal Palace but it was closed because of the festival. Still a lot of people hovering around, but not as bad as during the night. Then we hired a Tuk Tuk to take us around for the day for $10. We went to see The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek 14 km (8.6 miles). This is the second biggest killing fields during Pol Pot’s bloody regime. The Khmer Rouge (Red Khmer, communist army) executed roughly 1 million Cambodians (and some foreigners) from April 17, 1975 to December 1979. The government eventually built a stupa in the killing fields to commemorate all the people that died there. Excavations that begun during the 1980s yielded thousands of bones and pieces of clothing that are now displayed in the stupa. The skulls bore the evidence of the gruesome cruelty of the Khmer Rouge, showing fatal dents and fractures from the hammer and bamboo pole blows as they were trying to conserve “expensive bullets”. Walking around the area, we saw clothes and bones poking out of the killing grounds that sent chills up and down our spine. It was so morbidly depressing.

Then we went to the high school that Khmer Rouge had converted into a prison and torture area, now called Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. It had the photos of the victims displayed on boards, as the Khmer Rouge was very careful in documenting their monstrous atrocity. Even more ludicrous and merciless, they placed barbed wires on each floor to prevent their desperate victims from committing suicide. Each room of the first building (the torture area) has a metal bed and one disturbing black and white photo of a torture victim who died during torture. There were splatters of blood on the ceilings and the walls. We eventually left the place before we start bawling our eyes out.

Then we went back to join the chaos by the Tonle Sap river. Walked again to the barricaded tourist area, watched fireworks and ultra-bright boats. Then ate at a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet, (we have to look up the name again, sorry). We had traditional Cambodian fare of fish amok, nataing (ground pork simmered in coconut milk with garlic, peanuts and chili pods) with crispy rice, and Khmer cakes.

Going back to our hotel, we again braved the heavy crowd and found ourselves in a mosh pit when an ambulance tried to squeeze itself through the street where people seem to occupy every inch. Gim felt like he was in a rock concert and thought of doing crowd surfing, meanwhile I felt my personal place was totally invaded. We had some drinks on a terrace bar and once again were amused at the “sea of people” below, as Gim calls it.

Day 34 - November 13, 2008
Bus ride to Angkor

Walked to the direction of Royal Palace and found a bookstore along the way. I bought second hand books Trading Up by Candace Bushnell and Veronika Decides to Die by Paolo Coelho ($4 each).

The Royal Palace was closed so we just went to the Silver Pagoda, so called for its ~5000 tiles made of silver, 1 kg each tile. There is a Buddha statue made of 90-kg pure gold bedecked with real precious stones, the largest of which is a 25-karat diamond on its forehead. Because of the French protectorate era, the temple has some French influences, such as the chandeliers and the French-designed silverwares displayed in glass cases.

Then off we went to Siam Reap by a 6-hour bus ride. On one of the pit stops, we saw vendors selling fried spiders and the usual crickets (by now we are used to seeing them along with peanuts, bananas, worms, grasshoppers). Mmmm…sarap!

We checked in our guesthouse and had a restful sleep and were awaken early in the morning by the blasting sound of loudspeakers across the main road playing Cambodian music. Darn. I wondered why no one ever bothered to complain about it. I planned to. Gim just laughed.

Day 35 - November 14, 2008
Day of Ruins…well…not really

We went off for our Ruins Tour. We hired a TukTuk for $60 for 2 days. First we passed the South Gate of Angkor Thom. Stone statues on each side flank the road leading to the ancient gate. One side represents the gods and the other side represents the demons. Each “team” carries a Naga, sort of like a tug-of-war fashion.

Shortly after entering the South Gate, we saw the massive Bayon. This is a 12th-century temple made of sandstone with towers with 4 giant faces facing each cardinal direction carved on each tower. There are a total of 37 towers standing now, originally 49. The half-smiling faces are said to resemble one of the great kings of the long-gone Khmer empire, King Jayavaraman VII. It has impressive bas-reliefs on walls depicting everyday life of the Khmer people during ancient times.

Bapuon, the temple-mountain, was next. Built in the middle of 11th century, Lonely Planet calls this “the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle”, referring to its reconstruction difficulties.

After Bapuon, we visited the Royal Palace (10th-11th century) and the Phimeneakas. We climbed it the first day, and when we went back the next day, it was closed. We saw the palace ponds and several painters selling beautiful portraits of Angkor.

A few minutes of leisurely walk led us to the Elephant Terrace, believed to be the main stage during those olden times where performances for the king and his people were held. According to our book guide called “Ancient Ankor”, this was the foundation for royal reception pavilions. It has carvings of elephants along its walls, hence the name. Next to the Elephant Terrace is the Terrace of the Leper King (13th century). This was believed to be a royal crematorium. According to Lonely Planet, the statue found on top of this structure is believed by some scholars to be that of Yasovarman, a former Khmer ruler who, legend says, died of leprosy.

Then we went to the temple of Ta Prohm, best known as the set of Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider. Here we saw how nature would eventually prevail over any man-made edifice, no matter how strongly built, especially after hundreds of years of neglect. We saw how the gigantic snake-like roots of colossal trees as cotton silk and strangler fig invaded the temple like a B-movie “Revenge of the Killer Trees” (there’s no such movie, I made it up).

Our Tuk Tuk driver (who calls himself “Mr. Sunrise”, who refused to provide the reason why this is so) brought us to another temple, Ta Keo, which I call the Indiana Jones temple just by its looks. We climbed the dizzying, steep, small stone steps of 50 meters (160 feet) to get to the top of the temple. To climb the very steep stairs and the tiny steps, we needed both arms to prop ourselves up sort of like mountain climbing without the ropes and with the steps ready. Going down is even harder. We cannot imagine how the people during the 10th century climbed those dangerous steps without their Nikes.

Then we went to two more temples, smaller than their giant neighbors, on the way to the hilltop to see the sunset. These are Thommanon and Chau Say Tevoda. We climbed one more temple, the Baksei Chamkrong. On the hilltop was another temple, Phnom Bakheng. It’s hardly ideal to photograph the sunset as the sky was cloudy, mosquitoes were gearing for their bloodmeal, and everyone else had the same idea that the place looked like a carnival. So, we just decided to leave, freshen up, and see the culture show while having a Cambodian buffet dinner.

Day 36 - November 15, 2008
Angkor Wat

We woke up super early, 4:30 am, to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was just breathtaking.

Then we decided to hire a tour guide this time to explain to us about Angkor Wat. We figured a temple this great merits an expert.

We first headed North to the Banteay Srei, or Citadel of Women, so called because its carvings were so intricate it cannot possible be made by men. Although miniscule compared to Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat, it has nevertheless very ornate carvings of Hindu legends aptly explained by our tourist guide, Van Vanara (good screen name for an action star, eh?). He had a funny-sounding Australian-Cambodian accent.

We found our ride to this area very refreshing. We saw typical Cambodian houses and countryside.

Then we passed by the brick and sandstone temple of Pre Rup, a crematorium in those ancient times. Its name literally means “turning the body”.

We briefly visited a landmine museum and saw a documentary about land mines. We learned that Cambodia has one of the heaviest land mines in the world (a lot of them planted by US and Vietnam) and that it takes only $3 to make one, and $500 to dismantle it. We saw the children who were maimed by the land mines, with their missing arm, or leg, or an eye.

We went back to Angkor Thom, Royal Palace, Bayon, Bapuon, and the Terraces where our tourist guide pointed out a lot of details that we have missed, like the scenes depicted in the bas-reliefs of the walls. We think it’s definitely worth your $25 getting a tour guide for the day. These guides have been extensively trained with regards to history and a lot of them can speak more than two languages.

Then came the climax of the day, the beautiful and magnificent Angkor Wat. Words cannot describe the awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, breathtaking Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious monument. An architectural masterpiece, it was built in 1112-1152 A.D. under King Survayarman II of the Khmer empire (said to be the strongest and biggest empire in whole of Southeast Asia during those times). It is on a sprawling 82-hectare (202 acres) of land surrounded by huge moat. The temple itself is 9 hectares (22 acres). One can only marvel at the intelligence and craftsmanship of the Khmer people in those times. The carvings on the walls, pillars, roofs, are so intricate and detailed that even Angkor Thom and the Bayon cannot match.

After our temple tour, we went to the night bazaar. We bought some souvenirs, and then had a “fish massage”. We dipped our feet on a shallow pool filled with “doctor fishes” that swooped down our feet and started eating away our dead skin cells. And oh, were they so tickly. So very, very, very tickly. After 15 minutes, our feet were as soft as a baby’s.

Day 37 - November 16, 2008
Back to Bangkok for a night

We left Cambodia with a feeling that we will be back. It is a country of contradictions that has stirred up in us varying emotions of fear and repulsion, later on becoming compassion, understanding, and finally awe. We salute its people who had definitely made a mark in history during the Khmer empire, and has endured indescribable suffering under the Khmer Rouge, but still able to smile during its long process of healing.

These are our observations of Cambodia and its people:
1. Lots of old cars and scooters, and a sprinkling of none other than… Lexus! Nothing in between. We think it may be because of the wide gap between the rich and the poor.
2. Lots of youngsters (fact: about 40%!o(MISSING)f the population is under 15), the reason why the crowd is intimidating, they are loud and rowdy
3. The people are super skinny (most likely because most of them are adolescents), and opposite to Thailand, males here considerably outnumber females (from our opinion 3:1)
4. Gim is considered tall and big here. In the crowd, he was able to see the top of most their heads and his physique is bigger than most Cambodian males.
5. Baguettes are everywhere! Even peddlers sell them on the streets. Again, one of the obvious influences of the French (another is architecture)
6. Their prices are most often in dollars (US) and only sometimes in their own riel, especially in places frequented by tourists. Actually even peddlers accept dollars. Stores and Tuk Tuks give change in both dollars and riel. These 2 currencies are being used interchangeably here. Even the ATM cash out dollars.
7. The weather is always hot and humid (above 90s), and yet a lot of locals wear long sleeved shirts and jackets

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