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I am not sure what we expected from Cambodia. The French influence is very clear (well you would have to be stupid to miss it when the women almost beat you with Baguettes until you relent and buy one). Having left a paradise island to stepping into (literally) open sewers, dirty roads and begging children gave Lara "culture shock" for the first time since we have left. It was short lived but it took a couple of hours for us to get used to our new "home".
Siem Reap is actually all about Angkor and the temples. The town is very run down with little to see or do other than the bars. There is a small strip which has been turned into a mini Khao San Road with loud western music blaring from every door and happy hour buckets a plenty.
We spent only 1 day visiting the temple ruins which are amazing. The buildings are beautifully sculpured and tourists are free to climb on anything they see (at your own risk....it can be pretty tough at times requiring hands and feet to be used to climb up). We travelled in style. A chariott pulled by a moped.
Despite the driver sleeping at almost every stop we managed to get all the temples we wanted to seen, explored and photographed. Although we had planned three days we were officially templed out a lot quicker than we had thought. We are reluctant to admit it and feel a bit bad for saying (please do not post abusive comments if you are an avid Angkor admirer) they do all start to look the same. Thankfully this is a view shared by lots of travellers we have met! We saw sunrise over Angkor Wat which is the largest religious structure in the world (some may say a megawatt) - very impressive but you are sharing it with lots of other people and with an overcast sky it did not even touch sunrise at the Taj Mahal.
Ta Prohmn temple, made famous by the movie 'Tomb Raider' featuring Lara Croft, was very good. Although our Lara made the sights more interesting than Angelina Jolie. Not sure she was up for the leather shorts and high speed chases though....something about the heat.....oh well never mind. This is the only temple which was left in the state in which it was found and
consequently has enormous tree roots covering many parts of the ruins. The best of the bunch for us was by far Bayon temple. Very large and well preserved it has 216 giant heads watching over you eerily with an icy smile. They say the faces - which are remarkably identical - bear more than a passing resembleance to the king commissioning the temple at the time. Can anyone say ego-maniacal narcissist?
Another highlight of the day was to see the hundreds of monks who live in the grounds between the temples in tents. It must be odd to have a few hundred thousand tourists passing through your "home" every day, but they do not seem to be phased by it. In fact they happily let Lara snap away whilst queing for their daily meal. SHe seems to have developed a bit of a penchant for monks. She claims it is their photogenic quality. Lets hope so is all I can say. I am not sure she would suit a shaved head.
Unsurprisingly, although Ankgor remains (see what we did there too?) true to its form, the place is a mecca for walking tourist traps. Such as thinking the
guy in the 'Police' shirt is actually a policeman. It went something like this. He asks you if he can tell you something about the temple and before you know it you're on a 'tour'. After 20 minutes you get to the end and the guy want $US10 or double whatever you offer and there's an uncomfortable moment because you know if you want one you can get a guide for less than that for all bloody day. Luckily for us we managed to suss him out just after he tried to sell us his warrant card and a fake ID of somone at least 20 years younger and possibly of a different race.
In addition to the con merchants is the fact that outside every temple is stall upon stall at selling all manner of rubbish. As soon as you leave they yell "lady, lady you wan souvenir?", "You wan T-shirt?", "You wan cold drink?" "You hungry?". Now the cold drink can be a god send after trekking about ruins in the blistering hot sun but the merits of wooden cross bows, bamboo flutes and boats are not so obvious! However, it is kids who sell to you.
They are gorgeous and it hurts to break their heart but you cannot buy from everyone of them. When you don't buy on the way in, before trailing behind they'll often say "OK, when you come back you buy. You remember me, I wait for you. You buy please or you make me cry..." . The kids are not above emotional blackmail but they are only doing what they are told and in all fairness many of the stories about needing the money for school and food are painfully true. We have found that the one who hits you the most tends to get the least amount of trade. Perhaps these children need some kind of sales training....or not as several times you almost want to give them cash to leave you alone.
It is remarkable how much a information a 6 year old can retain and quote - one line for every tourist. "Where you from?" We say England. "Oh, lovely place i wan go there. Manchester. Manchester united. Which team lady." That is funny enough but the really smart ones say "you have nice queen, Tony Blair your Prime Minister, capital London, population 66 million." When Andrew
says he is from Belgium they just walk away shaking their heads.
For Lara, the highlight of the trip to Siem Reap was not Angkor but was the trip to Aki Ra's Landmine Museum. Aki Rah was a child soldier for the Khmer Rouge and later the Vietnemese Army and then the Cambodian Army.He grew up in the Jungle, spent his youth killing and setting booby traps and land mines, never seeing a city until he was 25. His parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge as intellectuals were frowned upon resulting in over 2 million Cambodians being "officially destroyed" in an act of Genocide. Anyway, Aki was responsible for laying many landmines throughout his youth, however, when the UN peacekeeping forces arrived he decided he would work with them to clear them, using his experiences. He started to de-mine Cambodia, by hand with no metal dectors. Through his work with landmines he has adopted many children who are orphaned by their parents after being injured from a mine. Everybody lives in an area which he has now turned into a museum and you can talk freely with his children who now recieve an education and many backpackers volunteer
here helping the children with their English.
The guy is incredible and so selfless. It is really hard to appreciate the life that some lead in rural Cambodia. Although many areas have been demined as far as possible, even in Angkor you do not stray from the main paths. Similiarly, areas such as Siem Reap are still only declared to be "relatively safe". What surprised us more was the fact that the USA are still producing mines and refuse to sign the Ottowa convention which decrees against making mines. Everybody knows of the problems with landmines in Cambodia but we did not realise it was still such a massive daily issue with 2 Cambodians being killed or severely injured every day. Sadly, so many of the injured are children who are simply working in the fields or playing in their homes when they come upon an unexploded mine. Every way you turn and look in Cambodia landmine victims and amputees line the streets. It is one of the reasons why Cambodia has such a high rate of orphaned children. We read one story of a woman whose husband was killed by a landmine. She struggled in the fields to
raise her children. One day they were collecting rice in the fields to take back for their mother and they found some mines. 1 boy lost his legs and arm and the other 2 were killed. Their mother, unable to pay for an operation took the surving child into the jungle where she left him for dead. Luckily Aki Ra found him and this young boy now lives with Aki.
On a lighter note, many of the victims have formed bands which lessens their begging nature and they play all over Angkor and in Siem Reap. Again it is just another example of the spirit of these people.
Onwards......
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