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Published: August 3rd 2008
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Angkor Wat
Impressive at any time of the day! 4.30am anyone? We began our Cambodian holiday with an early morning start (although we did take a day to get used to the heat and time zone)... and a shock for any of you who have seen Naera before a morning coffee and 9am but we made the dawn raid on Angkor by 5am in time to see the sunrise armed with cameras, along with a few thousand others... spectacular none the less! From there we spent the day touring the temples surrounding Angkor.
Day 2, we spent visiting the temples further afield. We did discuss (briefly) the idea of biking between the sights but in the heat of the day jumping back onto our tuk-tuk with the wind in our face was a welcome relief!
Highlights have to be.. Angkor Wat looming out of the darkness at sunrise; it can't be underestimated due to its size and standing. But others also stand out - Bayon where 54 towers (with a face on each side - making 216 in total) watch your every move; Ta Prohm which has been "left" in the state it was found minus most of the jungle but with just enough left to make it
Praying at the Steps to Angkor
The noise of everyone trapsing around angkor post sunrise didn't seem to disturb this monk. a worthy of movie fame (Tomb Raider); Preah Neak Pean which was an island in the vast reservoir and so completely different from any others we've seen.
Phnom Penh From Siem Reap we headed south to Phnom Penh - more about our thoughts on crazy bus journeys later.... We did have one interesting stop on the way (as promised by the Lonely Planet) but where the locals eat spiders! Not sure why but mounds of our 8 legged fried friends are available for purchase. We were disappointed not to see anyone was keen to try either (we definitely weren't). More concerning was the live specimens lurking in buckets which were used as stools by the stallholders to sitting on! Neither of us are particularly great with spiders and our initial investigations were tentative to say the least. We did get brave enough for a photo though!
20 mins later we were on our way and arrived safe and sound - spending a day or so in Phnom Penh exploring and visiting S21 and the killing fields on the outskirts of the city. S21 is the prison, ex-high school, where the people were held for interrogation before being transported
Entrance to Angkor Thom
One of the five entrances to Angkor Thom (the city built beside Angkor Wat) to the killing fields. The stories told by survivors’ and relatives are horrible and tragic and surprising because the Khmer Rouge managed to create so much mistrust in such a short amount of time (1975 - 1979). The damage is still evident underneath the smiling faces of the Khmer people. It was a sobering experience and one which makes you question humanity. The tales from the combatants (soldiers) are as disturbing as the tales from the people affected. The combatants were generally recruited as teenagers and did so, at least partially, because of fear what would happen if they didn't join the Khmer Rouge. Some quick stats - just under 20,000 mass graves and an estimated over 2 million executed (although some estimates range from 750,000 - 3 million).
We also took a short visit to the market to check out where we could spend any remaining tourist dollars! More on that one later..
Sihanoukville We decided to head to the coast for a bit of R&R - to the beach that everyone raves about.
To date we'd had great food; hotels and weather (it is rainy season but we'd only had one daily tropical downpour) so
Bayon Temple
One of the 216 faces which look down at you from all angles! the rain was a bit of a shock and, hence, the ability to enjoy the beach and surroundings was limited somewhat and after two days of average hotels and near constant rain we decided to head back to Phnom Penh via Kampot & Kep (small towns on or near the coast). Naera was also concerned that her tan wasn't improving fast enough which was just about all the motivation to catch a bus outta there!
Kampot & Kep And so we headed to a smaller; sleepier coastal town. Our first stop - Kampot - was all booked up because of the elections so we headed to Kep.
Kep is a tiny coastal town known for its seafood - especially crabs. Here we finally had our beach holiday. We lazed about (it was still raining but no where near as much - showers rather than constant rain)... and ate too much. It was bliss!
We stayed in bungalows with views out to the ocean and it was as idyllic as it sounds. We hired a motorbike and took the opportunity to amuse the locals with our skilled (but slow) driving - by the number of stares we got;
Ta Prohm
The only temple "left" as it was found.... well not quite. Most of the jungle was removed leaving enough for interest and the ability to cross over into movie sets (a.k.a Tomb Raider). we were a unique site (or perhaps it was just because of our speed).
Kampot Province (including Kep) is famous for its pepper (and the seafood dishes all had generous helpings!). We visited a pepper plantation - having never seen pepper vines before it was an eye opener! Looking at the number of rows of vines, we decided the plantation was more of a hobby farm but it was incredible how much grows on every vine (and had to rethink out initial view)! Despite being a public holiday (for the elections) we were welcomed (on the assumption we'd buy some over priced pepper) and shown around. An English guide at this point would have been helpful to say the least - still hand signals got us by and we think we understand how it's grown.
But we decided to head back to Phnom Penh to shop and catch our flight home (both of which we managed with style).... But with our holiday at an end... we thought we'd give you some of our overall impressions!
Food and Cambodia The food was fantastic. Having been part of French-Indo China - Cambodia produces some incredible French food; most
Angkor at Sunset
Along with the population of a small country - we watched the set on Angkor! notable the bread and pastries. Phnom Penh had some incredible cafes and deli's (serving the significant expat community). We stumbled across some (the restaurant we both liked the most was the result of driving by in a tuk-tuk and going back to investigate the following evening) and the visitors guide provided the others. We were impressed with the range and quality. Definitely not a place to lose weight!
Driving Dubious driving is a hazard of any number of countries we've visited. Cambodia seems to have little respect for driving on the correct side of the road (centre line; what centre line?) but it's not toppled Uganda or Laos, in our opinion, as having the worst drivers.
And so brings the end of our latest adventure....until next time.
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