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Published: March 7th 2010
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As promised here, hot on the heels of Phu Quoc, is Cambodia.
Top 3 Cambodia essentials:
1. Suncream
2. Dollars
3. The words "No, thank you"
We only spent four days in Cambodia in total, but in that time learnt the value of all three of the above. You need suncream, with the temperature rarely dropping below 35 degrees Celsius and the light searing and punishing, especially between about 10 and 3. So most of the day then.
Dollars are used for everything, and while you get small change given back in Riel, most things cost at least "one dollar, one dollar". And if you want to see the temples (Wat) without stopping every two seconds to get involved in negotiations that will certainly lead to you parting with at least "one dollar", you better be ready to reel out the polite decline. A smile always helps.
In fact, rarely have we been anywhere on our trip where the locals were so unremittingly smiley. We weren't here long, but we really love the Cambodian people. We never felt like anyone was trying to rip us off (a constant problem in other countries on this trip) and
Map of the complex
This only includes a few of the temples, but you can see where Angkor Wat is. The scale of Angkor Wat is incredible - it's massive. Which gives you some idea how big Angkor Thom is, beside it. This used to be the capital of the Khmer empire and the city was enclosed within its walls. people were incredibly friendly. There's nothing like cute local kids delighting in calling out "hello!" as they cycle past to lift your day.
We stopped off in Phnom Penh for a night as we were unable to get buses from Phu Quoc to Siem Reap in a day, without hours of unnecessary travel. Phnom Penh is the capital and a big, dirty city. The dirtiest we've seen. We stayed in a fine little guest house near the bus station as we were only there overnight so didn't go off exploring, but from what we saw it's not the nicest place to stay. Walking the streets at night you had to dance your way through piles of rubbish, chucked out from every shop, stall and abode. It was pretty disgusting and smelly, but come sunrise the streets were cleared and the city seemed much nicer.
Anyway, a crazily bumpy bus ride the next day and we reached Siem Reap. The bus carried the first lovely locals that we met, the dad of the family having been to university in Winnipeg was a big fan of Em's. They shared food with us, were very chatty and were off to see
Sunrise at Angkor Wat
We got up at 5am and cycled (a 30-minute ride if you fancy doing it, along nice flat roads) in the dark. But it was worth it. the temples in Siem Reap too, to show their boisterous kids a little Cambodian culture.
A quick word about the Khmer Rouge. It's impossible to ignore the influence of this bloodthirsty, extreme Communist faction, which executed between 1 and 3 million of its countrymen between 1975 and 1978. There are two sites that you can visit in Phnom Penh. One is the 'killing fields', which are mass graves just outside the city centre where the genocide is remembered. The other is Security Prison 21 (SP21) which is the site of a school that the Khmer Rouge transformed into a nightmarish interrogation camp. Apparently if you visit this, it is largely as the liberating Vietnamese army found it, complete with blood on the walls and horrendous instruments of torture littering the ground. Infamously, they killed men, women and children alike, persecuting intellectuals (including those that wore glasses) or anyone that they saw as a threat to their distorted totalitarian vision. We decided that both would be simply too awful and depressing to see. There's only so much sadness you can see before it becomes too horrible to digest.
Instead we travelled north to Siem Reap. While the people still
Bayon
Inside Angkor Thom, the Bayon is an enormous monastic monument, with 52 towers engraved with Buddhist iconography. Faces to you and me. carry the legacy of those days, it's obvious that there's a determination to distance themselves from the past, especially among the younger people. Perhaps that's one reason why everyone's so smiley.
Siem Reap is a town in the north of Cambodia, and the main attraction is the temples. Rather, the temple complex, which includes Angkor Wat (the most famous and best preserved) but encompasses over 300 temples spread across a vast section of countryside. Most were built between 800 and 1450, by the ancient Khmer empire, most often as temples or royal displays of wealth. All were abandoned by 1450ish, when the angry Thai armies of Siam decided they wanted a piece of the Angkor action, and kicked up a stink in someone else's back yard. Rather bad form, I'm sure you'll agree. Incidentally, I might get some of the history wrong. Please don't take my word for anything, Wikipedia is far more reliable I'm sure.
Aaaanyway, Em and I saw the temples by bike for the first two days of our three day ($40 each!) tickets. But that was tiring enough, so we hired the friendliest tuk-tuk in Cambodia for our last day. I'm gonna sign off
Ta Prohm
Outside the main temple now as the pictures tell the story much better, and there about 40 of them that I'll be uploading!
Hope you like the snaps as much as we loved the country. It's one of the poorest countries in the world, which justifies the pushy sales and love of the dollar. But if you like incredible history, friendly faces and glorious weather you'll find it especially rich, too.
That's enough cheesy send-offs.
Love you, bye!
x
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Thailand Itinerary?
Hello Mark and Emilie, Looks fantastic- i wish id made the effort and used the Cambodian visa I'd got when in Vietnam to see this. When youre where Tomb Raider was filmed you are, quite literally, in the foot of the gods. Wonder if you can give me some pointers on a feasible, reasonable priced trip to Thailand. As you may or may not know, I have booked tickets from teh 28th March to the 8th of April. Clearly this is not enough time to do everything Id like and we can write off the 29th and the 7th as being in Bangkok. Unfortuantely i feel duty bound to visit Swann, so that eats up some more time, but what I'm asking is: What would you recommend doing in the time we've got given that the success criterior is to a) relax (don't want to spend half of the 8 or so days on a deathtrap bus) b) OK, I take it back, get up to Chiang-Mai and see Swann and this supposedly beautiful, historical city c) Scuba dive!!! Ko Chang and Ko Pi Pi (sic?) are two of the 'must-sees' that keep coming up. We won't have tome to get out to Similan islands, some of hte worlds best diving? I've heard Bangkok is a dump but would like to see the following fight in a filthy sweat pit: Thai boxers; preying Mantis'; roosters. Definitely want to ride an elephant too after reading your entry for Thailand here. OK MarkandEmilie, to the Batcomputer! Keep having a great time!