One Dollar!

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The group tour has at last started, at around 6 o'clock we met up with our guide and fellow travellers for the first time and after a long introductory meeting we headed out for dinner. Our tour guide was called Hang, a Cambodian in his 20's and our group consisted of a mixture of old and young, couples and individuals, British, Australian, Kiwi, Canadian and Austrian, a realy nice mix of people, over food and drinks we got to know one another a little better and also get a feel for Cambodia...

...10 postcards, 1 bracelet, a photo with a kid with a python around his neck, an 18+ joke, a massage, these are just a few of the things that $1 buys you in Cambodia. Of the 15 million people that live here 50% are under 18, I think we met every one of these in the shape of kids offering all of the above for the bargain price of $1, always spoken in an unmistakable American accent.

After an early get up followed by an 8 hour private bus ride, broken up only by the brief but hectic formalities of the border crossing, we arrived in Cambodia at the city of Siem Reap, gateway to the temples of Angkor. The long journey meant we arrived quite late into town so following a short orientation walk cut short by a torrential downpour we were ready for food in a restaurant recommended by Hang down the aptly named 'pub street'. The food went down well and was accompanied by a performance of Aspara dancing, a local Kymer tradition performed very well by a group of young dancers.

Very early mornings were becoming a bit of pattern and the next morning was no different, this time the alarm was set for 4.30 as we were off for sunrise at the world famous temples of Angkor. After a short bus ride North of the city we paid the $20 entrance fee and disembarked to walk around the most famous of the temples, Angkor Wat and witness the light slowly reveal the outline and detail of this ancient temple. A thinck layer of cloud (that would remain all day) denied us the perfect surise but still watching the light come up was an amazing sight. There were even monkeys wandering abot to add to the exotic atmosphere. We asked the guide what sort of monkeys they were but he just lauhghed and said that in Cambodia there is only one sort of monkey, so they are just called 'monkey'.

We were to return to Angkor Wat later in the day for a further look around and so following a short breakfast overlooking the temples entrance walls we took the minibus 50 minutes north to another temple, that of Banteay Srei, supposedly the most beautiful of all the temples of Angkor. This one a Hindu temple, (others were Buddhist, depending on which God King it was that commisioned it), was indeed stunning, intricatly carved out of a red sandstone.

On the way back to the main temples we had a couple of stop offs to get some 'local interaction', one of Hang's many favourite sayings. Firstly we got up close to a some rice fields where we witnessed two of the stages of the production process, there was the pulling up of the rice plants and in another field the re planting, two typical sights across much of the country. The other visit was to a museum dedicated to one mans ongoing efforts to rid the country of landmines. Aki Ra who was recruited as a child soldier into the Khmer Rouge at the age of 5 and became a fighter before he realised the error of his ways, defecting to join the Vietnamese forces trying to liberate Cambodia. After the war ended the country was left with a vast amount of unexploded mines, the majority unmapped and primed to injure and kill civillians which they did.

Ta Prohm the third temple of the day was perhaps our favourite. It has been nicknamed the 'jungle temple' due to it being left to the elements with numerous trees taking over. The pictures are the best way to describe it. If the place looks familiar it may be because Tombraider the movie was filmed here, more proof that Hollywood had been to town could be seen in one of the bars down pub street where Angelina Jolie had created a cocktail now named after her, every 10th came free.

We visited two more temples after this, Angkor Wat again for a proper look around in daylight and then one of the smaller temples inside the grand walls of Angkor Thom. By this point we were begining to suffer a little from 'temple fatigue' and so it was somewhat of a relief when on trying to enter the last temple i could not produce our entry tickets, turns out they fell out of my pocket a little earlier, and so Rach and i were refused entry. We could still view the outside walls but this too was cut short by another monsoonal downpour, luckily we managed to find a friendly Cambodian man who sheltered us under his van's boot door. From there we rejoined the rest of the group, thorougly wet through and returned to our guesthouse at the end of a very lengthy tour.

The following day we visited the 'floating village' which was on the Tonle Sap lake. Our guide hired the group a private boat and we chugged out past houses, police stations, fish farms and schools all on stilts. The driver found us a quiet spot and we took turns jumping off the top into the water, it was amazing!

When we were all thoroughly exhausted the boat returned to the floating village and we disembarked at an aligator farm. We skillfully manouvered the children holding out pythons and terrapins on fishing lines all shouting "1 dollar, 1 dollar!" at us, presumably we could take a photo with one for a dollar, no-one took them up on the offer but Hang did find a python from somewhere and we took it in turns to have our photo taken with it dangling around our necks.

Not long afterwards we got back onto the boat and headed back down the lake as the sun was setting, it was absolutely glorious and the perfect ending to the day.

Cambodia is amazing!

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Photos

Angkor Wat
Sunrise at the temples

Angkor Wat
Our tour group at one of the entrances to Angkor Wat

Hang
Our tour guide

Sunset
At the floating village

Comments

[Mum. Penwortham]

Wow
Amazing,I can't believe you have been to Cambodia. It's a wow from me and ahhh love the photos especially the end one of you both.

[Chris]

wow
a great scene , very similar to marrakech !