Monks, monkeys and pieces of mango

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Siem Reap, Cambodia, 7 January-10 January

We had ended up leaving Phnom Penh later than planned after spending a very leisurely morning sitting outside having brunch and watching the world go by. This world included many stray dogs, a monk on a balcony across the road washing his robes and hanging them up to dry and elderly men pedalling past on rickshaws. We then spent a fair bit of time in a French designer boutique that was housed in an old colonial building (is there any other in Phnom Penh?) and contained the most incredible array of dresses I have ever seen. A guy we met in Samui had told us about this shop weeks before as his wife was "obsessed" with the clothes and I think C had been dreading the moment we set foot in there, but we left empty-handed (save a couple of presents for the ladies in our life back home).

The car journey from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was a strange mix of completely serene and absolutely hell-raising. It was meant to take around four hours but ended up taking six. It is hard to understand how it ever could take four as I honestly believe there are not many drivers out there who are more determined than ours. This guy brought a whole new meaning to the phrase 'middle of the road.' For the entire way, he would drive right down the centre of the single carriageway and swerve violently out of the way at the very last minute whenever something came towards us, whether it be a huge lorry or an ox-drawn cart (there were a fair few of both). He didn't use the brake once (no exaggeration) but instead hooted the horn at absolutely everything that got in his way. It was a bit like being part of a really extended car chase, the fundamental difference being that there was no other car to chase. At one point, when our driver was being particularly nutty, a lame dog had the unfortunate timing to be struggling its way across the road in front of us. He drove at it furiously and it narrowly escaped being crushed under our wheels.

Both C and I had recently read a really moving book, "Stay Alive, My Son," that I had found in a bookshop in Samui. It was the first-hand account of a man who had survived the Khmer Rouge-ruled Cambodia but had had to leave his young son behind in order to escape. The story was beautifully written and very hard-hitting, making the past prevalent in our minds. Perhaps it was for this reason that we started chatting to our driver and asking him lots of questions; we were constantly on the lookout for this guy's son in the hope that he had survived and we would be the ones to find him. This guy was about the right age and we convinced ourselves we may be getting somewhere. But then around half an hour before we got to Siem Reap he pulled up in a tiny town and an old lady came to the passenger window and spoke to him for a few minutes. As we drove off, he said to us: "That was my grandmother." C turned to me, his eyes wide with excitement. "He's got a grandmother!" he exclaimed in a stage whisper. Suddenly the tables had turned and we were wondering, perhaps in a slightly melodramatic way, just which side this guy might have been on.

Racing drivers and potential former Khmer Rouge members aside, the sights that we saw along the journey were absolutely stunning and made every single second worthwhile. This was the real Cambodia. Miles upon miles of wooden houses on stilts. Women in traditional dress hanging washing and cooking on their verandahs. Tiny old ladies and teenage girls walking down the road in the beating sun with large wooden baskets filled with food balanced on top of their heads. Children playing and oxen grazing beneath the houses in an attempt to find shade. It was a very peaceful place to be, this world which was such a complete contrast to everything we are used to back home. Fields of lotus flowers stretched around us while farm workers in traditional conical hats dotted the landscape, entirely unconcerned by any world beyond their own. The Tonle Sap river ran parallel to us for a little while, winding its way over the countryside. Hours into the journey, we watched the sun set - deep pinks and reds that somehow reflected in the fields and illuminated the mountains behind.

As we had left Phnom Penh later than planned, we ended up being on the road at nighttime, against the advice of pretty much everyone we had met. When darkness set in it was a darkness that is so rare to see, so complete, heavy, silent and all-encompassing. The only sounds we could hear were the race of our car engine and the only lights we could see were when anybody drove close to us. Our driver only seemed to speed up with the darkness and by this point, with the absence of street lights, the abundance of blind turns and everything from little toddlers on trikes to huge open-topped vans carrying thirty people and farmers on carts pulled by four oxen or more making their way down the road, we decided to just sit back and enjoy the ride. We pulled up at our hotel in Siem Reap close to 9pm, checked in and headed excitedly into town.

I'll be honest with you – there is not a whole lot I can say about Siem Reap. It's certainly not charming and there is really not any beauty to speak of. Its sole attraction - and we were soon to discover that this really was an incredible attraction - is its close proximity to the ruins at Angkor Wat. The entire town consists of one really large area called Pub Street which (surprisingly) does what it says on the tin and a night market, which was really pretty to walk around. As we wandered down Pub Street, we both talked about whether we were growing old as it had absolutely no appeal. One girl lay on the ground, drunk off her face in tiny sparkly hotpants, surrounded by a group of muscly guys in 'Tiger beer' tank tops. "Summer of '69" and "Don't Stop Me Now" hammered out of huge speakers in the bars we passed. At the end of the street, a big macho American jock stood on the corner with a tiny, slightly baffled-looking Cambodian guy – the American poured half a bottle of whisky into a paper cup and roared "this is how I rolllllllllll!" as he downed the drink. C's response was something I won't print. To be fair, I'm pretty sure that if either of us had been with the girls/guys, we would have been lapping up the cheesiness; although C was adamant he would never be interested, I'm the first one to admit that if any of my girls had been there we would have been straight in there dancing it up. It was just such a strange contrast to see this sight after spending the day driving through the tranquil rice and paddy fields of Cambodia, watching farmers labour away and all manner of animal strutting around the roadside.

Over the next couple of days, we explored the ruins at Angkor Wat, one of the highlights of our trip and a place that we were both so excited about. It really did not disappoint. The two main temples that we saw - Angkor Wat itself (the main temple complex whose name has become the reference for the collective) and Angkor Thom - summed it up for us. They were absolutely breathtaking. As we drove into the complex on our first day of exploring, our tuk tuk driver followed the road around a huge river that was part of the old moat surrounding Angkor Wat. Monkeys scampered around the tuk tuk and the humidity left us barely able to breathe. The first temple we visited - Angkor Thom - was the site where Angelina Jolie filmed Tomb Raider. It was, as C perfectly summed it up, "absolutely swarming with tourists but somehow you don't mind." Even with hundreds of people around us, the ruins were magical. We climbed through centuries-old archways, saw the tree that somehow grows 'through' the temple and examined wall paintings, decorations and carvings that were hundreds of years old.

Unsurprisingly, though, it was Angkor Wat that was the most breathtaking sight of all. It was absolutely out of this world and, we agreed afterwards, one of the most incredible places both of us have ever been to. It is so extremely large that we found ourselves on our own at a fair few points despite the crowds of tourists. From the outside it looks amazing enough but when you step through the archways and out onto the huge walkway it becomes truly dazzling. The walkway stretches ahead in such good condition it's almost as if it were built yesterday. In front of us stood the world famous temples whose tower peaks are designed in the shape of lotus flowers.

We walked through the insides of the ruins, strikingly well-preserved and incredibly beautiful with huge arched windows that looked out onto yet more temples in the courtyard and then further out into the surrounding jungle. Everywhere we looked, there was something breathtaking. It was incredible from far away and incredible close up, with Buddha statues lining the insides of the temples. After winding our way through many passageways, admiring the bas-relief decoration and intricate wall carvings along the way, we climbed a very steep flight of stairs to see the view over the entire complex. (I had initially been turned away from entry to the high temple as I didn't have my shoulders covered and it is still considered a sacred site so we went to a market stall close by and bought clothes to cover up - this is how I ended up with an "I Heart Cambodia" T-shirt, much to C's amusement).

Afterwards, we went the opposite way to the crowds and walked down the steps at the back of the temple to see what we could find. It was here that we came across the best sight of our trip so far. In a practically deserted corner of the temple, there were monkeys scampering over the exterior stairway, performing with the best of them. They were hanging by their tails and dropping onto all fours, there were tiny babies with big eyes and larger ones, too. Then there was the big, fat 'chief' monkey who was being fed mango pieces by a orange-robe clad monk. Yes, really. He was handing pieces to the monkey as if this were the most normal thing in the world. Not really a sight you see every day. As we carried on walking around the ruins, one of the monkeys took a liking to C. Every time C took a step, so did the monkey. When he stopped, so did the monkey. The monkey even, I swear, started mimicking the way C was walking. He had absolutely no fear (both C and the monkey). Just as the monkey scampered off, an elderly, lone monk appeared from the jungle. I tried to take a strategic photo but he was already making a beeline for us and gestured to C to take a photo with him. "I'm from Vietnam," he told us. As he slowly walked away towards the temple, it was very hushed and for a few minutes there was no one else in sight. C turned to me and we looked at each other for a few seconds without saying anything. Moments like that don't really need words.

So that was Cambodia. An incredible place, a land that is so beautiful and working so hard to escape the impact of its horrific past. Our ten days in the country had really felt like walking through a piece of living history. Which takes me to our next stop, the one we had both been the most excited about from the start, a place that held such mystery and intrigue for us.

Burma, here we come.

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Photos

Pyjama party
All around Cambodia, we saw adults and children dressed in bright and colourful pyjamas, whatever time of the day.

Comments

[Jess]

Beautiful
Amazing, what stunning pics! xx