Part 2 - A gecko lullaby, the annihilation of a nation and Angkor What????

Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Ko Phayam
December 23rd 2011

Published: December 23rd 2011

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

After the trials of The Killing Fields (and possibly in Andy’s case Cambodian reality TV), he made the decision that the trip wasn’t matching his expectations and that he wasn’t getting anything from it. No disagreement from me there although I find it helps to try a little to get something back.

It was actually a relief when he announced he was going to go home. I suggested that perhaps returning immediately to London might not be the most positive option (after all, I know exactly what it feels like to want to run away from feeling rubbish – remember my arrival in Bangkok?). I asked him if he’d rather go off somewhere himself but he didn’t want to travel alone and so decided to go and visit some gay friends in Melbourne for a week. This meant that I didn’t have to say to him that “I wanted out” as well. Having discussed the problem at length with Sandy (whilst we were still in Laos) and subsequently Laura and Sayo, we all decided I had to tell him “it wasn’t working” and that I thought it better if we parted company otherwise the remainder of my trip would be ruined.

Friends before I left said he would drag me down and be a dead weight but I never imagined to what extent. Drained from a mere 10 days or so with him, I resigned myself to the fact that I would have the pleasure of his affable company until Bangkok and then for the last 2 weeks of the trip – I’d be flying solo again.

From Phnom Penh we took a bus all the way to Siem Reap – gateway town to the temples of Angkor and to the largest religious building in the world. Siem Reap itself is a fairly grisly vision of the way mass tourism affects a country. Arriving late at night, the streets were aglow with neon and large sprawling hotels dominated boulevards complete with fountains and Khymer “style” architecture. My first thoughts were the place looked like Las Vegas but I guess nothing more could be expected from a gateway city where the attraction itself is a UNESCO world heritage site and receives hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. I braced myself to lower my expectations. Perhaps this wouldn’t be the jewel in my SE Asia travelling crown after all…..

The guesthouse we stayed at in Phnom Penh had agreed a very good deal with me to stay at their sister place in Siem Reap but “OK Villa” was not just OK but Excellent. More like a boutique hotel with a fabulous rooftop pool, we were taken to the 6^th floor and shown into the newly finished penthouse room which was literally poolside. For $12 for both of us for the night I couldn’t believe our luck. Nor could Andy – as in, he was very cynical and negative….

It became apparent rather quickly that the sewerage system on the 6^th floor was a little creaky and though we had the most fabulous location, to put it bluntly….our room smelt of shit. Drains, sewers, and poo wafted past our nostrils all through the night and into the day so the following morning we asked to be moved. Popped into the adjacent penthouse room, the smell subsided a little but Andy still didn’t seem to be enjoying himself….. I came close to either drowning myself or him in the rooftop pool and for our first day exploring the temples of Angkor I barely spoke a word to him. I had reached my limit.

When people talk about Angkor Wat….to me it was always one temple that came to mind. In fact there are hundreds of temples with different names over a vast area. The Cambodian “god-kings” each attempted to outdo their predecessors with the building of new structures for each generation and so the site just expanded and became more and more dramatic and extensive.

You could spend many days exploring the area but unless you are a huge enthusiast, the 3 day pass for $40 suited me just fine. 1 day would certainly not be enough as when it came down to it some of the best moments I had were marveling at the intricacies of the carvings or reliefs on less popular temples. I am not going to go into individual detail about all the temples (phew!) but suffice to say screeching Korean tour groups aside, most of the 2 days at Angkor were truly spectacular.

Without a doubt the highlights for me were often at times when we had the place to ourselves….somehow we managed to avoid the tour buses (apart from at key moments like sunrise or sunset) and on the first day in the heat of the afternoon Banteay Samre was particularly empty. I had some quiet time with a very friendly monk (possibly a little too friendly though I may have misread the clasping grasp and kiss) and after visits to Banteay Srei, Kbal Spean (including an 8kms there and back hike to carvings and a waterfall), Eastern Baray & Mebon and finally sunset at Pre Rup I can most definitely conclude that I was most happy at Samre. My footsteps literally echoed here as there were so few people about due to the hot sun baking the sandstone and cooking you as you stepped from shade to shade. It was very special…. Encircled by hawking children around every entrance and exit, the hard sell for ice-cream, drinks, postcards, shopping etc etc quickly takes the edge of that magical moment of first being at a temple.

We had arranged to have our tuk-tuk driver for 2 days and on the second day Andy seemed much improved – he was actually rather pleasant company and we enjoyed a long and arduous day of “Templing”…together. Starting with sunrise at Angkor Wat, I was left astonished at how little I was moved by it. Whilst everyone was crowded round the lake trying to get that Angkor moment, I found a little corner and waited for the sky to lighten. It wasn’t the most beautiful of sunrises and so I ventured inside for a brief walk around what is called “the most inspired and spectacular monument ever conceived by the human mind”.

Now perhaps those bloody expectations of mine were too high again and I was a bit disappointed (Shabbs – I thought of you!) because I was left so indifferent. Sure, it was impressive in its size and storeys and the iconic towers topped with symbolic lotus buds but I didn’t get blown away by this “Everest” of temples. I got blown away on many other occasions that second day when the wow factor kicked in over and over again…. Perhaps I was missing something at Angkor Wat (it can’t be that I had exhausted my temple viewing patience as the day had just started) but other complexes like the mighty Angkor Thom with its Terrace of the Leper King, or Baphoun (the pyramidal representation of Mt Meru) and one of the two jewels in my Angkor crown, Bayon, made me far more excited.

Here in post dawn sun light, with fire-smoke wafting through the forest curling round the gateway statues and catching in the sun’s rays, I wandered through deserted corridors surrounded by the giant towers and 216 enormous stone faces of the temple as they were slowly lit by the rising sun. It was very beautiful and very calm. The faces are of Avalokiteshvara (have no clue who he is!) but it is said they also resemble the king himself. Designed to radiate command and authority with a soupçon of humanity - a perfect blend needed to control an empire they glared down at worshippers and kept them in their lowly place.

Other temples on Day 2 included Preah Khan, Preah Neak Poan, Ta Som, Banteay Kdei, Sra Sang – yes , that is as much as it sounds and at times we struggled to keep the level of motivation up due to the heat and the fatigue. Yet at each site, something different would catch our eyes… Nagas (multi headed serpents – Andy’s favourite) in perfect symmetry, Asparas (heavenly nymphs) in perfect form, or bas reliefs that particularly stood out or at many of these visited today, the sheer decay of the temple. Giant blocks of stone lying on the jungle floor covered with emerald mosses and. Collapsed archways. Crumbling columns.

Nowhere epitomized this more than my other jewel in the crown Angkor moment – visiting Ta Prohm – the ‘Tombraider’ temple! It was by far the most impressive to visit as it has literally been guzzled up by the jungle. Huge, tree roots like anacondas snake their way through, across and under the structures literally strangling the building to destruction. I loved it so much (a goose-bump response) and was so distraught by the screaming hoards of Koreans I decided to return the following day for dawn. Andy made the decision to join me but not until the last minute as he thought he might prefer a lie-in….. please!

Arriving at this magical, mysterious, jungle absorbed place with only a few other people already there was altogether different from the previous afternoon. It was the cherry on the top of the icing on the cake for me. Standing there in the presence of both such grace and beauty created by Man and yet the juxtaposition of Nature having claimed it back and swallowed it whole was just mesmeric. To quote Lonely Planet “Ta Prohm reminds us of the fecundity and power of the jungle….a temple locked in the slow muscular embrace of vast root systems”.

Just wow.

So, our time in Cambodia reached its natural conclusion and Thailand bound we timed it so we crossed the border on the earliest day possible for the granting of the overland 15 day visa. Likewise after 15 days of Andy, I was free again….he flew to Melbourne that evening.

Which almost brings me to the end of this magnificent SE Asian adventure as I started the last blog on the island of Koh Chang. I ended up enjoying its peace and tranquility for 8 nights before catching a boat with Jack the Dutchman to neighbouring Koh Payam….. a little more developed with bars and shops but still a far cry from the tourist destroyed peninsular further South. Jack and I had a great time, we hired a scooter and pootled round the tiny island, stopping at deserted beaches for swimming, watching sunsets, drinking a lot of Thai whiskey, sitting in front of beach fires and generally having a blast. I seem to have met a lot of great Dutch on this trip so a visit back to the Netherlands will be in order in 2012. Shhh – but Sandy and I are already planning it for joint birthday celebrations with Ed!

You know something? You’re never really alone when you travel solo – it is up to you to meet people and they are there if you want to engage. Some turn out good, some bad, some just weird but there is generally always someone. At times, I have wanted to be alone, to be by myself and have not been able to get that. At other times I felt sad not to be sharing my Koh Chang experience with someone but then Jack came along and we shared it together.

I felt so afraid when I arrived in Bangkok nearly 3 months ago. I felt lost and panicky and I wanted to turn around and run away from it all even though I had travelled solo before. But I didn’t run away and I’m glad I didn’t. I was lucky to meet the best travelling companion ever - Sandy. I am so looking forward to Central America with her and we toasted this back in Bangkok where she happened to be at the same time as my return to the capital. Small world eh?!! Myanmar was very hard work she said… very poor, subjugated and dirty with totally unreliable transport systems and more hassle than fun so she returned to Thailand sooner and is now bound for Koh Chang and Koh Payam for Xmas and New Year.

From Sandy to the guys at the Elephant Nature Park, to Ed & Ralph, to JB, to Eveline and finally Jack…I have met some fabulous people. It is not always people that make a trip but it sure as hell helps.

I have had a wonderful time albeit with some occasional tough moments including nearly breaking my neck falling out of my hammock and no, I wasn’t intoxicated. I got flipped out as I reached for my morning coffee on Koh Chang. As I went down, my life didn’t flash before my eyes but I did have a momentary thought that this was it. The speed and force of landing full weight on my neck made me think my time had come so I was almost a bit shocked to discover it hadn’t broken and after a few days of severe discomfort and complete immobility, the pain dissipated. I guess death by a hammock fall would be a memorable and happy way to go if I was choosing!

I may have been ‘on vacation’ the past fortnight now (and boy oh boy – what a vacation it was) but it isn’t always like that. Yet I still like the challenge of travelling – the frustration, the game, the haggling, the journey. People often travel as an escape from their reality. It has been suggested that I am doing that. I disagree. I travel because I love it. I want to suck it all up - the different foods, the people, the buildings, the culture – be it Antarctica, Cambodia, Rwanda or Zambia.

The countries I have visited in the past two years are not me running away from life but embracing it wholeheartedly. Given the choice between travelling the world in the sunshine or the 9 to 5 routine in the rain, internet dating waiting for Mr Right to come along, I continue to choose the former - my zest has not diminished and every experience – good and bad - is making me a stronger, more grounded individual who knows exactly what she wants from life and what I refuse to put up with. The perfect situation would be meeting Mr Right to do this with.

If I found out I had 3 months to live (or if there were any serious repercussions from the hammock fall!), I wouldn’t be doing anything differently. I am living it. I am sad that Andy was not able to use this time to get a taste of that and learn how to carry the baggage that we accumulate as we advance through this funny thing called life.

Hope you have enjoyed all the blog updates and next time you’ll be hearing from me, I’ll have arrived in Central America.Esta muy bien!

Vamos y Feliz navidad!

Hannah

xx

Part 2 - A gecko lullaby, the annihilation of a nation and Angkor What????

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