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Published: October 8th 2009
Beng Mealea
This is one of the truly untouched temples around Siemreap.Hello again blog readers!
Firstly, we are not dead! It seems though that all the areas around us are being hit hard: Vietnam (typhoon), Laos (flooding), Philippines (typhoon), Indonesia (earthquake), Samoa (earthquake), but Cambodia is doing ok. Well, we did have a little flooding...
But first, we arrived in Siemreap after our super fun car ride. We got dropped off in the middle of town close to a one square block market called the old market. We settled for the first guesthouse we found, it just happened to be the best. It's called Fresh guesthouse; it had 2 beds, hot shower, tv with loads of channels and a fan for $4/person. Not bad at all. We arranged with our guest house to take us out the next day to the Beng Mealea and the Bantaey Srei and took it easy for the night. Max and I had a craving for some Mexican food since we lived 1/2 a block away from a Mexican place so we decided to eat there. While eating and enjoying some $0.50 beers we were approached by many kids trying to sell us books and bracelets and post cards. We were pretty good until Sam
Quite the climb
This temple had some steep stairs came along. This guy was a smart and pretty funny 12 yr old kid who got us to by 3 books. Yeesh, but to our defense the books were 'The Killing Fields' and 'And then they killed my father,' two books which will bring some understanding to Cambodia's bloody history.
We crashed for the night. When we woke up we noticed that the skies had opened up while we were asleep and it was pouring rain! Our hostel told us that they couldn't take anyone out so we were stuck in Siemreap with no where to go. So we took it easy, caught up on some internet chores (like writing the last blog) and took it easy. In the evening to change things up we went to the Viva! Mexican food restaurant again. Delicious filling food for <$5, you can't go wrong! This night we met Sareap, a young Cambodian motto driver, who told us that he would take us out for cheaper (than our guesthouse) and regardless of the weather to the sites we wanted to see. So a three day friendship was made that night as we crashed early cause tomorrow we were going to see Beng
Floating village
Note the pigpen under the house. They also relied heavily on fish farms and fishing. Mealea and the Bantaey Srei regardless. The next morning the guesthouse found out that we had found another and like a jealous ex didn't talk to us much more for the rest of our stay. We would of worried more about that but we had to go out and see some sights! We also had to buy some poncho's cause it was raining hard that day! We were worried that we wouldn't end up going due to the streets being flooded. Yes, there was some flooding, up to 1 meter in some parts of the city but were we were (which was about a block from a big river) we had ankle to knee deep water in the streets for the remainder of our stay.
Now the two sites we saw this day were Beng Mealea, Kbal Spean and Bantaey Srei. We went to Beng Mealea first. This was roughly 50 km out of town and was the most untouched temple of all the ones we saw. It had an Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider feel to it. It was very beautiful and not to mention big! We got to climb all over it with no real restrictions, just our local
Max handing out books
This was harder than it looked! guides warnings of where it was slippery. Our guide was alright as a guide but once we got to talking to him some more we found out he was quite the humanitarian. Across from this temple he and his friend had built a Orphanage and school for the poor kids in the surrounding area. The school also had its own farm for vegetables, 2 ponds for fish, a cow, pigs, and chickens, and dreams and plans to expand. Very cool to get to see and so we donated some money and were on our way to Kbal Spean. Kbal Spean is up in the mountains a ways from Siemreap. There are suppose to be carvings in the water and close to a river 1.5 km into the forest from where we got dropped off. The walk was careful but brisk since we were on a bit of a time line, if we took too long here we wouldn't be able to see Bantaey Srei. When we got up to the river it was flowing hard! Lots and lots of water, some nice water falls but no carvings. We didn't see a single one! We figured the water levels went up
Max and our driver asleep
Hey now, going to temples and swimming in flooded forests is hard work! So we took an hour long nap after lunch. so high it covered the carvings so we can't say much of this place except it was a nice nature hike! Bantaey Srei was the next stop and it is a pretty small temple which has exquisite carvings with high amounts of detail in them. Every door way, rooftop, statue, wall had carvings on them and it was quiet the spectacle. I don't know what else to say, if you're ever in Siem Reap don't just go for Angkor Wat and be done with it, there are so many other wicked places. When we got back that night we took it easy and enjoyed some food and cheap beers at Viva's again. We contemplated weather or not staying in Siem Reap would be worthwhile with all the rain and flooded roads. We did, luckily, decide to tough it out here.
The next day we were rewarded nice weather (hurrah!) as our plan was to go to Phnom Flukk (sp?) and the flooded forest that neighboured it. We met Sareap, our tuktuk driver, again at 8 am and headed out. We were really lucky to have nice weather for this because after an hour or so by tuktuk we hopped
Bantaey Srei carving
This temple was said to have been made by women since the carvings are so intricate. on a boat and headed out to sea. Sareap decided to join us and even drive the boat, taking the wheel away from our original captain (who's name I forgot but he was like 13 yrs old at most). Phnom Flukk is a truly unique place since in the dry season there is no water except for a small river not really affecting the town, during wet season the whole town is flooded with 3-5 meters of water. We're here during wet season so the town on stilts was busy with boats and curious residents wondering who these two white guys were. We decided to stop by a small Buddhist temple and school to take a look around. We were warmly received by one of the schools teachers who showed us around the grounds and urged us to donate some money for school supplies to their kids. We bought some pencils and notebooks and were told to do the hardest thing we've done this trip: hand out the books and pencils to the kids. Why was it so hard? Well we had about 25 pencils and books combined, each, and 3 classrooms full of 40+ kids. We split up and
Face
Very cool. handed out supplies in one class each. Very hard to pick who got what and especially when we were running low but once we did that we joined some other kids in a game of soccer which was really fun but tiring and we got a good sweat going. So we hopped in the boat again and headed off into the flooded forest which was very cool to see and then stripped down to our boxers and took a quick swim all four of us (Max, Sareap, our boat captain, and myself). We tried to get other boats to join us but no one did. After a long boat ride in, we hopped back on the tuktuk and went on to lunch and another temple (which I don't remember the name of....but it was cool). Before we explored the temple though, we ate lunch and took a nice hour long nap in the hammocks in the restaurant. We checked out the aforementioned, name forgotten, temple and then headed home. That night we decided to do something different so after some Viva dinner we went off to Siemreaps Night market to catch a couple of flicks.
These weren't the Hollywood style
Angkor Wat
I think you guys might know of it :P movies, rather, two documentaries. One was about landmines in Cambodia and the world and the other was about Pol Pott and Khmer Rouge. Both films were very interesting, despite the cheesy graphics. The landmine movie described what type of landmines there are in the world and how they affect people. Also, how Cambodia is one of the most mined countries in the world! It also explained the Ottawa landmine Agreement and how some of the super powers (China, US) still haven't agreed on a ban of all landmines world wide. The Pol Pott movie described the Khmer Rouge and how they came into power and Pol Potts ascent into the spotlight. It was a bit confusing but it was interesting to learn that Phnom Phen was completely evacuated for a time, over half a million people evacuated, crazy.
On our last day of temple hunting we had the grand finale: Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom (and little did we know many other smaller ones)! It was another beautiful day in Siem Reap, sunny, hot. We started the tour at the most famous of all: Angkor Wat. It was everything you'ld expect it to be: magnificent, beautiful, huge, awe inspiring,
and very touristy. But it was low season so it wasn't bad at all, except for the souvenir sellers who had less targets to choose from.
"Hello, cold drink one dollar!" "Sir, sir, what's your name? Want to buy book?" Now we understand that this is their way of income but it was a bit ridiculous being swarmed by 8 sellers at once, saying no to them and then when going by them again getting cursed at (it's true). But Angkor Wat, which was built before Notre Dame, is built on a 200 hectare piece of land. This of course, includes everything the city, the moat, the temple. It was absolutely stunning like all the temples we saw so I recommend everyone to come see it. Our favourite part of the temple was the 4 galleries (one was closed for repairs) which had 51m - 94 m long carvings along the wall of the temple. One described the Battle of Lanka, another a parade of the kings military, and finally, the coolest one, Judgement of Yama; Heaven and Hells. This last wall had three levels showing heaven, actual life, and hell. The depictions of the 32 hells were especially gruesome with carvings of beatings, beheadings, tongues being pulled out, etc.
The Bayon temple was next and it is one of our favourites. It's the one with the giant heads sculpted into the temple. It was quiet beautiful, I have a picture of it somewhere in this blog. The sun was up and it was very hot at the top of the temple but the sights were worth it. Not much more to say, it was beautiful, we took pictures, and dodged the souvenir vendors (with no luck). We met up with Sareap, or Mr. Sitar, as we later found out, to eat some lunch and Malarone. Our next temple was a really fun one because it required quiet the climb. Ta Keo, a 'giant temple mountain', was the state temple for Jayavarman V. It required you to literally climb the stairs up to the top but the view was amazing so we chilled at the top of the temple until we felt it was time to move on to an even cooler temple.
Ta Prohm, this temple is the over grown, tree roots coming out of the rubble type of temple. We snapped some more photo's, got in trouble for climbing up on top of a wall or building or something, and had a quick conversation with a lady who worked for National Geographic. She was writing a column which would rank the UNESCO world heritage sites. I forget when that will reach the news stands but it sounds like a very cool article. (She said Angkor Wat and all is too touristy so it won't win).
After Ta Prohm we were beat, we didn't want to go to anymore! But there were two more temples left:
Banteay Kdei and Prasat Kravan. Too be honest we sort of rushed these, I mean they're beautiful, great carvings in the pillars and walls. But it's like going to too many churches or seeing too many paintings in an art gallery; after a while the wow factor disappears. Which is a shame because these were two cool temples again.
After our long 3 days of cultural experiences we decided to reward ourselves with 1 and 1/2 hours of massages for $10 each (Max splurged and got an extra 30 mins foot massage for $4). It was quiet relaxing and after we were done that and feeling like jelly we retired for the night and watched a movie.
We woke up on the last day with no alarms telling us to get out of bed and no real place to be at a certain time (this was the first time this trip!) and checked out of our guesthouse. The water in the streets have receded a bunch and now only puddles remain. After a nice brunch we booked some bus tickets down to Sihounikaville (sp?) which is Cambodia's place to go for beaches. We look forward to a few days rest reading our newly bought books and gearing up for Phnom Phen.
Till then we'll keep checking the weather for around here and hoping for the best, you guys back home get the Canucks back on to winning ways eh?
Bye for now!
What we learned in Siem Reap, Cambodia:
- Malarone makes you have crazy dreams
- Canada has a population of 32 million -2, why? Cause Max and I are here!
- Once Kif gets to Vietnam, he will have been to 4 of the most heavily mined countries in the world
- Broken English is overtaking our normal speech
- "cold drink, coke, $1!" will haunt our Malarone dreams for a while
- drink and souvenir vendors pick out the weak and lost tourists so go as a herd you have better chance of survival!
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Peter Wright
non-member comment
I swear you're making up names for some of these places! Meet Lara Croft anywhere?