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Published: July 14th 2006
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Cambodia as a country has had a very troubled recent past. The Khmer Rouge wanted to reform Cambodia and create basically a brainwashed society that is devoted to it’s ultra-communist beliefs. They dubbed the dawn of this new age as year zero. In order to wipe out any evidence of a pre-Ankar Cambodia they set about destroying anything with any religious or historical value, and slaughtering anyone who had the knowledge to pose a threat to the regime. Doctors, lawyers, military, monks, they even went to the extreme of targeting people who wore glasses! They did not just stop there; they also killed all of these people’s families, regardless of age and gender. In total they massacred around 2 million people - over a quarter of the country’s population. The country descended into civil war which only really ended when Pol Pot (the Khmer Rouge leader) committed suicide in 1998. This is very evident as you explore Cambodia and after you travel through some of the more remote country villages it really hits home how lucky you are. The population is made up of 70% farmers who basically live to their means. The others that you meet seem desperate for your
money. You are constantly hassled by young children begging for money, or landmine victims.
The thing about Siem Reap that is even more striking than Bangkok is the divide between the rich and the poor. You will walk down a street lined with $2000 dollar a night hotels, then walk past a 3 year old child begging for money or food on the street at 10pm. Or nearly trip over a 7 year old sitting on the pavement sniffing glue. It’s quite upsetting to see. You can see that the town is very much geared towards tourists arriving at their hotel and not leaving for their whole stay except to see Ankor Wat. They don’t seem to have pumped any money into the actual town itself. One thing that is quite prominent and beautiful is the architecture. You can clearly see the French influence in the shuttered windows, archways and pillars.
You’ll be pleased to know that we managed to get out of our guesthouse and made our way to the Old Market Area in Siem Reap. This is the backpacking area of the town where you’ll find the budget guesthouses and nightlife. There is a street here
called Bar Street that lives up to it’s name. We checked into a place within staggering distance and decided to go out for a few drinks. Decided to start off in the room so went on a hunt for the local Whiskey. Over here it is called Mekong Whiskey. It’s not quite as smooth as Samsong, but does the job!
We went out that evening and to our disbelief the buckets here are bigger than the ones in Thailand! This could be messy! We ended up getting totally plastered and left the club in a bit of a state, but I sobered up pretty quickly when I was literally swamped by Tuk Tuk drivers. They weren’t just asking me if I wanted a lift, they were physically dragging me, one on each arm, in different directions. Whilst trying to get my head around this situation I felt a 6 year old’s hand rooting around in my pocket looking for something to steal, cheeky little shit!! I slapped his hand away and gave him a stern ‘no!’ after which he scurried off into the crowd. It is unacceptable the way they go about business here, however I do understand why
they are so desperate to have you as a customer. These guys genuinely have nothing for themselves and as it is low season there is a fraction of the amount of tourists but still the same number of drivers. This makes competition fierce for business that will provide them with money to literally live on. In Cambodia there is no dole, no benefits, if you don’t earn you literally don’t live!
Arranged with a Tuk Tuk driver to take us on a tour of the Ankor Temples. Watching the sun rise over Ankor Wat had been strongly recommended to us so we decided to leave at 5am. We woke up to torrential rainfall which filled us with joy as you can imagine! We soldiered on in our ponchos. Once we arrived I was almost pleased, as the dim light, lack of other tourists and the hazy mist hanging low over the surrounding dense jungle gave the temple more of an eerie feel, and more of a magical and mysterious atmosphere.
Angkor Wat is the biggest Temple on the site and one of the most awe inspiring pieces of architecture I have ever been fortunate enough to come across.
The temple itself is surrounded by a man made moat that is 190 metres wide and forms a rectangle that measures 1.5 km x 1.3km. It is vast. The temple is around 1000 years old and it is amazing how well it has stood the test of time. The only scars visible are that many of the statues within the temple no longer have heads due to the Khmer Rouge’s attempts to abolish religion in the 70’s. Every brick that has been used to construct the temple is carved with the most intricate of patterns and designs, the amount of man hours that must have gone into the creation of this place is phenomenal. Every staircase around the temple is dangerously steep and actually quite daunting. Each step is ½ a foot big and about knee height making climbing them more like scaling a rock face as you have to use your arms as much as your legs. The monks that built the steps made them so steep as they believed that the journey to the heavens was a difficult and challenging one so wanted to reflect this.
The next temple that we visited was Bayon. It is smaller
in size than Angkor Wat however just as impressive. The temple is decorated with 216 enormous faces at the top of 54 towers. We then moved onto a temple called Ta Prohm. This is the temple where they filmed Tomb Raider and was for me by far the most enjoyable. The temple has been left for many years at the mercy of the jungle, allowing trees to root over the buildings creating a truly magical place. It is made up of dark corridors lit only by beams of light streaming through cracks in the wall, slicing through the dust in the air and walkways over ponds that have collected in what used to be courtyards. You really are taken back in time and imagine what it was like 1000 years ago. A far cry from the florescent shirts, knee height white socks with sandals and the constant artificial click of digital cameras that you experience nowadays.
The Angkor Temple complex is a truly amazing experience, but after a day we were pretty much ‘templed out’. Looking back I wish I’d stayed in Siem Reap another couple of days in order to have a 1 day break then another day
exploring - there is just too much to take in on one visit.
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Lee Barker
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Golem On The Rocks
Those Temples are defiantly my kind of thing. I could probably spend a week scampering around the rocks just like Golem, with a digital camera in my hand of course. A squad of glamour girls would be the only other must. I think then I would be truly happy.