Cambodia - Siem Reap

Day 1-2

Well I arrived in Siem Reap dishevelled but alive late at night. I have already mentioned that journey elsewhere and don’t feel the need re-live it again myself by describing it in detail. Suffice to say I highly recommend flying your way around Vietnam and Cambodia rather than busing it. Unless you are completely broke and under 25, only because at that stage of your life practically anything is fun.

I spent the next morning getting to know where I was online first of all. I hadn’t done any research what so ever and wanted to know what people recommended in the way of what to see, where to eat, the best place to get a massage, how to get around and how to avoid being ripped off. At lunch time I set off walking with no real destination in mind apart from a restaurant for lunch. 

Siem Reap is a flat, well laid out place that feels more like a large country town rather than a city. Still no usable footpaths to speak of, well they are there but they are usually taken up with motorbikes, bicycles, cars, chairs, dogs, tables, people, fruit stalls, mobile phone cover stalls, in fact anything but space for a pedestrian to walk safely. So yet again I walk on the road, assuming that all the traffic coming up behind me will go around. Traffic is not quite so mad, but there are still guys lounging around on every single corner of the whole place ready to call out an offer of “Tuk Tuk?” or “you need a ride?”. I just smile and shake my head, probably do that 50 times in an hour of walking. I know they think I am barmy choosing to walk in the heat.

 I wandered slowly under my umbrella in 37 degree humid heat  for about 1km into the denser part of the town and went down a street that has lots of restaurants and shops for westerners along it. The one  I was looking for was called Sala Bai and is run by a French NGO who use it to train extremely disadvantaged young people. They also have a small hotel above and  use both to teach 100 students a year how to work in hospitality. They have a new intake every year, hand picked by the team who go out into the countryside and meet the family to ensure that they are from very poor families. 500 families apply for their child to attend every year, but they can only take 100. This is because the NGO is going to be paying for all board and lodging for that student for a whole year. It was a great meal made and served by the students, a very nice French inspired 3 course meal for $12. This pays for 1 student for 1 day of classes.

The next morning I had arranged to be picked up by Tuk Tuk for the day and taken out to the Angkor temple complex for my first day of sightseeing. This is now getting to the heart of my trip and the main reason I am in Cambodia. I was pretty excited, although still having done very little research I didn’t have any particular expectations or any background at all, which is probably a good thing in hindsight. So off we go, me perching in the little Tuk Tuk, the driver gunning along, weaving in and out of traffic, slowing down at intersections but never really stopping, just cruising through and all the traffic coming the other 3 ways just does the same, works ridiculously well in fact.

And so I arrive at Angkor Wat, the best preserved temple complex and the most famous. I have to admit its pretty impressive entrance, with a long walk to the external stone gatehouse in the 5ft thick stone wall and then another long walk between what would have been beautiful large lakes and then I was at the entrance to the temple complex and was pretty awe struck. Or I could have been heat struck, I couldn’t tell for a while. Think it was both. It was so hot you could hardly walk and breathe at the same time, so going up and down steep, awkward steps and climbing up and over stone entrances was taking everyone a lot longer than normal. It was amazing, all the detailed carving and various covered walkways surrounding what would have been stone lined water pools and ponds, it must have been incredible when it was all first completed. And so ancient, older than most of the buildings in England and Europe, incredibly intact for having gone through many centuries of wars, fighting, religion changes etc. The temples were  built and decorated during the period of Hindu beliefs but were then adjusted to fit changes to Buddhism in later centuries.

After an hour or so I went back down the long walk back to the maze of waiting Tuk Tuks and spent 5 minutes trying to figure out which one was my guy. I suddenly saw someone waving frantically and realised he was waving at me. So in I hopped and off we went, to the next one, about 3km down a road surrounded by rainforest. The next was a series of temples, structures and other bits and pieces and I spent a couple of hours wandering around, trying to avoid the Chinese and Korean tourists who make up the majority of people and hang about in huge groups talking extremely loudly, constantly taking photos of each other, and rarely seeming to actually take in what they are experiencing. Rush, rush, yabba, yabba, it all gets a bit much. Not interested in wandering around quietly and reverently and taking it all in which is what the few western tourists and myself like to do. Oh no, couldn’t possibly do that… I try to escape them and wander outside the main buildings and get lost amongst it all away from the crowds. You can really get right away from people if you wander far enough and it suddenly goes quiet. And then you can really feel the power of these places, the ancient stones surfaces, covered in patterns, pictures and markings are quite spiritual and you can start to imagine what it might have been like to live in one of these places had you been the king at the time.

 

 Oh and did i tell you i saw elephants and monkeys? I hand fed the wild monkeys some mango. Some other annoying tourists who should have known better were giving the monkeys cans of coke to drink, hello?? They thought it was hilarious, i walked away in disgust. But it was cool seeing lots of elephants crusing around the place.

My favourite temple of the day was Ta Prohm, seeing the jungle taking it over was really amazing. You know when you see or hear something that causes you a little sharp intake of breath and brings a tear of wonder and emotion to your eye? Well that was one of those moments for me, felt a bit silly but it just happened. A truly awe inspiring sight. It was like giant pythons were slowly crawling all over the buildings and smothering them, in fact some of the tree roots really did look like huge snakes, almost scary! Strangler figs meticuously re-absorbing human made edifaces back into the ground from whence they came. Nothing can compete with nature, it is the ultimate destroyer.