We have been unable to access internet in a few days, then we were on planes, etc so this entry comes a bit late… we are now well into Japan, but first is first, here is Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.
So! After cutting our time down in Phnom Penh to one day, thinking we may not be able to change our flights, we rushed over to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat to find out that our flights had indeed been bumped forward… by ten days! Good news and bad news, as we now had more time in Cambodia, but not enough to backtrack and do it again properly. Oh well.
We decided to take a breather in Siem Reap and set down some roots for four nights. Our guesthouse was new and clean, but at night every mosquito hiding in the crevices of the building radared in on my location and spent their time feasting on my blood and flying straight into my ears, AAAARRRGGGHHH! One night I couldn’t take it anymore and got up at 3 a.m. and went and sat in the bathroom with the light on until the morning. It’s so awful when mosquitoes like you as much as they like me.
Siem Reap is nothing like we expected. It’s a beautiful little town, with the river running through it as is the case with most cities in SE Asia. The central area is very touristy, full of bars, cafes and shops. The riverside is also really pretty as it’s lined with trees, benches and statues. Now this is the centre of Siem Reap, as the surrounds where the locals can afford to live, eat, etc are much more underdeveloped. Incredibly disturbing to me in Siem Reap were the amount of very young children, anywhere from 6 years of age that were out late at night selling postcards or bracelets or books to help their families make a living. We had a really difficult time with this, as we read that it’s the tourists that have created this culture of working children, as they make more money each month than if their parents go out to do similar or very physically demanding work themselves. What do you do? I don’t want to support child labour, but you can’t blame the families for this, they need to survive and it may be their best form of subsistence! We personally decided against buying from children (really heartbreaking sometimes), but I think each person has to draw their own moral line in SE Asia; it’s definitely important to be informed first before taking any action.
Why do I always get on a soap box? I almost can’t help myself! Ok, I am getting off of it. Again.
We hired a tuk tuk driver through our guesthouse to take us to Angkor Wat, one day for sunrise, and surrounding temples. I had no idea that the Angkor temples covered many kilometers and that there were so many temples. It’s a true temple-a-thon and you go armed with water and sunscreen and stamina. Seeing Angkor Wat for the first time is, I think, akin to (although I haven’t been!) seeing the Pyramids for the first time. It’s massive and intricate and sometimes defies reason when you gaze upon the many bas reliefs on the walls and walk through dozens of archways and hallways, all carved elaborately with images of Buddhist and Hindu gods and pictorial stories of legendary battles. Did you know that Angkor Wat was built around the 1100’s to 1200’s? I had no idea it was that… well, recent. And did you know the temples of Angkor were rediscovered only around 150 years ago and the many temples, spread throughout kilometers were hidden by jungle? Can you imagine coming upon such a thing when trekking through the jungle? Gah!
We went to too many temples in two days to mention, so I’ll give you our two favourites (besides the obvious Angkor Wat), which were Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm. Angkor Thom was incredible much more compact but with giant faces carved into the towers and stone work detailed enough to make you think of Gaudi’s cathedral in Spain (has anyone seen it? It’s very detailed and bizarre). It was a genuine step back in time and it was difficult to believe that at one time the temple was actually functional. Angkor Thom was also like a little maze, with the main tower in the middle, giant steep stairs, towers all around… awesome! Our other favourite, Ta Prohm was the perfect image of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Phenomenal ruins, some crumbling, secret passages and courtyards, overgrown with vegetation, and most impressively MASSIVE trees growing shamelessly out of the walls, their imposing roots completely enveloping walls. I couldn’t stop smiling, it was so cool! Loved it loved it loved it.
Our two day temple- fest left us completely exhausted, but it’s definitely a wonder of the ancient world that is a must see. Now quickly onto food and restaurants, there are two honorable mentions. The first is Cambodia’s national dish, Amok, which is a very concentrated coconut and onion based curry, originally with fish, but also made with chicken and beef. It’s served in banana leaves adorably shaped into bowls and it is f-i-l-l-i-n-g. Good grief, I had two bites and was ready to explode. But yummy! As for the first unrivaled, place winner in the establishment area, that goes to the Singing Tree Café
http://www.singingtreecafe.com/
. It’s like somebody read my mind about what I like, what I believe in, what I’ve studied, what I want to do… and shoved it all into one awesome little hippie joint! It’s eco-friendly, fair trade, organic, uses its own garden, has free internet, provides information on environmental and humanitarian programs in Cambodia, has seminars upstairs… oh ya!! And the food is amazing! And at night little frogs come out of hiding from the garden and hop around your feet! Ha! It really couldn’t have gotten any better. Scott found a brochure and fortunately we were able to go there on our final night. But two or three or more times would have been great…
In an insane twist of luck, on our night before heading to Battambang we ran into Bruno, an Argentinean guy we worked with in New Zealand. He’d just arrived at the same guesthouse. It was really good to see a familiar face for a bit.
The next morning we took the 7 hour boat down river to Battambang. Hmmm, interesting mode of transportation I say, the boat was for 30 but there were at least 45 of us so people had to sit on the roof in pretty intense heat. Luckily, that was not us, we got the last bench under the roof. Roofs are important my friends. We passed numerous floating villages along the way, sometimes picking up locals that would row over in their little canoes and hop on to the next floating village. We also managed to be violently whipped, numerous times by branches from mangroves in “river” areas (more like flooded mud flats or swamps) that were questionable in their size to squeeze a boat through. But no! Sometimes, say three or four times, we had to pass another oncoming canoe or boat through an area not even wide enough for one. That’s when practically the entire mangrove tree was inside the boat. Then we were drenched by the motor spray of a passing motorized canoe. Then Scott almost lost a tooth when a giant branch smacked him unexpectedly in the mouth. Then… there are too many incidents, let’s just say the ride was eventful and adventurous!
Battambang the city is uneventful in itself it’s more the surrounds of the country that appeal. Ironically, for a second day in a row we ran into people we knew, this time the Spanish guys we got along with famously in Halong Bay, Vietnam. As for activities, we did take in another cooking class, this time Khmer cooking, and learnt how to make curry paste (hard, but not as hard as we thought) from fresh ingredients and the national dish, Amok. We visited the market prior to the class which was, well, I’ll be honest, a bit gross. Dried snake anyone? Many other live things, mainly seafood flip, flop and writhe around in baskets. How long can a catfish-like fish (I can’t ID fish) live out of water?!?! A long time obviously because there were completely out of water and kept wriggling and jumping out of the baskets. These are not lung fish! I don’t understand. But ew.
We finished our time in Cambodia with the infamous bus trip to Bangkok. We read and read and heard and heard about the outrageously bumpy unsealed road you went on for 4 hours until you hit the Thai border, but although it was true, it honestly wasn’t that bad. The air con busting on the bus for the last half hour was a bit more unbearable (it was HOT), but otherwise, all too easy.
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