What’s Angkor’s Angkor Wat?

STATS: Day count=192; theft count=0; rip-off count=1; tourist screw-up count=4; Chris’ photo count=1760; Emma’s photo count=70; touch-typing char/min=234 (still still trying!); Poi skills mastered since last post: None

Who remembers the ancient arcade game of Frogger? Imagine we are the frog and you’ll get an idea of what it is like crossing the roads in Phnom Penh. Except that here the traffic comes from any direction regardless of where you are on the road. Luckily we are now old hands at this, which means  we stride confidently into lethal traffic belying an inward fear and hope of survival.

Fiona was luckily spared the one example of road rage that we have encountered on the anarchic roads (one rule: size wins) so far, when our tuk-tuk driver made a rude gesture at another road user who forced him (and therefore us) to go off-road to avoid a head-on collision. She left for home a few days ago. Before leaving, though, she (was) volunteered to add a contribution to the blog, and here it is in full, unedited glory:

I am writing (well typing actually, who actually puts pen to paper these days?!) whilst sitting on an air-conditioned bus from Battambang back to Phnom Penh which, quite frankly, is warmer than my Dad’s greenhouse during a good ‘ole British heatwave. I am immensely sad to be heading back to Phnom Penh as this is my last full day in Cambodia after spending ten days travelling around with Emma and Chris.

I’m sure Chris will (true to form) be highly informative with his postings so I won’t bore with a detailed itinerary. In a nutshell we spent two nights in Phnom Penh, travelled by coach up to Siem Reap for five nights followed by two nights in Battambang and then back to Phnom Penh.

I had intentionally (or maybe lazily) not read any guide books or blogs (aside from Chris’s of course!) regarding Cambodia. I am a firm believer in trying not to form pre-conceived ideas or opinions when visiting somewhere new. However I do recall charity appeals when I was young and had heard of the Khmer Rouge atrocities so I was to some degree anticipating a down-trodden destitute society.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. The brutal past seems laid to rest, although I am sure not forgotten. I’m certain most families, even today some thirty years later, have vivid memories and stark reminders either by missing family members or missing body parts, excuse the bluntness it is not without feeling. But if you didn’t know the history you would never guess. Aside from a few young cranky madams trying to sell us their wares at ‘inflated’ prices at a temple stop the Cambodians I encountered were friendly, cheerful and incredibly nice. Whether buying from them or passing at a distance the beaming smiles were wider than the Mekong and the waves genuine and heartfelt.

When first travelling out of Phnom Penh to Siem Reap I thought the Cambodian landscape seemed almost similar to home…..fields with bright green grass, cows grazing, trees blowing in the wind. Of course I realised pretty quickly that the vibrant grass is growing rice, the trees could be moving with the weight of monkeys frolicking and upon closer inspection the cows are the most anaemic looking things I have ever seen!

The countryside is abundant with all manner of living curiosities. My friend-cum-guides were extremely kind and patient with their answers to my ‘what on earth is that’ pondering at each new sound or sight. Although most of the noises seem to end up fried and on plates at coach stops and market stalls - sometimes I am thankful for my decision to be vegetarian!

The two days spent wobbling around on a rickety old bicycle were the highlight of the trip for me. Having not cycled since childhood I was (secretly) very apprehensive about hiring a bike and stuffed my rucksack full of plasters and tissues for my anticipated scrapes and bumps. However ten minutes on the saddle (with no tumbles) and I was absolutely loving the experience. Phnom Penh and Siem Reap are both intriguing and colourful places with plenty to peruse. But pedal powering out of the dust and bustle brought beauty and landscape that I had never encountered before nor expected.

Whenever we clambered off our bikes to stop for water the local children scampered over and grinned cheekily. At first I was (and I am deeply ashamed of myself for this initial judgment) expecting an outstretched hand or a demand for money but not once did that happen. I think the children were just genuinely bewildered at seeing tall (Emma and Chris), pale (me) strangers and, like any curious kid, enjoyed the attention and variety.

Cambodia for me is most definitely an amazing place of contradictions – lush green fields beside dry dusty roads. Large pristine French colonial buildings beside small, rubbish strewn schools. Large brick houses next door to tiny battered shacks. A dark past fading into a bright, optimistic future. It is a stunning country and I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I am very grateful for Emma’s tour guide skills and Chris’s bartering skills. And of course their knowledge of local fruit was worthy of a seat on mastermind! But more than anything, I am honoured and thrilled they let me join them on a portion of their journey in such an overwhelmingly beautiful place so unlike anywhere I have ever been before.

All very eloquent and informative. Unfortunately, as Fiona has now gone home, you’re stuck with me again. As instructed from the above, I will now proceed to bore you with a detailed itinerary.

The last post left us as we had arrived in Siem Reap. This is the closest town to the ancient city or Angkor, home to the famed Angkor Wat. To answer the question posed by this post’s title, Angkor was the capital of the ancient Khmer empire and is, as the guide book tells me, the heart and soul of the Kingdom of Cambodia. It was started in 802 AD and lasted about 700 years, with each generation trying to outdo the previous one, leading to a huge collection of ancient buildings over an area of 120 sq. miles. The city housed many tens of thousands of people, with the majority of buildings being made of wood and mud. Only the important temples and a few buildings of learning were made out of ‘eternal’ stone and therefore survive in various stages of disrepair to this day. The culmination of all this building work is Angkor Wat, the large temple in the middle of the area which draws the tourists not only from foreign lands, but also from all around Cambodia. The whole city of Angkor was abandoned in the 15th century and ‘rediscovered’ in the 1860s.

It would take many days to visit all the temples in the area, and, to be quite honest, the novelty of ancient ruins would wear off for us well before then, so we decided to spend just a couple of days visiting the main sights. Shunning Angkor Wat initially, on the assumption that if we saw it first, all subsequent temples would be a disappointment, we saw a few of the smaller temples on the first day, taking a tuk-tuk to reach some of the more distant ones. They were indeed worth seeing – very atmospheric settings surrounded by forest and intricate carvings in the stonework kept us interested for the whole day, which to be honest is pretty good for us.

The temple trail continued the following day, this time on hired bicycles, to see ‘the big three’ – Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm.  To be honest, we found Angkor Wat to be the least impressive of the three, though that may be due to the fact that we had already got over the immediate ‘wow’ reaction of a temple in the wood the previous day, and the fact that it seemed to us to be a little ‘sanitised’, neat and tidy. Angkor Thom contains various buildings spread out over a large area, with the best of the few that we had time to see being the Bayon – a small temple filled with many stone faces. Very eerie, wandering around the ruins with faces looking at you from all directions. Would have been slightly more eerie with fewer schoolchildren and Japanese tourists and their constant chatter in the background.

 

And so to Ta Prohm. After nearly 2 days looking at bits of stone, we expected to be disappointed. However, this was the best of the lot (though Fiona disagrees!). This is the one from all the films (well, Tomb Raider, at least!) – deliberately left in its overrun state so that the forest remains very much part of the temple, with walls supported by massive, mature silk-cotton tree roots, doorways blocked by thick strangler fig branches and collapsed corridors left as piles of stone. Spoilt only slightly by the wooden platforms strategically placed to ‘have your tourist photo by this big tree root’, it was well worth the trip to Angkor (and even Cambodia) for this temple alone. We spent a couple of hours wandering round the maze of overgrown and crumbling corridors of Ta Prohm as the sun went down and the parrots called overhead and the cicadas started their loud chirping from all around. Very haunting. Even with the Japanese tourists.

A day off from the temples enabled us to see more of the town of Siem Reap (or to find a shop selling chocolate ice cream, which seemed to be the primary objective of at least one of us – I wont say who, but I’m not a fan of chocolate ice cream, and neither is Fiona). Lots of tourists, lots of cafes, a pretty, and very relaxed, and relaxing, town. On our last day we hired bicycles again and headed out in the rough direction of a big lake (Tonle Sap, the largest in SE Asia, I believe), that we never actually reached (the heat, the distance, and an official looking barrier preventing us from going the whole way) but had a great time cycling through small villages with rickety stilt houses, waving to the local kids, and chatting to them (well, in a very hand-wavey way) when we stopped. Sipping a cola served by an attentive local family while sat in a hammock looking out over lush, green paddy fields is one of the lasting memories of Cambodia so far.

Leaving Siem Reap, on to Battambang. This is supposedly Cambodia’s second largest city. If that really is the case then the third largest must be almost deserted. Our experience of Battambang is a small, uncrowded, sleepy town. The three of us attempted a Khmer cookery course in a local cafe – excellent value for money at only $8 each, given that it lasted all morning and we got to eat the 3 dishes that we made (it’s not as if they could sell them). Obviously my veggie amok (coconut curry, usually made with fish), stir fry and salad were the best. Unlike the previous course we did in Thailand, all the food preparation, including the chilli paste, was done by us, making it much more of a ‘cooking’ course than a ‘combining course’. The afternoon comprised a hot and sticky climb to the top of the only hill in the area to visit some uninspiring caves and a temple (it’s a hill, and therefore bound to have a temple on top of it). The redeeming feature of the place was the knowledge that the Khmer Rouge used to take people to the top of the hill and execute them by dropping them down a hole to the cave bottom below. Though to have that as a ‘redeeming feature’ on an otherwise fairly uninteresting walk is a little macabre. The views from the top were good, the monks on the way up and down talkative, and the macaque monkeys as cute and threatening as ever.

Back to Phnom Penh to encounter a major thunder and lightning storm and say a tearful farewell to Fiona as she made her long and tortuous (via most continents on the planet, I believe) journey back home. Emma & I visited a large and excellent wildlife sanctuary (Phnom Tamao) outside town that takes in and looks after abused and confiscated animals – including gibbons, crocodiles, bears, otters, elephants and some massive reticulated pythons.  All in good enclosures (especially the bears) and a very well organised place. The beggars that line the dirt road leading to the entrance pull at the heart-strings – they apparently often walk all morning to get there in the hope of getting some handouts. Each time I see one of the older generation begging I am reminded of the horrors that they must have lived through in the 70s, not helped by (and many would say caused by) the West’s interference in Vietnam (check out John Pilger’s “Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia” video made in 1979 if interested – http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9159164859238659487#), and then abandoned to their fate afterwards. We don’t usually give to beggars, preferring to donate to charities that help them instead, but in Cambodia we haven’t the heart to stick with that policy. For someone who has lived through the trials and tragedy of war, oppression and famine only to have to end their days begging for enough money to eat only adds to the pathos of the situation. Of course, some of these people may have been part of the Khmer Rouge themselves. But, other than the leaders (one of whom, ‘Duch’, has just been sentenced to serve a further 19 years for crimes against humanity by the war crimes tribunal – which, incidentally, the media here is saying is not enough) and those who enjoyed the power, one may feel some pity for those forced to do terrible things to others in order to save themselves and / or their families. Unless we can honestly say we would do differently and stand up against such tyranny (and likely be immediately executed without ceremony or remembrance, along with our family), it is difficult for us to judge, in my opinion. I would like to think I would stand firm against such oppression – hopefully this will never be tested.

Back to less depressing things: Why, when there is a beer called “Angkor” in large circulation in the country, would you introduce one called “Anchor”? Luckily all lagers taste the same to me, so it doesn’t matter which one I am given when I order one.

We arrived at our next port of call, Kratie, in the middle of a power cut to the whole town. To most this means a lack of a fan in the room, or of lights. To Emma it meant no fruit shakes were available. The power cut was supposed to last just a couple of hours, so we settled for a very cheap room with no windows. The pretty mural painted on the wall of a lovely river scene through some open windows did much to lift the spirits, but nothing for illuminating or airing the room.  Unfortunately we later learned that the power cut was pre-planned and was destined to last 2 days. Still, these are the challenges that hardened travellers like us take in our stride. The mosquitoes invaded our room at night (through the few permanently open vents) and, unbuffeted by any working fan and unimpeded by any mosquito net, feasted all night on the two of us. There must have been some very fat mosquitoes trying to get airborne by the morning. Even this we could handle, but the last straw was the brown water that emerged from the shower, the toilet cistern and the sink tap. It turns out the main water tank was broken and water was needed to be pumped directly from the nearby Mekong river. We changed hotel for the second night to one that had a generator and mosquito-screened windows, alleviating at least 2 of the problems, albeit at an increased room rate. I think we must be getting soft.

The reason for coming to Kratie? It is the best place to see the very rare freshwater dolphins – the irrawaddy dolphin. Apparently from the water’s edge at the nearby town (a few huddled together stilt houses) you can see them playfully going about their daily business in the Mekong waters. A 90 minute bicycle ride to the reputed ‘best spot’, followed by a 75 minute wait, staring out to the murky but seemingly unpopulated waters as it started to hammer down with rain, led to no sightings whatsoever. The closest we got to a dolphin was the small teak carving of one that we bought from a nearby stallholder to remind us of the futile day spent staring at a river. On a positive note, however, the cycle ride was nice and the locals once again very friendly, with the kids’ constant cries of “Hello. What’s your name?”.

Vietnam looming, this will probably be the last post from Cambodia.