Turning 30 amongst the temples
Trip Start
May 02, 2009
1
6
Trip End
May 12, 2009
Siem Reap, KH.16, Cambodia
Friday, May 8, 2009
It started on the shitter
I had brought with me the wrong medication. I'd brought the shit stoppers, not the shit starters.
My body decided to torture me and refuse to play the usual toilet game, so I woke up on my birthday with a pain in my kidney. This was soon (ie at 4:45am) followed by a dash to the dunny to discover that my planned day at the ruined temples could very well be spent in the hotel room.
Not the most appealing start to a new decade.
The Angkor Wat sunrise
I don't very often see the sun rise above the horizon. I prefer to get out of bed and be greeted by daylight streaming through my window.
It was a rather big deal to plan a sunrise session at the temples on my birthday. But then again, this is a major attraction in Cambodia. And a big deal all on its own. So we did it, and it wasn't so hard after all given that my body clock is refusing to acknowledge Cambodian time and is sending me to bed straight after tea and waking me up around 5am. No partying for this self-confessed nana.
We had booked a tuk-tuk driver for the day to get us from temple to temple and as we drove around the misty moat to the entry to Angkor Wat, I was filled with a sense of excitement and accomplishment. I was about to tick a box and schnap the photo to prove it. Angkor Wat, you're going down on my list of "done thats".
The sun rising just to the left of the main spires cast a coral coloured glow which became lovely lighting for some photos on the moat wall with the entry gate behind us. It's rather misleading as you kind of think that this is all there is to Angkor Wat. Then you cross the ancient cobbled bridge, go through the gateway and enter on to Angkor Wat's massive front yard.
There were people everywhere trying to get the best spot for a sunrise photo.
We walked down the 475m cobbled and raised avenue towards the temple, pausing for a few minutes in different places to watch the sun peek over the spires. The avenue was beautiful and very majestic in the morning, but when we came back on the second day for a final look, we were baked by the midday heat.
My patience didn't hold out for the complete sunrise, so we started wandering through the complex, taking photo after photo of the restored temple. There are zillions of ornate doorways that beg you to pose in them and lots of little shrines to Buddha.
We spent a bit of time hanging out around the spire without scaffolding around it, looking up at its lichen encrusted peak. We then went out the back door to walk around the verandah. On each side of Angkor Wat there are carved frescoes that were added around 400 years after the temple was built. The frescoes would cover more than 300m and were very impressive, if a little repetitive (the same scene was carved over and over again, like a chain of paper dolls).
And that was Angkor Wat. Much more tolerable in the cool of the morning than the baking midday sun. It also wasn't as busy as the crowds watching the sunrise would lead you to believe.
The Angkor Thom Complex
This was a bizarre experience where we went from barely being able to move on the impressive Bayon temple to being the only ones at Preah Palilay only 200m away.
Bayon looks like a pile of disorganises rocks from afar, but as you get closer, you see all the fabulous detail in the carved pillars and walls. The Lonely Planet tells me that there are 216 carved faces of a god that was made to look like the kind of the time. Rather narcissistic, but hey, we're still paying attention!
There were Japanese tourists to the max here, and some other far more annoying tourists that feel that every forbidden peak should be climbed, in this case, scaling a spire for a photo with his machete.
All this aside, I liked the atmosphere and watching other people make their way around the ruin.
There were plenty of other amazing ruins there, which we nearly didn't see because we hadn't consulted the guidebook. We went back to Prous, our tuk-tuk driver who then pointed out that we had to walk to the other ruins in the vicinity.
So we saw more cobbled boulevards, elephants carved into stone, stone wall carvings, ancient walls covered with lichen, huge jungle trees, countless photogenic doorways and more piles of rocks. It was fun!
More Temples
After Angkor Thom we saw Chau Say Tevoda, Thommanon, Ta Keo, Ta Prohm and Preah Khan. More than enough to whet Shaun's appetite for ruined temples.
Ta Keo was interesting for the insanely steep staircases that have a step deep enough for a cicada. Shaun was far more adventurous than I as he climbed up the steps, ladder style. The bricks were hot to touch, so I opted for a lower level. As it turned out, there were less steep steps further around the temple.
Ta Prohm is the other famous temple. Made famous by Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. It was reclaimed by the jungle and has many massive trees growing from walls and other brickwork. It looks very cool, and is cool because of the shade they provide.
Preah Khan was apparently an actual city that people lived in. The guidebook mislead me into thinking that it was well restored, however there were so many tumbled down walls and ceilings that a number of paths through the ruin were blocked. This caused us grief after taking off down a passage to get away from an over-zealous wannabe guide/give me a tip guy. He said that another path was more interesting, but I fobbed him off. Sadly, he was right as my choice to go down this passage only meant we had to double back and step up and over to get through the many doorways.
An experience that really sucked
I had read about these places where you could have the dead skin sucked off your feet by garra rufa fish, and I wanted to give it a go. There is a place at the night market where you can get it done, 15 minutes for US$3, so we got out dosh out.
First they wash your feet and inspect for any cuts or scabs which they cover up with a bandaid. You are then given the signal to put your feet in the bath. Shaun had already put his feet in and had swarms of little fish around his feet. I say swarmed deliberately as they looked more like angry bees than a shoal (or school if you prefer) of fish.
I was not prepared for the strange sensation of having my feet attacked by tiny fish sucking, or at times it felt like biting. I put on a wild display of thrashing my body about, unsure about wrenching my feet out of the water for fear of sending some fish flying into nearby stalls. Eventually I calmed down and started laughing and showing curiosity at what the fish were doing.
Some other travellers were watching my display and asked us what it felt like. It really did feel as though I'd put my feet in a box of wiggling worms. It felt gross at first, but you then become accustomed to it
We watched other people put their feet in and the fish zoom towards the fresh skin, and their subsequent reactions. I was fascinated by a flap of skin that the fish were trying to suck off my foot. They had found the beginnings of a blister and thought it was pay day.
Afterwards, my feet felt very smooth, although there was still a callous or two that they probably needed to spend some more time with!
After dinner, we dropped in for a Thai massage and had a couple of Cambodian girls walk along our backs and pummel us to a pulp. Relaxing though, and cheap!
30 and one day
Day two in Siem Reap, and feeling better, we attacked some more temples. With our camera that was. We nearly didn't though, because Shaun was not happy about the overnight increase in Prous' tuk-tuk fee. He did manage to bargain him down which appeased him somewhat.
We decided to start at Phnom Bok, a little visited temple. Even Prous hadn't been there. It soon became apparent that few people go there because there is a rather difficult 200m climb to get there. Given the heat, which I maintain was at least 38 degrees and definitely more than the day before, we struggled up the concrete steps taking numerous breaks for water and rest.
Eventually we got to the top and the people who live there gave us a tour and chatted away to us in Khmer, telling us where to look. There were some frangipani trees in flower, shooting out the top of a couple of spires, and then another heap of rubble. We weren't allowed to go back down without checking out a kind of well that was obviously important enough to have a roof built over it.
My favourite temple was Banteay Samre as it was so beautifully restored and complete with green grass. It was a lovely spot.
Further temples were the elephant and dragon lion encrusted Eastern Mebon, Ta Som and the ancient swimming pools of Preah Neak Pean. Our temple viewing was almost at an end, but we had to have one last look at Angkor Wat just to make sure we remembered which one it was!
Camille learns to bargain
Shaun sent me out alone to shop as he had almost strangled me with frustration in earlier experiences. He kept telling me to "walk away", "it shouldn't be so hard" and my least favorite "we don't need it".
I went to the Central Market, looking for a carved wooden apsara to bring home. That was my number one souvenier. I started in a little shop stall on the perimeter where she didn't have a wooden apsara but had a soapstone one and a resin one. She was begging me to buy something as she said she hadn't had a customer and needed "to pay the rent, the electricity..."
I moved on in search of my apsara and she said "Promise me you'll come back". I didn't promise, but after scoring my apsara elsewhere, I decided to go back for a tablecloth. She was happy to see me again and we spent around 20 - 30 minutes bargaining. When we would get to a stalemate I would suggest that I wanted something else, like a scarf, and then we'd start bargaining again. It was quite a lot of fun and I'm glad Shaun stayed at the hotel because he wouldn't have had the patience for that sort of thing!
What was funny
At Angkor Wat some young girls asked if Shaun was my father. I rolled around with laughter and said that he was my boyfriend. Shaun, whose ear for accents is not good, thought they had said 'partner' so when I told him what they had said, his expression and subsequent reaction was priceless!
Things I Learned
* My photography skills are superior to Shaun's. I took one perfect shot of him in front of Angkor Wat and he had to take 5 to get the framing right for my picture. Whoops, your bag's in the shots, whoops, you are on an angle, whoops!
* The bread in Cambodia is delicious. Nothing like Thailand. The French left a few good things behind, including crusty bread.
* The operators go to a lot of effort to stop you from transferring your ticket. They even print your photo on your ticket.
* Imodium AND laxatives are important additions to your travel first aid kit.
The Relationship Verdict
After some very different opinions on buying souveniers, gifts and other things, we did manage to get through it okay. Shaun humoured my desire to see more temples on the second day and also to be a piker and go to bed early. Whilst I compromised big time on the shopping (and was perhaps a bit cranky about it), I think Shaun is also compromising quite a lot. We are still together.
