Temples
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Sunday, August 17, 2008
We left Bangkok early on Saturday morning to get to Siem Reap in the evening. We were supposed to be on one of the nice air conditioned buses all the way to Siem Reap but a normal bus turned up to pick us up which made us really cross as we had paid more to get a nice bus. But if we thought that was bad we hadn't seen anything yet! When we got to the border we had to take all of our bags off the bus and walk between the borders of Thailand and Cambodia. We then got on a shuttle bus to take us to the bus station. This was a tiny, rickety bus with no air con and cramped seats. We got to the bus station and changed again onto another local bus, again with no air con and cramped seats and no luggage storage. We had to drive along with all the windows open and the lights off, with all the orange dust from the road spraying in our faces and all the insects flying in! I use the term "road" very loosely as it was more of a dirt track and very bumpy! Our bums were a bit sore by the time we eventually got to Siem Reap!
As soon as we crossed the border into Cambodia the poverty was obvious. The houses are all made of wood with material to act as walls to keep the rain out and they all sit on stilts ready for the flooding in rainy season. The kids run around naked and there are no toys for them to play with. They make games for themselves. We met a couple of children who had made a game of draughts from sticks and stones. They were having a lot of fun with a game that they had made from simple objects. It was sad but sweet to see.
The areas before we arrived in the city of Siem Reap were really beautiful. There were vast areas of green fields that haven't been ruined by industry or tourism. And there are cows and dogs wandering around all over the place quite freely. There was not much traffic around as the condition of the road is terrible, but any traffic we did come across seemed to drive on whichever side of the road it felt like! It was like a game of hit or miss! In fact that is the same for the whole of Siem Reap too. Whichever lane has less traffic in it is the lane that people drive in! Those horns come in very useful over here as a "move out of my way" message!
On Sunday we spent the day visiting the different temples that Siem Reap is famous for. We hired a tuk tuk and a driver for the day and he took us on 2 out of the 3 routes that are suggested. We saw some beautiful carvings in each of the temples that must have taken a long time and a lot of care to create. They apparently were created once the temples were built as well which is even harder than creating them and then putting them in the temple. The carvings are all to scale too, with each one being the same size as the next even though they have been created by different people. It really is amazing.
We started with the smaller of the temples and worked our way around to finish at Angkor Wat at sunset. That is a spectacular temple. The intricacies of the carvings are incredible and the temple is beautiful to look at. It is huge and is surrounded by gardens where monkeys roam freely. It also has a lake along the front of it which adds to its beauty. Watching the sunset here was lovely and a nice end to a fun day!
Throughout the day we have been followed and harassed by people trying to sell us stuff outside each temple. We have said no all day but it is really difficult, especially when it is children that are asking for money. But if we pay one, we have to pay them all. Same goes for the landmine victims that are begging outside the temples. We felt terrible saying no but we can't give money to everyone and also by paying we are encouraging these people to beg which is not helpful to the economy over here. It is really heartbreaking though. There was a little boy carrying a baby in a sling telling us she had no milk and was starving and we felt really mean saying no but you have to. It does bother you though and again emphasises the poverty the Cambodians suffer. There was a really sweet kid at one of the temples though. We had some croissants and biscuits from breakfast in our bag and the children saw it and asked if they could have some so we shared out all the food we had between about 6 of them. Then we made a joke about not having any lunch now. Most of the children laughed but one little boy offered us his biscuit back! How cute is that! I could have cried. He has nothing and was clearly hungry but he was willing to give us his food if it meant we wouldn't be hungry. I just wanted to take him home! That really puts things into perspective, as does Cambodia in general. We didn't realise how lucky we were until we started to travel but Cambodia adds a whole new meaning to that. We were talking to our tuk tuk driver who was telling us that he was doing a course at school but had to give up because he couldn't afford to finish it and yet driving a tuk tuk doesn't pay well at all. He also works in the hostel but the guy who owns it is apparently awful and pays nothing of worth. So the poor guy can barely feed himself. These people have never left Cambodia and don't know what other countries are like and it really makes you think about your own life and all the things we complain about when actually the things we take for granted are not available elsewhere. We both feel really humble now looking around at the poverty here. It really is sad.
On a happier note we went out for dinner with a German couple we met and we had a few drinks in town. It was a really good fun night!
