Making like Lara Croft
Trip Start
Mar 11, 2008
1
24
38
Trip End
Ongoing
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Our bus driver forcibly dropping us on the very outskirts of town (unloading our bags from the hold and dumping them on the pavement despite our protests that we weren't yet at our destination) to proffer some business to his mates the tuk-tuk drivers , wasn't quite the welcome we'd have hoped for, but I guess these little scams are pretty much part and parcel of being a Westerner travelling in SE Asia! That said, Siem Reap is a nice little town - something of a hybrid between Luang Prabang in Laos and the Khao San Rd in Bangkok - with it's mix of upmarket galleries and craft shops, massage parlours & bar-restaurants clustered around Pub Street and the old market.
We've spent much of the last 3 days exploring the UNESCO archaeological park just outside the town, home to dozens of Angkorian temples and ruins from the ancient Khmer Empire (9-12C A.D.), and most famously to Angkor Wat & the Bayon within Angkor Thom
A tough day's tomb-raiding
. The sheer scale of the site (which includes vast man-made reservoirs spanning several km's), the number of ruins & their state of preservation in the jungle setting is quite astounding & its impossible not to to be wowed at the intricacy and richness of the workmanship - pretty hard to get your head around the fact that these were all built around (or even before) the time of the Norman Conquest.. makes our English castles & cathedrals seem pretty pedestrian by comparison! The set-up here is well established & oiled: pretty much all guesthouses have their own fleet of tuk-tuk drivers, rentable by the day, to drive you round a pre-arranged route covering off all the main sites, & incorporating sunrise & sunset visits as required. Our little driver, Ath, was a really sweet guy - a great mix of unobtrusive & flexible, which has made the touring really easy- the biggies on day 1 (including a fun hour or so clambering round the overgrown Ta Prohm of Tomb-raider fame), sunrise at Angkor Wat on day 2 followed by some of the smaller, lesser known sites, and finally the outlying temples (set apart from the main complex) this morning.Unfortunately the weather hasn't been kind to us these last 3 days - flat, grey, featureless skies at best (sadly my photos just aren't going to do the site justice..) with torrential storms setting in early afternoon and lasting for the rest of the evening. Wet season finally seems to have caught up with us and set in with a vengeance! A fair amount of time has been spent mooching around cafes in town sheltering from the rain therefore. Luckily for us however the Khmer food here is fantastic and Clare & I have both become converts to Cambodian cuisine.
Quote of the day by yours truly yesterday: I think it would really depress me living in a country where it rains THIS much... followed shortly by the realisation that I do.. and it does!
Onward to Bangkok tomorrow morning en route for S Thailand and the islands. Looking forward to another stint on the Khao San Road, followed by some beach time & a bit of a break from the sight-seeing!
