Cambodia
Trip Start
Jul 23, 2005
1
64
72
Trip End
Jul 25, 2006
Seim Reap,
Cambodia
Thursday, January 11, 2007
01 the breaking of dawn
Yes, indeed it was more the cars and trucks and motorbikes coming at us HEAD ON that terrified me. You see there wasn't so much "sides of the road you were suppose to drive on". It was more like "where ever there is free space occupy as much of it as you can". Also play chicken with the vehicle coming toward you for as long as you can. Our driver was really good at this. Mind you the road turned into gravel and a red kind of clay about 20k into the journey. And it is very dusty. I was very happy not to be sitting in the front. I would have screamed the entire time. And I'm not trying to exaggerate here. Not only was the road shared with vehicles such as large dump trucks, and motorbikes, but dogs, bicycles, people walking and cows also tried to claim their space on this road. It was quite the trip. Oh, did I mention how fast we were going? Well in this car the speedometer said about 100 to 120 kilometers, if it was correct. We took another taxi back in which the meter didn't work at all. That is between 55-65 mph for you Americans, I think. You are probably wondering how all this chaos was possible on one road. It was just straight road for the most part by the way, no hills, no curves. As the French man put it, "I think the honk is most important in this car, without the honk you die." Indeed the drivers used their honks constantly. There seemed to be a secret language they had for passing and warning and the such. It got to be quite annoying in the car that's horn was failing from overuse. But alas, it was saving my life so I didn't complain.
02
For those of you that have traveled down the dirt road that my family and I live on in the spring time and know how bumpy and terrible that is, you can compare this ride to driving down our road. FOR AT LEAST 2 hours! It was nice to see the countryside and the Cambodian people though, which we definitely would not have experienced if we had flown. We arrived safely after traveling for 12 hours in our guesthouse that was run by some British people and it was by far the nicest place we stayed at. We grabbed some food and set out to empty our already full memory cards. Afterward, we had a beer in our guesthouse, where we learned that the best way to see Angkor Wat, was from sunrise to sunset with the help of a tuktuk. Prior to this we hadn't really had a plan. So we booked a tuktuk and went to bed. As we were to set off at 5 am. Maybe I haven't mentioned the weather up until now. The weather was wonderful in Bangkok. It was perfect. Just warm enough, but not too hot, and not too chilly at night. Well, a 5 am tuktuk ride in Cambodia was a little chilly. We arrived to the park. Angkor wat is not only a building but also a large park. Paid the fee. And proceeded on. It was pitch black. We couldn't see where we were going at all. We didn't know where would be the best spot. Had no idea even of the structure before us. We just kind of stumbled along. We made out a spot in front of a reflecting pond to the left of Angkor Wat and we waited. People gathered around us. But we had a pretty nice spot. The sun rose and we took pictures.
03
Lots and lots of pictures. I think I took 100 of the sunrise alone. It was beautiful, almost like slowly unwrapping a present then suddenly it was bright and we could see the whole grand structure before us. It was definitely worth getting up early to see. Then we went inside. Prior to this we didn't really know the history of Angkor wat as we didn't buy a guide book or a guide. So we just wandered around and took pictures. Now for the history part. You can just skip this if you want, it might be a bit boring. I'm going to try as best as I can to explain the history of Angkor Wat from what I have read on the place, without getting all technical. So back in the day this area was along a prime trade route between like China and India, Thailand etc. And therefore it grew into a big prosperous city. It grew and it was nice, and there were some kings and lots of temples were built. They estimate around the 12th century Angkor wat was built. Sources are kind of shady about why it was built. It could just be a temple for the king at that time, it could be a temple or shrine for the Hindu god Vinishu, they just aren't quite sure. And it faces west, so I guess some question that it might have been intended as a tomb for the king. Anyway it was built and it was big and wonderful and grand. And this place is big, according to the sources quite a spectacular architectural feat for its time. A moat surrounds Angkor Wat, which by the way, they aren't even sure if that is what it was originally called. There we many other temples built in the area.
04
Between the 9th and 13th century (about) the Khmer ruled this area and they were very successful. After awhile, about the 14th maybe 15th century, the Thai's came and sacked everything. The area was abandon. And forgotten about. (Don't quote me on the dates btw, in fact don't quote me on anything I'm just roughly summarizing). So for a few centuries the jungle grew, and a few people found these temples in the jungle, but didn't really know what they were or who built them. And there were rumors about a mysterious city in the jungle built by unknown creatures. About 150 years ago a French guy found it, and marveled about it, and finally the place got some attention. There was a lot of work to clear away the jungle and do some archaeology stuff. But due to a civil war in Cambodia it wasn't available to the public for another 20 years or something. Not much has been done to restore the place, but cut away jungle. Because of the moat Angkor wat was pretty well preserved from nature taking over it. But another wat, Angkor Thom I think has been left much in its found state with enormous trees growing about it. There are several temples in this area, that require a tuktuk to see them all if you want to do it in a short time at least. We saw four in one day. And one other place, where we just aren't quite sure about the exact history but we think it is where it all began from what we could gather from our tuktuk driver, whose English was decent enough. There were lots of carvings in stones that were deep in the jungle with a river running on or around them.
05
Anyway that's about all for my history bit for now. Hope you enjoyed. So we saw four temples that day. And then the tuktuk took us to a popular spot to watch the sunset. Yep sunrise and sunset in one day. It was packed with people and really the view wasn't that spectacular but it was a nice day either way. On the way out to the unknown spot, we had an hour drive so we got to see a lot of the countryside and people. Most people are farmers.
Here's an excerpt from journal of what I saw that day. Bear in mind please we were exhausted after 12 hours of sightseeing.
((Most of the road was paved, but still shitty with big holes. It was shared by cars, motorbikes, tuktuks, trucks, cows, water buffalo, buses, people walking. It had little stands along the sides of the road. Mostly with snacks, some souvenir basket things, carvings, or gas. Almost every other house had something for sale at some points. The gas was crazy. Sold in liter bottle of whatever you can get. Some plastic coke- others glass Jim beam. The gas 'stations' had it in big barrels and you could see the different colors of gas. I've never seen that before. There were lots of naked babies, almost every home seemed to have one. Children riding bikes to big for them. Often more than one person on a bike. Wells, lots of wells, some signs indicating something or other had been donated by a certain government or place. Lots of banana trees, some thatched housing. Dirt. Lots of dirt. A little water in ????? (can't read that word) maybe puddles? Pads? Around fields.
06
Some primary schools, but a lot of secondary. (hmmmm maybe I was really tired I seem to remember it the opposite now.) A few police buildings that didn't really look used. A lot of people lying about on hammocks. Especially later in the day. Women cooking in big pots over fires or some kind of clay kiln things. Some clothing booths with old clothes in them. Children waving, lots of them were very friendly and cute.)) I really enjoyed the people of Cambodia. Their faces were some of the most sincere and beautiful I have ever seen. I didn't get to interact with many on a personal level, but they intrigued me so much that I really hope I can go back someday.
The following day we went to the market in Siem Reap. It was a nice market with some tourist items, lots of vegetables and a meat section that had a horrendous smell. Then we rented bicycles and set off to explore on our own. We wanted to see more of the countryside and also a temple if we could find one close enough. Have I mentioned that stoplights are not really used in Cambodia? Oh well they are not, so when you get to an intersection you kind of just hope for the best. Actually it seemed to me that traffic really flowed this way. I didn't actually witness in accidents, nor did I really see traffic jams, so I guess it may have been an efficient system. We cycled 17km on our bikes and got to see lots of the country side and people. It was absolutely spectacular. We found our way out to a hill to watch the sunset. It was a wonderful day. And I guess I'll just let pictures do the rest of the talking from now, as this has gotten to be far to long a post!!
Comments
a 2 line message does not need a title!!!
paragraphs kelly! more paragraphs!!! thailand trips sounds good. i'm salavating over Angkor Wat; i really want to see it. spun back memories of india and an itch to get traveling again! loved what you wrote; even read the history lesson! otsukare!