Angkor Wat...it's HOT, HOT, HOT!

  Siem Reap, Cambodia
Sunday, October 14, 2007

Hello again, Random here.  I think we left you after realizing Bangkok was much too built up for our tastes at the moment.  We have been roasting here in the middle of Cambodia for a few days now and thought we ought to let all of our fans, or so we think, what we have been up to. 

We chose to take a few days before writing as our bus trip to Cambodia was out of a travel nightmare, and we needed to cool off.  Our first impression of Cambodia was not a good one.  We got started in Thailand at 7 in the morning, hit up the 7-11 for breakfast (3,800 of them in Bangkok, from one you can see two more usually, think Starbucks!) where Maia found some snacks, chocolate milk, and toasties.  That was our meal for the next 14 hours.  We packed in a little van, about 10 of us and all our bags, for a trip to the bus station (to get  on the deluxe AC bus, this would be the last time we ever heard of it.)  I was in the backseat with all the luggage, which as soon as he closed the rear hatch, fell on top of me, which is where I stayed for the next 5 hours until they unloaded me and the bags.  The views looked like south Texas, it was very built up within about 2 hours of Bangkok and there was a lot of haze and concrete overpasses.  After we got outside the city area it was all rice patties and jungle looking trees.  Needless to say, there was no switching to the deluxe bus.

So we get to the border and they try overcharging us for visas. First they told us we need this permit, that permit, they need to eat so we have to pay them 25% more for the visa, there is a processing fee which only they, or their compatriot in the rickshaw here can process.  No mister, you don't need to go to the officials, we handle all the paperwork right here, for a small fee.  We heard most everything I think, but made it through the border (FYI Cambodian visas cost $20.) 

After getting through we find ourselves in the middle of a Cambodian holiday which all the buses are taken except one, and also the price has gone up 100 % from what we were told.  After some argument ...   ...   ... we find out that they have swindled about 15 other people

cambodian countryside

and we should be lucky, because A) we don't have to walk around town finding out there are no busses, the other westerners have told us there aren't any and B) we are the last 2 people needed to fill the bus so we don't have to wait as long as everyone else.  Fuming, we got on the bus, where they proceeded to swap some tires (no idea, we got a flat later anyhow) and wait for 'government approved' tour guide to come on board to translate and make sure that we don't get swindled, great timing jerkoff.  He ended up being the worst of the bunch.  Fast forward 6 hours of butt numbing bumpy roads, 25 kilometers and hour, and home made bridges.  The views were very nice though, lots of rice patties but very, very green with distant mountains and jungle forests with huge, grey trees with lots of greenery at the top.  The local huts were all on stilts over the water and made from everything one could imagine.  The towns we passed through had French Colonial architecture and were relatively clean. 

hour 12 of nightmarish trip to cambodia

Flat tire, half hour out of Siem Riep the town near Angkor Wat (means Siemese defeated.)  The tour guide starts yelling, he is angry, he pulls off his shirt (we speculated as to why for the next 45 minutes over beers at a roadside cooler/bar/gas station.) and changes the tire with the driver, after getting extremely angry at Maia because the he did not like how Maia was holding her headlamp for him to change the tire....... go figure.  So the occupants of the bus, which is in the middle of the road, are all over at this cooler on the side of the road with this local kid who learned english from his pastor.  He was such a great person to meet, at this point we were not terribly happy with Cambodians and he assured us in very, very good english that all of Cambodians were not like this (he was surprised with how much of a tool our guide was.)  There was about 10 of us surrounding this cooler, and next to it is the gas station which consisted of about 20 glass bottles full of gasoline which they sell to passing motorists, the bottles were all different, usually old liquor bottles.  Our guide comes over rattling in Khmer and in english says "I am sorry for my behavior to all of you, except you" and points to Maia.  We were all flabbergasted.  He went back to the bus and we all just started laughing at how absurd it was.

They fixed the tire, brought us to their hotel, (you can go anywhere they said, but it was 11 at night and pouring rain

dog literacy rate in cambodia : 0.0%

and we were 3 kilometers outside of town) so we crashed after eating some wonderfully tasty local food.  The curries here are fantastic, smooth, creamy, spicy ahhh... keeping Maia out of a restaurant 6 times a day has been a major ordeal!  The next day we wandered around town, beautiful French architecture, tasty food and really friendly people.  We were getting over our initial impressions of Cambodia and really liked what we saw.  Everywhere we went everyone was very friendly and for the most part did not haggle us as much as everywhere else we have been.  The town is very spread out and there must be fifty '5 star'hotels in the area, all catering to Angkor Wat. 

We went to Angkor Wat at 5 pm to catch the sunset.  It is free to enter the grounds after 5 pm if you have a ticket for the next day which we purchased.  The hike up to the sunset was

Random in the jungle

through a dry rainforest kind of area and there was such a range of people on the trail, high heels, old ladies with umbrellas and the whole area smelled like perfume.  It was interesting to see all sorts of folks climbing the trail, about 500 meters to the top where a temples was crumbling and allowed a great view of the surrounding area.  The sunset was kind of covered in clouds, which soon turned into rain. 

Angkor Wat in three words: beautiful, wonderful, fun.  It is huge by the way.  We took the

this picture really doesn't do it justice

'short tour'and still covered 15 kilometers, we had tuk-tuk and driver for the day.  Besides the main complex which was magnificent and crowded, there were about 10 other areas that we saw spread throughout the jungle in various stages of disrepair.  Each site was built by different rulers.  Some built for their own funeral tombs, some were religious temples, some were fortresses and one was built solely for a statue to house the 'personification of the perfection of wisdom' which the king had identified with his mother.... interesting folks these Khmers!

Different countries had donated money and expertise to rebuild some of the temples and the

this picture kind of does it justice

restorations were underway and looked great.  The whole area is surrounded by jungle and they had left some of the trees over the ruins and these are some of the pics that come to mind when you think of Angkor Wat.

pretty neat, huh?

The roots looked like they were just oozing down the walls and you could see the power of the tree where it had ripped through a 8 foot thick stone wall. 

All the kids here hawking things were interesting.  There were no people begging.  They all were trying to sell you things, trinkets, magnets, tee shirts, postcards, etc.

just another thousand-year old temple

They all start by asking you where you are from and they they proceed to tell you the capitol city and various facts about the country or state.  They seemed to know every country and capitol as well as state and capitol.  One little girl had a conversation with Maia in spanish about Argentina, they learn very quickly and are extremely tenacious when it comes to selling.  If you already have a bracelet then you should have two, a water is never cold enough and just because you are wearing a tee shirt doesn't mean you don't need 5 more (for only 10 dollars!)  Everything is in US dollars here and they only use their local currency for change.

our very own tuk tuk for the day

We had a great time with our driver who speaks 4 languages, English really well.  His chief goal in life is to buy his own tuk tuk, which is just a moped with a trailer hitch and garden cart attached where people sit.  He rents it from a friend for the day.

After a long day we came back to town and figured out that all the bus tickets to Phnom Penh are full because of the holidays so we are taking a day to rest in town.  Last night we ate on the main drag overlooking the street with all the pastel buildings.  Had a pitcher of tasty, tasty Angkor beer while watching England play Estonia in football.  All in all a successful day.  This morning woke up did some laundry, thanks for the soap Andy!

And a quick overview of what's in store: we found cheap tickets to New Zealand from the Phnom Pen, the capital of Cambodia.  So we're going to spend one more week exploring southern Cambodia and then enjoy our free stopover in Kuala Lumpur for a few days and then... New Zealand.  The plan is to have a car and apartment and jobs by the end of the month so if you're looking for a vacation idea come and visit!