Glory of the Past
Trip Start
Oct 28, 2006
1
11
29
Trip End
Jan 09, 2007
Sieam Reap, Cambodia
Saturday, November 18, 2006
The boat ride I took to get here though was definately worth it. I picked out a choice spot on the roof and watched in amazement as I found the river Tonle Sap to be as densely populated as the land. Our boat was constantly dodging coke bottle fishing nets and kids squatting in shallow wooden boats. As we progressed further and the river widened to an estuary we started passing the floating villages, literally entire towns shops, schools and all constructed on stilts squatting in the middle of the river
Angkor Sunrise
. We stopped at plenty of floating houses along the way to deliver supplies where wide eyed children stared in wonder at the strange looking people who kept pointing massive telephoto lenses at them. So with numb buttocks I finally disembarked at Siem Reaps dusty port and met Mr Bean(Hotel manager from Battambangs friend) who was looking strangely well dressed with gelled hair and tinted glasses. I made it for sunset at Angkor on top of'' which was so jampacked with Koreans and portable tripods that I found it difficult to even see the sun. Seeing as I only had a day amongst the ruins I figured I'd try and make the most of it which meant getting up at 5am for sunrise at the main temple of Angkor Wat. Well I've now witnessed a sunrise at Machu Picchu and at Angkor Wat and it's a tough call, for pure serenity and that spiritual feeling you can't go past Macchu Picchu as even at 5am there were hordes of tourists at Angkor, but for sheer architectural brilliance the Incans got nothin. Now I've seen my fair share of ruins, castles and cathedrals but theres a reason why Angkor is one of the 7 wonders of the world. Unfortunately due to the countries poverty it's probably in worse condition than most other sites of comparable age but if you imagine it in all it's glory it truly is a masterpiece and runs rings around such wonders as Notre Dame, the Alhambra or the Parthenon. The attention to detail is probably the most spectacular feature with every surface covered in elaborate carvings of topless women and 7 headed serpents
Monk Boat
. The temple complex known loosely as Angkor stretches over kilometres featuring hundreds of sites and was once a thriving metropolis which housed a million inhabitants (at a time when London was still a backwater of 50,000) but for centuries it has been deserted. Despite charging farangs $20 a day to look around it's free for all Khmers and thanks to the tourists and their pockets full of dollars this ancient city is inhabited once again. On weekends locals picnic by the great moat and its common for families in the provinces to save up for a pilgrimage but the majority of Angkors inhabitants are there to work. Moto drivers course to a fro ferrying their passangers from temple to temple where they relax in hammocks while you explore and young girls argue over which restaurant you should buy your 'cold drinks' at. Meanwhile kids waft through the ruins selling postcards or bracelets and wandering the ruined passageways you'll often chance upon a monk seated peacefully in front of a bhudda statue selling incense. There are also book sellers, ice cream vendors, impromptu tour guides and Angkor has more than its fair share of beggars. It's sad to see these once proud people scrounging for foreign currency amongst the ruins of their nations former glory, slaves to a more subtle kind of Imperialism. It must be a bitter pill to swallow especially considering the fact that 90 of these tourists are Japanese, Chinese or Korean the northern empires which have exerted pressure on Cambodia and its fiercly proud indigenous population for centuries
River House
. Mr Bean tells me he hardly ever picks up Korean tourists with more than a little venom in his voice; they all come on package tours with Korean companies who own and run many of the larger hotels meaning little of the vast revenue these hordes are bringing in stays in Cambodia, except for what ends up in government coffers(read officials pockets)and the few measly dollars they dish out to scavenging kids. Another things that pisses off the moto driver community(it even incited a demonstration last year) is the new electric bike rental system. To me these little solar powered vehicles seemed like a fantastic way to see the ruins and obviously I´m not the only one; the locals are fast losing business to this joint venture between the government and a Korean firm...Through sheer force of will I manage to keep trekking through ruins until sunset round 6pm to conclude a painful but memorable 12 hour day of sightseeing. I find a more secluded ruin for the sunset this time and am joined by a local farmers boy who just finished tending to the cows. We start talking and the conversation shifts to my family "Do they have cow?" he asks. At Mr Beans insistence I decide to go out on the town aswell. After all it is friday and after passing out on my hotel bed for a couple of hours Mr Bean escorts me to one of the 5 big clubs which have recently opened in Siem Reap; The Zone. It´s a far cry from Sihanoukvilles pale imitation discos and features high ceilings, lasers and smoke machines even though the music is still the same comical blend of local favourites, cheap techno and R&B.
