More pics here.
We left Phnom Penh on the Mekong Express, a $10 tourist bus that takes 5-6 hours to Siem Reap. On the road to Siem Reap we saw the usual cars and mopeds passing by in the other direction. But once in awhile trucks and minivans would pass by with people jam packed inside like sardines, and also crunched together on top of the vehicles. Sometimes we would see people also sitting on the front hood! So much for safety. Here's a short video.
Cambodia's main attraction are the ancient temples of Angkor Wat just a few miles outside of Siem Reap. They are not easily explored by foot, so we hired a tuk-tuk for two days to check out the ruins, and saw some the third day by bicycle. There were so many amazing temples to see, but our favorite ones were:
Angkor Wat (early 12th century): This is the temple that inspires people to visit Cambodia. We left our guesthouse at 4:30 to catch the sunrise, stumbled a bit in the dark, not knowing quite where to go. We didn't think to bring a flashlight! It's a good thing there was full moon to help us see a little, and also we spotted a tourguide taking a few other people in, so we just decided to follow them. The early morning mist of the jungle and the sunrise just behind Angkor Wat was truly amazing... lots of good photo opportunities for Frank! Definitely worth getting up in the middle of the night. But be prepared to share this 'special moment' with crowds of other tourists.
Bayon (late 12th to late 13th century): This temple has hundreds of huge carved faces. We visited this one twice and hung out here in the morning to enjoy the peaceful smiles of the stone faces and also do some people watching. Between the busloads of tourists, there were a few wandering monks in bright orange robes, and some Cambodians dancers wearing elaborate costumes, trying to pose for pictures with tourists (three pictures for one $).
Beng Melea (middle of 12th century): Ta Prohm was the backdrop for the Tomb Raider movie, but there was really only one spot we felt that was 'Tomb Raider'ish' in the whole temple - the spot where part of the temple is being strangled by a huge tree. There also was another temple that similarly had parts of it engulfed by strangling trees, which is in by itself really cool. However, we felt the Beng Melea temple is much more exotic, unexplored and mystical --- probably the most 'Tomb Raider'ish' of all the temples we saw.
We probably felt this way because not many tourists go to Beng Melea compared to other temples (it took us almost 2 hours from Siem Reap by tuk-tuk). The temple grounds around the front areas were also only recently demined -- we saw a sign on the right hand side of the entry that said it was cleared of mines in Sept 2007! Finally, the temple is unrestored - there are tons of collapsed stones everywhere in huge mounds inside the temple. Although there are some wooden ramps to help you walk about the rubble, to really get around you need to climb over and around the huge stones. This is really cool fun and you actually feel a little bit like an early day explorer. Everywhere about the temple you can see huge trees strangling parts of the temple, their roots going in and around the cracks between the temple walls. This was the most impressive temple by far for us.
Phnom Bankheng (late 9th to early 10th century) at sunrise: Everybody goes to Angkor Wat for sunrise, so going to Phnom Bankheng on the second day was a great choice. Frank was all by himself on the top of the hill at sunrise to enjoy the view of Angkor Wat and the surrounding jungle. It's a good thing he had a headlamp this time as he had to walk up a dirt trail and climb up some short but very steep stone temple steps to get to the top. This place however is NOT good for sunset - too many people so you can't take any pictures without people, and quite noisy too!
I think we did too much the first day as you can get 'templed-out', like Frank did (see picture), and decided to take it easy the 2nd and 3rd day. Biking on the 3rd day really allowed us to explore the large area of Angkor Thom, as it would take forever to do it on foot.
The tuk-tuk ride out to Beng Melea and Banteay Srei was interesting, as we got to see more of the countryside. There were lots of people cooking outside their banana-leaf covered homes using stoves that looked like termite hills. Tons of ox-carts too walking down the middle of the road. We also passed by lots of mopeds carrying way more interesting cargo than the ones in the city. We saw pigs (heard some squealing too), some carried in a crate or held between sticks. Even more strange were the mopeds with dead chickens and ducks hanging upside down from the sides.
Another pleasant surprise was the landmine museum. It wasn't gruesome like the Killing Fields or Genocide Museum. They had lots of samples of mines with a lot of information on the founder, and also history and current political situation with land mines. It's hard to believe the founder (who used to plant mines himself as a boy soldier from Khmer Rouge days) has demined at least 50,000 mines himself and not been injured or killed so far. Their website is here.
One of the last things we wanted to see was a floating village. We picked the least touristy of the villages, Kampong Khleang, which was quite a distance by tuk-tuk - it's one of the furthest villages from Siem Reap and has about 1000 homes on the Tonle Sap lake. Seeing the villages were interesting but it was a little like watching TV - a very passive experience as we didn't interact with them at all. One thing that amazed me was how much the water levels of the Tonle Sap (a large lake 80km x 45km) change between wet and dry seasons each year. The locals build their houses on stilts and you can see in the pics how high their houses had to be built on stilts. Final thoughts:
Cambodia is great for...
* Ancient temple ruins
* Water festival
* Strange transportation situations
* Motorcycle riding through the backcountry (see next blog entry)
And not so good for...
* Very touristy areas of Siem Reap
* Lots of poverty. Especially for kids who are oftentimes forced to selling goods to tourists. You will get approached by them EVERYWHERE in Siem Reap, little less so in Phnom Penh.
* Getting overcharged by incredible amounts. One example is we bought a temple guide book (looked legit, not like the bootleg copies) from a boy for $10, after bargaining him down from the initial $27 printed on the back cover of the book. We saw the same book later being sold for $8 later, which means we could've probably got the book even cheaper.
* Landmines. Not a problem really for tourists as all areas on tourist track are safe, but it's a big problem for the unfortunate wanderer or local rural farmers forced to farm in unmined areas due to rising land costs.
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