Humid Trekking
Trip Start
Nov 22, 2008
1
8
10
Trip End
Dec 09, 2008
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Saturday, December 6, 2008
On late departure days Charles and I like to take advantage of the ability to sleep in and maximise the 12noon check-out time. After breakfast I uploaded the previous day's blog entry on wifi and we soaked up the last bit of air-conditioned comfort before our travels ahead. When we checked out the receptionist said that we looked the same and implied that she wanted to keep us or marry us. One of us for the right side and one for the left apparently... Having evaded her attempts to lure us in we stepped out into the humid, still day and headed north
Drinking
. As we walked we past many French colonial buildings until we left the main French part of the city.Our first intended destination proved difficult to locate. As usual I was assigned the job of navigating and I was working with a free tourist map we had acquired from reception. The pagodas that Charles had identified as the ones he wanted to visit were not within this map's area so I had to compare with the broader maps in the travel guide and make some guesses. We were in the vicinity of the first pagoda and walked did the block that I thought it would be on but were unable to find its entrance. Perhaps the entrance was well hidden, perhaps we were far from the mark.
We didn't bother searching too hard before deciding to move on to pagoda number 2. This second pagoda was even further off the map than the first although we could locate the street (the one to the airport) and made a guess about how far down we would need to walk. We walked for 10-15 minutes beyond our map but were unable to locate our destination. We could see a pagoda structure roughly 1km down the road but decided that if that was it, that the journey would not be worth the effort. As such we did the block to head back into town, passing another smaller pagoda that was closed
A321
. Although it took a while to get back into town we justified our long round walk by saying that we "saw" 2 pagodas. On a serious note it was good to get out of the centre and see a more real and less touristy side to this commercial city.With our late start it was logical for us to have a late lunch and this was achieved at the Hoavien Czech Brauhaus. This restaurant has been visited by the Czech Prime Minister who declared it the honourary Czech consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. It was a large establishment and its relatively expensive prices seemed to attract the special occasions crowd. Their home brew lager was quite nice (it did a good job at cooling us down) and we chose to accompany it with some noodles as these were the cheapest items on the menu. Sadly the only traditional sausage dishes were under the "cold meats" section of the menu so we opted to go for the local take on "Brauhaus".
After our leisurely lunch it was a 20 minute walk back to the mercifully air-conditioned hotel where we grabbed a taxi out to the airport. We arrived earlier than anticipated so at check-in we asked about changing to the 4:30pm flight. This was possible and once again we were assigned exit row seats. With the new flight time we didn't have too much time to spare but thankfully this newish airport was not very busy
Buddhist Statue
.The Airbus A321 aircraft was boarded on time and we noted that many passengers were Japanese, making a change from the predominance of French tourists. We were seated and had even filled in our Cambodian arrival cards by the time we were ready to depart. Things started to come undone when we didn't push back from our gate after quite some time. The Spanish captain informed us that there was "a problem with the engines that we noticed when we started them" so the plane was shut down and after some engineers had done there thing we gave it another whack. It took some time but we were soon rolling down the taxiways and taking off. Our exit row seats weren't so great as on the A321 the mid-plane exits are full doors so we had tons of leg room but no window, making the waiting somewhat tiresome.
The flight was short, giving the staff just enough time to dish out the snack boxes and drinks before we were touching down at Siem Reap's Angkor airport. It is clear that the tourist money flows pretty well through this airport as the buildings were new and clean. Here the taxi into town is set at a fixed rate of $7USD so we didn't have to haggle. Our taxi driver practiced his English on us and seemed nice so when he offered for us to hire him for our temple sightseeing today we accepted. The all day cab hire is also a set rate so we didn't have to worry about being taken for a ride.
Driving into town was like driving into Busselton. Big hotels, resorts and shops line the airport road as one giant strip development that is quite unlike what one would expect in a country like Cambodia. Our hotel is by the river in the centre of town, which has a bit more of a real vibe but is still very much geared for rich white tourists
Angkor Wat
. We didn't need any dinner after our snacks on the flight so we settled in for the night.Today started before our driver came to pick us up at 9am with breakfast at the hotel's rooftop restaurant; supposedly the only one in town. This wasn't a buffet arrangement as we had become used to but was instead a set menu. We had eggs (scrambled was our preference) and toast with pancakes to finish off. Tina(?), our (male) driver met us on time and began by driving us to the ticketing centre. A one-day pass for the park housing most of the famous Angkor temples goes for the handsome price of $20USD each. Our photos were taken and printed onto our passes to ensure that we didn't on-sell to other tourists.
For a one-day visit there is a recommended "mini trail" that passes many temples, all in different states of repair. The first and foremost temple was Angkor Wat. This is the most famous, one of the world's wonders and is also the symbol on the Cambodian flag. It sits on a large square island surrounded by a square moat and wall. It took a bit over an hour for Charles and I to explore the vast temple and ruins. Considering that this structure was built in the 12th century it is amazing that it has lasted in the state that it is in and allows one to marvel at how it constructed in the first place. Some areas were being used for some sort of legitimate Buddhist worship but mostly it served as a ruin to be explored. This begs to ask when does a temple, with dress and behaviour codes, become a ruin, where people are free to do what they want, such as sunbake like some of the Europeans we saw?
From Angkor Wat we continued down the road to Angkor Thom, the old seat of the Cambodian throne
Angkor Roaming
. The main, "Bayon", temple in the centre of this even larger walled complex was great for exploration and gave off a bit of an Indiana Jones vibe. In contrast to Angkor Wat there were a lot more areas with "Danger No Enter" signs, where structures were collapsing or the roof was a pile of stones on the floor. Our driver provided us with some bottles of water when we returned to the car, which was a welcome surprise.Our third temple was unavailable to us and caused a traffic jam because some Chinese and Cambodian politicians were there to celebrate a deal to do restoration works on the site. Many onlookers had shown up for the ceremony, partially because they all received freebees for supporting the government. We eventually managed to clear the crowds but still had to deal with the other cars, tuk-tuks and tourists on bicycles that were also trying to move on from the jam.
Next up was Ta Keo, an unfinished and tall temple. According to the people looking for tips at the summit this is the only temple built out of granite and it was struck by lightning, causing work on it to be abandoned. It did not appear to be very popular with other visitors, probably because of its height and lack of tourist-friendly steps. Photos and video of us climbing this temple will hopefully show how many steep steps were climbed up and down while exploring this fun temple
Obligatory Reflection Shot
.Ta Prohm was the next stop and was a temple that the jungle has partially claimed. There was a Tomb Raider vibe to this temple with tree roots over and through the structures, which seemed to have caused a lot of collapsed sections. Angelina Jolie running around in skimpy clothing in the humidity anyone? Again this made it fun to explore although the large tour groups that started to come through caused some traffic jams and meant that one was not often alone.
The driver then took us to a restaurant for lunch, which he claimed would be cheap and delicious. The food was good but the prices weren't the kind of "cheap" we were aiming for. That said, the prices were reasonable and the bill came in just a bit under what we'd expect to pay at home. We considered purchasing Mum a painting from the restaurant but, after a check with Dad, decided that they wouldn't suit the house.
After lunch we were dropped at Banteay Kdei and Prasat Kravan temples, which finished off the day's touring. At both temples we were harassed by sellers with good English skills, who were desperate for our money. They tried to sell us tacky shirts, books and other arts and crafts and would not accept our rejection of their offers
More Reflections
. With their language skills they were able joust and joke with us, remaining ever hopeful that we would buy their wares when we passed them again on the way out. Banteay Kdei was another temple in ruins amongst the jungle and Prasat Kravan was a smaller, more modern temple built of bricks as opposed to large stones.As our temple tour was over and we still had the driver theoretically until 9pm we made a trip back through town to Tonle Sap Lake. This large inland lake is home to a large floating village and crosses the country, with links to Battambang and Phnom Penh. Unfortunately the boat ticket counter wanted $25USD each for a trip on the lake to check out the village so we decided against a trip on the water. I believe a ferry trip to Phnom Penh costs this much, which is still a lot compared to the equivalent bus fare. Regardless, we returned to the hotel and still enjoyed the trip from town to the lake as it gave us a chance to better appreciate the changing standards of living between those in town with direct tourist exposure and those without.
Back in the hotel we had an afternoon break, which gave me a chance to work on this entry on the hotel's communal computers. Just before 5pm we headed out on foot to better appreciate the centre of town. There were clearly defined touristy and local areas of town (ie. where one can buy petrol in bottles and where one can't). With a round of the town under the belt we settled on a cheap eatery, which cost us only 75% of lunch. A riverside walk brought us back to the hotel where we watched a doco about Mao before finishing up in Siem Reap.
