Angkor What?
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2005
1
4
37
Trip End
Dec 10, 2005
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Saturday, September 3, 2005
A Famous Bayon Face
. Was so happy to get out of there and get on the road! Siem Reap town is the gateway town to the Angkor Temples. A much smaller town than Phnom Penh, quieter and an overall better feeling to it. Looked at a few guesthouses from the tuktuk and decided on one called the Dead Fish Tower - a crazy looking place that has reasonable prices. US$7 a single room with no window, a fan, satelite tv, bathroom with hot water (yeah!), free hairwashing and manucures! Its clean and the staff are great and there is a crocodial pit with 33 crocs, just next to the restaurant.
Robert and I went for some lunch and a drink and decided that we would hang out as temple goers for the couple of days. We got a fun tuktuk driver who has stuck with us the whole time. First sight of the Angkor Temples was the 1st night when we could go for sunset viewing at no cost. We chose a recommended sunset viewing point called Phnom Bakheng. This temple is set at the top of a steep hill and was the first of the major Angkor Temples to be built in the early 10th century. At first sight the mind boggles at how they made such amazing monstrous structures back in those days. Most are ruins or partial ruins now, trying to imagine what they were like in their hey day - they must have been wicked! Even now they are just amazing! Have I already said that?...amazing!!!
Angkor means capital city or holy city and this Angkor area was the capital city of the Khmer (Cambodian ethnic group) Empire between the 9th and 12 centuries.
Day 2 we chose the tuktuk drivers suggestion of the Grand Temple Tour which takes in all of the major temples. It was a full on day templing around starting at 8am and finishing at around 7pm. I wont babble on about all the temples as this blog will go on forever but there is a couple I want to mention
More Bayon Faces
. In total we saw about 18 of the structures!The pick of the bunch to me was the Bayon constructed in the late 12th century. This is a huge temple ruin and has the most recognisable images of the Khmer faces on the upper level. In total there are 37 stone towers and almost all of the towers show 4 faces on either side of the towers. Still not clear who the faces are. Experts say this temple is a bit of an architectural muddle but I thought it was just awesome. So much fun climbing around the ruins, looking at all the Khmer art inscripted into the stone. The final temple we saw was the biggie - the Angkor Wat itself. This temple is probably the most intact temple, the most grand, most photographed and one of the most interesting too. Described as architecturally and artistically breathtaking and that it was! This temple appears to be the symbol of Cambodia - featured on their flag and many products and also services named after it too. I didnt step too far into the temple that night as I wanted to save the excitment for the next day when we would go back.
The day ended with another hike up the hill for the sunset at the Phnom Bakheng.
Ive been lucky with the weather so far but the night after the grand tour it bucketed down. So much that there was flooding in the streets! Luckly I woke to another nice day.
Music to the ears
Thismorning it was back to the Angkor Wat for a decent 2.5hour look at the temple. Decided not to go for the sunrise as we wernt sure if the rain was going to stay. The main temple walls surrounding the area are covered in pictorial carvings called bas reliefs- apparently about 2000 in total. The Angkor Wat was constructed as a buddist temple and the main tower structure holds many buddha images which it is good luck to pray to one and light insense before leaving the temple. You really need to prey as the steps leading up and down the main temple are crazy steep. Very narrow and high - a bit of an design fault if you ask me! There is a rail to hold on to on 1 of the 4 sides only for getting down. Pretty freaky getting back down again. Ive got some great pics that I need to load on at some stage.This arvo I went to have lunch at a Butterfly Garden that houses around 1000 butterflys all from the region. A very cool place to chill away from the temples. The guy who owns it is a Brittish guy who employs children from very poor families to catch the butterflys for him in reward for money for their education. I treated myself to some lasagne and the special butterfly cocktail made from hydrangers, lime juice, coconut, water and a cambodian sprit. Interesting flavour but looked more like the dirty river water here.
In need of more time away from the temples, I found a tour for a few hours going to the floating village which is just out of Siem Reap
Playtime!
. What a place - nothing like I have seen before! The whole village of about 5,000 people live in small shacks built on stilts made from large sticks and also dried plant material for walls and roof. The small houses at the biggest would only be about 5m squared if that! No electricity, no running water, by the looks of it, minimal furtniture! Drinking water is taken from a main centeral pump, toilet matters all go direct into the river. Their diet mostely consists of rice and fish either fresh in wet season or just fish paste on rice in the dry season plus whatever fruit and vege are available. This is living at its most basic and the best thing about it was everyone living there was smiling, laughing, hugging and waving to the tourists. The kids were pretty cute - many playing round together in big buckets with a paddle floating in the dirty water, others doing dives and bombs off the house boats - just being kids!There were also heaps of kids at the temple commonly known as temple kids. These kids are pretty smart beans and know a handful of languages, well the basics for selling postcards, water, braclets, guide books etc. The most frequent phrases are "where you from miss?", "whats your name?", "you want to buy postcards/water/book?". When you politely decline their offer they comback with "only $1" or "special price for you!", "ok, when you come out of temple you buy from me ok?" and they have a rebutal for all answers you may give
Ta Prohm
. I told a girl that I didnt have 10 friends to send the 10 postcard to and she came back with "if you buy these postcards you will have 10 friends miss!" and of corse giggled! Very cute kids just doing their job. I did buy a great guide book called Acient Angkor for only US$5 - much needed bedtime readin tonight!Ive just had a nice thai dinner with a Canadian couple I met at the bar earlier. Travelling alone is not so bad as I have met loads of great people along the way.
Tomorrow is my last 1/2 day here before I head to Bangkok to meet up with Jo and Pie. Looking forward to that but before then, its sunrise at the Angkor Wat so an early start. Also, may pull in for the free manucure - never had one of those and its just what every backpacker needs! Pink or clear polish???
Over and out from Cambodia : )
