Siem Reap - Cambodia

After 10 hours it was Hello Asia! It’s so good to be back!
Not to be bogged down in one place for too long, after an hour at Bangkok airport and meeting up with Tunde, one of Christine’s work colleagues in London, we boarded a bus headed for Siem Reap, in Cambodia.
Hot Tip: for anyone looking for a good feed at Bangkok Airport take the free shuttle to the cargo stop and eat in the canteen next to Dunkin Doughnuts. We found this by accident, getting off the bus at the wrong stop, but as far as airport food goes its dirt cheap and top quality, we had freshly made pad thai. We were surrounded by local workers from the cargo docks and air hostesses.
Day 1

It’s our first day in Cambodia and there is plenty to do. We got up at 8am, had breakfast then headed out on a Tuk Tuk. It was an hour drive through the countryside and villages watching the people working in the rice fields. Finally we arrived at the first temple Banteay Srey or ‘citadel of women’ which we had been told we needed to visit as it had some of the finest examples of Khmer Art. It was a great first temple, not too big, very well preserved carvings and surrounded by a moat. Being so far out of town, also meant that it was not too crowded.
We climbed back into the Tuk Tuk and headed to the next site. On the way we were horrified to see another Tuk Tuk take the corner too quickly and tumble down the road embankment. Luckily the three tourists in the back were ok but the Tuk Tuk driver hurt his ankle. It was nice to see other Tuk Tuk’s stopping to help get the bike and carriage out of the ditch and make sure everyone was ok. Kbal Spears involved a 45 minute walk through the jungle, mostly up hill. It was a very nice walk with a few views of the densely forested valley below. At the top we were expecting a temple, but found it was just some stone carvings on the river bed. The river has 1000 lingas which are small round bumps carved into the stone in a grid like pattern, which represent men. There was also a waterfall at the top which was nice, but Tunde didn’t want to come down the stairs to look at it due to the HUGE spider sitting in it’s web over the stairs. On the way back down we spotted what we think is a black gibbon jumping from tree to tree. After lunch we visted another temple Banteay Samre, another temple built in a similar style to Angkor Wat but smaller. Nearby was Neak Pean, a quick visit which was good as once a bus load of noisy Chinese tourists left we had the place to our selves. It had a square lake with a temple in the middle which was flanked by smaller temples and lakes on each side. It was very peaceful and we enjoyed listening to the chorus of frog song. By now the sun was nearly setting so our driver rushed us over to our final stop, Pre Rup. This was a great place for sunset, for a few reasons. Firstly it is another nice temple which has some steep stairs leading up the different levels of the temple to the top which has nice views looking down on the temple and over the fields in the distance. Also it is not the most popular place in the area for sunset, so while there were other people there, it wasn’t too crowded. The sunset was nice too, the nicest we will see in Siem Reap. After sunset we showered, to cool off, its hot and humid here at the moment, it’s the start of rainy season. We ate dinner on pub street, a street lined with bars and restaurants, a bit touristic, but 50c beers was the deciding factor. Christine and I shared two local khmer dishes, Amok and a curry, which were both very tasty. Then it was off to bed in preparation for an early morning.

Day 2
It was a very early start, we met our Tuk Tuk driver and guide at 4:45am in order to see sun rise at Angkor Wat. This was nice but not as spectacular as I expected especially with the hordes of tourists all bustling to get the best photo spot. We are glad that we did it, even if the sunrise wasn’t as good as during other times of the year. We had breakfast at one of the restaurants which are not as nice as the ones in town but about twice the price. After breakfast we headed to our first temple, with a brief stop at the gates to the district, which had a decorative bridge featuring huge statues of hero’s on one side and demons on the other. Bayon Temple consists of three levels which represent the underworld, earth and heaven.
It has fascinating wall reliefs of the way that people in the area lived 1000 years ago. All walks of life were represented, people cooking, workers in the rice fields, fishermen, weavers, people (and monkeys) drinking, markets, soldiers at war, cock fights and dancing. One part of the relief depicted a battle at sea between the Khmer and Cham people. Women were on the Khmer side and their job was to jump into the water and attack the boat by drilling holes in the side so it would sink. Many scenes with water included crocodiles in the waters, who would eat the bodies of the dead. The top level of the temple was amazing as it had small spires with huge calm smiling faces on each of the four sides. From here we were able to walk with our guide to the next few temples. First was Baphuon Temple which was another multi level temple, however much of this is in ruins, so we did not enter. There is a large reclining budda made of huge stone blocks on the exterior but was a bit difficult to see.
A bit more of a walk through a bit of a jungle, huge trees and we arrived at the gates of the royal palace. We climbed the very steep steps of Phimeanakas Temple which is the tallest temple in the palace area. The exterior of Royal Palace grounds had some fascinating lion and bird carvings along the wall of the terrace as well as some three headed elephants.
Preah Khan was our next stop. This was a huge temple with many rooms and passageways. It contained a number of carvings and inscriptions o the walls, statues, and a few trees growing inside the temple. It was a little busy in sections but the guide managed to show us parts that other tourist don’t find. Exiting the temple we bought a pineapple on a stick from a little girl.
Before heading to the next temple we had a quick stop off at one of the local schools to see what they are like. The children were all smiles at the unexpected visitors and a few of them could say hello. They were all delighted when we took photos of them, then showed them the picture on the camera screen. Ta Prohm was an amazing temple and was actually used as a film set for tomb raider. The only drawback was the number of tourists, and lots of tourist means the attraction needs boardwalk which is handy but spoils some of the charm. We like this temple due to the trees which had begun to grow on the roof of the temple then over the years had sent roots down the walls to the soil below. There were trees as tall as a five story building growing on top of the temple and the root system branched out with some parts about half a meter in diameter. It was good having a guide here as he was able to show us some of the quieter but still very interesting parts of the temple, and ensured a quick get away without having to go through the crowds. We had lunch then headed to the big one, Angkor Wat. This was massive and why the day trippers come to Siem Reap so it was very busy. It was full of long passages, budda’s but the most interesting part was the carved walls which told the story of Rama. We climbed the three levels and explored the passages and courtyards. When finished at Angkor Wat, it was around 3:30pm and we were all exhausted after the 5am start. We headed back to the hotel and had a bit of a rest. Christine slept for a couple of hours whilst Damien and Tunde made friends with other travelers in the hotel foyer. After a drink and dinner we headed to bed while Tunde went out with some guy she had met. We didn’t see her again until breakfast.

Day 3
After yesterday we decided a bit of a sleep in was in order. We managed to have breakfast and be in the Tuk Tuk by about 10am and were on our way along with Tundes new friend James. We are still amazed by some of the things we see whilst sitting back and enjoying our Tuk Tuk ride. There was a ute pulled up next to one of the many crazy power poles in the mist of all the traffic. On the back of the ute were two men holding a metal ladder vertical, whilst their colleague was working on the electrical wires above. We’re still not sure if ‘Health and Safety’ exists in Asia. The Tuk Tuk drove through the country side and then turned down a bumpy dirt road. We continued along this for a good forty minutes, getting nervous about becoming bogged when the river began to form huge puddles on the road. We boarded a boat which took us along the river to a ‘floating’ village. This was full of houses on huge stilts where the locals live. We watched people fishing, washing clothes and children playing in the very dirty looking water. It was very funny when three young girls, aged from 3 to 8 years old, in a canoe became so excited by us whities waving at them, that they crashed the canoe into a stationary boat. They were ok and laughing and then laughed even harder because we were laughing.
The boat took us to a small restaurant where we boarded small canoes and proceeded to be paddled by a couple of young boys and their mother through the flooded forest. We saw spiders, lizards, frogs in the lower branches of the trees and a very small monkey or squirrel in the branches above. Then it was back onto the big boat and he took us out to the lake which is huge, it was difficult to see the banks and I think it extended to the horizon at the far end. He turned around, took us back past the floating village and dropped us back at the Tuk Tuk. From there we had a few more temples to visit in the Roluos region.
The first was Preah Ko which was pretty much just some ruined towers. The most impressive was Bakong which was beside a river, had several levels o climb and numerous towers surrounding the main structure. Our final temple visit for our visit was Lolei, where it rained upon entry, but meant that we were the only ones there.
Back at Pub Street we had a late lunch. Damien’s hair was getting pretty wild so we dropped past one of the local street side barbers to get a trim. Whilst under the shops rickety roof a tropical storm hit. This meant that more of the locals were dropping off at the hair dresser to get out of the rain, and would then stay a while to watch the whitey getting his very exotic blond hair cut. It became a bit of a theatre. We ate dinner on Pub Street and Damien shared a Khmer BBQ with James. This is a cook yourself affair where you are given a few plates of meat (Snake, beef, crocodile, frog and prawns) and a small gas cooker with dome shaped lid which acts as the grill. We were pleasantly surprised that the frog was actually the tastiest meat of the lot. Snake was really chewy. After dinner we headed back to the night market to look for a painting as a souvenir. In the end, after talking to countless stalls we bought two very different ones in one of the first shops we had seen on our first night.
Showering tonight was a bit of an experience, we have left our mark on the hotel, so to speak. While Damien was showering, after the girls luckily, the exhaust fan caught on fire! It didn’t burn for long and he was able to blow it out, throwing water on the electrics didn’t seem like a good option! Still smoke filled the bathroom and stank out our room. We let the hotel know but there response was “no fan tonight!” We think it blew a few other fuses too, as the fridge wasn’t working the next morning.