Siem Reap / Temples of Angkor
4/5/03 - 4/8/03
Flight to Siam Reap and Airport Tout Experience
The flight from Vientiane to Siam Reap was definitely one hairy experience. Unbeknownst to me prior to the flight, our plane was a propeller plane. I can still recall quite vividly definite moments that I almost threw up! I was so naseous. So much air turbulence and on such a small plane, there's nothing that can be done about the lurching. Definitely not an experience I like to repeat.
Looking back, one of the funniest thing occured when right after we stepped outside the airport. We were greeted with by a gang of young Cambodian men holding up signs for different hotels. They were kept back by young Cambodian male police officers with sticks. After we decided which guesthouse recommended by our guidebooks to try out, we walked right into the thick of it, drawn by the signs of "free transport". Why pay for transport to the guesthouse when we could arrive there for free? Bad mistake.... We picked out the guy holding up the sign for our guesthouse and told him that we were going with him. As we walked towards our vehicle, the horde of touts followed us. We turned back and told them firmly that we were going to "Smiley" guesthouse and not the ones that they were associated with. Well, they countered back that they were with "Smiley" too. They were all with "Smiley". (For a nice fat commission, they were willing to take you to any guesthouse that paid out commissions!) And the best part....the free transport was on the back of a motorcylce! Those independent touts! They really had us fooled - we actually thought that they were associated with the hotels and guesthouses! In the end, we hired a taxi to take us there.
Siam Reap and Angkor Wat
Siam Reap, meaning "Siamese Defeated", is the location of where the Khmers (Cambodians) defeated the Siams (Thais). Angkor Wat, about 1,000 years old, is one absolutely stunning temple! The sheer size and grandeur of the place just blew my mind away. There is really no way to describe the place in order to do it justice. Banteay Srei, one of my favourite temples, has the best preserved reliefs - so intricate and detailed, very ornate. The Bayon, one of Cem's favourite temples, has over 45 massive faces displaying a very mysterious Mona-Lisa like smile. At any given time, there's at least 5 huge smiling faces looking down at you. And lastly, another one of our favourites, Ta Prohm, a temple complex that has been overrun by giant trees.
Cem and I had to wake up early every day that we were there...pretty much at the crack of dawn in order to get good lighting for our photos and to avoid the extreme midday heat. Luckily we have enough money to splurge on an AC room. One of the best bargains in SE Asia. Very nicely decorated and clean room with AC and TV for $12. It was so relaxing to come back, shower and watch TV or take a nap while we wait out the hot part of the day before heading back for some more sightseeing.
Cem: This was definitely one of the coolest and most unique ruins I have ever visited in my life. Good thing since we had to pay $20 each per day to visit the sites! By far the most expensive of everywhere we have visited so far in Southeast Asia.
Phnom Penh
4/8/03 - 4/11/03
Before I write about our time in Phnom Penh, I am going to have to rant a little bit about the evils and unrealistic ideals of Communism. You really see how it has failed people in Laos and Cambodia (and Vietnam, for that matter). In Cambodia, it caused an especially brutal outcome. Today, Phnom Penh is a city of 2 million people. Soon after the Khmer Rouge (Red Khmers/Cambodians in French) took full control in 1975, they evacuated the entire city to the country side to work in collective farms. These collective farms were basically a huge disaster and actually caused a wide spread famine in the country. People of even the slightest "intellectual background" or relationship to the previous regime were sent to "re-education camps" from which they never returned. Many were bludgened or hacked to death to avoid the expense of a bullet. Soon, the population of Phnom Penh had shrunk to less then 50,000. All in all, by the time the regime lost power following a Vietnamese invasion four years later, nearly 2 million are estimated to have been killed. This in a country whose population today is only about 10 million. Then again, how different is this from some of the stuff that happened in Russia, China, etc.
Anyway, back to the trip, since the road between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh is apparently terrible, we decided to cough up the $22 each to take a ferry between the two cities. This was actually not all too bad, because we it was a great opportunity to witness life on the river. We passed by multiple floating fishing villages, waved to all the children etc. The one thing that was not pleasant was getting off the boat. Although at this point we have gotten used to being swarmed by people trying to take us to one guest house or another, these guys were particularly aggressive. We finally decided to just walk away from all of them when we came across the van for the guest house that we had decided to check out while on the boat. Aggressive Cambodians under 35 degree Celsius was just too much!
We found a place to stay and began walking around the city.
Walking Down the Streets: Phnom Penn streets are basically a complete mess. Many of the roads are still completely unpaved. However, even more so then Thailand, you are constantly approached by people offering you Motorcycle transportation. (Ditto in Vietnam, but also add the cyclo drivers.) Then there are all the odds and ends people try to sell you plus hordes of beggars (more about this later.) I feel like I am constantly walking down the street saying “no thank you” to about 90% of the population. Of course a lot of times we just end up buying gum, newspaper etc. just because you feel sorry for the person(s) selling it.
Beggars Fatigue: I have entered a new phase of beggar’s fatigue (this has continued in Vietnam). It’s impossible to sit down or stand anywhere without people coming up to you for money. With a country still facing a major crisis from all the land mines everywhere, there are unfortunately many crippled and disfigured people. I have had to give up my policy of not giving to beggars in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, unlike the West, there really are no social and charitable nets that can help the likes of all of these people.
Killing Fields and Khmer Rouge Prison: After watching the movie Killing Fields at our guest house the night before, we visited the main Khmer Rouge Prison in Phnom Penh and the Killing Fields Memorial a little outside the city. It’s all unfortunately some of the most disturbing images, relics, etc. you can imagine from a truly horrific regime. 2 million people dead in about four years. You can’t help but think how one human being can ever be so evil to another. It’s so incomprehensible. Yet the Cambodians have survived and are today, much like the Thais, very quick to smile and are warm people.
Heart of Darkness: Alright, it seems as if I am going down a little bit of a negative train of thought here. We actually also had some really good times Cambodia. For one thing, Khmer food is really, really good. As was often the case in Thailand, eating definitely became something we started looking forward to. We also had a pretty fun night life experience at a bar called the Heart of Darkness. Unlike its name would suggest, this was actually a pretty suave bar which turned into a dance club in the later hours. Tam, Adam (an Australian we met at Siem Reap) and I and a medium sized crowd that was 50/50 mixed between Westerners and Cambodians drank and partied to the wee hours of the morning. Just to help you understand our physical shape, between the three of us, we finished a bottle of Stoli Vodka and several beers.
Pay in Dollars / Receive Change in Reels: Basically almost all transactions in Cambodia involve the U.S. Dollar. Unique to Cambodia, we paid in Dollars but receive all our change in Reel, which we basically can only used to purchase small items. Cambodia definitely has the worst monetary system of the countries we have visited, although Laos comes a close second.
Crazy Heat: The unbearable heat that began from when we were in Vientiane has continued in Phnom Penh. Basically between the hours of 11-3, we end up closing ourselves into either our air conditioned room or a café. Funny enough, we both picked up a slight cold here. With the whole SARS outbreak in the region, we decided not to risk and stayed in Phnom Penh until we got over it. The sudden switch to AC rooms was probably the main culprit, but the Pizza we had may have had something to do with it as well.
The Khmers Look Different: There are definitely many phsyical similarities between the Thai’s, Laotians, and Vietnames. Although Cambodia is surrounded by all three of these countries, they are definitely a different race of people. Cambodians are a much darker, and resemble pacific islanders or Philipinos.
Email from Jason Alambra (April 25th) registering a protest regarding the above entry: Is that a fact, eh? I just read your Cambodian entry. so how many filipinos (with and f not a ph) do you know to make such a broad sweeping comment such as the Cambodians look more like filipinos, huh? have you ever been to the philippines? i'm quite INsulted.
We decided to go to Vietnam through the Mekong River and purchased our tickets to take us to Chau Doc, a small Vietnamese town close to the Cambodian border.
