24 October 2016 Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia
We caught a cab to Bangkok Airport and then a flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia. It all went swimmingly well and a tuk-tuk driver was waiting at the airport to take us to the hotel. It’s nice when a plan works out.
We had a bit of a panic when an ATM wouldn’t give us any money and we were very confused when the next one issued US dollars. Our tuk-tuk driver explained that tourists pay for things in US dollars and locals pay for things in Cambodian Riels. It’s all very reminiscent of Cuba that has a hard currency for tourists and a soft currency for the locals – no doubt we’ll find out that tourists pay a lot more for things in Cambodia.
Once we’d dumped our bags in the hotel and arranged for a guide to take us around some of the temples tomorrow, we headed into town. The place looks very much like Indonesia and Myanmar, with hundreds of motor bikes dashing about on broken roads and lots of small shops selling a wide range of products. The locals look very similar to Thai and Myanmar people.
We strolled around some of the narrow streets and ended up on Pub Street, which is a complete contrast to the rest of the town. Instead of dusty shops, the street is lined with flashy restaurants and bars offering Pizza, Burgers, Steak, Mexican as well as traditional Khmer food. Notices for happy hour abound, pretty girls try to entice you into their massage parlour and neon lights flash.
Unable to resist an offer of beer for $0.25US a glass, we did a mini pub crawl; then had an appetiser in one bar and a meal in another. The Khmer food tastes very similar to other East-Asian countries, but has a background flavour of aniseed. As we suspected, everything is priced in dollars and food is twice the price that we’d pay in Malaysia or Thailand (although at $6 US for a meal, I guess we shouldn’t complain too much.)
25 October 2016 Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia
We had an expensive day touring around the temples. The Tuk-tuk driver cost $20US, our personal guide cost $40US and the tourist passes to gain access to the temples for three days cost a staggering $40US each – that’s $140US just for looking at some old temples. I’m in serious danger of becoming Victor Meldrew, but we had a very pleasant day.
Our first stop was at the Angkor Wat, which is Cambodia’s prime attraction for visitors. It’s a huge complex with a very wide surrounding moat. Built in the early 12th Century, it was originally constructed as a Hindu temple for the god Vishnu, gradually transforming into a Buddhist temple 50 years later. It has some interesting carvings and the site is huge, but we weren’t particularly impressed, especially because there are thousands of people visiting it every day.
We called at the Bayon temple, which was very interesting. It was built at the end of the 12th century by King Jayavarman VII, who was a Buddhist. The temple’s has 46 towers, each with four serene and Smiling Stone Faces looking out at the four points of the compass. It is said that the faces are a likeness of the King and each tower represents one of the regions of his empire. The king’s faces are watching each of the regions and protecting his subjects.
Our last stop was at Ta Prohm, which is the temple used as a location in the film Tomb Raider. It was again built by King Jayavarman VII at the end of the 12th century. Most of the temples in this region were abandoned when the people relocated and jungle soon covered the buildings. The temples were lost in time for 300 years, before being discovered by a Frenchman in the late 1800s. Unlike most temples in the area, Ta Prohm is in much the same condition in which it was found and the atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings make it very photogenic.
One of the most interesting aspects of the temples is the mixture of Hindu and Buddhist influences. Before King Jayavarman VII, the country was Hindu and even though the king was Buddhist, his temples were a combination of Hindu and Buddhist. The next king was stoutly Hindu and removed many of the Buddhist images. More Buddhist images were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s - they thought all religion was a crime.
26 October 2016 Siem Reap, Cambodia
We had another temple day, this time without a guide. We visited ten temples and saw a wide range of styles:
- Phnom Bakeng – a 10 minute walk up a hill. Lots of renovation work going on. Okay view of Ankor Wat.
- Baphuon – big temple and can walk to the top.
- Phimeanakas – next to Baphuon – didn’t stop or bother to climb up.
- Terrace of the Elephants – in front of Phimeankas - carved elephants on a wall.
- Thommanom – small temple with good stone carvings
- Chau Say Thevoda – Across the road from Thommanon, similar type of temple, but not as good.
- Banteay Kdei – being restored, but lots of trees growing up through the buildings.
- Pre Rup – large temple, can walk up to the top.
- East Mebon – interesting boardwalk across a lake to an island which used to be used as a hospital with healing pools and stupas.
- Ta Som – Very nice temple. Similar in style to Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider), but much less crowded and some interesting trees growing through building.
- Preah Khan – Huge temple. We walked from east gate to west gate.
Being all templed out, we staggered back to the hotel for a few hours rest, before going out for a meal at a huge restaurant that stages an Aspara Dancing show. It was a huge venue with 500 people fighting for food at the fixed price buffet. The dancing was okay - very similar to Balinese dancing.
27 October 2016 Siem Reap, Cambodia
We’d had enough of temples, so we went on a three hour horse ride through the paddy fields, which was great fun, wading through drainage ditches and carefully balancing on top of the narrow, slippery mud walls between the fields.
The horses were well trained, but mine was very feisty and it was a struggle to keep him under control. I nearly came off on a fast canter, when he spooked at something and suddenly jumped to the left and stopped. We were very hot and tired at the end of the interesting ride.
Back at the hotel, we went to a small restaurant and had stir-fried frog - a local speciality. It was very tasty, but was a fiddle getting the small amount of meat off the tiny bones. We spent the afternoon hiding in the air-conditioned room and resting after our morning exertions.
In the evening, we walked to pub street and had a Mexican meal - we couldn’t face any more Asian food.