Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. We left Ho Chi Min City early in the morning for a 6 hour trip on the Mekong Express bus to Phenom Phen and then another 5 hours to Siem Reap. I would highly recommend that company, the bus was very clean and they gave us tasty snacks and cold water on our journey. The border crossing was fairly easy, if a little confusing for a sleepy, cranky girl (not to mention a boyfriend suddenly confronted by a tired, cranky girlfriend). The guide more or less walked us through the process, and we were on our way pretty quickly, with a minimum amount of fuss (ok, I made most of the fuss, mostly because I slept through the minimal instructions given on the bus and was very confused about what we were supposed to do). It was interesting to see the huge difference in the landscape when crossing from Vietnam into Cambodia – Vietnam has a population of 85 million, and Cambodia only 14 million with 30% under age 14. The orderly fields of Vietnam gave way to jungle upon crossing the border, with only little agriculture in evidence from the road. The evidence of poverty changed very little, though, with ramshackle roadside stalls in evidence in both countries. It sometimes seemed everyone is selling something, either near their farm fields or in front of their homes. I kept wondering how anyone can make any money, since there are thousands of little stalls selling the same products, food, and produce. For a tourist, anyway, it is pretty hard to differentiate between them.
We arrived in Siem Riep well after dark, and took a tuk tuk to our guesthouse. We stayed at Golden Temple Villa, which was close to the center if town and has\d a nice garden and public spaces. We were starving and a little wiped out from the long bus ride, so we just ate dinner at their restaurant and planned out what we wanted to do for the next couple of days. The food was decent, if nothing to write about, and certainly affordable enough. After dinner and a complimentary drink, we got the key to our room and went to unpack. The room was on the top floor, didn’t have wireless, and had an odd and rather unpleasant smell to it, so we ended up moving down a few floors the next day (we always seemed to end up on the top floor, I have no idea why). We then walked over to the night market, which is totally different from the night markets I remembered (which featured a lot of food vendors, dogs and children). The new night market is a permanent feature, with fancy stalls selling tourist souvenirs, a bar, and, best of all, Dr. Fish. What is Dr. Fish, you ask? Dr. Fish, also known as fish massage, is a tank full of little fish that, and I quote “eat the dead skin off of your feet.” Oh boy, sign me up! We both decided to pass, thank you very much, but those tanks were everywhere and seemed quite popular!
In the morning we had breakfast and arranged for a tuk tuk driver out to the temples in the afternoon, then wandered into town to get oriented and find a good temple guidebook. After lunch, we headed out to Angkor Thom, which was built in the late 12th century as one of the last capital cities of the Khmer empire. The city contains the Bayon, Baphuon, and Phimeanakas temples, as well as several highly decorated terraces and other ruins. We started at the Bayon, which is mostly known for the huge, smiling faces adorning the 37 four-sided towers of the complex. It is amazing and gorgeous.
The Bayon also has several sets of magnificent bas-reliefs, which depict scenes of daily life and famous battles from the Khymer empire. The Bayon was actually a large part of why I wanted to go back to Angkor, as I’d felt very rushed by my guide the first time I was there. My goal was to wander, relax and take as much time as I wanted to view the bas reliefs, without pressure to hold to an itinerary or "see it all." It was fantastic to walk up the stairs and see those serene, mystical faces again. The temple was sparsely populated when we were there, which made it all that much better.
I was completely blissed out to have all the time I wanted; wandering, climbing, taking photos. I was finally able to see all the reliefs, and take the time to puzzle out what I thought they represented (with the help of a book, of course). I think my boyfriend might have suffered for the lack of a coherent guide, but I doubt he would say, or think, so.
After the Bayon, we walked to the Baphuon, which is a huge temple that is in the process of being reconstructed. You can’t really get too close to the site, but even so we wandered around the huge base, hoping to get a glimpse of the reclining Buddha, but weren’t able to see it clearly since theat side of the temple was closed off as well.
Then we walked by Phimeanakas, which for me is mostly notable for the statues of what look suspiciously like sheep but are probably some sort of lion, and headed to the Elephant Terrace.
Recent rains had made a pond out of the front of the terrace, so we couldn’t get close enough to see the carving of elephants (which was too bad, because I remember them being very cool). We also saw the hidden walls of the terrace of the Leper King, which have gorgeous carvings of a five-headed horse and other mythological creatures.
We found our tuk tuk driver and headed over to Ta Phrom, a wonderful temple that has been left in much the same condition in which it was found; with huge silk cottonwood and strangler fig trees growing out of the ruins. It is very picturesque, and made for a nice stroll as the day was getting late. We wandered around there, then walked back to the jungle to meet our tuk tuk driver again. At this point, it was getting late (due mostly to my dawdling at the Bayon), so we decided to head back into town for the evening.
After a little chill-out time, we walked to Khymer Kitchen, a restaurant on pub street that I’d read was really good. It was – we had an excellent meal. I ordered pumpkin with ground pork, which was one of the best things I ate in Cambodia. A few Angkor beers washed down the meal, and after a quick stop for a scoop of green lemon and kaffir lime sorbet from Blue Pumpkin (OMG, delicious) it was off to sleep!
In the morning, we headed off to Banteay Srei (citadel of the women), a beautiful little 10th century pink sandstone temple that has intricate carvings dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. It is about 25 km (15 miles) from the main Angkor temples, and the ride out there is almost as interesting as the temples, passing the stalls of basket vendors and small Cambodian villages set between glowing green rice paddies.
The last time I was there it was considered quite out of the way and almost off of the tourist map. Not any more. I was dismayed to pull up in our tuk tuk and see a huge parking lot and a built-up souvenir village and visitor center. The entire area has been transformed, and is chock a block with tourist services and masses of tourists pouring off huge air-conditioned busses. Much of the interior has been roped off, so you can’t get close enough to see the details on the small buildings, and even if you could, you would have to push through a sea of humanity to get a glimpse. I found it almost unspeakably disappointing; Banteay Srei was one of my favorite temples and it seemed lost behind all of build up around it. The site has been badly looted and damaged in the past, and from what I read continues to have a problems with theft and vandalism, so I can understand that it requires protection. It was still hard for me to see it so changed, especially since I didn’t see any guards or monitors or anyone working on protecting the site, just hoards of tourists and people trying to sell things to them. I wonder if at some point they are going to have to limit access to some of the sites, or will continue to have people packed cheek to jowl, until the ruins are simply submerged in the sheer weight of the tides of humanity consuming them. Like I said, I found it depressing. In spite of all of my doom and gloom, the temple is stunning, and boasts some of the most exquisite sandstone carvings in the world. There is a reason all of those people, and us, were there.
After walking through Banteay Srei, we headed to East Mabon, a large and less visited temple on the way back to Siem Reap. I hadn’t been to this temple before and really enjoyed it, it is a fairly large site with buildings in various states of repair and some particularly nice elephants and lions, as well as lintel carvings. It’s relative abandonment was a nice break after the madness at Banteay Srei.
We concluded or day of temple viewing at Angkor Wat, the most famous of the temples at Angkor.
It has become a symbol of the country, even appearing on the national flag. The basic plan of Angkor Wat comes from Hindu mythology of the sacred five-peak Mount Meru, the center of the universe and the home of Brahma. The mountain is surrounded by the cosmic ocean, which is represented at Angkor Wat (and other sites) by a large moat. I think it creates a beautiful and balanced set of buildings, with a large causeway over the moat leading to the outer wall, through the entryway and into the main complex, where the mountain-temple rises above you with its five central towers. In addition to the towers, there are some fantastic bas reliefs in the outer galleries, which I was anxious to look at again. Unfortunately, the top level and one of the main sections of bas reliefs were closed, so the boyfriend didn’t get to do the full tour of the site. It was a day of minor disappointments, temple wise. I wandered all around the walls, looking at the reliefs and carvings, and was happy to be able to do so, as this was another area I’d felt I’d skimped on my first trip.
At this point, we were getting a little of the “temple death march” syndrome, so we decided to go back into town and rest up before dinner. That night we went to the Red Piano, which makes my favorite, if a bit expensive, version of Amok Trey, which is fish and coconut curry steamed in a banana leaf. I like the Red Piano’s version because they use some sort of tasty green I’ve never seen in any other version.We decided to take the next day off, and just stick around town. I took the opportunity to go shopping at the various shops and markets around town. The boyfriend decided to opt out on the shopping, so I went off by myself. There are a lot of small boutiques in town that carry locally produced silk and other crafts. Cambodia has a long history of exquisite stone and wood carving, silk weaving and silver crafting. Unfortunately, as part of the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970’s, the arts were considered elitist and artisans were forced into farming or murdered on the killing fields, As a result, the arts were decimated and much traditional knowledge lost. Since the ouster of the Khmer Rough, many rural development programs and NGO’s have been teaching young artisans traditional arts and crafts, both to revive the traditions and help give rural, disadvantaged people a chance for a livelihood. I started my shopping day at Artisans d'Angkor, one of the oldest of these organizations. They have beautiful products that are locally produced in their workshops, some of which are on site. I ended up splurging and bought myself a gorgeous black and red silk dress. You can find silk and other products for far cheaper in the markets and bazaars, but you don’t know where they were produced or even if they are really silk (I’m not an expert). Plus, I felt like it was important to support the work being done to restore Cambodia, as opposed to something produced in a big factory in China. I wandered around to several other NGO shops, buying tea and silk and spices, then amused myself in the old market until lunch time, where I had a lovely, and very, very spicy banana flower salad at Le Tigre de Papier. I topped off with this amazing ice cream concoction at the Blue Pumpkin – ginger black sesame and burnt caramel cashew ice cream, topped with chunks of crispy meringue and chocolate sauce. It was ice cream from heaven, and was as good as anything I’ve had at the gourmet shops in San Francisco, or anywhere else, for that matter. Gods, it was so good, I’m drooling a little just thinking about it. After lunch, I was feeling shopped out, so I decided to spend my afternoon being pampered at one of the local spas, Bodia. This was one of the best splurges I made on the whole trip – 5 hours of total bliss. Oil massage, herbal scrub, lemongrass wrap, pedicure…ah… After the spa, I went back to the hotel and met up with the man. We ended up going back to Le Tigre de Papier and ordering pizza, since he wasn’t feeling particularly well and wanted to avoid spicy or street food. The pizza was very good and a little bit of a guilty treat after the ice cream earlier in the afternoon. Hey, I was on vacation, right?
I decided to get up in the morning and go see the sun rise over Angkor Wat, which I remember being amazing on my last trip. I made arrangements with the hotel staff to be picked up by tuk tuk at 5am and went to bed with that hanging over my head. In the “morning,” I stumbled blearily into the tuk tuk, almost forgetting my pass to the temples. After a quick run back up the stairs, pass in hand, we headed out to Angkor Wat in the pre-dawn blackness. It was worth it. Truly, sunrise over the temple is one of the most magnificent sights on earth. And this one was spectacular, going from deep red to pink, to a blazing orange to light yellow, and finally to a pale blue. It far eclipsed the two other times I’d gone to see the sunrise on my last trip, in the duration and plain beauty of the sky. Spectacular and marvelous, all you could ever wish for. The photos actually do it justice, which is something of a miracle for my crappy little point and shoot camera!
We decided we’d spent enough time in Cambodia at that point (because really, what could possibly top that sunrise), and decided to head back to Thailand and get some beach time in. We had decided to go to Ko Maak, a small island near the major tourist island of Ko Chang, in the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand, which is pretty close to the Cambodian border. I almost got taken in by the offers for the “scam bus” but came to my senses at the last moment, thanks to some internet research. Refund in hand, we decided to follow the instructions of travelfish and do the taxi-tuk tuk-bus border crossing. The rest of the day was spent doing errands and generally wrapping up the things we wanted to do in Cambodia, including another massage and more ice cream for me!All in all, it was a good visit, and I’m happy I made it back to the temples. I don’t think I will return, though, as I foresee that the changes I saw will only accelerate in the future, and I want to preserve the memories I have of both the temples and the town.
Posts
.jpg)