It was a trip arranged many months back and Boy, all that waiting made me really looked forward to it. Left micasa early Thursday morning after waking up earlier than scheduled [even managed to watch (and curse) the Gunners firing blank shots in their Champions League match, silly asses!].
Flight took off on time and we reached Siem Reap at 1105 and it was already so very bright albeit a little hazy. Our pre-arranged tuk tuk driver who introduced himself as Len was already waiting as we emerged into the bright Khmer morning and manoeuvred us through the streets of Siem Reap, at times tarred and at times, red-caked, to the hotel. Paddy fields and traditional houses gradually made way for hotels lining the National Route no. 6 or Airport Road. We reached our hotel 15 minutes later.
After checking in and freshening up, we endured a bumpy tuk tuk ride to a village where we boarded a boat for a ride at the Tonle Sap Lake and visit to Kampung Phhluk. Now, if you recall Geography, this is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia. I had a bird’s eye view of the lake earlier, just as the plane began its descent. As the monsoon season had just ended, the lake had swelled up [during the dry season, the lake is fairly small with a depth of one metre and an area of 2,700 square km]. It was a pleasant boat ride, breezy and because we were in the shade, not too hot. Lunch was provided and it was satisfactory.
After half an hour or so, we came upon the floating village of Kampung Phhluk. There were about 300 people staying there [if my memory serves me right], living in stilted huts and whose livelihood revolves around the water. Everything lives on the water, yes, not just everyone, but also the pigs and chicken the villagers somehow manage to rear there. We went to a small temple where we had a bird’s eye view of the village, chatted with a friendly monk eager to practise his English and find out about us and watched the village boys playing some traditional musical instruments before we re-boarded the boat. Then the boat navigator took us out to where the lake met the mighty Mekong River and gosh, it was water, water and water everywhere. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think you’re in a sea rather than in a lake!
It was another half an hour boat ride back to where we started out and from that village, we went to buy the entrance ticket to the temples for the following day. The deal was if you buy the ticket after 5 pm, you get to enjoy the sunset at the temples in addition to the entrance the next day. So we did exactly that and joined hordes of other gawking tourists to explore and sight the sun set over Angkor Wat. Unfortunately, the hazy weather didn’t improve so it wasn’t a clear sunset after all. We entered Angkor Wat from the western gate which was the main point of entry, crossing the moat with balustrades and statues lining the entrance bridge. A little piece of information from Wikipedia: Angkor is a vernacular form of the word nokor which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (capital), while wat is the Khmer word for temple.
We then made our way back to the hotel. We managed to get a ride from the tuk tuk driver to Phsar Chas [Old Market] but it was getting dark and only a handful of shops looked opened and what I saw didn’t impress me much. Dinner was at Little India which claimed it served halal food. We walked back to the hotel – turned out it was pretty near – after stopping at Phsar Kandal [Centre Market]. Btw the greenback is widely accepted [the locals somehow prefer it to Riel] and credit cards are not that widely used yet - some establishments that do accept plastic charge an additional 5% transaction fee!
I was amazed and intrigued at the sight of the Khmer people – it’s somewhat surreal when you see people who look so much like you speak a different language altogether. In my opinion, they are the closest I’ve seen who resemble us.
Friday: Today was the day when Adek became Lara Croft and be a tomb, I mean, temple raider. We set off for the temples at 0845 – it was a clear day today, hurrah! The first stop was at Bayon temple within the great walled city of Angkor Thom where we were greeted by statues of smiling [or was it smirking or even grimacing?] faces lining the causeway. The temple’s distinctive feature was also the multitude of smiling faces. We spent some time here capturing Kodak moments but truth be told, after a while I had enough of these faces and couldn’t tell if they look different. We explored the surrounding area for a while before meeting Len.
The next stop on our Amazing Race around the Angkor Archaeological Park was Thommanum. It was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and quite a small temple by comparison, and hence, we didn’t linger long here.
It was Ta Keo temple next, a plainly decorated but towering structure of a temple. It was left uncompleted by its builders.
Ta Prohm followed next. This temple is famous for the sights of it being ‘choked’ by giant sprawling Banyan trees. However, I read that the destruction wrought by the trees is slowly causing the destruction of Ta Prohm and there is a campaign to do something about it before it’s too late. We spent considerable time here walking along and in the maze of the temple corridors and sprawling tree roots and temple ruins. When I saw the ruins, I blurted out aloud, ‘It’s as if there was a sudden earthquake or something causing the destruction and ruin.’
Our next pit stop was Banteay Kdei, a religious monastery with a terrace that led to two courtyards. There were square pillars in the middle. Then on it was to Sras Srang [Pool of Ablutions], just across the road, before we went for our well-deserved lunch. I was famished and badly needed a visit to the washroom.
After regaining energy, we went to our last pit stop, Angkor Wat. Unlike the day before, we entered the temple from the eastern gate this time. And yes, we climbed the seriously steep steps up to the tower [thank God for lunch!] where I enjoyed a good view of the surroundings and cool afternoon breezes. I stayed awhile before making my way down and finally out of the temple.
We made our way back to town and stopped at Phsar Kandal [again!]. Len picked us up at 6.30 pm and brought us to Angkor Mondial dance for our cultural performance/Apsara dance dinner. That was quite good and entertaining.
Saturday: Went to the Siem Reap River [Srung Siem Reap] for the water festival only to discover the river devoid of action – turned out the boat race would be held in the afternoon instead. Good thing we had Plan B, which was to venture to Phsar Chas. Like I said earlier, I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw during my first visit but it turned out that during the day, the market was more lively and bustling with activity. There were vegetables and sea/river products, meat, clothes, appliances and shoes on sale for the local shoppers, souvenirs for tourists and (to my delight) gemstones and jewellery too. For souvenirs, there are a wide range of Khmer handicrafts, textiles, statues, curios, bags, krama [scarves]… I spent some time looking at the jewellery [and ended up purchasing too!].
We then decided to leave the hustle and bustle of the trading place and walked to Neak Mah mosque [Masjid Nikmah] at Kampung Sieng Nam. The map showed the site but one has to walk a bit further before finding the mosque. Most of the Khmer Muslims lived around this area and we spent some time chatting and getting to know the locals and also performing prayers.
It was past noon when we left Sieng Nam and walked back to Phsar Chas area for lunch. After lunch, we stopped briefly at Phsar Kandal before making our way back to the hotel. It must be the afternoon heat as I did plan to venture out again but fell into a slumber instead. Dinner was at another restaurant serving halal Indian cuisine but two biryanis in a day proved waayyy too much for me.
Sunday: Left the hotel at 10 am for the airport. Landed at KLIA at 1530 but the plane only made its way to the landing bay [is that what you call it?] some 10 minutes later and guess what, there were five other planes behind ours. So we rushed to the immigration with hundreds of other travellers from other planes. I was impressed with the fast bag handling as it was barely 15 minutes after landing when I was reunited with my check-in luggage and no, I didn’t bust the allowable limit, hurrah to me.
~~~~~~~~
I had a great time in Cambodia. It’s a relatively young country – I said that because I saw mainly young to middle-aged people about [I think only a handful of old Cambodians are still alive, no thanks to Pol Pot]. And the children were everywhere [even adorning postcards!]. It’s heartbreaking to see them resorting to work, peddling their wares at such a tender age when they should be playing or going to school but I suppose economic conditions dictate otherwise. There are special ads on free hospital treatment for children and ads in tourist brochures pleading visitors not to have sex with children and I think I know why: it’s to guarantee these children, the future of Cambodia, a brighter future than what their parents knew. But that is still a long way to go and for now, these children have to be child labourers, like it or not. I do hope that with increasing tourism, the standards of living will improve over time and that these children will suffer no more. But they have dignity, they do not beg unlike those children I came across in India. And the Khmer people on the whole are very warm and friendly people, despite their poverty. Such great hospitality! Almost all children we met would wave and say Hello or Bye Bye Bye to us. They were just so sweet, cute and adorable and I can see now why Angelina Jolie adopted Maddox.
Go to these links for a general idea on the country’s speciality [shopping], and info and photos on temples.
Flight took off on time and we reached Siem Reap at 1105 and it was already so very bright albeit a little hazy. Our pre-arranged tuk tuk driver who introduced himself as Len was already waiting as we emerged into the bright Khmer morning and manoeuvred us through the streets of Siem Reap, at times tarred and at times, red-caked, to the hotel. Paddy fields and traditional houses gradually made way for hotels lining the National Route no. 6 or Airport Road. We reached our hotel 15 minutes later.
After checking in and freshening up, we endured a bumpy tuk tuk ride to a village where we boarded a boat for a ride at the Tonle Sap Lake and visit to Kampung Phhluk. Now, if you recall Geography, this is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia. I had a bird’s eye view of the lake earlier, just as the plane began its descent. As the monsoon season had just ended, the lake had swelled up [during the dry season, the lake is fairly small with a depth of one metre and an area of 2,700 square km]. It was a pleasant boat ride, breezy and because we were in the shade, not too hot. Lunch was provided and it was satisfactory.
After half an hour or so, we came upon the floating village of Kampung Phhluk. There were about 300 people staying there [if my memory serves me right], living in stilted huts and whose livelihood revolves around the water. Everything lives on the water, yes, not just everyone, but also the pigs and chicken the villagers somehow manage to rear there. We went to a small temple where we had a bird’s eye view of the village, chatted with a friendly monk eager to practise his English and find out about us and watched the village boys playing some traditional musical instruments before we re-boarded the boat. Then the boat navigator took us out to where the lake met the mighty Mekong River and gosh, it was water, water and water everywhere. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think you’re in a sea rather than in a lake!
It was another half an hour boat ride back to where we started out and from that village, we went to buy the entrance ticket to the temples for the following day. The deal was if you buy the ticket after 5 pm, you get to enjoy the sunset at the temples in addition to the entrance the next day. So we did exactly that and joined hordes of other gawking tourists to explore and sight the sun set over Angkor Wat. Unfortunately, the hazy weather didn’t improve so it wasn’t a clear sunset after all. We entered Angkor Wat from the western gate which was the main point of entry, crossing the moat with balustrades and statues lining the entrance bridge. A little piece of information from Wikipedia: Angkor is a vernacular form of the word nokor which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (capital), while wat is the Khmer word for temple.
We then made our way back to the hotel. We managed to get a ride from the tuk tuk driver to Phsar Chas [Old Market] but it was getting dark and only a handful of shops looked opened and what I saw didn’t impress me much. Dinner was at Little India which claimed it served halal food. We walked back to the hotel – turned out it was pretty near – after stopping at Phsar Kandal [Centre Market]. Btw the greenback is widely accepted [the locals somehow prefer it to Riel] and credit cards are not that widely used yet - some establishments that do accept plastic charge an additional 5% transaction fee!
I was amazed and intrigued at the sight of the Khmer people – it’s somewhat surreal when you see people who look so much like you speak a different language altogether. In my opinion, they are the closest I’ve seen who resemble us.
Friday: Today was the day when Adek became Lara Croft and be a tomb, I mean, temple raider. We set off for the temples at 0845 – it was a clear day today, hurrah! The first stop was at Bayon temple within the great walled city of Angkor Thom where we were greeted by statues of smiling [or was it smirking or even grimacing?] faces lining the causeway. The temple’s distinctive feature was also the multitude of smiling faces. We spent some time here capturing Kodak moments but truth be told, after a while I had enough of these faces and couldn’t tell if they look different. We explored the surrounding area for a while before meeting Len.
The next stop on our Amazing Race around the Angkor Archaeological Park was Thommanum. It was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and quite a small temple by comparison, and hence, we didn’t linger long here.
It was Ta Keo temple next, a plainly decorated but towering structure of a temple. It was left uncompleted by its builders.
Ta Prohm followed next. This temple is famous for the sights of it being ‘choked’ by giant sprawling Banyan trees. However, I read that the destruction wrought by the trees is slowly causing the destruction of Ta Prohm and there is a campaign to do something about it before it’s too late. We spent considerable time here walking along and in the maze of the temple corridors and sprawling tree roots and temple ruins. When I saw the ruins, I blurted out aloud, ‘It’s as if there was a sudden earthquake or something causing the destruction and ruin.’
Our next pit stop was Banteay Kdei, a religious monastery with a terrace that led to two courtyards. There were square pillars in the middle. Then on it was to Sras Srang [Pool of Ablutions], just across the road, before we went for our well-deserved lunch. I was famished and badly needed a visit to the washroom.
After regaining energy, we went to our last pit stop, Angkor Wat. Unlike the day before, we entered the temple from the eastern gate this time. And yes, we climbed the seriously steep steps up to the tower [thank God for lunch!] where I enjoyed a good view of the surroundings and cool afternoon breezes. I stayed awhile before making my way down and finally out of the temple.
We made our way back to town and stopped at Phsar Kandal [again!]. Len picked us up at 6.30 pm and brought us to Angkor Mondial dance for our cultural performance/Apsara dance dinner. That was quite good and entertaining.
Saturday: Went to the Siem Reap River [Srung Siem Reap] for the water festival only to discover the river devoid of action – turned out the boat race would be held in the afternoon instead. Good thing we had Plan B, which was to venture to Phsar Chas. Like I said earlier, I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw during my first visit but it turned out that during the day, the market was more lively and bustling with activity. There were vegetables and sea/river products, meat, clothes, appliances and shoes on sale for the local shoppers, souvenirs for tourists and (to my delight) gemstones and jewellery too. For souvenirs, there are a wide range of Khmer handicrafts, textiles, statues, curios, bags, krama [scarves]… I spent some time looking at the jewellery [and ended up purchasing too!].
We then decided to leave the hustle and bustle of the trading place and walked to Neak Mah mosque [Masjid Nikmah] at Kampung Sieng Nam. The map showed the site but one has to walk a bit further before finding the mosque. Most of the Khmer Muslims lived around this area and we spent some time chatting and getting to know the locals and also performing prayers.
It was past noon when we left Sieng Nam and walked back to Phsar Chas area for lunch. After lunch, we stopped briefly at Phsar Kandal before making our way back to the hotel. It must be the afternoon heat as I did plan to venture out again but fell into a slumber instead. Dinner was at another restaurant serving halal Indian cuisine but two biryanis in a day proved waayyy too much for me.
Sunday: Left the hotel at 10 am for the airport. Landed at KLIA at 1530 but the plane only made its way to the landing bay [is that what you call it?] some 10 minutes later and guess what, there were five other planes behind ours. So we rushed to the immigration with hundreds of other travellers from other planes. I was impressed with the fast bag handling as it was barely 15 minutes after landing when I was reunited with my check-in luggage and no, I didn’t bust the allowable limit, hurrah to me.
~~~~~~~~
I had a great time in Cambodia. It’s a relatively young country – I said that because I saw mainly young to middle-aged people about [I think only a handful of old Cambodians are still alive, no thanks to Pol Pot]. And the children were everywhere [even adorning postcards!]. It’s heartbreaking to see them resorting to work, peddling their wares at such a tender age when they should be playing or going to school but I suppose economic conditions dictate otherwise. There are special ads on free hospital treatment for children and ads in tourist brochures pleading visitors not to have sex with children and I think I know why: it’s to guarantee these children, the future of Cambodia, a brighter future than what their parents knew. But that is still a long way to go and for now, these children have to be child labourers, like it or not. I do hope that with increasing tourism, the standards of living will improve over time and that these children will suffer no more. But they have dignity, they do not beg unlike those children I came across in India. And the Khmer people on the whole are very warm and friendly people, despite their poverty. Such great hospitality! Almost all children we met would wave and say Hello or Bye Bye Bye to us. They were just so sweet, cute and adorable and I can see now why Angelina Jolie adopted Maddox.
Go to these links for a general idea on the country’s speciality [shopping], and info and photos on temples.
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