Otteita Grantin matkapaivakirjasta: Angkor what, where, who and how?

SIEM REAP     SUN   17.7.2011

Slept incredibly well, so well that I just did not want to get up after 11 hours of the good stuff. We/I had to get up though, so we packed our bags, grabbed some breakfast and jumped on a bus to the [Bangkok] bus station. Once we got off the bus the fun began, as we thought it would be a short walk but turned out to be a long, labourious, hot walk through parks with long fences and not so many gates. We eventually found the bus, got tickets, grabbed lunch (as it took us so long to find the place) and jumped on the bus to Cambodia. Roads were near perfect, bus was comfortable and the trip took about 4 1/2 hours. 

We got to the border, and knew we had to avoid anyone telling us anything about anything to do with anything concerning anything related to visas, taxis, passports, money, etc. We found the places we needed, even the uniformed police officers tried to make a little extra cash out of us (didn't happen), then the taxi fun began. We knew we would get hounded and that commission guys were a plenty. We had a guy follow us for ages and eventually we gave into him and paid the $10 US each for the trip to Siem Reap, $2 more than we should, oh well. Everything here works in US dollars even though the local currency is riel.

We reached Siem Reap in the dark but were amazed to see enormous five star hotels lining the main road. The place is packed full of tourists and we headed off to find a guest house. We had a specific one in mind from LP [Lonely Planet], so, we found that, got a room for $4 a night and then had $0,50 beers, steamed fish curry and some dessert. Came to about $5 each. Awesome. Doubt we will be heading to the main attraction of Angkor Wat tomorrow, more likely the next day. Pretty pumped about it though!

SIEM REAP     MON   18.7.2011

Slept rather well although a mozzie worked his way inside my net.

We needed to get some money and it was a little strange to have American bank notes come out. We went and paid our room and food and got change in American and riel currency making it a little confusing. The best approach I can think of is using the riel as "cents" for the American dollars.

We didn't have much planned for the day except that we had decided to see two groups of temples that are a fair distance away so the only way to see them is by tuk-tuk. We asked our guest house and they quoted $25 for the day, so we went to the drivers directly as there would be no commission, and it was soon $20 but Saara knew she could do better. We bummed around for a bit, got some lunch with a couple of beers [and margaritas] and then headed back. We were stopped by the tuk-tuk guy and Saara worked her magic again getting the guy down to $15. Nice work. So, we will be meeting him at 8:30 tomorrow morning.

Excited to get our first taste of the Angkor temples tomorrow. We are going in order of age supposedly and working up to the big guys. Should be good.

SIEM REAP     TUE   19.7.2011
Alarm went off at 7 but the body was not interested in getting up at all as I was sleeping so well. Went for breakfast, sorted a few things out and met our tuk-tuk guy. It's not really a tuk-tuk but a motorbike with a trailer with very comfortable seats. Firstly we went to get our tickets that cost us $40 each but they are valid for 3 says. We even got our photo taken to go on the ticket. Saara's looked awesome.

We then took a fairly lengthy drive to the oldest of the temples, some 1200 years old. As suspected they were pretty run down, but I think it is good to see where all this building began. We then zoomed off to a larger temple on a big platform of 5 sections. It had the more classic centre piece and was pretty interesting to look at. Next was another crumbling temple surrounded by buddhist temples.

We then took a long drive to what is considered the "jewel"in the Angkor temples. It was a small three towered temple with decorations that were incredibly delicate and super impressive. We couldn't help but to compare them to Khajuraho in India [click here to read] with the Indian temples probably coming out ahead, but this one was definitely good.

It was then a quick drive to the landmine museum which was the life work of a man who was a kid soldier for the Khmer Rouge [Khmer Rouge in Wikipedia] laying many a mine, he then defected to the Vietnamese army to fight the Khmer Rouge and, once the war was over, he dedicated his life to finding and defusing landmines. A pretty interesting little museum and one incredibly brave man. [Landmine museum website & The founder in Wikipedia]

Got a nice taste of the temples today, looking forward to some big guns tomorrow.




SIEM REAP     WED   20.7.2011
Saara was pretty keen on getting 12 hours sleep and the magic number was 9.05, but we fell a little short of it, but a good nights sleep anyway as we knew we would need it for the big day ahead. We went and grabbed some breakfast, packed some stuff in the backpack, hired some one gear bikes from the guesthouse and headed off. The traffic wasn't too bad, but this was the first country on the trip that drives on the right hand side of the road, so I had to make a quick adjustment or two. The road was incredibly flat making for very easy riding even on our old clunkers. We got our ticket holes punched at the ticket counter and continued on. Our plan was to "build-up" to the bigger and more famous temples as the day went on, and it worked quite well. Our first temple was 10 km of riding from the start but it hardly felt like we had done anything, although humidity was pretty high, but not really the temperature.

At the first temple we got our first taste of Cambodian ladies desperately trying to sell us scarves, magnets, other nik-naks but the most famous cry of the day was "Hellooooo Sir/Ladyyyy! You want cold driiiiiiink!? Two, one dollar!" We got it going to temples usually from multiple vendors and then the same on the return trip to the bikes. Thankfully they weren't too persistant and just asked one or twice.

We visited Prasat Kravan, a small three towered temple that was one of the older ones (10th century), then moved on to Banteay Kdei which was a larger temple complex with a long walkway/corridor down the centre with other corridors leading off it. Here we got our first look at temple "rubbings". Guys trying to sell prints and claiming they are rubbings from the temples. It would be impossible to get rubbings from the walls as it is illegal to touch any of the carvings. Saara did some inquiring to one salesman about how it is possible to get the "rubbings" if you are not allowed to touch them. "There is sign, but not for Cambodians" the shifty salesman replied referring to the numerous signs saying "Do not touch the carvings". Oh well, we saw two tourists walk away with a rubbing. If they really were rubbings, which they're not, why would one want to encourage the practice as it would no doubt be doing damage to the most important of places. Back to the temple, one of the best parts of the temple was the gate leading in as it had 4 of the famous huge stone faces with the creepy grin on it.

We then rode a couple more kilometres to a large temple called Pre Rup. It was a multilevel temple with three towers at the top. They were stripped right back to the bricks and there were a lot of "extra" stones lying about but it was still an interesting place, and from the top it gave us a great view of the surrounds, and showed just how flat the place really is. Another few kilometres to Ta Som which was another "corridor temple"  but the main highlight was one of the famous trees that has taken over and grown on top of one of the gates.

We jumped on the bikes again but as we were riding the humidity was really picking up, then all of a sudden a blast of wind came through the trees, as did a cold blast of wins and we knew it meant one thing, rain. We knew we were only a kilometre from the next temple but we barely made it 500 metres before the rain absolutely poured down. It was more important for the cameras, book and money to be dry so our rain jackets covered them, whilst early on in the downpour we took cover under trees, but this was useless after about 1 minute as the rain was so heavy there was nothing the trees could do [plus there land mines around, so I wasn't interested in venturing too far off the road]. The rain absolutely thundered down for about 10 minutes and I even gave up standing under the trees and instead stood on the road to watch the incredible downpour. I was drenched already anyway. We eventually moved on once the rain had calmed, but it was still spitting. Saara did a little puddle dance before we got on the bikes again and finally her thongs [flip flops] that had walked her to 4500 metres in the Hima-freaking-layas broke, but she still used them for riding.

The next temple called Preah Neak Pean was a single tower in the middle of a circular man made island. It was definitely unique compared to the others, but as we were still drenched and it was still raining a little we didn't take too much interest in it, except for the four spouts that used to move water from the larger pool to smaller ones as they were in the shape of a lamb, lion, elephant and human.

Next was Preah Khan, an absolutely massive complex with everything I came to expect from these temples. Long entrance ways, a bridge over a moat highly decorated, a big stone archway gate, then another walk to the entrance to the temple, the famous "engulfing" trees, a ridiculously long corridor with many corridors and courtyards coming off the centre, and then more corridors and courtyards coming off those. We spent a good hour wandering around the very impressive complex and I am sure we only saw a small percentage of it. There was a particularly strange building that looked like a Greek building with its many rounded columns holding up a second level of more columns. Seemed somewhat out of place compared to all the other buildings but still pretty cool.

We stopped for some food of noodle soup for me and friend noodles for Saara. Amazingly they were so desperate for patronage that they brought down the prices on their menus without a lot of hassle. The $3,5 meal was $2 in no time [even without asking]. Pretty amazing really.

Then we rode on to the super important area of Angkor Thom which is a 10 km2 area that houses many stone structures and used to house a suspected 1 million people at the time London had 50 000. We went through a huge gate (20 m tall) with the famous faces again and large elephants also. We rode past many stone towers and terraces and also past a truly huge building but it was closed at the time. That meant we could carry on to one of Angkor's main attractions and one that I was very excited to see, Bayon.

This is the temple with lots of towers and each tower has the 4 smirking faces pointing in each direction of the compass. We were virtually alone at the temple [apart from two German backpackers who were playing hide'n'seek] and with the dark sky, dark stone, silence and being surrounded by huge unblinking eyes, the place was creepy to say the least, and I loved every bit of it. I went particularly snap happy here as the angles, shapes and silhouettes were just great and I was really happy to be at a place I had wanted to visit for a long time, and it was so good that we had it all to ourselves.

The day was wearing on and we could see there was no chance of a sunset but we did pass the hill where hundreds of tourists were trying to get a sunset view. That's where they all were whilst we had Bayon to ourselves. We then made the 10 km or so ride back to the guesthouse just as it was getting dark. I had a real hankering for beer, so I got a couple. After a long but not so tiring day we headed to bed. Tomorrow will be a rest day, not that we really need it, but we are going to Angkor Wat for sunrise and after all the beers, that could be difficult as we would need to leave at almost 4.30 on our bikes again.

Today was a brilliant day and really reminded me about how awesome travelling can be. The bike idea was great, even if we did get a little wet at one point. Really looking forward to getting on the bike again to see the star of the show, Angkor Wat, and also some more places we didn't manage to get to today.





SIEM REAP     THUR   21.7.2011
[Did sweet F-A today.]

SIEM REAP    FRI   22.7.2011
The alarm rang at 4.00 and we were a little slow in getting up, but we got going eventually when we saw that there was a possibility of a sunrise due to some clear sky. We hired the same two bikes as 2 days ago and headed off in the dark towards Angkor Wat. We had the last hole punched in our ticket and then rode a it faster than usual to make sure we didn't missing anything.

We arrived in time and also arrived with many tuk-tuks and tour buses and this was when the temple was supposed to be quiet. We walked over the long wide stone bridge throught the gates and the enormous open grassed area appeared as did the three towers that the Cambodians so proudly sport on their flag. The only downer was the scaffolding covered in green shade cloth, but it is good to see they are making sure the temple is looked after and using palm trees or different angles to usual meant the photos wouldn't be too filled with said cloth.

We stood near a pond and watched as the sun came up behind the temple but the clouds had returned, so it wasn't the greatest experience ever, but it was still nice. We then made our way into the temple proper and saw the incredibly long corridors shooting off as we passed through to the main courtyard that housed the three towers representing Mt. Meru and the smaller nearby mountains.

We wandered around the complex especially the level with sculptured wall of a famous Cambodian epic that ran the length and width of the four corridor walls. Each corridor had to be at least 200 metres long. The enormity of the project may have been lost on us a little due to tiredness of the early morning but the thought that every stone had been transported from 50 km away up a river was a truly unbelievable feat.

We waited until the tower area opened to the public so we could get a closer look at them and also get a look at the surrounding landscape as it is the highlight of the temple. The view is flat! But good nonetheless. We made sure we checked all the sides and the walls of the grand structure before leaving. We thought initially that there were quite a lot of tourists in the temple grounds and wondered how this could be considered the quietest part of the day. Well, this hit home as we were leaving the temple and it seemed as though thousands were pouring in over the bridge and up the causeway. The guy manning the gate to allow people up to the towers said that if you are not in line by 3 o'clock you may not get in as they close at 5. Popular place.

After about 2 1/2 hours in Angkor Wat we decided to go to Phnom Bakheny, the temple on top of a small hill that supposedly is the best sunset point but we would just go for the view. The walk up was easy enough as long as we avoided the elephant crap and the long thick lines of angry looking ants. The temple on top was okay with its ridiculously steep stairs which are a common theme here, and we got another good view over the surrounding area, and we could see Angkor Wat but it was very small off in the distance. We got a better view of it from a nearby platform that looked through the trees.

We headed down, jumped on the bikes, paused by the many faced Bayon temple with elephants walking tourists around and stopped at the temple Baphuon. This temple had been carefully taken apart with detailed records of what goes where, then the Khmer Rouge ruined those records so it is now an enormous jigsaw puzzle. They have done a pretty good job so far as the temple is enormous, but there are thousands of blocks still lying around the grounds of the temple and they are in for a long though job working that puzzle out.

World's largest puzzle

Some red arrows pointed us past some more temples shaped a bit like pyramids and then up the Elephant Terrace, which is a large, long raised stone platform adorned with many carved elephants. It was the former viewing platform of the king amongst others to watch parades go by. We walked along it moving ever further away from our bikes and realized the  arrows and the "no exit" signs lead us into the lion's den of Cambodian ladies selling food, hats, bangles, fruit, scarves, magnets, anything really. With their high pitched nasal voices it sounds like a set of bagpipes warming up. We quickly ran the gauntlet and then made our way back to the bikes before heading to some more temples we had not seen.

Well, we thought the only one left was Ta Phrom, one of the more famous ones, but as we were riding many other temples appeared. Some we stopped at such as the cathedral shaped Thom Manon and the robust, incredibly steep staired, tall and rather unexpectedly good Ta Keo.

We then made our way to our final stop, Ta Phrom, famous for a couple of things; one, it's where Tomb Raider was filmed (amongst other movies) and two, the enormous, white trunked trees that have grown up from temples, roofs down walls and have also sent their roots down trying to reach the ground in odd twisting shapes making for a dramatic battle of nature vs human. We walked through and around the temple which was the long, low styled temples but the trees were the star of the show. They kept getting bigger and the root system more impressive. Saara went snap happy so I really got to enjoy the surrounds although there were a lot of tourists but it didn't take away from the spectacle too much.

Bayon took the prize for my favourite temple and I think Saara liked Ta Phrom the most due to the trees [and you would be right to think so]. The Angkor temples are truly amazing in their scale and detail and worth the $40 we paid to see them. Very, very happy to have seen them as they are something I have known about for a long time and they did not let me down!