Day 16 – 2nd of March 2014 – Siem Reap

Us with Phearon and his wife

So today is our last day in Cambodia, we fly out early tomorrow morning, first to KL for a three hour stopover then on to Kuching.  I should probably start the day with last night though, when we decided to head out and have a bit of fun and relaxation.  It has been so frustrating to have been sick so much during this trip, especially in Cambodia, where cocktails are expensive if they go over $3 and beer is usually $.50 or maybe $1.50 for some premium stuff! So as we were both feeling a lot better we headed into town for some dinner and liquid refreshment, ending up at a place called the Triangle Bar.  We had a great time here, it was absolutely hilarious, they had a Korean band consisting of three beautiful girls in short black dresses who sang (and danced) and a guy mashing away on the keyboard behind them.  You really haven’t travelled until you’ve seen a Korean band sing “Hotel California” in Cambodia.  What an experience!  So as we sat and enjoyed the beer and the band, I decided now would be a great time to try out one of the cigars I had picked up on our way through KL.  I have never been a smoker, and can’t recall ever trying a cigar, but I figured it would be kind of fun to try it out, if for no other reason than to look cool for a little while ;)

Lunch Time!

So after watching several youtube video tutorials, and a few handles of beer for some dutch courage, I decided I was ready to embark on my epic cigar journey in public.  I have no doubt these were probably not the world’s best cigars, at around $10 for 5, but they did say vanilla flavoured, which sounds delish to me but would probably make any real cigar fan cringe.  Anyway as always the staff at this bar were all very lovely, however one young guy was particularly excited about my cigar antics.  Attempting to show confidence and ability I certainly didn’t feel inside, I puffed away on my smoke stick as if I did this all the time (usually before I jump in to fly my fighter jet or kill several armed soldiers with my bare hands).  He commented several times on it during the night, and while I didn’t mind it too much, it certainly didn’t blow me away so I decided to give him one of the cigars as well, since I doubted I would be getting through all 5 any time soon. 

He was so excited and grateful, it was really touching and throughout the rest of the night as we relaxed to the soft soothing sounds our Korean fans covering everything from “Smooth Operator” to “They Long to be Close to You” (you know that stupid bottle shop ad song) we would spend time chatting with our new friend. As we were getting ready to leave, he invited us to his home to have lunch the next day and to meet his wife, it was such a kind gesture so we exchanged phone numbers and arranged a rough time to catch up the following day.    

The next day we were planning to take it pretty easy, with plenty of pool time and chilling out scheduled before trying to get some last minute shopping done at the night markets.  We heard from Phearon at around 1.30pm who gave our hotel man directions to give to the tuk-tuk driver so we could get to his house.  He met our tuk-tuk on a street corner and we followed him on his bicycle through some twisting dirt roads (even in the city unsealed roads are common as soon as you are off the main routes) to his home.  He lives with his wife in a small flat, which is a

Phearon and his wife

round 4m² with a single room housing their bed, a sink, and a small computer set up on a bookshelf.  He was so excited to have us there, and welcomed us in apologising for the lack of space.  As we sat on the floor he brought out some ice cold cans of beer he had sitting in a small bucket with some ice (no fridge).  His wife was out at the Market, so we started on the beers and chatted away, he is a really lovely guy and his English is excellent so it wasn’t hard to make conversation.

He was telling us that he learned English in the Orphanage he grew up in, as they had volunteers come to help the kids learn.  He went to the Orphanage when he was nine, and that was also where he met his wife.  His wife had already cooked for us before she went out, so Phearon served up some lunch for us.  He said they weren’t sure what we like to eat, so his wife just cooked his favourite dish, which is a fish cooked up in a soy sauce and ginger seasoning, as well as some “Morning Glory” which is a type of green vegetable, similar to baby bock choy.  While we had been extremely wary of seafood, especially considering the issues we had been having, there was no way I could turn down his hospitality, and as well it looked bloody good!  So I dived in, and the food was absolutely delicious! I’m not normally a fish fan, but this was a river fish they called a “Bird Fish” (though it doesn’t fly they told me) and it was so tasty, quite fatty but this kept it nice and moist, and went really well with the ginger, I was a big fan and can see why it’s his favourite dish. 

Wandering the riverside 

After a little while his wife arrived home, and while her English is not quite as strong as his, she was still lovely to chat with, and had an enormous smile.  It was just a really amazing experience, taking us way out of the world we know, and getting to share a meal with two really lovely people who we could just as easily have never met.  Phearon told us that his dream was to one day work on a cruise ship, so he could make better money and travel around a bit, maybe even come and visit us he said! Unfortunately it is very difficult and expensive even for Cambodians to just get a passport, but hopefully one day he will be able to do it.  We continued to sit and chat, and enjoy a couple more beers in their home.  It was almost surprising how easily the conversation flowed, considering the language and culture barriers, and we snapped a few photos with them as well.  It was really interesting that every time we toasted before drinking (Chung Moy in Cambodia) Phearon would support his arm with his other hand while we touched drinks.  I asked him about it, and apparently it is a sign of respect in Cambodia, because he is 22 and I was nearly 30 so he was respecting his “elder”.  Not sure how I feel being seen as an elder, but it was very touching. 

Dinner on Pub Street

So after around an hour and a half we decided it was time to head off, Phearon and his wife had a wedding celebration to go to later that night (which they also invited us to but we had to decline).  After we left their home we decided to just wander along the river and enjoy the sights, we ended up finding some really nice parts of Siem Reap that we hadn’t seen before, it really is quite a lovely city, much nicer than Phnom Penh in my opinion, and I think we were both still buzzing a bit from the lunch we had just had.  It was just such an awesome thing to be able to do, and all by chance as we could just as easily have not met them, but it was also a bit emotional as well, seeing people be so happy and giving when they had so little.  So I think it is probably pretty obvious this left a bit of an impression on me, and was one of the real highlights of the whole trip.  We ended up in town for a quick dinner and a couple more beers before heading back to the hotel to pack our bags ready to head to Kuching the next day. 

I’m feeling quite sad about leaving Siem Reap, at times I have wanted to leave just because it was such a hard place to visit, in that you are really exposed to people who struggle to earn enough to get by, and yet I ended up realising that if they could be so kind and happy then it was not my place to feel down and sorry for them, but rather to enjoy the hospitality they could provide.  One of the real frustrations here however is how avoidable many of these situations are.  Corruption is a massive problem here, and is a constant theme no matter who you talk to.  The horror of the Khmer Rouge period is something that could not have easily been dealt with, but this corruption which is so obviously holding the country back, and continues to expand the massive gap between the wealthy and the poor does have a solution.  Cambodia relies heavily on many Western countries including Australia ($90 million per year) and that gives us a large amount of pressure which could be brought to bear on the Cambodian government.  However instead of using this position of wealth and power to try and bring about positive change, I see now instead they are proposing that we send our refugees to Cambodia. 
The idea of this would be laughable to anyone who has actually travelled here, where over 40% of children are chronically malnourished, and while the 25% of people living under the poverty line has seen improvement over the past few years, the cut off for being above the poverty line means having access to just under $1/day for food. While food is certainly cheaper in Cambodia, it is obvious that amount is still a long way from giving the people anything close to a comfortable lifestyle.  The idea that this is a country who could not only welcome Australia’s unwanted, but also guarantee them the protections we are obligated to give (racism is also a significant issue in Cambodia, with a large amount of anti-Vietnamese sentiment present due to past and current issues with the Vietnamese government) just doesn’t seem to make any sense to me. 

Cambodia is certainly a Country of great beauty and wonderful people, but there is a lot of sadness here too, not just in the past, but in the present as well.  

Day 14 & 15 – Siem Reap

Today was the start of our 2 days touring the Angkor Archaeological Park, which is a World Heritage listed site, and stretches over 400km² with dozens of separate temple sites.  We got off to an early start, picked up by our driver Mr. Smarty at 8am and headed for the park area, which was around a 15min TukTuk ride from the hotel.  Our first stop was at the ticket booth, to pick up our passes which allow you access to the sites, $20 each per day, or $40 each for a 3 day pass, we needed two days so not a big difference either way! Once we had our passes it was on to the temples.  It is a little hard to remember the names of all the temples we visited over the two days, so I’ll probably just have to try and do a fairly general summary. 

The amount of detail is incredible

The temples around the park were constructed during the reigns of many Kings, and age from the earliest in around the year 790 to the last which were around 1234.  They are absolutely incredible to see, most of them are made from sandstone or a harder stone, and the conditions vary from temple to temple.  Many of them are suffering from significant collapses, as well as vandalism/theft by people and the imposing of the environment, with many trees twisted around the ruins.  What is surprising is the level of access tourists have, being allowed to explore and crawl over almost all of the temples, with a few exceptions of areas that are closed off.  Considering the sandstone composition, and the touchy feely needs of tourists it must be having significant impact o

n the site, and apart from a very few “no touching” signs scattered around (which like nearly all signs in Asia are largely ignored) there is nothing to protect these amazing artefacts.

While the size of the temples is impressive in itself (you have to wonder just how they could build such incredible structures by hand) it is the level of detail which I found most amazing.  Every doorway, window, even many walls are decorated with the most elaborate carvings.  It is truly amazing the depth of detail in many of the carvings considering they were all hand created in stone, and also how well many of them have held up to the tests of time. 

Carvings in the water at Kbal Spean

There were a few particular sites worth noting, the first was called Kbal Spean which was around a 25 minute drive from the main park area, and is then accessed via a 1.5km hike to the site.  The hike was fairly hairy, with a lot of rock and root hopping, and some pretty steep inclines, the kind of thing you love when you’re a kid, but not so much when you’re nearly 30 and in tropical Asian heat (though everyone keeps telling us how cool it supposedly is).  It was particularly interesting to see a lady attempting this climb in 6 inch heels, didn’t stick around to see how that went for her. 

The waterfall at Kbal Spean

Once you reach the end of the hike, you arrive at the Siem Reap river, which eventually flows all the way down to Siem Reap town.  Being dry season the flow was fairly small, however it was still beautiful, but what is really amazing is the rock carvings in the actual creek bed, which date back to the 11^th or 12^th century.  There are carvings along the creek that stretch for around 500m, with lots of different images imprinted on the rock.  It’s pretty incredible to walk along and imagine hundreds of years ago people sitting in the creek chipping away at the rock.  It’s also amazing that the water flow hasn’t eroded all the carvings away, but they are still very visible.  At the end of the walking trail along the creek you get to a decent size waterfall which is very beautiful as well, some tourists were stripping off and getting under the waterfall,

The faces at The Bayon temple

considering how hot it was we were very jealous and regretted not bringing swimming gear!

Another site which was amazing and ended up being our favourite temple was The Bayon. 

Us with a face at Bayon

This temple is dated to the late 12^th or early 13^th century, however like many of the temples it has undergone continuing modifications and augmentations as the religions of kings changed over time.  It started as a Mahayana Buddhist temple, then had Hindu additions when a king of the denomination reigned, and then again when a Theravada Buddhist king was in power.  This temple was another which we could thoroughly explore, with almost full access granted to the lower levels, however the higher levels were closed off due to the risk of collapse and the danger in climbing the steep stairways.  Bayon was in fairly good condition,

More faces

with lots of beautiful and ornate rock carvings still intact, though some areas have suffered collapse, but what really makes Bayon special is the huge imposing faces all around the temple.   There are over 200 faces gazing out, usual configured with 4 faces on one tower, all facing in different directions.  It’s a beautiful scene, and it’s amazing to wonder about how long it must have taken to build, and what it must have been like when it was first abandoned. 

The final site that should probably get its own mention is the tourist favourite, Angkor Wat.  This temple is incredible, and the approach gives you some idea of its size as you cross the bridge over the manmade moat which completely surrounds the Angkor Wat site (which literally translates to Temple City or City of the Temples) and approach the enormous main wall which surrounds the city. 

Victory Gate

Again it is interesting that this temple started out as Hindu, and was originally dedicated to Vishnu before the shift to Buddhism.  It is the largest religious site in the world, and is the only temple which has continued to serve as a religious centre since its construction.  Again, as with all the temples the level of detail on all the structures is incredible, with beautiful carvings depicting various scenes decorating walls around the temple, as well as doorways, windows etc.  What was kind of interesting was finding a couple of places where the decoration had not been completed, and where patterns in a certain place had been started but not finished, as if someone finished work for the day and forgot to come back where they left off.  

There were plenty of stairs to climb, and plenty of other tourists to battle as well, but we had a great

The bridge approaching Angkor Wat

time exploring and again, it is both amazing and concerning the amount of access you are given to such an important part of history.  At nearly all the temples we went to there were restoration works under way, carried out by various nationalities including Japan, China and Germany as well as others.  It is good to see that work is progressing to restore and protect these amazing sites, and they have done it in a way which I think is good, as while they are building some new components to replace those damaged beyond repair, they are doing it in the original style, but still making it obvious which parts are new and which are part of the original build.

Angkor Wat external wall

The temples all share similar features (as they were all built under similar influences) but they all also have their own unique styles and while it was hot and draining work climbing the multiple stairs and battling the hordes of other tour groups there (we took to calling them ducklings as that’s what they looked like as they all waddled after their tour leader with his flag held high) it was certainly worthwhile and I got some great pictures of some incredible and ancient works, which may not be around forever.  The only really sad part we found was the “monks” hanging out in the temples trying to press incense into tourists hands supposedly for good luck then demanding “donations” afterwards.  They were extremely persistent and often had unsuspecting tourists thinking they were taking part of a religious ceremony, then making them cough up before they knew any

These story walls were amazing, with an incredible amount of detail

better.  While I understand the need for people to be able to make money, it really took away from the beauty and serenity of the place, and also made it frustrating to explore while getting constantly interrupted by these scammers. 

More story wall

They also have the exits of the temples set up to shepherd you through all the various vendors outside touting their goods and imploring you to just “buy something sir”.  While again this got a little wearing I found it much more tolerable than doing it on the actual temple sites. 

So after we were thoroughly exhausted and soaked in sweat from exploring we headed back into town to a nice café we had found previously to have a quick bite to eat and a cool drink.  While we were there our lovely tuk-tuk driver invited us back to his home to meet his wife and baby, Julie.  He lives fairly close to town, and the house is shared between three families, his Father in law, his sister in law and her children, and he and his wife.  It was really lovely of him to bring us there, and it was a great view into the “real” Cambodia.  His wife was lovely, and his daughter was gorgeous so we had a great time sitting on the floor (most houses in Cambodia only have a bed as furniture so sitting on the floor is normal) and playing with her. 

Nature vs. Temple

He also showed us his wedding photos, which were amazing.  In Cambodia weddings go for two days, and the couple wear multiple different bright coloured outfits during the ceremony, all of which are beautifully decorated and bright colours.  The couple also always match, so in one picture they were both in beautiful yellow outfits, then bright blue, then green etc.  It was also interesting seeing the ceremony involved in a Buddhist wedding, which includes a hair cutting (only pretend though) to cut out all of the “bad” in their lives. 

It was a really lovely experience to be invited into his home, and is just so typical of the people here, they are just so genuinely kind and welcoming to us, and while by our standards they have very little, in a lot of ways they have so much more than we do.  Family is everything here, and keeping everyone close together is an important part of life, meal times are a great time for all the family to get together and enjoy the company of each other, and there is almost a kind of ceremony over the way they share many of their meals.  I think that while there are huge problems in this country that need to be addressed, and as a developed and wealthy nation it is part of our responsibility to help make sure this happens, we could also learn a lot off these people about what’s really important in life, and what you really need to be happy.

                

Day 12/13 - Siem Reap

The new hotel

So as usual apologies for the massive delays in updating, no excuses, just getting lazy! We must finally be in holiday mode.  So when we last left you we were on the bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.  Now this was a real experience in itself, before leaving we were advised to only travel by day as it was too dangerous at night.  After seeing what passes as the National highway here, I can see this was definitely good advice.   The condition of the road could only be described as horrific, with the bus regularly crossing to the wrong side of the road to avoid pot holes, the horn was constantly in use, and when there was oncoming traffic? Well we just rode the pot holes, though that word doesn’t really seem adequate, they were more like craters than pot holes.

Despite these minor challenges we made it safe and sound to Siem Re

The new hotel breakfast table & pool

ap, and after some negotiation caught a tuk-tuk to the hotel.  We were starting to wonder what we might have signed up for, after a few twisty turns down dark dirt roads, however the hotel ended up being lovely.  So after a long day on the road we were just thankful for a nice rainfall shower, and a comfy bed with a/c cranking. 

The next day we were free to explore Siem Reap, and we found that it was much more to our liking than Phnom Penh.  For a start, it seems to be much cleaner, and it is also much centralised and easier to navigate, with just a few blocks covering most of the markets, pubs and restaurants.  No doubt this is partly due to the fact that it is significantly smaller than Phnom Penh, and the sprawl is still quite large when it comes to local venues, however as a foreigner it seems to be much more tourist geared.  So we spent our time wandering around the town, SR seems to be much more of a late rise late finish town, with several markets having only a few vendors, or the local

Hotel bathroom with rainfall shower 

geared sellers open with most of them closed.  Again we noticed that while it is quite dusty here, the piles of garbage in the streets so obvious in PP were not present here.

The markets also seemed to have much wider range of goods than we found in PP, maybe we were just looking in the wrong places, but we didn’t have to go far here to find a good range of souvenirs, obviously all at “good price for you sir, buy something lady” prices.  One relief we did find here is that there are far fewer children on the street trying to sell you goods as you eat, though the tuk-tuk drivers are just as intent on winning your business, and while it can get a bit wearing over time, it is usually always in good humour, and a “maybe later” is enough to placate them while they promise “I’ll wait here for you”.  When we did end up going back to one later, he nearly fell of his seat!

So after wandering through the day we headed back to the hotel for a swim in the beautiful pool, and a relax on the sun chairs they have nearby, only to be brought glasses of iced water and a platter of sliced mango!  I have to say I think that’s the closest to a life of luxury I’ve ever found myself!  Once we felt fully recuperated we headed back into town to check out the night scene.  The happening stre

Cocktails at Terrace des Elephants

et is aptly named “pub street” and while it is definitely tourist catered it is a great place to sit and watch the world go by.  It has a large variety of restaurant/bars, with most offering a combination of Khmer food, and Khmer interpretation of “Western” food. To be honest, while it shames me to admit it (as I’m always pretty judgemental of tourists that I see eating western cuisine) after all our tummy incidents lately, it was a big relief to eat some comfort food. 

It also proved to be quite entertaining, as Khmer interpretation of our meals definitely does not mean an accurate translation.  For instance one dish I just had to try was a “Chicken Saltibuca” which ended up being a fried chicken breast piled with bacon, covered with a very cream based sauce, and with fries on the side.  Not what I was expecting, but you also didn’t hear me complain!  Cambodian cuisine however is very delicious, unlike many

Aptly named street

Asian countries there is not a big focus on heat (spicy) here, and rather they have a real sweet tooth, which is often balanced with sour.

As I’m covering two nights with this post, I also have to mention our venture down to the local Austrian restaurant, which is at the end of another half closed dirt street about 10 minutes’ walk from town.   We decided to do a recon earlier in the day, as we had heard it was quite hard to find, at one stage I’m pretty sure Giss was ready to abandon me when we got to a very “local” looking area, complete with multiple street dogs roaming, however to her credit we soldiered on and finally found the place.  We just walked in to check out the menu, and somehow I found myself talked into an Erdinger (a German beer) by the big bellied, and bigger personalitied owner “Roman”. 

Lovely lamps in the river. In case you were wondering
they have extension leads dangling through the water
plugged into power boards floating on wooden rafts.
Safety first!

I am proud to say this was my first beer before midday the whole holiday, and since Australia is 3 hours ahead, it was already 2pm there, so I carry no guilt at all.  So after promising to come back later, we continued our wanderings.  Returning later that night, we found Roman…. Pretty tipsy to say the least.  His personality is pretty huge, and it was such a polar opposite of the Cambodian people that it was most of the fun of the visit.  After ordering a schnitzel he decided I would like the ribs better, and for Giss? Well she was still a bit crook so thought she might have a small side, though she ended up with the world’s largest Cordon Bleu.  The ribs were pretty darn nice, definitely amazing as far as European food goes in Cambodia, though I still wish I had tried a schnitzel.  Neither of us could finish our meals, and by this stage Roman seemed to have enjoyed enough of his own beer tap, so we decided to hit the road.

Ribs, garlic bread, potato salad, and kraut

Big chicken time

So all in all, so far Siem Reap has left a much better impression on us, it is cleaner, better organised, and easier to get around.  Our next adventure here takes us out to the temples in the Angkor Archaeological park, where we will no doubt be battling hoards of other tourists, so until then, we’ll continue to enjoy the 50c beer and $3-5 meals.