Siem Reap, Cambodia, 02-06 November

With Cambodia, Vietnam and Lao now the real adventure begins. That’s at least the way I would like to think of it before even getting started.

Cambodia only has two international airports at Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. The former was my first destination to see the temples of Angkor Wat. You know that you are in an exciting country when they charge you for a visa. Although I knew I had to have a passport photo for the visa, I forgot it in my backpack and so got charged an extra Dollar to scan my passport. About seven or eight “officials” are sitting next to each other passing your passport on to the next person, each one looking and checking. But I am glad that they have established visa on arrival and that it only takes two minutes to get it.
Siem Reap means "defeated Thailand", hardly the most tactful gesture to name a major city so close to the Thai border.

I shared a tuk-tuk to my guest house with an elderly scot who is a professional photographer taking pictures Cambodia’s people, so he told me.

People are finally driving on the right side of the road again. After Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand it’s kinda strange but you easily get into the old habit of looking to the right side when crossing a street.

I stayed at the Mandalay Inn, just next to the old market and for $14 I was really impressed how clean the room was. All staff spoke excellent English and was very eager to please you. Free wifi also contributed to the positive experience.

After a lot of turmoil in recent decades (colonisation by the French and the Khmer Rouge reign) people lost confidence in their own currency (Cambodian Riel) and so they adopted the US-Dollar. Although the Riel remains as the official currency all prices in supermarkets, when booking a bus, tour or tuk-tuk driver are quoted in US-Dollars. Well, that is not entirely correct. All charges must be settled by new, clean, crisp US-Dollar notes. Any torn, old, dirty notes are not accepted. It occurred to me several times that notes were “not good enough” and so I had to tender a different, “better” one. The official exchange rate is 1$ = 4200 Riel, but most places round the Dollar off to 4000. If the price is $2.50 and you tender a $5 note you will get back two Dollars and 2000 Riel.

Also, Cambodia is more expensive than expected, especially the prices at the supermarket for every day items like tooth paste and candy.

For some reasons Diet Coke is more expensive than regular Coke, also no fast food restaurant (McDonald’s or Burger King don’t exist but I have seen one KFC) offers Diet Coke.

On the other hand you can buy a carton (200) of cigarettes for as cheap as $3.00 and a tuk-tuk driver for the whole day to see Angkor Wat only charges $10.00

The classic Thai tuk-tuk is a one-piece vehicle with one metal frame. Cambodia’s tuk-tuks are technically called a “remork” as they consist of a tuk-tuk-like carriage drawn by a moto.

Remork

At 5:00h *sigh* my tuk-tuk driver picked me up at my guest house to see Angkor Wat at sunrise.

Angkor Wat

The world’s biggest religious monument is the heart and soul of Cambodia. The nation’s pride (also on the flag) was never abandoned to the elements and unlike other temples has been in continuous use since it was built in the 12^th century. Even the atheistic Khmer Rouge didn’t dare to touch it.

“Wat” is the equivalent of “temple” and Angkor is an old Sinskript word for “City”. Nowadays “Angkor” also refers to the region as well as the period of time when it was built.

Angkor Wat replicates the universe in miniature and is consecrated to the Hindu god Vishnu by its creator Suryavarman II. Although dedicated to a Hindu deity the temple is a mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism.

To enter Angkor Wat you need to cross a moat of 200 meters to get to the first gate.

Western Gate of Angkor Wat

From there you walk another 400 meters on the 7-headed “naga”-snake to finally reach the temple. Have a look at all these tourists crawling out of bed at 5:00h ;-)

The naga is the "handrail" of this causeway

 Apart from its size and beautiful towers, the 800m of bas-relief was the highlight for me. The most famous section is called “Churning of the Ocean of Milk” in which 88 demons and 92 gods hold a giant snake and churn up the sea to extract the elixir of immortality.

Churning of the Ocean of Milk - bas relief

 When you look at the dimensions of this structure you will certainly wonder how the Khmer accomplished the logistical challenges of this enterprise. Well, Angkor had one million citizens at a time when there were only 50.000 people living in London.

Model of Angkor Wat, photo taken from the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

  The fortified City of Angkor Thom was built by Jayavarman VII a few decades after Angkor Wat and is about 10 km² in size (much bigger than AW). I entered thru the southern gate where you can also find the motif of the Churning of the Oceaon of Milk as 54 gods and 54 demons are lined up along the causeway. Most of them are headless, unfortunately. My tuk-tuk driver let me alight in front of Angkor Thom. As I walked thru the massive gate I couldn’t see any building and that’s when I realised how big Angkor Thom is. My driver waited for me after I passed thru the gate and we had to drive for another 2 km before getting to the first temple. This was the best picture I could get as the traffic picked up thereafter.

South Gate of Angkor Thom

 Bayon is the main temple of Angkor Thom and features some 50 towers with about 200 enormous faces of Avalokiteshvara (an elightened existence who embodies universal compassion).

Western side of Bayon

 The stunning bas-relief stretches for 1.2 km with about 11.000 figures. This was the most crowded temple on my tour, maybe because not everyone wanted to get up for sunrise at AW. Also my camera’s battery died after Bayon. Not sure why but at least it survived the most important temples. While the staircases in AW were mainly made from wood and covered the old stone stairs, getting to the upper levels of Bayon proved to be more of a challenge as the old stairs are steep and slippery.

Northern side of Bayon

 As you walk north from Bayon on the 350m long and 5 m high Elephant Terrace, served as grandstand for events like coronation ceremonies you will find the Baphuon-Temple on the left hand side. It is said to be the world’s biggest jigsaw-puzzle, but unfortunately not open to the public. If you move further on the Elephant Terrace you will come to the Terrace of the Leper King. This is a narrow corridor with five tiers of excellent carvings depicting asparas (celestial nymphys).

Celestial Nymphs, photo taken in Angkor Wat

Last temple for this day was Ta Prohm, a little bit to the south of Angkor Thom. Here I regretted not being able to take any pictures because the structure is a mixture of stone and jungle. HHuge trees are growing over walls, bas-reliefs are covered with moss and many corridors are jammed with carved stone blocks. This is how the first Europeans found the temples of Angkor and Ta Prohm has been purposely left this way.

The movie Tomb Raider was filmed on site.

The other days I looked around town but I am tired from typing now. Anyway, it was not as impressive. I am really glad I was able to see the Temples of Angkor. Definitely, one of the highlights of my trip.