Siem Reap, famous for the Temples of Angkor, was our
exciting next stop, and it is the uplifting sight Cambodia is famous for – with
Angkor Wat on everything from their delicious Angkor beer to Cambodian SIM
cards! We settled into our rather basic hostel, in a room without
air-con, and although we were tempted to upgrade as it was too darn hot in
there, we resisted the urge in an effort to be virtuously green. We were pretty
tired and feeling a bit under the weather, so we went to get some dinner,
sorted out our laundry, and got an early night. Thrilling stuff, I’m sure you’ll
all agree.
Feeling much better the next morning, we set out to
requisition a tuk-tuk for the day to help us get as many temples in as we
could! You can buy a three day pass for the all the temples, and although we
were unsure if we’d need three days, it cost the same for a three day pass as a
two day pass so we went for it anyway. It turns out though that, no matter how
many temples you see each day – you really do need at least three days, and you
could easily spend a week here – though you might be a bit mad by the end of it
all!
T, our driver, turned out to be very sweet and helpful,
saving us from a rip-off haggle and offering a fair rate for a day out. It would
be a nice job if you’ve got a good book actually, as most people view the
temples either by bike, or by tuk-tuk, and then drivers wait for you while you
wander round each site. We quickly negotiated for him to pick us up the next
day too – which put him in an even better mood, he was telling us how happy he
was to be able to go home and tell his family he had another day trip booked! I
did get quite caught up in imagining what his life must have been like – from everything
he said, it sounds like he had a nice family and enjoyed his work.
Our first stop was Sra Srang, a massive swimming pool
essentially, though actually a ‘Pool of Ablutions’ for the king of the time and
his wives. It measures 800m by 400m, and has the remains of a small temple in
the middle – you can just about make out a shimmer in the water that is the old
temple base lying just under the surface. It is a very picturesque setting, and
would have been perfect for sunrise or sunset (though to make the sunrise you’re
looking at a 4am start – not sure we were up for that!).
Sra Srang
Just across the road from Sra Srang is Banteay Kdai, our
first real glimpse of Angkor. It was a Buddhist monastery, built in the 12th
century, but has become quite ruined thanks to remaining unfinished, and being
built in a hurry. Even though it’s not complete, it has some impressive
features, notably the strangling fig trees that are taking over (the first of
many we’d see). These are epiphytes, a type of plant that grows on another plant,
in this case other trees (the seeds are usually dispersed by animals or birds).
In the case of the strangler fig, they send roots down from higher up in the
trees, and eventually the tree becomes so dominant it can effectively ‘strangle’
the original tree (and sometimes the original tree will die, leaving the
strangler fig hollow!). These trees are common in the tropics, and have become
very significant aspects of the Angkor environment.
Banteay Kdei
Banteay Kdei
Banteay Kdei
Banteay Kdei
Banteay Kdei
Banteay Kdei
We jumped back into the tuk-tuk, and T took us to Ta Phrom,
a Buddhist temple built by Jayavarman VII from 1186, which is composed of a
network of corridors within a large square structure. It is also famous for
being in the film Tomb Raider (the bit where Lara has a dream and plucks a
jasmine flower from the aforementioned tree). Now this is a strangler fig! It
runs the risk of swamping the temple entirely, and there is more than one tree
here trying to take over. This slow natural battle with the building is eerie
and makes the entire place quite spooky – the leafy canopy makes this a
naturally shady environment and the air feels damp and thick. It is the stuff
of fairytales, with mosses and lichens covering stones that were once part of
the structure but have been given the boot by the fig trees. You wouldn’t
believe there were that many shades of green, looking around from a shaded
corridor…
Ta Phrom
Ta Phrom - 'Tomb Raider Tree'
Ta Phrom
Ta Phrom
Ta Phrom
Ta Nei
The next stop was Ta Nei, a low key version of Ta Prohm also
built at around the same time. In many ways the atmosphere here eclipses Ta
Prohm, principally due to having fewer visitors (it has no Hollywood angle,
unlike Ta Prohm). This makes the fairytale feel a lot more real, and the
encroaching trees more physical.
Ta Nei
Ta Nei
Our last temple for the day was Ta Keo, built between
968-1001 by Jayavarman V. This has the classic Angkorian design of four towers
surrounding a central tower (in this case, one that reaches almost 50m). This
temple is distinguished for being the first Angkorian temple to be built
entirely from sandstone, although this is another temple that was never
finished, and the reasons for this are unclear. One story suggests that
construction halted upon the death of Jayavarman V (presumably the next ruler
had other things on his mind), but an alternative theory is that, because
lightning struck the temple during construction, this may have been seen as a
bad omen and helped them decide to stop work. Whatever the story, it was our
first grand Angkorian-looking design and an excellent way to finish the day before Angkor
Wat the next morning!
Ta Keo
Ta Keo
Ta Keo
Ta Keo
Ta Keo
Ta Keo
Ta Keo
Ta Keo
Ta Keo
T dropped us back near our hostel, and we dropped into the
same restaurant from the night before for dinner. Perhaps we’d been a bit too
tired to appreciate then, but we realised we’d found a real gem of a place – it
was so cheap and amazing quality! We couldn’t figure out what it was called,
but it was also popular with the locals and did the most amazing pineapple
shake – in fact I had pineapple with most things there, and Bradley and I alternated
between noodles and rice so that we could share a bit of everything.
We were feeling pretty sprightly after a pleasant day, so we
decided to head into town to see what Siem Reap has to offer. The answer is
fairly predictable – there’s not much of note in the town, but it has plenty of
bars and restaurants with good beer happy hours, so we dropped into a place
called Mikey’s bar (which was a mistake, because although we wanted to like it,
it had terrible service, and there seemed to be a pimp operating out of the
bar) so we quickly changed course and went to the Khmer Grill for a few more
beers and some ice cream to stave off the heat, before retiring to bed to get plenty of sleep before an early start with T the next morning.
Happy birthday to me! We leave Phnom Penh early (boo!) on a
bus bound for Battambang, and it’s a fairly painless journey, which is a nice
bonus; and even on a proper bus. We pull up in Battambang (pronounced ‘Badambong’)
at around 4pm, where we check into a slightly plusher than usual hotel (a
birthday treat, the day was working out well!). We had time to change before
heading straight back out for a birthday meal!
My first choice for pre-dinner drinks was out as we couldn’t
find it (Café Eden: we’d realise over the next few days that it’s closed on
Tuesday’s – doh!) but we found a nice place for drinks and dinner further down
the river, the River Café. We thought this was the place we were trying to
reach (the Riverside Balcony Bar – you can see how we were confused! – which is
famous for excellent burgers, apparently) but that was further down the river,
so although the River Café did an OK burger, it wasn’t quite what we’d had in
mind! Still, they served a good red wine, and the ice cream was pretty tasty,
so it was a lovely meal all the same. And there was even entertainment of the
singing variety – a trio of young girls backed by a lone guitarist, singing a
random selection of songs by everyone from REM (Losing my Religion) to Beyoncé
(Crazy in Love). So it was a kind of open air riverside disco (with glitter
ball suspended from the stage the girls were standing on). Kitsch!
On the way back, we headed to the Gecko Café for a last
drink – it’s a first floor bar with a view out over an intersection, and is
pretty chilled out (and surprisingly busy compared to the rest of the town,
which seems to shut down after dark).
The next day was a work day, but as I had a call to
Australia at 10am, I kept going and worked through the UK night, freeing up our
evening to go for dinner at Fresh Eats, a restaurant run by an NGO that helps
families affected by HIV. We had a yummy curry and then headed back to watch a
film before bed.
The next day we headed out of town on a motorbike to explore
the temples out of town, as that’s where most of the Battambang action is. Our
first stop was Phnom Sampeau, 12km south-west of Battambang, which involved a
tough climb in the blistering heat to reach the temple at the top of a hill.
The motorbike might have managed it up there (though the guy at the ticket
office wasn’t convinced) – but I wouldn’t have fancied going back downhill on
the bike, as it was pretty steep! Saying that, there were a bunch of kids no
more than 12 riding motorbikes downhill (that can’t be legal, right?!) so maybe
it would have been easier than it looked… Anyway, the view was worth the trek,
and it was very peaceful, plus we met some local monks who told us a bit about
the site’s history, and their English language programme teaching local kids to
read and speak English, which was all very interesting.
Halfway down the hill, there is a turn-off leading to the
Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau, where Khmer Rouge soldiers bludgeoned many
people to death before throwing their bodies into the cave through a skylight
near the top.
There are steps leading down into the cave, where a memorial has
been placed containing some of the bones of the victims, and there is also a
reclining Buddha lying peacefully in the leaf-dappled shade.
There is one monk
present, and if you make a donation toward the preservation of the memorial he ties
a red string around your wrist to thank and bless you, which was quite moving
in such a sad environment. The cave feels haunted with sadness but also very
tranquil, and the steps are said to be enchanted – that could well be believed
under the circumstances.
We trekked back down the hill to board the bike again, this
time heading to Phnom Banam. It was a bumpy ride most of the way – sometimes
the road descended into a dirt track, only to recover itself for a while again…
before reducing back to dust; it’s as if the worst holes were repaired with
sealed tarmac and the rest was left for another day!
Bumpy Roads!
We passed through a
village where we picked up some water from a really sweet family, who let us
play with their dogs and whose kids waved us off when we left, as if we were
family! We thought their cool box might have been used to store more than water
bottles though, as they smelt a bit dubious – like they’d been sat in a fish
soup! Still, the water seemed uncontaminated enough to drink…
Phnom Banam involved another hike uphill, but this time up
exactly 358 steps instead of a steep-sloped road. Again, there was an excellent
view from the top, but the interesting bit was the preliminary view of an early
Angkor-style temple, with the signature five tower structure. Locals claim it
was the model for Angkor Wat – either way, it is a well-preserved example of
Angkor design.
358 steps!
Phnom Banam
Spirit House
The other temple of note in the area was 11km north of
Battambang, and we were a good 25km south of the town at this point, so we
decided to skip the last temple and instead dropped in on a Vineyard on the way
back. On the way, we saw thousands of red chillies lying on tarpaulins outside houses, drying in the sun - this area is famous for its red chillies and they are clearly doing great business! We tried to buy some but unfortunately the language barrier intervened - as far as we could make out we could only buy in bulk, rather than a small handful, so we gave up and kept going to the Vineyard. They didn’t offer much choice of wine, but for a couple of dollars you can
sample all four of their main products – a red wine, a brandy, a grape juice
and a ginger, honey and lemon juice. The red wine was pretty awful (equivalent
to a cheap £3 bottle back home! – I guess Cambodia isn’t noted for its wine)
but the brandy tasted fairly moreish, although it did make you pull a face as
you drank it. The grape juice was OK, a little bland but drinkable, but the
real winner was the ginger, honey and lemon juice – it tasted like liquid
health! I ordered a bottle of it while Bradley ordered a brandy, and we enjoyed
these as the sun began to set. It was quite relaxing as there were some other
bikers who’d dropped in at the same time as us, so it was good to compare
travel tales and share destination tips for a bit.
Of course, you can’t get too comfortable at a Vineyard when
you’ve still got to get back to town on a motorbike, so we left it at that and
zoomed back before the sun had fully set. We polished off the rest of the
ginger, honey and lemon juice and went to Fresh Eats again for another fantastic
red curry, and a couple of beers to end a good day.
We had one last day in Battambang, so we decided to do a
walking tour of the town that was recommended by the guidebook. This mostly
involved admiring the town architecture – particularly along the riverside,
where there are some amazing French colonial buildings – and also a few temples
too.
We stopped at Wat Phiphetaram near our hotel first, where we decided not
to linger as someone was pestering us to do a tour!
Wat Phiphetaram
Wat Phiphetaram
Wat Phiphetaram
After the riverfront we went
to Wat Damrey Sar, where we saw some incredible if gruesome statues out the
back (and met some local kids who seemed to be after our money, but were quite
content with the bottle of water we gave them instead!).
ewwwww!
Wat Damrey Sar
Wat Damrey Sar
Wat Damrey Sar
We
also stopped at Wat Kampheng, which had some stunning gardens with some more delicate statues decorating the place.
Wat Kampheng
Wat Kampheng
The last stop of the tour was a trip across the New Iron Bridge (built by the
French, with a French roadmark next to it, minus translation) and which is only
passable on foot or by motorbike (cars need to go the long way round).
Across
the bridge, there was one last temple for the day, Wat Kandal, which had an
amazingly grand entrance and seemed to be very popular with the locals.
Wat Kandal
Wat Kandal
Wat Kandal
We
decided to sit by the river in the afternoon light for a while, with a corn on
the cob we’d picked up outside the temple (these were so delicious, and seemed to
be everywhere in Cambodia!). After we’d had a breather, we walked back across
the river and retraced our footsteps along the riverfront. I was determined to
find Café Eden this time as I was mystified as to why we couldn’t find it
before, and amazingly it appeared before us as we reached the northernmost part
of the riverbank. It turns out that it closes on Tuesday’s, and the sign would therefore
have been hidden by the shutters on my birthday so we wouldn’t have known where
it was anyway – we hadn’t just missed it. We settled there to enjoy the caramel
hot chocolate George recommended to me (thanks honey! It was amazing!) and, as
there was a happy hour on, we decided to order some good red wine (really tasty
after the Vineyard!) and some nibbles, all of which tasted divine. They made us
feel fuller than expected, so we skipped dinner, and headed back to Skype home
before packing our bags up again and preparing for the boat ride to Siem Reap
the next morning.
This boat trip is quite infamous in Cambodia for taking any
length of time from five hours to nine hours (times can be affected by the
water level of the river, so are seasonal). The journey is quite an epic
adventure no matter how long it takes; you travel through mostly wide
waterways, passing fishing villages with kids as young as six out on boats tending
the nets, and the banks are full or children waving at the boats passing by,
making it quite an interactive experience!
There are also sections of the river
that pass through marshland, where only a narrow channel is passable – which is
fine until there is two-way traffic!
At one point, we passed so close to
another boat that we ripped one of their tires off the side (used to protect
the sides of the boat in situations just like this) but one of the guys on our
boat managed to grab it and throw it back to them. Teamwork!
These narrow channels can be quite hair-raising as the reeds
along either side are knocked about as you pass through, and they whip in
through the sides – you need to watch your eyes and often step into the aisle
to avoid being whacked by reeds and branches. It does seem to disturb the
insects a lot too – at one point, there were insects crawling all over the
seats and any bags left lying on seats near the edge of the boat, and you have
to pull insects and leaves off your belongings before you can sit
back down again. I was a bit worried that the boat was unnecessarily
disruptive, but at least it all happens through the same channel rather than
across a network of routes through the marsh.
Here are some of the kids we saw fishing who wanted to say hello...
After six hours of meandering along the river, we finally
reached Siem Reap, and picked up a tuk-tuk into town within seconds of
disembarking (thankfully, our hostel had sent a tuk-tuk for us, as it was a
real scrum at the boat terminal!). Soon we were rattling along the bumpy road
into town, and looking forward to three days of being overwhelmed by the
Temples of Angkor.
