Siem Reap 9 -14 January, 2007
After boarding the bus in Phnom Penh, it was a 6 hour trip to Siem Reap. The bus made one stop about halfway for a 15 minute stretch break, and D provided some entertainment for the locals when they pointed out she had forgotten to zip up her jeans after visiting the loo in the bus. At the time we were watching a demonstration by what seemed to be a local witch doctor, complete with dried porcupine pelts and quills, and she thought they were laughing about a couple of her comments on the various dried animal products spread on a blanket. She soon realized that wasn’t the case, and she retreated back to the bus in embarrassment.
The trip between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap was another reminder of the poverty most of the Cambodian people live in. The entire route was lined with small shacks, most on stilts, with various animals running around. There were some crops being farmed in small plots, and many rice paddies. We arrived in Siem Reap just after 6:00 pm as scheduled and soon saw our tuk-tuk driver holding the sign with our names. While the Dead Fish Guesthouse was fairly well written up, soon after checking in we decided we would be looking for other accommodations the next morning. At least we didn’t have the hassle with all the tut-tut drivers swarming you when the bus arrived.
Early the next AM, D took a stroll through town while J had an extra forty winks. As our new MO was to check into a convenient hotel or guesthouse when arriving in a new town and then look for something else the next day if the original didn’t suit us, the main purpose of her walkabout was finding a new hotel. She did return with an excellent choice, although at the time we didn’t realize the significance of the hotel name. The name was Ta Prohm, which we found out later is one of the very popular temples with tourists, and it is where parts of Tomb Raider were filmed. Who knows, maybe we are sleeping in the same bed as Angelina Jollie.
After checking out of the Dead Fish, we packed our gear a few short blocks to the Ta Prohm and checked in. It was then a walkabout through the central market as the hotel is right on the edge of it. We passed on lunch there, but there was a stand with some tasty looking crickets and big black beetles that were hard to pass up. Our main objective that day was to arrange for a tuk-tuk driver to take us to the temples over the next three days. We stopped by the Dead Fish again, and thought we arranged for the driver who picked us up from the bus thinking it was only fair as there was no charge for that transport. With that accomplished, we found dinner at a local street vendor, had a couple of beers, and retired for our early start at 7 AM.
Day 1 of Temple Tours
As we were having breakfast on the balcony of the hotel, we saw a tuk-tuk across the road who had been sitting there since 6 AM. It wasn’t #2448 that we requested, but we figured maybe he was busy and sent a replacement. It soon turned out this was not the case, and we never did see #2448. While most drivers have at least limited English skills, this driver spoke about as much English as we spoke Cambodian. Off we went through the market in search of a new driver, and it wasn’t five minutes before we found one, with another right behind him vying for our dollars. In the end his English was good and we were a good match, so we hired him (Shukry) for three days as we figured that was about all we could take of temples. We didn’t really try to negotiate the best rate figuring the three day rate was already cheap given the number of hours Shukry would be spending driving and waiting for us, as well as the fact that gas is $2 a gallon. At least this money goes into the local economy and supports families in desperate need.
Shukry first took us to the entrance area to the temple region where we purchased our 3 day passes, and we were then off to the first of our temples. J’s idea of visiting the temples was something in the range of maybe 10 temples in 3 days. Instead, we ended up visiting 10 temples on the first day. The first two temples were small and easy to walk around, but then things got interesting. From there on it was an assortment of rubble strewn interiors such as Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider), to a half mile walk down a sand road to Prasat Ta Nei were we saw no other tourist, to the Prasat Ta Keo with its steep and very narrow stairs.
At Phnom Bakheng we had to take a long and steep dusty trail to the top of a hill, and once there climb the very steep and narrow stairs of the temple for an excellent view of the area, including Angkor Wat. This is the location thousands of tourists flock to every evening to watch the sunset. It is being damaged as a result of this volume of traffic, but there are some conservation efforts now beginning. Our visit was mid afternoon, so the sun was out in full force and it was hot!
Once we reached the top of the trail and the base of the temple, J decided to have a short sit in the shade before attempting the steep steps to the top. After a brief rest he put his hat back on and was halfway up the steps when he noticed something crawling on him and biting at his neck and face. It seems that while resting his hat was set on an ant’s nest, and they resented being disturbed. Discovering a hat full of irate ants halfway up an extremely steep set of very narrow steps similar to rock climbing was not a pleasant experience, and the locals sitting at the base of the temple must have wondered what that crazy guy was doing beating his hat on the rocks.
It was at the top of Phnom Bakheng that we decided that view of Angkor Wat from there was as close as we wanted to get to it that day. We had walked miles of paths and climbed hundreds of steps, so couldn’t face the largest temple of all this day. We advised Shukry on our return to the bottom, and we headed back to town, passing the entrance to Angkor Wat on the way. It was then a shower to get the dust off, a dinner of Khmer food at a nearby restaurant, and an early night for our 7 AM start the next day.
Day 2 of Temple Tours
Fortunately our driver must have noticed we were dragging by the end of day one, so he suggested we take the longer of the trips on day two. This sounded good to us as it meant at least a two hour ride each way in the tuk-tuk instead of climbing steps. Of course, as we had missed Angkor Wat on the first day, that was stop number one on day two, and it is the grand daddy of all temples. We arrived there shortly after 7 AM, and arranged with the driver to meet him outside two hours later. Angkor Wat is truly beyond description, and you have to see up close and in person to understand the size and complexity of it. Suffice it to say the steps up are some of the narrowest and steepest to be encountered in any of the temples we visited. Luckily we were fairly well rested from the previous day’s adventures.
From Angkor Wat we departed to Khal Spean which predates all the temples and consists of stone carvings along the side of a small waterfall and actually in the stone under the water in the main stream bed. It is a 45 km tuk-tuk ride from Angkor Wat, but what we didn’t know was that the first 15 km was small but decent road, but the second 15 km consisted a small road that was severely heaved in places, and the last 15 km was a dirt road. Coupled with this was the local motorcycle traffic and large tourist busses vying for the same road space and kicking up clouds of dust. The best surprise was waiting for us when we arrived at the parking area. It was then that we found the site was over a 2 kilometer hike through the jungle, and all uphill to get there. In the end we made it there and back, and while it was quiet with much fewer tourists, it probably wasn’t worth the hike. After one final temple stop on the way back, it was home to the hotel and another early night.
Day 3 of Temple Tours, now becoming temple overload
Shukry picked us up at 7 AM again for what was proposed to be a slower day. The plan was to visit the last few major temples in the morning, take a break, and then head south to Tonle Sap Lake for a boat tour of the floating village, then hike up to Prasat Phnom Krom for a view of the sunset over the lake. The morning went as planned, and after visiting four more temples, we were back at the hotel by noon. Shukry was to pick us up at 3 PM for the ride to the lake. Without going into too much detail, we visited one more temple on the way to the lake, did the short boat trip (see top ripoffs when posted), and missed the sunset. At that point we decided to officially terminate the temple tour and finalize our plans for moving on to our next stop.
