Cambodia: Part 2
August 19, 2007
Note: click on the thumbnails for a bigger and clearer picture. You can also skip my commentary and head directly to the pictures too.
This one’s a long one so here’s a convenient link for you.
July 17
Without much forethought, I got the best birthday present I have ever received today.
Sohkong picked us up nice and early and we made our way towards Angkor. We bought a three-day pass for $40. In our guides it suggests to bring pictures but don’t worry about it too much - they have crappy webcams installed and will take the pictures there for you.
From what Sohkong said, the corporations that run the Angkor area are corrupt to the bone and charge a lot for admission. In the past not much of the admissions actually went to the temples neither. There were also fake ticket scams in the past but now they have check points all over the area. The people working don’t make the biggest effort to verify your ticket but it’s best to have your ticket readily available for show.
The drive to Angkor Wat from our hotel isn’t long but the anticipation is great. Entering Angkor Wat is really like stepping into a movie because the temple complex is huge! The causeway to the temple entrance is impressive enough -there are huge rectangular lakes on both sides. I took dozens of pictures from the entrance itself. The lady had to remind me that we weren’t inside yet. Who cares! That’s the whole reason why I bought a gig in memory!
One warning about the Angkor area: be ready for the many people who will try to sell you everything. They are much more ruthless than people in the town. There were a few younger teens who remembered your face and name and when you returned they gave sad puppy dog looks. “Tiger”, a kid in his early teens trying to sell me a Lonely Planet said, “I wait for you long time… why you don’t buy?” His acting wasn’t that great though and having the same book in my hand did not help. The worst though, are the very young kids. Kids as young as 3-4 were trying to sell stuff and it’s tough to say no to them. The one thing I will say is that the kids themselves receive little to nothing of the money you give them.
Anyway, back to the temple. Once inside the entrance you are greeted with a big courtyard with smaller buildings to the sides. You won’t notice them much because your eyes will only be on the temple and its spires. Get there as early as you can to avoid the tour groups.
I think the best part of the temple is that to get inside you have to climb a really steep flight of stairs. It goes up about 10 meters and is probably not for the faint of heart although there were many old people who made the climb without trouble. There is a metal rail on one side of the stairs to help the frail too.
Once inside we were treated with a monkey running around! The ladies cleaning the area even helped us by making the monkey turn and face us while we took a picture of it. Clearly this monkey is no stranger to cameras. The rest of the temple is decorated by many carvings and buddha statues. Unfortunately there are many statues missing limbs and heads - some from age, some from looting.
To end the day there would have been awesome enough. The day was not nearly over though. Afterwards we headed to Bayon - the mysterious stone temple ruins with hundreds of faces carved in the stone. If only it weren’t midday with Cambodian sun beating down on us I would’ve spent hours there. Inside the stone walls of Angkor Thom we visited several sites: the Terrace of the Elephant, Baphuon, and Phimeanakas.
The highlight of my day was visiting Ta Prohm - another mysterious temple but this temple has been eaten alive by the jungle. Trees have grown and invaded the walls. Some of the trees have been so entwined in the stone that restorers cannot remove the trees without risking destroying the temple further. This is where Angelina Jolie filmed parts of Tomb Raider so I’ve read.
My last thing before heading back to the hotel was seeing some landmine victims playing music. They accept donations but are very welcoming for even a measly dollar.
Best birthday ever.
July 18
The next day we got up really early at 4:30am to see the sunset at Angkor Wat. We weren’t disappointed. I did get the displeasure of being next to an annoying North American traveler who thought she was the world’s best traveler. She kept making disparaging remarks about other tourists. I thought this in itself made her a bad tourist. Thankfully she shut up and left before the sun came up.
After that we went back to the hotel to catch a quick nap and breakfast. We had another long day ahead visiting more temples and ruins. The weather was not giving in - 36 degrees at least with blazing sun beating down. Honestly, at this point, all the temples began looking the same and they began losing their charm. The heat was pretty bad. I’ll just cut this short by saying we went to the following places:
- Bantei Srei
- Landmine Museum
- Pre Rup
- Banteay Kdei
- Preah Kahn
The climax of this day was seeing the sunset at Phnom Bakheng. Unfortunately, here we were subject to hearing dumbass teenagers bitch and whine and then just stand in front of everyone who had been sitting patiently waiting for the sunset. Never had I wanted to hit kids more than that day. Fortunately, they got bored of waiting and climbed down before the sunset.
Later that night, the lady played her first games of roulette and won $80 on $10 complementary credit. I lost my $10 in two minutes. Essentially, she won back our expenses today!
July 19
On our last day in Cambodia we decided to just stay in the hotel and relax. While it may seem like such a waste of time, we were both very temple’d out. I couldn’t refuse any more peddlers without going nuts and the heat was certainly not helping. We had our last nice buffet breakfast and went swimming in the pool. The woman also got a nice massage and I learned to enjoy lying on the hotel bed with a book in hand and strange Cambodian TV in the background.
We hopped back on a plane to Bangkok and then directly to Osaka. That was it but what a great trip it was. I would love to return and visit the places we missed like maybe Phnom Penh, the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, and back to Angkor Wat. I love Cambodia and would urge anyone to go see it.
September 4th, 2007 at 12:53
Great read, both parts! But how come the pictures are so tiny? They were fine for part one but now they link to the thumbnails?
September 4th, 2007 at 17:35
Ahh… that’s because I linked them to the thumbnails! Take that! I’ll correct them immediately.
September 5th, 2007 at 11:10
Thank you!