After our brief respite from the heat in Hanoi, we were greeted in Cambodia by temperatures of 39C/103F. We landed in Siem Reap’s huge brand new (and completely empty) airport about an hour outside the city, breezed through customs and immigration and met our pre-arranged taxi outside.
The drive into Siem Reap goes down a long, brand new road (financed by China) past large orchards of cashew trees, then turns and skirts dry farmland populated here and there by scattered trees, emaciated cattle, and a few small settlements selling all manner of goods and where large mangos hang from trees like so many golden Christmas ornaments.
Wooden stilt houses–many with large awnings around them– were the norm throughout the rural areas. Around some was cassava root, either lying stacked on the ground or standing bundled into pyramid shapes.
Siem Reap itself looks similar to the smaller Vietnamese cities we have just finished visiting—roads crammed with motor scooters, on many of which helmetless infants and children were passengers. The buildings lining the roads are a haphazard mishmash of old and new, most housing endless small shops interspersed with a few very large, but seemingly deserted resorts and hotels on the outskirts.
What we hadn’t seen before were the tuk-tuks—both the traditional enclosed three wheel variety and the newer versions, which include both open and closed sided buggies pulled by motor scooters, which are everywhere.
Within the older part of the city where we stayed, the streets are narrower and lined with shops and eateries of all nationalities. It is busy, noisy and filled with tourists.
Our small hotel had a pool and our quite nice room had a small private lanai and a large window that overlooked the pool.
You come to Siem Reap to do one thing: see the temples of Angkor Wat (and as many of the other temples NOT named Angkor Wat as you have the time and endurance for).
We were there for 5 full days and thought we’d go visiting the temples for 4 of those, so purchased a pass online and then consulted with the hotel staff about getting around, as the temples are very spread out and private cars are not allowed in the park.
Most people hire a tuk-tuk for the day, but knowing that the heat was only going to get worse, we opted for a car and driver, which was twice as expensive as a tuk-tuk (but at $30 USD a day, still a bargain), lured by the prospect of being able to get into an airconditioned vehicle between temples and cool off a bit.
We arranged to be picked up at 6:30 the next morning, thinking that would be early enough to beat the really brutal heat and then headed into town, where, tired and hungry after a long day of travel, we ate an indifferent meal at an overly touristy restaurant (in the open air, cooled only by a fan—a mistake we would not repeat).
Siem Reap was hopping at night, full of European tourists, young and old, eating, drinking, browsing the riverside night market. It’s a lively place, and we were there in the low season!
Bright and early the next morning, we met our driver-Bopata, who said ‘Call me Bob’. He was animated and talkative and determined to show us a good time in his adopted town. His English was passable, though I understood more than Tom did, and he was very amenable to going where we wanted, which was great.
We started at the ‘biggie’– Angkor Wat, arriving there around 7:15am. He dropped us off at the West gate and said he’d see us in a couple of hours at the other end.
We’d missed sunrise by quite a bit (you have to leave your hotel at about 5 am for that) but it didn’t really matter as the hazy sky mostly obscured the sun anyway.
It wasn’t too crowded as we made our way across the famous causeway to the temple complex, but it was already blisteringly hot.
Uncharacteristically for us, we both felt underprepared for what we were supposed to be seeing at Angkor Wat, so when we got to the main temple buildings and saw endless carvings of battle scenes in every gallery, we cut our explorations short, thinking there was nothing else.
Sadly, we missed what we later learned was the most famous gallery featuring a founding Hindu mythological episode known as ‘The Churning of the Sea of Milk’, in which gods and demons play tug-of-war with a giant Naga (snake) that is wrapped around Mount Madara (the churning rod) , which is held up by a giant turtle on which Shiva sits.
The churning brings forth the Amrita, the elixir of immortality, along with many other things: Apsaras, beautiful, graceful dancing women, thousands of whom decorate the temples of Angkor Wat, a three-headed elephant, also featured prominently in some of the temples, goddesses, jewels, and a wish-fulfilling flowering tree among many others. There are thousands of Apsaras carved in Angkor Wat and apparently, no two are exactly alike, especially their clothes and hairstyles.
Tom, showing the effects of the heat…
Th Churning of the Sea of Milk legend explains much of the iconography of the temples, which we were more attuned to in subsequent days, after we finished at Angkor Wat and studied up a bit back at the hotel.
Angkor Wat is undoubtedly stunning and impressive, but our lack of preparedness for understanding its carvings, the ever increasing crowds and the brutal heat index of 44C/111F (though it was barely 9 in the morning)—all probably compromised our appreciation of it to some extent.
Bob met us at the Eastern gate with ice cold bottles of water and cold wet wipes, then took us to a restaurant where we were supposed to eat breakfast, but we were so gobsmacked by being out in the heat for 2+ hours, all we could manage were fruit smoothies.
Then it was back in the car for the short drive to Ta Prohm, the ‘Tomb Raider’ temple, famous for the giant tree growing through one of the walls and featured in the Angelina Jolie movie.
Bob intended us to visit another major temple after that, but we balked—we were pretty finished by then, and agreed to go see only one more- Ta Keo-a massive ‘mountain’ temple (though the towers of all the temples are actually meant to be mount Meru, an important mountain in Hindu cosmology). It had incredibly steep and narrow stone stairs, which we both declined to ascend.
Without fail after each stop, Bob met us with cold water and moist towels, which were so welcome.
Our final stop, which we asked Bob to take us to, was the Siem Reap ‘Killing Field’ and museum. Located right in the city, the main building at this site, a former French hospital, was where mass killings and brutal imprisonments took place during the terror reign of Pol Pot.
The museum, such as it was, was very sincere though quite homespun in its displays, the main one of which featured the illustrated tortures and trails of one man from the town.
There was an opened mass grave with a few human bones still in it, and various posters detailing the horrible abuses of the regime.
It was a quite grim but necessary artifact of that episode in Cambodia’s history, which really has been one of turmoil, war upheaval, genocide and repression for hundreds of years.
After the mid-15th century fall of the Khmer civilisation that built Angkor Wat, Cambodia never really enjoyed prolonged peace or sovereignty. Occupied by the French and Japanese in the 20th century, its somewhat stable government under Norodom Sihanouk was ended by a military coup in 1970 followed by five years of civil war that culminated in the genocidal reign of Pol Pot.
Pol Pot was ousted in 1979, but Cambodia then endured more than nearly two more decades of civil unrest until 1998 when the current leader, a strong man named Hun Sen took complete control. Hun Sen is a former Khmer Rouge leader who was installed by the Vietnamese in 1979, and his party has been in control of Cambodia since 1979. He recently named his son to be his successor.
Cambodia is a democracy in name only. Our driver, was vocal about how corrupt and terrible the government and especially the prime minister is, but admitted he could only speak this freely within the confines of his car–to speak like that outside in public would be to invite trouble.
The two final paragraphs of the ‘history of Cambodia’ posted at the killing site, which extol Hun Sen, pretty definitively confirm his account.
When we got back to the hotel around noon, we were tired and a bit emotionally drained from the killing fields site. We arranged to meet Bob at 5:20 am the next morning, now knowing that the earlier you get started, the better, heat-wise. Then, we took a nap. And a swim.
That evening we ventured a bit farther into Siem Reap and found the French Quarter, where we discovered a couple of streets of architectural interest and a lovely looking up-market French restaurant that was air-conditioned and served fantastic food that was quite pricey by SE Asian standards, but quite a bargain by European ones.
On the way back to the hotel, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to partake in the ‘fish spa’ where tiny tilapia nibble at your feet and lower legs. At first it felt very weird and then it tickled but in the end, my feet and legs felt tingly and refreshed!
Early the next morning, Bob picked us up and took us a small lake with a viewing platform called Srah Srang, the only other place besides Angkor Wat that allows visitors before 7:30am.
We were there to watch the sun rise, but the smoggy skies made that impossible. However, we were the only ones there, and sitting by the water at dawn with a slight breeze blowing, in temperatures that had not yet reached the mid-80s, it was cool and pleasant, which was felt absolutely delicious.
When it reached 7:30, we crossed the road and toured around Banteay Kdei, a temple renowned for its hundreds of dancing Apsaras. It exists in a very picturesque state of decay, with trees growing through walls and roofless passages that led to room after room.
We were practically the only ones there, which was an added bonus.
When we finished there, we got back in the car to head to Angkor Thom, a very large and important temple in the complex, but Bob’s car would not start. Not to worry, he said, we could use his tuk-tuk for the rest of the day, which we did, and it wasn’t too bad at all.
We were much better prepared for Angkor Thom than we had been for Angkor Wat, and appreciated the variety of subjects carved on every imaginable surface of the temple.
Angkor Thom is even larger then Angkor Wat and its main temple, the Bayon, is dominated by multiple towers, each carved on all four sides with the identical serene face—that of Buddha or of King Jayavarman VII, who built the complex?
The gates leading to the temple, called gopura, also feature the same face, and the causeway leading from the gate is decorated with devas and asuras (gods and demons) pulling on Naga as in the Churning legend.
The decorative programme features many scenes of everyday life, as well and religious and royal scenes.
We spent quite a bit of time there, during which the heat ratcheted up, and although we were ready to call it a day, I insisted on seeing the terrace of the elephants across the way, which I am glad I did, as they were spectacular.
It was hard to imagine these magnificent sculptures had survived in the jungle for nearly 1000 years.
After the Elephant Terrace, it was back to the hotel for a siesta and swim.
Our third temple foray was perhaps the most amazing and enjoyable one. Bob got his car repaired overnight and picked us up at 6:15 and we drove for over an hour to Beng Mealea, a temple that has been left to the jungle, and is so out of the way that the 2 hours we spent there we saw only caretakers and 2 other people.
Being there in the early morning light, when it was still relatively cool was very special, and we both agreed it was a high point of our temple explorations.
Here we also saw a fallen lintel stone carved in what we now could recognize as the Churning of the Sea of Milk.
Bob then took us to a lovely large family-run restaurant where we were the only customers for some breakfast and then it was back towards Siem Reap to visit our final temple, Banteay Srei, a petite and intricately decorated temple that was very different from anything we had yet seen.
It really was spectacular, but extremely hard to really take all the detail in or photograph it decently, as you were kept at a distance from the main structures and the sun was by this time directly overhead and ferociously glaring on both us and the pinkish stone that the temple was carved from.
Nevertheless, it was an amazing place, and were glad to have seen something to unique and different.
On our return to Siem Reap, Bob asked if we minded stopping in at a party his friend was throwing in honour of the upcoming New Year and the anniversary of his father’s death.
Curious to see what this was all about, we said ‘of course’ and we sat in on the festivities for about 40 minutes, watching a whole spitted pig being roasted, an adorable Cambodian baby being held by his parents, and many dogs, chickens and children running about.
Most of the men there were tuk-tuk drivers, so spoke some basic English, but it really didn’t matter. It was a privilege to partake in even such a tiny sliver of normal Cambodian life, and we enjoyed it very much.
Bob was returning to his hometown on the Thai border that afternoon to see his parents, but he assured us he’d be our airport driver two days hence. Since we had no driver the next day, we just took a rest day, which was a welcome relief after being out and about for three straight days in temperatures exceeding 39C/105F (“feels like 46C/117F” according to the weather forecast).
That evening, our final one in Siem Reap, we splurged and went back to Olive, the fancy French restaurant for another fine meal.
That evening it was obvious that preparations were underway for Cambodia’s four day New Year’s celebrations, which usher in the rainy season, when they can plant the new rice crop. We saw a young dance troupe re-enacting rice planting, which was quite charming.
The next day was the first day of the celebration—four days of water festival in which everyone, young and old, engages in water fights in the streets . We had seen the stalls selling huge water guns the entire time we were there, and wondered what we were in for.
Since our plane to Thailand wasn’t leaving until 7:30pm that day, we had a whole day to kill, so we settled our bill (with only fresh US currency, I might add–and they were incredibly fussy, rejecting several of our $20 bills) and left our bags at the hotel. As we left, we noticed a freshly erected altar with fruit and flower offerings for the Cambodian New Year.
We decided to spend the morning at the National Museum, which was really excellent. There, we saw another elaborate New Year’s altar.
I learned about the linga- an abstract representation of Shiva in the form of a phallus (though some are less abstract than others!) that was often placed at the center of a temple.
Here I got to see a facsimile of the Churning of the Sea of Milk (just to rub in what I missed by not seeing it in person!)
We loved the hall of 1000 buddhas, and the displays relating to Hinduism, Buddhism and Angkor Wat and its art. It was a great way to spend a few hours.
We took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel, and that’s when we began getting squirted by kids (and grown-ups) from the sidewalk.
It was all good fun, actually, and we were glad we had seen a bit of it.
True to form, Bob was there in the late afternoon to pick us up and take us to the airport. Along the way, we saw many people with water guns spraying the passers by.
Once again, we travelled down the empty Chinese road to the airport, We said our goodbyes to Bob and promised to put in a good word for him.
At the airport, we saw more New Year’s altars inside the once again almost totally deserted but very beautiful new terminal
When it came time to board. we had to walk out onto the tarmac to the propeller plane that would take us to Bangkok because it was too short to connect to the gangways of the new airport!
We weren’t sad to leave Siem Reap- we felt we had seen a good overview of its historic temples and were hoping that the heat/humidity we had endured (the most intense of our trip so far, and that was saying a lot) would be behind us (or at least moderate a little) when we got to Thailand. Alas…..
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