Visiting Siem Reap and the Angkor Temples, Cambodia

For most travellers here, unless you fly into Siem Reap, at least one part of your anatomy is going to suffer on the long bus journey from Vietnam, Thailand or Laos! My journey, seven hours from Phnom Penh after a six hour connecting bus from Ho Chi Minh City was not exceptional. Many do the buses here by night in sleepers, I chose the day to see the countryside and at that level it paid off.

Enigmatic Temples

Crossing the border from Vietnam to Cambodia is pretty straightforward nowadays and even getting a visa at the border is painless and swift. The bus however, seems to cover the distance at a mind numbingly slow pace and the constant karaoke will take its toll unless you have earplugs or an Ipod to save you. Having said that, the service on the Mekong Express bus was exceptional and the free pastries and water were welcome.

The guide on this mobile torture chamber provided an occasional commentary on the local area, detailing the population, their ethnicity and local eating habits. These ranged from the acceptable rice and Khmer cooking to fried spider, beetles and crickets all of which could be sampled at the next rest stop. I took a peek at the bowls of fried black beetles and opted for a bottle of water hoping that I would be able to forget the black steaming mass of insects…it tastes just like chicken apparently. Who cares?

Travelling around in the electronic age is such a boon as it is possible to reserve a bed before you arrive, with the caveat that the room (and hotel/hostel) may look nothing like the description online. I chose to stay at the Siem Reap

The refreshing pool at my hostel

Hostel located a few minutes from the action. Some reports were mixed and it was a tad pricier than other options but, being a hostel, it offered the chance to meet up with fellow travellers and get social. It turned out to be a good choice, with spotless rooms, great service and a swimming pool to boot!

Did I mention it was hot? Damn hot and not getting much cooler at night either. It left me with no other option than to jump into a $1 tuk tuk to downtown to see what trouble I could get into. Not having a guidebook to Cambodia, I had elected to use the Internet only for this trip, I had little idea of what to expect but the extent of development was staggering. It is clear that the Cambodian Government regards Siem Reap as the breadwinner here; five star hotels, some with genteel colonial aura, abound as do $3 flophouses, terraced restaurants are innumerable and the self explanatory Pub Street is jam packed with bars, clubs and places to eat.

Tourist numbers are down though and the global recession bites here in deepest Cambodia just the same as it does in western cities. Happily for those on a budget, and thirsty night revellers, the bar owners have conspired to bring down their prices with draft Angkor beer going for 50 cents and mixed drinks for a buck fifty….oh happy days.

Relaxed attitudes on historical preservation means tourists can unfotunately climb monuments that should be safe guarded!

For those with less alcoholic tastes, western food is exceptionally cheap and catching up on emails and Facebook is a breeze with free unblocked Wi-Fi at almost every venue.

All the facilities you could hope for are here; a true local market is just a few steps away with authentic dirt cheap food stalls, clothes, a fish market and of course the bizarre aforementioned local delicacies. I rolled back in just after midnight and, having booked a tuk tuk to take me around the temples in the morning, dropped off to a well deserved air conditioned sleep.

Some temple hounds get up before dawn to see the sunrise and I can see how that is appealing…actually I can’t, sorry. It’s just that a nice lay in and a leisurely breakfast at a charming (and cheap) French bistro seemed like a more relaxed way to begin the campaign. A famous General once said (or was it Colonel Sanders) “an army marches on its belly”. Who am I to disagree with that logic? Having press ganged my roommate into joining me in the Temple Torture Tour we set off in a cloud of dust, our driver passing carefree around bicycling tourists (what the hell were they thinking) and other, but not indifferent.. meandering livestock.

Temple Ta Proh

Tickets to the temple complex are sold at a line of kiosks resembling a toll booth on a motorway; a photo is taken and imprinted on your ticket with the dire warning that if you tore it at all it became invalid. As you need to show this at almost every temple you should heed this advice. I had placed it in my back pocket and by the end of the first temple it resembled a blown tissue!

If you want to know about the temples, the architecture and the history….read a guide book! I was lost in a torrent of tourists, a heady mix of incense and musty dark alcoves plus a sense of the unreal as we clambered unchallenged over fallen building blocks and capered around the kapoks as they intertwined themselves in the temple masonry.

The weather forecast had indicated the temperature at 103 Deg Fahrenheit; I thought they were erring on the cautious. It was roasting, the stones were set for pizza baking and if I had a little dough and some cheese and tomatoes I could have set up my own restaurant.

Our local transport!

We ambled and gambolled between temples, taking pictures at such a rate the batteries were starting to fail before my legs were. Thank god I had opted for the small tour; you can opt for a three or seven day ticket in order to do all the sights but that seemed like overkill. We did meet a nice Chinese traveller loaded up with a backpack full of equipment, a huge camera hanging in front of him, a tripod slung like a rifle and water canteens hanging from his belt. Armed with a seven day ticket and a bicycle this guy had guts and stamina in spades but, in my opinion, was as mad as a hatter!
I was a little embarrassed by the fact that Tomb Raider and Lara Croft had remained unconnected in my mind until our driver took us to the Ta Prohm temple and I got the picture…along with every other happy snapper there.
Temple tantrums over our driver finally took pity on my ragged outlook, knackered knees and sweat soaked body and threw in the towel, I wish he had thrown me in the pool.

Back at the hostel, bathed and refreshed with a cold beer in hand I could reflect on a day well spent; an athletic workout, a healthy dose of culture at one of the world’s most enigmatic sights, new friends and a healthy respect for the fact that only “Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun”.