Wednesday, 23 Jan 2008Anna Kainberger is taking a year-out from her career to travel in south-east Asia, Australasia and the South Pacific, along with Hawaii and the USA. This month she will be reporting from Laos and Cambodia. Here is her seventh blog entry:
From Phnom Phen I decided to take yet another bus to Siem Reap, a journey that looks like a three hour bus ride on the map but which in the end will take around seven hours. However, the buses are comfortable enough with air conditioning and regular toilet stops.
Mind you, the driver stops at places where he will make a commission from passengers buying food or drinks. That's just the way things go in Asia, everyone is trying to make a living and they want their friends and family to make a living as well.
Siem Reap has become a major tourist hub thanks to the Angkor temples, which were rediscovered by a French Explorer in the late 19th century.
Until then the temples were mostly covered by jungle and long forgotten. I was quite astonished how one could "lose" or "forget" such a large and historically important area. We are not just talking about one big temple, there are thousands of them.
The main temple of Angkor Wat and the thousands of smaller temples cover a huge area in and around Siem Reap and the river Tonle Sap. They have been designated a Unesco cultural world heritage site and also one of the seven man-made wonders of the world.
Historically, the area in and around Angkor Wat was a totally functional city with a long period of very successful monarchs. The most famous is probably Jayavarman VII, who successfully fought of the Cham (from what is now Vietnam) and started constructing Ankgor Thom and its city walls and the Bayon temple.
The Bayon was the religious and geographical heart of the kingdom and bas-reliefs carved on the walls depict not only the king's battles with the Cham but also scenes from the day-to-day life of Khmer villagers and many faces of the god.
In addition, Jayavarman constructed the temple of Ta Prohm, which is now famous for featuring in one of the Lara Croft - Tomb Raider movies.
Jayavarman VII's massive program of construction coincided with a transition in the state religion from Hinduism to Mahayana Buddhism, since he himself had adopted the latter as his personal faith. In the 14th century the country converted to Theravada Buddhism for good.
The end of the Angkorian period is generally set at 1431 AD, the year Angkor was sacked and looted by Thai invaders, although the civilisation had already been in decline over the 13th and 14th centuries.
Over the course of the 15th century nearly all of Angkor was abandoned and the city moved to Phnom Pen. Only Angkor Wat continued to be used as a Buddhist shrine.
Today the area is well looked after and groomed by the Cambodians, as well as the French world heritage programme, and it is definitely worth exploring the temples for at least three days.
Passes can be bought at the official entry point and cost US$20 for one day, US$40 for three days and US$60 for a whole week. I opted for a three day pass and explored Angkor Wat, Bayon and the close by smaller temples by bicycle on the first day - it is a six km ride from Siem Reap and bikes can be rented for as little as US$2 per day.
On my second day I was terribly hungover, as I stayed in Siem Reap over New Year's Eve and a huge street party was organised in the main traveller's centre. Needless to say there were buckets of all sorts of alcoholic drinks, music and dancing until the wee hours. Plus it is the tradition to throw buckets of water onto the celebration - so I got home rather late and soaked.
I decided that instead of riding a bicycle it was probably wiser to hire a tuk-tuk driver for US$6 for a half day and went to see Ta Phrom the Tomb Raider temple.
This features huge and very, very old trees growing on top of the temple, inside it, out of it and around it. No wonder this location was used a movie, the beauty and power of those trees can be physically felt when you walk through the ruins of Ta Phrom.
On my third day I hired a tuk-tuk driver for the whole day to complete what was left of the so-called grand tour. This will cost you about US$13-15, depending on your negotiation skills, and your driver will always wait for you and take you to the next temple. Provided his English is good enough he will also come up with interesting stories about the temples.
Usually your guesthouse can arrange a tuk-tuk driver for you, they often also offer bicycles or motorbikes for rent; the options are endless.
In terms of accommodation, Siem Reap offers anything and everything. Budget accommodation starting from US$2-3 up to five star deluxe spa hotels.
I stayed at a brand new guesthouse close to the Grand Palace and a good 15 minute walk away from the main traveller's area, which is located around the old market.
Our guesthouse was literally brand new and the owners were keen to bring in new guests. It goes by the wonderful name of Good Kind Guesthouse. The people there were not only good and kind but they also invited us to their oldest daughter's birthday party and gave us traditional Khmer scarves as a leaving present when we said our good byes.
I saw a lot of elephants in and around Angkor Thom. It is a popular tourist activity to visit the temples on the back of an elephant. I have to be the party pooper here and say: Wherever possible in Asia, please avoid riding elephants.
These are highly intelligent and majestic animals and sitting on their backs in a saddle like structure is not enjoyable for them. If anything they should only be ridden on their necks, where it is easy to carry a mahouts weight, but not on their backs.
Plus elephants need to spend about 18 hours a day eating and finding food and most of the Elephants used for these tourist rides are way too thin. My travel companion and I decided that instead of riding them we would buy ten kgs of bananas and feed them to these absolutely beautiful creatures as a tiny treat.
You will also come across a lot of children trying to sell you cold drinks, post cards, handmade flutes, handmade animal ornaments, bracelets or all of the above. It is hard to say no too many times and I ended up taking those kids to food stalls and buying them coconut pancakes or fruit.
Also, if you do promise to a kid to come back they will remember you, so don't even dream about bailing out. At any of the temples you will find a large number of food stalls run by families who have looked after these areas for generations. They sell traditional Khmer scarfs and silks as well as T-shirts and any old tourist souvenir that your loved ones back home might desire.
The temples of Angkor are absolutely incomprehensible at times. I kept wondering how many people had lost their lives to help build these massive constructions. They are highly spiritual sights and I was often left in awe when first setting sight on these beautiful buildings.
For me three days was more than enough and the constant begging, the many, many children selling their goods and the always apparent poverty of the Cambodians got to me.
I decided to board yet another bus and leave Siem Reap for Thailand via the Poipet/Aranyaprathet border.
When travelling in Cambodia there are only two main roads covered with tarmac: the north-south connection and the road to Sieam Reap. All other roads are red dust paths. Prepare yourself for a bumpy ride and bring a scarf to wrap around nose and mouth to avoid major sneezing attacks. (You will see a lot of Cambodians do this as well - and a Khmer Scarf will cost you only US$1.
When crossing back into Thailand I immediately felt a small sense of relief. Real roads, real infrastructure and no more begging. Although I have to say I definitely recommend that you include Cambodia if you are planning on visiting south-east Asia, as no matter how much time you spend there the experience is very grounding.
What happened in Cambodia in recent history is still visible to this day, yet the people will greet you with a lot of warmth and make you feel very welcome.
As I had been travelling for nearly ten weeks non stop I was keen to reach a beach for the first time since starting my travels in early November. So I headed down to the island of Ko Chang before going back to Bangkok.
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