Thursday 9th- 16th February, 2012
We
left Luang Prabang reluctantly as we had such an amazing time there
but the early morning plane to see the temples of Angkor was a pretty
tempting prospect.
The
first sight of the temple complex is dazzling and beautiful. It's
outrageous! How did they build it? Who made the plan? How can this
be? Everything is on a ridiculously huge scale. As you approach the
stone walkway, that takes you across the moat surrounding the main
Angkor Wat, the people look like ants as they walk along it.
When
we arrived at this walkway there were two Cambodian bridal parties
having their photos taken. They were wearing traditional dress and
looked wonderful. They allowed us to take pictures too and were very
friendly. The style of dress they had on was reflected in the
ancient carved friezes on the walls inside the wat.
Huge
stone Naga (hooded cobra statues) sit on the entrance ways and along
the balustrades as you approach the wat. Then you look up and see
this beautiful temple, enter through the wall and you are in the
complex. The pictures are going to mostly have to tell the story of
our visit because words cannot convey the visuals.
However,
we can describe the feeling you get from Cambodia and it is one of
great loss and a certain sadness in the people - for all their
wonderful smiles and kindness, there is a dark history that still
pervades. For instance, as you drive through the park to reach the
site, both sides of the road have areas with danger signs for
unexploded ordinance and if you want to see the story of the Khmer
Rouge there are museums you can visit. We remember what happened and
didn't want to revisit, but if you are young, and don't know what
happened here, then go and see.
Siem
Reap sits in a vast, incredibly flat, and absolutely boiling hot,
plain. The landscape is scrubby and dry. The only hills are the
man-made ones that the temples of Angkor sit upon in the massive
archaeological site.
The
Cambodians have it all completely geared for visitors to the ancient
site near to the city. There's a range of hotels to suit every
pocket and, as we are Glam-Packers, our hotel sits neatly in the mid
range bracket. This gives us a large AC room at the Wooden Angkor
Hotel in a road full of similar accommodation. Two roads over is all
5 star and down in town, 10 minutes walk from us, around the area
called Pub Street, is the budget end.
Detail
of the Day: It is at this point Celia realises that she is
travelling with someone called 'Mr John', because Pendlington and
Celia are just too difficult to say. So it's “Hello Mr John, how
are you Mrs John?”, from now on. Celia also gets called Madam a
great deal as well, which she secretly really likes.
The auto-rickshaws here are just the most fun and the most comfortable so
far on our trip. It is a motorcycle tri-shaw and is a bit like
sitting in a floating armchair. You hire one of these at a set rate
for the day and they take you off to the site a few kilometers away,
taking you from temple to temple. They also supply you with water
and, goodness knows, you need it as the heat is intense and
unforgiving. You need a hat, sunscreen and the desire to see it all!
Our
first day we decided to visit the museum before the temples so that
we had more of a clue what we would be looking at and we were really
glad we did. It is well curated, particularly the hall of 1,000
Buddah's that contains the most exquisite statues from every period
in history. We came away with a better understanding of the
chronology and how the layers of building work happened over
centuries. Some temples were Buddhist, then were converted to Hindu
temples and then back to Buddhist again over time and you can see how
the two belief systems sometimes overlapped.
In
the evening we went to Pub Street. It's full of restaurants, road
side eateries and bars, pumping out music and noise to add to the
busy traffic hum. We ate at Molly Mallone's, run by an Irish girl
and joined in the pub quiz, teamed up with a Dane called Lars and
came 4th. No prizes, but it was fun.
The next day we started our visits to the temples at the largest site, Angkor Wat. We rode the autorickshaw through dry brown countryside
and then through forest until we reached the main entrance to the
complex - a wide bridge over a river with a ballistrade
either side made of two armies of stone warriors each holding a gigantic serpent and guarding the approach to a large arch beneath the face of the Bhudda.
Angkor
Wat is a vast square complex of temples and colonnades surrounded by a
Thames-wide moat and accessed by a long causeway. The
colonnades surround the temples and are completely covered in
relief friezes depicting the Ramaynana, classic Hindu epic stories.
Inside this huge square are the temples, rising higher and higher
beyond the eye, reached by very steep, vertiginous steps which are
even harder to climb and descend as the day heats ever up.
There
seems to be an unending procession of carvings, windows, small
colonnades, statues, Buddas, incense, and courtyards . . . and then
more levels, until you are lost and mind boggled, and just follow
others like you until you stand at the causeway once again, exhausted
and satiated, searching for shade and drink.
Nearby
(relatively) Angkor Thom is the remains of the ancient city and here
you have gigantic structures with four faces of the Buddha facing
out. They are serene and magnificent. Inside there are little
shrines and some have offerings and also money donations that
pilgrims have left, as these are still holy places and you have to be
dressed modestly to enter – shoulders covered and no short shorts.
There are lots of 'staff' around, some of whom are genuine and quite
a few who are not and we noticed one of them pretending to pray at a
shrine and then looking round to see no one was looking and then
taking money out of a contribution basket and pocketing it.
A
wall of carved elephants parades into the distance. Each one is
different and captured at war, work and play, with and without
riders, in battle or ceremonial apparel and all completely fabulous.
This was the outer wall to a large wat complex. Inside was a steep
climb to the top but the view was rewarding. As you climb you marvel
at the engineering skills and artistic brilliance of the creators of
these structures.
One
of the things that strike you is what John calls “The silence and
the hordes”. To explain; the two of us enter a fabulous carved
courtyard. It is deserted and silent. We start to explore and get
our cameras out. Suddenly, a swirling mass of chattering Japanese,
or other, tourists appear, led by a loud and commanding guide giving
detailed information.
Almost as quickly, they disappear and we are
left in peace again. This is a defining part of a visit to Angkor
and we rather like it as it gives us endless opportunities for one of
our favourite games: observing people, their clothes and behaviour
and then inventing lives for them.
Breakfast
at our hotel was pretty dismal so we decided to look elsewhere and
noticed the Sala Bai just down the road and went in. It is a hotel
school where they offer accommodation, funded by a French NGO. They
teach all the skills needed for the hotel trade from front of house
to cooking, housekeeping and administration. They are open for
breakfast and lunch and the food was delicious. We talked with the
Communications Director, a French lady of about our age who was
working there for two years.
She
told us that they have a 6 month selection process to take 20 young
underprivileged people, 75% of which are girls. This is because they
are the most deprived sector of society here. She said it was
wonderful working here because the trainees are so keen to learn and
really enjoy and comprehend the opportunity they have being on this
18 month programme.
There
are a set of temples about 30 kilometres away and we set off early
one morning in our floating armchair. The roads are pretty bad and
the car drivers are scary and fast. However, it was a fascinating
trip out of the city and into the countryside. The villages are
small and all the houses are made of wood on raised platforms, with a
ladder up to the one large room that is for sleeping.
The
rest of life is pretty much lived outside. We stopped and watched
them making palm sugar sweets, boiled up in huge cauldrons, and
bought some. It is a delicious fudge. The ovens are made of local
earth and not like anything else we have seen.
We
reached the temples and they were entirely Hindu in style with
intricate carving and unlike anything at Angkor and of course very
beautiful. They sit in the jungle and only part of the site has been
uncovered. It was fantastic wandering along the tracks shaded by
great big trees hung with creepers. Also, the jungle is intricately
blended with the buildings and trees grow through them at crazy
angles.
It is unimaginably hot out there and by the time we got back
to our hotel we were exhausted and tired from being bumped around in
our rickshaw. Later we called James in London and he said it was
snowing – can't quite believe it in comparison to here as it is 40
degrees!
It
would have been interesting to have seen more of Cambodia but the
roads are not good and the heat was just a bit too much, so it was
time to move on and catch a flight to Saigon, Vietnam.
* We couldn't fit all the photos in, so here below is a selection of more:
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| Indistinct Head of Reclining Buddha |
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