Angkor Wat, Cambodia

April 9, 2008

When I was planning my trip, I picked out a few locations that I really wanted to see, and based my itinerary around those points. Angkor Wat was one of my anchor points for the trip, and it did not disappoint. The Angkor Wat temple complex is near the town of Siem Reap, in Cambodia. I did the trip overland from Bangkok, which was quite an experience. I’d read some horror stories about bus trips from hell on this crossing, so avoided the travel agents in Bangkok, and used information from the Tales of Asia website to do it myself, and it all went smoothly. I got a bus from Bangkok to the border in Thailand at 8:30am, and was met at the bus stop by tuk-tuk drivers so it was easy to get to the border. I’d got an e-visa in advance, so I was able to avoid the scammers trying to overcharge for Cambodian visas on entry, and walked through the border crossing with no problem. Once in Cambodia, there was a free shuttle bus to a travel agency that arranged onward travel. There were a couple of guys there traveling alone, so the three of us agreed to share a taxi. They started out trying to charge us $20 each, but we got them down to $35 for the entire taxi by the simple method of standing around and not going anywhere until they brought the price down. We were also waiting to see if a fourth person to share the taxi would show up, but no one came, so we decided to head out after 20 minutes or so. The road from the border to Siem Reap is terrible, which is one reason the bus is not recommended. The bus is also much slower and may not be air-conditioned, and since most of the road isn’t paved you’d probably look like you had a mud bath by the time you got to Siem Reap. We made the drive in 3 hours, and I was sitting at my guesthouse having a beer by 6:00pm.

I’d arranged to have the tuk-tuk driver who’d taken me to my guesthouse come back the next day to drive me around the temples. He spoke good English, and was very nice. Most of the other people I talked to were also enthusiatic about their drivers. I think the Cambodian people in general are very friendly and outgoing, though there’s a fair amount of corruption to deal with.

I didn’t have an agenda for the temples, so I let my driver plan it out for me. He spends all his time driving tourists around Angkor Wat, so he knew what would make a good route. Passes for Angkor Wat are available for one day at $20, three days at $40, and 7 days at $60, so it’s not a cheap place to visit. I opted for the three day pass. When you buy your pass, they take your photo and print out a pass with the dates and your photo on it. Each time you enter a temple, a guard checks your pass, and there’s a $30 fine for trying to enter without a valid pass. Those figures are the actual prices, because although Cambodia’s official currency is the riel, the US dollar is what is actually used. The riel usually gets used as change, so if you buy something for $4.50 and give the clerk a five dollar bill, you’ll get 2000 riel back in change.

The Angkor Wat complex was built between the 8th and 13th centuries, and were rediscovered by Europeans during the 1800s.   Many of the temples have been reconstructed, but a couple have been left in a sort of managed state of being overtaken by the jungle.  One of these is the temple of Ta Phrom, which was used as a movie location for Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie.

This spot was the only one that had a fence, so I’m guessing it’s a movie location, though I don’t remember the movie well enough to say for sure.  They may just have wanted to keep people away from a dangerous area, though they usually just put up signs.  There were plenty of places that had wooden supports holding up walls and ceilings.

On the third day, we went to two of the more remote temples.  Banteay Srei is a small temple about an hour away from the main group, but it’s one of the most elaborately carved ones there.  It was also the most crowded one I visited.  We ran into rain on the way out in the morning, for only about the fourth time on my trip, so I didn’t have any rain gear.  My driver, Letgo, gave me his rain poncho, and then stopped to get a couple more when we went past some shops.  It quit raining by the time we got to the temple.

Then I wanted to see the Roulos group of temples, which is another remote group that are much less visited.  Letgo asked if I wanted to take a shortcut that would be over a bit of unpaved road, and I said sure.  The carriage behind the motorbike was  actually pretty well sprung.   Only the main roads in Cambodia are paved, the rest of them are dirt, not even gravel, so they’re very rough.

The main temple there was very interesting, but I was templed out after three days.

This little group of local kids was climbing around the  temple while I was up there.  Quite a spectacular place to have in your back yard as a playground!

It was getting well into the hot and dry season while I was there, so I was getting started by 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning, and going back to my air-conditioned guesthouse by 2:00 or so.   I spent a fair amount of time sitting in the shade contemplating the temples while I was out there as well.  There were a lot of locals with shops selling souvenirs and cold drinks.  At the less busy places, there would often be 2 or 3 women sprinting towards you when you arrived offering drinks or food.  Whoever you acknowledged first had dibs on your business while you were at that temple.   They weren’t allowed inside the temples themselves, so you just had to get through the vendors on the way in.  Having cold water for sale everywhere was a life saver, though, so they got a lot of business from me.

They had good restrooms there, too.  Many of the tourists are other Asians, from China, Japan and Korea, so they’ve got a sign warning them not to squat on the Western style toilets.  The feet spraying sign is because Asian bathroom all have a sprayer next to the toilet for cleaning your bottom.  Between the way I was sweating and the dust I was walking through, my feet could have used a good spraying down!

I went down to Pub Street most evenings for dinner.  There were cheap foot massages available in town too, which felt wonderful after a day of tromping around over rough ground.  I’m going to miss cheap massages and facials when I get home!  There are more pictures in the Cambodia gallery, so take a look there if you’re interested.

Posted in Cambodia