This Looks WAY too long, just show me pictures!
Angkor is quite simply fabulous. We were not originally planning to go here since we had so little time in this region. We made the hard decision not to go to any ruins in Thailand and saved up all the time for Angkor. This huge complex (15 miles by 8 miles) takes more than 2 days to do right. The beautiful ruins of Angkor Wat, the exotic jungle draped ruins of Ta Prom, and the amazingly sculpted reliefs on Banteay Srei merit all the time you can offer them. A stroll in the central market area of Siem Reap and its neighboring river is also worth the effort. I really wanted more time to spend travelling in this area and the rest of Cambodia, but had to settle for three days. Cambodia is a land that for now seems to be unspoiled by tourism. If you plan it right, you can have the ruins to yourself. Wandering a bit outside of the main ruins will yield views of villages on stilts, children playing in ancient reservoirs, farmers working the fields, and views of the countryside that appear to have changed little in the last 50 years. Most of the roads are still dirt and most of the people still travel them by walking or riding a bicycle (although motorbikes have become more popular). Allow as much time as you can here because it is truly worth it. You will shoot countless rolls of film! (BTW - Remember to click on the thumbnails to see the larger pictures with explanatory text).
The only way to get to Siem Reap by air at the time of this trip was from Bangkok or Phnom Phen. It is not cheap. A roundtrip from Bangkok on the small propellar plane will set you back about $300 per person. Book in advance because the flights fill up quickly (tour groups). You arrive outside the dusty village of Siem Reap to a REALLY small airport. A visa can easily be purchased at the airport (I think it cost about $25). Bring lots of U.S. dollars, they are the de-facto currency of Cambodia. Changing travellers checks can be done at travel agencies in town but it is VERY expensive and not everyone will do it. Our friends had trouble exchanging their checks. You can ride a motorbike or rent other transportation to take you to the center of town. There were 4 of us so it was cheaper to rent a minibus. It was nice and airconditioned and we decided to hire the minibus with Prokan (the driver) for the next day as well. This privilege will set you back about $20 a day. Buying a 3 day pass to get into the site will cost you $40 (keep this ticket with you at all times, they do check it). As you can tell, Angkor is much more expensive than Thailand so plan accordingly. Buy lots of water because it is stinking hot. Take a break for a few hours around lunch to get out of the heat (everyone else does, including the locals). We looked around for a place to stay when we got into Siem Reap and settled on Mom's Guesthouse, which cost about $25 a night (again, not cheap) but had airconditioning and was next to the delicious "Bayon" restaurant (which became one of our regular places to eat). We strolled along the tree-lined river that evening. We bought an unbelievable amount of fruit for $1. We ended up at the central market--this was an eye opener! All those black dots that you see on the picture....they're flies! The entire place was covered with them, it was amazing. There were lots of frogs, fish, and other lovely meats to be had. It was an exhilirating experiment despite the huge clouds of flies. We wandered back as the town began to take on a hazy light from the twilight and the dust. It was quite exotic. We saw a few children jumping from a bridge into the river and Jeff made one of them a balloon animal, much to their delight. This was quite a unique place and seemed A LOT less Westernized than Thailand...sort of a border town atmosphere. I don't expect this to last long though, as Angkor will quickly show up on the tourist radar in a big way. There are a lot of beggars around and it is not hard to feel sorry for them. There are MANY amputees, victims of Cambodia's long wars and land mines.
We got up at 5 a.m. the next morning to catch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. It was still dark as we approached the site. We brought our flashlights and made our way through this HUGE complex. It was very exciting because we had never seen this place in daylight and we had to pick our way through the dark. We frequently disturbed a few bats with our light beams and they flew around us. Beautiful reliefs and structures revealed themselves to our lights. We climbed the many steps to the top of one of the spires of Angkor Wat and waited there, facing east, for the sun to rise over the jungle. The early twilight began to reveal the complex, which was truly breathtaking. This was followed by screeches from the parrots in the jungle below and the occassional scream from neighboring monkeys. The coup-de-grace was that it was Valentine's Day! Walking back to the minibus after the sunrise revealed all that we had missed in the dark. I cannot describe the beauty of Angkor Wat, it has to be seen. I have been to many ruins around the world (including Borobudur on Java, Machu Picchu, and Tikal), but Angkor and the surrounding complexes are the most extraordinary ruins that I've ever seen. Most of the structures are remarkably intact, despite occassional bullet hole pockmarks. We walked along the causeway across the moat to the the parking area and looked back to see the sun rise over the silhouette of Angkor. It did look like it was rising behind a mountain, which was the builders' intention.
The only regret I have of Angkor is getting a guide to show us around without having told him where we wanted to go. If you don't know what to do when you get there (the immensity of Angkor can be overwhelming), don't go for the Grand Tour or any similarly named thing. Tell your guide (if you get one) where you want to go. The Grand Tour starts at the southern gate of Angkor Thom, goes to Bayon, then across to Ta Prohm, breaks for lunch, and then goes to Angkor Wat in the afternoon. These are indeed the highlights but the problem is that ALL the tour groups appear to do the sites in this order, making for larger crowds. My suggestion is for you to mix it up. Go to Angkor Wat early in the morning, to Ta Prohm afterwards, then do Bayon and Angkor Thom in the afternoon. Despite this misstep of ours, we saw some amazing things. The first was the serene buddha-faced main entrance of Angkor Thom with the four faces of Buddha facing in all 4 cardinal directions. You pass through this gate and head towards Bayon. This area has lots of trees and don't be surprised to see troups of monkeys on the way (we did). You get to Bayon where the lighting is very good for pictures. Bayon is an amazing complex consisting of a building complex with a bunch of 4-faced buddha towers. It is tiered like a wedding cake, allowing you to go to different levels. The top tower has a smoky shrine with candles in it which is pretty interesting. I bought some incense and placed them in the shrine. Take your time here to look at the reliefs and the towers. If the crowds get too big, just move to another location.
We departed the Bayon and walked further through the wooded fields of Angkor Thom, encountering various ruins along the way. The trees made this a very beautiful area. The charm was accentuated by a group of amputees who were playing simple instruments. The state of these musicians was another stark reminder of the Khmer Rouge era, which ended not so long ago. Our guide Savy told us how Pol Pot had all of his brothers killed. It was amazing that the people in Cambodia were still so friendly and light-hearted despite all these horrors. We listened to the band for a while, tipped them, and moved on to the Leper King Terrace. Along the way you walk by a pair of very large reflecting pools which were originally used for bathing. We still saw children playing in the water as we walked by. The Leper King Terrace and neighboring Elephant Terrace were nice to look at but nothing special, and the heat of the day was beginning to bear on us. We got back into our minibus, drove by Ta Keo (which looks remarkably like a Meso-American Temple) and ended up at the west gate of Ta Prohm.
Hands down, Ta Prohm was our favorite place. Not for the impressiveness of its ruins, but for its amazing harmony with nature. The French discovered this place in pretty much the same state it is in today. They, too, were charmed by the natural beauty and only removed the brush, leaving the huge ficus, strangler figs, and banyan trees among the ruins. We spent a good hour wandering in and out of the ruins and planned to come back the next day. These tree-draped ruins were, afterall, one of the main reasons that we went to Angkor in the first place. We walked around watching (and hearing) green parrots screeching around the canopy above. We beat a hasty retreat back to Siem Reap for lunch at the Bayon (get the fish curry cooked in coconut, it is awesome!). I continued to marvel at this place. The shops sold very few goods, the souvenir stores sold nothing worth buying, the place was dusty, and my wife could not buy any chocolate. This was great! I absolutely was charmed by this town.
We headed back to Angkor Wat after our 3 hour break and it was quite a sight. Angkor Wat is the only place where the temple complex faces the west, a cardinal direction long associated with death. The late afternoon sun lit up the temple face beautifully. The reliefs also lit up with the orange glow of late afternoon and the lengthening of the shadows. Angkor Wat is surrounded by a 200 meter wide water filled moat with a wide stone walkway leading up to the main gate. The moat creates an island 1.5 km by 1.5 km on which Angkor Wat sits. The complex is covered with sumptuous reliefs, some of the finest that I've ever seen. One of my favorites was a huge mural called the "Churning of the Milk," depicting a story of gods and devils churning the elixir of life using a snake in order to make a potion for immortality. We looked around the complex for a few hours and then headed to Phnom Pakheng to watch the sunset. Phnom Pakheng is a temple that has not been excavated entirely and affords a grand view of the fields to the west and the distant Angkor Wat in the east. It was a very pretty place to watch a sunset if it weren't for the large number of crowds (this is a popular place). Nevertheless, it was a nice experience. The sunset wasn't that great due to low hanging dust, so we decided not to get up too early the next morning to catch the sunrise. We said our goodbyes to Savy (our guide) and made arrangements with Prokan to pick us up the next morning at 8 a.m. We went to the Thai restaurant across the street from Mom's Guesthouse, which was quite tasty, and went to bed early. In retrospect, I don't know if getting a guide was worth it. Dawn Rooney has written a book titled "Angkor" (new edition came out this year). It is an EXCELLENT guide and highly recommended (the book was more useful than the guide).
We got up the next morning, jumped in the minibus and headed towards Preah Khan. The advantage of Angkor is that relatively few tourists come to it (relative to its size, that is). The majority of these tourists only come for a day and go on the Grand Tour, rarely venturing to the other ruins. We decided to go to Preah Khan since it was another jungle bedecked ruin. Prokan dropped us off at the West gate. The ruins were great (although not as nice as Ta Phrom). The beauty of it was that there were no package tourists and the ruins were in a very natural state. We spent a good while wandering around, in and out of various rooms. It was quite nice. We walked through the ruins and exited through the west gate where Prokan was waiting.
We hopped back into the minibus and went back to Ta Prohm. We walked around and saw areas which we had completely missed the day before. For this reason I strongly advise you to go to Ta Prohm twice. We took our time the second time and found a small quiet area where we rested and talked. There were a few Cambodian tourists wandering around which was nice to see. Cambodians, apparently, can visit the ruins free of charge. We sat around and marvelled at the huge tree roots twisting through the ruins. We read that the reason that these trees are here is due to the fact that the seeds are nested in the bird droppings that fall on the top of the ruins. The rocks are pretty porous and wick the moisture up to the tree, feeding the seed. The seed grows into a sapling and quickly into a tree. Some of these ruins had only been abandoned for 400 years but the trees were HUGE. The trees destroy the ruins as the rocks eventually crumble under their weight. For this reason, the Cambodian government has diligently been removing saplings. I gush alot about Ta Prohm but it really is like a long lost city deep in the jungle. The exotic nature of the ruins is compounded by the small incense burning shrines scattered throughout dark alcoves. We grudgingly left the ruins to go back to our favorite restaurant ("Bayon") for lunch and a 3 hour break.
We were a bit indecisive about where to go in the afternoon. I read in Dawn Rooney's book "Angkor" that the reliefs at Banteay Srei were supposed to be amazing. The only problem was that they were 30 km away on a dirt road. She had also cautioned against crime in this area. We decided to go for it and ended up paying Prokan $15 extra for the privelege. The trip to the ruins was great. Prokan did his best impersonation of Mario Andretti and sped rapidly along the dusty dirt road. He would slow down near the villages, though. These were quite scenic with stilted houses, rice fields, and people going about their daily business. The ride out the country was worth the effort in itself. We arrived at Banteay Srei about 45 minutes later (around 4 p.m.) to the late afternoon sun. This, as it turns out, is the perfect time to see Banteay Srei, since the red stone carvings in the complex glow in the orange late afternoon light.
We got to Banteay Srei and saw only a couple of mudcaked Western tourists (they had arrived by motorbike) and a few Cambodians. We walked into the complex past a gauntlet of beggars. At first, I was surprised by how small the site was (it consisted of only a handfull of "miniature" temple structures such as the one depicted in the picture). I was, however, simply left speechless by the carvings on these temples. It seemed that every square inch of the surface was covered with stories from various Hindu epics, interlaced with curving floral patterns. Stories from the epic Ramayana unfolded before our eyes. A panel of this temple would be a highlight in the finest museum, which made these even more impressive. How had this escaped looting? One of the answers is that it wasn't discovered until 70 years ago. (Another answer is that a French expedition tried to loot it but were caught red handed.) The red sandstone came alive with these sculptures, obviously done by gifted artisans. They literally looked like they were carved yesterday. It is difficult not to gush about this site just as it is difficult to do justice to its beauty. Suffice it to say that if you miss this place, you miss one of the main highlights of Angkor--Banteay Srei is not to be missed.
We left Banteay Srei and stopped at Banteay Samre on the way back. The architecture was very well preserved but the reliefs had long ago been ripped off by looters. It was a bit of a letdown from Banteay Srei...not really fair since few places would not have been a letdown after Banteay Srei. We hopped back into our minibus and went to Preah Rup to watch the sunset. Preah Rup sits on the eastern end of the Angkor complex in an area of agrarian fields sprinkled with trees. The sunset was obscured by the dust but this was definitely a better place to watch the sunset than the previous evening. There were fewer tourists and you could see for what seemed like miles in all directions. A farmer with a few water buffalo walked by at the base of the tower, lending a crowning touch to this perfect Far East landscape. It really was quite nice. We piled into the minibus after the sunset and had Prokan drop us off near the central market (which some books refer to as the "French Quarter" much to the confusion of our driver) for dinner. It was pretty unremarkable and we walked back to our guesthouse along the river, turning in for a good night's sleep.
We woke up the next morning so we could make it to Angkor Wat by 8 a.m. Jeff insisted on going to the Landmine Museum, but I couldn't be bothered. I just wanted to get it over with quickly and head back to Angkor Wat. This is one of the advantages of travelling with other people...they make you go to places where you would not have ordinarily gone. The Landmine Museum ended up being a moving experience...a good contrast to siteseeing at the ruins. We pulled up to some thatched shacks, which turned out to be the museum. It looked more like someone's home than a museum--this was the beauty of it, though. It was founded by a Cambodian man who had fought for the Vietnamese side during the Khmer Roughe conflicts of the second half of the 1980's. He had seen some horrible things, and dedicated himself to sweeping the mines that he had placed (as well as others.) He has an assortment of these devices (fully deactivated, of course) for you to touch and look at. The statistics are staggering...Over 10,000,000 unexploded mines still exist in Cambodia dating all the way back to the 1940's. One third of the entire population of Cambodia was killed during the Pol Pot era. Cambodia has the highest per capita number of amputees in the world, at one for every 236 people. Last year alone, 299 people in the Siem Reap area were injured by landmines. He also had placed crude paintings depicting stories from his days in the conflicts. Some of these will put a knot in your stomach. Here are a couple of examples:
The detachment of Vietnamese Army that he was with encountered a group of 30-40 Khmer Rouge fighters. The commander of the Vietnamese detachment selected a "volunteer" from his ranks. This volunteer was strapped with a claymore and sent to the camp pretending to surrender. When he got close enough to the group, the commander detonated the bomb.
The Khmer Rouge would boil big pots of food and lace it with poison. A Vietnamese detachment would "stumble upon" the group and the Khmers would run away. The Vietnamese, thinking that they hit a windfall, would start eating the food, only to fall sick. The Khmers would return and finish them off.
Another story illustrated how lucky the founder of the museum was to still be alive:
The founder had been patrolling with his unit, carrying a rocket launcher. They had failed to spot a Khmer Rouge sniper. The sniper, wanting to maximize his advantage, decided to shoot the rocket, thereby blowing up the entire patrol. He shot the rocket launcher, missing the rocket by about an inch and lodging the bullet inside of the launcher.
You can see the rocket launcher and hear the bullet rattling around in it.
The museum took longer than we had anticipated. The somber mood created by reading the stories was lightened by the antics of a monkey that was cavorting around. This monkey was a real cheeky little guy. The lady assured me that he did not bite but he was not afraid to come right up and swipe my shoes a few times. I did not want to test out whether he bit or not. He had a knack of sitting right next to the pictures depicting the horrible events...providing a certain measure of irony to the situation. If you go to the museum (and I do recommend it), be sure to tip generously. The museum survives on the generosity of visitors. It does appear that the founder is doing all of this for the altruistic reasons of informing the general public about the horrors of war, and to fund his continuous quest for demining areas.
W finally did make it to Angkor Wat and found the site very empty. Between 9-11 a.m. definitely appears to be the right time of day to go. We wandered around the bas-relief murals and had them virtually to ourselves. The day was getting hot so we did not linger very long here, though I was sad when I got back to the minibus. As we left, we saw a Cambodian couple coming to the entrance to get married. It is obvious that Cambodians love this place, too. Maybe this will keep it from being inadvertently spoiled by mass tourism, which will inevitably come in the not too distant future. We boarded our plane that afternoon and headed back to Thailand. I really wish that I could have had more time to explore this beautiful country.