There’s such a lot of world to see

As soon as we got to the guesthouse in Siem Reap, we had a much-needed shower (I know ladies don’t sweat, so suffice to say I was glowing like a carthorse), and arranged a tuk tuk to take us to the Angkor Wat area, just in time for sunset.  I bought a three-day ticket, while Jessica and Matt got a one-day, but, because of the lovely ticket arrangements, we were able to go in after 5pm, and start the ticket the next day.  A free sunset, if you will! 

Our tuk tuk driver, Pauly (to be fair, we don’t know if that actually was his name – we heard them shouting that to him at the hotel, so it could have been the Khmer word for “wash the dishes”, “walk the dog’, Ï’m glowing like a carthorse in this heat”, or even a nickname – Sweetcheeks and Lovebuns were our favourite possibilities; he did tell us his name, but we were so taken to calling him Pauly that we sort of forgot it), dropped us off at the base of the hill leading to the on-high temple of Phnom Bakheng, which was the most popular place to watch sunset.  The climb was pretty steep, which made it even worse to be overtaken by grannies.  In my defence, it was still scorchio even at that time of day, and I soon regretted taking the trouble to change into clean clothes.

Once we got to the top of the hill, we were faced with another climb – this time it was up the (in)famously steep steps that surround many of the Angkor temples.  Each step is literally just a few inches in depth, but the steps themselves can be up to about a foot high.  People were clinging on going up there, and miraculously we got to the top without any scrapes.  It amuses me to think of the same scenario on a Western sight – I actually can’t see it lasting too long, I think maybe pressure from insurance companies and so on might lead it to change as it becomes more and more entrenched on the tourist map.  It will be a shame, though.

Once up there, we joined the heaving throngs.  Yes, it was a popular place – but, as I’ve said before, I’m learning that things are often popular for a very good reason.  The view down to Angkor Wat, 1.3km away, was unobscured, and it looked particularly beautiful in the evening sun.  The other people ranged from monks, taking in the sunset and meditating on Buddhism and whatnot (or, as I suspect, up there for the photo opp – they seem to love having their photo taken), to Japanese tourists who put themselves in every single photo, to sheer stupid people.  We saw one mother, encouraging her son (aged about 10) to write on the stone of the temple (albeit using another broken-up rock), and explaining “Back in those days, they didn’t have pencil, so this is how they wrote”.  She told him to write, seriously, “Alex was here”.  Which was particularly strange, seeing as his name was James.  Honestly, though, would it have been too hard to explain without a practical demo?  Unfortunately, this would be the first in a series of stupid people we would encounter at Angkor – fortunately, all of them managed to amuse us no end.

We watched the beautiful sunset, and managed to stumble back down the hill before it was completely dark – there are no lights to guide the way!  We completed a great day by eating at the same restaurant that Mick Jagger frequented while he was in town (I’m not commenting on his – alleged – miserly ways but the average meal in there cost $2).  This was after we stumbled down a dark alleyway trying to find it.  Much to the amusement and confusion of the Cambodians down there, I think.

Another insanely early start heralded the next morning, as we wanted to see the sunrise over Angkor, so we left at 5am.  I know.  Even at that time, though, it was pretty warm, and we knew we were in for a scorcher.  This was Matt and Jessica’s only day at Angkor, so we planned to hit the ‘Big three’- Angkor Wat, Bayon, and Ta Phrom.  We wandered up to Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, and definitely got the spine-chill moment.

So, in the style of Jennifer Aniston (the irony of that will become apparent later), here comes the history bit – concentrate! And for this, I’m near on quoting LP, so no plagarism claims, please.

The temples of Angkor, capital of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer empire, are the perfect fusion of creative ambition and spiritual devotion.  The Cambodian God-kings of old each strove to better their ancestors in style, scale and symmetry, culminating in the world’s largest religious building – Angkor Wat.  The hundreds of temples surviving today are but the sacred skeleton of the vast political, religious and social centre of an empire that streched from Burma to Vietnam, a city that, at its zenith, boasted a population of one million when London was a scrawny town of 50,000.  The houses, public buildings and palaces were constructed of wood – now long decayed – because the right to dwell in structures of brick or stone was reserved for the gods.  The Angkorian period stretched from AD 802 to 1432, during which time the temples were built.  Power eventually shifted elsewhere, though, and the temples were ‘lost’ over time, and subsequently ‘rediscovered; by the French in the 1860s.  This, however, is something of a misnomer – when the French explorer stumbed on it, it included a wealthy, working monastery with monks and slaves.  Not so much lost, then, as not publicised.

Since then, war not withstanding, it has been firmly on the tourist map – one of the old hotels in Siem Reap counts celebs such as Jackie Kennedy and Charlie Chaplin amongst its previous guests.  The Khmers are justifiably proud of this national treasure, and it appears on the flag, on the currency, even on the national beer.

As we wandered up to the mighty Angkor Wat, my camera battery died, with its impeccable sense of timing.  In a way, it was a good thing – it left me completely free to enjoy the splendour of Angkor in all its glory.  It’s a momentous, magnificent building – St Peter’s eat your heart out – full of seemingly unending corridors and nooks and crannies.  Walking through the centre, we passed galleries of bas-reliefs, a gallery of a thousand Buddhas (now sadly depleted to just a few), and passed a few sets of the aforementioned insanely steep stairs (we would climb them later in the day).  After circumnavigating this, we were all feeling peckish, so headed for a noodle breakfast.

Next stop was Bayon, a temple where hundreds of faces carved into the rock spy on you wherever you go.  There are a multitude of theories to explain this one, the most common being that there is every face for each of the ancient provinces of Cambodia.  It’s hard to decide whether the faces are smiling, benign, or spy-like.  I suppose ámbiguous’ is as close as I’ll get to describing them!  We spent ages clambering round this one.  It really is a child’s dream playground – all these rocks, and no-one stops you from climbing on them.  Marvellous stuff, and I hope it stays that way despite the inevitable onslaught of tourism.

We were lucky enough to get some parts of the huge Angkor Thom to ourselves, so managed to feel like some ancient explorers.  It sort of spoiled us to be in such a deserted area, considering how congested the rest of it was. We were also completely disorientated because of the early start – we kept looking at our watches, expecting it to be mid-afternoon, and would find it to be about 8am. 

Our next stop was the fabulous Ta Phrom.  Instead of being restored completely, like other temples in the area, this is being left as it was when it was re-discovered.  It’s swamped by huge trees – in fact, in some areas, the trees appear to be swallowing the temple, their huge, mighty roots coursing over the stone bricks and showing at one glance the power of nature over man.  This was actually part of the sets for ‘Tomb Raider’;if you’ve seen the film, it’s the scene where Angelina stops to pick a flower, before plunging through the floor; if you’ve not seen it, I wouldn’t bother if I were you.  Not exactly a classic (and who needs Angelina when you can see a pic of me in the same spot?  Eh?  EH?)

At Ta Phrom, we were lucky enough to witness three further acts of stupidity by tourists.  All of them genius, in their own special way.  The first was a young American guy, being shown around by a guide.  First of all, he announced to everyone that the wooden walkways we were tramping about on (the floors are quite uneven) were original.  From 1300 years ago.  Despite the fact that every other wooden structure nearby had rotted, these wooden walkways (and goodness me, they looked remarkably clean and new and, well, straight) were original.  Then, the same guy came out with a classic.  He listened sagely to his guide explaining the meanings and symbolism of the temples, and managed to summarise centuries of religious fervour in one sentence:

“So, what it all boils down to, is, it’s cool”.

Eloquent.

Outside, in one of the courtyards, an older guy (I think he was German) actually picked up a hammer left behind by some of the restoration crew, and started banging on it with a stone.  When the guards asked him to stop, he shouted that they’ll have to speak louder, as he was deaf.  Maybe with all the hammering.  His guide intervened, and then turned to us, and explained that it wasn’t a very good idea to take a hammer to the stones.

“Well, yes, what with it being an ancient wonder of the world and all that”, I agreed, which sent Jessica spluttering into her fist.

The final idiot at Ta Phom was a guy who thought for some reason it would be a good reason to climb up some rickety old wooden scaffolding (there’s lots of this about – some parts of it are quite unsafe), and seemed surprised to be called down from the roof.  We left him there, on the ground, but staring up at the roof, in quiet contemplation of his nemesis.

We were getting quite tired by this stage, even though it was only mid-day – a combination of the early start, the heat, and the considerable walking and climbing we’d done already that morning.  We decided to stop for a long, lazy lunch, and then spent a couple of hours in a shady spot at Angkor Wat, looking out over the ancient monument, and spending some time in a very interesting conversation with a tour guide, who, amongst other things, was telling us that the vast bulk of the gate ticket profits from Angkor go to not restoration or even upkeep, but instead to a private oil company.  No, I couldn’t see the connection either, but just imagine how much good they could do with it – schooling for the many children who live on and around Angkor, restoration projects, a museum perhaps, even sponsoring some university places for local people to study archaeology, and therefore learn how to preserve their own heritage (university fees are about $200 per year – and in a country where the average wage is $1 or $2 per week, it’s no surprise that most children never make it to university).

Once the heat had died down, we headed back for a final exploration of Angkor, including a complete circuit of the massive bas-reliefs on the first level, and a climb up the ladder-like steps up to the top.  Wonderous indeed.

And it was on our way out that we heard the absolute gem of stupidity.  It was another young American guy, speaking to his guide, and asking the immortal question –

“So, Angkor Wat – this is famous, right?”

Yep, sonny, it’s famous alright.  And with very, very good reason.

Tags: Cambodia, Travel

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