More Video

Angkor Thom

Beng Melea

Banteay Srei

 

Thoughts on Transportation

All told we took eight different forms of transportation during this trip.

• Taxis in Singapore – Mercedes
• Subway (MRT) in Singapore
• Double decker bus (Hippo Tour) in Singapore
• Two boats
• Tuk-tuk in Cambodia (three times)
• Hired car and driver in Cambodia (not technically a taxi)
• Six different airplanes, including seven trips through security.
• One huge ferris wheel (The Singapore Flyer)

Some observations:

• Nearly every car we saw in Singapore was less than four years old and in perfect condition. Apparently the costs to own a car in Singapore are extremely steep and nobody owns used ones.
• In Cambodia if it has wheels you put as many people and things on it until it barely has enough power to move. Need to take the whole family to the market? Pile all five or six of you onto the family moto (scooter). Need to get to town from the country? Find the local guy with a pickup and wait until 15 or sixteen more people show up. Get in with an equal amount of rice, firewood or other commodity and head to town. Already full? Sit on the hood and hold on. Time for the family hog to go to market? Drug him, lay him on his back and strap him to the back of your moto.
• If you own a Toyota LandCruiser or a Lexus SUV in Siem Reap you better have LandCruiser or Lexus emblazoned on the side. Can’t remember a single Lexus that didn’t say Lexus on the side.
• Toyota apparently has the vehicle market in Cambodia cornered. 90% of the cars we did see were Toyotas.

 

Angkor Wat Video

Some more video goodness. This time from our sunrise visit to Angkor Wat.

 

For Your Viewing Enjoyment

I’ve managed to post a couple videos of Singapore to Youtube. Go have a look.

Singapore Flyer

Singapore Hippo Tour

 

Kampong Khleang

After lunch we headed south through the countryside again and headed for the floating village of Kampong Khleang. The village in between was Dom Dek and it was teeming with locals attending a market. Everything from bikes to auto parts to toys and produce could be had from the roadside stands. Driving south from Dom Dek you start to notice the the land behind the roadside houses becomes increasingly more flooded. After about 20 minutes later we stopped along the road and boarded a boat in order to continue our journey. We met our boatsman Hung and off we went.

The route started as a small canal covered in vegetation with still more roadside houses to the west. The waterway gradually grew in size and eventually the town of Kampong Khleang  came into view. During the dry season this town can be accessed by road and the houses are on stilts and 16 to 20 feet in the air. As impressive as that site is, during the rainy season all of the homes are about six feet above water level and every one has at least one boat tied up to it. 

In order to get through the town we were forced to navigate a couple of very narrow lanes between houses. When another boat is going the other direction things get a bit hairy. Hung was forced to stand at the front of the boat and us an oar as leverage to manipulate the boat in the direction he wanted it to go. Many people were curious to see what the commotion was since they don’t see very many tourists in this town. Our first stop was a small hill (island) in the middle of town. We got off the boat and went exploring a bit. It contains a small market, a monastery and a primary school. I didn’t see any evidence of homes so this hill must be reserved for community type things. The kids here were absolutely adorable. A number of them were chasing each other in front of a shop and when I pointed my camera at them they all giggled and ran away. Once I persisted in taking their picture they were a bit more agreeable and provided some of the most special moments of our trip. Other sites included a small buddhist ceremony and street vendors selling fried foods and vegetables. The children in the school were also very interested in us. Everywhere we went we were greeted with ‘Hello’ as enthusiastically as they could muster. Probably the only English word they knew, but they knew it very well. 

We grabbed a few beers and some shrimp to dine on during the rest of our trip and headed for the open lake to enjoy some sunset. We passed a few more homes along the way, but for the most part it was just us water, some submerged trees and other boats. We finally reached the very edge of the lake and tied our boat up to a tree and sat and enjoyed the view. For awhile we could hear a nearby fisherman singing as he hauled in the days catch. We drank a few Angkor beers and ate some of the shrimp we bought just relaxed. Even though we came all this way to see the temples this was quite possibly the best moment of the trip. Sitting on a boat with a couple of guys we’d just met somehow made everything else in our daily lives disappear and everything seemed right with the world for at least that hour we were there.

Sadly the sun was beginning to go done and with no lights for navigation we needed to get back before it got too dark. We found our way back through the floating village and back to our boat dock. We thanked our very gracious boat driver and headed back to Siem Reap in the twilight. Even in the dark the roads are crowded with people on scooters and bikes. Not always easy to see it’s a miracle more people aren’t killed on these roads. We found a nice Khmer place for dinner and did some shopping before packing our bags for our flight to Singapore on Sunday.

 

Beng Melea

On Saturday we left the main temple complexes behind and headed about two hours away to the ancient temple of Beng Melea. It is situated to the northeast of the main Angkor sites, but it is considered to be the model for the later construction of Angkor Wat. With the exception of some walkways and minimal bracing of some crumbling walls no restoration has been done or will likely be done on this temple. 

Along the way we stopped along the road for some sticky rice. The women along this small stretch of pavement grow rice behind their homes and they prepare it by stuffing it into pieces of bamboo with some beans and seasonings. They place some grass at the top and they throw the bamboo in a fire. Once it has cooked they remove it from the fire and slice off the charred outside and place them on a stand along the road to sell. I’m not sure how much they cost since Nang paid for them, but it couldn’t be much. Jodi and I split one and it was quite tasty. Reminded me of rice pudding, but not as sweet and with beans instead of raisins. It was a pretty cool experience. Prior to visiting the temple itself our driver took us a short distance away to the river where the stone for the temple was quarried. It was quite interesting to see the local residents using the river (creek) to bathe and do their laundry. We did our best not to intrude.

If you want to feel like your the first person to discover one of these temples this is the temple to do it. The walkways don’t cover the entire complex and if you really want to experience a sense of adventure you end up climbing over fallen down stones and rubble. The piles of stones are everywhere and very few parts of this temple actually resemble what they looked like when they were built. We found one gallery that was still intact. It was completely dark inside except for a bit of light coming from each end.

We were only accompanied by about ten other people during the nearly two hours we were there. It was quite nice to just sit and listen to the parrots and other birds squawking at each other with no other sounds. We did get a reprieve from the heat at this temple because of all the trees that have grown up within the ruins. However all of the tree cover just increased the humidity. The goods for today was that it didn’t rain. Finally a day to enjoy the blue skies.

Following our visit we stopped across the road for lunch. Nang said that the local fare probably wouldn’t agree with us so we had stopped earlier in the morning to pick up some pastries for our lunch and he enjoyed a lovely looking dish of fried frogs and rice. It actually looked quite good save for the pile of tiny bones that were left on the plate when he was done.

 

Time to Head Home

We leave Singapore in an hour, but I’ve added some more photos for your enjoyment. Go take a look.

 

Rain, Rain Go Away

Have I mentioned that it rains here? It was gray again all day and we finally started getting wet when we left after lunch. The weather hampered our plans a bit, but we made the best of it. Back to Angkor Thom to see the Victory Gate and we walked through the jungle across an embankment to the Ghost Gate, where convicted criminals were taken out of the city to be executed. Unlike the other gates into the city, this one was rather nondescript as it wasn’t used as much as the others. 

From there we visited a couple of lesser known temples and were promptly accosted by the young entrepeneurs that frequent all of the popular temples. They try to sell you everything from books to bracelets to flutes to silk scarves. We had the misfortune of being the only ones at this temple and they were the most persistent yet. You say “No Thanks” a dozen times and they still persist. They must have better luck with the Japanese and South Korean tourists. I’ll elaborate more on this practice in a separate post.

Normally in the later afternoon the throngs of visitors ascend Phnom Bakeng for a view of the sunset over the countryside. We pretty much knew that we weren’t going to see a sunset, but we started climbing anyway. This temple is a five level temple mountain that was built on top of the tallest local hill to give it even more height. The view is impressive, but it was quite hazy and difficult to make many things out. The busses of Japanese tourists must be obligated to stop because when it started raining while we were at the top they were still coming up the hill. Even saw one Japanese girl wearing heels up the hill. Not sure that all of her brain cells were firing correctly if she thought that was a good idea. After we made our way down we were once again approached by the little sellers, but this time there were many people behind us so they weren’t quite as persistent.

Dinner was at the Koulen Restaurant for a buffet of various Asian dishes and a traditional Apsara show. Apsara are the dancing female figures you may have seen in some of my photos. Difficult to explain, but essentially it’s a very choreographed dancing show. It was entertaining if not a bit like Branson, Missouri. The tour operators drop off their buses here every night and I’m certain they get a bit of a cut for doing so.

Saturday we are off to Beng Melea and the floating village of Kompong Khleang. Both are quite a distance away so we’ll be in the car a fair bit. Hopefully we’ll get some opportunities for photos of the countryside.

 

Rolous Group

Friday morning we ventured east to the ninth century temples of Lolei, Preah Ko and Bakong. They are collectively known as the Rolous Group because of their proximity to the village of Rolous. Most of these were made of brick and because of that they are in advanced states of ruin. The king attached stucco to the brick to decorate them and that has long since fallen off. The things that have remained untouched are simply amazing. Sanskrit inscriptions in the doorways provide details of the purpose of the structures and when they were created. This trip was pretty short so afterwards we visited the Artisans d’ Angkor school and store. They teach poor rural cambodians how to create authentic crafts and they sell them in there store. They carve sculptures from wood and sandstone as well as painting on silk and creating other items from silk. Unfortunately our baggage allowance would not allow us to bring back some of the things we really wanted. Sandstone can be quite heavy.

Lunch was at a small restaurant called Viroth’s which is only a couple blocks away. Chicken satay (kebabs) and lemongrass chicken provided just enough energy for us to continue our day. Later today we’re heading back to revisit a couple of sites and then if the weather cooperates we might get to see the sunset from atop a small mountain (hill actually) nearby.

 

Preah Khan

This afternoon we ventured to the ancient ruins of Preah Khan. It’s just north of the city Angkor Thom that we visited yesterday. This temple is very large and once we arrived the clouds that had been hanging around all day finally opened up. We waited it out in a doorway and standing there watching the rain splash in the water of the moat was one of those very special moments that are difficult to describe. The temple is completely surrounded by jungle and the rain cooled things off a bit and made the scene that much more authentic. Many of the galleries and hallways within the temple are completely filled with stones from their roofs. The main east-west passage has been cleared and the temple is so perfectly aligned that you can see from one end clear through to the other. The same spung trees that have taken over Ta Prohm have also had an impact here. Many walls have trees growing from the top. It’s amazing how a 1000 year old stone building can withstand the weight and pressure of a 100 foot tree sitting on top of it.

We were provided a true Indiana Jones moment as we walked back through the jungle to the entrance of the temple. Just us, the rain and exotic birds squawking. We ended up spending over two hours in this temple and we saw ten other people at most. It was quite an experience. 

Once we returned to our hotel it began raining again. We had intended on walking to the old market for some dinner and a couple cheap beers, but the rain kept us in our hotel and we ate downstairs. Our hotel is owned by a Norwegian couple and they server a fusion menu with Khmer and Western food. Jodi enjoyed the cha kdeo and I really enjoyed the fish amok. Amok is the national dish and it’s kind of a fish curry served with rice. Very tasty.