Siem Reap(ing in the cash from tourists) and Angkor W(h)aaat, I gotta climb up there?!

28.06.15
Travel Day
No hitch, no surprises – A straight-up minibus ride from Battambang to Siem Reap on one of the worst roads I have traveled so far. With potholes like those, every single seat should have their own suspension.

Hard to imagine that Sihanoukville and Siem Reap are in the same country, considering our wet and soggy experience in one and then being greeted by hot and sunny weather upon arrival in the other. Seeing on a map, that our hotel couldn’t be too far, we strapped on our backpacks and walked – into the wrong direction. What could have been a 2min walk turned into half and hour or so and we arrived dripping sweat.

By the late afternoon we were ready to leave the comforts of our air-conditioned room and check out the city. Definitely a change to the lazy and quieter places we had been before. Neon lights, flashy stores, people constantly offering Tuk Tuk, massage or just plain old “you buy”. Large signs spell out the areas of the Old Market, the Night Market and Pub Street – so us dumb tourists don’t waste any time looking at the map. The amount of restaurants and pubs is mind-boggling and the prices were not even close to acceptable for our budget. But since we hd already picked out a place via trusty-ol’ TripAdvisor, we walked straight passed all the mess and through the waiters thrusting their menu into our faces and away from the lights. We had picked, to get our western food fix, an Austrian place that was meant to serve a pretty good schnitzel. It was by the river somewhere hidden in a darker corner and it kept its promise. We shared a giant portion of Schnitzel with Spaetzle and a bowl of potato salad and walked home happy.

29.06.15
Getting-stuff-done days are not very inspiring. Long story short – to get back our taxes and superannuation from Australia, we invested over half a day and waaay too much money in notarizing copies and sending them off. Exciting.

The evening took us deeper into the guts of tourist town – the Markets and Pub Street. Though of course I ended up shopping just a tiny bit, we soon realized that it was just no fun with vendors tugging at your arm and giving you outrageous prices. How silly do you feel, when you end up buying a shirt and a pair of pants for 8$, knowing she had asked for 21$ before. How much more silly do you feel, when you find out the pants already have stitches coming apart and she won’t give you back your money. Even asking travel shops for bus tickets to our next destination, people lied through their teeth about travel time, cost and stops. We did end up finding food that was closer to our budget, but somehow the theme of the evening was “Getting tired of being treated like a fool”. It is kind of sad, when you think about it. The scams that lurk at every corner here, the “foreigner prices” and the pushy people constantly asking you to buy or to tip leave a bitter aftertaste when traveling Cambodia (and probably many other countries). Corruption is common and you know that you cannot even go to the police with issues such as scams in cities or at boarder crossings. Why would you risk the degradation of your country’s reputation? Why would you take every foreign tourist for a fool, when only a small percentage actually still fall for it? Why tarnish the image of the many honest people in your country? Just for the extra dollar? I find it sad. Because I don’t want to talk or even think about my time traveling as “Oh yes, Cambodia is beautiful, BUT…”. And I know you can try and ignore it and deal with it, but that feeling of having to look over your shoulder and the insecurity of “Can I really trust this person?” just seems to grow – and this is not only street vendors, but pretty much any institution. We didn’t arrive here with this attitude and we weren’t looking to develop it, but after only 3 weeks here, it has blossomed. Don’t get me wrong, we haven’t turned into cynical grumpy complain-about-all stuck-up tourists – we are enjoying every second of this journey and see everything as part of the experience – but these are thoughts that just come up along the way – especially in a place like Siem Reap.

30.06.15
ANGKOR WAT
When visiting a site such as Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples in the Archeological Park, you know it will be a day to remember. You are visiting a wonder of the world, a UNESCO World Heritage site and probably one of the oldest structures you will ever see. I don’t think I had ever seen anything built in the early 12th century – before today!

So, as we were doing a very touristy thing to do, we were going to do it the touristy way – Sunrise at Angkor Wat. Our 5am pick up seemed a bit late and it kind of was. We bought our 20$ day passes, which even had our pictures on it, and our Tuk Tuk driver sped past many other Tuk Tuks as he could overtake, to get us to the temple on time. It ended up being more of a sun-had-already-risen moment, but the silhouette of the ancient structure was still quite beautiful and the pictures came out good.

Already here, we were amazed at the amount of people around us – and it is low season! And the amount of vendors and stalls inside the complex. No, I don’t want to buy a scarf or pants or a painting or an instrument or a wood carving or postcards or magnets or a one-dollar guidebook or anything else for that matter. I also don’t want to buy water or a coconut or ice cream or overpriced food. And it doesn’t make it more enticing, when you send the children to invite me to the restaurant either.

As you may have guessed, the beginning of this day was a bit overwhelming. But we shook it all off and escaped into Angkor Wat (while everyone else had breakfast). We decided that a grumbling stomach was worth seeing the temple with less people and watch the rising sun slowly illuminate the towers and walls as we wandered through. And it was! The sheer size of it was very impressive.

Breakfast did not deserve a mention in this blog. And off we rode to the next temple Bayon in Angkor Thom. That’s the one famous for the large grinning faces in it’s spires on top. It gave us our first taste of climbing steep and narrow steps and clambering around between towers.

Baphuon had a long walkway leading up to it, with water as well as many blocks of stone scattered along the side. It was wide and massive and after climbing up the steps, one could walk all the way around in on two levels with great views of the green below. It also bore a sleeping Buddha statue alongside its back-wall – huge and not yet completely restored. To get out, we waked through the grounds of the Royal Palace. Ruins had been completely taken over by nature here, huge tree trunks having wrapped themselves around walls and swallowed them whole or pushed them aside. It is not often that one sees trees that size, an indication that they are probably older than most I’ve ever seen. And then seeing that those trees made their way through stone walls and buildings just makes you realize how ancient these structures really are. To get out of this complex though, many signs and people tell you, that you cannot exit here – here being walkways, stairs and other logical places to exit. Instead, they rope you through an area filled with stalls, where, once again, you are hounded by vendors.

We visited temple after temple, climbed up many steep steps, peered into many impressive galleries, admired ancient carvings depicting history and legends and marveled at the building techniques. All the while sweating profusely, enjoying the wind during Tuk Tuk rides and getting a feeling for the huge area this ancient civilization covered.

Chau Say Tevoda

Ta Keo

Ta Prohm stuck out due to the fact that is not as restored as many of the others. It gives much more of an impression of how these temples were found in the 1800 – dilapidated, collapsed, taken over by nature. One large tree that seems to have sprouted through the roof of one building (and is captured on many a postcard) is especially beautiful

Banteay Kdei

At the end of our morning, which had felt like an entire day, we were happy to head back to our hotel, rest our tired legs, cool off our burning bodies and have a real, decently priced meal.

It was quite the experience to travel back in time and set foot on historical, holy grounds. Though I have to admit, that the spirituality of the place does get tainted by the touristy aspect of it – the vendors calling after you “Lady, only 1$ water for you! You want coconut? You want softdrink? You want souvenir?” and the surprisingly high percentage of tourists that don’t seem to realize where they are. You are visiting the world’s largest religious site and have probably been in the country for more than a day, and you can’t manage to dress appropriately? Any temple you visit, any religious building in any country for that matter, asks that you cover knees and shoulders – valid for men and women alike. And still, hot pants, singlets, short dresses galore! Do you not care, because you are not Buddhist? Are you afraid of tan lines? Or do you justify it with “Everyone else is doing it too”? And I understand that this is a huge income source for the Cambodian tourism industry, but why not even try to enforce the rules that are written on every sign in the complex? You are not allowed to enter the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh or the Cathedral in the Vatican dressed like that… Why be lenient here? 
Just some closing thoughts on an otherwise wonderful and memorable morning.

Needless to say – we were useless the rest of the afternoon.

01.07.15
Another early rise and temple-day. This time, we rented a motorbike and took and hour and a half ride out of town. It started as a very dusty, smelly and nerve-wrecking drive out of Siem Reap, through the morning market area, where cars, trucks, vans and bikes fought to get ahead. Thankfully, it quickly turned into a relaxed drive through the countryside.

Close to our destination, our ride was suddenly not quite as smooth anymore and when we stopped to inspect – flat tire. Luckily, on provincial road, you don’t have to look long to find someone who can repair it. We hobbled along and were pointed onwards by the people in front of their houses, till we got to a hut with a stack of tires in front of it. The guy took a look, found a rip in the inner tube, drove off to buy a new one and repaired it within 15 minutes – all for a (probably touristy) price of 5$.

The temple of the day was Beng Mealea. It used to be completely hidden in the jungle and surrounded by landmines planted by the Khmer Rouge. Most of them in the proximity have been removed, though it is still inadvisable to stray from the paths. The ruins are surrounded by lush green, much of which has made its way into and through the temple over the years. Having left a tiny bit too late and been delayed by the flat tire, we arrived later than planned and didn’t manage to avoid the crowds of Chinese and Japanese tour groups. Luckily, they stayed on the wooden walkway constructed to lead you from the outer wall to the center and back again. We chose to have a local guide join us and show us the way through the collapsed structures. Climbing over the rectangular stones that once stood erect, as pillars or roofs, ducking into rooms and galleries and wandering along the inner and outer moat – it was amazing! Here, nature had completely taken over and only trimmed down partially to ease the passage for visitors. Roots crawled into obstructed doorways and through roofs, covered entire walls and were entwined below and above us. Beng Mealea is about the size of Angkor Wat and it took us about an hour to get to the center – a collapsed tower – and back out again. All along, this very photogenic temple kept us completely enthralled.

The ride home was, thankfully, uneventful. As was the afternoon. We had booked tickets to Kratie at the same place where we rented our bikes. Once again, we watched the scam-attempt unfold right before our eyes. We asked three lovely ladies for prices and they offered us 12$ for the motorbike and 15$ for the minivan to Kratie. In the evening, we went back to get the bike and buy the tickets and some grumpy guy wanted 20$ for the bike and 18$ for the minivan - but grudgingly gave us the prices we had negotiated earlier. Another blow to our trust in the touristic entities here in Cambodia. We were ready to leave and (hope for) and try our luck in Laos.