Friday Afternoon and Evening (27 June)
After lunch on Friday, Kean asked us if we wanted to go to one more temple before we called it a day and, of course, we agreed. We stopped by Banteay Kdei wnd enjoyed climbing over and around another complex that was dominated by a couple of huge trees. When we parked, we were greeted by the usual groups of child and female hawkers selling magnets, token, scarfs, post cards, T-shirts, etc. The cadets (and everyone, for that matter) tend to be soft touches for kids selling things, but we discussed how this is a very tough issue… You want to help the kids, but you have to ask: If I help the kids by buying form them, am I really hurting the overall development of the country by enabling a system that values a child’s ability to sell trinkets more than what they would gain from education?
We returned to the hotel just before 1600 and decided that that we would meet again at 1800 to go to dinner in the Pub Street area near several of the night markets. We took a tuk-tuk—jamming all six of us into one as we’ve done all along and paying $3 to get there.
Pub Street is the bar and restaurant area of Siem Reap that is famous for its nightlife and also for its legitimate (and some not-so-legitimate) massage parlors and fish pedicures. The latter are big aquariums with la-z-boy style chairs over them that have a particular type of small fish that swarm around your feet and eat the dead skin away from callouses. I declared the fish pedicures off limits, if for no other reason than the aquariums often had three or four patrons at a time dangling their toes in the water and it just seemed like a very nasty Petrie dish of infectious disease. The cadets were not disappointed by my order.
We arrived in our tuk-tuk and walked up and down Pub Street, hearing offers for pub crawl parties, a ride on the Rock-n-Rol Tuk-Tuk that plays requests or will allow you to plug in your own device as musical score for your tour of Siem Reap. We settled on the Red Piano Bar for its location and the fact that they sold several good Belgian beers at reasonable prices (e.g., Leffe Blond for only $4). I ordered the Fish Amok for about the fourth time, while the cadets had pasta, French fries, and a few local dishes. Winston ordered curry as usual and asked that it be made as hot as possible. Winston seems to think that he’s in Thailand (or wishes he was for the food) and asks makes similar requests at every meal except breakfast. Every time he’s disappointed because the “ultra spicy” is just not that hot. We keep telling him (and our guides agree) that the Cambodians just don’t like hot, spicy food, but he keeps trying. He ordered chopped red chiles on the side, but they’re not hot enough. We’re tyring to convince him that he should order the Cambodian food the way the Cambodians eat it, and we’ve made some progress, but he continues on his quest.
After a surprisingly good dinner, we decided that the cadets deserved an unsupervised night away from me and that they could stay on Pub Street for the evening so long as they stayed together and practiced the good operational risk management (ORM) that we’ve been discussing since January. I left them with plenty of warnings and instruction that we were leaving in the morning at 0800 and that I expected them to be there on time—bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I also warned them about the trip rules for alcohol and other issues.
As I left them, I started walking towards the main drag and was immediately accosted by several tuk-tuk drivers that wanted to offer me MUCH more than just a tuk-tuk ride. It was then that I realized that a fifty-something American walking alone on the streets of a Southeast Asian city just might look to the locals like someone looking for something not quite so legal or proper. Within about 50 meters I was offered drugs, girls, and other things. I finally just walked up to a tuk-tuk driver and before he could say anything said, “Angkor Holiday Hotel please!” I jumped in and he started driving. I took a video of the trip which should be entertaining. However, we hadn’t traveled more than 200 meters when he turned around and said, “Mister, you want tuk-tuk boom-boom tonight?” I politely declined his offer and asked him to just take me the hotel.
Once back, I worked on photos from the day and went to sleep pretty early—I was tired from the early wake-up, too.
Evening in Siem Reap
We returned to the hotel a little after 1500 and everyone had a chance to rest, relax and shower before we went out again on our own at 1800 to see a few of the local sites and get some dinner. We walked from the hotel past a park, the royal residence in Siem Reap, a Buddhist Temple with crowds of people and then into the less touristy area of the city. Our target was a restaurant called, Marum, run the the Tree Alliance NGO. We'd already eaten at two of their "training centers" in Phnom Penh and wanted to try this one, too. Each has a different food theme, but shares the same goal of providing employment and training opportunities for disadvantaged and "street" youths. Our wait and cooking staff each had t-shirts that said either "teacher" or "student" and the teachers hovered over the students as they took our orders (double-checking), gave them service hints, made sure everything was okay, etc.
We started with snacks of fried crickets and peanuts and ordered some rather inventive foods including some great meatball, excellent fish, and our first try at some Cambodian sushi. Here's a link to the restaurant and its review (including mine) on Tripadvisor.
Kbal Spean Hike
After an 0430 wake-up, a boxed meal, travel in a bus, and three tours, it was only about 1030, so I thought some PT would be good. (Actually, this was in the plan all along, but this is what I told the cadets) They knew I was joking, though, and are learning to tolerate my sarcasm--mostly because they don't have a choice. They were enthusiastic about this hike that Kean told us was a local favorite in a national park just next door to the ACCB rescue center.
The trail is 1.5 km long and climbs about 600 feet to a beautiful river and waterfall that has carvings on the rocks dating back more than a thousand years.
The trail was sandy,but very well-maintained with workers keeping it clear. Most of the large trees had species tags and other info along the way, too. Deforestation is a huge issue in Cambodia, so any attempts to protect the forests is a big deal. These exotic trees can sell for tens of thousands of dollars apiece for very high-end furniture in the Far East, so the incentives to cut them down in the poor country are great.
The trail was also marked every 100 meters going up which was fun. It was an easy but, as is everything in Cambodia, a very sweaty activity. We were rewarded when we got to the top with a beautiful waterfall.
After climbing above the falls, we came to the carvings/sculpture and also learned from Kean about the heritage of the river. This is near the source of the Siem Reap River that flows through Angkor. The riverbed is lined with what rock sculptures of over 1000 penises. Yes, you read that right. Although they're now eroded and just look like circles of stone in the riverbed, the ancients here believed that the fertile symbol of these thousands penises would make the water equally fertile and guarantee good crops downstream. Yeah, right. Anyway, it was a fun story.
We did enjoy seeing the carving in the rocks around the river and it was easy to think about how this must've been a great get away for the local royalty to swim and cavort in the cool waters--and penises.
Angkor Center for Conservation of Biodiversity
We drove a short distance from Banteay Srei to a local NGO that rescues and maintains a breeding program for endangered wild species in Cambodia and learned a lot about how this specific NGO operates and what are the threats to native species here. (Here's a link to their site) The guide was very informative and we spent about 90 minutes here on an excellent tour. Most of all, though, we enjoyed watching and listening to the gibbons.
Banteay Srei
After wolfing down our egg and cucumber salads and some fruit at Angkor Wat, we made our way to the minibus and drove almost an hour north through the countryside to Banteay Srei, one of the oldest and most ornate (but small) temple complexes associated with Angkor.
This was really the first time we'd been out in the rural areas besides out trip to Chuong Ek (Killing Fields) and this drive was nice because we got to see all of the kids going to school in the blue and white uniforms (school starts at 0700), people driving their motobikes to work (5 is still our max number we've seen on a motobike), cows and buffalo in the rice fields, homes, farms, etc.
Kean told us that this is called the "Women's Temple" because the carving of the rocks is so delicate and fine that the people usually assumed that it could only have been done by women with small hands. He then told us that that, in fact, was not the case and that all of the stone carvers of those days were men.
It was nice to be the first ones at the Temple and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. As usual, there were several dogs around, including one terribly mangy and sad black dog that followed us around. We also some some local flora and fauna.
After touring the complex, we relaxed with some cold drinks and, again, the cadets shopped for souvenirs.
Angkor Wat at Dawn
It was an 0430 wake-up for the cadets--appropriate since was also the day, 37 years ago when I reported for in-processing and basic training with my classmates (Second to None!). They took it in stride and I didn't have to beat on any doors or scream "You're late, you're late, you're already late!" (Well, maybe a little to Winston)
Kean met us in the lobby with boxed breakfasts from the hotel and we jumped into our mini-bus for the ride to the pond in front of Angkor Wat along with about one thousand of our closest Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Australian tourist friends. The scene reminded me of the evening wait for sunset at Delicate Bridge in Arches Nat'l Park, Utah, with tons of people wedged in trying to get the best angle and hoping for a good sunrise with lots of colors.
First, let me say that the changes in temp from our hotel rooms (where we max out the A/C) and the humid, warm outdoors, are playing havoc with my camera gear. It costs me about 20 minutes every morning to warm up my stuff and let the condensation (fogging) clear from my lenses and filters--very frustrating.
Generally, we were a bit disappointed by the sunrise, but we did get some colors and it was worth it. Plus, it allowed us to get an early start to Banteay Srei and other sites.
Ta Phrom
From Angkor Thom, we went to lunch at a local roadside stop and then on to probably the second most photographically famous temple—Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is famous from several movies because huge trees there that have grown through the buildings, extending their roots like tentacles around and over the stones. A large part of this complex was being renovated--it seems that each of the major temples is "sponsored" in some way by a different donor nation. India is paying for the renovation work here, while we saw complexes being renovated by the US, Japan, Korea, and China. This whole area will be vastly different in a few years as the renovations continue and infrastructure improves. Already, at Ta Phrom, wooden observation platforms were around the trees to reduce tourist impact. Here's a link to my Facebook album and below is the full slide show...
Angkor Thom
We entered Angkor Thom (Great City) by crossing a bridge guarded by dozens of stone faces and through a magnificent gate. We walked across the bridge and our guide met us after the gate. We were momentarily distracted by more monkeys, including some babies and the chance to buy some small local bananas to feed them. When he did so, Dylan got an interesting surprise from a very assertive monkey who decided to go directly to the source, jumping onto his back and just (stealing and) eating the bananas directly from Dylan.
Angkor Thom is famous for its 216 Buddhas—they’re everywehere—and it was an informal game to find as many as you could. This was a great complex for climbing and the cadets were all over the place. Again, we lost Dylan and he didn’t appear until we’d sent two search parties back into the complex to find him.
Angkor Wat
Angkor is the largest temple/religious complex in the world covering over 400 square kilometers and comprising 246 individual temples that date back as far as the 10th Century. Angkor Wat is the largest temple in that complex and is the largest religious monument in the world according to the always trustworthy Wikipedia.
We entered the complex from the East, passing by one small complex--at least it seems small now after seeing Angkor Wat. It was overgrown, collapsing in spots, and very eroded, but impressive nonetheless.
We walked another couple hundred meters and arrived at the northeast corner of the complex. Kean was very informative as our guide and he discussed the 720 meter carved Hindu story that rings the entire main level of the building.
We spent the next two hours, approximately, walking throughout the massive complex. Small shrines were set up at points with people selling incense sticks—that was a little inappropriate and distracting, but we managed to avoid most of those. There were a few monks, but they were just visiting from other monasteries. The size of the complex is just amazing, though, and reminded me in size more of Carcassone in Southern France.
As we were leaving the main internal area, we started to see monkeys on top of the buildings, in the trees, and on the walls surrounding Angkor Wat. There was also a “temple dog” who seemed to enjoy chasing the monkeys in a game I can imagine that has gone one for quite some time.
We walked out to the west after spending some time with the monkeys—Dylan is a big fan of the monkeys—and were immediately greeted with the standard waves of hawkers selling water, T-shirts, scarves, mementoes, etc. Three bottles of cold water went for $1 after some haggling and since we’d already started to sweat profusely, that was good. Winston, of course, bought more souvenirs, and we had to go back and find Hansena and Dylan who were entertaining the monkeys.
We walked out to the west across the bridge that spans the moat to the local transpo scene with multitudes of tuk-tuks and small buses. I took some photos of a couple of Chinese women for them and we boarded our minibus for the next temple, Angkor Thom.
Here's a slide show from Angkor Wat showing all of those photos.
Catching Up... Flight to Siem Reap
It's been a whirlwind two days with the flight to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh, plus Zenfolio was down for a day, so I couldn't add to the blog. Add to that, the wonderful Angkor Holiday Hotel in Siem Reap doesn't exactly have blazing wifi, and I've got about a 1K photo backlog.
Anyway, after our morning in PP, we cleaned up, checked out of the hotel, jammed all six of us into another safe and comfortable tuk-tuk, and went to lunch at the Khmer Surin restaurant where we enjoyed more local cuisine. The youngest among us have had fun trying all of the exotic juices and freezes made here with just about every fruit imaginable. I've been expanding my beer bandwidth with the likes of Cambodia, Angkor, and Lao Beers.
The transfer to the airport was seamless--great job by Intrepid Travel again--and we made it to the airport plenty early. The flight was a little late, too, so the cadets got a chance to nap on the huge couch at the airport by a coffee shop, while I did what I do with every free minute--post-process photos or write. Rebecca Black from the Embassy (USAID) was on our flight, too, so we had a chance to chat again. She was going to Siem Reap for a health/disease conference. Apparently (and this isn't comforting) Cambodia is a veritable hot-bed of infectious, drug-resistant diseases and thus a favorite place for researchers.
Our flight landed (with unusual "authority") in light rain and our Intrepid guide, Kean, was there to greet us as we walked out from the terminal. From there, it was about a 15 minute van ride to the hotel, a snappy check-in, and we were on our way via tuk-tuk to dinner at Annadya. We used dinner to cover the next day's plan, scowl at some drunken Australians, and get to know each other. The quick way to share the photos is via a slide slow, so here it is!