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| Cambodia |
| August 3 | Arrive in Angkor |
| August 4 | Angkor |
| August 5 | Evening flight to Viet Nam |
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3 August 2001 Siem Reap Siem Reap is a boom town of sorts. Since the death of Poi Pot and the end of hostilities in 1998, tourism has grown at an amazing rate- doubling each year. The infrastructure is still somewhat lacking but changing by the second. The town is an ever growing strip of hotels and guest houses. Next year they project receiving 1,000,000 tourists. We were met at the airport by our guide for the next 3 days , Reth. He picked us up in a small tour bus. There seem to be almost no private cars in Siem Reap- bicycles, motorbikes (usually under 300 cc) and tour bus vans. Our hotel, the Angkor hotel, was quite clean and modern- built in the boom. We were issued vouchers for all our meals upon check-in. It was still pretty early in the AM so we decided to hit our first temple before lunch. We stopped at the check point to get our 3 day passes- which require a photo, because they found tourists were selling them to other tourists after 2 days. The temple complex of Angkor Wat is massive- over 200 sq. km and comprised of 100s of temples. The first ruin we stopped at was Tha Prom (I hope I'm remembering the spelling, I don't have the names in front of me at the moment.) This temple, built in the 12th century, is the classic example of the whole Angkor complex's relationship with the jungle. Giant fica trees overwhelm massive walls, growing around Buddha statues. . 
The jungle has been reclaiming the land here for about 400 years. It's an amazing sight. These elaborate ornate Buddha's and towers and gates and at the same time trees growing straight up through them and intertwined together in a symbiotic relationship to walls. They've determined that they can't remove the trees at this point without destroying the walls as well. Tha Prom gives you a sense of how the French must have felt in the 1800's upon discovering these ruins in the jungle. They actually have been cut back a lot - and Reth said that until a few years ago there were still cobras living in the towers etc.- but ironically snakes are afraid of people- and they've left because there are too many tourists- there goes the neighborhood. After Tha Prom we returned to the hotel for lunch. We were a bit curious as to why they wanted us to eat all our meals in the hotel, but for our first meal we figured we'd give it a try. It was a bland set menu of Cambodian food- minus the key ingredients of Cambodian cooking- which the locals are convinced foreigners wouldn't like- mostly this is fish paste. So we ate our outsider approved food but secretly plotted to find some fish paste and try it before leaving Siem Reap. After lunch we had a few hours to kill before heading back out- it's just way too hot and exposed to visit the temples in the middle of the day. We took a quick walk around the hotel and decided to hang out in the pool where it was nice and cool. A lot of Europeans and their naked babies were there too. I guess its a popular French tourism destination, though I can't quite see the appeal of bring infants to visit a country with a lot of food, insect and water borne diseases, no infrastructure, almost no paved roads, etc. but there they were frolicking in the midday sun. At 3pm Reth came back for us and we went out to Bayon temple  -
which has 40 some of the original 54 towers- each with a four-sided
Buddha-head which is the "bodhi-satva" or future Buddha-
whose features merged with the king who built the temple- J 7 (This
is how we referred to him- I don't remember his long name.) Theses
towers are beautiful and eerie. There are many doorways which you
can look through and see a row of giant smiling Buddha heads. We climbed
all over the temple. Bayon also has some great bas relief which depicts
the Khmer (Cambodian people) and their enemy the Cham (from a region
of Vietnam ) in several battles throughout the 10th and 11th C.
These reliefs show all aspects of life, including childbirth, dining,
dancing, medicine etc. The detail and beauty of the carving is incredible.
It goes all the way up walls probably 3 meters high and 100 meters
long. In the afternoon we also walked through the elephant and Leper's
terraces. The elephant terrace is a giant structure where they used
to stage elephant wrestling battles- which work like Sumo wrestling
and the winner is the one still in the ring at the end of the day.
The Leper's terrace is so called because one of the statues on it
was missing several fingers and toes and covered in a spotted moss
when found by the locals who thought he had leprosy. We saw many more
carvings of Apsara- dancing deities that the Angkor region is most
known for . We saw so many temples and carvings that it all starts
to blur together. At each sight swarms of children crowd you and offer "postcards $1" or bananas or silk scarves. They all cry out, "You buy from me, maybe later?" ""you buy from me?" Its very sad because there is clearly a huge amount of poverty and these kids obviously spend all day begging and selling stuff instead of going to school. There are also many visible victims of land mines and other Khmer Rouge casualties around the area. The people of the region are very friendly and seem keenly aware that tourism is going to turn their lives around. The first night, tired and overwhelmed we ate at the hotel- a disappointing buffet meal and then sat at the bar and talked to the bartender before bed. The bartender told us about Cambodian marriage practices- For the most part they are still arranged and the man's family pays the woman's a dowry. The local monks then pick an auspicious day for the ceremony. |
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04 Aug. 2001 Angkor Wat In the morning we went out to tour Banteay Srei- open for the outer temples.  Its
built of red and yellow sandstone which is different from the grey
brick of the other temples. This one is earlier too- built in the
10th century. Its' also Hindu and smaller. It's about 20 km outside
of town and takes about an hour to get to- the road is brand new and
until last year it took about 2 hours to go over a sometimes land
mine filled road. Reth told us that 10 years ago you had to hire a
tank to visit the temple and until 5 years ago you were required to
go with a Police Escort because there was still a lot of Khmer Rouge
activity out this way. Now the place is overflowing with tourists.
It is a little gem of a temple. The carvings are so detailed and well
preserved. They tell many different Hindu stories and depict many
of the Hindu gods in various activities. Unlike Bayon and the temples we saw the day before- where most of the statues were beheaded and whole chunks had been stolen and carted off illegally to Thailand (less than 150 Km away) to be sold illegally to antique collectors- Banteay Srea was more intact. The whole inner sanctum is still there.  On the way out there, we also passed through a typical rural village where all the houses are built up on stilts because of flooding. Families have no almost no furniture and all sleep on mats on the floor. The livestock and pets sleep under the houses. The people cook outside under shelters on wood stoves. There is very little privacy in these homes and we could see the whole rural way of life as we passed by. We also saw the expected rice paddies and crazy motorbike traffic- people carrying whole dead pigs on the back of a motorcycle etc. The rule of Asia seems to be that nothing is too big or too unusual to carry on the back of your motorcycle. We also saw some "taxis" on the road to Banteay Srea- these consist of pick up trucks with the back filled to capacity of standing people traveling at high speed over dirt or near dirt roads. We stopped at one more temple on the way back to town for lunch. I can't remember the name- but it was brick and pyramid shaped. From the top of the steep steps you could see several other temples in the region. During our lunch break Jay and I decided to walk around town. This was a dusty experience and not too fruitful. The town seems almost nonexistent. There are many barber shops for some reason- Jason was tempted to get a cut with some exotic and ancient looking clippers but the thought of what might be lurking in them and the lack of sanitation deterred him. there were Also a lot of hotels. A few souvenir shops and some bland looking restaurants. The only restaurants that interested us were stuffed to the gills with locals watching kickboxing on TV- most people don't have running water or electricity at home, but in town they have HBO. We couldn't get a seat at either pub crowded with motorbike drivers. Eventually we went back and had another meal at the hotel- but Reth had offered to arrange for us to see a display of local dance at a different restaurant for dinner (Also for tourists, but at least the food was a little spicier.) After lunch we relaxed again by the pool. Jason fell asleep and was awakened by a monkey tapping him on the shoulder. The monkeys aren't actually indigenous to the region, but showed up a few years ago with the tourists and their population has exploded almost as fast- I guess the climate is good for them and the tourists throw plenty of bananas their way. In the afternoon we went to the crown jewel- Angkor Wat. The scale is just unbelievable. It is a temple inside a 200m wall surrounded by a moat all hand dug by about 400,000 slaves- the whole thing was completed in less than 30 years- NotreDame was built about the same time and is much smaller and took about 100 years. Angkor Wat was never fully abandoned and even the Khmer Rouge had some respect for it so it is in the best condition of all the temples. There are some bullet holes in the main facade, and of course some missing statues but that's it. There are more than 1000 dancing Apsara carved in Angkor Wat. They all have wonderful crowns and hairdos . That's just when you walk in the main entryway. When you continue on there a walls with reliefs of all the Hindu gods traveling on their animal counterparts. In the middle are three levels of temples. The steps to the top level are VERY steep. There are 12 entrances but only 1 has a handrail and they suggest you go down it. The local families come out to Angkor Wat to picnic on the weekends as well and visit some of the shrines so in addition to battling the other tourists to get down the steps you are waiting behind whole extended families of Khmer- mother helping grandma and 3 year old simultaneously down the vertigo inspiring narrow steps. The temple just goes on and on. Each window is filled with hand carved columns that are so precise they look like they've been lathed. Its just jaw dropping. There's no other way to put it. Jason remarked how lucky we are to see it now, because in a few years they'll get it all together and won't allow you to climb up any those crazy steps anymore and all the carvings will be protected behind Plexiglas etc. At the end of the afternoon we finally had some rainy season rain. It started just as we'd climbed to the top of a popular sunset spot to watch the sun go down over Angkor Wat- people started running for the stairs when it came down- the path down the hill was all dirt and any minute would turn to a river of mud. There was also the possibility of catching a ride on an elephant. We made it down before the torrential rains started. In the evening, as promised we were taken to a local restaurant which had a floor show- kind of like a Cambodian Luau. We had great seats. In between us and the stage was an open space where the rain fell. So we watched Apsara dancing through a rain curtain. The pounding of the rain mingled with the instruments. At one point a toad jumped across the empty space- taking away attention from the dancers. The dancing was very still, almost entrancing. The movements were quite deliberate and slow maybe a tilt of the head, then a turn of a foot. In the last dance of the evening a woman and man each wore a peacock costume- which consisted of a peacock hat and then wings which they manipulated from strings- which turned the dancers into kind of self controlled puppets. 5 August 2001 Siem Reap - Ho Chi Minh City Having seen all of the major temples in the previous 2 days we took the opportunity on the third day in Cambodia to see a little bit more of the countryside and current culture. In the morning we took a drive out to the Floating Village of Tonle Sap. Its on the Mekong River, about an hour from Siem Reap. On the way there we passed through a few villages- some of which looked quite rich, with houses on stilts that were gated with big golden gates. Tonle Sap is a really more a community of fishing house boats than a floating village. Everyone is mobile. There is no connection between the boats. We took a tourist boat ride out into the middle of the lake. A young boy pushed us a long past houseboat upon houseboat. All the children smile and wave. They seem genuinely pleased to see you coming through. I'd think you'd get bored of it after a while, but not yet I guess. We watched all manner of domestic activity from our little boat. People use the river for all purposes: Washing, cooking, bathing, toilet. It's pretty much one stop shopping. We saw most of these things occurring as we drifted out past the flooded forest. The Mekong River flows on both sides through the tops of trees- varying heights depending on the season- sometimes the trees are covered completely with water. Its very weird looking. Evidently a lot of snakes and rats live in the tree tops. Luckily we didn't see either kind of local wildlife. We also stopped at a fish farm/mini zoo on the river- the mini zoo part was pretty sad- a monkey or two in a cage that get trotted out for the tourists and a big boa constrictor etc. The fish farm consists of a big wooden enclosure filled to the brim with catfish. On the way back to town we drove through villages where they make fish paste in big Vats by the side of the road. You make fish paste by cutting up fish and drying it in the sun, then leaving it in a big vat until it stinks to high heaven- this is what I gleaned of the process. I think there may be some other steps before the smelly part. Back in town we went to the market place to buy souvenirs. Prices in Siem Reap seemed somewhat inflated- not expensive, just more than you'd expect. They know the value of the dollar to the foreign tourist. I guess what it really is - is that there is no local economy here at all- the only people who might be even thinking about buying anything are clearly people with hard currency. We had a woman try and sell us fake antique she swore was a 100 year old Angkor relic recently dug up. We then went to the next stall and saw the same precious relic available there too- what a coincidence. We bought some cool little elephant boxes- which the stall owner admitted were recently made. We bargained enough to be polite , but not too hard- people are really poor in Cambodia. Reth next took us to the Shadow puppet school. The art of shadow puppets has almost died out in Cambodia- it is very rarely performed anymore, but there is a school now in Siem Reap and a troupe in Pnom Phen who perform. The school consisted of one room, where a couple of little boys make leather puppets. They draw them and then cut them out and paint the leather. On each puppet there is maybe one or two moving parts- the arms, say. The figures are very simple and elegant- not as colorful as some other shadow puppets I've seen. We bought a bunch of Apsara dancing figures and some other random animals. Then Lunch. Finally after much Fish paste discussion while passing through the town where they make the vats, we'd convinced Reth that we could handle trying it. He took us to a local restaurant and ordered it for us. We also ordered spring rolls and Amok in coconut shell- this is a local fish in a coconut milk sauce- very yummy. The fish paste was good too- they're all crazy thinking no one would like it. It was kind of salty and crunchy. We finally had a good meal in Cambodia! PS this too was really a restaurant for tourists- the Khmer don't eat out. After lunch we went to a local silk factory. Factory is a bit of a stretch. It's a school. The school was set up by the Cambodian government and for a while helped out by the European Union. It offers training to young people 18-25 from rural areas and the handicapped- so they can have a livelihood. We followed the entire silk making process from the coddling of the worms in little baskets- where women spend all day feeding them mulberry branches- hand torn into worm size portions to the weaving- and tie-dying of fabric. Actually the threads are tie-dyed before they are woven-that's how they create patterns in woven goods. I didn't know that before. It was very interesting to see the process. We went to the gift shop to show our support for the school. Now we'd pretty much exhausted things to see in the Siem Reap area but still had a bit of time before our flight. So Reth took us to the reservoir. This is interesting only in that it was hand dug by slaves in the 9th Century and is huge. Otherwise- it's just a big muddy colored lake of water with some people out swimming away a Sunday afternoon. We tried to look suitably impressed before giving up and going to the 1 room airport about 2 hours early for our flight. |
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