Angkor and Always

(the play on word - albeit rubbish - does work in French, believe me !)

Ok, here's the English version of my previous post...

Basically, for time and space sake, I'll limit this to my Cambodge experience (I'm actually in Dalat, mountain town in Vietnam where it's freezing cold (19c at night !) but the locals are all in winter clothings !!).

So, last time, I was in Pnomh Penh, ready to set off for Siam Reap. The bus trip was very smooth and we even arrived early (very rare thing here).

The scenery was rather pretty, lots of rice paddies (no I'm not bored of them yet ! wait till you see the 10s of photos I have of them !) dotted with palm and coconut trees. The good thing was that it was the same all the way, so I managed to squeeze some sleep in knowing I wouldn't miss anything !

The arrival at the bus station was mad, as we stepped off, at least a 100 tuk tuk drivers started screaming and shouting for our attention, there were a few policement holding them back and whistling to calm them down (wasn't working) and using sticks to hit the floor or the guy's legs... felt like I was about to get mobbed !!

Took a random guy, who I agreed to be my tuk tuk driver for the next day (to see Angkor Wat which is about 6km from the town) and for him to find me a guide.

Siam Reap is a completely unremarkable town, which is in the midst of turning into a giant hotel as tourism increases exponientially in Cambodia (still managed to find a $5 a night room !).

Ok, before carrying on, just wanted to give an update on Angkor Wat for those who haven't heard of it before. It's basically the largest religious complex in the world. Several hundreds of temples (most of them piles of rubbles) scattered across several tens of kilometers. Dated from between 800 and 1200, they are for the most part from Hindu origins (so before Cambodia became Buddhist). The coolest fact (well, I think so anyway) is that everyone forgot the existence of Angkor Wat until the French stumbled upon it by chance in the 19th century. The temples had been abandonned for at least 400 to 600 years, completely covered by the jungle (some of them still are, partly at least). Some temples have been restored, some partially, and some barelly.

It's hard to summarise the feeling of the place, it's huge, it's gigantic, it's mightily impressive, it's magic, it's beautiful, it's wonderful.. in other words, I loved it ! Everything is 100s of meters big, 10s of meters high, at some point millions of people lived within its perimeter.. The power of the people who built them is awe inspiring...

I spent 3 days there doing most of the main temples (about 20). I won't list you everything in details (I have 500+ photos for that :) but only those that impressed me the most.

The largest, the biggest, the best know one is Angkor Wat itself (it's on the photos I uploaded the other day). Each side is several hundred meters long, it culminates at 65 meters high. Surrounded by 2 moats, the largest ones being several kilometers long. It is composed of several stories, each smalled than the other (that type of temple is called Mountain temple). The carvings and bas relief are amazingly detailed and well preserved/restored. There's hundreds and hundreds of meters of gigantic carving on the surrounding walls. The overall size of the building is just plainly amazing, when you think it was built almost a 1000 years ago and that more than 1 million person lived within its wall... (St Paul's is just a hut compare to this I have to say !)

The last floor, at the very top, was the 'paradise', only the emperor and the top priests had access to it (they let me in straight away ! :). You have to climb some VERY steep stairs to access it... I struggled slightly on the way down because of vertigo it was so steep. From the top, you dominate the surrounding countryise and jungle.

I must have spent about 2 hours in the place and probably didn't see all of it, there are so many carvings everywhere, all telling different mythical hindu stories...

The second temple, probably my favourite, is Bayon, which is part of the Angkor Tom complex (second Khmer empire, a couple of years after Angkor Wat if I remember correctly, in fact a completely fortified city which huge walls (well preserved) with 4 huge doors (very cool too)). Bayon is only one of the temple of the complex. The main characteristics is that it is composed of at least 50 huge columns which have 4 heads carved at their top, each facing cardinal points (each heads are about 1.5 m high)... So if your maths are with me, it means you have more than 200 huge heads staring down at you from anywhere you look, most of them in a good state. It's composed of limestone which shine under the midday sun. Absolutly amazing effect, I was gob smacked.. it made me think about the poor sods at the time the temple was active and how impressive it must have seemed to them.

It's the only temple I returned to several times.. I must have taken a photo of every heads in the place ! They are so cool !


The third temple, most of you will have already seen it, is Ta Phrom. Half ruine, it was abandonned more than 400 hundred years ago and trees have grown within its walls, literally, which means you can't remove them without the place falling apart. Those of you who have seen Tomb Raider (not sure if it's the first or second... I haven't seen any of them !), the introduction scene was filmed there.

It gives a real Indiana jones feeling as there are lots of doorways and areas you can explore/climb where there's no one else, with the trees blocking the doorways with their roots.. most of the stones half covered in green moss, the light filtered by the trees towering above giving a real eerie feeling to the place. Loved it !

Ok, there are tons more temples and at least 4 I can think of that I really liked, but I'll show you the 500+ photos I have taken in the place instead :)

In conclusion, it's definitely the most impressive and memorable thing I have visited so far.. by a mile !

To come back to less serious things, the first night I arrived in Siam Reap, I met up with my mate Serena who had met some people on her way there so we all hooked up and spent the night together... and what a night !!! We all clicked instantly and some of the people there (a South African couple) had never had a bucket before (for buckets explanations ... see one of the previous posts !).. Obivously Serena and I had to sort that one out... 7 hours later and wayyy too many buckets we started writing our names on the ceiling of the bar we were in (don't ask) and boogied like mad for hours, met tons of people we wouldn't remember the next day... In other word, one of those nights ! The only problem is that I only had 2 hours sleep, and that was before my first day at Angkor Wat... which was quite tough I have to admit (WHY oh WHY did they have to build these temples with so many bloody steep stairs !!). I thought I was going to die... Ok ok, I admit, it was my fault.

Obviously, after such a night, the folliowing ones were very very quiet as we had to recover (we're not 20 anymore bla bla bla..)

After 3 days, Serena and I decided to go back to Pnomh Penh (PP) to go to Sianhoukville (where the beach is in Cambodia). On the way to PP, the bus stop for a loo break in front of a local market... And it is there I encountered the famous cambodian grilled spider (see photo). I have to admit I would have been tempted to try it if it wasn't for 1) it was covered in HAIR 2) it was 10 o'clock in the morning... ok ok ok, shame on me anyway for missing that opportunity.

When we arrived in PP, a German couple in the bus offered to share a taxi with them to go directly to Sianoukville rather than having to wait the next day for the bus... for $7 each for 3 hours drive, it's bargain so we agreed !. The car was actually coming from Japan (no idea why) so the stiring wheel was on the right hand side (they drive on the right hand side here, the RIGHT WAY !) which meant that everytime the guy wanted to overtake, he had to go on the left lane to see if there was anyone coming.. mind you even if there was someone coming it didn't really stop him from going for it anyway... Serena nearly died of a hear attack as she was in the middle and had a full view (i was behind him, so had a rather pleasant journey myself !)

Oh this reminds me, I don't think I have explained that here (and in everywhere I have been), the driving code is for MORONS ! As well as road marking and traffic lights. Pedestrian crossing are just for decoration (or for luring unsuspecting tourist before you crush them with your front wheel !). People go where they want to go, when they want to go.. your problem if you are in the way !! All this explains (kinda) why the guy drove like a madman.. they all drive like that !

Sianoukhville was totally unremarkable (general theme of towns in Asia I have to say), but the beach was nice... especially the water. It was like taking a bath, it was at least 30c !!. It's simple, you could toast for 2 hours and go in the water, it would still feel warm. Lo-ved-it !

Not much to say about the 2 days there, didn't meet anyone worthy of mentioning, did have some gorgeous bacon cheese burgers (after 6 weeks eating rice and noodle, I AM ALLOWED !). We however had a bit of a problem. We had found that gorgeous beach totally deserted (the one on the photos), but you had to cross 3 or 4 km of wasteland to each it. We had a bike to travel around. Serena had put her bag in the basket in front (as you would do in Thailand for instance).. on the way back from the beach (after the most gorgeous sunset I have seen so far), some tosser came alongside us and nabbed the bag from the basket ! We tried to follow them but their bike was a lot better than the crappy rental one we had. Thank god, Serena's passport was in the guest house. She still did lose her mobile, camera and some money... We had to go to the police station the next day (they are proper civil servants there, they close at 5, if you get murdered, it has to wait till 8.30 the next day !). I wish I could tell you about the rows of prostitutes in the various cells, blood on the floor, screaming coming from a closed door office.. but no, it was rather basic, it almost felt like we were interupting their card game... Anyway, all went smoothly, they couldn't do anything about it (how surprising !). Did take a photo of the police cars are they were all cute :)

After our 2 days on the beach, we went back to PP, staying only one night before setting off to Vietnam...

To be continued...

By the way, I know it's no claim to fame, but I was in Muine a couple of days ago, the place where Mr Glitter got caught with the 2 girls... I really could have bumped into him there as he left the day i arrived ! (yuk !)

Hope all is good for everyone.

Take care my friend.

Bisous

Oli