Kampu-cheer!

19th May 2006, Day 60

Siem Reap, Cambodia

In Chiang Mai, James and I were in a quandry. The teaching idea had fallen through, and we'd already used up near 3 weeks of our 30 day Thai visa. With Kate and Tim's visit still a month off, what were we going to do in the meantime? With the small amount of initiative we could pool, we decided that we wouldn't give up on the volunteering idea and resign ourselves to growing barnacles on our arses. Fortunately, whilst searching for 'ethical' treks among the mountain tribes of Thailand - trekking being what the average 'farang' (foreigner) does in Chiang Mai - I stumbled across this. We can therefore kill two birds with a solitary stone, by doing something half-useful and getting to know a community very different from our own. We begin this project on Thursday 25th May (thanks for sending the cheque in, Mum), making it a necessity to re-new our visas in the meantime: a border hop was on. We'd heard fascinating tales about the Angkor temples in Cambodia, so off for a few days in country number five we went!

My knowledge of Cambodia (or Kampuchea) is even more limited than that of Thailand or Vietnam, which is to say that I knew Pol Pot was a mass-murdering dictator. By deciding to head for the Angkor Temples in Siem Reap in North West Cambodia, we planned to start with the ancient history of Cambodia first. Getting over the border was a bit of a palaver. Despite buying our tickets through the offical TAT office, we were still prey to the usual visa scams (nothing illegal, just paying an un-identified surcharge), followed by a few different queues, passport stamps and eye-ballings from bored officials. We took some unnecessary bus rides a few hundred metres from one gate to another, before passing under the ornate gateway into the Kingdom of Cambodia. Immediately you could tell the place was poorer and more unkempt than it's neighbour. It reminded me of India because of the shacks, beggars and seemingly hasty constructions all around. Our party went along with rough and ready feel as we packed into an elderly minibus, with our belongings shoved into any nooks or crannies in order to make way for several bags of concrete.

The six hour bus journey to Siem Reap was along a flattish, but un-asphalted highway which was not pot-holed but very bumpy none-the-less. Upon arrival we plumped for staying in the guesthouse that the bus was on commission for taking us to because it was 10pm. When we found out that we could take a moto (a moped/motorbike hybrid) ride around the Angkor temples the next day, we snapped up the chance. It's the default method of travel in these parts... I suppose we took the easy option again.

The Angkor temples are the most exotic and grand in scale of all the places of worship we've visited; a vast collection of over one thousand temples. It was the centre of the Khmer Empire - the most legendary in all of South East Asia. If religion was ever used by the powerful to awe the masses into work and compliance, this displays it - an intimidating manifestation of monarchy, rule and veneration. Lasting from 802 until the Siamese invasion of 1431, the Angkor period added more and more temples and palaces as tributes to the successive God Kings, starting with Jayarvanar II. A legacy of amazing shrines, stupa, walled cities, causeways, bridges, moats and steps remain.

During our day's tour we visited the following temples:

1. Angkor Wat and mausoleum, 12th century)
2. Bayon Temple (12/13th century)
3. Baphuon Temple (12/13th century)
4. Ta Phrom monastery (12th centruy)
5. Banteay Srei temple (10th century)
6. East Mebon temple
7. Preah Khan temple and royal residence (12th century)

The most famous among these is Angkor Wat, which we got up at 4.30am in order to view at sunrise. Despite the huge crowds which congregated to behold this dazzling goliath, we enjoyed another of the 'magic moments' on our tour. A vaguely eerie and expectant silence hung over us as scores of digital cameras blinked in disbelief at the slumbering giant. The combination of Khmer architecture and ominous divinity swells as you walk the causeway across the moat and take in the scale of one of the largest temples in the world. Originally built as a Hindu temple and then converted to Buddhism, Angkor Wat stands as a metaphor for the mutating faith of this part of South East Asia. The temple is three-tiered and damn steep at the top! Travelling through the Gallery of One Thousand Buddhas, I left James held captive to the strains of pop-band 'The Killers' music being played on some dolt's tinny mobile phone speaker, while I scaled the third tier of the Wat. From this vantage point I could see the fruits of the empire and Mr. Asker's simmering anger at the sound of lame alternative rock.

We saw an amazing range of Deva (God King) inspired temples which appeared suddenly out of the jungle putting me in mind of cartoon jungles scenes from 'boy's own' comics. My favourite temples were the Bayon and Preah Khan. The former sits within the 12th century walled city of Angkor Thom, an impressive sight after crossing through one of the moat causeways lined with gods and demons representing 'The Churning of the Ocean of Milk'. The Bayon temple with it's huge stone Deva faces is described by our Rough Guide as possessing 'poor workmanship and haphazard sculpting' with which I completely disagree. It's towers, galleries and surrounding terraces were unique in my experience and of rare beauty. It looked like it had been beamed down from space into a jungle clearing. Like many of the temples, the warfare that goes with an empire had been enshrined into the construction, whether by motifs/reliefs of the thwarted Cham invasion of 1181, or the damage the temples suffered following the eventual Siamese occupation.

Apparently this area and Siem Reap are anomalies in Cambodia, especially in terms of development. Incredible change precipitated by tourism in the late 90's/early 2000's, has left Siem Reap with a long strip of 5-star hotels and bars catering for foreigners, chock full of Cambodian prostitutes. Tourism has brought plenty of work, but a different kind of poverty exists here. Plenty of children are kept out of school by their parents to vend postcards and trinkets, whilst others cut short their education to become moto drivers: short-term living it seems, is a Cambodian trait. In Siem Reap, the effect of the Khmer Rouge has been erased, at least for the benefit of the tourist, perhaps. Beggars and land-mine victims (such as the ones in the band below), are common and these individuals sit next to stalls selling such items as 'Danger! Cambodian Land Mines!' t-shirts and other tat in equally poor taste.

'The biggest tree I ever saw' - Angelina Jolie jumps down from this in 'Tomb Raider'. Ace.

















Ta Prohm













Land-mine victim band













Deva carved face at Bayon temple


















'Well you'll work harder with a gun in your back for a bowl of rice a day.'













The Bayon temple













View from the top of Angkor Wat


















Third-tier of Angkor Wat


















Looking out from the Gallery of One Thousand Buddhas













Angkor Wat shortly after sunrise














'It's a Holiday in Cambodia'