Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Nothing was going to stop our boat’s progress over the border from Vietnam into Cambodia – unchartered territory for both of us and a hope that we can explore more of the unexplored after the throng of tourists in Vietnam.
Phnom Penh greeted us with its dust and its smells and its begging families but was ultimately rather pleasant and I imagine has done well to rebuild its character after being cleared just over thirty years earlier under the Pol Pot regime. (Khmer Rouge Year Zero). After spending Australia Day getting drunk with Australians, we spent a day visiting some sites important to the history of Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime – namely Choeng Ek (Killing Fields) and Tuol Sleng (Security Prison S21), both a harsh reminder of the atrocities of the late 70s in Cambodia. For us, to be honest, it was a well needed history lesson in a country that we previously knew nothing about.
Tuol Sleng
In the city there are, of course, more pagodas and temples worth a look in and the Royal Palace / Silver Pagoda combo deal (pricey at 12 bucks when half of it is closed and it’s another 15 bucks for a guide). Anyway, see for yourself – it’s pretty and impressive.
Nige the king and his Royal Palace
Taking a less travelled route, we paid a visit to Battambang – the religious heart of Cambodia, with more temples, monks and monks in temples. Meditiative.
What was most fantastic was the oppotunity to learn Khmer cooking! Fish amok has to be one of the tastiest dishes we’ve had – even more so when it’s made from scratch by your own hands! Both our amok curries tasted great, which is more than I can say for my hot and sour soup, which tasted more like hot and sour riverwater. With floaty bits. And sediment.
Fran cooking up an amok
After a few days relaxing – an easy thing to do in Battambang – we took a not unusually crusty bus to Siam Reap, tourist check-in terminal for the obligatory tour of Angkor. Siam Reap in itself is pleasant enough. It’s certainly embraced tourism and as a result has made sure that its kept clean, well patrolled and with nice coloured lights at night-time. We like that. We weren’t so sure about the guards at either end of the tourist streets which stop local peddlars from trying to sell their wares to winers and diners. I thought that was a bit over the top and sad.
The Norwich bar in Siam Reap
So, willing to inject dollars into the Siam Reap community (you know they have seen over 8000 tuk tuk drivers in Siam Reap?!) we hired a driver for the day and took a whistlestop tour of the ruined city of Angkor Thom and some of the surrounding Angkor temples – Pre Rup (Sunset Spectacular), Angkor Wat (Sunrise spectacular), Angkor Thom (lots of big stone faces), terraces (elephants and lepers), Ta Keo (high and mighty), Ta Prohm (jungle madness) and Prasat Krawan (Stupa-endous)
Eastern entrance to the city of Angkor (Angkor Thom)
Really it was great to see something that I head BORED myself to death reading about (I read “The civilisation of Angkor” during the two weeks before Siam Reap). It definately trumps the other ruins we have come across (makes us sound like explorers?) and we can cross off another UNESCO World Heritage Site from our list. There are almost 700 and maybe one day I can say that I have seen them all. Though that does involve travelling to Greenland and almost to the Antarctic. Still, after Uyuni in Bolivia that shouldn’t be too bad.
Anyway, where was I? Oh, temples. After some R&R we took off from Siam Reap and head up river to Kratie to check out some rare Irrawaddy dolphins. You can see a photo of them online – it’s probably better than my photo.
Dolphin hunting (not literally)
Dolfin phin
Also worth visiting in Kratie was the lovely island of Kph Trong, where we cycled round an almost untouched rural community and recieved lots of welcome smiles and hellos from over excited children. One of the mums even glammed up her two year old for us. (Not upon request I hasten to add).
Nige the tuk tuk driver
From the lovely Mekong sunsets of Kratie, we spent the best part of a day travelling to VERY dusty Ban Lung to stay in a Tree Top Eco Lodge. It wasn’t clear what was particularly Eco about it (built of wood fram the nearby protected forests?) or Tree Top (bunglaows on stilts) but it was a seriously amazing place ond probably one of the nicest we’ve stayed in to date. For ten bucks anyway. The town of Ban Lung lies in the Ratanakiri district, not yet connected to the main road system and has plenty of character. Despite its charm, most people arrive and then leave on a trek in the jungle (more like half dead forest in the dry season). On our two day hike we experienced MONKEYS!, a great curry cooked in a bamboo pipe over a camp fire, loud frogs, scorching heat, lying tour guides and a dusty return journey – evidence below. And a couple of lovely people from Germany who had some great stories about hiking parts of the west to east silk route through all sorts of places ending in -istan. And russia. But not China. Hi Guys!
Camping in the jungle
Battered from the journey
After the initial hostility of parts of Vietnam, Cambodia was pleasantly heart warming. The food was great, though perhaps lacking in variety after a while (you can always add opium or weed to it for an extra dollar though!) Laos remains a mystery to us, so with visa and passport in hand, we head to the Land of a Million Elephants.
Nige defying the law of gravity
