The Siem Reaper... Angkor What?

We realized our previous post ended rather abruptly, for which we'd like to apologize. We weren't feeling very well but we are now. For eight hours we sped at 20kph down the Sangker River from Battambang to Siem Reap on a wooden boat filled with a few tourists, a few locals, a lot of kramas (a versatile scarf used by locals), even more produce and a sewing machine, but no animals.

We did see a little girl pass us in a boat with a boa constrictor around her neck, larger than her body. We passed intricate villages of houseboats, meeting primitive living conditions, enjoying an entire day's worth of activity and waving to enthusiastic children the entire way. We did have the option to take a bus for a quarter of the price and half the time, but the romance of the scenic route and a boat called our names and emptied our wallets.

After this lovely excursion, complete with red wine concealed in water bottles, we were rested and ready for three days of Angkor temple expeditions covering 400 square kilometers (which happens to include forested areas, rice paddies, cows, pigs and water buffalo).

Originally Angkor was discovered by Portuguese explorers in the 16th century, who deemed it a "Walled City". Like most Portuguese 'discoveries' a different European country swooped in centuries later to take credit for this exploration. When French explorers (re)'discovered' Angkor in the mid 19th century, Siem Reap was a small village. During this time the Thai somehow came to control the beautiful treasure that is Angkor and only in 1907 was it returned to Cambodia, which also marked it's first year for foreign tourism with 200 visitors in the course of three months.

Thanks to the Franco efforts in restoring the ruins of the hundreds of temples that make up Angkor during the early 1900's, by the 1930s-1960's Siem Reap was the hip spot to visit for foreigners traveling to Asia, with such notable fashion superstars as Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Kennedy. During the war, obviously, tourism stopped completely and Angkor was forgotten to greater current tragedies and re-consumed by the lush jungle. Foreigners began to return in the 1990's, only to find many temples in further ruin due to the thoughtless destruction of the Khmer Rouge. This said, the temples of Angkor are still pretty fabulous, even those that have yet to be rehabilitated by the many international organizations investing in this enormous endeavor. In 1992, this 8th Wonder of the World became a UNESCO World Heritage Site (making it, according to our calculations, possibly SE Asia's 512th UNESCO sponsored location)!

The Angkorian period spans more than 600 years from AD 802 - 1432, which is when the temples were constructed, invaded and reconstructed to match the religion of the day. More than 10 King's and their descendants reigned during these years, each with no ideas of how to run Angkor. While most of the sandstone temples were originally Buddhist, the faces and sitting positions of many deities were carved, altered and replaced to resemble Hindu gods, as different groups came to control this region. The evidence of this is still plainly visible in some temples. King Jayavarman VII was a special case of narcissism. Seeing himself in Shiva, the Supreme god in Hinduism, he pronounced himself a God King, the earth way representative of Shiva. While Shiva is the destroyer, Jayavarman VII did just the opposite, building a 'temple mountain' symbolizing Shiva's dwelling place at the center of the Universe, which would serve as a prototype for Khmer architecture to follow, including many building which he would help to design.

Early on our first day together, our tuktuk driver informed us that he thought of his vehicle as a spaceship and so, not remembering his real name, we renamed him Marvin (for those of you who watched Looney Toones growing up). Not understanding the nickname, he laughed in acceptance anyway. Marvin was a talker, chatting wildly to us in often incomprehensible English as he sped in front of the tuktuk on his motorbike, only taking breaks to flirt with women driving past us on scooters or to smoke cigarettes. After a while we also learned that he was incredibly sensitive, taking anything we said out of context and making it a highly personal situation. We were even invited and then uninvited to have beers and a snake roast at his village to celebrate the end of three days of intensive ruin exploration.

Each day we spent roughly six hours visiting Angkor (quite possibly the largest temple in the world), the Bayon and surrounding temples. We saw about 15 temples in total including one mystical and ethereal sunrise. We saved Angkor Wat and the Bayon for the last day, with Marvin instructing us to close our eyes as we drove past them each day on our way to smaller, yet impressive, outer sights. Many of the temples featured Buddhist and Hindu gods and many were strewn with symbolic figures of lingas and female fertility.

Key figures of Hindu and Buddhist teachings decorated the grounds and temple walls, such as gods/goddesses, Apsara dancers, human warriors, demons and animals, including horses, cows, elephants, snakes, half-human/half-birds and dogs.

Upon arrival at each temple entrance we were inundated with a dozen children scrambling in several languages to sell us scarves, snacks, puppets, flutes, paintings and other knickknacks. We politely resisted with "ate aw kohn" (no thank you) and were impressed with the childrens' fluency in Spanish and English and likely many other languages. You're probably wondering how we visited 18 hours worth of temples without getting exhausted. The truth is, we were surprised at how unique each temple was; some focusing more on fountains and pools and others on worshiping halls and relieved engravings, not to mention the natural energy and enthusiastic aw the sites left us. Furthermore, while transporting between temples, the endearingly genuine smiles an and simply enthusiastic hellos from Khmer of all ages along the side of every road filled us with even more positive energy. 

The littering of fellow tourists at Angkor Wat didn't take away from the charm. Focusing on the orange robbed monks, we walked over extravagant lawns from the main entrance to the temple, , giving the place an ancient air reminiscent of the Versailles Palace. Inside we were lucky enough to borrow pants and a skirt from some nice Belgian girls and scarves from the Khmer workers to cover our inappropriately exposed skin in the muggy 100 degree heat, allowing us entrance to the quintessential Angkorian temple of the Ascendance to Heaven. From there we enjoyed gorgeous views of Angkor and the surrounding forest. The more than 3,000 apsara dancers carved all over the temple walls uniquely sport 30 different hairstyles.

We continued on to Angkor Thom and the Bayon where we hovered under the ominous glare of hundreds of faces, closely depicting that of Jayavarman VII of course, who oversaw this creation of the 54 towers that make up this structure. Linking this to modern history, the Khmer Rouge organized itself into 54 provinces to closely oversee every behavior of the Khmer people during the war, just as the faces on each Bayon temple look down on its visitors unceasingly. While a bit eerie of a history, the Bayon was one of our favorite temples, which Gabi deemed as a great place to play "hide-and-seek" due to its compact nature and intricate tunnels. The first of three levels depicted the history of the Khmer victory over the Chams in a delicately detailed 1.2km of bas-reliefs or wall engravings, including one image of a gigantic fish eating an antelope and some soldiers getting drunk.

Our grand finale of finales, was the temple that looked the most organic, or most impressive due to it's lack of restoration. Ta Prohm, also nicknamed the Tomb Raider Temple, for it's cameo in Angelina Jolie's hit film, is overgrown to a point of no return. The size of the trees and roots that have overtaken this beautiful sprawling one story structure are testament to the age of the temples, and only add to it's crumbling beauty. Not only were they built a long time ago, but they were also abandoned for long enough to allow for trees, hundreds of years old, to literally take root. When the temple was still inhabited it required 80,000 people to maintain it including 615 apsara dancers. Angelina was so inspired by her visit to Angkor that she took home a Cambodian baby souvenir to remind her daily of the beauty of Cambodia. All jokes aside, little Maddox, an orphan from Battambang, is a pretty lucky kid for the standards of any country. We were inspired too, but we won't be bringing home any babies.   

In between temple explorations we relaxed in the comfy backdrop of Siem Reap with restaurants, walking streets, day and night markets and fancy bars all equipped for tourists beyond our budgets. We did manage to eat fried tarantula, a Cambodian delicacy, which sent prickles up our spines (especially the legs) but was actually quite tasty. We also read at a cafe three days in a row, indulging in homemade ginger poppy seed ice cream with rice flour and poppy seed cones, while reading and sipping on cheap 'French Red Table Wine' we snuck into the establishment on our excusable back packers' budget.

Our time in Cambodia would not have been complete without apsara dancing, which we enjoyed in a five star restaurant (we splurged big time) over a mouth watering Khmer buffet dinner and our personally imported 'French Red Table Wine'. We arrived to our reserved table assigned to "Mr. Gabriell, T 2 pax". Apsara dancing is a huge part of Cambodian culture representing ideal feminine beauty. Elegant dancers are often portrayed bare breasted in carvings on Angkor temple walls and in some stories are said to have distracted demons into the submission of Buddhist deities. You may recall from our blog post in Kampot (Seafood! See Food?), that the girls at the orphanage were already practicing apsara dancing from a young age in following with Khmer artistic tradition.
 

Sadly, this will be our second to last post together. It is so sad that we are skipping an expat party in a hidden garden that we were invited to, to update this very important blog post together and to add photos to the Picasa album, which we hope you will visit. We will be heading to Bangkok at 5:30am tomorrow, crossing our fingers for luck at the border, and already nostalgic to have just under a week of further adventures together on this long trek.

Battambang bang baby

After 11 hours on the bus, two five minute bathroom breaks and no lunch, we arrived relieved and cramped to Battambang, Cambodia's second largest city with 140,000 inhabitants. Again the Lonely Planet mentions the best preserved French colonial architecture along the riverside as the draw to this city, however once again, we do not agree. We were far more impressed by some of the sights surrounding the city, the NGO we visited, and the incredibly friendly people we met. As with every city we've visited, we encountered many monks, one of which was extremely talkative and excited to asnwer all of our questions regarding Buddhism and it's culture.

While our musty room had no windows, one week fan, and left us dripping in beads of sweat, we awoke rested with new found mobility after 10 hours of being horizontal. Energized, we took a jog along the river, followed by stairs and sit-ups and biceps/triceps workout. Our exercising drew the close attention of five seven year old street boys. As we are always interested in mingling with locals, we invited them to participate. The seven of us lined the tile wall along the riverside, palms at our waist on the wall to do dips, counting each set of 20 in Khmer in unison. When the boys tired, we encouraged them that the exercises would make them stronger by punching the air, flexing and yelling "Rambo", all of which they repeated! Unfortunately we did not have a camera to capture this precious moment.

We ventured out of the city with our tuktuk driver Sambath (he prefers 'Bath'), to the famous Bamboo Train, known in Khmer as a norry. The trains run on ancient national railroad tracks and supposedly 'know' the actual schedules of trains running to and from Phnom Penh. The train consists of a thin slatted bamboo flat on top of two dumbbells, with a lawnmower motor and a fan belt. Upon arrival we were greeted by the owner of the Bamboo Train operation wearimg a shirt that said 'No Money No Hunny', so we forked over $10USD. Once again, not knowing what we were getting into, we rented a private Bamboo Train equipped with a 16 year old conductor in a hip trucker hat and an unbuttoned pink cowboy shirt. We sat on two pillows and within seconds, were speeding down the rails at upwards of  20km/hour, through a narrow avenue of bushes, passing rice paddies and dodging dragonflies. People, cows and lizards, walking on the tracks, dodged us as we rambled by at high speeds to our spines' discontent. As we tried to yell above the noise, we realized there was no way we would be able to hear real trains approaching in either direction. This is when we prayed to Ganesha for good luck.    

So you might be wondering what happens when two Bamboo Trains going in opposite directions do when they collide?  They both stop and whoever has less passengers have disembark and disassemble the train for the other one to pass. This happened many times, but fortunately bamboo is very light. At the end of the track, our reward was a gaggle of children to play with. We spun them around, gave them high-fives and taught them the joys of a digital camera, all of which invited giggles, smiles and more children.

Bath took us to a mud bath, known in SE Asia as rice planting. We approached an innocent couple planting their rice in a field who had never encountered foreigners in their lives, and asked to help plant. Credulous but appreciative, full of smiles, they welcomed our novice rice planting skills while correcting our technique sothat we wouldn't cause them more work than assistance. Bath joined us in the labor with enthusiasm as chilfren watched with bewilderment, thankful we were completing their chores. Ankle deep in leech and freshwater crab filled mud, after 45 minutes and a newfound appreciation for rice, we thanked the family and bid them good luck with harvesting their crops in December. Before departing ways we Bath we spent 45 minutes at an internet cafe explaining the benefits of gmail and fixing his e-communication problems.

The following day we found another smiling English speaking tuktuk driver to hang out with, named Chea. Chea let us take a shot at driving his manual tuktuk and recieved our assistance with his English homework for impressive level 7 (of 12) coursework. We visited the Prasat Banan temple within the town of Phnom Banan. Locals claim that this temple, built in the 11th century,  was the model for Angkor Wat. A steep staircase led to five ancient towers on a high hilltop, one filled with a puja, for which we lit yellow candles and incense in prayer.

Randomly Chea took us to see 'jumping foxes' which turned out to be giant fruit bats to our enthusiasm. We never understood his humour, but we did have a fabulous time. Chea threw sticks at the two trees, filled with hundreds of sleeping bats, in an attempt to rouse excitement for our enjoyment. He was successful, as we ooed and awed at the brown headed and blacked winged creatures, which he termed 'dracula'. Then Chea repeatedly taunted "Eat your blood, eat your blood".

We made out way to the only winery in Cambodia, Chan Thai Chhoeng, run by an entrepreneurial woman who is known throughout the country by many including the King and Prime Minister for her Reds, Roses and grape brandy. We tasted the three distills while chatting with the owner and listening to her history in wine making. While it wasn't the best wine we've had, we splurged on a bottle of Cab/Shiraz  which we enjoyed later at dinner.

We awoke multiple times between the hours of 2:00 and 7:00am tossing and turning in the 90 degree heat of our stifling room. Exhausted, we met Chea who took us just outside of Battambang to Friends Economic Development Association (FEDA). This local NGO founded and run entirely by Cambodians provides free English courses and the opportunity for students to become involved in income generating projects including: a small store, traditional music and dance, kayak guiding, a rock band and garment creation. The NGO is funded by donations from many organizations including PANGEA which Gabi's father works with. During our visit, students were practicing for a traditional music and dance show and preparing food for a celebration with visiting donors. We visited classrooms and took a motorbike tour through local villages where the students live. The location of the NGO is pertinent because it enables participation from students who cannot access similar opportunities only available in the city. 

Sihanoukville: See a Hooker (it rhymes?)

How do we describe Sihanoukville politely? With beautiful beaches, only one beach resort and cheap lodging and food, it feels like a really filthy version of Cancun 30 years ago. Sihanoukville boasts what are considered the best beaches in Cambodia and is even a cruise ship stopover as it has the only deep water port in the country, which also facilitates international trade.

Let's go back to the word filthy. The Dangers and Annoyances section in the Lonely Planet is a half page for Sihanoukville, while most cities we've visited don't even have this section. Along the beach it is impossible to avoid harassment by aggressive and vulgar youth, fluent in English profanity, who do not appreciate your "ate hakon" (no thank you) to buying their crappy bracelets. Gabi even got kicked by a child. It was heart wrenching to see these uneducated children trying to be so tough and knowing that their futures would be the same at best. We saw children as young as four being taught the ropes by their 12 year old role models.

The older girls, prostitutes aged 18 (we hope) to mid twenties, made themselves very openly available to much older western men. While swimming we chatted with a 68 year old German man who frankly explained that he returns here yearly for three months at a time to "swim and enjoy the young girls..." who "don't like me so much as they like my money". He also mentioned his irregular use of condoms and chuckled at the fact that he "might have some Cambodian babies floating around" aside from the ones he already has in Thailand and Germany. He also explained that he wear a different color of faux Ray Ban's every day of the week. Wednesday was bright red. Does this remind you of the Royal Palace dress code (see 'Phenom Penh: Still Our Pearl' blogpost)? In all sincerity, it was very sad to see such visible, unglamorized prostitution day and night and this industry so heavily supported by foreigners.

Sihanoukville did have a few nice characteristics and many wonderful locals. On the beach we relaxed and met women who were happy to share about their lifestyles, promising their children were in school, while we shared sunscreen with them in return.

A special treat was Dr. Fish, a business run by a 15 year old, in which you pay $3 USD to put your feet in a tub full of 3,000 small, toothless, carnivorous fish who feast on your dead skin. A free beer helps ease the tickles. In the evenings we enjoyed yet another sunset seafood bbq, this time with garlic bread and potatoes instead of the regular rice, rice and more rice. At night the bar scene was bumpin' (and safe) and we happened to be there for the full moon party which ended with a dip in a pool and late night cheddardogs.

After three days of beach time with plentiful tans/burns, we were ready (especially Gabi) for our next destination, Battambang, just 11 hours away via Cambodian bus.

Seafood! See Food?

Leaving the Pearl of Indochina, we headed south to quieter destinations. After getting off the bus in what we thought was riverside Kampot, while looking at a tuktuk driver's map, we realized we were actually in ocean side Kep. We shrugged it off and decided to stay in the town of 4,000 inhabitants and three times that population in crab.

Our only activity in Kep was a mouthwatering visit to the Crab Market. This is not to be taken lightly. This was likely our best meal in SE Asia. The market consisted of a waterfront strip of thatched roof shacks with grills out front, selling a variety of fresh seafood including shark, eel, many fish and crab of course. The seafood, which goes for about $6USD/kilo, was so fresh that we watched women wading out to fishing boats in chest deep water and then selling the catch directly to the cooks. Our meal consisted of a squid (imagine a size 9 wide woman's foot), crab (in a ridiculously delicious black pepper sauce), stingray (tasty but you'll have to try it to know what it's like), a veggie noodle dish, rice and Angkor Beer. Now guess the total price of this five-star feast...... $12 USD!!!

The next morning we hightailed to Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island) on a small boat, getting splashed the entire way. Supposedly this island looks like a Rabbit, but to us it mostly looked like Gilligan's Island. A few bungalows with primitive restaurants and one basic bar lined the beach facing westward granting us the best sunset we've seen on the trip. Our toilet consisted of a few rocks with no hole on the ground which we balanced on and peed between, any other necessities were left to the imagination. The rest of the island was basically uninhabited. Our only option was to swim, eat seafood, read on the beach, eat more seafood, drink or play Yahtzee on a raised bamboo thatched-roof plank. We did all of these things for 48 hours. At hour 36 Gabi got restless and started counting down the hours for the boat to pick us up. At this point we made our first visit to the 'bar'.  

The next few days were spent in Kampot, a city of 33,000 renowned for it's early 20th century French colonial architecture along the river. We couldn't disagree more but it did serve as a nice base for exploring caves and pepper fields. In town Lisa got a one hour foot massage from a blind masseuse at Seeing Hands Massage and we visited the market and walked along the river. In the early morning we visited the Kampot Traditional Music School which is a dance and music training center for disabled children and living quarters for orphans. We watched as four proud eight and nine year olds performed traditional Apsara dancing to the strict counting and singing of their instructor. Their enthusiastic audience consisted of two; Lisa and Gabi. These girls were orphaned and live and train at the school.

Eight km in the direction of Kep we arrived at Phnom Chhnork as children chased after our tuktuk amongst rice paddies. The children immediately surrounded us clambering to be our guides and led us to the cave, while teaching us tricks with leaves and making us flower crowns. Our English speaking tuktuk driver guided us through the cave where we had an impromptu rock climbing session with no gear and in flipflops.

We noticed our tuktuk driver had a shirt on that said, "What's Hot In Kampot?" to which he answered "The two hunnies I'm lookin' at." Just kidding...he actually said, "Kampot Pepper." Just as it started to rain we visited a pepper farm, an export that Kampot is famous for. This is the first time we'd seen what a pepper plant looked like and our guide did a nice job of explaining the difference between black, yellow, white and red pepper. All of these come from the same plant, but depending on when they are harvested and how they are dried, the color and flavor will vary. The peppercorns were the best we'd ever tried and we enjoyed eating them plain and whole. This famous Kampot pepper is a staple condiment all over Cambodia.

Full of seafood and pepper, we left our delectable tour and headed west to Sihanoukville.