#Cambodia #travel #adventure
And on to today…..Well we’re still on the bus. We’ve stopped a couple of times, once for a toilet break and once at Sambor Prei Kuk, Cambodia’s most impressive group of pre-Angkorian monuments with some of the oldest structures in the country. These are all Hindu temples, as apposed to Buddhist. There were a couple of hundred temples here at one time but only a small fraction of that have survived. The wars have taken their toll here and there is plain evidence of bomb craters. 310 craters were found in this area alone. The guide told us of some of the horrors of his childhood, growing up in the area. He was a very cheery guy but he had built up a repertoire of the most appalling English jokes, that got progressively worse as the tour went on, despite that, he was very interesting, good fun and very knowledgeable.
We learned that the Hindu temples have only one door and that is always to the east. Many of the existing temples are slowly being swallowed up by the Strangler Fig trees. Infact in most cases, if they tried to remove the figs, the buildings would collapse. We were able to go inside a couple of the temples, one of them, the most intact temple, had walls of three and a half metres thick at the bottom! The local people only ever came here to pray, they lived about 2km away in the town. Very different structures to the ones we had seen in Siem Reap.
Being on the bus, as apposed to bike, gives us not only a chance to get in some r&r but also gives you a bit of time to reflect on what you’ve seen and done so far. I know we didn’t get to see the best of what Thailand has to offer, because of the route we’ve taken and the fact that we are trying to fit three countries in to two weeks. What we did see was pretty amazing, but for me, Cambodia is outstanding. I love how lush it is and the real sense of jungle. The people are so friendly (I was struck particularly by how healthy and happy everyone appears to be :bloke). There was one slightly odd moment though for me and that was coming in to Siem Reap. There are some massive 5 star hotels on the edge of the city that wouldn’t look out of place in Disney World, or perhaps Saudi Arabia. I was not expecting that, but I guess they are cashing in on Angkor Wat and who can blame them. Without the tourists life would be extremely hard for them here and their economy now depends on it. This year is the 25th anniversary of the area of Angkor Wat becoming a World Heritage Site.
Jumping back a little…….We got up at “Sparrows Fart” this morning, as they say in Lincolnshire, and left the hotel at 5am, by tuk tuk, to go and watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Looking across the moat in the darkness and seeing the long line of tuk tuk headlights, gives you some idea of how popular this is. There must have been several hundreds of people there, maybe more, even at that time of day.
The other thing you get to do on the bus is see all the places you wish you had time to stop and visit. On the way into Siem Reap there was a long road, full of plant nurseries and I was itching to get off and go explore. And the other day when I opted out of the cycle back, the bus driver took a different route home and we went past a whole line of local art galleries. Lots of paintings and rubbings hung up against a back drop of corrugated iron. I could easily have lost a few hours in there. The canvasses were so big, I could see them reasonably well from the road and they looked amazing.
We’ve just stopped at a market to look at some of the local delicacies. Apparently tarantulas are quite the thing to eat in these parts and when the bus door opened, there was a boy of about ten standing there holding a live one. F*ck that! Nope, nope, nope, nope. I didn’t even get a foot on the step before I turned around and sat myself back down. This was one market I was happy to miss out on.
On the way into Phnom Penh, it is clear that they really do have a rubbish problem. There are fields upon fields of Lotus flowers, which look beautiful. It’s such a shame about the rubbish in between. We’ve just crossed the Mekong river and many of the houses near the river front are on stilts, as thru river levels change here dramatically in the wet season. This time of year we are approaching their winter, or the dry season. I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either, but this is the start of their own holiday season.
As we approach the capital, the women seem to be wearing very different outfits to what we’ve seen so far. They look like they are wearing very patterned, brightly coloured cotton pyjamas.
We arrived at our hotel later than expected, which seems to be a trend on this trip. So once again, it was a quick turnaround and out for dinner. Phomn Penh is a very lively place and I’m looking forward to seeing it in daylight.
Adventures of a middle aged mountain biker 