The boat to Phnom Penh

Last night, Voun took me to a Cambodian restaurant on the east side of Siem Reap. I was the only Westerner there and Voun was the only Cambodian who spoke English. The main dish was a communal plate of cut steak which we dipped in a sauce that we each made from several ingredients on the table. The food was quite good, but it was frustrating not being able to talk to anyone.

My shuttle for the boat to Phnom Penh was to arrive at six o'clock this morning. I had set my watch alarm, but the hotel attendant helpfully knocked on my door to wake me up. At 4:53. So I thanked him and then went back to be for about an hour. I waited outside in the predawn until about 6:25 when the already packed twelve passenger van finally arrived. We stopped at three more guesthouses and eventually had eighteen passengers crunched inside.

Siem Reap lies about ten kilometers north of Tonle Sap, which is an enormous lake, the biggest in Southeast Asia, in fact. The road out of town runs on a spine overlooking some beautiful farmland that was beautifully lit by the low morning sun. We arrived at the chaotic boat platform just before seven o'clock, in time to buy some bread and water before boarding.

The boat platform actually sits at the end of a channel maybe two kilometers from the actual lake. About half of the passengers started the trip sitting outside the cabin at the bow or on the low roof, until we reached the open water and sped up. The wind started showering everyone with cold spray and there was a bit of a mad slippery dash to get inside.

We crossed the lake in about ninety minutes the water calmed as we started down the river. The rest of the trip was a pleasant and sunny three and a half more hours. Fishing villages lie on both banks occurring more frequently as we approached Phnom Penh. There were fishing boats out along almost the entire length of the river, with long nets that sometimes stretched entirely across the channel. Our boat avoided the fishermen, but drove right over the nets, knocking the aerosol cans used for floats aside.

Children we passed almost always waved as we flew by and occasionally a fisherman whose boat was at the river bank would run down to make sure our wake wasn't throwing it against the shore.

The boat arrived at Phnom Penh at about 1:30 PM and a throng of drivers waited at the pier waving guesthouse signs and trying to secure fares. I stopped by the bus station to arrange my trip to Vietnam and then checked in at the Angkor International Hotel. After a short nap, I had lunch and walked around the waterfront. I feel surprisingly tired for a day of not doing too much and I'm looking forward to a long night's sleep.

Another day of temples

Yesterday was like eating the main course of Khmer temples. Now, appetite completely satiated, I was able to slow down and enjoy the intricacies of some smaller sites. Today, I visited Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon, Banteay Srei, Banteay Samre, and Pre Rup. Most of those sites lie along a popular touring loop known as the Grand Circuit, which was what my driver had planned for the day, but at Ta Som, I met Warren from Montana again and he suggested Banteay Srei and Banteay Samre. After some quick bargaining my driver and I agreed to add them to the day's itinerary.

The highlight of the day was Banteay Srei. The Khmers built their temples with two kinds of stones: laterite, which is very robust, and sandstone, which is more easily carved. The walls around Banteay Srei are constructed mostly of laterite, but are adorned at corners and doorways with exquisitely carved sandstone. Inside the outer wall lies a moat, which encircles the central towers, also carved out of sandstone. Each of the surviving figures shows a perfect attention to detail.

The drive to Banteay Srei was a nice ten kilometers further out into the countryside. There were tourists and refreshment stands along the way, but it was the closest I've been to Cambodians living outside of the cities. We saw a lot of small farms, some cattle, and a muddy field full of children trapping fish with baskets.

Tonight, I'm meeting Voun, my driver for a beer and tomorrow, I head back to Phnom Penh by boat to sort out my visa to Vietnam before the weekend. I'm still catching up with Flickr, a few images at a time.

Angkor Wat

It's been a long day walking up and down a lot of steep stairs. I met my driver after breakfast at nine o'clock this morning. He brought his moto and we set of for a day of touring the ruined temples that stretch over the countryside north of Siem Reap.

The main tourist stops are all withing ten or fifteen kilometers of the city but some of the earlier temples are as far as eighty. We started at Angkor Thom, which is a huge walled city containing an impressive number of temples and monuments. I quickly realized I had hugely underestimated the scope of Khmer construction. Today, I saw only a handful of literally hundreds of buildings.

I spent a little over an hour walking around Angkor Thom and getting an impromptu tour from a local waiting by one of the temples. Most of the popular temples have at least a dozen Cambodians waiting to tell visitors about the structure's history. Some guides are barely fluent in English, but others deliver an engaging narrative. I liked my guide at Ta Prohm. He was probably fifteen years old and had a slight Australian accent. I think he does quite well for himself--I noticed he was wearing a nice neck chain and his cellphone rang once during our tour.

At each stop my driver Voun would suggest a few things to see and then tell me where I could meet him when I was done. After Angkor Thom I found him with a group of drivers and tour workers playing a game similar to hacky-sack but with a shuttlecock. I joined the game for about fifteen minutes and managed not to embarrass myself.

From Angkor Thom, we went to Ta Prohm, which Hollywood made famous in the file Tomb Raider. Ta Prohm is in the process of being broken down and reclaimed by the jungle. Huge trees are growing around, on top of, and through the walls of the temple, forcing the blocks apart with their roots.

I ate lunch at one of the many tent pavilions that sit across the road from many of the temples. There doesn't seem to be much difference from one establishment to the next, in fact the only way to tell where one ends and another begins is that they are numbered. I met a man from Montana who has been traveling in Southeast Asia since October and got to hear some interesting stories.

After lunch, we stopped at Banteay Kdei, a smaller structure that would have been impressive in its own right had I not just walked through whole complexes twenty times its size. And then, we arrived at Angkor Wat, which dwarfed even the largest buildings in Angkor Thom.

Angkor Wat is a huge complex accessed by a large causeway that stretches about 250 feet across a broad moat. The first wall stands on the opposite side of the moat about fifty feet back from the water. Once through the gate in the first wall, a walkway extends through a field for what must be another six hundred feet. There are a few structures in the field, but the central temple dominates the park: three walls encircle five towers that stand, immense, over the flat ground. The Khmers carved several stories into the outer encircling wall in bas-relief. I spent almost three hours walking around the entire area, exploring and taking pictures. It was five o'clock when we started back to town.

I've got another day of temple exploring tomorrow and its about time to sleep. I'll try uploading a few pictures to Flickr tonight and then try to catch up tomorrow.

The bus to Siem Reap

Pictures! I have started uploading pictures from my trip to a Flickr account. I've added a link at right, but here's the address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronslevart.

I woke up early this morning to pack, having fallen asleep last night instead of getting ready to leave. A minivan arrived at 6:40 to take me to the bus station, just late enough for me to drink most of a cup of really bad instant coffee. We picked up six other people on the way and arrived at the bus station just before seven. After checking my luggage, I had time to buy some water and baguette at a shot just down the street before we left.

The bus ride took a little less than six hours, including the stop for lunch along the way. I talked a bit with the young attendant working on the bus and her friend who was riding. At lunch I met the two Canadian women from Toronto who were riding just behind me and had a pleasant chat. Most of the time, though, I spent looking at the country side.

Almost all of the houses along highway 6, except those in the few towns we passed, were traditional Khmer architecture: on stilts about ten feet high with a staircase leading up to a door. They construction materials varied from brick and tile to wood to thatch. The towns through which we passed seemed very much like the outskirts of Phnom Penh with thin buildings three or four stories tall standing immediately next to each other.

Most of the countryside is dry and flat with a few scattered forests and hills. Even in the driest fields sugar palm trees seem to grow, a few to a group with fifty to a hundred feet between groups. Since their is so little elevation change, I haven't seen much of Siem Reap, just the road from the bus station into town.

We arrived at the bus station around one o'clock in the afternoon. Since I had taken a bus tour company instead of the public bus, the drivers at the station were orderly and only one approached me for a ride to my guest house instead of the usual gang of five or six. After getting a room at the Kagha Oudorm Guest House for six dollars a night, I set out to explore Siem Reap a bit before dark, which brought me to this internet cafe.

Tomorrow I hope to see several of the huge ruins that stand just north of Siem Reap.