Angkor, What?

Feeling refreshed and ready to walk on concrete again, I left the islands and headed north of Cambodia to Siem Reap, to visit the ancient city of Angkor.

Upon arriving and disembarking from the sleeper bus, I immediately noted that we were a little ways away from the centre of the city. And that there were a mass of Tuk Tuk drivers about. Great. While the others on the bus and I were left as prey for the Tuk Tuk drivers, the bus left onto its next destination. I tried to make a speedy getaway to move onto the main road to try and catch a GrabTaxi (Asia’s Uber equivalent), but I was stopped in my tracks by the seemingly endless amount of Tuk Tuk drivers. Eventually I settled on one, and resigned, I made my way to my hostel with him. I made it in one piece, mostly unruffled and vaguely irritated. Before dropping me off the driver pulled off into a side street and tried to coerce me into booking a tour to Angkor Wat with him. I had barely been in the city 15 minutes, I had no concrete plans at that stage. I firmly and politely told him no and demanded he take me to my hostel. My home in this city was to be Lub D hostel, a recommendation that was given to me way back in Phnom Penh from Diane. ‘They have hair straighteners and a pool!’. I found myself spending less time on Booking.com and Hostelworld looking for hostels and relying more on the word of travellers I came across.

I arrived way too early to check in. Check in was at 2pm. I arrived at 9am. I paid for my room (approx. $7.50 per night), dropped my bags and went off to explore the city. It’s at this point that I should mention – at Reef on the beach, my beloved MacBook pro just stopped working. Wouldn’t turn on, no noise, no lights no nothing. I spent the morning walking all over Siem Reap, popping into electronic stores trying to find someone who could fix my laptop. Most were inept in their knowledge of MacBook’s, and those who had some knowledge tried to just sell me a new charger instead. Eventually a repair shop recommended that I go to TechnoKhmer and off I went again. They seemed mostly legit and asked me to leave my system so they could diagnose the issue, and after carefully scrutinising every one of their reviews online, I decided that it would be safe to do so.

After leaving my baby behind, I made my way to the Angkor National Museum. After consulting TripAdvisor and various other sites regarding my upcoming trip to Angkor, the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire (note; Cambodians are Khmer people, and their language is called Khmer also). I figured that visiting here first would make the most sense. I didn’t want to shell out money to hire a guide as the entrance fee at $35 was already extortionate, especially for a country that is already so poor. In 2016, Gross National Income was measured at $3,510 per annum for the average Cambodian. The museum was informative, up to date and full of a wealth of information about Angkor. I felt well prepared for the trip. After collecting my now working laptop (water damage was the culprit and was fixed for $10), I ambled back to the hostel where I booked a sunrise tour to see Angkor the following morning. Myself and 2 other girls were to share a Tuk Tuk and split the cost ($18) plus the cost of the ticket into Angkor ($35 each).

Angkor

I’m no stranger to getting up early, especially since travelling. I’ve gotten up early to see sunrises, climbing mountains, see temples, everything you name it. Time has been fluid while I’ve been on the road. Most days I have a hard time recalling what day of the week it is. I groggily got up around 3.30 after only about 2 hours of sleep. I got dressed, grabbed my stuff and blearily made my way down to the ground floor of the hostel where my tour mates were. Eventually our Tuk Tuk driver for the day picked us up and we were on our way. Probably more than half asleep, but sure look. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. The sunrise at Angkor is definitely in my top 5 of sunrises seen. It was absolutely beautiful. At one point the sky was a massive of blue, red and yellow with the temple, Angkor Wat dark and in stark relief against the light background. I definitely sat there longer than most watching the sun just rise higher and higher in the sky until we were at full light.

Sunrise at Angkor

The sunrise was definitely amazing, but exploring Angkor after was a special kind of amazing in and of itself. There’s just something about old monolithic structures like that, you can’t help but wonder ‘HOW’. How did they build this? How did they plan? What was it like to walk through here 1000 years ago? Throughout the many temples and structures were carvings of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. An interesting thing to note is that in the 12th century when Angkor Wat was built, it was originally Hindu. Eventually it transformed into a Buddism centre of worship, of which it still is today. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992. Though most have come to know temples of Angkor Wat, the ancient city of Angkor compromises of many other temples and structures too, such as Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple and Ta Phrom (the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed). One could spend days just exploring Angkor. The whole area just ebbs a certain aura or divinity that I really haven’t encountered anywhere else in the world.

After about 7 hours of wandering around, I was templed out and made it back to Lub D to rest and recuperate. The day felt abnormally long and it was only early afternoon by the time I made it back. After resting for a couple of hours I woke up to some new roommates. General introductions, and chit chat aside we spent the evening exploring Pub Street and the night market.

Floating Villages

Theresa was my constant companion in Siem Reap. Short in stature, like myself hailing from New York with Cuban blood. Together we explored the many markets in Siem Reap and came to visit one of the Floating Villages along the Tonle Sap river. It was interesting to see. The villagers basically lived in houses on very high stilts that were high above the river water level. In times of high rain, the height of the stilts protected their homes from potential flooding. The floating village we visited, not only had homes and shops, but also had schools and places of worship too. At one point we disembarked from our boat to walk on the short road of the village. Everybody and their brother, father, sister and daughter took a break from their current activity to come out to look on curiously out at us. Children chose to wave and smile from behind their parents. It was very charming.

Over the next couple of days, I saw more of Siem Reap, hung out with Sacha (whom I had last seen in Kampot, but coincidentally ended up in Siem Reap at the same time), watched the World Cup (the only time that I’m a football fan) and debated how to get to Laos from Cambodia. Ultimately I settled on flying. The idea of sitting on a bus for potentially up to 35 hours from Siem Reap to Vientiane held absolutely no appeal to me whatsoever. Also, my research told me that the Laos-Cambodia border was the worst border to attempt to enter Laos in. It was full of corrupt officials and the roads were barely formed. To fly, I would have to hightail it back down to Phnom Penh, as it was easily twice the cost to fly from Siem Reap. Nope. I was travelling on a budget, and as much as I’d love to just sit and fly from Siem Reap, I knew I’d have to bring myself back down south and go from there. I made my way back to Phnom Penh with Theresa, me heading to Laos from there and Theresa en route to Bali, Indonesia. We would both be heading to Vietnam after, so promised to link up at some stage when we arrived.

Back in Phnom Penh Airport, I began my journey to another country. Laos.

Until next time..

Barbara