On the Road to Pnhom Penh

I woke the next morning packed, returned my bike, and got a bus to Phnom Penh. Then I had breakfast and paid my bill for my five night stay at the Sidewalk Guest house. My bill included the five nights (one was free because I slept in my tent), about eight 24oz Angkor beers, three lunches, three breakfasts, two dinners, and a bust ticket to Phnom Penh and this all totaled only forty dollars. What a bargain.

A small bus picked me up just like the one from the border. This was not a good sign, but at least I was the first one on and would not be crammed in the middle.It was very hot though and I was drenched as we drove around to other guest houses in order to pick up more travelers. Fortunately, this bus was just a pick up bus. It deposited us at the bus station, and we got on a nice big bus toward the capitol that was air-conditioned and played Thai pop music videos on this big TV up front. I was told that this trip would be easier than the one from the Thai border as the roads were better, but I was not going to believe it till I experienced it.

I got off the bus in Phnom Penh and was mobbed by Cambodians trying to get me to go to their guest house. There was like six moto-bike drivers grabbing my shirt to try and get me to look at their placard. I had been told by Ivan in Bangkok that I needed to stay by the lake. I took one that was where I wanted to go. He was a very friendly fellow named Peram. The drive was free if I stayed at his guest house. I got on the back of Peram’s moto-bike and he asked if I needed smoke. I told him no thanks. He said if I changed my mind I should talk to him. He also said he would be happy to take me wherever I wanted to go. If I wanted to see the Killing Fields, he would take me. I told him I would probably just get a bike, but he ignored this comment and reiterated I should come to him if I needed anything.

The guest house had 3$ rooms and the place was right along the Bong Kok lake. As I was checking in the sun was setting right over the lake and it was gorgeous. The place also had a nice bar area right over the lake and had a boat that took nightly tours, so I was pleased with my choice. I took off my hiking boots and placed them in the shoe rack at the entrance and got settled. When I wanted to leave to check the internet I could not find my hiking boots. I think either someone stole my boots or someone took them by mistake. If they are gone the first thing on the agenda tomorrow is to get some shoes. My flip flops broke in Thailand, and I have not replaced them yet, so I am sans shoes right now. The people at the guest house lent me some slippers that were way too small so I could walk around the corner to check the internet. I was a little upset about losing my boots, but the people at the guest house did not seem to feel it was a big deal, so I tried not to worry about it and hoped they would show up in the morning. For now I was shoeless in Phnom Penh.

Cambodia and the Temples of Angkor Day II

The next morning I finally had a chance to sleep in at my guest house, and I woke up around 10:30am. I did not get a chance to get out to the temples until kind of late. I wanted to visit some of the more obscure temples on the outskirts of town. The difficulty with this is the temples are few and far between once you get outside of the center area where there are a lot of them clustered together. With a bike and the hot Cambodian sun this was going to be a challenge. This day turned out to be a mistake. I should have just got a guide to take me on a moto-bike or a tuk-tuk. Sometimes when traveling one should spend some money and do things right instead of trying to stubbornly save money.

It took me almost an hour to get to my first temple, and I was a sopping sweaty mess when I got there. I guzzled water and sat in the shade and tried to get my body temperature down, so I could actually enjoy what I was seeing. Again, I was mobbed by kids while entering the temple trying to sell me things. I thought that there would be fewer of these out here, but that was not the case. Even though there were less people visiting these temples, there was still a large contingent of peddlers. Since there were less customers this made the peddlers this much more desperate.

The group of temples I chose to visit today was called the Roulus group, and there were about five or six of these temples in the general vicinity. They were older and more wore down than the temples around Angkor, but they were still very interesting and beautiful. I think these temples were built around the 9th or 10th century where the others I had visited so far dated from the 12th and 13th century. The first temple I visited today was called Bahkong. Once I cooled a little, I walked around the temple for about twenty minutes and took some pictures and left.

When I entered the temple, a girl had accosted me and tried to get me to buy a drink. Since I had some water, I did not need any. She said maybe when you leave you will be thirsty. I said perhaps and started to walk away. She then said “mistuh, you come to me,” and I nodded and walked in. As I was leaving I was thirsty and searched for this little girl with pretty long black hair. I saw her again and bought a drink and took a picture of her and got on my bike and started to peddle away. All of a sudden another girl came up to me angrily when I was drinking and said, “mistuh you promised to get a drink from me.” Oh crap, I realized I had bought a drink from the wrong girl. I apologized for the mistake and said I thought that she was you. She said, “are you going to buy a drink?” I lied and told her I was not ready to leave, and I would go to her before I left. That seemed to appease her and she left. As soon as the coast was clear I started to get on my bike and drive away hoping the girl would not notice. She must have been waiting for the betrayal as she ambushed me as I was leaving and demanded I get a drink from her. I told her I just had one and did not want another, so I said “maybe next time,” and started to peddle away. I turned around to see large tear drops falling off her face. I quickly turned around and pleaded with her not to cry, and told her that I sure would get a drink. I went back to her stand and bought a drink, some food, some film, and a purse that I ended up giving to my aunt. I don’t think the tears were faked to get me to buy something because it was obvious that it was true emotion of hurt. If they were she was a great actress.

The first picture below is the girl that I thought was the girl I promised to get a drink from. The second picture is the girl after she stopped crying with her aunt.

I finally got away and decided to hit some more temples, but this turned out to be problematic. The temples out here were few and far between and poorly marked. I drove down the dirt roads passing little huts with barking dogs, but I had trouble finding temples. I did manage to find one more, but this one was not too spectacular. I drove around endlessly in the heat trying to find more interesting temples as I was dripping with sweat. I finally said the hell with it and started to peddle back into town. I was thinking about hitting the hilltop temple for sunset, but by the time I got close to there I did not feel like facing the mobs, so I just peddled back to the guest house.

There was a group of Europeans and Canadians that had hired drivers from the guest house to take them around and when I got back I was jealous that I did not go this route. I am glad that I rented the bike for the first two days, but a driver was definitely the way to go for any other touring outside the main circle of temples. As I got back today they had just returned from Tonle Sap lake and where all refreshed after swimming all day while I was a sweating mess after biking all around the Siem Reap area in the jungle heat.

That night I sat around with the international crew for awhile, but my three days of biking in the heat had taken its toll, and I felt terrible. I started to feel a little like I did in Chiang Mai when I thought I was having an allergic reaction to upset stomach pills that my guide had given me. I now realized it was not an allergic reaction, but just a reaction to exhaustion and heat. Too much drinking, exertion in the sun, lack of sleep really takes its toll on the body I realized. It would not be the last time I felt like this on the trip. After a short stay at the table, I excused myself for sleep around 10pm.

Cambodia and the Temples of Angkor

The night before I was given my own room as the pilgrims here for Chinese New Year had started to go home. It was still crowded at the Temples, but the guest house had considerably thinned as many people left the next day for other guest houses closer to the Temples and to town. I woke up at 4:15 and pedaled through the Cambodian night to the Temples and was there by five am. Even though it was early, it was already very crowded. Many people awoke at the guest house early to get there as well. I saw Ollie and Harry as I was leaving. I think they were just returning from probably some crazy adventure.

Again the crowd at the temple was dominated by Japanese tourists, and I was amazed at how many people woke up for the daily event. I was able to find a comfortable place on the grass in front of the temple that was not too crowded. It was still completely dark by the time I arrived there. I was armed with both my digital camera and my 35mm. My 35mm at first would not even take a picture because of the darkness. The sunrise was spectacular and would have been gorgeous in of itself, but the fact that it was rising over one of the most famous temples in the world made the experience sublime. It was a bright reddish orange and the sight of the Cambodian sky behind the spires of Angkor is another sight I will never forget.

My grassy knoll in front of the temple was so comfortable that I was soon asleep. I woke up and the temple was desolate, as everyone had left. I had now fallen asleep at two of the most famous temples at Angkor. I only had 135 more to go. I got myself up and dodged the postcard peddlers near my bike and had an omelet and coffee for breakfast. The kids waited patiently for me to finish. They eyed me as I ate and a couple came up and talked to me while I was eating. One complimented me on my soul patch. When I got up to leave they began to antagonize me again while going back to the bike. It is really sad because they are such cute kids that I want to buy all their postcards, but I already have ten Angkor postcards and that is enough.

The roads around the main temples are broke down into two loops, and I basically rode my bike around both loops accomplishing over thirty miles in the hot Cambodian sun. The highlight for me was this one temple with giant jungle trees growing right out of the ruins of the temple. The giant roots of the trees wrap right around the giant rocks right into the ground. I revisited some of the temples I was at the day before and hit many others. Another highlight was the intricacy of some of the design. There is this one wall at the main Angkor temple where there is a depiction of an ancient battle. This wall is as long as may be fifty feet and the whole wall is etched with fighters, horseman, and weapons. It is really incredible.

I had intended in the morning to start the day watching the sunrise at the Angkor temple and finishing the day by hitting the sunset at Pnom Bakeng, but I realized early in the afternoon that this was way too ambitious. The hot sun was too much, and I decided to pack it in around 3pm and return to the guesthouse. On the way back to the guesthouse I stopped at this gas station for some cold lychee drinks. I bought two drinks and the store had a bar against the window with seats for eating and drinking. I sat and enjoyed my delicious lychee shake drink and also thoroughly enjoyed the cool air-conditioned room. I could drink one of these 12 ounce cans in literally seconds they were so good. As I entered the store a begging boy put his hands together and approached me. I walked right past him and into the store. As I was sitting by the window the begging boy came right into my line of view and pleaded for money, food, or a drink. I tried to ignore him, but he kept moving to try and get into my line of sight. He then moved to my bike and picked up my water that I had in the bucket and made a motion as if to ask if he could drink it. I made a go ahead gesture from inside the glass and he started to drink my water. This water was in my bucket all day and in being in the sun all day had become kind of putrid as I think some of the plastic from the bottle was melting. I felt pretty terrible at this point that he was drinking my hot, putrid water while I was enjoying this delicious lychee drink, so I drank half of the second drink and went outside to leave and gave him the other half of my lychee drink. At least he had something sweet to rinse the taste out of that horrible water out of his mouth.

I took a cold shower when I returned and then hit an internet café before returning back to the guest house for dinner. There was a full international contingent represented at the guest house when I returned. There were five Germans, two French, a Swiss, two Canadians, four Italians, and I was the lone American representative. We had a great conversation as we put away many Angkor beers.

One of the Germans there was named Jorg, and he had quite a story to tell. He had traveled around the world for a year with his video camera. He began to interview other travelers and ask them questions on why they were traveling and had them share a story or two. He ended up with over ninety hours of video tape when he returned to Germany. He took some of the tapes to several German stations pitching his idea to make the video into a little travel documentary to be aired on TV. One of the stations liked the idea, and he will soon be returning to Germany to edit his footage into a forty-five minute segment with the possibility of more to come if it is successful.

Three months into the trip, Jorg had fallen in love with a Thai girl from Kho Pha-Ngan. Kho Pha-Ngan is an island in the Gulf of Thailand. Even though he was smitten with this girl, he continued on his trip promising to return. When he left she was devastated, which in turn tore him up as well. They communicated often on the rest of his trip and as promised he returned nine months later hoping to rekindle the flame. Upon his return, she informed him that she had taken up with another German in his absence. She told him she was too torn up when he left, and although she loved him, she did not want to go through that again. It was now his turn to be devastated. He is now traveling with his father for awhile, and he is returning to Kho Pha-Ngan in a month to try and win her back, and I wish him the best.

First Day in Cambodia

The guesthouse is a really strange, but cool place. The people that run it are friendly, and the lonely planet even makes mention of this fact in its review of the place. The bill is done on the honor system. Each room has a book, and in that book you are responsible for keeping track of your charges. You can walk right up and grab your own beer. If you order food it is your responsibility to write it down and how much. Then when you check out you pay for everything. Water and coffee are free, which is a big change from Thailand. I loved Thailand, but sometimes the Thai proprietors can be a little stingy and will charge you for every little thing they can.

One thing that is interesting in traveling is observing the differences between countries. Since this is my first border crossing of this trip, it is my first time to observe the differences. Thailand obviously wins when it comes to roads, but Cambodia surprisingly beats the Thais in my opinion in a matter that means a lot to me. Angkor beer is one of the better beers I have had. It is not as good as Czech beer, but it is close in taste to Polish beer. I love Polish beer, so this says a lot. I used to really like Singha, which is a Thai beer but after drinking a lot of it on this trip the more of it I had the less I liked it. It has too much of a bitter aftertaste. Chang beer in Thailand is quite the same. Leo and Tiger beer from Thailand are a little smoother, but not very interesting. They are kind of like an American domestic beer. Angkor from Cambodia is both smooth and has a very fresh hoppy taste.

People from America make the mistake all the time of thinking that Asia is just one country and a kind of mono-culture exists throughout the whole continent. This is far from the truth and the differences between the countries in Asia are much more extreme than the differences in American culture from one region to the next. In Asia, each country, although some of them are quite small, have their own language, culture, and history. Although they are similar in many respects they are also quite different. I noticed this the minute I crossed the Cambodian border. Although Cambodia was an Asian nation like Thailand and a neighbor, I felt like I was in another planet once I crossed the border. One big difference is in the appearance. The majority ethnic group in Cambodia is the Khmers. They are short and very dark skinned with a small nose and dark hair. In Thailand, there seemed to be two major ethnic groups. The Siamese were darker skinned and those that had a mixture of Chinese were a lighter skin. They also had black hair, but were a little taller than the Khmers on average. I admit to not knowing much about the ethnic groups in either country, so this is kind of a generalization, but one based on observation.

It can be difficult to adapt to these differences in the countries while traveling because it is a lot of work to try and acclimate to the culture you find yourself in and then by simply crossing the border, many things have changed. I spent a month in Thailand and was on the verge of becoming comfortable even in places off the beaten track where not much English was spoken. With my limited Thai I could get my point across. For instance while eating lunch the day I left the country I asked the waitress for chilies to make the food spicier. She did not know what I mean. I recalled that “phet” meant spicy from my classes. I said that and she repeated it, turned around, and retrieved the chilies for me.

Also, you have to get used to a new currency. Cambodia makes this pretty easy as they love American dollars. Just about everywhere posts their menus with American dollars so you can use either American money or the local currency. What is kind of odd is that they do not use American change, only dollars. I was standing behind a guy in the gas station and he paid for two waters that were 75 cents each. He gave the clerk two American dollars and the clerk handed him back 2000 riels. I was given advance knowledge of this and brought plenty of American 1$ and 5$ bills, which helped a lot. Once in Siem Reap I learned that the exchange rate was 4000 riels for an American dollar. This meant that they totally ripped us off on the bus at the border as they told us we would get 2000 riels in Siem Reap and offered 2300. Fortunately, I only converted twenty American dollars here, which was a loss of about eight dollars, but it is pretty annoying anyways. I felt sorry for people that converted more.

After waking up and feeling a bit exhausted from the night before I kind of lounged around the guesthouse and had some coffee and tried to figure out what to do. There were some people at the guesthouse that were trying to pressure me into hiring them for a guide, but I wanted to tour the temples by bike as that was suggested in the Lonely Planet, and I did not want to go down there right away anyway. I decided to walk into town and found an internet café. I had to dodge many moto-bike drivers along the way that wanted me to hire them for rides.

After two hours in the internet café writing up my crazy day of travel from the day before I had lunch. The lunch place had several town bikes advertised for 1$ per day. I decided to take them up on that and rented a bike. I really had no idea where the temples were, but there were some signs that pointed me in the right direction. About a mile from the bike place my bike all of a sudden lost all power to move forward. After closer inspection, I realized the chain had completely snapped. I had to walk the bike back to the place. This was really a pain because it was really hot, and I was hung-over, so extra effort like this was definitely not welcomed on this day. I returned to the bike place and they gave me a new bike and it was take 2 for my departure for the Temples.

I found the road to the Temples with no problem and cruised up to the entrance and an official looking policemen pointed me into the park entrance where I paid 40 US dollars for a three day pass. Now the Temples were amazing and more than worth it, but what was strange was that this price was way out of whack with the local economy. I guess they put a Seven Wonders of the World luxury tax on the tourists. This is even more expensive than any Western attraction of the same type. I would not have a problem paying this fee, but it was doubtful it was going to the ones that needed the money from these funds, which is the country and the people of Cambodia. There was a rumor that some Australian company had bought the rights from the country and all the money was going to this company. If this is true it is absolutely heinous. From first hand observation I could say that the country could really use the proceeds from this source to fund a better highway from Thailand to Siem Reap.

I pedaled on to the main temple which was the first stop. I parked my bike and I was surrounded by young kids hocking postcards and guides. There was like 10 of them all yelling at the top of their voice, “mistuh, you buy my postcahd.” Thinking that if I bought something they might leave me alone I bought a group of postcards from one young kid. This strategy backfired as the rest of them just tried that much harder thinking they found a free spending sucker and they followed me with a fever pitch of voices and cries. The funny thing was they were selling postcards just like the ones I bought. I tried to reason with them and say I just bought ten postcards, why would I want to buy more? Ours are same, but different they replied and laughed. Unfortunately, this was the one of the annoyances of Angkor. At each stop you were attacked by these kids and also people selling drinks. It was great that you could buy cold drinks while driving your bike in the heat. It was not so great that there were 8 drink vendors yelling “mistuh, you want cold drink,” at me at the same time. It was also very sad because they were desperate for money and they were just so adorable. You wanted to buy something from each one, but that was just impossible.

This first stop was actually the main temple of the whole group and it was called Angkor Vat, and the rest of the area was named after this temple. I could see a ruined temple in the distance as I walked away escaping the vendors, and some spirals even farther in the distance. I was impressed with the first part, and took some pictures of the ruins. I then walked through and then there was a long walkway that led to the next set of temples. My breath escaped me as I walked through the back of the entryway and could see the Temple in all of its beauty set in front of a clear blue beautiful sky with several coconut trees on each side. I was speechless while looking at this beauty, which was natural since I was by myself, but even if I was with someone talking I would have stopped talking once I caught sight of this wonder. I will always remember that first glance of this temple.

The whole mystique of this place is just indescribable. You have these amazing ruins that just rise out of the jungle. Thankfully, Siem Reap is much prettier than the dried brown landscape we passed through on the bus to get here. Half of the park is covered by a blanket of many trees with an abundance of birds and monkeys. The spires have jungle plants growing out of them and there are birds, who probably live in the temple that are constantly flying around them. It is hard to capture in words how amazing these ruins are. The ruins date from around the 10th and 11th century I believe. At this point Europe was pretty much in the dark ages. I was thinking this would be a good lesson to teach students. It would show that Asian people were doing incredible things while Europe was just getting started with their civilization, which would discredit many stereotypes that Western Culture is far superior to the rest of the world.

After walking around for awhile, I hit the next temple. There are over 137 temples in the area. The most spectacular are found in the general area around the main Angkor temple. After a 1 km bike ride, I arrived at the next temple and stiff-armed a few more postcard peddlers and made my get away. This one was on a large hilltop, and I was huffing and puffing as I got to the top. This temple was called Pnom Bahkeng and was a series of terraces that culminated in a little square pagoda at the top. I had to climb these stairs, which were pretty steep, but eventually got to the top. Siem Reap is for the most part pretty flat, so this temple on this hill looked over everything, and it was an amazing view. There was jungle as far as the eye could see to the north, the temple I just visited to the south, a lake to the west, and farm land to the east. Swallows were flying all over the place and they made this surreal noise as they buzzed past your head. It was pretty windy and as they buzzed past your head it made this strange swishing sound, and there many birds up there, so this cool noise was almost constant. I also saw two beautiful bright green parakeets fly over in the jungle area to the north.

Despite the beauty of the scene, the author was feeling like hell. I was feeling the effects from the night before with Ollie and Harry. Also, it was extremely hot and the pedaling in the heat was also taking its toll on me. I sat in the shade and drank some water, and read a little. Despite the fact that this was one of the major temples, there were few people here now and it was very quiet. Soon I was fast asleep. The reason that this temple was quiet was because everyone herded to this temple to watch the sunset. Near sunset a horde led by Japanese photo tourists of concert going proportions flocked to this temple, but at other times of the day the temple was nice and peaceful. I woke up and felt a little better. I hoped that sleeping at a temple is not some bad luck or an offense. I saw a few Buddhist monks when I awoke, but they did not seem to mind that I was sleeping off a hangover at a holy place. I thought to myself that it would be cool to do a drunken hung-over tour of all the Seven Wonders. That would be great to say that you took a nap due to a hang-over at all Seven Wonders. I am not sure that it is possible though because I think that some of the Seven Wonders do not exist anymore. It would be difficult and probably impossible to get hammered and then the next day take a nap in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

It made me curious what the criteria is for a wonder being a Wonder. I wonder about a lot of things, but most are not true Wonders of the world or even anything that anyone but me would care about. For instance, at the moment on the temple I was wondering why I felt so bad after having such a good time the night before, or for that matter why so many fun things in general are deemed wrong. This train of thinking got me curious to what the ACTUAL Seven Wonders are. I wonder also if there was an ancient Seven Wonders committee that voted on this.

After writing this I soon discovered that there are different categories for the seven wonders. For instance there are the seven wonders of the ancient world and seven wonders of the modern world. There are even a seven wonders of the medieval mind whatever that means. In fact everyone is trying to get into the seven wonders thing. I even found a USA today seven wonders list. There is also a new seven wonders campaign that had a vote over the internet. Check the site below for the winners. Ankgor, unfortunately, was a finalist, but did not win. After my visit here I am inclined to think they got robbed. I am thinking of making a new list. The Seven got screwed wonders of the world.

http://www.new7wonders.com/

After waking I descended the steps and returned to my bike. I bought some drinks from one of the vendors while the other seven vendors seethed in jealousy and tried to sell me what I had already just bought. I said no thanks, and then they said “next time mistuh?” I told them sure, which was a mistake because I learned that they have long memories. Each temple was beautiful and amazing in its own right. What was really great was that each one was a little different than the one before it. I guess that each of these temples was made by the Kings of Angkor, and each one tried to out do the other. I saw many temples over the next three days and I did not get tired of seeing ancient temples.

The next temple was called Bayon and the highlight of this temple was that it had these faces of Buddha chiseled on these stone monuments, and the faces were chiseled identically on all four sides of these square pillars. The symmetry on all of the temple designs was really incredible. A lot of the temples were square and had stairs on all four sides and each side was identical to the next one. The precision to accomplish this was truly a great architectural feat and that they had the knowledge to carry this out during the ancient world is truly a phenomenon right up there with the Pyramids.

It was getting dark, so I drove a little farther to one more temple, which I believe was a wall devoted to a leper king. I was approached by some scary looking Cambodian teenagers who got me to take a picture in front of the wall and then gave me a little background. I normally would have been grateful for this service, but I did not ask for it and I knew it was going to cost me. I was a little afraid that they may take my camera and run while as I was in this pit in front of a stone mural. This was the one time I felt a little fear from another person on this trip. It was getting dark and the crowds were all gathering at the hilltop temple, so I was somewhat alone. I gave them some money and they tried to get more from me, but I swiftly walked away back to my bike and pedaled all the way back to the guesthouse. When I arrived back to the guesthouse Dave the Australian who hung out with Ollie, Harry, and I a little the night before was going to dinner. I told him I was going to take a cold shower and if he did not mind waiting I would join him in a minute. Dave was traveling around the world for a year. I thought that my three month trip was epic, but I am meeting quite a few people like him that are traveling around the world for a year.

We had a great dinner. We talked the whole dinner about traveling and shared experiences that we have encountered so far. Dave had the luxury of taking his time since he will be out for a year. He was going to stay in Siem Reap for at least a week and was not even going to get his three day pass for a couple of days. Like many of my friends that envied my three month trip, I was envying his year trip. After our dinner complete with a few Angkors we returned to the guesthouse. I soon went to bed because I wanted to wake up the next morning at 4:15am. The sunrise emerges right over the Angkor temples, and I have heard that the sunrise at the temples is not to be missed. One thing that is nice about South East Asian weather is that it is very predictable. In Chicago if you are a tourist and are counting on the weather it can be pretty iffy many times. In Cambodia during the dry season one can count that the sun will rise at 6am with no clouds and it will soon then be hot as hell.