Summary of My International Travel 2018 – Part 2 – Siem Reap Cambodia

Following on from Part 1 of my Cambodia journey blog, Sun (pronounced S-une) and driver, John greeted me again with beaming smiles at my Lotus Blanc Resort, a luxurious hotel (4 stars minimum) in a good location in Siem Reap. The buffet breakfast provided by the resort was absolutely amazing … I was a glutton! Sun and John were promptly on time at 8am as arranged.

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Apart from the safety aspect of taking this 8-day tour was to get to know the workings and culture of Cambodia and seeing the treasured temples and gaining confidence to venture onwards past the initial 8 days. The tour encompasses Siem Reap (in the North), Battambang (Central) & the capital, Phnom Penh (South).  After Phnom Penh I hoped to go to Sihanoukville (Dale’s coastal base on the West coast) & stay there for as long as possible … depending upon an encroaching rainy season. Stay very close to Queenco Resort & Queenco Fitness Club & Spa (Street N# 143) in Mlop Chrey Beach area, as Dale said this was superb and a good location close to the bay (too expensive to stay at this resort by her statement and also my ‘budget’).

So much to write about Siem Reap and its region, so I will dedicate it in total to this blog. There are 3 small blogs already scripted to Cambodia if you scroll down to my first batch of blogs. As I said above, Sun & John were waiting with huge smiles in the carpark out the front. I felt like royalty having a private tour where the rule is John is the driver and he stays solely with the car. It was awkward for me when John opens the door, etc .. but that’s his role he takes very seriously. Sun, as the guide, does everything else. Unfortunately, John does not speak English but he can understand my smiles and my prayer-look hands of gratefulness with my bowing head, which is used extensively with everyone, such is their kind culture and nature.

From there we started on the temple tours driving along different types of road construction. Sun has been doing these tours for some 11 years so and he really knows his stuff. Not much he doesn’t know. He knew how to avoid most of the tourists, temple history knowledge, all entry points, fees & even where to stand to take the best viewing and photographs. Sun & I became instant friends with his temperament and manners and continues to be a facebook friend. He plays soccer still, married & with 2 small children. He even used his name & details to certify my purchase of a local SIM card on my phone as I left my passport in the hotel safe for security.

A local SIM in Cambodia is unbelievable (40Gig of data, cheap call rates, fantastic coverage & speed & all for $8USD per month and far superior to the expensive and below par crap we have in Australia). My provider on Australia charges $5AUD per day to use my Australian SIM overseas and this is certainly not a cheap or wise option. Make sure you transfer all your contacts to your phone storage prior, otherwise you will not have them available with your new SIM. Also, update your important contacts back home with the Australian international prefix +61 prior.

The Siem Reap temple tour included a range of temples, such as, Angkor Thom (Bayon Temple & Elephant’s Terrace, the infamous Angkor Wat, Bakheng Temple (Hill Temple), Banteay Srei, Ta Keo & Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider movie location) over 2 full days. The weather was very hot & dry (39C minimum in the shade). Visiting the temples, you can’t imagine the amazing detail of stonework, foundation and roof engineering and still in place to this day. Some of the temples were even older than Ankor Wat but certainly not as an expansive construction. Sun was amazing with the history stories of each temple. The carvings and what they relate to in historical stories. The temples took a bit of stamina to keep moving and climbing the insane stairways some had. Wished I had used my pedometer there to show the numerous kilometres I had walked in the very hot sun.

Every time I left the car John would present a cold bottle of retailed water (never drink the tap water in Cambodia). Every time I came back to the car John had a cold wet hand towel & face wash ready for me. Even beat me to open the door .. again.  You cannot imagine how the cold towel felt after a few hours or so at each temple. Utter relief & soon the air con was working … Yay!!!! I felt sorry for the tourists using tut-tut carts, cycles, etc with no relief except the water they carried. There were plenty of cart shops selling water out of ice boxes due to the demand of thirsty tourists. There were pop up type cafés for food outside the perimeter of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.

Every temple was amazing and the highlights were of course Angkor Wat (1016AD) and Ta Prohm (1186AD) with the enormous vines interlocked into, and on the temple stone walls. Angkor Wat was truly amazing through the day but the out of the blue weather timing for the sunrise and sunset showing the ultimate of post card type views of Angkor Wat fell short by chance.

It is paramount to watch your programmed time so you can allocate the maximum time to the respective temples and this is especially paramount for Angkor Wat where it is advisable to buy a multi-day ticket so you can see the sunrise and sunset over and above your day viewing and not cramming everything into the one enormous day. Angkor Thom is just a short 15mins drive from Siem Reap which helps with the timings and it should be allocated approx. 90mins max, otherwise you will be racing around Angkor Wat.

Angkor Thom is best to be seen first in the day prior to Angkor Wat, as this will enable the avoidance of the majority of tourists entering Angkor Wat. This method worked well. Angkor Thom also includes the Bayon Temple and Elephant’s Terrace. Bayon Temple has 216 gigantic stone faces, and in some alignments, you can match their noses and yours too, to make a great photo. The Elephant’s Terrace is in the East Gallery of the temple and from a raised platform the King and his entourage would view the marching elephant army parade. The stone carvings along this Eastern wall shows this in detail and is amazing. A side issue in prominent view is the enormous temporary structures and decorations being placed for the upcoming Easter celebrations. Locals also camp out here for the entire celebrations and is quite a huge event incorporating thousands of people.

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Angkor Wat is absolutely huge and the largest religious structure in the world and an UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was originally a Hindu temple and then modified to a Buddhist temple in the later part of the 12^th century. The construction history of the nearby city of Siem Reap is that no building can be built higher than Angkor Wat (the central tower is 65m/ 213ft above ground). This construction restriction may change now that the Chinese are doing an infrastructure invasion and don’t care for current or historical town planning.  The moat surrounding the central temple is 190m wide & 5klms in perimeter and engineers state the constant moisture to the foundation area provided stability to the enormous heavyweight structure. The sandstone blocks, approx. 5-10 million up to 1.5tonnes each were transported from a quarry at Mt Kulen by elephant teams and via a river stream canal some 35klms away.

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The photo of the moat shows a floating bridge being used for access. It was donated by the Japanese Govt while the original sandstone bridge undergoes major repairs. It was an experience “walking on water”. Another amazing experience was to stand on the ‘central stone’ of Angkor Wat and show the roof construction above. Spanning out from this central point were the 4 water storage basins approx. 10mx10mx3m deep representing Earth, Wind, Fire and Sun. Angkor Wat in its construction has 4 gigantic Buddha faces, each one facing North, South, East & West. A point to remember is, the outer walls of Angkor Wat are missing now leaving only the protection walls at the mote intact which shows you the sheer enormity of this place in its day. At the rear of the temple there is the access to the top tower area for viewing however, you must be in good health, not pregnant, etc. The temple stairs are set at 60° in steepness so it’s a challenge.

Not included in the tour and a must see, is the Angkor Panorama Museum just outside the CBD of Siem Reap. Entry is cheap $5USD I think. This museum, funded by Nth Korea at $24M USD and constructed in 2015 is well worth the visit. At first you see giant scaled models that include Angkor Wat and 24 other temples past the foyer. These models are all scaled at 1:230 and in so much detail. You are then escorted by a guide into an enclosed, small spiral hallway that takes you onto a raised central platform. Reaching the platform (stage) our eyes are ablaze with a WOW!!! and a circular full height mural painting that surrounds you 360°. It is a painting of the entire Cambodian history starting with the war between Vietnam and Cambodia around 900AD through to the construction of Angkor Wat and then civilization afterwards. The painting is 12.9m high with a room diameter of approx. 39m = 122.6m in circumference. The painting is supplemented and camouflaged with real and artificial plants, rocks, timbers, etc for the 3D effect. It took 43 specialised painters 16 months to complete. The painting has so much detail it has some 45,000 faces/ bodies of Cambodian people in it. Sorry, photos/ videos not allowed and the guide ensures that compliance absolutely. You can stand there in awe for quite some time.

After the viewing of the painting you are guided to a 204 seating movie theatre to view the Angkor Wat story .. in my case it was a bit eerie with only about 4 of us seated. The movie is very well presented and not too long to sit through. The whole experience was capped off by enjoying the perfect air conditioning. The museum operates 7am – 9pm daily so there’s plenty of time to fit this into your day.

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Sun strongly advised to finish the Angkor Wat visit around 3pm and head to Bakeng Temple (927AD) some 2 kilometres or so to the West. This temple is much older than Angkor Wat and placed upon a small hill which again takes some walking on a winding ‘road’ however the sunset is well worth the climb for it enables the full face of Angkor Wat to ‘glow’ in the sun. Many people were making their way to the temple also but most of them were behind us. By the time we reached the base and through security gates we found a very small space left to which to sit down. Security only allow approx. 300 people at a time to enter as there is little space to congregate. Some hours passed and a battle was evolving between a good sunset or an approaching storm. Storms are quite huge in Cambodia. Upon Sun’s advice again, we headed back to the car, for the impending sunset was highly sceptical now. Walking down I noticed the enormous stream of people waiting in line to get to the temple for the sunset. Sadly, they will not achieve this. John, smiling, opened the door and then the heavens opened with such intense rain. The poor buggars on the hill.

Sun again, organised an early rise for the next day (4am where the resort provided a ‘brekky pack to go’, to view the sunrise of Angkor Wat, mainly through the mirror ponds. Being April and a few months from the predicted wet season the mirror ponds view with the sunrise, etc was a little disappointing due to the very low water level and diminishing lilies struggling to float in the small amount of water left. I still managed a good photo even though this particular day it RAINED and with full cloud cover!!!! Go figure!!! I could talk for days, just on the temples & photos however I’ll provide a brief overview of the main points. You can Google respective temples for further research.

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After Angkor Wat’s somewhat sad sunrise, we ventured to Banteay Srei Temple which is renowned as “The Jewel of Khmer Art”. The miniature scale and intricate stone carvings (Red Sandstone erodes more rapid unfortunately) was beyond belief. How did they do these stone carvings? Sadly, this temple has been seriously affected by erosion, looting and wars. It was good to see this marvel prior to the bulk of tourist now due. Next, was the Ta Keo Temple, possibly the first sandstone temple by the Khmers. It has 5 sanctuary towers arranged in a Quincunx built on an upper most 5 tier pyramid all of clay bricks stacked so tight (no mortar) surrounded by the customary moat. Sun also knew where we could stand to get all 5 towers in a camera shot and that is outside the boundary walls.

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Following on from this temple we arrived at the jungle temple, Ta Prohm (1186AD) where it was used for the Angelina Jolie movie “Tomb Raider” for 10 days at a ‘donation’ cost of $100,000USD. In its day it was home to 12,500 people with an additional 80,000 in surrounding villages. The temple is in constant stabilisation by Indian engineers to prevent wall collapses, etc. The trees and vines are hundreds of years old and truly awesome in their majestic poses. One vine even resembles the human bum .. LOL!!! You can seek out the hidden dancer between some roots or look for the dinosaur type figure carved into a story panel. This temple is so hard to get good photos, partly by the restricted area but mostly it’s the tourists who are so rude when you wait for a long time to get a single photo.

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With a full day of temple discovery over, it was now my free time. Sun & John dropped me off back at the resort where I quickly ventured to the luxury pool at the back. It was amazing to float the pool and enjoy the serenity and take in the reflection of today’s full amazement. Feeling fresh and more confident I secured Mr Savet’s tut-tut for a night out in ‘Pub Street’ (A couple of blocks are closed to transport each afternoon at 5.30pm so you can walk the streets & do the Aussie “Pub Crawl” & people watch) plus peruse the large local market crammed with every available space for stalls. Found a great spot opposite the famous Red Piano (no spot available there) where I chilled out with a few beers and met a NZ couple sitting adjacent. What a great experience and many tourists to meet & greet. The food & drinks were insanely cheap and very good (3 schooners for $3USD). I made sure I went back to the resort at 8.30pm as this is the time Pub Street gets ‘too alive’ if you know what I mean and its great advice to not drink too much. Also, another 8am pick up the next morning with Sun & John.

After another great night of sleep in the luxury room I again hit the ridiculously amazing buffet breakfast and finished just in time for the check out to see Sun arriving to the absolute second. Bundling my backpacks into the SUV we headed directly South to Tonle Sap Lake (2,700km2) to view the Khmer floating village. The lake is the largest fresh water lake in SE Asia however, it mainly has a maximum depth of just 10m with an average of some 1m. The Tonle Sap River also connects the lake to the Mekong River and can uniquely run backwards in times of monsoonal weather.

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We clambered into a small punt (canoe type boat) with a smoky diesel motor to venture to the floating village which has now relocated further into the lake for deeper water. At times our captain had to raise the propeller to clear the lake bottom (Dry Season .. remember?). There are numerous fishermen using their canoes and also nets from the banks. Some canoes are fitted with a 2-stroke shaft motor system not unlike our whipper snippers (lawn trimmers) back home with a propeller fitted.

Took a while to come to the floating village where numerous buildings are scattered to a large area of open water. The village comprises of approx. 300 residents, a church, school, market shop, tourist barges and village homes. The villagers are mostly of Vietnamese origin and are very poor financially. The resident’s homes are secured by anchor ropes and a couple of bamboo or timber poles stacked like an American Indian tepee at least to 2 corners into the lake bed. The tourist barges use very large poles of course due to their size and the howling winds blowing at times. 

Our punt is tethered to the very large tourist building by a beautiful smiling tiny young girl, barely 9yrs old. She was amazing and so wonderful in greeting us. A real treasure. A young boy, about 11yrs old was floating alongside on a large semi-cut pvc keg barrel with a very large python (about 1.8m) sitting on his lap (snake’s head was tied shut). The tourist barge has several punts of tourists aboard, tables and shelves of tourist goods (bags, purses, caps, sunglasses), cafe and so much more. The village men started showing us a huge free-range python (I’m not standing close of course) slithering aimlessly. The villagers then take up a few boards from the deck near where we were standing and immediately below was a large water pit of a volume of large crocodiles. Yikes!!! After about 1 hour and seeing plenty we had to head back. I was quite sad to leave the young girl behind so I hope she remains happy and healthy in life. We head back through the shallow lake canals, taking an hour before climbing back into the SUV again to head to the central Cambodian city of Battambang (pronounced Battum .. bung) some 3hours drive away along the central highway.

Apologies for the photo quality. I’m still learning what suits the WordPress specs. I will leave this Siem Reap region blog here and continue this tour with Part 3; on Battambang and the capital Phnom Penh tour places.

Again, many thanks for reading my blogs and hope you have enjoyed them. Appreciate any comments forthcoming. Stay safe and healthy.