Siem Reap is not a typical family holiday destination, but my mother was lucky, in that she managed to buy tickets for the family to Siem Reap online, on AirAsia (now everyone can fly ;P). However, what was originally supposed to be a 4 day-3 night trip got shortened into a 3 day-2 night trip because of convocation.
We arrived at around noon, and were hit immediately by the heat (the airport is quaint, like Kuala Terengganu's, and without aerobridges, so the first thing to hug you is the heat and humidity). As we were shuttled to our hotel, the Borei Angkor, I was hit by the "quaint-ness" of the place - rather like a seaside village, complete with coconut trees, but no sea in sight. Rather, the land was like the sea - a flat brown expanse, especially from the sky, criss-crossed only by the demarcations of the fields, and small rivulets of milky teh-si brown that were the rivers or manmade waterways.
The town proper felt very brown too, from the brown squat buildings to the yellow-brown dust-covered roads. Commonplace shops stood at a distance from their neighbouring opulent hotels with columns, pointed overhanging roofs, and manicured lawns; as if they were repelled by the majestic opulence. They looked rather out of place in their surroundings, with the bright coats of paint they had on. Yet all the buildings stood just as tall, thanks to a government ruling that no building was allowed to be taller than Angkor Wat's temples, ie. 5 storeys high.
Our hotel was one of the out-of-place-looking ones. In the welcome coolness of the lobby, we were treated like VIPs - asked to sit down while the staff processed our check-in for us, and served welcome fruit punches. We met our guide here also, and after we'd settled our luggage into our rooms, we went for lunch.
Khmer food is a blend of Thai and Chinese styles, and the only thing really outstandingly different is the amok - a fish coconut curry. During the 2 days we were there, we had amok prepared in 3 different ways, in 3 different places: (from L to R) New Bayon Restaurant, Khmer Kitchen, and Dead Fish Tower.
Personally I liked the first one best, because it was creamiest and most flavourful. But overall food at Khmer Kitchen was best. Dead Fish Tower's restaurant setting was interesting - multiple varying levels for dining, with tables with chairs for normal sitting or with pillows for reclining while dining. They even had simplified dumbwaiters to raise food to the different levels. Interesting concept, but okay food.
Okay, enough about food for now. Our first major act of tourism was to visit Tonle Sap lake, the largest freshwater lake in South-East Asia. The ride towards the lake itself was an experience - about 1 km of bumpy roads which kept the van at 15 km/h, our minds awake and our butts never really on the seats. The jetty also wasn't a jetty - you just jumped from the crumbling bank onto the boat. It being dry season, Tonle Sap was at its smaller size and teh-si-peng colour. The boats had to have their propellers half out of the water(1), and yet the boat had to be poled at some places(2). The highlight of the lake was its floating village, complete with schools(3) (mostly donated by Koreans and Japanese, for the benefit of the Vietnamese refugees who were the majority in the village), shops, workshops and even churches(4). We visited a conservation office, and a crocodile and freshwater fish farm, all on boats, and at these stops we were visited by children and their mothers, the children acting cute and gesturing for food and/or money. I had to refrain from directly taking pictures of them, because of tales that they would ask for money after their pictures had been taken, but I managed to take an aerial view of 3 bucket boys playing while waiting for their "prey" to exit the farm-boat(5). The last picture(6) is of the very important (and only) mountain (more like a hill) near Siem Reap - Willow Mountain.
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(6)After the same bone-jarring ride back towards town, we visited a craft school, where children and youth from the surrounding villages were taught local craftmanship to help them carve a living out for themselves - silk weaving, gold-leaf plating, painting, stone and wood carving, etc.
We also had a sombre visit to the Landmine Museum, set up by Aki Ra (a Cambodian) to create awareness about the landmined state the country is in. There were stacks and mounds of myriad landmines and bombs, even to the extent that some were recycled in some very ingenious ways. Living on the grounds of the museum were some landmine victims, still smiling and laughing despite their deformities.
Later that night we went for a (very expensive, as it was priced in USD) buffet plus apsara (which means celestial, for the dances that were originally meant for royal audiences) performance. Again, very Thai-Chinese influenced.
We called it an early night, for the next day was Angkor day, and we had to leave the hotel by 5.30 am to catch the sunrise! We reached the main temple (Angkor Wat) grounds at 6 am (after shelling out a whopping USD20 per person as entrance fee :Þ) to find that many other tourists had the same idea. Unfortunately for all of us, the sun was shy that day and hid among the clouds as she rose, depriving us of the sight of the spires of Angkor Wat framed by the bright sun. We got other nice pictures though.
After our fruitless wait, we entered the temple. Despite the many tourists milling around, it was quiet, only broken by scuffling of footwear and muted muttering. It lended itself to the whole aura of ancient history the whole place had, and I was loathe to break its spell. I didn't need to - others did that for me. (:Þ)
Angkor Wat's exterior walls were covered with confusing, and dizzying, carvings, some faded almost beyond acknowledgement. It threatened to overwhelm and drown you if you looked too closely without understanding it, so it was good to have a guide to explain what it was really telling us - soldiers marching to war, with generals and princesses, going through a forest (complete with animals); or two armies, coming from opposites sides of the wall, and meeting in the middle in a roil of activity - like pages out of a storybook (which they really were, as they depicted stories from the Hindu epics like Mahabhrata and Ramayana). Actually, almost every surface was covered with carvings, all deceptively graceful and pliant.
Inside we passed shaded corridors and doorways, as still as the air around. But as we emerged out of one doorway, we were confronted by the steepest set of steps I had ever seen! And of course we had to climb it! But it was rather more like crawling up a steep rock-cliff than climbing steps, with head down and all four limbs at work to make sure you don't fall - talk about obeisance to the gods.
Up there was the temple proper, with its 5 spires. On its square columns were recordings of the good acts of the people long ago, carved for eternity. But what interested me the most were the two depressions in the middle, surrounded by the corridors. They were originally built to hold rainwater, so that later it could be let to flow to wash the walls of the temple. Ingenious water use, and meanwhile, very handy swimming pools. :>
Coming down the impossibly steep steps was a breeze - thanks to a railing and extra steps they built into another flight of stairs. It was cheating, but I'm sure no one wanted to risk a cracked skull!
When we came out we finally got to see the temple grounds in clearer light - well manicured lawns that I would have liked to stroll in, surrounding a main walkway, lined by 7-headed snakes, pockmarked and uneven. We even spotted a "hidden Mickey".
After that early morning excursion we deserved our buffet breakfast, rest and some shopping (not really enjoyable because of the heat, the USD prices, and a certain young lady whose heart wasn't into shopping), before going back to explore other temples.
Our next destination was Ta Phrom, the abandoned temple, called so because it is left in its state of crumbling disrepair, the jungle staking its natural claim on the land. Trees rise majestically from rocky foundations, natural spires replacing those manmade. Graven images of yesteryear peek out from where they lie, hidden but not hidden, waiting for the inevitable conquest of the wild.
By this time is was afternoon and the humid hot air was getting to us. To add to matters, my parents got separated from the group and the rest of us had to find novel ways to relieve the heat while we waited for the guide to find them. There was plenty to amuse us though, for example the imaginative carvings of the "Angkor-eans".
The last leg of our Angkor discovery day was at the Bayon, the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King.
The Bayon temple is where you can see the iconic 4-faced towers with their Mona-Lisa smiles. When you first see the complex it is rather daunting - all those faces looking loftily down at you. But up close, on the upper terraces, their smiles become almost whimsical and friendly.
The Terrace of the Elephants was the official viewing platform for the king, where he'd watch acrobatic shows and elephant processions and fights. Numerous elephants adorn the walls of the terrace. Even this place is not spared the story-telling bas-reliefs, including this one of the 5-headed horse, a reincarnation of a god (I forget which) to see the war won. We didn't really explore the Terrace of the Leper King (not for fear of contracting leprosy though) but it had the usual carvings on the outside walls - 7 layers of devata, sitting cross-legged on each other.
Our plan after all the temple-seeing was to climb up a steep hill to another temple to see the sunset, but clouds thwarted our plans yet again - the shy sun would set behind them. So instead of that, we decided to have a traditional Cambodian snack - fried bugs. Rather, my dad opened the meal by popping one into his mouth, then my mom and I followed, rather squeamishly, while my sister ugh-ed and yuck-ed in the background. She didn't eat any.
The next day, it was time to go home. Perhaps the short trip was a blessing, for the comfort (and the legs) of some of the "tour group" members. For me, this was just a taste of what Cambodia has to offer, and I'd want to go back again, to explore its flat land more thoroughly - to see Tonle Sap in its glory, and to discover more treasures the Angkor archaeological park holds. And take more, and better pictures. ;)
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