August 19, 2007

Siem Reap (CAMBODIA)

Touring the Temples Around Angkor Wat

Today was intended to be a long day of bicycling around the temples (all are several kilometers apart), and when I rose at 4am the morning was still more early than bright. I have never been a big fan of breakfast - coffee and a piece of slightly burnt toast usually do the trick - but today I made sure to eat my fill so I would not tire. Besides, breakfast was free.

By 4:30am I began cycling from the guesthouse to Angkor Wat in hope of catching the sort of miraculous sunrise that can be seen on postcards and posters sold across Cambodia. I was tentative to share such a magical moment with throngs of tourists who were being shepherded to and from their hotels in private buses, so I hung around the moat of Angkor Wat as the sun brought the world to life.

Although the view was impressive, it was nothing extraordinary. I was hardly bothered - I have had my fair share of seeing the sun break the gentle harmony of the horizon yesterday night. Nevertheless, there was a highway of tourists crossing the moat to take their photos from inside the compound, so I imagine the view from there might have been more rewarding.

It was interesting to watch how before the sun came up the stream of people pushed their way across the bridge and before the sunrise was even over the same swarm of people came rushing back out and climbed aboard the waiting vehicles. The ratio of people who stayed behind must have been 1 out of every 100. Granted, it wasn't yet 6am, but it was still strange to see so many people climbing inside air-con buses and I felt an even stronger desire to stay away from the hordes for the rest of the day.

Following Eric's advice (my hostel owner), I set off on a path that would take me by some of the key sights at the best times of the day. My goal was to see as much as possible today so the next two days would be easy and I could revisit the places I particularly liked. One of the most important aspects of this plan was that I was saving Angkor Wat for the very end. It was a save the best for last kind of strategy.

The first temple on the agenda, Phnom Bakheng, was built atop a hill that actually gave a better vantage of the skyline than along the moat of Angkor Wat. There were several men who offered to take me up the hill riding on the back of an elephant, but I felt bad for the elephants for having to endure the steep incline. Besides, I am not that lazy that I cannot walk on my own.

There were several interesting sights around the temple which I have shown below. I will not bore you with details on the carvings or the style of temple because if you truly find it interesting I think it best you see them for yourself. You will be amazed.

I continued bicycling out toward Bayon, but veered off as soon as I passed through the South gate. I dragged my bicycle atop an embankment and onto the wall that circles the compound (measuring roughly 2 km on each side). I spent most of the ride bouncing along a virtually nonexistent dirt path just as Eric suggested. I suppose the real trouble lay in the fact that my bicycle was one of the first to be produced in the world. Ever.

In all seriousness, the ride was not so bad, and the West gate was better than anything I could have hoped for. There were no people around as it was difficult to get out this far, and I spent half an hour just relaxing atop the gate and admiring the surrounding scenery. The picture above and to the right shows what I saw as I approached the gate on my bike, and even after thousands of years the gate still looks inspiring.

You may have noticed all the heads associated with Bayon, and this is one of the defining features of this set of temples. Apparently, the king who had them constructed them was a bit of a narcissist, and the faces were all supposed to resemble him. Whether this is true or not doesn't really concern me; I was more impressed with how I could look in any direction and have half a dozen faces peering down at me.

After more cycling and touring various other temples hunger began setting in. Although it was only 10:30am, I had been up for nearly seven hours and it had been a long time since I last ate. I stopped at a small noodle shop and eventually haggled the price down to a third of what I was originally being charged. As always, I drenched my dish of fried rice and vegetables in sweet and sour sauce, emptying roughly 1/3 the bottle in the process.

The next temple was a bit more difficult to reach as it was suggested by my hostel owner, Eric, as the ideal temple tucked away in the mysteries of the Cambodian jungle. And he was right about it being tucked away: I cycled along a dirt path pockmarked with grimy puddles of standing water for nearly half an hour trying to find the unmarked temple. Eventually, I came across a fork in the road with a sign that read Ta Nei and several minutes later I had arrived.

The picture to the left shows the first sight I had of the temple, and it was quite obvious that this was one of the rare temples the jungle has openly reclaimed as its own. As I said before, it is too difficult to write about what it is like to explore the temples, so the photo gallery will have to do.

The last big temple I visited for the day was Ta Prohm, which was made famous in the movie Tomb Raider. I have never seen the movie myself, but supposedly Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) picks a flower from a tree at the start of the movie, and then she subsequently falls through the temple into a lost corridor.

The reality of Ta Prohm is that it now sees more tourists than it does adventurers, and I was hard-pressed to take the photo to the right - groups of tourists (usually Asian) swamped the sight all trying to take a photo with themselves in it. Such behavior is irritating because they have no interest in the sight itself, they simply want to have a photo to show friends they have been there.

I needed a rest and opted for a late lunch at the noodle shops opposite Ta Prohm. I ordered more fried rice with vegetables while being entertained by a group of young children trying to sell postcards and bracelets. The children were quite entertaining because they weren't monotonously saying "buy postcard, buy postcard, buy postcard" as most so often do. Instead, they would ask things like "What country are you from?" and after I told them they would proceed to ring off a dozen facts about the country (population, president, capital, etc). I started making up countries to see how vast their knowledge base was, and I was surprised they could nail even obscure places like Madagascar and Bolivia. I felt bad about not being able to give them anything more than the Mentos I carry around with me so I challenged them to a game of naming capitals. We went back and forth naming a country and if the other person could not correctly supply the capital then they lost. Obviously, if I lost I promised to buy postcards and if they lost they had to settle for just the Mentos. I don't want to go into all the gory details, but I was down and out in only a few tries. Embarrassingly, I missed a real lay-up when I forgot Helsinki was the capital of Finland. I have Finnish friends who will be less-than-impressed with my ignorance.

After bicycling back to my hostel I had an easy afternoon resting in a hammock while reading a book. When evening came I headed down to the aptly named Bar Street for dinner and to watch Arsenal play. I met a friendly Irish couple who have been traveling for nearly 6 months, and for any football fans out there you will appreciate the three games on this evening: Manchester United 0 - 1 Manchester City, Arsenal 1 - 0 Blackburn, and Chelsea 1 - 1 Liverpool.

Afterward, I met a group of four Cambridge students and we went out to the bars until the early hours of the morning. By the time I finally hit the pillow I realized that exactly 24 hours ago I was waking up for a day of touring, and I had yet to sleep since then. Such are the joys of traveling.