Siem Reap, Cambodia. Wat, Wat, Wat!

I arrived in Siem Riep expecting the temples of Angkor to be the biggest highlight of my trip. Still with a poorly stomach I decided no food, a couple of vitamin waters and an early night would do the trick.

It worked the next day I was feeling almost human again. I had three days left so headed to the temples and got a three day ticket which was the same cost as two one day tickets.  

Day one I did some really impressive temples but saved Angkor Wat until a later day.  I did what was described as the small tour and planned doing the big tour either the follow day or the day after.



The start of the temple ticking

Some of the temples on the small tour were incredible.  Mind blowing in fact. My favourites had Buddhist heads sculptured into the temple, at first it was hard to see but when you looked around they were everywhere.  Another temple I liked had trees growing through it, remarkably (and no doubt with a little help from restorers) the temples remained intact.



Temple with Buddhist faces

Temple with tree growing through it

Still feeling a little gentle I decided to try out a local restaurant that always seemed busy. Genevieve's restaurant was created by an Aussie in memory of his late wife employing locals with no skills, training them up to give them a chance in life. The food and service was immaculate. I went on tripadvisor to leave my review I was that impressed but I'd been beaten to it by hundreds of other customers that made it number one choice in Siem Reap.

A mate of mine was in town, but a combination of a bad stomach and a very early start to see sunrise over Angkor Wat I declined to meet him for beers, as I felt the inevitable would have happened.

The second day temple ticking was as good if not better than the first. Watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat was glorious, but as soon as the sun had made it light enough to get photos, it was then shining directly on the camera. People with decent SLR cameras were getting great shots, almost better than the naked eye, but my photos were average at best.



Angkor Wat at dawn

One of the temples you had to cross a lake

Cows cooling down from the intense heat

The rest of that day I must have visited 6 or 7 other temples all great, but by the end I was flagging and a little bit templed out.

After a busy day and a few beers down the aptly named pub street.  Battenbang tourist board should visit Seam Reap to see what a real pub street should look like.   To be honest I didn't really like it down there preferring to find other cheaper bars or find bars with live bands. 


This is more like it, Battanbang take note

I took it easy the next day, deciding not to rush too much and slow things down.  I found out that the water festival was on in town in a couple of days so I extended my stay to 6 nights. Other than for test matches I rarely stay so long in one place. As I mentioned in my first blog I now had time to do this if I wanted, I needn't rush as I've got nowhere to rush to. 

Still in take it easy mode I spent the next morning by the pool updating my CV.  I had almost made up my mind to try an IT role again, but talks with 2 people who were teaching in Cambodia and Vietnam.  One a retired Doctor who did it for fun, but still had a reasonable salary, the other about my age took it more seriously and made a decent living from it.  The Doctor had done the TEFL training the other lad had no qualifications.



Office for the day

I had been told and shown some great photos of Angkor Wat as the sun set making it a better light to get good photos. I used my final day of my 3 day ticket to go back and get one last glimpse of the magnificent structure in the late afternoon.



Angkor Wat in better light

That night I found a cracking little bar out the back of the night market, it was selling very cold reasonably priced beers and had a guy doing an acoustic set which was very good and relaxing.  I liked that bar and stayed until the music finished.

My final day was at the river festival, which is to celebrate the end of the wet season (not that you would have known it) where the river changes direction for 6 months of the year. I'd never heard of such a thing and was sceptical but research on the Internet confirmed this.  I think it is the only river (Tonle Sap) in the world that does this. 

The festival was boat races along the river with thousands of locals lining the banks cheering the rowers on.  Hundreds of food outlets, stalls and fairground rides made it great to see locals letting their hair down.


Water festival boat races




It looked like it was going to be a proper party scene down at the festival at night and sure enough it was.  Loads of bands and stereos lined the river banks with impromptu bars set up selling cheap beer cooled in ice baths.  I was told to watch out for pickpockets and trouble makers but been twice the size of any local I never encountered any problems.




Water festival party at night

It appeared I had messed up my itinerary, all the tour agents were only selling bus tickets to Laos where you had to travel 6-7 hours in the wrong direction back to Phnom Penh making it a 14-15 hour monster bus journey.  After a bit of research I cane across a company that took a near direct route across a new road, doing the journey to Laos in about 8 hours including my ferry across to my first stop in Laos on (one of) the 4000 islands.  Anyone doing Siem Reap to Laos I'd recommend Asian Van Transfer, the minibuses are OK the information and timings are excellent. Been a single traveller I got to sit in the front all the way which meant I could stretch out and relax.

At the border I had to pay $2 to get the exit stamp from Cambodia. Pay a $1 visa handling fee in addition to the $35 visa fee and then also pay a $2 for my entry stamp into Laos.  The $35 was the official price but the other $5 had an air of been unofficial, however not much you can say when you want to get in but still leaves a bad taste.

With another full page visa stamp in my passport I was in Laos, another new country for me.

Cambodia - Phnom Penh and Battanbang

It had been about 5 weeks since I entered Indonesia and got to add my last new country on my travel CV so I gratefully received a full page visa in my passport even if the tour guide on the boat did siphon off an additional $5US from each passenger to line his pocket.  Having a quick recount on one of those Facebook apps Cambodia is my 63rd country (airport layovers don't count in my opinion).

 

I do argue with myself that I'm only on 61 as whilst travelling in Sweden years back a wise old traveller once said to me, you can only say you have been somewhere if you've had a meal, a sleep and a number 2 toilet stop.  This criteria would rule out Brazil and Uruguay as both of these I have done on day trips, but a counter argument is I have the entry and exit passport stamps in both of these.

Cambodia

At the border I changed my remaining Vietnamese Dong into Cambodian Riel at a total cost of just 37p against the market rate. Then it was the slow (and long) boat into Phnom Penh.

 

My small tour had merged with at least another and now there were about 20 of us.  Everyone rushed onto the top deck, I choose to sit under cover and watch the world go by and have a good think of what I was going to do with in the medium term (next year) and beyond.

 

Travel is definitely an option for (at least) the first half of next year, but I can't travel forever and I'm conscious that the IT world moves on quickly and I don't want to get too far behind. My thoughts were interrupted several times by 2 guys from Holland and a girl from Germany who came to either keep me company or shelter from the sun, I'll let you make your own minds up!

 

We had a beer or two together to speed the journey along.  Not having a grasp of the local money I pushed aside the persuasive tuk-tuk drivers and find my own hotel.  That was a bit of a mistake as it was around 3km in blistering heat.

 

The hotel was a cracker 4* hotel on the top floor of an office block. My budget didn't stretch to the luxury rooms so I had what was described as a compact room.  It was about the size of a small shed, Japanese style.  It had a sofa with bed above it, a ladder up to the top and almost enough room to squeeze between the ladder and the flat screen TV.  Getting in and out and especially up and down from the bed was an art, an art that I hadn't mastered at first. With each movement I banged head, elbow and toes almost simultaneous. Once I mastered it, it was very comfortable and was luxurious for a cheap price.  The shared bathroom was very clean and showers always available. The view from the roof top bar was fantastic.



Hotel with a view

Cambodia is duel currency country with the US dollar and it is not unusual to pay in dollars and get change in a mix of USD and Riel. At first I hadn't got my head around it and it left me feeling I was getting ripped off with every transaction.  With that and the various banging of heads I decided I didn't like Cambodia and had an early night.

 

My feelings changed when I went to the Royal Palace the next day, a plethora of golden temples and stupas reminded me of Myanmar.  Phnom Penh is a small capital city and easy enough to do by foot.

Royal Palace Selfie

Royal Palace Silver Stupa

Cambodian food was very tasty local dishes such as Loc Lac (beef stew with rice, chili and onions topped off with a fried egg) and Amok (steamed fish or chicken with lots of flavours including Lemongrass, garlic, basil and turmeric served with rice) were my favourites and became my food of choice most nights.  I avoided the restaurant famous for its fried tarantula.

Beef Loc Lak washed down with Angkor Beer

One night i had a few drinks at the hotel and the barman was learning English and spoke with me most of the evening. A very pleasant and knowledgeable chap.



Masterchef

 

The next day I did a cooking class which was a good laugh, although I feel the chef and the other two students (a couple from Holland) took it more serious than I did. 

 

I made a three course meal and then ate it.  The starter and main course were some of the nicest dishes I'd eaten, complements to the chef.  Picture of pudding not supplied as it was neither the best taste or looked that good!




Green Mango Salad



Star Dish - Chicken Amok

The afternoon was a sombre affair, my new mate (the barman) took me out on his motorbike to the killing fields where under the Khmer Rouge regime many people were murdered.  A monument with many skulls and bones inside really brought it home.  You got an excellent audio guide and although not a pleasant experience I would recommend others to do.

 

If I hadn't had enough of my dark tourism I then went to the genocide museum a school converted to a prison where prisoners were tortured, abused and some killed.  Stories from survivors made for horrific reading.  It is hard to imagine that this was in my lifetime.

Genocide Museum

A combination of not knowing where my next stop was going to be, I had a couple of things left to see in the city and I fancied a few beers made my decision easy to stay in the city one more day.

 

I choose Battanbang as my next destination, ticked of the last of the temples had a few early beers and decided to have an early night in readiness for the early bus ride.

 

Getting back to the hotel there was a frenzy of activity in the bar. I was stopped from entering as it was a private party for Japanese football fans who were playing a world cup qualifier against Cambodia in Phnom Penh the next night. Apparently some of the Japan players were there.

 

As I was a resident I ignored the restriction took a shower and joined in. It was a cracking night and the bar was packed.  Needless to say my quiet night never happened, quite the opposite especially when I got boozing with a lad from Belfast who had just flown in.

 

Having hotel and bus booked for Battanbang it was too late to change travel plans and stay an extra night to get the game in. Tickets were about £2, but I'm sure had I pushed some of these wealthy Japanese would have found a hospitality ticket for me. 

 

Feeling a little jaded the next morning I caught the bus to Battanbang think it was about 6 hours for £4. I got chatting to a girl who had also quit her job in Hong Kong to travel. Interesting chat and we went out for dinner that night and shared a tuk-tuk tour the next day.  The food stop half way was a load of stalls selling what I nicknamed fingers and eyeballs or another stall selling deep fried locusts and grasshoppers.

 

'Fingers' and 'eyeballs' stall

Anyone for fried locust and grasshopper?

The tour was good, first up was a bamboo train that rattled along through the countryside stopping only to lift the bamboo raft, engine and wheels to let oncoming traffic through (many times). With your backside so close to the ground it felt quite quick but really it was steady pace but fun.  Every 5 or 10 meters you hit a connection in the track none of which matched to well and caused a bumpy ride.  We were joined on the train ride by a Polish girl who had also quit her accountancy job to travel. After an informative tour of an ancient house we broke for lunch.

All aboard the bamboo train

Driver not happy as we meet yet another on-coming train

The afternoon we went up a hill which was tough in the heat. A few temples and a killing cave with more skulls and bones of those who fell during the Khmer Rouge.  After seeing sunset on the hill we went down to the entrance of another cave housing 10 million bats who in orderly fashion left the cave at dusk, quite spectacular.

Temples at the top of the hill

 

Decent View

Sunset over Battanbang

Bat exodus

The evening I decided to check out a street in town called pub street.  It was lacking in pubs but did have a few restaurants where I could get a beer or two.  Unfortunately due to a breakdown in communication one place I asked for a beer and got a 2 litre jug not too much of problem for £1.65.

I only wanted a pint

I felt a little jaded at breakfast which I wished I'd never had. Afterwards I had travellers tummy.  Several trips to the toilet I was all set to cry off from the 2pm bus to Siem Reap.  I took some imodium which did a job but by the time i was checking in to my next hotel it was time to go again.  At reception they were offering me welcome drinks, cooling towels, maps and trying to sell me tours. I had to be rude and see "look mate I'm not well can we do this in the morning, i need a lie down" aka a #2 stop.

 

So that was it for my first 6 days in Cambodia, I entered fighting fit and after less than a week was tired, jaded and sick.  Still I had some great times in both spots. I was definitely looking forward to the Temples of Angker.