ANGKOR WAT

Claire and I flew to Cambodia today with a plan to see the Angkor temples, get to Phnom Penh and down to Sikhanouville beach in the south.

We arrived in Siem Reap (the town nearest the temples) late into the evening and received our passports checked and visas issued from a cheery immigration official, before they were then inspected at a second counter 5m’s away by a stone-faced immigration official.

We checked into the Shadow of Angkor hotel, run it seemed by a 12 year old straight out of a “The-Devil’s-Possessed-My-Son” movie. On our second day we approached him to ask about the boat trip to Phnom Penh “Please, sit down, sit” he said in a controlling voice. He waved us to a seat and listened to us, his hands joined, pointing up like a temple just under his chin. I was waiting for him to click his fingers and for goons to grab us – it was as if he’d copied his deportment from Brando in the godfather. Anyway…

The temples were spectacular (very original James), and I’m just going to attach photo’s rather than try to describe them. What got me the most was the combination of size and detail – massive complexes of sandstone and on nearly every surface complex carvings.

We visited Angkor Wat twice (and 8 other temples once) over the two days we were there. On our second trip, a Monday afternoon, we got lucky and spent 3 hours with very few people there. There were a few families of Cambodians around – they’d come to pray (Angkor is still an active spiritual site for them), and while the adults played the children mucked around together. There were also a few groups of teenage boys who’d come to the temple to hang out together and watch girls, they had the same attitude as kids hanging out at the shopping mall back home. Their parents probably thought they were so pious. It was great to be amongst them and see that the temples were just a part, and a functional part, of their everyday life.

Claire and I tuk-tuk’d around the temples after hearing horror stories of broken down temples, and on the second day covered about 100kms getting to a few temples (on of which, Banteay Samre was one of my favourites) that a lot of people don’t go to. As we tooled around we took in a few small towns and saw that there was really a lot of nothing out there. If I had my arm around Claire when a car or truck went passed the passengers would stare at us, which is uncomfortable given trucks carry 10-12 workers in the back are common place. When we sat side-by-side we were ignored.