Day 14 - 7 January
Phnom Penh to Siem Reap
There was one other guest at You Khin guesthouse taking the morning bus to Siem Reap and we'd been told that transfer to the bus station had been organised for the five of us at 7am. So as luxurious as it was, we managed to get out of bed early enough to leave on time. We headed downstairs where I had a quick look at the various community handcrafted souvenirs for sale and settled on a green silk wall organiser with a red elephant on each of the three pockets. There was nobody at reception so I left a note and US$5 under the calculator on the desk. The four of us, a young man (French?) and all of our bags somehow managed to squeeze into the single tuk tuk waiting outside, like some sort of early morning circus rehearsal with clowns cramming into a tiny car.
We'd only managed to get a couple of blocks away when Beth suddenly remembered that our passports were still at the guesthouse reception. So our driver turned around and took us back to the guesthouse where we were greeted by a van and the confused receptionist. It turns out the van was there for the transfer to the bus station so the five of us tumbled out of the tuk tuk. But wait, the van was only there for the young French guy, which seemed ridiculous as he would be its only passenger. So the four of us got back in the tuk tuk (with passports safely tucked away) and followed the van which promptly lost us a few blocks away since it had more than a small motorcycle engine and was only carrying two people. Luckily our tuk tuk driver knew where to go and we arrived 10 minutes later at the bus station (US$5 for the four of us).
Our large bags were tagged as they were put on the bus to ensure that everyone got the right bags on arrival and we boarded the large, air-conditioned bus for the 6 hours to Siem Reap. The young French guy arrived in the van shortly after, with several other people that they must have picked up on the way, and we were soon on the road out of Phnom Penh. The bus guide made several announcements, first in Khmer, which Mike pointed out sounded kind of like he was beatboxing, then in English, which somehow took only half the time and made us worry slightly that we might have been missing out on something interesting or important. He handed out refreshing towellletes, bottles of water and a snack box with a couple of pastries. Thank goodness as I was starving and likely to pass out from hunger before the halfway reststop. Then they played an action movie starring the WWE star John Cena on the small tv screen at the front of the bus. I wasn't actually watching the movie and had my earphones on listening to some podcasts instead but I'd look up now and then so it was pretty easy to get the gist of the plot:
1. Policeman (played by John Cena) leads normal, happy life with pretty blonde wife but inadvertently gets involved in car chase involving corrupt police figure and his hot girlfriend
2. Car chase ends in criminal's hot girlfriend dying and criminal vowing to get revenge on policeman
3. Policeman's wife kidnapped by escaped criminal and his gang
4. Policeman gives chase while stopping various disasters that criminal has set up
Predictable but entertaining enough for a long bus ride.
After about 3.5 hours we stopped for a 20 minute break to stretch our legs and eat lunch at a restaurant (so-so rice and meat or noodle dishes). There was a fruit stand outside so I bought a whole cut pineapple, which was lovely and sweet, for US$1. While there, we were approached by a couple of kids, barefoot and looking hungry, asking for money. It was hard to just say "No,sorry" and not give them anything but I had to remind myself that giving streetkids money sometimes encourages them to stay on the street rather than go to school. Still, Pete had to steer me away as he could see that it was just a matter of seconds before I caved and offered to adopt them.
Back on the bus, the second part of the trip seemed to go a little faster, though I had even less interest in the second movie they played which was some western with pretty terrible acting. We arrived in Siem Reap where a tuk tuk was waiting to take us to Sam So Guesthouse. Well, at least it was waiting to take Mike and Beth there since, even though we had a booking for a room, I'd forgotten to email the guesthouse to let them know we were arriving on the same bus. Our driver didn't say anything though so the four of us crammed into the tuk tuk, by now getting pretty good at fitting everyone and everything in.
We checked in (luckily they still had a room for me and Pete) but didn't waste any time getting too comfortable in the room, coming back down to reception to drop off clothes for laundry service (US$1.50/kg) since Pete and I were quickly running out of clean clothes to wear. We discussed an itinerary for the next three days with the guesthouse owner and agreed on having the tuk tuk driver for 2.5 days and a guide for 1 day.
We got in the tuk tuk and our driver took us the 15 minutes to the ticket gate at the Angkor complex where we each bought a 3-day pass (US$40), which they printed out with our photo on it. They weren't very clear about when/where to look at the camera when taking the photo, but that made it fun to compare the pictures to see who had the most deer-in-headlights look.
Then our first stop was Angkor Wat, where we had 45 minutes to look around. It's the largest, most complete and most popular of all the Angkor complexes so it was crowded and it wasn't a lot of time to see a lot but we knew we'd be back again with a guide the next day. We split up and I made my way across the long, wide stone bridge over the large moat to the main entrance where, thankfully, there was some shade to stop me from overheating. Another long and wide stone walkway led to the main temple area. On either side were large grass areas. Halfway down on each side was a small stone building, and further along to the left was a row of covered stalls selling food, drinks and souvenirs. I walked ahead quickly, glad to be in the shade once I got to the top of the stairs leading to a long wall with a battle scene carved into it. I wasn't really sure where I was heading since you don't get any sort of map with the ticket or on entry, so I just followed the signs saying 'Visit this way'. I got closer and closer to the centre until, somewhat unexpectedly, I was standing right at the bottom of the main temple, its large stone blocks and ancient carvings looming above me in the clear blue sky. It was relatively quiet where I was but just around the corner I discovered a long queue of people waiting to climb to the top. I didn't have enough time for that so just made my way back out to the front of the main entrance, hurrying from shady spot to shady spot. There I met Mike and Beth, who each bought an ice cream from one of the many vendors selling their wares, and we waited a few minutes for Pete, who apparently had been fast enough to actually get to the top of the main temple and back again.
Our tuk tuk driver then took us a few minutes further north to Bakheng Hill so that we could watch the sunset. Several girls who looked no older than 15 years old offered to sell us water and beer to watch the sunset with, informing us that there would be nowhere to buy drinks once we got to the top of the hill but we still had some water with us so politely declined and headed towards the path. There was an option to ride an elephant to the top of the hill (US$20) but since I'm rather against riding elephants as a tourist activity we decided to just walk instead. Luckily the path they use for the elephants is separate from the walking path, which was an easy, if somewhat dusty, 15 minutes. At the top of the hill there was a queue for stairs on the south side to the top of the small temple where attendants were only letting through a handful of people at a time, like a ride at a theme park except without a height requirement. We waited about 10 minutes then made the steep climb to the top, where about 150 other people were already waiting for the sunset.
The view from there was, to be honest, a bit disappointing. It was beautiful in terms of being able to see the expanse of trees covering the Angkor area and of course the sunset would be nice but I was hoping to be able to see the other temples which you can't since the hill is not quite tall enough. Pete pulled his tripod out of his bag and started to set it up but was told by an attendant that he couldn't use it up there. I guess maybe they think it takes up too much space. So instead we searched for somewhere to sit, which was actually a bit difficult since every expanse of stone that you could sit on facing west was already taken. And apparently, regardless of what the young women at the bottom of the hill said, you can't enjoy a beer while watching the sunset at the temple, as a young European guy discovered when an attendant told him just seconds after he started sipping from his can.
The colours of the sunset were those beautiful shades of deep orange contrasted by the dark green of the trees. We decided to leave a bit earlier to beat the crowd. Coming down the stairs on the north side of the temple was interesting - it was no less steep than coming up so I had to keep reminding myself to just focus on the next step down instead of the total distance to the ground. I held on to that handrail for dear life but kept a quick and steady pace, wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible. At the bottom of the temple, we looked up and it was quite humorous to see a couple of hundred people all looking in the same direction, most of them holding up a camera to capture the sunset. I think there must be thousands of results if you search for 'sunset from Bakheng Hill' on Google. By the time we reached the bottom of the hill it was quite a bit darker so I was glad that we left when we did. I wonder how many of the people that stayed up there had a torch to help them navigate the rocky path back to the road.
Our tuk-tuk driver drove us back into Siem Reap and dropped us off at the night market. There were numerous places advertising massages, including several that had tanks where you could dip your feet in to to let small fish nibble the dead skin off them. Since I'm incredibly ticklish and a bit of a mysophobe (the medical term for germophobe), this is pretty much one of my worst nightmares. No thanks.
I stopped at a stall to buy a straw hat since I decided two more days of wandering around temples with that hot sun on my face and my black hair would be torture. Meanwhile, Mike was at the stall next door buying a large painting. Luckily for him the canvas was removed from the frame and rolled up into a tube. I don't think the airline would have let him on the plane with it as carry-on baggage otherwise. Pete and I settled on a smaller silk print - a male figure in ornate dress (pants, hat, wristbands but no shirt) with two snakes (one green and one purple) being chased by a ... a lion? A dog? A lion-dog with wings? Okay, it sounds weird but it's really quite beautiful with the colours and the ornate patterns, including a background of flame-like vines in gold. It's a great handmade souvenir, and a bargain at US$4.
We stopped at a pharmacy to get contact solution for Mike and directions to a restaurant we were looking for. We walked a few blocks over to where we thought it was without any luck (the street signs don't make much sense) so walked back to Pub Street where there were lots of restaurants and eventually found it close to there. Angkor Palm Restaurant has mixed reviews on tripadvisor.com but I have to say that our experience there was very positive. We were warmly greeted by the staff and led to one of the few empty tables at the back, the decor was simple but elegant with beautiful large silk prints hanging on the walls and the bathrooms were clean when we went to wash our hands. Pete and I had a cocktail each and shared the Angkor Platter for two with six taster dishes including pork ribs, mango salad, fish amok, fresh spring rolls and sauteed morning glory, served with rice of course. Everything was fresh, hot and delicious (if perhaps a little watered down for western tastebuds) and served in banana leaf cups. It even included dessert, small bowls of sago with banana and red bean. Overall it was US$21 for the two of us, including drinks. It was busy but the service was still pretty good, with the exception of Mike having to wait a bit longer for his second cocktail.
After dinner we caught a tuk tuk back to Sam So Guesthouse and organized for our driver and guide to pick us up early the next morning so that we could watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. One of these days I'll get to sleep in as part of my holiday, but until then another day of exploration awaits.