Cambodia: Siem Riep

SIEM RIEP, CAMBODIA

I just love it here!  I doubt I would live here permanently, or live here at all, but I do love it.  The weather is beautiful (I remember that from Phnom Penh, too), the sky is blue, the people are warm, friendly, and they're naturally beautiful (men and women alike); it's a simple place, not yet tainted (completely) by the West.  (Though it is very corrupt, like many of its neighbors.  Like the whole world, really.)  And coming to a place like Cambodia puts everything in perspective.  (I'm not sure why I say that, maybe because one is faced with the country's ugly past; a tragic, recent history, and yet, people get by, and they seem to enjoy themselves (maybe that's naive of me, I don't know, but at least they're nice and easy going.)

The airport is lovely.  (Small, kind of shaped like a temple.)  And as soon as you get on the road with your tuk tuk, you realize you are worlds away from everything you know.  And it's so refreshing! Unpaved dirt roads.  Cattle.  Very few cars.  Not much traffic.  (Siem Riep is a lot calmer and smaller than Phnom Penh.  I like it.  It's peaceful.)

THE GOLDEN BANANA

My humble abode.  Love it.  Nice and tucked away.  A poolside with a wicker basket swing.  Ahh. Serenity.  My living quarters were pretty sweet, too  I had this loft-type place.  I had to walk up a steep flight of stairs and then an even steeper flight, which is reminiscent of a NYC fire-escape.  Inside, it's very rustic, almost looks like a writers' den.  Inside is a small room with a desk and a bathroom, and then a red-painted door which leads to the bedroom; the bed is raised really high, with tile floors underneath and a bas-relief esq ceiling.  Panoramic windows, which partly overlooks the neighborhood, and partly overlooks the rooftops of others houses.

The Golden Banana has an interesting history.  In a letter from the director, which is found in the rooms, it says,

"As a kid around 4 or 5 years old, I lost all members of my family during the reign of terror in the killing field, the Khmer Rouge era from 17th April 1975 to 7th January 1979.  In 1980s, I toddled along with other Cambodians heading toward the Thai and Cambodian border - Poipet.  Alas, under the Geneva Convention Children's Right, and thanks to New Zealand Government and all the Kiwis, I was sponsored and taken care of by the Social Welfare in New Zealand.  I went to school in Auckland and completed my tertiary education in 1992 at Auckland University.

...

I had always dreamed and hope that one day, I will be able to return to Cambodia to enjoy and live a peaceful life and to be reunited with my own people.  Because of my orphanage background, I had always wanted to help other under privileged young men and women.  My wishes came true in 1993 when I first returned to Cambodia, and started the Golden Banana business in 2003.

...

Young men and women from distant provinces and villages are employed not on the basis of their education, ... on the basis of their willingness to learn and eagerness to work.

SIEM RIEP - THE TOWN

THE FLOATING VILLAGE

Okay, you want to talk adventures?  This is one to remember!  Far away from Singapore, on a canoe in the middle of a floating forest, I finally felt like I was in South East Asia!  Here's how it began:

I spent a day at the temples with my tuk tuk driver, Sophal, who then took me to this village, about 18kms away from Siem Riep.  We drove through Cambodian villages that are far removed from Siem Riep--this is true countryside.  Dirt roads.  Cows.  Kids without clothes on.  Kids playing volleyball or kicking a football.  Sleeping on raised boards.  Etc.  We got to a point where the tuk tuk could go no further, so I got on the back of a moped (of the guy who would eventually drive the boat) and went several more kms on sand-duney roads.  Vast open fields all around us; rough, bumpy roads, wind in the hair and the like.  We eventually got to the dock, which as a narrow, dirt road, pretty muddy, and lots of long boats, which serve as river taxis for locals.  It was obvious the locals don't see that many white, single young women, and one man was even taking photos of me on his cellphone.  (That was a bit bizarre, but I deserve it after coming to other countries and taking photos of my own.)  So we got on the boat, and several other local passengers boarded; (a police officers, who Cambodians don't seem to like cause they're so corrupt), a business man, and an older local man from the fishing village.  And the boat driver and my tuk tuk driver.  We traveled down the river and dropped the passengers off one by one, and then we came to the village--rows of houses on stilts, locals in small canoes (that's how they get from one house to the next!)  People were working on their canoes, hanging out, sleeping, etc.

Then, I got on a very small, flat canoe (with my tuk tuk driver) and a woman paddled us through a river-forest.  (I'd like to call it an enchanted forest because that's what it felt like!)  This was truly magnificent:  cinematic even.  Something you might see in a National Geographic that one only imagines is out there somewhere.  A dark river, with narrow passageways in between the jungle-like trees; sunlight streaming through the trees and reflecting off the water.  It was romantic.  Peaceful. Afterwards, I got back on the bigger boat and they took me to the wide-open river.  (Apparently, people travel through the river to get to Phnom Penh, a 9 hour boat ride.)  Next, they took me back to the floating village and docked at the village bar, and because it was dry season, I got to get out and walk around the town.  It was very different from the Cambodian countryside villages, with an even more rustic feel; chickens running loose, a woman cooking a giant pot of prawns, kids kicking footballs, kids coming out of school; it was a very small village, I walked the length of it, and usually it's ALL in water.

I got back on the boat, back to the dock, back on the moped, back on the tuk tuk and back to the Golden Banana.

 

 

            

ANGKOR WAT

ANGKOR WAT

Angkor Wat means "the temple that is a city," folks, the name says it all.  In Angkor Wat area, there are hundreds of temples that span for miles and miles, the biggest being Angkor Wat itself, which is the world's largest religious building.  For a one day pass to the temples, you have to pay $20USD and they're very serious about checking your ticket (guards check it at the entrance to most of the temples). In fact, you take a photo on the spot, which goes onto your ticket.  Apparently, if you're caught without a ticket, it's a $100USD fine!  The local hotel chain, Sokha Hotels (which is part of a local petroleum conglomerate called Sokimex, thank you Lonely Planet,) takes 17% of the revenue.  Only 10% goes to Aspara Authority, the organisation that oversees the preservation.  But most of the revenue is returned to the Finance Ministry.  Go figure.

The amazing thing about visiting these temples, is you can climb all over them!  It's like a free for all, once you're in.  Not like at the Parthenon where you wouldn't dare to touch it.  There are endless passageways to explore, dark tunnels, narrow hallways, steep stairways.  Sometimes I was the only one in a dark enclave of the tunnel.  It was even spooky at times.  But it was amazing to be able to touch and explore these temples.  To get to experience them in all their magic and glory.

The temples I saw:

Angkor Wat:  the iconic one.  Decorated with apsaras (heavenly nymph) carved into the walls.  It is said (by Eleanor Mannikka in her book "Angkor Wat:  Time, Space, and Kingship" that "the spatial dimensions of Angkor Wat parallel the lengths of the 4 ages (Yuga) of Classical Hindu thought."  Also, in the Angkor Wat temples are bas reliefs, depicting characters from the Ramayana, Battle scenes, mythology, etc.

                     

Angkor Thom:  It's in the Bayon style (giant faces carved into it); Angkor Thom means, "Great Angkor" or "Great City."  It's enclosed by a jayagin (or, square wall) and encircled by a moat (jayasindhu).  So, I explored teh Bayon, which is part of Angkor Thom, "It's a place of stooped corridors, precipitous flights of stairs, and... a collection of 54 Gothic towers decorated with 216 coldly smiling enormous faces of Avalokiteshvara that bear more than a passing resemblance to the great King himself." (i.e. Jayavarman VII)  Thanks again, Lonely Planet.

Ta Prohm:  also known as the "Tomb Raider Temple," because apparently Angelina Jolie was filmed there for the film, "Laura Croft:  Tomb Raider."  This was the spookiest of temples.  It had a lost in the jungle feel to it... dare I say, it exuded a certain aura?  LP says, "the temple is cloaked in dappled shadow, its crumbling towers and walls locked in the slow muscular embrace of vast root systems."  It was originally a Buddhist temple dedicated to the mother of Jayavarman VII.  Towers, closed courtyards, and narrow corridors; some clogged with piles of carved stone blocks dislodged by the roots of decayed trees.  The trees are very prevalent when you're there.  They're ominous.