Cambodia is one of the few countries that does not fall short on temples (or in the Khmer language: Wat/Prasat), around the town and more in the outskirt. So, when six of my friends and I finally took off to this Kingdom of Wonder, with an itinerary obtained from a Cambodian tour agent in our hands, it was well anticipated that this would be a 庙庙trip (temple-temple trip).
After taking an hour flight from PIA to LCCT, and hung around for a sleepless five-hour there, fast forward two hours later, we finally touched down at Siem Reap International Airport. Surprisingly, we were greeted by some drizzles which ended as soon as it began. #_# Anyway, looked right through that, our tour guide Mr. Kong sent us to Thun Borey Hotel to check in and we were allowed to rest for at least two hours before the start of our 9-day expedition.
The first pit stop was at the South Gate of Angkor Thom, the most popular entry point to the Great City, noticeable by the lining up of statues on both sides of the bridge leading to the gate. There, our tour guide started to explain some historical stories, but soon enough, the humidity began to rise and I completely lost my patience in listening to his incessant narration. That was when I hushed myself into finding some shady area. Okay, the start was real bad and soon after, we realized that he's a long-winded and talkative person in nature as for every stop we made, he would rambled out some stories which went from the ancient Khmer Empire to the Khmer Culture to his personal life!! OMG!!
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From top left (Clockwise): South Gate of Angkor Thom; One of the Angkor Wat towers; Bayon Temple; Sunset view at Phnom Bakheng |
After purchasing a three-day entrance pass, we proceeded to the Bayon Temple. Located right in the middle of Angkor Thom, this place houses the distinctive architecture of massive smiling faces on the towers. Another temple, Phimeanakas (need to climb up a rather steep wooden stairway), was our next destination before making our way to the infamous, Angkor Wat. This temple complex which is also an emblem on the Cambodian national flag, is famous for its detailed bas relief carvings (some people find it interesting, while others – people like me, uh……well, I’m not that arty kind of person), the well-preserved architecture, the temple towers and the steep stairways (again!). It was not the walking and climbing that got us into difficulty, it was the heat, the IMMENSE HEAT under the SCORCHING SUN which sucked up every last bit of energy left in our bodies. If that was not enough, the temple blocks radiated the heat back, giving an insulate-like effect that really suffocates!! So, thanks to that, it completely destroyed my enthusiasm in exploring this place……Duh!! The last attraction for the day (oh…finally!) was another climb up the hill terrains and a flight of steep steps (third for the day =.=), in order to reach the top of Phnom Bakheng (Phnom means hill/mountain) where a temple was built. There, we waited for at least an hour before getting a glimpse of the sunset view. Throughout that night, believe it or not, I had one of the best sleep in my entire life……………………………………
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| Angkor Wat The second day kicked off with an ancient jungle temple, Preah Khan (preah means sacred), which has the ruins surrounded by trees and columns. According to Mr. Kong, the walls of the temple were actually embedded with gemstones, but were eventually stolen, which left the cavities/holes on the walls. Our next site of visit was Neak Pean, a sanctuary that hosted five ponds (Four smaller ponds surround the main one, with each side of the pond contains small vaulted chapels moored against the larger pond, and within the chapels holds different head statues including Horse, Human, Lion and Elephant, representing different elements). The water was believed to have curative powers, which earns its status as some sort of hospital. The evening was wrapped up with Pre Rup and Ta Prohm temples, in which the latter, another jungle temple, was a famous location for the filming of Tomb Raider. For the night, 7 of us amazingly squeezed into a tuk-tuk (4 adults to sit comfortably) for a ride around Siem Reap town. |
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| From left: Cavities on walls; Trees grow from ruins; Columns in Preah Khan |
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From top left (Clockwise): Neak Pean; Tomb Raider shooting scene; Trees grow from ruins in Ta Prohm; Pre Rup |
As we advanced to the third day, more temples awaited us. Banteay Samre and Banteay Srei (The Citadel of Women) were the first two in the list (banteay means fortress/citadel). Frankly speaking, I haven’t got the faintest idea on how to differentiate these temples in terms of structures and architecture styles. In fact, they all look pretty the same, except maybe the color (sandstones and laterites give off reddish tone, while granite stones are gray). Each and every temple was constructed due to the advent of certain phenomenon/cause which I don’t think I’ll be able to comprehend for the rest of my life (Uh…It’s complicated. If you are interested, just Google it. It can tell you the whole bunch of these convoluted stories). Nevertheless, I was really impressed by how these temples were built with carvings of such extreme intricacies and finely decorated artworks when technology resources were a limit at those times. Our journey continued with several attractions at the Phnom Kulen National Park, which encompassed waterfalls (a popular bathing and picnic site for locals), Preah Ang Thom (large reclining Buddha statue) and river of 1000 lingas (phallic symbol of Hindu god Shiva – a symbol for fertility). The lingas were carved on the river bed stretched across a long distance. But I would like to stress that this is one place that was not worth the pay as entry for foreigners cost a whopping $20 (Double that amount, I can get another 3-day pass for Angkor Wat……WTH) while the locals pay only 25 cents, and there was nothing much to see. Not only that, to get there, we have to wind our way up a steep dirt road which had us bumping through for at least three hours, to and fro. Yikes……… The last temple that we visited in Siem Reap was the Rolous Group consists of Lolei, Bakong and Preah Ko. Again, for the history, just Google it.
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| From top left (Clockwise): Banteay Samre; Phnom Kulen waterfall; River of 1000 Lingas; Banteay Srei |
After three days of temple walks, we found ourselves taking a boat ride on the Tonle Sap Lake (one of the largest freshwater lake in Asia) to a floating village on the fourth day. Here, the residents are mainly the Viets, living in wooden houses on stilts but in dilapidated conditions. They rely heavily on fishing and selling cold drinks etc to tourist in order to make a living. The dark side amidst the spectaculars of this Kingdom is that most of the people in Cambodia are still living in hardcore poverty as they have to endure the hardships that inundate them every day. Children begging tourists to buy souvenirs from them is a common phenomenon around Siem Reap. Sometimes, I do pity them very much, but on the other hand, the practice of utilizing innocent children to steal compassion from the tourists actually irks me lot. After the ride, we headed to the Cambodian cultural village where we managed to visit a wax museum and witnessed some traditional performances including dances, sketches, wedding ceremony and acrobatic show. The performers were quite amusing at times, but generally the shows were lackluster and tactless as they were performed in the Khmer language. While the locals seemed to enjoy it, I almost fell asleep throughout one of the show – Peacock dancing. Lame!!!
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| Floating village (above); A floating church and house (below) |
The next morning, we departed from Siem Reap to Battambang, the second-largest city in Cambodia after Phnom Penh. It took about three hours, sitting in a van with not-so-function-able air-conditioners, travelling at 60 km/h!! That’s horrible! We arrived here around noon, just in time for lunch before heading to the Khemara Hotel for a rest. We headed for our first attraction in Battambang, which was Prasat Ek Phnom, another Angkorian ruins. Constructed next to it is a rather modern temple known as Wat Ek Phnom, where a giant Buddha statue sits right outside of it. Our next destination was a monastery, but I have no idea what was the name of it. I guessed it should be Wat something…@@ The next day, we had a quick stop at the Provincial Museum (omit this, it is a complete worthless) before heading to the capital city, Phnom Penh. To get there, we travelled for about six hours, using the same van, under the same conditions...damn pathetic-lah!! And soon after we reached Phnom Penh, checked into Pacific Hotel and loitered at Surya Supermarket (seriously nothing to do), we had to call it a day.
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| From top left (Clockwise): Prasat Ek Phnom; Buddha statue; Wat Ek Phnom |
Day 7 started with a climb up Phnom Chisor, a hill that offers a panoramic view of surrounding countryside plains and a temple, known as Suryagiri, which belonged to another Angkorian ruins. After so many days of “chilling out” plus the hot weather at that moment, the effect of climbing up the huge steps started to take its toll. I didn’t calculate how many steps available, but according to internet sources, that’s 461 steps! Whoa……time to sweat, again! Our next stop was at Tonle Bati, a small lake famous for picnic. Several bamboo shacks were seen built over the waters and we had our lunch in one of those. Although dishing up of the food took quite a long time, nevertheless, it did offer a unique kind of experience. However, brace yourself for the pricey food and hidden charges though. Pretty soon after our lunch, it started to rain heavily. So, we have a quick stopover at Ta Prohm (identical name with that of Siem Reap) before travelling towards the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. The latter has a Buddhist stupa, which houses human bones and skulls, and mass graves which once contained thousands of human bodies annihilated during the Khmer Rouge regime. Our tour ended with visits to the Central and Russian markets, which are havens for souvenirs. Remarks: Cambodians in general have very high “melting points”. My sweat was oozing out and trickling down incessantly like broken water valves and could hardly get a breather in that hot and stuffy Central Market, yet some of these people were wearing jackets and long-sleeves shirts…………*faint* *faint* *faint*……>.<
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| From top left (Clockwise): Steps to Phnom Chisor; Surrounding plains; Suryagiri temple; Tonle Bati; Bamboo shacks on water |
On the very next day, we had an approximately three-hour ride down south towards Sihanoukville province to Ochheuteal (how to pronounce?) beach and Kbal-Chhay waterfall. This was actually an ad hoc trip that was not arranged prior by the tour company. The reason was due to our itinerary which was too sparsely arranged, leaving us with plenty of “free time”. In the end, we found ourselves submerging in places where Malaysia is surrounded with, has in abundance and even better still – beaches and waterfalls…@@ And each of us end up paying $20 for this…Cynical isn’t it? But you’ll never know until you try. XD
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| From left: Beach chairs; Water-sport activities at Ochheuteal Beach; Kbal-Chhay Waterfall |
The last day of our journey in Cambodia started off with a visit to the Royal Palace, which made up of several buildings, structures and gardens such as the Royal Throne Hall (where official functions and duties were performed), the Silver Pagoda (which houses national treasures such as gold, silver, Buddha statues, gems etc, and has silver tiles laid all over the floor of its interior), the Moonlight Pavilion (where dance conservatory and stage performances were held), stupas (memorials for the King and Queen) and lots more. After that, we scurried off to take a cruise along Mekong River before arriving at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a place to commemorate those victims involved in the imprisonment and massacring by the notorious KR regime. It was pretty eerie just by looking at the gruesome photos and torturing equipment. The part of the story that still lingered in my mind was that “children and infants were killed by having their heads bashed against the trunks of trees”. I couldn’t bear myself to see it and even shunned thinking about it again…………………ever.
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| From top left (Clockwise): Royal Throne Hall; View of a Stupa from Sliver Pagoda; Sala tree (associated with the birth, enlightenment and passing of the Buddha); Garden; Moonlight Pavilion |
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| From top left (Clockwise): Cruise ferries; Mekong river (captured from ferry); Royal Palace facing the river |
Ever wonder why I did not mention anything about cuisines in Cambodia? Because we had a tour guide that only has a particular craving for 空心菜, also known locally as Kangkung. I’ve made a simple search through the net and found that it actually has plenty of names: Ipomoea aquatic, Water Convolvulus, Water Spinach, Hollow Spinach, Water Morning Glory, Ong-Choy, Swamp Cabbage and in Khmer language, Trawkoon. So, that’s one particular dish he kept seeking for, and sometimes we had to follow suit……@@ Other than that, due to our strict budget, we had no choice but to find cheaper food that cost no more than $3 per pax. Another reason was none of us dared to attempt the food stalls by the roadside, which lacked hygiene. But still there were several Khmer dishes we got to savour: Loc lac, Amok, Nom Korm, Cambodian sour soup (Samlar machu) among to name. One thing for sure, fried rice and fried noodle are very common everywhere you go and all you need is to pick the choice of meat that you prefer. We had a buffet dinner which featured some Cambodian dance performances but I personally think that the taste for some of the food was pretty awful (I don’t usually make critics on food, but it was really bad). The staple food for Cambodians is rice, but baguette is also widespread there. For almost every breakfast, I had toasts with jam/butter and egg, which supposedly is a typical breakfast, served in whole Cambodia. Durians in Cambodia are different from that of Malaysia, the latter taste better because it is collected only when ripen and fallen to the ground. The former was neither aromatic nor pungent in smell, but it has an indescribable distinctive taste. Last but not least, a must try in Cambodia is their locally-brewed beer, the Angkor beer. The beer is sweet and light with a slightly stronger taste of malt yeast, and is best drunk in cold. I actually kind of like it, at least it was so much better than China beer…LOL
This had been quite a pleasant tour, if not for the blazing sun and humid weather, it would have been better. Our tour guide, Mr. Kong (the Kangkung man) had kept us entertained with his witty jokes, and his jovial personality made this trip very much lively and amusing. He gave us plenty of treats and even footed some of our bills too. I’ve seen many tour guides, but not as altruistic and candid as him. Hats off!
Our journey had finally come to an end when we reached Phnom Penh International Airport. Lee-hye Cambodia!!
Thanks to all my friends who have made this trip possible and fun in every way. Aw-kun (ch'ran)!!
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| At Phnom Penh International Airport (courtesy of TKH) |
