We spend 10 days here, exploring the ancient relics, enjoying the Khmer cuisine and learning a great deal about its battlefield history.
As we enter Cambodia we jump on a coach that takes us to Kratie (pronounced Krat-chee). Its final destination is Siem Reap but we decide that we want to break the journey up so have a nights stop. The journey takes us 4 hours and when we get off the bus we are bombarded with touts for hotels. We had already figured out which guest house we wanted to go to and, luckily for us, there was a free tuk tuk to take us there!
Kratie is right by the Mekong River yet there is not a great deal to see or do. We buy our onward bus ticket for the following morning and then head out for some supplies for the long journey. We have dinner on the balcony of the guest house, watching the sun set over the river.
Its a 6am start to what is a very long day. We get collected from our guest house at 7am and sit on a bus for 10 hours, changing at a small town called Suong. Everyone is allocated a seat - unfortunately ours are right by the wheel so we have very limited leg space. The air con barely works and what with the screaming kids behind us.....it's not the best trip! But we roll in to Siem Reap at 5pm, negotiate a tuk tuk driver to take us to our guest house and have a look around. We find a cheap place to eat - $5 for a beef, veg and rice dish, Lok Lak (a tomatoey mince salad Khmer dish), spring rolls and a couple of drinks.
The next morning we have arranged with the tuk tuk driver, who took us to our guest house, to collect us at 8am and to take us on a tour around the ruins of Angkor. Our driver has kitted out his tuk tuk in 'adidas' form
The temples are 8kms North of Siem Reap but with an area of 1,000 square kms, its all pretty vast. There is no greater concentration of architectural riches anywhere on earth. The hundreds of temples that survive today are but the sacred skeleton of the vast political, religious and social centre of the ancient Khmer empire. Angkor was a city that, at its peak, boasted a population of 1,000,000 when London was at 50,000. The houses, public buildings and palaces of Angkor were constructed of wood - now long decayed - as the right to live in structures of brick or stone was reserved for the Gods.
Our first stop, the ticket office. $40 for a 3 day pass - they even print a picture of you on it so you can't share it with others. We decide to head to Banteay Srei, the temple that is furthest away, so we can work our way back.
Banteay Srei, a Hindu temple, is classed as the 'Jewel in the crown of Angkorian art'. Construction began in AD 967 and is one of the few temples around Angkor not to be commissioned by a King, but by a Brahman. The temple is square and is approached by a causeway - perfect for photos! When we arrive there is a crowd that has just come from a coach - this proves difficult to get a people-free photo.
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| A drawing of Banteay Srei |
There are some children around asking for 'candy'. We read about the various people we should meet whilst looking around - children selling postcards, souvenirs etc but then the money actually going to their adult guardians.
In the museum you are able to see an extensive collection of mines, mortars, guns and weaponary used during the civil war. Onsite there is an orphanage for children who have been unfortunate to come across landmines and the $2 entry you pay for the museum goes towards helping these children. They aid rehabilitation and training to improve their lives considerably.
Next stop is Banteay Samre - a central temple with four wings, preceded by a hall and accompanied by two libraries. The whole thing is enclosed by 2 large concentric walls around what would have been a moat.
The next day we are up early again for our tuk tuk man to take us to see some more of Angkor. First port of call is the MOTHER OF ALL TEMPLES - Angkor Wat. As soon as we get to the main causeway we get approached by a 'tour guide' - more like a local touting for work. Everyone wants some of the little amount of money we have!
The approach to Angkor Wat is a magnificent site - a sandstone causeway crossing a moat to come to the outer wall and then the main entrance. Once in, you walk along another causeway with two libraries and lakes on either side and then the main temple.
The corners of the second and third storeys are marked by towers, each topped with symbolic lotus bud towers. Rising 31m above the 3rd level and 55m above ground level is the central tower. The stairs to the upper level were closed which was ashame but we still got a good view of it all
Other ruins we visit through the day;-
Bayon with 54 gothic towers decorated with 216 enormous faces smiling at you
Terrace of the Elephants - a 350m long terrace of.......you guessed it, Elephants! It is decorated with parading elephants along the whole stretch with them becoming more exteme towards both ends
Terrace of the Leper King - a 7m high platform
Ta Prohm - An awesome temple taking a battering from the jungle. It is a tower of temples, close courtyards and narrow corridors with ancient trees towering overhead - some crumbling parts of the temple
After a couple of hectic days we choose to have a quieter time and watch a couple of movies in our room. Hunger soon stikes and we go and explore the many cafes that Siem Reap houses. We opt for the Blue Pumpkin and I have a slice of quiche - it's bliss! We look around the market stalls and end up buying a couple of paintings and a hammock. Why we bought a hammock, heaven knows!! We then go for a nice relaxing massage.
Come Monday it is time to leave Siem Reap. We get collected from the guest house at 8.30am and then get dropped off at the VIP bus. This bus then takes us about 5kms out of town to the bus terminal where we have to get on another bus. It all seems very unorganised. We are meant to arrive in Phnom Penh by 2pm but we arrive 2 hours late - this is due to the stupid amount of break stops we keep on making.
As we get nearer and nearer to Phnom Penh, the sky seems to be getting darker and darker until eventually the heavens have opened. The further in to the city we get the more roads are flooded - not that the Khmers worry about it - they still fly through the water on their mopeds, cars, even walk through it. It was funny to see a woman trying to clear water with a saucer!
We spend 4 nights in Phnom Penh. Whilst here we sort out our visas for Vietnam, we have some really nice meals and we learn about the civil war.
We visit the Tuol Sleng Museum - also known as Section 21 (S21). It is a museum show-casing the terrible things that happened when the Khmer Rouge took control. In 1975 Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pots, the Chief in control, and turned it in to a prison known as S21. This soon became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. From 1975 to 1978 more than 17,000 prisoners were held and tortured there and then taken to the killing fields of Choeung Ek.
We pay our $2 entry and go to Block A - there are four blocks in total. They show the basic conditions that the prisoners were held in. Each prisoner who passed through was photographed - in some cases before and after being tortured - and then tagged. Every day the tag number would start from number one. You can tell which year the prisoner was brought in by the style of number board that appears on the chest of the prisoner.
It is thought that there was, on average, 100 victims a day. Some of the victims were the Khmer Rouge's own people. Generations of torturers and executioners who worked at S21 were in turn killed by their replacements.
As part of the torture, there was a wooden frame in the yard - once used for P.E for students - used for interrorgation and torture. The interrorgator tied both hands of the prisoner behind their back and lifted the prisoner upside down, over and over again until he/she lost consciousness. The interrogator would then drop the prisoners head first into a barrel of filthy water, shocking the victim back into consciousness quickly to continue with the torture.
The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek are 15kms out of town - so we go and visit these the day after. Between 1975 and 1978 around 17,000 men, women, children and infants who had been detained at S21 were transported to the extermination camp of Choeung Ek. They were often bludgoned to death with shovels, axes, sticks, knives - anything available to hand as to avoiding the use of precious bullets.
The remains of 8,985 people were exhumed from mass graves - but 43 of the 129 communal graves have been left untouched. In one of the graves there were 100 headless bodies found. The largest communal grave contained 450 bodies and in another there were over 100 women and children - all naked. Next to this grave there is a tree. It has been proved that infants and children would be thrown against or have their heads smashed against the trunk of this tree to kill them and then would be thrown into the grave along with the rest.
When the Khmer Rouge fled in 1978, a local who returned back home said that he found the said tree to have blood, brains and skull matter splattered all over the trunk. It truelly is unbelieveable what happened and these people are still alive and living in Cambodia today. This is Cambodians torturing and killing Cambodians.
In the middle of the grounds there is a memorial stupa with 17 floors. Inside there are more than 8,000 skulls arranged by age and sex, bones arranged by body parts and clothes from the pits. All are visible behind clear glass.
That evening we go our for dinner to a 'Good Cause Dining' restaurant called 'Friends'. Basically there are several restaurants that are run by aid organisations to help fund their social programmes in Cambodia. With Friends, it offers former street children a helping hand in to the hospitality industry - many of the students going to work at the international hotels in and around Phnom Penh.
The restaurant serves up Tapas so it was a great change from the norm of rice and noodles. There was so much choice that we picked 6 dishes. We ignored the recommendation of 2 each! We were so impressed with the food that we ended up buying a cook book so we can try it all out ourselves. But it was definitely a lovely end to our time in Cambodia.
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