Siem Reap – Memories to Keep

In order to save pennies from our splurge of Khao Lak, instead of flying from South Thailand to Cambodia, we’re going to take some buses. It’s the first night bus we’ve taken since Argentina, and the journey is significantly more of an ‘adventure’ than we anticipated. The route was meant to be:

• Car to Khao Sok (1h)
• Bus to Bangkok (10h)
• Bus to Siem Reap (8h)

What it ended up being was:

• Car to Khao Sok (1h) ✅️
• Elaborately decorated shuttle bus to Surat Thani (2h) 🤷🏼‍♀️
• Street dinner – provided 👍, with rats for company 👎 (1.5h)
• Bus – have “Montanatip” yelled at us by various people as staff realise we’ve been dropped at the wrong bus station, different people yell at us to get on the bus, no wait here, no get on, no wait here, in Thai 👎👎👎 (5m)
• Tuk Tuk arranged by people who were yelling at us before to some other bus station in Surat Thani – get asked for a 100 baht tip 👎 (10m)
• Bus to Bangkok – more being told to get on, no don’t get on, no wait here, no get on ✅️ (9h)
• McDonalds breakfast 👍👍 (2h)
• Bus to Siem Reap ✅️✅✅ (6h)

When we left Khao Lak, Songkran was completely over, and we were pretty relieved. It was fun for the couple of days we got to experience it. When we arrived to Bangkok, the party had clearly still been going strong and was just wrapping up. Thankfully the university age students dripping wet, covered in white paint and fully armed were kind enough to not soak us and all our stuff. Phew. When we arrive to Siem Reap, new year celebrations are definitely still going strong. We find out today is actually the last day of celebrations here. Our tuk tuk driver reassures us we’ll be fine, and indeed, as we drive through the excited shrieks and squeals of people still spraying each other with water, he holds out his hand like Neo in The Matrix, and our assailants drop arms. We arrive to our Siem Reap hotel bone dry from water, but of course dripping from sweat from heat. They hand us a wash cloth as we wipe 25 hours of grime away, the cloths no long white. We’ve made it.

For whatever reason I have just two expectations of Siem Reap. Both were somewhat surpassed. The heat has once more been oppressive and life-sapping. But Siem Reap hugely surprised me as a city in itself. I expected some poor, filthy shanty-town, buildings one atop the other. What I found was your classic tourist city, but even more beautiful. With a river running through it, pretty lights strewn everywhere, quaint and unique hotels, bars and restaurants everywhere, plastic seating out front, and trees lining the streets. The city is alive with people. Our hotel here is just as beautiful, and a much needed bit of peace and tranquillity after the journey:

Our first night is spent recovering and relaxing at the hotel, and then braving town for dinner. We only just make it through the gauntlet without a soaking by snaking through the backstreets.

Our first full day in Siem Reap is reserved for a lie in, buffet breakfast, relaxing by the pool, and me getting my first Thai massage. It was certainly an experience! Started off by putting on the giant pyjama-like clothes with no idea how to tie santa-sized trousers around me and needing the massage therapist to dress me like a child.

That evening we go to Phare, a popular circus founded to provide training and work to disadvantaged communities. We get to enjoy some chicken and mango cooked in lemongrass, and a curry, with some tiny incredibly sticky donuts before we head in.

We’re all handed a fan on entry to try and counter the still sweltering evening heat, they know their clientèle:

What follows is a fantastic show of just eight performers displaying a variety of skills, from clowning around, acrobatics, strength, tight-rope walking/unicycling, immense balance, and a monk who comes in every so often to provide a blessing (maybe he’s still in training!)

The evening provides a brilliant bit of hilarity and entertainment as the “clowns” make us laugh but also show off amazing acrobatic skills. James even gets a wink and a kiss thrown his way for good measure (from a male performer of course). Alongside the on-stage performers are of course the musicians, front-of-house and backstage staff, the whole operation providing invaluable training and opportunities to people. It’s nice to know your money is being put to good work.

Angkor WAAAAT

Our other day in Siem Reap is spent exploring around four temples of the famous Angkor Wat complex. A site made famous by the Tomb Raider computer game and film franchise, we enjoy many a pose and joke.

Our tour guide today is Vuthy (or Mr T), who has brilliant English, energy, and humour. He keeps his, and everyone else’s, energy going despite the climbing heat. We’re also aided by our driver, T2, who welcomes us back to our minivan after each venture out with a cold bottle or water and wet cloth. Sorry pachamama, we’ve undone a lot of good on this day!

The first stop is to watch the sunrise over the main Angkor Wat temple. We’ve chosen the sunrise tour mostly to avoid the heat, so this is a nice bonus. I expected swarms of cruise ship tour groups akin to the Acropolis and Tikal but I guess the cruise ships can’t get their passengers over that early. We’d also heard bad things about loud Chinese tourists, but we have none of it. It’s a fairly respectful affair, of people clustered together trying to get the famed reflection photo. James, having been here before, is on photographer duty so I can just enjoy the experience.

After this it’s time to learn…

• The Khmer Empire stretched across modern day Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. It largely had Hindu influences, and so much of the symbolism here has roots more similar to India. When Mongolia invaded China, it forced them to move south, into here. What remains is a mix of Hindu and Buddhist.
• The languages of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia derive from Buddhist pali, so they can all understand each other quite well. This is not the case for Vietnamese, which didn’t have the same Khmer Empire influence, and so they can’t understand each other’s languages in the same way, the script is totally different, and there’s less (if any) Hindu influence in the version of Buddhism followed there.

• Angkor Wat is the area of many temples, but there is also the Angkor Wat temple.
• The whole area of Angkor Wat is 200 hectares.
• The main temple is the biggest temple in the world.
• Angkor Wat temple was built 900 years ago, a place for people come and pray. They lived outside, this was not housing.
• The temple of Angkor Wat is the youngest site.
• There are more than 1000 temples here, we only go to four.
• The name is actually from the 16th century, we don’t know it’s original name. The current name means temple city or city of monasteries.
• It took 40 years, and 300,000 people to build. 1 or 2 people from each family were part of it, but not forced or enslaved. They were paid or did it for good karma with the gods to have a good life in their next life (convenient for those in power needing free labour 🤔)
• They used about 4-6000 elephants to transport sandstone from the mountains 60km away.
• In rainy season when the animals couldn’t transport materials, they used rafts transporting it down the mekong.
• They used lava stone, from 35km away for foundations, and sandstone for the engraved parts.
• Pulleys and scaffolding were used to lift the stones to the top of the temples.

• The design and architecture was by his high priests, or king guru, they were smart and intellectual people who knew about astronomy. The sun rises at the main tower of Angkor Wat in relation to the equinox. 176 hands front (days), 189 hands back between left and right side towers (days until the next equinox) in this photo. This adds up to 365. The design marks the equinoxes, like in Chichen Itza and stone henge.

• More than 2000 tourists would come here pre-covid. 30k are here during the equinox.
• Most temples face east, but the main one faces west. Sunrise and sunset.
• Inside, there are four sections that look like swimming pools, but these were actually used as drainage pits to feed the moat outside. The moat protected the site from the weather, preventing flood damage.

• In the main Angkor Wat temple, there are three galleries, the first is dedicated to education, with engravings showing the history of the empire. The second to meditation. The third for the VIPs.
• This is the king, you can tell because of the many many umbrellas, his crown, his elephant also with a crown, his five wives, and all his concubines. The king has crown and 15 parasols. Elephant also has a crown:

• The king was based on the bloodline, or by whoever kills the king. They did not sit in the palaces leaving their armies to battle for them, they fought to retain their power. As Mr T tells us, “that is a sexy king”.
• There were about 28-30 kings in the 4-500 years, until it was abandoned.
• This is not the king, there are many umbrellas, but no crown. The more umbrellas, the higher the rank:

• These murals were painted. But there wasn’t a roof, so the colours got washed away.
• The stones were originally pink or white.

• 60% of this temple was collapsed. As with many of the temples, most by the war or treasure hunters, but the rest just by time and nature. It has largely been restored and reconstructed.
• Many countries have returned many heads and statues stolen.
• Where people take the sunset photo from was where people lived. However, they were moved into the forest in 1992 when it became a Unesco site as you aren’t allowed dwellings on Unesco sites. Thankfully, there weren’t many people to move because…
• When the country was invaded by Siam, they abandoned the city and moved to Phnom Penh.
• In the 16th century, the city was once more liberated.
• Then it was invaded again. There were four invasions.
• In 1860, the French rediscovered the ruins of the site and protected it for 90 years from Siam and Vietnam.
• This was always considered a holy site, until the Khmer Rouge army made it home in the mid 1900s. No religion was allowed under their rule, and so many of the buddhas had their heads cut off. No-one really lived here after them.

On to the informally known, Tomb Raider temple…

Ta Prohm Temple

• The way this has happened is that moss grows on top of roof. The birds eat the moss, then they poop seeds onto the moss. The trees then grow from the pooped seeds. Roots extending down through the stone and rubble. The trees and rocks are supporting each other.
• They used to cut back the trees, but when they did, the trees and roots that were holding the structures together would die, and then the temple would collapse. So they’ve stopped cutting the trees. This was actually a similar issue in Tikal, it’s very hard to reclaim something back from nature!
• Before the movie they weren’t going to restore this temple, but because of the film India and Cambodia decided to work together to restore it.
• Here there is one little room not like the others. When you thump your chest next to the wall, it makes an echo. Nothing else echoes, just banging the chest. How anyone figured this out is beyond me, like the clapping with Maya civilisation.

It’s not even 8am and the heat is already taking it out of me. Vuthy is good at finding us places in the shade and spots to sit, but we’ve hardly slept and the air is so still, I’m already flagging. After a visit to two temples, we get some respite in an airconditioned restaurant for lunch, although it’s still only 10am, so perhaps this is still breakfast? Having been up since 4, we’re going all in for ‘lunch’ and try recommendations of Amock and Lak Lok, both are tasty, and we enjoy offers of additional helpings of rice.

Ta Nei Temple

• Mr T brings us here to see how the other temples would have been found, in their largely collapsed states. It’s certainly a huge undertaking to put these buildings back together
• This empire was the first in the world (apparently) to provide healthcare, this site is just one of 102 ‘hospitals’ discovered.

Bayon Temple

• The religion here is all about the odd numbers, back to the “Rule of 3”!
• We’re shown a stone in the middle of the floor with three parts to it. Apparently this is a fertility stone, with the trinity of a rounded top, oblong middle, and square base. Mr T calls it the “Holy dick”. Apparently it is thanks to this that he has his daughter. “Touch holy dick for free” he offers.

• In this temple there are 54 towers!
• It also has three galleries. Like the ‘holy dick’, the first is square, the mid is octagon-shaped, and the top a circle.

• It has four gates, each facing the different compass points.
• 4 faces on each side of towers for the 4 noble truths of Buddhism.
• Faces have a third eye, that’s Hindu influence.
• Perfect examples of the mixture of Hindusim and Buddhis.

• Pre-Covid there were 8k visitors a day, now there are only 4k, a couple of days ago only 2k.

And that’s that. Many people had recommended we cycle around, or do multi-day tours of this amazing place, and in any other weather I would love to spend days here exploring the many temples. But it’s just too hot and humid. I’m glad I finally got here, and I’m proud of us for surviving the four we did (another couple gave in after temple three) and eight hours in this chaos climate.

After some serious cooling off at the hotel, we try and give a bit back by way of dinner at a restaurant called Spoons, thankfully (or not?) nothing like Wetherspoons. A similar setup to the circus, profits are spent on supporting the community and staff and chefs all being part of their training system. The staff are so kind, friendly and gracious, and you can see they really take pride in their work.

We finish the evening with a trip to the famous Pub Street…

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Adventure – Exploring the temples of Angkor Wat, something I’ve wanted to do since growing up playing Tomb Raider many years ago.

Excitement – Finding our room had a HUGE bath. Surprise cocktails for lunch arranged by James. Finding out how beautiful Siem Reap is and coming across cute streets, temples and buildings all over

Trauma – The continuous theme of SE Asia… the heat. Being yelled at in Thai and given conflicting orders and not being sure if we were going to be left behind