Cambodia - Day 3 & 4

(12/26-12/27/09)

The next morning was a little later, I got to sleep in until 5am. Kim got me on the motor bike to the entrance to Angkor around 5:20 while it was still pitch black - sunrise wasn't until 6:15 or so. I didn't bring a flashlight with me on the trip, so I just tried to stay close to the one or two people that had as we walked from the outer wall, over a small river, and down the stone pathway to sit in front of the large pool on the left side of the temple. There were several people there, offering chairs and hot coffee or chocolate, in exchange for a dollar. I took the chair and a coffee, but mostly because I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, and appreciated someone showing me where to sit and wait. I could hear as people were seated beside me, but couldn't see them for about half an hour.



The stars were amazing, though no one was able to capture them, no matter how expensive their camera looked. It started to get lighter around six, and people spent the next hour taking pictures at as many possible angles, light exposures, and shutter speeds as they could. After taking one or two shots, though, I preferred to just sit, watch, and listen. There was a German couple sitting on my right, and a couple from Newcastle on my left.



After watching the sunrise for about an hour, I went to the nearest 'restaurant' to get some breakfast, which was little more than some wooden tables under an awning. It was good, but slightly dissapointing. I had ordered banana pancakes. The pancakes were good and fluffy, but they'd just been put over a plate of bananas. Oh well, they were only $2.



As I was eating, I was keeping an eye on the temple, as the sun hadn't actually made an appearance yet. Most people had left, but there were still several people waiting around for the final moments. Their wait was well rewarded when the sun finally did peek over the edge of the temple, and I took one of my favorite pictures:


I had missed out on taking an elephant ride the day before, so I was determined to make it there on time. We got to the starting point, but we were about 45 minutes early. So Kim took me to the Terrace of the Elephants, where I wandered around for about half an hour. I met a girl there who was just waiting for tourists. She first asked if I wanted to take her picture. Usually when I took their pictures, the kids were eager to see what they looked like in the screen - she didn't seem to really care.


She then lead me down some steep steps to the five-headed horse, which is a famous carving at the Terrace. As I began to walk away, she told me she was an orphan, and asked for money so she could go to school. I don't like giving money to the kids, as it encourages them to beg, but I had a few Khmer bills in my pocket that I didn't want (that were only worth about 50 cents), so I offered them to her. She seemed to get angry, shook her head, and asked for dollars. I had dollars in my wallet, but I wasn't about to give them to her. I told her that she could take the Khmer bills if she wanted, but it was that or nothing as I started walking away. She said something in Khmer and scowled at me, which I'm pretty sure was something lovely and nice, and as I had almost dissappeared down the stairs she grabbed the bills from my hand.



After that, I headed back to meet Kim so he could take me to the elephant ride place. On the way there, we saw three elephants that had already left.


The ride was only about 15 minutes, but it was pleasant and quiet, a nice break from the loudness of the tuk-tuk and motorbike.



Kim met me at Bayon, and from there we headed out to Beng Melea, which was the best part of my trip. Beng Melea is about a 90 minute ride out of Siem Reap by motorbike. The countryside on the way out there was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Unfortunately I couldn't really take pictures because I was clinging onto Kim to keep steady, and we were going fast enough that any pictures I would have wanted to take would have been blurry. If you ever go to Cambodia I HIGHLY recommend taking a trip out into the country. Even if you're not going anywhere in particular, the trip itself is worth it.

Anyway, we got to Beng Melea way too soon, and a girl showed me the entrance, and then proceeded to show me through the ruins. We got back to the beginning, and I told her I wanted to sit down and write for a while and that she could go back to where she'd been. She just sat next to me and waited - apparently I'd highly overestimated her English skills. I had wanted to go back through the temple and explore on my own, but eventually she said something to me about a "$2 guide", and I realized I'd been had. Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be), the smallest bill I had was a 10. I tried to make her understand that I was going to go get something to eat and get change and come back.

Well, I did leave to go get something to eat. I was looking at the little shops across from the entrance to the temple, when I was asked by a woman if I wanted to buy notebooks and pencils for the kids who needed them for school. I told her I didn't have any small bills, and she told me she had change. So after a short conversation, I'd talked her down to $3 (which even so was pretty expensive, all things considered), and bought a packet of notebooks and pencils. She yelled something in Khmer, and within about 30 seconds, I was surrounded by about 15 young kids all clamoring to get something from me. They were genuinely happy, and I can honestly say I've never seen a child get so excited about pencils before. I'd seen the school that the kids went to - it was about 6 miles away from where they lived, and they all walked there every day. I wish I could have gotten a picture of them, but it was rather sudden how quickly they arrived, and then went off to play with their new things.



After that, Kim drove me all the way back to the Roluous Group, which is about 13km east of Siem Reap. I didn't think to take pictures on the way back until we were passed by one of the strangest sights ever:



It wasn't moving at all, merely bouncing slightly with the movement of the bike. My first thought was "That poor pig. I wonder how they killed it." And then I realized it was blinking. It was alive! My next thought was "That poor pig!! I wonder what he's thinking strapped upside-down like that!".

We went to all the temples in the Rolous Group, including Lolie Temple which was built in the late 9th century.


There was a small school there, where the monk in the picture approached me and started talking to me. He showed me his school, which was little more than the space underneath the hut with some benches and a cracked whiteboard. He told me quite a bit, and though he never outright asked for money, I could tell he was trying to get me to offer to donate something.



On the way out to Beng Melea we'd had to stop at the side of the road at a stand that lookd like they were selling really old water in used bottles. Turns out this is a gas station, and it's perfectly normal to buy gas from a place like this to put in your motorbike.

We got back to Siem Reap around 2:30. I cleaned up from the bike ride and laid down for a short nap, and of course woke up 3 hours later still tired, sore, and sunburned. I had dinner at the guesthouse, and then Kim took me to the market area. He asked if I wanted him to join me, which I said yes to. He said he wasn't feeling well, and declined, so I asked him to come back for me in about 2 hours. I spent about 45 minutes wandering through the city. It was really touristy, and not that interesting. I bought a wallet, which I'd been needing (the one I bought in Korea after I lost my other one just barely fits Korean won, and was too small for dollars). Then I found a cool bar called Angkor What?, where I had two beers at 75 cents a pop (expensive, when compared to 50 cents at the bar next door), and met the owner and a guy from Ireland who came to Cambodia for the weekend and has now been there five months. They also donate 5% of their profits to the local children's hospital. I pulled myself out of the bar at 9 when Kim came to pick me up, and I headed back to the guesthouse. My plane flew out early afternoon the next day, so I packed everything that night.

I checked out of Earthwalkers at 6:30 and had breakfast. Kim took me and my bags to a few more temples, the second of which was Ta Prohm. This could easily have been my favorite temple, if it hadn't been so hugely overcrowded. The pictures I took are deceptively empty of people - I was waiting up to 10 minutes to take some shots because people were walking by, and there were even lines in several places to take some pictures.


I did manage to find a few spots that weren't as crowded, and even some that were completely deserted.

The place is a maze, and when I thought I'd made it out the other side (where Kim was supposed to pick me up), I realized I had come out the same entrance I came in. So I braved the crowds one more time and made it back through.


I went to one more temple, and then we had to leave for the airport. I made it there in plenty of time, but they didn't start checking people in until about an hour before the plane boarded. The flight itself was a half hour late, but I somehow managed to be the first one on the plane, which was nice. We landed in Saigon about an hour late, and this time the person that was supposed to pick me up actually showed.

Coming up next - Saigon and the Mekong Delta. Stay tuned for more.