Angkor Wat
My next stop on my short trip to Cambodia was Siem Reap to see the famous Angkor Wat Temples.
A Vision from the Past
I waited for the mini-bus pick-up in the restaurant of the hostel. As I a glanced around the restaurant, was taken aback by the appearance of a young girl smoking a cigarette. She was disarming similar to the ‘girl with an unusual name’ from Cooma, that I have previous mentioned in posts. To clarify, the girl looked similar to how the ‘Cooma girl’ looked in the early eighties.
When the bus arrived, the young girl climbed on board. I suspected that she had noticed that I was looking at her. I felt obliged to provide some explanation, which I did. It turned out that she was Scottish and is currently working in Advertising in London. She is on 3 month holiday in SE Asia. We were soon transferred to a large bus and headed north out of Phnom Penh.
Amazing Countryside
The road north runs for the most part, next to the Tonie Sap Lake. This lake forms part of the Mekong River delta system. In the wet season (April to October) the lake spreads for thousands of hectares. Given that it is at the tail end of the wet season, there is still water as far as the eye can see.
I understand that this area would be severely impact if the Mekong’s flow was disrupted by large dams. You are see why some are warning that this may be the cause of a ‘water war’ if the proposal for these dams goes ahead.
Slow Trip
The distance between, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap is 320 klms. Google Maps tells you that it will take 3 and half hours. Google knows ‘jack shit’ about the state of roads in Cambodia. After over 7 hours we finally arrived in Siem Reap.
Drinks in the Bar
I had booked into the Mad Monkeys’ Hostel, which is part of the same group that runs the hostel I stayed in in Phnom Penh. They are ‘party’ hostels and to be honest I am too old to be staying in places such as these. They fun though.
The bar was a bit unusual – it was located on the third level and the floor was sand. A large proportion of the patrons were Aussie blokes. Like bees to a honey pot they soon engaging the Scottish girl in conversation. Given I was sitting with her I was included in the conversations.
Like many of the young Aussies, I have meet in my travels over the past 18 months, these blokes are on extended holiday s– over a year – with no intention of working. It is amazing the impact a relatively strong AUD has had on travelling patterns.
As I returned to my room, I overheard two of the blokes from bar chatting. The conversation went along these lines: “why is that hot chick travelling with her old man? I don’t think he is her old man. Still makes it hard to chat her up though. Reckon!!!”
Angkor Wat at Sunrise
The Scottish girl and I had arranged to travel out the Ankgor Wat Temples to see the sunrise. This is the ‘done thing’ – a bit like the Santorini sunset. It meant a 4.15 a.m. wake up and Tuk Tuk ride out to temple complex.
There were hundreds of other tourists steaming to the place when we arrived. Most were standing by the moat. There were some serious photographers with all manner of fancy cameras and tripods etc. We got into conversation with bloke who had placed a small camera on the ground. The camera was taking “x number of photos per minute – giving a time elapsed record of the sunrise”.
The bloke joined us for the rest of the day. He turned out be from Seattle and had recent graduated from university where had studied journalism. It is interesting speaking to young people like him and the Scottish girl who have a lot of get up and go.
One rather old thing about the American was his name – Colt. His family own and run a gun shop-hence his name. Fortunately he is in favour of strict gun control.
We finished the tour around 1.30 p.m. It felt like 5.30 p.m.
Just a Note
The ‘Cooma girl’ is still a ‘hot chick’.
Flickr Photos Link
UNESCO Link
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