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

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjLARicd

UNESCO Link

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/668

Siem Reap Countryside

No Cycling due to Heat

My plan for my second day in Siem Reap was to go on a bicycle ride.  I booked into the tour.  Unfortunately, I was the only one booked in for the ride.  The bloke at the hostel, handling bookings for activities said that that was hardly a surprise – “not many people like to ride in this heat”.

Given that most of the tourists are young and mainly Australian, all I can say – how limp are they?

Quad Biking

He suggested that I go on a ‘quad bike ride’.  Hitherto, my view of quad bikes, if I have one, is that they on the same level as jet skis.  Not high that is.

The tuk-tuk arrived to collect myself and three English girls  to take us to the quad bike shop.   After a very brief explanation as to how to operate the bikes we were each taken on a practice ride.  I was surprised to find that the bikes only have 2 gears – forward and reverse.  I could not help myself – I noted they were “similar to the Italian tanks in WW2” – such a bad joke.

I not sure what ride the girls were on, but I found that I was by myself with a guide who was riding an XR Honda Trail Bike.  We headed off.

Pleasantly Surprised

The route took us very quickly on to narrow paths that ran between paddy fields.  I was surprised how much torque engine had and how maneuverable the bike was.   I was actually enjoying the ride.

We stopped a couple of times for some photo shots.

Learning a Bit about the Changes in Rural Cambodia

After about 40 minutes we stopped at Buddhist temple.  The guide’s spoke reasonable English and clearly understood far more then he could speak.  He was keen to practice his language skills.

I asked him about the farms and the people who owned them.  He told me that most were owned by individual families.  In most cases, the farmers used traditional methods – manual planting and harvesting, possibility using water buffalos.   He did say however, that where children had gone to school and had got other jobs (his family being an example), some of the farms were sold.  In other cases, the children were buying tractors so that their parents could continue to work the farms as they got older.

Gunning it for a Bit

After leaving the Temple the guide stop at an intersection.  He told me that ‘this was a good place to go fast”.

I gave it a go.  I wish I had brought the Garmin to record the speed.  Whatever it was, it felt quick.

Another Fluent ‘Peter Sellers’ Speaker

When we got back to the bike shop, I was introduced to the owner of the business.  He is French with a classic accent.

He told me that he had been in Cambodia for 10 years.  He came to place while on holiday in Vietnam.  He was offered a job as a Director of a Hospitality School.  After 3 years he decided start the Quad bike business.  He now has 46 bikes.  His business model incudes replacing the whole fleet every year.  He sells the used bikes to wealthy locals and expats.

I asked his about the use of USD and the local Riels.  That was clearly a no go areas of discussion.  He preferred to talk about his three children and his view that they are in a “good place and region”.  Fair enough.

Learning What the English Girls Did

Back in the hostel I ran into the English girls from the ride chatting to the Scottish girl I mentioned in my last post.  They had had an interesting ride.  One had driven onto “a canal”.

Hearing about the Scottish Girl’s Horse Ride and Dinner in Night Market

The Scottish girl had been horse riding.

We went to dinner in the night market area.  The restaurant served good food and was a great place for ‘people watching’.

Flickr Photos Link

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjLANgNQ

 

 

Killing Fields

I am in Phnom Penh.  Today I took a Tuk Tuk out of the city to see the infamous Khmer Rouge  ‘Killing Fields’.   This is a particularly harrowing and disturbing place.   This was followed by a visit to the   Tuol Svay Pray High School which  the Khmer Rouge renamed -21 and turned  into a torture, interrogation and execution centre,

The ‘Killing Fields’  is one of the sites where the murderous Khmer Rouge regime  under the leadership of the despotic and evil Pol Pot, killed thousands of Cambodian, men, women and children.   It is estimated that that in all,  the Khmer Rouge killed 20- 25% of the country’s population – up to 1.7 million people.

There is plenty of material about the Khmer Rouge in various books and the net.   I suggest you read some of it.

I have just a few things to say:

• I was struck by the obvious respect the visitors showed at both sites.  Most were western tourists, many only in their 20’s.  There was an eerie silence.  Many of the visitors were visibly distressed at what they saw
• It is critical that places such as this are preserved and the memories of what happened are not forgotten.
• The Khmer Rouge were in control of Cambodia from April 1975 to July 1979, during which time they committed their atrocities.  No western nation sort to stop them. They were overthrown by the Vietnamese.
•  Western governments, including the USA, Australia and the UK, refused to recognise the Vietnamese backed government and  recognised the exile government that included elements of the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge continued to control large parts of the country until the mid 1990’s.

On a personal note, my cousin Kellie was killed by the Khmer Rouge in April 1994.  I can recall the day I was in my office in the Caltex building in Sydney when I received two calls from Canberra, telling me that she was missing.

Flickr Link

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjLjXERF

S21 Link

http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/s21-victims.html

NY Times Link

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/18/world/cambodia-captives-are-believed-slain.html

DFAT Link

http://www.dfat.gov.au/media/releases/department/d32.html

There will be some interesting reading in 2024/5