Angkor What? (apologies to the bar of the same name)

As I’m sure everyone would agree, this blog and our travellers were in desperate need of a female perspective…or at least one that they wouldn’t have to pay for. Luckily, I made it just in time and have been given the incredible honor of contributing as an honorary “rambling (wo)man”. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Simon’s sister and just happened to be in Hong Kong working during his prolonged South East Asian jaunt. Being the wonderful brother that he is, he was nice enough to invite me to join them for a leg of the trip. I only hope I can live up to the incredible standards Simon and Mike have set so far…

My journey began with a rather pleasant Cathay flight to Bangkok, followed by a not-quite-so-pleasant Bangkok Airways flight to Siem Reap on a cramped turbo-prop plane that I am convinced was older than I am. Seven hours after officially starting my vacation, I was deposited in Cambodia thankful to be alive and with my first mosquito bite. Less than two hours later the rambling men, themselves, arrived at our hotel and were warmly welcomed by ginger (pink) cocktails, assorted fruits and fish paste delicacies in their upgraded suite, and, of course, me. After a tearful reunion between Simon and me (just kidding – think of me as Simon but just a tiny bit friendlier…), we all had a quick dinner in the hotel before calling it an early night.

The next morning we piled into a tuk tuk (my first tuk tuk ride!!) at a leisurely 10am and headed into town to do some laundry, get money, and find Mike a Vietnam visa. [As a side note, apparently I was gravely mistaken in thinking that the $1 per shirt at the hotel was a reasonable price for laundry as the boys succeeded in negotiating $1.50/kilo downtown!] We accomplished our 3 tasks relatively easily and to our delight the ATMs spit out brand new US$!! (the preferred form of currency in Cambodia).

Simon and Mike had learned from one of Simon’s future HBS classmates that it was possible to buy cheap copies of guidebooks to Angkor Wat throughout Siem Reap (“bad for copyright; good for Cambodia”) so when the first eager salesperson approached us we questioned her about guides to the temples. She immediately directed us to an ATM and travel agent for the visa before running off to get the books that we were looking for. The price was $20 for 2 books and seemingly a good deal considering the combined publisher’s cost was well over $100. However, being the seasoned, cynical travelers that we are (re-read the Bangkok posts) we began our negotiations. When we reached a stalemate of $17 for the two books (we wanted $15), the girl suddenly had the “brilliant” idea of playing tic-tac-toe for the additional money. If Mike won, she would give us the 2 books for $15; if she won, we would pay $16.

While Simon and I almost immediately wrote off the money, Mike surprised us all by actually managing to win the third game after 2 draws!! Ecstatic about our victory, we started digging out our money, but here is where the story gets interesting. Somehow, and I have no idea why (I think it had something to do with Simon wanting photographic evidence of the negotiations), Mike started playing a 4th game. To make a long story short, the game ended in a tie, Simon got his picture, and I ended up paying $16 for the two books. Regardless, we all walked away incredibly impressed by the girl’s negotiating skills and just a little bit impressed by Mike’s tic-tac-toe skills. Who actually wins tic-tac-toe?

Mike Negotiating:

To answer my question (and I should note that we didn’t discover this until sometime later), the only people who win at tic-tac-toe are little children who haven’t quite grasped the concept of the game and ivy league grads being scammed by 13 year olds with little formal education. It turns out that the girl suggested the game as a way of confirming a deal would take place. Knowing that she could not win herself, she had actually let Mike win the 3^rd game in the hopes that by making him feel good about himself, she would walk away with the extra dollar anyway. To further impress upon you the skill with which our little teacher operated, we should also note that these exact same books were being sold for $4-5 at the temples so she had a guaranteed (big) profit either way.

Regardless, it was great entertainment for Simon and me (and now you); not so good, perhaps, for Mike’s ego…

That afternoon after a great lunch of Loc Lac and Amok, both Cambodian specialties, and a quick visit to the pool — after all I only had 6 days to become incredibly tan and well-rested — we decided to venture out to the temples.

Siem Reap is a city geared almost entirely towards supporting the 700-1000 year old Khmer temples known collectively as Angkor within its vicinity. During the 9^th-13^th
centuries, the Cambodian Empire occupied a territory stretching from modern day Burma (Myanmar) to Vietnam. Angkor as the capital had over 1 million inhabitants (20 times that of London at the time). Due to the size of the empire and the span of time Angkor was at the center, the temples reflect many competing cultural and religious influences. It was not unusual for the temples to actually be adapted for use as different religions took dominance; statues would be replaced and in some cases, carvings would be modified to represent incoming religions. A UNESCO world heritage site, Angkor has been described as “the perfect fusion of creative ambition and spiritual devotion,” and one certainly still feels a sense of significance to these creations centuries after they were deserted.

We followed the advice of the many tour books and our devoted tuk tuk driver and headed to Phnom Bakheng. Built during the 9th century and situated on top of a hill, it was rumored to offer the most spectacular sunset views of Angkor Wat (perhaps the most familiar of the temples within the area, not to mention the largest religious building in the world). Dedicated to Vishnu, Angkor Wat was built as miniature of the Hindu universe complete with Mount Miru, the home of the Gods, represented by towers in the center surrounded by concentric galleries representing mountain ranges, surrounded by a moat representing the oceans. Phnom Bahkeng is one of the few vantages where you can get an aerial view of the complex (save the brand new attraction of a hot air balloon that rises every 20 minutes above Angkor) and thus experience the complete effect. While the sunset itself proved to be rather disappointing (rainy season haze), the climb to the top of the hill surrounded by other tourists, monks and elephants before settling in with our cameras and cold beers at the top proved to be the perfect welcome into the world of Angkor.

We finished off our first full Cambodian day with dinner in town before picking up our laundry and heading off to bed.

The next morning we were out the door of the hotel at 5:15am in order to experience another “must-do” Angkor experience – sunrise at Angkor Wat. Having learned little from our previous evening’s sunset experience, we were disappointed to discover that 1) the sun starts rising in Cambodia before 5am and 2) the same haze that ruined our spectacular sunset the night before was having its way with our sunrise. We did, however, learn a very important lesson about visiting packed tourist destinations — if you do exactly the opposite of what the guidebooks and tuk tuk drivers tell you to do, you can actually find yourself alone and undisturbed in some of the most amazing places

Being the incredibly intelligent people that we are, we quickly made the call to throw in the towel on the sunrise and actually headed into Angkor Wat temple itself. Sure enough, the masses of tour groups stayed outside and we found ourselves almost alone inside a 1000 year old temple, free to poke around and explore at will, including climbing up the steps to the top of “Mount Meru” or the inner tower.

It is hard to know where to begin when entering these temples as there is symbolism in everything from form to orientation to the intricate carvings and sculptures found everywhere. We decided to leave our first impressions as more general ones at Angkor, and after vowing to return during an afternoon (better light) we began our extremely timid descent off “Mount Meru”. One of the quirks found on all Angkor temples is that the steps are always very steep and very tiny. Either the Khmer had incredibly small feet or this was a very clever way of dissuading curious peasants from venturing up to the often private temples of the kings and high priests.

At 7am we found ourselves done with our first temple of the day and enjoying a breakfast of iced coffee and banana pancakes with honey. Being the only tourists sitting around, we also soon attracted the attention of the masses of children who wait at each temple selling everything from bottled water and food to guidebooks, krama (traditional headscarfs used for everything from keeping dust off to carrying babies), useless and trinkets and bracelets. During one particularly entertaining lunch break, we were even offered (jokingly of course) a baby for $1! Both Mike and Simon succumbed fairly early on to making small purchases – postcards and bracelets. My downfall would come later in the day when I was cornered by three children at the top of a temple and my resolve went spiraling downhill from there.

I do want to note as an aside that there were several instances when this obsessive capitalism was put aside in the interest of being merely hospitable. For example, during breakfast at a small food stall one morning, Mike somehow managed to slice his finger with a bread knife. Putting aside the question of how this happens (he claims something about a shoulder injury??), the family who ran the restaurant immediately sprung into action getting him napkins and then producing band-aids. Money was never discussed even though they could probably have held him to a pretty steep price as he sat bleeding out in the middle of nowhere.

The overwhelming message was that while most of the people we ran into were trying to get as much money out of us as possible, the motivator for the vast majority was simply survival. The culture of begging and borderline extortion must be put into the perspective of Cambodia’s modern history (see next post) which was made even more evident by the sheer number of landmine victims we encountered every day.

Some of the the better sales pitches we got:

“Sir, you buy a star for your girlfriend?” addressed to Simon.
“My girlfriend doesn’t want a star” replied Simon.
“Why not? I a girl. I want star.”

(Simon did not end up buying a star)

———

One small girl, no more than 4-5 years old would approach tourists selling postcards
and proceeded to count to 10 while flipping through the cards in English, French, Spanish, German & Kmher. It was impossible not to be impressed!

———

“Lady, you buy a scarf from me?” addressed to me by one girl approx. 10-11 yrs.
“No thank you. I don’t want a scarf” I replied.
“Lady, what is your name?”
“Jennifer”
“Jennifer, I remember you. If you buy a scarf, you buy from me. I remember you”

(repeat conversation 4-5 times walking into a temple; 30-45 minutes elapse)

“Lady, Jennifer, Lady I remember you!! You buy from me. I remember you!!”
chorused by 10-15 girls as we walk out from the temple to the car.

(Pls see picture below for results of this conversation. On a completely unrelated
note, I happen to have 7 absolutely lovely Krama scarfs if anyone is interested…)

 

To try to sum up the experience in a couple of paragraphs could never do Angkor justice, but I have included some quick impressions and pictures of my two favorites below.

Ta Prohm – yes, its the temple from Tomb Raider; but more importantly, its one of the most beautiful and, dare I say it, most spiritual places I have ever been. Submerged deep within a forest, the trees become part of the ruins while the ruins seem to be growing with the trees. Walking around the temple, especially if you are lucky enough to find yourself alone as we did, you start to imagine life as it must have been and almost expect the ruins and trees to suddenly morph into a living and breathing city carrying on life around you.

Bayon –Built with hundreds of faces, this temple rivals Angkor Wat both in magnitude and as a prime sunset location. Seen in the afternoon sun, the shadows and light surrounding this temple quickly became a photographer’s dream.

By the end of our third day of temples, our world had become filled with Apsaras (celestial dancers to the Gods), Naga (5 headed serpants connected with fertililty and creation), Guardian Lions, and all manners of Gods and Warrior Kings. Again, I cannot begin to do justice to everything we saw in the space of this blog; all I can say is that if you ever have the opportunity to visit Angkor, do not pass it up!!

Highlights:

We also, of course managed to mix in some non-temple entertainment, giving me the chance to be the “bad influence” that younger siblings are supposed to be. Our days usually included at least an hour or two by the pool during the oppressive midday heat. Our evenings were spent eating and drinking at the many restaurants on “bar street” (did I mention that Siem Reap is set up to cater to tourists?), playing atrocious games of pool, and occasionally finding ourselves in real bars (one set up with beds! very trendy for northern Cambodia…). I must also admit that both Mike and Simon received far more attention than me — Mike from our very friendly, but slightly over-informative waiter at dinner one night (and no, the use of the word waiter is not some feminist objection to the word waitress…but you’re going to have to use your imaginations on this one as there are certain subjects I will not elaborate on while my parents are reading…); and Simon from an equally friendly and extremely intoxicated college professor who was in the midst of some sort of sabbatical involving somewhat questionable bars in Southeast Asia. All in all, I think we can be proud of both of them and I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised when we found ourselves at Siem Reap’s only gay bar the next night…

For those of you keeping score of how many World Cup games Simon and Mike actually managed to watch, the afore-mentioned evening also happened to be the France-Italy World Cup Finals (Mike’s waiter had a French flag painted on his cheek which made everything just that little bit worse…). While we did our best to stay up until 3 to watch the entire game, a combination of previous early mornings and the knowledge that our alarms were set to go off at 4:30 for attmept #2 at catching the sunrise, caused all of us to miss the now infamous Zidane penalty. I believe that Simon and Mike did manage to rally to watch the end of the game, but then again that could have been all talk as I had given up over an hour earlier.

Tuesday, we were up at the crack of dawn for the 4th morning in a row, and after buying some fresh baguettes and packaged spreadable cheese (very popular in Asia) we boarded our “luxury bus” and were on our way to Phnom Penh.

-Jen

Advertisement