May II 2005
Six days in, we made the first foray into Cambodia, via Bangkok, to Siem Reap, home of the Angkor complex. A brief overview; it was started about 1000 years ago by the king of the Khmer civilization (whose lands encompassed most of modern Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam). The civilisation was strongly influenced by visiting Indian traders; most of the early architecture is Hindu, whilst later Buddhism was adopted and the nature of the temples altered slightly. At its peak, Angkor supported a population of around a million (contemporary London had a population of about 50,000). Huge reservoirs (1.5 by 5 km) allowed three harvests a year, creating a food surplus and freeing large swathes of the population for temple construction. The temple-builders were further supplemented by slaves taken in war, the subject of multitudes of unbelievably detailed stone carvings throughout the Angkor Wat complex. Moreover, stone was brought from far a field, probably dragged by elephants and hewn on site.
It’s not possible to view the magnificence of Angkor by foot, it’s simply too large. Instead, we hired another driver (ah, but for the days of the Raj) for 12$ a day, a ludicrously cheap sum, but he seemed perfectly pleased as he lorded it over his customer-less rivals! Whilst Angkor Wat is the highlight for most, my favourite was the Bayon – a complex of 54 huge stone heads, said to resemble the King, perhaps watching over the 54 provinces of the ancient civilisation. Wat Ta Promh is also of note. It’s the site where Tombraider was shot in 2000. It was abandoned to the elements by the French Archaeologists who first started excavating the complex, and as a result awe-inspiring scenes of huge ancient trees cracking up monumental stone architecture is the treat for the tourist. Unfortunately, the area has also been abandoned by the officials who charge 40$ per customer for an Angkor Pass. Fending off dozens of poor Cambodian families who practically live in the ruins got to be a major pain in the neck at times. If, as has been rumoured, Angkor is to be shut down for renovations, I hope they also organise the security of the site, which is currently deplorable. It breaks my heart to see people eroding the structures by climbing all over them.
Siem Reap, the small town serving Angkor tourists, is something of a tourist trap itself. It looks like a Wild West frontier town, erected overnight to deal with the influx of foreigners since the collapse of the Khmer Rouge. Whereas in Thailand we’d been accustomed to seeing cars and tuk-tuks, in Siem Reap the people were noticeably poorer, and go around on bicycles and motorbikes. The roads are a state, with no sense of order, and about 10 lanes of traffic on any stretch of road. There is apparently no driving test in Cambodia either, and it’s not rare to see what looks like Primary School children tearing around on motorbikes, with their entire extended family somehow managing to fit onto a single seat! It’s truly another world.
After another night in Bangkok, and saying goodbye to Dad at the airport, I made my way to Phnom Penh, in retrospect a big mistake. From the moment I landed in Cambodia, I knew I was in trouble. The officials charged me for another 20$ Visa, even though the first was meant to do me for a month. Moreover, I’d lost the “compulsory” photograph I needed for the Visa – a 1$ bribe saw me through without the photograph. I was raging. Out of the airport and straight into the arms of a guy selling motorbike rides into town. “Okay” say I, “but we’re going to my hotel, only my hotel, I’ll pay 2$ and I don’t want anything else”. “Okay” say they, but for the entire hair raising, ludicrously dangerous motorbike ride (with no-helmet, and obviously, no seatbelt) along a chaotic motorway into town, my driver insisted on trying to sell me alternative hotels, day-trips, girls and boys, all whilst looking at me and not the road on which he was driving! By the time I’d finally made it to my hotel, my life dangling by a thread, it was all I could do to pay the driver, tell him kindly to “piss off”, and lie down exhausted in my grotty hotel room. Pnomh Penh was oppressively hot, oppressively dirty; not anywhere near as attractive as I’d been led to believe by the Lonely Planet. Once upon a time supposedly the “Venice of Asia”, Lonely Planet recommends the scenic riverfront at the confluence of three major rivers. When I got there, I found concrete embankments, naked children swimming in filth, tug-boats shunting sewage to a rubbish island in the centre, and of course, beggars, cripples and orphans.
Trying to make the best of my last few days, I attended the “major” tourist attraction in Pnomh Penh – the Killing Fields. It’s not a trip I want to remember. The ticket vendor wouldn’t give change for my note, then tried to sell me a tour guide for the site. Once inside, I was set upon by children and cripples (again). Parting with some Cambodian Riel for the umpteenth time, it was clear that even this act of kindness wasn’t going to be accepted graciously – instead the children who hadn’t received Riel complained to me that I hadn’t given money to them, and that the other children don’t share. I walked around the mass graves, where some bleached bones and clothes of unidentified Khmer Rouge victims have been left out for the edification of tourists. In the centre of the site, a huge monument filled with the skulls of countless thousands of victims stare outside their glass container at the fat white tourists who take pictures of them. I still feel traumatised.
Feeling the need to get back to the living world, I went to the market in the centre of town. Again, unimaginably grotty and stinky in places, but due to some tremendous good fortune, I managed to bump into my friend Beth from Japan, and the guys she was travelling round with, in a pirated DVD shop. The rest of the night, spent swimming in the pool of their luxury hotel and eating good food again at their luxury hotel, were the last pleasant memories I have of Cambodia.
The next morning, I took the 4 hour bus to Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s “premier” beach resort. The surly staff at my hotel didn’t want to accept me without the “token” which they never sent me. After a brief argument I got my way. Breakfast was not included as advertised. I wouldn’t have been able to eat it anyway, as my health quickly deteriorated and I became a vomiting, incontinent wreck! Was it the water that I accidentally cleaned my teeth with? The ice from a drink? The sandflies that buzzed all over my breakfast at the hut on the beach? I’m not sure. What I am sure is that my two days of R&R seemed to last about a week. I worried that I’d never make it back to Japan, as I lay on my hotel bed staring at the geckos on the ceiling, and listening to the beetles scuttling across the floor. I was concerned I’d be able to make it back to Pnomh Penh without messing up the bus with my own filth. Somehow, I managed to escape such indignity.
So there you have it, a very brief (relative to the period of time) description of the highs and lows of an adventure through IndoChina. The End.”
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