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| The Spirit House at our hotel |
There are few transport options available in Cambodia, none
of them particularly safe (and that includes walking) and most involve
travelling by road. We were quickly
beginning to realise that we really didn’t like any of the road options with the
notable exception of tuk tuks. Tuk tuks
are, as Paul continues to remind me at any given opportunity, the mutt’s
nuts. But at this point we were yet to
discover our love affair with this mode of transport so I’m jumping ahead.
Travelling by boat is possible to quite a few destinations, as
the Mekong reaches many parts of Cambodia, and although it is slower it is more
relaxed but much more expensive (often more than 3 times the price of the bus
ticket). We couldn’t justify too many
boat trips so had to bite the bullet and mainly stick to road travel.
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| Honey Bee puppet |
In general, road journeys between main destinations in
Cambodia are usually a lot quicker by minibus rather than by coach (sometimes
taking half the time) but taking the faster option will normally age you 10
years by the time you reach your destination as we were soon to discover. Any decision involving mode of transport
revolves around safety versus comfort but any decision is heavily influenced by
your most recent experience so your choice tends to change on a rota basis.
Obviously we would personally prefer a comprehensive high
speed rail network or, even better, a personal Tardis but the Chinese are
unlikely to build railways in Cambodia any time soon and apparently Doctor Who
isn’t actually real so our only real options were coaches or minibuses for the
foreseeable future.
So we set off for Siem Reap and it quickly became apparent
that our minivan driver was a lunatic.
He was driving faster than anything else on the road and it was
particularly hair raising passing through small towns and villages bustling
with people and animals were milling about, at speeds exceeding 40 or 50mph. Overtaking other traffic seems to be
considered an extreme sport and near misses an alarmingly common occurrence. Nerves were ragged.
Approximately half way on the trip we made the usual stop
off at a restaurant in order to feed the driver and for passengers to stretch
their legs, smoke 15 cigarettes (even those that didn’t usually smoke), stock
up on essentials and use the facilities.
If anyone had any valium at that point I seriously think I would have
mugged them for it.
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| Sting Ray puppet |
But sadly, no drugs were to be had so we settled for a
couple of cold cans of drink, reassuring each other that accidents are relatively
rare in Cambodia (in other words, blatantly lying through our teeth in order to
reassure each other and keep ourselves from descending into a full blown panic
attack).
Outside this particular restaurant there were 3 or 4 small barefoot
boys aged about 9 or 10 (although they could easily have been younger, they
were so small and thin). They were dressed
in dirty rags, sniffing glue and begging – a very sad and sorry sight. While they were really cute and cheeky, it
was yet another occasion in Cambodia when the reality of life here hits you
really hard. What on earth were these
children doing? Who was looking after
them? Do they actually have anyone at
all to care for them or do they only have each other?
The kids were full of beans (no doubt the effects of the glue)
and one of them had gleefully dug a poor
little gecko out of its hiding place and frightened it half to death before
chucking it at me (scaring me half to death because I’m a bit of a wimp!). The poor creature shed its tail and was
cowering on the floor and I promptly trod on it (unwittingly), thereby ending
its sorry little life completely. I have
henceforth been referred to as the gecko killer!
So between fearing for our lives on the road, me killing
geckos and both of us trying to ignore glue sniffing and the sorry plight of
these young homeless kids, it wasn’t the best trip in the world although, for
all the wrong reasons, one of our more memorable.
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| Another giant puppet |
We were dropped off in Siem Reap in record time and met by the
tuk tuk driver sent by our guesthouse who transported us in what we considered
to be relative luxury and comparative safety.
Progress may be slow in a tuk tuk but you feel safe and it is cool in
the hot humidity of central Cambodia. I
shall throughout be referring to our tuk tuk driver as Walter because that’s
what I thought his name actually was the whole time we were there, and although
I fully appreciate that Walter is not a very Cambodian name, it kind of suited
him and I never caught his real name. He
didn’t seem to mind too much. Either
that or he was too polite to correct me!
And so began Paul’s love affair with tuk tuks. It is the way to travel when the air is heavy
and humid and the temperature never seems to fall below 30 degrees
Celsius. There was even the odd occasion
during our time spent visiting the temples where we felt slightly chilly as we
set off in the early hours and travelled through the sheltered wooden areas of
the archaeological park and that was absolute bliss.
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| Local kids in a marching band |
We liked Walter as soon as we met him and as we planned to
spend the next 6 days touring the various temples around the Angkor Wat
Archaeological Park, and we needed some kind of transportation to do this, we decided
to book him for the duration. There is no real practical alternative to see the
sights at Angkor. You may choose to
cycle from temple to temple if you really are super fit and crazy enough to
want to cycle for miles in the blistering heat.
Or you could hire a taxi (more expensive than a tuk tuk), or pillion on
a moto (not as comfortable as a tuk tuk but slightly cheaper) but we went with
what we considered to be the sensible option of Walter’s tuk tuk. This proved to be one of the best decisions
we made. Each morning, as we set off at
6.30am, we were able to enjoy relatively cool temperatures as we travelled to
the park, and each time we climbed back into the tuk tuk between visiting
temples all hot and sweaty, the breeze as we rode along cooled us down a treat,
and we were suitable refreshed and ready to tackle the next historical monument.
Now all we had to do was come up with some kind of schedule to
visit all the places we wanted to visit throughout this enormous site. Some are quite close to Angkor Wat but some are
an hour’s ride away and we needed to organise some kind of timetable for the
days we would be spending here without making it too gruelling which would take
all the fun out of it.
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| An unidentifiable (but impressive) giant puppet |
In the meantime, while we were here we had a look around
Siem Reap to see what it had to offer and, although it is a pleasant enough place,
there wasn’t really much to interest us. To be fair, the town grew up to
accommodate the tourists attracted to Angkor Wat and it is understandable that
it has been developed to cater for that market.
The main drag in tourist central is called Pub Street (go
figure) and there are endless options for dining, catering to all budgets and
tastes but mainly western and Khmer.
Certainly, if you are at that stage in your trip where you crave some
western food, you will be spoilt for choice here (and that is not always a bad
thing as we have craved many home comfort foods since we left last August). Pizza and pasta is available everywhere and
you can get a Sunday roast if you are around at the weekend.
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| One for our friend Warwick Francis and all the honeybee keepers of the world |
One evening, while we were eating at a restaurant in Pub
Street, we were fortunate enough to witness the giant puppet procession one
evening which was an unexpected bonus.
We weren’t sure of the occasion but it seemed to be insect related.
The whole parade lasted about an hour and local
schools and youth organisations were represented, either taking part as puppets or in marching bands. We saw some creations and all the kids seemed to be having an fantastic time. It was, of course, the one occasion I didn’t
take the camera but we took some photos using Paul’s iPod. Sadly the quality of the photos wasn't that great but it was certainly a great carnival atmosphere.
There are certainly other places of interest in and around
Siem Reap, including the landmine museum and a national museum but we were
interested only in making the most of our time here to see the temples.
Siem Reap is a pretty town with a river running through the
centre and there is more to it than Pub Street if you have the time to explore
further afield but be prepared for the journey to get there – either take a
valium (available at all good pharmacies in south east Asia) on a long trip to
help you sleep, or take a valium to calm your nerves on if you take the
shorter, terrifying option.
For us, however, it was well worth the effort and Angkor Wat
was one of the highlights of our trip but more of that in our next post.
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