I've done some research on tavelling between Kratie and Siem Reap, so I was well aware of the choices and the consequesnces of them, when we made our decision. Unfortuantely there was no big bus leaving Kratie on our travelling day, so we were forced to go in the notorious mini-bus (more like an African taxi). This was not our choice, but the only option...
We knew it will be a 8 hour journey, although everybody was using their selling techiques and told us that it'll take 4 to 6 hours?? Dhuuu??? We got picked up from the guesthouse just after 7am and keep picking up people and more people and more people over the next hour or so... When mr Taxi driver wanted to squeeze another passenger in between himself and the door, the 5 Westerners on the bus started shouting at him for good reason!!! We were already 25 passengers (plus two sleeping babies) in a minibus design for 18 or so people.....including our luggage!!! Unfortunately for the unlucky gentleman, he had to hang onto the back of the bus, together with the driver's sidekick, who was hanging off the extra-luggage rope already. 27.
The added bonus was Nina spitting up all over Arno, Philippa and another passenger about 1hour into the journey!!! With no clean clothes in the immediate hand luggage, the little girls were wrapped up in sharongs, for makeshift dresses and Arno had to go bare chested till the lunch stop. He then managed to pull a sweaty shirt form our washing bag. At least he could get accecss to it!!
So, beside the breakneck speed, 27 passengers and half clothed family, we reached our destination just after 3 pm...nice and early. After a little bit of a stand off with tuk-tuk drivers - nobody wanted to help us to make a local phonecall to let our hosts at Channa's at Angkor Homestay know that we have arrived- Arno found a cellphone shop and they helped him out, no bother!!! Not a good first impression of Siem Reap.
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| One of the roadside sights |
Our host, Thomas, met our tuk-tuk's to guide them to the homestay. The house is tucked away from the busy road, halfway between Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor in the Archeological Park. Thomas, emigrant of Denmark, has bought the land almost 20 years ago. First he had to clear it from veggetation, before he could start with building a small brick house. Over the years, he settled down with Channa, they needed more space and aditional income to support their growing family, so he came up with the idea of extending the house to two stories - wooden structure over the top of the brick rooms - and start inviting tourists to come and stay. Thus, creating Channa's at Angkor Homestay.
This was just the place for us! In true Cambodian way, except sleeping upstairs in our two rooms (fitted out with musquito nets) we spend most of our time sitting at the downstairs outdoor kitchen table, watching the children climbing trees, drawing in the sand and cooking food over little self-made fires. Breakfast was a welcome afair with the smell of Thomas' homemade breadrolls calling us over. The children's "table" was a big grasmat spread out beside our table.
Thomas, with and architectual back ground, was employed to help with the deactivation of landmines in Cambodia. He fell in love with the country and remained to stay!! Unfortunately he is still regard as a foreigner, and does not even qualify for the local fees to enter the temples of Angkor. Besides running the homestay he also work as an English-Danish technical translator. We absolutely loved to hang out with this family and so hope that our life-paths will cross again soon.
So what's happening in the north of Cambodia to draw in nearly 4 million visitor's every year?
The ancient kingdom of Angkor and it's remains. Let me lure you in with a little bit of background history. If my imagination took me away on a trip down the ages in China and Mongolia, Angkor captured my faccination with the scale of a nearly forgotten society and culture.
The Khmer have inhabited Cambodia since the beginnning of recorded history. During the next centuries the culture of Cambodia was influenced by the civilisations of India and Java. Th Funan (1st to 6 th century) and the Chenla Kingdoms (7-8th century) were followed by the Ankorian era(9th to 15 th century). In the 10th century Ankor became the seat of the Khmer Empire. During the glory years of Angkor, Buddhism was the predominant religeon. Todady we just have a glimps into the vast political, religious and social center of the ancient empire. Angkor was a city that at it's zenith, housed a population of over a million when London was still just a small town of 50 000. Only the gods had the privaledge to dwell in structures of brick and stone, so not much is left to tell the tale of the wooden houses, palaces and public buildings.
So in 1113 Suryavarman II started with the construction of Anngkor Wat, today the world's largest religious building. It is dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu. After a surprise attack from the Chams (which is a lost kingdom today) they occupy the city of Angkor for 4 years. The Chams got defeated and the new leader, Jayaverman VII was crowned in 1181. He is still viewed by many Cambodians as their greatest leader. He was responsible for building the city of Ankor Thom and many other massive monuments. Unfortunately, after the era of the so called God King, the riches of the land became exhausted, deforestation was the main cause for the silting up of the 'hydrolic city' of Angkor. It is said to have had the most extensive and advanced canal and underground water system known to man, streatching over 1000km2. (We witnessed some of the most elaborate in size, man-made lakes and islands.)
In the 16th century the Khmer Kingdom was finally moved south to he region of Phnom Penh. Ankor was too exposed to the elements of nature, too close to the expanding Thai kingdoms and a new setting on the rivers of the Tonle Sap and Mekong would create better conditions for trade with China. At it's hayday, the city of Angkor expanded over 3000km2. Not much but a few hundred temples survived the centuries....and this was why Angkor was included into our itinerary!!!
Our Lonely Planet guidebook's introduction to Angkor: " with the epic proportions of the Great Wall of China( check!), the intricate detail of the Taj Mahal ( still waiting for us!) and the symbolism and symetry of the Pyramids in Egypt ( not this time) all rolled into one."
Under statement...I was EXCITED!!
Thomas introduced us to Mr Suchea and his neat little tuk-tuk and we struck up a wonderful relationship with this gentle and generous taxi driver. We negatiated some deals and booked his services for our 5 days in the North. Again following some good advice from our guidebook, we decided to leave the BIG MAMA for last. It is possible to get a 3 day ticket, to be used over a week, so with a map of the temples of Angkor we were good to go.
On our first day we did the small circle, excluding Angkor Wat. We went straight to the Bayon, which is in the heart of Angkor Thom. As the last empire of the Khmer stronghold, Angkor Thom took munumental to a new dimention, 10km2!! Jayavarman VII, built this city as reaction to the surpise sacking of Angkor by the Chams (1181-1219). With the great scale of the causeway, moat, the towering gates he decided that his empire will never be vulnerable at home. So at the heart of Angkor Thom is the Bayon, the state temple of Jayavarman VII. The 54 gothic towers are decorated with 216 faces of a Hindu god that bears resemblance to the king himself. Quite a breathtaking building!!
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| Can you spot a few of the faces?? |
We exit the Angkor Thom complex through the East ( Victory) gate. The lovely green gras of th Chau Say Tevoda temple provided us with a lovely lunch time picnic spot and some facy back drop for a game of : What's the time Mr Wolf!!
We manadge to convince the kiddo's to explore " one more temple", Ta Prohm. (Over the next few days, this phrase became legendary!!!) This was the temple I was most looking forward to explore. I've seen many pictures of people posing infront of these tree-root covered ruins over the years, and this was what I was after!! Built in 1186, Ta Promh is a temple of towers, enclosed courtyards and narrow corridors. We were tracing in the footsteps (together with the other 3000 visitors) of ancient explorers. Indiana Jones would have been proud of us!!!
On day two Mr Suchea took us further afield to the Ladies Temple of Banteay Srei. This jewel is cut from pinkish stone and includes some the of most delicate and finest carvings to be found on earth. Round about 23km norht of Angkor, it took us almost and hour in the tuk- tuk to reach it, but 100% worth it!!
On the way there we made a stop at a Butterfly world. Our tourguide, Simon, took us on an very informative excursion into the lifecycle of the butterfly. They harvest the eggs, keep them away from the preditor insects in tiny little plastic boxes. Once the catipillars spin themselves into a cocoon, the cocoon's get super glued to a stick and put into the pupa cuboard. After 3 weeks the butterflies are released into the garden. We learned that a butterfly just live for 2 weeks. Awwww!!
On our way back to Siem Reap we made a quick stop at a palm sugar village. Here the men get sent up palmtrees to pick the fruit. The sap get drained into bamboo cups. Once a big quantity is collected it gets boiled over an open fire for a good few hours. If it gets to the desired consistency it gets poured over little leave-made forms. The fudge-like syrup set into the most delishous sweets. The 'packaging' to sell the treats in, are also natrually made out of woven leaves!!!
Just two more temples!!!!
On our way back we stopped at a temple that was recommended to us by our fellow guests, Svenya and Henrik, Preah Khan. This temple ended up being our all time Angkor favorite. Mr Suchea was kind enough to mind the 3 fed-up children, while Alana came to explore with us. Even bigger than Ta Prohm, but in a more derelect state, with huge trees towering over the walls, small little dark corridors and fine carvings, it just captivated us. It was now late afternoon, the light was golden, other tourists few and the beautiful forest sounds took me right back to the 10th century. With no distraction, we really enjoyed exploring al the nooks and crannies, scrambled over big stones and just sat quietly. Beautiful!!
Our loast stop was at Preah Neak Poan, 12 century giant "water park". JayavermanVII let his imagination rip, with an humongus man made lake, a little causeway over, then a man-made island inside a smaller squared lake, with four smaller squared lakes surrounding this......all inside the huge lake. Crazy, I know!!!! Thanks again to Mr Suchea and his amazing babysitting services.. a sweet few childless minutes of exploring...luxuary!!!
Enough of temples. The kids were really enjoying the free play in the lovely tree filled garden of Channa's. Thomas offered to watch them, while Arno and I cycled into Siem Reap for a few essentials!! Later on the afternoon of day 3, Arno took us all for a sqeemish 'treat' at Dr Fish. We got our feet 'massaged'( bitten off!!!) by a crazy lot of mennace fish. The kids struck it lucky with the little fish tank, but I had to put my feet into a tank filled with VERY hungry HUGE monsters. I was the first to stick my feet in the tank and the fish were nearly jumping out of the tank in eagerness to get knibbling at my dead skin. This kind of slightly freak me out...for good reason!!! It was the most ticklish... no that is not the accurate descriptive word for it..... freaky-outy experience I had to persevere!!!! I just could not believe the owner, when she told me: "You'll get used to it!" Sure enough, after 5 minutes of severe torture, it actually became very enjoyable!!!!
And then it was D-Day!!! Arno and I started our day at 5am, to streatch our experience of Angkor Wat from sunrise to the setting of the sun!! We cycled the 30min by torch light on a very busy narrow access road, but we were not on our own..."tourist town" were awake and moving. Plenty of busses, tuk-tuks and other cyclist were making their way over to witness the specticle of nature. We arrived just fore 6am and found a nice spot to settle down and to enjoy the "show". It was just breathtaking to witness the day coming alife behind the towering delicate monuments of stone. Spectacular!! When all the "sunrisers" made their way back to their hotels and guesthouses, we grabbed the opportunity to explore the Khmer national symbol. Unlmlie the other eAngkor monuments, it as never abandoned to the elements and has more or less been in use since it was built in 1113.
Angkor Wat is surrounded by a mout, 190m wide. Surrounding the main temple complex, is a an 800m-loong series of bas-reliefs. Its reccommended to view them in an anti-clockwise direction. The symetric towers are joined in unity by 31m central tower, which rises over the others from the third level. Access to the third level is between 7:30am to 4:30pm. The rest of the temple is open to be explored from sunrise to 5:30pm. We tagged along guides and their customers, eaves drop..... wander further along quiet majestic hide-a-ways. The sandstone blocks which Angkor was built with, were quarriedore than 50km away and floated down the Stung Siem Reap on floats. At the que of our rumbling tummies we asked a few helpful guides before we could allowcate the one and only smiling(with teeth!!!) apsara. It took us a while, but this was in preparation for the treasure hunt planned for later in the day. We needed a few tricks up our sleeves to end our visit to the temples of Angkor on a high note!!
When Mr Suchea came to pick us up, even Nina caught on to the joke of: Only one more temple!!! Noooooooooo, at least with a smile!!! (Mr Suchea, with a big grin on his smily face, would greet her everytime with these words, even when he came to pick us up for dinner or finally taking us to the bus station!!!)
We had the most enjoyable afternoon together with the little explorers. I've picked up enough interesting facts during the morning, listening to other guides as we were passing them, to keep the kids intersted. Alana pretended to be 12 and joined Arno on the thrid level, while the rest of us took silly pics amongst the greatest back drop. I took and shoulder covering t-shirt along, not thinking that my shorts might not cut it in Buddha-land. Never mind, once Arno and Alana came down the VERY steep steps, they encourage me to go up high as well...I changed into the bigger t-shirt,and pulled the other strappy one on like a dress! Problem solved!!!
And the grand finale...finding the smiling apsara!!
Sunrise to sunset. A day burned into our memory bank.
One more temple........
1 comment:
Baie interessant! Dankie vir die tyd en moeite om julle journey met ons te deel!
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