Living the Dream on Xenia

After a short flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and then another short flight to Seam Reap, we arrived in Cambodia. We took a taxi to our hotel and were greeted as if we were royalty. We were given a welcome drink of iced tea made with ginger and lemon grass and a sweet rice dessert - you should have seen Pat’s face!! Our room wasn’t ready yet so they gave us a quick tour of the hotel facilities and we had lunch in the rooftop restaurant while we waited. We just finished when they came to get us and take us to our room. Turns out they upgraded us to a larger room with a balcony which we thought was great at the time. However, it turned out the room overlooked the main road which is very busy at all times of the day and night and was very noisy so good thing we had ear plugs. As it was Saturday, it was market night. We were surprised when we realized we were only about a 15 minute walk to the market and Pub Street which while not as crazy as Chiang Mai, was still pretty busy. They closed off the streets so everyone could wander everywhere and we only had to watch out for tuk tuks which are everywhere. We browsed through the stalls, bought a few things and went to get something to eat and drink. Pub Street is one block long and is lined with restaurant after restaurant all competing for your business. They sell Angkor draft beer for $.50 US and some cocktails for $2.00 so needless to say we had a few. We found a restaurant with comfy chairs so stopped for something to eat. Pat discovered Passionfruit Mojito’s which were really good (don’t think there was much booze in them though). We started talking with the group at the table next to us who were Australians. We spent a great couple of hours shooting the shit and then took a tuk tuk back to the hotel for $2.00. They tend to use US dollars to accommodate the tourists.

The next day we took a tour of the Angkor Archaeological Park. The Park is 155 square miles and is a UNESCO site in order to enable it to be protected from thievery and allow for the restoration of the temples. Our tour guide Kha seemed to be very knowledgeable, but his English wasn’t great and he spoke too fast so was hard to understand. We also found he repeated his facts over and over so after a while we stopped listening which is unfortunate as we probably missed a lot of info. Our first stop was the Angkor Wat Temple complex. This complex is about 1500 years old and is 5 square miles in size and surrounded by a moat and a wall. It was originally built as a Hindu temple, but transformed to a Buddhist temple when their new king converted it towards the end of the 12th century. There is a stone in the very middle of the complex which is referred to as the centre of the earth. The site is in various stages of remediation as the complex itself is deteriorating. You can also see evidence of theft as many of the heads on the statues are broken off an we were told have been sold on the black market. The pictures do not do justice to the magnitude and detail of the temples. Our next stop was to Ta Prohm which is the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed. Due to the popularity of Angelina Jolie and the movie, they have renamed the temple the Tomb Raider Temple. This temple is in a complete state of disrepair. There are large trees growing on top of the temple rocks and their roots can be seen finding their way to water through the large stones. Sad the site is disintegrating but very intoxicating at the same time. We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant which obviously has the contract for the tour buses. The place was packed and the food more expensive than on the street, but good none the less. After about an hour we were back on the bus to the Banyon Temple which we were told was built for the queen. This was our favourite due to the more intricate detail in the stone and the faces you can see in the towers. You can see where each new king came into reign as additions were made to add their own touch to the temple. While we wandered through the corridors which were more like rabbit warrens and appreciate all the stone work, we found the grandeur to be in the site itself as you stand back at look at it as a whole. Our final stop of the day was to Phnom Bakheng where the sunset is supposed to be fabulous. They only allow 300 people to the top of the temple as it is also not in great shape so you have to get there early. It was only about 4:00 pm but we hiked up to the top and tried to find some shade to hide from the sun until sunset. Our tour guide told us sunset was at 5:20 pm but when we checked we discovered it wasn’t until 6:15 pm. Group decision was to leave as it was very very hot and head back to town. There was a lineup as we left to climb to the top so glad we left as it probably would take us an hour to get down instead of about 15 minutes with the crowds after sunset. We were dropped off at our hotel, had quick showers and took a tuk tuk to Pub Street. In hind sight we should have booked a private tour as we would have learned more and better used our time. As we arrive at Pub Street we ran into Lennie, our new Australian friend who said he would go check with girls and catch up with us. We stopped for a wood fired pizza (which was really good) and some $.50 beers and Lennie, Kim and Sherry showed up. We moved on to another restaurant, had a few more drinks and then back to the hotel as we were exhausted from the heat. Today was supposedly 36 degrees Celsius but with the humidity probably closer to 39.

The next day we were picked up by Sam in a tuk tuk for a tour of the stilt village on the river and then out onto the lake. It was a dusty and slow ride as the tuk tuk’s in Cambodia are small motorcycles pulling carts that hold 4 people. The dirt here is red, very red and coats everything including you and your clothing. We wash our shoes in the shower every night and unfortunately leave red mud on the towels and the floor. They are probably used to it but we felt bad. We were able to see a lot along the way and Sam gave us lots of great info on the country and the people. His English was excellent and when we asked he said he went to private school where English is taught to everyone. It is currently the start of dry season so the river was very low. This meant we had to start the tour farther down the river as the boats otherwise run aground. We got into an old narrow river boat and began our journey down the muddy river and were put to shore at the stilt village. There are not words to explain what we encountered except poor and living a meager existence. The houses are for the most part built using logs as the stilts and the living space is either grass or wood/tin structures on top. In the rainy season, the river would be 4 meters higher than it currently was so that is why the structures seemed so tall. Glad I wasn’t climbing to the top with laundry and babies. This village only got electricity last year and most are still use ice for refrigeration. They are fisherman and preserve their fish by making fish cheese (the smell is horrendous) or smoking it. The village is only about 500 meters long with a temple right in the middle. There was a celebration going on while we were there but it looked like only about 100 people were there of a village of about 2000. We then got back into our boat and headed out of the river onto Tonle Sap Lake which is the largest lake in Cambodia. The lake is brown with mud so while enormous, has no redeeming quality. We were taken to a crocodile farm which was really nothing more than a floating restaurant with some crocodiles, crocodile products and food. We saw the caged animals and the crocodiles and while we understand why they pen them, it really sucked to see them. They farm crocodiles to sell the skin to China, Italy and France but eat the meat locally. We did try some and it tastes like tough chicken. We then took the hour ride back home, had showers and crashed. We were told the temperature today was 42 degrees Celcius. No wonder we were exhausted – really feeling the effects of the heat. We headed to Pub Street for some drinks and food but were back to the hotel early as Pat wasn’t feeling great. We watched some tv and early to bed.

Up early the next morning and off to Phnom Penh by bus……