We made it to Cambodia...Siem Reap

Time to head to the Laos-Cambodia border and tackle the scams and hassles that we have heard and read about, so we took the boat across to the mainland, up to the bus station and off we go...

We got through the Laos border with no problem, some people were asked for extra money because it was a Sunday so the guards were working overtime and wanted an overtime fee! This is a very lucrative job! We weren't asked so we paid our 2 dollar stamping fee and walked through. 

Then as we approach the Cambodian border there are lots of people in a medical tent shouting at us saying we need a medical check, another scam so we walked on by. They were yelling GO BACK to Laos but we went on. Filled out our visa application, paid our money then had to wait at another blue building to get our arrival and departure cards, so here we are in the hot sun for 45 minutes while the guards process the people who paid them extra and made us wait! But after we got our passports returned we went through, found our minivan and then on the way to Siem Reap...not as bad as we thought!

The beginning of the trip was on horrible roads, no pavement and full of ruts, but we finally got on the newer road and made it safely. The very old Cambodian lady sitting across from me offered me some of her snacks...I politely declined.

We paid a little extra for a nicer guesthouse with a pool as it seems we can get more quality for our money here in Cambodia. 

It was located 2km out of the main Center of the city so they provided us with a tuk tuk to get back and forth when we needed it...

The next day we enjoyed the pool as it is very hot here, maybe the hottest month of the year with everyday reaching 40C, even the locals are complaining about the heat! After that we went in search of a haircut as we haven't had one since Thailand....

Don's turned out well, mine not so much so when we went back to the room Don took his beard trimmer to my head...I look like a monk...but my head feels so much better!

Siem Reap is a small city which is growing quickly as it is the gateway to Angkor Wat. It gets millions of visitors a year and the city is trying to keep up with the demand so there were tourists everywhere...

In the centre of the city is the Old Market area where Don went looking for a pair of Columbia shorts made in Cambodia, he was out of luck as the only ones we found were knock offs from China. The tag on them might be a clue, notice what it says...

The Market was very similar to the other ones we have seen on our travels with sections for locals and goods for tourists...

The fish market was fresh as these crabs were crawling up the sides trying to escape...

Lots of textiles here...

There are no taxis in this town so the place is full of tuk tuks...

The town is separated by a river with nice shaded walkways on each side...

It was so hot here that everyone was seeking shade like this group of high school students outside their school.

At night the city became quite lively with a Night Market...

Great food options like this seafood BBQ...

There was also a Pub Street filled with restaurants and bars...

By day...

By night...

To make it more appealing to visit a large bottle of cold draft beer was 50 cents and passion fruit mojitos were 2 dollars!

So we did enjoy the town a lot but one of the main reasons we came was to visit Angkor Wat, one of the largest religious sites in the world and is located about 5 miles from town. It was built by the Khmer people in the 12th century as a Hindu monument and was later used by the Buddhists. It was written about by a French explorer who saw it in a state of abandonment in the mid 19th century and since then it has been in a constant state of repair and restoration.

We went out to visit it at sunset so began by walking up the mountain...

And then waiting in line to climb the temple as there are only 300 people allowed at one time...

The sunset was not spectacular as it was cloudy but it was still great to be there...

The next morning we were up at 5am to make it out to the site for sunrise, again not a spectacular one and not captured well by my dying camera! 

There were lots of others doing the same...

These people were inside the walls to view the sunset but the lake there was almost dry.

After that we spent the morning viewing the bigger temples and some of the smaller ones, the first being Angkor Wat...

Angkor Wat (meaning “City Temple”) is the most magnificent and largest of all Angkor temples. The structure occupies and enormous site of nearly 200 hectares (494 acres). A huge rectangular reservoir surrounds the temple which rises up through a series of three rectangular terraces to the central shrine and tower at a height of 213 meters (669 feet). This arrangement reflects the traditional Khmer idea of the temple mountain, in which the temple represent Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Hinduism.

There are over 3000 asperas or heavenly nymphs carved throughout the temple...

And altars to be worshipped at...

Temples to be climbed, I was not allowed up as my sleeveless dress was deemed indecent even though I had a scarf to cover my shoulder so Don made the climb...

Great views...

This temple is also surrounded by a thick wall with many interesting details...

Some of the relief on the mural...

As we were leaving the sun was just up over the temple...

Angkor Wat complex is believed to be the largest pre-industrial city in the world and it is close to 1000 sq kilometres with only a fraction of it excavated. So in order to see the most famous temples we needed a tuk tuk driver to get from temple to temple...

The Bayon temple features a sea of over 200 massive stone faces looking in all direction. The curious smiling faces, thought by many to be a portrait of king Jayavarman VII himself or a combination of him and Buddha, are an instantly recognizable image of Angkor. Built in the 12th century by King Jayavarman VII as part of a massive expansion of his capital Angkor Thom, the Bayon is built at the exact center of the royal city. The Bayon is the only state temple at Angkor built primarily as a Mahayana Buddhist shrine dedicated to the Buddha. Following Jayavarman’s death, it was modified by later Hindu and Theravada Buddhist kings in accordance with their own religious beliefs.

It was my favourite temple!

And of course we had to go to the Tomb Raider temple...

Ta Prohm is undoubtedly the most atmospheric and photogenic ruin at Angkor, with trees growing out of the ruins. Here you can still experience an India Jones moment and feel like an early explorer. If Angkor Wat and other temples are a testimony to the genius of the ancient Khmers, Ta Prohm equally reminds us of the awesome power of the jungle.

Built from 1186, Ta Prohm was a Buddhist temple dedicated to the mother of Jayavarman VII. It is one of the few temples in Angkor where an inscription provides information about the temple’s inhabitants. The temple was home to more than 12,500 people, including 18 high priests, while an additional 80,000 khmers, living in the surrounding villages, were required to maintain the temple. The inscription also notes that the temple contained gold, pearls and silks. After the fall of the Khmer empire in the 15th century, the temple was abandoned and swallowed up by the jungle.

 Giant roots everywhere but still beautiful...

The temple is in a state of disrepair as is a lot of Angkor Wat and it makes us wonder if a poor country like Cambodia can ever restore it as it deserves to be.

Those are three of the most visited temples but there were lots of others which we visited but the heat of the day got to us and we ended our day earlier than expected. Here are a few other sites...

Even though it wasn't a long visit we did get to experience this special place and recognized the need for it's preservation before it is over visited and beyond repair.

The one other place we visited was a floating village on Tonle Sap Lake which is the largest lake in SE Asia and about 20kms outside Siem Reap. The tuk tuk driver suggested the short visit and I didn't read up on it before we left...BIG MISTAKE! 

Again we were up early to avoid the hot sun and drove to the lake along very dusty roads...

We did pass some Lotus farms where the plant is grown for it's flower and it's fruit...

When we got there the tickets for the boat ride were 20 dollars each which we thought was expensive but we had come a long way and it would be a couple of hours on the lake so we bought them and proceeded to be guided to a small boat just two of us and an unannounced guide joined us...

Our boat was the little brown one...

He started in with the sad story of how his parents had died in the typhoon and he had to look after his 8 siblings. Typhoon I asked? When was this? 2014. Oh, I had never heard of it... No, says the guide the government doesn't want the world to know because they do nothing for us. Hmmm!

It is dry season so the channel to the lake was very low, just one meter when during the rainy season the lake rises 10 meters to the top of pole in the picture below.

Some scenes as we passed...

Fishing...

Very poor looking houses...

Boats are the only means of transport.

Then we got to the lake and the village...

The villagers are Camodian, Vietamese and Muslim people who make their living by fishing and tourism

These are areas where they fish.

Children begging, this one with a snake around his neck...

Hands out for money, we see this everywhere in Cambodia.

The guide then asked us if we would like to visit the school and the attached orphanage where the 350 children left orphaned by the typhoon were living. Okay we said and then he suggested that we might  stop by the community store to buy some rice as a gift...

So we get out, go in and are greeted by the owner who tells us one bag of rice will feed the orphans for one day and it costs 50 dollars!!! Right away we knew this wasn't right and said it was too expensive and we weren't buying it. But the poor children? So we did buy a small bag out of the goodness of our hearts but felt it was a scam as the same bag of rice is probably bought many times a day by gullible tourists like us!

Here is the guide with our bag of rice..

And then he tells us if we wanted to go around the village a bit more he would charge us another 10 dollars in a smaller boat because the water was low. We said we weren't spending any more money and said NO.

So over to the school we go...

No way did 350 orphans live there and it seemed the teachers were also in on the scam with the rice cooking in the corner...

But the children were beautiful...

So the whole experience left a bad taste in our mouth for yet another scam to get tourists to part with their money, to make a few people rich and the rest are still poor.

When we got back to the hotel I spent some time trying to find out about this typhoon but there wasn't one, there weren't orphans and no bag of rice in Camodia costs 50 dollars! So live and learn and hopefully try to avoid the next scam!

Overall though we enjoyed our stay in Siem Reap and had a reliable tuk tuk driver who was always there on time even at 5 in the morning!

We also connected with our new Scottish friends that we met on the boat coming into Laos and spent our last evening on Pub Street enjoying each other's company. One of the beauties of travel are the people we meet and Sharon,Ben and Joan Lily are just wonderful!

So on to our next stop the capital of Cambodia, Phenom Pneh!