AFT (Another f***ing temple)

Just kidding, of course, but that's what we started saying after an intense few days visiting the temples of Siem Reap :-)

The temples of Angkor near Siem Reap, Cambodia, were one of my "must see's" when I started planning this trip. I'd heard about this place for the 1st time in a "Making of Lara Croft" type show of all places, since part of the movie was filmed here. I then saw a documentary about Angkor and my fate was sealed! I would go there one day!

Since I was traveling to Siem Reap with Silke and Hanna, my plan was to spend the first 3 days seeing whatever they wanted to see, then take a break and go back to see more temples further afield on my own. They were only staying here 3-4 days, while I had a whole week I could give to this place (I love not having a schedule!!!).

The only way to get to the temples is to hire a tuk-tuk or motorcycle taxi, or to bike there yourself. Since there were 3 of us, it was cheaper and more practical to share the costs of a tuk-tuk. Not too mention that you'd have to pay me a lot of money to ride a bike in this chaotic traffic anyways. Our first evening in Siem Reap, after our *interesting* bus trip, we hopped in our tuk-tuk and went to view the sunset from atop a small mountain/hill temple. The 3 of us, plus a cast of THOUSANDS (mostly Japanese tourists, it seemed) watched the sun go down without much fanfare. As a side note, let me just say this: I seem to be doomed to see the most boring sunrises/sunsets at all the most interesting places. The more 'famous' the place, the crappier the sunrise/sunset. The most exciting this to happen at this sunset was me falling flat on my face yet again, just walking up the mountain...

The next day we attempted the 'small circuit', which we couldn't even finish. The temples are huge and you could spend hours at each. I took hundreds and hundreds of photos, and I've been told to keep only the 3 best of each temple. This seemed a bit harsh to me, but when you consider that I saw more than 20 temples, 60 photos of temples does seem a bit much. You'll see, you'll be saying AFT yourself after seeing the pictures. ;-)

It took 2 more days to complete the 'small circuit' and the 'grand circuit', with lots of stair climbing and Japanese tourist dodging. Of note: I yet again fell flat on my face (YES, AGAIN!!!) walking down from a temple this time. The same knee that got scraped the first day got scraped worse this time, with the added joy of a huge bruise. Anyone think I may be clumsy???

I won't really go into specifics about which temple was my favorite or what is a must see. That's left for everyone to see for themselves, cause this is definitely a place worth coming to. As I'm writing this almost a month after being in Siem Reap, I'm already wishing I could go back. I was feeling a bit 'off' when in Siem Reap, not in the best of traveling moods, so it would be good to go back again and see if I enjoy more. I'm sure I would...

Once the girls had gone, I did go back to see remote temples on my own. To do so, I had to bite the bullet and go for a new first for me: a motorcycle taxi. As you all probably know by now, I am the furthest thing from an adrenaline junkie. Just the opposite really (aka a big wuss). So it'll come as no suprise that I'd never ridden on a motorcycle, not even a scooter. The closest I came was when I was 7 or 8 and tried to drive a neighbor's moped. That ended with me dropping the moped and dragging half my body and the moped in gravel. No wonder I haven't been fond of 2-wheeled vehicules...

But when in Rome... There are about 6 billion motorcycles in South East Asia it seems, and Cambodia does have it's fair share. I couldn't bike to the temple I wanted to see (too far, too hot, too bloody dangerous, ...) and a tuk-tuk for 1 person is more expensive. So it's my cheapness that got me to hire a motorcycle taxi from my guesthouse. When I did so, I didn't expect the driver to be the owner's son, as he didn't really inspire confidence in me. He looked to be about 16 and the size of the average Canadian 11-year old, if that. That, plus the fact that the only road rules around here is that there are no rules, I wasn't really feeling great about the whole thing.

With all this in mind, I reluctantly got on the back of the motorbike and we headed off. No less than 5 times in the first 2 minutes did I almost ask the driver to stop. I was completely petrified, in actual mortal fear. Having nothing to hold on to, it felt like I would spontaneously eject from the motorbike and die a horrible death amidst the chaos of Cambodian traffic. I didn't know if grabbing on to the driver for dear life would be well received, so I tried to hold on to the seat beneath me. Besides, the driver was so tiny, I would have probably crushed him had I tried to hold on to him.

45 death-defying minutes later, I arrived safely at the temple. Never have I come so close to getting on all fours and kissing the ground. I was that happy to have stopped. As it was, my legs could barely hold me up once the adrenaline left my body. I needed a nap, or a drink, but preferably both. I got neither.

The temple was gorgeous, one of the more beautiful ones, but not big enough by half. I stretched my visit to a whole hour, and I'd been around the place twice already when my driver (aka the kid) asked me if I was ready to go. I wasn't, but didn't really have a choice.

Needless to say, since I've lived long enough to write about it :-), I survived the way back, but not without incident. The poor skinny little man/boy almost dropped the bike in front of his friends when I got on again (yes, I know, a very funny visual). He was very embarassed, so he in turn made fun of me to his other friends once we got back to the guesthouse. It's funny how easy it is sometimes to recognize that you're being laughed at, even when you don't speak the language. I said as much to the little man/boy and he at least had the decency to be embarassed. All-in-all, this hadn't been my favorite day so far, but like they say, it still beats going to work :-)

I spent the rest of my time in Cambodia visiting the capital, Phnom Penh. It's a big, sprawling place, with many tourist attractions revolving around the horrible years of war and genocide that happened in the 70's. While in Siem Reap, I'd read a book about a girl who'd survived the Khmer Rouge years, so I learned a bit about what happened and learned a lot more by visiting places like the S-21 prison as well as the Killing Fields (so called because it was the place were all but a dozen of the prisoners of S-21 were executed, plus thousands more). It's all heavy stuff, and people are still recovering from that time, so I can't really say Phnom Penh is a beautiful place in my eyes, but it is certainly very interesting. I learned a lot there.

And on a lighter note, I survived a few more motorcycle taxi rides, as well as got better at killing 3-inch long cockroaches and bedbugs in my less than stellar guesthouse. Gross.

Mini-bus ride from Hell?

After 10 days or so on Don Khon, I was starting to get antsy and felt it was time to go. I now had a choice to make, either 1) slowly make my way across Cambodia, stopping at a few places here and there before going to Siem Reap, or 2) heading straight there. Both had their pros & cons:
1) shorter bus rides, seeing more of Cambodia, going at my own pace
2) finally getting to see the Temples of Ankor, which I've been looking forward to for a good while, traveling with someone and sharing the costs.
I decided on option 2, the main factor being my friend Silke was also heading there and it would be more fun to see the Temples with someone. The biggest 'con' for this option was a biggie for me, a 1.5 day mini-bus ride to get from Laos to Siem Reap. Uggh.

Let me give you a feel for transportation in this part of the world, by recalling for you the 9 part journey. Be patient, it's a long post. But trust me, the trip was even longer....

1. Boat from Don Know to the mainland at Ban Nakassang (about 30 minutes). A lovely journey in Papa's boat, on a gloriously sunny morning. Made the trip along with a French couple heading to Thailand and Hanna, a Dutch girl also heading to Siem Reap. This part of the journey was preceded by more laos-Laos and blessings. Not bad for 8 o'clock in the morning!
2. Mini-bus to the Cambodian border (about 1.5 hours). Hanna and I met up with Silke at the mainland departure point. A lot of people were there already, all heading to different places in Cambodia (the border, Stung Treng, Kampong Cham, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh). We were none to quickly randomly dispatched into different mini-buses. Nothing so sophisticated as filling up mini-buses based on the destination, just a mad dash to fill them all up. And to paint you a better picture, the mini-buses in this part of the world are a van-type vehicule that usuallyhas seats for 11 passengers plus the driver (3 rows of 3, plus 2 in the front seat). The tour companies usually like to jam in a few extra people where they can, but that day I was to witness a new level of being jammed. But back to my story: Once comfortably seated in our 3 person row, in come more people so that we end up sitting 4 per row. Oh well, at least it's not far to the border...
3. Crossing the border (1 hour or so). The mini-bus stopped by a shack on the side of the dirt road. To be fair, they seem to be working on a new road, so a few years from now it should be nice. But for now, it was bumpy going. After a painless exit from Laos, we walk 200m down the road to get to the Cambodian border. This is officially no-man's-land, since we are no longer in Laos but not yet in Cambodia. All went well on the Cambodian side as well, except that I was a bit pissed off to learn that I could have just gotten my visa here for 20$ cheaper and in 5 minutes, instead of 3 days.
4. Border to Stung Treng (about 2 hours). We grabbed our luggage that had been unceremoniously dumped from the mini-van on the Cambodian side of the border, pushed it atop a new mini-van and hit the road. We are still cramped 4 to a row, but the mini-buses are getting more decrepit it seems...
5. Ferry crossing at Stung Treng (around 1 hour). Get off the bus, grab you luggage, pack it into yet another mini-bus, then walk to the ferry. Cross the river by ferry, standing along side the mini-bus with the luggage as well as the mini-bus we arrived in, now quite empty. Why? Good question. I couldn't figure it out, and no one would really explain it to us. But I just kept repeating my new mantra: Just go with the flow baby.
6. Stung Treng to Kratie (2 hours). Now were starting to talk about being seriously cramped. Yet another different, older mini-bus, that is already half-filled with cargo of some sort. Obviously the driver has a sideline in the shipping business or something... We are packed in, starting with the skinny people first, who are loaded into the back row. Since I've yet to be in the priviledged category of the skinny people of this world, I am quite happily sitting my fat-self in the middle row, with only 2 other people, albeit not skinny ones. For once, I am happy that my fatness gets me an advantage! But wait! Now that there are 4 skinny people jammed into the last row and 1 not-so-skinny person left to jam into the mini-bus, guess where he ends up? Of course, with the other not-so-skinny people in the middle row. That, plus the cargo piled up at our feet and the skinny ladies trying to push even more of it forward, made for a truly enjoyable ride. Oh joy!
7. Kratie to Kampong Cham (3.5 hours that felt like a lifetime...). Now by this time, you may imagine that my happy-go-lucky, go-with-the-flow attitude is starting to wear thin. You'd be right. I am tired, smelly and cranky, but thankfully this is the last part of the journey for today. Deep breath. Almost there. As I stand there waiting for the next mini-bus to arrive (why do we have to change buses at each stop?), I am wondering what could be in store for us next. The horribly decrepit van pulls up and we start piling in. Hanna, Silke and 1 snag the coveted first row, since they don't always pile in a 4th person there. Too narrow because of the door. Once we're well and truly packed, we notice that a group of 5 Japanese that were traveling with us all day are still hanging around, yet to be seated in a mini-bus. The driver points them in the direction of our mini-bus and a mini-revolt ensues. There is no-effin-way that we are fitting in 5 more people, say the rest of us, already seated. No way. The driver nods, smiles, and shoves 3 people in anyways. The only place available is a little foot ledge at the back of the front seats, facing the first row where the girls and I are seated. 5 minutes of fitting the puzzle pieces together, and we are now seated with our legs intertwined with the Japanese. I am basically doing the 'lambada' with an older Japanese man. Once on the road, all 6 of us shift our legs around every hour or so, to get circulation flowing again. Can I just say: thank god for my iPod? I zone out to the music and try to meditate my way through it. Not easy. And the other amazing part? Once at our destination, I see that 2 people are climbing off the top of the mini-van! One Cambodian man and one Westerner. They spent the 3+ hour trip hanging out with the luggage up top!
8. Day 2: Taxi to the bus station (5 minutes). After a restful night's sleep, sharing a room with the girls, we are rudely awoken at 6:30 AM by the tour operator who had met us at our last stop last night. He knocked on our door to tell us that the bus is leaving an hour earlier, so we need to take a taxi ($$$) with him in 30 minutes at the latest. We get ready, haul ass and get into the 'taxi', which just happens to be his car. We get to the bus station only to learn that no, the bus does not leave an hour earlier than expected. The best we could figure is that he needed more time to do the taxi service for everyone, so he got us to leave an hour earlier. The more taxi service he could do, the more money he made. Gotta love capitalism, right?
9. Final leg: A real bus, from Kampong Cham to Siem Reap (around 7 hours). The least noteworthy part of the journey was the last one, where we simply took a public bus to get to Siem Reap. Comfortable bus, not overfull. What a joy! We even had some Cambodian entertainment on TV. I couldn't understand a thing, but the Cambodians seem to love it! It kind of reminded me of 'La Petite Vie' from home. Not the type of humour that is easily translated in foreign languages...