When I proposed to my friends that we conclude a lavish holiday in South-East in a nondescript country like Cambodia, the idea wasn't met with much enthusiasm. More so because we wanted to spend a rare holiday cajoling our senses and getting spoiled in every conceivable way. But the enigma of this forgotten nation was enough to make me convince a change of plans. Few know that Siem Reap was a nerve center of Hinduism and a majestic city of a million people when Paris was merely a 500 people community. It was a mammoth settlement spread over a 1000sq km with temples and libraries and such, which were lost to the world until Angelina Jolie's Lara Croft brought the irresistibly beautiful and enigmatic ruins to limelight again. They were stories carved in stone, forgotten but vivid. And I needed to read them.
The trouble was, getting to Siem Reap wasn't quite as easy as deciding to go there and it took some serious effort to figure out a reasonable way.* Little did we know, when we crossed the Thai-Cambodian border at Aranyaprathet-Poipet, that two days in this enchanted Water Kingdom would leave us exhausted but still wanting evermore!
Cambodia is as different as it can be from any of its neighbors. The moment you enter, you've got to switch sides on the road. Thailand, being the English colony drives on the left, while French influenced Cambodians on the right. The countryside is vast plateaus which seem to be devoid of human interference with nature. The sky takes a wonderfully clear blue color untainted by pollution and you could see miles into the distance, and wherever you look, the horizon is a lovely interplay of green land & blue skies. The 3 hr journey from Poipet to Siem Reap passes in no time!
We reached Siem Reap around 6 PM. The first thing one notices on entering this conspicuously tourist town is the number of "heritage" hotels that line the streets right till the Sivatha Boulevard (the city center). While the original plan for us was to stay in a home-stay since we wanted to touch a little more of the local life, our home-stay turned out to be a dingy place quite some distance away from the town. A rapid search on Agoda.com (which runs quite brilliant weekend offers) landed us in the massive rooms of Somadevi Angkor Resort for $40 each.
Just like any other Asian tourist center, Siem Reap is also a bustling town at night. Sparkling lights shower the street-side food joints which boast of exotic meats and intense flavors. The night market a short distance away from the boulevard is perhaps the best place to haggle with the shop-keepers (and flirt with the pretty ones) for your souvenirs. With bright colorful silk and cotton concoctions lining the alleys, interspersed with artifacts and handicrafts, the night market charms you instantly. Street-side shopping in Asia is a lot more about the experience and a lot less about the shopping. The adventure in haggling for that last penny, which both the shop-keeper can let go and you can easily spare, is what makes for the true experience of these markets. So even though the bargaining could bring down the prices by 80% leaving you completely boggled about a fair price and you simply cannot put any faith in the quality of the silks, you find yourself stuck with far too many souvenirs and trinkets. Along with our share of over-indulgence we picked up some feathery light cotton clothing in preparation for next day's hot and humid trip around temples of Angkor and closed the day with some (disappointing) Indian food in Hospital Road restaurants.
Cambodia witnessed a transition from Hinduism to Theravada Buddhism, both faiths originating in its distant cousin India. And in some way temples of Angkor are like pages of history, which have been written, scratched clean and written over again to record this mesmeric transition from one faith to another. A few of the temples of Angkor were originally dedicated to the Hindu Gods but with the ascent of Buddhism were reconsecrated to Buddhism. Notably Angkor Wat, which is perhaps the most important of all Khmer temples was devoted to Hindu God Vishnu (The God of Preservation and perhaps the most revered amongst his trinity peers Brahma, the Creator & Shiva, the Destroyer) but somewhere in the 13th century moved to Buddhist use. As we started for the temples next morning, we planned to visit Angkor Wat & Angkor Thom, Bayon, Baphuon and Preah Khan. While this was an ambitious plan, we wanted to put our solo day to full use and pigged off of an impressive breakfast spread at our hotel to ensure we were ready for the long day.
Pao our driver and guide, picked us up and quickly guided us through the ticketing and brought us to Angkor Wat before sun-rise. Unfortunately a cloudy day prevented us from witnessing a trademark sight of Angkor Wat with a backdrop of the rising sun). Even without the Sun, the sight of this massive temple in the distance, and knowing it has stood here for a 1000 years witnessing kings and then their scions learn, grow, and perish and dynasties rise and fall, fills you with awe. Standing there we made a futile attempt to imagine the processions of hoards of people who would have come here over the last millennium. To imagine how they prayed, how it'd feel to be one of them bowing in complete devotion to a higher power, the sort of undeterred, untarnished devotion that we and our generation may not be able to imagine, let alone experience. It was the kind of devotion that makes fathers and sons and then their sons toil for over 2 centuries to build this mammoth structure brick after brick after brick, knowing a generation in the far distance would get to bow in silence and maybe one lucky son or daughter in some divine moment would witness God.
For wonders of architecture which withstood a 1000 years, these temples were almost entirely reclaimed by the jungles in the short era of Pol Pot, Kampuchea's notorious dictator in a short rule of 3 years. Pol pot contrived to wipe out even the last trace of Cambodia's rich heritage. In 3 years, Pol Pot's armies, destroyed every symbol of intellect, arts, culture or history and even religion and in a first of its kind systematic genocide of the intellectuals, attempted to erase thousands of years of history. Angkor survived. Which is why these phenomenal structures, today, tell more than a mere tale of history. In a simple twist of fate, Cambodia has started to build itself again around these temples, both literally and figuratively. Siem Reap is one of the world's leading tourist destinations and accounts for a great portion of Cambodia's earnings. The symbol of Angkor has come to be connected to with all things suggesting at a resurrection, whether it is a local brewery or an airline. The hope in the eyes of a silent teenager, sitting in the temples of Angkor, the silent determination as he toils away at his English Language Guide....that is Angkor.
*There are three ways to get to Siem Reap from Bangkok, you could fly directly from Bangkok to Siem Reap but Bangkok Airways has a monopoly over the flight routes and charges a bomb (figure this, the return flight was 40% more expensive than our return flight from India to Bangkok). You could save about $100 if you chose to fly to Phonom Penh instead but increase your travel time to about 10-12 hrs including the flight since the road to Siem Reap is a two-lane highway with a lot of traffic. The last and final option was to take an early morning 3rd Class ticket on the passenger train to Aranyaprathet-Poipet broder, walk across and catch a taxi to Siep Reap making the trip in about 10 hrs. However the train has only seating accommodation and you have to stand in the queue really early since there is no pre-booking.
A good option is to make Pattaya your last stop and make for Aranyaprathet. An 8:30 1st class air-con bus, with a built in wash-room, leaves from the North Pattaya Bus Stand, for ist final destination: Mukdahan. It would drop you at Aranyaprathet in 5 odd hours with enough time on your hands to cross the border, catch a taxi and reach Siem Reap before sun-down. We reached Aranyaprathet and walked straight to the border. Having already done our E-visas, we were able to avoid umpteen touts offering a quick visa and finished the immigration process in about 20 minutes. We soon picked up a taxi ($35 for the one way drop, although I thought we were rather lucky to manage that price) and Pao, our driver would accompany us for the rest of our trip in Siem Reap.
PS. We also requested Pao to drop us to the Phnom Penh airport from our hotel in Siem Reap. The one way trip costing us $50 for a comfortable drive.
Update: Cambodia and Thailand now allow a single tourist visa.
The trouble was, getting to Siem Reap wasn't quite as easy as deciding to go there and it took some serious effort to figure out a reasonable way.* Little did we know, when we crossed the Thai-Cambodian border at Aranyaprathet-Poipet, that two days in this enchanted Water Kingdom would leave us exhausted but still wanting evermore!
Cambodia is as different as it can be from any of its neighbors. The moment you enter, you've got to switch sides on the road. Thailand, being the English colony drives on the left, while French influenced Cambodians on the right. The countryside is vast plateaus which seem to be devoid of human interference with nature. The sky takes a wonderfully clear blue color untainted by pollution and you could see miles into the distance, and wherever you look, the horizon is a lovely interplay of green land & blue skies. The 3 hr journey from Poipet to Siem Reap passes in no time!
We reached Siem Reap around 6 PM. The first thing one notices on entering this conspicuously tourist town is the number of "heritage" hotels that line the streets right till the Sivatha Boulevard (the city center). While the original plan for us was to stay in a home-stay since we wanted to touch a little more of the local life, our home-stay turned out to be a dingy place quite some distance away from the town. A rapid search on Agoda.com (which runs quite brilliant weekend offers) landed us in the massive rooms of Somadevi Angkor Resort for $40 each.
Just like any other Asian tourist center, Siem Reap is also a bustling town at night. Sparkling lights shower the street-side food joints which boast of exotic meats and intense flavors. The night market a short distance away from the boulevard is perhaps the best place to haggle with the shop-keepers (and flirt with the pretty ones) for your souvenirs. With bright colorful silk and cotton concoctions lining the alleys, interspersed with artifacts and handicrafts, the night market charms you instantly. Street-side shopping in Asia is a lot more about the experience and a lot less about the shopping. The adventure in haggling for that last penny, which both the shop-keeper can let go and you can easily spare, is what makes for the true experience of these markets. So even though the bargaining could bring down the prices by 80% leaving you completely boggled about a fair price and you simply cannot put any faith in the quality of the silks, you find yourself stuck with far too many souvenirs and trinkets. Along with our share of over-indulgence we picked up some feathery light cotton clothing in preparation for next day's hot and humid trip around temples of Angkor and closed the day with some (disappointing) Indian food in Hospital Road restaurants.
Cambodia witnessed a transition from Hinduism to Theravada Buddhism, both faiths originating in its distant cousin India. And in some way temples of Angkor are like pages of history, which have been written, scratched clean and written over again to record this mesmeric transition from one faith to another. A few of the temples of Angkor were originally dedicated to the Hindu Gods but with the ascent of Buddhism were reconsecrated to Buddhism. Notably Angkor Wat, which is perhaps the most important of all Khmer temples was devoted to Hindu God Vishnu (The God of Preservation and perhaps the most revered amongst his trinity peers Brahma, the Creator & Shiva, the Destroyer) but somewhere in the 13th century moved to Buddhist use. As we started for the temples next morning, we planned to visit Angkor Wat & Angkor Thom, Bayon, Baphuon and Preah Khan. While this was an ambitious plan, we wanted to put our solo day to full use and pigged off of an impressive breakfast spread at our hotel to ensure we were ready for the long day.
Pao our driver and guide, picked us up and quickly guided us through the ticketing and brought us to Angkor Wat before sun-rise. Unfortunately a cloudy day prevented us from witnessing a trademark sight of Angkor Wat with a backdrop of the rising sun). Even without the Sun, the sight of this massive temple in the distance, and knowing it has stood here for a 1000 years witnessing kings and then their scions learn, grow, and perish and dynasties rise and fall, fills you with awe. Standing there we made a futile attempt to imagine the processions of hoards of people who would have come here over the last millennium. To imagine how they prayed, how it'd feel to be one of them bowing in complete devotion to a higher power, the sort of undeterred, untarnished devotion that we and our generation may not be able to imagine, let alone experience. It was the kind of devotion that makes fathers and sons and then their sons toil for over 2 centuries to build this mammoth structure brick after brick after brick, knowing a generation in the far distance would get to bow in silence and maybe one lucky son or daughter in some divine moment would witness God.
*There are three ways to get to Siem Reap from Bangkok, you could fly directly from Bangkok to Siem Reap but Bangkok Airways has a monopoly over the flight routes and charges a bomb (figure this, the return flight was 40% more expensive than our return flight from India to Bangkok). You could save about $100 if you chose to fly to Phonom Penh instead but increase your travel time to about 10-12 hrs including the flight since the road to Siem Reap is a two-lane highway with a lot of traffic. The last and final option was to take an early morning 3rd Class ticket on the passenger train to Aranyaprathet-Poipet broder, walk across and catch a taxi to Siep Reap making the trip in about 10 hrs. However the train has only seating accommodation and you have to stand in the queue really early since there is no pre-booking.
A good option is to make Pattaya your last stop and make for Aranyaprathet. An 8:30 1st class air-con bus, with a built in wash-room, leaves from the North Pattaya Bus Stand, for ist final destination: Mukdahan. It would drop you at Aranyaprathet in 5 odd hours with enough time on your hands to cross the border, catch a taxi and reach Siem Reap before sun-down. We reached Aranyaprathet and walked straight to the border. Having already done our E-visas, we were able to avoid umpteen touts offering a quick visa and finished the immigration process in about 20 minutes. We soon picked up a taxi ($35 for the one way drop, although I thought we were rather lucky to manage that price) and Pao, our driver would accompany us for the rest of our trip in Siem Reap.
PS. We also requested Pao to drop us to the Phnom Penh airport from our hotel in Siem Reap. The one way trip costing us $50 for a comfortable drive.
Update: Cambodia and Thailand now allow a single tourist visa.
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