countries biggest tourist draw, and we were keen to put the irritations
of the border crossing behind us and get to the town of Siem Reap
(following a 3 hour bus journey) which everyone uses as a base for
visiting the temples.
Siem Reap is an unashamedly touristy town, with
lots of accomodation (we stayed at the excellent, friendly Rosy's Guest
house), and stacks of ood value places to eat, with Kymer (ethnic
Cambodian) and Western options on every street.
The temples
themselves are of largely Hindu origin, and range from 900 AD to about
1200AD. There are hundreds things that set them apart from other temple
visits but the most noticeable are the size of the temples, and the
number of them. I'm sure that it would be possible to spend weeks in
the area and not see the same temple twice.
Needless to say the most
centrepiece of the area is the Angkor Wat temple, which is of course
massive in floor plan, and is also set of four levels, which are
accessible via seeming vertical staircases. For many however the most
impressive feature are the wall carvings on the interior of the temple,
which feature scenes from Hindu Legends.
As well as battle scenes,
there is also a depiction of the "Churning of the Sea of Milk". In this
scene, a giant serpent is used to churn a sea of milk into an elixir of
life (there are hundreds of people holding it either end, and the sea
is full of fish and crocodile like animals). Its such a far out story
you can't help but wonder if it has been concocted by some over zealous
tourism officials......
After visiting Angkor Wat, the next big
tourist draw is Ta Phrom, which is a temple that has been partially
restored, but also where much of the forest vegetation has been left
insitu. The result is that there are enormous trees everywhere, growing
in a scarcely credible manner around the rocks placed by people almost
a millenia ago.
To get around we hired a couple of bikes from the
guest house, and not only did we get very cheap transport, but we also
got some excercise as well. To get to the further temples we travelled
with Mr Thorne, who expertly drove his lightweight 125cc "moto",
complete with trailer and three westerners on board for $30 for an all
day trip. He also took us to the Cambodian Landmine Musuem, which
proved to be a very moving tribute to victims of the "Killing field"
period of Cambodian history, and also to the victims of the legacy left
behind in the form of still present land mines and unexploded
ordinance. The museums founder is a Cambodian called "Aki Ra", who as a
child in the 1970's was a Kymer Rouge soldier (whilst I was having fun
in london at a similar age....), and has spent the past twenty years or
so trying to rid Cambodia of the mines. As you can imagine the "I'm not
worthy" feeling was difficult to avoid.
A couple of thanks are also
due now:
Elisabeth who was also staying at Rosy's Guest house allowed
us to tag along on a couple of days, and proved to be an excellent
impromptu tour guide, much more organized and knowledgeable than either
of us!
Chuckles - thanks for sorting out the remote link to the blog.
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