| Jul 6, 2005 - Penom Pen is actually spelled Phnom Penh
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 | | show all 6 | | Monk walking in front of Royal complex in Phenom Penh | | This picture doesn't begin to capture the scale of Angkor Wat... | | After thousands of years, the details still shows | | |
| Who knew? The man who processed my Cambodia visa at the border pointed this out (without a word.) oops.
So our Mekong boat took us into Cambodia where we were picked up by a minivan. I think the tops of everyone's heads must've been bruised as this was the bumpiest paved road ride ever. There were some interesting temples along the way and we saw just miles of bright green rural Cambodia pass by. The main distinctions I noticed between this and other Southeast asian villages is that their houses are small wooden square buildings built on stilts (to protect from monsoon flooding) with animals living beneath and a watering hole in the front. Also, most of the women wear red and white checked Khmer scarves on their heads --at least 90% of the country are Khmer. (Paul just had to buy one of the scarves.)
We arrived an hour or so later in Phnom Penh and went to the riverfront area where we found a pretty cool room on a sixth floor with a great sunset view of the National museum. It was a picturesque waterfront area and I don't think we really expected such a cosmopolitan city. We spent the following day taking in the Grand Palace - similar to Thailand's royal complex with glittering white temples and pavilions with bright orange roofs and jeweled mosaics. We also visited the Tuol Sleng prison museum (torture chamber used by the Khmer Rouge and wacko Pol Pot.) Very somber. I've still yet to see the movie the Killing Fields, but am told it is a "must see" in combination with this visit.
Next we hopped on a bus to Siem Riep to check out Angkor Wat, about 6 hours away.
The bus was airconditioned, comfortable seats, karaoke videos for lively entertainment and we were even given bottled water and personal bakery boxes with two pastries each. (People, sometimes it's the little things that excite.) We stayed at a cool hotel in Siem Riep that helped us gear up for Bali, lush garden throughout with stylish bungalow overlooking the pool.
What can I say about Angkor Wat? (For those of you who don't know it is a grand ancient Khmer city -thousands of years old which was rediscovered in about 1846 by a French naturalist on a hike.) It is an ancient sprawl of temples, king's palace, monuments, etc. The scale of these gray stone structures is just massive not only today but especially given those times. There is still spectacular visible detail in larger than life stone carved faces and bas reliefs depicting warfare on the walls. My favorite was Ta Prom (sp?) an ancient monastery whose remaining architecture is literally being torn apart by the massive root systems of trees in the jungle that surrounds it. (see pix)
To save a lot of money, we decided to head back to Bangkok via 10 hour busride (to catch our flight the following day to Bali.) In Southeast Asia there are t-shirts for sale in most major cities that say "Same Same" on the front and "But Different" on the back. Now I'm going to give you a little Same Same, but Different story. We booked a bus from our modest hotel in Siem Riep and asked the reception if the bus was air conditioned, comfortable (like the bus we arrived in from Phnom Penh) given we were signing up for 10 hours. The typical response "Same Same"... The following day a shuttle picked us up at our hotel and toured Siem Riep packing the van with other tourists ultimately delivering us to the bus station. (In typical fashion when we were picked up in the shuttle we thought that was our bus to Bangkok and instead of asking just watched everything unfold...that's really all you can do in these situations.) After waiting just over an hour -standard third world scheduling -after several more shuttles full of people arrived we were told to get on the large rickety bus. Within minutes of firing up the engines the aircon. died and we all like sardines in a can were prying open the old windows for air circulation. To make matters worse our trip was over the most incredibly pocked dirt roads and it was a choice between being covered with and inhaling the ultrafine red silt coming through the windows or enduring overheating and suffocation with windows closed. We had the requisite breakdown lasting about an hour alongside the road. About 14 hours later exhausted, dirty and hungry we arrived in Bangkok. Same, same...BUT DIFFERENT.
It was a brief snapshot of Cambodia (we were there only about four days) but I liked what I saw because they have taken the best and worst of their country's history and put it on display for others to learn from and appreciate. |
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