Day 31: Getting Back to Bangkok

I’m back in Bangkok now. I left Koh Samui this morning, sadly, and flew back to the capital.  I decided to stay near the riverfront this time around, at the Sheraton by the Riverside Shopping Center where there are plenty of shops and restaurants.

Once I settled into my hotel I decided to take a local boat over to the Wat Arun, which I wasn’t able to see my first time around in Bangkok.  It was easy enough to get to the Wat.  I needed to take two boats (one upstream, and one across the river) and while this sounds complicated it was actually one of the easier transportation systems I’ve had to navigate here.

View of river from the pier near my hotel

At the moment there is a ton of scaffolding around the main prang (tower) at Wat Arun, which is a pity, as there is quite a striking view of the building from the river. This also meant that several parts of the complex were off limits to visitors.

Wat Arun from the Chao Phraya river

However, it is still possible to walk around and take some close up shots of some of the smaller prangs and detailed porcelain tiles.

A smaller prang at Wat Arun

Detail of porcelain tiling

Detail of porcelain on the big prang at Wat Arun

The name Wat Arun means “Temple of Dawn.” This temple is located on the west side of the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, and was built in the 18th century in the Khmer architectural style.  The main prang, which is currently being restored, is more than 80 meters high, and is the tallest prang in all of Thailand. Wat Arun is designated as one of six first class Royal Temples in the country, making it one of the most revered buildings in Thailand.

I spent about an hour around the Wat Arun complex, and then started my journey back on the boats. Before returning to my hotel I decided to take a walk through the Riverside shopping complex next door, which was fun.  There are plenty of antique stores there.  I am contemplating buying a lovely carved wooden bench that I saw. We’ll see if I can get up the courage to go for it before I leave. I’m very tempted.

Tomorrow I have one last full day tour and I just found out I have to get up at 5:30am (?!) for it to be ready for pick up shortly after 6am.  I will be going to Kanchanaburi to see the Death Railway, constructed mostly by forced labor during World War II and made famous by the film Bridge over the River Kwai.  More on that tomorrow.  Off to bed!

Day 30: Angthong National Marine Park

I decided to take a day trip today to the nearby Angthong National Marine Park. Located just northwest of Koh Samui, Angthong is an archipelago comprising 42 islands of various sizes, mostly rocky cliffs jutting out of the water. Several are larger and have dense vegetation and jungles on them. Others are just massive rocks crashing into the ocean.  It’s really quite a delight sailing through the many islands in this archipelago, as the visual effect is rather dramatic.

We started off the morning at the northern most part of the archipelago, to go snorkeling in pristine waters surrounded by massive cliffs and overhanging rocks.  It was amazing.  I saw much of the same fish and coral as yesterday at Koh Tao and Nangyuan, but it was great seeing these again. The waters are very calm around all these islands and it was like snorkeling in a big pool with awesome wildlife.

We snorkeled by these cliffs. At the bottom the rocks have eroded, so there is a rock overhang with lots of brightly-colored coral

After an hour in this location, we sailed our way south through the many islands in the park.  The scenery was absolutely stunning.

Sailing south in Angthong Park. The big rock in the middle is called Monkey Island because apparently it looks like a monkey

Sailing through the islands

We stopped at one of the larger islands for a couple of hours to kayak around the islands nearby, eat lunch, and relax on the beach.  It was great way to spend the afternoon.

The quiet beach where we spent most of the afternoon

After lunch, we went back north a little bit to one of the islands we had passed earlier in the day.  We spent about an hour here.  This island has a very nice scenic view point that you can hike up to, which leads to an Emerald Lagoon–it’s a sea water lagoon, but the water level is higher than that of the surrounding sea, and the color is a bright green. It’s really quite lovely.

View of the Emerald Lagoon

View of the archipelago from the top. It took over 500 steep steps to reach the top of the hill for this view.

We hung out on the beach and in the water.  I had gotten a lot of sun yesterday so I tried to spend most of the day today in the shade.  Luckily, with the rock overhangs on these islands, it was easy to find shady spots beneath the rocks while floating around in the sea.

At around 3pm we headed back to Samui. The photo below are some the last rock formations we passed leaving the park.  Angthong is really quite close to Samui.  You can vaguely make out the outlines of some of the closer islands on the horizon from Samui.  In this photo, you can see the faint outline of Koh Phangan on the left and Koh Samui on the right.

Leaving Angthong National Marine Park, with faint outlines of Koh Samui on the right and Phangan on the left in the distance.

It was a great way to spend my last day here on the islands.  Tomorrow I head back to Bangkok to wrap up my trip!

Days 28 and 29: Beaching and Island Hopping

I didn’t write yesterday because the whole day was spent hanging out at my hotel, the Hansar Samui Hotel, and relaxing on the beach and by the pool. I can’t remember the last time I spent several hours just reading on the beach.  It was nice, but I’m not used to sitting and reading, so it was a little strange…not…doing…anything. I can’t complain though.  The weather was great and the view from my beach bed was delightful.

My view for most of yesterday. Koh Phangan in the distance.

After a lovely dinner at The Address (a French fish place in Fisherman’s Village) last night, I passed by a tour office and set up a day trip to go snorkeling at Koh Tao and another island nearby called Nangyuan.  It was a full day trip, so I woke up early today.  I had breakfast overlooking the ocean, enjoying the morning light.

Breakfast View; the ocean is so still here. Koh Phangan in the distance.

My hotel transfer took me to the pier, and from there we boarded a speed boat to go to Koh Tao.  We took a pit stop at Koh Phangan on the way to pick up more passengers and after about an hour we arrived at Nangyuan, a tiny island with a pretty beach just next door to Koh Tao.

View of Koh Tao from Nanyuan

We spent a few hours on Nangyuan, snorkeling and relaxing.  We also had lunch there. After lunch I took a short hike to the top of one of the hills on Nanyuan to take a few scenic photos of this tiny jewel of an island.

The walk up was actually a little steep at times.  This felt a little more challenging than other hikes I’ve taken probably because I was in flip flops.  There are a lot of big, smooth rocks on these islands I’m visiting, which are a bit difficult to hike over.

Some of the boulders on my hike to the top. Luckily I didn’t have to hike over these (the view point is in the other direction), but there were similar ones to get to the very top.

Worth the hike: View from the top of the hill at Nangyuan. The island comprises two hills with a narrow strip of beach and another small land mass in between connecting three bays. It’s very pretty.

Another view from the top of Nangyuan, with a little bit of Koh Tao peaking in on the right.

At around 1:30pm, we boarded our speedboat and headed around Koh Tao to a quiet bay somewhere along the north east side of the island.  At Nangyuan, the waters along the beach were very shallow for many, many meters into the bays on all sides–there were a lot of fish here but very little coral and  sea vegetation.  In the bay we went to on Koh Tao, we jumped off the boat into deep water–it was probably about 5-10 meters deep where the boats left us, with some big rocks jutting up here and there, so there were lots of plants and coral and other sea life to snorkel around.  Our tour guides gave us life vests, which was very helpful for floating around in the deep waters. There was no beach here since it was mostly large boulders and rocks.

Some of the fish I saw today included Parrot fish, Angel fish, Wrasse, Grouper, Trigger fish, Banner fish, Butterfly fish, and several others I haven’t been able to figure out yet.  There was also definitely some Staghorn coral and Acropora, and other types of coral, polyps and sea life of which I don’t know the names.  It was very beautiful.

The deep water bay on Koh Tao where we went snorkeling. There is no beach; just big rocks dropping off into deep waters.

After about an hour here, we boarded the boat and started making our way back to Koh Phangan and Koh Samui.  It probably took a good hour and a half to get back.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and relaxing and then had a lovely fish dinner at a restaurant called the Happy Elephant.  It’s one of those places in Fisherman’s Village where you choose your fish at the fish counter and then they cook it for you.  I choose a nice-looking 550-gram red snapper.  It was delicious.

Choosing my Red Snapper. My selection is on the plate.

I really enjoyed the snorkeling today, so I’ve decided to sign up for another day trip tomorrow to go to Angthong National Marine Park, which is north-west from Koh Samui (Koh Phangan and Koh Tao are directly north of Samui).  I will be snorkeling and also kayaking there. I think this will be a nice excursion as well.

Day 27: Arriving in Koh Samui

I’ve arrived at the beach. After a short flight from Siem Reap to Bangkok, and then another quick puddle hop, I find myself on Koh Samui. I am staying at the Hansar Samui Hotel on the north side of the island right by Fisherman’s Village. It’s terrific here. The hotel is beautiful with large rooms and balconies, gorgeous views of the ocean and Koh Phangan, and it’s literally seconds away from the center of Fisherman’s Village where there are plenty of restaurants and little shops.  It’s ideal for me, since I always feel more comfortable with a town nearby.

This afternoon was about unwinding and relaxing.  I had a massage, I poked around some shops, and ducked into some tour offices to see what sorts of activities I might want to consider while I’m here. I’ve decided that tomorrow I’m going to lay like a vegetable by the pool or on my balcony day bed, read, sleep, and eat. I need a day to recharge.  I’ve been doing a lot these past few weeks and I need at least one day to rest up.  After that we’ll see what I decide to do.

Koh Samui, Bo Phut Beach

Sunset over Bo Phut Beach

Sunset over hills behind the hotel

Day 26: Angkor Wat and the water world of Tonle Sap

Today I saw the sun rise over Angkor Wat.  I had been working towards this moment for 2 days.  It was tough getting up so early. Mr Lai picked me up at my hotel at 5am. It was very dark out and it had been raining most of the night. By the time we arrived at Angkor Wat, the rain had stopped and the clouds were beginning to part. I walked through the west gate into the complex and could begin to see a massive shadow rising up through the darkness–the peaks of the temple towers ascending to the sky. I found a little spot by one of the pools and waited.  It didn’t take long for nature to do its thing, and the first sun rays to light up the sky with lavenders and pinks.

First rays of morning behind Angkor Wat

The sun continues to rise

Once the sun rose higher in the sky, I made my way into the temple.  Some basic information on Angkor Wat: This is the largest religious building in the world.  Built in the 12th century by Khmer King Suryavarman II, this temple-mountain was first a Hindu temple and then later a Buddhist temple. Angkor Wat has become a symbol of Cambodia and even appears on the Cambodian national flag.  I’ll leave off there–you can look up the rest.

View of inner gallery

View of a tower

Steep steps up to one of the towers

Upper Level

I didn’t walk up the towers at Angkor Wat.  Apparently it was the “Buddha’s day” today and the upper level of the towers was closed off to visitors.  Well, almost.  A guard said that if I gave him $5 USD he’d let me up.  I had had enough steep steps on this trip and decided I didn’t need to break any rules for a better view.

This meant I had more time to spend looking at the carvings on the walls. Angkor Wat has some splendid high relief carvings along all the gallery walls.

Carvings at Angkor Wat

Relief carvings

I walked all over the interior of the temple, and then decided to walk toward the moat around the complex for a different view.

View of Angkor Wat moat, along the eastern side of the island

Structure at the eastern side of the Angkor Wat complex

I walked around the complex some more and then headed back to the east side of the island to meet Mr Lai.

View of Angkor Wat from the West

View of Angkor Wat from the North, with the Naga (seven-headed snake statue)

I spent about two and a half hours walking around the complex and taking it in this morning.  At 8am I went to find Mr Lai, who promptly returned me to my hotel where I took a long nap.

Angkor Wat

In the afternoon, Mr Lai picked me up at 3pm to take me to Tonle Sap Lake.  He drove me to a river near the lake and then we took a boat to see a floating village on the lake. Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia.  It is an unusual ecosystem for two reasons: first its flow changes direction twice a year, and second the water level of the lake changes dramatically between the dry and rainy seasons.  It’s the dry season right now, so the water level is incredibly low.  Our boat, as well as other tourist boats, proceeded in a very tight single file through the middle of the river in order to get to the lake.  Any deviation from the middle and the boats would get stuck–that’s how low the water level is at this stage.

Dock where the tourist boats leave to go to the lake

I think the floating village I visited is called Chong Kneas, although I’m not positive.  It was a quick tour.  The boat took us past a community market, a school, a church, and we docked at souvenir market/restaurant/crocodile farm so we could take photos from the second and third levels where there was a better view of the village.

As the name states, the floating village is, well, exactly that.  All the houses are either on boats or floating docks of some sort.  I believe the villagers move around the lake depending on the season.  They have restaurants and markets and schools and hospitals and police stations and everything…except it’s all on the lake.  It’s interesting to see.  I’m not sure it was worth the $25 ticket for the hour long boat ride.  Maybe in the rainy season it’s more interesting and there is also the option to visit the flooded forest (which isn’t flooded right now, obviously).

House boats in the floating village

Community Market

To the right of the market you’ll notice a fan of tree branches coming out of the water.  These are the anchors that the villagers build and use for each of the floating structures. This one is the anchor for the community market.

Floating School

Floating Church

Floating Villager Homes

Floating Village Houses

The floating village was interesting; a true water world in its own right.

Scam Alert: I head read numerous reviews on Trip Advisor and other sites about scams on Tonle Sap Lake.  The guys driving the tour boats will dock at the community market and guilt the passengers into buying expensive bags of rice for the children at the school.  According to these sources, this is a scam to squeeze money out of tourists.  My boat driver suggested stopping at the community market, to which I promptly said no.  It bothered me that at the one stop we did make (the souvenir/restaurant/crocodile farm — literally, it was all three of those things) the boat driver was also pushing me to buy souvenirs for which I had no need.  It wasn’t a great experience.  Seeing the floating village was alright but certainly not a highlight of this trip by any means.

Overall this has been a fairly pleasant though exhausting few days here in Siem Reap.  I think I tried to do a little too much in terms of temple visits.  There was one temple I wanted to see, which I missed (Kbal Spean) because it was quite a bit far.  Otherwise I saw everything I set out to see, and I think I’m all set on visiting temples for awhile (well, until I get back to Bangkok next week).

I’d like to make a few restaurant recommendations here in Siem Reap.  I met a couple of well-heeled travelers over lunch a few days ago, who gave me some terrific dinner recommendations.  I went to all three that they listed for me: Viroth, Square 24, and Nest.  They were terrific.  Very trendy and cool ambiance and decor, with great food.  I splurged tonight at Nest and had a $30 meal–the most expensive meal I’ve had on this trip by far, but that was because I opted to have the Western dishes on the menu which are pricier (I really needed a night off from curry, rice, and stir fry).

Tomorrow I fly back to Bangkok, where I round off my trip with a few days on the beach.  In the end I’ve decided to go to Koh Samui (instead of Phuket).

Day 25: Angkor Thom and others

It was another long day visiting temples and Khmer cities. We started again at 7:30am and went to Angkor Thom, one of the largest of all Khmer cities.  This complex was founded by Jayavarman VII in the 12th century and probably remained the capital city until the 17th century.  We entered through the South Gate, which I had passed through already yesterday.

South Gate, Angkor Thom

Mr Lai dropped me off at the west side of the Bayon group in Angkor Thom.  He showed me a map and told me that I should walk and visit numerous other temples and structures around Bayon and meet him about a kilometer north of there by the Terrace of the Leper King.  I probably walked around for a good two hours or more.

I started out at the Bayon.  This was the State Temple of Jayavarman VII and his immediate successors, built between the late 12th to late 13 centuries. It is an enigmatic and dramatic structure, with several face-towers appearing on the mountainous peaks. You’ve probably seen these face-towers before, since they photograph so beautifully.

View of Bayon with its many peaks

Face Towers at Bayon

Face Towers at Bayon

Face Towers Bayon

Profiles: There are three in this photo. Can you see them all?

Wall Relief at Bayon

View from the north of Bayon

One of the best parts of Bayon is walking through the streets below the top terrace, where you can get lost easily but also you can easily get beautiful views of the face towers.  It was quite nice.

After visiting Bayon, I walked a little north-west to Bapuon.  Built in the middle 11th century, Bapuon was the state temple during the reign of Udayadityavarman II.  It is a temple-mountain, with remarkably steep steps.  These were so steep that they have added some little precarious ladder-steps to help tourists climb to the top.  I must say I was rather terrified going up and down these because they were so steep.

Bapuon

View of Bapuon

View from the top of the temple-mountain Bapuon

From Baphuon, I walked north to the next group of ruins, called Phimeanakas and the Royal Palace. This structure was built in the late 10th to early 11th centuries, with other parts built during the 12th and 13th centuries.  This structure also had steep steps to get to the top, but luckily less terrifying than Bapuon.

Phimeanakas

The Royal Palace remains weren’t as interesting to me so I didn’t photograph them (mostly there was just a large pond that was dried up).

Next I continued my journey walking north to Preah Palilay, a small Budhist sanctuary from the 13th or 14th century nearby to the Royal Palace.

Preah Palilay

I walked south along the road so that I could see Phimeanakas and Baphuon again from afar and I also wanted to see the Elephant Terrace, which is  just east of those two sites. The Elephant Terrace was the foundation for the royal reception pavilions in this place.  They date from the 12th century with late 13th century additions. The terrace is known for the many elephant carvings long its walls, which is how it derived its name.

Elephant Terrace

Elephant carvings along the Elephant Terrace

Detail of an elephant carving at the Elephant Terrace

Just north of the Elephant Terrace, along the road, is the Terrace of the Leper King. This terrace was built in the Bayon style during the reign of Jayavaman VII (so 12th century) but the name “Terrace of the Leper King” is derived from a 15-century sculpture discovered at the site.  The terrace is lined with beautiful statues and carvings.

View of the terrace of the Leper King

High Relef Carvings and statues along the Terrace of the Leper King

I met my driver in the parking lot next to the Terrace of the Leper King and then he drove me about a half hour north to the next site on our visit: Banteay Srei.

Banteay Srei was built in the 10th century and is about 30 km north of Angkor, and though it is a small temple, the carved surfaces of the buildings are remarkable.

View of Banteay Srei

Carved lintel at Banteay Srei

Carvings, Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei

After Banteay Srei we came back toward the main park and stopped at a site called Banteay Samre, built during the 12th century. Located a few kilometers east of East Mebon, which I visited yesterday, Banteay Samre doesn’t receive that many tourists, which made it quite a pleasant place to visit.

Banteay Samre

Banteay Samre

This temple appears to be quite well restored considering how isolated it is.

At this point it was well past noon, so Mr Lai took me to a little lunch spot in Angkor park so I could eat quickly before our next stop.  After lunch, we went to Ta Phrom, the real Tomb Raider temple (part of the first Lara Croft movie was filmed here).  Built in the late 12th to early 13th centuries, Ta Phrom was one of the major temples and monasteries during the reign of Jayavarman VII.  From what I’ve read, it appears that the decision to leave this site in its current state, with trees and vegetation growing amid the ruins, was intentional. It’s no wonder this site has such a romantic and fantastical feel to it.  Though many visitors do go to this site, it still feels very remote.  It’s difficult to capture the beauty of the strangler figs and other trees growing around the ruins.

Ta Phrom

Ta Phrom ruins

Ta Phrom ruins

View of Ta Phrom West Entrance

I was back at the hotel before 3pm.  Even though it was only mid-afternoon, it felt like a long day.  Tomorrow is another one.  I start at 5am, with sunrise over Angkor Wat.  Off to bed!

Day 24: Visiting the Smaller Temples at Angkor

I started my tour early today, at 7:30am.  My taxi driver, Mr. Lai, drove us north from Siem Reap and stopped at the ticket office so I could by my ticket. You can buy  one day ($20), three day ($40), and seven day tickets ($60) for Angkor Wat park (I got the 3 day ticket). Despite the crowd of folks at the ticket office, I was in and out of there within a few minutes.

The tour I’m doing builds up to Angkor Wat on the last day, so today being my first day, I saw a number of smaller temples. To get to the first temple, Mr. Lai drove us around the periphery of Angkor Wat and through the South Gate and North Gates of Angkor Thom (another huge temple complex here). We stopped to take a few photos at the Gates. We’ll be coming back tomorrow, but I couldn’t resist snapping a few shots now.

North Gate of Angkor Thom

The first temple I visited was Preah Khan. Mr Lai dropped me off at the East Gate of Preah Khan and I walked through the temple and met him at the West Gate where we continued onwards. Preah Khan was built in the 12th century under the reign of King Jayavarman VII and is located to the northeast of Angkor Thom and just west of the Jayatataka baray, with which it was associated (a “baray” I learned is an artificial body of water, and a common element in Khmer architecture). One of King Jayavarman’s largest temples, Preah Khan is thought to have been a city as well as a Buddhist university. The site is largely unrestored so there are many trees growing among the ruins.  It was the largest group of ruins I visited today.

Moat around Preah Khan

Preah Khan East Gate

Carved designs on the stone

Around the Preah Khan Ruins. There was a monk visiting the ruins.

Ruins at Preah Khan

Trees and vegetation growing around the ruins

Crossing the moat outside the West Gate

Next we went to Neak Pean to the east of Preah Khan.  Neak Pean is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple.  Similar to Preah Khan, Neak Pean was built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII, in the late 12th century. The temple was originally designed for medicinal purposes and might have acted as  a type of hospital.  It is thought that the pools and waters at Neak Pean may represent Anavatapta, a mythical lake in the Himalayas where the waters are thought to cure illness.

This was a small series of ruins.  To get to the artificial island you cross over this swamp/marsh on a wooden bridge.  At the island, in the center of the pools you see the temple.

Wooden bridge/plank to get to Neak Pean

Neak Pean temple

Horse statue on the left coming out of the water

In this last photo you’ll notice there are some people in the water.  They work for the Angkor Wat park and were clearing out foliage and vegetation from the water.

Next we visited Ta Som, which is east of Neak Pean. Ta Som is a small temple that feels quite remote. It’s also overgrown with trees and vegetation, and features a few face-towers.  It’s a very charming miniature temple, built in the late 12th century under the reign of Jayavarman VII, and then was later enlarged by Indravarman II in the 13th century.

Face Towers at Ta Som. I’ll see more of these tomorrow

Ta Som ruins

Overgrown tree on the ruins with face tower

After visiting Ta Som, we made our way south east to East Mebon, in the East Baray.   East Mebon was built in the middle of the 10th century under the reign of Rajendravarman. East Mebon is located within the massive East Baray, which was built about half a century before the temple as the water source for the city here.

Main Temple at East Mebon

Guardian Elephant at East Mebon on the south east corner

East Mebon

We continued a little further south of the East Baray to Pre Rup. This temple was also built in the middle of the 10th century during the reign of Rajendravarman.  This temple looks a lot like East Mebon, but apparently Pre Rup is a “temple-mountain” (the structure is meant to look symbolically like a mountain) whereas East Mebon is not.  You can tell the difference when hiking up to the top.  Pre Rup is crazy steep and has a lot of steps to go up, whereas East Mebon has a series of terraces but really isn’t that high up.

Pre Rup

View from the top of Pre Rup

After Pre Rup, we went quite a ways south east to see a group of temples called the Roluos Group, which consists of three sites: Bakong, Preah Ko, and Lolei.  These temples were the oldest that we visited today, dating from the 9th century. We first visited Bakong, the first significant temple-mountain built in the area.  It  was constructed in the late 9th century during the reign of Indravarman I.

Bakong pyramid

One of my favorite aspects of the temples I saw today were all the gorgeous high relief carvings and sculptures like these.

High relief carvings at Bakong

Next we stopped a short ways away at Preah Ko, a 9th century temple with 6 towers featuring some very beautiful carvings on the doorway lintels.

Preah Ko

Detail of lintel carving at Preah Ko

Another detail of lintel carving at Preah Ko

Carved writing on a wall at Preah Ko

The last temple of the Roluos group is Lolei, a tiny 9th century temple formerly on an island and now undergoing some heavy restoration.

Lolei

It was 1pm by the time we finished visiting all these sites–almost 6 hours of touring.  It was pretty exhausting, but luckily it was lunch time. Mr. Lai dropped me off at Pub Street in town and I had a little lunch in the area.  After a bit of post-lunch shopping and wandering through the boutiques and galleries near Pub Street, I made my way back to the hotel to relax for an hour before Mr. Lai picked me up to go to a smaller temple called Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset.  We headed up at 4:30pm since this temple in particular gets pretty filled up with tourists for the sunset.

Phnom Bakheng is a 9th century temple on top of a hill about 1.5 kilometers away from Angkor Wat.  The reason for its popularity among tourists is that it provides a nice vantage point for the sunset over the West Baray, as well as a view of Angkor Wat.

View of Angkor Wat through the trees from Phnom Bakheng

A little closer view of Angkor Wat from Phnom Bakheng

Carvings on a doorway on Phnom Bakheng main temple

Sunset over the West Baray

Sunset through the towers of Phnom Bakheng

Once night fell, Mr. Lai picked me up and I went to dinner at a lovely local restaurant called Viroth.

Tomorrow I continue my touring early, once again, so off to bed for me!

Day 23: Transit to Siem Reap

I made it to Siem Reap today. I took the 11:30am flight out of Phnom Penh. As with the past two days, my new friend and taxi driver Sva picked me up and drove me to the airport.

In case you find yourself in Phnom Penh and you’re looking for a good, reliable driver, I would recommend Sva. Here’s his number: 017 56 31 87 (or add 855 and remove the 0 if dialing from abroad).  He drives around a number of expats, including some Americans working at the US Embassy.  His English is very good.  He takes classes for one hour every day 6 days a week.  He’s knowledgeable, polite, and very reliable.  I spent most of my time outside my hotel room with him, and he really made a difference in my experience in Phnom Penh.

Now that I’m out of the capital, I’d like to share a few additional notes about Phnom Penh.  It was one of the cities I was least looking forward to visiting.  I had read that it was dangerous, that there are a lot of purse snatchers, that there is a huge drug/gun problem, that the tuk tuk drivers and taxis try and scam you left and right, and all sorts of other things.  As I mentioned previously, walking around the area near my hotel I never felt unsafe but I did feel very uneasy.  Even walking the one block to the Black Bambu last night for dinner put me a little on edge. Part of this was because the city isn’t pedestrian-friendly (as I’ve mentioned before), but in part the city also has that grittiness that I’ve only encountered in Bangkok up until now.  From what I’ve read, there is indeed a big drug problem in the city and there are guns everywhere.  None of this affected me where I was staying in the expat neighborhood, but it certainly did make me overly cautious in this city compared to others.  To me, Cambodia seems to have the greatest disparity between the rich and poor.  I’m not sure if this is actually true, but certainly it’s the sense that I had.  In Phnom Penh there are clearly expat neighborhoods where the security for the wealthy is intense–there are big compounds with villas and lots of security guards with big guns in front.  I didn’t see this in Vientiane or even in Bangkok. Also, coming back from dinner my first night in my tuk tuk, we passed a massive police raid on one of the streets, which my tuk tuk driver said was probably drug related.  This is apparently normal in Phnom Penh. I’m glad I went and saw the capital city in the end, but I’m also glad I was only there for 2 nights.

Siem Reap feels very different.  The town really caters to the tourist set, so everything feels a little fake and staged.  There’s even a street by the Old Market called “Pub Street” lined with cafes and pubs and restaurants.  US dollars are the currency used here exclusively.  It’s definitely not real Cambodia, but it’s safe and pedestrian-tolerant.  There are also a lot more tourists here than I saw in Phnom Penh, and I feel totally fine walking around on my own.

Notes on Cambodian Riel (KHR):  For Cambodia, don’t bother changing any money into Cambodian Riel.  It’s a waste of the exchange rate.  Everyone takes US dollars here.  It’s surprising.  Laos was kind of like that–you could pay in Lao Kip, Thai Baht, and USD–but here every price is quoted to foreigners directly in USD, and no other currency.  Most people seem surprised that I even have Cambodian Riel, which really only happened by accident.  When I arrived at the airport in Phnom Penh two days ago, I decided to change my remaining Lao Kip into Cambodian Riel and figured I would change some USD as well to hold me over until I got to Siem Reap (I didn’t want to hunt around Phnom Penh for an ATM and I figured that I needed local currency as one does).  That was a waste.  Every single thing I have paid for has been quoted to me in USD, and then I have to be the idiot calculating the exchange rate (it’s 1 USD to 4,000 KHR so it’s easy enough to figure out) so I can use up these Riels.  Also, the largest denomination of KHR that the exchange desk gave me at the airport was 10,000 KHR. This amounts to around $2.50 USD.  Notes of 20,000, 50,000 and 100,000 do exist, but for some reason, I was only given 10,000 and 5,000 KHR notes. So when I exchanged $200 USD at the airport, I received an enormous stack of bills in return. A brick of bills.  I could have easily “made it rain” in that airport.  It was ridiculous.  I can’t understand why they didn’t give me larger denominations. It was strange.  Anyways, I hate being culturally insensitive, but if you’ve got USD in your pocket, then you’re better off just using that in Cambodia and not bothering with the local currency.

Moving along…

I’ll admit I didn’t do much today.  I’m a bit anxious that I have 3 full days ahead of me visiting Angkor Wat and other temple ruins in the area, so I wanted to chill out.  Also, the heat here is crazy intense, which means that I’ll start my touring at the wee hours of the morning to avoid some of the heat.  My car picks me up at 7:30am tomorrow morning for my first temple visit.

I am staying at a hotel called the Golden Temple Hotel.  You get a lot of bang for your buck here.  I had a free transfer from the airport with a driver and a staff person to take me to the hotel.  I was given tea and lots of goodies on arrival.  I also have vouchers for 1 free meal in the hotel restaurant as well as a free hour long massage.  I also get a free “picnic basket” during my stay–I’m not sure what that means, but I think they’ll give me a basket with food to take on one of my tours.  So when I see the sunrise over Angkor Wat in a couple of days, I will have my little picnic basket with me so I can have breakfast after at or near the temple. There are happy hour specials at the pool and free snacks.  It’s not bad at all, and I see why It’s so highly rated on Trip Advisor. The decor can only be characterized as “Lara Croft meets Indiana Jones” which I don’t mind because, well, as a fan of both I can get on board with that despite the slight cheesiness.  The staff is very willing, and I feel that I’ll be well looked after here.

Upon arrival I figured out my touring schedule.  I’m here for 3 full days and 4 nights, so I’ll do the 3 day temple tour starting tomorrow.  Today I decided to do my usual thing and walk around, but then it started pouring.  It’s not the rainy season yet, but the forecast is very cloudy and humid.  The rain helps break the heat, but the humidity is pretty brutal as well. After the down pour I went out for a late lunch to the Pub Street and had a burger (I was craving a burger!) at the Red Piano bar, which I heard was a nice spot.  It’s across the street from the Old Market, so after my lunch I rolled through the shops in the alleyways and the market stalls.  There’s not a whole lot to do in Siem Reap from what I understand, and I’m really here to see the temples, so I headed back to the hotel to spend the afternoon by the pool in a little hammock.

It’s pouring again, so I decided to get some room service and hang around here.  Tomorrow’s gonna be a long day!

I didn’t take many photos today walking around Siem Reap town, but for what it’s worth…

Water Wheel in the Siem Reap River with swimmers nearby

Foot bridge crossing the Siem Reap River

Day 22: Around Phnom Penh and The Khmer Rouge

Today was a busy site seeing day.  The taxi driver I met yesterday, Sva, picked me up at my hotel at 9am and we drove a little outside the city (about 15km outside Phnom Penh) to visit the Cheung Ek Killing Fields.

Once the Khmer Rouge came into power in 1975, over the course of 3 years roughly 17,000 men, women, and children were detained and tortured at S-21 prison (now Tuol Sleng Museum).  Many died in the prison from torture, but most were transported to the Killing Fields at Cheung Ek for extermination.  The remains of 8,985 people were exhumed at Cheung Ek in 1980 from over a hundred mass graves in the area. Now a museum, the Killing Fields is a chilling reminder of the Khmer Rouge’s brutalities and atrocities that took the lives of 3 million Cambodians–this was one of the most violent genocides of the 20th century.

It is a very sad place, surrounded by rice paddies and peaceful countryside. The audioguide that visitors are given to accompany their tour includes numerous stories of loss and torture of survivors and victims.  This in addition to information on how the killings were carried out and the methods used. It is a very difficult place to visit.

Mass grave crater in the Killing Fields

The Lake behind the Killing Fields. It is said there are mass graves in this lake as well, but they have remained untouched. Behind the trees are more mass graves.

Path around the Killing Fields. Bench for reflection and prayer.

The most difficult part of the visit is seeing the killing tree.  Children and babies were killed against this tree and thrown into the mass grave beside it.  It’s horrible and tragic.

Killing tree. Mass grave where women, children and babies were exhumed is under the shelter

One of the most disturbing aspects of visiting the Killing Fields is that there are still bone fragments and clothing surfacing from the ground.  Because the mass graves were dug so deep (in most cases around 5 meters / 16 feet) many bones and rags of the victims come to the surface over time, and these are visible around the mass graves and even along the paths.  It’s ghastly.

A memorial stupa was built in 1988 and contains over 8,000 skulls and other bones of victims on display on 17 tiers. A tragic ossuary.

Memorial Stupa, Killing Fields

I spent close to 2 hours at the Killing Fields listening to the stories of victims and survivors and reflecting on the genocide. I remember learning about this in high school, but it’s so different being here and seeing the place.  Sva, my taxi driver, told me that he was very lucky.  He was born in 1969 so he has limited memories of the Khmer Rouge. He was one of 8 children growing up in the 1970s at the time that Pol Pot came to power.  Only one of his brothers was killed by the Khmer Rouge–the rest of his family was spared. This is considered very lucky.

After the Killing Fields, we made our way back to Phnom Penh and stopped off at the Russian Market.  This market became popular in the 1980s, primarily with the Soviet community in Phnom Penh, which is where it got its name. It is large, circuitous, jam-packed with all sorts of things, and generally pretty crazy. But souvenirs aren’t going to buy themselves, so I needed the pit stop, as well as a break after the Killing Fields.

Next stop was the S-21 Prison, also know as the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide.  Once a high school, Tuol Sleng became a detention center and prison. Some of the rooms show what the prison looked like at the time it was in use. Other rooms are plastered with photos of victims upon arrival at the prison.  Thousands were tortured and killed here.  After 1976 the killings took place at the Killing Fields.  Only 11 people survived the S-21 prison–4 were children, who somehow at the end hid from the guards in a pile of rags in the prison.  The other 7 were men who were tortured but spared by the guards because they had skills that were of use to the Khmer Rouge (painter, sculpture, mechanic, etc.). It is just as tragic a place as the Killing Fields.

At S-21 Prison. The gray block buildings are the prison buildings.

I had lunch at a little cafe after visiting S-21.  Now it was time to visit the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda.  It was a welcome shift from the intensity of the Killing Fields and prison that I visited in the morning.

Constructed over a century ago, the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh is the residence of the King of Cambodia and symbol of the Kingdom. The Royal Palace is a large, walled compound containing several buildings and lovely gardens near the riverfront.  Except for the actual Royal residence, most of the Palace grounds and Silver Pagoda are open to the public. The Silver Pagoda is also known as the Wat Preah Keo Morokat or Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The reason it is called “Silver Pagoda” is because of the 5,329 silver tiles that cover the floor.  Each handcrafted tile weighs 1.125 kilograms.  There are many important artifacts and objects in this temple, including the Buddha Maitreya, a 90 kilogram golden standing Buddha covered with 2,086 diamonds including a 20 carat and a 25 caret diamond.

There are several other buildings around the Silver Pagoda.  I particularly liked the elaborately carved gray-white stupas surrounding the pagoda.

Statue of HM King Norodom and Stupa of HM King Ang Doung

Detail of Stupa of HM King Norodom

View of the back of the Silver Pagoda, Wat Preah Keo Morokat, with a model of Angkor Wat in the foreground

Unfortunately no photos are allowed inside the Silver Pagoda.  Also, only part of the silver tiled floor is visible to visitors at the back of the temple (though what I saw already was quite magnificent).

After the Royal Palace we had one stop left: the Wat Phnom.  This temple is at the top of a hill and is the oldest Wat in the city–the first pagoda was supposedly erected here in 1373 although the temple sanctuary was rebuilt various times throughout history. There were various other points of interest around the temple, including statues and a giant flower clock, but at this stage in the day (the heat was relentless) I climbed up to the temple via the main staircase and saw the stupa in the back and then made my way back down a longer path to meet my driver in the air-conditioned car.

Wat Phnom

My next stop was my hotel, where I got an hour long massage and then took a dip in the pool.  The perfect way to unwind after an intense day.

Pool at the White Mansion Hotel

I had a lovely dinner at a little Western restaurant right by my hotel called Black Bambu — I highly recommend it.  The Chef is an American from the mid-West (go figure) and he gave me a couple of scoops of homemade sorbet and ice cream on the house, which was really nice.  I can’t remember his name, but he was convivial and hospitable.  And the food was delicious.  It was Western, but it still incorporated local ingredients and had a Cambodian twist to it.  It was a good end to my last day in Phnom Penh.

The heat continues to be unbearable here.  I’ve heard the temperatures are even worse in Siem Reap, where I go tomorrow.

Day 21: Arriving in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I took a flight from Vientiane to Phnom Penh in Cambodia today. It was short and sweet. I decided not to do the e-visa for Cambodia beforehand as I had heard the visa is easy to obtain on arrival. And it is.

There were a bunch of forms to fill out.  The arrival/departure card and the customs forms were given to us on the plane.  After we disembarked, there was a little room before the visa/passport control area where we had to fill out a Health Form that pretty much contains the same information as the other forms with the added check boxes for different symptoms and diseases.  Once you fill this out, you give it to the Quarantine Officer at the door and you head toward the visa counter.  Here you fill out yet another form for the actual visa and drop it off at the visa counter.  They do ask for a passport photo–I had prepared for this just as I had for the Lao visa, so I gave them my extra passport photo.  They passed my passport through an assembly line of sorts to do all the gluing and stamping and visa-issuing and such.  Within a few minutes they called my name to the other end of the counter, I paid my $30 USD for my tourist visa, they gave me my passport and I was all set.  Well, almost.  Then I had to get in line to go through passport control, which was pretty strait forward except for all the digital fingerprinting (Laos and Thailand didn’t have that).

It sounds like a whole process (and it is) but it went pretty quickly.  All the above took about 20 minutes in total, so it wasn’t so bad.

Phnom Penh is definitely more frenetic and gritty than Vientiane.  It does have a certain colonial charm in some places, but it has a ton of traffic, noise and people so it feels a bit more like Bangkok.  It also isn’t as nice to walk around.  There aren’t exactly sidewalks since everyone rolls around on motorbikes, so not a particularly pedestrian-friendly city in my view. Oh, and there are no traffic lights anywhere so good luck crossing a street.  The trick is literally just to walk into traffic–and dodge vehicles.  It’s horrifying, and this is coming from a professional jay-walker from New York City. I don’t understand how there aren’t more car/bike accidents here in general.

I am staying at a lovely gem of a hotel called the White Mansion Boutique Hotel.  It’s right in the heart of the expat neighborhood.  It even has an adorable little French cafe off of the lobby that’s apparently a favorite neighborhood spot.

French Cafe at the White Mansion

I settled into the hotel and then went down to the French cafe for a late lunch (it was around 3pm at this point) where I had a delicious chicken sandwich. From there I decided to walk toward the river, where I walked around the outside of the Royal Palace and found the National Museum, which I decided to visit.

Outside the Royal Palace

I made plans with the taxi driver who drove me from the airport to take me around tomorrow to all the main sites in town, which will include the Royal Palace/Silver Pagoda.  I decided not to visit the palace and pagoda today and see the museum instead, which has a particularly interesting collection of Cambodian/Khmer art.

National Museum of Cambodia

The museum closed at 5pm, so I took a stroll along the river front just before sunset.

Riverfront, Phnom Penh, across from the Royal Palace

Royal Palace grounds behind lots of traffic

I made my way down the riverfront along the Quay to a roundabout with a big park leading to the Independence Monument.  I walked to the monument at the next roundabout and then made my way back to my hotel.  Essentially I did a big circular route for my walk.

Walking along the park on Preah Suramarit Boulevard at sunset; King Norodom Sihanouk Statue and Independence Monument

King Norodom Sihanouk Statue

Independence Monument and lots of traffic

It was a pretty short day in terms of site seeing.  I’m saving up my energy for tomorrow, where I’ll cover a lot of ground with my driver.  In general I like to walk around cities but as I’ve mentioned, Phnom Penh is not a pedestrian-friendly city by any means.  I guess I’ll just have to get used to taking more taxis and tuk tuks here, like I did for going to dinner (even though it was only a few blocks away). This is definitely not Vientiane.  I feel pretty safe here, but I definitely feel more uneasy in this town than others (similar to how I felt in Bangkok).  I’m glad I worked out the driver for tomorrow and I don’t have to worry about catching cabs and tuk tuks around town.

Sunset view from my hotel room

My hotel is really adorable.  The staff is super attentive and my room is on the top floor and has slanted ceilings, which is rather charming.  I also have a little balcony on the roof, which makes it all feel very French. It’s the perfect spot for two nights.