Sunday: flight and 1st day of temples

My flight to Siem Reap was quite early in the morning (6.00) so I decided to spend the night in the airport to avoid to pay the taxi alone at the night fare. Well, I cannot say it was obviously a brilliant idea, but I managed to sleep a few hours in a dark part of the check-in zone (Of course, JetStar is a lowcost company, there's no early check-ins and you cannot go to the transit area and its comfortable armchairs). If you ever are in the same situation at Changi Airport, there is a kind of terrace upstair to watch the airport (in the area before immigration), it is almost quiet and dark, but not very comfortable ...

So, I went at the counter at 4.30, there were already some people queuing, they must have woke up very early ... The flight was sleepy we'll say, even if I can remember the ray of the rising sun hitting my face and creating beautiful landscapes outside :). Arriving in Cambodia, you have to pay 20 us$ for the visa. Immigration wasn't what we can call efficient and it took almost an hour to go through. Siem Reap is a very small airport, almost nothing there. There were a counter with taxi and motorbikes, $5 and $1. I took the motorbike and asked him to go to the Popular Guesthouse, following the Lonely Planet recommendations. The driver asked me in english if I was staying 3 days and willing to visit temples and so on. At the end, he suggested me to hire him as a driver for the day, not without explaining he had a family and the oil was expensive and blabla. I first planned to take a bicycle, but I was tired so I decided to take him for a day.

He first drove me to the park entrance, mandatory stop. The pass for 3 days is sold $40, quite a huge amount of money if you compare to the price of food (can eat well for $4). But when you ride in Siem Reap you can see a lot of beautiful hotels, there is obviously wealthy people coming here (my driver explained me that with the money paid for 2 or 3 nights in such an hotel he would be able to buy a car and work everyday (no rain problem) and earn much more and make a new life…). The driver was quite ok, but he drove me first to the most crowded place, I really felt bad. Crowds in Angkor can really waste everything I think. Basically, the driver doesn't have the right to enter the temples (only for the official guides (~$20 a day)) so he drops you at the entrance and waits. When there is more than one entrance, he may drop you at one and wait you at another one but that's all. Since I explained him I was planning to take a bike for the other days, my driver tried not to drive me to the most remote temples (the big circuit), asking me more money. Since $8 was already among the highest prices for a day, I refuse and we made the small circuit. Leaving Angkor Thom (the "city"), there were far less people in the temples and I enjoyed much more.

So on Sunday, I visited: (small circuit)

  • the Bayon: one of the biggest, so many people there...
  • Thommanon: smaller, less people, nice and ok
  • Chau Sey Tevoda: just in front of the Thommanon, was being repaired, not much to see
  • Takeo: a big mountain temple. same as before, not too crowded, quite natural…
  • Ta Prohm: the 'Tomb Raider' temple. They left the temple in its natural state, with all the trees destroying walls and footpaths. Very wild and natural, nice to wander inside
  • Banteay Kdei: cannot remember anything very special but the rain for 10minutes there and listening Beck with my iPod waiting for it to stop
  • Sra Srang: a big pool and a terrace facing it.
  • Prasat Kravan: five tower with an unique sculpture inside one of them. made a nap :)
  • Angkor Wat: the biggest, most crowded and maybe more interesting still. Many things to see there, I stayed quite a long time and didn't see everything. But I had no guide and it was very crowded again

I watched the sunset on the top of Angkor Wat and came back after it, arriving at the guesthouse at 6.30pm (sun sets at 5.30). I spent a short evening with Johannes, a german friend, we ate at the guesthouse, the food was good and went out to drink a beer. It is simple and safe, there are two streets with only restaurants and bars and many policemen to look after the scooters and bikes as well as the public safety.
 

Monday: temple day 2

After my motorbike experience of the previous day, I decided to try the bike. I paid $2 for the day and had a lot of time to watch landscapes and enjoy peace and tranquility of the Cambodian country… Without kidding, I really appreciated riding a bike there, it is very flat and there is not to much traffic once you left the main road. Of course, you have to go to the temple area (and come back, even harder) and it takes around 40mins on the main road. But after it, you really go where you want at your own pace and enjoy landscapes. Parking the bike is not often a problem, since there is a guard in front of each temple usually and they can look after it for free. When there is no guard, the children around will ask you money to 'look after' the bike, you don't really know what happens if you don't pay, I didn't try and moved instead. These children are a big point of Cambodia. The population is very poor and the parents are asking the children to sell some more or less useless things to the tourist instead of going to school. These kids (almost girls, some young boys) are really jumping at you and won't stop trying to sell you their goods before you leave the place. I found it pretty annoying, you don't want to be rude with them, it's not really their "fault", but they are boring. They all speak english quite well, that's kind of funny to see so young people being able to speak without the help of school or anything, just spending their time with tourists!

On this second day, I made the big circuit, it was quite cool, the weather was fine and there weren't many people around. Temples I've visited are:

  • Pre Rup: quite an old temple, was very calm in the morning
  • East Mebon: there are some nice elephant sculptures at the corner, temple not so special
  • Ta Som: well, nothing special i think
  • Prasat Krol Kô: a small temple lost in the nature, I stayed there alone for a nap, was nice
  • Neak Pean: you must be motivated to build an island in a middle of a pool to dig some other pools… original
  • Banteay Prei: again, nothing very very special, the basic temple stuff with a little something different
  • Prah Khan: big temple, many things to see and time to spend. a strange greek-style monument in the east
  • Baksei Chamkrong: just on the border of the main road, down the hill of
  • Phnom Bakheng: One of the first temple built there, it's on the top of a hill (10-15 min walk). Supposed to be a good place tu see the sunset, but it was really overcrowded, you may prefer Pre Rup, Lonely Planet said.
I rode back at night, without light, it was not much of a problem anyway. I spent the evening with Johannes again, we ate at "the Khmer kitchen", it was very tasty and people were friendly (I even went there again the day after). The pumpkins and coconut soup is actually good, you must try ;). The beer is cheap (can have a glass for 50cts) and we had a nice evening before saying goodbye, Johannes leaving for Thailand the day after.
 

Tuesday: Angkor Thom

The third day was my last one in Siem Reap. So I had to go to the main remaining temples, in the royal city of Angkor Thom. There wasn't much distance to ride, so I slept quite a lot (fact is I woke up at 6.15 the day before, thinking it was 7.15 - forgot to change the Singaporian time of my phone :) - and I had a big day after this). I first went to the Landmine Museum, it is almost on the way to the temples. This museum is held by a local guy that fought in the army as a child. He knows how to destroy or make safe landmines and he cleared a lot of areas in Cambodia. The museum is a place where a lot of landmine are shown as well as some explainations on the way they work. But it is also a community for the children who were hurt by the landmines. With one arm or one leg missing, these children are useless in their family and the museum is an occasion for them to learn english and have an education. This museum isn't a really pleasant place, but to my mind it is important to see something else in Cambodia than the very touristic area of the angkorian temples. After half an hour there, I took my bike again and went to Angkor Thom, the royal city.

I had already been there on the first day but left because there were too many people. This time, I arrived at 11.30am I think, and there were far less people. All the groups are going back to Siem Reap to have their lunch, so the area is clearer :). I went to many sites inside the city, following the guide I printed before leaving. I enjoyed having a guide to provide me some information about the temples, their specificities and what you have to look at. Otherwise it is boring to go for one temple after the other, they're just the same (I know this feeling, I had no guide on my first day). This guide can be found freely on the internet at ?.

Let's come back to my third day, I've done:

  • the Terrace of the Elephant: a long terrace with sculpture of elephants, not too hard to guess :). Nothing really special.
  • the Terrace of the Lepper King: just next to the previous one, a little bit more interresting because they recently found a second wall behind the first one (yes, the khmer seem to have been funny people) and the sculpture on this new wall are better than on all the old walls.
  • Tep Pranam: if you've been to Thailand, nothing new: it's a sitting Buddha, with a long terrace. Colorful in this rocky environment!
  • Prah Palilay, an old temple, nothing to see I'm afraid, but it's on the way :)
  • the Royal Palace and Phimeanakas: it wasn't really awesome, but it's big, you can try to imagine how life was at the time, but there are very few clues but rocks and water. And another mountain temple/pyramid at the middle of the Palace (the so-called Phimeanakas), the private chapel of the king.
  • the Baphuon: it cannot really be visited, there are important works being done by French Foreign Affairs ministry. The counterpart is that there are some explanation about how it was and how they work to rebuild it, it was quite interesting.
  • Prasat Suor Prat towers: not so much to see but a few towers…
  • South Khleang: almost the same, an old building, a few lines in the guide but nothing really huge
  • Prah Pithu: my last temples. Yes there are five under the same name. What is nice about these one was the calm and silence: there were nobody (yes, it was almost dark and there were some rain, can it explain something? seriously, they're less popular than some other and there is a lot of nature around). Enjoyed it before going back on my bike…


I had a good evening, my first real one being all alone. Going to the restaurant alone is not very funny and you just realize how long it can be to wait your food having nothing else to do but looking at the paintings or photographs around :). But the food was good (the Khmer Kitchen again and a Laab beef if I remember well. If you like mint, you can order it!
 

Wednesday: Sihanoukville by bus

I booked a bus to Sihanoukville in a travel agency in Siem Reap. The guesthouse also hadthe service, but it was overpriced. The regular price is $3,5 for Phnom Penh and $3 more to go to Sihanoukville. I had $3,5+$5 and the guesthouse was even more expensive. You have to take the 7.00 bus in Siem Reap if you want to be able to catch the last one leaving for Sihanoukville in PP in the afternoon. The bus seem to be unable to ride in the dark in Cambodia (so forget the night buses, of course).

I woke up early to be picked-up at the guesthouse at 6.15. We arrived around 7 at the taxi/bus station. It was very messy - I really don't know if I would have been able to find my bus without the pickup service :). The bus was not one of these VIP one with only 27 seats you can see elsewhere. It was a good old one with real Cambodian inside. The trip is 6 hours to Phnom Penh, and I had almost six hours of khmer karaoke, nice nice nice. My neighbour was nice, even he really liked putting his legs in front of my seat without asking anything. We made some breaks: I may have bought some fried spiders (at least it looked like, I didn't try) and other nice delicatessen.

My bus to Sihanoukville (let's say SHK in the following) was scheduled at 14.30, I had more than an hour to spend in PP (you guessed it's Phnom Penh). I walked to the river and back, buying some food in a bakery. Despite the Lonely Planet award, I didn't find it tasty or anything… These little things make you feel the Lonely Planet is not a french guide :). The streets are quite dirty, sometimes only made of dirt. It was, let's say, interresting.

I took the second bus for a 4 hours ride to SHK. It was almost dark when I arrived there. The bus drops you in the center, which is something like 4 kms away from the sea. I decided to go to the seaside for the night and following day, after all I was here for it. I walked there (not because I was hard to find a moto to drive me there, don't be afraid, there wasn't any five minutes without someone coming and asking) as I had nothing else to do. The seaside is full of guesthouses and bars. It seemed impossible to find a room under $7 so I took one at the Same-same guesthouse, just on the beach. I had a quick dinner (alone again), tried to shoot a few pics, walked barefoot in a pooh (thanks cambodian people doing this on the beach…) and decided to go to bed trying to wake up early in the morning and enjoy the desert beach.

Thursday: Being ill for my last day of asian sea

Even if I first tought that early could be as early as the sunrise (around 5.45), it actually was 8 or around. The checkout time was 12, so after a fried rice breakfast, I decided to walk on the beach trying to reach a less developped area.

The beach I slept at (Serendipity) is really too much developped: there isn't any meter of beach without a bar or a guesthouse and it's quite sad. It doesn't mean too much people and it's still quite nice (and believe me I don't like crowded beaches) but I wanted a quieter place. To find it, you have to walk at least 30 to 40 minutes to the south-east, and what you find is a dirty area, full of plastic bags and others pieces, some concrete parts… not so nice. I walked an hour to the Otres beach, it was far more calm and natural, but still dirty. Maybe I was unlucky with high tides?

I stayed there reading for a while and made the way back under the sun.

I still don't know if this was the reason for my feeling bad, but coming back to my room, I had a headache and fever. I gave my room back and ate something, and after this I found myself alone, ill and without anywhere to go but a sunny beach… Nice afternoon in sight. I made my way again along the beach to the free area and found a tree to protect from the sun. I stayed there doing nothing the whole afternoon, just hoping the fever will drop and headache will fly away. I was also wondering if I had caught something so bad that they would not let me come back back to France. Well, to put it in a nutshell, it was a nice afternoon :).

I waited for the sunset to go back to town. I made my way back by feet (almost one hour, I was really dying at the end, don't really know why I didn't take a mototaxi) and at the end my head was so hot I was unable to understand anything. But I found the nicest room I ever found at the Angkor Inn, near the bus stations. I managed to bargain the price (I guess my dying state inspired pity) to $4 for an aircon/cable TV/hot water room. After the dinner (good food and very nice people, I definitly advise you to go there), I just went to bed for a fantastic night full of hallucinations and mighty dreams.

I woke up at 3.30am and enjoyed the cableTV, watching the french channel TV5 with the singer Raphael - nice souvenir - but I was already feeling better. I slept again a little bit and woke up at 6 to prepare for my last day.

Friday: go to Phnom Penh and wait the plane

I took the bus at 7 and arrived in PP around 11. I was still a little bit ill and didn't want to move a lot, so I made my way slowly there, but I had a nice day.

I first went to the Central Market, just next to my bus station (there are few companies, and a different station for each company if I understood well). There were a lot of unpleasant smells, butchers working without any cold storage (and temperature there is quite warm) and many many things everywhere. I didn't stay and I moved to Wat Phnom, a temple built on a hill (Phnom in khmer - and Penh is a girl that came there I think, anyway the town is named after this hill). There is a park around the temple I stayed for a while. A Cambodian girl came and talked to me. Her situation wasn't nice: she was 28, pregnant for more than 8 monthes with knowing the father and rejected by her own mother because of this, she was sleeping in the streets and had no other money to live but begging. It would not have been so sad if she was alone, but they are so many. She was speaking english because she worked in a bar before having the baby, but she wasn't able to read anything. It make me feel strange to talk with someone like that, makes me realize stronger than before how much lucky we are… Of course she wanted money from me (and she had a little) and he talk was not free in some way but she made it quite good, without asking too much, it wasn't so bad. And she was funny, she explained me I looked like a monkey with my beard (thank you girl) and repeated me many times that I wasn't looking good and I'd better eating something. (Maybe I was really ill?).

Eating that's what I made after leaving this girl in her park. Eating like a rich again, forgeting the poor people all around (well, like a rich is $4, not that much back in Europe but still, can make a small week for a poor Cambodian). I went to the Khmer Borane Restaurant near the royal Palace: the food was good, but I waited so so long. And the cashier was a very old woman: it was funny to see her and all the young waitress around, she was like the wise mum looking after everybody.

After my lunch I went to the Royal Palace and silver Pagoda. I won't say much about it, it wasn't very nice, it's true that's kind of impressing but when you've spent some days in Bangkok you are kind of vaccinated against temples dans glittering buildings ;). Going out of the Palace, I took a taxi to go to the Tuol Sleng Museum in the south of the town.

This museum is an old school the Khmers Rouges used as a prison and torture center. Once again, it's not very funny but it's a part of Cambodian history and it's still in all their memories… The museum is impressive, there are a few informations, enough to understand it was so bad. Another bad thing is that the museum doesn't have enough money to keep the building in good shape and that the government doesn't want to give money for this, as if they prefer forgetting about all this quite fast.

When I went out of the museum, the man who drove me there was still waiting (more tha one hour I think) because he understood I was going to the airport after the museum. So I went to the airport with him for $1,5.

Once at the airport, I ate a very expensive panini (no way to find cheap food in this airport) and waited my plane.

The flight was ok but I arrived in Singapore five minutes too late to catch the right bus back home, so I took one randomly and I arrived on the other side of the island (Woodlands) where I took a night bus down to Orchard road and finally a taxi back to NUS. It took me 2 hours to go back from the airport instead of 30 minutes by taxi, but I saved 20 s$ :).


That's the end of the stories :)