Roulos Temples Group

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Today was most regrettably our last day, though we were very much looking forward to getting home and seeing our family, especially James who we missed immensely. We slept in a little and did some more packing before catching a ride in the Tuk Tuk with Savin to the School of the Arts of Children of Asia. The school was formed to teach the younger children traditional music and dance and the customs of Cambodia, which came very close to being wiped out by the Khmer Rouge. We explored the small roadside market outside the school while we waited for it to open, but due to the holidays, the school was closed today. Disappointing, but it leaves us something different to see the next time we visit!

We headed into town and had a geat bacon and egg breakfast at The Ivy, and then travelled through the market again before catching the Tuk Tuk back to the guest house.

The tuk tuk ride this time was an unforgettable experience as we were clipped by a 4WD overtaking us. Savin managed to keep it under control, but it was quite frightening as I had visions of Liam lossing his fingers as the Landcruiser clipped the edge as it went past. Of course he didn't stop, and we got back to the guest house fine, if only a little shaken. The damage to the tuk tuk didn't seem too bad, and I'm sure Savin was able to fix it up like new.

Oiyee and I managed to squeeze in a few more temples before we had to head to the airport for home. Savin took us to the Roulos Group in the tuk tuk, first visiting the Bakong.

There appeared to be a lot of celebration going on in the markets near the temples, with lots of music, people and colour. We explored the temple and the Buddhist monastery beside the temple. Near the rear of the temple was a beautiful small girl and her very shy friend or brother who were sitting underneath an elephant statue escaping the heat of the sun.

I found it hard to get a photo of the young boy, but the girl was quite camera happy. She insisted on referring to me as madam, despite my best efforts but she was quite endearing.

Last stop on the way back was Preah Ko, which really showed their age. The nandi bull statues in front of the temple looked like they had been there every day of the thousand years since they were first carved.

Back at the guest house, we had some lunch and Liam was especially honoured, being invited to lunch at Hun's. He shared some rice with them, but declined on the dried fish. I only hope he declined politely. His being able to share lunch was a delightful opportunity for him, and he will remember his Cambodian friends for ever. I finally found my perfect souvenirs, being some excellently carved apsaras, carved by Monkoe Yann on sale right here at the guest house. He also gave Liam a carved elephant, which he treasures greatly.

We said our goodbyes to all the wonderful staff at Peace of Angkor. We truly had a great time in Siem Reap, and the people at the guest house were simply all wonderful.

Baphuon, Phimeanakas, Eastern Mebon, Pre Rup, Banteay Kdei, Apsara Dancing

Another early start today, both to try and beat the worst of the heat, and also as today was the day we were going on our elephant ride. This was something that Liam had been looking forward to before we even left Melbourne.

We arrived at the Baphuon inside Angkor Tom by about 6:30 in the morning, and the place was fairly deserted. It was quite mystical to see the sun rising behind the trees and slowly warming up the temple stones.

The Baphuon was undergoing restoration works, so was closed off, however we could walk around the grounds and explore a bit before walking over to The Phimeanakas, seeing a huge centipede on the ground that must have been at least a foot long!.

The Phimeanakas was a smaller temple, but still quite tall and with extremely steep steps. We carefully climbed to the top, soaking in the views across the trees before gingerly climbing back down and heading off for the Ride on an Elephant to the Bayon.

We walked across the Elephant Terrace, discovering some ant-lions living in the dust between the path stones. I remember them when I lived in Sydney, but had never seen them before in Melbourne, so they were something new for Liam to experience, who had great fun setting off their little traps.

We were soon in the queue for the Elephant Ride, and after buying our ticket we were ushered up onto the platform and onto the back of the biggest elephant working today. It was a great experience, even though the elephant sometimes had a mind of it's own, diverting to grab some durians and coconuts that had been discarded along the path. At one stage he started rearing his head, but our 'driver' managed to get him back under control, and us safely to the departure point at the Bayon.

We made a quick stop at the Thommanon which we saw on the first day, as Oiyee had not seen this temple yet. We then continued onto the Eastern Mebon. it was only about 9:30 in the morning, but as usual, the temperature had soared, adn these temles were very much out in the open and subject to the full heat of the day.

Each corner of the temple was marked with a statue of an elephant, and the inner temple consisted of brick towers with intricately carved lintles over their doors, and again, the views across the countrside was spectacular.>

Pre Rup was in some ways similar to Eastern Mebon, with the tall brick towers with detailed doorways. Steep steps led up to the central towers, with views across the tops of the jungle trees.

Last temple for today was Banteay Kdei. The entrance was through a smaller version of the gates of Angkor Tom, and a small market was along the walkway, selling much needed drinks and coconuts, as well as silks and souvineers. Don't bother with the books, they'll have pages missing.

The temple was on a smaller scale than others, but very pretty with a colourful altar to Buddha just inside, and apsaras adourning the walls. The jungle trees were also thick around the temple, offering a little shade here and there.

On leaving, Liam picked up a band of followers, Liam being as much a novelty to the locals as we found the temples a novelty to us!

We stopped in at a number of the larger souvineer shops along the road back to Siem Reap, but couldn't find that perfect momento of Cambodia that I was looking for. These shops were also very expensive, geared more to the 5 star guests who normally come in the cooler months. Once again, Liam was the main attraction, with all of the staff flocking around him and giving him a huge ego!

We stopped at the Red Piano for lunch, and I had to try a Tomb Raider cocktail. It was OK, and the food was excellent.

We returned to the guest house to shower and freshen up, which of course was proven a waste of time once we got back out in the sun. We caught a Tuk Tuk ride with Savin into town to get a massage from the Blind Massage. The girls went first while Liam and I walked the streets exploring further, then us boys had our turn. Extremely painful, that Japanese Shiatsu massage, but we felt much better afterwards. Even Liam got the full treatment!

We had dinner at the Bayon Restaraunt, which had a huge smorgasboard of food to chose from, which was all excellent. My only regret was I couldn't eat more!

During the evening there was an excellent show of traditional dancing and music. The Apsara dancing is classical, and very graceful and enjoyable to watch. There was also some dancing showing catching fish, which was very amusing with the interplays between the boys and girls. The peacock dancing too was also very good.

Siem Reap Market

Being all templed out, we decided to spend a quite day exploring the markets and the town of Siem Reap.  We caught the Tuk Tuk into town with Savin from the Guest House and spent ages walking through the market where Michelle and Oiyee where happy to spend hours looking at silk and bags and scarves and the like.  I bought many small brass figures of various Hindi deities and Liam complained bitterly about the smell of the fish and meat markets.

We also looked into many of the art and souvenir shops in town.  We had lunch at the Ivy Bar, Liam having a Burger and chips, Michelle having a steak sandwich and chips and Oiyee and myself going the Fish Amok in coconut.  They had the best mango smoothies here, and I think we ended up having 2 or 3 each before we left!

We continued exploring around the market and town, stopping for ice creams and trying unsuccessfully to find the Blind Massage.

We returned to the Guest House, where Liam played shuttlecock with the local children until dinner time.

Angkor Wat Sunrise, Ta Prom, Preah Khan, Tonle Sap

Today was our earliest start; we had arranged to see Angkor Wat at sunrise so it was out of bed by 5:00am. Kong arrived about 5:30, and it was already getting light. I was getting quite concerned that we would get there after the sun had risen. Even though the sky was filling with pinks and crimsons, we did manage to arrive at the causeway to Angkor Wat long before the sun peeked from behind the temples silhouette.

There was certainly no shortage of people waiting the rising of the sun above the temple, and we set ourselves up at a couple of points to capture the sunrise. I played around with various settings on the camera and took many photos. Thank goodness for digital!

We then jumped into the car, sweat beading despite the fact the sun had just risen and drove to the Bayon to capture the faces with the morning glow. The pinkish/orangish hue gave the cold stone a lovely warmth and I couldn't believe I could be saturated at 6:30 in the morning!

We arrived then at Ta Prom shortly after 7:00 in the morning, with the sun's morning shafts filtering through the Banyon and Fig trees. As we approached the temple, a group of young boys came running out, one dragging a small car on a string that had been made from a bit of wood with soft drink bottle lids for wheels.

We spent an hour exploring the temple again, finding our way around easily and taking out time enjoying just being here. A huge orange legged spider rested on it's web near the temple wall, and children played amongst the arches.

A young boy and girl were sitting outside a temple door, fallen stones lying around the base of a huge Fig Tree. I managed to take a couple photos before the boy saw me. Once I was spotted, he immediately rattled off 5.000 riel, 4.000 riel, 3.000 riel, 2.000 riel, 1.000 riel. I didn't even get a chance to haggle the price as it dropped.

I paid instead with a smile and some friendly chatting as they lit some incense for the small broken Buddha statue inside the temple corridor.

Outside the temple in the market, a group of young children were playing music on various instruments and singing happily.

We listened for a while, then again were off through the West Gate of Angkor Tom, and this time onto Preah Khan, or the Sacred Sword.

We paid one of the temple police to guide us through the temple, where he explained how the temple was dedicated to both the Hindu Gods as well as Buddha. Most of the Buddha statues on the walls were later chiseled off at the behest of a subsequent king. We found an altar stone with the phallic symbol still in place as well as a stone stupa and a beautiful carving of one of the queens down a corridor.

Back outside in the heat we could see huge trees growing over the stone walls and delicately carved apsaras in the lintels above doorways. On the way back to the car we bought a carved mobile of a stork fishing which now hangs proudly in our dining room.

Back in Angkor Tom, people were dancing in the shade of the Banyan Trees and I was sorely tempted to join them. We returned to the Guest House for lunch, then headed off on our photo tour to Tonle Sap and Floating Villages, which was organised through our Guest House.

We followed the Siem Reap River south to Tonle Sap, passing many houses and open country side along the way. The road soon deteriorated to the point where I'd been down better 4WD tracks in Australia, passing along a very long causeway to eventually arrived at the village of Chong Khnies. We travelled by boat down the lake, passing many fish traps along the way. The boat was tailed by many small birds which darted into the water looking for fish disturbed by the boats wake.

We soon arrived at Kompong Plouk, where we passed between floating houses built of bamboo and similar. Life living on the water must be amazing; dogs, pigs, chickens and people all sharing their house together. There were also many crocodile pens floating in the water containing crocs of differing sizes.

We continued passing in between the houses, stopping at one house for a chat and to purchase various food items from the grocery woman in her small boat. I guess people learn at a very young age the danger of the water, or how to swim as there were infants walking freely on the houses 2 metres above the water with no railings, and young children rowing boats between the houses.

We returned back the same path to Chong Khnies, heading into the wind resulting in most everybody on board the boat getting soaked. It was actually drier sitting up on the bow, whilst the remaining people in the boat found what shelter they could from the spray behind coats and life jackets. We visited the Gecko Centre, which had displays on the various wildlife, flora and fishing of Tonle Sap. We even passed a floating Catholic Church!

After watching a glorious sunset over the lake, we returned to the shore and were accosted by small children begging. This was probably the worst place for begging that I had come across in Cambodia. There was a little begging in Siem Reap and around the temples from people disabled from the war but usually people were selling things rather than outright begging. Here, small children were walking around hands outstretched asking for money.

New Year celebrations were in full swing, with lots of loud music and colourful lights, the trip back to Siem Reap especially memorable for the many houses along the way lit with many coloured lights similar to Christmas back home.