Angkor Wat...Woah...Wow.
If only I possessed the necessary skills/talent to write an epic romantic sonnet along the lines of Shakespeare professing my undying love to the ancient land of Cambodia... Alas, an entry on an insignificant travel blog on the Internet will have to suffice.
Upon finally being released on July 24 from "prison", i.e. Bangkok Hospital, I resumed with 100% enthusiasm (if not full physical capacity), my worldly travels. As I had lost 2 entire weeks of travel, I decided with sincere regret to forego Vietnam in favor of a couple of weeks in Cambodia, home to one of the most important and wondrous archaeological sites of the world...Angkor Wat. To visit it, one must travel to the city of Siem Reap, which is fairly easy to reach overland in a day from Bangkok, as long as you don't mind rising with the roosters! There is an incredibly cheap ($1.50!!) train from Bangkok's main train station, Hualamphong, that departs at the unearthly hour of 5:55 AM and arrives at the border town of Aranyaprathet at around midday. From there, one must hail a tuk-tuk for a negotiable price to the notorious border town of Poipet, but be aware that most (Nay...ALL!) drivers will try to take you to a "fake" office to purchase a Cambodian tourist visa at an inflated price. As long as one is forewarned about the scam, one can easily avoid it. My tuk-tuk driver did drop me off at such a place, but I simply hoisted my backpack onto my back and trotted off to the actual border. A single-entry visa is easy to procur there (at least with an American passport that is) and only costs $20. Once in Cambodia, visitors have the option of taking a bus, minivan or private taxi to Siem Reap. It all depends on how fast you want to get there and how cheaply. I chose Option B, the minivan for $9, and arrived in Siem Reap at about 4:30 in the afternoon. Another short tuk-tuk ride costing only $1.00 (because I had swiftly become a hardass negotiator when it came to this mode of transport) brought me to the illustrious doorstep of the most fantabulous hotel I have stayed at thus far in my journey around the globe...
...the Gloria Angkor Hotel (Email: info@gloriaangkorhotel.com). I made my reservation with them via booking.com for 3 nights at a rate of $16 per night figuring I would move to a much cheaper place for another couple of nights after that, which I did in fact do ($6.30 for a dorm bed at the HI Hostel). But boy am I glad I decided to "splurge" for this hotel really goes ALL OUT for its guests! I was made to feel like honorary European royalty from the moment I sat down in the reception area and was served a refreshingly cool glass of water accompanied by a flower-scented towel. But please, allow me to relay a few more specifics on what precisely the Gloria Angkor does for its oh-so-cherished guests...
Every night, the staff would come to my room and ready my bed for peaceful slumber by personally turning down the sheets, sprinkling delightfully fragrant frangipani across the bedspread, and placing a rolled-up bedtime story on my pillow for my reading pleasure. Another service provided by the hotel, this one due to it being somewhat inconveniently located about 5 km outside the center of Siem Reap, was a nightly tuk-tuk service (available after 6 PM). In other words, the hotel arranged to have one of its on-call tuk tuk drivers bring me to whereever I wanted to go in the center of town and then collect me again at a pre-arranged time. Furthermore, all of the staff at the Gloria Angkor treated me as if I had been personally hand-selected to stay there - especially the manager himself, Mr. Kim. When I met him on the evening of my 2nd night there, he made a point of introducing himself to me and charmly complimented me on my dazzling beauty. Was he being sincere in his flirtations? Who cares!! We, women, realize that such words are not usually meant sincerely BUT it is always nice to succumb to the belief that such flattering words are truly spoken. Sigh. Finally, when I checked out of the hotel on July 30, I was delighted to discover that Mr. Kim had arranged to give me not only a 20% discount on my room, but to "gift" me with a complimentary bottle of Chilean red wine! This knocked down the price of my room to approximately $13 per night!! Seriously, I was simply floored when I was informed upon checkout of these complimentary gestures! Wouldn't YOU be?! So, to sum up, if you are considering a stopover in Siem Reap, I HIGHLY implore you to stay at the GLORIA ANGKOR HOTEL (www.gloriaangkorhotel.com).
Enough about spectacular accommodation...let's talk
On my first day in Siem Reap, I decided to postpone visiting the main attraction (That would be Angkor Wat, DUH!) and instead focus on familiarizing myself with the city itself. I chose to walk the 5k from the hotel to the town center as it was a sunny day and I tend to bask in exploratory urban walks such as this. Initially my walk was slightly unpleasant as it took place upon a road riddled with traffic and pedestrians but once I reached the intersection of National Route 6 and the Siem Reap River Road, its scenic merit increased exponentially.
The greatest attraction of the town, in my humble opinion, are its markets. I wandered through the Old Market with a tight grip on my purse strings but couldn't completely resist the allure of its offerings. I broke down and purchased a lovely pink/rose scarf for a measly $2.50 and later succumbed to the charms of a conversation with a young lady working at one of the market stalls who sold me a padded cover for my iPad. While conversing, she admitted to me, albeit reluctantly, that it was her dream to get rich so she could explore the big, wide world beyond Cambodia's borders. Her English was remarkably good, particularly her vocabulary, and I sincerely felt that we established a kindred connection in those brief moments we spent discussing our hopes/dreams, huddled together on stools low to the ground, giggling about wealthy "sugar daddies" and opportunities for women in Cambodia to step beyond their limited horizons. I definitely felt an unspoken, profound sense of guilt while listening to her confess to her "gypsy" aspirations for I knew that her dreams of wanderlust would almost certainly never be realized. I am sure she knew, not-so-deep down, that all that she sooo profoundly wished for would never come true, but for those few, precious moments we spent conversing, it didn't necessarily seem so. I slowly and reluctantly walked away from her market stall with thoughts swirling through my noggin and a hell of a lot more than a new iPad case made out of a recycled cement bag costing only $5...
Some who come to Siem Reap are tragically short of time, forced to explore the temples of Angkor in just one day. Thankfully, this was not the case with me. A day pass to the Angkor Archaelogical Park costs $20, whereas the three-day pass, which I purchased, is only $40. One has the choice to explore its myriad of Hindu/Buddhist temples by bicycle, tour bus, or tuk-tuk. I hired a tuk-tuk at my hotel to take me on the "Grand Tour/Circuit" + a visit to the 35k distant but rather stunning Banteay Srei temple on Day One for $23. The weather that first day was predominantly decent with a bit of dreary rain in the morning transitioning to mostly cloudy skies thereafter. The magical wonder of the place surprisingly didn't hit me all at once like a monster truck but rather snuck up on me stealthily, much like a seductive spy working undercover as a jazz singer in a smoky Parisian bar might. I found my excitement increasing, however, as we stopped first at the aforementioned Banteay Srei, and then later at Ta Som, Preah Khan and...
...Gosh I am getting confused. Perhaps I should just say that I visited a variety of temples that first day which I cannot pronounce or spell but that I gradually fell deeper under Angkor's "spell" as the day wore on.
The following morning, after a satisfying breakfast for Chicago champions, my tuk-tuk driver drove me back to the Angkor Archaeological Site for my Day Two "Mini Tour" ($13). Our first stop was the Bayon Temple where I took loads of priceless artifacts photographs. I also got a bit winded climbing up the steep steps in some other temple, the name of which escapes me. Eventually I may try to figure out which temple was precisely which and where, but for NOW the only temple name which significantly matters is the one which came next...
Angkor Wat...Woah...Wow. My driver and I pulled up to its entrance in the early afternoon, just as the sun came out, illuminating it (and all us tourists) ever so beautifully. To enter the compound, one must first walk a considerable ways along an uneven stone walkway that cuts through a pond (lake?). Once past this, you walk through an arched gateway that takes you into the outer courtyard where you are then able to see the temple unobstructed, if still at a distance. You know, it is actually incredibly difficult to describe all this, so maybe it would be better if I simply fast-forwarded to the main temple itself.
Naturally I was "blown away" by the sheer scale of Angkor Wat, but another thing that impressed me was the minute, in comparison, Buddhist carvings on the walls of the building which encircled its main temple. I do not know how much of it had been reconstructed versus what was original, but it truly was an amazing, rarely featured in pictures on the Web, sight to see. Much to my delight, I managed to successfully photograph the main temple without any tourists sneaking into the shots. This photographic feat is, most likely, impossible to achieve during the (dry) high season, but as I was visiting during the (rainy) summer season, I lucked out. Yeah me!! Speaking of which...
As I walked around Angkor's ginormous archaeological site, dark clouds were gathering ominously above. With one eye peering through my viewfinder, and the other cast upon the sky, I managed to wind up my self-guided Angkor Wat tour mere moments before the torrential downpour hit. Literally. I mean, no sooner had I reached the car park where my tuk-tuk driver was parked & waiting, the rainstorm was upon us with winds so fierce that trees were uprooted and some (drenched) bodies were caught thoroughly unprepared. Me, however? I sat smugly under the divine protection of my tuk-tuk's roof, and waited out the (brief but ever-so-heavy) storm in dry comfort. Again, yeah me!!
The number of tourists I encountered that second day was reasonably tolerable, I suppose- at least, that is, until we arrived at our last (temple) stop of the day...Ta Phrom. This is the iconic temple made famous by Lara Croft (AKA Angelina Jolie) in "TOMB RAIDER" folks. I suspect that when visitors are asked to choose a favorite temple at/around Angkor Wat, this one is, by far, most often mentioned. Unlike the others, it is rather small, nay intimate, and appears as if little has been done by the authorities or experts to "fix it up." It is overgrown by trees, with huge branches, roots and limbs creeping up/along the crumbling walls like living, breathing otherworldly creatures. Unfortunately, the only "living" beings that were surely present the day I visited were homo sapiens. It was impossible to slip away from the hordes. It was impossible to escape from the sounds of snickering lads, giggling gal pals, and clicking cameras. And I just knew in my heart that the ONLY way to fully experience the wonder that is Ta Phrom, is to "hear" it in silence. Therefore, as much as I was in awe of the place, I was also rather disappointed by my initial visit to the temple. But that...would...NOT...be the end of it.
As I had purchased a three-day pass, it was decided at the end of Day Two that my driver would pick me up the following morning at 5 AM ($13) in order to catch the
As we were gearing up to leave at 6:30 AM, it occurred to me that NOW might be the ideal time to revisit Ta Phrom as none of the tourists seemed to be headed that way, so I implored my driver to take me back and, boy oh boy, was that ever the perfect call! Nobody else was there when I walked in...the only things I heard were the hypnotic whistling of the birds and the sound of my own footsteps. It was eerily spectacular, producing goosebumps along both of my forearms. Another couple did show up a short while later, but that was it. Just us three. I felt like an excited youngster who has just opened up a gift on Christmas morning to discover that Santa has brought me exactly what I wanted.
I slipped away after that with only one or two regretful glances back over my shoulder because it seemed an absolutely fitting way to end my visit to the Angkor Archaeological Site. Later that same morning, I caught a bus to Phnom Pengh, the capital, but...let's save that saga for another day, another entry.
Comments
Post a Comment