Spring Festival IV: Cambodia and Majestic Angkor Wat

Monks relaxing at Angkor Wat

January 24, 2009: In the middle of our month-long trip to Thailand, we had a 4 day diversion into Cambodia. We ventured into Cambodia solely to see Angkor Wat, one of the 7 Wonders of the World and the capital of the vast Khmer empire (which stretched into present-day Thailand) from the 9th to 15th Centuries. In its prime, the Khmer empire enjoyed long periods of peace and ample supplies of food and as such the Khmer kings had plenty of people at their disposal to devote to building impressive temples. Every Khmer king had to have his own temple to assert his power and divinity (Even if a king had nearly completed a temple at the time of his death, his successor would start over on a new temple instead of finishing the old king’s work). As powerful as the Khmer empire was, it began to fade in the mid-15th century and ultimately was defeated by the Thais in 1594. Prior to their defeat, the Khmer’s abandoned Angkor Wat and over time it was overtaken by the surrounding jungle. As a result of the massive jungle growth surrounding the ancient city, the ruins were only re-discovered by the west in the 1800’s. Today, the area known as “Angkor Wat” consists of over 250 impressive temple ruins set in the middle of the dense Cambodian jungle. Angkor Wat is actually the name of the area’s most famous temple, however the entire area has now taken this name.

Above: Our itinerary (the red line)

Below: Scenes from Angkor Wat

We were too impressed by the pictures we’d seen of the Angkor Wat to not visit, even if it meant a somewhat difficult overland journey to get there. In actuality, we’d expected more than a “somewhat difficult” journey to Angkor Wat. In researching how to get to Angkor before our trip, we’d read quite a few horror stories from travelers who’d made the trip previously. Here’s a summary of what we’d read before our trip:

1) First, you take a 4-5 hour public bus from Bangkok east to the city nearest the Thai-Cambodian Border. (This is not bad at all.)

2) At the bus station, you are “greeted” by hordes of eager tuk-tuk drivers, all who want to take you to the border station (10 minutes drive away) for a completely unreasonable fare. You negotiate a price with the driver and tell him to take you “straight to the border.”

3) Even though he’d agreed to take you “straight to the border,” your tuk-tuk driver ignores this request and drives you straight to a non-government-sponsored Visa Center / Restaurant / Travel Agency. He hopes that you’ll be duped into buying something you don’t need there so the owner will give him a commission. You give the driver an angry look and tell him to take you to the border (in thai of course).

4) Once at the border, you make your way through the immigration formalities to exit Thailand and enter Cambodia. This should really be straightforward. The problem is that there are various people and offices all trying to "help" you get through the border, and it can be difficult to tell who is “official” and who is not. While we were going through the border, we saw various people from the Cambodian side trying to help people fill out their paperwork for a ridiculous fee. The paperwork consists of filling out your name, passport number, and destination in Cambodia. I’m not sure why these people think they are better suited to fill this information out for you than you are, but they do.

5) Once you’re through the border formalities, you must find a way to Siem Reap, the town nearest Angkor Wat. Of course, there are many people (shady people) waiting for you outside the border station who will offer to take you in their private truck (for a price). However, not only do many of these people charge a “higher-than-fair” price, but you really have no way of knowing if they’re really going to take you to the right place or not. We'd heard stories of people paying to be taken to Siem Reap and ending up in the completely wrong city!

6) Okay, so assume you’ve found someone legitimate to take you to Siem Reap. The next step is a pleasant, 5-7 hour journey in the back of their pickup truck down bumpy, unpaved roads (Many of the roads in Cambodia are not paved yet and the legitimate drivers to Siem Reap use pickup trucks, as those allow them to fit the largest number of customers – the road conditions were too poor for buses). For this portion of the trip, we were advised to buy a facemask or scarf to put over our nose and mouth to prevent us from inhaling too much dust.

7) After your arduous, 10-12 hour journey, you arrive in Siem Reap, your sanity barely intact.

Reading about this beforehand made us a little scared to try this journey on our own. Flying was an easier option, but it was really expensive. In the end we decided to make the trip with a group and a guide. At the border, we were really glad to have our guide to make sure we got our paperwork processed smoothly and didn’t get ripped off. Through step 5, the description of the journey we’d read about from previous travelers was accurate (Even with a guide, the tuk-tuk drivers in steps 2 and 3 dropped us off at the “unofficial” Visa Center/Restaurant/Travel Agency hoping for a commission, and we saw plenty of unaccompanied travelers being hassled by various scammers at the border.)

Our Tuk-Tuk driver dropping us off at the wrong place.

However, at step 6, our journey actually took a turn for the better! Apparently, the Cambodian government had been working hard to pave the road from the border to Siem Reap to encourage tourism to the area. Approximately 70% of the road was paved by the time we made our trip (which cut driving time from the Thai-Cambodian border from 5-7 hours to about 3 hours). Also, the fact that so much of the road was paved allowed drivers to use actual buses to transport passengers to Siem Reap. Thus, we got to ride in a big, comfy, air-conditioned bus! Apparently, we had really great timing in coming to Cambodia when we did. The buses had only been in use for about 2 weeks and our tour guide told us that the last time he’d made this trip a couple of months ago, the majority of the road was still unpaved. Lucky us!

Above: Welcome to Cambodia!

Above: The whole journey from the Cambodian-Thai Border used to be on a dirt road, bumpier than this. Now, most is paved (fortunately for us).

Once we arrived in Siem Reap, we were free to explore the town and get a feel for Cambodia. It really was quite different than places we’d been before. The country has a fairly tumultuous recent history; fighting in its civil war really only ended about 10 years ago and as such the political situation is not the most stable. Landmines are still a huge problem, especially in the countryside, and tourists are warned not to stray too far off the beaten path for fear of accidentally setting one off. Economically, it was definitely a strange, two-tiered system. On one tier, there were fancy hotels and restaurants catering to foreign tourists from seemingly every country. On a tier far below were the local people, many of whom were in extreme poverty. Cambodia’s currency, the Riel, is so weak (4,000 Riel = $1 USD) that it appeared that all business was being conducted in US dollars. Prices on menus, hotel rates, prices at tourist attractions, etc. were all listed only in US Dollars. In fact, when we went to ATMs in the country, we found that they only dispersed US dollars! Strangely, the fact that US dollars were used as the primary currency caused Cambodia to be quite a bit more expensive than China and Thailand, where favorable exchange rates keep prices (for foreigners, at least) lower. For example, a bottle of water in China costs us 15-30 cents vs. 1-2 dollars in Cambodia. In general, one would think that the country is progressing; fighting has stopped and the tourism industry is growing. However, we got the feeling that “progress” has favored a few while the majority of the country still lives very difficult lives.

The country is lucky to have Angkor Wat, which brings TONS of tourists – including us – to the country every year. It’s a huge area (some of the temples are 30-45 minutes drive apart), so we set aside a full two days to explore. On our first day, we woke up early (4:40am) to watch the sunrise over the actual temple which bears the name Angkor Wat. Before we left, I thought “Great, we’re leaving so early that surely there will be no one else there!” Was I ever wrong. When we arrived at the entrance at around 5:15am, there were already hundreds of people there waiting to see the sunrise. The locals had also woken up early to greet the tourists and were there waiting to sell us water, postcards, guidebooks, etc. (More on them later.). Anyway, despite the slight annoyance of there being so many people there that early, the sunrise was still beautiful and surprisingly peaceful considering how many people were around. Over the next couple of days, we saw some amazing structures. As impressive as the architecture was, it was equally interesting to learn about the daily lives of the areas former inhabitants. Our guide showed us where Kings stood to address their subjects and interpreted pictographs on the walls which gave insights into the customs, history, and daily rituals of the people who built the structures. And maybe most fascinating of all was how the whole area was “lost” for so many years only to be overtaken by the jungle! Sometimes the enormous trees growing on and through the ancient ruins were just as impressive as the temples themselves. We especially enjoyed seeing some of the ‘less-visited’ temples on our 2nd day, which had an almost “Indiana Jones-like” feel to them. We hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day to transport us between temples. We really enjoyed driving through the countryside, past rice harvests and bamboo houses to catch a glimpse of modern-day life in Cambodia.

Above: Sunrise over Angkor Wat

Above: It is evident that the jungle has overtaken many of the temples

Above: The Cambodians call this the "Elephant Terrace"

Above: A Stegosaurus carved into the temple walls. I thought that was interesting . . .

Above: Sunset at one of the less-visited temples.

Above: Sunset at one of the less-visited temples

One thing we weren’t quite prepared for before we’d decided to come to Angkor Wat was the boldness of the local people trying to sell us things. At the entry to every temple, there were men, women, and children alike rushing up to us asking if we wanted to make a purchase. It wasn’t just that they were there that was annoying – it was the way they went about their “business.” Their typical “sales pitches” were as follows:

The initial sales pitch: “Sir, you wanna buy a cold beer?” (yelled in a whiney voice)

The response after you say you don’t want to buy: “If you buy, you buy from me! If you buy, you buy from me!”

The response if it looks like you might buy something from someone else: “I ask you for long time! Buy from me! Buy from me!.”

And the best one of all occurred if a tourist said that they “might” buy something later. If that salesperson saw the poor soul who said “maybe” at any point later in the day, they’d simply shout: “Hello! Remember me?! You promise you buy! You promise you buy!”

The kids trying to sell us stuff were a bit more clever than their adult counterparts, but most of them generally tried the same tactic; impress the foreigner. They’d first simply ask if you wanted to buy a postcard. Then, when you said no, they’d show off some kind of impressive knowledge. A typical exchange went as follows:

Child: “Do you want to buy a postcard?”

Tourist: “No, thanks.”

(Child proceeds to count to ten in English, German, Spanish, French and Chinese.)
Child: “Now you buy?”

I’m sure this tactic works well for them in general. And honestly, they were pretty impressive. They generally spoke better English than a majority of the students at our school, they knew the populations of England, France, Germany and the US, and they even could come up with pretty persuasive arguments on why you should buy their postcard (One child responded to a tourist who said they didn’t need a postcard because they had a camera which took beautiful pictures: “But my picture was taken from a helicopter.”). Ironically, every souvenir for sale was "one dollar!"

Still, I couldn’t really decide what to think about these kids. They obviously have a difficult life and little opportunity to improve their lot, so you surely felt bad and wanted to help. On the other hand, they’ve been a bit spoiled by tourism and you don’t want to encourage it. We had brought toothbrushes, pens, and paper to give to the children (as opposed to buying their postcards or giving them candy that would rot their teeth). While some of the kids were thankful for these ‘handouts,’ others rolled their eyes at us or said “Give me candy.” When I told one child not to swallow a piece of gum another tourist had given him, he said “I know. Lots of tourists give me gum.” I can't help but think the entire country would be better off in the long run if they would send these kids to school so their country has a chance to progress.

After 2 full days seeing Angkor Wat, it was time to head back to Bangkok. We had a night bus to Southern Thailand to catch at Bangkok’s Southern Bus terminal, and we headed out early (5am) in order to be assured of not missing the bus. As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about. We were at the Thai-Cambodian border by 7:30am and back in Bangkok before 1pm (more than 6 hours before our bus was to leave).

All in all, while certain aspects of Angkor Wat were a bit annoying and unexpected, it was not nearly enough to detract from what an incredible place it is. We are really thankful to have had the chance to visit!