SIEM REAP - ANGKOR WAT

Bus to Siem Reap was painless, which was a change. Although it is only 296 km away from Pnompenh it still took us 6 hours to get to Siem Reap. I have no idea why it takes so long on the buses in this part of the world. When we arrived we were met by a horde of toutes offering accomodation, transportation, anything you want, sticking laminated photos of guest-houses into your face and grabbing your elbows and other body parts in their desperate attempt to get our attention. One guy was quite skillful because we ended up in his tuk-tuk on our way to the guest-house of his choice. Normally we would be absolutely against it, but since we didn't have any particular guest-house in mind, we gracefully went along with it. Our friend Janice did recommend one guest-house with the auspicious name of "Golden Banana", but after checking the price of accomodation we gave up on it; it was too expensive for our liking. Anyways, we ended up in the guest-house called Family Guest-house. The room had aircondioner and hot water and TV for $12. But we agreed that if we don't use airconditioner we'll only pay $8 a day. And so we checked in.

After hitting rock-bottom luck-wise in Vientiane with our sicknesses and bed-bugs, I feel like we slowly but surely crawling up again. No more bed-bugs and our tummies are not that bad either. :) The next day we hired two bycicles (unfortunately you can't hire motocycles in Siem Reap. We saw only a few sleezy looking French guys, who seem to be living here, driving motorcycles with their local girlfriends.) and went to Angkor Wat, about 6.5 km from Siem Reap. The whole town of Siem Reap exists only thanks to the huge number of tourists who come to see the Angkor Wat. In a way it seems even more civilized and rich compared to the capital Pnompenh. The prices here are not cheap at all, in fact they are too expensive, the dollar sign in front of everything only makes it to feel more expensive. Angkor Wat is what everyone says it is. It is grand and beautiful with the surrounding moat so big that it just looks like a natural river. It is so big that after walking around only Angkor Wat you feel like you've done half-marathon and just want to sit somewhere or even better lie down and sleep for a couple of hours. But unfortunately you can't because there's so much to see. Katy was contemplating the idea of getting only a day pass, which was really unrealistic because it is just impossible to see everything in one day. We got 3 days passes and still by the end of second day we've only seen the main complexes and there're so many other pre-Angkorian complexes as well...

Anyways, in two days we biked around a lot sightseeing. My ass never was plump (it never was skinny too, Katy thinks it's just right shape and size.. ha~) neither was it skinny, so, I blame it on the bycicle seat. My butt still hurts. It was so uncomfortable for me especially towards the end of today, the second day. It kept pushing and pushing against my buttcheecks and other body parts that it started to hurt a little (but bearable) as we were getting close to the town. Also my bike had a habbit of spitting the chain out of those round things on which it normally sits, so, a few times I had to stop and fix it. Tomorrow our last day of Angkor Wat sightseeing we'll probably hire a tuk-tuk and will go around like other lazy asses sitting in a relatively comfortable chair. We might also get on an air balloon around 1 km away from Angkor Wat and get an arial view of Angkor Wat. Hopefully we'll get a nice picture out of that.

Other than that we've been really enjoying the restaurant scene in Siem Reap. You can get anything and everything and it all tastes GOOD~~ For the last two days we were eating dinner at the Korean restaurant. I forgot how good Korean food is and how much I missed it. And today we found this store here, which was like a heaven, because you could find anything, and I mean ANYTHING, that you like or want. We ended up buying little snacks and juices and pate... The store also had an excellent selection of chocolates which reminded me of our recent travel-mate Katinka, who just can't live without it.

We think we'll be leaving Cambodia in a few days for Thailand, the rainy season started here, so it rains practically every day, and when it does it's not your regular spitting, it's freaking waterfall. And from there we will go to Uzbekistan, so, our travels will be practically over, but in reality might be just continuing because we both have to settle in a country where one haven't ever lived and the other haven't lived for the last 10 years. Anyways, this post get too long, so enjoy a few photos here.
One night we went to a restaurant where they had dance performance. Two Long Island ice-teas for $4.






















Angkor Wat is a place where locals come to take wedding photos. However, unlike boring white Western weddings, local wedding are colorful and cheerful. We saw pink, green, blue and maroon weddings.








Photos of Angkor Wat in daylight and at night.














Bayon temple with 54 faces staring at you at all angles and Ta Prohm temple, which is swallowed by the jungles, and where some scenes for the Tomb Raider were shot.












Phnom Bakheng temple on top of the hill, which is famous for the beautiful view of sunset from its top. And because of that tons of tourists gather on top of it starting from about 5pm. One of those monkeys in its circus were us.








If you think you're fat and feel sorry for yourself look at this guy and maybe you'll feel better.








Gay-love buddist monks style?

KATY'S ADDITIONS....

About the episode with the cop in Phnom Penh that Vlad mentioned in the last blog...

The cop's attention was a little distracted by a couple of other motorcycles he was trying to deal with simultaneously. This was his mistake. He thought we were going to wait there patiently for him to come and take our motorcycle away and pay him money. What a fool! Little did he know how little respect I have for authority, especially when the authority is stupid, corruptible, hypocritical and indulges in petty little games with tourists for amusement.
I tried to snatch the key once and failed. You would think he would have learned. But no, the stupid fat cop couldn't hold onto it. I snatched it again and told Vlad not to let it go this time. He dropped part of the keychain on the ground however, and the cop, thinking it was the key, triumphantly bent down and grabbed it. On realizing that it was not attached to a key, he looked for something else he could snatch, something that might prevent our driving away. He reached into the basket at the front of the scooter and with a self-satisfied "ha" swiftly removed the motorcycle chain, certain that this would stop us. Again a foolish move, because why would we be concerned about something so trivial when the bike is moving and we are driving away~



Sometimes I think that tourists feel like they need to see all of the "sights" when they visit a place. Here in Southeast Asia, the list of "sights" is often dominated by wats (temples) and palaces. In Bangkok we somehow missed going to all the places we "should" have gone to because we were organizing our onward travel and did a whole lot of shopping. Since then I have mentioned how we should see more of the "sights" and sometimes Vlad has relented.
But while wandering around the Grand Palace in Phnom Penh, we both realized how little interest we had in the place. Sure the roofs are golden and the buddhas are supposedly encrusted with real diamonds, but the fact remains that we don't know #$% about these artifacts. We don't know #$% about the architecture, or the King who built it and even if we read the signs which told us a silver filigree candlestick was a gift from so and so to his dear wife, I doubt we would care a lot. It's just not what we're interested in. It was actually quite a relief to have realized that. Cos I had been feeling sort of guilty, when walking through the museum earlier in the day, that my attention span was very short. It's not that I'm completely without interest, don't get me wrong, it's just that I'm not FASCINATED by 12th century Khmer sculpture. And not being Buddhist, visiting temples are merely exercises in appreciating architecture, which is sometimes extremely interesting, as at Angkor Wat. As Vlad has written, we both mustered up sufficient interest to visit almost every temple in the complex and after a day or so I began to see more details. This one is not carved, this one has elephants, that one worships Hindu gods, this one worships the king disguised at Avalokisteshvara... don't ask me who that is, I just memorized it.

What interests me? Textiles. I found the weaving fascinating, that each region has different patterns and uses different colours according to which plants can be found in their area. Maybe when I'm old I'll join one of those groups of Japanese women and travel all over visiting weaving villages.
And whenever I pass a silk shop I want to go in. I was so excited the other day when we visited that silk shop near the Russian Market in Phnom Penh. Vlad was getting so impatient because it seemed like I couldn't make up my mind. He didn't realize that I was overwhelmed by all the colours and just needed some time to take them all in and imagine what they could be used for. It made me think that I really need to take up sewing again when we get to Tashkent.
So will be go to the Grand Palace in Bangkok when we go back there... I don't know. We might, we might not. We know now though, that we won't really care too much if we don't.

COPS

So far we've been stopped twice by the cops when we were hiring the motorcycles to get around. I admit that perhaps we did violate some traffic rules, but so did many hundreds other locals, yet the foreigners get stopped and demanded for money.

The first time was in Laos, Vientiane. Vientiane has way too many one-way streets. And the signs are obscure and not well visible, add to that locals who ignore them completely and you'd understand that we were just bound to go in the opposite direction on one-way road. When it happened to us we were both tired and exhausted with heat and sun. The young traffic policemen were hiding behind the tree in the shade and when we turned into what turned out to be a one-way road, they promptly stopped us and told us that basically we have three choices: get our passport confiscated or motorcycle or go and pay fine. I'm sure we could've bought them out, but we were so pissed that I'd rather pay an official fine of $10 than pay these little pricks their money. Probably if I was by myself, I'd end up paying the fine, but thanks to Katy we got away. While I went to the room to get my driver's license, Katy started stopping all other locals who were violating exactly the same traffic rule as we did, yet, the little policemen pricks didn't even try to stop the locals and fine them as they did us. And a few that did stop, just smiled at the policemen and drove off. So, when I came out, we just got on our motorcycle and drove off as well. And what do you think? The little policemen-pricks didn't even try to stop us. Little shiats...

The second time almost the same scenario played out yesterday in Pnompenh. Now, Vientiane had some adherence to the traffic rules, Pnompenh on the other hand has none. Everyone goes wherever they want. U-turn wherever they want, go right and left... All you need to do is to beep. And the larger the vehicle is the more rights you have it seems. Also, so many cars are driving around without plates... I think Robin would flip out if he had to drive here... ha~ So, we were following dozens of locals in the street that turned out to be a one-way. This time it was a big-fat prick, who told us to stop and smartly, I must admit, pulled out our key from the motorcycle. Again, Katy saved our butt... Sometimes she acts so surprisingly decisively, when I take time to think the situation over. And quite a few times it saved us nerves and whatever else. So, basically, seeing other locals just driving away as well. She went over to the big-fat prick and pulled out our key from his hands. (The proud moment ^^). Then she came back and said "drive away", which we did. And again the Big-fat prick didn't say anything.

Anyways, we gotta go to the bus station now. We're leaving Pnompenh and going to Siem Reap today. Wait for the pictures of Angkor Wat...

PHOTO BLOG FROM PNOMPENH

In the courtyard of now peaceful Tuol Sleng highschool otherwise known as the Security Prison-21 (S-21).

The regulations at S-21

An interrogation chamber. Sometimes it feels like you can still see brown stains on the tiled floor...

The gallows.

To put the number of prisoners at S-21 to their face.

Khmer Rouge trained young boys aged 10~13 to be the guards at S-21 prison. The boys soon would become the most feared and evil guards.

Shackles used to chain prisoners.

Print on the staircase in the Tuol Sleng highschool.

Highschool turned into one of the most horried prisons.

Torture tools used by the Khmer Rouge.

Paintings by the artists of how people lived in S-21.

Some of the exhibits in Tuol Sleng museum.

At last quiet and peaceful building of Tuol Sleng highschool.

Portraits of senior Khmer Rouge are full of inscriptionsl with the expletives in Khmer, English, Spanish, French... The interesting thing was that these portraits along with the one of senior female member weren't even hung on the wall like others. They were just standing on the floor. Was it intentional?..

On our way to the Killing Fields museum we got flat tire, so, we had to stop by the bike shop and have it fixed. Note the "genuine" parts made probably in China for Honda motorcycles... :)

The memorial in the Killing Fields museum to people murdered by Khmer Rouge.

The fenced area behind Katy is where hundreds of women and children were burried during the Khmer Rouge regime. The tree that Katy's touching was used to kill little babies. How? Grab by the leg, smash against the tree and throw into the pit.

The entrance to the National Museum.

The central garden inside the National museum.

It was good to see that the Royal Palace is visited by many locals as well. And monks too are people and want to take pictures with their buddies... :)

In the Royal Palace. The Silver Pagoda in the background. This is the place where there's a statue of golden Buddah with almost 9 thousands diamonds. Although we think they've probably replaced real diamonds with the fake ones, because the lock on that statue was so tiny that it wouldn't stop a 7 year old from breaking it...

Early in the morning. Who says that the monks don't work? Off to work.... with the briefcase...

The silk shop where we spent a few dollars today and bought some silk for Katy's clothing and curtains.

The slums of Cambodia. As you would correctly guess it's not everywhere, but you can see that.