At Adam’s suggestion, we travelled by taxi from Bangkok to Siem Reap, a six-and-a-half-hour journey through gorgeous countryside. One can fly, of course, but when one considers getting to the airport early, going through security, going through customs and immigration at the other end, there’s probably not a lot in it. Certainly, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to visit one of the finest examples of a Lav with a View.
Mango Taxis operate throughout SE Asia and they were very good – we had only one journey which was less than perfect.
In Siem Reap we stayed at the Angkor Heart Bungalow hotel which was on the edge of town and, once again, turned out to be an oasis of calmness in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the town. The staff were extraordinarily friendly and helpful. Every day, when we returned from a marathon of temple-viewing, they would appear with a glass of iced tea and some fresh fruit, delivered to our bungalow. It was a marvellous place to stay. Our first evening we ordered dinner which was delivered to our porch. Delicious.
Of course, one visits Siem Reap to see the ancient temples, the most famous being Angkor Wat. OMG! Angkor Wat and the other temples are simply jaw-droppingly stunning. One runs out of adjectives – everywhere you look there are huge temples built hundreds of years ago with no “modern” tools. The carvings on the walls are especially stunning, I thought.
Angkor Wat is, of course, the “masterpiece” but there are dozens more. We spent three days visiting the temples and probably saw only about half. Our tuktuk driver, Lai, was super-friendly and helpful and drove us all around the area with a cheerful disposition. He could not have been more helpful. Like so many Cambodians, he has a very sad back story which he shared with us on our third day of travelling with him.
Day One of temple watching was exhausting but exhilarating at the same time. We spent most of the day in the blistering heat exploring and climbing all over temples in various stages of disrepair. When we got back to the hotel, we cooled off with a leisurely swim followed by a cool shower and then we took a tuktuk into town for cocktails at the former French Governor’s Mansion on the river before dinner in an excellent vegan restaurant.
The next day we took a trip with the taxi driver who had driven us from the Thai-Cambodian border, Mr Rey, to the Kulen Waterfalls about 70 km northeast of Siem Reap. As well as a lovely, refreshing dip in the waterfalls, this is also the mountain from which the stones came for the building of the temples. These massive boulders were floated down the river to the temple sites. Again, no modern tools – only the use of elephants for the heavy transport at the end. Amazing.
Tuesday was another day of exploring temples – all of them are in various states of disarray and I suspect the Cambodians will never succeed in restoring them. The task is just too large and perhaps that’s no bad thing. One of the temples had been meticulously catalogued by a UNESCO team who made detailed notes about where all the fallen stones needed to go. The Khmer Rouge destroyed the notes (and also did a lot of further destruction of the temples) so now the authorities are faced with a three-thousand-piece three-dimensional jigsaw. Dinner back at the Bungalow was delicious.
On Wednesday, our last full day in Siem Reap, we visited the Angkor National Museum which is stuffed full of artefacts from the temples. Amazing stuff, not least of which – the room with 1000 Buddhas. Mr Lai, our tuktuk driver, took us a bit off the beaten path on Wednesday afternoon. Penny wanted to see a real “local” market as opposed to the markets in the town aimed at tourists. He readily agreed to take us one afternoon when it would be relatively quiet – the locals get there early in the morning to do their shopping. It was fascinating. You need anything, you’ll find it here. And, for convivence sake, similar goods are all situated together. All the shoes in one section, hats in another and, of course, gold in abundance.
Sadly, it was time to leave Siem Reap and make our way to Phnom Penh. Next time . . .
a taxi ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh including a stop at a famous truck stop to sample the local delicacy – deep-fried tarantula, not to mention other insects and larvae in various stages of development.
And finally, this past Friday was a day Pen and I would probably like to forget. On Thursday Penny made a start on clearing the cellar of much of the rubbish which has accumulated there over the past ten years. She ferried stuff up and I spent many a happy moment flattening several hundred cardboard boxes. Once the car was full to the gunwales I thankfully checked to see if the recycling centre was open. Nope. It opens at 10.00 on Friday.
So, on Friday morning we set off to the recycling centre. As we approached, we could see the queue of cars waiting to be admitted. I expertly calculated that it would take about half an hour for us to get to the entrance and so it proved. We inched forward step by step until there were only two cars ahead of us. That’s when one of the staff came out, closing the gate behind him, to inform us that they had no more capacity and no one else could be admitted until a new lorry arrived. And, he didn’t know how long that would be. So that’s a half hour we’ll never get back again.
After some debate we elected to drive to Towcester and visit its fine recycling centre. Which we did. Another half hour drive to find that we could go straight in and deposit our rubbish in the appropriate receptacles. Why didn’t we come here first? Once that was accomplished, we made our way up the road to Tesco to do a quick essentials shop. As we came to leave, as luck would have it, we spent another half-hour queueing to leave the car park – traffic was horrendous. So, that’s about an hour spent in traffic queues and another half-hour driving from Daventry to Towcester. Lovely way to spend a Friday morning & early afternoon!
And finally, finally, today is Mothering Sunday in the UK (and perhaps elsewhere). So, very best wishes and much love to all the mothers who might happen to unwittingly stumble across this nonsense.
Meanwhile, keep breathing, keep happy, keep smiling, keep exercising, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees – we need all the pollinators we can get.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg