Our flight from Ho Chi Minh City flew straight over Phnom Penh and straight onto Siem Reap in the north of the country. There were two reasons for doing this: We discovered that flights out of Phnom Penh were about a third of the cost of ones out of Siem Reap, and getting a bus across from Vietnam would take up too much of the valuable time we didn't have.
Once we arrived at the airport and were waiting to go through customs, I got chatting with a couple from the US who were heading into the centre of Siem Reap and were looking for people to share a taxi. We found a taxi with obvious ease outside the terminal building and asked for one of the guest houses recommended in the Lonely Planet. You'd think that as the taxi driver was in essense being paid by us to take us where we wanted to go, that this would be a simple procedure. But no, with the added factor of hotels paying commision to taxi drivers, this was going to prove troublesome. Our driver seemed to think that any of the places we suggested were either horrible, full up, or too far out of town. Luckily he was able to make alternative suggestions (how helpful!) , but they were going to be a little more than we were looking to pay. Of course they were. He informed us that he had lived in Siem Reap his entire life and knew all the best places to go. When we rebuted with the fact we didn't want the best, but simply cheap options, he seemed to go into a trance and not hear a single word. When confronted with the fact he was not taking us to any places we actually asked for, he suggested we get out and find our own accomodation. We tried to explain the fundamental principles of the taxi driver to client relationship, but he held onto a different notion where he was our guide. We decided to at least have a look at one of his suggestions and as we walked into the hotel reception with him being warmly greeted by the staff, we knew our suspicisions were warranted. However, the behinds of our ears were as dry as a Jimmy Carr's wit, and there was no way we were being fooled into this scam. While I maintained a ruse of ignorance with the taxi driver, Luke went on recon in search of cheaper options in the immediate area. In an attempt to both stall the driver and amuse myself, I asked him to take us to another suggestion from the LP. He regretfully informed us that he didn't know where that hotel was based. I assured him this wasn't a problem and produced a pre-prepared map with the location of said hotel clearly highlighted. He then said (despite looking at a map) that he didn't know how to get there. By this point, I couldn't help but laugh at his presented inability to read a map and at the same time his complete ignorance of hotels in the city he had lived in his entire life. Perhaps the tolerance of this shit-bag was a sub-conscious premonition which indicated the success of Luke's recon. He had found one for a third of the price and within 50 yards of where the taxi dropped us off. Result!
Over dinner, we planned how to see as many of the temples as possible in one day and then got an early night in preparation for a challengingly busy day.
With it only being 7 km to the temples, we chose to cheap it up, and hire peddle bikes for the day. Our first stop, was the group known as Ankhor Thom with the main structure being Byron. On reflection of the day, both Luke and myself said that in many ways, this structure was more impressive than Ankhor Wat. Beautiful smiling images of a god were carved into the rock surface on many levels and sides of the structure. These admiring faces looked down on you where ever you are in the structure and made the area seem very welcoming. It is said that the faces also resemble the ruler of this period which may have been a way of him looking over his people. With all the smiling faces, it was like an ancient acid house party, minus the hallucinogenic drugs and pumping base lines.
After a slight detour through not knowing where we were going (some slight misreading of a temple name, by Luke ;) ), I ended up visiting the hill-top temple, which gives a panoramic view of whole area and in the words of the guide book, "a unique view of Ankhor Wat." Surely one could argue that in a way, every single location in view of Ankhor Wat gives an unique view, but nevertheless, it was worth the climb. So much so, that around 1000 people make it to the top to view the sunset every evening. I was not one of these people; the prospect of being in such a remote and beautiful country surrounded by 1000 tourists was about as appealing as a summer holiday in Scunthorpe.
Next we moved onto Ta Prohm which was used in the Tomb Raider movie and only noticed by the female viewers that were not transfixed by the impressive structure of Angelina Jolie. This temple is special in the fact that it has not been restored yet and for that reason has a Indiana Jones feel to it. With the roots of trees trailing across sections, over ramparts and down walls, it appears as though the gods have poored molten wax from the heavens onto select parts of the temple and the liquid has cooled upon touching the stone.
We then continued our cycle tour of the area and headed round to the entrance to Ankhor Wat which took us around the border of the complex. Ankhor Wat was unsurprisingly busy, with few pictures opportunities available that were not filled with gormless tourists. The site is extremely impressive for the height of the towers, and the size of the area is covers - including massive gardens, and a gigantic surrounding moat.
The pinacle of the visit to Ankgor Wat is the dangerous climb up thin and deteriorated steps leading to the central area. With only hand rails on one side of this section, massive cues develop with only the brave and the stupid risking the descent on steps without the rail. You can decide which category Luke and I, fall into of those who chose this route.
With the sun setting in the distance we called it a day and hopped back on the cycles to make the journey back to our hotel. Braving rush hour traffic and a further 7km (we'd already covered about 27km at this point), we made it back to the hotel without incident and booked our bus ticket to Phnom Penh. A bus ticket from Siem Reap to Pheno Penh cost $4. A ticket from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap costs $26. The benefits of flying into Siem Reap were becoming more and more obvious.
We arrived at Phnom Penh in the early afternoon and immediately took a taxi to the shooting range (the city doesn't have many attractions). This is located in the same area as the Killing Fields and I'm willing to bet is very rarely the 2nd stop for visitors. The shooting range had various pistols, machine guns, assault rifles, grenades, and anti-aircraft guns to choose from, but we selected the ever trusty AK47 (as favoured by terrorists worldwide), and a Chinese handgun, the CZ75. From watching the bullets be put into the gun, to placing the earmuffs on, and hearing the first shot, I don't think I took a breath. The lethal potential became far more visceral than a million films could ever portray. The resounding bang of each shot hammered this point home every time I fired the trigger. After we both fired our rounds from each weapon, we inspected the target, and were pleased with our success rate (kill rate – pride overcame feeling bad at this point). The attending guard was also impressed at our accuracy and agreed that this wasn't necessarily good thing.
After spending the most amount of money in such a small time for a few weeks (about $63 between us), we headed over to the Killing Fields. I didn't really know a lot about this area. I knew it was the site of heinous war crimes committed by the country’s leader Pol Pot, but had little understanding of the atrocities actually committed here. We paid for a guide on arrival and he took us around the 86 excavated graves and told us about the victims which once occupied them. I won't go into the detail that he did about how some of them were killed and about the cruel manner in which everyone was treated, but will say, it saddened my soul. When confronted with the actual site of such evilness, you look for explanations for how people could act in such ways. How were the soldiers brainwashed into carrying out such crimes? How did they justify it to themselves every night?
Driving back into town, I was glad that we had visited the shooting range first as truly believe I wouldn't have gone there at any point in Cambodia after seeing the Killing Fields. The act of firing these ‘cool’ weapons seemed less appealing than ever after what we had been told about the recent history of Cambodia and realisation that these weapons probably played a part.
We spent the next and final day in Cambodia by looking around the historic sites of Phnom Penh such as the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda and the main market. Everywhere you walk in this city you are reminded of it's troubled past by the site of landmine victims and homeless people. The country has now enjoyed 4 democratic elections and on the surface appears to be recovering well and working towards a brighter future. Many believe that this is a deceptive veneer and the corruption is only a scratch away. I don't know about anything of this, but will say I liked Cambodia and would definitely visit again. The country has great periods of history which produced amongst other things, the largest religious structure in the world. It possesses a proud nation of people who are trying to recover from all too recent and close atrocities committed by Pol Pot’s regime. Corruption may be rife in politics but that is no indication of the intentions of the majority. In one respect I hope that Cambodia develops well and recovers from this terrible period, but at the same time, I hope that in doing so it does not lose it’s character in becoming just another cheap playground for western adventurers.
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