Cambodia: Temples and Tragedies

14^th – 21^st March 2016

I was back in Bangkok for one night. The only thing I did of note was talk to a monk whilst I was waiting for a train from the airport. He was interested in where I was going and where I was from. When I told I was from England the only thing he said was about Margaret Thatcher of all things. We chatted about her for a while. It was so odd to be sat in Bangkok railway station talking to a monk about Margaret Thatcher!

Once I’d checked into my hostel I caught the metro into the city. I had a McDonald’s for tea as I hadn’t had one in a while. I had already had a burger at the airport in Myanmar but I thought screw it. This was a bad decision. One of these burgers gave me pretty severe food poisoning and meant that the next day, when I got the train to Cambodia, was one of the most horrendous days of my life.

The day started off well enough. I was up before the sun to get to the station in time for the 6.30am train that would take me to the Thai/Cambodian border. I had a little bit of breakfast but I felt oddly full.

I found my seat on the train and got chatting to the guy sat opposite me. His name was Sorb and he was a real character. 40 years old with dreadlocks, he had some very interesting stories to tell. We had several in depth philosophical conversations which is always nice once in a while. He seemed to contradict himself a lot though.

I was feeling bloated all morning but that turned into feeling pretty sick until I realised there was no holding it. Then there was no stopping it. Every time I felt safe to leave the toilet I would return minutes later unsure which end to put over the hole in the floor.

'At least there's a toilet' I kept telling myself.

We arrived at the border around midday and Sorb and I got a tuk tuk to the immigration point. I had read a lot about this border crossing. How there are so many scams and touts trying to fool you into buying an expensive visa so I wanted to be on my guard. Unfortunately I was feeling pretty exhausted and even standing in the queue to get my exit stamp was a lot of effort.

I think the key to this border is walk with confidence. I saw people, who looked lost, get a little confused when a guy walked up to them talking about visas. They followed us to the official border control where we paid for the visa. There was a girl in here who seemed unimpressed that she couldn’t pay with her Australian dollars. You can pay in Baht, Riel or US dollars. Surely that’s enough!

In the final queue to get our passports stamped to get into Cambodia I was really struggling. I sat down on the floor in the queue before I fell down. I was feeling pretty sick again and even started looking around the room for something to throw up in but I managed to hold it in. This food poisoning was much worse than the time in Laos.

We caught the free shuttle bus to the bus station to organise the last leg of the journey to Siem Reap. A taxi split four ways didn’t cost a lot more than the bus and would be much quicker. I was a broken man so if there was anything to get me to my bed quicker I would be happy. We found two Germans, Thomas and Sabrina, who were also heading our way and we organised a taxi. They let me sit in the front seat rather than be squished in the back which was nice.

We finally arrived in Siem Reap after a couple of hours trying hard not to be sick. I felt that the border crossing had gone quite well considering the amount of bad stories I had heard. But we weren’t quite at our destination yet. The taxi took us to a travel agency where I made sure there was a free transport to our hostel which we had been promised.

After a lengthy discussion with the tuk tuk man it turns out it would only be free if we were to book a full day with them to take us around Angkor Wat. I told him I was ill and wouldn’t be booking anything just yet. I can’t remember if we actually paid him or not. It’s a bit of a blur as I felt like a zombie. I barely remember checking in but I was soon fast asleep. Well, with frequent visits to the toilet!

Arrived in Siem Reap

This way to the night market

I spent the majority if the next day in bed recovering. The hostel had a pool too so there was somewhere nice to relax as well. I felt much better today but I didn’t want to take on the temples just yet. I felt well enough for a wander around the town by the evening. I went down to the night market but there wasn’t much there other than people pestering me to buy the usual touristy crap.

Some sort of weird sport

Great shot!

One thing I did find on my wander was a brand new sport. It seemed like a kind of badminton but played with your feet. There was a shuttlecock-type thing (a plastic bottle with a feathers stuck to it) that they were kicking to each other, often from behind their heads. It was quite fun to watch and they were pretty good. They didn’t miss many.

Tourist central

The centre of Siem Reap is massively touristy. Every building is either a shop, bar or restaurant (sometimes all three). There was definite backpacker party atmosphere to the city centre. I was surprised to see that all the prices were quoted in US dollars rather than the Cambodian Riel. Its quite common to pay with US dollar in SE Asia but everywhere else will quote the price in the local currency and then convert it.

The next was a full day of temple fun. I was feeling better so I arranged to meet Diami, my friend from Ultimate Thailand and adventures in Laos. She had arrived late the night before. I waited for a long time in the morning but she didn’t meet me and wasn’t answering my messages. I figured she’d slept in but I had no way of knowing which room she was in so I went by myself.

I was cycling. I didn’t like the idea of hiring a driver for the day and ordering him around. I like the freedom of doing my own thing and exploring where I want to go. It was flat so the cycling wasn’t hard but it was very hot. I got the three day ticket and decided to do the temples over three mornings so that it wouldn’t be too hot. The ride to the first temple was pleasant enough.

The bridge into Angkor Wat

I started with the biggest and most famous Angkor Wat. Seeing the temple at sunrise is very common and probably the busiest time of the day. I wasn’t really that bothered about seeing it at sunrise and couldn’t be bothered jostling for the best position in a huge crown. I arrived about an hour after sunrise and I was surprised to see most people leaving. I had heard that people watch the sunrise and then just leave without exploring.

West Gate

Angkor Wat

Walking down the long entrance path was quite exciting. Angkor Wat is such an iconic building and I was very happy to be seeing it. As I went though the Western Gate the big towers loomed into sight.

Rather impressive

In all its glory

I walked right through the centre of it and out the back. I wanted to get a picture with the sun on it as it looked much more impressive than a hazy outline. Surely sunset would be a better time to visit rather than sunrise.

In the centre

Many carvings

Rather high up

I decided to start at the top and then work my way around the outer bits. I joined the queue to go up the central bit which has a lot of steps. I can imagine the narrow hallways at the top would get very crowed if they didn’t stem the flow. I think I waited for maybe 3 minutes in the queue but I saw a sign saying “the queue is 45 minutes from here”. I'm glad that it wasn't being used at that momen.t

Nice view from the top

Out West

The view from the top was pretty good. Its high up but I couldn’t see any other temples. I thought I would be able to like you can in Bagan. There's much more to Angkor than Angkor Wat. There's isn’t as many temples as there are in Bagan but there's a fair few scattered about the area. Hence the need for a 3 day ticket.

Another building inside the complex

My favourite spot, so peaceful

Like any major tourist attraction there is a crowd. Although the amount of people here was pretty small to what it would be a few hours later, I still would prefer less people. I find its less fun when there are so many other people around but I was in for a treat. I climbed up the steps of a separate building inside the walls and sat down. Suddenly I realised that I couldn't see or hear anyone. It was so peaceful and so beautiful. The temple looked stunning in the morning sun and it was almost like I had the place to myself. I sat there for a little while taking it in until someone walked out of one of doorways and the spell was broken.

Outer wall story

Some demon

I explored the outer walls which were covered in carvings. Each side depicts a different story in Angkor’s history. I listened to a few of the tour guides conversations to try and understand what these mean. The second one is the people wresting a demon of some kind.

Only had 10 seconds to get over there

Monkey

I went back inside the walls to have a bit of fun running back and forth trying to get a picture with me in it. There was no one around again and this place is awesome when you have it to yourself. Then I saw a monkey.

Moving on

Time to leave Angkor Wat and explore some other temples (the ones you don’t get to hear about). I cycled a few more kilometres to Angkor Thom which is much bigger than Angkor Wat in terms of area. The outer wall is at least a kilometre from the central temple. The bridge over the moat and entrance gate were impressive just by themselves.

Bayon Temple

When I reached the central temple of Bayon my jaw dropped. At first glance it looks as though its in complete ruins but its just a lot of lotus flower towers all crowded together. The outer walls have crumbled a bit but the rest is as it was built.

In the foundations

As I went in there was a set of stairs that everyone was climbing up but I took a left into the labyrinth of pillars and walls that hold up the towers and upper floors. There weren’t many people down here and it was fun squeezing down all the passages.

Just one of the many towers

The central tower

I followed the crowd up to the top and it really was quite the crowd. I shuffled along with the rest around the central tower which is huge. It really doesn’t look to safe either. It looks like a jenga tower that has got out of hand and could fall down at any small guest of wind.

Safe?

Praying to keep the tower standing

Inside the big tower was a small Buddha that a few locals popped in to pray at. You had to take your shoes off in here.

Pretty cool looking

So cool

I took a walk around the outer walls like I did at Angkor Wat. I was amazed at the size and complexity of this structure. Angkor Wat is world famous but this us just as impressive and yet you only hear about it if you are looking into visiting the area.

Baphuon

Steep climb to the top

Next up was Baphuon which had a long walkway in front of it. The climb up to the top was pretty strenuous. The steps were quite big so I was breathing quite hard by the top.

Buddha lying down

This image of a Buddha lying down was crumbling and so was reconstructed in the 70s. They lost the plans of how to reassemble the pieces it took a lot longer than intended to put it back together.

Terrace of the Elephants

Phimeanakas

Next door was the Terrace of the Elephants and behind that the temple Phimeanakas. At each temple I found a shaded spot to read my guide book which told me quite a lot about the history of each temple. It was interesting to learn. The capital of the Khmer Empire moved from Phnom Penh to a place 30kms down the road in the 8^th century before being moved again to Angkor in the late 9^th century. All the temples here were then built over a period of 300 years before the empire collapsed.

Random gate in the jungle

I walked the scenic route to the next spot which proved to be a good choice. I walked through a gate to small temple which has been reclaimed by the jungle. The gate and the temple looked awesome with the trees growing out of it.

Just call me Lara

It was now early afternoon and super hot so I cycled my way back to the city. This took a while and I was exhausted by the time I reached KFC (I thought I’d treat myself). I had to sit there for about 10 minutes to cool down in the air-con before I felt hungry again. Siem Reap is the hottest place I’ve been to in South East Asia, possible ever!

Back at the hostel I jumped in the pool at the hostel and Daimi came round. She explained that she’d not slept well and had slept in when I came to meet her. All was forgiven and we went out for dinner. We were also joined by Andrew who I had met in my room.

Inappropriate much?

On the menu I came across this rather inappropriately named burger. I didn’t have it though. I went for the pizza baguette instead. It was delicious. Nothing like eating the local foods

Crazy YOLO bear

It was Paddy’s Day so of course we had to go out. We went for a few drinks at one place but the music was so loud we couldn’t really have a conversation and we were no where near drunk enough to be dancing. We went round to the Irish bar which had some live music. I was feeling a bit exhausted what with the recent food poisoning and spending all day in the heat. I drank about 4 glasses of water which made me feel better but I wasn’t really feeling it. I went home and left Daimi and Andrew to have a good time.

It took us a little while to get going the next day as now there were three of us. I think the other two were a little hungover too. Andrew needed to swap his bike that he had got the day before and he and Daimi both wanted to grab breakfast which I’d already eaten. We stopped at a place which was as local as it gets. It was basically just a table next to the road where they got some rice noodle soup. I ate my pringles and waited.

Banteay Kdel

The first temple, Banteay Kdel, was already quite a sizeable bike ride away. I was quite determined to see them all by bike so I hoped that the others were okay with cycling in the heat. It turns out my bike was rather good. I’d picked the same one I’d had the day before and the other two seemed to have to work much harder than I did.

Temple fun

Looking cool again

More temple towers

This was yet another impressive temple that the jungle is slowly taking over. There's a green moss that’s on all the rocks giving it a green hue which looks awesome.

Crumbling away

Trees everywhere

Next up was Ta Prohm also known as Tomb Raider Temple as they used it for about 10 seconds of filming. This was my favourite temple despite the huge number of people that were here. The jungle has fully conquered this temple with so many huge trees hogging the walls and roofs. There so many amazing photo opportunities to show how nature has reclaimed the land.

Awesome

More awesome

The temples in Bagan are magnificent and grand but the ones here are cool. Possibly because of the Tomb Raider stuff which made it look like a video game but it’s the best way I have to describe the place. Just really cool!

The Tomb Raider door

The most crowded part of the temple was this doorway which is the one Angelina Jolie came flying through when the huge stone creature was destroying the temple. There were actual bus loads of people with 30-40 people in each group. It was rammed and there was no chance of getting a picture of it. Then one of the tour guides started to organise a queue and I was able to get my picture. It wasn’t even the most impressive part of the temple, it was just the most famous.

Next Temple

Daimi and Andrew climbing the many steps

The top of the temple

We had lunch at a place opposite which had about 20 different stalls all selling the exact same stuff. The temperature was increasing and we were beginning to suffer. At leach temple we would have to take a break in the shade but that offered little relief.

Another epic doorway

A creepy looking moat

Very dead

After a brief stop at East Mebon we arrived at another one of my favourites Neak Pean. We nearly didn’t go to this one but I’m so glad we did. The surrounding moat marshland looked incredibly. Quite eerie too. I say again, this place is so cool!

Walkway

Big pond

We walked across the long land bridge to the small complex in the middle. I don’t know what you would call this but I wouldn’t call it a temple. Maybe a large garden with a pond.

Yet another temple

In ruins

We had cycled all the way around the Grand Circuit which is a considerable distance. All in all we cycled 42 kilometres on this day. In near 40 degrees. The last temple on the circuit was Preah Khan. We had seen a fair few temples now but each was different in its own way. This one was quite irritating.

Many doorways means many steps

Up down up down all day and this was the worst. The Khmer didn’t believe in flat ground seemingly. Everything must be up or down a step or two and every doorway must have a large step. This temple was quite long so the relentless step up step down was horrible on already tired legs. Adding in the now dangerous levels of heat, it was killer.

Still looks cool though

Big heavy tree

We took another break looking at this epic tree which has nearly destroyed the corridor. It would win picture of the day but I wanted to return to Angkor Wat to see it in the late afternoon sun. This certainly wins picture of the day. Picture of the year I think.

Wow!

I’m printing that off when I get home in large and its going on my wall!

We went back to the city and I had a very cold shower. Daimi didn’t join me for dinner as she was suffering a bit with heat exhaustion. She couldn’t cool down despite being in air conditioned room. I was feeling very drained too. I think we might have pushed it a little too far but at least I’d seen all the temples I was wanting to see. I didn’t return for the third day of my ticket as I didn’t need to. I chose instead to spend the next day chilling by the pool. I miss having a pool!

We had quite an interesting character in our room that night. We were all chatting and I had slept through a bit of an incident the night previous. This German guy had been convinced her could hear a Mickey Mouse theme tune and the others had convinced him he was going crazy. I never actually found out if there was any music or not but this guy seemed a little crazy anyway. In a good way.

He gave everyone in the room a name. Mr Upstairs was the guy in the bed above him. There were more names too but I forgot to write them down but they were along a similar theme. He had an interesting story about when he was at the hospital in Thailand with a broken foot. He wasn’t happy about the price of the crutches so when the doctor left the room he stole some Valium. Coz that’s quite a normal thing to do.

He actually gave one of these Valium to Mr Upstairs the night before to stop him snoring. Mr Upstairs had taken it without question and was a little shocked when this got revealed in the conversation.

It was an interesting room for of people in general with this weird German guy, Andrew with his long rock and roll hair and Sorb who had come with me after we got the taxi to Siem Reap.

Daimi had already gone on to Phnom Penh whilst I was chilling by the pool. I left Siem Reap the next day in the afternoon. (I had some more pool time in the morning, it was delightful!)

The Mekong again

Exercise class

The bus journey was largely uneventful. It was only 6 hours but I was rather agitated by the time I got off. Buses are certainly not my favourite way to travel. I got rid of my frustration with a run down by the river. I was back on the Mekong one more time where they had the exercise classes again.

We started the day so happy

Reunited with Daimi, we started the day so happy but that was soon to change. Today we would be learning all about the harsh brutality of the Khmer Rouge. I knew it was bad but it wasn’t fun to be hearing the stories that we heard. First though we had to get across town in our tuk tuk through the mad traffic. They don’t believe in traffic lights here and so this happens.

Chaos!

S-21 Prison

We arrived at Tuel Sleng Genocide Museum (or S-21), got our headphones and started to listen to the long and descriptive tales of the atrocities that happened here after the arrival of the Khmer Rouge in 1975. They arrived in Phnom Penh to cheers and applause. They were deemed to saviours of Cambodia after the country was crippled by the Vietnam War. They didn’t clap for long.

The prisoners they left behind

The tour started with a slap in the face that brought you straight into it. The graves of the 14 people that survived the torture and horrendous conditions only to be murdered on the last day as the Khmer Rouge fled the city.

Grim

This building started life as a school and it still looked like one. If you look closer, though, at the barbed wire and iron bars on the window it gives you an insight into what this place became. The prison was used to contain those who were believed to be working with the ‘enemy’. They were tortured into confessions that may or may not have been true. I listened to one story of a woman who wrote over 20 pages in her confession in order to delay the inevitable, a hanging.

Inside one of the large cells

I didn’t take a lot of pictures as I didn’t feel like it’s the kind of place I should be snapping away but the images I saw will certainly stay with me. There were walls covered in pictures of prisoners when they arrived in one room. Another room showed images of the kind of torture they used. They had been painted by one of the 12 survivors and it looked pretty horrendous. You see these kind of things from medieval times, not the 1970s!

The officers would actually get in trouble if a prisoner dies during torture before they could sign a confession. They had killed all the doctors so they didn’t know what to do if they went to far. They practised anatomy on live patients to get a better understanding of how to torture a prisoner whilst keeping them alive. They also killed all the professors, teachers and anyone else they deemed as smart. Even ordinary people who wore glasses or had soft hands!

Rules of the prison

As the Khmer Rouge became more and more paranoid the officers would be arrested and tortured themselves. I found it strange to think about when I was starting into the eyes of a picture of an officer. What must they be thinking? Did they believe what they were doing was right? Or were they just too afraid to speak out or run?

The last room was filled with images of the dead bodies. I’m not sure why the were on display, I guess to emphasize the evil that had happened here. It wasn’t nice to look at as all of them were clearly malnourished and some were bleeding.

Horrible place

I listened to stories from some of the survivors which all spoke of the horrible conditions they lived in. A tiny brick cell with a box to shit in. There was one story that really got me. All the other survivors stories would be told through a translator which would lose the emotion that it was said with. This one was told by a westerner. A kiwi called Kerry Hamil had caught up in the countries horrors and found himself in S-21. He was executed after signing a confession. I listened to an audio from a court room where his brother spoke on his behalf. Kerry wrote in his confession that he was part of the Kentucky Fried Chicken party that were planning to overthrow the Khmer Rouge. He used a few other western references in his confession too. His brother, clearly emotional, said that “he never lost his sense of humour, even at the end”.

It was very upsetting to hear about a man who's brother had been treated so horrendously but the story continued. The audio was an extract from the trial of the man in charge of S-21, Comrade Duch. Can you imagine being face to face with the man who had done all this? Again, the anger and emotion was present when he said the man responsible was “that man there”. I found myself getting angry but also upset. It was tough to listen to.

One survivor

20,000 people were killed here. That’s already such a huge amount and this is just one of over 150 execution centres that were used in Cambodia. There are only a handful of survivors of these atrocities and one of them was signing books out the front of the museum. It brings home how recently this happened.

Everyone knows about the Nazis and Auschwitz and how awful that was but this is so much recent and is much less known or talked about. I think that’s what I found so shocking. That most of the western world don’t know what happened here. And also, it was the 70s! Why did no one do anything about it for so long!

Memorial

I found Daimi who had been going around at her own pace with the headset on. We got back in the tuk tuk that would take us to the Choeung Ek, also known as the Killing Fields. Our history lesson was not over yet. We mostly sat in silence trying to process what we had just witnessed. We arrived and got another headset and heard yet more stories of the true evil that happened here.

One of the pits

Uncovered clothes

A lot of bodies (skeletons) have been removed from this area now but you could still see some bones stuck in the ground. They aren’t digging them up any more, just removing them as they surface along with clothes that are also coming to the surface after rainfall.

Another horrible place

I walked around the small lake whilst listening to the story of a boy who's life was changed by the Khmer Rouge. He was taken from his family to work in the many farms that were created by the regime. They were forced to work in the scorching heat with little food and water. While many were tortured and killed in prison camps, many more were worked to exhaustion and died in these labour camps. The story ended with the boy being reunited with his family. A rare happy ending.

The next part of the audio tour was the killing tree where I listened to one of the most horrendous things I have ever heard. The tree was given its name as it was used for the murder of children and even babies. The audio tape described in detail how a toddler would be taken by the leg and swung against the tree smashing their heads against it, killing them. There are not enough negative words in the world to describe this action. Disgusting, barbaric, sick and just not strong enough words.

You hear of evils in the world whether real or on TV but to be here in a place, to see, to feel it, was nothing short of horrendous. I couldn’t even bring myself to take a picture of the tree as some other people were. Its covered in bracelets as a memorial. Again, I ask, why was this evil allowed to happen.

The skulls of the victims

At the end of the tour I went inside the memorial which houses more than 5000 skulls all coloured coded in respect to age and type of death. Some shot, some impaled, some hit with something.

Its safe to say this was not a fun day but a day both enlightening and shocking at the same time. 3 million people were murdered between 1975 and 1979 in over 300 killing fields. That’s almost half the population of the country at the time. It certainly gave me a whole new perspective on Cambodia.

We didn't do much that evening. I think I watched something cheery to try to rid my mind of the horrible stories I had heard but all I could think about was that tree.