Here is a free desktop wallpaper for December 2010. The picture was taken in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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Showing posts with label Siem Reap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Siem Reap. Show all posts
Thursday, 16 December 2010
December 2010 Desktop - Siem Reap Lady Monks
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Featured Travel Photo
As we were leaving the Bayon temple in Angkor I could hear chanting and drums. I went to investigate and this is what I saw.
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
The splendor of Angkor
We spent just over a week in Siem Reap, and on most of the days we were there we toured around various temple sites in the area of Angkor. Some were closer to Siem Reap than others, but our lives were made easier by having a friendly, flexible and helpful tuk tuk driver to show us around!
Soviet was very good, and if anyone’s going to Siem Reap anytime soon then let us know and we’ll put you in touch with him. He normally hangs around next to the market near the river, and a lot of the times we walked past him he was practising his English in a scrapbook – so don’t go with one of those drivers who shout out “You want tuk tuk?” – go with him!
On our first day of temples, Soviet took us on the traditional “short circuit” of temples, a 17km loop starting with Angkor Wat, and working in a loop through Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm and a number of other temples in between. We started with sunrise at the not-so-traditional starting point of Phnom Bakheng, which has a decent view of Angkor Wat and the surrounding countryside. Unfortunately, the sunrise was not great – it was a cloudy day. It was also the day of the eclipse across much of south-east Asia, and although it would only have been a partial eclipse in Cambodia, this may still have affected the light levels. However, the mist rising off of the surrounding jungle, the lack of people around and the soft light made it a very atmospheric start to the day.
Following this, we made our first trip to Angkor Wat of the week. It was very quiet there so early in the morning, and it was good to wander around the complex in peace. Although much of it has been restored, it’s an impressive structure for one so old – but even more impressive are the carvings on the around the edge of the temple itself. Depicting Hindu legends, stories and deities, every carving is unique, and the whole thing is very interesting to view.
Following this, we went to a number of other temples, including Angkor Thom (Bayon and the Terrace of Elephants), and Ta Prohm – a partially restored temple which has giant trees towering over it, and growing into some of the walls – hugely impressive. Some of the smaller temples were very impressive as well – one of the common aspects of them was that they all have extremely steep steps leading to the top. Some of them are not for the faint of heart – a step wrong could send you tumbling down the side of the temple with nothing to stop you! We ended the day (covered in sweat) at Sra Srang, a large basin filled with water, opposite Banteay Kdei.
The first day was extremely tiring, even though we only finished our sight-seeing in the middle of the afternoon. The following day we did the “long circuit”, which takes in some of the sights we’d already seen such as Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, as well as a wider range of temples in a 26km route further afield. One of the most impressive and unique sights on day two was Preah Neak Pean, a large series of basins with an odd statue of a horse with eight human legs. Preah Khan was also impressive – largely ruined, filled with corridors and original carvings. We finished the second day with another visit to Angkor Wat for sunset – but low-lying clouds meant it wasn’t the best sunset!
Following this, we had to have a day of rest because we were very tired (physically and of temples), but on the fourth day we arranged for Soviet to take us to Kbal Spean and Banteay Srei, much further afield than the temples we had already visited. Kbal Spean was one of the most impressive sights we’d seen. After a 1500m walk uphill through the jungle to reach it at 7:30am, we reached it – a river which had been paved with thousands of lingas, inscriptions and carvings. Although a lot of it has been worn or washed away, there is a lot still to see there, and combined with the early morning light and the lack of people, it was a very magical location. Banteay Srei was also good, but much busier and hotter by the time we got there.
On the fifth day, we visited another far-flung temple – Beng Melea. Famed for being unruly and overgrown, it was just that. We had a guide show us around the complex, which is largely in ruins and has not been restored at all. It did feel like the ultimate of “Indiana Jones” temples – being in ruins, it felt like you were exploring it for the first time even though there was an actual path leading through the ruins (albeit you had to duck and climb your way through). It was definitely a trip worth making.
On our final day exploring Angkor, we visited some of our favourite places again – Bayon, Ta Prohm and Angkor Wat. Bayon is brilliant, with giant faces of an ancient king covering the walls. In the late afternoon light, the faces really came out of the stone, giving you an impression of being watched. That evening, we finally had a worthy sunset at Angkor Wat – the colours were worth waiting for! We said goodbye to the temples of Angkor – sad, but slightly temple’d out!
Video of Bakong Temple:
Soviet was very good, and if anyone’s going to Siem Reap anytime soon then let us know and we’ll put you in touch with him. He normally hangs around next to the market near the river, and a lot of the times we walked past him he was practising his English in a scrapbook – so don’t go with one of those drivers who shout out “You want tuk tuk?” – go with him!
On our first day of temples, Soviet took us on the traditional “short circuit” of temples, a 17km loop starting with Angkor Wat, and working in a loop through Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm and a number of other temples in between. We started with sunrise at the not-so-traditional starting point of Phnom Bakheng, which has a decent view of Angkor Wat and the surrounding countryside. Unfortunately, the sunrise was not great – it was a cloudy day. It was also the day of the eclipse across much of south-east Asia, and although it would only have been a partial eclipse in Cambodia, this may still have affected the light levels. However, the mist rising off of the surrounding jungle, the lack of people around and the soft light made it a very atmospheric start to the day.
Following this, we made our first trip to Angkor Wat of the week. It was very quiet there so early in the morning, and it was good to wander around the complex in peace. Although much of it has been restored, it’s an impressive structure for one so old – but even more impressive are the carvings on the around the edge of the temple itself. Depicting Hindu legends, stories and deities, every carving is unique, and the whole thing is very interesting to view.
Following this, we went to a number of other temples, including Angkor Thom (Bayon and the Terrace of Elephants), and Ta Prohm – a partially restored temple which has giant trees towering over it, and growing into some of the walls – hugely impressive. Some of the smaller temples were very impressive as well – one of the common aspects of them was that they all have extremely steep steps leading to the top. Some of them are not for the faint of heart – a step wrong could send you tumbling down the side of the temple with nothing to stop you! We ended the day (covered in sweat) at Sra Srang, a large basin filled with water, opposite Banteay Kdei.
The first day was extremely tiring, even though we only finished our sight-seeing in the middle of the afternoon. The following day we did the “long circuit”, which takes in some of the sights we’d already seen such as Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, as well as a wider range of temples in a 26km route further afield. One of the most impressive and unique sights on day two was Preah Neak Pean, a large series of basins with an odd statue of a horse with eight human legs. Preah Khan was also impressive – largely ruined, filled with corridors and original carvings. We finished the second day with another visit to Angkor Wat for sunset – but low-lying clouds meant it wasn’t the best sunset!
Following this, we had to have a day of rest because we were very tired (physically and of temples), but on the fourth day we arranged for Soviet to take us to Kbal Spean and Banteay Srei, much further afield than the temples we had already visited. Kbal Spean was one of the most impressive sights we’d seen. After a 1500m walk uphill through the jungle to reach it at 7:30am, we reached it – a river which had been paved with thousands of lingas, inscriptions and carvings. Although a lot of it has been worn or washed away, there is a lot still to see there, and combined with the early morning light and the lack of people, it was a very magical location. Banteay Srei was also good, but much busier and hotter by the time we got there.
On the fifth day, we visited another far-flung temple – Beng Melea. Famed for being unruly and overgrown, it was just that. We had a guide show us around the complex, which is largely in ruins and has not been restored at all. It did feel like the ultimate of “Indiana Jones” temples – being in ruins, it felt like you were exploring it for the first time even though there was an actual path leading through the ruins (albeit you had to duck and climb your way through). It was definitely a trip worth making.
On our final day exploring Angkor, we visited some of our favourite places again – Bayon, Ta Prohm and Angkor Wat. Bayon is brilliant, with giant faces of an ancient king covering the walls. In the late afternoon light, the faces really came out of the stone, giving you an impression of being watched. That evening, we finally had a worthy sunset at Angkor Wat – the colours were worth waiting for! We said goodbye to the temples of Angkor – sad, but slightly temple’d out!
Video of Bakong Temple:
Monday, 27 July 2009
The Biggest Surprise in Siem Reap
Siem Reap has been full of surprises over the last 8 days and the biggest has been the relationship we have built up with our Tuk Tuk driver. We went looking for a good to deal to take us round all the temples in Angkor and we found Soviet relaxing in his Tuk Tuk. Once we’d spoken to him and asked him how much he wanted to take us sightseeing, he left us alone to have a think about it and when we decided to walk away he did not start on any sales pitch but let us walk away. We were so surprised that a few metres down the road we looked at each other and said lets go back to him. We knew he’d quoted a fair price and he made such a change from all the hard selling Tuk Tuk drivers we’d encountered up to this point.
We arranged to meet him at 5am the next day to get to one of the quieter temples for sunrise. At 5.15am, we were headed back to our rooms as he had not turned up! This has started to become another theme of our travels - the last time we waited in the rain in Ooty for the Taxi to turn up 30 minutes late! As soon as we got back to the room we heard him turn up. At this point we did wonder if it was worth it but he assured us we’d make it for sunrise, and he was not wrong.
As soon as we got in the Tuk Tuk he went careering down the road. We flew over the bumps and out of our seats for most of the half hour journey to the temple. Every time we went flying he’d turn around, smile, and say sorry. We just laughed and we did make it for sunrise.
Soviet has been a pleasure to spend time with, so much so that we ended up at his house a few days later. I can see he works hard to make his money and he’s very proud of what he’s achieved. From land that his father gave him he’s built a big house. He showed us around, telling us proudly that the wooden doors cost $100 and that the whole place cost thousands of dollars. The house is not complete but each time he makes enough money he gets a bit more done.
We met his wife and one year old boy, and the hospitality they showed us was lovely. He kept on feeding us coconuts, each time he’d say my father has many, don’t worry and after the second one each we had to politely say no. There is only so much you can drink. It was a great opportunity to spend some intimate time with a family that you rarely get to unless it’s on a tour and then it’s very contrived.
Usually there is a catch when someone who deals with tourists all the time shows interest. In this case there wasn’t, he genuinely was proud of what he had achieved and was happy to show us. As a thank you I’ve taken some pictures of his boy and the family and will email them to him. Last night we got some printed and hopefully he’ll like them when we give them to him later today.
I’ve found the whole experience humbling as when he is not working ferrying people about he spends his ‘days off’ planting rice and helping his wife and to top it off all he’s full of smiles. Such a nice, genuine guy.
We arranged to meet him at 5am the next day to get to one of the quieter temples for sunrise. At 5.15am, we were headed back to our rooms as he had not turned up! This has started to become another theme of our travels - the last time we waited in the rain in Ooty for the Taxi to turn up 30 minutes late! As soon as we got back to the room we heard him turn up. At this point we did wonder if it was worth it but he assured us we’d make it for sunrise, and he was not wrong.
As soon as we got in the Tuk Tuk he went careering down the road. We flew over the bumps and out of our seats for most of the half hour journey to the temple. Every time we went flying he’d turn around, smile, and say sorry. We just laughed and we did make it for sunrise.
Soviet has been a pleasure to spend time with, so much so that we ended up at his house a few days later. I can see he works hard to make his money and he’s very proud of what he’s achieved. From land that his father gave him he’s built a big house. He showed us around, telling us proudly that the wooden doors cost $100 and that the whole place cost thousands of dollars. The house is not complete but each time he makes enough money he gets a bit more done.
We met his wife and one year old boy, and the hospitality they showed us was lovely. He kept on feeding us coconuts, each time he’d say my father has many, don’t worry and after the second one each we had to politely say no. There is only so much you can drink. It was a great opportunity to spend some intimate time with a family that you rarely get to unless it’s on a tour and then it’s very contrived.
Usually there is a catch when someone who deals with tourists all the time shows interest. In this case there wasn’t, he genuinely was proud of what he had achieved and was happy to show us. As a thank you I’ve taken some pictures of his boy and the family and will email them to him. Last night we got some printed and hopefully he’ll like them when we give them to him later today.
I’ve found the whole experience humbling as when he is not working ferrying people about he spends his ‘days off’ planting rice and helping his wife and to top it off all he’s full of smiles. Such a nice, genuine guy.
Friday, 24 July 2009
When we thought we were gonners
We are now in Siem Reap – the small town (but full of tourists) right next to the ancient city of Angkor, the area which holds the famous temple complex of Angkor Wat, amongst many others. Siem Reap is sort of like Phnom Penh, only it’s whole purpose is that it’s geared towards tourists – it has the restaurants, the bars, the markets, all geared towards tourists. There are hundreds of remorque-moto (tuk tuk) drivers patrolling the streets looking for your business, busy shops on the side of the road with owners calling out to you – it’s a busy place, but it’s not the real Cambodia. It’s an international destination.
We left Battambang at 7am a few mornings ago, by way of boat. The boat ride was very interesting – it started off in light rain which was not a huge problem, although as the boat did not have windows at some points the rain did drive in a little. There was a lot to see – thousands of people’s lives are centralised around the rivers in Cambodia and they’re a major transportation system in terms of getting from place to place. We passed countless small boats with people transporting goods from place to place, and in a few cases our boat stopped to pick up and drop off people who could afford to ride it. One woman had about two dozen bags of vegetables with her – I couldn’t help but wonder how much her ticket cost! Our tickets for the boat were $18US each for the seven hour trip – pretty expensive really when you consider a comfortable, air conditioned bus is about half that!
Still, it was worth the money, although I did get a face-full of river water a couple of times – once when a smaller boat passed too closely to us and water went everywhere – everyone in the boat was soaked! Also, some of the corners on the river were quite sharp and we ended up with bushed poking in the windows a few times – usually only in my window I think. All sorts of precious little critters came in with the branches, and I had a jolly good time brushing the ants and grasshoppers off myself. Eventually I covered myself up with my rain jacket to keep the water and creatures off, and settled down. I had a cold, so was not feeling too good, but tried to enjoy the boat ride! There were a few interesting sights along the way, such as a crocodile farm which we parked right up next to.
All was well until we got to the Tonlé Sap Lake – at which point we thought we might die. The trip had been long, and it was a relief to get to the lake as we knew that meant we were nearly there. Our driver navigated us out onto the lake, and off we went – however, within a quarter of an hour or so, we were surrounded by huge rolling waves driven by strong winds, which carried our little boat up and down, and threw us around. There was a couple of times where I thought we were going to at best take on water, and at worst capsize/die. The rule of thumb is to look to the locals who ride the boat regularly, and the driver who does the route daily and see how they feel – bad idea. We saw a local woman a couple of seats back leap for her lifejacket at one point, and the driver seemed extremely jumpy, throwing the steering wheel around like we were completely out of control! We did make it eventually, but it gave me a renewed appreciation for life!
We pulled in to Tonlé Sap Floating Village (all the houses float on the river, just off the lake), and pulled in to the dock. We were expecting another Battambang experience whereby the tuk tuk drivers swarm the boat for your business, and shout at you, and drag you away, but it wasn’t so bad. They did swarm the boat, but they were quite nice about it and friendly – and anyway, we had our hotel picking us up so we were no good to them! The conversation went something along the lines of:
Them: “Hello, you want Tuk Tuk?”
Us: “No thanks” (The most common phrase we use we’ve decided)
Them: “You have someone picking you up?”
Us: “Yes”
After a dozen or so of these conversations, we found our driver who drove us to our guesthouse/boutique hotel combination (we’re in the guesthouse, but get to use the hotel WiFi and pool!).
The hotel is nice enough – it’s called Golden Banana – although we had to move rooms a couple of times in order to get one which had a good wireless internet connection. We considered moving to the boutique part, but decided for the sake of our budget to stay where we are.
Siem Reap is a proper foreigner’s town, and there are loads of places to eat/drink – from the very cheap (our meal last night combined cost $4.50 and was delicious) to the very expensive ($650 a night for a hotel up the river!). To give you a feel for it, most places have “Happy Hour” from open-close, where their draft beers cost $0.50! Siem Reap is a party all day! The main reason for being here is Angkor of course – something we’ve had our fair share of the last few days – we’ll write a separate entry on that though. It deserves all the credit!
We left Battambang at 7am a few mornings ago, by way of boat. The boat ride was very interesting – it started off in light rain which was not a huge problem, although as the boat did not have windows at some points the rain did drive in a little. There was a lot to see – thousands of people’s lives are centralised around the rivers in Cambodia and they’re a major transportation system in terms of getting from place to place. We passed countless small boats with people transporting goods from place to place, and in a few cases our boat stopped to pick up and drop off people who could afford to ride it. One woman had about two dozen bags of vegetables with her – I couldn’t help but wonder how much her ticket cost! Our tickets for the boat were $18US each for the seven hour trip – pretty expensive really when you consider a comfortable, air conditioned bus is about half that!
Still, it was worth the money, although I did get a face-full of river water a couple of times – once when a smaller boat passed too closely to us and water went everywhere – everyone in the boat was soaked! Also, some of the corners on the river were quite sharp and we ended up with bushed poking in the windows a few times – usually only in my window I think. All sorts of precious little critters came in with the branches, and I had a jolly good time brushing the ants and grasshoppers off myself. Eventually I covered myself up with my rain jacket to keep the water and creatures off, and settled down. I had a cold, so was not feeling too good, but tried to enjoy the boat ride! There were a few interesting sights along the way, such as a crocodile farm which we parked right up next to.
All was well until we got to the Tonlé Sap Lake – at which point we thought we might die. The trip had been long, and it was a relief to get to the lake as we knew that meant we were nearly there. Our driver navigated us out onto the lake, and off we went – however, within a quarter of an hour or so, we were surrounded by huge rolling waves driven by strong winds, which carried our little boat up and down, and threw us around. There was a couple of times where I thought we were going to at best take on water, and at worst capsize/die. The rule of thumb is to look to the locals who ride the boat regularly, and the driver who does the route daily and see how they feel – bad idea. We saw a local woman a couple of seats back leap for her lifejacket at one point, and the driver seemed extremely jumpy, throwing the steering wheel around like we were completely out of control! We did make it eventually, but it gave me a renewed appreciation for life!
We pulled in to Tonlé Sap Floating Village (all the houses float on the river, just off the lake), and pulled in to the dock. We were expecting another Battambang experience whereby the tuk tuk drivers swarm the boat for your business, and shout at you, and drag you away, but it wasn’t so bad. They did swarm the boat, but they were quite nice about it and friendly – and anyway, we had our hotel picking us up so we were no good to them! The conversation went something along the lines of:
Them: “Hello, you want Tuk Tuk?”
Us: “No thanks” (The most common phrase we use we’ve decided)
Them: “You have someone picking you up?”
Us: “Yes”
After a dozen or so of these conversations, we found our driver who drove us to our guesthouse/boutique hotel combination (we’re in the guesthouse, but get to use the hotel WiFi and pool!).
The hotel is nice enough – it’s called Golden Banana – although we had to move rooms a couple of times in order to get one which had a good wireless internet connection. We considered moving to the boutique part, but decided for the sake of our budget to stay where we are.
Siem Reap is a proper foreigner’s town, and there are loads of places to eat/drink – from the very cheap (our meal last night combined cost $4.50 and was delicious) to the very expensive ($650 a night for a hotel up the river!). To give you a feel for it, most places have “Happy Hour” from open-close, where their draft beers cost $0.50! Siem Reap is a party all day! The main reason for being here is Angkor of course – something we’ve had our fair share of the last few days – we’ll write a separate entry on that though. It deserves all the credit!
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