Off to Temple Town

Using the adrenaline of travelling to another town to ward off any self indulgent notion of hangovers from the previous nights exploits - we launched ourselves into the days activities. After another scrumptious brecky we were kindly chauffeured to the airport. As we were the only domestic flight leaving, we relaxed in the docile, yet luxurious surroundings of the Phnom Penn departure lounge, before hopping onto a propeller driven craft. Couriuosly, the seats were more comfortable, the ride nicer and the view better than those jet driven beasts. 40 minutes later and we came to Siem Reap (apparently the translation of which is the equivalent of giving the bird to their neighbouring countries).
Our driver Nick (suspect this is not his real name) drove us to the hotel where we threw our bags at the room and headed out post haste – apparently we need to be frantic in order to squeeze everything in. And squeeze them in we did. Our temple tour was fascinating and it easy to see why this place is generally the tourist focus of Cambodia. One thing no one mentioned was the exorbitant cost associated with seeing the ruins – however it appears the money is being ploughed back into the effort with well maintained roads, facilities and jobs for many locals.
First up was Banteay Srei Temple which was small (as it turns out) in comparison to the others. Very ornate and almost eerie (as they all are) when considering the amount of effort that went into building these structures over 1200 years ago. They still look great, possibly the eeriness is built up somewhat by the oppressive heat and humidity and the occasional waft of strange music drifting over the occasional breeze. The locals peddling their wares breaks the mood quite nicely though.
The countryside is very green and picturesque, rice fields, shanty towns and a plethora of rickety houses on stilts. Happy cows are prolific (apparently they must be happy because they are waving their tails).
Next we stopped at the Land Mine Museum and were thus duly reminded once again of the insidious nature of war and the stupidity of the human race in its ability to inflict pain on itself. Built in a tin shed by a dude with a chequered history we saw many remnants of armaments from all countries – it seems everyone has had a go here at one stage or another.
We then stopped off at Banteay Samre which was almost deserted, the only indication that someone was there was a faint hint of incense. Isabel and Dad were trying to find a way into the main chamber when we stumbled across a withered man sitting cross legged on a mat. He invited us to join him and took us through a ritual paying homage to Budda. Well – we assume that’s what was going on. After the mandatory lighting of the stick, waving it around and generally dripping in the heat he then told our fortunes by having us poke a stick in pile of inscribed cards. The accuracy of his predictions will never be verified as we have no idea what he was saying. After we dropped him a couple of dollars for his efforts he then lent us a torch so we could see what was inside the chamber. Total blackness surrounding a pile of rubble. We figured though the rubble was a broken statue of Budda – so we left with our question answered and possibly heading towards a bright future, or not.....
The next temple was the famous one in which Angelena strutted her stuff. It’s a hard fought battle, but the trees appear to be winning – given the forest seems to have had time on its side one would think it will reclaim its own eventually. The locals seem to be trying to capitalise on making the status quo last as long as they can though and subsequently are installing cranes and scaffolding to add to the ambiance.
On the way back we enjoyed the experience of some locals boys making a quick buck by singing for cash and then watching them scamper off into the bush when one of their seniors came along to see what they were doing.
When we got back to the hotel Dad made use of the internet and the girls hit the markets. Afterwards we headed off to dinner in the precinct of Pub Street. Full of tourists, great food (cheap) and not being hassled by the locals - a wonderful experience. It’s a pity it’ll be ruined in time by the ever increasing pressure of the buck.