DAYS 42-44 SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA “ANGKOR WAT - THE JEWEL OF ASIA”

Having gotten used to the luxuries of Vietnam’s sleeper buses, filled as they were with faux-leather beds and well-manicured farang backpackers (and I suppose to some extent I was one of them) one could have been forgiven for thinking that all of travel in Southeast Asia had succumbed to the new age of traveller comfort. Thankfully this was not the case in Cambodia. The journey on the tired-looking sleeper bus (pun unintended) from Phnohm Penh to Siem Reap was full of humble locals. This sort of mingling of peoples had not really happened in Vietnam.

We were making our way westward to the temples of Angkor, the jewel of Asia. Angkor is considered the unofficial eighth wonder of the world on account of the scale and beauty of its temples. In the centre of it all is Angkor Wat, the famed temple which accompanies every photograph of Siem Reap (pictured above).

The anticipation of seeing these magnificent ruins whetting my appetite, I endured a largely sleepless night to Siem Reap. Luckily I found myself sleeping next to a lady who was as quiet as I was.

I would be staying at ‘Happy Guest House’ It was indeed a happy guesthouse, with smiley staff. I opted for a single room rather than a dorm, which at $7/night was hardly a premium. 

Well it was early morning so I decided to catch some sleep after the long journey. It was only meant to be a quick nap but I really was tired and found that by the time I had woken up it was already afternoon. This is definitely one of the downsides of taking sleeper buses - you often do not actually get any sleep!

I had intended to make a foray into the town, but the comforts of in-house catering and wi-fi soon took over and I decided to make myself at home. I thought a pumpkin soup would go down nicely. Big Mistake. It was barely edible - far too sweet - which was annoying as I had waited perhaps an hour for it!

Chips it would be…

I did however take the opportunity to book my sightseeing. And the next day I set off together with two strangers, Tim the German and Oli the Canadian, to start the tour of Angkor.

I won’t bore you with the details of our movements over the following days, but we saw some really wondrous sights: Sunrise at Angkor Wat; Bayon temple with its 216 giant faces; Ta Prohm the “Tomb raider” temple covered in improbably large tree roots; Banteay Srei with its features so intricate that it was said only a woman could have built it; and my personal favourite Ta Keo temple – a temple with precariously steep steps and without the comfort of a handrail, where you thought you would fall off any moment!

When we were not touring the temples we did of course have to pay homage to another of Siem Reap’s treasures: Pub Street. A welcome relief from the day’s hiking, if a little (with British understatement) touristy. I also took what was now becoming a seemingly regular massage – and at $5.00 who was complaining?

Now that we had covered the most important areas in Cambodia I would have to start making some difficult decisions. One of the issues was that I could only really allow myself a week in Cambodia and would need to travel north to Laos to begin the next phase of my travels. I could go south to see places like Kampot (of Kampot pepper fame) and many of the islands which were now becoming popular. Or even Battambang and Sihanoukville again in the South. However these destinations would involve a long detour away from Laos and would have meant me spending more time in a coach than actually enjoying those places

The alternative, and this was much more attractive to me, would be to go to some less touristy regions in the east such as Ratanakiri and Mondol Kiri. These places had areas of natural beauty, and would allow me to see rural Cambodians in their element.

I got speaking to an Israeli guy around my age and he agreed this was an interesting idea and was interested in joining me. Unfortunately his planned movements made this impractical – and as this would mean I would be alone in a rather remote area this was not desirable. But crucially the monsoon season would be approaching soon and I was worried that the already bad roads would be made even worse, leaving me stranded and my plans being disrupted.

So where would I go?

There was a small town in the middle of Cambodia called Kratie, home to the Irrawaddy dolphin. It was not exactly where I had planned to go but it seemed like an agreeable compromise, and would allow me to visit somewhere less touristy.