The Lou Bon Voyage

The amazing Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Click on the image to see more photos.

Hello, and how do?  I’m writing this post from Sihanoukville, the town we first stopped at in Cambodia – we’ve retreated back to the coast for some sea air and relaxation before we head back to Thailand for some Christmas mayhem.

So, what’s been happening since my last post, I hear you ask! Well, we’ve travelled over two thousand kilometres, stayed in the capital and in a wild-west style town.  I’ve learnt to cook a Khmer curry, and that there’s no such thing as a full coach.  Intrigued?! Read on…

Our next port of call after Phnom Penh was Siem Reap, the main staging post for trips to the temples of Angkor.  Tourist-central, this place even had a road signposted ‘Pub Street’ where all the western-style bars were.  We settled in to our hotel and booked a tuk-tuk to show us around some of the temples the following day.

I say we’ve ‘seen the temples of Angkor’ but in fact we barely scratched the surface – there are more than a hundred in the area (and you can buy a one-week pass to see them all) – but we decided to take just one day and visit the four key ones:

Angkor Wat, one of the most famous temples in the world and used all over Cambodia as a symbol of their rich Khmer heritage.  Outer walls lined with carvings mark out a huge outer perimeter, moat and all, with the main temple sitting inside.

Bayon, the temple whose four-point facing Buddha faces are absolutely iconic – probably my favourite of the day.

Preah Khan, whose size was incredible, with corridors from the four points of the compass all leading to a central point

Ta Prohm, star of a Tomb Raider film that I’ve seen but don’t remember – and more importantly the picture on our living room wall – covered in vine trees that are so huge they have to be seen to be believed

It was a long and hot day in the scorching sun, but these temples really have to be seen to be believed.  It’s a bit corny, but the way the light plays on them (and the particular types of stone they are made of) really is incredible and makes them look absolutely enchanting.

Angkor Wat was probably in the best shape, with Ta Prohm and Preah Khan falling more obviously into disrepair over the years, but there is much renovation work going on. Some of this work alarmed me a bit – parts of intricate balustrades being filled in with what appeared to be cement – although signs around the place indicate that specialist techniques are being used and that everything is in safe hands.  Around many of the temples, original stonework that has collapse has been salvaged and is laying ready to be replaced – I gather that many years ago the French had mapped and categorized each and every one, but that the data was lost when the archeologists fled the Khmer Rouge.  In line with the common Asian approach to health and safety, it is possible to walk pretty much anywhere around the temples regardless of how much debris there is lying around; I rather like this and avoids the sterile feel that comes with fenced off areas and plaques aplenty.

The following day I had the opportunity to tick off one of my things to do while travelling, by attending a cookery class.  Since being in Cambodia I have really enjoyed the food here – which far from being ‘just like Thai’ is quite different and really delicious in its own right – and was excited about the opportunity to learn how to cook some authentic dishes.  The setting for the class was an open plan kitchen above a bar in the centre of SIem Reap; I was greeted by my lovely teacher, a young woman named Nari, who rather sheepishly explained that I was the only one on the course that day!  This was a little disappointing, but it did give me the chance to speak to her one to one and to get all the help I needed to put my dishes together.  Over about three hours I prepared and cooked fresh spring rolls, an Amok curry and a banana pudding.  I’m not going to share all my newly learned culinary secrets on here because I plan to inflict my new dishes on as many of my friends and family as possible when I return!  Suffice to say though, it was a really lovely morning and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to immerse myself in cooking, having not stepped into a kitchen in nearly three months. Paul came along later to help me eat my meal and gave it the thumbs up, so it can’t have been too bad!

Leaving Siem Reap behind, we headed to the remote northeastern provincial capital of Banlung.  This was a long journey even for us, so we broke it by staying the night at Kampong Cham; I shan’t devote much time to that here as it was a pretty unremarkable stopover.

Banlung lured us to its (intolerably dusty) streets with the promise of jungle walking.  We took a coach there, which took over 11 hours instead of the billed 8, and quite literally had more freight on board than humans – among the cigarettes, washing powder, and noodles was a motorbike (parked in the aisle), and what we think was a large bag of raw meat.  Nice.  On top of that the coach was probably two thirds full of people: I think you get the picture about the comfort level on that journey now!  We stayed for one night at a guest house recommended in our guide book, and enjoyed a nice meal there, but decided to take off in the morning.  We were really pleased we did because the Tree Top Eco Lodge, a collection of lovely wooden bungalows, was fantastic.   We had a sunny balcony, free (albeit temperamental) wifi, resident bathroom lizard and great views across a tree lined valley. What of the jungle walking?  Well, the heat was pretty intense and this, combined with not finding anyone else to go with (to keep the costs down), meant that we decided against it.  It was, however, interesting to see a remote town like Banlung where there are a very limited number of tourists and where there was a bit of a wild west feel about the place.

We bade farewell to Banlung after a few days – mustering some activity on our penultimate day by hiring a moped and taking in some of the local scenery – and headed back to Phnom Penh; this time on a minibus that pretty much ran to schedule.  With very little proper haulage going on we were again seated among some random items set for delivery along the route.  Some Police at a checkpoint seemed particularly intrigued by some wood that was lying under the seats, but a quick bribe from the driver saw us on our way before too long.  We spent an uneventful night there, followed by another in the coastal town of Kampot, and then decided to make our way back to Sihanoukville, where we started our Cambodian adventure nearly a month ago.

It is quite interesting to return to a place we’ve visited before, and great to have a second chance to see and do things that you know you enjoyed before, and to that end we hired out another mini catamaran today – we had a brilliant time sailing around a couple of islands.  It’s particularly nice to be here because it’s obvious (by all the land marked into plots) that huge development is on the horizon and that Sihanoukville won’t look the same in a few years’ time.  As we sailed around today in the sun it occurred to me that we’ve come full circle in our trip to Cambodia, and it’s quite satisfying!

Our next stop will be Koh Chang, where we will do some more relaxing – Thai island style – before family (Paul’s brother, sister and cousin) and friend (the lovely J) come out to join us for some Christmas and New Year silliness.  Can’t wait!

Until next time, I wish you all a brilliant Christmas and the happiest of new years! Normal blog service to resumed shortly afterwards…

Lou x