Angkor Wot and Intrepid Travel

On april 15th my tour began. I say began, i mean we met. We arrived in dribs and drabs at the hotel in Bangkok, read our welcome note and checked in. There was a lot of groups starting that day so meeting people was entertaining. There'd be a smile, a 'hi', and introduction, a brief conversation before we realised we weren't on the same tour, then we'd part ways back on the mission to meet people we'd be spending the next few days/weeks with 24/7. My frist acqaintance was Ben, a maths graduate from St Albans who i was to be sharing a room with for the rest of our 40 day trip. Luckily he's a good bloke, else i might have dreaded such a long time with him. We looked at the list of names and realised that, out of 16 people there was only 4 guys. This was going to be interesting.

We had a welcome meeting with our trip leader Savath, though we call him pete. The other two guys were part of the two couples on the tour. Ane after seeing how loved up both couples were we virtually ruled them out of being major players in the team, so to speak. So far we've been almost completely right, apart from the odd moment. No harm though.

Our tour leader suggested we all have dinner together, as a big group welcome. So he lead us out onto the streets of Bangkok. As i said in my last blog, it was Songkran, so the streets of Bangkok were chaos! and that is probably an understatement. Where we could have gone to any number of restaurants away from the crowds, water, flour and general mayhem, he attempted to lead us right through the thick of it, presumably to get his commision out of restaurant he had a deal with. Once there we had a head count and had only managed to lose 4 people in the chaos. Two of those people turned up later after Pete went on a mission to find them. Already it seemed like this tour would be a degree of organised chaos at all times. And, so far, i stick by that statement.

The next day we were up bright and early (7 to be exact, the earliest ive been up yet, aside from the all nighter). We set off for Siem Reap in Cambodia, our first stop. We got mini-buses to the border, crossed on foot, then picked up a coach the other side to take the second half of the trip on the 'dancing road'. Admittedly it is a better name for a road than Oxford Street, or Sunset Boulevard, but the road itself could hardly be called a road. We were bumped around, tossed out of our seats, and generally shaken not stirred. Combined with the somewhat reckless driving all south-east asians seem to have, we spent most of the first half hour with clenched fists and gritted teeth. After half an hour we were so tired we managed to settle in and accepted that, if this was to be the end, there was little we could do to escape it, so we put our lives reluctantly into the hands of our driver. It was painfully clear why the road was called the 'Dancing Road'. Another name we'd heard was the 'Massage Road', again making it sound far nicer than it was.

Once at Siem Reap, suitably massaged and danced out we went for a group meal then hit the sack early. We were off to Angkor Wot the day after and a few people wanted to see the Sunrise there, much to the dismay of our leader who had not accounted for this possibility and tried his utmost to dissuade us to no avail.

Another early start (4.30 this time) and the few early birds out to witness the sunrise groggily clambered aboard the bus and took the 5 minute journey to the temples. When we bought our tickets we didnt expect to be photographed for our passes. So needless to say our pictures were not quite as 'presentable'as the rest of the group who got up at a much more reasonable time. But the comedy of comparing brightened us up a lot.

The sunrise was beautiful, not so much for the sun itself but for the location. It took around three-quarters of an hour, which we spent perched on a ledge, amazed that you could do this when we were all used to national trust monuments where the only place you can sit is the tea-shop. but then, this is Angkor Wot, not Sudely Castle.

Angkor Wot isn't just one temple, it's 69, scattered across an area of 10 KM. It was began in the 9th century AD and has changed countless times over the centuries as Kings switched between buddhism and Hinduism as the national religion. On many monuments the heads of the Buddha have been removed by Hindus, and at one or two temples there were bullet marks and derelict rooms left from the Khmer Rouge. So as you can imagine it was a collosul mix of styles and states of repair.

We saw the temple where Angelina Jolie filmed Tomb Raider, which our guide Pete claimed to have been in, more evidence of his status as nutter and compulsive liar! We saw monkeys everywhere. We saw more tourists than you could shake a stick at and we saw more fruit sellers and hawkers than you could expect to find anywhere in the world! By around 3.30 half the group had given up and gone home due to the heat, fatigue, dehydration, and general inability to continue in the conditions. Im pretty sure that between us we drank a small lake's worth of water throughout the day. Our guide took this as a sign and we headed back to air conditioned and cleanliness of our hotel where all but one or two people showered and crashed out almost instantly.

That night we'd been promised a party by Pete. So we followed him into the heart of Siem Reap and started the festivities. After our naps we were all buzzing and ready to go, a few drinking games later and you would never have known some of us had been up 18 hours already! During the course of the evening we pretty much concluded that Pete's sexuality, which before had been in question, was definitely prefaced by homo, rather than hetero. Although a friend of his who was present denied it profusely. But as pete was at that time sedcutively dancing around Matt it was fair to assume it was an elabourate cover up operation. Around 3 we headed home and almost everyone was still present, which was quite an impressive feat! The Cambodian don't seem to do the whole Kebab thing which us Brits are so fond of, so we made do with some chocolate from a 24 hour shop and decided not to wake before 11 the next day!

Around 11 the next day we woke and had lunch. Then headed out to the floating village. This basically does what it says on the tin. It's a mass of boats which have been converted into houses. As we drove past we could see straight into peoples houses and see how they lived. Barely had we made it out into the lake when a smaller and faster, but considerably more battered boat, sped up alongside and a young girl jumped aboard with a tray of drinks. This came as quite a shock, it was virtually piracy, being boarded as such. but after the 3rd or 4th time it happened we became somewhat indifferent to the children offering us bananas, drinks, or snakes to hold and pose with. Perhaps we weren't indifferent to the snakes, especially the few people who ended up cowering at the back of the boat, but you get the idea. It was less shocking than the first time.

The next day we travelled down to a place called Kompung Chum, a nice quite town on the banks of the Mekong which had none of the tourist bustle of Siem Reap. In the afternoon we went for a bike-ride over a bamboo bridge, which is as dodgy as it sounds. I lost count of the number of cries and explanatories i heard from the group, and myself as we crossed the bridge, trying not to crash into the motorbikes and horses coming the opposite direction. Amazingly we all made it over and the rest of the ride was a lot gentler so we could take in the scenery. We visited an english school, a pagoda and tried some new fruits. Described by the locals as an enourmous grape, it was essentially an enourmous grapefruit, but i guess that got lost in translation. Nonetheless it was lovely, although hard to eat whilst being attacked by the chickens swarming around the table at the sight of food.

For dinner we were taken to the house of a local Cambodian. It was literally a case of pete finding someone and asking if they would cook us a meal for 17 people if we paid them. We were welcomed into their home and seated on the floor of their main room. The house was built on stilts with gaps between the floorboards to allow for ventilation. There was one main room and a kitchen and a bathroom tucked on the side. the Hammocks around the side of the room informed us this was where they slept. There were several children sitting around staring at this strange looking group, Pete told us most cambodians have a lot of children because there is little else to do in the evenings than... well, make more babies. The meal was superb and we were treated to a cambodian version of port, a fortified wine served in a giant earthenware vase and rice-wine, which is more of a spirit than a wine, both were very enjoyable, for me at least although some were less persuaded.

That was our last and only night in Kompung Chum. We probably should have slept well because we had an early start, but Ben and I made the stupid mistake of turning on the tv to Casino Royale just as Vesper Lynd was teasing Bond in a painfully attractive manner on the train. As such, we didnt get to sleep til much later than we should have done, but was all in the name of love for Eva Green, so can't complain. not that we didn't the next morning as we left for Sihoukanville, but still.