Lauren here! After a long and exhausting trip to Siem Reap we had a good sleep in then headed for the Old Market area and checked out a Buddhist temple along the way. Wat Preah Prom Rath was an interesting place to look around and was very quiet and peaceful. It has beautiful gardens around it and inside a huge reclining Buddha is slowly sinking into the tiles of the building from its weight. We walked a bit further and started to explore the Old Market which is very big and is a market for tourist trinkets and locals also come here for clothes shops, butchers, hairdressers, fruit and veg and hardware.
James enjoyed exploring the meat section which was right across the tiny walkway to the hairdressers which was a crazy contrast. We walked through another section and while James had a taste of some strange seasoned black beetle, I felt a cold, wet slithering thing around my ankles and squealed! A catfish had escaped from its table and was swimming around on the pavement. I don’t think the lady was impressed that I didn’t put it back for her, but there was no chance I was picking that thing up! The poor fish do sit on a metal table, alive, and only get water poured over them every now and then to keep them just alive for a “fresh” sell.
In the evening we returned to the same area and went down “Pub Street” a tourist street full of touts, drunks and cheap alcohol. Before dinner we decided to have a fish massage where you put your feet in a tank and little fish eat the dead skin off your feet. James enjoyed it but I thought it was too bloody painful and weird. I had had enough of fish swimming around my feet! But it only cost $2 for 30 minutes and a beer. While we were having our ‘massage’, we caught up with Anna & Bryn, two travelers we shared the taxi ride from the border with.
We arranged to visit the temples together the next day.
We also caught up over some dinner and drinks with Darren, a friend of James’ he’d met on a previous trip to Nepal. Darren lives in Siem Reap as a photographer and offered to take us around for a day on dirt bikes to see the off-the-tourist track places near Siem Reap.
The next day we met up with Anna & Bryn and flagged down a tuktuk driver for our day trip to the Temples of Angkor. After swinging by to get our temple tickets ($20 1 day, $40 3 days) we went straight for the big one, Angkor Wat. Until you enter the complex, you really can’t see Angkor Wat because of the walls surrounding it. It is also surrounded by a beautiful and big moat. It was very dry when we visited and has a huge expanse of ground that surrounds it inside the complex. On the walk up to the main building, there are people selling palm juice which has an interesting smoky flavour. It was fascinating going around the lower level looking at all the Indian inspired wall carvings and stories displayed. The second level is lovely to walk around also. We never went up to the final level as the line was massive! Angkor Wat is definitely a must-see because of its fame but in our opinion is not the pick of the bunch. We continued on to Bayon (Angkor Thom) which was incredible! The many towers have huge carved faces on all four sides and it is incredibly run down so you truly are in temple ruins. there are lots of nooks and crannies to explore and is much less touristy than Angkor Wat.
The third temple to visit was Ta Phrom, where the trees are dominating the ruins. There are many trees that have grown all over the ruins and creates a very mystic feel to the place. One particular tree growing over a doorway has featured in a Tomb Raider film.
The temple itself is surrounded by nature so feels very remote and special. We visited a few smaller temples and met lots of children selling their wares, who even as young as 7 or 8 have very colourful language if you don’t buy from them.
After a bit of a rest back at our hotels we met up with Anna & Bryn again to try a traditional Khmer BBQ degustation which includes frying meats on cookers while a soup cooks in the drip area. Our meats included pork, beef, bacon and… snake?
The snake meat was very chewy and I don’t think I’d try it again.
The next day was organised to head out on the dirt bikes with Darren. It was an incredible day riding down red dirt roads along farmland and villages, children waving as you ride pass and palm trees scattered everywhere. We visited a few temples from the outside and had a chat with a Buddhist monk at one of the temples. We also visited the city trash site which was incredible. A dump truck had arrived at the same time and we watched as all the residents of the dump gathered around to start sifting through the pile.
They burn off what remains which creates such an otherworldly scene but the people all seem happy at the site.
We ventured on to a floating village where, in the dry season, the houses stand tall on long stilts until the wet season comes and they use boats to get around.
We had a great day cruising around the countryside but were absolutely exhausted by the end. Courtesy of Darren, he told us about a sweet deal at a villa where it only cost $6 for a swim, lunch and drink. We met up there again and spent the next day relaxing by the pool catching up after our couple of action-packed days.
After saying farewell to Darren, we spent our final day at the hotel and having lunch with Anna & Bryn before we all went our separate ways to our next adventures…
Check out Darren’s photos at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cambodia-Images/282481971774340
The Adventures of Lames McFuzzy 