Angkor Wat, Leaving Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.
My last post left you as we just arrived at the hotel after a horrendous 2 days getting to Siem Reap Cambodia. After spending the first two days with severe jet lag and stomach ache, we finally summoned up the courage to book our day trip to Angkor Wat. We met a really nice local called Ty who acted as our guide for the day and drove us around the 4 temples we would be visiting.
Just so we are all on the same page, a little bit about Angkor wat.
Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world and was originally built as a Hindu temple for the Khmer empire. It then transformed into a Buddhist temple at the end of the 12 century. Since being built the monument has become a symbol for Cambodia and its biggest attraction, even appearing on the national flag.
The morning of our trip to Angkor Wat we had arranged to meet our driver Ty at 4:45am so that we had enough time to buy our tickets and get to the temple to see the sunrise. Lucky for us the hotel had packed our breakfast which turned out to be a life saver. The tickets cost $37USD, which is quite expensive but it’s something you must see if you are coming to Cambodia. Despite the price the place was completely packed out, even at this ridiculous time in the morning there must have been a few thousand people there.
The temples themselves are easily some of the best we have seen (after travelling most of south east Asia we have seen A LOT of temples) We walked around them, through them and even climbed painfully steep staircases to reach the top of them. The highlight for me was being able to walk around the temple that was used as a set for Tomb Raider.
In all we spent about 6 hours walking around the temples, so tired and very sweaty we retired and asked Ty to take us back to the hotel. For the rest of the day we relaxed and ate some amazing food.
We knew the time had come but I personally was not happy about it. It was time to move on from Siem Reap and head to Phnom Penh. I really like Siem Reap, it was a nice place to start. Not to busy but had plenty of good places to eat and shop. The atmosphere and people were so welcoming. But its not travelling if we don’t travel so we headed 6 hours south.
Immediately arriving in Phnom Penh, we were greeted by a very friendly Tuktuk driver called Toy. On the short ride to our hotel he informed us that we should keep our small bags close to us as motorbikes are known to drive past and swiped them from the tuktuks. This wasn’t a great thing to hear the second you arrive in a place. On top of this Phnom Penh had more of a big city feel to it. More people, more traffic and more street sellers. I’ve always said I don’t mind street sellers, I’m never rude to them, but some are very persistent and nine times out of ten I don’t want what they are selling. This added together made us a little on edge when arriving at our hotel.
After having some food and sleeping off the 6 hour jouney we woke up in positive moods ready to see the killing fields and genocide museum. Jas particularly has been waiting 2 years to see this. We arrange to meet Toy outside our hotel at 11am. The killing fields were 15km south of the city.
The first thing you notice when you arrive here is the peacefulness that surrounds this once horrendous place. The birds are singing, the sun is shining and there was a calming breeze. This is a complete juxtaposition to how the people felt arriving here nearly 50 years ago. This particular killing field was used as a burial site for nearly 10,000 people during the reign of the Khmer rouge. People were imprisoned in the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, tortured until they confessed to crimes they didn’t commit and then brought here to be brutally murdered. By the time the prisoners had got to the killing fields their fate had already been decided and they were killed and buried in mass graves the same day. One of the most harrowing parts of our walk around was when we came to a tree. The tree was covered in bracelets that visitors had left. We listened to the tape players we were given on the way in. The tree was used by the Khmer Rouge guards to kill babies. BABIES. They would hold the child by the ankle and smash its head against the tree then throw it in the grave. When the site was first discovered after the fall of the Khmer rouge there was still fragments of skull and brains left on the tree. This was extremely hard to hear. Pol Pot the leader of the Khmer rouge was quoted on saying to remove the grass you must also remove the roots. This was his justification for killing children. He didn’t want them to seek revenge when they grew older for killing family members.
The whole site was covered in nearly 80 excavated mass graves and 30 graves that were untouched. Every few months workers at the site collect more bone fragments and teeth that come to the surface of the graves. The locals say that the spirits are not settled.
After 3 hours walking around the site we made our way back to the city to see the S-21 prison. Before the Khmer rouge regime, the building was used as a high school. One of the biggest things that struck me was that it still felt like a high school. I could imagine the classrooms as I wondered the corridors. Again we listened to an audio guide as we walked around the site. It was incredibly emotional to stand in a room and look at a picture of someone being killed in the same room. It’s a feeling I will remember for the rest of my life. At the museum we learned about how Pol Pot came to power and how he finally lost control. One point that Jas latched on to be the fact he lived a happy life into his seventies and died in his house surrounded by his grandchildren. Seems like an unfair end to such an incredibly sick individual.
We spent another couple of hours in the prison before deciding we were too hot and tired so re-joined Toy and returned to the hotel for a well-earned beer.
��
��
Comentarios