Scribble Pad: Cambodia 10-11 August 2007

After a long taxi drive from Bangkok we reached Aranyaprathet, the border of thailand near to Cambodia. Had lunch, roamed around the market and ready to enter Cambodia.

Entrance to Cambodia

We entred Cambodia through Poi Pot, the on arrival visa costs USD20, but the immigration officers asked us USD25. Seems like corruption is a bit high here, hmm....fruit of underdevelopment, poverty etc. Then we took a taxi again to Siam Reap, the place where Angkor Wat is. The taxi driver can't understand even a word in english, so between us communication was through the universally accepted SIGN lauguage. Cambodians speak KHMER language.

Our taxi walla busy talking to his girlfriend

It was a 5 hour journey or i should say 5 hour rollercoaster ride, the road was very very bad and bumpy and our driver was cooly driving in 50-80 Kmph, we felt every part in our body shaking and whoobling. Along the way Cambodia, looked sometimes dry and sometimes paddy fields with cluster of huts around, other than that literally nothing was there along the way to Siam Reap.

Road not taken - Poi pot to Siam Reap

Relaxing on the way - Biggest tender coconut I ever had

But as soon as we entered Siam Reap, things were totally opposite. Good smooth road, big big buildings, shoping complexs, hotels all because of Ankor Wat. I was simply surprise to see that tourisim can change a place so much. In Siam Reap, the currency followed is USD instead of Cambodian Rial. No coins are accepted, if an item costs USD0.50, they won't accept 50cents, i have to pay USD1 and the remaining they pay in Cambodian Rial and that too to an approximate conversion value. The traffic system also follows US, driving on the right, but i saw trucks having stearings on left and cars having stearings on right. Oh! God every thing is in utter connppewson here.

TUK TUK here is like a chariot, instead of a horse a BAJAJ M80 gallops at the front

Got up early in the morning to visit the temples, the entry ticket is (USD 20) for a 1-day pass and they have 2-day (USD 40) as well as 3-day (USD 60) passes. Actually if you are a good photographer and a historian 3-day pass is worth buying. We planed to visit only the main temples due to shortage of time, the first one was ANGKOR Wat which was build in the 10th century AD by Suriyavarman II.

Angkor Wat - my camera is too small to capture the whole temple

Interesting, going through the history of Angkor, all the king names sound tamil and the major religion was Hinduism, until in the 14th century when Buddhism took over. Angkot Wat had a moat surrounding it and covered an area of i think 2-3Km from side to side. Lot of carvings mostly Apsaras (Cambodian dancing ladies) on the walls like this.....

Apsaras - Cambodian dancing ladies

Next we went to BAYON Wat, this one was also very interesting because it had a lot of faces made out of stone, build by Jayavarman VII, the one who ruled successfully and extended the teritories of the Khmer kingdom (now Cambodia) inside the Thailand and Vietnam. Took a lot of pictures here.

BAYON - The temple of faces

Evolution of human face from 10th to 20th century - a comparative study

Posing at Bayon

Gaints outside BAYON

Next is Preah Khan, this temple is maintained jointly with Indian Archeological department. There were a lot of lingas in this temple and most part of the temple was badly ruined. The next temple we went was Ta Prohm, again badly ruined.

Preah Khan - lingas - Lokeshwaran in a state of trance

Ta Prohm - damaged lingas

Next interesting destination was the floating village, USD40 for one hour boat ride was tooo tooo much. But the simple life style these people lead rised a lot of philosophy in my head. All the houses were foalting in the water.