Tag Cambodia
A small stage: the backdrop, the curtains and all the other hangings are made from silver colored spangly cloth. At the center of the backdrop is a large photograph showing three men in make up and women’s clothing with the text “Free Daily Ladyboy Show” printed in purple across the bottom. Along the front edge of the stage is a line of multi colored LED lights, and above it a large mirror ball. There are no proper seats for the audience, just two rows of pink massage chairs, the people having their massage getting treated to a free show no … Read the rest
So today has mostly been a waste of time. The plan was to go up to Anlong Veng near the Thai border and visit the house of Ta Mok, one of Pol Pot’s butchers. The day after we would rent a motorbike and make a day trip to the Preah Vihear temples.
We got to Anlong Veng by taxi (for some reason there is no public transport) and quickly found a guesthouse. Despite the rain that had started to fall we headed over to Ta Mok’s house which turned out to be pretty much nothing, just a few old buildings … Read the rest
The surrounding landscape is not of much interest, just the outskirts of a small town, a few houses and the odd restaurant giving way to low forests and scrub lands. The sky however is worth paying attention to and we are moving far too fast to take a photograph. In front and to the right, the sky is ablaze with two horizontal bands of cloud glowing in yellow and orange that hang just above the undulating profile of distant hills. To the left are thin veils of clouds colored a brilliant pink bordering on orange against the pale blue sky, … Read the rest
There are several floating villages in Tonle Sap lake/river (the distinction between them is a moot point). The most easily accessible from Siem Reap is Chong Khneas but I’ve heard it’s a bit of a Disney land with more tourists than locals and plenty of people trying to scam you, so I didn’t want to go there. Somewhat further away is Kampong Phluk which is an authentic village but apparently it’s quite small so a visit there will be very short. About 50 kilometers from the city is Kampong Khleang which is a much larger town than Kampong Phluk with … Read the rest
The main street, if it can even be called that, is a long, orange brown dirt road running the entire length of village and lies just a foot or two above the water level. In the wet season I am sure it becomes flooded, turning from street to canal. The sides are lined with simple wooden houses on stilts several meters high. Along the side of road and in the spaces between the stilts are all manner of things in a huge jumble, round bottom boats with cracked sides, motorbikes, tuk tuks, piles of fish traps, nets hung out to … Read the rest
The reddish brown dirt road is on an embankment, the sides sloping steeply down to the river a few meters below. Both sides of the road are lined with houses sitting on tall stilts, their floor often a foot or two above the street, with wooden gangways up to the door. The houses are simple wooden things, often looking like they’ve been cobbled together randomly. Wooden, round bottom boats are drawn up on land or float lazily in the shallow waters at the banks. The space beneath the houses, in between the stilts, is cluttered with nets, fish traps and … Read the rest
After our sunrise excursion yesterday we decided to let ourselves sleep as long as we wanted. We spent the morning shopping for handicrafts and taking care of various other things.
After lunch we called up our tuk tuk driver and set off to the temples one last time. We started with one called Preah Khan which is just north of Angkor Thom. It is in much worse shape than the others, with large piles of rubble, and whole rooms that are inaccessible. The parts that are still standing however have some beautiful carvings.
Entering Preah Khan 
The front of the
This place is absolutely massive, in fact it’s the largest building in the world, so it should be able to swallow massive amounts of visitors. Yet here I am, in the longest queue I’ve seen in more than two months of traveling. From the stairs leading up to the main stupa, it goes around the corner all the way along the north wall, down to the opposite side of the stupa. I don’t like standing in line but I can’t come to the most famous temple ruin in south east Asia and skip the main shrine, so here I stand…… Read the rest
The entire wall, probably a hundred meters long or more, is covered in bas relief figures. It is something like the Bayeux tapestry, a depiction of a battle with multitudes of armed soldiers on foot, and commanders in their chariots. I’ve seen carvings before but the scale of this is something else. Looking down the corridor and just knowing that the carved scene continues all the way to corner is fascinating.… Read the rest
I’ve heard from several sources that you should see Angkor Wat at sunrise, so this morning we forced ourselves out of our comfortable bed at four o’clock. Our Tuk Tuk driver picked us up and we set off into the cold, starry night.
When we arrived at the temple there were already some people waiting but we managed to claim a spot right at the edge of the pool facing the temple. Soon there was a veritable crowd, three rows deep lining the edge of the pool, we were lucky to be so early. After a while we started seeing … Read the rest