We departed ways from Wan, our guide in Vietnam, with whom we became quite close in Vietnam. Aptly, Wan belted a line of Ozzy’s ‘No More Tears’ which we were listening to quite often during the car rides. As Cambodia recently mandated an accompanying guide for Overlanders, we had to arrange for a guide during the course of the trip. Sin, our new guide, took us through the formality at the Cambodia border before entering the border town Svay Rieg, South East of Cambodia. Visible poor infrastructure and poverty laid bare with pan handlers on dirt roads. To contrast this background, there were quite a few Chinese owned and operated casinos in this border town, intended to attract foreigners as gambling is illegal for locals. A number of high-end SUVs and luxury cars were parked in front of the casinos, contrasting with the run down roads and makeshift shops. We came across similar casinos and setup, also operated by Chinese, during our exit in Poipet, border town in Western Cambodia. Based on Sin’s insight, the locals seem to be disenfranchised about these mushrooming casinos as they don’t seem to think that it adds to the benefit of local economy.
During the next 7 hours of ride to Siem Reap, we had the only puncture of the entire trip. The boys managed to switch the spare tire and soon after on our way we fixed the puncture at a mechanic shop and replaced the original tire.
During the ride, we slowly picked conversation with the timid Sin, a mild mannered gentleman with few strands of scattered facial hair resembling a pudgy Kung-Fu master. Our visit coincided with the dengue season in Cambodia. Dengue and poverty are a dangerous combination. On the road, we went past a couple of bikes in motion with the pillion rider holding a child in one hand and a makeshift saline drip bottle hanging off a stick on the other hand. Sin was unaffected and explained nonchalantly that the kid is being discharged from the hospital and mentioned in passing that one of his neighbor’s kid succumbed to Dengue last week.
In the evening hours, we came across kids being discharged from school and on their way home. Often we would end up tail gating vehicles carrying students before overtaking them, waving and striking eye contacts. The kids invariably reciprocate with a warm Cambodian ‘Sampeah’, a greeting similar to the Indian Namaste. On our way, we were brainstorming with Sin a few options to explore Angkor Wat the next day and settled on biking via country side and covering the vast Angkor Wat complex. While we agreed to explore via bike, we were quite apprehensive on whether the pudgy Sin would be able to pull off a strenuous whole day physical activity.
Next day, Sin showed up promptly, fully suited as a professional cyclist and had arranged our bikes and gear. This was not Sin’s ‘first rodeo’. The dude is a hardcore cyclist who hosts cross country guests. I guess, it was a slap on the wrist to not judge one based on physical appearance. In general, we noticed that Cambodian tend to be very deferential which in the Western mindset could be misinterpreted in many ways. During the breakfast, Sin was keen to explain to us the five types of ‘Sampeah’ – with variations in placement of hands and head bow – reserved for friends, bosses, elders, kings/monks, and God in the ascending order of respect.
Sin was forging ahead and we barely managed to keep up. The bike ride took us about 2 hours cutting through through local farm fields, villages, and forest area.
Given the vastness of the temple complex, we planned to cover a few of the temples, starting off with the main one Angkor Wat. Overall, the temple complex was well preserved, and compared to the rest of the Cambodia, it stands out in cleanliness and maintenance. No wonder this crown jewel is depicted on the national flag. The Angkor Wat temple is a vast structure (outer wall measuring ~3KM in length) with huge ponds and manicured garden. With base belief system from Indian scriptures, a huge stretch of wall has depictions of scenes from Indian classics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Sin knew all the photo shoot points. From there, we biked along the moat of the temple and then through short cuts in the forest to the Angkor Thom and then to Ta Prohm temple. These massive structure were exotic with variations of towers, carved human gothic faces on the structures, gigantic roots seamlessly merged into the temple crevasses and often overflowing into the temple structure itself.
After the temple, we stopped by for lunch at a local joint and Sin was keen to cover the local killing fields. We biked for another hours to visit one of the local killing fields. At the center of the location was a chamber filled with victims’ skeletal remains surrounded by exhibition of history of the perpetuators and the story of the genocide. May be the monastery in the same facility serves as the constant reminder to correct the past insanity. A somber remainder of current peaceful times.
We reached hotel late in the evening, refreshed, and headed out for dinner that was accompanied with the Cambodian traditional Apsara dance. The show lasted about 45 minutes with different set pieces depicting various religious and folksy themes. The dance itself bore a lot of resemblance to South Indian classical dance Bharatanatyam, such as similar kind of attire, accentuated makeup, gestures depicting characters and attributes. But Apsara seems to be rendered much more in slow motion, with a constant head gear and fingers perpetually spread and bent backward and in a continuous smooth transition. I am sure the puritans of either of these classical dances would be offended by this layman’s lame comparison.
Wow so details thankfully to Rafiq I am so excited with you and your great recommendation.