Journey to the World

February 14, 2007

In my last day in Angkor Wat I went to close temples that I still haven’t seen. I kept riding with my electric bicycle from the long wall I visited the day before.

Third day in Angkor Wat

In front of the wall there were towers scattered on a large field. They reminded me of a strategic game. I didn’t take the time to find out why they are there.

A monk speaking on his cell phone behind one of the temples created a mixed feeling of the past’s secrets along with the future’s technology wonders.

Black dried scorpion

I kept riding to another temple. On one of the rocks I found a black scorpion which seemed as if it completely dried in the sun. If not for the ants crawling all over it, I would be sure it was alive. I have no idea how it got there. Nearby the same temple, on a pile of stones, there was a large tree, from which a figure of a monkey’s head showed. At least it looked like that to me that moment.

I went from there to another temple…

Ta Prohm – Trees on top of temples

The last temple for that day was the most amazing one I’ve seen. It’s called Ta Prohm. I didn’t plan to get there, and didn’t know before I got there that they filmed Tomb Rider with Lara Croft inside. When I got there I suddenly remembered why I wanted to see the famous Angkor Wats in the first place. That’s an amazing place where trees are growing from inside and on top of the temples. Their roots cover the temples’ walls. I spent inside many hours until it was dark. It completed my visit in Angkor Wat.

Even though some of the temples remind each other, that last one was very special, and so it became the one I liked the most. Even though there are trees growing of other temples, the phenomenon is brought here to the extreme. Huge roots grow out of the rocks, the wall that surrounds the temple and even out of the roofs, huge trees. Right after I entered the temple, some kids came to me and offered to guide me to Buddha’s Face which hides somewhere in the forest behind the temple. They wanted a small fee in return, of course. I told them I’ll look for it by myself later, but completely forgot about it as time passed by. A mother with her baby sat on one of the rocks. Later on another kid led me inside the wrecks of the temple where Tomb Rider was actually filmed.

Cambodian kids are walking on top of the walls outside, play inside the wrecks. They climb on walls and stones, in the dark halls and ruined rooms. They do have school every day, but come here daily right after to their own playground at the ancient Angkor temples.

At some point I looked for an interesting angle to take photos. I found a way to climb on a high wall. It was worth it, although you have to be very careful because the temple might collapse any second.

Close to the exit, many children waited for us. They sell postcards, souvenirs and stuff no one cares to buy. The prices start sky high to catch the next sucker. After you completely ignore them, prices drop in the speed of light. My camera helped keeping them away, although not all the time. Even after I left the temple, the kids didn’t stop to come. In fact it just got worse. You should notice there are two exits from Ta Prohm temple. One for each side. So if you have a bicycle parked on one side, you need to get back to the correct exit. Otherwise, like me, you’d have to go all the way back through the river of kids and souvenirs.

I said goodbye to the nice Angkor kids, left Ta Prohm and the rest of the ancient temples. This was my last day out of three visiting the temples. It was very hot and I felt I’ve seen enough. That was the end for the annoying kids and the souvenir sellers, the T shirt sellers as well as the drinks sellers who were fighting over every man coming close to their stand. I will not hear anymore my favorite sentence: “one picture, one dollar” which I would hear every time I’d tried to take photos of the local kids. I had answered them in the same wrong linguistic form: “I take your picture, you give me one dollar” and immediately get a smile. One of them even gave me a one dollar bill.

Recommendations

 

• Share a tuktuk with another person for the ride to remote temples. You can also share one to the close temples. You’d better not take a motorcycle-taxi.
• If you like your freedom of traveling, rent a bicycle, or even better – electric bicycle.
• You must bring lots of water (you can buy water near every temple), a hat, sunglasses and suncream.
• Bargain about everything you buy, even about the water. I bought a decent amount of water so it can sum up to a high amount of money.
• Buy the book Ancient Angkor inside the temples arena. You can buy it for only a few dollars. It will give you detailed explanations about all temples.
• A one day ticket is not enough in my opinion. It’s a shame to miss some of the temples. A one week ticket is a little too much. Three days is the best period of time to see the area without getting bored.
• Although you can see all the temples, there’s no need to do so. You should make a list of interesting temples. You can see the rest based on available time.
• There are two ways to get rid of the annoying souvenir sellers: One way is to ignore them as if they do not exist. It doesn’t always work. The other way is to take a photo of them. It doesn’t always work as well, but at least you get a good photo. It’s appropriate that if you did take their photo, you either pay them some attention or buy something. Even though the first two word parents are teaching the small kids are: “One Dollar”, they are still human beings and you can enjoy a conversation with them without actually buying something.

 

 

This article was originally written in Hebrew. It was translated to English at a later time.

 

This article was published at 14-02-2007 Time: 12:46 and belongs to categories Electric Bicycle, Far East Travel Journal 2007, Angkor Wat, Temples, Siem Reap, Cambodia. You can follow comments to this article using the feed RSS 2.0. You can post a comment, or trackback from your website.