Kampot and the temples near Siem Reap

We left you in Phnom Penh. Now we are in Hong Kong waiting for a Chinese visa.

This post describes the rest of our time in Cambodia: a side visit to Kampot before an intensive, sunbaked adventure through the Angkor Wat temples near Siem Reap.

Kampot

Resting riverside, Kampot is a small coastal town south of Phnom Penh with unnamed and pot-holed streets. Directions are given by referencing the statues that mark roundabouts (e.g. a turn right at the white horse and left at the durian). We stayed three nights to make the most of cheap scooter hire and the hammocks at Blissful Guesthouse.

For our first scooter trip we went east to Kep—an unused sea-side holiday spot made popular during the French occupation. It has a rocky shoreline, a local crab market, and plenty of old French-style villas.

Returning to Kampot via the Secrete Lake, we had a slight accident. The result: Claire’s knee was grazed—there was blood but no tears. The cause: my desire to ride through a murky puddle. Fortunately we were riding slowly on the pothole-ridden side road. Even better, Claire was willing to ride with me again—although her trust in me reduced.

After mending Claire’s knee, we visited a small fishing village just south of Kampot; stopping to play with some local kids on giant fish bins.

Our second scooter trip took us to Teuk Chhouu—a series of unspectacular rapids north of Kampot. Above the rapids we stumbled across the Chinese sponsored 193 MW Kamchay River hydro-electric dam. Impressive in size, it needs clearer signs.

Before returning to Kampot, we rode west to the base of Bokor Mountain where a Chinese company was laying a new road to the ruined French colonial resort town on top. Later we were served by members of the deaf community at the delightful Epic Arts Cafe. Although our sign language is lacking, we managed to communicate our satisfaction with the food.

The next day we bussed to Siem Reap via Phnom Penh—having exhausted our scooter hire and Kampot’s food choices.

Siem Reap

Surprisingly small and laid-back, Siem Reap has plenty of multi-storied guesthouses, neon-lit eateries, and temple-seeking tourists. More annoyingly, it has way too many tuk tuk drivers—that happily ask you for business despite you having answered the same question in the negative, within the driver’s earshot, only seconds before!

We stayed a week in Siem Reap; spending three days exploring Angkor Wat temples and the remaining days resting and checking out other attractions.

Chasing temple ruins around Angkor Wat

Wow, what can I say about the World Heritage Site? The temples were amazing. Most are falling down without much repair. Some are overcome with tree roots. And others are still worshiped today. Tourists are everywhere and it is hot and tiring work seeing them all. But it is worth it. Each day we hired a tuk tuk to give some structure to our temple chasing.

I won’t bore you with details of each of the 20 temples that we explored. Instead, I will summarise our five favourites:

• Ta Prohm – with trees growing out and surrounded by jungle, it is an ideal spot for pictures of real ruins; the movie Tomb Raider was filmed here
• Bayon – once the official state temple, it is covered in massive stone faces that jut out from the upper terraces and mythical and historic reliefs
• Angkor Wat – the most iconic of all the temples, it offers sunrises, long rectangular galleries, and a central tower; originally Hindi, the temple later became Buddhist
• Phnom Bakheng – located atop a hill, it offers stunning views of the Siem Reap province and lion statues; it is possible to ride elephants up the hill to the base of the temple
• Pre Rup – with three levels of brick to climb, it is a brilliant spot to spy the surrounding vegetation and the sunset later on.

Although we by no means saw all the temples around Angkor Wat, we gave it a good go. For those that are interested, we have uploaded some of our better pics to Picasa Web Albums.

Visiting other attractions in our downtime

One night we saw the “Beatocello” concert staring Dr Beat Richer playing his cello. The good doctor helped setup several children’s hospitals in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap and uses the concerts to fund raise. Between songs, Dr Richer played a 40 minute video describing the history of his cause and the problems faced by Cambodian children and mothers.

Our next adventure was to the Les Chantiers ecoles silk farm. After the free minibus to the farm, we watched as silkworms ate, slept, then died in the sun, and ladies spun, dyed, and weaved silk into shiny garments.

We also visited the Cambodia Landmine Museum—which houses piles of unexploded ordinances (e.g. land mines and bombs) and displays stories from those affected by them. Unfortunately there are still many ordinances lying around Cambodia. The museum helps explain this while using profits to fund further landmine clearing and care for those injured or orphaned by these human destroyers.

Back to Bangkok

After our temple chasing was over, we bussed and trained back to Bangkok. We stayed the night before flying to Hong Kong to start our China adventure.

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Well, subject to getting our visas tomorrow, we are off to mainland China on Friday or Saturday.

Much love,

xxx