Adventure in Siem Reap

Siem Reap Cambodia, a gate way to the Angkor region, where the world’s 8 wonder Agnkor Wat stood, I had an adventure fill couple of days, so this may be a long blog.

We were very grateful a long waited trip actually materialized, our only flight from Shanghai to Siem Reap was cancelled a week before the trip due to low reservation, this kind of irresponsibility’s from the airlines to their customers can only happen in China.

As soon as we step off the plane we were greeted with a beautiful sight of an international airport in traditional Cambodian style of architecture, the smell of the tropic fill the air. It was such a relief, until our flight finally took off, we were uncertain if the airline will cancel the flight or not.

At the immigration line to get our visa processed seamlessly, of course we were a little early to be optimistic. We presented the passport and papers on one end with the processing fee, at the other end our visa was issued. Wow, what a treat that was we all thought, until we get to the second window of the Visa checkpoint.

The officers behind the window seem reluctantly to stamp the passport looking at it over and over again, checking information on the computer screen and keep murmuring “tip, tip.” at first I had no idea what she was saying, until she push some paper aside and underneath there were US dollars bills. She glanced at me again, and then I realize she is asking for tips. Thanks God I have one-dollar bills but I founded it ought and ask our guide later is it customary to give tips to immigration officers? Then I realize that was my first encounter of corruption in this tropical paradise. I suppose that is real life trouble in paradise?

On the other hand we were greeted everywhere by extremely polite people, we were given lesson on the bus on how to do the greeting, but the bowing and hand gesture proven to be hard for most clumsy foreigners. The Cambodian in general were all very soft spoken and gentle mannered people. Compare to all the loud mouth foreigners. Our group is usually the loudness, no matter where we go doesn’t matter if it is in the pool, in the shower, at the restaurant at the visiting temple, or in the lobby waiting for the bus to arrive, we were loud.

We all knew the experience of shopping in local market in China is like going to the torture chamber compare to that in Cambodia. In China, the frantic bargaining, the grabbing and pulling by the vendors and the big race on the hallways to avoid them only were being cornered at the next turn because they knew all the short cuts to out ran you. Like and hide and seek game. Ha ha I got you.

In Cambodia we found the local market were clam, an amazing place of smell and color the feast of the eye and senses. Lots of beautiful handcrafts arts and colorful silk products, not to mention the herbs. More amazingly in the center of it all is a wet market, that including “Dead animals everywhere for the least” food stalls and lots of vegetables. Never the less it is still much better than all the knock offs in any Chinese local markets.

The merchants were all very polite, even though some of us turn their booth upside down pulling out all kind of merchandizes and then walk off without any purchase and they still thank you for stopping by, and please come again. I think some one must have play a joke on these poor soul taught them to say “the hell with you, and get out of my life” means “ Thanks you very much for stopping by and have a good day.” Lost in translation I suppose, otherwise, where is their patient came from. I would have personally escorted some of the women from my group out of the market.

Besides many historical sites we visited, I am not going to bore you with those details, you can Google it better; we understand why the French so attached to their Indocin. Besides the lust vegetation, the beautiful French architecture that was painstakingly persevered and restored by the local governments, there were also those open-air transport calls tut tut, everyone use it to go all over town. Tut, tut basically is a four-seats open-air trailer with a canopy hinged behind a motorcycle. A modern day horse drawn carriage, you can wave one down, or you can call on their mobile and they will come within minutes. We race along the dusty road as if we were in a chariot race. Shooting pictures along the way, the driver seems to enjoy our childish behavior regarding the tool of their trade.

Being a part of the former French Indocin, the reminder of the by gone era are still visible all over town from street name to style of the romantic architectures, many outdoor cafes. Amazingly we found that there were more English speakers than French, especially among the young people. Even more amazingly the currency use, with the exception of small change, are actually USD. Even from ATM.

However the American influences stop there (a very good ways). There were no McDonald’s or even Starbuck. I saw one KFC store but many Coca Cola signs. I cannot speak for the whole Cambodia my encounter stop at Siem Reap.

To be honest, none of us really miss McDonalds at home unless you love process food, somehow whenever we travel aboard, the sight of the golden arch seems to spell security and home. It is our temple we must make an offering, dig deep into our pocket make an offering at the alter. We also feel as soon as we step inside the store, we are entering the unofficial embassy of the safe haven. “Home is never too far, have a McDonald”. I think I should sell this campaign slogan to McDonald. LOL

Now move on. We must complete this amazing race in record time. Close your eye imagines on a cloudy day, first causality my teammate from Canada got sunburn just being outdoor for a half day. What is this lily white doing in the Jungle? He was force to wear this long sleeve torture sport jacket in 90-degree temperature with humidity as high as 70% the entire time he was there. He also claims that the masseuse bruise’s both of his arms, God help me.

The story gets better, the second casualty another Canadian felt victim to a twisted ankle while trying to climb the temple and spend the rest of the trip limping around without a walking stick. Beauty trumps comfort is the term.

Third casualty, my friend from Switzerland with a bad back was carrying so much camera gears it weights close to 40lb, all over the jungle and temple complex finally feel the pain on the message table, the scream of pain shattered the tranquility of the jungle birds flew from their nest.

Other teammates from Greece, Australia, Germany, China and of course me the American were more practical travelers. We wore funny hats and drank gallon of water like camels, not an elephant, because they need too much water. Then we were introduce the term happen room, that we had to visit often. Witty. Fortunately, local Beer call Angkor beer were inexpensive at the end of the day, have a dip in the pool with a cool drink, made it worth it, really heaven on earth. Yes they allow drink serve to the poolside or even in the pool.

There we a lot of climbing, I am not talking about that few steps from the ground to the air-conditioned bus. These were pyramid height steps and very shallow. They build that way; as I was told was to ensure that anyone visiting the temple pay respect to the God. The entryways were very low; as well to ensure anyone enters must bow their heads. With or without the help of the extraterrestrials visitors, as many people believe there were; these majestic people were very clever people. They also left behind documentation on these temples within the on site libraries, part of the planned complex.

An eye-opening discovery on this trip, we visited some orphanages, the product of the years of civil war. These children were being care for by various charities from around the world. They were being fed, clothed and educated on very basic open-air facilities. They were also being taught to create the arts and crafts for the tourist trade. Was this exploitation or help? What is their future like? A tinted spot on this color fill trip.

I also got caught by surprise on some of the candid moment by these well mannered   little angles roaming the street selling souvenir, We had been warned to toughen our heart not to buy from them, because the government wanted these children to go to school, not selling merchandize. Therefore when they approach us, we often told them “We will buy on our way out”, or we told them “We already got it”. Basically we just a bunch of liars. To our surprise, they were very polite, they will not insisting on following you, instead, they will always say “That is OK, thank you, have a good day’. Or “Enjoy the temple”. In fact I am sure that most of them had never visited their own heritage ever, because they simply cannot afford the fee for the entry ticket, with that thought my heart sunk lower into the ground. Perhaps they may wonder why these foreigners came from all over the world to see a pile of crumbling stones on their backyard.

Back to the children and their smiling faces, near the end of our tour, we encounter another group of children on a very remote location, the rain cloud beginning to gather, we can even heard distance thunder, a drop or two starting to fall, a tropical storm is fast approaching. While we were getting off the bus the children were waiting for us there. Instead of ask us to buy immediately, they ask us where we came from all so innocently. Taken by surprise, we all stop for a minute to chat; we were impressed by their marketing skill, where did they learn this from, UC Berkeley of the Jungle I ask myself? When we told them eventually that we might buy their goods later because we do not have the change now. One of the child said in a very ambivalent tone “Miser, you have money, you just do not want to buy from me, that is Ok, Thank you.” I was shocked to my foundation…

How can anyone have answer to that statement? These kids can carry on a simple conversation, in German, Italian, always English and French. Their response put a nervous smile on my face. I was lost I do not know how to react to it. I wonder if these children given the opportunities could they be better than a lot of the children in the western world, at their age?  The only concerns of children at home were how to spend their weekly allowance. Not making one. Unfortunately for these little angles their future go no further than the edge of their hometown. That is a bittersweet moment for me.

There were so many moments on this trip I will not be forgotten soon. One top it all is a Kamikaze ride that I was on. This is not one of those mild thrill of the tut tut ride. Instead it was a ride from hell, in the tropical rain storm with two expats with the combined weight over 350 lb. on one motorbike normally with the capacity of carry two people, now carrying three, operated by a small shinny Cambodian waiter weight no more than 90 lb. (got the picture?)

It was 9pm we were riding on dirt road without streetlights, trying to found our way back to the hotel, after all of our teammate deserted us; the only bean of dim light we had were from the headlight of the bike. It was pouring hard, flashes of lighting in the night sky, the wind was blowing and the thunder was so loud that I swear god had forsaken me. But that is not the worst; the fact that we have no idea where our hotel was? The driver was on the cell phone talking to someone giving him direction on where to go. Can you imagine in this condition driving with one hand, and two giant Xpat at the back that weight over the 5 of him, one little slip we would have been ship home flat on our back.

If I am in my 20s that could be exciting, in my 30’s could be a little risky but sexy, anything over 40that that was a Kamikaze suicidal mission. Why we did it, there were no tut, tut, they gone home from the rain. Even monkeys knew they need shelter in tropical storm. Never the less, we got to live and laugh about it. We have no business eating dinner in some remote places in town just to eat dinner anyway. It was a group decision.

As you can see, without even talking about the amazing temp le we visited while we were there, these human encounters made our trip more exciting than ever.

Happy travel everyone

Chance Encounter Siem Reap