Siem Riep and Angkor

Thursday Sept 30, 2004

 

In the morning we met Bill’s friend Tara and went for breakfast at the Soup Dragon, which was excellent.

 

Bill at the Soup Dragon.  His cell phone came in very handy.

 

Then we went to an internet café and then back to the guest house to meet my guide for Angkor, Mien Ley.  He’s cool, good sense of humor, pretty good English, and of course very knowledgeable about Angkor.  I’m jealous of his Mitsubishi Pajero.  It’s in great shape, and is diesel.  Diesel fuel is half the cost of gasoline there, and you get better gas mileage with diesels.  It’s just as quiet as a gas engine, and I didn’t notice any particular bad exhaust from it.  I can’t figure out why more vehicles aren’t diesel in the US .  Evidently there are no new cars sold in Cambodia, just used ones, and mostly they come from Japan and Thailand .  So even though they drive on the right side like us, most steering wheels are on the right.  That makes pulling out to pass from behind a big truck a little dangerous, and we almost clipped an oncoming moto more than once.

 

A main road in Siem Riep, “National Road No 6” I think.

 

At the entrance to Angkor you get a photo pass made, they’re pretty serious about ensuring that people pay I guess. 

 

I’m going to just include pictures here, and avoid trying to create a book on Angkor.  There are books on Angkor that would have both better pictures and of course much more information on the temples.

 

                             

Angkor Wat entrance.              Restoration project.                              View through Angkor Wat gate.

 

Moats around the complexes were very common, and Angkor Wat has the largest one I saw.  There were many restoration projects,  all being performed by foreign organizations.  I think a Japanese organization was working on the causeway, and a French or German organization was working on the building in the picture.

 

                             

Angkor Wat’s main causeway.              Angkor Wat.                                        Stone Carvings

 

I think Ley said that part of Angkor Wat was used in the movie Tomb Raider, specifically the place where I took the picture with the reflection of Angkor Wat.

 

                              

Wall of carvings.                       Well-preserved carvings.                      View.

 

                   

Looking out over the jungle.                  View.

 

          

Stairs are steeper and narrower than they look.

 

I went to Phnom Baken to watch the sunset.  It’s a very popular place from which to view the sunset.  Unfortunately the sunset itself wasn’t good, too many clouds.  And it was crowded, which I didn’t like much. 

 

                             

Phnom Baken.                                      A courtyard building at Phnom Baken.                                                 

 

         

View down from Phnom Baken.          

 

I did meet and talk to a local named Mey (sp?) who was up there practicing his English on the tourists.  Or running some kind of long con, I’m not sure which.  When he asked for my home phone number and which guest house I was staying in I started to wonder if there’d be some way to bill long-distance phone calls to me with that info, so I gave him a fake phone number.  Those also might be good English class types of questions, who knows.  Anyway it was interesting talking to him.

 

Ryan and Mey.

                                                           

I had asked Pheap on the drive to Siem Riep about landmines, and I also asked Ley (not Mey) once about them.  They both said no, they weren’t a danger; the government did a big cleanup of mines starting in 1998 (I think) and now there were no mines left.  Occasionally a farmer clearing land will run into one, but very rarely.