Next stop - Siem Reap & Angkor Wat

After a 6 hour bus ride (mostly with the locals and only 5 foreigners including ourselves), we arrived in Siem Reap and boy, were we NOT ready for what was about to happen. As soon as we got off of the bus, we were “hounded” and I use that word literally by tuk tuk drivers. We have experienced tuk tuk drivers throughout our travels in Vietnam and in Phnom Penh but nothing quite like the experience we had on this day. Let me try to describe the situation.

We’re trying to get off the bus with our bags (oh yes, Cambodian buses like to use their back exit door as their storage for suitcases rather than the usual storage units on the bottom) and as soon as I take my first step off of the bus, men are grabbing me and my bag, they’re all yelling at me from all directions to go with them to this hotel or that hotel and yelling our prices. It was nothing like I have ever seen before (not even in India). I turned around to look for Chris and he was in the same situation I was. He was encircled by around 10 guys and they were all trying to talk to him at the same time. He finally was able to make his way to me and we were both now surrounded by around 20 tuk tuk drivers. It was very HOT and all we could hear were “100 riel for my tuk tuk”, “500 riel for my tuk tuk”, “Where you staying”, “Come to my hotel, it very good”, “Free, I take you for free”. These comments were being thrown in all directions and it seemed like everyone was yelling as they were all trying to outdo their competitors. At this point, I, personally was scared and mad at the same time. I understood that any amount of money, small or large, would be useful to these drivers but at the same time, I did not think they had to be this aggressive towards us. Chris finally couldn’t take it and yelled out “STOP” to all of them and told them to back off. It seemed to work for around 2 minutes after which time, they all started again. I on the other hand at this point was pretty much ready to hit someone as everyone was invading my personal space. It was too much to take in as I was worried about our bags and our safety. We knew we had to get out of there to get into town so I scanned the bus station and saw one tuk tuk driver across the way who was just standing against the railing with a sign. He wasn’t yelling or screaming or trying to get our business so I pointed to him and nodded my head and within seconds he was over taking our bags to his tuk tuk. WHAT A RELIEF!! We wish we had pics to share with you all of our experience but needless to say taking our cameras out of our bags with all those drivers around wasn’t probably the safest thing to do.

Busing it to Siem Reap with the locals

Our emergency exit on the bus
Versna, our tuk tuk driver, ended up being a very nice young man. He took us to a guest house he recommended which was the place we ended up staying at. The Good Kind guesthouse (opposed to the Bad Kind we assumed) was great. We got a good deal on the room - $7.27 CDN which did NOT include breakfast, internet, air con or HOT water. I wasn’t sure about that last one but what Cambodians refer to as cold would be our luke warm so the no hot water was fine by us considering the HOT climate.

We settled into our hotel room and got organized before we headed to the Angkor complex for our first visit. We were told we could get in free our first evening to see the sunset from a mountaintop if we were to buy our three day pass that evening which would start the next day. We were full of excitement on the tuk tuk ride to the complex as Angkor Wat was one of the major highlights Chris and I were looking forward to on this trip.

On our way to our first visit to the Angkor Complex

We were taken directly to Phnom Bakheng, a mountain temple very close to Angkor Wat. This was the first major temple to be constructed in the Angkor area which marked the move of the capital of the Khmer empire from Rolous to Angkor in the late 9th centrey AD. This mountain is known for its sunsets and you can get a very nice view of Angkor Wat from the top as well. We were told that it can get quite crowded on the top as many tourists fight their way up the mountain to get that one perfect shot that everyone else is wanting to get. As soon as we arrived at the base, there were three paths you could take. An elephant path to the left (you could get elephants to take you up to the mountain for $15 US), an easier platform path to the right with nice wooden steps carved out for easy climbing to the top and the middle path was what they termed “dangerous” and most difficult. It would be similar to the Grouse Grind in the fact that there were no real steps carved out but just a bunch of rocks that you had to climb up and over but no where near the same distance as the Grouse Grind (for those of you who will understand this “1/4 way” was not a problem for me..hehe). We made our way to the top and as soon as you climb over the last stone, you are faced straight on with the temple mountain. The sight was something else. This temple was literally carved onto the mountain. We had to take a few more flights of very STEEP stairs up to the very top to get the view we were looking for and oh what a view it was. Angkor Wat could be seen in the distance and the sun was visible in the sky. We explored the temple while waiting for the sun to set. Unfortunately the spectacular sun set that was to occur, never really happened that night. The sun began to slowly descend but then became covered by clouds and what we think might have been some pollution as it was very hazy. And that was that. We were able to get a few good shots but nothing like we had expected. The best part of that night was that everyone seemed to vanish as soon as the sun set that they had been hoping for didn’t happen so Chris and I were pretty much the only ones left on top of the mountain to explore the temple a bit more on our own. It was nice to be able to take some pics without loads of other tourists in our shots.

Grouse Grind Cambodian Style

The first view of the temple mountain after climbing the grind

The temple on top

A monk taking in the view like the tourists

The first signs of the sun setting…

Hazy view of the amazing Angkor Wat

Enjoying our first evening in such a beautiful place

Many parts of the temple were ruined

Oh what a Sight!!