Cambodia: what’s what with Angkor Wat?

Q: Which side of the road do they drive on in Cambodia? A: All of them, as the old joke goes. This was certainly true of the taxi driver that took us from the border post to Siam Reap; often three abreast on a single carriageway road. His confidence in those approaching only matched by the scale of the Buddha on the dashboard. Luckily for us, his boldness was rewarded with equal measures of fortune and we made it to Siem Reap unscathed.

Siem Reap, as the gateway to the largest religious monument in the world exists almost exclusively to grockle farm the hordes of tourists who come each year and as such, it’s lively and fun with plenty of restaurants, bars and stores selling tat. Dinner and beers are cheap, even in the international restaurants on the glitzy Pub Street, and cheaper still from stalls of local food offerings around the town’s market.

The currency in Cambodia is officially the Cambodian Riel, which at time of writing trades at 4126 to the dollar. In reality it has almost no value, can’t be exchanged outside of Cambodia and even the Cambodian ATMs dispense US dollars. You only see riels when your change is less than a dollar and instead of US coins, you are given a fist full of riels in change. Dessa enjoyed saving up 4000 in order to purchase her $1 pineapple juice at the pool bar. US dollars also need to be kept in good condition, the banks won’t deal in torn or tatty notes. Presumably this is because it’s not so easy for the banks to source new dollars to keep in circulation…

In 2019, before covid, the rapidly growing tourism sector accounted for 19% of the country’s GDP, second only to textile manufacture with Angkor the jewel in Cambodia’s tourism crown. This percentage slumped down to 1.3% in 2021. In a bid to entice tourists back to the site, tickets for the archaeological park are valid for twice their usual duration until the end of 2022, so the usual 1, 3 or 5 day passes are valid for 2, 6 or, if you’re really keen, ten days! The 1 day price for 2 days access was great for us as we’ve learnt that the kids are best with short exposure to culture, interspersed with other activities. Under 12s are also free.

We’d done a little research on the temples (we watched Lara Croft Tomb raider – an excellent movie, fully deserving of its 22% rating on rotten tomatoes.) and our tuktuk driver set off on a route to take us to some of the key temples.

There are over 1000 temples in total at Angkor in a site covering 160 hectares, the remains of the capital of the vast Khmer Empire which ruled over much of southeast Asia from the 9th to the 15th centuries. Angkor itself is thought to be the world’s largest preindustrial city, with a population of over a million, it was home to 0.1% of the world’s total population. Yes, big. So to avoid the inevitable temple fatigue from the kids we concentrated on the big hitters – spreading them over two consecutive mornings.

Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom is the last, and longest inhabited capital city of the Khmer Empire. The fortified city was built in the 13th century, and abandoned in the 16th with the name meaning Great City. The site is located on a moated island, with five beautiful entrance gates and the remains of a series of temples inside. The most famous temple is Bayon, with 200 huge enigmatic faces carved throughout, all apparently in the likeness of King Jayavarman VII who commissioned the Buddhist temple. Within Angkor Thom, the kids also enjoyed the 350m terrace of elephants. We had to give Baphuon temple a miss as apparently the stairs, which give some of the best views in the area are too steep for kids under 12.

Ta Prohm

This is the temple which was lost to the jungle and ‘rediscovered’ in the early 1900’s by French archaeologists after the strangler fig, and silk cotton (or kapok) trees had taken hold throughout the intricately carved masonry. Founded in the late 12th and early 13th centuries by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII it was built as a Buddhist monastery and university. The site has been left much as it was when discovered, and the scale of the trees growing up through the buildings really is a breathtaking sight.

The actual Angkor Wat

“For a temple, this is actually quite good”

Odessa, At Angkor Wat on day two of temples

The distinctive silhouette of Angkor Wat is so synonymous with Cambodia that it appears on the national flag. There’s a reason it’s the big draw temple on the site, and there is no denying that Angkor Wat is pretty awesome. So much so that even Dessa’s stubborn resistance was broken; she had not fully appreciated the temples on the first morning, but here had to concede to the majesty of Angkor Wat. The temple was initially constructed in the early 22th century under the reign of Khmer King Suryavarman II as a Hindu temple, dedicated to the god Vishnu, but as Buddhism became in vogue at the end of the 12th century, it was repurposed as a Buddhist temple. While exploring the temple, both kids especially enjoyed pretending to be the missing animals from broken statues around the temple and being allowed to clamber over pretty much anything, although there was the familiar disappointment that under 12s weren’t allowed in some areas due to the perilously steep steps (apparently). The whole of Cambodia had experienced heavy rain in the previous few weeks, this was evident everywhere we went, but here it made for some interesting photographs with the temple reflecting in the pools still flooding the lawns.

Where we stayed – Lub D hostel

“The pool party was lit!”

Odessa, the morning after

It isn’t often we write much about our lodgings, but here where we stayed made a big difference to our Siem Reap experience. We stayed at Lub D, a backpackers hostel par excellence where we had two private rooms with a connecting door. The hostel put on activities each day. Odessa particularly enjoyed the pool party, sitting at the swim-up bar to sink a few (pineapple juices). The pool table got plenty of use from Rafe, taking on all-comers for folding cash or drinks. Tip: while the prices for snacks etc at the hostel aren’t exactly steep, it’s still a third of the price for ice creams at the posh (the fanciest we’ve seen in Asia so far) supermarket directly opposite.

How we got to Siem Reap

The first part of our journey from Koh Chang to Siem Reap was very easy. After looking at the bus prices, it wasn’t much more to hire a minibus and driver to take us from the island to the Thai border crossing at Aranyaprathet. The land border to Poipet on the Cambodian side is notorious for scams designed to rip off weary and ill prepared tourists. We had done research online and arrived confident that we could avoid being fleeced by the scammers. We arrived past the vast Ban Khlong Luek market, (selling all manner of goods newly imported from Cambodia) and long queues for freight to cross the border. Our friendly minibus driver indicated where we should walk to the immigration control. We were immediately approached by a con man wearing a terrible fake government ID (worse than the ones you laminated at home to get into Vaults in the 90s), insisting we follow him to the visa office. Rafe fixed him with one of his withering stares and he admitted defeat quickly. We then followed the signs to get ourselves stamped out of Thailand and we were out into the casino and barbed wire littered strip of no man’s land between the two countries. We crossed over the road, filled in arrival forms and after spending an age being processed by a particularly diligent Cambodian Border Guard we were officially in Cambodia. It does seem that a lot of the previous scams were around overpaying for visas, but luckily with the introduction of the online application for EVisas, much this risk has been removed. All we had to do now was secure a taxi to Siem Reap without falling prey to the scammers. We knew what to do, we didn’t take a taxi from immediately outside the border, we didn’t take the ‘free bus’ which takes you to an ill served bus station miles out of town and we didn’t believe anyone who told us anything. We found a chap with a Camry who would drive us for $40. This being around what the internet suggested the trip should cost we eagerly accepted his offer. Next thing we knew, Camryman was unable to take us, but his friend could get us a much better car, if we followed him. Scam-antennae whirring, we were pleased to see a nice car, with air con arrive, and the price confirmed the same, in we skipped. This car set off, then took an unexpected turn and started to drive slowly, a problem with the car over heating we were told, but not to worry, we had broken down just near to a friend of his who could take us to Siem Reap. We played along, praised our good fortune, confirmed the price and the location of all our bags, and finally we were off for a two hour rollercoaster across the Cambodian countryside. As we arrived in Siem Reap, the next part of the taxi scam unfolded just as the internet had told us. Unfortunately our taxi driver didn’t know where our hostel was, and stopped by a friendly tuktuk driver who would happily take us the final km or so for no additional fee. Of course the point of this part of the journey was to introduce us to the tuktuk cartel who were able to provide us with a very reasonable tuktuk hire for the next few days while we visited the vast, sprawling sites at Angkor which can only be seen with some form of transportation. The car swap thing is clearly some sort of racket in which we were a simply the self loading commodity, but we have no idea why or who gained what from it. We weren’t fleeced, and we arrived with all the kids and the bags in plenty of time for happy hour at the funky back packers we had booked. Happy Days.

To get from Siem Reap to Bangkok for the next stage of the adventure, we took the train. There is a very handy direct train which runs twice a day right from the border to central Bangkok for the grand sum of £3 for all of us. Granted, it took over 5hrs but the journey is half the adventure, right? Since 2019, the line runs right up to the border in Thailand, hoping one day to link directly to Cambodia. Customs halls are all set up and ready to go, but as of October 2022 the international connection isn’t operational. Until it is, you cross the border by foot in the usual fashion and pop round the corner to Ban Klong Luk station. The train cars were sitting at the station very early, but the ticket office opens at 1300 for the 1353 departure.