Siem Reap: Day Two

At around 5:30AM Francesca and I decided to stop trying to sleep and just check in. The departure hall of this terminal was poorly set up. We had to wait in line to get to the area with check in desks and then wait in line once we found the desk we needed. Checking in was pretty quick and our boarding pass was just an ordinary receipt. We then had to make our way back through all of the masses of people to get to the other side of the hall to go through immigration and security. Once we got through all of this mess and found Wes on the other side. We had to wait another 30 minutes before they called our flight. We walked out on the tarmac to our plane and our flight was only two hours long.

We arrived in Siem Reap at 8AM (we passed through a time zone). The scenery was a lot different then I had expected. It was flat, light vegetation, and very dirty. All the roads I saw were dirt and I half expected use to land on a dirt runway. The airport in Siem Reap was actually very nice, but very small. There were only two other plans at the airport. When we walked into the airport we had to buy a visa. It was only US$20 and then we got through immigration. At this point we were pretty happy that they took American dollars. However, once we got into the airport lobby and looked for a taxi, we realized that everything in Siem Reap was in American dollars. In fact no ATM offered anything other then American currency. We got a taxi to take us into the city to the hostel we had pre-booked. Our driver was named Tong and said that he could dive us around for the whole day for $25. We agreed. Tong then took all the things off the car that identify it as a taxi and hid his company ID. At first I assumed it was because we hired him for the day, but I think it was because he was using the company car to make extra money on the side. In any case Tong was a pretty nice guy. He is a student at Phnom Penh studying history and his dream is to one day become a tour guide. Throughout the day he gave us lots of information on the history and meaning of things around Cambodia for free.

Our hostel was pretty nice. It was called Shadow of Angkor (frequently misspelled as Shaow of Angkor) and was on the eastern edge of the Old French Quarter. In the area were a lot of old French colonial buildings. It was also the nicest part of the city. Our room had three beds, a private bathroom, and most importantly an air conditioner. Cambodia was very hot and very humid.

After we got settled into our hostel we decided to go into the country side and take a boat ride down the river. While driving out to the river we got to see a lot of the farm land. We saw many fields of rice and lotus. The ground was very similar for both, somewhat flooded. The lotus is very important to Buddhist and it is also a vary tasty snack. We got to walk around a lotus farm and try eating it. The lotus fields had lots of life in it with all kinds of frogs and insects going about their business. The seeds taste somewhat like a sweet pea. There were also a lot of oxen and cattle wondering around.

The area around the river seemed depressing. Everyone lives in shacks and there seemed very little economic activity. The ground was all dirt. Cambodia has a wet and dry season. It is currently the dry season and during the wet season the river rises quite significantly. This means it is very difficult for anything to grow and erosion seemed common place. All the shacks were built up high on pillars. We found our boat and started down the river. We were the only three people on the boat in addition to the boat driver and his son. His son would help dock the boat and help fix the engine every time it went out (not the most reliable motor). Going down the river we saw all kinds of daily life. Some people were fishing, some were transporting produce, while others were on their way to school. Most of this was done in small boats about the size of a canoe. The water was very muddy but there appeared to be little garbage in the water. Along the edge of the river near the shacks, however, there was plenty of trash. It seemed like those that lived there would just toss refused out the door and not worry about it. At the end of the river was Cambodia's giant lake. One the lake was the floating village. This was a decently sized village made up of entirely boats. This was to enable the fishermen to be close to the fish while not being troubled by rising and sinking water levels. There were houses, churches, schools, restaurant, police station, and even a basketball court and a vegetable garden, all floating on the lake. Here is a video of us overtaking a school that was being moved.We docked at the restaurant. Inside they had a little shop and a section where they raise fish and crocodile. Killing crocodile for their skin and meat is very common in Cambodia. We were not hungry but I did buy a small Cambodian flag. After we looked around (it was three stories high so the top was a good observation deck) we got back on the boat and head back to where Tong was.

Tong took us back into Siem Reap which by that time we were hungry and wanted some authentic Cambodian food. We went to this restaurant that was hidden but somewhat upscale. Even though it was pretty nice compared to most of the other places in Cambodia, the meal was still cheap. I ordered Lok Lak (I think that is how it is spelled) beef. It was very very good. We ended up sharing everything so I also had some very good vegetable dishes and chicken. Afterwards we went to a cultural center, but there was not much going on there and it was very touristy so we left early.

We then went to an artisan school for woodworking and masonry. This place was not touristy at all but they let outsiders come in and look around. The older man (who I am guessing is the headmaster) was quite happy to show us around while Tong translated for us. The main part was a big hut which had a bunch of students working on giant wood carvings. There were a few students working on smaller figurines, but for the most part the carvings were of panels with carvings of temples such as Angkor Wat. These were easily over 5 feet in length and 3 feet wide. Just outside was where the masonry students were working. They were working on all different size statues in various stages of creation. One of the finished statues of an ancient Cambodian king, which was a little smaller then life size, took over a month to make. Lying around in the rubble were bits and pieces and statues that were student mistakes. I found a small head of King Jayavarman VII (the Great Buddha king who converted the ancient Khmer Empire from Hindu to Buddhism) and asked the old man if I could buy it. He kept trying to tell me it was a student mistake, but I still thought it was done pretty well as it was about finished. He ended up agreeing to sell it to me for US$10. This was a pretty good deal since I couldn't tell it was a mistake and the other ones started at well over US$100.

On our way back to the hostel we passed by a monument to the Killing Fields. The Killing Fields is where Pol Pot tortured and killed a significant portion of the Cambodian population to solidify his power. Today, Cambodia is a democracy (but has a corruption problem) and is trying to move on from the Pol Pot area. The monument had a bunch of bones collected from the Killing Fields and had a few exhibits to show what a horrible situation the Pol Pot reign was. The signs that explained what happened were very condemning of the era.

Right next door was a Buddhist temple which was holding religious activities. There were monks chanting and many people were sitting in and around the temple. We went into the temple and sat in on the chanting. Before we could go in we had to take off our shoes and then sat quietly and watched. I am not sure what was going on but in front were older monks facing a big statue of Buddha. They were the ones doing the chanting. On one side were the younger monks, who were playing with cell phones for most of the chanting. It was somewhat comical.

Afterwards, we had Tong drop us off at our hostel and told him that we would hire him again tomorrow. We wanted to wander around the area near our hostel as there were many shops and restaurants near by. There was a small shopping complex one block down. It was basically a warehouse with all kinds of little independent shops inside. They sold similar things to the markets in China (artwork, fabrics, carvings, etc) but all Cambodian related. In the center was a wet market which smelled horrible (no ventilation). We ended up eating at a place called Cambodian BBQ which was recommended by Lonely Planet. There we ordered crocodile, kangaroo, and chicken. Crocodile is a lot like chicken, but the kangaroo was amazing. The meat looked a lot different from other meats and had a very different taste. Part of it could have been the seasonings they used, but it was still very good. Even though it was not that late when we finished we were still very tired from not having sleep the night before, the extreme heat, and all the things we did during the day.

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Ping Shan Heritage Trail

Yesterday I went on the university sponsored Heritage Trail in Ping Shan. It wasn't a big group who went (less then 30). I must admit that there aren't too many good pictures so I am only posting the link to the album. Ping Shan is a small town (by Hong Kong standards so the high rise apartment buildings were still there) in the northern part of the New Territories near the boarder with Shenzhen. It was basically a walk with several historical buildings led by a tour guide. It started at the top of the hill at the old colonial police station that the British built shortly after first taking control of the area. Today it is the Tang Clan Gallery with artifacts dating back to the beginning of British occupation. Then we headed down the hill to a restaurant to have a hot pot. A hot pot is essentially a pot with all kinds of food (mostly meat) in it over a hot plate. Most of the meat was cut traditionally (no bone removal). A lot of it was unidentifiable. At one point I ate something a Singaporean just described as "skin." It was not very good. After lunch we visited the Hung Shing Temple. It was in honor of a water god and was very small and very old. It was neat to see something smaller and less worn. Next on the trail was the Kun Ting Study Hall. Attached was the Ching Shu Hin which was the guest house. Both were mainly stone and brick and had lots of nooks and oddly shaped rooms. All the rooms were very small by modern standards. We then came to the row of ancestral halls. The most prominent was the Tang Ancestral Hall which was about 800 years old (but restored in the 90's and the vast majority is modern that looks old). Only two of the halls were open to the public (Tang being one of them). The Tang Ancestral Hall was a few inches taller then the neighboring ones. Since it was the first, each additional hall had to respect the oldest by being shorter. Inside there was three chambers in succession. The first two were open court yards used for meetings, celebrations, and classes. The third had the shrine to the ancestors. Only the first born son could be added. Next we walked to the original well. It was about what one would expect, a hole in the ground. However the water was very polluted. Then we walked to the Yeung Hau Temple. This, again, was a small temple. It was interesting because it wasn't near any buildings and was only a few yards deep. We then walked through a walled city. Very very tight walkways and most of the city has been removed or crumbled beyond repair. The final stop was the Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda. It used to have 8 sections but it was knocked over about 100 years ago by a typhoon so now there is only 3. We were disappointed because we could not climb it. It was then late in the afternoon and we headed back to CUHK.

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