Cambodia, you have to earn it!
At the end of January, our goal was to cross the land border between Thailand and Cambodia. We had read a lot of articles on the passage of this border which was known as quite complicated in terms of travel time, and fatigue for your nerves and your wallet, bribes being commonplace during this passage! However, it was nothing for the chickens in terms of big fatigue, but the travel time was indeed 24 hours long counting transfers!
First step of our journey, join Bangkok from Chiang Mai where we had established a base camp after our scooter loop. So we experienced the Thai night train that has kept all its promises in terms of strong air conditioning (being on the top bunks we took full advantage of the polar cold!). Apart from that, the train was very comfortable to cross the country and reach the capital in 9 hours.
Second step, join the bus station where we booked an 8 hours trip Bangkok / Siem Reap (the city of temples of Angkor) including the crossing of the Cambodian border. We are delighted to have choosen the bus option which, in addition to being quite cheap, has proved to be an excellent choice to avoid the incessant solicitations and the complications inherent to public transportation between two neighboring countries.
To summarize this passage in a few words, the driver drops you off at the Thai customs office, where you validate your exit from the territory. Then you go to the visa office where the official price of 30 US dollars magically becomes 30 US dollars plus 100 baths (written on a sheet to reassure the tourist of staff good faith). This is not so, of course, since they are bribes that sometimes have to be dealt with in Asia. Ben still succeed in the sleight of hand by giving 140 baths for two people instead of 200, the only remaining currency in our wallet a that time. It’s already a small victory against corruption! Finally, you must go to the Cambodian Immigration Office to validate your entry into the territory. These three stages are of course in different buildings within a kind of no-man’s land separating the two countries.
In our case it was rather fast, and not very complex in the end. Chickens are finally on Cambodian land!
Le’s go to Angkor temples treasury
We arrive at our hotel in Siem Reap, dormitory town welcoming hordes of tourists coming to visit the temples of Angkor, located at about twenty kilometers from the city center. We will stay there for a few nights to take the time to explore the site and the surroundings of Siem Reap. We choose to sleep in dorms to save money and regarding the comfort of the dormitories of our hostel we are quite confident (this detail will have its place later in this story).
Upon arrival, we were apprehensive about visiting the temples of Angkor. It had been Audrey’s dream for a long time Audrey, but the tourist craze that has been growing steadily in recent years was a bit scary. Also, at our arrival, we find a dormitory town where tourists from all over the world walk through a “pub street” offering an incredible offer of bars to anyone in search of cheap alcohol (or something else). Don’t worry, the chickens had a great time! The temples of Angkor are extremely touristy, but the magic still works. The majestic temples are not alike. The diversity of the sites, the panorama, and the surrounding woods make it an unforgettable place fun to walk around! The key is to get up at dawn, to get away from the main temples and avoid the tourist buses of our dear Chinese friends!
In order to fully enjoy our visit, we chose to hire a French speaking guide during the first day of discoveries of the main temples. Watanabe, our 23-years-old guide contacted on Facebook and fresh from his promotion of official guides, makes us discover Angkor in almost a perfect French! His knowledge of the temples, although recited sometimes, embellished our visit giving us the necessary historical contexts (a thousand-year-old temple is pretty, but we would not have understood much without him!). Beyond that, his explanations were accompanied by a true vision of a young Cambodian about his country, its history, its current policy, its customs, and who takes sides to speak freely about it during the visit (here the walls have ears, we do not talk politics!). His many jokes towards some Asian tourists (of whom we will not give the nationality) more than ever present in Angkor sites, made Audrey laugh. Hear “go, out the wild pigs!” said aloud in a sacred place like Angkor by a Cambodian in his shirt guide is priceless!
During these two days of visit, we choose the tuk-tuk option to get around, saving the bicycles for the third while exploring the surroundings and an isolated temple. Despite being driven around from temple to temple in a tuk-tuk, we were still pretty tired at nightfall.
We tried the famous sunrise on the banks of the water of Angkor Wat but the sky being cloudy, it is certainly not what we will remember as the most stunning of our visit. It is difficult to summarize what we preferred in Angkor, but some temples stand out for us. For example Banteay Srei, not included in the classic tours of Angkor and offering the finesset breath-taking carved stones. But also dozens of giant faces of Bayon for Audrey, and Preah Khan temple for Ben who contrasted by its calm and its architecture, still invaded by the vegetation.
It is therefore with the feeling of having really got the most out of these majestic sites that we are preparing to leave Siem Reap. It is also with some pleasure that we leave our hostel a bit too hip (we may be a little too old for techno music at any time of the day or night in the bathroom) and especially our dorm. Indeed, the last night was somewhat hectic by the arrival around 11.30pm of a minor prostitute brought by our dear forty years-old Korean bunk neighbour, married and living in China. He started doing his business in bed before Ben screamed at him. It has confirmed that the dormitories are not for us anymore!
But this is not what we will remember from our visit to Siem Reap. The number of tourists in the end will not have really spoiled the visit. These temples are really grandiose and for some, gigantic.
It is now time for chickens to set off for the east of the country. Three small hours of minibus and here we are in the middle of the Cambodian countryside …
See you soon!
Ben & Audrey