Miscellany

Miscellany in Siem Reap
7 May 06 cont.

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We continue our 'grand tour' of Angkor Wat by making our way from Ta Prohm over to Phnom Bakeng which is another temple high on a hill overlooking the majestic Angkor Wat. Phnom Bakeng is where they take all the tourists to view the sunset (or sunrise) over Angkor Wat. What's interesting when it occurs is that the light plays atop the towers of the temple and one by one illuminates or hides the towers in succession. It's supposed to be a magnificent thing to observe. Along the way, I see a first for my life--wild monkeys just scampering about on the side of the road. There were several dozen of them. It was really cool! Some kids were feeding the monkeys fruit and candy but for the most part the monkeys were just playing around.

The next thing that caught my attention was an elephant crossing sign! I've never seen this in the US, either.

We finally make it to the base of the mountain on which Phnom Bakeng resides and we make our way up the steep path. It's still in the low 40*s and more humid than ever. I break down and buy some popsicles from a local vendor. This is the one time where I 'caught' somebody trying to snooker me. What we've seen a lot of in Asia is two different 'prices' for folks--the locals' price and the tourist' price. I was sorting through the prices on the poster by the ice cream van and ordered 4 lemon-lime popsicles while standing among a mob of locals who are also purchasing popsicles. The locals' price was 2,000 Riel ($0.50/each)--I take the four, hand the man the $2 and he insists it's double what I've given him. Then, I reply but the exchange rate is ... --and he laughs and says he was only kidding fully aware that I'd caught on to his double standard. We laughed it off and I continued up the mountain with the popsicles. That experience was the only time somebody tried to 'snooker' us and when they got caught they bowed out of it gracefully.

Here's one view of the path up the mountain. Pretty steep and rocky--similar to some of our hikes around Seoul--with no set path, you just look for steps among the rocks or tree roots. For the less athletic types, you could hire elephants to take you up the mountain for $15 up and $10 down. We needed the exercise so decided to climb the path instead. Once we clear this stretch of rugged pathway, we reach the temple and must climb various sets of steep steps to make it to the upper terraces.

We make it to Phrom Bakeng and secure our seats on the edge of the upper platform with what we think will be a great vantage point. We're about an hour and a half early so we spend the time people watching, giving English class student interviews (I'm always getting caught doing these, aren't I?) and just enjoying the rest. I notice this group of monks climb up to the terrace and settle on a row of bricks in front of us. I'm really wishing I'd had my 'good' camera now!!! In time, it appears at least another 400 folks have joined us on the terrace.

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Among all those folks there I never notice one other American--again mostly Australians, Kiwis, English, Ecuadoreans (?), Germans, Swiss, etc. In fact, this whole time in Cambodia we still had only seen one American on the plane, a family of 3 possible Americans who sat near us at the Apsara dance (I couldn't sense a Cockney accent when the mother spoke to us) and an American round-the-world backpacker whom we met at Ta Som earlier in the day. The interesting thing with him is we only started speaking to him because I noticed his Nikon camera (similar to the one we've recently ordered but haven't yet received) and his companion's Nikon and we struck up a conversation about the cameras. The more we spoke, the more I could sense accents from different regions. His buddy was from Brazil and then two other companions were from Germany/New Zealand (same girl--born in Germany, grew up in NZ but returning to Germany after her world tour) and England. I could determine the countries of origin for most everyone in the group but the one fellow whom we initially met. So, I asked him where he was from--Seattle! Duh! Then, I inquired if he was originally from there because he really had one of those 'Brazilian' accents--he responded Spokane but he moved to Tacoma several years ago. TACOMA!!! That's only 8 miles from where we live!!! As for his accent, turns out he's been traveling around the globe for the past 7 months and he appears to have the same 'mirroring' ear that I have--when he hangs out with folks who speak a different tongue then he quickly begins to shadow their accents. So, that's why I can't pinpoint it. Bizarre! As for his situation, he's touring the world for 9 months--took a sabbatical from his county legal office and has spent the time in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. He was actually visiting Cambodia for 1 day! In fact their whole group was only in Siem Reap for 1 day and trying to see as many temples as they could in that day. After Cambodia, he was heading to New Zealand for 3 weeks, Taiwan, Hong Kong and then back to the US. Whenever I meet these round the world travelers I always pepper-spray them with a million questions about the routes they chose, equipment they took--anything that will help us prepare for when we can take a similar trek.

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Well back to the sunset on Phnom Bakeng. The time for the sun to set eventually arrives--we see a few shadows of Angkor Wat dance around but realistically we didn't sense the 'magic' that everybody talks about. From this spot Angkor Wat actually looks quite small and we think you'd need a really good binocular or camera lens to see what everybody's describing. Perhaps because it was a bit hazy out? Regardless, we get a great view of the Angkor Wat complex and enjoy a nice break from climbing and walking. After this, we return to the hotel and get ready for another great meal on the town. We hop in our trusty Tuk-Tuk (yet again the same driver) and head back to town. We return to Boray Sovann restaurant where we finally find our glass Coca Cola bottles with lids and bottle caps (unfortunately the Coca Cola label is in English on both sides--no Cambodian except for the small print on the side). The waiter senses that we're really looking for some unique collectibles from Cambodia and he brings us some Angkor Beer Stout bottle caps with labels in Cambodian--that also include these awesome detailed images of Angkor Wat. Eventually he comes out with a Coca Cola bottle in Chinese--which I'm ecstatic about because when we were in China the vendor wouldn't let us take the bottle--we even offered to pay for it! We order the chicken satay again, fresh spring rolls with the sweet and spicy peanut sauce, fried broccoli (I believe it's broccoli raab in the US as it's only the spears?) and steamed rice. This time it's $19.70 but we purchased several sodas/beers this time so it's understandable.

After the meal we return to the stadium carnival again and this time the kids opt to ride the helicopter. Good choice Trekkie thinks as that was his first welcome to the aviation industry. ;) The kids also ride the train again--Tuk-Tuk driver included and then we hit the dart balloon kiosks again. This time we let the kids play--scary but rnrB actually connected with a balloon or two. Somehow trkr leaves the balloon dart stand with a giant SpongeBob backpack filled with jelly gummi treats--even though he didn't throw one single dart! It's sort of ironic--our kids have probably never even seen SpongeBob (I have a thing about cartoons, TV and kids) and they leave Cambodia with a monster Nickelodeon/Cartoon Network symbol of a backpack.

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Our ride back to the hotel takes us on some interesting diversions. I've asked the Tuk-Tuk driver to help us find glass Coca Cola bottles with Cambodian writing on them. We criss-cross almost all of the streets in Siem Reap asking various drink vendors if they have any Coca Cola bottles. None seems to have any. The diversion is a nice experience, though as the Tuk-Tuk driver takes us to all the secret locations he knows about and we get to see lots of locals just enjoying life. It's a good break from the touristy scene we're so often thrust into.

Here's a colorful fruit stand we walk by looking for Coke bottles. After spending a couple hours driving around town looking for these bottles our Tuk-Tuk actually runs out of gas. Who knew? Our driver makes a quick phone call and within a couple minutes one of his buddies speeds over on another motor-bike carrying two bottles of liquid in his arms (yes, riding a motor-bike!). The two bottles are Bacardi Rum & Martini!!! In them was gasoline! Within a few seconds, we were refueled and ready to continue on our journey.

Here's our refueler on the streets of Siem Reap.

Was it fate? Our trusty refueler's motor-bike! Complete with Coca Cola exhaust pipe!!! It was so funny--we'd run out of gas on our mission to find glass Coca Cola bottles in Cambodian. Instead we find Coke on his motorbike! What we later learn is that Cambodia is a really small market for Coca Cola (although we've seen the bottles everywhere!) and that they don't have a glass Coca Cola bottle in Cambodian--but for some strange reason their plastic Coke bottles are in Cambodian on one side and English on the other--as is common in many other foreign countries.

After another half hour of searching we finally conclude that they just don't make Coke bottles in Cambodian and decide to turn in for the night. trkr had given up the fight with the snooze monster a long time earlier! Here we are bidding farewell to our Tuk-Tuk driver. We rewarded him with a handsome tip for all the extra lengths to which he went to help find us our treasured Coke bottles. It was sad to say goodbye to him. Turns out he drives the Tuk-Tuk to help support his family--even though he's old enough to be in high school. It's interesting--had I seen our Tuk-Tuk driver on the streets in the US I'd just assume he was an American. I guess we've come a long way, haven't we?

Just one of those cool signs we don't see very often--a street sign pointing the way to Phnom Penh--Cambodia's capital.

This was our last evening in Cambodia as we're set to fly out tomorrow evening. We've planned a trip out to Tonle Sap for the day so likely won't see much of Siem Reap anymore. It's going to be sad to say goodbye. :(