Date of travel: October 4-7, 2012
If in the future we travel together, one thing you probably need to know about me is I like taking my time. I take in as much of the place as I can (read: I like idle moments in the hotel, I stall a lot, and I take quite a bitof time taking photos). This is also why I cannot imagine myself backpacking through Asia - I can't hop from one place to another in haste.
This is why I mentioned in a previous post that I wish we could have stayed longer in Siem Reap (or at least I think I mentioned that somewhere, but if I didn't, I'm saying it now). We were in Siem Reap for about three and a half days, but we should stayed for at least five. If we did, we'd have done the three-day temple tour and then get to other stuff for two days.
Anyhow, despite our tight schedule, we managed to take at least an hour for breakfast during our three-day stay at the hotel. Here are five things we did and places we visited after the hour-long breakfast on our third day in Siem Reap:
1. Wat Thmey (a.k.a. Killing Fields) Visit
A few months before our trip, I was reviewing for an exam (which I did not take, 'don't know when I'll take) when I encountered a sample question which included the words Cambodia, dictator, Khmer Rouge leader, genocide. At that time I had to struggle to remember the correct answer to this question in case it came up in the exam. Now, Pol Pot will be etched in my mind forever.
In one of our idle tuktuk rides, I asked Narith why Pol Pot had a fourth of his countrymen killed. Our tour guide quite curtly replied with "It's very complicated." Since Narith was not keen to give me details, I decided to finally watch "The Killing Fields," a film based on the story American journalist Sydney Schanberg (played by Sam Waterston, 'same dude who played Nick Carraway in the 1974 Great Gatsby with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow) and his Cambodian photojournalist friend cum interpreter Dith Pran. The film shows the fall of Phnom Pehn to the Khmer Rouge and the evacuation of its residents to the countryside to work in the fields.
Oddly, the most memorable part of the movie is not when Dith Pran stumbles into the multitude of corpses in the fields in one of his failed escape attempts (which would lead him to coin "killing fields" later on). What really stuck to me was the part when, in an attempt to get Dith Pran out of Cambodia, Sydney and Al Rockoff (played by John Malkovich) tampers with a passport as proof that Dith Pran is supposedly of a different citizenship. Unfortunately, they don't have a photo of Dith Pran, so they improvise a dark room in the French embassy where Al tries to print the film over and over. I must say, I could almost feel the characters' anxiety and desperation every time Al came up with an overexposed or underexposed photo.
If you're into conversation-driven movies, I highly recommend "Swimming to Cambodia," although there are, well, no conversations there. It barely qualifies as a movie as it's an hour and half of "The Killing Fields" actor Spalding Gray talking about his experiences while shooting the movie in Thailand. In between, he talks about the back story of the Khmer Rouge, America's involvement in the turmoil and its eventual withdrawal from Cambodia, the different varieties of massages and the different things a genital can spew out in Thailand.
Skulls of genocide victims collected across different areas in Siem Reap housed in a memorial stupa in Wat Thmey.
2. Khmer Ceramic Center Visit
If in Siem Reap you suddenly feel the urge to express yourself ('cause you're an artist like that) or you want self-made souvenirs, then hit the Khmer Ceramic Center. At the time of our visit, for 15 USD, you could try your hand at pottery and bring home your creation. This is not a good place to score souvenirs, though, if you're on a budget as items tend to be pricey. If you ARE on a budget, then do as we did --look around then bounce.
3. West Baray Chill
Our tuktuk driver,
Ponleau Leang, was one dude I can say we had genuine rapport with. During the tour, he offered to take us to West Baray so we could experience one way the Siem Reap locals spend their free time. The way he described it, I imagined it'd be a massive park with a lake at the center and tables and chairs set up for picnics. So, we bought takeaway food from a very novel fastfood chain endemic to Cambodia called KFC, or as the locals call it, Khmer Fried Chicken (I am, of course, messin' with you. It's just your regular Kentucky Fried Chicken). What West Baray actually is is a huge reservoir or a man-made lake. There are cottages and hammocks and stalls and peddlers selling local Khmer food and drinks.
I do not only say we had rapport with Ponleau because he paid for our beer at West Baray, but because I accidentally sipped from his beer can. True story. When you have beer and get a little intoxicated with people you've just met, you reach a certain level of rapport. But when you drink from their bottle or their can, then rapport level is immediately off the charts.
Istine with her ABC Extra Stout beer.
The water at West Baray may be murky (maybe because it had been drizzling that day), but that doesn't stop locals from swimming in it.
Our stay in West Baray was spent observing a group of young Cambodian guys who were with (not to stereotype or anything) a lone European tourist, and (from what they were wearing) a couple of monks (maybe just a little stereotyping). I guess this is the part where I tell you that Cambodian men seem to be perpetually wearing striped, long-sleeved shirts.
4. Silk Farm Tour
If you do visit West Baray, then it'd also be a good idea to check out the Angkor Silk Farm, as it is close to the reservoir. The farm gives guided tours (free!) that explain the stages of silk production - from breeding silkworms to the traditional weaving process.
There's a boutique strategically located at the end of the tour. The items are a bit pricey (the least expensive scarves we saw were at about 20 USD, if memory serves me right), but the quality of the product and the labor that goes into it, I'm sure, is commensurate to the price. If our guide is to be believed, it takes a whole day to weave half a meter of silk. Also, when you buy stuff from places like this, there is an assurance that you're buying something genuinely Khmer. Our temple tour guide, Narith, warned us that most items (scarves included) sold at night markets are actually imported from Thailand. The Made in Cambodia label is added later on. He said ""Even I don't understand myself," ;) to mean that it's hard to spot authentic Khmer products.
Above: After days of eating and sleeping, the silkworm gets encapsulated in its cocoon. Below: Silkworm pre-cocoon days.
Left: Our tour guide talks about the life cycle of a silkworm. Right: Grace checks out the cocoons ready for silk thread collection.
The cocoon gown.
What We Shouldn't Have Done: Elephant Ride around Bayon Temple
Before the trip, I researched on possible scams and things to avoid in Cambodia. The web did not yield results for scams, but there were a lot of articles about not buying from and giving alms to children because of the government's resolve to get children off the streets.
One thing we did not do enough research on, though, was elephant rides.We knew that it was yay or nay, and the girls and I even had a discussion if we should just do the countryside horseback ride instead. But for lack of awareness and an overwhelming curiosity, we did it anyway. It was an uninformed choice because although we knew animal rights groups are against the activity, we didn't know the specific reasons. So when we came back from the trip,
I did a little research and found very compelling reasons to make that the only time I ride an elephant!
Labels: Cambodia, Elephant Ride, Khmer Ceramic Center, Killing Fields, Siem Reap, Silk Farm, Wat Thmey, West Baray
