Angkor - Day 3

Our third and last full day was amazing for entirely different reasons than the first two days. We hired 2 drivers for $5 each, and headed 16 kilometers east of town to the Roulos group of temples. These temples (3 main ones) were built in the 9^th Century, at the start of the Angkor Period, and they were therefore plainer and redder in appearance. One reason that the temples got built was because the king at the time would be very popular for providing food (rice) to the peasants. In turn, he would force them to build the temples. The reason that Angkor Thom was built 16 kilometers west of the Roulos group was because of better irrigation, therefore more rice production, happier peasants and bigger, better temples.

The media could be deceiving, particularly when sensationalist writers and reporters didn’t actually research what they were writing about. I had read an article at around the time of the July 5/6^th coup that said there had been fighting in Siem Reap Province, close to Angkor Wat during and after the coup. It turned out, any fighting was on the Thai border, over 200 kilometers away, and after you travel sixteen kilometers (on “good roads”) and it takes you 45 minutes, you quickly realize that fighting 200km away had very little impact on our safety at Angkor Wat.

We visited Lolei, Preah Ko and the impressive Bakong, but we quickly noticed how much Lap Tek added to our experience. With no guide, it became a sort of “ho-hum, here’s another temple” tour. By the time we got to Preah Ko, we decided we really had to concentrate, and look for points of interest ourselves – but it was hard. At the gate to Bakong, we were stopped by a ticket inspector who seemed just as surprised to see us as we were to see him. Through single words and lots of gestures, he told us we were the 3^rd and 4^th people visiting the Roulus group that week.

We told our drivers we wanted to see more of how the people lived, so they took us on an amazing hour long drive through rice fields and small villages. I stopped once to take a picture of some rice farmers, and when they noticed me, they started singing and dancing and waving their hands in the air. The typical reaction to us by people who probably hadn’t seen too many westerners (none?) was a “hello” from the children, and a smile or wave from virtually every adult. We were in heaven.

After lunch, we followed the Siem Reap River down, almost 15 kilometers, to a fishing village on the huge lake - Tonlé Sap. There was a saying in Cambodia “where there’s water, there’s fish” which may sound redundant, but literally in every flooded rice paddy, and every watering hole, there was an abundance of freshwater fish. The drive down was an awesome look at people living off the river – stilt houses and little children swimming everywhere. Like Vietnam, Cambodia has a huge youth population – a possible reaction to the loss of millions of Khmers during the late 1970’s.

The fishing village was incredible. We walked up and down the road separating the lake and the flooded rice paddies (they were flooded 6 months a year when the Mekong River actually reversed direction and filled up the Tonle Sap). Kids were everywhere, swimming and playing in a state of, what looked like to us, absolute poverty. A kilogram of shrimp was selling for 10% of the price three months prior. The people were poor as hell… but somehow, happy. We could almost sense a ray of hope when people spotted us… maybe the tourists were starting to return?

Friday morning, Preoun drove us to the airport, and helped us carry our bags in. When I told him he didn’t have to, he said that if he helped us, he was allowed into the airport, and none of the other touts were. I said I’d try and help him get some guests when the incoming flight from Phnom Penh arrived, and I got a first hand look at how it feels to be a “tout”, as the only two pack packers on the plane pushed past me like I was a Khmer tout.