Turns out the room they were going to move me to has a leak and so I cant go there. I think they have double booked it, as she mentions later that sometimes people make mistakes but hey no worries. In compensation they are moving me to their hotel, only if I want. Since I was over the township I was happy to move a little further away where there is a swimming pool. We make arrangements and I go and meet Mr Sarat who is taking me on a city tour. I was going to go to the Museum but reading the reviews it does not excite me. The other few places I would like to go to are quite a way out of town and with a cooking class booked for 2pm, quite frankly cant be bothered rushing there and rushing back again.
So Mr Sarat heads me off along the riverside, few tourists, many locals, no tour busses, no bars but a few high end hotels and restaurants.
So sad that the many people staying in the centre of the city are missing the beautiful sights that I am seeing today. Indescribable beauty of the river, the waterwheel, people sitting round having picnics, the greenery. Just divine.
Then my mind is totally blown when we pull up at the Wat Preah Prohm Rath. The most beautiful temple and grounds. The books say it is nothing exceptional. I beg to differ. I thought it was amazing. Beautiful carvings, gold everywhere, stories told by three dimensional paintings, incense, buddhas, stupas. The calmness radiated all around. I light incense and say a prayer.
I have to say I do struggle with the fact that the Buddhists supposedly don't believe in materialism but here I am in a building that to build alone would have cost millions. Add to that the amount of gold leaf around the place and the mind really boggles. It does not detract from the fact that I feel unbelievably calm and relaxed despite the suffocating heat.
The grounds are just as spectacular as the inside of the pagoda and I am blown away. Thee are statues, boats, animal carvings, beautiful flower gardens and gold, gold and more gold.
Yes, yesterday's temples were remarkable because of their age. I wonder what this one will look like in a thousand years. I guess it will have fallen apart. But for the time being it is amazing. I am so pleased that I came.
Sarat points out a building to the side of the pagoda and tells me that this is where he learned to speak English. There is a school run by local people here and it costs $3 per month for English lessons. I promised him that when Imam rich I am going to return here and teach English. Interestingly, I didn't see any Monks at this temple nor do the Monks run the school. He didn't know how to explain why.
On we drive and shortly come to the Royal Palace. A rather unassuming building but set in lovely grounds. The King apparently lives in Phnom Penh and only visits occasionally. We stop outside and I go for a walk in the lovely gardens. I come across a small temple where music is being played. Beautiful haunting tunes. Three monks sit on the ground at the entrance selling stuff. I move into the altar area where people are leaving bunches of five long stemmed lotus flowers (mainly in bud) and then lighting five incense sticks which they leave in the area outside.
I ask what is the significance of the five but Mr Sarat does not understand. He laughs and shrugs his shoulders. Embarrassed that he can't understand me. I later read that the lotus flowers come in five different colours, each symbolising a different aspect of their beliefs. The five is also representative of the five knowledges of Vajradhatu.
He points out hundreds of bats in the trees. I can't see them but apparently they are there in their hundreds. Glad they aren't flying around while I am here.
Our next stop is a huge market, similar to the which I visited in HCMC, the markets where locals shop and stall holders come to buy their wares. It has a certain charm and is nicely set out with each type of product grouped together. The central area houses dozens of gold jewellery stalls, towards the front: clothing, handbags and electrical gear. Along the street front lies glorious fruit, all sorts and very tempting. I look to see if I can buy a knife so I can buy and peel the fruit. I knew I should have bought my travel set from home. No knife. Note to self: next time pack useful stuff.
I wander through to the back of the markets, through the fish area where I see trays and trays of what I can only assume are clams of the same variety as those that I ate in HCMC. Tiny wee things about the size of a thumb nail. It looked as though some were marinated in chilli, others plain and another pile with some other marinade. All were sitting in bright sunlight. Having seen how small they are I have to say that I couldn't be blowed shelling them but happy for someone else to do it for me.
Moving on I pass the meats. No flies around so this was quite clean and sterile compared to some places I have been. THEN, OMG I come to the offal section. Now I love offal but here I wanted to throw up. Not only did it look,totally disgusting but at one stage I saw a woman squeezing what I can only assume to be blood (from a recycled plastic coke bottle) onto the pile of entrails and mixing it in. I held myself together when the Maasai in Kenya were eating raw kidneys, but watching this nearly did me in. I wont be eating offal for a while.
But I want the real thing so thats what I get. Need to get over it for the next putrid thing I am going to see.
O where is the NZ food police to see that we aren't going to die if our sandwiches aren't in a chiller to kill the flavour, or if our seafood isn't in a cooler all day. Never used to be when I was a kid. Mind you the temperatures here are somewhat warmer than our climes. People rot in this heat. I dint know how food doesn't. I suppose people must become immune to the hygiene or lack thereof. Our pasty western stomachs (even my rock like gut) wouldn't cope to the same degree and I suspect that even if they do get sick then its work as usual with none of our luxuries like paid sick leave.
City tour over I go back to the hotel, go buy a couple of souvenirs ( I always buy a pic for the wall and a cookbook wherever I go);
the usual pic for the wall (an amazing photo of monks at Ta Prohm, taken by Australian photographer Deborah Groves the founder of the Helping Hands Foundation - an awesome shot, black and white of Angkor Wat with a monk in the foreground resplendent in his vivid orange robes. Just a postcard but to me it says everything about my experience yesterday.
and a cookbook - this time a charity book where the money goes to an orphanage.
Here I say that I had wanted to go to an orphanage but when I asked at the hotel they had no idea what I was talking about. Too hard, didn't go. I know I will regret it but too late now.
It is so humbling to see the number of organisations that have been set up by foreigners to help these people. Everywhere you turn there is something doing something for the locals. I'd love to contribute. Throwing money at it doesn't seem to cut it for me. I need to do something useful. Something to ponder on as I sit in my little castle wandering what I will eat today. Many of these people are the sole survivors of families that were either murdered or starved to death. Bad start to life? It doesn't get much worse and yet you don't hear excuses just thanks for what they have. Amazing fortitude. I love them. Every person I have met, mostly from the hospitality industry, has had a smile from ear to ear, has been so polite and gracious, so apologetic in case they might get something wrong. Amazing.
Anyway back to today. Yesterday when I got back to the villas I felt totally over it and wished I was leaving today. Today I wish I had another week to explore the Siem Reap and surrounding areas that aren't in the central township.
On the way back to the Villas I stop for an ice cream at Blue Pumpkin. A cool wee shop that is decorated entirely in while and along one wall is a deep white couch bench with tables sitting on top of the couch. Made for people to sit and surf using their free wifi. The ice cream sundae was great at almost twice the price of last nights dinner but thats OK. I couldn't get wifi to work on anything and didn't give it too much more thought as I went on my way.
When I return to Golden Temple Villas I have to wait a while as they tell me my room isn't ready and then I am transferred to the Golden Temple Hotel by tuktuk (yes Mr Sarat again). My room isn't ready so sadly I will have to,sit round the pool. Tough. I found my togs in the suitcase (quite a remarkable feat finding anything in there) that had kindly been bought for me by cousin Tom. Sprawl out on a deckchair and in between dips in the pool I sip on one of the many free iced teas I am bought. While sitting there I also get my introductory chat, with vouchers for a free dinner, free massage, free picnic snack to take on the bus tomorrow and free breakfast.
I digress. By now I have decided that cooking is going to be hot and hard work. Sitting by the pool is cool and easy. I am not over excited by the food so far (other than the peanuts) so cancel the cooking class. No regrets. My favourite restaurant at home is a Cambodian one called Siem Reap but I suspect that their food might be more Vietnamese than Cambodian, but that's OK. I wanted to learn how they make their lamb cutlets that are divine but I have seen anything similar on the menus here. I can make that a reason for another visit.
Eventually I am checked into my room. I expected that I would be getting the worst room in the place. Oh no, my room opens on to the pool area and is lovely. Cant get wifi to work on anything but I couldn't in town either and suspect it is something to do with something at the Villas?
I am told that I do not have to pay extra for this room and have already settled the bill with the Villas at $20 per night. Now, I already had my free massage at the Villas so I really shouldn't be getting another, my meal I am happy to pay the $10 for as it is a three course banquet for one, the picnic I will happily take with me as I suspect I wont get much on the bus for my $28 (I am on the expensive express 'no change bus' bus, the regular bus where you change at the border is only about $12) and who am I to turn down freebie.
So for my $80 over four days I get:
one night in an OK but small room, two nights in a lovely room, and one night in an extremely lovely room. Use of a great pool for a half day. Two massages (normally $3-4 each). 5 cold drinks. A picnic lunch to take on the bus with me. Three course dinner (spring rolls, mango salad and Khmer Amok - a traditional curry) - normally $10. 4 breakfasts - around $2-$4 each. Free collection from the airport. Free drop off to bus station.
Golden Temple Villas and Hotel you are pretty awesome. Thanks Joy. I have to say that the service and all the little extras have made for an amazing stay. Communication between staff could probably be better but if it was I probably wouldn't have got a night at the hotel as I suspect that a right hand didn't communicate with a left hand and thats why I ended up without a room. I was asked the same question over and over again by a number of different people and had emails from others which had not been passed on to the people concerned. A really small thing to bitch about but a little annoying having to repeat myself over and over. Or is it my super organised brain at work expecting things to run smoothly? But, whatever, they treated me magically and I loved my whole stay.
Unable to get a wifi connection (for an unknown reason) I sit outside my room right by the pool and read my book "Ant Egg Soup", culinary travels through Laos, until,it gets dark and then while repacking my bags I begin watching the movie "The Killing Fields", the DVD is in my room. Powerful and scary stuff highlighting the plight and hardships of these people.
Not to trivialise it I had to pause and go to dinner; my free meal which included two bottles of free water. First course arrives consisting of two small spring rolls and a mini Green Mango Salad which I was going to try for the first time. And so glad I did. Similar to a Green Papaya Salad and every bit as good. The spring rolls pretty damn good too. I was eagerly anticipating the main course of Fish Amok, something I had heard of but so far not tried. It comes to me in a small bowl made of banana leaf accompanied by a small banana leaf bowl of Khmer Chicken Curry and a third banana leaf bowl of rice, this one covered with a conical hat. Beautiful presentation; lets hope it tastes as good. Indeed it does, the curry especially good and the Amok very similar to a Thai curry and every bit as good. I leave without desert feeling as though I was going to burst. I've got to stop eating like this I say to myself as I walk to reception to order breakfast. Tomorrow, as Scarlet said.
So full my stomach is protesting but still I go for my free Khmer massage. Not as food as the previous one but when its free I cant complain. My stomach rumbled so loudly I was so busy concentrating on trying to shut it up that it stopped me enjoying the massage quite so much, but oh well!
I return to my room and continue watching the movie. Indescribable and unbelievable and yet its all happened and right here in the country I am now in. Horrific atrocities, millions murdered, millions maimed, for what! It's heartening to see where these tortured people are today but hard to comprehend how they live with the tortures of the past.
With that heavy on my mind I say goodnight Cambodia. I will dream of a future for you much brighter than your past.
Next day.
I didn't dream of Cambodia. In fact, I didn't dream. You have to sleep to do that. Instead I lay awake listening to all manner of things.
The analogue clock ticking - couldn't make it shut up
The people making a hell of a noise when they returned late from wherever
The people who were in the corridor at 2:00 am having a great conversation about how well their day would go
The phones going in the middle of the night as people were getting wake up calls
Then the pile of people who rose at 5:00am and thought it OK for the kids to play noisily outside, running up and down the stairs and then the whole family joining in discussions in the middle of the public spaces. Plain bloody rude and arrogant.
Sadly no one from the hotel made any effort to quieten anyone down.
My free breakfast was cute. Last night I had filled in a form saying what I wanted and when. They told me to come to reception to get it. Not sure what I was in for I arrive at reception at 6:30am and am given a largish plastic bag. I get to my room open the package and there I have two polystyrene containers. One with a large selection of fresh and peeled fruit and the other with a tiny hash brown, two eggs, a grilled tomato and what was supposed to be french toast with a tiny plastic bag of maple syrup. Quickly, I scoff some of the fruit, tried the rest and it was pretty unappetising so knowing that I really don't need breakfast I leave the rest. Uninspiring but well done for the people that hit the road early before the restaurant opens or for those who just want to take it with them.
And the piece de resistance. I get a free T.Shirt as I settle my bill for $2.75, being yesterdays lunch. Thank you Golden Temple.
Eventually my tuk tuk arrives and I am taken to the bus stop. Many people writing on small pieces of paper giving receipts, being busy. Totally disorganised and not too dissimilar to Greece 30 years ago. Oh How I would love to get my BPR brain into these places, even in a small scale. Problem is though that half the peopel would be out of a job. Tough choice.
The bus is waiting, we load up. I walk to the back of the bus, ignore mys eat number and grab a couple of seats to myself. Yes! Others follow with the same idea. Luckily its only part full so most of the single travllers get their own seat. Nice enough bus, nothing flash. Own loo on board. W e get a wee paper bag with with a paper cup, pastry, sugar and coffee and then a guy comes round with hot water. Civilised.
We depart 15 minutes late but at leastwe. Are on our way.
Farewell Siem Reap. I do wish I had discovered you earlier. I would love to come back and help inyour quest to rebuild your lives and your country. One day
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