"Special price for you"

One of the joys and frustrations of traveling in South East Asia is the constant haggling. Never knowing what the fair price is can be really frustrating, but the haggling can be fun and good-natured.

One thing you often haggle for is transport prices, and this was what we did the morning after our run-in with the friendly hotel manager. We wanted to go from Kompong Thom to Siem Reap. The aforementioned manager had told us the night before that there were no busses or pick-ups (the dreaded utes) to Siem Reap as he obviously wanted commission from a private car driver. Luckily we called his bluff and headed to the town’s bus stop, where the four of us (Emi and Andrea were with us) were swamped by a mass of people offering us busses, minibuses, pick-ups and private cars. At first, a man selling bus tickets at $5 each appeared to be cheapest, then we swung towards a private car for the same price, then the bus guy offered us $3 each, then the car $15 for the four of us. At this point Niels (who was negotiating with the car driver) said no, the bus is still cheaper. But the car driver was adamant, “Car, six people, bus FOUUUR-TEEEN PEOPLE”. Now although six people in a car is spacious by Cambodian standards, for us Westerners it sounded a little cramped, whereas the bus looked like it could comfortably sit more than 20, so FOUUUR-TEEEN sounded like a good deal, so, much to the disgust and disbelief of the car driver we went with the bus (which ended up only having 10 people, three large wooden doors and a bunch on planks).

On arrival in Siem Reap the first thing we noticed were beggars, people trying to sell us things and the fact that accommodation was WAY more expensive than anywhere else in Cambodia. Still, we managed to find ourselves a lovely little guest house with important features such as free pool.

The next morning we set off to explore the Angkor temples, which are the reason people come to Siem Reap, in fact probably the reason Siem Reap exists. The most famous of these is Angkor Wat, but that is only scraping the edge of wonders in the area, which include dozens of ancient temples and cities, some immaculate and some being consumed by giant trees. The temples and cities we visited were built between the 10th and 16th centuries by a series on Angkor kings, some were built as Hindu places of worship and some as Buddhist (depending on the king). Most have been converted from one religion to the other at least once. It’s quite entertaining seeing a statue of Vishnu with his many arms being worshiped as Buddah.

All around the temples there are people, mainly children, selling all sorts of things. They can get frustrating, but many are really cute, quick and entertaining. Some examples:

Girl to Niels: “Sir, you want postcards, 10 for $1.”
Niels: “No thankyou, I already have some.”
Girl: “One more, these are different.”
Niels: “No thankyou.”
Girl: “Sir you want bracelet?”

Niels: “No thankyou.”
Girl: “You want to buy a book?”
Niels: “No thankyou.”
Girl: “What do you want?”
Niels: “Nothing.”
Girl: “Okay, you give me $2, and I give you nothing!”

Another exchange we liked was told to us by an English girl, Samantha:

Girl: “You want postcards, 10 for $1?”
Samantha: “No thankyou.”
Girl: “You can send one to your boyfriend.”
Samantha: “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
Girl: “That’s because you don’t send him a postcard!!”

We got a three day temple pass and for the first day decided to hire a tuk tuk. In this case the tuk tuk armadillo was in the shape of a carriage towed behind a motorbike. The tuk tuk didn’t take us any further from Siem Reap than we could easily do by bicycle, and the driver didn’t provide any amazing insights to the temples, but, tell you what, there are definitely worse things than being ferried around the Angkor temples in an shiny open air carriage with embroidered silk seat covers.

Highlights of that first day included:

Angkor Wat – The largest religious building on earth. Beautifully preserved with soaring symmetrical towers, a very grand entrance way, very big moat and delicately carved bass reliefs depicting all sorts of religious and historical scenes. The first picture is the view towards Angkor Wat from the back entrance. The second picture is of the middle tower (see if you can find Niels). The third picture is of me humouring Niels with a Tomb Raider pose.

Angkor Thom – An ancient walled city with amazing gateways and other ruins.

The Bayon – Our favorite temple. The Bayon has dozens of towers with giant faces carved on them and really cool passageways down below (could have an awesome game of hide-and-seek down there). The third picture shows a couple of the Bayon’s many faces.

Ta Prohm – A temple that has been mostly left the was it was found by Western archeologists – slowly being eaten up by the jungle, with giant trees growing on top of it. (Famous for its appearance in one of the Tomb Raider films).

On the second and third days we hired bicycles to explore the temples. This was a great way to do it as it gave us time to clear our heads in between sites. We did get a bit of a scare when Niels got a flat literally at the furthest point from our guest house (about 19km away) and I managed to loose a peddle, but overall we’d recommend bikes to anyone.

Highlights of the second and third day included seeing some of the earlier temples, which included ones that were built in the middle of huge man-made lakes (lakes are no longer there). Preah Khan, a city that was once a royal residence and a Buddhist university and is now partially consumed by trees. Ta Som, a smaller temple, also partially consumed by trees (see fifth picture).

After seeing the temples we spent two more days in Siem Reap. The first day was spent recovering from the temples and the second recovering from buckets. Buckets are something of a South East Asia institution, which we had somehow managed to avoid through Thailand and Laos. They change a bit from place to place but in general consist of a large quantity of local whisky (in this case about 400ml), coke, red bull and ice all poured into, you guessed it, a bucket, and served with straws. They set you back about $5. We had two.