Published on The Brunei Times (http://www.bt.com.bn/en)
Venturing into Angkor's serene and peaceful tourism
A memorable place: Part of the Angkor Wat structure; the stone reliefs at Bayon. Picture: Liz Price
Liz Price
SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA
Sunday, December 7, 2008
I was surrounded by giant stone heads, each one had four faces and they were mostly wearing different expressions. I felt as if I was being watched from all angles, but it was a nice feeling as there was a sense of well-being. The heads are ancient, they have been staring out from their rocky towers for about 1,000 years.
I was in Bayon, one of the temples in the Angkor Wat group, and probably the most famous and best visited after Angkor Wat itself. The giant stone faces of Bayon have become one of the most recognisable images of the Khmer classical art and architecture.
Angkor Wat is a name known to most people. It is the name of one of the world's most famous temples, and is on a par with illustrious sites such as the Pyramids, Machu Pichu and the Taj Mahal. The millennium old temples belong to the Khmer empire. The gateway to Angkor Wat is Siem Reap, a small town nestled between rice paddies and the Siem Reap River, in the Kingdom of Cambodia.
The Angkor Archaeological Park is designated as a world heritage site and fortunately has not yet been spoilt by tourism. Cambodia has had a traumatic modern history during the brutal Pol Pot regime in the 1970s.
During this period the Khmer Rouge massacred several hundred thousand people, whilst thousands more died of famine and disease. Some estimates suggest up to two million Cambodians may have died. Even after the Pol Pot government was toppled, Cambodia had further problems with invasions by the Vietnamese and a long civil war. Few foreign visitors went to Cambodia during this period. Tourism was limited and it is only in the last decade that Cambodia is opening up, and now the country has been declared safe for tourism.
I found Cambodia to be safe and serene. The people are amazingly friendly and content, despite the appalling hardships they have been through. Cambodia relies heavily on tourism, especially at Angkor and it won't be long before mass tourism hits it.
Angkor means "Capital City" or "Holy City". It was the capital city of the Khmer empire in the 9th-12th centuries. The temple ruins in the Siem Reap area are the remains of the Angkorian capitals. There are dozens of temple ruins.
At first I was a bit perplexed as to how we would see them all, as it seemed a bit daunting. The guidebooks all suggested itineraries, depending on your length of stay, but it was all a bit meaningless initially.
So the first thing we did was hire a romauk. This is a two person motorcycle trailer and is ideal for visiting the sites. The romauks have surpassed the motorcycle taxis, as they are more comfortable and mean two people can sit together and there is plastic covering in case of rain. They are commonly known as tuktuks but do not resemble the tuktuks in Bangkok.
My travelling companion bargained hard, and after lots of discussion agreed on a price we were all happy with, 30,000 riel or US$7.50 ($11.40) a day. This was actually less than the guidebooks suggest. In Cambodia the US dollar is fully interchangeable with the local riel, and it was common to pay a bill with a mix of both currencies.
Our driver was happy to have our custom, as now there are an increasing number of romauk drivers in Siem Reap and not enough tourists to warrant them, especially in the low season.
So we set off for our first visit to Angkor. The previous evening we had already bought our passes. We opted for a three-day pass, which costs US$40, which seems horribly expensive by Asian standards, but I guess is worth it.
When a friend visited Angkor a few years ago he complained about the corruption whereby used tickets would be collected from tourists and resold to new tourists. Luckily now that has all stopped, and official passes are now issued bearing a photo of the holder, and these passes are checked at all major temples.
As we drove the 6km from Siem Reap to the temples we both had our cameras out, eager to take photos.
However we soon realised that it was quite a bumpy ride in the tuktuk and therefore not very conducive for photos. Having gone through the pass check, we drove down a wide avenue lined with large Dipterocarp trees.
These dominate the Angkor forest. We rounded a corner and I had my first glimpse of the three pyramid towers of Angkor Wat, rising above the exterior wall and trees. We motored around the massive moat to reach the main western entrance.
Angkor Wat was wonderful and we spent hours there. Over the days we also saw the other famous sites such as Ta Prohm which is really atmospheric with the giant trees swallowing the temples.
But somehow I preferred Bayon. It is much smaller with 54 gothic towers and the 216 coldly smiling faces. The serenity of these giant stone faces is etched into my mind and sums up that Cambodia has at last become a peaceful place.
The Brunei Times
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source URL:
http://www.bt.com.bn/en/en/travel/2008/12/07/venturing_into_angkors_serene_and_peaceful_tourism
No comments:
Post a Comment