We arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia to a pristine airport. and after a short taxi ride from the airport to our hotel I felt like I had landed in paradise. Not a single sky scraper in sight. Angkor Miracle Spa Resort, was the polar opposite of the our previous stopover. Floor to ceiling wood. Oriental type soft furnishings in all colours. Peaceful silence broken by nothing more than a bird calling out in a tree on the grounds. It was around 4pm local time. Upon seeing this hotel I felt such regret that we were only here for 2 nights. I could easily have extended our stay for the remaining 12 days.
In our huge room, I walked out onto the balcony and was pleasantly greeted by the kind of balcony seat I’ve never seen before. Every piece of wood that the eye could see was functional in some way and this balcony seat was no different. Its back was the balcony itself and a seat was somehow contrived. It was slatted, but never the less comfortable. Looking out over the pool, the grounds were glorious, but there was utter silence. Three guests sat on the other side of the pool and that was it.
I wanted to explore, so after freshening up we went outside and talked to the people we saw. They were English and it turns out they had been touring around Vietnam and Cambodia by train and were due to go on a flight to Singapore the next day.
We were only booked the next day on the one day ticket to Angkor Wat. They told us it was worth going to see the dinner and cultural play nearby and also to go out of Siem Reap towards a famous waterfall and a reclining Buddha in the mountains.
So, speaking to the concierge we organised to do that. The meal was fantastic and so was the dance group. I was surprised to find out how much Hinduism and influence there was of the Sanskrit language. The dancers were referred to as Apsara, which translated means heavenly dancers. The dance steps that I watched were familiar to me from Bharatnatyam, which is an authentic dance from south India. I have had a go at it myself and it is pretty wearing on the legs. The dancers were telling stories about Cambodian life in all their actions. It was a bit lost on Asgar who complained that there ought to have been commentary to guide us.
The final dance was so sweet because it got the audience involved. A fisher girl and fisher boy first got into a conflict, where the fisher boy came off better. The girl gets upset and he tries to bring her around, constantly offering back the fishing basket he took away. He tries over and over again but each time she bats him away. The audience begin asking her to relent and one of those watching grabs a bunch of flowers from the table decorations on our dining tables and gave them to the boy, urging him to give them to her. Smiling the actors join in and there is a happy ending. It was colourful and wonderful.
I slept like a baby, which was just as well because we had a 3.30am wake up call. Our guide arrived and was waiting when we got downstairs. The hotel had produced a packed breakfast for us both to take. Deedar (Another word I recognised, was of Arabic origin, a name given to Muslim boys which meant light/bright view or sight) was our young guide, who’s English was flawless. The manner in which Cambodians greet you, no matter what walk of life or work they did, they were so polite. Even at the airport the security staff were welcoming and helpful instead of being surly and authorative. The respect in their mannerisms and the detail in their customer care is humbling.
Deedar greeted us with a Namaste and the driver opened our doors and brought us both a bottle of ice cold water from the boot of the Lexus we were in and we went off to buy tickets to see Angkor Wat. It was still dark and there were hundreds of people in the vicinity waiting to do exactly what we were doing, but again there was a respectful quiet for that time of the morning. Still in the dark we made our way down a path, lit by the lights from the phones held by the various guides. We then crossed a river over those once more mobile bridges. They are wobbly and scary at the best of times (square plastic bricks slotted together) but in the pitch black, I was made even more nervous. I really wish that every little deviation from the norm didn’t freak me out. People around me were doing their stuff without even thinking and there was me shaking all the time. But, as I say despite this I did it, I got across and entered the Royal gates into Angkor Wat.
The rising sun was giving off the tiniest amount of light that led us closer to the temple Asgar was so anxious to see. Deedar took us to a place to the left of the path, with a moat in front of it. He asked us to just wait because as the sun came up all would be revealed. Asgar took photos at 30 sec intervals and then the reflection of the temple started to come up out of the water. In fact the reflection of Angkor wat was a spectacular as the temple itself. If I say I have no words to describe what I was seeing, but that I was filled with a real sense of peace and joy. Angkor Wat was a 2nd place that Asgar wanted to visit and here we were and again together I was getting to share the experience.
My other half is not much of a talker and he is not what I would describe as sentimental and he isn’t into souvenirs, luckily for me, as neither am I, and as vendors, plying their trade were desperately trying to get our attention I was telling Deedar how Asgar wouldn’t be interested. My other half then did something so out of character that for a moment I was left speechless. He said “Shehnaz, I’ve seen a painting over there, an oil painting and I’d like to buy it. The person is telling me its hand painted but I’m not sure they all look identical, but in different sizes, please come and have a look”. I did as Asgar asked and I had a similar suspicion that the painting were mass produced. Deedar explained that there were templates made in a variety of sizes and that at school most children were taught to pain with oils. He went onto show me that although the paintings did look similar, if you look at the colours there are the tiniest of variations. He himself at learned this at school but it wasn’t his choice of trade. The vendor wanted 20 American Dollars for the size that Asgar was choosing and tried to tempt us to buy some fridge magnets as well and wanted another 5 American dollars if we bought 3. Asgar asked me if I was going to barter, but the thing that struck me about the artist sitting in the background working on another canvas, and the sellers themselves was how tatty their clothing. Even their sandals looked like they had seen better days.
I can’t tell you if these oil paintings were the equivalent of painting by numbers, or if indeed the clothes were a genuine sign of their true income and status, but bartering over 25 dollars or even £20 if that is the exchange rate between dollar and sterling, I just couldn’t do it. If I was being shown reality and what I was seeing was real poverty, knowing how many thousands of pounds I had spent on the holiday and probably this might be the only other purchase, I would make, I gave them the amount they asked for without quibbling. I think both Deedar and the vendors themselves were surprised and Asgar threw me a questioning glance and I just shook my head. They packed the painting neatly, putting it into a plastic bag and Deedar asked them for a piece of material. He then threaded that through the handle of the plastic bag and into one of his belt notches. He carried it for us.
With the full view of Angkor Wat we began the tour, learning its history and its use through time. It was built as a Hindu temple by a Hindu King whose territories stretched into Cambodia and he built it for his mother, then over time it became both Hindu and Buddist and then predominantly Buddist. We learned about Buddism and Deedar explained that the liberal Buddism of the Dalai Lama was not practiced in Cambodia, that a much more strict Buddism was practiced. This led me to ask about the Khmer rough and Deedar explained that the Khmer Rouge was in no way Buddist, they were communists who annihilated probably in the region of 3 out of the 7 million population of Cambodia, between 1975 and 1979. the official record shows 2 million were either murdered or executed but Deedar said that that was a very conservative number and that within the Cambodian peoples it was thought the figure was much higher.
When I was planning to visit Cambodia, I was offered trips to the killing fields and and trips to see how the Khmer lived. I turned this down. I have see abject poverty in my country, shanti towns of people, beggars. One can’t shy away or pretend it doesn’t exist and certainly I don’t, but I would no more visit the mass graves of an innocent people than I would go to Aucshwitz or Bercow or Treblinka. To me that isn’t tourism. I can learn about all of that without putting myself into the middle of it. As it was I learned much more about a resilience within humanity.
Deedar spoke about Covid and the Khmer Rouge, about his own education, how he supported his family. He told me the 5 fundamentals of orthodox buddhism, they are known as the 5 precepts:
1. to do no harm to any living being
2. to not steal
3. to have respect for each other
4. to speak kindly of others
5. to avoid actions which are harmful to the mind and body
Deedar also explained how with the help of outside organisations his country was still picking up the pieces of the 4 years of communist rule. How Vietnam had come to their aid to rid them of the Khmer Rouge. We went to see a second temple straight after Angkor Wat and he explained how much help the Indian government had given financially to rescue that temple from the clutches of nature. The significance of this wasn’t lost on me. The UK gives a shed load of money to India for levelling up of poverty in the country and yet it had money to invest in Cambodia. However altruistic this sounds, it also smacks of hypocrisy. By all means help Cambodia, but why ask money for your own poor. Cater to them yourself!
There was one last temple worth seeing and it was the temple where scenes from Tomb raider were filmed, but Deedar explained that the mountain road leading up to the temple of the reclining budha and the waterfall leading off the thousand bedded shiva linga and the attached springs would close after midday. Traffic was always one way. In the morning traffic went up and in the afternoon it came down. We also needed special tickets to get us up there. All that was sorted and we went up. I sadly fell asleep and saw non of the scenery going up.
We arrived at the temple of the reclining Buddha, where there was also a giant Shivalinga, and here Hindus and Buddhists shared their worship space. Both respecting the rights of worship of the other. Deedar told us stories about the origins of the Shiva Linga, which is like a stone post. Hindus pour water over it and capture the water falling off it believing it purifies them. As we had to take shoes off, I declined to go up to the reclining Buddha, encased in a shrine at the top of a stairway. I was barefoot apart from my sandals and as a diabetic I have to be careful of cuts and scrapes to my feet, I definitely cannot risk infections as these might not heal. So, I remained downstairs.
I just sat and watched as people filed past putting money into the hands of an old man sitting at the bottom of the stairs, he thanked them and as they would go up the stairs he would stand up and put the money into a box. He was talking care of the shoes they left, which I presume was why they were giving him the money, but he in turn was donating it. There was a prayer service with chanting happening to my left and further around Hindus were making their way over to the Shivalinga. Some looked like locals, others looked like tourists. This was a very busy place and the comparison between this place of worship and the churches back in the UK, mostly just used for Sunday service, Midnight mass on Christmas Eve and weddings was quite poignant. A people who have so little, but worship and their precepts and they appear content. The west could certainly learn a thing or two from these guys.
As Asgar came down and put on his shoes. Deedar brought us over mangoes and coconut pulp, guessing we were probably in need of refreshment. We had had our breakfast before leaving for the mountain trip. We walked down from this complex by a different route and Deedar took us past some street food stalls, where freshly made Cambodian snacks were being made. He bought some for us. Knowing the vendors took neither card nor dollars, we tried to to stop him, but he just smiled and shared what he bought. We finally made it to the bottom of the steps where the car was to meet us and here we had some coconut water and I caught glimpse of a woman on a motor bike. The motor was carrying a hotplate and food cooking facility on it. I had never seen this before. I found it fascinating and the locals were calling her over, to stop travelling away and she was cooking for them and selling what she cooked to them.
We moved onto the 1000 Shivalinga in the river bed. Like the huge one sitting in front of the reclining Buddha, I thought a similar 1000 stone piles would be stuck in a flowing river. No, they were actually foot square, stone tiles, embedded to the bed of the river, with tiny shiva linga sticking up out of them. The water from the river, which was actually more than a creek fed by some salt water springs flowed over the tiles, down towards a small and large waterfall. Here people came to bathe believing that by doing so their bodies would be somehow cleansed. As I was visiting temples I had made a point of wearing Indian clothing as from experience I found this easiest and in fact I had brought Indian clothes to wear for all the temple trips, out of a sense of respect. Is was at one of the springs, I was standing to one side a group from India whom I had seen earlier at the reclining Buddha were looking at me and were discussing me, believing I suppose that I couldn’t understand them. The gentleman was telling who might have been his wife and his daughters, “look at that European Lady, look how respectfully and modestly she is dressed compared to you. You knew we were coming here, why couldn’t you dress like that”. It made me smile and it caught his eye. He asked me “Are you English?” I replied in Hindi that I lived in the UK, but that I was born in India. He thought I was English, which technically I am, but I have always thought of the UK as my adopted country. I am very much proud of my Indian origins. We struck up a conversation and it interested him to find out that I was Muslim, coming to a Hindu Shrine, being so respectful. I had to point out to him that our destination of worship was all the same, just the routes were different. It was a kind of ‘Touche’ moment and just as I held up two hands in prayer, he did likewise.
We headed off back down to the final temple and I now understood why some people had three day tickets, its because of the intense heat. The temple complexes quietened down by about 11.30am as it got too hot to explore or look around, but having gone up the mountain, we had to walk around in the 3pm sun. It was like 40 degrees by this time. However, being incredibly understanding Deedar tried to stick to the shade and kept his explanations short and to the point. As we walked into the temple and out of it we were treated to a live music band sitting under canopy. The instruments were rather rudimentary and each player, was in some way wounded. Deedar pointed out that everyone of them were victims of landmines left from the Polpot era. Many maimed as children were taught to play instruments so they could earn a living. Oh my actual God, I had absolutely no local cash, except the change given to me at the two ticket booths, one for the mountain, the second for Angkor wat. I emptied my purse and gave it all to them, whatever I had in Cambodian money and just so they could feel like I had got something in return, they played for three minutes and I recorded it.
We saw the giant trees emerging from the temple walls, the power of nature over running the manmade structures that happened to be in their way and then towering over them like gods, surveying their kingdom. I can’t tell you just how weird it all looked. Touching the trees you would know you were touching tree roots and branches but looking at them, you would think you were looking at stone, because the walls and the roots and branches were the same colour. When I got back to the UK I would have to watch Tomb raider and every other film that had featured these magnificent temples, just so I could re-immortalize them in my brain.
That was it. Deedar took us back to our hotel. We tipped both him and the driver. He was so keen to know if we had enjoyed our trip, which, without a shred of doubt we had and paying him in dollars was all we could do. Lucky for us dollars were actually welcome. No one was interested in sterling.
I wanted to enjoy the ambience of the hotel, so Asgar and I sat in the foyer and he ordered an afternoon tea and I had a sandwich. The waiter talked to us, explaining about how Covid had impacted them. That the hotel was used to a staff of 1200, but currently only had 300. He praised the owners for not closing the hotel, as so many had done and told us that slowly people were returning. A few more guests had arrived whilst we were sat there, which was heartening. We went up for a short rest to our room and then I booked us a couple of massages. The massages were fantastic and we went back up to our room and slept. We got up and went down to breakfast, which was so pleasant. Plenty of food, all beautifully laid out and leisurely. I just wanted to enjoy that little piece of paradise for as long as I could, before the suitcases needed closing up and we went on our way to Bangkok.
If you have never considered Cambodia, then please do. Cambodians tell us Phnom Phenm isn’t worth visiting, that like every other city, it offers architecture, without soul. I didn’t go so I can’t comment, but I would say having made a flying visit to Siem Reap, that perhaps do it with more time. Take out the 3 days to the see the temples. Go up to the mountain Shrine and falls on a fourth day and enjoy the environment that the hotels create for you. If any of the other hotels are like Angkor Miracle Spa resort then just that space is like stress relief. It was the only hotel I have ever been to that I wanted to fill out a review. A full 100% 5 stars.
From here our next destination is Bangkok. If you took the time to join me here, then thank you and hopefully we can catch up in Thailand.