Experiencing the human side of Siem Reap

Many people told us to expect Cambodia to be a little rough… A corrupt border, hostile people, scam artists and rubbish food. What we have encountered instead have been the kindest people we have met, great and ample food, beautiful scenery and a rich (if painful) history. I deeply hope that life brings us back to Cambodia.

Cambodia is a Western distortion of the name ‘Khmer’, the name by which the Cambodian people still refer to themselves and their nation. I have always heard this spoken ‘Kymer’ but instead it is pronounced with a breathy ‘h’ to sound more like ‘k-hm-er’. For many centuries the Khmer nation ruled over much of South East Asia before their conversion to Buddhism led to a more peaceful state and so a less militarily successful one. In the centuries since then, especially in the late 20th Century, the Khmer people had a really rough ride. People alive today, not much older than me have experienced genocide, and they are all rebuilding a country destroyed by violence and cruelty. I will save the details for my next post so we can focus on the positive here. Cambodia is now a free country with a democracy of sorts, growing in the right direction.

This has left a legacy of a people very grateful for the relative freedom and safety they now enjoy. With much of the now-middle-aged generation wiped out, and the survivors encouraged to have many children, there is a clear missing generation. Thankful for their new nation, they have embraced both their new liberal opportunities, and their rich history. Siem Reap is the gateway city to Angkor Wat, and as such exemplifies applying liberal values to compassion and a respect for the past.

After arriving in Siem Reap on a 9 hour bus journey from Bangkok, we took a sweaty but beautiful walk up the river to where we would stay.

Our accomodation was a homestay called Alis’ House. Sineth, also known as Alis, greeted us in the front courtyard to her home, and welcomed us with open arms. A woman the same age as us, she works for the local government in land management by day, and runs this business with a small team by night. In her free time she is a translator for NGOs working with victims of the genocide. Working towards her Master’s degree alongside two jobs to support her extended family gives an indication to the brilliance and passion of this wonderful woman. Her homestay is a lovely house in the North of the town, away from most of the tourists but with plenty of local food and coffee around. Our room was great, though we ended up spending as much time as possible in the courtyard chatting to Sineth.

We settled into our lovely room and asked Sineth for advice on a driver to get around Angkor the next day. By the time we had returned from a huge and delicious dinner down the road (for $3) we were greeted by Sineth and her friend Vantha.

We didn’t appreciate this on first meeting, being guilty of underestimating his knowledge, skill and English, but Vantha is a tuk-tuk driver currently studying to be a tour guide. Unable to charge for guiding until he is licenced, and unwilling to limit himself to driving, for the price of an honest driver (approx $20 a day) he not only drove us around Angkor but provided a full guiding service, which would normally cost a further $30 a day. There aren’t words to describe how lucky we have been to have found Sineth and for her to have introduced us to Vantha.

At 9am the next day we met Vantha in the courtyard and after a quick trip to buy a local SIM card we headed into the park. Entry is not cheap, we paid £62 per person for 3 days, but by the end of our stay we didn’t begrudge the cost having seen all the work it is put towards.

People commonly refer to going to see Angkor Wat, though this is simply the easiest way to describe it. Angkor Wat is the biggest and most iconic temple complex in the Angkor park area, which contains hundreds of temples. We’d heard that this was a huge area, at 402 sq km, but hadn’t really appreciated how big that is. It is best thought of not as a site but as a province of Cambodia, with it’s own towns and villages, all occupied by the Khmer people, many involved in the tourist industry.

Foreigners aren’t allowed to drive in the site, I suspect this is to support local drivers but it also stops foreigners upsetting the chaotic balance of local driving customs. To explore it by foot would involve doing at least a marathon a day, and we aren’t that fit, so we had planned to hire bicycles after the first day. On realising the scale of the site we decided to stick to a tuk-tuk!

Vantha started our tour with the biggest hitter, Angkor Wat. This is a structure over 1km square (including the network of walkways and outer walls), and deserving of being one of the ‘wonders of the world’. Vantha’s explanation of the details and carvings gave us an insight into the history, including the struggles between Hinduism and Buddhism, between the Khmer nation and it’s neighbours. We learned far more about these religions in one day than in years of school Religious Education classes.

After Angkor we continued around the ‘short circuit’, an unofficial but generally recognised loop of the biggest and most central temples. This would normally take around 5-6 hours, but my incessant curiosity and Vantha’s enthusiasm for answering my questions extended that to 8 hours.

We had been initially worried about Vantha’s English, but once he caught his rhythm and we got our ears this ceased to be a real issue. Despite a vocabulary extensive enough to include ‘reincarnation’ and ‘animism’, he knows that he needs to work on his English to get accreditation. He normally has to pay to speak English in a college, so was very enthusiastic to work on his pronunciation with us. We saw and heard other licenced guides (who would not have also been drivers), and while a couple over the 3 days were clearly outstanding, Vantha was one of the best, and so we enthusiastically asked him to spend the next few days with us.

On Monday we did the ‘big loop’ of smaller temples, which were no less magnificent, and we learned more about the Khmer culture and history. We told Vantha that we would rather eat in a more local place than the fancy restaurant he took us to on the first day, so he took us to a nice, no-frills food stall. While there, a panic ensued when we lost Vantha’s keys, which may have been accidentally left in a Policeman’s hat. After a call to the Police and much searching (a huge temple is not a convenient place to loose your keys), they were located the centre of the temple, next to a huge Buddha statue. Our suffering was certainly relieved by knowing that Vantha’s livelihood was safe again!

We tried exploring the more touristy areas of Siem Reap town, and soon saw the negative impact of tourism on a old town, now covered in neon and filled with pubs. We retreated to the quieter corners, but discovered a wonderful coffee stand – Gin Gold Coffee in the North of the town on Charles De Gaulle road.

I am not a food-lover, but one of the pleasures of Siem Reap was eating. Restaurants are family affairs, with the parents as managers and cooks, the children as waiters and the grandparents as supreme overlords, looking over the establishment with a watchful eye. The youngest children play in the restaurant and talk to the customers. This made eating not just a delicious experience but a charming one.

Whenever we read about visiting Angkor, we read about the beautiful sunrise views over the temple. We didn’t really see what the fuss was about, but decided to give it a go anyway, so on our third day we wait outside Alis’ house at 5am for Vantha. He drives us to the back entrance and we creep through the jungle at night, to arrive at Angkor Wat. This experience in itself, hearing the jungle come to life at dawn, seeing the blue light seeping through thick trees, monkeys climbing out from their beds, was probably more worthwhile than the sunrise itself.

Unfortunately for us, there was a little bit of cloud in just the wrong place, so as to conceal the sunrise. The temple is built facing East (to an extreme level of accuracy for the time), and so by standing in front of it the sun should rise spectacularly over the towers. Instead we had a fascinating view of swarms of people gathering around a lake to be disappointed at the lack of result for their early alarm.

On the last day of our temple pass, Vantha took us to the more distant temples, up to 40km away. The temples were fascinating as always, and seeing religious symbols carved into a waterfall in the ‘mountains’ (I think we have different definitions of a mountain vs a small hill) was beautiful, but the greatest moments of the day were engaging with the local Khmer people. Driving through the villages, stopping to eat, drink and talk… seeing the lives of the rural communities was enthralling. A significant national product is palm sugar, and we stopped at a roadside stall where this was being made. In the morning they climb up palm trees to attach buckets under the fruit to drain the palm oil. I had a bit of a climb, a nerve wracking experience even as a climber! The oil is then cooked through the day to produce a flavourful sugar, or small blocks of fudge. I may have come away with a bag of this fudge, beautifully wrapped in palm leaves.

Vantha showed us Khmer houses, built on stilts so that in the rainy season the water could flow from cambered streets, under the houses and into the rice fields. We waved to playful children as they cycled home from school, reminding us of how children are so similar everywhere, just innocent souls who want to play and smile.

A sad moment had to arrive at the end of our time in the temples, when we said goodbye to Vantha. He had been a star, and I am proud to call such a good man a friend. In a touching last moment he presented us with a large bag of palm fudge he had bought for us at the stall earlier. That a man from a background so different to ours, who we had asked to help us, would give us a gift, was a testament to his heart and that of his people. We will miss him!

We decided to get a night bus to Phnom Penh, giving us an extra day to appreciate Siem Reap. We spent it relaxing in friendly coffee bars, family restaurants, and talking to our charismatic host. Sineth left us with some great travel advice for the region, and memories that we will treasure.

Our experience of Cambodia continues in Phnom Penh, the seat of modern political power and strife in Cambodia. This lends itself to a more solemn story, so we shall save it for another post.

If anyone has the chance to visit Cambodia, don’t listen to the bad words, and don’t limit yourself to temples, rather seize the opportunity to meet some wonderful people and engage with a rich culture.

For anyone thinking of going to Angkor, you may have noticed that we highly recommend Alis’ House as a homestay, and Vantha as a driver / guide. If you are looking for luxury then they may not be for you, but if you want a wonderful experience at a very reasonable price then their contact details are below.

Alis’ House Homestay own website or on booking.com though please consider booking directly so she doesn’t have to give 15% to booking.com

Nou Vantha on Facebook, showing his contact details.