Chez Moi

April 17, 2011

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is the largest, and most well known of the Temples of Angkor. It is massive, with the temple structures, grounds and moat covering almost 200 hectares. It’s actually the world’s largest religious monument, and has been in continuous use since it was built in the early 12th century. Angkor Wat is an extremely important cultural symbol for Cambodians, and at Khmer New Year, many, many people travel to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat (and the other Temples), pray, and picnic in the grounds. It’s very hot at the moment – too hot for most tourists – and probably 90 percent of the hoards of people at the Temples over the New Year period are Cambodians. It’s been really great to see and hear how proud Cambodians are to have such ancient and beautiful Temples in their country.

Our first visit to Angkor Wat – at dusk on 13th April

Looking towards the main temple

Bas relief carvings representing the Battle of Kurukshetra

Stone pillars (I think this is around the South-West corner pavilion)

About to climb up…

One more climb to get to the summit

One of many Buddha in the galleries at the summit

The view from the summit – looking west

April 16, 2011

comments 6

Siem Reap so far

Pithnou St, Siem Reap

We love Cambodia. Seriously, it feels like our trip has really, really, begun now. We arrived in Siem Reap early on Tuesday morning (it’s Friday night now), which was the eve of the three-day Khmer New Year celebration. The New Year is a big deal here, and Cambodians from all around the country descend on Siem Reap to visit the temples. It’s not peak tourist season because it is so hot at the moment, but over the past three days we’ve seen the town fill up rapidly with Cambodian tourists. Tonight the main streets were so packed with cars, tuk-tuk’s and motorbikes that traffic controllers had to come in to untangle the chaos.

We’ve had two days at the temples so far, and a day and a half wandering around town and chilling out at the hotel. In this time we’ve seen and done so much that I am finding it quite difficult to carve up all my material into coherent posts! The Temples of Angkor will be a post on their own, and I’ve started drafting some overall reflections on Siem Reap, which really should be written nearer the end of our time here (that I’m jumping the gun is an indication of how amazing this place is). So, for now, some first impressions.

Siem Reap itself is an intriguing mix of the Wild West and a modern town. At times it feels like a time-warp – take away the cars and the tar-seal, and you’ve almost got a frontier town:

One of the main streets – Sivatha Blvd

We’ve eaten some fantastic food since we got here. On the first day we ate at a restaurant recommended in our Lonely Planet book – Angkor Palm. The book said that mains were between $2-5 US each, but prices had definitely gone up, and were more like $4-7 US ( I suspect the Lonely Planet recommendation has something to do with this – the restaurant has a big sign advertising this!). Anyway, the food was very good. I got a Khmer tasting plate with mango salad, fish amok, stir-fried morning glory (a green vegetable), rice paper rolls, and a couple of other dishes – I could have licked the plates clean.

Tasting plate at Angkor Palm

It wasn’t long before we discovered a new favourite restaurant down a quiet alley, named “For Life”. This place has food just as good as Angkor Palm, for half the price, with excellent service and great background music (Simon and Garfunkel tonight!).

On our second day we walked into the most intense shopping space I’ve ever been in – an indoor food market. It was jammed with people selling fruit and vegetables, fish and other seafood, fresh meat, rice, and cooking food to sell. It was smokey, often smelly, dark, very noisy, and quite confronting at times – piles of pig’s heads, bowls of fresh quivering liver, fish that were still alive and gasping for air, and people sitting cross-legged on tables chopping up chicken and other animals directly in front of them (eek!!). Suffice to say that we bought fruit only.

Colin buying pineapple at the indoor food markets

Chicken sellers chopping up their wares

OK, that’s all for now – have to get up early tomorrow so I’m off to bed. Maybe I’ll blog about the temples tomorrow, but until then, here’s a sneak preview:

At Angkor Wat

April 13, 2011

comments 2

I will remember KL because…

I got to wear summer clothes again!

More seriously, it was here in KL that I discovered that you can purchase cakes, yes cakes, of laundry soap; just perfect for our hand-washing needs. Unfortunately the soap happened to strip the skin off my palms, so I’ve had to invest in a pair of black rubber gloves (size large, so they fit Colin too of course…)

I will also remember KL for Fat One Steamboat, which has been one of our most memorable meals so far. At Fat One, you choose from a vast range of food threaded onto skewers.

Skewers surrounded by blocks of ice

The meat and seafood skewers are barbequed for you, while you take vegetables and tofu etc back to your table to boil in the pot of water sunken into your table.

Cooking bok choy and tofu

Pots of chilli sauce and satay sauce are provided for smothering. It was fantastic, and I think it might even rival Yum Cha at North Sea in Albany (sorry Yum Cha Society).

Getting into it

I will also remember the night markets, which were very like the markets in Phuket. Jalan Petaling (the street our hotel was on) closes to traffic every evening and rapidly fills with stalls. You only have a narrow space to walk through and you can buy just about anything – Louis Vuitton tissue box perhaps? Fake cigarettes? T-shirts, handbags, belts, and of course, food stalls everywhere – fruit, roasting chestnuts, violently coloured baked goods.

Night markets

Chicken floss bun – somehow I resisted trying this one

KL will also be memorable for the first time I saw a squat toilet. Hoses are provided for you to gently cleanse yourself “afterwards”, but I couldn’t figure out how you are supposed to dry yourself off – no puff of air like a bidet, and no toilet paper provided either. Getting-dry presented something of a dilemma, so I never did try one out. At the airport yesterday morning I decided to go to the bathroom before boarding. I heard our names being called over the loud speaker while I was running from stall to stall trying to find a western loo…

Squat toilet

In KL we also well and truly learned that prices for the same items vary wildly depending on where you are. On the main strips, you can expect to pay 2-4 times as much as a few streets over in the less busy areas. Take coffee for instance – for two coffees at KL Tower, we paid 12 Ringgit; at a shop in a mall, we paid 5 Ringgit; and at a cafe which looked like it was frequented only by locals, we paid only 2.20 Ringgit. Moontree House (see earlier post) offers a variety of imported coffees for between 12-15 Ringgit each – we bought a pot for 38 Ringgit. At least Moontree coffee arrived with sugar on the side, unlike most coffee in KL which is pre-sweetened unless you remember to ask for no sugar.

We’re now in Siem Reap, Cambodia…more to come.

April 13, 2011

comment 1

Last day in KL

Moontree House balcony

Highlights of Day 4 – after a slow start to the day, we drank coffee on the leafy balcony at Moontree House, a feminist bookstore and cafe I had noticed on my first day. Most of the books weren’t in English but the few that were ranged from classic texts, to political works on Muslim and Asian women, poverty, sexuality and art. I happened to open a book by Iris Marion Young (a Chinese translation of Throwing like a girl, and other essays) and while randomly flicking through the pages I noticed a reference to none other than Ann Dupuis.

Ann Dupuis & David Thorns “Home, Home Ownership and Ontological Security”

After ruminating on small worlds and Ann’s fame, we took the monorail to KL Sentral and wandered through a colourful part of town, gradually making our way to the National Museum. It was probably the hottest day so far.

Streets around KL Sentral

The museum was interesting, although we really needed more time to look around properly. Still, we picked up a bit of history and more understanding of recent events, like Malaysia’s independence from Britain, gained only in 1957. We headed home in time to pick up supplies (water; snacks etc), change money into US dollars (the most common currency used in Cambodia) and miss the late afternoon rain (it is SO convenient when it rains like clockwork!)