What Do Travellers Do All Day?: #9 – New Year’s in Angkor Wat- Angkor Wat, Cambodia

9: New Year’s in Angkor Wat

5 May 2002
A short boat ride up-river took Ben and me to what must be the smelliest town I’ve ever put foot in. After a few hours hanging off the side of a packed speedboat, we found ourselves offloaded onto a stilted platform and from there transferred by smaller boats into the stink that is Siem Reap.

Rotting something or other, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, filled my head let alone my nostrils. Another potholed taxi ride took us to our cockroach-infested guest house, which was to be our home for 2 packed days of exploration. Angkor Wat is everything it’s meant to be. I have wanted to go there for years and although I couldn’t have caught it at a worse time (Khmer New Year), I can only say that this certainly is a wonder of the world. During these festivities, almost all Cambodians make their way to the lost cities of Angkor to celebrate. As I walked around I tried to imagine myself alone in the ancient ruins, some overrun by the roots of trees and jungle life all around, others a little too restored but beautiful all the same.

In what must have been 45� (Celsius) heat we walked and climbed around over 11 temples from before sunrise to after sunset. It is possible to get more than a 1-day pass ($20), but 3 days is your next option ($40), and in my opinion, unless you are an architectural guru with a lot of stamina and tolerance for high temperatures, it can be done in 1 day with the preluding evening’s sunset for free. We were impressed with our day’s achievement but passed out soon after a quick meal and lots of water to rehydrate ourselves. Further than that, this amazing place cannot better be described by photos – go look at some pictures at http://www.vwam.com/vets/angkor/angor1.htm.

Battered on the Way to Battambang
To save money, as we were running out of the much-needed American dollar, we hopped on a pick-up/ewt/bakkie to the town of Battambang first thing the next morning. This trip is character-building to say the least, and as Ben had convinced me it would be fine, he was on tenterhooks the whole day waiting for me to lash out at him for putting me through this hell.

At one stage there were 29 of us, and a chicken in a black plastic bag on board. I had a 5-year-old kid sleeping on my lap and was trying to protect her from the sun, pecking chicken and stinging waterbombs being hurled at us. If you overtook a truck or other vehicle you were air-raided until you couldn’t take the pain and were drenched from head to toe with water that had powder in it too, so that when you dried, you dried with a big white powder mark. Not that this mattered much when on the back of a pickup – the hole-filled roads kick up so much dust that you are tarred and feathered with red sand.

So being the day after the last day of official 4 day new year’s celebrations, the whole of Cambodia was heading back home after their holiday. The roads were lined with waterbomb salesmen who threw more waterbombs than they sold, and also little stations of Buddhist monks wishing people a safe journey and farewell, singing songs and collecting money that people threw at them from the back of whatever form of transport they had managed to find.

At one stage I was propped on top of my backpack, holding onto the piece of string holding all the bags and the half-open door together and feeling like I would be propelled off at every turn or pothole. But in the big scheme of things, it was fun to be a part of the action. Everybody was having so much fun and for that split second when I thought the homing device for waterbombs planted on me had to be found and destroyed, another waterbomb hit me square between the eyes, making me forget about being angry and just getting revenge. Problem is, as Ben so often pointed out, my throwing skills leave a lot to be desired, and I managed to hit this one bloke in our truck (object of the game being to target other trucks and moped drivers – as dangerous as the latter sounds). He looked a little surprised to be pelted from behind but not only did I hit him once, but twice – clearly an irreplaceable member of our waterbombing team! Not!

So once in Battambang I was surprised that we were able to secure a cheap and decent hotel room with MTV, despite looking the way we did – like drowned rats covered in sewer sludge! Once showered and dry in clean clothes, we took a look around the small and quaint city of Battambang – stopped for a beer and got pelted again by some local businessmen in suits sitting at the same

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