We travelled down from Luang Prabang to Siem Reap on Thursday, 20th March. This was a “direct” flight, although in fact it had a stop along the way at a town in southern Laos called Pakse. The airport at Pakse made Luang Prabang’s look positively cosmopolitan. Pakse’s had only parking space for two aircraft at any one time. We were on a propellor plane operated by Lao Airlines. DW took a photo of us boarding at Luang Prabang for posterity:

Cambodia has a similar UN human development index to Laos, but it seems more advanced, at least around Siem Reap. This is all the more amazing considering the annihilation of the professional classes by the Khmer Rouge in the seventies, and the fact that the ensuing civil war only ended in 1991. We had the same two-step visa entry process on arrival as in Laos, but the whole process took 15 minutes. Lots of very friendly, English speaking staff on duty in the airport. Also a much more commercial feel to the place since then.

Our hotel here is different to the two before now. The Banyan Tree in Phuket was a luxury beach resort with private villas, golf buggies etc, while the Hotel de la Paix in Luang Prabang was a boutique style hotel with oodles of charm. The Sofitel here at Siem Reap is a standard, large, corporate style hotel. Everything works, nice food, and zero character. It does though have a nice large pool area:

The staff are also amazing, and super-friendly to all of our kids.

But enough about the hotel. Everyone comes here for temples, not swimming pools! Siem Reap is close to the temples complex at Angkor. This was the seat of power of the Khmer empire from roughly 800-1400AD. We noticed on the flight in that the land around here is incredibly flat (a big contrast to the mountains of northern Laos). Extensive flat land, plus good irrigation techniques, meant an area that could generate three rice crops per year. That, plus good military leadership, created an environment that allowed the Khmer empire to flourish. At its height, the capital city here had a population of about one million. This was the largest city in the pre-industrial world – London had a population of 50,000 at this time for example.

That empire left a huge footprint in the form of various temples, palaces and monuments over a vast area around Siem Reap. The empire crumbled in the late Middle Ages. It was essentially hollowed out from inside due to religious conflict between Hindu and Buddhist factions, and became so weak from this internal strife that it was eventually carved up by its Thai and Vietnamese neighbours. Over the following centuries the whole area was re-absorbed by the surrounding jungle until it was “discovered” by the French and excavation works undertaken.

The jewel in the crown of the complex here is Angkor Wat. This was the holiest temple for the city, and indeed it remains the largest religious site on the planet. The building is synonymous with Cambodia, and is the symbol of national pride.

So naturally enough, this was the first stop for us on our first of two days of temple tours. Day one (the day after we arrived) was a cycle tour around the three main temples. DW had arranged this through a local company called Grasshoppers. The guide we had was superb throughout the day, very knowledgeable and very understanding of the need to adapt to the kids’ pace.

We were picked up from our hotel at 5.20am (yes, you read that right), and brought by van on the short journey from our hotel to the temple site. The reason for the very early start was to be there for sunrise.

This is a very popular event, every day. What we had not copped on to in advance was that the sunrise is perfectly aligned over the central tower of the temple on the spring and autumn equinoxes (if you enter from the main, western entrance, looking east). As we were there on 21st March, one day before the equinox, we would have a near-perfect sunrise, weather permitting. This was a total fluke on our part, but it did mean the site was even busier than usual.

Some low-lying cloud cover meant the sunrise was a little later than scheduled. DW joined the throngs on the central causeway approaching the temple to take a photo as the sun eventually popped over the clouds. When it did, there was a sudden rush of arms in the air as the whole crowd took photos in tandem in some weird modern twist on sun-worship:

Not all of the spectators were as enthralled at the sight:

To be fair, the site is massive, so you can find plenty of places to get that perfect photo, away from the crowds:

Afterwards, we headed to a hidden clearing in the woods for breakfast (delicious freshly made omelettes in the open air), and then we got geared up for the actual cycling (The Boy was on a child seat on the back of my bike):

We cycled back around the large moat that surrounds Angkor Wat, and then on from there to Angkor Thom, the largest site in the whole complex. Angkor Thom was the royal city within a city, and at its heart was Bayon, a temple famous for its many towers with faces on each side.

Two smiling faces:

Things One and Two each had a go at air-kissing one of them:

The Boy seemed more interested in trying to work out the engineering involved:

And indeed he had a go at trying out Khmer building techniques:

Before we left Bayon, we also took a family photo (do I look cool in my explorer gear, or what??!):

After Angkor Thom, we cycled on to our last temple for the day, Ta Prohm. This is the “temple in the jungle” of your imagination. That’s because it’s been put there by Hollywood (Indiana Jones and Lara Croft Tomb Raider were both partly shot here). Unlike the other temples, the jungle has been allowed to continue to run riot here, as the damage was so extensive. While we were there, a tour group of Buddhist monks were there at the same time, which added to the surreal feeling. Although it was funny that their must-see spot was the “Lara Croft” doorway.

By this stage, The Boy was thoroughly fed up with temples so I ended up carrying him for much of it:

He threw a complete hissy fit in the local restaurant we were brought to for lunch, so we ate as quickly as we could and headed back to the hotel pool for the afternoon.

We had another early rise the following day for our second day of temples. We were scheduled for a 6am pick-up. We actually made it to the lobby for 6.15, and when we found out that this tour did NOT include breakfast, we suggested to our guide that he wait in the lobby while we went for the hotel breakfast. We left at 7am. (Note to file: DW-arranged tours are infinitely better than Trailfinders-arranged ones!).

No cycling on this day – transport by van throughout. First stop was Banteay Srea – a temple about 30km away so well outside the main complex. This is an unusual one because it’s made from a different stone to all the others. It’s a lovely rich sandstone which weathers very well, so the quality of the carvings is still excellent.

There was a beautiful carving there of the story of the two monkeys. This tells the story of two monkey brothers who constantly fought with each other for no real reason. Eventually, one of the two hired a human to kill his brother (by bow and arrow). In exchange, he agreed to become the human’s slave forever. It’s a great parable about the futility of petty arguments and the great damage they can cause. Not a bad lesson for the kids to learn! In the photo, you can see the two brothers arguing in the centre, the human shooting his bow on the right and, on the left, one brother dying from the arrow while the other looks on.

Unfortunately, The Boy was so worn out from the previous day that he was refusing to engage with the concept of temple viewing, at all. Fortunately, there was a butterfly farm nearby (we knew this in advance), so we headed there next. A swing in a basket seat, a cool drink, and a chance to let Stick Man walk up his arm lightened the mood:

And not just for him:

The Boy has a toy rabbit that he brings to bed every night that he calls Ra-Ra. At a stall at one of the temples we bought him a rabbit keyring that he has decided is Ra-Ra’s sister. For some reason, he has named her Smacky Bottom. At the butterfly farm, he was keen for me to take a photo of her:

We visited two more temples after that. I think we were all templed out by then, and it was a bit of a blur. We did take some nice photos though 🙂

The Boy at the last temple we visited on day two, sporting an umbrella he had been given by our guide to keep up his interest level (and as shade from the sun):

Sadly, in this last temple, Eldest Girl fainted from heat, hunger and tiredness. Luckily, DW was beside her at the time and caught her as she fell. It could have been very nasty otherwise, given all the sharp stones lying all around. Thankfully, she recovered after a few minutes rest in the shade. After that, we made as quick an exit as we could and headed back to the hotel for lunch and to rest indoors for the afternoon. Although she did recover sufficiently to make it to the pool later on, for a splashabout with her sisters and little brother.

So that was the last three days. Today, we just chilled. Tomorrow, me and The Boy plan on the same. The ladies are going zip-wiring in the grounds of one of the temples. They have a 7am alarm clock. Pretty civilised for around here!

Some other things:

I mentioned that the staff here are great. I also mentioned Ra-Ra. The Boy also has another cuddly toy that he picked up in Singapore airport on the journey over here (in the toy shop we finally relented to letting him in to). This one is a monkey that we all named Cheeky but he calls Ooh-Ooh (matches Ra-Ra I suppose). The cleaners decided the two should have a cuddle when they made up the room:

I also mentioned this hotel is a large, corporate style hotel. In keeping with that, as they are in a tourist centre and as they get lots of tour groups, they have “traditional” dance shows every evening. We went on our first evening here. It was as cringe-worthy as you might expect, but if you take it with the right attitude it was pleasant enough. You could pose for photos with the dancers afterwards:

And finally, the local English language newspaper here is the Phnom Penh Post. There was an old copy from Monday sitting on a coffee table near our room so I picked it up and had a read. Three stories caught my eye. The lead story in their sports section was Ireland’s famous victory in the Six Nations tournament (given the timezone difference, I have no doubt that Liverpool’s 3-0 thrashing of United at Old Trafford would have been the lead in the Tuesday edition):

The other two stories were sadly less uplifting. The first was their front page headline:

It seems that Pol Pot’s daughter’s wedding was a useful outlet for many of his former soldiers to have a re-union. It must be very tough for this nation to heal itself when the perpetrators of such awful crimes continue to live in the community. Our guide for the second day told us in conversation that his own dad had been killed by the Khmer Rouge when he was one year old. His crime: he was a teacher.

The third story would be one close to your heart Dad:

This article covered some research by UK academics on attendance records between Cambodian primary schools with drinking water (about 60% of the total) and those without (the other 40%). Not surprisingly, attendance was much better in the former, mainly because of less sick absences. In schools with no running water, kids have no choice but to resort to pond water when thirsty. The government here has costed out what it would take to provide clean water for all schools here: about US$4 million per year, but also has said it cannot afford that so has no plans to do anything about it.

Cambodia may be more tourist-savvy than Laos, and may appear more developed, but fundamentally we are still in the third world here…