Siem Reap

Observant flatunatics would have noticed I was offline for the past few days.

I kinda went for a impromptu business roadtrip to Siem Reap. Transportation & lodging all paid by my company but my real intention was to squeeze in a visit to the legendary temples of Angkor. I had to appoint a new sub-distributor in Siem Reap. The idea was to finish the meetings in a flash and head off to the temples. Dun look at me with those disapproving eyes....come on, dun be bashful, repeat with me: "you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!". So with bags packed and my trusty dog-earred, photocopy Lonely Planet Cambodia in hand , we departed from Phnom Penh.

Bought in Phnom Penh's Psar Thmei or Central Market for just USD2. Errr...Usual Price of Original copy is USD18.

After 4-5 bumpy hours on National Highway No. 6, we reached the town of Siem Reap. It is about one quarter or one third the size of Phnom Penh. Now it's pretty small, considering Phnom Penh is like half the size of Singapore. And as y'all know, Singapore is just a dirty little booger on the map, like this .

Buahahahahaha...

Like all Cambodian towns & cities, Siem Reap is a sleepy but charming little place. Ppl are very friendly and polite, the traffic is manageable. Food is ok, not fantastic but hey, it's known for its temples, not food... There this nice slow river / chanel that cuts thru the town, couples are usually found sitting along the river bank, enjoying the slow afternoon. Ppl just "take it easy"...sigh, that's how life should be enjoyed. And bridges across this river are adorned with Naga balustrades - quite magnificent...

Siem Reap is actually in a midst of a mega tourist boom, all thanks to that crapfest of a movie, Tomb Raider. Thanks to Ms. Angelina "Freaking Hot" Jolie, Cambodia is 1 little local kid less and millions of pesky tourists more... Maddox sure hit the lottery when he got adopted by Ms. Jolie... Anyways, hotels, guest houses and restaurants are popping up all over the place. Every corner you turn, you are bound to bump into tourists - Jap, French, Korean etc. Tourism is the lifeblood of Siem Reap. The whole town's economy is totally dependent on it, take it away - it will be a very different place. Anyways, the town is set for big, big changes....I'm glad I got to see it before it's totally destroyed by ugly commercialism...

Anyways, litte trivia for y'all: The name Siem Reap means "Siam Defeated". There's a pretty wicked story on how the city got its name: During the height of the Khmer empire, territorial expansions often lead to the Khmer ppl waging bloody wars against their neighbors - Vietnamese, Chams (a race that occupied the area currently known as South Vietnam or Mekong Delta), Indians (yup, they went that far...), Chinese (Southern China), Burmese (Myanmar) & Siamese (we know them as Thais). Of all these neighborly spats, the battles with the Siamese ppl were the most savage.

It was one of these battles that an outnumbered Khmer army decided to surrender the imperial city of Angkor to the advancing Siamese troops. The Siamese troops entered an empty, abandoned city and to their surprise, they discovered a sumptuous feast, apparently left behind by the fleeing Khmers. Feeling victorious, the Siamese assumed the food was the Khmer's tribute to the great Siamese empire and they feasted the nite away. Slowly but surely, the Siamese fell as the deadly poison took effect...

The Khmer army return en masse in the morning. The surviving Siamese ranks were decimated, those that did not feast were totally outnumbered. Some fled - they were hunted down and killed. The ones that stayed to fight - well, they never had a chance...
Now that's the story of how the Siem Reap-ed. Hahaha...kickass story, rite?

Anyways, we finished our meeting at about 5pm and checked-in into a relatively cheap hotel (USD25 per nite). Outside my room was this kickass "Naga protecting Buddha" ornament:

Woo hoo! Checkout the teeth on those Naga heads!

Yup, I'm fascinated with Nagas; checkout my previous naga post here!

Then we drove to Angkor Wat, hoping to catch the sunset - apparently Angkor Wat is stunning at sunset. Alas, we arrived an hour too late, we missed the sunset and only eerie silhouettes of temple towers greeted us...nevertheless, i took a niteshot of the place:

At the main entrance - a sandstone causeway in the middle of a humongous moat with dark silhouttes in the background...

Anyways, we went for dinner and retired for the nite, hopefully we could get an early meeting and an early start on the temples of Angkor.....