The full-English breakfasts at Okay Villas are exactly the same as those at Okay Guesthouse. Not that our traveling diet has been unadventurous, but the breakfasts at the Okay chain have kept us going through two cities and are unparalleled. We all got one after our big sleep and retired immediately poolside, giving ourselves a day to recuperate and read. I Finished Fear and Loathing but as soon as i had my tooth started to hurt. They've been aching a few days, feeling better today, but nothing distracts you from having a good time like toothache. Luckily there's been more than enough to offer in the last few days to distract me.
On our first night proper in Siem Reap we arrived at the aptly named Pub Street, number one backpacker drinking hole in town where cool Khmer restaurants sit alongside typical Italian, Mexican and Indian places. We chose Mexican this time but after a tequila we were more interested in the bar across the road belting out hip-hop with alarming consistency. Some intense rounds of shithead later and we ventured on to Pub Street for a few more drinks and a night playing pool. When back at home, Rory and I drank and chatted on the balcony, only to return to the room and find Arun knocking quietly on the door. We felt bad, but something got the better of me and as soon as we'd let Arun in to go to bed, i felt the need to shout "Stone Cold Stunner!" and promptly smashed down on top of him. This sparked about 1 hour of wrestling, inspired no doubt by the hours of wrestling we'd caught on TVs around here since our arrival and the jokes that have caught on. All of which resulted in a late, late start the next day which the staff at our hotel found highly amusing. Our next day mainly involved dragging ourselves out in the evening for a Khmer-style barbecue, where you're given a gas-stove and a waiter cooks the seven different plates of meat in front of you. We got crocodile, snake, goat, beef and some others, dipped in pepper and lemon and chili spices.
Rory and I opted for a few more drinks and some more pool in a bar named Angkor What? after the largest Hindu (now Buddhist) temple in the world up the road, which we were due to visit the next day. We racked up a couple of games and before long we'd gathered a gang of about 10 people, some Ozzies, Brits, Polish and a Canadian. We played killer, a knockout game that loads can play at once, until the drink got the better of all of us and we moved out into the crowd to dance, sit, chat and smoke for the rest of the night. There were some genuinely fun people in the club that night and what had started as pool had ended with a great night involving new mates and a hell of a laugh.
Angkor Wat
You take a tuk-tuk down a long, straight road out of north Siem Reap. It's built for one location only and is lined by dense woodland on all sides. Eventually there's a clearing ahead, a huge man-made moat that stretches round a corner towards Angkor Wat, the most spectacular sight in Cambodia. It's the number-one tourist trap, but really its name is deceptive in that what you hire a tuk-tuk for is to speed between five or six different sites, all in the region of Angkor, that display Khmer architecture from the 9th to the 12th century. Each place you arrive at has another temple, built in a stunningly simple yet detailed fashion. The first stop and big-dog of the tour is Angkor Wat itself, a huge complex dedicated to the God Vishnu, with statues of he and other deities dotted around the temples. It's a venerated site for some reason, our tour guide, Jon, explained; it had been built by piling up lava-stone over 37 years into a 60-metre high structure and adorned with sandstone carvings on every single surface, each of which depicts in painstaking detail different figures from various mythologies. The story of the king and his grand battle takes up 100-metres of wall, running like a film reel as you walk past. We wandered with our guide explaining the various aspects of the temple and were all spellbound by its magnitude and history. Through weary eyes, Rory and i were awoken by the place, especially taking in the cool breeze from the very top tower.
Our driver, Tol, has stayed with us for our two day visit and we let him guide us around the rest of the temples and ruins in Angkor. Each had its own charm, some ruins, some thrived upon by gigantic trees whose roots were golden and extended right round the rocks. I got separated in the second temple, a maze of different levels and unexpected avenues. Whilst wandering i was approached by a young monk named Savem and we discussed tourism, religion and family until heading out to meet Rory, Arun and Tol. Savem ended up cruising round the rest of the area and joined us in the slow climb up "The Mountain," another huge platform-come-temple where the hordes gather to watch westward toward the setting sun. We cracked open a beer and watched the sky turn purple once more over the flat green lands of Cambodia.
The day out left us all jaded, so after a ride back with Tol and Savem we ate dinner and crashed. The next day Tol had promised to take Arun and I to visit Angkor again. He whisked us out in the morning, back through the forest, down to a park about 30 minutes away from Angkor Wat. It contained the oldest ruin in the area and took us a good couple of hours to wander around, stopping for ice-tea and to view the adjoined museum which explained the complex history of the whole of Angkor, the French and Portuguese explorers who had rediscovered most of the sites, the varying religious narratives and influences, all of which wrapped up the tale of the place.
When we found Tol again, passing the ubiquitous young kids selling postcards and scarves, feeling no less guilty at our refusal to buy, he said "now let's go to my family's farm." He'd promised as much the previous day but we'd not thought it to be true, so without knowing what to expect we were driven through the countryside out towards a rickety shack surrounded by mango and jack fruit trees. His family greeted us with slices of the fruits to eat, the freshest sweetest (and first) jack fruit i've ever eaten. He guided us round the small area on which they subsisted and translated a basic conversation with his family. Arun gave his aunt a shock when, during a thunderstorm, he took a photo with flash and made us all think it was lightening, big laughs all round. We've booked our tickets out of Cambodia now, we're bound for the south of Laos on a long coach trip which leaves at 5.30 a.m. tomorrow. As a closing experience in the country it was unmatched.
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