The LOSTcity
After cruising the Mekong River from Vietnam to Cambodia, Vanessa Marshall discovers 48 hours in Siem Reap is the perfect amount of time to visit the stunning temples of Angkor.
Angelina Jolie has a lot to answer for. As the unofficial patron saint of Cambodia, she is entirely responsible for the crush of sightseers queuing in front of me to have their photos taken with the Tomb Raider tree at Ta Prohm temple. A combination of competing selfie sticks and the crowd’s palpable enthusiasm for both the Hollywood movie star and the vine-covered ruins she made famous, sees me lodged (literally) between a rock and a hard place on my first day visiting Angkor, the Khmer empire’s ancient capital – and its walled city, Angkor Thom.
I’ve only just disembarked from an Avalon Waterways river cruise along the backwaters of the Mekong, plus it’s been over a week since I’ve spent much time on land, so it takes me all of 30 seconds to decide getting my Instagram shot isn’t worth slogging it out with the masses. Fortunately, equally picturesque and substantially quieter photo opportunities are around every corner. Overgrown tree roots burst out of the ground and bind themselves around what is left of the formerly magnificent sandstone temples and I am reminded why the Tomb Raider producers chose these once-lost jungle ruins as the location for their movie trilogy.
Because, celebrity-endorsed or not, the Unesco World Heritage temples of Angkor have most certainly been discovered in terms of sheer tourism numbers. Built in the early 12th century, the most famous of all the ruins, Angkor Wat, usually has upwards of 2.6 million visitors a year, although this year’s coronavirus outbreak has cut visitor numbers. Previously, even a hike in ticket prices hadn’t deterred the crowds, but a dress code implemented to curb nude and semi-nude social media “influencers” posting culturally disrespectful pictures online seems to be working. On the days I visit, busloads of
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Writer Vanessa Marshall in a tuk-tuk; famous Angkor Wat, which was built at the beginning of the 12th century; roots of a strangler fig among the ruins of Ta Prohm temple; a traditional dancer. tourists arrive looking as if they’ve come straight from the hairdresser. I’m not sure how they’ve achieved such trickery while my fellow cruise ship passengers and I are covered in dust from our tuk-tuk ride; windswept, sweaty and decidedly beetroot of face.
Which makes being handed an ice cold towel and a refreshing cocktail on arrival back at the Park Hyatt in nearby Siem Reap so perfectly timed. Avalon have thought of every little detail, so after a hot day there’s time for a bath in the giant tub in the hotel room or a dip in the interconnecting pools on the ground floor before heading out on an after-dinner excursion to the circus.
Daring circus
Founded in 1994 by a group of refugees from the Khmer Rouge regime, The Cambodian Circus is an innovative visual and cultural treat that’s not afraid to explore themes of homosexuality, promiscuity and debauchery. Using circus, dance, mime and rock music, the young performers, all students or graduates from Phare Ponleu Selpak’s vocational training centre in Battambang, recreate scenes from
FROM TOP: A stone face at Angkor Thom, with a sunset over the ancient moat in the background; The Cambodian Circus performers in action; making traditional handmade rice flour noodles. their own lives to rapturous audiences night after night. I leave thinking this is social enterprise at its finest. All profits from ticket sales go directly back to the training school, which supports over 1200 troubled teenagers who are getting back on their feet through a communal love of theatre.
The following morning I’m up before dawn to see Angkor Wat at sunrise and get that shot – the one where the pond reflects the temple’s five trademark towers complete with a blood red sky behind them. I’m not the only one by a few hundred, but by day two I’ve acclimatised to the crowds and it is refreshingly cool before the sun starts to climb. There are a lot of temples to see before our group starts to wilt, and we head off in tuk-tuks to Buddhist Bayon temple, with its enormous carved stone faces. It’s serene and beautiful, and if you stand just so, you can get a shot where you “kiss the Buddha”.
Having the same pre-arranged tuk-tuk driver makes for an easy getaway to our next stop, Banteay Srei, a 10th century temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Known as the citadel of women, or citadel of beauty, it’s aptly named, as it’s made out of pretty pink sandstone and its many buildings are covered in intricate bas-relief carvings.
En route we stop off at a local village and watch Khmer noodles – num banh chok – laboriously made by hand using a stone grinding wheel. Eaten all over Cambodia, they are rice noodles steeped in stock then topped with crisp raw vegetables including cucumbers, banana blossom, water lily stems and fresh herbs, such as basil and mint. Sadly our tour director won’t let us try them as he’s cautious about the water used in the cooking process, so by the time I arrive back at the hotel I’m starving.
I wander through the Noon Night Market, which opens as advertised at midday, before venturing into the Old Market, which has a bustling produce section that sells all manner of tropical fruit and veges, spiced frogs, dried fish and stinky fish paste called prahok. It’s so hot I end up grabbing a snack and a beer for around $1 on “pub street”, while I sit back and people-watch backpackers, kids on motorcycles and tuk-tuks weave in and around each other on the surrounding streets.
There’s time for a quick dash to a designer knock-off store to buy a box of fake Louis Vuitton socks before the last excursion with my Avalon family, a private performance of Apsara dance, the Cambodian equivalent of classical ballet and an integral part of Khmer culture. We are treated to an hour of religious and theatrical folk dances while being served a traditional feast washed down with a full-sized bottle of beer.
Thanks, Angelina. I just might love this country as much as you do. And hopefully, once the coronavirus nightmare is over, I’ll be back.