Travel Travails - III

I reached the hotel near the KLCCT where I was to spend the night and fly out early the next morning to Siem Reap. My companion for the Cambodia and Bali leg of the trip was the very delectable Miss Kaycee who I know from back home. We were staying at Molly Malone's, located in the heart of the Old Market area of Siem Reap. Run by a couple that's one half Irish (the wife) and the other French (with some Cameroonian thrown in there), MM's USP was its location. It was within walking distance to all the happening and not so happening food and drink joints of the area. Me and Kaycee had done some research prior to each leg of our trip courtesy our travel Bible - Wikitravel. Considering it was a first for both of us visiting these places, we'd decided that we were gonna do mostly typical touristy things in terms of visiting the known places, monuments et al rather than do the whole off-the-beaten-track type of traveling

So our first visit on the day we reached there was the Chong Khneas Floating Village located on the Tonle Sap Lake. We were warned by our research that this was a well known tourist trap but we decided to go visit it anyway. For us terra firma type, Chong Khneas was quite an eye opener. It was life as you'd see in any small town - people going about their lives, working to earn their bread, kids studying in school or playing basketball on the nearby court, places of worship like churches, grocery shops, the police station and the legal courts but the key difference being that ALL of them were afloat. Hah! We even saw a karaoke boat which had a bunch of men sitting and guzzling their wine and beer with the local music blaring out of the stereo and lyrics scrolling up the TV screen.
That evening the plan was to roam around the old market area where we’d have a few drinks and try the local Khmer cuisine. So to begin the evening right, we headed to the bar downstairs in Malone’s for a drink or two before heading out. Almost as soon as we were done with our first drink, the lights went out! Apparently the whole of Siem Reap was blacked out. So the initial plan got converted just like that to an evening at the bar itself.
It turned out to be one of the most fun evenings I’ve had in a long while. The French-Cameroon owner Thierry kept us company and even gave us a free round of drinks while talking about life in Siem Reap. I tell you these Frenchies can charm the birds out of the trees with their accent alone. “Aai travel the world and ‘av ‘ad some wundearful experiences but now I come ‘ere and settle down in Siem Reap where I meet my beautiful wife and we open zis place… Ees a good life no?!”
Hell yeah! I mean all three evenings we saw the man come in around 7pm, have a quick chat with his manager and then sit down with some of his customers and drink and smoke at the bar till about 10pm after which he’d head home. C’est la vie indeed! Also met a Brit Italian gentleman called Count Paolo Grazini along with his Cambodian fiancée who was called (and I kid you not!) Pumpkin. The Count regaled us with stories about his life in the army, travels around the world, working with the Mafia in their drug trade(!!) and how he finally landed in Siem Reap and was now a journo with a Phnom Penh newspaper writing mostly lifestyle articles and stories about Siem Reap. All in all a most (unexpectedly) entertaining evening.

The following day was temple visiting day. We decided to wake up early and catch the sunrise at the main temple complex of Angkor Wat and follow that with visits to the other temples. So off in the early morning cold which we experienced even more coz Kaycee decided we must do as the locals do and travel all of that day by motorised tuk tuk. Now as you can see in the picture, the weather was kinda muggy so we really didn’t get to see Angkor bathed in early morn sunshine. The funny thing is (and Kaycee later echoed similar sentiments) that I didn’t really see what the fuss was all about with regard to Angkor. I mean it was a huge temple complex alright but I didn’t really feel that sense of awe that I expected to feel when I came to see this place. Perhaps the weather had something to with it as well but honestly I have visited some smaller temple complexes in India which were much more impressive and awe-inspiring than Angkor was. By the way, there’s tons of references to the Ramayana and Mahabharata in these temples. We saw so many walls depicting scenes like Ravana kidnapping Sita, the battle between the Pandavas and Kauravas, the churning of the ocean by the Gods and Demons and lots of others.
So after Angkor we caught some breakfast before heading to visit the remaining two famous temples of Bayon and Ta Phrom.
Bayon was a temple we both enjoyed visiting because there was so much character to the place. There was a sense of gloom and doom to the whole place and had it not been for the many tourists who were around, I think it would felt a whole lot more spooky. There were so many faces cut into the various walls in and around the temple that I couldn’t quite shake the feeling of being watched. Almost creepy in some ways…
The last temple on the list was Ta Phrom. Again a temple with much character to it. If Bayon felt a tiny bit spooky, then Ta Phrom positively reinforced the feeling. This temple has gained fame primarily due to the fact that the Angelina Jolie movie Tomb Raider was shot here.
We even later visited the Red Piano bar, which was located pretty close to our hotel, where AJ and the Tomb Raider crew would hangout after their shoot. They even have a cocktail that she apparently concocted, the name of which is of course The Tomb Raider.
After getting all templed-out, once we came back into town, Kaycee decided we should get a massage to get some (bas?!) relief. So we snuck into the very aptly named Dr. Feet Massage parlour where we surrendered our feet to the capable ministrations of the massage girls. After they spent a fair of time giggling about the size of my feet, they got into action. I don’t know about y’all but a foot massage always makes me feel a little awkward, atleast initially. It feels a little too servile having a woman wash and press my feet. But damn! these women were good. I mean 30 mins into the hour-long massage I literally slipped into a coma. To the point that Kaycee had to actually nudge me hard (more than once I might add) coz I had started to snore… loudly! The massage girls of course loved it. It is a matter of pride for most masseuses if their massage has induced their client to fall asleep.
Aah Kaycee... you should’ve listened to the girls and let me snooze away.

Our final day in Siem Reap was gonna be something we’d discovered as a must do on several websites. It was Quad Biking and maaaan I gotta tell you this was the funnest thing I’ve done in a long while. We found this place owned by a Frenchman (Ze French are taking over ze world, I tell you!) called Hervé who ran these Quad Bike tours. Since we weren’t sure about how much we’d be able to handle, we choose the Easy Ride option – a 17 km ride which would take us thru the surrounding villages of Siem Reap.
These machines pack some serious power and were a blast to ride around on. Hervé was on lead with Kaycee following him and me rounding off the rear. Every so often whenever there was a long stretch of empty road, I’d let the other two go on ahead and then gun the ATV across the terrain. Wheeeeee!!

That last evening we went out to eat some more of the local Khmer food. And something interesting happened… I’d been cribbing for the past couple of days that we didn’t get to hear any live music. So we’re walking back to our hotel after dinner, and I hear loud rock music coming out a joint nearby. So of course I get this big grin on my face and before Kaycee could finish returning it, I dragged her ass in the direction of the spanking new Café Central. When we got there, there wasn’t any place available to sit. Suddenly this huge, barrel-chested bald guy with a bunch of tattoos running up and down his heavily muscled arms and thick neck comes up to us and asks if there’s just the two of us. He obviously seemed to be the owner or atleast top management. After confirming that we would be OK with sitting anywhere, he quickly arranges for a table and a couple of comfy cane chairs that we plonk ourselves on. We order our drinks and settle down to enjoy the Filipino cover band that was belting out the latest pop and rock tracks. Soon after the big guy comes over and asks in his booming voice if we’re having a good time. I couldn’t quite place his accent but we do answer in an enthusiastic affirmative. He then asks us where we’re from and I say India. He then asks where in? and I reply Bombay. He asks where in? again which kinda confused me into thinking he hadn’t heard me the first time around. So I again reply, “India”. And then to both mine and Kaycee’s astonishment, this guy goes, “Arre haan haan, lekin Bombay mein kahaan??” This dude was from our neck of the woods!!! We got talking and I came to know that Charlie (that's his name) was from Mazgaon and that he used to play football for the same college in Mazgaon that I used to go to. Talk about a freakishly small world. So now that we established the Indian and Mumbai connect, Charlie made more small talk with us, introduced us to his blonde girlfriend who looks after the other famous nightspot in Siem Reap called the Angkor What? Between the two of them, they were running this pub and after 4 years decided to open up another spot which was of course the week old Café Central.
Once again we were sent a round of drinks by the proprietor of a joint. If I was cribbing about the live music, Kaycee had been cribbing about the fact that she wanted to indulge in some Sambuca shots since she’s not a big fan of tequila. Not 15 mins later, Charlie and his friends get a bottle of it at their table and he comes over and plonks down a couple of healthy shots of Sambuca on our table. Now Kaycee’s the one who has the goofy grin all over her face.
We then stayed on till the band got done with its remaining sets and then in super high spirits we headed to our hotel. It was a fantastic night to end this leg.
So that was Siem Reap. The next morning we were to catch a flight back to KL from where we’d fly to our next destination.

Next stop – Bali, Indonesia