Matey's musings: Barangs on bikes

Captain needed to get some follow-up dental work done so back to Asia we went. This provided a good opportunity to catch up with friends currently living in Singapore. It was great to see Anke and Brian, and Felicity and her family, who made us feel very welcome: thanks for your hospitality!

We had planned to visit Thailand, but with a coup in progress, Cambodia seemed a better option. Poor old Captain was disappointed by this change in plans, but Matey had long dreamed of visiting Angkor Wat, and was happy to embrace the new destination. A disadvantage of such an eleventh-hour change though is being completely unprepared and having not a word of the local language. Matey tried to quickly read up on Cambodia, and learn some Khmer words, but unfortunately it takes a couple of weeks before they start to flow, so she felt like the archetypal ignorant tourist, relying almost completely on the locals’ ability to speak English. We had some funny moments with good-natured Cambodians as we struggled to communicate.

We arrived in Phnom Penn to experience a mild dose of culture shock for the first day or two: stalls amid the dust on the streets, crammed markets and shanty shacks were juxtaposed against new, multi-storey, expensive-looking houses; new four-wheel drives, bicycles and numerous small motorbikes with up to four passengers competed for space on the roads. These motorbikes are quite a sensible mode of transport in narrow streets — they reduce traffic congestion and, running on very little, are much better for the environment than our addiction to cars. They’re also cheap to run. Very few traffic lights were in evidence, but they are completely unnecessary really — when everyone travels at a low speed and is respectful of others on the roads their system works surprisingly well. Soon enough we found we were launching ourselves into the mayhem to cross the roads at the slightest break in traffic, and it just flowed around us. The apparent chaos, after a few days, began to seem like something very different: a natural flow in which everyone understood the rules. At intersections everything is moving but you anticipate where each bicycle, motorbike, car or pedestrian will be in the next second and go behind that spot. Just don’t stop! Of course, the size of larger vehicles does give them some extra right of way. If you’re a young man in a hurry and approaching an intersection just blast your horn repeatedly and accelerate. Everyone will know to get out of the way. Oh, and when you’re passing, beep twice so whoever you’re passing will know to stay as far to the right as possible (driving is in the right lane).

Then to Siem Reap, via an eight hour bus trip — urgh! We were disappointed to see the scourge of plastic is widespread and obvious in Cambodia. With every purchase a plastic bag is automatically given, and these end up lying or floating around. For the entire journey to Siem Reap every plot of land seemed to have a rubbish pit at the front, in which plastic bags were strewn, ugly and confronting. These pits probably worked well in the past when presumably all rubbish was biodegradable, but not any more. We were informed by a Cambodian that they value nature highly, but the curse of plastic makes this hard to believe. Ahhh, the many benefits of Western consumerism!

Siem Reap is the base town for exploring Angkor Wat and the dizzying array of ancient temples nearby. With reputedly more than two million international visitors each year, it’s very touristy and has the inevitable collection of people trying to benefit from the relative wealth of barangs (foreigners), from beggars to souvenir sellers, to tuk tuk drivers. Having said that the tuk tuk drivers were quite respectful when ‘No thank you’ was said with a smile, and usually left it at that. Beware, though, of allowing your gaze to linger on anything in a market stall. The hard sell will ensue. Sadly, due to the high numbers of landmines strewn across the country in the days of Pol Pot, (many of which still lurk just below the surface waiting to maim) a lot of people are missing body parts, and with no social security, begging is often the result.

From Siem Reap we had several days exploring the temples, and still didn’t see them all. We started with a guided tour to get our bearings, and then returned both by bicycle and via tuk tuk. We were in Cambodia in June, the hottest time to be there, just before the rains of the wet season begin in earnest, though we did experience a cooling deluge on a couple of days. Traipsing around temples in 35 degrees with high humidity was a draining task, especially on the day we rode bicycles there.

At around 850 years old (it took about 75 years to build) Angkor Wat is not the oldest of the temples in Cambodia. They range in age from around 1200 to 800 years old, with a succession of kings wanting to display their wealth and power by building temples (how little things change). Many are a fusion of Buddhism and Hinduism, and Matey was reminded of both Borobodur (Buddhist) and Prambanan (Hindu) in Java, Indonesia, and many of the extraordinary Hindu temples in India, particularly at Halebid, Belur and Somnathpur. Angkor Wat's carvings and its scale explain its fame. Matey was not disappointed.

While being awed by the creativity and output of the ancient Khmers, it’s sobering also to think of the workforce involved in building such amazing feats of engineering and construction; as well as the buildings, they created the surrounding moats and barays (artificial lakes), which provided water and also presumably were intended for defence. Apparently these were in part built by slaves, and in part by subjects under ‘obligation’. It’s hard to imagine the lives of either group being very pleasant. Eventually the barays silted up, probably due to deforestation. The decline of the empire occurred at around the same time. Hmmm … related perhaps? Possibly the diversion of so much of the workforce into temple construction for so many years also contributed to this decline.

There seem to be relatively few rules in Cambodia. Anyone can hire a motorbike. Evidence of a licence doesn’t appear to be necessary. Perhaps if stopped by the police, though, this would not be their view. From what we read, payment of a ‘fine’ would likely solve a problem. After a week or two and having survived the roads on bicycles around Siem Reap and the Angkor temples, Captain decided it was time to hire a motorbike. Soon we were racing along on the open roads near Battambang at speeds approaching 50 km/hour. Not being proficient on a motorbike, Matey was straddled on the back (rather than attempting the popular local custom of the side-saddle). Matey was impressed to see that while women were often passengers on motorbikes, as often as not the driver of the motorbike was a girl or woman, which seems to indicate a certain level of independence for Khmer women — yay! (Admittedly Matey visited India a long time ago, but she never saw a woman in charge of a motorbike there — maybe it’s different now?)

By and large we found the people we encountered to be lovely. Of course, some appear to be tired of barangs and we met a few who could barely manage a smile even when accepting payment, but most were delightful. Matey is amazed by the good-natured dispositon we so often encountered, in a country that has been so traumatised, so recently. Anyone over the age of 40 could not fail to have memories of the Khmer Rouge and the horrors they inflicted on the population, with around 20 percent murdered (often tortured first). Surprisingly, one of the activities flogged to the more sensitive tourists is a shooting range with AK47s. Oddly enough we declined.