Cambodia Travelouges Part One: Phnom Penh & Siem Reap

So I'm just back from a great trip to Cambodia with my wife. We also visited Singapore, as there is no direct flight to Cambodia from Bangalore. Singapore is a nice but touristy place; and I will pen a blog about it soon, but the experience in Cambodia is definitely worth sharing first!

One Night in Phnom Penh

Most tourists travel to Cambodia with the intention of visiting Angkor Wat, and other popular temples and monuments in Siem Reap. However, our itinerary was such that we had to spend a night in Phnom Penh. This was primarily due to the fact that buses in Cambodia do not run between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in the late evenings. What seemed like a forced stay, became quite a pleasant experience, as we had time for a "Sunset adventure cruise" on the Mekong river. For a fee of 15 US dollars, a small diesel-powered boat took us around the banks of the river for a great view, plus a drink included.

The boat

Sunset on the Mekong

Getting to Siem Reap

We had booked on the Giant Ibis bus from the hotel. The company (Giant Ibis) was highly recommended, as they have new buses, and their drivers drive safely. The buses have WiFi, but they also have iPad veiling data-hogging tourists who devour and shred the bandwidth to pieces. Throughout the trip, I preferred using 3G data (I had bought a 2.5GB data SIM at Phnom Penh airport).
During the journey, I realized why buses do not operate after dark here. The highway between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (as are most roads in Cambodia) is a 2 lane road, which is not well lit. While most drivers in Cambodia drive safe, there are a few who are rash, and these few - combined with the lack of proper lighting - make it unsafe to drive at night. The bus took a total of 7 hours to reach Siem Reap. It included one small break at a roadside restaurant, and a longer stop at a bigger restaurant, named "The Banyan Tree".

Angkor Wat - The City That Is a Temple

Angkor Wat is, of course, the most famous monument in Cambodia. It's on their flag, their currency notes, and even their beer! The name "Angkor" is a corruption of the Khmer word "Nokor", which, in turn is derived from the Sanskrit "Nagara". "Wat" means a temple, so Angkor Wat literally means "City Temple", or a better translation, "The City that is a Temple". 
The temple was built around 1150 AD as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu. As with other temples in the Angkor region, the central towers represent the mythical Mount Meru. Mount Meru has many myths and legends associated with it in Hindu culture. One of these is that when Manu was warned of the Great Flood by the fish-avatar of Vishnu, he built a boat (similar to Noah's Ark), and navigated the flood waters to reach Mount Meru.

Angkor Wat at sunrise.

We visited the temple at 5AM to catch the sunrise, hoping to beat the crowds. However, the place was teeming with tourists, all waiting with their cameras to catch the sun rising over the temple's towers.

Even at dawn, the place is teeming with people!

A clearer view of the temple

The walls inside the temple has carvings depicting the Ramayan & Mahabharata. The wall with the Ramayan carvings depict scenes from the battle of Lanka. In the picture below, Ram is on Hanuman's shoulders, firing an arrow at Raavan, while Lakhsman and Vibheeshan look on.

The battle of Lanka. Ram on Hauman's shoulders.

Yet another wall depicts another scene from Hindi mythology, the "Samudra Manthan", or churning of the ocean. Although there are some differences in the Cambodian interpretation of this story, for example, Vishnu is shown as churning the ocean, while in the Indian legend, it is Shiva, if I am not mistaken.

Samudra-Manthan

Inside the temple, there are about three levels. The first with these wall carvings, an altar, and a "Hall of a Thousand Buddhas". At this point, maybe I can mention that although this was a Hindu temple originally, it was later converted to a Buddhist one. In fact, in one of the statues here, you can see the Buddha sitting on a seven-headed snake. This points to the possibility that (maybe) the statue originally depicted Vishnu, and was later modified to represent The Buddha.

Main Altar in the first level.

The second level is a open-air courtyard which leads to the towers of the temple, while the third and final level is when you ascend these towers.

The second level courtyard.

Carvings of Apsaras on the second level.

The third level has a dress-code - both men and women need to have their shoulders and knees covered (although knee length shorts seem to be acceptable). There is a staircase which is quite steep, and opens up only around 7:45AM. We had to wait in the second level for sometime before the temple authorities allowed us to ascend.

View of the towers from the second level.

Shrine of reclining Buddha.

Statue of Buddha sitting on a seven-headed snake. This probably represented Vishnu earlier.

Hill Stations of the South: Ooty

Hill stations are the quintessential holiday destination for Indians. For those who do not know, a "hill station" is a small town nestled in the hills, where the climate is much cooler than in the plains. Most hill stations in India have a British Raj legacy. When the Brits came to India, they saw it as a land of immense opportunity, and wanted to rule over it. However, the heat & dust of the Indian summer would sometimes get a bit too much to bear for these gents, and they went about the length and breadth of the country looking for cooler places to rule from. One of these intrepid British explorers - a Sir John Sullivan by name - chanced upon a place in the Nilgiri mountains in South India. The place was known as Udhagamandalam, which obviously the British could not pronounce. So they decided to call it "Ootacamund", which we Indians found strange, so finally everyone settled for "Ooty".

29kms from Ooty.

Today, with the British sent back to their little island, Ooty (or Udhagamandalam as it has been re-re-named), remains a well-visited tourist spot in South India. The place has a nice cool climate, and still has, at least in some places, good pollution-free air.


Things to Do & See

Quite frankly, there’s little to see in Ooty. Most of the sightseeing can be done in a day. There’s the peak of "Doddabetta" which is the highest point in South India. It’s worth a visit, however, the place is generally swarming with people. The Botanical gardens is highlighted as another place to visit, but is no big deal really, and the Ooty lake... again, you dont miss much if you skip this.

View from Doddabetta.

The really nice places to see are a bit out of town, for e.g. the Pykara lake, which is about an hour’s drive away from the town. The route is scenic, but roads are usually quite bad. Then there’s Conoor, which is another smaller hill station just 18 kms off Ooty. Conoor also has some cliffs like Lamb’s rock & Dolphin’s Nose which may be worth a visit. The drive to Conoor also passes through some really nice tea plantations.

Tea Plantation in Conoor.

Pykara Lake.

And the best thing to do in Ooty is... sit back in a comfortable chair, enjoy the weather, sip your favorite drink & read a good book!

Old books

I happened to run into a very old Children’s Encyclopedia in my parent’s house in Calcutta. I’m on vacation here for a week, and this has been quite an interesting find. It is one of a set of volumes from my father’s collection. 

Children’s Encyclopedia

There is absolutely no indication of the date of print on this book. I find it a bit frustrating, as I can see from the brittle yellow pages that it is quite an old book. But sadly, there is nothing - no date of publishing, no date of printing or any other indication. My father is also not very sure, but he thinks it’s most likely from the sixties. Looking at the style of illustrations in the book, it does remind me of the 1960’s.

Illustrations.

Last Day in Paris: Day-5 in France

How time flies when you’re having fun! The last day of our vacation arrives, and we still have not seen some sights in Paris. We plan to see the Luxembourg gardens and Pantheon. So once again, after breakfast at our hotel, we set off to the nearby Metro station. It happens to be a Sunday, so the metro is not too crowded. However, we have to change the Metro line at Gare du Nord to RER-B, since that’s the only line that goes to Luxembourg gardens.
We get off at the metro station, and it’s one of the dirtiest and most dilapidated ones that I have seen in Paris so far! But, once out of the station, the garden is quite beautiful. It’s about 9:30AM in the morning, and there are joggers and dog-walkers all over the park. There is a lovely mansion house at one end of the gardens, which I later found is the French senate.

Jardin du Luxembourg, with the palace on the right.

Admiring the gardens

Exploring Mont St. Michel: Day-4 in France

Day-4 in France my wife and I have checked into the Mercure hotel near Le Mont-St-Michel Abbey. I wake up in the morning to see dark grey skies and continuous drizzle of rain. Bad weather to walk down the 2.5 km long stretch from the hotel to the Abbey, but I have no choice, as we’re here for one day only. After a hearty breakfast at "Le Pre Sale" restaurant, out come the umbrellas, and we begin our walk to the Abbey. Soon the rain starts coming in gusts, and I turn back to see a Peugeot sedan approaching. I’m pretty sure no one would give a lift to a foreign couple on a dark and rainy day like this, but I still make the universally accepted sign with my thumb asking for a lift. We’re in luck, the car stops, and a French couple, who cant speak a word of English, give us a lift. We were really grateful to this helpful couple; without their help, we would have been walking in the rain for at least 20 minutes. We thanked the couple with heartfelt "merci beaucoup’s", when we reached the Abbey.

Destination Mont St. Michel: Day-3 in France

My third day in France, I leave Paris, the city I could not yet explore to my heart’s content, and head off to rural France. My destination is Mont St. Michel, a church which has a history dating back to the 8th century A.D. The church is dedicated to St. Michael, the arch-angel. The unique thing about this church is that it’s built on a finger of land jutting out into the Atlantic ocean. But before I leave, I have some time so a visit to the Sacre Coeur Basilica, which was a short walk from the hotel. As we walked, we crossed a very charming part of Paris. Nice little restaurants like the one below, markets selling oysters, clams, mushrooms and different kinds of hams and cheese. 

Le Basilic restaurant.

Montmartre, on the way to Sacre Cour

 
Sacre Coeur
The Sacre Coeur Basilica is a slightly steep climb up the Montmartre hill. Once up, there is a beautiful view of Paris, and you can even see the Eiffel Tower from here. The Basilica itself is quite awe-inspiring. It’s a towering structure.

Sacre Cour

 
It is said that during a siege of Paris, the Montmartre hill was used to bombard
the city using cannons. There is a plaque on the wall, but since it’s in French,
I could not understand it completely, except for the fact that during a siege,
this particular point was used for cannon artillery.

View from the hill.

Paris: Day-2 in France

On today’s itinerary was the Eiffel Tower and Church of Notre Dame. We had plans of seeing as many of the sights as possible, but time was short, and sights worth seeing many, in Paris. We took a L’Open Tour bus, which is a hop-on-hop-off double decker tourist bus. These buses have different circuit routes which take you to pretty much every tourist attraction in the city, but with a catch (that we later realized)... the last bus is at 6:30PM, and this does not give enough time to see everything. While we wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Pantheon, Napoleon’s Tomb, Luxemburg gardens and Sacre Cour, we could manage just the first two. After day-2 in Paris, I realize that it’s a place that you cannot do justice to if you have only two days.

Church of Notre Dame

The first stop was at Notre Dame, the 12th century church.

Carvings on the facade, Notre Dame

The church is both a tourist attraction and a religious place, so tourists are asked to maintain silence while inside. Mass is still held in this church, as we went in, the mass started.

Interiors of the church.

You may enter the church for free, but if you want to ascend the towers, it costs 8 euros per head. It is a bit funny to have to pay 8 euros to climb up what seemed like a thousand steps, but when you reach the top, this is the view you get!

A Gargoyle looks at the Eiffel Tower.

View from the top of Notre Dame