THOMAS HUANG
AP, The West Australian
I came to Angkor Wat seeking enlightenment.
I prayed that the spirits of the Khmer kings would whisper wisdom, nudging him out of his midlife drift.
I hoped that the apsaras, the celestial dancers in bas-relief murals, would fill his faltering heart with hope.
I wished that Garuda, the bird-man of Hindu myth, would carry him skyward to behold the fields below, and the forests with a horrific past.
Instead, I found Vithou.
In his late 20s, Vithou looked no older than 14. A wisp of a moustache shaded his upper lip. When he smiled, I couldn't tell whether he was grinning or scowling. Like most of Angkor Wat's tour guides, he resembled a Boy Scout in his tan shirt and dark slacks.
I had just checked in to the Hotel de la Paix in Siem Reap when he approached. He told me that I could hire him through the hotel's tour desk. I asked him to take me through the temples for the next two days. It was a snap decision I would come to regret.
Dreams had brought me here. Last year, while on an elliptical trainer at the gym (literally running at a standstill), I flipped through a National Geographic. The photo spread mesmerized me. I wanted to see the five spires of Angkor Wat, the best preserved of a thousand temples in Angkor, the capital of the Khmer kingdom, established in the 9th century. It was the largest pre-industrial city in the world, home to as many as one million people.
By the 14th century, the region was abandoned. Theories of the kingdom's demise range from disease to Thai invaders. Some scholars think Angkor got too big for its own good, its infrastructure failing the population. Others hypothesize that the inland city became obsolete when the sea trade grew in importance.
Whatever happened, happened. The jungle swallowed the temples. Centuries passed. Cambodians say they never forgot Angkor. But the rest of the world didn't take interest until 1860, when a French naturalist named Henri Mouhot came upon the ruins. Archeologists hurried here, but then came years of conflict, and then came the Khmer Rouge regime and the genocide, and then came civil war.
I had risen before dawn to tour the temples with Vithou. I wanted to see the sandstone walls in the pink light. But we were joined by hundreds of other tourists, all elbowing one another to take the iconic sunrise photo.
Vithou had a sad story. He had grown up in Siem Reap, watched it blossom from dusty village to a mecca of five-star hotels. His parents had wanted him to become a Buddhist monk; he spent a week at a temple, but it wasn't for him. He got a desk job at a hotel (blessed be the air-conditioning), but was ousted for some unstated reason. He ended up as a tour guide.
The sweltering day arrived. As we clambered up and down the ruins Vithou wouldn't stop talking, or touching my arm, even when I wanted to absorb the sacred nature of the temples. He kept telling the same stories. And yet he wouldn't answer my questions, including one about why the Khmer Rouge hadn't totally decimated Angkor Wat.
He brought me to a breakfast place and expected me to pay for his meal. He kept telling me when to take photos and when not to.
"I can take whatever photo I want to," I finally said, annoyed.
In a dark temple, as we crouched down to look at a stone figure behind some rubble, he pulled me forward.
"Please," I said, "don't pull me."
The final straw came on the second day of our tour. Several times, he grimaced, rubbed his stomach and asked me to take him out for fried rice. I'd had enough. I asked the driver to drop him off at the hotel.
As we said goodbye, I still couldn't tell whether Vithou was grinning or scowling.
Suddenly, I asked myself: Why do I think I'm any better than he is? My heart began to soften. Here was a young man who was trying to make the best of his situation, trying to make as much money as he could to help his family.
Why should I resent his behaviour?
Since when had I become the arrogant tourist?
FACT FILE
You can fly to Siem Reap from several Asian cities, including Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok. There's also a short flight from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on Bangkok Air. Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor Wat, is about three miles south of the main temple.
If you like the water, you can take a boat from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap via Tonle Sap Lake. The trip takes several hours and costs about $US35 ($A38.50). If you're on a budget, you can make the trip on a bus for as little as $US11 ($A12). If you do so, guidebooks recommend bringing earplugs, because the Cambodian pop music played on the buses can get loud.
FINDING A GUIDE: I booked my guide through my hotel's tour desk for a pricey $US40 ($A44) per day. You can probably do better by checking out the tour companies near the Old Market. Guidebooks also recommend Diethelm (www.diethelmtravel.com) and Exotissimo (www.exotissimo.com) - top tour operators, but also expensive.
My advice would be to bring a good guidebook on the temples and see them on your own, unless you're the kind of person who enjoys every single anecdote about King Suryavarman II. If you'd really like to get a guide, try hiring him or her for just a day and see whether you get much out of the experience.
Entrance fees for Angkor Wat are $US20 ($A22) for a one-day ticket, $US40 ($A44) for a three-day ticket and $US60 ($A66) for a one-week ticket. The temples are open from 5.30am to 5.30pm. I'd recommend a two- to three-day visit, including seeing the main temple at sunrise one day.
The area containing the major temples, including Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, Banteay Kdei and Preah Khan, is about 41sqkm. You can hire a driver for about $US25 ($A27.50) a day, or a tuk-tuk (a cart pulled by a motorbike) for about $US16 ($A17.60), or a motorcycle taxi for about $US8 ($A9).
For a view of Angkor Wat at sunrise or sunset, enter the front of the compound, walk about halfway toward the main temple and make a left or right onto the fields. Even if you go early, you'll probably be competing with a crowd, but that's your best chance at a great photo.
Many of the temples are undergoing restoration, so you'll find certain sections closed to visitors.
Cambodia is hot and sunny, so hit the temples early in the day. Bring a small backpack with bottles of water, and wear sunscreen and a cap.
To get the most out of your visit, it does help to be physically fit. Climbing up the steep steps of several of the temples, clambering around the ruins, just travelling from temple to temple - all of it can get gruelling, especially in the heat.
WHERE TO STAY: I enjoyed staying at Hotel de la Paix (Sivatha Boulevard; www.hoteldelapaixangkor.com), a modern, stylish place with art deco and Khmer influences. A journalist friend also recommended Viroth's Hotel (0658 Wat Bo Village; www.viroth-hotel.com), chic and affordable with only seven rooms.
WHERE TO EAT: I had good meals at several places across town, including Khmer Kitchen Restaurant (just north of the Old Market), the Sugar Palm (south of the Caltex gas station), the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Angkor (Pokambor Avenue) and Viroth's Restaurant (246 Wat Bo Street).
OTHER SIGHTS: If you're tired of the temples, the Angkor National Museum is a nice respite, and it's air-conditioned. You'll find a room with 1000 Buddha statues and a model of the main temple.
The Old Market is in the heart of town and is a good place to buy souvenirs and T-shirts. You can haggle with the vendors to your heart's content.
OTHER TIPS: The Caltex gas station (also known as Starmart) in the middle of town on National Route 6 is a good all-purpose convenience store. You can get coffee and croissants there, and there's an ATM inside.
I prayed that the spirits of the Khmer kings would whisper wisdom, nudging him out of his midlife drift.
I hoped that the apsaras, the celestial dancers in bas-relief murals, would fill his faltering heart with hope.
I wished that Garuda, the bird-man of Hindu myth, would carry him skyward to behold the fields below, and the forests with a horrific past.
Instead, I found Vithou.
In his late 20s, Vithou looked no older than 14. A wisp of a moustache shaded his upper lip. When he smiled, I couldn't tell whether he was grinning or scowling. Like most of Angkor Wat's tour guides, he resembled a Boy Scout in his tan shirt and dark slacks.
I had just checked in to the Hotel de la Paix in Siem Reap when he approached. He told me that I could hire him through the hotel's tour desk. I asked him to take me through the temples for the next two days. It was a snap decision I would come to regret.
Dreams had brought me here. Last year, while on an elliptical trainer at the gym (literally running at a standstill), I flipped through a National Geographic. The photo spread mesmerized me. I wanted to see the five spires of Angkor Wat, the best preserved of a thousand temples in Angkor, the capital of the Khmer kingdom, established in the 9th century. It was the largest pre-industrial city in the world, home to as many as one million people.
By the 14th century, the region was abandoned. Theories of the kingdom's demise range from disease to Thai invaders. Some scholars think Angkor got too big for its own good, its infrastructure failing the population. Others hypothesize that the inland city became obsolete when the sea trade grew in importance.
Whatever happened, happened. The jungle swallowed the temples. Centuries passed. Cambodians say they never forgot Angkor. But the rest of the world didn't take interest until 1860, when a French naturalist named Henri Mouhot came upon the ruins. Archeologists hurried here, but then came years of conflict, and then came the Khmer Rouge regime and the genocide, and then came civil war.
I had risen before dawn to tour the temples with Vithou. I wanted to see the sandstone walls in the pink light. But we were joined by hundreds of other tourists, all elbowing one another to take the iconic sunrise photo.
Vithou had a sad story. He had grown up in Siem Reap, watched it blossom from dusty village to a mecca of five-star hotels. His parents had wanted him to become a Buddhist monk; he spent a week at a temple, but it wasn't for him. He got a desk job at a hotel (blessed be the air-conditioning), but was ousted for some unstated reason. He ended up as a tour guide.
The sweltering day arrived. As we clambered up and down the ruins Vithou wouldn't stop talking, or touching my arm, even when I wanted to absorb the sacred nature of the temples. He kept telling the same stories. And yet he wouldn't answer my questions, including one about why the Khmer Rouge hadn't totally decimated Angkor Wat.
He brought me to a breakfast place and expected me to pay for his meal. He kept telling me when to take photos and when not to.
"I can take whatever photo I want to," I finally said, annoyed.
In a dark temple, as we crouched down to look at a stone figure behind some rubble, he pulled me forward.
"Please," I said, "don't pull me."
The final straw came on the second day of our tour. Several times, he grimaced, rubbed his stomach and asked me to take him out for fried rice. I'd had enough. I asked the driver to drop him off at the hotel.
As we said goodbye, I still couldn't tell whether Vithou was grinning or scowling.
Suddenly, I asked myself: Why do I think I'm any better than he is? My heart began to soften. Here was a young man who was trying to make the best of his situation, trying to make as much money as he could to help his family.
Why should I resent his behaviour?
Since when had I become the arrogant tourist?
FACT FILE
You can fly to Siem Reap from several Asian cities, including Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok. There's also a short flight from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on Bangkok Air. Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor Wat, is about three miles south of the main temple.
If you like the water, you can take a boat from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap via Tonle Sap Lake. The trip takes several hours and costs about $US35 ($A38.50). If you're on a budget, you can make the trip on a bus for as little as $US11 ($A12). If you do so, guidebooks recommend bringing earplugs, because the Cambodian pop music played on the buses can get loud.
FINDING A GUIDE: I booked my guide through my hotel's tour desk for a pricey $US40 ($A44) per day. You can probably do better by checking out the tour companies near the Old Market. Guidebooks also recommend Diethelm (www.diethelmtravel.com) and Exotissimo (www.exotissimo.com) - top tour operators, but also expensive.
My advice would be to bring a good guidebook on the temples and see them on your own, unless you're the kind of person who enjoys every single anecdote about King Suryavarman II. If you'd really like to get a guide, try hiring him or her for just a day and see whether you get much out of the experience.
Entrance fees for Angkor Wat are $US20 ($A22) for a one-day ticket, $US40 ($A44) for a three-day ticket and $US60 ($A66) for a one-week ticket. The temples are open from 5.30am to 5.30pm. I'd recommend a two- to three-day visit, including seeing the main temple at sunrise one day.
The area containing the major temples, including Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, Banteay Kdei and Preah Khan, is about 41sqkm. You can hire a driver for about $US25 ($A27.50) a day, or a tuk-tuk (a cart pulled by a motorbike) for about $US16 ($A17.60), or a motorcycle taxi for about $US8 ($A9).
For a view of Angkor Wat at sunrise or sunset, enter the front of the compound, walk about halfway toward the main temple and make a left or right onto the fields. Even if you go early, you'll probably be competing with a crowd, but that's your best chance at a great photo.
Many of the temples are undergoing restoration, so you'll find certain sections closed to visitors.
Cambodia is hot and sunny, so hit the temples early in the day. Bring a small backpack with bottles of water, and wear sunscreen and a cap.
To get the most out of your visit, it does help to be physically fit. Climbing up the steep steps of several of the temples, clambering around the ruins, just travelling from temple to temple - all of it can get gruelling, especially in the heat.
WHERE TO STAY: I enjoyed staying at Hotel de la Paix (Sivatha Boulevard; www.hoteldelapaixangkor.com), a modern, stylish place with art deco and Khmer influences. A journalist friend also recommended Viroth's Hotel (0658 Wat Bo Village; www.viroth-hotel.com), chic and affordable with only seven rooms.
WHERE TO EAT: I had good meals at several places across town, including Khmer Kitchen Restaurant (just north of the Old Market), the Sugar Palm (south of the Caltex gas station), the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Angkor (Pokambor Avenue) and Viroth's Restaurant (246 Wat Bo Street).
OTHER SIGHTS: If you're tired of the temples, the Angkor National Museum is a nice respite, and it's air-conditioned. You'll find a room with 1000 Buddha statues and a model of the main temple.
The Old Market is in the heart of town and is a good place to buy souvenirs and T-shirts. You can haggle with the vendors to your heart's content.
OTHER TIPS: The Caltex gas station (also known as Starmart) in the middle of town on National Route 6 is a good all-purpose convenience store. You can get coffee and croissants there, and there's an ATM inside.
13 comments:
"...the arrogant tourist..."
Indeed!
For anyone else who finds themselves in this situation, try treating the local guide with the same respect and courtesy you would like to be treated with yourself, if the roles had been reversed!
Why not politely explain to the guide your needs, wishes and what you expect of him?
Understand cultural differences, or language barriers, or different expectations.
Is that so difficult?!
The $40 per day paid for the local guide would almost certainly not have all gone to the guide - the hotel would surely take their cut.
As the writer himself says, the local guide was just tying to earn some living for himself and family, and I'm sure this journalist could easily afford to buy him a local meal or three!
Otherwise, a good article, but spoiled by the writer's bad treatment of his local guide.
I hope that don'r go to Cambodia holiday and be acre full some bad peoples may involving with the Cambodians cruel Vampire Police to make a not real story to put you in jail, I am in Cambodian prison on date 5-5-2010 to date 19-6-2010 by a Cambodian Mrs:Ung SivNgeng as I am help her to do the paper work to came holiday in Australia and when she arrived in Australia I offer free food & stayed at my house twice, first in 2004 and second in year 2005, on December I am also let her borrowed my money under twelve thousand American dollars to bought her first house at 43C, STREET (SONY 3), SANGKAT TERK TLAR, KHAN SEN SOK, PHNOM PENH CITY CAMBODIA, and she Open the Bussiness as TAY HOK LAY CUT GLASS at #117, SANGKAT ORUSSEY 3, KHAN 7 MAKARA, PHNOM PENH CITY CAMBODIA, Mrs:Ung SivNgeng force her cousin sister Mrs:Ung Heav make up not real story to the Cambodia Police by paid bribe & offer her body with her cousin sister to Cambodian cruel Vampire Police said that I has been rape Mrs:Ung Heav as I didn't rape her Mrs:Ung Heav at all, the Cambodian Government officers and peoples in Cambodia look like the Vampire, even I am Cambodian born still scare about Cambodians peoples in Cambodia, Cambodians peoples after year 1975 to year 1979 during Khmer Rough / Pol Pot regime under a cruel Vampire Yuonese / Vietnamese hidden faces behind the killing fields more worse than Vampire, from Cambodian Victim arrested by the cruel Cambodian Police by unjustice.
This man know only himself.
He came developed country should get more understanding local culture, condition of local people lives.
Especially, he should be talked with the guide straight away what he wanted/needed. This tourist was really arrogant one.
He did not only creat problem on his own but also he added and pushed other tourist to take local guide service just only one day. He is a real mad tourist.
To all others tourists please donot interest his comment. Our country has just got time to servce tourist in order to develope our country as you know war caused a lot destruction including human resources. Think again.............?
It's just a travel review. Calm down!
I was at the entrence of Ta Prom. I see a young man sitting alone . I ask him what he is doing : are you a guide , are you the janitor of the temple ? No was his answer , he came here because he has nothing to do , his parent were passing away and now he stay in the Angkor Wat pagoda. He said he would like to travel back to his hometown to work in the field . I gave him Ten (10) US $ then I walk up to the temple but he follow me and ask if I want him to show the way to go up, I accept his offer because I think he want to thank me for the money I gave , no ! after a few walk he turn back and ask for some more $10.00 and said he would buy a bike to return to his hometown.Well I feel trapped and give him another $10.00 and I told him that I will be back here tomorrow and I hope I would see him here again. I am afraid he never return to his hometown.
YOU STUPID HEAD ABOVE !!!The tourist go to the country in their vacation is to relax! and the advise is to other tourits!
He not there to teach other to run their business! You tourist department should organize a guid association to give licent to traineed guid so tourist can relie and find proper service in your country!
Stupid why don't leurn and improve but ask bege all the time!
YOU STUPID HEAD ABOVE !!!The tourist go to the country in their vacation is to relax! and the advise is for other tourits!
He was not there to teach other to run their business!
Cambodia tourist department should organize a guid association to give licenc to traineed guid so tourist can relie and find proper service in your country!
Stupid why don't leurn and improve but bege all the time! or expect people to accept you bad quality of service!
Be professianal boy and girld to have people respect you!
Hey! boy we are free for more than 15 Years! let upgrade our service to internatinal level! would you?
You do not see LADA on the street any more!!!
Organize, fool copy from Thai or even Vietname!
WHY YOUR CAMBODIAN PEOPLE WAITING TO LONG TO KILL HUN SEN AND HIS GANGS. KILL HIM NOW BEFORE HE DESTROYS YOUR LOVELY LAND. NOTHING ELSE FOR COMMENT.
Hello all,
I am a Siem Reap resident who have heard a lot of complains about tour guide. Even small estaurant owners across Siem Reap said that they work very hard but make less money than tour guides. Exemple if a tour guide ordered the bus or taxi driver to stop at a restaurant, the restaurant owner have to pay them 2 to 3 dollars per head-tourist.Just think about how much the restaurant can make money out of a $10 lunch? The consequence is when the restaurants have no choice but increase the fee charged to the costommers, then the food price woold be more and more expensive.Same thing happens to all the gift shop including small hut gift shops along the streets.The government will have to take a look at that for the reputation of the Khmer tourist industry.Tour guides must go through professional training and also refreshment in a timing basis.
Waque up ! H.E..Minister !
That is so true !
Tour guides are very anarchique !
They works for fee+ tips+commission.And if the rstaurant owners don't pay them high, those buses and taxi never stop there. The "obligation to pay"by restaurant and gift shop owners are going up as competion auction; from $1-$2-$3 and more and more...
"I came to Angkor Wat seeking enlightenment...Instead, I found Vithou."
= I don't know why this tourist had to endure so long with this unqualified tour guide named Vithou to the point that he is willing to characterize the tour guide that he doesn't even know?
As for me... I would ask for another qualified tour guide if I don't feel comfortable or even request a female tour guide! Even in Cambodia the tourists have a choice to pick and choose what they want and what they don't want! If you are going to pay with your money, why not make it worth.
Post a Comment