The temples of Angkor were all that I had imagined and more. Angkor Wat was of course a highlight but almost every temple that we visited during our 2-day visit was special in its own way. The other two that particularly stood out for me were the Bayon Temple at Angkor Thom with its carved faces and of course the tree-strangled ruins of Ta Prom.

Angkor Wat is around 20 minutes from the town of Siem Reap and it takes little imagination to travel back into the Golden Age of Angkor.

Even though my family and I were visiting at one of the busiest times of the year (Khmer New Year, 13-15 April), I still found an inherent tranquillity to the temples. It is as if all the effort and devotion that had been put into their design and construction still imbues the structure: I am truly in awe of those responsible for their creation.

Weather-wise the best time to visit Angkor is from December to March. April is the start of the hot season and from May to September the rains can be heavy.

The weather was mixed during our stay in April. We had some heavy rain, gales on one afternoon but sunshine most of the time.

In spite of the Khmer New Year crowds, Angkor Wat did not disappoint, far from it in fact.

To avoid the hubbub at the front of the temple our guide took us through the trees at the back. On first sight it did not look anything special but the bas relief depicting the Hindu story of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk was the first indication that this was indeed a Wonder of the World.

I had seen pictures of Angkor Wat but it was not until we started walking along the many corridors that I appreciated the sheer scale of the temple. Even though the New Year crowd was growing, my experience and appreciation of Angkor Wat was in no way diminished.

Angkor Wat was occupied for longer than most, if not all, of the other temples in the Angkor Archaeological Park which might explain why, despite its age (around 900 years), it is in a very good state of repair.

I knew there were a lot of temples in the Angkor Archaeological Park which is why, for convenience and to save time, I opted for a private, organized tour for our relatively short visit. By the way, I suggest 2 days is the bare minimum amount of time you should allow.

We purchased a 3-day pass for the temples at a cost of US$40 per head. You will need a passport-size photo for the pass: we took our own along but I understand they will take one on the spot for you at no charge.

The other main highlights of our visit were:

Bayon Temple

I suppose the key reason I found the Bayon Temple so appealing was the large, enigmatic faces carved into the brickwork. I didn’t count them but apparently there are 54 towers decorated with over 200 smiling faces of Avolokitesvara, which in Sanskrit means the lord who looks in every direction.

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm is best known as the backdrop to the movie ‘Tomb Raider’: it is truly so fantastical it is almost unreal. Large trees straddle, and in many cases, are strangling this ancient monument. I understand that the task of restoring this temple would be so huge that the authorities are currently leaving it to nature to continue its ravaging march. To an extent it must look now as it would have done to those explorers who re-discovered these abandoned temples of Angkor in the 19^th Century.

Preah Khan

For a sense of how Ta Prohm might look restored visit Preah Khan temple, built by King Jayavarman VII. Preah Khan has towered enclosures and shoulder-hugging corridors like Ta Prohm but it is in a better state of preservation and there are ongoing restoration efforts to improve it.

We also did our, almost obligatory, sunset stop at Pre Rup. I don’t know if, over the years, I have become blasé about sunsets (I hope not) but I did not find this anything special. Just a lot of people waiting around for a long time, for not very much. On the positive side, the setting (and, I imagine, the rising) sun picks out the colour of the red brickwork.

I feel certain that I shall return to Cambodia and a repeat visit to Angkor will certainly be on my list.

If you have visited the Temples of Angkor what were the highlights for you?

Images Credit: www.Hookedonasia.org Creative Commons

Black & White portrait by subcomandanta via Flickr

I am writing this piece to make a small contribution to the promotion of Cambodia as a tourist destination. Tourism is one of the country’s few foreign exchange earners and so will play a key role in alleviating the country’s economic woes.

The Phnom Penh Post reports that figures for the first half of 2009 show an overall decline in the number of foreign visitors, with South Korea down by as much as one third. Needless to say there have been job losses.

I realise that talk of poverty, prostitution and human trafficking is not what you would normally associate with tourism promotion, but I have always believed in telling it like it is. For the most part, as a tourist, you would not be aware of these problems but crucially, if you were to visit the country, you could be part of the solution, particularly if using companies that follow responsible tourism principles.

Cambodian Government Aims High

Despite the negative indicators, according to the Straits Times, the government is predicting that next year annual arrivals will increase to 3 million: that’s up from 2.15 million in 2008, a projected increase of 39% over 2 years.

This is perhaps an ambitious figure in today’s climate but, if it is a realistic target, I am all for aiming high. I read that, amidst the gloom, arrivals from Vietnam at least increased by 40% in the first half of this year (2009): it’s a start.

Cambodia Angkor Air Launched This Week

Airport sign by aZAMirui via Flickr

The government hopes that the country’s new national airline, Cambodia Angkor Air, launched this week, will add to the momentum. This is a joint venture between Cambodia (51%) and Vietnam Airlines (49%) and the first flights connect Phnom Penh (Cambodia’s capital), Siem Reap (the gateway to Cambodia’s famed Angkor temples) with Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. A service between Siem Reap and the Cambodian beach resort of Sihanoukville will follow. The collaboration operates as a code share, which in practical terms means flight numbers are prefixed by one or both of the airlines’ 2-character designator codes (K6 and VN); and gives the fledgling airline connections to Vietnam Airlines’ international routes.

Cambodia: The Perfect Tourist Package – City, Culture And Beach

Phnom Penh rooftops by Anduze traveller via Flickr

Cambodia, via its two international gateways, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, is already well served by direct flights from regional hubs like Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore; but these new services by the national carrier both increase air capacity and give the country a degree of autonomy.

Sihanoukville beach

CC photo: John Einar Sandvand, Cambodia Tales

Once the airport at Sihanoukville has officially opened (at the time of writing I do not have a date but I understand it’ll be soon) all of this will combine to give Cambodia the perfect tourist package: city, culture and beach, all accessible by air. The existing accommodation inventory also offers a wide choice of places to stay: from guest houses right the way up, in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh at least, to 5 star luxury.

Cambodia then has the start of a sound tourist infrastructure.

The Two Jewels In Cambodia’s Tourism Crown

Angkor Wat by mtchm via Flickr

Whether or not tourist arrivals hit 3 million next year, by continuing to cater for a wider range of visitors, the industry can attract a higher spend and that is what is needed. For me quality is more important than quantity (but then I’m not running the country!) and I believe it important that all tourist developments should be responsible ones.

The Family at Ta Prohm

Finally I would just briefly mention the two jewels in the country’s tourism crown: 1) The World Heritage site of Angkor and 2) The people.

I will be writing about the temples of Angkor elsewhere but for now let me say that the temple complex, close to Siem Reap, is one of the most awesome sites I have seen in 25 years of travelling in Asia.

Smiling face by mrcharly via Flickr

The people, in my experience, are gentle and charming and for the fortitude shown over decades of war, genocide and instability, they have my respect and admiration. Since 1997 their focus has been firmly on the future and I am sure you, as a visitor, would receive a gracious, warm welcome.

I realise discretionary income is tight at the moment but if you are undecided about where to spend your next vacation let me recommend Cambodia : this pocket-size country has a lot to offer. A word of warning though: after visiting once you will want to go back, and as the country continues to develop there will be plenty to go back for!

If you know Cambodia and would like to give more reasons why someone should consider it for their vacation please comment below.

If you do not know the country and have a question about it, post a comment too: I am sure someone will be able to help

As I learn more about it I am left with mixed-feelings not the least of which is that it has become something of a marketing bandwagon. I recently read an article by Daniela Papi of PEPY in Cambodia that makes a very good point: in effect Daniela argues that good intentions can be dangerous and should be applied with caution. With Daniela’s permission I have re-published her article below.

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Giving things away can cause more harm than good (voluntourism & traveler philanthropy gone wrong)
By Daniela Papi

Someone asked what the impact of many tour companies and individuals looking to offer philanthropic opportunities in developing areas might be…. here are my thoughts and a story from my experiences in Cambodia.

Rice Field: Siem Reap, Cambodia

I think that it can be a tricky line to walk for those entering a new culture or area and looking to help. Knowing who to trust, what to do/give, where to put support, what that support should be designed like, if/how their should be community by-in/support/funding to make it happen, who will monitor it, how changes will be made, etc etc, is a lot to take on. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t but it means there is a lot to learn, and even more to learn once we start and make mistakes. There are so many groups in Cambodia coming in and digging wells or giving away filters and sometimes those things do harm (wells leeching arsenic from bedrock, breaking and sitting unfixed as there is no local ownership, etc). Here’s a story for you:

Playing with water, Cambodia

In the rural Cambodian district where we work at PEPY, most people were drinking directly from the local pumps. We had the water tested and found high levels of bacteria so we identified what we believe to be the best and most affordable filter and decided to try to get these used in the community. We saw that there was a man in a town 10km away who had begun selling these in his shop and we were able to purchase them and have them delivered to our target area to be sold for the same price at $11.50.

In order to be able to sell the filters, we required that the teachers attend a training and learn how to teach others proper use of the filters. We invited someone from the organization where the filters are made to come explain how the work, how they are made, and how best to take care of them. The teachers were given charts with this information and were taught how to then present this information to anyone who was purchasing a filter.

Angkor On A Bike

The filter program worked well and the teachers were able to get over 150 water filters into local homes. The price for the filter is not insignificant, but the community had seen the results of having clean water as we had been using the filters in the local schools and had drastically increased attendance at school as absences due to sickness went going down. We were excited about the benefits these new filters would have on the overall community health.

Then a foreign funded group came through, looking to “help the poor people” of the area. They began selling the same filters at $3 each, far below what they had paid for them.

In one day, without knowing it, they actually greatly HARMED the potential for health increases in the area. They thought they were “doing good” by giving things away, or subsidizing them, but instead, without knowing much about the area, they:

- damaged the market potential for both our teacher’s filter sales program and the nearby shop owner

- built mistrust as the community now thought the filters really should have been much cheaper or that they should hold off on buying them as someone might come give them one

- did not do the training/education necessary to actually help people understand how/why they work – so people are not taking care of them, thereby undermining the power of the very filters they distributed

- created a situation where the richer (all relative of course) people no longer want that product. It is “cheap” – subsidized to the poor people, so it must not be good, in their minds. Those who can afford it have now been saving up for the nearly $20 filters being marketed by Korean groups which are much more high tech looking but actually do not remove bacteria from the water, but with a higher price tag, no education coming with the product, and community trust damaged, some are using their very limited budgets to buy a product which is often essentially one month’s worth of income and not effective.

In this case, “giving things away” took away the very thing they were trying to provide: a chance to have clean water.

Tourists At Angkor Wat

What does this have to do with voluntourism? The same effects can happen if voluntourism projects are designed by those coming in from the outside. I’ve done it wrong myself, damaged existing markets or systems, and have seen the results, so I’d love to help people from doing the same. Now that I have been in Cambodia 4 years, I can see the results of mistakes I have made, but some voluntourism is in and out, with limited or no monitoring or follow up. In those, and all cases, the more local know how and existing power and social structures are used, in my opinion, the more likely it is to avoid the mistakes of doing harm when intending to do good.

Unfortunately with more and more entities designing voluntourism experiences with limited local buy in – the more worried I am about the overall scheme of things.

Image credits: Rice Field-Frederic Poirot; Playing with water-mrcharly; Angkor On A Bike-latigi; Tourists At Angkor Wat-kenworker. All via flickr

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Daniela Papi is the founder of PEPY and is outspoken about her concerns for the negative impacts of the growth of the voluntourism sector due to mistakes she has made and witnessed in her work in Cambodia. She grew up in New York but has spent the last seven years in Asia working in education and tourism. She currently manages PEPY from her Cambodia office in Siem Reap.

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This reinforces my belief that I should take a restrained approach to the concept of voluntourism but what do you think? Does it have a place in the tourist industry? Would you participate in an activity in this sector?

Be prepared, it is not a feel-good, glossy travelogue: it touches on the horrors of the Khmer Rouge years and reveals today’s harsh reality of Pol Pot’s legacy.

I am no expert but I reckon Josh has produced an excellent video here. Although he is obviously motivated by his Christian beliefs, his message hits at a very basic, human, spiritual level.

The video ends on a positive note: one of hope. And I totally agree with the conclusion that education is the key

Travel and tourism is a double-edged sword. However, on the positive side, I believe that through the industry’s contribution to the economy, it is playing its part in supporting the country’s efforts to make up for the years of lost education.

There is of course plenty more that needs to be done and I am keen to find out as much as I can about the various agencies that are working in Cambodia providing educational support. Can you help?

Cambodia Documentary Rough Draft from Whisper Productions on Vimeo.

Ta Prohm

Ever since (sometime in the 1970’s) I read about Cambodia’s unwilling part in the Vietnam War I have had a special regard for the country. It took me a long time but finally, last year, I visited Cambodia.

My visit to Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor was all I expected and more. The sheer scale of this World Heritage site was a surprise and the architecture a delight. The preservation work has been a true labour of love and even those sites where work is nigh impossible there is a very special magic. Take Ta Prohm for example where Nature has re-established her dominance. In terms of drama and romance it is probably my favourite.

For me, however, the true heart of any country is the people without whose ancestors these architectural wonders would not exist. And surely the spirit of the Cambodians is something to be marvelled at. Of all the peoples in the world who have been deposited upon from a very great height these have to be among the most stalwart.

Their mettle was most severely tested during the unthinkable and unspeakable horrors of the Khmer Rouge and, some 30 years on, as the trials of five senior Khmer Rouge figures get under way in Phnom Penh this week, the International Herald Tribune has a very interesting article on a former Tuol Sleng prison guard, Him Huy.

Him Huy argues, like others in history, that it was a case of kill or be killed.

I am sure that you, like me, want to believe that in the same situation when faced with a choice you would have made the right decision, the morally correct one. Hopefully we will never be in a position where we are put to the test.

As you travel around Cambodia today you could be passing dozens or even hundreds of men like Him Huy but you would never know; because just like him, the people now are gentle and friendly. No matter what their personal history people are getting on with life and making the best of what they have, and most don’t have much. Victims of land mines play their musical instruments at the side of the lanes leading to a temple while others create works of art from wood and stone. Children sell postcards and trinkets at the temple gates.

These children could be in education, which the government provides free for 9 years, but the chances are they are not. It is true that these children have a choice, of sorts, whereas those of school age during Pol Pot’s time (1975 – 1979) had no such option. Schools were closed and turned-over to other uses, school materials were destroyed and teachers were either killed or they fled. However, education doesn’t pay today’s bills.

I see though a brighter future in much of the good work going on in the country both through the country’s government and outside agencies like World Education. It is my hope that through such efforts more children will enjoy their human rights.

I have to say that few countries have touched me the way that Cambodia has and I hope that in my own small way I can contribute to the country’s growth by proselytizing its virtues as a tourist destination.

In the meantime, please don’t leave it as long as I did to visit.

In the UK, as air travellers, we are quite well protected financially but only if we are booking our travel arrangements through an ATOL bonded operator; in which case our operator’s ATOL licence gives cover under the government backed-scheme. This area is potentially quite confusing but the ATOL site covers the topic very well.

On my last trip to Asia (Singapore, Cambodia and Thailand) I bought my air tickets through one agent (ATOL bonded) and my accommodation through two separate online accommodation agents. My flights were ATOL protected, my accommodation wasn’t! I wasn’t being totally reckless though because I purchased the accommodation with a credit card and so was covered under the Consumer Credit Act. I am also talking about early 2008 when most people had no inkling of a “credit crunch”, £1.00 equalled $2.00 and everything in the travel world was rosy!

Now that we are in these more uncertain times I am wondering to what extent we are more wary about whom we give our money to. For example, if I were booking that same holiday to Singapore, Cambodia and Thailand now would I be booking the whole thing through an ATOL operator or would I still mix and match?

On balance I would probably do the same thing again but then I have been doing this for over 25 years and would find it difficult to surrender total control to a third party! But if my flights were not covered by an ATOL licence, for example they were with a no-frills carrier, I would make sure I had insurance cover against airline failure.

As an aside, it is worth mentioning that booking everything with the same ATOL holder means more than just financial protection. If anything goes wrong with the trip, the company is obliged to help you out; whereas doing it my way means you are on your own.

Are people more wary now than they were say a year ago?

In the UK we are now very used to spotting bargains and we like to think we know how to play the game. As ever it is he or she who can hold their nerve the longest will (usually) win. If you are totally flexible about when and where you travel and you can wait, generally speaking, you will probably (but not certainly) pick up the best deal. Although with reduced supply (of air seats if not hotel rooms) you also need to understand the patterns of demand.

For example I would wait longer for a flight bargain for travel in say May than I would in late July/early August. May is a low-season month in most of Asia while the summer school holidays, in my opinion, will still see a peak in traveller numbers despite the economic challenges.

My comments above were peppered with caution because there is still an element of chance involved in this game: there are many factors to consider. Here are some:

• Seasonality. A quiet month in one destination (say Phuket) is a busy month in another (say Bali).
• There will be a limit to how low a hotel will go with its rates (particularly at the upper end) because they know they will have a struggle getting them back up again later.
• Domestic travel is being encouraged and could take up some slack (particularly during local holiday periods e.g. mid April in Thailand and Cambodia).
• There are other opportunistic travellers around playing the same game.

Like the article above concluded do your homework and be ready to strike.

My philosophy is if the price is right for you, take your pick and remember when opportunity knocks you have to decide, Deal or No Deal?