On one of our days out in town we came across a travel company advertising on the street. Their trips looked interesting and their prices reasonable so we booked to go to Koh Ker and Beng Mealea temples as a day trip.
Beng Mealea
Beng Mealea
At this stage I had been living in Cambodia a few months and felt I had the measure of the Khmer people pretty well. I know you shouldn't generalise, but I am going to...in the main Khmer people are warm, friendly and welcoming, generally pretty humble (give someone a complement and they become shy or try to spread the compliment amongst others by stating that someone else was involved in making something a success or that no they are not so kind, generous, helpful etc). Most Khmer people are happy to share and include you in any activities taking place. When I first moved to Cambodia my colleagues couldn't do enough to help me settle in and make me a part of the family. In the main Khmer people are really fab!
"Lead the life that will make you kindly and friendly to everyone about you, and you will be surprised what a happy life you will lead." - Charles M. Schwab
So, imagine my surprise when we met our guide for the day who was none of the things I described above.
"Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful." - John Wooden
Our guide was late and called to ask why we weren't at the hotel we said we were staying at, we explained we weren't staying at a hotel, but lived in Cambodia and were waiting where we had arranged with the company. He shouted at us and hung up. Eventually he picked us up and was notably ruder to us than the rest of the group for the rest of the day.
"Anytime anybody is rude, it makes me double-check my own behavior to make sure I don't do that to other people." - Patricia Heaton
He begun his 'guide talk' by stating that he was the most popular guide in Siem Reap and we were really lucky to have him, normally people only ever hear about someone so popular and never get to meet someone as awesome as him, and he was serious. He also told us that the two temples we would be seeing on that day were boring and there wasnt much to see, I was embarrassed for him and found it really sad that he was acting as such a poor ambassador for Cambodia. We got to Beng Mealea and had a half hour stop for him to have breakfast (everyone else had eaten), this meant a huge bus load of tourists got in before us. He didn't guide us at all at the temple, but spent about 20 minutes telling us who he was connected to in the political world and bragging about his friends on facebook and how cool he was and how he didn't really want to be a guide, but had 'bigger' plans. Such a shame as being a guide is a pretty great job, and even if you are not happy doing any job, do it with some pride and don't let your clients know!
We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world, and we impoverish ourselves if we forget this errand. ~Woodrow Wilson
Every question I asked he was incredibly snarky with me. We moved on to Koh Ker and we were trying to work out logistics, he wouldn't give anyone a straight answer about timings and when I asked he started to shout at me again, so I ended up asking him not to be so aggressive and landed myself in another argument with him. We went into the temple, again he told us nothing and didn't climb to the top with us as there was 'nothing to see'. We had lunch where he and the driver proceeded to get drunk, the tourist group went off to have a look around some of the small nearby temples and the guide and driver went for a sleep and couldn't be found at the arranged time to leave. We drove to some other smaller temples and the guide went to the toilet around the back of the temple - which was incredibly disrespectful. At the end of the trip we emailed the company, twice, to complain with no response. My Khmer friends and my guide friends who have heard this story - and in more depth have all been horrified and embarrassed. It was like a poor comedy show or 'How not to be a guide 101'. A guide friend of mine has asked if he can use this story in training new guides how not to treat tourists.
So, now to the good bits, here are the temples, and believe me, mum and an archaeologist we picked up on the trip, there was plenty to see....
Beng Mealeas was built before Angkor Wat and is seen to be a miniature version of this most impressive temple, perhaps even a test version. Sadly, its in really bad shape and is largely rubble, so easy to see as a beautiful temple when you are there, but hard to photograph...
As you walk in you can see a lot of the damage and disrepair that the temples is suffering from, many of the carvings have also been destroyed or are very worn. Some of the best examples are the snake heads on the bridge as you enter, as above.
I also love the carvings on the stops on these 'doors' found in many of the temples.
This lady is hiding on the outer wall on the left hand side as you look at and walk around the temple. She is one of the only, if not the only carving of its type left on the temple.
This carving is also pretty rare here.
I love these gargoyle style images.
As you can see a lot of the temple is in quite bad disrepair.
It also has quite a lot of trees growing through it, similar to Ta Prohm
Aside from the temples on the way in we found this pretty impressive stag beetle
Goodbye for now Beng Mealea
Next we were on our way to Koh Ker....
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