The simplest impression of Cambodia comes from watching Tomb Raider when I was a child. Angelina Jolie's proud figure and sexy lips add a layer of mystery against the ruins of ancient civilization in Angkor Wat. The dry season from June 5438 to April is the best time to visit Cambodia. China 1 1 day holiday focuses on transporting a large number of tourists to this land within one week, which has made a good start for the Cambodian tourist season.
First impression: Siem Reap.
Cambodia is famous for Angkor Wat and Khmer Rouge. I chose to fly to this familiar and unfamiliar land after the holiday of 5438+0 1 in June, avoiding the traveling army and stepping on the tail of the rainy season. 10, the rainy season in Cambodia has not completely ended. I stayed in Cambodia for eight days and experienced three or four rains. The rain in Cambodia is always heavy and fast. If it rains every day, the hot air will cool instantly, which will not affect the trip.
When I first arrived in Siem Reap, the airport shaped the first impression of the city to tourists. A flat low-rise building with only one floor, with a big wooden slope roof in Southeast Asia, less than 5 minutes from the airport. There is only a glass door between the arrival hall and the departure hall, but the mini baggage conveyor belt, supporting wooden facilities and clean and exquisite toilets all make people realize the local people's love for life.
Siem Reap is as small as its airport, and it takes 20 minutes to drive from the airport to the city center. The hotel we booked was near the old market, so the hotel invited a bus to pick us up. In Siem Reap, the shuttle bus is enough to walk rather than walk. It takes about half an hour to reach any corner of the city and Angkor Wat. Many tourists take the shuttle bus to visit this Millennium-immortal cultural legend.
Kongbangkelangshui village
There are many private hotels in Siem Reap, and there are many hotels under construction from the city center. Ali, the China tour guide and driver we hired in Siem Reap, also plans to build his own hotel. People everywhere want to build hotels. The number of tourists visiting Siem Reap is increasing every year, and the number of existing hotel rooms can no longer be satisfied. A room that sold for 50 dollars a night last year rose to 80 dollars this year. My family is also building a house to make a hotel now, so we don't have to go out for a sports car after it is built.
Most hotels in Siem Reap are small buildings with four or five floors, with four or five rooms on each floor. Crown hotels all over the world have come and consciously lose weight. Every building is painted red, gray, yellow or white. There are no modern glass exterior walls and high-grade automatic revolving doors. Looking from a height, the small buildings with different heights are composing a light and simple song in the afternoon sunshine.
Although our hotel is small, its layout is exquisite. The mourning platform in front of the door, the flowers and plants by the wall, the statues and tributes in the grass, the running water of a small bridge in the corner, the stone carvings on the wall, and the mint water held before moving in, all make me feel very lovely. Although the hotel is small, it is equipped with a swimming pool. After a day's walk, you can come back here, soak in the clear water, bathe in the moonlight and enjoy the flowers and shadows in the water. The fatigue of the day has disappeared.
A country on a motorcycle
A touch of yellow on the temple.
Chutu bus is the most important and extensive public transport in Cambodia, so it is enough to walk around this small town. Going out to visit the night market at night, the third floor of the roadside is full of sudden coaches. During the day, around the market, the roads become crowded because cars suddenly stop at the side of the road to attract customers. There is a driver soliciting on the road. Shaking hands and shaking your head to refuse the driver is also a physical activity.
There were frequent traffic jams in the village, and we spent the last two days of our trip in Phnom Penh. Since 4 pm, it has become very difficult to travel by car, and most of us rely on the sudden arrival of buses. I still remember when we drove out of the city to the Khmer Rouge killing fields, there was a traffic jam on the main road, and the driver immediately turned around and crossed the alley, watching the car stop on the road and waiting helplessly. I have to sigh that the bus is really practical.
Except for unexpected buses, you can only travel by bus, motorcycle and bus 1 1 in Cambodia. Motorcycles can carry loads and pull trucks, which is very popular with local P.
Cambodia's road conditions are not good, and long-distance travel is not easy. Siem Reap is about 300 kilometers from Phnom Penh. It takes 6-7 hours by bus, while the same distance in China only takes 2-3 hours. Therefore, SUV, CRV, JEEP and other high-chassis cars are more popular in Cambodia, and because of the hot weather and abundant sunshine, the price of dark cars such as black cars is often lower than that of light cars. However, dusty roads are also a major feature of Cambodia. The cart passed by, and the loess was all over the sky. We all wear masks when we travel in a sudden car.
Close to poverty.
Angkor sunrise
It has only been more than ten years since Cambodia ended the war and resumed its economic development. The domestic economic life has prospered a lot, but the huge gap between the rich and the poor has also moved me as a tourist.
On the morning when Brother Xiao Wu watched the sunrise, we set off at 4: 30 and passed a children's hospital in Siem Reap. We were shocked by the long queue at the hospital gate. Ali told us that this is a French-run hospital. In Cambodia, many poor families can't afford to treat their children, so this hospital regularly holds half-day free clinics. On the day of the free clinic, adults come to the queue with their children before dawn, fearing that their children will get sick.
Poverty can be seen everywhere in Cambodia. When traveling through the village of Siem Reap, there are only simple furniture and a hammock in a thatched hammock on the roadside. Children who play barefoot and are covered with dust are in rags. Women who are idle at home occasionally feed Ali, a white cow, on the roadside, saying that many Cambodian women stay at home to have children after marriage and do not work, even though their families are not rich.
In Cambodia, every family has at least two children, with a maximum of six or seven. Ali has six brothers and sisters. Because of poverty, Ali left home to work, build a house, drive a bus and become a monk when he was 14 years old. Ali is learning English in a temple. When I was young, I shared a small house with a friend who was a night security guard. It's only 80 dollars a month. There is only one bed in the room, because their working hours are just staggered and they can take turns sleeping.
In Cambodia, the distance between the rich and the poor is very close. Not far from the French hospital, it is a bustling bar street and night market, with various restaurants, massage shops, cake houses and cosmeceuticals, but most of the consumers are foreigners. Eating in these restaurants costs about 10 USD per capita, which is equivalent to domestic consumption, but for local people, it is a two-day family dinner. My friend is engaged in international trade in Phnom Penh and has lived in Cambodia for a long time. There are six people in the company who spend $5 on meals every day. If you bargain when you buy food, you can already buy fish, meat, eggs, vegetables and other ingredients for $5. You change the collocation every day, and every day is different. Friend, this is the truest local life.
After arriving in Phnom Penh, we stayed at the Golden Street Hotel, which opened the only casino in Cambodia. In front of the hotel, there is traffic every day, and gamblers spend a lot of money here. Every night, the band performs singing and dancing. I was confused by listening to music that day and mistakenly thought that Jiang and French Children's Hospital were not in the same country.
Khmer smile
Smile of Khmer bayon temple
Even so, Cambodians still enjoy their present life, and Angkor has taught people peace.
On the boat from Kampong Krone to Tonle Sap Lake, Ali said that this floating village is his mother's hometown, where there are many fish. When I was a child, when I was on a boat, fish would jump out of the water. When he is not working, he often goes fishing in tonle sap river with his fishing rod. While speaking, the boat of the local villagers passed by. They didn't sell products to us, they just waved their welcome to us.
Walking in Angkor is like entering and just visiting. As temples can be traced back to the time when they were built, this is a project that has gone through decades and may take up the lives of many craftsmen. The most attractive place of Angkor should be the mark left by time, from construction to abandonment to discovery.
Walking by the river near beng mealea, there are stones on the river bank that have not been sent to Angkor before. It is said that the mined stones can't be carried away by water every year before the rainy season rises. Elephants need to pull stones day and night 10 years to pile the stones into the original appearance of the temple; And those who lived thousands of years ago and were called real wax seem to have an obsession with stone carving. The lintels, columns, cloisters and external walls of temples should not be left blank. Even in the most magnificent little Wu Ge, this is an unfinished work, and you can still find stone carvings that have not been carved.
Angkor is full of peddling children. Most of them can speak many languages, such as Chinese, English, Japanese and French, to attract tourists' attention. Branches everywhere have become brushes in children's hands, and the earth is drawing paper. We often find lovely pictures on the ground around the temple. More interestingly, a child tore off the moss on the surrounding stones, drew a picture frame one by one, drew an elephant, and colored his masterpiece with the most natural crayons.
When I got home, I couldn't forget smiling at the Khmer for a long time. I was deeply attracted by it at first sight, and stopped to stare for a long time, reluctant to go. I can't wait to lift a stone and sit there, quietly watching these smiles, and I will regain my calm after the shock. I envy people who live in Angkor. They can touch it when they look up. Perhaps it is in the morning and night that people realize the Zen in this smile.