Turns out we have a day filled with nothing today. Since we aren’t flying out until so later tomorrow, we’ve decided to wait and visit Wat Phnom in the morning, then come back and shower at the hotel before our flight. So today stretches emptily ahead of us. We don’t want to just wander – there isn’t much to see or do that we haven’t already covered – and it is just too darn hot to just “wander.”
We luck onto an article in one of those little tourist mags about Oudong mountain, the original capital city of Cambodia before it was moved to Phnom Penh. It is an hour or two outside of town, the highest point around in a very flat country, and is said to have fantastic views around the countryside. We research it a little more on the web and find a tuk tuk should cost about $25 to $35, but it is a dusty, bumpy long ride. A car shouldn’t be more than $35 or $4o, so we decide, what the heck? Let’s get out of the city.
We debate the value (literally and figuratively) of a tuk tuk vs. a car, and our normal cheapness gives way to the comfort of an air conditioned vehicle. We ask our favorite hotel staff guy if he can book us a car, he asks when, we say now – ok! Within 5 minutes we have a car and driver and are ready to hit the road. Our driver – Somen, Somak, I don’t know – you know me and pronunciation – or at least hearing and understanding sounds! – is nice, talkative and keeps the car nice and cool.
The drive is all the way north out of the city on National Highway 5, which sounds like it should be easy. Ha! I don’t know what anything relating to roads is easy in Cambodia. This “highway” is a 2 lane road that is crowded and busy, and made worse by the fact that it is under construction for miles. They are obviously upgrading the road, burying new sewer pipes and widening it. But what the construction creates is mass bedlam, traffic congestion and a red dirt duststorm that would make a desert tumbleweed proud. OMG – we so made the right decision with the car. There is no way in hell we would have made it in a tuk tuk. We would have turned around.
All the poor people and businesses along the side of the road – oh we feel for them so. Everything is covered with a thick layer of red clay dust – I’d love to call it a patina of dirt – but patina is too nice a word – too positive a vision. This is just thick, nasty layers or dirt. Yuk.
And there there is the traffic. Huge trucks hauling who knows what, heading North. And the processing plants on the side of the road – rice, potatoes (for bio-fuel), trucks lined up for meters and meters waiting to off load – their drivers relaxing in hammocks they have strung between the bumpers of the trucks.
After at least an hour of the bumpy, dusty road, we finally turn off into the countryside and we can see Oudong in the distance. It is definitely the highest point around. The long lane that leads to the mountain is a peaceful oasis of children on bicycles going home from lunch and 1 or 2 motos zipping around. Nothing like the main roads which is refreshing. As we arrive at our destination, Somak tells us where he will park, and hands us 2 bottles of nice cold water for our climb up to the temples. We also acquire a local “guide,” who we quiz on what he would like for payment. He is much older and seems much more knowledgable than our previous “guide” we “acquired” when we were cycling outside of Siem Reap, the one who wanted more money from us, so we acquiesce to let him “guide” us through the temples. We also acquire a bunch of local kids, 4 of them, maybe 7 or 8 years old, who race up the stairs ahead of us, chuckling and screaming and playing all around us. Very cute, and they sort of disappear, without asking for anything, which is oddly refreshing.
As it turns out, he (name? either didn’t catch it, or he never said) was great. Incredibly knowledgeable, full of interesting facts. He is a student, who – whne there are no classes in the afternoons – comes out to guide at the temples. For both money and practice speaking English. He wants to study to become an architect. His brother is an architect and that is what he wants to do. Go for it. We start up the 580 steps leading to the temples (oh yeah – exercise!)..
..and explaining everything we were seeing. We stop a third of the way up at the fish ponds, one for the Queen, one for the King. They are filled with Tilapia (which seems like a strange choice of fish to us…but what do we know!).
We continue on, stopping again for pictures of the monkey. There are apparently a few monkeys around, this one is “nice,” but there are some that are not so nice. Guide-boy tells that the monkeys have bitten people before. One guy he warned not to mess with the monkey, to just watch and leave it alone, but the guy didn’t listen and tried to get too close and was bitten. Hey – we’re not stupid tourist – we’re listening to the guide. He would know!
Up we continue, until we finally reach the first temple. These temples contain the remains of several Cambodian kings, dating back to the 1800s. Guide-boy gives us tons of details, but, well, this royal city was abandoned – just like my brain on the details!
The view from here is stunning. You can see for miles. Sometimes you can even see as far as Phnom Penh, but it is smoggy today, it’s probably all that darn red dust from the highway, so we can’t see the city at all in the distance.
We walk around the outside of the temple – it is only open at certain times for the local people to pray, or when the King comes for special visits – just enjoying the view and listening to Guide-boy tell us stories of the Buddhist training center below and about the history of Cambodia.
Next up is the temple where we can enter to look at the 850 plus Buddha statues that local people bring to celebrate the King and the dieties represented here. 850! All in varying sizes and materials. Incredible.
We now start our descent – going the “old” way down with “old” stairs – meaning the original rocks that were laid as stairs – so we are very carefully navigating them. We pass by two Stupas with some great ornamental detail. The flowers are made of marble leaves, which are beginning to fall off. They the local people just place them on a ledge, until they can come up and fix them.
Next we visit a series of temples dedicated to teh two dieties who are considered the protectors (??? maybe???) of Cambodia. Their names are really similar, and sound sort of like lion. One of them fought with the diety of Thailand and won the first match, but lost the second because Thailand cheated?
Then onto the panther pagoda. Can’t remember the meaning of it, but it proves to be great for photos!
From here there are also wonderful views back over the complex where you can see all 5 pagoda spires.
Our final stop is the huge Buddha, which now has a new metal roof over the whole structure, the original roof was destroyed from a Pol Pot bombing raid.
We carefully navigate our way down the “original” steps to reach the bottom of the mountain and the walk down the dusty road back to the car. Guide-boy shows us the final stupa where the King’s remains were originally kept before the larger pagodas were built on top of the mountain. As an oxen comes down the road, pulling a supply cart, we walk us towards our final stop, the small memorial to the killing fields and Cambodians lost to the Pol Pot massacre, .
Guide-boy delivers us to our car where Somak awaits. We give Guide-boy a big tip – he was great – and hop back into the comfort of the car.
The ride back was the same as the ride there – crazy, dirty, dusty – this time we snap pictures of the typical incongruous “mansions” built on the side of the National Highway.
Closer in to town, we pass the usual motos filled with deliveries. This one was particularly fun! Maybe we should follow him for lunch?
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