I assume that many readers of this blog have been to Siem Reap and visited the unrestored ruins of Ta Phrom. From the main road, you need to walk up a long path before you enter the old Khmer temple, but it's probably a 10 minute stroll, so you've got to wonder about this report from a Guardian writer who has just got his facts plain wrong. And this talk about "hooting geckos"? Has anybody here ever heard a "hooting gecko"? And you don't "trek" through a jungle to reach this temple. It's a very wide road and very well maintained. Trekking is not required, unless you are a writer who needs to spice up your story. Poisonous snakes and squaking parrots? I don't think so. Nice copy, but it ain't real. Travel writing at its most unreal.
Ta Prohm was a world away from these dark associations. To get there we trekked through thick monsoon-green jungle for an hour, as the children saw huge centipedes, squawking parrots, cicadas as loud as car alarms, hooting geckos and, best of all, a green poisonous snake hunting a lizard, one of the highlights of the trip for them. But it was the temple which made the biggest impact on me.
Guardian Link
2 Comments:
Sounds like an embellishment to me. Why didn't he just catch a bus, taxi or tuk-tuk like the rest of us?
Have to agree, that writing is way over the top. Even if the writer is trying to be 'fanciful' he's creating the totally wrong impression.
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