We’re home and heading back to work after spending 6 days in Cambodia…and it was lovely.
After a grueling day of bus travel, we arrived in Siem Reap, home of the incredible Angkor. I really enjoyed Siem Reap—even aside from all of the temples, the town itself is full of cute little restaurants, cafes and bars. Since it’s a pretty small town, everything is pretty easily walkable.
We started exploring Ankgor’s temples on Tuesday, beginning with the Angkor Thom complex. It was a very surreal sort of experience. It also doesn’t hurt that the weather was amazing. Brilliant-blue cloudless skies, bright sun, cool (compared to Saigon, at least) air, lovely breezes, lots of green. I found myself taking picture after picture, trying to capture just how vivid the colors were—it never worked, of course.
Bayon turned out to be, by far, my favorite. It was such a maze of passages and rooms—every time I thought I had seen all of the first floor, I turned the corner to discover something new! On the upper terrace, there are some 200 huge stone faces on the many towers. Where Angkor Wat is huge and impressive, Bayon is compressed and mysterious, tucked in the center of Angkor Thom among the trees.
We were there right at midday, when the sun was at its hottest, so things were pretty cleared out. I could have sat there for ages, enjoying the breeze and wondering about the incredible civilization that built all of this.
After lunch we headed to Angkor Wat itself. It was incredible, to be sure—especially the bas reliefs—but I didn’t feel as overwhelmed as in some of the other temples. Some sections were under construction, and it was more crowded than other areas. Lots of big tour groups to dodge.
Around 4:30 we climbed Phnom Bakheng to get a spot for the sunset. I knew it would get pretty crowded, but it was a circus by 5:30! I’m glad we got there when we did, because we had a perfect spot on the ledge to watch. The view was incredible even before the sun began to lower.
On Wednesday we set out super early to get back to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. Approaching the temple in the dark was very eerie, and I half expected a zombie to come flying out of the side. It didn’t, thank goodness.
Most people head down off of the main walkway to stand in front of the pond and watch the sun come up over one side. Something about the reflection over the water and “Tomb Raider”…I don’t know. We stayed on the walkway, and it was almost like having the place to ourselves! That is, apart from the food vendor barking at anyone who passed by to visit his restaurant after the sunrise. Oh, and playing some ridiculous Asian hip hop at full blast from his cell phone. Thanks, dude.
A funny side note on vendors at Angkor: there are people in and around all of the temples selling all kinds of souvenirs. Among them are some children, especially little girls. When you say you don’t want to buy, one of the first things they do is ask where you’re from. “USA? Oh, Washington, D.C.! The President is Barack Obama, and his wife is Michelle, and they have two daughters named Malia and Sasha, and their dog Bo is a Portuguese Water Dog…Do you live in Chicago, Washington, D.C. or New York?” I expect they have an equally impressive (and random) list of facts for many of the other nations that send tourists to Angkor—often in their native languages, too! One girl started demonstrating to me her abilities in five languages.
It’s interesting to see the sales techniques utilized by different regions—for instance, here, children seemed to emphasize knowledge (“I need money for school!”). In Sapa, Vietnam, where children also tend to speak a little bit in several languages, it seemed like the emphasis was more on guilt (“You’re my friend—you buy from me!”). Maybe that’s because in Sapa they can follow you around for several days and find out everything about you and your fellow travelers…just interesting.
After breakfast we wandered through a bunch of the minor temples, which was wonderful. Most of them had only a few other visitors, so we felt like we were exploring on our own.
Ta Prohm was the last major temple we visited. It was built in the same style as Bayon, but has been overgrown in many places by enormous silk-cotton trees. I had heard a lot about this one, and fully expected it to be my favorite.
Although the trees were breathtaking to be sure, it was just too crowded there to be a very enjoyable experience. Crowds make me super grouchy (is this a surprise?), and the ones at Ta Prohm were impossible to avoid. There were probably five or six large (and often smelly) tour groups moving through sometimes-small spaces, and it was just a little too claustrophobic for me. Still, gorgeous.
We went to Siem Reap’s night market that evening, which was a total tourist attraction, but lots of fun. It was much bigger than I expected—rows and rows of stalls filled with some really gorgeous souvenirs (nothing different from what was at the Old Market, but still). There were also several little bars, massage stalls, live music, and a ton of Mr. Fish/Mr. Massage/Fish Massage tanks—the ones where little fish eat the dead skin off of your feet! We chose one based on its awesome sign:
I don’t know about “feel differentiate,” “relief” or “global affairs (here)”, but I can safely report that there was plenty of ticklishness, which I guess makes it a funny incident?
Those fish loved our feet. We felt really silly giggling like kids, but you wouldn’t believe how that tickles! Unavoidable.
We caught the end of a performance by a group of young adults with disabilities (mostly due to polio or landmines), and bought a few things before we left.
Cambodia’s currency system is a strange combination of the U.S. dollar and Cambodian riel—prices are often listed in dollars, with small change given in riel. I’ve quickly become accustomed to thinking in Vietnam dong, so seeing prices in dollars was a little jarring! Somehow everything seems more expensive in USD. I found myself mentally converting into VND frequently, trying to determine how the prices compared to what I would pay at home.
On Thursday we spent a lazy morning around town, picking up a few more gifts and enjoying the breeze from the cafes before hopping on a bus back to Phnom Penh. The highlight for me was finding someone selling cotton candy by the side of the river!
Christmas Day itself was sort of a downer. I had some bacon with breakfast that tasted a little funny, but I chalked it up to the differences in the way meat tastes from one country to another. We had planned to spend the day visiting the genocide museum and killing fields (festive, right?) before finding somewhere fun for dinner. Unfortunately, I only made it through about an hour of the museum before I started feeling sick. I spent the rest of the day waiting for the stuff to work its way out of my system!
Tuol Sleng is a former secondary school that was used by the Khmer Rouge regime as a prison, and for torture and extermination. It’s very eerie: the Khmer Rouge fled very quickly, taking time only to kill the remaining prisoners. A photographer documented the complex as it was left, including the rotting corpses chained to beds in each cell. Today, visitors to the museum can wander through the classrooms-turned-cells, most of which contain only a rusting bedframe and mounted photograph of the room as it was discovered.
The museum also houses a collection of photographs taken by the Khmer Rouge of S-21 inmates. It seems to go on forever, but we know that the collection is incomplete: an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 were prisoners at S-21, and there are only 12 known survivors.
Joey saw the rest of the museum, but this is about the point I realized I was sick and headed home.
He continued on to Choeung Ek, one of Cambodia’s many killing fields.
The day’s highlight was chatting with family (immediate and some extended) later that evening.
After another long day of traveling, we were back at home by Saturday evening. I can’t wait for our next trip (probably to Malaysia and Singapore over Tet), but I’m glad to be back for now!) I hope your holiday was as wonderful as ours.
