Cambodia Recap

Cambodia was a blur-- We saw very little of the country and only spent a total of 4 days there.

After the trek we spent a day in Bangkok sorting our travels to Cambodia, the islands, getting our necessary laundry done and shipping stuff home. The next day we were up early again to take the bus to Cambodia. The first half of the ride was a breeze in a nice large colourful tour bus. Then we were pressured to spend the extra baht to have the tour company look after our Cambodian visas. This is a scam that guidebooks did warn us about but for convience sake we went with it. At the border we carried our backpacks a couple of humid, sandy, hot blocks to walk across the border and stand in line to be stamped.

The border town was like many border towns in the world. A little grundgy, not much to see (apart from a large casino)and mainly street market stalls. Here we climbed onto a bus for the rough part of the journey; 160 km that takes 6-10 hours of dusty road that instantly turns to mud as it mingles with your sweat.

In all honesty it wasn't too bad. The windows were all open and we lucked out and had 2 seats to oursleves so we didn't have to share sweat with our neighbour. The ride in my opinion was really interesting. This part of Cambodia was really flat and you could see for miles (like back home). The houses that occasionally lined the road were all on stilts. It would seem that the under portion was the hub of life with an occasional hamock and BBQ underneath. As we got closer to Siem Reap the sad reality of Cambodia came into view. Many of the homes were flooded even though they were on stilts. Cambodia is also home to many large snakes and crocodiles so my imagination was going wild trying to picture what goes on in these people's daily lives... so different from my own . :)

I have to say I did love seeing the many people bathing in the ditches on the side of the road. I liked the simplicity of being able to be naturally naked and get clean without the social restrictions that make up our soceity. In writing this, I realize our social restrictions for the most part work in our soceity I just appreciate seeing a different view point working well too.

We arrived late at night around 10 pm and were deposited infront of a hotel and again pressured to stay there. We vetoed this as I was sure we could find a better place and had a tuk tuk drive us to a hotel in our guidebook.

It was a lovely place called the Jasmine, with nice air con rooms (Roberta and I lucked out with huge double or queen beds to ourselves HELLO LUXURY). The hotel also had a great chill area on a terrace complete with a pool table.

The next morning we sorted our travel back to Thailiand (yeah it still wasn't finished) anbd then that afternoon we found a stoner tuk tuk driver, Mr Bee, who we nick named "Joe Joe." He took us to all the major sites of Angkor Wat, minus Angkor itself. (We were saving that for Day 2).

The Angkors were unbelievable! Words can not express being able to freely walk around something so ancient and mysterious. Angkor is on of those places in the world where you can just feel the energy. The Angkor Empire ruled for 3 centuries and began in 862. The Empire itself span from Burma to Vietnam. The vast irrigation systems allowed this area to be densely populated (100 million when London was only 50 000) thus being a large centralized power.

We visited many temples/structures at all of them the masonary was truly advanced for the time and the relief sculptures were incredible. We climbed the steep worn steps of TaKeo a pyramid 50+m built between 968-1001. We battled the jungle at Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider.) During working order this Buddhist Temple took 80 000 people to maintain it! Now the trees are growing up through the stone and in some cases breaking it apart into piles of rubble.

We finished the day at Angkor Thom (1181-1219), a walled area 12 km by 8 km (i think) that held 3 temples, Elephant, Leper, and BAYON. Bayon is one of the most amazing structures in the world! There are 216 faces of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. The faces are all sculpted with realistic detail and look as if each one holds a special secret. In reality I am sure they hold many secrets as they have watched the scenes of Cambodian life for a 1000+ years. ANother 11000 figures keep the faces company and tell stories of the time from kickboxing to cockfighting.

The final part of the day we joined the hundreds of others to climb a temple on a hill and watch the sunset over Angkor Wat. Sadly the sunset was hazy and a bit spoiled by all the people so we left early. We took the tuk tuk back to Siem Reap, and to 'bar street.' Here we were on a mission to try Cambodian BBQ. Cambodian BBQ is similar to Korean BBQ in that they bring you out raw meat and you cook it, yourself, on a grill that is set in your table. This was a step above though because around the grill was a basin of soup which the meat juice drained into the create a great yellow grass vegtable broth. Spencer and I shared this meal called the (I believe) Desgusto. It included beef, chicken, squid, crocodile, and snake meat. I have to say the snake meat was my favorite. It was super tender and melted in your mouth! After dinner it was early to bed as we were going to be up by 5 am again to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

Sleepy eyed on a rickety tuk tuk attached to a motorbike with a questionable driver is a great way to wake oneself up. We drove to Angkor Wat and crossed the moat at twighlight. We then sat on the banks of a pond to watch the sun creep above the Wat's three magnificent peaks and reflect the scene a second time in the waters ahead. Again. we were not alone but everyone seemed to be under a quiet spell as nature's magnificence highlighted one of Man's great archietectural achievements.

The crowd then dispersed to walk the halls of this huge building built in honour of the Hindu God, Vishnu in adition to serving as a King's funerary temple. To my delight, even though there was quite a crowd at sunrise, once we entered the archways, halls, and walkways, we felt very alone. At one point I even seperated from our little group and felt like one of those true explorers that excitedly stumbles upon something truly amazing. The shadows in the halls, crevices, and peaks were incredible. Again there was also very intricate bas reliefs. I don't know how else to describe such a beautiful place.

After the temple we went to our hotel to grab some breakfast (breakfast was free so we had to go back :) We then travelled to the "floating markets." Outside of Siem Reap is a floating village. The people who can not afford land live on boats on this lake that I believe is partially filled by the sea??? So they live on boats and have to change locations depending on the season and water levels. We drove past schools on the water where children paddle a thin boat to a bobbing classroom. The floating market themseleves were a bit of a letdown. 'Floating Market' to them meant old woman in a canoe type boat floating up to your boat and trying to sell you crackers and soda... hmmmmm not our idea of shopping. We left saying we saw it and headed back to town. We then grabbed some lunch and did some shopping. We all bought paintings representing Ankor Wat in some way. We then had dinner and I am sure went to bed by 10 pm because why??? We were travelling back to Bangkok (this time by two taxi cars) at 4am to catch a flight at 2 to an island and then a ferry to another island. (Yes that is car, van, plane, ferry in one day.... where's the train?)

Well I think that's all folks!
Today gift shopping in Bangkok, tomorrow Korea for luggage... and soon after home!