So this weekend was our weekend to travel. We could both
feel the travel fatigue getting the best of us since we weren’t really that
excited about this trip. But, we already had the tickets and we decided to make
the best of it. After seeing so many amazing temples in Bangkok, we were fairly
doubtful that Siem Reap, Cambodia and Angkor Wat had much new to offer. Boy
were we wrong! Cambodia proved to be an altogether different experience and I’m
certainly glad we went.
This trip was trippy right off the bad. Our flight was
delayed by 2 hours and when the flight did arrive we had to catch a bus to get
on it. Then we found out that we were seats 1a and 1b but we weren’t first
class or anything. To top it all off, the airplane had exposed propellers like
a crop duster and had cartoon fish drawn all over it. Needless to say we were a
little apprehensive about the flight.
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| Our Plane to/from Cambodia |
When we landed safely in Siem Reap (Thank God), we were surprised at how small
the airport was and how few people were arriving compared to other tourists
destinations we’ve been to. Going
through immigration was an adventure, since the immigration officials were
sketchy. One guy asked Angel 3 times if she was from Mexico, and the other
asked me for a tip on the down low. The nice surprise was that most all
Cambodians speak English and take dollars, which feels like a foreign currency
by now. The adventure continued as we were expecting a car to pick us up only
to find out that there was a little guy name Bullfrog with a tuk-tuk who would
take us to the hotel. After all was said and done, we were just happy to go to
the hotel and get some shut eye.
Saturday was the day for us to go to Angkor Wat. We got up
later than we wanted, jumped in our tuk tuk with our driver and our guide and
made the 15 km or so trek. Even though Cambodians do speak English, it was hard
to understand a lot of words because they pronounce “th” with a “shr” or a “fr”
and they accent letters where Americans usually pronounce them longer. So
“three dollars” sounded like “free dollars” and “meters” sounded like “mater”.
But right from the start, both the driver and the tour guide were very polite
and professional and hard working. I always have a special appreciation for
people who do their jobs well without complaining.
The first impressions of Angkor Wat and the surrounding
temples upon arriving was that there were quite a few tourists and it looked
like all the temples were growing inside a jungle. Surrounding the whole area
is a moat that I think is 4 km by 4 km and 3 meters deep. It’s a good way to prevent
enemies from attacking you, that’s for sure. We were immediately treated to
some monkeys and chickens that were cute. The downside was that almost
immediately there were little kids trying to sell us postcards and little
souvenirs. And these kids were relentless. They followed me one time for about
30 minutes and repeatedly told me to give them a dollar for what they were
selling.
I won’t go into all
the details of each temple since some folks may actually want to visit
themselves. But we went to three temples; the Bayon temple, the Ta Prohm (Tomb
Raider), and of course Angkor Wat. Each temple was amazing in its own way. One
of the things that was evident right away was that the recent floods of
Cambodia and the years and years of tourist activity had taken a huge toll on
the temples. Most parts of each temple were closed because they were falling
down or had fallen down. But in a rare
sign of cooperation amongst many countries, multiple countries had volunteered
to sponsor the rebuilding of certain parts of the temple. The engineer in me
was happy to be able to see how all the pieces were going to fit back together.
The Tomb Raider temple was beautiful
with several little spots to duck in and get good pictures. Also, the trees were growing inside the
sandstone and causing the temple to fall. The temple rebuilders also took a
poll; people couldn’t decide whether to cut down the trees to save the temple
or to leave the trees since they have been there for centuries as well and have
just as much right to stand. I tend to agree with the people who say leave the
trees, because there are thousands of temples but very few with marvelous trees
the size of the trees in Ta Prohm. We also found a neat little spot where you
could make a loud Echo when you hit yourself on the chest at a certain spot (on
your heart). The tour guide wasn’t really able to explain why, and although I’m
sure there’s an official scientific definition, I’m just so amazed by all of
these little details that people were able to come up with over a thousand
years ago, purposely or not purposely.
After visiting the Banyon temple and the tomb raider temple,
we were starving from all the walking and decided to take a lunch break. It was
a good thing too, because just before we got in the tuk tuk it started pouring
raining. The weather was pretty scary but thank God we were tucked safely away
in the tuk tuk. I felt pretty bad for our driver who just had a pancho to cover
him while he drove through the pouring rain and lightning. I’m sure we were all
pretty relieved when we pulled up to lunch. After eating a delicious lunch, I
was especially grateful to our driver and tour guide b/c they decided to take
us to the outskirts of the park instead of having us eat lunch in the more jam
packed area. We didn’t see either of them at all during our meal though, and I’m
thinking there’s some law or code that prevents them from eating with the
tourists. Kinda sucks though, b/c I hate the idea of people thinking they are
beneath me. Anywho, the rain chilled out over lunch and we were ready to see
the main attraction, Angkor Wat, the not so seventh wonder of the world.
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| Our visit to Angkor Wat |
There is so much that is amazing about the temple, but one of the more amazing
things is that it holds so much history and so much of the beliefs of the
people. Like the temple at the Great Palace in Thailand, it holds multiple (hundreds)
episodes of a story about King Rhama fighting against the demon God for the
hand of his lover. This version was a bit different from the Thai version, but
the art and the inscriptions were just as incredible if not better. Again, I
was taken aback by the fact that someone did this a thousand years ago with the
most limited technology. Those people knew something about hard work and
attention to detail! Our tour guide also shared with us a very personal story
of the reason that Buddhists in Cambodia drink their parents’ bones when they
pass away! He had lost his father only a few months ago and we could see the
love was very real as he explained how important the ritual is to show respect
to his parents. Even though we probably won’t be taking it up, I can certainly
appreciate his point of view and respect the importance of his parents to him.
As we wrapped up our
tour of Angkor Wat, it started to pour down raining again. We hurried to our
tuk tuk just before we got completely soaked and headed back towards the hotel.
Good timing once again! The rest of the trip went by very quickly. It was weird that when we turned the tv on in
our hotel “America, the Story of Us” was playing and we couldn’t help but watch
it. After getting some cheap delicious food from the hotel and lounging around
till about 10pm, we called another tuk tuk and headed over to Pub street, a one
block version of 6th street. We had a late dinner at a place called
Red Piano, which turned out to have good priced, good tasting, western food. (Also
made famous by Angelina Jolie.) I decided to be brave and try a “fishy” foot
massage where all the fish attack your feet and eat at the dead skin and other
particles. Needless to say they were having a field day on my feet. To close out the night, we partied at “Angkor
What?” and Temple Bar for about 40 mins and then took it to the house.
Sunday
we did some shopping (i.e. got hustled), had some cheap ice cream, and then
road to the airport to the drum of even more rain. Cambodia was certainly an
unforgettable experience, in both good and bad ways.
