Getting Our Temple on in Siem Reap

We took a bus to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh. It was a pretty pleasant 4-hour drive. Mid-way we stopped and this is where I learned that Cambodians eat fried bugs. Literally they just get a bag of fried crickets and eat them like chips. The woman next to us on the bus got some….I was seriously in awe. I noticed some other fried bugs as well….not exactly sure what they were but they were big. Yikes! Oh and I read in a cookbook that fried tarantulas are quite a delicacy….no joke!

The City River Hotel, where we stayed, was nicely situated on the Siem Reap River and near Pub/Alley streets lined with bars, restaurants, and markets. Luckily we had 4 days in Siem Reap so we had lots of time to see all the amazing temples at a very chill pace. We got a 3-day pass, which gives you access to all the main temples. Our longest day of temple hopping started at 5am so that we could see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. That day we had a tour guide and a driver, which in my opinion isn’t necessary. It was nice but I actually would prefer to soak it all in on my own….plus 5am is way too early to feel like you have to make small talk with someone you don’t know. That said, since we had the guide we were able to get onto the top floor of Angkor Wat even though it was closed (doesn’t open until 8am)…..which meant we got some great pics! :) Our favorite temples were Bayon (made up of several towers decorated with faces), Ta Prohm (this was in Tomb Raider movie and has the most amazing trees growing on top of temples), Ta Keo (really fun to climb the steep steps) and of course Angkor Wat (which is huge and has the most intricate carvings of the Ramayana). The work that went into these temples is just remarkable. Some of them took almost 40 years to make with 400,000 workers….and built over 1000 years ago. It’s really unbelievable. We took our time walking through the temples and exploring every little corner. Seriously you got a great workout climbing all the stairs…not to mention it was dreadfully hot!!

Most people see the temples early in the morning. We discovered this one day when we got a late start, which was pretty nice because we got the temples to ourselves. Seriously you feel like Indiana Jones walking through these massive structures with tunnels everywhere. We hiked up to Phnom Bhakeng which is quite impressive as it’s on a mountain and you can see views of Angkor Wat. On our way up a forest trail we saw a snake, which totally freaked me out. Ugh I hate snakes but we made it out ok and even managed not to get rained on despite the thunder/lightening the whole way up! We also took a tuk tuk to Banteay Srei which is about 40km from Siem Reap. The temple was fairly small compared to the others but had very intricate carvings in pink sandstone. I would have to say though that the best part was the drive out there. We drove through little villages where you could see children playing and workers in the rice fields. The children on the way were so cute and often smiled and waved Hello!

It rained a few days while we were in Siem Reap so we had one nice lazy rainy day. We watched Tomb Raider (which sucked by the way and they don’t even give Cambodia any credit. I think Ta Prohm was in one scene but in the movie they were in Africa….or we both missed something….) and just walked around Pub and Alley streets….and we chilled by the pool when it wasn’t raining. The downtown area is pretty small and we ran into people we met almost every day – Barnabe from France and Pascal/Miriam from Holland. It was fun hanging with peeps from the trip.

Siem Reap has a great night scene….with really good drink specials (50 cent beers and $2 cocktails). You can go all out – cheesy bar style or you can chill in a lounge/restaurant. We did both. :) And we ate pretty well here. I don’t know if it’s the freshness of the ingredients or just that Cambodians can really cook but everything just seemed to taste better here. Of course I got papaya salad everywhere I went…and mango smoothies. We also had the fish amok (fish in coconut curry – I highly recommend) and beef lok lak (just ok). Some of our favorite restaurants were Temple (good local food with a free traditional dance performance…and turns into a full dance club at night), Samsara (yummy Indian food), Le Tigre de Papier (good pizza – I was trying to be good but after a couple of drinks I caved – it happens….twice….yikes!)

Even though we had enough time in Siem Reap we were sad to go. I really felt like the people were genuine and wanted people to visit their country. I didn’t feel like everything was about the “sell” which was a nice change. I can see now why people fall in love with Cambodia. :)

Getting a Dose of Reality

I woke up really crabby today. Not exactly sure what it was – maybe the combination of being tired, being hot because the air conditioning in our room wasn’t working, not having a separate shower room, being on a boat for the last few days, being a little homesick or ALL of the above. In any case, after being out in Phnom Penh for an hour I was totally ashamed of my princess behavior....and also felt bad for Darsh who had to deal with it.

We hired a tuk tuk for the day so we could see some of the sights that were out of town. We normally walk everywhere but it was nice being driven around as you could actually see more since you’re not concentrating on crossing the street. The first two sights were museums/burial sights of Cambodian victims of the Khmer Rouge. While I had heard of the movie Killing Fields (about this awful tragedy) I really wasn't that familiar with the Khmer Rouge until now and had no idea what the Khmer people have gone through (I am embarrassed about this). It is completely tragic. From 1975 – 1979 the Khmer Rouge basically forced everyone from Phnom Penh (and I think other cities) into the countryside where they were treated as slaves, beaten, and tortured. All intellectuals, people with high offices, and others who were thought to disobey the Khmer Rouge were tortured and executed. The number of deaths is estimated at 1.7 million....although it really isn't known. It was the Vietnamese army that finally put an end to the Khmer Rouge. The UN hadn’t recognized the Khmer Rouge attacks until much later…..I don’t quite understand this but even after the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Penh there were still influential Khmer Officials carrying out their “work”. The main Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot died in 1998…he got lucky…and some of the others are still on trial (again why are they still on trial - how much proof could they possibly need?)

The Tuol Sleng Museum was a former high school taken over by the Khmer Rouge and transformed as a Security Prison (aka S-21). This is where victims were taken and tortured. Then they were taken to the “Killing Fields” of Choeung Ek to be executed. The Cambodian Government now uses this as a memorial to all those who suffered during the Khmer Rouge. They still uncover bones and clothing of the victims when the rain is washed away. The photographs and the cells that victims were tortured in were really hard to see – there were tons of children that were tortured as well. I just can’t understand how people can become so inhumane. Reading the bios of the Khmer Rouge officials you learn that many of them were teachers at one point. Not like teachers are my vision of “good” but how does a high school teacher end up torturing thousands of innocent people. Ugh – it was just awful seeing all the evidence. There really are no words to explain. All of this was also fairly recent that you couldn’t help but think how many people are still affected by it today. :(

The next stop was just as moving but in a different way. We wanted to give out some cookies our friend Kevin Wong (from San Francisco) gave us when we met up with him in Hong Kong. He had just been in Cambodia and he gave out some cookies to children in a village near the Killing Fields. So we tried to explain to our tuk tuk driver that we wanted to go somewhere with kids – he recommend an orphanage. So we went to the Lighthouse Orphanage. He recommended that we bring food instead of money so we bought a huge bag of rice on the way. The orphanage is run completely by volunteers and currently have 108 orphans ranging from the ages of 4 – 18. The kids were so friendly and happy to see visitors. It was nice to see that they were all in school and even learning English and Japanese. We walked around, chatted with the kids, saw the facilities, and took some pictures. One little boy loved Darsh….it was really cute!

At this point we were pretty wiped out but we decided we should go see the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda which was pretty cool – it was very similar to the Royal Palace in Thailand. Finally, at about 4pm we had a chance to chill and eat. We went to Friends which was a training school for former street kids. The food was outstanding. Darsh had this amazing steak and feta sandwich with a pineapple-chili margarita….which he says was the bomb! I had a fruit smoothie, cucumber and mint salad with yogurt dressing (the best salad ever!) and chicken curry. The meal was so great we even bought a cookbook! We then walked over to the FCC (Foreign Correspondants Club) for happy hour and to meet a friend, Barnabe, who we met on our Mekong Delta tour. He’s a student from Paris. Not sure how, but we always end up hanging with the young ones! :)

We had one really long and emotional day in Phnom Penh. Tomorrow we wake up early to catch the bus to Siem Reap.

The Three Day Journey to Phnom Penh….Via the Mekong Delta

Everyone says you have to see the Mekong Delta, which is the part of Vietnam along the Mekong River where you’ll find floating markets, fishing villages, and rice fields. We also read that taking a boat into Phnom Penh, Cambodia was much more scenic than the bus or flying. So we decided to do a 3 Day, 2 Night Mekong Delta Tour which ended with a boat ride to Phnom Penh. We normally hate tours because we’d rather pick and choose what we want to do and do things at our own pace but we figured this time it was just easier.

I’m going to be honest, while we met some cool people and we did get to Phnom Penh….after 3 LONG days…..we were quickly reminded why we don’t do tours. It was just a lot of the same stuff. I think for us, had we not seen the floating fishing villages in Halong Bay it might have been a better experience. I mean the floating market was cool to see but much of the days were spent going to random workshops/farms – they showed us how the locals make coconut candy, how to make rice paper (kind of cool actually), fruit farms, and a crocodile farm (that smelled like crap). We did also try snake wine (which I didn’t like but Darsh made me try it) and Darsh held a huge snake! But in my opinion, we could have skipped many of the stops we made. The best part was chatting with other travelers - Adrian and Jim from Canada and Barnabe from France. Each night we slept in a different city – the first night, Can Tho and the second night, Chau Doc.

Can Tho was pretty nice surprisingly. We had a great meal there at Sao Hom right on the river. I think I had the best Papaya Salad of the trip! We did also attempt to hang out at one of the bars until the table next to us gave us the stare down. I’m not going into details as I’m trying to keep this PC but know that it was just girls being catty. I so wanted to say something (0r kick some ass) but didn't want to end up in a Vietnamese jail!! So I silently gave them attitude back and we were quickly on our way! :) Chau Doc is a pretty small town on the Vietnam/Cambodia border which we didn’t get a chance to explore much because we got there so late. We did go to Sam Mountain where we could see the Cambodian/Vietnam border which was cool.....and this amazing temple built in caves. We also had some of the best chicken pho of the trip at our hotel….perfect way to end our time in Vietnam.

The last morning, we took the fast boat to Phnom Penh which took about 4 hours. The boat was much smaller than I thought….probably held 20 passengers and “crossing the border” was an interesting process. Basically one of our boat guys did everything for us. He gathered our passports and spoke to the officials. We just gave him money. I suspect there was probably a bit extra for them (since it was higher than first quoted) but it was quick and simple! We got to Phnom Penh by 1pm….after a long three day journey! :)