We were really excited to leave Phenom Penh and finally get to Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor Wat. After another hot, sweaty 6 hour bus ride complete with Cambodian karaoke videos playing on an endless loop, we arrived in Siem Reap. Our introduction to Siem Reap was being descend upon by local Tuk-Tuk drivers looking for a warm body to fill their half scooter, half rickshaw contraptions, not all that dissimilar to watching a squadron of mosquitoes finding a juicy meal.
W arranged a driver through our hotel, who quickly spotted us, grabbed our bags and led us away from the blood sucking mob. Our driver, "T" (who ML insisted on calling Mr. T), quickly took us to our new home, The Angkor Pearl, in the center of town and offered to be our tour guide of Angkor Wat for the next few days - side note this why tuk-tuk drivers are so aggressive, they try to score higher priced tour guide duties.
After a quick tour of our new $25 a night hotel, we took off to watch the famous sunset over Angkor Wat. Apparently, similar to most of the Western world, we were really not up to speed on what we were about to see, so before we go any further, let us give you brief overview of this amazing place.
Originally, we though Angkor Wat comprised a single temple, but in fact historic Angkor comprises an entire Archaeological Park that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, from approximately the 9th to 13th centuries. The temples in the park number over one thousand from the simplest rock pile to the largest religious Temple in the world, Angkor Wat. Although built only 800 years ago, most of the temples were forgotten by the modern world, aside from being sacked continuously, bombed in the "American War" and finally "re-discovered" by the French in the early 1900's. Upon "re-discovery" the French undertook the lofty goal of restoring them to their former glory. In a constant state of disrepair, the temples had literally been consumed by the thick forest canopy that surrounded them, so from 1907 to 1970 the French fought back the onslaught of natures unwelcome intrusions. Currently, a number of countries are aiding in the preservation of these historical landmarks including the French, Germans, Japanese, Koreans, and United States and therefore, are under construction, constantly.
Ok, enough with the history lesson, after checking into our new home, we decided to immediately hit the park to watch the sunset over Bakheng. With the help our new guide, Mr. T, we arrived at the temple just in-time to hike uphill for 20 minutes to watch a beautiful sunset. Right about here typical tour books and blogs would gush about the majestic sunset over the mysterious ruins using language often reserved for discussing priceless pieces of artwork like sun drenched, painted skys, burning orbs of light, etc. We however found the entire process devoid of sanctimony due to the thousands of tourists who joined us on the hill top. After just a few minutes of patiently coaxing the sun to drop faster so we could leave, we gave up and left the masses in the lurch. Many of you probably already guessed this, but ML and AB suck at organized tours & avoid the uninitiated travelers at all costs. After our little," shared the sunset with half the world stunt", we decided if we were going to really enjoy Angkor Wat we were going to have to devise a plan to avoid the huddled masses.
So we returned to our hotel in Siem Reap to plan our attack. Originally, when Angkor Wat was "re-discovered" by the French you would tour via elephant on one of two treks, the Grand or Small Circuit. Mr. T decided we should start the day on the Grand Tour, hitting the highlights including: Bayon (the temples with all the faces), Ankor Tom, Preah Kahn, and Banteay Kdei. In his mind it would be a slow day ferrying us between 4 to 5 sites. However, we had different ideas. We wanted to hit as many as humanly possible, which to his dismay meant traveling during the hottest times to avoid the tourists. Although, it made for a long, hot, dusty journey, climbing an ancient staircase and reaching the summit all alone with no tourists in sight, made it all worth while. Did we mention is was hot as hell? We are talking 100 degrees here with 90% humidity (btw, thats an ice wrap you see around ML's neck).
With the noble goal of only hitting the highlights, we will let the pictures above speak for themselves. We really, really enjoyed Angkor Wat and came to appreciate the majestic and mysterious history hid deep within Cambodia.
When we were not temple trekking, we enjoyed the local hospitality by visiting the local town, Siem Reap. The town was very cute, with good food, a great bar scene and shopping. The locals combined with tons of tourist co-mingled to create a great energy. The culinary scene featured some great Cambodian curries, outstanding vegitarian food and near and dear to our hearts, especially during DC winters, we found a great people watching bar with good White Russians (a long sought itch we were finally able to scratch). Finally, owning to the overt French influence, Siem Reap featured some great baked goods.
Unfortunately, even in the midst of a great time, poverty is rampant. For the first time in all of our travels, child exploitation was visiable and tragically out in the open on Siem Reap's main street. We witnessed a very young girl, working the streets. Many attempts are being made to fight this practice, including posting child exploitation hotline numbers all over the city, however it is still a major problem.
Overall, we were amazed by Siem Reap and Angkor Wat and would highly recommend it to anyone. Cambodia actually ended up becoming one our favorite destinations. The food was outstanding, the beer was always cold and we felt welcomed by the locals. In the picture above, ML is noshing on a favorite Cambodian treat, sticky rice - glutinous rice with coconut milk & red beans grilled in a bamboo husk - yummy!
Cambodia stands as one of the true hard luck stories of our human existence. The golden age of Cambodian Khmer cultural power was reached in the 1300's, since that time they have endured constant hardships. During the Vietnam war more bombs were dropped on Cambodia than any other place in the world, ever, once the West left, the Khmer Rouge took control killing more civilians than the Holocaust. Every "learned" person who remotely had an original thought in their life was systematically exterminated in the "Killing Fields" and their entire once proud culture was literally obliterated. Yet with no real education system in place, their culture destroyed, and diminishing natural resources, the Cambodians we met were some of the nicest people we encountered on our trip. They were hungry for knowledge, never pushy and always wore a big smile.
