Cambodia is a very humbling country. From the massive ancient temples of Angkor, to its extreme poverty and horrendous past of genocide, it's hard to not be taken aback when travelling here.
Our bus ride from Bangkok to Siem Reap turned into somewhat of a scam, with the bus arriving much later than said, taking us to overpriced restaurants and private bus stations where we were told to exchange our money for bad rates, and not taking us to the bus station in Siem Reap like we were told, but to a guest house that was a ways out of the way. Jodie and I quickly learned that Cambodia works largely on kickbacks and commisions. Despite the bad taste in our mouth we were glad to be in Cambodia, and we felt like we were truly in SE Asia now. It seemed a lot more real than some of the other more touristy places we had been.
We woke up very early in the morning to get to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. We had arranged a tuk tuk driver/ guide through our guest house the night before and he was waiting outside for us at 5:00 am. Sleepy eyed we climbed into the open tuk tuk and sat back while we felt the cool of the morning on our faces for the half hour ride to Angkor Wat. We were amazed to see much of the locals already up and about at the market buying fruit and vegetables for the
day. We arrived at Angkor Wat still in complete darkness and quickly found out that our
driver/guide was actually just a driver. I was really bummed but I learned lesson #2 about Cambodia. Always confirm before you leave with the actual person, not just the guest house.
We walked passed the foodstalls selling coffee and water, down a stone walkway where we could
vaguely see by some other people's flashlights where we were going. We weren't actually sure where we were going, we just followed the throngs of people and hoped they were going where we wanted to. Still pitch black we were amazed to see a large gathering of people and we guessed
that was where you go to watch the sunrise. Soon enough the sky started to lighten and
eventually we could make out the shape of a massive temple with large towers siluette against the pale light. When it became light we were awed by our surroundings.
Large walls, a moat and stone structures surrounded us, it was incredible. Almost as amazing was the two or three hundred people we discovered around us taking in the same scene. The sunrise wasn't very remarkable so we made for the impressive temple to explore the endless corridors, countless steps and intricate carvings. It seems like every square inch of the place was covered in beautiful carvings of Hindu gods and ancient writings.
I couldn't fathom how long it would take to
construct something like that. It was mind blowing seeing such an incredible act of human achievement. Once again I regretted not having a guide as we wandered and wondered at what we were looking at. However, I don't need a guide to realize what a vast remarkable place this was. From our guide book we learned a little bit of what we were looking at. The Angkor area was built by the Khmer people and is actually comprised of a large number of wats, or temples,
of which Angkor Wat is the largest and most impressive. It was constructed around 1100 AD and was a Hindu temple. Interestingly, when Buddhism was introduced a few hundred years later, many of the Hindu statues were replaced by Buddhas, so there is quite a mixture of the two religions. Jodie and I ate our mango for breakfast then headed back across the massive moat to meet our driver to take us to the next area.
The Bayon was our next stop which consisted of 54 small towers all of which had large faces carved on them which gave the area a creepy feeling.
Once again it felt like we were in a large maze of sandstone as we scampered up and down steps, and around Japanese tourists. I was having a blast taking pictures of all the interesting carvings. After bargaining down our over priced banana pancakes about 75% we drank some coffee to try and wake up after our early morning. It was really sad seeing the throngs of kids around selling postcards, books, and
nicknacks.
A Cambodian man had told us that the kids don't go to school because they can make more money than their parents selling things. Also everything is so corrupt in Cambodia that the kids have to pay the teachers or they won't allow them in school. The kids would try anything to get you to buy stuff from them, I even heard a little girl say "If I guess the capital of your country will you buy?". She probably knew more capitals than I did.
We then moved on to another temple that was being renovated. It was a large pyramid shaped structure that had started renovation back in the 60's but was disrupted by the Khmer Rouge taking over in the 70's. The archeologists had dismantled thousands of stone blocks from the structure and laid them in the surrounding area while they did some foundation work to
make the temple more stable. Then the Khmer Rouge took over and destroyed the records of how to put it all back together. So now the archealogists have the worlds largest 3D jigsaw puzzle on their hands.
We stopped at a few more wats that were also very impressive, but due to the immensity of their neighbors, these wats were fairly deserted. My favorite of these was Ta Prohm, which had been infiltrated by some large jungle trees that eerily grow up and around the stone structures, it was very cool. By this time our feet were dusty and tired, so we decided to head back. When we arrived back at the guest house I was reminded of Cambodian rule #2 when the driver asked for $15 instead of the $12 I had agreed upon with the guest house staff. I happily handed it over learning my leason again. We were very impressed with our time at Angkor Wat. It truly is a wonder of the world and its hard to take in such an incredible site.
After a much needed nap we explored downtown Siem Reap. It was a really strange site seeing gigantic $2000/night resort (according to our driver) hotels right next to tiny little shacks. It made us think of what we really need to "live." The downtown area was filled with
restaurants, westerners, shops selling souvenirs, and shallow pools with fish massage. For a dollar each, we decided to try out the fish massage. We satt with our feet in a kiddie pool filled with little minnow looking fish that nibbled the dead skin off of our feet. The nibbling was a little
hard to get used to, but it was a fun experience. Jodie commented on how most of the fish prefered my feet. Mine must taste better. After doing a bit of shopping we headed back to our guesthouse to get some much needed sleep. Our guesthouse was our best value accomodation to date, we had a good sized room with a bathroom, TV, and towels, all for $6.
In the morning we decided there wasn't too much more we wanted to see in Siem Reap so we made our way to the bus station to catch a bus to Phnom Penh. We were expecting to wait maybe an hour or so for the next bus, but were greated immediately as we pulled up on the tuk tuk by half a dozen guys asking us if we needed a bus. Fifteen minutes later we were on our way to Phnom Penh.
The Cambodian countryside was very beautiful once we looked past the garbage lined streets. There were random palm trees in the middle of rice fields, broken up by little houses on stilts. Each house seemed to have a few essentials like a haystack, banana tree, coconut palm, a stray dog and a chicken or two. People seemed to live very simply. It made us think of all the stuff we don't need crammed into our storage unit back in Portland. Another thing we have noticed is how there are a lot fewer cars, replaced by more motorbikes (scooters) and also old rickety bikes. One of our favorite pass times is playing "Who Can Spot the Most People on One Motorbike". Jodie is the current winner, she saw six. A man, two women, a small kid and two babies. They definitely make the most of thier petrol here. We are also about 95% sure that our
dog is Cambodian. We saw about one Marley look-a-like per minute of driving on the bus.
We arrived in Phnom Penh Saturday evening to a sensory overload. Congested traffic, dirty streets and people everywhere, made for an intense welcome. After a long bus ride we were wiped out so we ate at our guest house and retired early. In the morning we met our tuk tuk driver from the night before to take us around town. The only traffic rule that is somewhat
followed, is people generally drive on the right hand side. I say generally, because if some one is turning left, they just turn and hug the curb until there is a break in the traffic then they cross over into the right lane. It looks like complete chaos, but somehow everyone gets where they are going and we have yet to see any kind of accident. We had our driver take us out to the Killing Fields, which was a ways out of town on a long, dusty, and smog choking ride. The Killing Fields were very sad and incredibly humbling. Somewhere around 20,000 people were brutally murdered there by the Khmer Rouge in the late 70s. There was no rhyme or reason to why, you could be killed for being educated, associated with the government, a minority, having opposing ideas or even if someone thought you were any of the above. Children were murdered so that they would not take revenge when they were older. People were beaten to death with clubs, axes and farming tools because bullets were to precious. The bodies were dumped into mass graves, up to four hundred together. In the middle of the area there was a monument dedicated to the murdered. It was about 50 feet tall with glass walls containing eight thousand skulls that
had been removed from the grave. While walking around between the pits we saw where human bones and teeth were showing through the worn down trail. This was just one of many killing fields throughout Cambodia. Somewhere around 2 million people were killed or died of starvation during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. That was about 1/4th of the entire population. It is astonishing how evil humans can be.
After taking in the horrendous history, we then made our way to the infamous S-21 Khmer Rouge prison. It was a high school that was converted into a prison and interrogation center where people were tortured. The prisoners (men, women and children) were brought here and put into 4X6 cells untill they were brought out to be tortured into giving them information on anything incriminating to people they knew. Many people died there, and the ones that did not were taken out to the Killing Fields to be murdered. As each one entered the prison they had a picture taken of them, which are now dispayed for visitors to see. Thousands of pictures of frightened men, women and children lined the rooms. It was a very heartbraking. Seeing all of those horrible places stayed with me long after and I'm sure I will remember this for the rest of my life. Although you can still see the pain on the faces of people when they talk about it, most people are thankful to have survived this and are remarkably happy. It really made us realize how blessed we are.
In a somber mood, we walked around thinking about everything we saw that day. We decided to walk along the Mekong and find some food. We found a night market that was really bustling with people, most of which were locals. We found they had a food area, which was a bunch of foodstalls surounding a basketball court size area that was covered with little bamboo mats for people to sit and eat on. We filled up a basket full of who knows what and gave it to the cook to fry up. A few minutes later we were munching on all sorts of meats, vegies and breaded things. We also sampled a local drink of fresh crushed sugar cane. It was very tasty. The next day Jodie reported to me that she did not sleep well as she kept seeing those faces from the interogation prison.
Today we walked around a couple markets then went to a place called Seeing Hands Massage where we got massaged by the blind. It was very relaxing and it was the best massage I have ever had. We also ate at a restaurant called Friends, where street kids are taken in, educated and taught how to work in the food service industry as cooks and servers. It seemed like a great organization and the food was incredible.
Tomorrow we plan on setting off for Saigon in Vietnam to start our next adventure. Cambodia has been remarkable, and we were glad to be in the presence of such wonderful people.
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