Cambodia

I know this is coming a little late but I wanted to post some photos of Cambodia....





Days 1-3 Phnom Penh
Jer and I flew into Bangkok and then to Phnom Penh on a Sunday. We were so fortunate to have a great hotel. We tried to explore a little by foot on Monday but after a long hot wander through some very dirty roads we rented a tuk tuk driver for $10 to take us around for the day. We didn’t know much about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge so we did a little history tour to the Killing Fields and S-21 (the former school turned torture center in the 70s.) I don’t know if I tuned out in high school world history or what but I swear I don’t remember learning anything about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. It is disgusting what the human race is capable of and yet another testament to the frightening power you can create in children when you give them guns. Many of the Khmer Rouge soldiers were just little boys.

The second day we went to the Russian Market where I fell in love with antique opium pipes (a slight issue later when trying to fly back into Thailand-although I did manage to convince the airline that I wasn’t actually carrying opium!) and we spent 2 hours in the tuk tuk trying to find the school of Khmer Classical dance. There is a very funny story in this but the end result was wonderful. We were entertained for over an hour by a troupe of extremely talented little children learning to dance in the traditional Khmer style.

Days 4-7 Siem Reap (Angkor Wat)
Another amazing hotel. The Boppha Angkor Hotel. $77/night will buy a luxury suite overlooking the pool with a private terrace, huge bed, all traditional décor. It was a really relaxing place to get away from the rest of Siem Reap every evening.
We had a really amazing few days here. We rented a tuk tuk every day and bought a 3 day pass to all of the Angkor Temples. Jeremy was so upset at Chichen Itza in Mexico last year when the stairs to the main temple were roped off and he couldn’t climb up so here is where he got his payback. None of the temples are roped off. You can climb straight up to the top of the temples, explore every inch of the carvings and really have a personal experience with Angkor Wat. We were lucky, there weren’t a ton of tourists and there was no rain. We saw Bayon (the one with the faces) in the Angkor Thom complex first and this was by far our favorite temple although close behind were little pink Banteay Srei and Banteay Samre.

Our tuk tuk driver was very irritating being a wannabe tour guide. He stopped at every temple and felt that he had to give us a long, complicated and only semi-coherent English description that did not match up with any information from our guide book. Sometimes he would take a breath and we were convinced he was done (you know the feeling, where you breathe a sigh of relief and start to put a foot out the door), only to have him start right back in again with a change of subject. He would actually get off his tuk tuk motorbike, turn around backwards in his seat, adjust his hat backwards, take a deep breath and launch into it. We couldn’t be rude and stop him mid sentence when he was regaling us with examples of his political interests, problems paying for the guide license, low salary or his father’s background but it was excruciating sitting in the heat within steps of a temple we were dying to explore while trying to make interested faces and nods! Ugh. Jeremy does a very nice impression of him if you are ever interested.

So our days in Siem Reap were great even though the town itself is a little dusty and disappointing. It is filled with tourists and the small children who follow them offering every conceivable souvenir for “$1! $1!”

Sunrise at Angkor Wat. Wake up call at 4:00am. Tuk Tuk at 4:30am. Arrive at 5:00am all so our guide has a good solid hour to talk our ears off. I swear I almost saw the sunrise on his face instead of over the temple. We had to beg him to let us get out of the tuk tuk in time. Falling asleep on our feet by 8am...

Jeremy's dramatic ascent! Ok, the photo is a little posed but it was VERY hard. We found an easier way down though.