Cambodia

Ankor Wat and Cambodia

(When you don't blog for a while you get way behind! We are now in Bali, Indonesia but I haven't even gotten to this. Photos will have to wait, all this computer communicating is time consuming!)

Getting There

Over a week ago we left Ko Chang and the rain, and headed for Angkor Wat, near Siem Reap Cambodia. We got to the end of our time at the beach and the choice was either more beach on another island or Angkor Wat. After all the rain making some days really not beach days and knowing that all the travelers we know who have been there loved Angkor Wat we choose the Wat. Also on the advice of traveler friends we went on a package tour. This is not a tour in the sense that you may be thinking. No big group, no big bus, no being rushed around. Here's how it went.

We were picked up by a mini van in Ko Chang. It took us to the ferry and then up to the boarder crossing in eastern Thailand. We were the only ones on the mini van. Near the boarder we were dropped of a a road side restaurant where there were many travelers eating lunch or waiting. They asked for our passports and some photos to make our visas for Cambodia. The travel agent who had sold us the tour didn't tell us anything about needing photos for the visas but we were prepared. I dug through my bag and produced passport sized photos proving it is worth planning ahead, something Dave and I do very differently. Off they went to make visas. We ate (the tour included all meals) and waited a short while then a young man came up to us and told us to get in a car with him, he would take us over the boarder. A drivers took us to where you have to get out and walk and dropped us and our bags off. The young man, who's name was Nee, took our bags and told us he would meet us on the other side. He gave us our prepared papers and sent us in the right direction. Now Dave can tell you I do not like have my bags out of my sight, let alone to see my bags go off with someone but we put our trust in this guy we just met. We went through the Thai side of immigration and then walked to the Cambodian side. It was very much like crossing from Costa Rica to Nicaragua, you could tell you were going from a more developed to less developed country right away. Everything was more run down, less organized looking , more cobbled together. The Cambodia immigration building was even smaller and more run down but we got through in a few minutes. And there waiting for us with our bags was Nee. He hustled us onto a bus that went to a new looking building right out side the boarder town call something like “forgein passenger welcome bus terminal”. After just a few moments there he said here is the car and deposited us in another car and said good bye. We shared this car with a young Western man who never talked to us or responded in any way. Who knows where he was from but he looked like Justin Beeber's big brother so that is how I referred to him after that which Anika thought was very funny. This driver took us to Siem Reap about 2 hours away. We had started out at 7:45 am and it was now around 1:00pm.

Driving through Cambodia we passed through towns ad country side. It was clear not everyone has electricity or running water. Water buffalo, which are rarely used now in Thailand, were used every where. Old style wooden carts, now mostly turned into garden furniture and other things in Thailand, were still being used as carts. There were many more men around and women were less visible. The dogs were much more mangy and hungry looking. (How stray animals look always tells you something about a country I think. In a place where there is extra food they look fed, in a place were there isn't enough human food they look starved or they are gone because they got eaten.)

We arrived at our hotel in Siem Reap and were dropped off. Justin Beeber's older brother finally started talking to the driver but we didn't get to hear him. He appeared to be like several other sullen back packers or traveling Europeans we have run into. They don't smile or say hi even when you do. So you feel like an overly friendly American, oh well things could be worse. At our hostel we were told it was full and they sent us down the street in a tuk tuk (which has a different name in Cambodia we didn't learn) to another hostel about a block away. It looked brand new and was nothing like a hostel to us as we had our own room and bathroom. Very nice. After a rest Dave and I went out to take a walk while Anika went into a media induced stupor in front of the TV (what hostel has a TV in your room with cable?)

We walked down the street and saw an entire cow cooking over a spit. When we walked back only the skeleton was there and the restaurant was full of Cambodians eating away. We turned the corner and went into a Wat/temple area that was peaceful but had people and monks wandering around. After walking around all the shrines and buildings we stopped to read a posted in English about all the community development projects the Wat was involved in, there were about six. A young monk (maybe in his mid 20s) saw us and stopped to see if we had any questions. We had a long conversation, his English was quite good, about all the projects and his part in them. He had a great way about him and I wish we could have gone back to talk to him more. He made me want to come and work at one of his projects, he was one of the administrators for three of them. Or maybe I just felt great sympathy because, like me in my last job, he had to run more than one school at a time! (Most of the projects were education oriented.) Like many young Cambodians we ran into he spoke English better than most Thais we met.

At dinner that night (someone just shows up and says “I am here to take you to dinner”, and you go.) we met the other two people on our tour a young English woman and an older Australian man. The woman had been volunteer teaching English in Thialand on the island of Ko Tao and the man was traveling around Thailand on vacation. They were both pleasant company. We really liked Erin, the woman, who ended up traveling back to Bangkok with us and spending time with us there.

Day One- Angkor Wat

The next morning our guide Art picked us all up and we were off to Angkor Wat. Art was a very knowledgeable guide who also knew how to pace things and deal with his clients. We spent two days with him showing us around Siem Reap and the ruins and talking about Cambodian culture and history. He is primarily a birder who takes foreigners birding so we heard a bit about that too as well as environmental issues in the country.

I do not think I can describe the ruins of Angkor Wat well enough with only words. Magnificent, magical, other worldly, old, beautiful, stunning, none of those alone do it justice and all together they don't sound real. It was an experience something like going to Pompeii in Italy or Tikal in Guatemala or Anasazi ruins in the southwest or the Alhambra in Spain. But the temples and buildings of Angkor Wat are so big and cover so much land and there are so many of them it is not the same. Maybe Machu Pichu is like this, we'll have to see if we get there. Several temples, including the one actually called Angkor Wat, have detailed stone bass relief carvings telling the stories of Hindu myths, Khmer history and daily life in the past. Many of them are in incredibly good condition. Many of the statues that could be more easily halled off are in museums around the world ( I saw some of them in Philadelphia in the art museum growing up). Cambodia was a French colony ( we had excellent, fresh out of the oven, baguette for breakfast in the mornings so much of it ended up there, but the French also helped rebuild and excavate large parts of the area. Hopefully we can post some of the photos and they can paint a better picture than I can.

We spent a very long full day walking the ruins with Art. When we are at the one where they have left the trees growing through, around and on top or it (it has been in several Hollywood movies making it almost feel familiar) it started to pour rain. Being the only one in our family to forget their raincoat I got drenched. But it is so hot by the time we got home my pants were dry! The day ended for me taking one last look back toward the main Angkor Wat temple across the wide stone walk way leading up to it, with the lotus pond to one side, the five towers reaching to the sky, and up to the many dragon flies floating and flitting in the air over our heads, silvery in the late afternoon light.

That night we went to an Asian buffet. It was like being at a Las Vegas buffet, but with different food, half of which you have no idea what it is and no one can tell you. I wished I had an extra stomach because there was no way to try everything with just one. After there was a performance of Cambodia traditional dance. Some was ceremonial from all the way back to Khmer empire times and some was more like peasant folk dance. Many of the costumes were very elaborate and detailed. We got some great photos.

I left out the most difficult part of the day. After the ruins Art took us to what he called “the killing fields”. I don't know if this is a specific place or if anywhere the Khmer Rouge did killing is called a killing field. They used temples and schools (many schools and temples share the same grounds like in Thailand) as prisons and concetration camps. We stopped at a wat and Art took us to a monument full of human skulls. He proceeded to tell us about the Cambodian civli war that started in the 1970s, during our Vietnam war, and Pol Pot the leader of the Kehmer Rouge. If was clearly difficult for him to talk about and it was the only time when we were with him when he did not answer questions well. It was difficult for me because I felt a lot of shame for the part that the US government played in this genoicide. They basically used a country on the brink of a civil war to create a power vacume they thought they could use to their advantage but instead it paved the way for one of the worst genocides in history. The photos at this sight looked like they could have been from German concentratin camps. Half the population of Cambodia today is under 18 and we got a strong feeling that the healing from this tradgedy is still going on. It is not yet taught about in the schools. Pol Pot died in 1998 which is not very long ago. We left with many questions about what can be learned form this and how could it be prevented from happening again.

More Cambodia next time and photos!