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Published: November 4th 2006
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Cambodia is a blast. More on that in a sec. First, a few updates.
Health I am happy to report that after a second trip to the hospital (complete with an IV and injection of some sort), Kate is in good health once again. The itchy hand rash remains, but we'll take care of that eventually. I'm feeling decent too, having conquered some object that decided to lodge itself in my eye for a day.
The Grand Palace & Emerald Buddha While Kate was puking in the room and having the nervous breakdown that led to her finally seeking medical help, I was cruising the Grand Palace in Bangkok. It was exquisite. The complex is HUGE and features multiple museums. You could spend 2 days in there and still miss stuff. The buildings are so intricate, millions of tiny gold tiles coming together to make a gigantic tower, thousands of tiny 3-D tile flowers composing a pagoda... it comes beautifully close to being gaudy without doing so. I was speechless at first. It glitters. I love being alone, but it would have been nice to have someone there to absorb it with me.
First Impressions of Cambodia Immediately
Moria at the Grand Palace
Some nice Asian man saw me taking photos alone and offered to snap one of me! upon crossing the Thai/Cambodian border (on foot), the difference between the two countries was clear. Thailand is modern and clean (they recycle!). Cambodia is a bit closer to India- trash everywhere, dusty dirt roads with gigantic holes every two feet, stray dogs galore, etc. Of course, Kate and I love it.
Our bus ride from the border to Siem Reap was a blast. The first three hours were relatively calm, just a bunch of inhalation of dust through the window. The second half was where the fun began. Flooding is common in Cambodia. We saw lots of marshy/swampy areas on the side of the road during the first three hours, but during the final three, the road became a swamp. Every 10 minutes or so, we'd reach a point in the road where it was a stream. Magically, 1-5 men would appear from nowhere to direct the bus, wading through the water to show the bus driver how deep it was. In extreme cases (3 or 4 times), the driver would stop the bus, get out, map the best route himself, get back in, and drive through. It was quite an adventure, and I was fully convinced our engine
Part of the Mural from the Grand Palace
Torture intrigues me. Kate wouldn't let me write "I love torture." would flood at any second. The magic bush men always got a nice tip, leading Kate and I to wonder how much they make in a night. Being the paranoid girl I am, I was also frightened by the bush men since there was no one else in sight, and they could have hijacked the bus. Luckily, they didn't.
Cambodia is filled with stilt houses of varying size, all with the requisite spirit house in front. There are lots of cattle, but not in the India free-roaming sense. It just seems that everyone, no matter how big their home, owns a few cows who graze in the front yard. There are huge stretches of marshy land in between towns. The children are ADORABLE. We fully understand why Angelina couldn't leave without one. As with everywhere else in Asia, the motorbike rules.
Which leads to our next point:
Motorbikes One of my missions on this trip is to sleep in a hammock. I have not done it yet, but everyone here sleeps in them, so I have high hopes. My other mission was to not ride a motorbike. At all. Ever. No one wears helmets, and I hate motorcycles
Kate and IV
I am about to faint. and motorbikes. However, I am cheap. Very, very cheap. So when we woke up our first morning in Siem Reap, and the man in the lobby told us he could drive us around the Angkor temples for $10, I agreed, realizing this was the cheapest option. Kate and I spent the next two days on the back of motorbikes, clinging desperately to the back rods as our drivers took the liberty of driving on shoulders, sand, grass, and whatever else pleased them. I wouldn't say they were reckless, but any sort of movement on the bike scared me. It was partially liberating... the wind blowing through your hair, an open view of the landscape... but I can't say I ever fully relaxed. Plus, on our first night in town, a large object flew into my eye, and I spent dinner trying to pluck it out. After purchasing some Vitamin A drops, I nursed my eye back to health over the next two days.
The Angkor Temples Prior to this trip, I must confess that I didn't know about these. Sure, I knew Angelina shot
Tomb Raider in Cambodia, and I guess I should have thought about what sort of
Bayon Temple
There are faces all over because it was built after Cambodia split into 93 provinces, and the faces represent the Angkor King watching all of his subjects. tomb-ish area she'd shoot in, but I never saw the movie, so I didn't know what we'd see. I imagined one big temple.
Instead, Angkor is full of myriad of temples. Huge, huge temples in varying states of decay. The guide book recommends at least 3 days for the temples, and while we probably could have done that, by the end of the second day, we were templed out. Here's a summary of the three ones I'd consider the highlights:
The Bayon (in Angkor Thom) A huge temple of gigantic sandstone faces. I think there are 200 or so in all. Overwhelming. Kate and I were breathless. There are flights and flights of steep stairs leading to level after level of smiling faces. It's amazing. Also, in addition to the faces looking down upon you, there are a dozen or so bas-reliefs on the side of the building, displaying various Hindu religious scenes. (There's an Indian influence in Cambodia.)
Tah Prohm This is the temple they've allowed to be consumed by the jungle. It's largely untouched and supposed to resemble the temples as they were discovered by the French hundreds of years ago. This is a controversial
move, but Kate and I LOVED it. As Kate said, it's "Tolkien-esque" and "otherworldly." Basically, these GIGANTIC trees are growing on top of the temples. Not THROUGH the temples... on TOP of them. I don't know how they support the weight. And in some cases, the roots, which are larger than most tree trunks at home, are growing through the building, pushing the gigantic stones apart. It kind of looks like the images you see of giant squid enveloping a building in its tentacles. It's beautiful.
Also, there are piles and piles of blocks of the temples stacked on the sides, waiting to perhaps one day be put back together. A mossy puzzle waiting to be solved. There are garuda heads stacked on soldier feet stacked on miscellaneous designs. It makes everything more overwhelming when you think of how much larger the buildings originally were before they began to crumble.
Angkor Wat This is the largest temple and most popular. I thought it was beautiful, and I LOVED the bas-reliefs (especially the sea scenes and the depictions of hell), but I think Bayon and Tah Prohm kind of topped it. Perhaps if we had visited Angkor Wat first
it would have been more dramatic, but it wasn't my favorite. It WAS nice to watch the sun rise over the temple on our second day though.
The food Kate and I are still hesitant to eat the food. We relied on 7-11 in Bangkok, something I never thought I'd do. For a while, my diet consisted of crackers, cookies, ice cream and chips. Slimming down for the beach part of our tour.
We're feeling better now, so we've started to experiment with the local fruit. So far, so good. We found a local restaurant we like, so we MIGHT try some Thai/Cambodian food soon. Maybe. The smell kind of disgusts me, and there aren't many vegetarian options.
Phnom Penh Thus far, I'm in love. I'm a sucker for big cities. Upon departure from the bus, we were surrounded by a dozen or so tuk tuk drivers, trying to woo us into their vehicles. After a month in India, this started to irk me, but for some reason I found it amusing today.
Siem Reap was MUCH more expensive than I'd anticipated (some items are more expensive here... where the American dollar is the standard currency
distributed at ATMs... than they are in the US), but Phnom Penh seems to be cheaper, or at least offer more opportunities for bartering (and street food). No more meat on sticks though. Kate swears.
This is supposed to be our somber stop, complete with the killing fields and S-21, but there's a big 3-day water festival that wasn't mentioned in the guidebooks, and it seems to cause everything in town to shut down. We'll see how this affects our planned itinerary.
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john
non-member comment
looking good
dearest future wife, i love reading up on your exploits in my native continent. you are looking very tan and skinny. i can't wait until we get married. yours... john