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Published: March 6th 2008
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With the rest of Cambodia under our belts, we started to make our way towards Cambodia's biggest attraction, and our final destination in Cambodia, Angkor Wat. From Phnom Penh we headed northwest towards the city of Battambang. Lots of travelers make their way here to take a river boat all the way to Siem Reap (the closest city to Angkor Wat).
We were a little late arriving at the bus station the morning we were leaving Phnom Penh and given the chaos of the scene, we were a little unsure of which bus was ours. Lucky for us a friendly Canadian man popped his head out the window of one of the buses to let us know that it was the one we were looking for. The Canadian, who later introduced himself as Brian, would become our travel companion for the next six days. And man what a great companion!
Brian is a carpenter in his mid fifties from Kamloops, who has done a little traveling in his time. And when we say 'a little', we mean A LOT. Brian spent a good portion of the 70s exploring the world and as a result is a wealth of great
stories. Brian has a story about pretty well everything and a funny way of telling each one. The three of us got a long really well and it was nice change for us to have someone else along to share the adventure.
Although we only stayed in Battambang for two nights, we ended up having a great time. The three of us rented motorbikes and drivers/guides for a day for the hefty price of $9. We each sat behind our driver as they negotiated their way through the rural traffic...tractors, kids, chickens, bikes, motos, water buffalo....and the 'cambodia snow' (dust). We visited several Wats perched high up on cliffs, toured small local villages, visited the killing caves (another Khmer era execution site) and rode on the rickety bamboo trains (little wooden carts that they put on train tracks powered by small engines....fun but really bumpy...and you always had to keep a close eye out for real trains so you could get off the tracks in time). It was a really fun day, filled with a lot of those memorable little "Oh my god I'm going to die" moments.
We arrived back at BB famished after an excellent day.
Dinner that night lacked a little something, so afterwards we decided to go for a little snack. And in Cambodia, if it creeps, crawls or slithers, its a snack. During the Khmer Rouge era, hundreds of thousands of people were starving to death, so the people developed a taste for everything that moved, and for whatever reason, they are still eating the little critters. We settled on a couple of deep fried grasshoppers at a road-side stand. We decided to turn down the tarantalas, giant water beatles, fist-sized cockroaches and fried snakes. When the moment came, we popped the bugs into our mouths expecting to wash it down immediately with a warm beer we purchased for just that purpose. To our surprise, we chewed the suckers a bit and realised that they weren't half bad. On the video we took of the occasion, Becky can be seen licking her fingers afterwards and saying "it tastes like chicken" (its a really really funny vid). We even went back for seconds!
The next morning we got up early and made our way to the river to catch the boat to Siem Reap. Although this river trip is described as 'stunning' in
Lonely Planet, we assumed that would be for the natural beauty rather than for the stunningly crap boat they intended us to spend an entire day on. As we got on our spirits sank realising we were in for a looooong trip. Lucky for us the boat kept breaking down, over and over, and eventually we all had to transfer onto another, slightly nicer boat (that's seeing the positive side right?). Once we got over our initial grumpiness, the trip was actually great. We made our way through dozens of floating villages where people were still fishing in traditional ways.
We arrived on the outskirts of Siem Reap about 11 hours later, glad we took the trip but a little on the worn out side. After an exceptionly trying couple of hours, fighting with the hundreds of tuk-tuk drivers and looking for a hotel that wasn't full, we found a great Guest House (The Mandalay Inn for those of you who might go) with great rooms and really friendly Burmese staff.
We finally made it to the gateway to Angkor Wat, the largest religious site in the world and a city of over a million people in its
Tomb Raider Tree at Ta Prohm
One of the temples at Angkor - famous for its appearance in Tomb Raider prime (around 1100 AD). This site is the focal point of modern Cambodian culture, and nothing could have been more built up during our trip than Angkor Wat. Everything in Cambodia displays its image, from the flag to the national beer. One of the temples, Ta Prohm, is famous for it's appearance in Tomb Raider and Despite all the hype, it still lived up to all our expectations. No description we could provide would really do it justice. It is simply incredible. We spent three days exploring the area in a tuk-tuk, sometimes starting before sunrise, and still we didn't see it all.
Brian left us on our fourth day in Siem Reap, heading for Laos. We hated to see him go, but we know that we will be telling stories about him for years to come. After spending one more day shopping for presents and souveniers, we headed back to Bangkok. We were pretty sad to leave Cambodia after three fantastic weeks. Much like Laos, we left wanting more, but unlike Laos, we won't be back any time soon. Apart for the bus drivers (who were generally scum), the Cambodian people were friendly and funny, and the country
Bex and Gia
One of our favourite Cambodian friends. She sells books on the streets of Phnom Penh and not a night went by where we didn't receive a sales visit from Gia. itself was truly beautiful.
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Susan Spindler
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Fabulous!!!
HI Becky and Chris....I can't tell you how I look forward to your travelogues!!! Your photo's and writing transports me and I love that you are sharing all your adventures. I had no idea the Wat was so huge! and the photo's of the snacks....unbelieveable!!! Safe travels! Susan