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March 8th 2008

Published: August 2nd 2008

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KTKARL

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

From Bangkok, we took a minivan, bus and small open truck, to reach the Cambodian border. It took about 5 hours and then once we crossed over, it took about 3 hours via taxi and a dirt road to reach Siem Reap. The only airlines that flies into Siem Reap, pays the Cambodian Government NOT to pave the road so that people will fly instead. Hence, the road is in such bad shape that the three hour ride seems like 6. It was quite an adventure just getting there. We stayed in Siem Reap for 5 days and really enjoyed it. We spent every day exploring temples, but took one day off to enjoy a cheap massage and just explore the city. We watched sunrise at the majestic Angkor Wat. Our driver picked us up at 5:15am and we drank cambodian coffee as we watched the sun rise over this amazing temple reflecting in the water. It was a magical, spiritual moment. Although Angkor Wat was a beautiful temple and wonderful sunrise experience, Bayon was definitely our favorite temple. The stone sculptures of Buddah's face were intimidating but beautiful too.

We went to a Land Mine Museum founded by a

Sunset Temple

young man named Aki Ra's whose life story is pretty incredible. He was orphaned when his parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge rebels. The Khmer Rouge then forced him to fight for their army teaching him to fire his first gun at age 10. He began fighting shortly after. At age 12, he was captured by the Vietnamese army and was "persuaded" to join their army. Without much of a choice, he did, and eventually fought against his former army the Khmer Rouge (he does mention at such a young age this all seemed quite normal to him). When the Vietnamese army pulled out, Aki was then conscripted into the Cambodian army. Aki left the military in 1992 but not after years of fighting and picking up what he called "his trade" - which was setting and detonating landmines. Besides detonating landmines found in the community, he also runs an orphanage with his wife.

Finally, we took a boat and visited a floating village where Cambodians and Vietnamese share the water. The village has a school and even a basketball court, but is home to Cambodia's poorest citizens.

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