Angkor What?

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It's now been 6 months since I was actually physically IN Cambodia, but better late than never right? Being back home and near to family and friends is wonderful and all, but the fast, busy and somewhat insane pace of life here in the Silicon Valley at times makes me long for the much different vibes of other places I've been. I occasionally wonder if us Bay Area-ans are too busy to enjoy life like we should...well we are definitely too busy to keep up on our blogs!

In addition to the breathtaking temples which you can view for yourself in my pictures, the thing that stood out to me most about Cambodia was in fact the Cambodians. I seem to meet friendly locals no matter what country I am in, but what really struck me about the Cambodians is their ardent pride in their culture and excitement about sharing it with tourists. In many places the locals seem to be "burnt out" by the hoards of foreign travelers, but this was definitely not the case here. The tragedy and devastation of the Khmer Rouge reign during the 70's has left profoundly deep scars that Cambodia is still recovering from, but many were willing to talk about this and even shared some personal details of its painful impacts on their life. I was humbled by their openness and with the dedication they displayed toward rebuilding their nation - almost everyone I spoke with was a university student or an aspiring one. I was also impressed by this willingness to talk because it usually occurred even if I didn't buy whatever they were selling. Street hawkers are simply a way of life when you travel and there is really no use in getting angry or annoyed by them or you will be in for a long and unpleasant journey. But I have really come to notice and appreciate those who are also interested in having a conversation with me. (This also pertains to taxi/tuk-tuk drivers!) I met the nicest, funniest, most genuine and open people in my 3 short days in Siem Reap.

However, another sad and inescapable part of travel in the poorer parts of the world are the child vendors, and they were outside just about every temple selling books, bracelets, and other knickknacks and souvenirs. It was so difficult to look into their beautiful brown eyes and not just empty my pockets. But buying from these children just promotes the cycle and so I do not support it. It can be trying to be constantly followed, begged, tugged on to buy something, so I tried to come up with cute responses, one of which was to try and sell something of my own (like my sunglasses) back to them! It's a lot of fun to actually laugh with the people instead of just constantly saying no. One nice thing that I saw is that there are many non-profits operating in the area, many of which are childrens homes and reminded me of Baan Dada (the childrens home I had just finished volunteering at in Thailand). Kudos to the selfless people who are making a difference for the children in these countries.

I could go into detail about the various temples I saw around Siem Reap and spend a lot of time looking identifying which is which, but I'm sort of figuring you guys aren't that interested so I'll save that research for the scrapbook and just let you enjoy the pics. A few interesting facts first though...
-Angkor Wat is the most famous of these temples, but there are TONS more surrounding it, way too many to see in three days! My favorite was Banyon (the one with all the faces)
-It is incredible to think of the craftsmanship and labor put into the making of these massive structures and especially how well they have been preserved, most have had a little help being rebuilt (except for the one with the trees growing in it which was left in a state of rubble for the dramatic effect) but the detail in the 1000+ year old reliefs and carvings is simply UNREAL
-Angkor Wat is believed to hold the ashes of King Suryavarman II, making it the largest ever building to hold a corpse
-Most were built as Hindu temples and then converted to Buddhism

Also, gracias to my travel buddy Salva from Barcelona for sending me all his gorgeous pictures and allowing me to use them on this blog! We met on the bus ride from Bangkok to Siem Reap and decided to team up for three days of temple exploration, he is a semi-pro photographer back home so the quality of these pictures is WAY better than what I would have gotten from my disposable cameras!! Thank you so much Salva!!

One final note - if you are not familiar with the Khmer Rouge genocide, I highly encourage you to research it, and to read the book "Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields" - it contains really REALLY sad memoirs by survivors and will make you cry no matter how tough you think you are. But it is important to educate yourself about what happened, the biggest disservice we can do to the Cambodian people is to ignore it.

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Photos

sunset from the top of Angkor Wat
We bribed the guards 5 bucks to watch the sunset from the top of Angkor Wat (they kicked everyone else out by 5pm!)

Preah Khan temple
Supposedly scenes from Indiana Jones and Laura Croft were filmed here!

the child-vendors are tenacious
so i tried to sell her MY sunglasses, which they thought was hilarious!