Siem Reap and Angkor Watt

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From Vang Vieng, Laos we spent 2 days travelling to Siem Riep Cambodia. This travel leg included a stop over in Nong Khai, Thailand, the border town along the Mekong River next to Laos. In Nong Khai we stayed the night in a beautiful guesthouse on the Mekong. For a bordertown Nong Khai is very nice. Most of the group actually wished we had a whole day to spend there exploring. There is a nice promenade along the river to walk down, with a huge local market right beside it, and a few beautiful temples. The next morning was a full travel day to Cambodia. Of course, with our drivers running on Thai time they were almost 2 hours late picking us up. So right of the batt we were off schedule with needing to be at the Thai/Cambodian border by 4pm. The shuttle vans use natural gas; interesting choice. I believe it's cheaper hence why there are always line ups for natural gas at the gas stations. The downfall to this cheap form of gas, is that the mileage sucks! Every hour to 1.5 hours we had to stop to fill up. We became quite familiar with 7-11 gas stations that day. I should tell you about the 7-11's in Thailand because they are like 5 star 7-11's. You can buy liquor there, amazing sandwiches and frozen lunches, and a huge variety of drinks and snacks. The only catch is that you can't buy liquor between 2-5pm everyday (not sure why). With our late start to our travel day plus the 7-11 stops for gas we were still on the road to the boarder around 6pm. When we arrived at the boarder crossing, our connection in Cambodia somehow convincing the boarder guys to keep things open until we got there. For that, we had to pay an extra 100 bhat each (3.33 CAD). Nothing in the grand scheme of things. Once we walked across the boarder into Cambodia, the border town resembled Las Vegas. Glitzy lights everywhere, huge modern casinos, and large resort hotels juxtaposed next to shanti homes and homeless people. Apparantly in Thailand it is illegal to gamble, so the boarder crossings take advantage of that enticing local Thai's to cross the border for the day to gamble. We hopped on a Cambodian bus with our local connection James, who proceeded to stop at various places that had liquor for us to purchase. I believe at one point we purchased 40 cans of beers (What can I say? Canadians like to drink) After a few stops like that we were doing the locomotion as a group down the centre isle of the bus, and doing individual model walks down the aisle to "i'm to sexy" (I have picture evidence to prove this). We arrived at midnight in Siem Riep, after a 17 hour travel day.
As part of this tour we spend 5 days in Siem Riep and Angkor Watt. I don't believe I can say I've seen Cambodia with only seeing these 2 places. But from what I did see I would one day like to explore the country more. Cambodia is emerging from a very violent history/civil war with the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot's regime. My facts are a little hazy, but at one point Cambodia had a population of 7 million and after the cleansing of the Khmer Rouge (small children, seniors and intellectuals were killed) the population was cut nearly in half. We had a chance to visit a mine museum owned by a man named Aki, Ra a former soldier of the Khmer Rouge who defected from the army and became a bomb deactivator and a hero amongst local Cambodians. He entered the army at a young age after his parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge, to this day he has no idea how old he is. He created the museum in the hopes of educationg and creating awareness of the history of Cambodia. Profits from the museum go to a group home him and his wife run that look after children. The sad facts are that 75% of mine victims are children and there are over 13 million mines left covered in Cambodia. At the mine museum we were shown variuos types of mine and videos of how they are deactiviated, as well as interviews with various victims of mine explosions. Visiting the mine museum and a war museum casted a somber tone over the group. The horrific violence that Cambodian's have experienced is incredible. Our guide at the war museum was a former child solder who joined the army at 16 for food not to fight. HE volunteers at the war museum so he can tell his story and gives a portion of his earnings to his friends who've lost limbs to mines and cannt work. As he showed us around the musum there were points where he couldn't speak because the stoory was too emotional for him. He spoke about sleeping in the jungle with bullets flying over his head throughout the night. To protect himself he had to surround himself with mines (a specific mine that blasts in a controlled direction labelled (face towards enemy on one side)). He said he never killed anyone with his gun, but he killed with mines that he planted. He currently has schrapnel (ball bearings) in various parts of his body and is saving money to have surgery to have them removed. In the grand scheme of things, his story is a lucky one. There are many people throughout Cambodia who are missing limbs, can't work and have no government support.
The city of Siem Riep is considered the 'Las Vegas' of Cambodia because of the work famous ruins of Angkor Watt. Because of this, there is a huge disparity between the rich and the poort. YOu see huge mansion style houses that locals live in, or little huts with no running water. Where we stayed was the main tourist area. As we drove in to Siem Riep on either side of the road were huge resorts/hotels all in existance because of Angkor Watt. Then you hit the local slums and the contrast is incredible. The horrific history Cambodians have survived created a dark underbelly in it's current culture. Cambodia has some of the worst sexual exploitation/slavery in the world. Drugs are rampant and mining victims are a common sight. As you walk the streets you are randomly approached by individuals with varying combinations of missing limbs. I had a man approach me with no legs, no arms and a bucket in his mouth with a sign explaining that he was a mining victim. It's heartbreaking. At night you have to watch out for the local street kids. They will climb on your back or latch onto your leg and beg for money and food. I will never forget St.Patricks day. As a group we went out to PUb Street (the bar district in Siem Riep). We went toa huge irish pub. At the end of the night we were all stumbling home and the street kids came out. The ages of this kids(mostly girls) is roughly 4ish-12 years old. A young girl approached us, she was maybe 4 years old carrying a baby in her arms. She walked up to us and put the baby in one of our arms and walked away. I felt traumatized by this. The girl was so young and she was playing toss the baby like it was a doll. I saw fellow tourists delight in holding the baby, this one young fellow picked up the baby looked at me with glee and exclaimed, "look, it's a baby!!". I felt sick to my stomach. Cambodia is beautiful in it's ugliness (if that makes sense). THe people are genuine and real and all the victims of the war have an incredible human spirit. The tragedies that Cambodia has experienced create a curiousity or almost a fascination about it.
The highlight of my entire tour was visiting the ruins of Angkor Watt in Cambodia, one of the 7 man made wonders of the world. I have dreamed of visiting this place for years. As part of our tour we recieved a 3 day pass there. I spent an entire day there and I felt that it was enough. We had a lovely tour guide that took us to the various temples that sprawled over 25 square miles. Areas of Angkor Watt were destoryed by the Khmer Rouge because they wanted to destory all religious structures. As you walk around you discover bullet holes in the blocks of stone. The Japanese and French governments currently haev teams at Angkor Watt working on restoring the ruins to their original state. I can't really describe the experience, only through pictures. The immensity of the structures was overwhelming, the detail put into the sculptures and carvings was amazing. The amount of tourists flooding the temples was not, but I suppose it comes with the territory. It was dificult to take pictures without people being in them, but as the morning became the afternoon less tourists were walking around so I was able to take some time to myself and walk around and actually lose myself in the grounds. I spent 7 hours wandering the grounds and took 500 pictures! There is a lot to photograph (see photos) I had the time of my life there enjoying the company of 30ft high buddha heads. As you walked through the ruins you coudln't help thinking about what the area must haev looked like when it was first built. Painted structures in rustic read that stood out amongst the green of the surrounding jungle.
I would have loved to have seen more of Cambodia but unfortunately there are many unsafe areas that are actually labelled 'no tourist zones', so for now there isn't much of a tourist infrastructure set up.
Having the opportunity to speak to local mine victims and hear their stories was a reminder to all of us of how lucky and blessed we aer to live in Canada. We have choices and if something happens to us we have support from our governments(for the most part).
From Cambodia we head back to Bangkok, Thailand where my tour will end. I then will head to the beaches of South Thailand with 3 girls from my tour. Bye bye for now.

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Photos

Mine Museum
The founder of the Mine Museum and former Khmer Rouge child soldier. He does not know how old he is as his parents were killed during the war and he joined the army after that.

Siem Riep
An example of the hotels that line the streets when you drive into Siem Riep. These hotels are in existance solely for tourists visited Angkor Watt.

Siem Riep
Fish massages are very popular. The fish will eat all the dead skin off your feet and give you a delightful ''massage"

Siem Riep
locals selling clams

Siem Riep
Typical house in Cambodia. Usually with no running water.

Siem Riep
St. Patricks day in Cambodia, complete with an irish pub, guiness and green beer!

Siem Riep
Your local gas station in Siem Riep.

Siem Riep
tuk tuks... oh how I love thee