Oh, Wat a place...

---

6/11/07 (continued)
After a 40 minute plane ride, we arrived in the capital city of Cambodia - Phnom Penh. And the hotel search began...our first discovery was that the quality of hotels in Cambodia was much less than that in Vietnam - for the same amount, the room you got was definitely not as nice as in Vietnam. We ended up, ironically, at the NY Hotel which is mediocre at best. Steph had her first tuk tuk experience (a tuk tuk is a motorbike pulling a cart with seats for between 2 and 4 people) as we headed over to Sisowath Quay by the river for dinner and drinks- an area with a bunch of bars and restaurants.

6/12/07
Hired a tuk tuk driver, Mr. Hen, for the day. Our first stop was the Toul Sleng genocide museum (Security Prison 21 or S21). It was at the sight of this museum where the Khmer Rouge imprisoned and tortured thousands of innocent victims (the vast majority were Cambodians, but there were a few Westerners). The prison (S21) was transformed from an old school - it was surrounded by iron and barbed wire, the classrooms were divided into individual holding cells or housed rows of prisoners secured by shackles. Many of the buildings were in the state almost exactly as they were found by the liberating Vietnamese forces. The photos of the prisoners and the short movie added to the atmosphere of the depressing site. Mr. Hen also took us to Choeng Ek, better known as the Killing Fields. Prisoners from S21 were brought here to be killed. In 1980, bodies of about 2000 victims of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge were found here in mass graves. At the center of the site is a monument that displays thousands of unearthed skulls. An additional 43 mass graves have been left untouched. We've heard from several Cambodians stories of the disturbing means of torture and murder that were used by Pol Pot's men; one woman told us about her father who worked on a crocodile farm and how children were fed to the crocodiles. It was a very moving and sobering experience. Once we left here, Mr. Hen gave us a brief education on the Khmer Rouge and told us how he lost several family members during this time and at age 7, he had to clear out the bones from the mass graves after the Khmer Rouge was defeated. The whole thing is very sad.

Along the ride to these sites, we also got to see the extreme poverty in Cambodia - noticeably more than in Vietnam. We then spent some time at the Russian market (named for the Russian visitors who would frequent the market awhile back), the Independence Monument and Wat Phnom. The Independence Monument was built in 1958 to celebrate Cambodian independence from the French. At Wat Phnom, we were surprised to see monkeys running around; we were also surprised to see Mr. Hen purchasing fried cockroaches, beetles and spiders from a curbside vendor for a snack- her offered some to us, but we politely declined. We then took an A/C break back at the hotel. For dinner, we went to the Foreign Correspondents Club, which is an expensive place (about $20 USD for dinner for 2) overlooking the river.

6/13/07
Spent the day touring around on our own - went to the National Museum which had a lot of old artifacts - some from the temples at Angkor (they've moved them to the museum because they were being vandalised) and a beautiful outdoor courtyard. We also went to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. The original palace was built in 1866 and was restored in 1913. The Silver Pagoda is home to the Emerald Buddha and another solid gold life size Buddha decorated with over 2000 diamonds and other precious stones. Beautiful statues, but no cameras allowed so we don't have any photos.

6/14/07
Took a quick morning flight to Siem Reap which is home to the famous Angkor temples. We were happy to get out of the busy city and were immediately impressed by Siem Reap upon our arrival. We found a great cafe for lunch called the Blue Pumpkin - they have great pastries, fruit shakes and an air conditioned lounge upstairs with a huge sofa (and comfy pillows) along one length of the perimeter where you can sprawl out. The A/C factor is key - this is very rare in SE Asia and a welcome treat! Spent the afternoon wandering around the small town and Psar Chas (the old market).

As fate would have it, we stopped at an internet cafe, but the power was out in town...one of the Cambodian guys hanging out in the shop started chatting with us. Since we had nowhere to be, we pulled up chairs and listened to him tell us about the country, its people, Angelina Jolie, etc., and he answered many of our questions about the country. He was very interesting and entertaining. He also was telling us how he tries to give back to the local community by asking tourists (he's a tour guide) to buy things for the school children. About a half an hour into the conversation, a lightbulb goes off and Steph realizes that this is the guy one of our Australian tour guides had recommended we seek out when in Cambodia (mind you, there are many, many tour guides in this area nowadays). After talking with Mr. Sok, we thought it would be a nice thing to do to go to the bookstore with him and buy notebooks and pencils for his next trip to a school in the countryside. One of the emotions we've had here more than any other country we've been to us the desire to help or give to the local people - this could be attributed to some combination of the following - the recent hardships the Cambodian people faced due to no fault of their own, seeing the extreme poverty with our own eyes and the innocent children who endure it all and still have smiles on their faces.

Mr. Sok found a tuk tuk to take us to watch the sunset from Phnom Bakheng. We were told that if we bought our 3-day passes for the temples after 5pm that they would be good for that evening and the following 3 days - a 3 day pass costs $40 USD and there are also 1 and 7 day passes available. We opted to walk to the top of the temple instead of taking the elephant ride and once at the top were rewarded with a nice view of the surrounding area (you can see Angkor Wat from here) and a cool spot to see the sunset. Granted, it would have been nicer if we weren't sharing it with the other tourists.

After arriving back in town, we went to Pub Street (at night, it's closed off to all vehicles and is lined with restaurants and bars) for dinner. We went to the Red Piano, which is the sister restaurant to the guesthouse where we are staying.

6/15/07
Our tuk tuk and tour guide that we hired for the next 2 days arrived at 8:30am and we set out for Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom was the last and supposedly the greatest capital of the Angkor era and was built between the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The first temple we visited within the complex was Bayon - it has 54 towers which each have 4 carved faces. The carved reliefs throughout the temple were amazing - the detail was intricate and there was a story behind each scene. We also visited Baphuon temple which was another impressive structure. Then, we went to the Terrace of the Elephants which is where the king addressed the people from and from where he would watch ceremonies being performed. The Royal Palace itself is no longer visible as it was made of wood and has been destroyed by termites. All the sights mentioned within Angkor Thom are within walking distance.

We left Angkor Thom, had some lunch and headed to the most famous of all the temples, Angkor Wat. It was built in the 12th century and is famous largely due to its size. There are 4 towers surrounding a larger central one and the entire complex is surrounded by a huge moat. The temple has 3 platforms, all of which you can explore. For us, getting up to the last one was quite a challenge - you basically have to scale the wall - there are very narrow, steep stairs built in. It's hard to paint a clear picture of how steep and dangerous these steps were, but those that have been can maybe appreciate. In any event, Jay was admittedly pretty scared and managed to "slither" his way up by putting his body as close to the steep steps as possible (essentially leaning on them while climbing). The tour guide and a few other Cambodian onlookers were getting a real kick out of this and later told us that he looked like a snake. At the same time we were climbing, a monkey decided to go up next to us and our tour guide was at the bottom yelling at us not to get too close to the monkey because "sometimes they bite"...we weren't going anywhere fast. Once at the top, the views were beautiful. Throughout the temple, the carvings were unbelievable. One of the things we found fascinating about all the temples was how far back they date (some over 1000 years) and that they were so well built (they're still standing) and with such great attention to detail.

We loved our day at the temples and were pretty intrigued by it all. Also, our tour guide was great - very informative, answered all our questions (not just about the temples, but about Cambodian life, as well), allowed us to go at our own pace and was a great photographer.

6/16/07
Another day of exploring the temples - took an hour ride with our guide and went to Banteay Srei. It's known as the Temple of the Lady due to its miniature proportions, pinkish color and intricate design and dates back to the 10th century. It's small size made it not as overwhelming as the others and the great detail with which it was built and the tuk tuk ride there made it Steph's favorite. The rides there and back took us through small villages with houses made of coconut trees, people selling homemade housewares on the side of the road and babies running around with no clothes on. On the way to Ta Phrom (our next temple stop), we made 2 stops in these villages - one to taste candy made of fresh sugar cane and to check out 1 family's home. This is where we met Honky, a 10 year-old who spoke very little English, but had a loving smile. She and Steph took a liking to each other and when we pulled away, she and her friend ran behind our tuk tuk waving and seeing us off. Our next stop was to walk through a village - along the way, we saw people making spring rolls with rice paper and a thin pancake (cooked over a stove lit by a fire) filled with some type of meat concoction and bean sprouts. The mass of flies encircling the area prevented us from tasting them, but it really didn't phase us as we were so thankful that these people were going out of their way to show us how they make their delicacies.

Ta Phrom was our next and last temple. It was very different from the others we saw in that it hasn't been cleared of the tree roots and trunks that have grown around the structure...they seem to be a part of the temple. This one was one of Jay's favorites as it was really picturesque and great to see nature and the man-made structures intertwined. Apparently, this was also where parts of Angelina Jolie's "Tomb Raider" movie was filmed.

6/17/07
Spent the day enjoying Siem Reap - caught up on sleep and e-mails and spent a few hours at the Blue Pumpkin.

Overall, we've really enjoyed our time in Cambodia - liked Siem Reap better than Phnom Penh, though. The people were lovely, Siem Reap town and the temples were spectacular!

FUN FACTS (SOME NOT SO FUN THIS TIME):
- Cambodia has a population of 10 million.

- Angkor temples (which attract most of the country's visitors) are a collection of over 100 temples and the oldest date back to the 9th century.

- PDA (public displays of affection) between men and women is particularly offensive to Cambodians - even holding hands.

- The mighty Khmer Empire started in the early 9th century when rival Chenla kingdoms united under King Jayavarman II (temples of Angkor remain as a legacy of this Angkorian period, as ruling kings built imposing temples to assert their divinity).

- By the 14th century, the Thais begun to mount raids on Cambodian territory.

- From 1863 to 1941, the French gained control of Cambodia as the Cambodian king exchanged timber and mineral rights for military protection.

- The Japanese entered the city during WWII, and the war interrupted French control.

- When the war ended in 1945, the Cambodian king sought independence from France, which was formally recognized in 1954 by the Geneva Conference.

- During the Vietnam War, the Americans bombed Cambodia's eastern provinces where they believed Vietcong guerillas were hiding.

-Beginning in 1975, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge initiated the mass extermination of millions of innocent Cambodians.

- In 1979, Vietnamese forces arrived in Phnom Penh and overthrew the Khmer Rouge.

- Under the Paris Peace Accords of 1991, the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was granted power and were to implement free and fair elections and in 1993, the people were allowed to vote.

- Pol Pot died in April, 1998.

RANDOM THOUGHTS BY JAY AND STEPH:
- There is less honking in Cambodia than in Vietnam, which is definitely a good thing.

- We thought it was interesting in Vietnam how some things were priced in US dollars; in Cambodia, everything is listed in US dollars, and we didn't even exchange money to Cambodian Riels. The Cambodian ATMs dispense US dollars only!

- We have noticed that Cambodian street vendors are more persistent than the Vietnamese. There are also many more kids selling things in Cambodia than there were in Vietnam.

- There is much more begging in Cambodia than in any other Asian country we have been to.

- Whether it's from the landmines or Pol Pot, not sure, but it's been very difficult to see people with physical handicaps/deformities in Cambodia.

- Sorry to all you smokers, but being on this trip has made us very appreciative of the NY smoking laws.

-We've found the Cambodian people to be nice, friendly people, and don't feel like they are trying to rip you off like some of the other Asian countries.

-Top "non-traditional" foods seen during our travels thus far (in no particular order):
1. crispy cricket
2. fried locust
3. whole sparrow in soup
4. roasted squirrel
5. dog
6. fried spiders, cockroaches and beatles from a street vendor

-Next stop..........Thailand

---

Photos

Tuk tuk traffic jam
bringing their passengers to get passes to the temples