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Published: March 4th 2008
We love Cambodia! A beautiful country with a tragic recent history. The food has been great and everyone we've met has been so friendly. It is amazing to see how well this country has recovered and how quickly, as it wasn't until 1999 that the Khmer Rouge were defeated for good and peace was fully restored.
Phnom Penh
Still travelling with Lianne and Laurie, we arrived in Cambodia's capital city -
Phnom Penh - and arranged a Tuk Tuk to our guesthouse. We laughed when we bumped into Greg, again! We met in Hanoi, bumped into him a few times in Hoi An, and now in a different county! We went for drinks with everyone from our minibus and it was a great time.
The following day the four of us woke early and took a Tuk Tuk to
Tuol Sleng museum (S21) the infamous prison run by the
Khmer Rouge Regime from 1975 - 1979. It was difficult to see evidence of the terrible acts of genocide that the Khmer Rouge inflicted on their own people as a "social experiment" to try to force extreme Socialism on the population. The Khmer Rouge attacked Phnom Penh, burned all currency, changed the name of the
Phnom Penh - Killing Fields
Cambodian flag under scorching sun in front of the memorial.country to Kampuchea, declared a new calendar (Year 0) and began to murder every teacher, doctor, student, or other intellectual. The only way to survive was to pretend you were not an intellectual. Everyone else was forced into labour camps, with very little to eat. It is estimated that more than 2 million people died either directly or as a result of starvation during this four year period. The leader of the Regime was
Pol Pot, a name that Cambodians still hate to hear.
The four of us then headed to one of the open air markets before Lianne and Laurie had to board their bus to Siem Reap. The two of us have a little more flexible timeframe so we decided to stay an extra day in Phnom Penh. We did a walking tour and visited the awesome Royal Palace. The architecture and immaculate state of the palace made it a nice visit. Michelle had to buy a see-through white t-shirt to put over her tank top (1$) since her tank top was deemed unsuitable for palace visitation. We thought she looked more unsuitable with it on than without it (like Madonna in Like a Virgin!). She didn't want
to be photographed in it, so no pictures of Michelle at the Royal Palace! We treated ourselves to dinner at a great restaurant called
Friends.
More info about their cause. It was one of the best meals we have had in Asia.
The next day the two of us headed to the
Killing Fields, one of many devastating fields that were used as a mass extermination site. Mass graves have since been unearthed, and now there is a memorial on the site to honour the victims of this terrible occurrence. Bits of bones and clothing still make their way to the surface. It is so incomprehensible that it feels unreal.
We boarded a local bus to Siem Reap which was interesting as most of the transportation we take is mainly used by tourists. We stopped at a snack stop and were amazed to see not only the usual fresh fruit and junk food available, but also ladies selling deep fried crickets and spiders! One lady approached us and offered us a deep-fried cricket. We were a little nervous to try it, and soon there was a group of young girls egging us on and laughing! Finally Travis ate one and decided it wasn't
Phnom Penh
One of the many amazing examples of how people transport things when all they have to use are motorcycles and bicycles! so bad! Then Michelle tried one and agreed! She said "Hey not bad!" and Travis laughed hysterically because she had a cricket leg sticking out of her mouth! Ha! We saw a lot of locals with bagfuls of the deep-fried crickets and spiders so we guess they are pretty popular!
Siem Reap
We arrived late to Siem Reap and reunited with Lianne and Laurie, and had dinner at Dead Fish Tower, which turned out to be another great meal! At the restaurant there were
Apsara Dancers - Khmer style classical dancers. Our first impressions of the city were good. We really like the pedestrian streets and the variety of restaurants.
The next day was to be our last day in SE Asia with Lianne and Laurie. We hired a Tuk Tuk for the day and visited some of the outlying temples. We had a nice farewell dinner and drank some "Tomb Raider" cocktails that claim to be initiated by Angelina Jolie (although, we thought maybe they were inspired, not initiated!)
Passes to the temples are offered in 1, 3, or 5 day durations. Unfortunately you have to use the pass on consecutive days, meaning if you want
to take a day off, you lose the use of the pass for that day. We purchased the 3 day pass and tried to cram in as many temples as possible! We feel like we got a great variety.
It would be too difficult to describe each temple, but if you're interested note that we've included at least one picture of every temple we visited. Below we've included the link to each, the primary deity that the temple was dedicated to, and the year the temple was finished. We've listed the temples in the order and day we visited them. We put a * beside our favourites.
Angkor Temples Day 1: (Tuk Tuk, no guide)
Preah Khan - Buddhist (
Avalokiteshvara) - 1191 *
Ta Som Eastern Mebon - Hindhu (
Shiva) - 10th century
Bantay Srei - Hindhu (Shiva) - 967 *
Bakai Mountain - here we climbed to the top and admired the view of the surrounding area. Angkor Wat is visible from here, but the day we were there was a little hazy, so not the best view.
Angkor Temples Day 2: On this day we hired a guide and learned a lot about the history
of the area. One fact we found interesting was that if the King had died by the time the temple was finished (they sometimes took many years to build) then the lion statues were built with their mouths closed. If however the King was still alive, the lion statues were built roaring, symbolizing the everlasting life of the King. Similarly, if the King was still alive when the temple was finished, an odd number of columns was used in the windows, while if he had died before it was completed, an even number was used. Our guide's parents were seperated in 1975, and had to find their way to each other, unsure if they were even alive, after the regime fell in 1979. Remarkably they did manage to find each other. It is tough to wrap your head around the difficulties these people have suffered.
(Tuk Tuk, with guide)
Angkor Thom *
Angkor Wat - first Hindhu
(Vishnu), now Buddhist - 12th century *
Ta Prohm - Buddhist
(Prajnaparamita) - 1186 *
Ta Prohm was made famous by Angelina Jolie when she starred in Tomb Raider. Many of the scenes were filmed in the Angkor Temple region, specifically at this temple.
Angkor Temples - Angkor Thom
Bayon. A close up of the incredible craftmanship of each carved figure. These heads are about the size of a tennis ball Angkor Temples Day 3: These temples were much further away, so we had to hire a car and driver (no guide).
Beng Mealea *
Kbal Spean (Valley of the 1,000 Lingas) - Hindhu
Pre Rup - Hindhu (Shiva) - 961
At the end of the day we visited the
Cambodian Land Mine Museum. We were surprised to learn that this museum is a Canadian/Cambodian NGO. The museum has a very interested history that you can read more about on their website if you're interested.
Our temple passes had expired so we took a much needed day off of sightseeing and travelling, caught up on some sleep, and got massages in our room! Two Cambodian girls made us put on pyjamas, then told us to lay side by side on the bed. They put strips of cucumber all over our faces and began the massage. Travis thinks that is the first time a vegetable has touched his face for an extended period of time. Half way through the massage one of the cucumber strips slid off of Travis' face and he laughed, causing Michelle to laugh. The Cambodian girls thought Michelle's laugh was hilarious and began imitating it, making all four of us to break into fits of
giggles, each one harder than the last! It was so funny! After the massages, we strolled the old market, the central market, and booked a share taxi to the Thai border with a Russian couple.
Our share taxi took about three hours to reach the Thai border. The road is in pretty rough shape, and there is a rumour saying that an airline is causing delays of the road being paved in order to profit from more flights! We crossed the border without incident and hired a minibus to take us to Bangkok.
Tomorrow night we have booked an overnight train north to Udon Thani, where we will join a
Habitat for Humanity Thailand project for 10 days. We arranged this part of our trip back in Japan, and are actually joining a team of Japanese University students for the project. We are really excited about it as it is a charity we have both been interested in for a long time.
More on Habitat for Humanity.
Thanks for reading, and hope everyone is well!
Love,
Michelle and Travis
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Linda
non-member comment
Wow! Amazing!
It's always a treat to hear from you guys. I'm sitting here with freezing rain pinging off my window and suddenly the day doesn't seem so bleak reading of your wonderful adventure. (Although the cricket thing doesn't sound very appetizing.) Habitat for Humanity will be fun - can't wait to hear about that. Take care, be happy - and sending our love - Linda and Dan