Man vs. Mother Nature

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Flying from Veintiane in Laos to Phnom Pehn in Cambodia was easy. Apart from me exploding my cutlery around the cabin and dropping my entire lunch tray on the floor, it went pretty smoothly. We took a tuk tuk to our guest house and by the time we were settled in a room it was just after noon. It's hot. It's hotter than its been at any of the other places we have visited. I'm sweating sitting still. Everything I own feels clammy and my skirt is clinging to my legs. It's horrible. But, of course we can't let that stop us, so for the afternoon we go to the National Museum, which is just a few blocks from where we are staying. The museum is beautiful, housing artifacts from all around the country, but mostly rescued pieces from Angkor Wat. The museum had been abandoned during the rule of the Khmer Rouge and has only come back into its original state during the past few years. We don't do anything for the rest of the day because I'm too hot and tired.

Our second day in Phnom Pehn (and final day - moving quickly once again) we start by visiting the Russian Market. Following the fall of the Khmer Rouge and during the military presence in Cambodia, the only country to recognize Cambodia's new leadership was the Soviet Union, and as a result the only country to supply the Cambodians with luxury goods was the Soviet Union. Back then this market was the only place to buy Western things and the name has stuck. It certainly is a sight - souvenirs, fabrics, spices, fruits and meats all sprawling over a very large block. I was exploring enthusiastically until I came across the the meat section and felt surrounded by ducks hanging by their tails and fish flattened against stones. It's more than I can handle really - I'm not even a huge fan of the butchery at home.

After that we visited S21, which was the Khmer Rouge's torture prison. It was a sobering experience - individual cells display photographs of the final victims, mugshots of elderly women and children hang on the walls, crudely constructed wood and brick cells still stand on the upper floors, gallows still stand in the gardens. What was perhaps the most interesting was an exhibit of photos taken by a man who visited the Khmer Rouge's Cambodia as part of a Swedish delegation in support of the new regime. Over time, the man has changed his mind and his photos were accompanied by this thoughts back in 1978 and his thoughts today. After lunch we visited the Grand Palace, which was lovely but basically like every other palace. We gave ourselves an early night because dad had bought us bus tickets for early the next morning to get us to Siem Reap.

Bussing to Siem Reap only takes about 6 hours. Our guest house provided a pick up service and a driver service (for an extra cost), which was fantastic. Siem Reap is home to more hawkers than any other city we've visited so far. By the time we were ready to do anything the first day it was mid afternoon so we decided to just visit Wat Bo, the city's oldest temple, which is special because the inside walls are covered in murals.

Angkor Wat was the agenda for the next day. We woke up at 4:30am so that our driver could pick us up at 5:00am to take us out to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat. It felt like we were waiting for hours and when the sun finally started to rise, it was boring. The sky just went from being dark to light with very little excitement. But even though it ended up being kind of a waste at least now we wouldn't sit around and wonder if we missed something great. What was good though was that now we were out early before it got to be too hot and before too many tourists started infesting.

After Angkor Wat our driver took us over to the Bayon, a temple with 400 faces on it. This one was harder to visit - so many people were milling around and taking irritating photos of themselves next to the rocks. But is was beautiful still. We walked through 2 smaller temples (but still huge) behind the Bayon and together the 3 of them form Angkor Thom. Now it was getting to be hot - the sun was settling into its highest point and we had already been out for at least 6 hours. We had the driver take us back to the guest house for an afternoon nap.

Later in the afternoon we visited Ta Prohm, which quickly became my favorite temple. Everyone recognizes the photos of Ta Prohm, with the massive trees stretching over the rocks and crushing the temple beneath them. Slowly over time the temple is crumbling as the tree roots reach further and further over the structure. It's incredible to see this conflict between a man made structure and a creature of nature. We were lucky that we were there late in the afternoon because there weren't so many tourists and the sun was setting into a pretty glow.

The second day we started out a little later in the day. First we visited Bantaey Srey, which is out much further from town. It's claim to fame is that somehow the carvings in the rocks have maintained an incredible clarity over the years. Even though rocks have crumbled and columns have tumbled, its like no one has ever been there. We went from there to a river with images carved right into the river bed and then stopped at the Land Mine Museum, a project sponsored by the Canadian Government. That was moment that made me feel really proud.

The entirety of Angkor Wat spreads over 300 square kilometers, so it is virtually impossible to see everything, and we definitely weren't even close. We had to pick one last temple to visit and I was determined to see Ta Keo. Ta Keo is the only unfinished structure at Angkor Wat. During construction the building was struck by lightning. It was taken as a bad omen so the project was abandoned. So there are no carvings at Ta Keo and no images, but what makes it so fascinating is that you can clearly see the architectural plans of the temples because it is just frozen in time. We were there at sunset with only 2 other tourists near by and it was perfect.

Our final day dad wanted to visit a floating fishing village out past town. It took us nearly an hour to drive there, but the people were friendly and the children were excited to see foreigners. The village really is literally floating out in the middle of the lake. Several houses are lashed together to bring people closer, but otherwise they go literally everywhere by boat. Dad went for a swim and I sat on the deck. Our driver walked us through the town on shore to see a temple and the market on the way back. It was another hour back into town and we went for early dinner.

When we took a slow boat down the Mekong I met an American named Jake, who was about my age and following an identical route to ours. We had tried our best to cross paths in Vang Vieng but didn't, but he booked at our guest house in Phnom Pehn and came for dinner one night with dad and I. Jake invited me out for dinner with some people he was traveling with and people they had picked up along the way on our last night, so after having early dinner with dad I went out to meet up with some people my own age for the first time since leaving Australia. We had more dinner and went to a bar an stayed out all night, which was fun apart from the fact that dad started to worry about my whereabouts. I got half an hour of sleep before we had to get up again and get the taxi to the border. Two hours later we left the taxi and passed through customs and then walked across the border to Thailand for the last time.

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