Cambodia

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

After Christmas, we decided to take advantage of Chris' time off from work and travel to Cambodia to play Indiana Jones. :) Since we were already in Bangkok we took a taxi to the airport and flew 40 minutes to Siem Reap, Cambodia to visit the famous Angkor Temples. There are over 1000 in the area, some big and some small. Many just recently opened to the public last year after the final land mines were removed from the area. Many of the temples we have visited in Thailand were built in the same time period (802 A.D. to 1431 A.D.) and in the same style (Khmer) but Siem Reap has the biggest and most famous sites.


Our first night in Siem Reap we decided to explore the city a little. It was amazing being in a city without a McDonald's or a Starbucks! We went to dinner at a great restaurant called Madam Butterfly. They served Khmer fusion food which was really delicious and the restaurant itself was in an old Khmer style house (the wood houses built on stilts). After dinner we went to the local night market, bought some souvenirs and Chris had a fish massage... I didn't partake in the activity because I found it a little gross. You sit with your feet in a pool and these little fish eat all the dead skin! It was funny watching Chris and all the people who did do it, they were laughing hysterically because it tickled so much.


The next day we wanted to tour the temples on our own and work off our holiday feasts. We rented bicycles for $4 (by the way in Cambodia you pay with US$, their money isn't worth much so everyone wants dollars) and set off for the temples. Little did we know how far we would actually be riding that day! After we made it back to the hotel in the evening we had ridden about 25 miles!
The first temple we visited was Angkor Wat which is the most famous of the temples and the biggest religious monument in the world. When you see pictures advertising South East Asia, they almost always show Angkor Wat. We paid $1 to park our bikes, and fought off 10 kids trying to sell us guide books, bracelets, postcards, water and snacks. Tourism is the only way many of the people can make money so they take advantage of it. Angkor Wat is gigantic and crawling with tourists. We managed to get some photos without people in the background, but not many. :) The temple itself was amazing to explore. Originally it was a Hindu temple but later became Buddhist. There is so much detail on all of the stones and many hidden rooms. The archaeologists have had to do a lot of restoration but they have used many of the original stones to build areas back up.




The second biggest temple we visited was Ta Phrom, located in the jungle. It was so neat to see because it felt really magical. The jungle and trees have overtaken it and it gives the area a feeling of mystery. It was our favorite place of the trip. The movie Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie was partially filmed at this temple.



Needless to say we were exhausted that night after our biking and exploring adventure, but we didn't want to waste our time sitting at our hotel. We went to a dinner theater to see Khmer dancing. The theater was awesome and the show and food was really great too. Khmer dancing is very similar to Traditional Thai dancing, because both countries share a lot of history. Actually, they have had many arguments in the past/present over which histories belong to who. A few months ago a new temple was discovered on the Thai/Cambodian border and both countries were arguing over who it belonged to, not sure what the end result was...maybe they are still trying to work it out. The name Siem Reap even means "Siamese Defeated."

Our second day of exploring we decided to take it a little easier (our butts were killing us from bicycle seats) and have a Tuk Tuk driver take us around. In Cambodia they also have Tuk Tuk's but they are a little different than the ones in Thailand. In Thailand they are like 3 wheel motorcycles with a big seat for 2 people in the back. They're loud, and if you are tall like us you can't see out of them without hunching over. In Cambodia they are just little trailers they tow around with their motorcycles. They are much more comfortable and you can actually see things! We took a long tour route and saw all the temples that we wouldn't have been able to make it to on bikes.

When we got back to town we decided to have dinner at the Red Piano. It's "the place to be" in Siem Reap. It's located right next to the night market and is famous because it was where Angelina Jolie and her crew spent all their off time while filming the movie. They even have a drink named after her which I tried. :) It was similar to a vodka tonic with a few more ingredients. After dinner, we went back to the night market to see a movie about the Khmer Rouge during the 70s. They were a communist party lead by an insane leader, who murdered over one million people he believed to be spies. It was interesting and sad to learn about Cambodia's history, but the country seems to be healing.

The next morning we decided to get up at the crack of dawn and head to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise over the temple. They call it the "magic hour." It would have worked out better if we actually knew what time the sun came up. Our hotel told us 5am so we got up and 4am rounded up a tuk tuk and headed to the temple. We were almost the first ones there...an Australian guy, and two Cambodian girls were there with us. It was pitch black and luckily the girls had flash lights and let us walk with them as we made our way through the temple, with the screeching bats. We claimed our spot and waited for the sun to rise, which didn't happen until 6:15am (we were a little ticked that we could have slept in longer). The smart or well informed tourists all showed up at 5:30. :) It was a cloudy morning so when the sun did rise we didn't get all the great colors that we hoped for, but I think I got a pretty good picture anyway.