Captivating Cambodia

What I didn’t mention in the last post about Thailand was that when we were in Bangkok, Lindsey and I hopped on a bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We were only there for a few days so this post is rather short, but it will be full of temple pictures. Siem Reap is home to some of the biggest and best preserved temples in the world, including one of the seven world wonders – Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat at sunset. It is the best preserved temple in the area and the biggest temple in the world.

Siem Reap

Lindsey and I spent about 10 hours in a hot, stuffy bus (nothing we are not used to but still not particularly enjoyable) on the way from Bangkok to Siem Reap. We had heard that crossing the boarder into Cambodia is often a nightmare for tourist because the border patrol will refuse to let you into the country until you pay a hefty “tax” for your immigration stamp. Luckily, when we crossed the guards seemed to be in a good mood and were actually joking with us, so they granted us a free entrance. Lindsey’s Grandpa, who was an Air Force pilot back in the Vietnam War, jokingly asked us in an email, “How is Cambodia these days? Last time I was there I was in an F-4 at 20,000 feet looking for places to bomb! I am glad to hear it is tourist oriented now.” Overall, Cambodia felt very safe and we loved the few days we spent there. They even use USD as their currency, which was strange since we hadn’t seen USD in over 2 years.

We wanted to spend our first actual day in Siem Reap exploring the old temples, and in particular Angkor Wat. The area is full of temples, so there is much more there than just Angkor Wat as we originally thought. In the 12^th century when most of the temples were built, the land was considered a holy area and emperors ordered the construction of some ridiculously huge temples. Most of them were originally built as Hindu temples but then underwent changes when they were converted to Buddhist, then Hindu again, then finally Buddhist. I guess the emperors couldn’t make up their mind about religion? Anyway, you could literally spend weeks exploring the area if you so desired – that is how many temples there are. Quite honestly though, unless temples are really your thing, they all start to look the same after you have seen a few.

The bridge crossing the giant moat.

Rather than hiring a taxi to drive us from temple to temple, Lindsey and I paid $1 to rent bicycles for the day so we could ride there ourselves. Was that the best decision? It seemed like a good idea at the time, but we definitely lost several pounds to sweat that day and peddled for about 20 miles. If you ever visit Cambodia, you will sweat a lot.

Angkor Wat

Our first stop in the morning was Angkor Wat. It is by far the best preserved of all the temples and I was truly amazed at the size of this complex. Before you enter, you have to cross over a 650 wide moat on an ancient rock bridge just to get to the entrance. The temple is said to be a towering 213 feet tall – it didn’t look that tall to me, but they say it is deceptive. There were thousands of tourists there (remember it is one of the 7 wonders of the world), but the awesome thing about it was that because Angkor Wat is so huge, we often found ourselves completely alone inside the temple, as if we were the only ones there. It was pretty amazing.

The view of Angkor Wat just after sunrise from across the reflection pond.

One of the times that Lindsey and I found ourselves alone in the temple.

Some Buddhist monks going for a stroll.

When we were leaving Angkor Wat and the sun started to beat down on us we realized how much we were sweating and I decided I wanted a Coke, as if a Coke would actually help to hydrate me. So what happened? I bought a Coke but set it on a bench so I could put my wallet back in my backpack, and literally after two seconds a stupid monkey came and stole it. I’m telling you – we don’t like monkeys. They are little diabolical minions. This was the second time a monkey had stolen something of mine.

The Coke stealing monkey. 

Angkor Thom

This temple is unique because all of the high pillars have faces on each of the four sides. It was our second favorite temple.

An up close look at the faces. On the bottom left you can see a face much further away. 

Faces were everywhere in this temple.

Angkor Thom from across a little reflection pond.

Ta Prohm – The Tomb Raider Temple

This temple was by far our favorite of the bunch. The size of the temple isn’t what got us, but it was the huge Banyan trees that are slowing overtaking the temple walls. It felt like we were really in a “lost city” out in the jungle. If you have ever seen the terrible movie Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie, then you might recognize these pictures as they used Ta Prohm in several scenes in the movie.

The shear size of the roots is ridiculous. 

Some monks walking through the temple.

Lindsey and I in front of a seemingly small doorway. And a giant tree. 

If the tree is that old, how old is the actual temple that it grew over? That puts things in perspective.

We visited lots of other temples throughout the day, but none of them compared to those three – Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Ta Prohm. We returned to Angkor Wat for the sunset, and eventually peddled back to our hotel covered in sweat.

The two of us at sunset, back at Angkor Wat. This is one of my favorite pictures from our entire trip.

 Putt Putt in Cambodia? And Mexican food?

Yes, there is putt put in Cambodia. Our friend Gio, who was a Peace Corps volunteer with us in Namibia and now works in Cambodia, met us in Siem Reap. We went putt putting and managed to find a delicious Mexican restaurant that served legit tacos and margaritas. All of the restaurants served 50 cent draft beers, so we might have partaken in just one or two of those. Siem Reap as a whole is a very nice place that is designed to handle the tremendous amount of tourists that flow through the area. But it didn’t feel touristy to me, as Phuket in Thailand did, so we both really enjoyed our stay there.

Gio and I playing putt putt.

After a few days we said bye to Gio, hopped back on a hot bus, and made our way back to Bangkok and eventually up to Chiang Mai.