Time to say goodbye to Laos and head across the border into Cambodia, or Kampuchea as it is also known. A tuk tuk from Pan’s Guesthouse to the boat to the bus station, and on our way to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat, city of temples. Crossed into Cambodia at Trapang Kreg and our visas were processed quickly, and we headed north to Siem Reap via minivan.
Cambodia uses the “riel” for money; approximately 4000 riel = $1 USD. Oddly enough, they also use the US dollar, and actually prefer it. All the ATMs dispense either riel or US money, so it was somewhat easy buying things and paying for items.
The language and the people are known as Khmer, and the country is known as the Kingdom of Cambodia. It is a one-party political system today known as the Cambodian People’s Party, as the opposing party was disbanded by the ruling party not very long ago. Thousands of billboards, signs and banners across the country proclaim the presence of the CPP, and signs like these appear everywhere, reminding Cambodians and foreigners alike of the rulers of the country.
The first order of business for me in every new country is to find out how to say “hello” and “thank you” – just these two words will take you far, and the locals are so delighted when you (mis)pronounce them as greeting and thanking them. “Sou sdei” (pronounced like Dr Seuss-sa-dye) is hello, although most Cambodians simply say “hello”. And “akun” (like “a coon”) is thank you, usually said with a small bow of the head with hands together under your chin.
Our main reason for visiting Siem Reap was to visit the eighth wonder of the world, Angkor Wat. We purchased 3-day passes at a cost of $62 per person, and hired a guide, Mr. Bolley from www.AseanAngkorGuides.com, who would pick us up, escort us to waterfalls, temples, Angkor Wat, a hospital, river bed, and find us food along the way and then drop us back to our hostel, Angkor Sun Siem Reap at the end of the day. What a guy…truly wonderful!
(Here comes the history lesson….)
Angkor Wat offers the largest concentration of architectural riches anywhere on the planet. Yes. On. The. Planet. Hundreds of temples can be found here on over 400 acres and all are in various states of disrepair. Most of the temples were built in the 12th century. This area was not only for temples though; it was a vibrant city and there were over one million residents, back in the days when London was just a town of 50,000 people. Commoners lived in wood houses, and all of those structures have since decayed and disappeared. Only kings and gods were deemed worthy to live in palaces of brick and stone, and those remain.
The main temple (shown above) was originally constructed as a Hindu temple for Vishnu and was oriented to face west (instead of facing east, as was more traditional) and it eventually changed to a Buddhist temple. A large moat surrounds the temple on all four sides. Over 300,000 workers were tasked with completing this glorious place, and over 4000 elephants were used to haul materials, completing the temple in 37 years. It is the largest Hindu temple on earth, and the world’s largest religious building. This temple was never left to decay and has been used consistently since being built. Many of the temples have had the Buddha carvings removed, or the Hindu gods chipped out of the stone and replaced with Buddha along the years as the various kings with different religious beliefs that came into power usurped the temple and added on to it to honor themselves.
One very special thing that happened while we were touring Angkor Wat – I received a blessing from a young monk at the temple – (see photo below) — what an amazing moment.
Our guide, Mr. Bolley, was an incredible tour guide – he instructed us on where best to stand to get the killer photos, got us to the front of the pack for the sunrise to obtain the best seats and best photo op (picking us at at 0’dark thirty – 4:30 am – to get there in time), stocked ice cold bottled water and many chilled towels for us (on our first day, it was 97 degrees and 95% humidity. We had read in the reviews online of the “chilled towels” and how everyone raved about them, going on and on about how wonderful they were and we, from our comfy couches in Denver, mocked. However, once we had been able to partake of the loveliness of the cool, chilled and refreshing towels, we became believers.)
In general, Bolley took care of us for three days as we explored, asked, learned, forgot our passes in the car, hiked, told bad jokes and tubed in the waterfall lake, and he consistently and doggedly tried to assist us as we climbed up and down uneven stairs, holding our elbow in a “here you go, grandma” kind of way.
Another imposing site was the Angkor Thom wat. (“Wat” means temple, and Thom means “big”.) This was definitely my favorite. Containing 54 towers, and 216 faces, you’ll notice that all these digits add up to “9”, a lucky number for Cambodians. Historians say these smiling and enigmatic faces bear a striking resemblance to J7 – King Jaravarman VII who had this temple built. The temple was built to represent and honor Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and there are more than 11,000 figures carved into the stone temple, including elephants, monkeys and Naga, the snake. Daily life of the everyday commoner is portrayed in the carvings as well – births, deaths, marriage, battles, harvesting.
The scale of these carvings is unbelievable. Built as a Buddhist temple, this is one of the few temples that is not surrounded by a moat. However, the approach to the site is lined with enormous stone carvings on each side.
Truly remarkable. After visiting Thom Wat, Bolley taught us to say “akun Thom Thom” – which means thank you big big. Every time we said it we got a huge smile, a laugh and an “akun Thom Thom!!” In return.
Another amazing temple we were able to visit was what is currently referred to as “The Tomb Raider Temple” where the movie of the same name was filmed.
This temple was purposefully left as discovered and not renovated, as a juxtaposition to Angkor Wat in order to display the power of nature. Ta Prohm is overgrown with trees, vines and foliage climbing over, around and through the stone. As Angkor Wat attests to the power of mankind and glorious architecture, this temple shows the incredible strength of Mother Nature as she slowly and insidiously reclaims the land on which the temple was built, choking it with moss and roots that are destroying what man had so confidently built centuries ago.
In this photo below, you can see the carved head of part of one of the statues in the temple struggling not to become consumed by nature.
And the moss growing on the stones adds a beautiful, ethereal quality to the carvings beneath, instilling some color and texture.
Carvings of apsara can be found everywhere in the temples. These are figures of Hindu mythology – beautiful female spirits of the clouds and water, youthful and elegant.
Another iconic “not to be missed” attraction in Siem Reap is PHARE, The Cambodian Circus. WWW.PHARECIRCUS.ORG. A combination of theatre, acrobatics, and performance art combined with original music and dance, this production company employs underprivileged street kids to tell uniquely Cambodian stories. The young artists were so enthusiastic and talented and were having so much fun performing. We thoroughly enjoyed it!
(Note: for the show in Siem Reap, we bought the mid-range tix. The upper range tickets are $10 more and include a stainless steel water bottle with the PHARE log, and the lower priced tix, at 10 bucks less, are basically the same as the mid-range seats, but some are behind posts and pillars and the view is blocked at bit. It’s a tiny venue – I’m guessing 200 seats? Just so ya know.)
Of course we visited night markets and day markets, various street food vendors, delicious noodle purveyors and more. Siem Reap was a fun, vibrant, busy and cosmopolitan city – loved it!
Our next stop is Battambang – the home of the (in)famous Bamboo Train.
If you want to live a life you’ve never lived, you have to do things you’ve never done.”
Jen Sincero, author of “You Are a Badass”
