I was really nervous about heading to Cambodia. The country has only really become stable in the past ten years and even in that time it has had its share of problems. I had read that the border crossing is a real pain in the neck and many of the officials at the border are very quick to charge outlandish fees. It didn't help that every time I'd mention to one of my Thai co-workers that I was heading to Cambodia they'd groan and say "good luck with that." This reaction was probably due to the fact that Thailand and Cambodia aren't the friendliest of neighbors and as recently as two weeks ago shots were fired between the two armies at the border.
Despite all of this, a group of five of us set out to make the trek. We decided it would be a good idea to head to the border on Thursday night and stay on the Thai side of the border that night. This would allow us to cross the border very early in the morning on Friday and beat all of the buses that leave Bangkok at 7 am to make the five hour trip. We picked a cheap little motel in the border town and got a good night's sleep. We woke up at 6 am and grabbed a tuk-tuk to the border. Our plan worked out flawlessly and we had no trouble crossing the border. The fees that they charged us were the correct ones and all of the instructions I had read beforehand were easily followed. After crossing the border we needed to take a taxi the 150 kms to the town of Siem Reap. Despite the fact that the taxi certainly overcharged us a bit, we were all thrilled to make it to our hotel without any major problems. We considered it a pretty big accomplishment after all of the horror stories that we had read.
Siem Reap is the home of the famous ruins of Angkor Wat. We knew that we didn't have enough time to explore many areas of the country so we went straight to the country's top dog. Apparently, the ruins, which are hundreds of years old, are the result of the tradition by the ancient Khmer kings that each new king must build a bigger and better temple than his predecessor. This, naturally, led to some pretty impressive buildings over time. All that I had read/seen about the temples got me pretty excited to check them out.
After arriving in Siem Reap and getting settled at our guesthouse, we decided that we didn't have enough time to explore the ruins that evening but we'd make a full day of it the next day. So instead, we spent Friday evening trying out the local beers at a pool bar in town. Cambodia actually has some pretty delicious beers. After having the same two Thai beers for the past six months, it was a real treat to try a few of the Cambodian options. Okay, all of the Cambodian options. Two that stand out in my mind are Black Panther Stout (the best name/can design award) and Angkor Wat Beer. Despite the deliciousness of many of these beers, none of them compared to the joy I felt when I opened a cooler at one convenient store and saw an ice cold Budweiser staring back at me. My buddy Lee and I were pretty thrilled about that one.
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| Lee and I with one of our favorite Cambodian beers. |
Okay, enough about beer. The real star of the weekend was the the ruins. We woke up at 4:45 am Saturday morning because many of my fellow travelers wanted to see the sunrise at the temples. We had arranged for a tuk-tuk driver to drive us around all day for a grand total of 15 dollars (surprisingly, Cambodia uses US Dollars as the default currency). Our driver, Boran, picked us up at 5 am and we headed to the ruins. I am not a morning person but I must say, seeing the sun rise over the temple ruins was pretty awesome. After watching the sunrise, we headed inside the main temple, Angkor Wat. (To be clear, the area is know as the Angkor temples but there is also a specific temple, the most notorious of them all, named Angkor Wat.) Angkor Wat was pretty spectacular; it's absolutely enormous. The work that must have gone into the place must have been tremendous. Pictures are the only things that can really do justice to it so here they are:
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| Sunrise over Angkor Wat |
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| The ancient temple of Angkor Wat |
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| Inside Angkor Wat |
After visiting Angkor Wat we grabbed some breakfast and Boran took us to the best ruins in the area. There are over 50 temple ruins at Angkor so we needed to limit ourselves to the ones that sounded the coolest. Of the ones we saw, two stick out in my memory. The first was Bayon. It was a labyrinth of crumbling walls and staircases. There were hundreds of people walking around the temple while we were there but it was still very easy to get lost and find yourself in an abandoned hallway or an empty courtyard. The coolest part about the temple were the giant pillars made of stone that had huge faces carved into each of the four sides. Here are some picture of Bayon:
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| Bayon |
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| Giant face pillars |
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| It was like a maze. |
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| Empty courtyard |
The second very memorable temple that we visited was Ta Prohm. It is known as the jungle temple. The temple was built deep in the jungle and is now so old, and so worn down, that giant trees actually grow out of the walls and on top of the temple. This one, like Bayon, was so enormous that it was easy, and really fun, to get lost in the temple.
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| Ta Prohm |
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| Awesome |
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| It's falling down |
After grabbing a quick lunch and seeing a few other temples, we were exhausted. I think Boran was a little bit bummed when we asked him to take us back to our guesthouse. He was a great guy and we had a lot of fun with him throughout the day. Upon arriving back at the hotel, we all crashed for a few hours. We woke up around 6:30 pm and headed to the market so the girls could do some shopping while Lee and I continued our taste of Cambodian beers. We had a really fun night that night on "pub street" in town. I actually ran into a guy I knew from high school. It certainly is a small world.
The next morning we woke up and headed straight to the border. The trip home was definitely a little bit longer than the one on the way there but it wasn't terrible.
Overall, I was thrilled with Cambodia. The people were amazingly friendly and always willing to talk. In fact, they spoke far better English than any Thais I've met, and I really enjoyed my time in the country. I know I only saw a small portion of the it but, nonetheless, it was a great experience.
In about an hour I head off for the second leg of my Southeast Asia tour. I will be going to Laos with my friends Lee and Stephanie. After four days in Laos we head to Vietnam for a week where we will meet up with some more friends. Following that, I'll be traveling through parts of Thailand, most likely Southern Thailand, before finally heading back to my apartment around March 14th. It will definitely be a great three weeks.
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