Cambodia: Temples, Temples, and more Temples!

Today is our second day in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We arrived after a short flight 45-50 minute flight from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It’s funny on the plane because I ordered our tickets on expedia.com, and my account automatically requests vegetarian meals. So on the flight these two stewardesses came over to me to confirm that I had ordered vegetarian meals. They were really official and even had me show them my boarding pass. When they brought our meals, mine was marked with a special label. So Ted opened his (non-veg) meal, which was a cup of mixed fruit, water, and a kitkat. He was immediately intrigued as to what my meal would consist of since his was already non-veg. Mine was the same, minus the kitkat bar! We both had a laugh, and then he gave me his candy bar. I guess when you special order meals, you never know what you’re going to get!

Rachel, Jason, and I already had our visas, but Ted went to the visa line at the airport. I was waiting behind Rachel and Jason, which seemed to be taking forever. Rachel told me that the passport stamping lady kept asking for a $1 bribe, when Rachel finally snapped at her! Mr. Loeun, our tuk-tuk driver, met us at the airport to bring us into town.

Cambodia is truly an experience. The people are incredibly nice and the scenery is gorgeous. The poverty can be overwhelming, though. I have experienced significantly less culture shock on this trip than when I came alone 4 years ago. I think it was nice to fly (last time I traveled by land on the poorly conditioned roads). We checked immediately into our hotel, the Villa Siem Reap, which is fantastic, and then we walked downtown to dinner. The downtown, “touristy” area is adorable. It caters to westerners and reminds me of Bali. I had my first Khmer meal, the amok fish, at the Red Piano. Yum! The evening ended with a one hour foot massage for less than $5.

Wednesday morning, we woke up early and left the hotel by 5 a.m. to try and catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat with a guided tour and private car that Jason had previously arranged. I guess we were there for the sunrise, but it was pretty overcast. The five magnificent, soaring towers of Angkor Wat would impress anyone. We didn’t end up touring the temples of Angkor Wat until later in the afternoon.



After sunrise, we visited the Angkor Thom complex. We entered through the South Gate and continued on into the Bayon temple area. There the king of Laos was also visiting, so there were security guards everywhere, and parts of the tour were postponed. We walked along the stone paths and climbed the temples. We also passed the Terrace of the Elephants on our way out by taxi.

We then toured Ta Prohm, which is known as the “jungle temple.” This is where Tomb Raider was filmed, and the roots of trees thousands of years old seemed to have taken over and conquered the stone ruins. We ate some lunch at the hotel, and gave our feet a break.

The afternoon ended at a second visit to the famous Angkor Wat. The temples are filled with intricate carvings in depicting many of the Hindu myths and epics. It was beautiful and very impressive, even for my second visit. Angkor’s earliest monuments date from 802, under Jayavarman II. Jayavarman VII, the greatest temple-builder of them all, finished building the temples by the end of 1219. Angkor Wat is famous for “The Churning of the Ocean of Milk,”a popular theme in Khmer art. It depicts the creation myth of a famous Hindu epic.

We ended the day with dinner at The Temple Bar, where we were able to see the ancient art of Apsara dance free upstairs.

Today we were able to sleep in a little later. We left the hotel by 6:30 a.m. and traveled by tuk-tuk about 45 minutes to an hour. After an authentic tour through the rural, underdeveloped countryside, we arrived to Banteay Srei. This unique mini-temple had intricately carved reddish stone also depicting many Hindu myths. We continued our Angkor Wat tour with a visit to Banteay Samre, which was much less touristy and a little more in tact. Our final stop before lunch was Pre Rup, which was a smaller temple along the road but with spectacular views. From the highest tier, I could even view Angkor Wat through the trees.

We had lunch at a nearby tourist restaurant, which was a little odd because we had previously ordered a pack lunch from the hotel. Our tuk-tuk drivers feared rain and convinced us to eat at a table in a restaurant rather than take our chances at a picnic lunch under the open sky. It’s been really hot, too, so we went to the restaurant. They asked us to buy a drink, but we were able to take all of our food into the restaurant to eat, which felt kind of strange.

After eating lunch, we toured two more sights, Srah Srang and Banteay Kdei, before the rain hit. We have one more day on the temple pass tomorrow, so hopefully we can catch any of the sights we may have missed.

We took advantage of our hotel’s happy hour and then went to dinner at the eclectic Deadfish restaurant. I ordered more Khmer food (which is awesome, by the way), and Rachel and I were able to feed almost 15 crocodiles for 50 cents each.