Late news on Cambodia

So finally... a post about Cambodia. We spent almost a week there, and it's been a week since we left so I'm sorry I hadn't posted sooner. Wifi is everywhere, so real computers are a bit harder to come by, and as much as it's really handy to use Chris's iPhone for certain things, I hate writing out long text on it. I know I'm so behind the times!

Anyhow, we spent 3 full days temple-going over the course of one week to Angkor. The town of Siem Reap outside Angkor can't really be described as Cambodia - It's jam packed with tourists and really catered to Western needs and wants. We ate a lot of Western food, and some Khmer food, but really didn't get in to the culinary delights of Cambodia as you may in other parts of the country. But the town was fun and easy and much less chaotic than Saigon.


Chris gets a million little kisses from a million little fishes at fish massage in Siem Reap

The temples were quite fascinating. We built ourselves up over the 3 days, starting with the smaller and older ones, and moving on to the newer and more impressive ones. The temples are quite spread out... very few are within walking distance of each other. We took the same Tuk-Tuk driver all 3 days. His English was limited... he'd barely gone to school as at the age of 14 he began fighting the Khmer Rouge. He wasgood though and detoured to places which weren't on our list so we could see more.

Cambodian people were very friendly. Despite their recent history, they have a wonderful sense of humor with both the tourists and each other. It's a very laid back place. It's somewhat behind the times and lacks some important infrastructure, but I suppose that's what makes it charming.

Here are some of the pictures from our touring (I have hundreds of pics, but here's a little taste).


Parkour! (Not really though...)


Ta Prohm temple - one of my favorites.


One of the older and taller temples


Cambodia's crowning glory: Angkor Wat at sun-up.


Bayon temple of Angkor Thom (the best one, I think).

The temples were packed with tourists of course. It's not that there isn't a lot to do in Cambodia, but without the temples, it's hard to know what the tourist industry would be in Cambodia. It's their proudest achievement and Angkor is breathtaking. The tour groups got to be a bit much however. There were bus loads of Japanese, Korean and Russian tour groups who clogged up the main arteries of some temples, dulling the experience a bit, but we learned to get out really early to beat the buses and the heat.

I can't say that I'll ever go back to Cambodia. The temples were nice, but I feel they will only get worse. There are major reconstructions going on, which in a sense is great, but it means that the old stones get replaced with new (and very different looking ones), the carvings become replicates of the originals, and the area loses it's appeal. Part of the beauty is the crumbling, steep and wild nature as it has eroded over centuries. It also doesn't help that many temples are covered in graffiti-style markings. Why anyone feels the right to carve his or her name on such a beautiful sacred place is beyond me. I don't care that Kevin or Chin or Linda was there in 2006 - it's a disgrace.

Anyhow, after our week there, we'd had our fill. We decided to book a bus to Bangkok to meet up with some friends of friends of Chris's in Thailand. The food in Siem Reap was sometimes of questionable digestive value, so we tried to book a bus with a bathroom, just in case. We were assured the bus had a bathroom. The shuttle would pick us up at the guesthouse and ferry us to the luxury bus which would take us to Thailand. Sounded great.

The rickety shuttle showed up late, and wasn't really a shuttle, but the bus! But once you've packed and checked out, it's hard to back out (plus getting your money back can be a hassle). The bus took us near the border, where a man came on board, took our tickets, slapped a plain white sticker on our shirts and pointed us toward the border. So we walked. We waited in lines, walked some more, got some stamps, walked some more, got more stamps and waited on the other side for someone to tell us what the hell was going on. A man came, told us to follow him and we did. A converted pick-up truck with row-seating in the back came along so we climbed in and held on tight. We drove for about 30mins to a quiet, shaded restaurant in God-Knows-Where Thailand, and waited for a couple hours. A shuttle finally showed up. They said Bangkok, so we said hell ya. It was cramped, the A/C didn't work (nor did the windows open) and when we finally made it to Bangkok, we felt like dirtbags.

However, aside from that bus trip, our Thai experience has been wonderful. We've been put up by some lovely people and we've been far from the dirty backpacker trail since our arrival. We've eaten delicious foods (yes... I ate duck tongue, jellyfish, and all kinds of other weird stuff I'd have never tried if I knew what I was eating). We've stayed in gorgeous hotels and resorts and been on very personalized tours. I will write more about it when we are finished here in Thailand next week.