Cambodia and the Wonders of Angkor

Cambodia: November 23-28, 2009

After our late arrival the night before, Jameson and I got up to a sunny and hot Cambodia around 10 o'clock the next morning, and given the price we payed for our room, had to have a cold water shower. We grabbed breakfast at the hostel for $2.50 before heading out to see what Phnom Penh had to offer. Our first stop was at Wat Phnom, the highest elevation in the city, which was still not very high, where we saw some poor families; and one lady who had a monkey picking fleas out of her hair. After Wat Phnom, we strolled down the water front of the river through town on our way to the National Museum. which housed a great number of artifacts. After that we went to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda complex. The sun was high by this point which made it incredible hot and poor for taking pictures, but it was a beautiful place with great buildings and statues. We even ran into Sally and Olivia, a couple girls we met on the Halong Bay trip, from Australia. When we left the Palace, we headed for the War Monument and Independence Monument, both of which were great but overshadowed by the setting sun. On our way back to the hostel we stopped at Ounalom, a monk housing complex before sitting down at the Pink Elephant Pub for some dinner. Little did I know, but the most touching thing I would see on our trip was about to unfold. While we were dinning, there were many children wandering the streets looking for handout, or to sell you something. Now it is best to refuse or else face the wave after wave of street children looking for handouts, but there was one little girl between 5-7 years old who came walking down the street and stopped to look at a group with pizza on their table. She never once put her hand out, and when she was going to walk away one of the ladies handed her a slice of pizza. Happy as could be she walked away with it and propped herself on the seat of a scooter to eat away like a child at Christmas. Here is where it gets better. When the people had finished and left, the little girl walked back to the table but still did not touch anything. Then as the waitress came to clean off the table, she took a glass with a touch of orange pop left in it and leaned it over so the girl could finish it off. The little girl flashed a smile and skipped away like she had just won the lottery (the enclosed photo is not the girl but another that was standing with her family). After eating we went back to our hostel and got our party on with the group of Brits we had come up with in the bus.
After the heavy night of drinking, we woke up around 9am feeling like death twice run over but with a full schedule ahead of us. We grabbed some breakfast at the hostel and headed to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek around 10:30. The Killing Fields is a place just on the city's edge where prisoners were kept and tortured after being held at the S-21 Detention Center during the Khmer Rouge, now known as the Tuol Sleng Museum. The Killing Fields were the last stop for most prisoners, where there is now a stupa that contains the skulls of the thousands of victims of Pol Pot's regime. As we were leaving, we had a group of children running after and hanging on our tuk-tuk trying to get a handout, it was quite shocking. After the Killing Fields we headed to S-21, which is just inside the edge of town, where we saw some graphic photos and the prison cells where they kept the prisoners. When we returned to our hostel and grabbed some Indian food for lunch before booking bus tickets to Siem Reap and plane tickets from Siem Reap to Luang Prabang, Laos in a few days. We boarded a bus around 530pm for Siem Reap, and arrived around 1am.
After finding a hotel for $6 a night, we went to bed to get some rest for our Angkor tour in the morning. We woke up at 8 on the 26th eager to see the great treasure of Cambodia that is Angkor. Built between the 9th and 13th centuries the many temples of Angkor were built by the kings of the Khmer empire, that held a population of over a million people at its peak. Like a city rising from the jungles, Angkor has been rediscovered and unearthed after centuries of being forgotten. There was a reason the Tomb Raider films were done here. We started on the outer north edge and worked out way in with the help of our tuk-tuk driver, which was a great way to see it. From beginning to end we saw Banteay Srei, Pre Rup, Banteay Kdei and Srah Srang (where Jameson was told that if he didn't buy a bracelet then he hated Cambodian children), Ta Prohm, To Keo (drive by), Victory Gate (and Span Tmor), The Terrace of the Leper King, The Terrace of Elephants, baphuon, Bayon, the South Gate, and then finally Angkor Thon the biggest and greatest of the Temples of Angkor. The whole day had been awe inspiring, but Angkor Thom was simply amazing. Large yet calm, it stood in the cleared jungle like a true monument to the Khmer people. I wold love to go into more detail, but it would never do it justice, and would take far too much space. There were lots of tourists and locals there all taking in the temple at their own pace. When we were finished, we headed back to town for showers at our hotel before going out for dinner at Khmer Kitchen. Then we met up with Sally and Olivia, for a night of drinking and partying that got way out of control.
Waking up on the 27th to a massive hangover and a sore hip (most likely from falling down) Jameson and I spent most of the day in the hotel recovering. Around mid afternoon we headed out for some lunch and to check out the market, but returned to the hotel to get out of the heat.
Woke up to another sunny hot day on the 28th around 9am feeling rested and ready to go, though my hip still hurt. We hit the market again and bought a few gifts before checking out of our hotel and heading to the airport to wait for our plane to Laos. The plane didn't leave until 5 but we were there around 2, giving us lots of time to read and talk about our adventures thus far. We got on the plane and got to Laos at 7, just in time to check in before they closed the Luang Prabang International Airport. Given the state of my passport and how soon it was expiring, I had to pay an extra $5 fee on top of the already high $40 Visa fee i had to pay to get into the country. Leaving the airport we took a taxi into the backpackers area to find a hotel, which we got for 70 000 Kip per night, then we had a quick walk around town and through the market before heading to bed.

Well that was Cambodia and next I will be taking you though Laos, one of the calmest and most relaxing places I have ever been.