Grand Adventure Part 2: Cambodia

Journeying to Cambodia was a very unforgettable experience. It started in the morning when we had a taxi take us to the bus. Instead of driving down the one-way street and going around the block, our driver thought it would be much more convenient to back down the road into the middle of a busy intersection and then pull a u-ey in the middle of the street. All of us were kind of freaking out while this was happening, but we were not at all surprised after experiencing a few days worth of driving like this. Then, when we got onto the bus to Phnom Penh, the assistant guy made us all surrender our passports. At first we were apprehensive, but he said it was so he could fill out our visa paperwork: and really, where could he escape with our passports while on a moving bus? When we got to the border crossing, it was weird to contrast the security into Cambodia to that of America’s: the man who was in charge of scanning the x-ray as our bags passed through was texting people on his cell phone, and the man at immigration stamping passports was smoking a cigarette directly in front of the no smoking sign. Before getting back onto the bus we all had to go through a health screening, which luckily we all came through with flying colors. Then it was time to catch a few z’s before arriving in Phnom Penh. This was quite tricky seeing as every time we passed a scooter or car on the road the bus driver would honk; and I would say we passed well over 100 scooters and cars.

 One of my first glimpses of rural Cambodia.

We arrived in Phnom Penh around 4:30pm which is almost the time all of the site seeing attractions close. Since we were leaving the next morning for Siem Reap and wanted to see some of the famous things in this capital city, we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us to all the main sites just to walk around and take some photos. Cambodia is truly a beautiful country. The architecture is really amazing! To no surprise, when we asked our tuk tuk driver to show us the Royal Palace, he took us straight there and drove around the whole thing. The only frightening part of this was that he wanted us to get a really good view, so he drove on the opposite side of the road against all of the oncoming traffic!

 

A cute little Cambodian baby I was making faces at, then got to hold for a little bit.

  

In our tuk tuk getting ready to see Phnom Penh.

 

 Center of the city.

After our city tour we walked around a market that was close to our hostel. We ran into some people who were also staying at our hostel and they were chilling on some rugs eating street food. We decided to join them and chatted for the rest of the night. One nice thing about Cambodia is that they use US currency. It was nice to hold American green in my hands again, but I was not used to how skinny and long it is compared to all of the other currencies I have used. Although they use USD in Cambodia, they do not use any of our change. Instead, they use their own currency—Riel—where a $1,000 note is equal to $0.25, and they only price things in quarters.

 Five of us with some people from our hostel in the background.

Our original plan for traveling from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was by river boat, however, the river boat was far more expensive than the bus, so we opted for the bus. The bus was not scheduled to leave until 10:00am, so Steph, Mike, Lena, and I decided to wake up early and see the famous Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. We didn’t realize until we were almost there that it was Valentines Day, and Steph joked that “nothing spells love like a genocide museum”. The museum is a high school that got turned into a prison where people were tortured before being sent to the killing fields during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 70’s. Out of the nearly 17,000 people who went in (this number does not include women and children) only four survived. There is rusted razor wire surrounding the entire perimeter of the high school, and we saw prison cells, torture devices, photographs of prisoners (both dead and alive), and paintings of some of the things they did to torture people. I lost it and started crying when I saw a painting of a Khmer Rouge cadre trap shooting a baby. It is hard and incredibly sad to believe that these things were happening not even 50 years ago. We couldn’t stay here long because we were all very emotional.

 Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

After heading back to the hostel, we hopped on the bus to Siem Reap. The man that I was sitting next to on the bus was sitting with his child on his lap. When we stopped at a small shop for lunch, I bought a bag of banana chips and shared them with the boy for the rest of our ride. Halfway though this journey, a family had got on the bus and sat right next to us. This family included the stinkiest baby I have ever smelt. We all felt like we were going to throw up for the rest of the ride. The bus then stopped in this extremely rural area where we thought we were picking up more people, but this was where we were getting off. The first thought that went through my head was exactly what did I get myself into. We got a tuk tuk to navigate us through the dirt roads to our hostel, and once we arrived we made a deal to hire him for the entire next day to drive us around the temples of Angkor.

 The boy I shared my banana chips with.

After settling into our hostel—which happened to have the biggest and cleanest rooms we had stayed in yet at only $3.00 a night—it was so hot we needed to find a swimming pool. Lonely Planet recommended this great pool bar named Aqua, which took our tuk tuk driver forever to find and ended up being an eerie bar with no pool. That was the first time Lonely Planet led us astray. We found another pool after that short detour and got some swimming in before bed.

The next day it was rise and shine at 4:00am. We went outside in the pitch black to head off to Angkor Wat and watch the sunrise. When we got there, none of us could see a thing. We walked about 10 minutes where we got to the spot by a pond to watch the sun come up. There were a ton of people already there and we purchased a chair and hot cocoa from some locals for a dollar which made us confident we were in a good spot. That was the most amazing sunrise I have ever seen in my life. It was like looking into the obscure darkness and the next thing you know, the sky is illuminating over the most massive and astonishing temple you have ever seen. That was my first glimpse of Angkor Wat. Waking up at 4:00am was definitely worth it. Before the sun fully rose, we hurried off to walk through the temple before the masses of people arrived. It is hard to believe that something constructed in the 12th century (during the reign of Suryavarman II) is still standing today. Angkor Wat is the most famous of all of the temples of Angkor and was built for the Hindu God Vishnu. This temple can be seen on the Cambodian flag. It is surrounded by a moat over 200 meters wide and the entire temple is covered with bas-reliefs (some measuring up to 800 meters in length and 3 tiers high).

 

Angkor Wat during sunrise.

  

Sitting on the edge of Angkor Wat.

 

 Taking a nap in some hammocks during lunch.

We visited some more ruins before heading to Bayon. Bayon was just as cool as Angkor Wat. It has a disputed number of towers (somewhere around 50) each having faces carved into them. It is said that Bayon has over 200 faces towering overhead. Another favorite temple of mine was Ta Prohm. This is the one where they filmed parts of Tomb Raider. It is so old that it has trees rooted around the walls.

 

One of the many faces of Bayon.

 

Ta Prohm.  Look familiar?

 

 Some more of the ruins.

It was most definitely a long day seeing the temples in the scorching sun with begging children constantly attacking us: at one point, a young girl was chasing Lena (I mean sprinting after her) trying to get her to buy a book. Our tuk tuk driver even got a flat tire while transporting us between temples. Our touring ended around 2:00pm and we still wanted to watch the sunset. With our extra time, we went back to the hostel for a bit to nap, but I couldn’t sleep. Then we went back to see Angkor Wat again and after that hiked up a hill to watch the sunset. One day was not enough to see all of these temples. Some people spend a week there and you can even get guided tours that explain the history behind all of the temples and tell you the stories of the reliefs. Angkor is definitely a place I am going visit again in my lifetime—it was simply incredible. Annnnd, I will have to go back anyway when I adopt my Cambodian child.

 Sunset on top of the hill.

 

 Our feet got incredibly dirty.

 

 Climbing down the steep steps after sunset.

After a long day on our feet we went into the town where we grabbed dinner and got a fish massage at the night market on Pub Street. We submerged our feet into a kiddy pool of kissing gouramis and they nibbled away at the dead skin on our feet. I am so ticklish I could barely stand this, but it was a lot of fun.

Fish massage!

We got back to the hostel for the final time around midnight, and I had to make a phone call back to the states regarding a summer internship. I didn’t get an answer so I headed to the computer to send an e-mail to follow up the message I left. It took me forever to find the e-mail address for the recruiter, and I did not end up going to bed until around 3:00am. I had been up for nearly 24 hours! I was so tired and fell asleep while setting my alarm. I guess I did not hit the set button on my phone because I woke up at 7:00am to Lena freaking out asking what time it was. 7:00am was the time our bus was leaving to Bangkok.

To be continued…