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  Siem Reap, Cambodia
Friday, March 10, 2006

M: Jessie and I are trying to catch up from the past couple of weeks, but the likelihood is not so good. Especially since the next week will not have so much e-mail in it either. Oh well. We try.

We flew into Cambodia fairly early in the morning. We had a very limited time and wanted to get going right away to see Angkor Wat. We met this very nice Austrian couple (we think they are a couple), through whom we found a place to stay, which also hooked us up with a driver for the temples. The mere idea of all of the temples and getting around them and when to see them, etc. is a bit overwhelming, so having someone else organize a bit was really helpful.

There are about a zillion things I could say about the temples of Angkor Wat, but I am not well educated or well informed enough on this particular topic. We decided to see the temples without a guide, although we accidentally picked one up on day two and he was really very informative, especially for $2. We also hadn't done any reading outside of our favorite Lonely Planet book. This means that we were seeing the temples, but not looking for all the artistic and religious symbolism. So, I don't want to start randomly spouting facts that I can't back up. We spent the first day at the temples of Angkor Thom in the incredible heat and humidity of midday (that was an unwise choice). We fell in love with the mix of nature and artistry at Ta Prohm and were impressed by some of the stone carvings, relief work and sculpture. (J: One of the coolest things about Ta Prohm was that there are trees that started growing over and through the temple walls and have become part of the architecture. It is a pretty amazing mix of nature and human construction. As soon as we can we will post a photo of this.)

We were at Angkor Wat, which was not my favorite temple, for two sunsets and a sunrise. The weather prohibited us from getting beautiful shots, but there were some very cool moments with the sun coming into the galleries. (J: This may have been the more disappointing aspect of the visit as it was quite hazy and the sunsets were pretty unimpressive. And we had heard so many great things about it...such is being there during the dry season, I guess.) I freaked out about climbing down the very steep stairs from the top of the temple, but Jessie was really patient and helpful.

Seeing the temples was really amazing for their significance and beauty. The area around the temples is surrounded by people trying to sell books, post cards, trinkets and cold drinks. Many of these people are very young children and they call out in sing song voices trying to attract people to their wares. Walking through these vendors at every temple is a strange experience. I haven't fully sorted out my feelings about it yet.

J: One other kind of strange thing was how much temple rubble there was around. It was hard to tell if it was organized rubble or just randomly strewn about from naturally just falling apart. We think it was some combination of human-caused and natural destruction. So there ended up being lots of parts of temples that we couldn't get to because there were too many huge pieces of broken stone wall in the way. The children...so hard. The poverty is so obvious and so upsetting. And the children have been trained or have learned well how to get the tourists to stop and listen and how to be intensely persistent. They were hard to resist, but once you give in to one, they swarm like bees.

M: The second day, we spent the morning (6-10:30) seeing temples and then, when it got too hot, we went to the Children's Hospital to give blood. Apparently, this is something many travelers do. This hospital is incredible - they provide 100% of their services for free because the vast majority of the Cambodian population is too poor to pay. We both felt really good about the idea of donating, especially seeing the poverty around Siem Reap.

I'm so glad that we went to Angkor Wat and had the opportunity to see the temples. (J: They were just as amazing as everyone had said. But we highly recommend not going in March. Find the cooler season. It must be out there somewhere.) And we gleckel on...

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