This doesn't look like Phnom Pen...

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  Siem Reap, Cambodia
Saturday, November 26, 2005

You know, before we left home we had such a lovely itinerary. It charted out a grand overland tour through south east ASA, traveling though each country in turn, making logical border crossings, minimizing travel expense. But once again, as we did when we decided to fly from Bangkok to Hanoi, we ditched the plan. Uninspired by the prospect of another big Asian city, about an hour after posting our previous Travel Pod entry we ditched traveling overland to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and instead bought a plane ticket to a small town in Cambodia, Siem Reap, home of the world famous Angkor ruins.
We didn't have high hopes for Siem Reap, figuring it would be a tourist trap town without much to offer besides proximity to the Ruins, but it has surprised us. The town surrounds a small river which looks pretty but smells a bit. There is a crumbling French colonial district and a downtown with an old market and tons of little shops and restaurants. It feels much poorer here than Vietnam and there are a large number of beggars in the old market area, including amputees (we assume from land mines), Moms with babies, and children

01 Dawn at Angkor Wat

. Of course there are also the photocopied-book sellers and the tuk-tuk (devilspawn) drivers. But it is still better than Saigon, where you aren't left alone for a second.
Our favorite retreat in town is the Foreign Correspondents Club, where we have eaten many dinners, including a great Thanksgiving feast of duck, pumpkin dip and pasta, and pasta. We are staying in a nice place called the Two Dragons Guesthouse, run by the guy who does the website www.talesofasia.com, which has been a good source of Cambodian info.

ANGKOR

The Ruins at Angkor were one of the "must-sees" of the trip, and they have not disappointed. The Angkor ruins are the ancient cities and temples of the Khmer Empire, which at its height around the 12th century ruled the area from Thailand to Vietnam. We won't try to describe the ruins, just take a look at the pictures. We will give a brief "KristyMatt Guide (copyright 2005)" to touring them.

Tickets and Transport: We bought the three day pass for $40 US each because a one day pass is twenty and we knew we would do more than two days, so the price made sense

02 Face at the Bayon

. Of course the people who sell the tickets know this and that's why they price them the way they do. We hired a tuk-tuk driver for each day at $10 US, we got ours recommended through Two Dragons. All in all, it's a pretty pricey activity for this area of the world, but hey, it's once-in-a-lifetime.

The Crowds: The guide books will have you pulling out your hair, trying to make it to the right temples, at the right times, to get the best light or to avoid the crowds. We decided to ignore the books and not worry about the crowds because that becomes your focus instead of the sights. All we can really say is the crowds are heavier the later the day becomes, and the earlier you get there the better. And at Angkor early means real early, like 5:00 in the morning. That said, we only got there early one day, and had a fine time anyway.

The Temples (our highlights):

Angkor Wat: This is the famous one, with the three towers, its image is everywhere in Cambodia. A can't miss; majestic, vast, beautiful. We went twice, once at dawn and once in the late afternoon. Check out the pictures to see the late afternoon crowds, which were an amusing sight on their own, especially the Japanese tour groups gingerly inching their way down the extremely steep and high stairways.

Angkor Thom: Has got the famous giant carved faces at a temple called Bayon. We took a great walk from the Bayon out along an empty jungle road to the East Gate and then along the outside wall to the Victory gate and back

03 The Hard Sell

. We saw some sort of ring-tailed animal in the jungle on the way (probably just a Cambodian squirrel)

Banteay Srey: A long tuk-tuk ride of about 40K out of town, the temple is nice with some really intricate beautiful carving, but the ride through the country side was the highlight. All the rice fields were a brilliant shade of green.

Pre Rup: The fun temple. Perhaps our favorite. You can scramble up and down it, and see some wonderful views of the countryside. And there's hardly anyone there except a cow or two!

Is there anything to see here besides walk around temples?

Besides heading to the Foreign Correspondents Club for our evening gin and tonic, we did a great FREE tour of a silk farm (Artisans dÁngkor) in the countryside. Our FREE tour guide (did we mention he didn't charge?)lead us through the entire process of silk making from worm to weaving. This place is basically a school that trains poor people from the countryside how to make silk. They return to their villages and set up shops provisioned by the school until they are self-sufficient

04 At the silk factory

. We had no idea how much was involved in making silk. It's definitely worth the price we pay for it!

What Next?
We will travel by bus on Sunday to Phnom Penh and stay for a day or two before heading to Sihanoukville (Southern Cambodia) for a little beach stay.

What we are reading besides guide books:

Matt- Vietnam:A History by Stanley Karnow
Kristy: After Shogun, I read Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Glass Palace. I'm looking for a new book now. Possibly a Maeve Binchy until I can find something that peaks my interest.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

10 Indy	11 His Majesty	12 Cambodian Gas station	13 Goofin around
14 Queen Kristy	15 Angkor Wat Crowds	16 Line of Ants	17 Kristy at Ta Prohm
18 Matt Moto

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