the cambodia chronicles

One of the first words that comes to mind in trying to sum up Cambodia is hot… really, really, REALLY hot… the kind of hot that makes you drink four plus liters of water a day, but stops you from ever feeling happily hydrated….  

Alas, before I belabor the point any further, let's start at the beginning.

We hit the ground in Cambodia a few weeks back realizing that we slightly miscalculated this leg of the trip.  The issue is that we originally booked plane tickets from Bangkok to Phnom Penh (in the south of Cambodia), not realizing that Siem Reap (in the north of Cambodia) has an international airport.  (Oops...)  And, we subsequently decided that we wanted to spend the majority of our time in Siem Reap touring the nearby ruins of Angkor – arguably, the best that Cambodia has to offer.  It would have been much more efficient to fly from Bangkok to Siem Reap.  But instead of dealing with the hassle of changing our flight, we stuck with our original plan, and arranged for a car to retrieve us in Phnom Penh upon arrival and drive us to Siem Reap.  A five-hour drive, it actually turned out to be pretty cool because the rural countryside that makes up most of the country is vastly different than Siem Reap, and we really appreciated seeing that on the front end of our visit.  

Our flight into Cambodia landed around 3:30 p.m.  After getting our visas on arrival, clearing immigration… double checking that our passports had their arrival stamps… and collecting our bags, we found our driver.  Thankfully, we had a full-size, air-conditioned van to ourselves, which made for a rather luxurious long haul.  We set off on a two-lane road with traffic of all sorts (cars, bikes, scooters pulling rickety old wooden carts) moving steadily in each direction.  As we made our way out of Phnom Penh, however, we became one of the increasingly few cars on the road.  

For most of the way, the road was lined on either side with a single row of houses and, beyond, vast squares of brown and green farmland and clusters of trees.  A lot of the houses reminded us of traditional Thai houses – simple one-floor, wooden dwellings built upon stilts and elevated off the ground.  (The less fortunate ones were built closer to the ground, slapped together with thatched walls and corrugated metal roofs.)  

Families seemed to use the ground floor, underneath the raised house, for a variety of purposes – storage, parking, and oftentimes, running a shop or simply hanging a hammock (Cambodians love their hammocks).  As we travelled, we passed few proper towns and saw no hotels.  Yet, all around, scenes of everyday life unfolded – children kicking around and running from house to house, men fixing motorbikes (surrounded by groups of other men simply observing), women carrying one thing or another from place to place, grandparents minding little ones.  We watched the sun fade to our left and, as night fell, we were amazed how incredibly dark and still the countryside fell.  There were no streetlights.  And, the inside of each house was lit by a long skinny fluorescent white light bulb that appeared no stronger than an ordinary porch light.  We could see silhouettes of people moving around through the open front doors and windows of most houses.  We would later learn (as if seeing isn't believing enough) that Cambodia has a real shortage of electricity problem.  

When we pulled into Siem Reap, however, things were very well lit and pretty busy. (Some places in Siem Reap get their electricity from nearby Thailand, or so we were later told.)  There was a relative abundance of large hotels, with full-size tour buses sitting idle in their parking lots for the night.  Shops and two-wheeler traffic sprang out of nowhere.  People gathered at roadside food vendors, sitting in little stools at miniature tables to eat.  

Aman and I stayed a little bit outside of Siem Reap at the – wait for it – Best Western Suites & Sweet Resort.  I mean, it looked good in the photos, the prices were reasonable, and someone had given it a super fun name.  Why not?  

By the time we checked in on our first night, it was late and we were beat.  With plans to hit Angkor in the morning and warning that it would be a tiring day, we had a quiet dinner and made it an early night.  We were tired, yes, but also excited for the day to come, having heard that the ruins of Angkor – and Angkor Wat, in particular – would be one of the most spectacular things we would ever see.

We woke up on the big day to a pale blue sky dotted with white clouds.  At breakfast, our hotel manager told us that we were lucky that it was not very hot out that morning (even though it was…).  Through the hotel, Aman and I commissioned a tuk-tuk for the day and set off down the red dirt road in front of our hotel towards Angkor, which was about 10 kilometers away.  

Along the way, the roads were busy and it seemed as though every local kid was riding around on a bicycle.  Some had bikes that were too big for them – standing up as they rode, hovering above the crossbar, unable to reach the pedals and the seat at the same time.  Others had bikes that were too small – sitting on the back seat with their feet flexed, so that their toes wouldn't scrape the ground.  But, all of them it seemed were getting around on a bicycle.

As we got closer to Angkor, the roadside restaurants and shops became fewer and more far in between, while the line of trees on either side of the road got taller and thicker, and the air got noticeably cooler (even though it was still hot…).  We paid our entrance fee for a three-day pass (Angkor is huge, and with ruins spread out over thousands of kilometers, it’s not a bad idea to break up your visits over a few days) and went straight for the magnificent Angkor Wat, the principal temple of the Angkorian region, which was built as a mausoleum and temple for a twelfth-century king.  Naturally, we kept asking each other repeatedly along the way (and throughout the entire day really), Angkor what??

Everything about Angkor Wat is impressive, from the size and height of the temple’s central chamber to the extensively decorated walls of its outer gallery depicting great scenes from Hindu mythology.  Despite the fact that there are some sections of the structure that have collapsed or deteriorated, we thought that it was in pretty decent shape for a structure that was constructed nine centuries ago (without cement and, in part, by elephants).

After an hour or two, we continued on, only minutes away, to the walled city of Angkor Thom.  First stop, the Bayon, a pyramid-shaped temple that was one of our two favorite sites.  The temple is covered in faces that have been put together like a jigsaw puzzle (i.e., several smaller pieces make up each giant face).  It is absolutely mind-blowing how well the pieces fit together.

We trekked north to see a couple of other sites within Angkor Thom (Baphuon, Terrace of the Elephants) and then reunited with our tuk-tuk, which was waiting under a tree nearby.  Before moving on, we restocked our supply of cold drinking water and grabbed some ice cream for lunch (it was hot...).  We joined the procession of tuk-tuks traveling east through the Gate of Victory on our way to see Ta Prohm, the second of our two favorite ruins.  It's been left in very poor condition despite some restoration efforts, but what an amazing sight to see – these massive trees have completely overtaken the temple, pushing up through the corridors and crashing over the walls.

After more than three hours of walking around in the hot sun (and four large bottles of water...), we were thoroughly exhausted and called it a day.  We had plans to return the next morning on bicycles to see more, so there was no need to cram everything into one day.  

The decision to rent bicycles on day two (despite the heat…) was an easy one – we love riding bikes, and the Siem Reap/Angkor area is very bicycle friendly with good roads and flat terrain.  We found a place in town that had some mean-looking mountain bikes in its arsenal, and negotiated a price for the day ($10 for two bikes).  We quickly were heading down the same route that we took the day earlier and ended up in front of Angkor what?? This time, it was just to take a few pictures.  

Continuing on, we opted for the second day in a row to have ice cream for lunch.  True to his generous nature, Aman bought a round for this little guy too and the three of us proceeded to have a little ice cream party in the cool shade of a gloriously thick-leaved tree.

Feeling good, we pedaled ourselves east in the direction of Ta Prohm to see a few other temples that we skipped the day before.  Every once in awhile, we passed a small group of women raking leaves on the side of the road, and Aman couldn’t help but shout an exuberant “SOO-A S’DAY!!!” (Hello!!!) as he passed.  The ladies ate it up – giggling, waving, flashing timid smiles and offering greetings in return.  It was hilarious.  

We made a quick stop at Banteay Kdei, amazing but (or because it was?) literally falling over:

Afterwards, we hopped (gingerly) on our bicycles and started the long ride back in the direction of Angkor Wat and the main entrance/exit to the archaeological site.  We motivated each other the whole way with reminders and descriptions of the cold, cold Angkor beer that we planned to enjoy when we got back to town.  And that was exactly how we ended our day – after more than 30 kilometers pedaling in the unrelenting Cambodian heat, we hit the happy hour circuit for a little while … and then treated ourselves to a round of unbelievable reflexology foot massages at a place that we spied across the street from our bar table.

On day three, we deliberately planned for a late start, because we wanted to see the sunset at Angkor…  and it seemed, based on two days of experience, that we were having a hard time lasting the entire day when we got an early start.  We hit Banteay Srei, which was a one-hour tuk-tuk ride from our sweet hotel and a bit of an outlier ruin.  Built in the tenth century, it served as a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva.  The walls were redder in color than most of the other temples we had seen over the two previous days, with exquisitely detailed scenes from Hindu mythology.

For our next temple, we went to one of the two ruins that are best known for watching the sunset.  Not Phnom Bakheng, which is notorious for being overcrowded at sundown.  We went to Pre Rup, the less popular one…

The sunset was beautiful, of course.  Aman and I lingered, after the sun dropped from the sky and the crowd cleared out, to enjoy the temple by ourselves for a little while.

As for our non-ruin/temple-related activities, we hit the town on several nights while in Siem Reap to find a lively mess of bars and restaurants in the Pub Street area.  I’m not sure that we loved Cambodian cuisine as much as that of Thailand, Singapore or Indonesia.  But, we did find some really good fish amok (the Cambodian culinary specialty) at a restaurant named Angkor Palm, which I was naturally drawn to after hearing that they serve a lot of local, organic food. 

Further away from Pub Street, we made a stop one night at Amansara, of the Aman family of luxury resorts.  We only intended to go for one drink, as an excuse to check out the property (which was beautiful, but way overpriced for Cambodia).  Somehow, we coincidentally popped in on the same day as a beautiful traditional dance performance (which they only feature once a month).

On the other end of the spectrum, we got adventurous one night and tried a local sidewalk “restaurant” opposite the night market, which was … well, interesting.  Plastic chairs and tables covered in banquet-wear and arranged haphazardly on a large sidewalk, it was hard to discern where one “restaurant” ended and another began.  We sat at one table and placed our order, but within minutes Aman had spotted some appetizing noodles at a street vendor in the opposite direction.  We tried most everything – some hits, some misses.  It was a street food free-for-all.

After five fun (and hot…) days in Siem Reap, it was time for us to check out Phnom Penh for a couple of nights.  The bus there followed the same familiar road, National Route 6, which brought us north five days earlier.  We stopped only once at a restaurant, what appeared to be a regular pit stop for the buses traveling up and down Route 6.  A fairly large establishment, it was almost full during the busy lunchtime hour when we arrived.  Aman and I surveyed the room before grabbing one of the last few tables.  All around us, patrons dined family-style.  A little plastic dustbin sat beside or underneath each table for ... table scraps??  A peculiar odor filled the room… Aman and I looked at each other.  There was no need to say anything.  The waiter approached our table, and Aman ordered two Angkor beers.  Umm, that’s it for now, thanks, Aman said politely to the waiter when he returned with our beers.  The man walked away without a word, at which point, Aman and I got into a deep conversation. 

AP:      Beer, lunch of champions.

AS:      Yeah, maybe we should order something.

AP:      Here??

AS:      Yeah, maybe not.

AP:      There was a woman selling Pringles outside.

AS:      Do you think they’re real?

AP:      You think they’re counterfeiting the Pringles?

AS:      Don’t know, she had a lot of strange flavors…

Twenty or so minutes later, we were back in the bus with two more beers and a container of sour-cream-and-onion Pringles (they tasted authentic to me). 

When we pulled into the bus station in Phnom Penh, it was the routine mob scene of tuk-tuk drivers trying to cash in on the unprepared traveller who had yet to secure a ride to his or her hotel.  Thankfully, Aman and I arranged a tuk-tuk on the bus ride a couple of hours earlier. 

We cruised the dusty streets of the capital to our hotel, our gear piled high on the bench opposite us.  It was late afternoon by then, and neither of us had eaten much (besides the potato chips), so our first priority (after dropping our stuff) was finding a place to eat.  We had heard that Phnom Penh had a good cluster of restaurants on Sisowath Quay, overlooking the Tonle Sap (the “Great Lake”), so we took off on foot to check it out.  After a short walk, we found a bustle of activity on the riverfront and plenty of options.  Similar to Siem Reap, a throng of tuk-tuk drivers strategically positioned themselves in front of every restaurant, casually asking, at every passerby, tuk-tuk? tuk-tuk?   

The next day, we awoke early with plans of going to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.  As you might imagine, our visit was a sobering one.  The museum is set up in a building known as “S21,” which was originally a school, but later used as a prison and interrogation center under the reign of the Khmer Rouge.  Prisoners were held and tortured there, forced to make bogus confessions and then brought to the killing fields and murdered.  Their faces can be seen throughout the rooms of the museum in mug shots that were taken at the time of their imprisonment.  As we stood there looking at them, Aman remarked how much fear he saw in the people’s eyes.  I noted confusion, defiance, anger, and pleas for mercy, too.  It was very intense. 

Barbed wire, used to keep the prisoners from jumping off the corridor, and committing suicide:

The rest of our short time in Phnom Penh was spent on lighter activities such as visiting the Russian Market (awesome, but Aman wouldn’t let me buy anything…) and the Grand Palace (okay, but not enough access to the grounds), and enjoying the sights on the streets (e.g., sidewalks full of miniature plastic tables and chairs, where all the locals dine). 

Definitely a good week in Cambodia.