After 4 months in Thailand – almost entirely in Chiang Mai – I finally moved on to another country! Clearly I hadn’t envisioned this schedule when I set out last year, but I have been very pleased at how things have panned out. I need to be back in Chiang Mai in April for 2-3 weeks for Songkran and other merriment (and some work), so I know I’ll be back, but it still felt really weird to be leaving my new home. The best summary I can give is that these days I can’t read half of my Facebook newsfeed because it’s in Thai. The only reason I don’t feel worse is that I know I’ll be back in less than a month.
Siem Reap and Angkor
After a short flight to Bangkok and another short flight to Siem Reap, I grabbed a tuk-tuk from the airport and OH MY GOD WHY IS IT SO HOT AT NIGHT?!?! Truth be told (and I feel silly using one of those phrases that’s overused), it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. Siem Reap is 35° C, just like Chiang Mai, but Chiang Mai weather is much more tolerable because it’s very dry at this time of year. Even with the cool breeze hitting me while sitting in the back of a tuk-tuk, I was still sweating through my clothes. I got used to the weather after a day or so, but that first 24 hours was a little bit of a shock to the system. After that I just resigned myself to being constantly sweaty and always bringing an extra shirt with me.
I ended up hiring my airport driver, Dola, as a tour guide and he whisked me around Angkor on his tuk-tuk and motorbike, cramming a lot of sightseeing into three days. All the temples are quite impressive and should be on any traveler’s bucket list. My one piece of advice is to go in December or January if you want the best weather (at the expense of more tourists).
The first stop on the sightseeing tour was Angkor Wat at sunrise on the first day. Angkor Wat is massive and an amazing work of art and tough to put into words. I don’t know if I have much more to say than what you’d find in a tour book, so I’ll let the photos do the talking.
After spending a few hours at Angkor Wat, Dola unhitched his motorbike from his tuk-tuk and we spent the afternoon at Phnom Kulen, which included a fun motorbike ride up and down the mountain, a temple with a large reclining Buddha, and swimming at the base of a waterfall.
Swimming in the river at the waterfall was incredibly refreshing in the Cambodian heat and even a bit cold after a while, given the water temperature, lack of sun (it being blocked by the canopy overhead), and wind. The river was full of those little fish that nibble at your dead skin if you stay still for too long and there were plenty of locals screaming and splashing around. Many of them couldn’t swim and quite a few jumped into the water full clothed, neither of which are that unusual for Southeast Asia.
The second day highlights were a long motorbike ride through the countryside to Beng Mealea and lunch at a Cambodian wedding.
Beng Mealea was my favorite temple of the trip. It feels a bit like something out of Indiana Jones as the jungle has grown back over the years to slowly overtake the temple ruins. When you tour the temple with one of the full-time guides, you wander through courtyards that are dressed in trees and vines and climb over piles of collapsed stones. I liked it a lot more than Ta Prohm, which has too many tourists, less nature (the jungle there is manicured), and lots of heavy equipment as parts of the temple are being restored.
The wedding was very interesting too, mostly because it was such a different format than American weddings. My driver’s friend was getting married, so we stopped by for lunch, which is really what a Cambodian wedding in the countryside amounts to. It’s customary for a wedding to be on a weekday, for only an hour or so during lunchtime, with no ceremony, MC, or dancing. Guests arrive whenever they can make it, sit down at one of the circular tables, pick at the seven courses of lunch, drink Cambodian beer, and shout to each other over the blaring music. Given the heat, suits are clearly not required or acceptable, so the standard attire for men is jeans and a collared shirt. As if I didn’t feel singled out enough being the only white person there, I was wearing my temple-visiting clothes (shorts, t-shirt, and backpack). Outfit FAIL.
On top of that, there wasn’t much veggie food, so I was forced to drink my calories. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, except I hadn’t eaten breakfast that day, so the alcohol hit me harder than usual. The other guests were intrigued by the presence of a foreigner, but greatly appreciated the fact that I smiled a lot and drank a lot of beer. (I was inappropriately dressed and not eating their food, so what else could I do?) Given how much Cambodian men like to toast and drink, I drunkenly passed out at 2:00 when I made it back to my hotel and had a very nice 6-hour nap. If the wedding had been longer than one hour, I would have been in big trouble.
The third day highlights were pretty much everything at Angkor Thom, especially Bayon.
Riding through the countryside of Angkor is an eye-opening experience by itself, as it offers glimpses into the daily life of real Cambodian people, many of whom are very poor. Emaciated cows grazing on dried grass, trash strewn everywhere, and uniformed children walking arm-in-arm from school all became very common sights. (That reminds me: Cambodian kids are probably the most adorable kids on the planet. Angelina Jolie was onto something!)
For the next three days, I relaxed in Siem Reap, spending most of my time developing photos, writing, and eating lots of delicious Khmer food (very similar to Thai food, but without the spiciness). The Khmer cocktail class was very fun and Phare, the Cambodian circus, was phenomenal and life-affirming; both activities are highly recommended if you stay in Siem Reap even for a little bit.
Phnom Penh
The all-day bus ride to Phnom Penh was pretty uneventful, given that I was already familiar with how the Cambodian countryside looks and how some of the drivers on the roads are borderline psychotic. Probably the only detail worth noting was that the entertainment system on my “VIP bus” was a Sony set-top box loaded with dozens of Blu-ray rips, clearly torrented given that most of the filenames had “YIFY” in the title. Classic Southeast Asia.
Once in Phnom Penh, I met another tuk-tuk driver at the bus station and hired him for a couple days to take me around the city. We had a couple decently-packed days, going to the royal palace, the national museum, Friends restaurant (a good-cause establishment that gives jobs and experience to former street kids), Tuol Sleng (a.k.a. S-21 prison) museum, the killing fields, Wat Phnom, Russian Market, and Central Market.
The next two days were a lot more relaxed as I needed time to develop photos and write; my time not spent doing one of those two activities was spent eating, hitting the pool, or getting massages. I also had the pleasure of meeting up for drinks with Anne – one of my friends from Chiang Mai – and her boyfriend, who are also traveling throughout Cambodia.
On Saturday, I linked up with Steven – another friend from Chiang Mai – for some good bro time, including a field trip to a military base outside of town. Steven (via his company) organizes trips to the shooting range, where customers can shoot fully automatic rifles at various inanimate objects, shoot RPGs at the mountain, and throw grenades. It just so happened he had a large group of people going, so he invited me to tag along and I offered to take photos. It was all good fun even though I didn’t shoot anything; I think I derived just as much satisfaction from watching others do it. And you don’t have to be the one pulling the pin to appreciate the force from a grenade that explodes nearby.
Fun fact: contrary to what the movies show, grenades do not have fiery explosions, just a lot of force (and shrapnel) being released. Similarly, propane tanks do not explode in a huge fireball when shot with regular ammunition. To get that effect, you need to light a fire next to the tank, which will ignite the propane when the tank is punctured. The More You Know, folks.
Sequence of throwing a grenade:
After the long day of drinking with Steven, I spent most of Sunday relaxing until a 90-minute quad-bike (ATV) ride at sunset through the villages by the killing fields. My understanding is that the adults in the villages have mixed feelings about this tourist activity because of the noise and dust, but the kids love it. When they hear the quad-bikes approaching, they all run up to the road to wave, say “Hello!”, and throw up some high-fives.
After another day of relaxing, I spent Tuesday at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center, which was substantial and photogenic enough to warrant its own post.
Battambang
The next day I took the bus to Battambang, a small town (though somehow the second-largest city in Cambodia) in the northwest part of the country. The ride was highlighted by a hilariously awful Khmer-dubbed copy of Cradle 2 The Grave. I’m happy (I guess?) that some lovely Khmer people could experience the joy that only DMX can give. I don’t have much to say about Battambang, as I didn’t do any sightseeing and instead used my time there to catch up on sleep, photo editing, and blogging. I don’t feel too bad about this as the sights aren’t very different than what I’ve seen already.
After a very uneventful (i.e. DMX-less) 3-hour bus ride, I found myself back in Siem Reap for 48 hours, mainly to catch a flight, but it was also nice to hang out in a place that I was somewhat familiar with. I was also able to meet up with my friend Lala, who runs the aforementioned Khmer cocktail class. Her bar (Asana) was coincidentally having a 2-year anniversary party, at which I drank too much and had to put myself to bed. After one more day to relax, I left for the airport and caught my flight to southern Thailand.
Thoughts on Cambodia
I didn’t really have any expectations before visiting Cambodia and I definitely enjoyed my time there. A lot of the culture was already familiar to me (food, motorbikes, music, wai‘ing, losing face, etc.) as it’s similar to Thailand, but it was interesting to see little differences here and there.
Cambodian traffic and driving are worth mentioning, as the road culture is quite different than what I’m used to back home. The two words that often pop into my head are “chaotic” and “lawless”. The major roads are especially colorful, as all types of cars, trucks, buses, tractors, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, and bicycles jostle for space on the pavement (or dirt). Traffic lights barely exist, stop signs might as well be invisible, and driving on the wrong side of the road is okay. Intersections roughly translate to: “slow down a little and find a gap in the cross-traffic, then plow ahead”. Passing on a two-lane road becomes something of a game of chicken, with the smaller vehicle having to concede to the larger one, even if it means pulling off (and continuing to drive on) the dirt shoulder. What’s funny is that all of this seems to work because everyone follows the same rules. After observing a lot of driving over the last three weeks, I’ve yet to see an accident. That said, it’s probably a very wise rule that foreigners are not allowed to rent motorbikes in Siem Reap.
Cambodia being a poor country, and me being a single white male, I get approached and pestered a lot. Sure, it might be annoying that tuk-tuk drivers are constantly hassling me about rides or drugs or girls. And it might be exhausting to see so many beggars or war victims always asking for money. But mild annoyance is as far as my negativity goes. I cannot, in good conscience, possibly look down upon or blame or even ignore what these good people have to resort to simply for survival. The people, their families, and their country have been through hell. I haven’t had my family uprooted from its home, or my country bombed and burned and destroyed, or my relatives murdered in a genocide, or my limbs blown off by a landmine, or anything that’s a fraction of what Cambodian people have had to ensure. I made a point of trying to keep all that in mind as I traveled through the country. I feel good that I made friends and spent money and educated myself on a truly dark chapter of human history. I hope to return again soon, hopefully in a more meaningful capacity.