Siam Reap, Cambodia - February 6

ANGKOR WAT!!!!!

30 degrees – much less humid

The weather is definitely different here. When we set out at 8:00 this morning, it is actually a bit cool. That doesn’t last long, but the humidity stays somewhat reasonable, so it’s not totally oppressive.

ID for the day

The aim of the day is to visit 4 archeological ruins – Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, Bantey Srei and finally Angkor Wat. Each of these sites are different from each other, but equally fascinating. I have absolutely no idea about anything to do with the history of these sites - our guide is excellent and I feel quite educated if not exhausted by the end of the day.

These archeological ruins are the only tourist sites/places that I’ve ever been to that requires a photo to enter. It is very slick and fast; for the 19 of us, pictures and then the ID that we had to wear for all of our visits took about 10 minutes.

these giant trees are everywhere

Lunch is at what is described as an ‘international buffet’ –this description is applied to most meals we have as part of tours and have learned it is code for ‘western’ – familiar, but not very exciting. Today, in addition to spaghetti and meatballs there is a good variety of Cambodian dishes. Yesterday we learned about Amok – a Cambodian dish that can be with different meat and today it is on this buffet. This one was fish Amok – a bit sweet (I liked this, Chris not so much) with coconut and lemon grass. It was then packed into a banana leaf cup. More ‘local’ beer was to be drunk…this time in bottles with interesting pull tops. Although these beers were included with our lunch, draft was for sale for 1.25 for a pint and 4.00 for a pitcher.

living tree roots

Sanskrit writing on Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring ruins of the Khmer civilization. This is the biggest site of all 4 and takes the longest to visit. Carvings cover what seem to be thousands and thousands of feet of wall here – wall carvings cover all 4 sites, but these are probably the most impressive. This is very close to Siem Reap where our hotel is so the drive at the end of the day isn’t long which is excellent as I am dusty, hot, sticky and don’t want to know what I smell like!

The guides throughout Cambodia refer a bit but not a lot to the Khmer Rouge time in the 1970s. We see a few reminders of that time through people with missing limbs due to landmines, but less than I expected. I wonder if it’s still too recent to talk freely about those times.

decorate all of the walls

Before dinner we had about an hour before our evening activity of dinner and a show. Our hotel bar had 2 for 1 happy hour so, it was a very quick shower and change so that we could get a drink in.

The dinner and show was at a nearby hotel – although our hotel is lovely, this one has the charm ours doesn’t. Ours is more of a business style hotel while this one has more atmosphere. The pool area where we have dinner is lovely. We are the only ones there, which means it is quiet, and there is music and lighting that makes it very relaxing. For the 19 of us there is enough food to feed about 100, which makes us feel a bit uncomfortable. Lunch was a bit like this – off course we like to think that somehow this food gets used, but I sometimes wonder if we think this to lessen our guilt over wasting so much food. Anyway…the best thing I had was bok lo hong (a Cambodian papaya salad) – it was delicious other than the fact that it burned my mouth off! Wow! It was definitely the spiciest things I’ve eaten so far. I’m not sure what made it so spicy – it was delicious, but HOT!

leading up to Angkor Thom

Dinner had an accompanying folkloric show which we are typically opposed to because of the audience participation element. Audience participation seems only to be during shows European shows. Asian shows are more serious and with no need of a silly tourist element. This one was great.

folkloric show

sign in the hotel elevator

Although we were back before 9:00, we were just so beat that we couldn’t even drag ourselves to the bar for one last drink.

Sheryl – yes, the school was part of the tour, kids in Cambodia go to school only half day until they are in gr 7. Then lots of them quit as the jr high and more in senior high schools are far from their homes.

happy hour