This past weekend I went to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Here’s a little background information. Siem Reap is the town closest to Angkor Wat, the giant ancient temple complexes of Cambodia. It’s not a very big town at all, but they get a lot of tourism because of the temples. Although Cambodia is much safer now that the Khmer Rouge regime has fallen, it’s still extremely poor. They’ve had economic growth that all comes from the tourism industry. Before 1998, when the country was still closed to outsiders, only about 200,000 tourists visited Cambodia in the entire year. Since 1998, over one million tourists have visited Cambodia each year. Being a poor, underdeveloped country, Cambodia lacks the infrastructure to support this influx of people. There’s a huge amount of construction (roads, sewage, etc) in Siem Reap in an attempt to better prepare the town for tourists. There are also giant projects underway to restore the temples in and surrounding Angkor Wat. This is why it’s fairly expensive to go to Cambodia. The fees to get in and out of the country (US$20-25) go towards the development of the infrastructure and the fees at the temples (US$20 per day) go towards restoration. The Cambodian currency, the riel, is practically worthless. One US dollar is equal to 4000 riel. Because of this, US currency goes a long way in Cambodia. Nearly every transaction is made with US cash, both in big hotels and in small sidewalk or market stalls. They don’t use US coins though, so change is made in riel. Cambodia still has a huge amount of problems to deal with, including poverty, AIDS, poor health care, and a large amount of unexploded land mines still hidden in the countryside. There are charities set up by NGOs (non-governmental organizations) all over Siem Reap. One man (I think Australian, maybe?) has set up a children’s hospital, and every Saturday night, he takes the night off to give a free cello concert, during which he talks about his experiences with the children in Cambodia. There is no charge for the concert, but he asks for donations for his hospital. There’s also a restaurant where the food is cooked by teens and young adults as a development program to teach them job and language skills. So there are a lot of sad things in Cambodia, but there are a lot of people working to do something about it. By the way, anything Cambodian is called “Khmer.” That’s the name of the ethnic group that primarily composes Cambodia. So it’s khmer food, khmer language, khmer dancing, etc. That was enough of a history/humanitarian lecture, so I’ll move on to tell about my weekend.
When we first got to Cambodia, I was miserable. I had to wake up at 3:30 am to catch a taxi to the airport for our 6 am flight. This was after going to bed at midnight so I could finish an assignment before I left. So I didn’t go to sleep, really. I just took a nap. We checked into our guest house and promptly went to bed. After sleeping much of the morning away, we arranged for a driver to take us to lunch, a temple, and a floating market. Of course, lunch was our first priority, and it was pretty good. When we left to get back into the van, there were 4 or 5 adorable children begging us for money. We all gave them some money, and when other kids saw that, they ran over too. We ended up just getting in the van and driving away. We just don’t have enough dollars to give to all the children of Cambodia. It was heartbreaking to drive away while they all stared at us through the window.
To get to our next destination, we had to drive through a lot of residential areas in the countryside. I sat in the front seat and got a good view of everything and saw a lot of interesting things. Babies and toddlers are almost always naked. Little boys run around in just shorts, and little girls in just skirts. I saw kids running errands on a parent’s bike, so they sat on the bar instead of the seat in order to reach the pedals. I saw a 12 or 13 year old kid driving his little brother on a motorbike. I saw four guys crammed onto one motorbike. I saw kids playing in a well. I saw a lot of people lying in hammocks trying to escape the heat. Some of the houses were set up where 4 or so houses were set back from the road and one small wall-less building would be right on the edge of the road. This building would sometimes have things for sale, like drinks. Sometimes what seemed like a whole extended family would be hanging out in there and socializing. Pretty interesting stuff. There were a good number of cows in the residential area, but there were far more in the more rural areas. Right now is Cambodia’s dry season, so it’s very dusty and dirty. The cows would be roaming the fields, looking for grass. And then we would see one big mud hole, and the water buffaloes were often neck-deep in it. It was a drive with plenty of sights to see.
We arrived at Beng Mealea, an old overgrown temple in ruins. First, we asked the people nearby if they had a bathroom we could use. We ended up paying 500 riel to pee into a hole in the ground. But hey, they can use 12.5 cents more than I can. We went up to the temple ruins, and it was amazing. There were guides there who helped us climb through them and explore. There was a lot of rubble and a lot of trees and roots taking over the stone. But there were still some hallways and windows that were intact. It was tough (and dangerous!) climbing, but well worth it. And, of course, I took way too many pictures. But it was beautiful. Important lesson to learn: nature will eventually reclaim its property. The pictures of this place are a lot better than the words describing it, so I’ll stop with this topic now. Before we left, we stopped at a roadside stand and got Cokes. The little girl serving us was maybe 8 or 9 and when she handed me the Coke, she said, “Madame,” and she said it again when she gave me a straw. It was very cute. On the way to our next destination, we had to slam on the brakes a few times to dodge cows in the road. It happens.
After the temple, we drove a ways to a floating village. This village is a bunch of houseboats and a few houses on stilts on a huge lake called the Tonle Sap. We took a boat out there. Just outside the village, when we could see everything but weren’t actually in it, our boat broke down. While we were waiting for our guide and driver to fix it, three kids from the village rowed out to beg us for money because tourists in the middle of a lake is like shooting fish in a barrel. Two kids rowed over in a small canoe-like boat. Another kid rowed over in a bucket. Yes, a bucket. It was a shallow round basin tub-thing. As he rows over, we can see that it’s filling with water. And then the entire thing just slowly gets sucked under water. I start freaking out thinking the kid is going to lose his bucket and drown. Then he just stands up. Turns out the lake is only 4 feet or so deep. So he stands up, empties the bucket, puts it upright, climbs back in, and paddles the rest of the way to collect his money. It was hilarious. We moved on to the village and went through seeing the sights. We stopped at the village market and did some souvenir shopping. About halfway through my shopping, I look up and through one of the slats in the wall, and I see a crocodile. A real live crocodile. I didn’t realize that the whole time I was shopping, there was a 20-foot long box full of crocodiles in the water about 5 feet from me. They had a crocodile farm. Scary, but cool. So we checked out the crocodiles, finished out purchases, and headed back. We managed to catch sunset on our boat ride back, so it was very pretty.
That night we went to a restaurant called Madame Butterfly. It’s French and Cambodian food and is owned by French dude. It was pretty good, though slightly typical food. On the way home we had to walk through a rainstorm. We got soaked. We also had a few Cambodian guys offering us rides. Fun stuff.
The next morning, we ended up hanging around the lobby of the guest house until nearly noon. We were waiting for a tour guide who never came. When he finally did, we headed to the Angkor-Thom temple complex. Our first stop was a small temple. Our guide explained the frescos to us and what the pictures represented. It was pretty cool, and once again, good pictures. We got back in the van and headed to lunch. We ate at a place right outside the main temple, Angkor Wat, so they were all ready to sell us tourists their wares. We sat down and a 12 year old girl who told us her name was Princess Diana served us. As soon as we sat down, children started to crowd around us to sell musical instruments, figurines, hats, books, and more. I bought a few things, but then I just didn’t have enough change to buy anything more. At its peak, we had 20 kids crowded around our one table. It was insane. The kids’ favorite selling tactic is to ask you where you’re from and tell you the capital of that place, in hopes that they will impress you into buying something. One girl told John the US capital (Washington, D.C., guys) and John said he would buy something if she told him the capital of Idaho. I yelled at him for being a jerk, but the girl was quick, and she said, “How about the capital of the US and the capital of Madagascar?” I made him agree to the deal, and the girl promptly told us the capitals, though I don’t even know if she was right because I don’t know the capital of Madagascar. He bought it though.
Next we headed to Angkor Wat, the big famous temple. It was really interesting, and we walked around taking lots of pictures again. The others climbed up the temple and looked at it from the top. I’m a bit nervous with heights and with stairs that are 4 inches wide but a foot tall, so I didn’t join them. Once again, the pictures describe this better, so I’ll move on. When we left, we walked through a market. After 10 minutes of women screaming “Lady!” at me, I decided I had had enough. We headed back towards the van, where we were accosted in the parking lot by 7 children. I had just bought some bracelets (15 for $1) in the market, and the most adorable kid in the world was trying to sell me the same bracelets (10 for $1). I told him no and kept walking, but he followed me.
Cute Kid: Lady, you want bracelets?
Me: No.
Cute Kid: Where you from?
Me: The United States.
Cute Kid: The capital of United States is Washington DC.
Me: Good job, honey, but I don’t need those bracelets.
Cute Kid: Yes, you do. You buy.
Me: No, I already bought bracelets.
Cute Kid: You didn’t buy these bracelets.
Me: Yes, I did. I bought bracelets exactly like that.
Cute Kid: You didn’t buy 10.
Me: Well, I bought 15.
Cute Kid: You didn’t buy 20.
These kids are heartbreakers. I didn’t buy the bracelets because I didn’t have another dollar bill and I knew the kid would keep the change from my twenty. So I got in the van and left and nearly started crying when the kid just stared at me. Oh, while this interchange was occurring, another kid tried to sell a book to me for $20. It was the same book my friend had just bought for $4. I just laughed at him.
We headed on to another temple. We had to climb up this huge hill. We got to the top of the hill, and of course, there were three sets of scary stairs to climb up the temple, but I made myself do it. Then we sat on the top of the temple and watched the sunset. It was really pretty. Unfortunately, I didn’t think through the part where I would have to climb down the temple and the hill in the dark. I made it down the stairs while there was still some light, so that was good. Instead of braving the steep hill to get down in the dark, I found another path that is used for the elephants. (You can pay $15 to get an elephant to take you up the hill on a side path.) So me and all the other tourists, about 5 million of them, headed down the trail, constantly on the look-out for “mushy rocks.”
Back in the van, our guide asked us what we wanted to do. He suggested dinner at a good place. These kinds of suggestions are not uncommon. The guides/drivers typically get some sort kickbacks or commission by taking tourists to their friends’ restaurants. It was a nice place though. It was $12 for a buffet dinner and a show with traditional Khmer dancing. So we got tons of food and saw some people dancing around onstage. It was fun.
Some of our group went out to a bar, but I hung out at the guest house with Janine. Neither of us really felt like going out. We played with the owner’s kitten. I don’t remember her name because it was in Khmer, but the name translated to “Black Girl.” Also, I didn’t want to stay out late since we had to get up at 5:30 to catch our flight home. There are only three or four flights per week between Singapore and Cambodia, so our flight choices were limited.
The next morning we got up to leave and pay for our hotel, guide, trips, etc. It took quite a while to organize 10 people to pay their bill and get the right change back. The people at the guest house were so nice though. Their kitchen hadn’t opened yet, and they knew we had to go, so they made us to-go boxes of bread and jam for breakfast. It was so nice of them. So if any of you plan a trip to Cambodia, I recommend the Earthwalkers Guest House in Siem Reap. Write that down. We got to the airport early since that’s what you’re supposed to do. Except then we realized that there’s no need to be at this airport early. It’s so small that it’s one big building without any gates or anything. The plane lands, you walk down the stairs, and you walk across the landing strip to go inside. That’s it. The whole building is divided into two parts. One part is for checking in. Then you go through security and customs and the next part is one giant sitting area. There’s a store and a coffee stall. It was a long 2 hours wait. But we got on the plane and it was fairly empty so I got my own row. We got back to Singapore around noon, which gave me all day to write my psychology essay. So it was a great weekend and still productive. I think Cambodia might be my favorite place in Southeast Asia.
