We arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia late at night, so we took the courtesy hotel transportation to our hotel, Le Meridien (thanks again to Starwood points). We had to wake up at 4:15 AM the next morning to meet our tour guide for the Angkor Wat sunrise. The sunrise was beautiful, and we headed off to explore the other ruins of Angkor. It was an action-packed day full of temples and photos, but I have never seen ruins like these before. Our schedule was the following:
4:45 AM to 6:00 AM: Sunrise at Angkor Wat
6:00 AM to 7:15 AM: Angkor Thom & Bayon
7:15 AM to 8:15 AM: Breakfast
8:15 AM to 9:15 AM: Ta Prohm
9:15 AM to 10:15 AM: Preah Khan
10:15 AM to 12:00 PM: Boat ride to Krang Krouch
12:00 PM to 1:45 PM: Lunch at Sra Srang
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM: Angkor Wat with scholar

We were exhausted by the end, but I was impressed. I believe my favorite one was the Ta Prohm, nicknamed the Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones temple. On the other temples they had cleaned the trees away, but on this one they allowed the trees to grow naturally which makes for a fascinating place. I didn’t know a lot about Cambodia before coming here, but my brother had told me the people are happy and genuine, especially given their history. I couldn’t agree more. Everyone I met had full face smiles, and they seemed happy to see us. Their currency is called Riel, but everywhere we went accepted USD, even the ATMs presented USD. Our lunch was wonderful, and I actually enjoyed the food there more than I had in Vietnam. We had fish amok, chicken amok, and sweet and sour chicken. The coconut I ordered was gigantic. Siem Reap was a nice place, but you could tell everything was developed for tourists. Now that it is a safe place to visit, their tourism rates have gone up drastically over the years, and they only expect extreme increases (which means more large hotels and tours). I hate to see a place leave its roots so much, but I guess people like me are the cause of it. The next morning, we were all still exhausted from the previous day, so Mike and Allison enjoyed a day by the pool. Michael and I visited the Angkor National Museum, the Siem Reap market, had brunch at Blue Pumpkin, and then went back to Angkor Wat to walk to the very top. It had been closed the day before. On the way, we got caught in a rain storm, but it was nice because it removed the majority of the tourists, so we got to explore the place in private. In the evening, we went to a circus/play called Phare where local artists performed. I convinced the group to brave the tuk tuk, and we enjoyed the dusty (and cheap!) experience. We had dinner at Genevieve’s, a lovely restaurant that a man had created to give tribute to his late wife. The evening was topped off with a walk around the night market and pub street area. Before bed, Michael decided he had to go back to the Blue Pumpkin for another round of ice cream.

After a very short flight on a propeller plane, we arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. We made our way to the Sofitel Hotel, where they greeted us with fresh flowers and a cold ginger tea. Michael found a place called The Lost Room, so we decided to try it for lunch. We got there, and it was closed. A tuk tuk nearby took us to another lunch place called Mama Wong’s. We enjoyed the potstickers and pancakes. During our time in Phnom Penh, we visited many of the tourist sites. One cannot visit Cambodia without learning about the gruesome history they faced. We started our history lesson at Tuol Sleng Museum (S-21, Security Prison 21). Formerly a high school, the facility was taken over in 1975 by Pol Pot and his followers. They created a prison and torture chambers where 100 innocent victims were killed everyday. The rooms are filled with each prisoner’s photograph, a form of documentation created by the Khmer Rouge (their leader Pol Pot). Only seven survived the prison. Similar to the Nazi’s, the Khmer Rouge attempted to restructure society. It’s goal was to go to a “peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative, attaining anything that had come before it”. Intellectuals were killed (doctors, teachers, lawyers, people that spoke a foreign language, wore glasses, had soft hands!!). It was one of the most brutal and most horrific events where it is estimated that 1.7 million people died in a three year eight month period. We also made our journey to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, where 17,000 prisoners (from the prison we visited) were executed. You can still see bones/teeth and ragged clothing surfacing from the ground, and the fields have more than 8000 skulls displayed. It was awful, just awful. The locals have been through this awful past, and yet they still smile. What is even more disturbing is that the United Nations continued to support Pol Pot even after these terrible events. Trials are still going on today.

On a lighter note, we visited the Royal Palace with the Silver Pagoda. The Silver Pagoda is floored with 5000 silver tiles. It has a Buddha statue made of crystal and a life-sized gold Buddha weighing 90 kg and decorated with 9584 diamonds. I’ve never seen so many diamonds. It was beautiful. During our time in Phnom Penh, we had nice meals at The Lost Room, Friends, and Mama Wongs again. We visited AEON mall and tried to go bowling, but it was packed. I tried to convince them to do karaoke but had no takers. At our hotel one day, the red carpet was literally laid out because the Prime Minister was there for a conference.

I really enjoyed Cambodia—a lot more than I had expected. I wish I could have spent more time in the country exploring the less touristy spots, but I wanted to head back to Ho Chi Minh to spend the last bit with Michael and the others before they headed home. I’m sad to see them leave, but I least I got to see Michael for 20 days (and Mike and Allison for 10 days).