Siem Reap, Cambodia
/(Dec 23rd - Dec 25th, 2016)
We had a short flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap, landing in Cambodia around 8am. When we walked off the plane, it was sunny with a cool morning breeze and we were excited to finally catch a break from the 90+ degree temperatures we experienced in Bangkok. However, we quickly found out that Cambodia would be the hottest and most humid stop on our whole trip...
Once settled into our hotel, we set out to find coffee and food. We found a cute cafe called Hive and enjoyed some delicious coffee and avocado toast. Afterwards we made our way to a cupcake shop nearby called Bloom that was owned by a couple from Oregon. Sam and I had found Thai pants at the floating market outside of Bangkok, but the guys were still looking for some so we wandered around Kandal Village stopping in cute souvenir shops and trying on pants at the market. After finding the perfect pair of pants for the guys, we headed back to our hotel and relaxed in the pool. The owner of the hotel had a puppy named Billy and Allen quickly became obsessed. We enjoyed some happy hour Cambodian beer and spring rolls before setting out to watch the sunset at Angkor Wat. Sporting our awesome pants, we walked around the ruins and enjoyed an amazing sunset while getting our first glances of one of the wonders of the world. We couldn't wait to come back the next morning with a guide to learn all about the ruins and the people who had previously lived there. We finished off the night with a fantastic dinner at Marum. It was recommended by a guest at our hotel and was an overall wonderful experience. We enjoyed creative local cuisine and delicious cocktails, but a large part of the appeal was that the restaurant was run by Kaliyan Mith, an NGO that has been working with street kids and other marginalized youth in Southeast Asia for the past decade. Our waiters and waitresses were all Cambodian teenagers who were learning necessary skills to land good jobs that would support themselves and their families.
The next morning we were picked up at 5am to begin our Angkor Sunrise Discover biking tour (through Grasshopper Adventures who we would highly recommend for anyone going to Siem Reap!). Our first stop was outside Angkor Wat to watch the sun rise. We got some incredible shots of the ruins as the sun came up and then toured the temple grounds before a majority of the crowds arrived. Our guide provided history on the temple and its various religious affiliations over the years, decoded the incredibly detailed art decorating the temple walls, and pointed out bullet holes that damaged the temples during the Cambodian civil war in the 1970s and 80s.
We learned that Angkor Wat was built by the vanished Khmer Empire and for centuries was the center of the Khmer kingdom. It was originally constructed by the Khmer King Suryavarman II as a Hindu temple of god Vishnu, but was transformed into a Buddhist temple near the end of the 12th century. Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world stretching over 400km2 and has never been completely abandoned since it was built. Angkor Wat is unique in that it is oriented to the west (the direction of death), which initially led people to believe that it was constructed as a tomb, however the Hindu god Vishnu is also commonly associated with the west so it is commonly accepted that Angkor Wat was both a temple and mausoleum for Suryavarman II.
After Angkor Wat, we were driven to breakfast in the middle of the jungle before heading out on our bikes. We rode on the hidden trails of the Angkor complex and through rural villages witnessing cockfights and avoiding livestock, all while taking in the surrounding views. We entered Angkor Thom (translated to the 'Great City') through the south gate, passing by the 54 stone figures lining each side of the road. These figures represented 'devas' (guardian gods) and 'asuras' (demon gods) from a famous Hindu story: Churning of the Ocean of Milk. Once inside the city, we stopped to have a snack of fresh fruit before heading into the Bayon Temple. We enjoyed tiny bananas, rambutan, colorful dragon fruit, and the most amazing mangos (nothing compares to mangos from Thailand or Cambodia!).
Bayon Temple was intended to evoke the form of Mt. Meru (the sacred mountain in Buddhist cosmology at the center of all the physical, metaphysical, and spiritual universes) and is best known for its gigantic smiling faces that decorate its several Gothic towers (which provided some fun photo ops). Our final temple was Ta Prohm where scenes in Tomb Raider were filmed back in 2000. Ta Prohm is unlike most Angkor temples in that it looks like its being swallowed by the surrounding jungle with trees growing out of the ruins and moss covering large portions of the remaining structures. It is assumed that its current condition resembles the state that many of the monuments were in when European explorers stumbled upon them.
We finished the tour off with lunch at Palmboo where we enjoyed ice cold Angkor beers, mango smoothies, fish amok, chicken curry, steamed fish, noodles, and beef. We devoured the food within minutes and then returned to our hotel where we cooled off and relaxed in the pool.
On our last evening in Cambodia, we ventured into the night market to get some food, try out fish pedicures, and enjoy the night life in Siem Reap. The market was lit up with Christmas decorations, loud music was playing on every street corner, and it was still probably 85 degrees outside. It was a very different Christmas Eve than we were all used to, but fun nonetheless. We found some AC and enjoyed a bottle of rose, then finished the night with some dinner and our third shower of the day.
The next morning we had a flight back to Thailand where we would continue our adventure to the northern part of the country. We were looking forward to more Thai food, elephants, and more temples!
