Secrets of Angkor

Cambodia was amazing! We spent 3 solid days exploring the area around Siem Reap, Cambodia with Intrepid Tour Company and a local Cambodian guide, Satya Go. Satya was an incredible guide- he not only has lived the harsh history but he also is a walking encyclopedia of all the history. He told us more information than we could ever comprehend let alone remember. After 3 days days with Satya we found out that he has his own history TV show about the country, so he is very much a professional history buff.... Even more so than my own father with US history.

Cambodia to me felt like the Africa of Asia with so much beauty and so much poverty. The opening in tourism over the past 10 years has helped to develop the country, but it still seems to feel so far behind compared to the western world. The country is still working to recover from the Khmer Rouge Genocide from the 1970's and reconciliation is a constant process. Also, the economy is not stable enough for their currency to have very much power, so US dollars are used the majority of the time.

Before I dive into the other detail of our time in Cambodia I need to enlighten you about the weather. First of all it is the wet season, which basically means the swimming season. The monsoonal rains bring massive amounts of water everyday, often in the afternoon. We came during the wettest and worst flooding Cambodia has seen in over a thousand years. Also, for those of you who pay money to belong to a gym with a steam room I challenge you to go for a steam today with pants and a shirt on and then stay in the steam room for the entire day. That is similar to what this country feels like... Hot, humid, sticky and did I mention HOT! You walk outside and your body begins to drip, then you have to move around in it and you might as well have jumped into a swimming pool. The weather forecast has said in the 90s but it feels like 120 degrees. The part that blows my mind is the fact the locals don't even act like they are hot, in fact one of our guides even got goose bumps!

Satya Go, our tour guide, and the Khmer Rouge:
I won't go into tremendous detail about Satya but I do want to share some of his experiences. When Satya was 8, in 1970 the Khmer Rouge took over the country and forced everyone to move to the country side. His father, a professor, had to hide his intelligence and his once honored profession, because the Khmer Rouge killed all the doctors, professors and everyone of high intelligence. The Cambodian people were starved and forced to work the land to produce rice. When they talked to one another in the fields they were sent to the killing fields to be disposed of. Satya's brother was accused of being in the CIA, so he was killed. After 4 years of these inhuman conditions, the Vietnam Army came in and fought the Khmer Rouge for 10 years. The country of Cambodia was not free of the Khmer Rouge until the leader, Pol Pot, was killed in 1998. This genocide killed over 6 million people in those 4 years, but people today still are being injured by the land mines left behind from these people. This is a very brief and general overview of Khmer Rouge but you get the picture. So now Satya and his father lead tours to educate people on their country to help gain global awareness and prevent this from happening again. It was astonishing to spend so much time with Satya, who appeared to be such a normal man but has been through such hardships.

Cultural Landscape:
Oh where to begin... Let me start with the driving experience. Most countries have a designated side of the road people drive on and for the most part people follow this general guideline. Well in Cambodia this does not really apply, as people drive on which ever side of the road they fancy, and it is complete and utter chaos. Honking is the key to survival. There are bikes, motor bikes, Tuk-tuk's, cars, vans, and busses coming from all directions and the smallest vehicle on the food chain must get out of the way when the larger one honks. Even though the driving experience goes against every American rule, it surprisingly didn't feel too unsafe (it could be the fact we have been traveling so long that little phases us). Not only are the conditions of driving rather nuts but they transport so many people per vehicle. Often on one motor bike there would be 5 people, with 2 year old kids balancing on the front. Also, the Tuk-tuk's, known here as remorks, are carriages that are attached to motorbikes with a hitch. The remorks we rode in were very comfortable and a great way to see the country.

Siem Reap is a small city with a tons of new hotels (all built in around 2000 with the tourist boom). There is a beautiful night market with hundreds of stalls of Cambodian items. I had to chaperone both Jorie and my mom at the market, as they went nuts over all the cheap market stuff. Pub row is the well developed tourist street with restaurants and hundreds of massage places. I felt like a broken record constantly turning down the cheap massages and pedicures (you would think that it would be hard to say no, especially to an hour-long massage for only $5, but after the 15th massage place it gets old).

The countryside is beautiful! Green rice paddy fields, green sugar cain, and green jungle everywhere. And when it isn't green, it is water- flood water that is. The scattered houses are often on stilts to protect them from flooding in the wet season and to provide a cool place in the dry season. The houses are made of palm, scrap wood, mahogany, or teak, as these are all abundant resources here. A lot of this agricultural land has been recently taken over by the farmers after sitting for almost 40 years unused because it was ladened with land mines from the war. Tons of the country remains thick jungle for this same reason. The hope is that the land will soon be freed of the mines.

If you see a child under the age of 10 by themself in the US people would freak out. Here children over the age of 4 roam by themselves and seem to be part of the landscape. We saw young kids walking their cows, jumping off bridges into the flood water, fishing, riding their bikes which are way too big for them, and even directing traffic. Kids tend to take care of the other kids, as they all watch out for one another. All the kids seemed to be so happy and playful, and they loved to wave as we passed by. Due to a lack of teachers and limited funding, children only attend school for one session a day- the morning from 7 to 11 or the afternoon from 1 to 5. Around 11, uniformed school children would line the roads on their bikes, often 3 or 4 kids balance on one bike (I have no idea how they stayed). Some kids spend their free time outside the temples trying to sell trinkets to tourists. We got practically mauled by a swarm of kids after Jorie bought postcards from one little girl.


Temples, Temples, and more Temples:
The first two days we saw and learned about more Temples than we could even handle. There are over 2,000 ancient temples in Cambodia but the most famous ones are the Angkor complex. The Angkor temples were all built between the 9th and 12th century of lava rock, sandstone, and bricks (only the older ones). They are all unique but they have similar designs. They all have 4 entrances, one from each cardinal direction, then they have 3 levels with the top level closest to God. There is often a moat around the outside and most of them have 5 towers representing the 4 elements (air, fire, water, and earth) and the center one is to God. We were able to climb to the third level of most of the temples, up the stairs that were incredibly big and steep, and then at the top there was no ledge, just straight down- this would never have passed safety regulations in the US. All of the temples have both Hindu and Buddhist influence. For hundreds of years the temples were completely engulfed by the jungle and people didn't know of their existence. They were discover again at the turn of the 20th century, but it wasn't until after the war people began to spend money to remove the jungle and restore these ancient ruins.
Satya told us about every carving and statue in the temples, but I will spare you those details and just hit the major temples we saw...

Angkor Wat: the most famous and best preserved, it is massive and so beautiful. There were so many steep steep stairs going to the top level, and the views from the top were gorgeous. The moat surrounding this Temple made the area so peaceful. There were also tons of monkeys outside of this temple that were so fun to watch.

Angkor Thom City: a massive city of ruins with the temple Bayon in the center of the city. Bayon Temple has 54 towers with 200 smiling Budda faces. The gates entering this city are also impressive, there are over 50 statues on each side lining the road leading to the massive arched gateway.

Ta Prohm: this is the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed with Angelina Jolie. The temple is covered with massive jungle trees that are intertwined into the structure. Also, there was a spot where you could go into a chimney and bang on your chest and it echoed like a drum. This was probably my favorite temple, just because the jungle vegetation made it feel mysterious and wild.

Pre Rup: One of the oldest brink temples.

Banteay Kdei: we had to walk on a floating bridge through the jungle and flood water to get to this almost submerged temple. Only the two top levels could be seen and a lot of the original statues have been stolen from the sight (this is a problem with almost all the temples).

Banteay Srei: is a more Hindu influenced temple with pink sandstone. A fire to destroy the overwhelming jungle vegetation has made some of the temple black.


Flooding Life:
We spent our last day exploring the Tonle Sap lake region. This is one of the most productive lakes in the world and the water level fluctuates so much between wet and dry season (12,000 km2 during wet and 2,500 km2 during dry). However, this year the flooding was so severe that water has come miles farther inland, consequently damaging tons of villages. We took Tuk-Tuk's miles to where we could drive no further due to the flooding. Then we took a wooden boat with essentially a weed wacker for the motor to another flooded village where there was a bigger boat. We took the bigger boat for about an half hour through water that appeared to be the lake, but is usually just a river. Then we came to another village, essentially a floating village. The houses are all on stilts between 3 and 5 meters off the ground. Only the houses that were 5 meters off the ground were not flooded, and the rest were completely saturated.
The village had around 400 families in it, all of which depend on agriculture for a living. There were tons of little canoe like boats that people were wandering around on, kids (ages 6 or 7) taking a boat to school, men fishing off of them, women with tons of goods to sell to her neighbors on her boat, etc. It was unlike any other village I have ever seen, and it was so authentic.
We stopped at someone's house for some coconut to drink (these were the biggest coconuts I have ever seen) and to use their bathroom. Well I can't really say it was a bathroom, as it was more of an experience. There was a sectioned off area for the water closet, which is actually a fitting name because we had to walk through water to get onto the squatting platform. The squatting toilet contents went directly into the the water and both Jorie and I could see the fish as we went. Then we had to walk back through the water (essentially the contents of the bathroom). The flood water is used for everything: dishes, laundry, bathing, bathroom, playing, and of course, drinking. No wonder there are so many waterborne diseases.
We then took the boat out to Lake Tonle Sap which was massive- you couldn't see the other side at all. The whole experience was so worthwhile and amazing.

Other things we did:
While in Cambodia we also went to the Angkor Center for Conservation of biodiversity where we saw lots of birds, turtles, monkeys, and gibbons. We had a very informative guide and it was encouraging to see conservation work being done in a developing country.

We also went to an artisan community and saw people work on silk paintings, mahogany wood carvings, sand stone carvings, and copper jewelry. It was impressive to see all the artists at work and how much goes into each piece.

We went to a land mine museum started by Akira, a man who was once a boy soldier for the Khmer Rouge and now works to clear the country of land mines. He has disarmed hundreds of thousands of land mines around the country freeing up tons of land for farming. He also has a foundation and orphanage attached to the museum. 37 kids, some of whom have been victims of land mines, live and go to school within the orphanage. There are still 5 million land mines left in Cambodia and Akira's foundation is instrumental in making that number go down. It was a powerful experience and we all learned a lot.

We went to the killing fields which was depressing.
Also for those of you who many go to Cambodia in the future, go to the Blue Pumpkin Restaurant- it is delicious!

As you can see from this extremely long blog we made the most of our time in Cambodia and enjoyed it immensely. Now we are off to Chaing Mai in the northern part of Thailand!