Angkor Away!

In country #4 of my 6 country journey. Cambodia/Siem Reap has been ... a trip. It's nearly impossible to describe, as it seems to be suffering from some sort of extreme schizophrenia - home to a burgeoning tourist city and to ancient temples, and definitely in conflict about which way to go.

I arrived early afternoon yesterday, drove down a dusty dirty main road lined with shops and stalls ("downtown"), which led to my hotel, the uber-hipster Hotel de la Paix (http://www.hoteldelapaixangkor.com/), which seems out of another planet when you are on this street. The hotel is filled with rich Asians ... the pool scene here is not to be missed. Lithe Asian women in designer duds, in the middle of the dustiest town I have been to ...

After checking in, my guide "Tek" brought me to see sunset at Angkor Wat. The sun does not set over Angkor Wat, but in the other direction, so the light at Angkor Wat is really beautiful at that time of day. I have some great photos. Sorry I can't upload them from here, but I haven't figured out how to do that and am afraid of corrupting my photos, so will send an edited on-line photo gallery when I get home.

Then last night I wandered around the downtown, chock-a-block with tourists, incredibly seedy and covered in dust. I showered before going out last night and was given a wet towel at the restaurant, which I covered in red dust from my hands alone just from the short walk there. I ate at Khmer Kitchen (I always thought Khmer had some political meaning, due to the Khmer Rouge, but turns out it just means "Cambodian") ... ate amok, which is a local dish cooked in a coconut. I had fish amok ... total price, $3. And that was not the cheapest meal in town by far! On the way, I passed several famous pizza places, Ecstatic Pizza, Happy Pizza, Smiling Pizza ... all so named due to the possibility of ordering pizza with "special herbs" (a.k.a. pot), which I would be tempted to do in the name of science but for the fact that it is completely illegal here, and while I'd love a free hotel stay, I am not sure how much I would enjoy prison in Cambodia. So will leave that one to the less risk averse travelers.

This morning met Tek again for a full day of wat viewing in the Angkor complex. Turns out Angkor Wat is the new kid on the block, built in the 12th century. I saw several wats that were built in the 10th century, including one, Ta Prohm, in a tropical forest (apparently one of the main sites of the movie "Tomb Raider"), where the roots of trees were wrapped around stone walls over a thousand years old. Many of the original carvings are still in tact. The light at Ta Prohm was amazing ... it was bright sunshine (and 95 degrees) outside, but due to the shade from the giant trees and the dust, it had an other-worldly quality. My Dad would have been able to take amazing photos there, I am sure, but I did my best and am hopeful that I was able to capture some of it. I could have stayed there for hours, but Tek runs a tight ship ...

The Angkor complex is home to many wats, and the entire complex is larger than the island of Manhattan, so you could go for miles and miles to see wats from entirely different periods, many of which started as Hindu temples but became Buddhist later on. On the road to most of the major wats there are small bands of musicians, many of whom are blind or missing limbs from landmines. Incredibly sad to see, but they are everywhere. In Cambodia (and Vietnam, from what I hear) you need to stay on the beaten track, as there are many undiscovered landmines waiting for the unsuspecting. Hard to imagine living with that.

Tek took me through a bunch of villages today, mostly thatched huts, no running water or electricity, but I saw a lot of kids playing, fishing, playing volleyball, running with kites ... and a lot of adults in the rice paddies, drying rice, working their cows. There were several "stores"on the side of the road selling gasoline out of Johnnie Walker bottles. Definitely gives you some food for thought to see people living (seemingly quite happily) in such different conditions than we are used to. There is no question that we are spoiled from an objective perspective, but whether that actually makes us happier is up for debate.

I ended the day with a sunset cruise on the largest fresh water lake in Cambodia ... it is over 100 miles long, and I saw whole villages that had cropped up along the shores, with people living in houseboats that move depending on whether it is rainy or dry season. There was a floating basketball court, church, pool hall, school ... and the whole village moves miles down during dry season (as where the boats currently are will be bone dry in a few months time).

Tonight I am heading to the Foreign Correspondents Club for dinner, and then have a free day tomorrow to hang at the pool and wander around, before meeting Tek again at 5:30 AM Saturday morning to view sunrise at Angkor Wat. Unless something really noteworthy occurs, I probably won't write again until arriving in Vietnam (where I will meet Alex in Saigon, aka HCM City, on Saturday night).

I am excited to meet up with Alex and know that traveling together will be great as always. He has never been to Asia (my favorite part of the world), so I am anxious for him to love it as much as I do, and nervous that Vietnam might not be the best introduction to such a foreign place. Traveling alone, as always, has been a treat ... while I know most people think I am nuts for enjoying it so much, there is no purer experience (for me) than traveling alone. Everything I do and see is unfettered by the perspectives of other people. I also find that people are much more willing to approach people on their own and invite them into conversation, so I always meet really interesting people when I am traveling alone. So, definitely excited to have Alex joining me, but can honestly say that these weeks on my own have also been incredible. I feel very lucky all around for these experiences ... I wish that everyone would have the chance to do the things they love more often!

I leave off on that philosophical note until Vietnam, barring unforeseen circumstances that I simply can't wait to share ...