7-29 Siem Reap - Day 3

We met Vanny at the painful hour of 7am. Instead of seeing more temples without a guide and endure another day in the hot sun & humidity, we decided to go 30km SW to Lake Tonle Sap and see a floating village. The 45km trip there was pretty interesting. We got a good look at rural Cambodia. We walked a short distance from the road to check out fields loaded with lotus flowers. Chris was wearing flip flops, so he slipped & fell in the mud, getting it all over his side and butt. At least he didn't smash his head open like in Chiang Rai. We got to the shoreline and dozens of longtails were docked at a pier. The Cambodian gov't has created a monopoly on tourist trips to the village. Instead of $2-$4 for a guided longtail rental, they charge $20 per person! We'd come this far, so we paid the highway robbery and jumped into a longtail captained by a 10yr old local kid named Vet. He was friendly & talkative. We soon learned we had fallen into a full-blown tourist trap. Large boats full of Asian tourists steamed past us, taking photos of everything in sight, including us. During the dry season, the village moves as the shoreline expands or recedes. This entire massive lake is only an average of 3 feet deep in the dry season, but is still the largest body of freshwater in SE Asia and is a major source of food for the Cambodian population. We counted six floating elementary schools/orphanages, but there were only a couple hundred floating homes, most being large boats. It appears they have a racket going. Once on the boats, the tourists then get bombarded with requests to donate to the needy schools. Despite our objections, we got dropped off at a floating shop loaded with junk food & supplies next to a Cambodian orphan school. They try to make you feel guilty if you don't buy anything, but at the same time, the shops here all prey on the altruism of the naive tourists. They wanted $15 for a stack of 5 cheap notepads that would cost just $2 back home. I instead spent a good chunk of money on a ton of beef jerky and later gave it to a teacher to distribute. Apparently the kids don't get much protein and by now they've got stacks of notepads. A person who makes a huge profit by aggressively using a person's altruistic nature as a weapon against them (these supply shops), is a very low form of scumbag. 30mins was plenty of time to wander through the two canals that comprised the floating village so we got back on solid ground and drove back towards Siem Reap. Vanny dropped us off near Ta Prohm, which is the "jungle temple" where parts of the Tomb Raider sequel was filmed. It was quite a different experience to see a temple that is still overtaken by the jungle, Ta Prohm. Massive 100ft tall trees were growing on top and all around the temple complex. Stone blocks were strewn around everywhere as if the temple exploded. Massive roots from the trees have wedged stone blocks apart, which has destroyed many parts of the temple.
For sunset, we went to the most popular location: Phnom Bakheng. It's a 10min hike uphill overlooking everything. We arrived 90min before sunset and grabbed seats on the ledge of the top terrace. Within an hour, the top terrace had filled with 300+ tourists waiting for sunset. Unfortunately, a massive storm was moving in from the West, blocking the sun entirely. We later had some awesome pizza, spaghetti, and ice cream at a New York themed restaurant on the busy restaurant row. A couple beers and games of pool capped off our last night in Cambodia.

7-28 Siem Reap - Day 2

We got a knock on our door at 7:30am. It was Vanny. We moved to a cheaper hotel that he recommended, then it was off to Angkor Wat for our first of many history lessons of the day.

ANGKOR WAT:
We picked up Vanny's friend who is a licensed tour guide. It was sad to learn that the temples used to be full of statues and carvings, but were looted and desecrated over the last 1,000 years during wars and under the Khmer Rouge. The French particularly came in during the civil war when the areas were not protected and removed a great deal of artifacts to sell on the black market. One area used to house 1,200 Buddha statues and carvings but only half a dozen remain, all with their heads removed to be sold on the black market. Some areas have ropes to keep people back, but it's ineffective. The temples are showing signs of wear from so many tourists walking around and touching stuff. The most interesting feature at Angkor Wat is probably the four galleries of stone carvings on each of the four sides of the temple. Many tell stores of Hindu gods, kings, and even heaven & hell. There is a decent amount of renovation going on to repair and rebuild the temple, but it will take a lot of time and money. I read a rumor online that they may begin closing off many areas of temples to the public because they are being damaged so badly. We didn't get hassled too badly by local vendors, except from one kid trying to sell us a baby turtle.
BAYON:
After just 2hrs at Angkor Wat, we drove North to Angkor Thom, which is much bigger. When there was a new king in the 12th century AD, he wanted his own temple complex. Angkor Wat was more or less abandoned and construction began. The moat is 3km on each side and we entered across an ancient bridge and through an ancient city gate. Ankor Wat's moats are 1km square, making Ankor Thom 9 times larger! The main temple Bayon was badly damaged by the roots of massive trees upending and spreading apart massive stonework. We also saw a large temple undergoing massive rebuilding with cranes, a royal palace, the elephant terrace, and terrace of the leper king. All of these were inside the walls of the Angkor Thom complex. It's interesting that some temples are Buddhist, some Hindu, some a mixture of the two, and some are victims of conversions from one to the other. By 4pm we were exhausted and drenched in sweat. A cold shower and a nap were heaven-sent. Dinner was very good, and once again we stuffed ourselves. We took it easy that night, which was much needed.

7-27 Siem Reap

For just $6 each, we got bus tickets to Siem Reap, which is a small city on the outskirts of the Angkor Wat & Angkor Thom temple complexes. I found a good tour guide and tuk tuk driver for us online from a travelfish.org article recommendation. The average around town is $25/day for a tour guide and $12/day for a tuk tuk driver. We met our driver (Vanny) at our accommodation: The Royal Angkor Palace Hotel ($30). Vanny Pech is a 26 yr old with a wife & kid and is trying to make it through his English and business courses at a local university. He was funny, friendly, knowledgeable and spoke English well, which we were pretty happy about. It was 5pm at that point, which is when the park officially closes. We sped out of town 8km to Angkor Wat to see sunset. We drove along a massive square moat 100m across and a full 1km length on each of it's four sides. We stopped at the entrance of Angkor Wat, the famous Buddhist & Hindu temple built in 1,100 AD. Out front were a dozen kids trying their best to sell drinks, bracelets, books on Angkor Wat, and apparently marijuana. We walked down the only causeway connecting Angkor Wat from across the moat. It was incredible to view the main wall/facade from across the water as the sun, now very low in the sky, lit the sandstone up to a bright golden brown. Vanny isn't a licensed guide because in order to pass the licensing test, you have to not only pass the test, but bribe the administrator $4,000USD. Since the temples were closing soon, Vanny was able to accompany us and give a few details. We got some great pictures at one of the reflection pools at the front of the main temple. Even at sunset with a cold beer, we were hot & sweaty. Tomorrow is going to cook us alive. After the last bits of light lifted off the walls of the temple, Vanny took us to a nice place in town with a buffet and cultural dancing performed by lovely ladies. We each had about 3 plates of food and washed it down with an awesome Spanish Cabernet. The cultural dancing was performed by 15 ladies. Vanny taught us how to say 'beautiful woman' and 'I love you' just in time for us to whisper it to them on stage during photo ops after the show. We got some funny looks and smiles. After dinner, Vanny took us to Pub Street, which is nothing but, you guessed it...pubs and clubs. Inside Temple Club, we enjoyed $2 pitchers and played pool. Chris got a bit upset when a 6ft tall ladyboy dressed like Mini Mouse quickly & sneakily kissed him on the cheek. We met tons of people that night from all over, including Mexico, Ireland, UK, Denmark, Canada, USA, and more. Vanny had a beer with us a short while before we went home to rest up for the long day ahead.