Angkor Wat

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January 20, 2006

Travel from Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia, via Aranya Prathet and Poipet, the respective Thai and Cambodian border towns.

We were finally off to Cambodia on the morning of the 20th!  The bus to the border was easy and uneventful as we caught up on some sleep and saw our first glimpses of the Thai countryside.  We got off the bus in Aranya Prathet and were all warned to guard our belongings extra carefully and not stop walking, due to rampant, skillful pickpockets.  Nevertheless, on the 150 meter walk to the Thai immigration a few people found zippers opened and some things missing.

A shuttle from Thai immigration 1km down the road to Cambodian Customs led us to another transport to the Poipet bus station, where we were packed into a minibus headed to Siem Reap.

The road was bumpy, to say the least.  Cambodia (actually the US in Cambodia) has not gotten to paving all of its roads yet, and the run from the border to Siem Reap is still on the To Do List.  We watched the scenery move bumpily by for about 15hours total, two thirds of which were in Cambodia.  We arrived quite exhausted but happy to be there in one piece, not having vanished into the giant holes in the dilapidated bridges or disappeared into the thick clouds of red dust.

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January 23, 2006

There is not much to say about the city of Siem Reap, except that it lies just outside the old city limits of Angkor.  As the base of Angkor exploration, it has a few charms (the old market and friendly local restaurants) that are rapidly decreasing as it becomes more developed into trendy bars, enormous five-star hotels, and caters to wealthy western tourists.

(Just as a clarifying note: "Angkor" refers to the entire, expansive conglomeration of all the temples in the area, while "Angkor Wat" refers to the world's largest religious building that lies at the heart.)

We spent three full and wonderful days exploring the ancient wonder of the world that is Angkor, by moto-tuk tuk, bicycle, and on foot.  It is too hard to write about this incredible place, perhaps the pictures will do a better job than words for now, as it would require many volumes to scratch the surface.  If we were to write about our experience, however, we would include the following adjectives: magnificent, huge, amazing, incredible, beautiful, wondrous, overwhelming, breathtaking, expansive...

This place, once the religious, cultural, and political capitol of the great Khmer empire, was significantly larger than the newer city of Siem Reap, which has since sprung up beside it.  The ancient empire encompassed most of the region that we plan to visit in mainland Southeast Asia.  The construction of the many temples spanned from the 9th through the 13th century AD.  We encourage you to find out more about this place, since we don't know nearly enough about it ourselves.

Tourism is the archetypal double-edged sword.  It is a way to bring much needed money and pride to the local people, but it also has its detrimental side effects.  It's heartbreaking to see the tiniest children whose only word in English is "dollar".  Angkor, and Cambodia for that matter, is on the brink of a tourism explosion.  Already there are probably twenty times the number of visitors and accommodations than there were only a few years back.  We feel grateful that we were able to experience this place before it is developed in the, now typical, Westernasian mold.  It is also sad to see many of the pitfalls of tourism already in place here.  We met adorable and intelligent little children, with whom we had great conversations, since their English was quite good.  At the end of our interaction,however, when we had bought nothing from them, their faces would scrunch up into a pout, and they would immediately become unfriendly and resentful.  It would just end the whole encounter on such a bitter note, leaving us with a bad taste in our mouths.

The monuments themselves were untarnished by the contemporary popularity, and loomed out of the enshrouding mystery and magic of the ancient civilization that created them, much like they did out of their surrounding mist.  We were able to clamber all over the ruins, like children in a giant playground, trying all the while (in vain) to imagine what they might have been like at their peak.