The temple grounds are huge; Angkor is the biggest religious monument in the world. There are also with many surrounding smaller wats around Angkor, including Angkor Thom. Each site has it's own architecture and history. There is a one day, 3 day, or even 7 day pass that allows you to check out all the temples.. We only had 1 day, so that's what we worked with. We only went to see the main temple, Angkor, but that enough was impressive and worth shelling out $20 per person. We even had our very own tuktuk driver who was super nice and professional, unlike many of his friends we've come in contact with so far.
We walked around the grounds for a few hours.. We arrived late afternoon, which was perfect because most of the hoardes of people had already left and we could move freely and take pictures without worrying about running into people or vice versa.. Here are some I snapped:
Our nice tuktuk driver, Jim!Its beauty and intricate detail in the stonework isn't done justice in photographs..
Angkor Wat was first a Hindu temple, and subsequently became a Buddhist monument.. You can definitely see both influences here. The walls have carvings of Hindu gods and goddesses and depict stories about them.. You can see a story as you walk around! It's really beautiful inside, and we were lucky to be there when there weren't a lot of people bumping into us.
Many statues were robbed or defaced by the Khmer Rouge, who took control in the 70s-80s in Cambodia. There were other horrorific deeds committed by this group against Cambodians, but that's a whole other history lesson and we didn't get to learn much about it during our stay, unfortunately.
Angkor dog! She followed us around a bit.It was worth a trip to Siem Reap just to see this "temple city".. It is very beautiful and impressive... So impressive that the French for some reason didn't think the Khmer people could create something so grand..(just as the Spanish doubted the South American indigenous peoples..... Oh you have to love imperialists, right?)
I wish we had more time to see the historic sights and frolic in the well-known tourist area, "Pub Street"
We made a short lived appearance here, but the journey and lack of sleep really caught up with us.. And we had just about enough of being harassed by tuktuk drivers and hawkers.. Call us party poopers...we needed a break. There seems to be a big expat community here in Siem Reap, probably due to the western interferences to help with poverty and rebuilding after the Pol Pot regime and dealing with the Khmer Rouge. The only bad thing about this is, that everything you buy is in US dollars! Cambodia was surprisingly the most expensive place we have been to in Southeast Asia.. At least Siem Reap was.. Probably because of the tourist influx. Why, dollars!? At least the currency wasn't euros, because then we really would have been ripped off. When we went to the store, I felt like I was back at home, paying 3x as much as I would have been if we were back in Lao or Vietnam. Not cool, cambodes, not cool.
That about sums it up for our Cambodia segment of our trip... As I had mentioned before, we only had 2 full days to spend here and 1 was pretty much a waste of a day.. I would have loved to have been able to explore more and see other parts of the country, but we had to get back to Saigon to depart for our next destination, Taiwan. At least the bus from Siem Reap to Saigon was nice... Even with the relentless karaoke videos and Kung fu movies that played the entire duration of 14 hours. The people on the bus were nice, and we had no issues! What a relief.
We made it back to Saigon around 10pm, and were in bed shortly thereafter.. We spent our last day in various coffee shops to keep us awake for our 2:35 am flight to Shanghai and then to Taipei. Eventually our coffee turned to Saigon beer at our favorite "western" spot..We thought it would be fun/a good idea to indulge ourselves before the flight and get a little silly..
Back to the beginning... The land of Uncle Ho and pho
Well that turned out to be a bad plan when we got to the airport and all the shops/restaurants/bars were closed (it was midnight, after all). Aaaand enter my headache. Luckily I managed to sleep for 4 hours on the plane. When we arrived to Shanghai, I was so out of it though.. All the bus journeys and staying up for the flight made me feel weird, and then adding a few Saigons to the mix, I needed sleep and needed it bad. Making our way through the airport was interesting.. China seems like a weird place, but I think I'd like to go back. We ended up eating breakfast, which was rice and stirfried cabbage for me and short ribs (?) for Paul, and then slept on the benches until our flight left at 12:30 for Taiwan. It was crazy looking out the windows of the airport and seeing the smog... It was actually worse than Mumbai. Gross! I've heard about "blind landings" that pilots make in China because the pollution is so bad they cannot see the runway. I don't know how people live in such conditions.. I guess the face mask industry is booming here, which is heartbreaking.
Our flight left promptly and on time from Shanghai with China Eastern airlines, and we even got a meal! I was really impressed with them; another airline I have never thought to fly with, but great nonetheless! I wish we had more time and could've spent some time in China , but we will have to save it for another trip. We have to do the Great Wall, right? I've heard there is a marathon on it...hmmm......
We entered Taiwanese airspace just an hour and a half later, and seeing the clean air, lush green mountains, and sprawling valleys, I knew we were in for a treat... And so far, I've been right! More on Taiwan to come!
Until then!
MC
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