The past few days I've been in Siem Reap touring the temples of Angkor Wat. Absolutely incredible. It was one of the best and worst places I've been. On one hand I saw some of man's crowning creative achievments, and on the other hand, almost simultaneously, I saw man at his most destructive.
My Capitol Tour bus arrived in Siem Reap late afternoon and dropped me off at the Tasom guest house on the northern end of town. It was clouding over and looked like rain, so I just booked a room for $3 a night and secured a motorbike driver for the next few days.
About 5pm my driver, named Mole because of the large mole on the end of his nose, drove me to the ticket office so I could purchase a three day pass into Angkor Wat. After getting my pass, he took me into the temple grounds, past Angkor Wat itself, to the Phnom Dakheng temple to watch the sunset.
Phnom Dakheng
Phnom Dakheng is located on a large hill that overlooks Angkor Wat. The path up to the temple was a very steep rocky path that was full of Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and European tourists. The steps of the actual temple were very narrow, so everyone had to step sideways in order climb up.
Instead of a colorful sunset, rain blew in and forced everyone to run for cover inside the ruins. I waited inside one of the corner lookout posts with several other people smoking cigarettes, but the light rain never ceased. Eventually, I climbed back down to meet my driver and head back to the guest house for an early night.
Smoking cigarettes inside to avoid the rain
The next day I started 9am. Mole met me outside the guest house and proceed to drive me all over the temple grounds until about 5pm. I've come to the conclusion that I cannot write about Angkor Wat. It is more wondrous than words. I've never been to the pyramids in Egypt or the seen the works of the Incas and Mayans in Mexico, but Angkor Wat would fall in that category.
Someone I met in Hanoi recommended that I take a CD player with me as I walk around the ruinous temples. It sounded like a good idea, so that's what I did. I listened to the really deep mood music of Aphex Twin and raucous psychedelic explosions of Acid Mother's Temple as I went completely camera crazy. I killed two camera batteries and almost filled up my 256 megabyte memory card taking pictures of all the stupas, doorways, and engravings inside the temples.
Ta Prohm
Entrance to Angkor Thom Gate
South Gate of Angkor Thom
The Bayon
Angkor Wat
Almost as amazing as the temples, were the children I met around the temples selling small handicrafts and offering to guide me around the outside of the temple's walls. These kids were cute, incredibly witty, and possibly the smartest kids I've ever met. Some of the ten year olds can speak their native Khmer, English, French, and even Japanese because they've grown up speaking with tourist their whole lives and depend on the tourist's money in order to buy food for their families.
Kid listening to Aphex Twin
His buddy wanted to listen too
That night I went out downtown and ate dinner in a place called the Red Piano. There was a giant poster of Angelina Jolie as the Tomb Raider. Evidentially, she ate dinner here once and initiated a Laura Croft cocktail.
I had Amok, a white fish cooked in red sauce served with steamed rice and vegetables on a banana leaf. Very tasty.
The second day I slept in and got a late start. Mole took me to a few smaller temples a little further outside of town. Around lunch time we got rained into a small tent where we had a light lunch and decided to call it a day.
Preah Khan
On the way back into town I asked Mole if he'd stop at the Jayavarman VII Children's Hospital. I'd read a poster at the guest house that over 30% of Cambodians that give blood test positive for HIV or Hepatitis.
Jayavarman VII Children's Hospital
The hospital was very clean with a professional staff, so I donated blood.
That night, feeling a bit depleted, I walked back downtown and had dinner at the Red Piano again. This time I tried the Lok Lak, a fried beef dish served with steamed rice. It was good, but the Amok was much better.
On my way back to the guest house, a 7 year old boy carrying his infant baby brother told me he needed food for the baby. He took my hand and walked me to the nearest market and asked if I'd buy a $4 jar of baby formula. I couldn't say no.
My third and last day of temples I tried to wake up early to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat temple. Unfortunately, it was raining at 5am, so Mole told me it would be better to go back to sleep.
Back up again around 10am, we drove about 30km outside town and toured some of the more remote temples.
Banteay Srei
Later in the afternoon on our way back to town, we stopped off at the Landmine Museum. This museum gets no national funding and is run by a guy named Akira, a former member of the Cambodian army. He has amassed the most unbelievable collection of land mines, bombs, grenades, etc.
Landmine Museum
Everything on display was defused by Akira himself from the surrounding area around Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor. I'm talking thousands and thousands of potential bombs.
A band of landmine victims playing outside a temple. Two were blind and three were missing arms or legs
That night I walked back downtown and tried out a different restaurant. I went a bar/guest house called the Ivy and had a dish called N'Yum. It was fried glass noodles served with herbs and steamed rice. (The herbs on my dish were not mind altering, but there were many Happy Pizza restaurants located just around the corner).
Anyway, the walls of the Ivy were covered in various photos from around Siem Reap and Angkor temples, but the piece I found most interesting was a glass case with a toilet seat inside. The plaque on the toilet seat read, "This toilet seat was taken from Pol Pot's house in the year 2000. Even Pol Pot had shitty days."
My last day in Siem Reap was spent walking around downtown and shopping in the old market. I walked down by the riverside to drop some post cards in the mail, and it was incredible the number of children and men who have been maimed by land mines. Too many people hobbling about on crutches or wheel chairs.
I'm not naive enough to feel that my small contributions of blood and money can change the situation in Cambodia, but it is rewarding to buy a ten year old boy with one leg a bottle Coca Cola just to see him smile.
The next morning I caught a bus back to Bangkok.
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