Angkor Wat, Cambodia

I left Bangkok in a comfy air-conditioned bus headed to Siem Reap Cambodia- a 14-hour bus ride. 14 hours in a bus is a pretty daunting experience but due to the relative comfort and even movies playing on the TV I didn’t think I would be too miserable. However, as I crossed the Thailand/Cambodia boarder I thought I had been teleported back to Africa. Suddenly we were transferred from our “luxury” bus and piled onto a stuffy, old rickety bus cover in dust. On the Thailand side of the boarder the road was paved, buildings built properly- a relatively modern place. In contrast to the Cambodia side where the stores are made of scraps of wood and metal and the road became an endless stretch of potholes, pools of mud and loose dirt. Crossing the boarder was like crossing into a different world- suddenly all sense of order was lost.

It was really exciting to be back in such a rustic place. Most of the Asia I had seen thus far was very modern (excluding my little Indo rainforest jaunt). Here the local homes became wooden huts built on stilts with beautiful brown-skinned babies playing in the red dirt that is their front yard. They would stop briefly from constructing mud pies to wave at our bus, full of white faces staring out, as we crawled by. And crawling we were- the journey on the Cambodian side was brutal. Every time a car, truck or bus passed our pokey vehicle a storm of red dirt would come pouring into our open windows. And closing the windows was not an option because there was no AC or fan to stir the thick air and cool off our bodies crammed into this bus from hell.

The land here is extremely flat and rice paddies stretch across the landscape for as far as you can see. As the sun went down and it’s purple light turned to black hundreds of blue florescent lights were came on illuminating the side of our treacherous road. I thought they might be for the drivers but was then informed that they were actually cricket catchers- roasted cricket is a popular snack among Cambodians- as well as tarantulas, beetles and snails. At the bus stops women carrying trays full of cooked tarantulas try and hustle their snack sold by the kilo. You could buy yourself a very filling kilo for about 25 cents- Tempting- but surprisingly I declined.

We crept into Siem Reap late at night and again I was shocked having come from a completely rural environment to the towering 5 star hotels that were suddenly my view. I can’t imagine coming to Cambodia, an immensely poor country, and spend $1200 a night on a hotel room… my room cost $4 per night.

Siem Reap is a major tourist destination because of all the ancient temples that surround the small town. I spent an exhausting day wandering through some of the favorites; Angkor Wat, Bayon, Preah Kahn… trying to imagine what life was like when people actually lived in these amazing stone palaces. It’s incredible that people are still allowed to explore these temples because many of them are crumbling pretty badly. In many places the jungle has simply taken over the temple, reclaiming its territory, as massive trees and roots grow directly out of the ruins. However, the heaps of fallen rocks and debris definitely added to the whole Indiana Jones ambiance. I kept imagining some tribal guys jumping out from one of the many dark corridors taking me into a secret room beneath the temple lit by torches and ripping my still beating heart out of my chest! Ummm not really- but it was still fun to imagine.

I’m not sure how people spend several days at the temples. After 2 or 3 different ruins they all started looking the same to me and in 90+ degree weather I couldn’t imagine doing more than what I did. Ironically, my favorite part of the day ended up not even being at a temple. I found a small village near one of the temples where all the monks live and hung out with them trying to piece together Buddhism from their broken English. Kind, humble and very welcoming- their village is only a stones throw away from the popular Bayon temple and yet they said tourists rarely ever come to talk with them. I think people sometimes feel intimidated by monks. Like I said in Thailand they seem so pure, so other-worldly but in reality most of them are just kind young men who want to be monks for a few years and then leave and get married. They even asked if I had a boyfriend!?! Behind the saffron robes, pious existence and shaved heads they are still just men…