Casey Space

We wanted to make sure we saw Angkor Wat while living in Vietnam, so we squeezed a quick trip to Siem Reap during Tet break. Most of our time was spent in Laos, but we dipped into Cambodia for 3 nights to take a look. There are several temple sites in this area, and we saw quite a few, but there are several more we didn’t get to.

The pace of Siem Reap is laid back and pretty quiet. There is a touristy area called Pub Street with lots of bars, cheap clothing and jewelry, and being asked every 5 seconds if you want a tuk tuk ride or massage.

Throughout our walks in town, I could not stop singing “It’s a holiday in Cambodia” by the Dead Kennedys in my head. I did check, there is not a Holiday Inn in Cambodia, or else we totally would have gone to get a photo in front of it.

We have never felt so rich and poor at the same time as American dollars are accepted currency in addition to the Cambodian riel, but there’s a catch. The majority of ATMs dispense only $100 bills, and people will only accept perfectly crisp smaller bills, so no one has change for $100 because as soon as a bill is torn or creased, it is out of circulation. So, we pretty much walked everywhere and didn’t buy things because all we had was a hundred.

When we were with our tour guide, he was a wealth of information. He talked to us about how he could speak freely in the car, but when we were at tourist sites, he had to stick to the script because he said those places are teaming with government informants listening for tour guides to speak about forbidden topics. All tour guides wear the same uniform so they are easily identifiable.

Angkor Wat

First thing in the morning on our first full day, we walked in the pitch dark with a few hundred other tourists to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. I was so thankful to be with our guide because it was surreal being barely awake walking across the moat on a floating bridge and going up and down ramps that were kind of like stairs, but kind of like a ramp, and I was totally discombobulated. He parks us on the edge of a pond with the rest of the tourists and says, “The temple is that way, and I will be back here if you need anything.” We stood there and watched the sunrise and it was totally worth it.

We left after the sunrise, and then came back the next day to explore the temple. The temple was built in honor of Vishnu, and most likely used as a mausoleum for King Suryavarman II. All of the exterior walls feature engraved stone motifs documenting myths, wars, and epic stories. The stairs to the temple were designed to be so steep that you basically had to crawl up to worship. Though the temple was built in honor of Vishnu, it also houses a large collection of stone Buddha statues, that people still come to worship today.

There are several homes around the site that are being demolished by the government to create a more aesthetically pleasing tourist attraction. You cannot see these homes from the site, but you do see them when driving down the road. Our tour guide said he is losing his home for a similar reason. Moral to the story, no one’s home is safe around the Angkor complex, and the complex is huge.

When we arrived at the Siem Reap airport, we were greeted by large banners outlining the rules for visiting the temples. Our tour guide verbally went over the rules with us as well. I think about these people in the photos and wonder if they know they are literally the poster child for being an asshole at Angkor.

What’s also “funny” about the rules is that the guide specifically told us that spitting is also prohibited in addition to smoking, littering, and screaming. Well, I think I got a bad mango smoothie that morning, and I ended up yarfing by a tree at two temple sites, which I guess technically wasn’t against the rules. I was so embarrassed and even though I told the guide and Josh to please keep walking, they just stood a bit behind me while I yakked and then handed me a moist towelette and bottle of water when I was done. I decided that there wasn’t anything I could do about it so I just had to accept that this is the way it is right now.

Ta Prohm Temple

This was my favorite temple site. The trees are holding the buildings together. The morning light was gorgeous. I wanted to stay all day. Our guide called it the Tomb Raider temple because this is where the Angelina Jolie movie was filmed and how she began her love affair with Cambodia.

Banteay Srei Temple

This temple is dedicated to Shiva and is also known as the Citadel of the Women because it is believed the delicate carvings in the pink limestone are too delicate for a man to have created them. Almost every inch of each building featured detailed carvings depicting Hindu stories and epic tales from India.

I don’t have a lot to say about this one because I was starting to get woozy in the 80* sun and had to go sit under a tree for while and watch the band. At each temple site, there is a traditional live band of musicians maimed by landmines, and they play for money from tourists. For how many disabled people in Cambodia from the war and landmines, I was still surprised at the lack of facility accommodations and government assistance. I am sad I missed all the stories carefully carved into the stone.

Bayon Temple

This temple was Josh’s favorite. It was built to honor the new religion of Mahāyāna Buddhism, a departure from Hinduism for the Khmer. All of the towers had four sculpted faces carved to look in each direction. Josh could sense the imposing power of the buildings, basically letting everyone know “we are watching.” The carvings have held up very well over the course of hundreds of years.

Angkor Thom

On the same grounds of Bayon is Angkor Thom, the last capital city of the Khmer empire. There are several more temples on this site as well, and we saw Phimeanakas and Baphuon Temples.

Landmine Museum

Because of the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge civil war, Cambodia is laden with landmines and unexploded bombs. This museum was founded by Aki Ra, who was born in 1970, taken from his parents at 5 years old, and fought in the civil war for 35 years. He planted many landmines during that time. In the ’90’s, he worked with the UN to remove landmines from around Angkor Wat, and removing landmines became his mission. This museum houses all the explosives he has personally taken out of the ground.

This museum was one of my favorite stops. It is a simple facility, but powerful. It is depressing and hopeful. This guy has had a crazy life, and he just keeps going out there with a metal detector and a sharp wooden stick, delicately poking the ground, and removing explosives.

APOPO – Demining Rats

After visiting the Landmine Museum, I looked up the demining efforts in Cambodia and read about the different methods to find and remove mines. There are a few ways to detect mines, the most common is using a metal detector. However, animals can be used also, such as dogs. They also found out that elephants can detect land mines by accidentally putting a herd in a minefield for a while and none stepped on a mine. But, there are no plans to use elephants for land mine detection.

Another animal that can be trained to find landmines are rats. Lucky us, there is a demining rat facility in Siem Riep that gives tours! Rats are faster than metal detectors because they sniff for the chemical and ignore all random pieces of metal around. They are light enough to not trip the mine, and are smart enough to be trained, but not too smart to get bored from the job. They are not so good after a big rain or around farms where delicious fruits and veggies can be found.

On our way walking to the museum, we missed a turn and ended up on the road to Angkor Wat. The guard stopped us and we told him where we were trying to go. He gave us directions, and Google maps suggested a shortcut. We tromped through a trail between the two main roads, but it felt like walking on the edge of cliff because of all the talk about landmines. We also accidentally walked though a small zoo with monkeys and peacocks.

Will Come Back

I absolutely loved the pace of Siem Reap and want to come back to explore more temples and waterfalls. I would bring my own crisp dollars next time. In Hanoi, you can get dollars from any gold jewelry shop. You go to the back and it is a chaos of currency with guys running in an out with fistfuls of money. I could get some dollars from there, or actually, I can just go to Josh’s bank and ask for some which is less exciting.