Due Vagabondi: 9 Weeks Backpacking SE Asia - Part 2a: Siem Reap & Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Transparency: This post is being written in 2020 as we did not have a blog in 2016. I am using stay at home time to flatten the curve of the global pandemic Covid-19 to organize photos from this trip into a post. Memories may not be exact.

We've done some reading about how crossing from Thailand into Cambodia by bus can be a hassle at the border. Being new to travel and inexperienced with these kinds of challenges we decide to go the easy route and fly from Bangkok to Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat. We of course discover that there is lots to enjoy in Siem Reap too.

Overall, these are the places we visit on our first trip to Cambodia. We like the people here so much that we return to discover new places in 2019 and consider what retirement in this country would be like.

Siem Reap

Siem Reap was once controlled by Thailand, indeed the name itself means 'Thailand destroyed' which gives a hint of how Cambodia felt about being dominated. The domination continued next by the French who colonized the country. They did a great deal to restore the temples of Angkor Wat and bring tourism to the area, but their control was not appreciated. Tourism was then brought to an abrupt twenty-year halt with the reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge.

In Siem Reap we enjoyed the night and day markets; the boys swimming and playing in the river (amongst all the pollution, sorry to say); the monks coming out to receive alms in the early morning, their food bowls at the ready, people and shop keepers waiting to donate.

At our guesthouse, we meet Leah, a lovely British woman on vacation with her daughter and the daughter's partner. She has been volunteering in Greece with the refugees arriving on the shores by boat and is on a well-deserved rest. A couple of happy hours are shared and by chance, we stay in the same place again in Hoi An, Vietnam. She gives us the name and number of a tuk-tuk driver (Kim Lim) for our next destination of Battambang.

There is an outbreak of hemorrhagic dengue fever while we are here. Hospital staff are out on the streets with big signs pleading with people to donate blood to save the children.

Guesthouse staff encourage us to go to an evening play. It's by a theatre troupe made up of former street-involved youth. We go and its a special night indeed.

The guest house also books a tuk-tuk that takes us daily to Angkor Wat. The young man who drives us does not own his own tuk-tuk and may never be able to. He speaks a little English that he taught himself by reading children's books. He has little formal education. His hope is to be able to raise enough money that he can one day buy himself a wife from a remote country village where people are poorer than he is.

Day Market

Siem Reap at Night

Angkor Wat - 7th Wonder of the World

With half a million people now visiting Angkor Wat every year, most people have heard of this largest religious monument in the world that started out as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu and gradually became a Buddhist temple.

It stretches over 200 acres, has a 15-foot high sandstone wall and a moat that still surrounds much of it.

Gradually the temple fell into disrepair as it was used less and less. War, earthquakes and the ever-moving jungle took their toll and yet it remains magnificent. It is now a UNESCO world heritage site so it has had some restoration work.

The bas relief carvings on the walls tell of deities and the everyday life and significant events of the time.

Today Angkor Wat is so over-run with tourists that many people are choosing to visit some of the temple sites to the north, east and west of Angkor Wat that are beautiful in their own right.

We spend two-and-a-half days exploring the temples and grounds with our patient tuk-tuk driver taking us from site to site and waiting while we explore. We also hire a guide for the first day to see and learn about the highlights.

It was beyond anything we could have dreamed. Our guide points to some hills off in the distance where much of the sandstone came from, carried on bamboo poles to the temple sites. So much about the construction done in that time is hard to comprehend.