We arrived to Siem Reap airport via Ho Chi Minh City. You can buy a visa on arrival, but you must produce a picture of yourself. If you don’t have one, you can pay $2, and you don’t have to give a picture… Strange rules… Tapan had some problems at customs, but was eventually let through after he showed a return ticket.
A representative from our guesthouse picked us up at the airport and brought us to our Cambodian home. The hotel was extremely simple but clean and comfortable. We dropped our bags, had an Angkor beer and planned our visits for the next two day through the guesthouse. We then headed for the town center and had dinner at the Red Piano. We ran into Rainer, a colleague on holiday with his girlfriend, as we waited for our table. We decided to have dinner all together, and ordered every single item under the “Cambodian” heading. It was a true feast. We had a few drinks at the Buddha Bar on the main strip, and walked home. I noticed tons of advertisings and street boards saying “Abuse a child in our country, go to jail in yours”. We did not see nor were offered such services, but it is obviously a serious problem in that area. Siem Reap is apparently a very popular destination for sex tourists.
On the second day, we had arranged to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We got up around 5:00am, and were at the temple by 5:30. It was raining when we left the guesthouse, but cleared up by the time we reached our viewpoint. After a beautiful sunrise, we had breakfast and visited several temples in the morning. They are truly spectacular. They were build centuries ago by slaves using limestone and lava stone. The details in the carving are astonishing. They describe daily life, as well as concepts such as heaven and hell. There area hundreds of temple all over the area. After a good lunch in a touristy restaurant, we had an hour nap before visiting more temples. We the world’s most famous Cambodian, the guy on the Lonely Planet guide. He has been sitting in the same area for years, and sells touristy stuff. We then caught the sunset on the hill where we met Gunnar, a German guy would worked for a few months in Beijing and is now touring South-East Asia. We arranged to have dinner with him at a nice Cambodian/Vietnamese restaurant, and had delicious typical food. We then experimented with all kinds of different local beers solving riddles, and stumbled home around 1-2am.
The next morning, we headed to rural Cambodia to visit a temple very recently opened to the public. It is totally un-restored, and had trees and plants and moss all over the stones. I truly felt like Indiana Jones at the beginning of “Raiders of the Lost Arch” when he has to get away from the big rolling rock. We had a doubtful lunch in a local restaurant, and caught a small boat to the “Floating Village”. Every year during the rainy season, hundreds of square kilometers get flooded with about 4 meters of water. People living in the area have built houses on stilts and literally live above water. Most people have small boats or floating “cups” to get around. Bigger boats come by every day to deliver fresh water and supplies in exchange for fish.
Cambodia outside the two big centers is literally living 500 years in the past. Their development is comparable to Tanzania. It was extremely surprised about this. Another fact to back this up: there are no ATMs in Siem Reap, the second largest city. I am unsure whether there are any in the capital. We caught our flight to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.
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