On to Cambodia

Last Wednesday, we reluctantly left glorious Laos for Siem Reap, Cambodia. Our first impression of Cambodia -- a no-show ride from the airport; a taxi driver who midway through our trip to the hotel, removed the taxi sign from his roof; and internet poised to view virtually any website except Gmail -- left us Lao-sick. But as time passed -- and we explored the temples of Angkor -- we grew more fond of Cambodia.

The whole area around Siem Reap is packed with temples, mainly in the ancient city of Angkor, but distributed all across a region probably 20 or 30 km wide. The temples are amazing -- dating mainly from the 9th through 12th centuries and in various stages of ruin, they show the former strength of a huge ancient Khmer empire. But they also are home to a depressing number of begging children and tourist-dependent locals. Nick's major lesson: Don't tell the children your name. Unbeknownst to me, he had shared it with a couple of them; as we rode away, there was a chorus of "Nick! Nick! Nick!" I said, "It sounds like they're saying your name... there must be some Cambodian word that sounds like your name!" Despite the throngs of insistent vendors and sadly monotone young ones, our two very full days at Angkor were definitely a trip highlight.

We started, predictably, with Angkor Wat itself, which sits a couple kilometers below the ancient town of Angkor itself. A king built the wat -- the world's largest religious building -- as a funerary temple for himself. It sits on an island surrounded by a moat, accessed by two opposite causeways. Its size is mind-blowing, and the sheer effort must have required thousands. But Angkor, at its height, was a bustling city of one million. London, in the same era, contained only about 50,000 people. This picture shows just the inner part of the building itself, with the visible central towers and an amazing 800 meters of bas-reliefs.

I'm sure Nick and Gwynne have more pictures of the other temples within Angkor Thom, the central city. We visited a number by bike the first day, including Baphuon (a giant reconstruction, the plans for which were lost in the Khmer Rouge siege of Phnom Penh), Bayon (which features 216 faces of the god Avalokiteshvara), and Phnom Bakheng, from which it is possible to view a sunset over all of Angkor and the surrounding valley (which we did not see, because it was remarkably cloudy).

And, of course, Angkor has its share of smaller wonders, too... like this guy who was looking for bananas. Another monkey, walking past my foot, grabbed my ankle with his tiny hands. My response? I shrieked, of course -- totally reasonable response to a four-pound, vegetarian and in all other ways totally harmless animal.



Our second day, we hired a wonderful tuk-tuk driver who took us all over, to some other highlights we wanted to be sure to see before we left. The reason we hired the driver was to see this beauty, Banteay Srei, which lies a good 15k trip out from central Angkor. The temple is carved in pink sandstone, which prevented more severe erosion in the carvings. It was one of my favorites.


We also got to see Ta Prohm, a 12th- century Buddhist temple that has been left, essentially, in the same shape the French found it. This adds to its allure -- trees clamber over its walls, moss greens every surface, and if there weren't a hundred other tourists, you could feel like you were the first person there in centuries.




Yesterday we took a boat from Siem Reap to a small city, Battambang. I originally planned this because my trusty Lonely Planet hails the trip as traveling along "the most scenic waterway"in Cambodia. Now having made the trip, I don't know which part of their characterization is more confounding, the "scenic"part, or the "waterway"part. This picture shows one moment of our boat's navigation through what amounted to flooded woods. The trees, if you can't tell, are actually pressing into our cabin; those people are holding up life preservers to protect their faces. The brushy parts of our eight-hour trip amounted to only about two hours total, and we did get to see some beautiful views, as well. We also boated through the Tonle Sap, a 3000 sq. km lake in dry season that swells to some 13000 sq km in high water! During the rainy season, the influx of water actually forces the Tonle Sap river to run backwards (from the Mekong) into the lake, which somehow makes the lake one of the largest sources of freshwater fish in the world.

We also got to see a good stretch of rural Cambodia, much of which appears to be comprised of floating river villages. It's difficult to comprehend the vast difference between life in a floating hut on a river in Cambodia and life in my eighth-floor apartment in Washington, DC.






And the public health nerd in me was pleased to see this in Battambang. I also cheerfully sunbathed under a poolside umbrella advertising some brand of condom (at first, it was not cheerful but embarrassed, and then I pulled myself together), the distribution of which appears to be partially funded by PSI and USAID.

Another organization we've seen a lot of is Stay Another Day (www.stayanotherday.org). They produce a booklet for a number of countries, it appears, highlighting sustainable local organizations and businesses, and aim to educate tourists on how to have a more low-impact visit.