The morning after my first day in Vietnam I was scheduled to fly to Cambodia for a 3 day overland trip to Angkor Wat and Siem Reap. That morning also happened to be Ash Wednesday, so the ship offered to host a service to kick off the beginning of Lent.
Who might be available to officiate this service, you ask?
Oh, that would be Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
NBD.
So, 2 hours before my flight, I dragged myself to the Union for a once in a lifetime chance to be close to him. Long story short, my day began with ashes from the Arch. Talk about starting the day the holy way!
HUGE life moment!
After that monumental send-off, I headed to the airport for a short flight to Siem Reap. Cambodia only issues travel visas in country, so we had to go through customs upon landing and wait to be approved. Thankfully, we were, and they have the sweetest visa sticker I’ve seen thus far.
Kingdom of Cambodia here we come!
The hotel that Semester at Sea had reserved was stunning. Our five-star treatment, food, and accommodations were truly a testament to the thriving culture of tourism emerging in Cambodia. This was the view from our balcony window.
After lunch, it was early enough in the evening to sneak in a quick temple visit before dinner. Our first stop in the Angkor temple complex was Ta Prohm—a temple famous for its overgrowth of vegetation throughout the grounds. Ta Prohm was abandoned for hundreds of years, and when it was finally rediscovered, nature had intertwined itself so delicately that removal of any of the trees or wildlife would have caused the total destruction of the temple itself. So archaeologists decided to leave it intact.
This interaction of human and nature made for some of the most spectacular pictures.
I could totally see why Tomb Raider was filmed there!
I guess I’ll just add this trip to the list of things that Angelina and I have in common.
For the record, I never claimed this was a long list.
That temple was a sight to behold, but our guide kept insisting that it wasn’t even the 2nd most impressive site within the Angkor complex. In fact, both Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom were supposed to be far superior. We decided to trust his expert opinion. So, that night we had a quick dinner and attended a cultural dance show, but went to be early to prepare for the main event the following day: sunrise at Angkor Wat and a full day of temples.
I had only ever seen pictures of the Temples of Angkor Wat, so I had a very unique opportunity. Because we arrived so early in the morning and the entire grounds shrouded in darkness, I got to watch the temple emerge as the sun rose. It was a pretty magical experience—the temples seem to take so long to build and grow in the distance and then BOOM they were there in all their glory.
As the sun began to break up the clouds, different parts of the temple became more illuminated and new spires or columns would catch our eyes. We walked around the entire temple complex to try and get as many views as possible before the sun was fully overhead. All of them were incredible.
Now, while this might seem like a peaceful, serene, and ultimately personal experience, let me shed some light on the realities of visiting Angkor (pun intended). A lot of people have seen pictures like the ones above—looming structures showcased against sunrise or sunset with not a soul in sight. But quite a smaller number of people have seen the camera turned around. By the time we had made a full circle of the temple, this was the scene awaiting us:
Holy tourism!
What I had perhaps naively expected to be a quiet and reflective morning was quickly overcome by the din of travelers from every part of the globe trying to or shuffle to a better vantage point to snap the perfect picture. Overwhelming to say the least.
We left Angkor Wat just in time to avoid what I was told were even bigger crowds on their way and continued on to our next stop—Angkor Thom. The first set of temples we visited was called Bayon, a part of complex known for the large faces carved into the sides of the temple spires:
And the intricate murals on the temple walls….
The whole complex was beautiful, and we walked around for an hour or so just exploring the temples and sculptures that spoke to us.
From there we kept walking through the complex checking out different sites like the Elephant Terrace and the Temple of the Leper King. It’s really almost unfathomable to think about people building these gigantic structures over 1000 years ago.
After Angkor Thom, we took a break from the heat for lunch and short drive to our next temple on the schedule. Because we had already seen such magnificent architecture at both complexes, I was mentally prepared to be underwhelmed by our afternoon stop. Once again, I had underestimated my travel plans. The third stop at Banteay Srei, the ‘lady’s temple,’ was actually one of my favorites.
The pink stone and ornately intricate carvings convinced me that this was definitely my temple.
We wrapped up our full day temple tour with another stop at Angkor Wat, this time with the afternoon sun illuminating every tiny crevice of the structure.
We even got a chance to climb to the top of the third floor, where we finally gained a sense of the sheer expanse of the temple grounds. It was a great end to a long day.
After an excellent fancy dinner in a dress I had purchased that day at Angkor, I was fully and completely committed to going to bed.
Buuuuuuut then I got convinced otherwise.
Apparently Siem Reap had a night life that just could not be missed. So we all climbed in tuk tuks, which were basically carriages being pulled behind mopeds, and made our way to check out the scene.
What we found was the Night Market on Pub Street- an area of town full of stores and bars that stayed open most of the night to cater to the needs of ex-pats and tourists. We also found another two groups of SAS students who had stumbled upon the same gem. And they had already found what ended up being the most unique and interesting experience at the market.
Fish. Foot. Pedicures.
Ya, guys, that’s the face of sheer terror.
After some liquid courage and a really convincing friend, I finally took the plunge.
And it was so nice, I did it twice!
I actually hated it. Every minute of it. But I got dared to do it again, so well, ya… I did it again.
The second time was much more successful, but it was still gross. So gross. But so totally worth the story.
Oh, and the free beer. Totally worth the free beer.
Our time walking off the pedicures on Pub Street wrapped up an amazingly full day in Cambodia. I was really thankful to see the magnificent and beautiful side of a country which I knew had withstood a great amount of suffering in the past. I’m lucky to have had these few days as my first images of both Vietnam and Cambodia before I was forced to tackle some of the tougher realities including presence of poverty and the vestiges of war.
The next few days, although not without their fair share of fun, were definitely of a different experience entirely.
Question of the Day: What’s the weirdest or grossest culture experience you’ve had?
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