Visiting Angkor Wat was high on our priority list when we started our exploration of Southeast Asia in November. Nearly 3.5 months later and a few “slightly out of the way” detours to Hong Kong and Bali, we finally made it! We also had gone for 3 months since we had our last visitors and were starting to feel a bit homesick. We were so excited to have family and friends with us to experience Cambodia and the magnificent Angkor Wat. As mentioned in our Bali blog, my sister, Stephanie, my brother-in-law, Kyle, and our friends, Sarah and Phil, met up with us first in Bali, and then we all flew to Siem Reap together for 3 days of temple exploring and learning about Cambodian culture.
We had a blast introducing them to our favorite experiences from our travels around Southeast Asia:
Massages
Street food
Tuk-Tuk rides
Asian cover bands singing beautifully in perfect English (Kyle’s favorite nighttime activity)
Night markets
Shots at famous backpacker bars
Yep, the little sister has always been a bad influence. After convincing everybody that shots were an integral part of experiencing the famous Pub Street in Siem Reap, we set out to discover the street food scene. The choices were a bit limited, and strangely redundant, I think we saw at least 20 stands selling ice cream rolls and another 20 selling crepes. Seriously, can anyone come up with an original idea? And what about local cuisine food stands? When we finally found a guy grilling up some meat on a stick, we were eager to go for it. Unfortunately, I steered them to my first epic street food fail. After all the deliciousness we discovered in Thailand, I had hoped their neighbor would be able to compete. Grilled meat on a stick is always a sure bet…until Cambodia…chew, chew, chew….ummm….hey guys?? Chew some more…ummm…I can’t get this down.
No, sir, you can’t say that gizzards is chicken!! And gizzards was just our best guess. We have no idea what it was and for the first time ever, I couldn’t bring myself to eat something I bought from a street food vendor.
Experimenting with local cuisine with my sister was quite interesting. I learned that I have definitely broadened my palate over the years beyond the Midwestern cooking of my childhood. So, for all of you who may be taking notes regarding what foods we recommend, maybe take it with a grain of salt. While we liked Balinese food, my sister found it too spicy. She actually liked Cambodian food better although we felt it was often lacking in flavor complexity. She often had a confused look on her face and said the strange flavors were foreign to her, so her tastebuds didn’t know if she should like it or not. And she came to the conclusion that she didn’t like lemongrass. WHAT!?!? Not my favorite Thai herb?!?! I was proud of Kyle, who prefers American steak and hamburgers, for diving into the cuisine and overcoming the language barrier. At one restaurant, he tried to explain that he wanted the egg on top to be scrambled instead of runny. The waiter didn’t understand “scrambled”. Imagine Kyle with a big goofy grin using a combination of karate chopping and stirring motions to signal to the waiter how he wanted his egg prepared. And this is what he got:
Not quite scrambled…but they did cut it up for him. Valiant effort! We also had picked this restaurant for the view over Pub Street. Quite lovely, isn’t it?
Siem Reap was a bit more touristy than we expected with Pub Street being a hangout for tourists, resort after resort lining the main drag, the majority of locals speaking English, and the USD accepted by every restaurant and street food vendor. Jimmy and I haven’t been back to the states in months so didn’t have any USD and had gotten local currency at the airport. We couldn’t believe that it was actually harder to use the local currency than USD. Luckily, we had Kyle with us…the guy who has only traveled abroad a couple times yet somehow managed to be more prepared than the year-round travelers. Kyle became our ATM for USD. Ahhh…so nice to have family visiting.
The main reason why Siem Reap has become a tourist headquarters is the amazing Angkor Wat temple complex just a short drive outside the city. So, of course, our first full day was jam packed with temple exploration. We started off with a bang going to the most famous site first – Angkor Wat. The sunrise at Angkor Wat came highly recommended, so I had arranged with our guide to pick us up at an obscenely early hour. I was worried about making our whole crew get up so early and it being a let-down, but the morning turned out to be absolutely gorgeous and quite possibly the most stunning sight of the trip.
I was relieved when everybody agreed that the early wake-up call was totally worth it. And there were just a few other people as “crazy” as we were to get there early.
After enjoying the sunrise, our guide took us on a tour of the Angkor Wat complex. Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world, so there was a lot to see. Our guide did a great job of picking out highlights and explaining the historical significance. Angkor Wat was built in the early 12th century as a Hindu temple although later was transformed into a Buddhist temple.
The middle tower of Angkor Wat symbolizes Mount Meru, home of the Devas in Hindu mythology.
Not only is the grandeur of the complex awe-inspiring but the level of detail and exquisite decoration is impressive.
The bas-reliefs are one of the most famous aspects of the temple. Over 3000 asparas (heavenly nymphs) are carved into the walls, and each one is unique. Our guide pointed out that the headdresses, in particular, are all different. You can see two of them behind me and Steph in this pic taken along the inside of the outer wall.
Along the outside of the central complex, large-scale scenes depict Hindu epics and historical events in an 800m long series of bas-reliefs.
The fact that I found most interesting is that this giant complex was being built around the same time as Notre Dame in Paris. Notre Dame took almost 200 years to complete, but Angkor Wat was built in just 30 years! This achievement took hundreds of thousands of skilled laborers and craftsmen and probably slaves as well. However, our guide told us that in the golden age, everybody was healthy, well-fed, and believed in the mission of building magnificent temples for the gods, so they were motivated to work hard to complete the project. Ironically, though, as soon as the current king died, construction stopped, so Angkor Wat was never fully completed. In this pic, you can see where a window was being carved out, and below the window, the artisan had started working on the decorative trimming but never finished.
King dies….no more work! Well, that really isn’t true either. Each king constructed his own temples, which is why there are so many Khmer temples in this region, so the workers probably just moved on to the next one. So, off we went to visit some of the other legendary temples in the region.
Angkor Wat was one of the best preserved because of the moat that surrounded it.
Many of the temples including Ta Prohm, which was built just a few decades after Angkor Wat, have been taken over by the jungle.
Ta Prohm was made famous by the movie Tomb Raider. Does this tree look familiar to anybody?
Angkor Wat may represent the power and ingenuity of the Khmer people, but Ta Prohm showcases the raw power of the jungle. The tree roots pushing over tons of stone and exerting dominance over the structure. Just look at the size of the roots, now being supported by metal beams to help with reconstruction.
Can you see the face peaking out from behind the roots?
Ta Prohm was one of my favorite Khmer temples because of the intertwining of nature and ancient architecture that created a mysterious atmosphere.
After a morning full of temple exploration, we finally came to our lunch stop to relax and get a bite of food. Normally, when we are out touring, we don’t expect to be blown away by the food near the tourist areas. In particular, this one was also surrounded by numerous stands selling all kinds of tourist gifts and souvenirs. But, our guide recommended their chicken or fish amok and promised that it was really good. Fish amok is one of the most popular Cambodian dishes and is often considered Cambodia’s national dish. The fish is steamed to perfection in a banana leaf with coconut milk, roasted crushed peanuts, lemongrass, garlic, and lime. Amok is often served in a coconut, as seen here, and always with a side of rice.
Three of us ordered the amok and agreed that it was quite possibly the best thing we ate the entire time in Cambodia. Unfortunately, my sister ordered it later on in the trip, and the “fancy” restaurant that we were at didn’t make it nearly as good. So, this dish can certainly be hit or miss depending on how it is prepared. But, the amok we got at this roadside tourist stand had tender fish pieces swimming in a glorious coconut curry sauce.
Not only did this stop provide our favorite meal but also quite possibly my favorite story from the whole trip. Kyle wanted to get a few souvenirs for his kids so went to check out one of the local’s souvenir stands. The young lady running the store had two small children that she was trying to provide for, so along with the t-shirt for his daughter, he picked up a couple other random items to help support the family…one of them being a lady’s decorative fan. Kyle came back to the group as we were about to follow our guide to the next temple. Being an extremely hot day in Cambodia, Kyle was fanning himself and beaming with pride at his new purchase. Our tour guide, Bunna, absolutely lost it! Like, couldn’t control himself, I’m surprised he didn’t pee his pants, kind of laughter. I’m not sure I have ever seen anyone laugh so hard and so long. His utter surprise that Kyle would be fanning himself with a lady’s fan led to not only his uncontrollable laugher but ours as well. Jimmy was now laughing so hard that he was wiping tears from his eyes. Bunna was such a knowledgeable, considerate guide and also had a good sense of humor and a huge smile. I wish we had captured that moment of him laughing on camera or even Kyle with the fan. But, we were all too busy laughing at Bunna laughing at Kyle. But, we did take a pic with Bunna later on in the day that shows his adorable, huge smile.
We were fortunate to have found such a fun-loving, friendly and well-educated guide. He definitely made our time in Cambodia special. How can you not love a guide that is thoughtful enough to bring along ice cold wash clothes to refresh during a long day of temple touring?
Our lunch stop and the fan incident took place in the tourist area leading up to one of the most famous of the Angkor temples, Banteay Srei, which was built in the 10th century. Banteay Srei is unique compared to other Khmer temples because it was built out of red sandstone.
This Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva may be one of the smallest in the Angkor complex but is considered to have some of the finest stone carvings.
“Temple fatigue” was starting to set in at this point, but we had one more of the must-see temples to squeeze in for the afternoon. Bayon at Angkor Thom was built in the late 12th century and was the last state temple to be built in Angkor. Bayon’s most distinctive feature is its 54 towers decorated with 216 gargantuan smiling faces that represent either the bodhissatva (compassionate and merciful being) or the king himself.
Bayon is also well-known for its two levels of impressive bas-reliefs depicting historical events, mythology, and everyday life.
Bunna also came through by showing us a great spot to rub noses with the bodhissatva.
We were exhausted by the end of our first day, but what an experience seeing some of the most magnificent temples ever built.
The morning of our second day was spent learning about the Cambodian way of life outside of touristy Siem Reap. On our way to Tonle Sap lake and the fishing villages, we past many rice fields and saw people working at every step along the process. Here is a woman spreading out the rice to dry on a large tarp outside her home:
Rice is a staple food in Cambodia eaten at almost every meal as well as in snacks and desserts. Bunna pulled the van over at a small roadside stand to introduce us to a popular Cambodian snack called Kralan. Kralan is made from sticky rice, red beans, sugar, coconut milk, and shredded coconut roasted in specially-prepared bamboo sections.
We were all really surprised how delicious this combination was. Overall, we hadn’t been super impressed by the Cambodian cuisine as a whole (except for the fish amok), but this snack was pretty amazing. We were bummed when we learned the following day that we couldn’t get this snack anywhere in Siem Reap. The tourists are missing out! And the Cambodians are missing out on a potential goldmine! How are they only selling this to locals outside of town?!?! THIS is what we were hoping for at the street food stands near Pub Street and the Night Market. Bunna also showed us what the locals, who were making the Kralan, were eating…a bowl of bugs!
I thought that the street food stand selling the crazy bugs/snakes/scorpions was more of a tourist attraction, but Bunna told us that they really do enjoy eating a wide assortment of bugs. He just wasn’t a big fan of the beetles…too chewy, he told us.
Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and has a unique phenomenon where the Tonle Sap river changes direction. Fed by the Mekong River, during the wet season the Tonle Sap lake increases in size flooding the nearby mangrove forests and fishing villages. In the dry season, the Tonle Sap river reverses flow drastically decreasing the size of the lake. We visited one of the fishing villages during the dry season. What a fascinating place and unique opportunity to get a peak into the way of life for a group of people that depend on the ebb and flow of the Tonle Sap lake. Seeing all the homes raised up on skinny stilts 10m high was pretty impressive, although it would really be neat to come during the wet season to see the entire area flooded and “floating” on the water.
All the locals were hard at work tending to some sort of fishing-related activity. Even the young girls were working alongside their families cleaning and gutting fish.
I couldn’t imagine myself doing that kind of work at such a young age! Eeeww! Being dry season, the Tonle Lake had receded far from the village, so we hopped in a boat to cruise down the river.
We were a bit nervous that the little rickety boat wasn’t going to make it, and our boat driver even had to stop a few times to fix/clear the rutter. But, this little guy was hard at work helping his older brother tend to the boat.
When he wasn’t performing a boating task, he offered massages to the passengers. Good little scam he has going on, huh?!?!
We passed shrimpin’ boats
And portable homes set-up near the river in the plains that have to be moved when the rainy season comes.
Once at the lake, we boated passed a Cambodian floating village as well as a Vietnamese floating village. Unfortunately, our guide told us that the two groups do not get along and remain separated.
Unlike the stilted homes that are permanent, these floating villages move with the changing depth of the lake. Sometimes it is hard to imagine, but these villages are fully-functioning communities with floating schools and floating markets. Everybody has a boat, so the lake and rivers are the “roads”.
After the morning spent visiting the fishing villages, we stopped in at one more temple, Beng Mealea. The encroaching jungle turned the temple into a spectacular ruin that would make a prime movie scene, thus the temple is often called the Indiana Jones temple. Unlike Ta Prohm, very little reconstruction has taken place, so visitors get a better sense of what the first Westerners experienced when the temples were rediscovered.
We thought perhaps we could help with the reconstruction and move this giant piece back into place.
Or maybe not…we were exhausted after a whirlwind tour of temples and villages.
Needless to say, having the opportunity to visit Cambodia and Angkor Wat was truly amazing, but one of the best parts was being able to share the experience with friends and family.
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