Day 65 – Siem Reap, Cambodia

Nov 1st

After a 6AM wake up call, Kelsey and I stumbled out of sleep and found our way downstairs for breakfast. It turned out to be another feast of omelets, pastries, fruits, soups, dumplings and noodles. Once we fueled up and checked out, we headed out for some time in Phnom Penh before our flight to Siem Reap.

Tuol Sleng Museum
In the morning, we visited the Tuol Sleng Musem, which was formally a S21 prison that served as a torture camp under the Khmer Rough regime. Thousands of Cambodians were incarcerated here before they were taken to the Choeng Ek Killing Fields to be executed. It was an intensely emotional visit, seeing as the rooms still had the rusted, iron beds and shackles remaining in the spot where people died. Pictures of discovered, mutilated bodies hung on the wall over the bed showing exactly how the person had been lying when they were killed on the empty frames. The walls and floors were marked with dingy bloodstains. The visit was spent in utter silence, as everyone sank into their own thoughts about what had happened in the rooms we were visiting. In various buildings, photographs of victims--before or after torture--lined the walls of the former schoolrooms. We even saw the brick constructed cells that had the two jars in which prisoners used to go the bathroom when they were given permission.

Royal Palace
Due to a political rally that blocked our way to the Killing Fields, we detoured to ‘Preah Borom Reach Veng Chatomuk’ or “the Royal Palace” to make sure we caught the site before it closed. The complex, which is surrounded by a white stucco fence, houses the famous ‘Victory gate,’ the Throne Hall, Ho Samran Phirum (houses royal musical instruments), Pavilion of Napoleon III and the Silver Pagoda. While the outside architecture of the Throne hall was clearly Asian inspired, the inside looked like a regal French oasis with crystal chandeliers, gold chairs and lush carpets. We saw the king and queen’s magnificent solid gold chairs, and learned that the current king ‘King Preach Bat Samdech Preach Boromneath Norodom Sihamoni’ is in fact single! Thus, my new life ambition: to become the Queen of Cambodia (OR change my name to: Queen Preach Bat Samdech Preach Boromneath Norodom Sihamoni). Even though he just had his 50th birthday, I’m pretty sure I can work with that. The rest of the trip I spent time looking over my future, gold-thread wedding dress, my meticulous gardens and future residence. Another interesting sight, the Silver Pagoda (or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha) was built in the 19th century with French technology and Cambodian designs, and have survived the traumas of the 20th century amazingly intact. The floor was covered in silver plates (hence the name), so a total of 8 security guards stood stoically within a few feet of each other in the small room to make sure we didn’t try to nix any. There was also a 200 lbs Buddha statue that I’m pretty sure no one could carry out of there, but they didn’t let you get close enough to find out. To end the trip, we walked through a hall bearing the artifacts of the royal procession and a few tourist shops before re-boarding the bus.

The Killing Fields
We shuttled 17km south to the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek, where mass graves of more than 17,000 covered the marshy area. Boral reassured us to “make happy time with him” even if the places we see make us sad. He also explained how 2 trucks transported 20-30 people at night from the S21 prison to the Killing Fields to be executed under the Pol Pot regime (1975-1979). We pulled in along a dirt road flanked by wandering cows up to a gate that marked the area. Walking in, we found a tall, Buddhist stupa packed full of human skulls -the sides are made of glass so the visitors can see them up close. There are clearly marked pits where mass graves of 166 or 430 people were killed. Trees were marked with signs that indicated where babies heads were smashed or where a loudspeaker was hung to drown out the moans of dying victims. The surrounding greenery and quick march land made it oddly serene yet somber.

Pailin Souvenir
Since we had some time before our flight to Siem Reap, we stopped at a fancy tourist shop to… shop. Nichole and I gazed over the various over-priced nick-nacks, looked at the door and headed out to explore the area instead. While walking along Mao Tse Tung Blvd, we shops selling everything from books to septic tanks and squatter toilets. (It’s too bad you just re-did the bathrooms, Mom. I could have brought you back a wonderfully authentic souvenir for $15!)

Sorya Restaurant
We walked in to find enormous, murky tanks filled with the largest fish I had ever seen! I wonder if we were going to eat one of them, but we really don’t know what we are eating when they put it in front of us. We had another table spread of various goodies, including pork spring rolls, bbq spare ribs, fried shrimp, sautéed veggies, lemongrass-fish soup, wilted bok choy, curry fish and white rice. It didn’t seem like they were going to stop bringing things out at any point. We did our best to taste test with our chopsticks, but I still don’t understand how to eat rice with those things. Eventually, they brought out fruit and green gelatin and we knew the meal was ending. Nicole and I took the extra time we had to wander around the area. The streets were swarming with motorcycles and people milling about. Shops overran the sidewalks, and in front of the nearby department store the sidewalk was actually the parking lot where people were registering their motorcycles! Every other shop seemed to be a cell phone store too, so I guess Cambodians are well connected. While checking out the types of stores in the mall, we found Luck Gelato and knew that you never pass up biscuit gelato on a fresh, warm cone for $0.90!

Siem Reap
As we made our way to the Phnom Penh International Airport (and to our bewilderment), Boral sang a rendition of “That’s Why” a love song about parting with your sweetheart. It was absolutely adorable, and completely made up for the endless hours we listened to him point out everything in the world. The flight to Siem Reap, which is in the Northeast corner of the country, took what felt like 15 mins. Our new guide Singh collected us when we landed and took us to the bus. As we headed to Angkor Watt for sunset, he talked about the rolling country side that passed by outside our windows. Most of the area was covered in rice paddy fields that are still harvested by hand unlike Thailand or China, which now use machines. There were petite wood houses on stilts looming over the area, and local markets of fruits and vegetables sprang up every once in a while. Singh explained that people were returning to work, since “siesta” time was now over. (Since I love siestas, I fell in love with Cambodia a little more.) The local hospitals were Swiss-aid supported and run, although there are private institutions that provide services as well. We saw signs everywhere warning parents about their kids getting dengue fever. Since Angkor Wat is a prone tourist attraction for malaria and dengue, I completely soaked myself in deet. I could very much come back as a mutant from the amount I used.

Angkor Wat
Angkor is a stone temple complex built 10,000 years ago at the height of the Khmer civilization. It has 100+ temples that constitute what’s left of a spectacular administrative and religious center covering 200-sq-km. The ruins represent successive capitals constructed by a dozen Khmer kings, which included massive stone temples, majestic causeways and imposing towers. Agkor Wat, is the most famous temple complex that sits in the middle of it all, built by Suryavarman II who reigned from 1112 to 1152 to hone Vishnu (Indian god) and for later use as his funerary temple. Angkor Wat is surrounded by an enormous moot that once held ancient crocodiles to protect the building. As we walked over the long, stone bridge onto the mainland of the temple, the sky turned a deep pink-red. It was absolutely breath taking. Once on the other side, we found a nice spot of the steps of the ancient library to watch the sun go down over the distinct peaks of the elaborate building. As we left the complex, a young street seller tried to get me to buy postcards and bracelets she was carrying. Matt best explained her as the “Wikipedia page for the United State,” since as soon as she found out where we were from, she named the capital of various state, the population size of the country and what was going on with the current election. When I asked her what the population of Cambodia was, she didn’t know the answer. Regardless, she happily waved goodbye and told us she would find us again tomorrow.

Kulen II Restaurant
In order to have a traditional tourists dinner, we ended up at Kulen II Restaurant for an enormous buffet and cultural performance. We could taste everything from fried veggie noodles, coconut cooked rice paties, an omlet-thing with beef and bean sprounts, veggie soring rolls, coconut chicken, veggie fried rice and a slew of seafoods. I discovered a delicious sweet-chili sauce that almost became my favorite, but then I remembered the taste of monkey-gland sauce from South Africa. With each sampling of food, we dove in with our chopsticks with which we were really perfecting our skills. For dessert we tried a range of gelatins, brightly colored jellos, banana stew and fruits. The cultural performance was a series of dance-acting that only had music to accompany it. I spent the time interpreting the acts as: a monkey hunting a goldfish, fisherman falls in love with girl, dance of King’s maids and musical dance with cocout shells. At the end of the show, the actors came out and an Asian man suddenly jumped on stage to take a picture with them. We were a little weirded out, but then realized that everyone was getting in line to take pictures with the actors that stood as still as statues.

Borei Angkor Resort
We got to the hotel early, so after checking in we made our way to the night market in the area to explore. It was a largely festive area that had lights strung from stall to stall, making the area glow in the dark. Every vendor greeted us with “Hey Lady” (again) and asked us to look at their things. I just smiled and nodded the whole time. (The best strategy not to offend anyone.) Hint: do NOT ask what the price of something is unless you plan on buying it. They become way WAY too persistent about what you want and why you want to buy it. I found some interesting embroidered things and recycled-product bags, which were all made by the disabled at a local temple. Afterward we took the tut tut (a fabulous invention for carry people around via open air carriage) home and passed by a park that was filled with couples making out. I guess Cambodia isn’t as conservative as we thought.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was seeing my gold-thread wedding dress and soon-to-be home at the ‘Royal Palace’ in Phnom Penh. My “low” was finding out Kit Kats don’t taste the same in Cambodia.