Adventures in Asia: Siem Reap, Cambodia

We rested all afternoon yesterday, trying to hide from 41 degree heat.  Accuweather.com said it feels like 45!  Since I've never experienced 45 degrees, I can't say if that was true, but it was definitely super hot.

Finally at around 17:00 the sun was low enough that it felt bearable to venture out, so we did a little cycle trip through Siem Reap before returning the bicycles.

We ate curries on our hotel's patio, again, for dinner, including amok, a traditional Cambodian fish and coconut curry (very good!).

We turned in early because a) we were getting up super early this morning and b) we were both pretty tired out, whether from heat, or jet lag, or our bike ride, or dehydration . . .

This morning we were up at 4:30 to meet our tuk-tuk driver at 5:00.

We were at Angor Wat by 5:20, and got to watch the sun come up over the temple.  

It was less impressive of a sight than it sometimes is, because there was a significant haze marring the sun.

Nonetheless it was a very tranquil experience, and we got to clamber around the site before most of the tourists arrived.

From Angor Wat Mr. Marom (our tuk-tuk driver) took us a little ways north to climb up to Phnom Bakheng, the highest elevated site in the Angor Wat Archaeological Park, and also the oldest temple in the park, dating to before 900 CE.

It's especially popular as a sunset spot, but we enjoyed it--mostly to ourselves--at 7:00.

Once we got back down we rejoined Mr. Marom and he took us to where we could catch an elephant ride through the south gate of Angor Thom and to the temple of Bayon.

These elephant rides are exorbitantly overpriced, but we had decided months ago that we would ride an elephant on our Asia trip, so we forked over the precious cash and mounted the stairs to where we could board the elephant.

Despite the cushioned "saddle," the ride was remarkably uncomfortable.  An elephant plodding along does not make for a smooth ride!  It was a cool experience, however.  

We felt like celebrities as people stopped to take pictures and little kids waved (of course, they were intrigued by the elephant, not us).  

At Bayon (where we'd cycled to yesterday), we dismounted on to a similar stand and rejoined the tuk-tuk.

As you can see from my Bayon picture, they are preparing for Khmer New Year, which begins tomorrow.  There are decorations, temporary stages, and so on all around the Angor Wat park and Siem Reap.

From Angor Thom we took the tuk-tuk north about 40 kilometres to visit a site called Banteay Srey, also known in English as the "Citadel of Women."  

I don't think there was anything particularly appealing about this spot, and we had to pay a few dollars extra for our driver to take us there, but we thought the chance to road trip through rural Cambodia would be worth it.  

Mr. Marom charges $15 (US) for the tour of Angor Wat, but charges a $3 premium if he has to start before 5:00 (which he did for us), and then $5 extra for the extra 80 kilometre round trip (so $23 total).  He said he would work until the park closed, which is 17:00 or 18:00, but we gave him a short day and were done by 12:00, because again the heat beat us quickly.

Anyway, the trip up to Banteay Srey was worth every penny.  For a short time we were simply the only ones on the road, with nothing but what seemed to be wild Cambodia on either side.  But most of the way passed along homes and small farms and shops of all sorts.  I was not bored for one moment.  Riding in the open air tuk-tuk is a lovely way to see things too, because the breeze keeps you cool(ish) and you feel that much closer to everything without car walls and windows in the way.

Banteay Srey itself was a cool place, probably the most intricately carved temple that we saw in Angor Wat.  

It also had pond/swamp areas around it, with a type of cattle or water buffalo, which were surprisingly fun to watch.  

We also paid a $1 to some children for a pineapple and mango to snack on while we were there.

From Banteay Srey, we drove back into the Angor Wat park proper, past a remarkable site called Pre Rup, and to another site called Ta Prohm.  

Ta Prohm is less restored than the other sites we visited, and there are literally trees growing out of the ruins in some places.  

This makes for some incredible sights.  

Unfortunately by now it was getting very hot and we were tiring and thirsty, having already each drained our 1.5L bottles we had brought with us.  Also, both Banteay Srey and Ta Prohm were more crowded than the other places we'd visited, so that made them a little less easy to enjoy.  

In other words, not surprisingly, largely deserted centuries-old temples and ruins in the relative cool of the early morning are much more pleasant to visit than sites teeming with tour groups and selfie-seeking tourists in the heat of late morning.

So, although we had another one or two spots circled on our map, we decided we were beat and asked Mr. Marom to take us back to the hotel.

We rested through the heat of the afternoon and headed out just before 17:00.  We crossed the Siem Reap River (which is sadly more of a stagnant sewage canal than what I think of as a river).

First we visited the post office, a relatively regal building, where I purchased and mailed a postcard, for 5,000 riel (the first time a price had been quoted to me in Cambodian currency and not US dollars).  4,000 riel is $1 US, so in this case I gave the lady two bills, a $1 US and 1,000 riel.  There are no coins in Cambodia, so anytime we've required change less than $1 US, the change has been given in riel bills.

From the post office we meandered south into the area of Siem Reap known as the "Old Market."  We wandered through a market and then into the Pub Street area, which is the neighborhood of Siem Reap full of bars and restaurants and shops catering to tourists, especially (I think) white tourists.  

While it is definitely much less authentic Cambodia than, say, the rural region we'd tuk-tuk'ed through earlier, or even the Wat Bo neighborhood we're staying in, it was a fun place to look around.  We passed a street vendor with three aquariums full of fish that will "massage" your feet.  Andrea dared me to try it, so I gave it a go.  For $3 you can stick your feet in and get a "massage," and they even give you a beer to drink while you sit there!  

It was a remarkable experience!  The fish are crazy eager to get at your feet, literally jostling each other, as if there isn't enough feet to go around.  There were two tanks I tried, one with smaller fish (maybe two inches or so), and another with larger fish, with fish bigger than two inches and probably as much as six or even eight in the case of one particular bottom feeding orange fish (all the other fish in the tank seemed to be the same kind, except for this one).  They also let Andrea stick her hand in and experience it (the fish seem equally attracted to hands as feet).  As I understand it the fish are eating the dead skin off the feet, and it did relieve some itchiness.  It also tickled and I couldn't last much more than five minutes.  The girl took a nicely rolled towel and dried my feet when I was done.  My feet felt pretty good, and it was so much fun that I might do it again.  

After that we went for dinner at a restaurant serving Cambodian BBQ and ate BBQ pork ribs and fried eggplant with ground beef.  

We each got desserts on the way back--Andrea some chocolate cake thing, and me a $1 mixed fruit shake from a street cart.  We got to sit and watch the girl chop up melon, mango, and some fruits I didn't recognize and blend them with ice.  I was impressed at how much work was put into making me my drink for only a $1.

Walking back in the dark was challenging.  I realize Siem Reap is the least pedestrian friendly city I've ever been in.  There's lots of traffic (mostly tuk-tuks, motorcycles, and bicycles), but the only pedestrians are tourists, and intersections are mostly uncontrolled, so crossing the street can be daunting, and all the more so at night.  We made it back eventually.