Cambodia

From Hanoi, we flew to Seim Reap in Cambodia, most noted for its closeness to Angkor Wat. Upon arrival, we were issued a visa and ushered through immigration. Here, Jodene was approached by one of the customs' officers who said that she should take a taxi with his friend. Of course once we left the immigration building, many taxis awaited us and the one "suggested" by the immigration officer was only 100% more expensive than the others. Throughout Vietnam and Cambodia, we found that many of the government workers were not completely honest to say the least.

The taxi driver we ended up taking was really cool and honest! He drove us around trying to find accommodation and we finally ended up at a very nice resort/hotel near the center of town. The hotel was very impressive with lush gardens and a beautiful pool. After checking in, we set out to Angkor Wat using the same driver (in fact, we used him the entire time we were there, making him very happy).

Angkor Wat is amazing. Basically, the city was a thriving civilization many, many years ago and then for some reason it was abandoned--experts disagree on the direct cause of the abandonment. About 50 years or so ago, the city was discovered by a European guy while exploring the jungle. Since its discovery by western man, it has been unearthed and now visited by thousands of visitors. Because of the beauty of the city, we took many, many pictures. I think the photos more accurately describe the city than I can with words.






The city itself was divided into many smaller sections. The main section above was the main Temple which had a huge moat dug around it. Several other sections were spread around the area and were used for living and worshiping as well. Below is the entrance gate the section of the city where most of the several hundred thousand inhabitants resided.



Throughout our tour of the city, many children would come up to us trying to sell us things like postcards or scarves. One little girl in particular really took a liking to me. She spoke impeccable english and was really cute.


This is me with the girl walking through the ruins amongst some of the cows grazing around the temples. People still lived amongst the ruins. There were small houses (more like shacks by American standards) and the locals were selling food, drinks and other souvenirs (as well as grazing their cattle).

One of the most impressive temples was the pink temple (I am not sure if that is the official name, but that is what everyone called it--including the guide book). The temple had incredible detail in the carvings in the walls and they were very well preserved.


Pink Temple

That night, we returned to the hotel and took a dip in the beautiful pool. The water was refreshing and we were enjoying the swim when all of the sudden we felt a swoop near our heads. When we looked up we could see many-I mean many-bats swooping down around us. Although a bit frightened at first (actually Jodene was freakin a bit), we remained the pool because it was so HOT.

In the pool, we met these two American guys from Washington, D.C. working in Southeast Asia. Apparently, they spend about half of their year throughout the region. I was jealous. They were both really cool and we ended up having dinner and drinks with them later that evening.

The next day, we stopped at a bank to take out some money (interestingly, in Cambodia, they would accept US dollars and in fact preferred it to Cambodian money). When we were at the bank, the process to obtain money took a very long time. Accordingly, we started entertaining ourselves. Here, Jodene and I are looking very cool--or complete dorky, its a fine line. (yes, I grew a goatee temporarily)



The rest of the day we continued to explore Ankgor Wat. I have so many pictures that I just chose a few above for the two days. Let me know if you want to see more. We took like 200 between Ken and I.

The next day, we flew to Pnhom Penh. Pnhom Penh is the capital of Cambodia. The city itself is not that impressive, as it looks much like any large city in southeast asia. We wanted to stop here because we wanted to see the killing fields and the museum dedicated to the atrocities of Pol Pot. (or whatever you want to call it).


View from the back of the scooter-driven carriage we took to the museum. Like Vietnam, most of the people are driving scooters around. Very few cars drove in the streets.

The museum is housed in the school that was converted into a prison designed for keeping those that resisted Pol Pot's communist take over. (Mind you this happened in the early 1970s). The place is very eerie. In the museum, we watched a documentary on Pol Pot. Some class rooms were converted into tiny prison cells (more like something you would imagine that hogs are kept in before slaughter), others were converted into tourcher chambers where some of the instruments remained. Throughout the converted class rooms were photos and paintings describing some of the horrors that took place at the prison and in the killing fields.


A painting showing some of the atrocities at the killing fields.


Jodene and I are exploring the killing fields (literally once a rice field just outside of the city). The place was haunting. Many thousands of people were killed and thrown into pits dug by the victims.

In the center of the fields, a monument was erected to house some of the skulls that were discovered in the pit graves. The entire area was horrifying.



After visiting the museum and exploring the city a bit more, we rested, worked out at the gym in the hotel and planned the next leg of our trip. Ken was leaving Jodene and I in Bangkok. Jodene decided to extend her stay. After many hours of searching for cheap flights and debating the advantages to where to go, we decided to fly to Israel through Turkey. That evening we flew to Bangkok. We then booked a ticket to Israel and left at 1:00 that morning.

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