Our trip out of Thailand and into Cambodia was a success in that we made it into Siem Reap, Cambodia on the day we had hoped. It's also a whole bunch of other things because it involved a 4 am wake up call, a misunderstood bus schedule, a mini-bus from Ayutthaya to Victory monument Bangkok, a sky train ride to Mo Chit, a public transit bus ride to the northern bus station, 4 hours on that bus to the border. At the border, we avoided scam#1, the travel agent who offers to expedite your visa for a fee, crossed easily out of Thailand, followed sketchy signs to apply for our visa on arrival in Cambodia, paid and bribed the border guards (scam #2), and then waited in line 30 mins to get our official arrival stamp, and have both hands fingerprinted. Then waited on the bus 1hour, and completed the last 3 hour leg of the journey to Siem Reap, where we also avoided scam #3, the tuk tuk driver. It was a long ordeal, and I'd like to say that our 3 days there visiting the Angkor temples were worth it, but I'm not so sure. Cambodia is a strange place where you are constantly harassed and taken advantage of. Ohh, and they use US currency, but not coins, so they make change in both dollars and reals, making it easier for them to scam you. Our days in this country were exhausting. Here are some of the highlights, and the reason we endured, Cambodia.
(Disclaimer: we've heard from other travelers that other areas of Cambodia are actually quite nice, and three days isn't necessarily enough time to really get to know a place, so take our observations with a grain of salt . We can say the temples are neat, and the food is good, so Cambodia has that going for it.)
For our first day out at the temples, built back in the 1300's, we opted to hire a tuk tuk for the day to tour the more outer lying locations. Tuk tuk is the most popular way to visit, and you can see them all lined up in temple traffic here.
Our first temple, and possibly my favorite, Prah Khan. Modeled after Angkor Wat, it's a smaller version of the original, a religious temple honoring both Vishnu and Buddha.
Here you can see the scale of the place, with me perched atop a pile of ruins. One of the most interesting features of the many temples of the Angkor complex is how the earth is working to reclaim them. When Cambodia was invaded by the Burmese, these were abandonded, and not rediscovered for centuries.
Jim really enjoyed our tuk tuk ride
An elephant statue at Eastern Mebon
Temple cribbage waiting for sunset at Pr. Preup
Our second day, we hit the big ones via bicycle (clocking in about 22km), starting with the original Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world. You can see it behind us, between our heads. It's really best observed from a distance, because once inside it's walls, it's very hard to fully grasp just how big it is.
Bas relief on the outer temple wall at Angkor Wat
In the inner most courtyard, center chedi, Angkor Wat
The faces of the Bayon temple in the Angkor Thom complex
We had fun with these
And lastly, one of the more famous, and tourist crowded temples, Ta Prohm. One of the most visited because of sites like this, it really is still very much in the jungle. It's also been featured in movies, like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
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