Today is Wednesday, the 15th of January. On Monday the 13th, the city shut down. This has prevented us from going to school for the past three days, although we're hoping for things to be back to normal tomorrow. I was going to try to write a post explaining the political situation, but I think that BBC does a much better job than I could. I'll try to keep everyone updated if the situation changes.
In the last few days I've just been hanging around my street, since our intersection is one of the ones that has been shut down. This has given me time to have a look over this blog and try to organize my posts a little better. I realized that I've been a bit remiss in talking about my holiday to Cambodia back in October. I took a four-day vacation to see one of the most famous sites in the world, and it hardly got a mention in a three-month update. In my time off I've decided to try and catch up on that.
Let's go back to October 2013...
My trip to Cambodia was probably the most random and spontaneous decisions that I've made in my life. I had returned from Hong Kong just a few days before, and was doing laundry in my building when my friend Kelsey (who teaches at Prathom) came in.
"How was China?" she asked.
I told her that I had had a great time and asked what she had been up to.
"I'm think I might go to Cambodia tomorrow. Want to come?"
"Ok."
That was at 8 pm the night before. I got packed, and met with Kelsey in our building's lobby at 4 the next morning. That was literally all the planning we did before we left. Luckily I had decided to get a multiple entry visa.
We caught a taxi for Hua Lampong station, planning to take the earliest morning train to Aranyaprathet, the Thai border town where you can most easily cross into Cambodia. We got to the station without any trouble, but as we were trying to buy tickets, the agent informed us that all east-bound trains were closed for the week due to track maintenance. Kelsey and I sat down on a bench and consulted Google.
We learned that we could take a bus from the Southern Bus Terminal at Mo Chit, really close to where we had just come from. We got another taxi, and were at the bus station by five where we booked two tickets on a first-class government bus to Aranyaprathet leaving about five minutes later. The bus tickets cost about four dollars apiece.
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| Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia |
The ride was uneventful, and we were in Aranyaprathet by 10 AM. We booked a hotel on our phones during the ride, and were feeling pretty confident about our travel plans. It's just a few hours to the eastern border. We easily cleared Thai immigration, walked across the border bridge (packed with casinos and duty-free shops in the no-man's land between the countries), bought our visas, and entered the Kingdom of Cambodia on the other side. From there we changed a small amount of money into Cambodian Riel. I've already written in the long update about what a hassle Cambodian money is, so I won't go into that again. Let's just say that Cambodia has the least efficient monetary system I've ever dealt with. We got a taxi to take us the remaining hour into Siem Reap for about ten dollars each, and were at the hotel just after lunchtime. One thing really stuck out on our drive into town; everything seemed to be flooded- the whole country. Cambodia is still very rural, and we passed miles and miles of muddy, flooded fields on either side of the road. Even our hotel was flooded. We had to wade through ankle deep water to get from the lobby to our room or the restaurant.
Although we hadn't run into any real problems getting to Siem Reap, traveling can be stressful, especially when dealing with a land border. The hotel was nice though. Cambodia is pretty cheap if you know what you're doing. Instead of booking a hostel, we sprung for a real hotel. It was off-season, and we had the entire place nearly to ourselves. We had an early dinner at the hotel restaurant and took a swim at the pool.
Our landlady keeps a bookshelf in the lobby where every year our teachers can leave their books they don't want to take back to the States with them. I found a ten year old copy of Lonely Planet Cambodia, and spent the evening reading through it to make a plan for the rest of our time in the country. Luckily, ancient ruins don't change all that much.
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| the whole country was a bit flooded - that's outside our hotel |
The next morning we were up early. We ate at the hotel restaurant, then hired a tuk-tuk for the day. In Siem Reap, tuk-tuks are really the only way to get around. In Bangkok, tuk-tuks are usually overpriced and pretty much a scam, but in a lot of places around Southeast Asia, there's no avoiding them. We hired the tuk-tuk directly through the hotel. They had a price list posted, so we could get a fair price. Our first stop was a sacred Khmer waterfall.
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| Carved Hindu deities |
The waterfall was a ways out of town, and although our tuk-tuk actually broke down at one point, we eventually made it. We were still in the rainy season, which is probably why Cambodia was basically underwater when we were there. The stone riverbed at the waterfall was covered in old carvings. The river was high, and the carvings were barely visible over the water. Still, it was really cool to see the reliefs the ancient Khmer made of the gods. Today, only Cambodians are allowed to get in the water; it's still seen as sacred. People will bathe in the waters after they pass over the carvings, believing that the waterfall is blessed by the gods.
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| The sacred waterfall |
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| Bang Melia |
What's so cool about Bang Melia is that unlike many of the other ruins; there hasn't been any preservation or rebuilding. The temple is completely overgrown by the jungle, just as it was when it was discovered. We were the only people out there, and it was late afternoon as we arrived. The lone park ranger offered to give us a tour. We thought she was just going to tell us about the temple, but we were surprised when she took out a flashlight and led us into the ruins!
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| we had the chance to climb through the ruins Indiana Jones-style |
We actually had to climb over fallen stones and crumbling statues. Our guide would stop every so often to explain what we were looking at. She showed us the old library and parts of the main temple complex. At certain parts, we were so deep in the temple complex that it was almost pitch-black, especially as night was beginning to fall. It past dusk as we explored the deepest parts of the ancient temple complex. We were led through old tunnels and partially flooded passageways with bats chirping around us, and out on the other side where we had to jump from stone to stone across an ancient moat. This was real Temple of Doom business! We spent over an hour exploring the ancient ruins, and tipped the ranger generously. She had given us definitively the best experiences of the entire trip. I can't imagine a historical site in the States allowing you to climb on and explore the ruins! It seems amazing to me how little-known this jungle temple is. We felt as if we had discovered some great secret, even though it was in the guide book.
Traveling hours by tuk-tuk is exhausting. It wasn't late when we got back to the hotel, but we were ready for bed. I was asleep by eight; the next morning would be another early one.
We were up at four again. Our driver met us in the hotel lobby, and the manager brought us a packed breakfast. We were on our way out the Angkor Historical Park. The admission was the biggest expense of the entire trip, but a holiday to Cambodia wouldn't be complete without seeing Angkor Wat, and everyone had told us that the best time to see it is at sunrise.
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| Angkor at sunrise |
Even though Angkor Wat was amazing and I was able to get some good pictures, it was completely packed with tourists waiting just across the moat from the temple for the sun to rise. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised; it's a big holiday destination. As soon as the sun was up, everyone flooded into the temple proper to look around. It was really cool, of course, and I'm glad I got to see it.
After Angkor Wat we met back up with our driver to take us to the nearby Angkor Thom, just about five minutes away. Angkor Thom is the lesser-known, second-biggest temple in the ancient city. Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire from the 9th until the 15th Century. It was the seat of the ancient Hindu Khmer "God-Kings." According to UNESCO, Angkor was the largest pre-industrial city the world ever saw, and supported over a million people. Eventually it fell to the Siamese armies of Ayutthaya in 1431, and the city was sacked. The Khmer and the Siamese historically haven't had the best relations with each other. In fact, Siem Reap itself means "Siam Vanquished". Today, some people in Thailand still feels as if Thailand should control Angkor. This has caused some tension even into the modern era.
Leaving Angkor Thom, the driver took us on the "small circuit" which we had booked at the hotel. It began at Angkor at sunrise, and hit all the major sites inside the historical park.
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| another jungle temple... I don't remember which one |
We went to three or four more jungle temples. Unlike Bang Melia, these had been restored and preserved. The grounds were manicured; even the areas where it appeared overgrown by the jungle, were carefully controlled. You couldn't really climb on these ruins; people were only allowed on certain areas, which makes sense. I think Bang Melia really was unique.
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| more ruins - I think this was at Ta Prohm |
The final stop of the day was a small, secluded sandstone temple. It was mid-afternoon, and as there was no shade, the sun baking down into the sandstone was getting uncomfortably hot. Each structure was probably only six feet tall. The entire complex was tiny; everything seemed to be in miniature. Unfortunately, I don't really know the story behind this particular temple.
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| I don't remember what this place was called. I just know it as the "Sandstone Temple". |
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| the walk leading up to the Sandstone Temple |
As we were leaving, clouds began gathering overhead. We were in the country at the tail end of the monsoon season, but we couldn't get lucky enough to go through the whole trip without any rain. We stopped by the souvenir stalls and waited out the rain with a coconut to drink. (As a side note, I didn't used to like coconut water, but it's grown on me since being here. Anyway...)
We went into town that evening to get some USD to pay for our hotel. In Southeast Asia, everything is still mostly done in cash. I've gotten used to it. Siem Reap is nice enough, but it's not anything to write about really, as I was only in town for a few hours. Pub Street is much nicer that Khao San; its Bangkok analog, I'll give it that. It's a typical backpacker's area with lots of restaurants, shops, cafes, and bars. We picked up a few souvenirs for our respective offices, then headed back to our hotel.
The next day we packed up early and left. Getting back into Thailand was no trouble, but going from Aranyaprathet to Bangkok was sort of a hassle. Instead of booking a government bus as we had on the way out, somehow we ended up in an overcrowded minibus. It was uncomfortable, but at least the ride was only a few hours long.
So there's my story. I'm sure this post is too long to really be interesting, but enjoy the pictures anyway. I just received a message from the school informing me that classes will be back on tomorrow as usual. I'm glad! It's nice to have a day off every once in a while, but it's really starting to interfere with my class schedule. I don't want them to have to push back the end of the year and graduation.
Thanks for reading!
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| Do you ever get the feeling someone's looking over your shoulder? (Angkor Thom) |
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