This past 4th of July I headed to Siem Reap, Cambodia to celebrate the lovely holiday with none other than 3 fabulous Americans! No cookouts or fireworks, but we did manage to find an American pub playing all the classics on the jukebox and filled with foreigners from all over sporting their tacky American flag gear.
The first word that comes to mind when thinking of my overall trip to Siem Reap is CHEAP! You can take a tuk-tuk pretty much anywhere which run from $1 to $20 (20 is for the whole day of transportation), food is most likely around $3 for a regular meal or like $12 for a "fancy dinner" complete with a bottle of wine, and best of all...beers cost .35 cents up to $1 being the most expensive. Yes .35 cents! Can you believe that? Dangerous eh?
Tuk-tuk driving is exhausting apparently! Love how they get creative in order to fit in their daily naps!
Angkor Wat is the largest first Hindu, now Buddhist temple complex and the largest religious monument in the world. It is probably the top attraction in Cambodia and was certinaly the highlight of the trip, however be prepared for temples after temples after temples while trekking in the scorching heat! (well that is if you go in July like we did!) The first morning we got up early and promptly left the hotel at 4 am sharp. The sunset was beautiful for sure but the amount of tourist who also have the same bright idea slightly hinders the beautiful and peaceful scenery a bit. Well and not to mention the fact I felt like a zombie didn't help. What can I say I'm just not a morning person! Oh and how could I forget - we met Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber as we walked into the temple for sunrise. No not the real live stars, but the hagglers who try to sell you things or want you to visit their coffee shops - they choose the funniest names - I can't help but giggle when they introduce themselves.
Maneuvering our way through the ancient sites with the bright morning sun and slightly lower temperatures was pretty nice. Not only were we climbing up SO many steep steps in most every temple and paying our respects to Buddha while gaining multiple bright orange braided bracelets, we also made a little friend on our trip - Werthers. You are wondering if we named him after the candy - Werthers Original? Well of course we did. It was only fitting seeing as how my friend Bex gave him a piece of my candy and from then on it was like love at first site. He would NOT leave our side. Hopped right up in our tuk-tuk and rode from temple to temple following Bex around and sitting in her lap. Now this might sound cute and wonderful, but I will say I'm not a fan of monkeys and for good reason. Back in the Indonesia days, my first encounter with monkeys lead to two of them attacking my arm due to the obscene amount of bananas I was holding. Yes - bad planning on my part, however I still have witnessed too many shenanigans from monkeys to the point I certainly don't trust them. And of course they are just wild animals so you always have to be careful to a certain point. I will say Werthers did turn out to be quite the sweetie pie and luckily a tourist group decided to feed him all kinds of goodies and he fell in love all over again so we didn't have to bring him back to the hotel!
If you look closely you can see the Werthers he is holding and nibbling on!Bizarre their little teeth can nibble off bites!
One place that is off the beaten path but a must to go see in Siem Reap is Beng Mealea. We rented a car and driver for this one because if you take a tuk-tuk the price is similar and it will take you probably triple the amount of time to get there. It was only about an hour as I remember by car. This temple is made from sandstone like most the others however it is largely unrestored. Huge trees and brush have overtaken the sandstone structures and creates such a unique site to explore and see what all the others would be like had no restoration processes gone on in the past. We climbed through the large sandstone pieces that are now in large piles and pieces from where they've collapsed through the years.
Rock climbing anyone?
And lastly, the Cambodian kids at this temple are so darn cute and have learned to not haggle but yet sit and look adorable which makes you even more enticed to give them candy or money! This cutie pie already had her own snack :)
Speaking of kids, Cambodia is where Angelina Jolie adopted her first kid, Maddox. The kids are just absolutely darling. I could see instantly fell in love with them. They say she decided to adopt a child from there while filming her move Tomb Raider in 2001. I'm not into those kind of movies so unfortunately haven't seen it but if you've watched it you would have seen the Ta Prohm temple, pictured below from our trip. The trees all around these temples are just incredible. I've never seen such enormous trees protruding from the ground.
The Cambodian gentlemen above was our waiter at one of the last restaurants we went to before we left. He started telling us his story by saying his parents were from Texas after he quickly learned we were all Americans. This lead into his past of how he lost his Mom when he was only around 5 years old when many Cambodians tried to flee the country to the border of Thailand during the Khmer Rouge genocide from around 1975-1980. US Aid ( if my memory serves me correct ) or an aid group like them picked up tons of orphan children during this time and this is how he was eventually "adopted" by his American parents. They paid for him to get a higher education in law and have a good life in Cambodia. I realize so many of the people around us in Cambodia were effected directly by the Khmer Rouge regime's killings however meeting a victim directly and hearing their mournful story really makes you think and feel so grateful. He was so humble and thankful for all he had and was so inspiring.
Cambodia - you are a lovely country with so much hope, happiness and simplicity. I hope to see you again!
