Just about half way through the trip, we left Vietnam for Cambodia. The flight out of HCMC was delayed, our gate was changed 3 times, and then the power went out to the entire airport–pitch black, power outage. It. Was. Out. After an hour or so, the power came back on, and our gate was changed back to the one we started at…seriously?!?!
Eventually we landed in Siem Reap. We arranged to be picked up at the airport through the guest house we were staying at. SO AWESOME! Our tuk-tuk driver introduced himself as Batman, and we were off!The
Siem Reap Garden Inn was a tiny little piece of paradise. (The pool is new since we were there.) Everyone we dealt with seemed genuinely interested in making our experience the best possible which is not something found everyday. The level of service was probably something we won’t see again.
Siem Reap is one of the most welcoming places we’ve ever been to. It is an oddly dichotomous place in that is a major tourist hub with a 100% tourist related enterprise as the main focus. And, then there are obviously Cambodians going about their day to day business. Kind of like Las Vegas – there’s the Las Vegas strip, which most people from Vegas would avoid like the plague, and then there’s normal Las Vegas where people live, work, go to school etc. We were lucky enough to see both sides Siem Reap.
As we had limited time in Cambodia, we had a lot of ground to cover. Our first day was spent with Ta from Peace of Angkor tours. This has got to be one of the most memorable vacation days we’ll ever have. He took us to Kompong Khleang and along the Tonle Sap. We also visited Beng Mealea, and climbed along the walls of the ancient temple. Ta was fortunate to be one of first people to “rediscover” the temple, and said at the time, there were actually tigers on the temple grounds.
As promised quite a while ago, here are some of the photos from our day with Ta.
Cashew fruit and nut
The kids were super excited to have their photos taken. This grandmother wanted hers taken as well. Just before she posed for the camera, she was hacking away at the edge of the bowl with a machete. At 78 years old, she was still sharp as a tack. We had a great time visiting Kompong Khleang. The stilt houses were absolutely fascinating. The residents were insanely hospitable to us. Due to Ta’s kindness, we were invited inside a stilt house to roast cashew nuts picked right from the tree.
We were privileged to see a wedding, where they asked us in closer to take photos of the bride and groom. And, we also saw/followed a funeral procession for a while. Richard, a person we were with, said we almost had “hatches, matches and dispatches,” covered.
We had an extraordinary tour through one of the villages outside of Siem Reap, and we were fortunate enough to float on the Tonle Sap River (which in itself is a crazy thing–
yep, I’m a nerd!). None of this experience would have been logistically possible for us without our guide, Ta. He really made the day one we’ll never forget.
The second half of the day we were at another UNESCO Site,
Beng Mealea. This temple has collapsed walls, and jungle-ish overgrowth that gives it an appeal unlike the other temples we saw in Cambodia. We were able to climb on the walls and take pathways that would definitely not have been acceptable in the bubble wrapped North American tourism sector. It was pretty fantastic. See for yourself…
Siem Reap is one of the most welcoming places we’ve ever been to. It is an oddly dichotomous place in that is a major tourist hub with a 100% tourist related enterprise as the main focus. And, then there are obviously Cambodians going about their day to day business. Kind of like Las Vegas – there’s the Las Vegas strip, which most people from Vegas would avoid like the plague, and then there’s normal Las Vegas where people live, work, go to school etc. We were lucky enough to see both sides Siem Reap.
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