Since my Thai visa was expiring in few days and Bangkok was about to become one big pool I decided to evacuate myself as soon as possible. Because to the east seemed to be the only land route out of Bangkok not filled with water, Cambodia was a logical choice for my next destination. I took the afternoon train from Bangkok to the Aranya Prathet, the border town of Thailand. The train was late once again and after six hour ride in the third class I finally reached my destination at 7.30 in the evening. I didn't want to rush to the border which was closing at 8 pm so found a cheap room for a night.
In the morning a got a bike ride to the border and managed to cross without any big complications. Getting out of Poipet, the border town on Cambodia side, turned out to be a bigger problem. Since there were no busses I had to get a private car to Siem Reap. After paying over price for my ride I ended up sharing the car with four locals and 7 huge sacks of flip flop shoes. I immediately noticed Cambodians been very different from Thais. Where Thais are shy and quiet Cambodians or Khmers as they are called are nothing alike and the two and a half hour trip I was listening their lively chat about something I had no idea of.
I had decided to stay in dorm room in a hostel recommended by Lonely Planet but was lucky to meet someone to share a room with when I arrived. One dollar hostel room sounded attempting but my criteria for a room is that it has to have walls preferably four of them and this dorm didn't exactly meet my criteria.
Our room was $4 but at least it had walls, simple but adequate.
Me and my travel companion had similar plans to explore the 8. wonder of the world the great temples of Angkor so the next morning we rented bicycles (motorbike rental is forbidden) and hit the road. Bicycling in Cambodian heat on the bumpy roads with an old bicycle is no joyride and after the first day we were exhausted. For the second day we decided to get a tuk tuk which was a smart move because we got to see the temples further away and got to take a stop at the land mine museum as well. The land mine museum was touching as the land mines are still part of everyday life in Cambodia. Many of the mine fields are still waiting to be demined and people are losing their lives and getting crippled by the mines. There are no maps of the mine fields and the demining is a very slow process. I was shocked to notice that the only European country not signed the contract forbidding land mines is my own.
The third day our bodies had recovered enough to jump back on the bikes and we got up early to see the sunrise behind the most famous of the temples; Angkor Wat. After an hour bike ride we reached Angkor Wat just before the sunrise at 5.45am. We were not the only early birds there but managed to capture the breath taking dawn with our cameras.
These great temples were built by different kings about 1000 years ago. Most of them were first built as Hindu temples but were later around 16th century converted to Buddhist ones. Every king wanted to be greater than the other so they all built their own temple which is the reason Angkor has so many temples.
After exploring these ancient ruins for three days I cannot say I've seen too many as every single one had something different compared to the other ones. But the best part of my tour has not been the temples as marvelous as they are but the people. The Khmers are friendly, smiley, welcoming and helpful. They do want to sell you something and sometimes they can try annoyingly hard but we cannot blame them as they have so little and they are never rude if you say no. And there are children everywhere mostly bare feet and sometimes naked, playing around, swimming, also selling things but always smiling and happy. They wave and yell hello when you pass by. These people have nothing but still they give so much. They have touched my heart and that is why I like Cambodia.
