By this stage we have spent a few months in SE Asia. We have really loved it, been annoyed, harrassed, amazed, entertained, bored, sick, ecstatic, pumped. You get the idea, its been a pretty decent journey. However we are ready for Canada now, and a bit tired of fried rice, or bizzare liver dishes.
Lauren and I discussed the issue and decided for a few more hundred dollars that it would be worth going to Cambodia to see the ancient Angkor ruins and have a quick glimpse of the country. So shortly after arriving in Bangkok from Krabi we hop on another plane & fly to Phnom Penh, a busy, third worldish city. An hour after that we get steered into 6 hour bus trip to Siam Reap.
When we got off the bus there was a lot of yelling and statements like "my friend my friend", "want a Tuk Tuk?","Cheap guesthouse!". Roughly 50 tuk tuk drivers were pushing extremely hard against a wire mesh fence, trying to force the gate open to get to us. You could read the expressions of apprehension and fear on the faces of the tourists around us. We must have looked the same. 30 seconds later the fool at the gate opens the lock, and all 50 drivers come running... no sprinting towards us. I thought they were going to attempt some frenzied mauling mob mugging of the tourists!
Such was not the case. Surprisingly one of drivers pulled up short by me and spoke almost perfect and polite english. 5 minutes later we were booked into the best accommodation for money we have seen on the trip - Coconut Lodge. You have to stay here if you come to Siam Reap.
Our driver named Lida was an extremely intelligent, polite, and ambitious young man. We immediately hired him to tour us through the Angkor ruins.
All I can say is you have to see these temples and palaces. They are incredible. Think Egyptian and Inca to get an idea of the advanced civilization these guys had. Nobody knows what happened to them but all their incredible stone buildings are still in tact and look wonderful today, 1000 years later. When you stand in these structures you get get overawed by the history the walls, floors, and carvings must hold. And to think that nobody has a clue as to what became of them.
Angkor is made up of several sites, temples, palaces, and mansions. Apparently what made the Angkor civilization prosper is that they figured out how to capture and store water during the rainy season so that they could grow rice all year around. Their technology and architecture was very advanced.
Some of the sites we visited looked like something out of a fairy tale. Trees, roots, vines, moss, lichen, growing inseparably around and through the stone.
Today much work takes place to stabilise and in some cases restore crumbled parts of the structures. This work is largely subsidised by Japan and France.
