Man, what to say about Cambodia? It is a lot for the mind and body to take in, and I wish we were staying here for a much longer time. I'm going to have to look into working for a NGO here after this trip is over. For a country that was torn apart again and again, the people are amazingly friendly and....well I'll have to think some more before finishing that thought.

We came up the delta from Saigon to a ferry port that was advertised as a 'lovely 45 minute drive from Phnom Penh'. I had wanted to take the fast boat service from Chau Doc (Vietnam) all the way into Phnom Penh, but was told this wasn't running because of Tet. But, if anyone does that trip in the future, definitely take the fast boat. The bus ride wasn't that much of an adventure for Ashley and me, because we somehow ended up in the front seat. However, everyone else (12 people) were crammed into the back for an hour and a half over terribly bumpy roads. However, even that wasn't as bad as the other group of people who were on our boat and took the other two vans. One of them (story relayed by our friend on this bus), which in retrospect we now know why the Cambodians hesitated to fill, broke down after riding for 5 minutes, and had to be pulled by the other smaller van (by a rope, which kept breaking)- I think their trip was closer to 3 hours.

Ash was still a bit sick the first night, so we stayed at a hotel that looked like it was designed specifically for UN workers, and I ventured out for dinner alone, only to end up at what turned out to be a gay bar. I have no further comment on that. Phnom Penh is awesome though as a city. Awesome, and filthy dirty, and uplifting and horrifying. We ended up staying for a few nights at the Royal guesthouse a few blocks from the river. Ended up at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Cambodia for some drinks for my birthday. There are wats (buddhist monasteries) dotting Phnom Penh, and the monks in saffron robes add an interesting element to the landscape of beautfully carved temples, garbage-strewn streets, begging mothers, glossy hotel fronts and pure chaos everywhere else. Not to mentioned the fried bugs sold by the street vendors. The National Museum building is a work of art in itself, and had an awesome collection of Khmer sculpture from Angkor and other temples around Cambodia. Basically, anything that was left has been removed from the temples and moved to this museum for safekeeping, as smugglers basically steal whatever they can elsewhere. We visted the Tuel Sleng Genocide Museum, also known as S-21. This former high school was one of the interrogation and extermination centers for the Khmer Rouge. I won't get into the details, for more information, visit the Documentation Center of Cambodia. The black and white photographs of the thousands of victims, young and old in this high school setting was something not to forget, and it made me mad to hear that students in Cambodia now are not being taught about the Khmer Rouge, and it is certainly one of those recent events that the west conviently overlooked. History must be studied so that the past does not repeat itself.

We took the Mekong Express bus up to Siem Reap, where we currently are, for 10 bucks, and it was very nice, very professionaly run, in stark contrast to Vietnam. A one week pass to the Angkor area costs 60 bucks! Mass tourism has certainly arrived with the international airport at Siem Reap, and this town is booming with the influx of tourists (reportedly around 2 million in 2007). Things here are on the pricey side - we looked into taking a dirtbike tour of the countryside and were first quoted with 1,000 USD for 3d/2n. Ridiculous. However, a good option is always the tuk-tuk, a kind of covered chariot on the back of a motorcycle. The supply here is well above the demand, and the going price seems to be about 12-15 a day for the circuts around the main Angkor temples north of town. We got one lined up to take us to some more remote temples outside of the regular tourist circut in a few days here for 45$ for the day on Tuesday.

So far we've visted Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom (includes Bayon, Terrance of the Elephants, Terrance of the Leper King), Ta Keo, and Ta Prohm, and they are all amazing. The pictures do not do them justice. Every stone is beautifully and intricately carved, and the scale of the buildings is amazing. Angkor Wat is one square kilometer, and Angkor Thom covers 9 km2. The carvings depict Hindu or Buddhist legends and gods, battles between the Cham and the Khmers and local life

Leaving Laos today, so while we are waiting for the bus this afternoon, I'll try and finish at least Cambodia. Also good because I can't quite walk around well currently - will get to that in the Laos section. All photos from the temples etc that we talk about in this section will be included in the slideshow above. Hopefully it is big enough so you can see the detail, etc. on the temples - if not, click on the slideshow to go through to Picasa.

So, we left off with the little circut tour around the Angkor area. A map of the Angkor region is here, so you can get an idea of the area. As I mentioned above, we had lined up a tuk-tuk to take us to some more remote sites, and our first day went like this - 5:30am pickup, watch the sun rise with thousands of other people at Angkor Wat, then speed through the country 30km north to the temple of Banteay Srey, Citadel of Women. This temple was amazingly carved, and was probably one of my favorites from the entire region. From Banteay Srey we headed 15 km further north to Kbal Spean, a site accessable to foreigners only since 2000. Here we saw the river of 1,000 lingas, and a number of other carvings just above and below the waterline in the river. After lunch at the stalls set up there, we headed back down the dusty road (our driver was nice enough to buy us both surgical masks to cover ourselves) to the grand circut around the Angkor temples. We saw the temples of East Mebon, Ta Som, Neak Pean and Preak Khan. Neak Pean was a cool little site, built as a replica of the Himalayan paradisal mountain lake Anavatapata from which healing waters flow. The main pool was built so that water would flow into the four symmetrical surrounding pools through fountain heads. Preak Khan was another temple that was largely unrestored, and we planned on going back there to scramble through the rubble some more, but never made it.

The second day we were with our driver we went even farther afield 60km out to Bang Mealea. The road out to this temple was actually quite nice, so it only took about an hour and a half. This was a huge temple that looks as though it is going to fall down at any point - and about half of it already has. There are a series of boardwalks through the main area that allow visitors to get around it. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones there, so it also doesn't allow you to get away from loud groups of Japanese tourists. From Bang Mealea, we headed back towards Siem Reap and stopped at the temples of Bakong, Preak Ko, and Lolei. I think by this time we were a bit templed out, and as these ruins are not nearly as impressive as those in the Angkor region, we gave them a quick once over. All in all though, the hiring of that tuk-tuk driver was a very good move. We were able to get out to most of the temples on the first day before the tour busses arrived (granted, we started at sunrise), and with tip the total cost for two days was only 65 USD. Not too terrible considering how much ground we covered.

Summing up Cambodia is tough. The foriegn dollars flooding into the country in the way of tourism have pushed the prices in touristy areas through the roof, and travel out to the non-touristy areas is expensive and difficult. There are a lot of NGOs and other groups doing great work there, including CMAC and Friends, and I hope the country remains stable and moving forward.