Have-Nots and Holy Places
It’s funny, as you travel the world you come across situations that really make you sit up and take notice of your surroundings.
Take Cambodia, for example. We came here to see the mysterious Angkor Wat, the largest religious complex in the world, but left with an indelible impression of the kind and good-natured people of Cambodia, and of the struggles that still exist.
Unlike Thailand, which has had its standard of living raised to a point that poverty is no longer in-your-face, and Laos and Vietnam, which are Communist countries so (supposedly) poverty doesn’t exist due to everyone being employed, Cambodia is a capitalistic republic, and one still coming of age to boot. After the Khmer Rouge regime finally completely fell in the 90’s, Cambodia began its path to becoming a modernized, peaceful country. With the sudden switch to capitalism, mixed with the increased tourism that the end of a guerrilla war will get you, problems began to spring up in the form of what I like to call ‘poverty tourism.’
Take this little fact, for example: 72% of children in orphanages in Cambodia still have two living parents. Why are they in orphanages, then, you ask? Well, apparently getting donations from western tourists is a lot easier when it’s full of kids. The donations roll in, the orphanage staff take their cut, the parents take their cut, white folks feel good about helping the poor kids, everyone wins. Well, except the children, of course, who live in abject poverty without the love of a parent while others profit.
Similar heartbreaking stories exist regarding begging, sex tourism, child labour and human trafficking, all of which draw people to Cambodia, either to exploit or to get exploited. It’s heartbreaking, and it’s very in-your-face – more so than any country that we’ve been to thus far on the trip.
However, we did note that the spirit of the Cambodian people doesn’t seem to be affected by this in the slightest; Cambodia has, as a rule, some of the kindest, most sincere people with the best sense of humour that we’ve ever encountered. Everyone we met was laughing, joking, and ready to help whenever we needed it. It’s unbelievable that despite the glaring and pressing problems affecting them day-to-day, the Khmer people don’t let it get them down. They’re still proud to be Cambodian, and always ready with a smile despite their surroundings.
The bus we took from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh was, despite a border agent and bus driver who tried to scam us to the best of their ability, relatively uneventful, and we took an equally uneventful minibus to Siem Reap afterwards for a grand total of around 12 hours of bus time that day. We checked into our hotel, the fantastic SiZen resort (an absolute steal at $16 per night), and began to plan our three days in Siem Reap.
The big draw in Siem Reap is, of course, Angkor Wat. Angkor and its surrounding temples make up the largest religious complex in the world, but it was only ‘discovered’ by the West in the late 1800’s, when a French explorer happened upon the fantastic ruins being slowly devoured by the surrounding jungle. The local Khmer people still used parts of the Angkor temple for ceremonies, but the other, less grand ruins were virtually abandoned and left to rot.
At one time, Angkor Wat was in the center of the largest city in the world, with upwards of one million people living in the lowlands that surround it. The Khmer Emperor was powerful and feared, ruling the largest empire in South East Asia that included most of Thailand and parts of Vietnam, when the construction of Angkor Wat began in the tenth century. Grand engineering works were commissioned, including reservoirs, irrigation and drainage systems that are surprisingly complex even by today’s standards. No one knows exactly why the city was abandoned, but investigations into the climate trends during the decades of the city’s decline show that years of droughts, followed by years of unusually strong monsoon rains, which may have overflowed and ruined the city’s once mighty drainage systems, leading to outbreaks of diseases like cholera and typhoid running rampant through the city. When the Siamese empire attacked Angkor and the declining Khmer empire in the fifteenth century, the city would have been a shadow of it’s former self, and the 90,000 slaves that they were said to have taken back to Thailand with them stripped the city of every learned man and woman that they had left. From there, the only thing left to do was to move on to greener pastures – what was left of the Khmer empire was moved to Phnom Penh, and the city was left for the jungle to claim.
A great city, swallowed by the jungle.
That was how our French friend found it, how many parts of the once great city remain today, and how we found it. Our first day in Siem Reap was relatively uneventful, with breakfast at the highly recommended Sister Srey, some errands, and a bit of pool time, but it ended with a trip out to Angkor to see the sun set over the West Baray (reservoir). At one time, the city of Angkor Wat would have stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction, but all we could see now is a dispersion of stone buildings and monuments from the ruined city, surrounded by dense thickets of jungle. What a difference a few hundred years makes!
The following morning, we woke up at 3:30 AM to catch the sunrise over the temple, and begin to see everything before the heat of the day set in. We waited patiently to catch the first rays on the reflecting pool at the foot of the temple, and we were rewarded with a magical sunrise.
Hey hey we're the monk...ees...
Once the sun was up, we began exploring Angkor Wat, the grandest and best preserved of the temples in the complex that bears its name. The grandeur and magic of this place was electrifying; with saffron-robed monks flitting between intricately carved columns and bas-relief covered walls, it was easy to see why millions of people visit these temples every year. After walking these hallowed halls, the crowds (and the monkeys!!) began to show up in force, so we decided to move on to the next temple, Angkor Thom.
Bas-reliefs and beauties.
Angkor Wat is a bit unique for several reasons, but one of the most interesting is that it’s likely the last great Hindu temple ever built in this part of the world. The initial city of Angkor Wat was sacked by the Vietnamese in the eleventh century, and when it came time to rebuild, the newly Buddhist Khmer empire decided to build a Buddhist city to replace it. Angkor Thom, and all the later temples, are a result of this.
The Bayon, temple of faces.
Angkor Thom sits over a sprawling area, much larger than that of Angkor Wat, and includes several interesting ruins, such as the stunning Bayon, the Baphuon, the Elephant Terrace, and the Terrace of the Leper King. With the mercury steadily rising as the morning wore on, we sweated our way through these temples, enjoying them immensely but also noticing the increasing crowds and activity. After an hour or so, we decided to get back in our friend Mr. Suong’s tuk-tuk, and have him take us to our final temple, Ta Prohm.
I look like an uber goober without facial hair.
Like Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm is a Hindu temple. Unlike Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm is nearly completely swallowed by the jungle. The ruins are, in this case, literally ruined, with trees growing over the buildings, structures falling down, and much of the temple inaccessible. This does, however make for what is likely the most scenic and romantic of these jungle temples, and it was the one that I was looking forward to the most. We would have loved to stay longer here and enjoy these ruins more (I told Rachel that it would be great to come visit this place on a Monday after a terrorist attack), but it was clear that after eight hours of temple exploration, the marked up-tick in tour groups and increasing heat were not things that we had the patience for, so we got Mr. Suong to take us back to our hotel so we could have a long nap.
The jungle hit Ta Prohm worse than the others.
We don't do this often, but when we do...
That evening was spent dancing and partying our faces off on SIem Reap’s Pub Street, but not before having an excellent meal at the highly recommended Mie Café – you’ll pay more than average to eat here, but it might have been the best meal we’ve had in South East Asia so far.
Felt like this guy looks after a night out on the Pub Street.
Our final day in Siem Reap was spent nursing our hangovers, eating some excellent street food and way too much ice cream, and exploring the impressive night markets. We also got a chance to ‘Let Dr. Fish Do Massage For You,’ one of the stranger experiences we’ve had here, though not without its merits.
"Dr. Fish Can Do Massage for You" it says on the side of the tank. They eat your dead skin...
When we were budgeting time for this trip, everything that we heard from other travellers was that Cambodia was ‘just OK,’ and that we shouldn’t devote more than a few days to it, enough to see Angkor and some time in Phnom Penh. I think that we were misinformed. Though it was expensive (Cambodia runs on the US dollar as their currency is basically worthless), the people alone make Cambodia worth spending time in. Despite the glaring problems that exist here, there is clearly much more to Cambodia than the grandeur of Angkor Wat, and we were disappointed we had to leave without experiencing all of it.
All smiles in Cambodia.
As always however, the next adventure awaits, and Borneo was calling.
