2 Baby Squirrels Costs $6USD

The rest of my day was filled with exploring more temples. I bought a new pair of temple pants and was ready to go again (the old ones were practically chaps and I wasn't in the mood to expose myself to all of Cambodia).

Our group made a quick pit stop to grab some cold water and snacks before we headed to the next site. It always amazes me when I visit impoverished countries at how happy the people are with what they have. At the snack stand a young mother, a baby, two small children, and an elderly woman could not have had more smiles for all the foreigners that stopped to buy water from them.

The so called store was simply a line of plastic chairs and two small coolers packed with refreshments. The children giggled and ran around amused at all the westerners, and the elderly woman went about her day as normal. What I assume was the family's home sat right behind the "shop". It was a small wooden hut with a front deck. It was clear that everything they owned was in the 20 foot radius of the snack stand, but nevertheless they didn't seem to have any concerns.

Ta Prohm was the next stop on the temple tour. This Buddhist temple is infamous for the trees that grow between its walls. The temple was also featured in the film "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider".

Temple playgrounds for Cambodian children

Cambodia has had many struggles in the past 40 years. On our walk back to our tuk-tuks we came across the Landmine Victim's Band. All of the members played some sort of instrument but not necessarily with their hands (for obvious reasons). There are sights like these all over Cambodia which are heart-wrenching and definitely put your own life into perspective. 

After lunch and a quick nap on the lunch table (the heat clearly wore me out) we headed to the largest of all the ruins, Angkor Wat. Our first-class driver enjoys playing tour guide as well so we made a quick pit stop at the local swimming pool (a river). I didn't want to risk getting dirty river water into my stitches so I had fun taking pictures instead.

Angkor Wat, City of Temples, is the largest Hindu temple complex and largest religious complex in the world. It was very fitting to visit Hindu and Buddhist temples on Easter Sunday. The entire site is surrounded by a moat, but my favorite fact of the day is that there is an elephant door! 

Second pair of temple pants...

 

After a lot more steps, more sweating, ripping my second pair of temple pants (yes i'm serious), and seeing a monk and a monkey our day was finally over. 

Before getting back into the tuk-tuks and heading back to the hostel our tour guide made a quick purchase for his boss- two baby squirrels for a whopping $6USD (apparently that's a thing in Cambodia). 

Temple Pants & Tennis Shoes

Cambodia isn't exactly what you would call a tourist hot-spot. In fact, besides a few European friends and some other City-U students that have gone backpacking in Asia I hadn't really heard of anyone visiting the country before.

The main tourist draw are the famous Angkor Wat temple ruins. I'm sure most of you probably have never heard of them, but if you've ever seen Lara Croft Tomb Raider then you have actually already seen them! Siem Reap is centered around the temples and most probably wouldn't exist if they didn't.

After a long, hot, sweaty night in our hostel Haley and I woke up at 4:30am to meet our tuk-tuk driver and get driven to the temples for sunrise. First problem of the day was that there were padlocked gates in front of our hostel so we weren't exactly sure how to get out. Lucky for us there was still staff around; unlucky for us we had to wake the staff up to open the gates.

We met our driver and he took us to buy temple entrance tickets and then into the temple to see the sunrise. Most of our trip revolved around making up songs and finding weird ways to entertain ourselves/keep our sanity in the heat. Temple day was no exception.

Because of the Hindu/Buddhist religious beliefs some areas inside the temples requires you to wear clothing that goes past your knees. After the Grand Palace debacle in Thailand Haley and I bought our "temple pants" in Thailand to make sure we were ready for the Cambodian temples. The song of the day was all about our dashing temple pants and tennis shoes combo.

Temple pants & Tennis shoes

Tickets in hand we headed into the temples through the King's door (we learned this later from our tour guide). The entrance to the main ruins had a door for the King, everyday people, priests, and of course an elephant door!

In their own way the ruins are one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The sunrise with the silhouette of Angkor Wat in front was also gorgeous!

Hungry, we met back up with our tuk-tuk driver who would take us back to a hotel for breakfast. In addition to the $20USD we paid for a one-day temple pass we also paid $30USD to get driven around by our driver all day and get picked/up dropped of to our hostel on the days when we were coming/going from Thailand. A little skeptical at first, I quickly decided that the investment was well worth it. Not only are tuk-tuks a great way to cool down in the heat, but I can not imagine having to walk the entire temple grounds. Our driver was also extremely sweet and determined to get us where we needed to be faster than all the other drivers. He was definitely a speed junkie and wasn't afraid to drive in the shoulder/off the road to win the "race". 

Personal tuk-tuk and driver

We both refueled and then headed back to the temples around 8am. Because we had already gotten our passes our driver was kind enough to take us to another "attraction". Cambodia is famous for it's killing fields. 

During the the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) thousands of people were executed all across the country.   Pol Pot, the leader of the regime, arrested and eventually executed everyone suspected with connections to the former government. The main targets of the prosecution included Thais, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cham, Camboidan Christians, and Buddhist monks. Total death estimates range anywhere from 1.7-2.5 million over the span of the Khmer Rouge regime. 

Memorial 

The first stop of the day was the Temple of Bayon. The temple was built in the late 12th c./ early 13th c. as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII. The two major religions across Cambodia are Hinduism and Buddhism. The temples were built for one religion or the other and some were modified to the other religion in certain time periods. Bayon is most famous for its Buddhist period and the hundreds of stone faces on the towers of the temples.

Super stylish temple pants

 

 

moped, moped, elephant

 

 

At Bayon we also learned a little about the building process of the temples. As you can imagine moving thousands of tons of rock through the jungle was not easy. It took thousands of men and a lot of time to complete the job. All of the stone pieces were also carefully carved and placed systematically to create the giant faces in the towers.  

Hundreds of puzzle pieces

 Despite it being only 10am the temple grounds were unbearably hot. The temple pants/tennis shoes combination wasn't exactly the coolest outfit choice, and only two hours into our day I (as well as the majority of our tour group) was already drip sweating. The sweat on my legs and thin cotton pants were not working well together and unfortunately for me caused the pants to rip! I was not a happy camper... 

Kissing a face of the tower

 

Bayon Temple

Next stop on our tour were...more temples! They are all stunning but after a while everything starts to blur and look the same. The 107 degree weather, ripped pants, and pools of sweat also don't help put you in a learning mood. 

Crossing the Border- The Kingdom of Cambodia

Today was the day. Haley and I crossed the border into the Kingdom of Cambodia. Our trip started early; we gathered supplies from the 7-Eleven (water, pringles, snickers), and were the last pair picked up by the mini bus. Squished in with eight other people (3 of them being some very chatty New Zealanders) we began our five hour bus ride to the Thailand-Cambodia border point of Poipet. After a bumpy ride to the border, we made a quick stop for "lunch" which turned out to be a Cambodian Visa scam (we had no choice but to pay double the normal price). We then headed to the crossing point and waited in a horrendous line (about and hour wait) to officially cross over into Cambodia.

We made it. We were drip sweating, tired, frustrated with all of the waiting around, dreading the thought of another 2 hour taxi to Siem Reap, and to top it all of my ankle of my injured foot looked like it had gotten a case of elephantiasis- but we were in Cambodia so who cares!

Passed out in the taxi, woke up to a Cambodian taxi driver trying to get directions to my hotel (he didn't speak a lick of English), and all I wanted was A/C. We arrived at our hostel (no A/C) and finally got to take a breathe. Because our pringles and snickers weren't exactly a substantial food supply for the day we headed out into the small town of Siem Reap and the famous pub street for dinner. We were STARVING!

Found a really cute bistro on the pub street and ordered Western food. I was a little skeptical considering our surroundings but my meal was the best Western food I've had in Asia this entire trip! It was also one/the cheapest Western meal I've had here.

Haley and I were both excited to see the famous Angkor Wat temples at sunrise in the morning, but here are some of my initial observations, feelings, etc of Cambodia:

1. It is extremely hot
2. The people are all very friendly but definitely have a Pandora's box thing going on... It's crazy how little the
    people here have but how happy they still are
3. People (guys mainly) have random slap fights with one another

As a side note Haley and I didn't give any money to a woman who wanted to buy milk for what appeared to be a very fat and happy baby (despite the begging mother's pleas that the baby was starving). I felt very guilty after but we are broke college students and the milk powder was $20USD. Good news is that she was at the same spot the next night so the whole starving baby thing was definitely a ruse. And just to make it seem like were not so terrible we did buy things from vendors in Cambodia and I put some money in a beggars cup (hopefully my karma isn't completely out of whack).