Angkor Wat

Up at 4am.

4am.

Somehow, the sunrise at Angkor Wat has become a tourist attraction. As though it doesnt rise anywhere else in the world. Well at least that was our feeling when the alarm when off. When we arrived in the darkness of predawn, it was quite pleasant. We sat by a pond in front of the temple and waited for the sun to peek over. A nice woman from a nearby hut came over and offered us coffee. Obviously there was only one possible reaction to this and she was back momentarily with a coffee for Yen and I. It was steaming and black. She offered a can of sweetened condensed milk as well and we greedily took the can and started pouring it in. After I had poured mine and Yen was pouring hers, I was noting that it was quite lumpy. Generally, they don't make it with ants in Canada. We told her, but decided wed cut our losses and just drink what we had. It actually wasn't bad. It was 4am.

It was a bit cloudy so the sunrise wasn't what I imagine it became famous for. Dawn is always somewhat special though since its a rare event to witness. Our bitterness was fogotten and we snapped some photos and embarked on the first of the three temples we'd see.

There are many enourmous temples in the area, referred to as Angkor. Some date back to the 9th century. However, one temple is actually called Angkor Wat (Wat means temple) and that was the first temple we went in. It was the most well preserved and restored of the three we saw. Really quite incredible. When we left that temple, we were bombarded by the kids selling everything from books to flutes to postcards. They're well trained in the art of heart string pulling. We didn't fall for it but they were quite persistant. We were stopping for breakfast at the time so they informed me that I should go and eat a delicious breakfast because I feel tired and afterwards, I'll probably feel like buying postcards. A good hearty breakfast often does that... I guess. One of the girls, Jenny, gave me a post card on which she'd drawn a flower and written a lovely note in English. We were besties.

The other two temples in the afternoon were also fantastic. One of them was the one where Tomb Raider was filmed and also that tiger movie with the two brother tigers. It's got jungle
bits growing all through the ruins and looks surreal.

After the temples, we stopped in at sort of an orphanage for land mine victims with a museum dedicated to the cause. The 19 year old guide that took us through the museum showed us all the different types of land mines from anti-personnel single and double leg (yep, thats what they're meant to destroy) mines to anti-tank mines. He even set one up for me to test out -- minus the TNT. It was a Russian double leg mine. It was a gut wrenching pop. They showed us how people set them up and a lot of different ways they can be planted with booby traps etc... These things must've taken a lot of brains to create -- if only all this energy could've been put to something useful. They even had some sample mine fields so we could see what it looks like in the fields or jungles. Then our guide told us his story and revealed his plastic leg. He stepped on the same kind of mine that I had just tried and lost his leg. His only two siblings were walking behind him and weren't so "lucky". Apparently, two people each day in Cambodia are hospitalised due to a landmine. There are still several million landmines left, planted by the Khmer Rouge during the seventies. The founder of the center is actually the guy who started the major movement, originally without any government funding, out in the fields with his bare hands de-mining. He still does it and trains others to help. It was a very moving place.

When we were done we'd had a long day, but it was all quite amazing. We bussed back into the city and made sure to check out the local market and diner ;-)

We met again for dinner and Yen had a cool looking fermented fish dish and I had some fantastic seafood thing.

We had a free day the next day and Yen and I planned to go to the Tonle Sap. It's the biggest fresh water lake around and there are complete villages that live on it in rafts and boats. It's now the end of the dry season when the water level is at its lowest, but in the height of rainy season it can grow up to 10 times its current size! At those times it's more of a sea and the people who live on it move up to the mountains. So we took a tuk-tuk (motorbike with a carriage on the back) to the lake and then hopped in a long boat to check out the rest. There was a school at the docks where we boarded the boat and kids were just leaving when we arrived. They paddle little wooden boats with paddles that looked more like little sticks back to their floating village. It was quite an amazing site.

When we arrived at the village it was really nothing like I expected. They had raft gardens, a floating pig farm, little fenced off "yards". We even stopped in at a crocodile and catfish farm!

We don't know quite where or under which circumstances, but Yen's parents actually lived on this lake at one point! That was amazing to imagine! Our guide on the boat lived there as well and it was really amazing to hear his stories.

When we got back to town we picked up some fruit in the market, I got my glasses fixed (a screw was lost and the lens was dangling) and we then headed back to the hotel to catch up on a bit of sleep. Well, Yen did anyway. You may not believe this, but I actually read a book... yep, a book. It even had chapters and no pictures! It was called First They Killed My Father. It was a good but difficult (subject matter, not reading grade level -- I know what you were thinking) book about a young girl's real life story during the Khmer Rouge time in Cambodia. It sure set the scene for the next few days.

Dinner was uneventful and after dinner we had a few drinks at "The Red Piano." It's the bar where Angelina Jolie had drinks during the Tomb Raider filming. The bar across the street had some live lounge singer doing everything from Sinatra's "My Way" to "La Bamba" to "Hava Nagila!" I've never been in a more bizarre place.

The next morning we hopped on a bus bright and early to Phenom Pehn.