or Wat, among other temples in the area. The easiest way
to get to Cambodia from Hyderabad is via Singapore. Easy enough. Unless the
only flight from Cambodia to Singapore gets in AFTER the only flight from
Singapore to Hyderabad leaves. So, we
shifted our plans to basically spend a day in Singapore. Then that flight got
cancelled and moved to the next day. So our layover turned into a two day stay! But back to this post…
Getting to Siem Riep, Cambodia was pretty easy;
especially since we applied for our visas online before the trip. That allowed
us to bypass about 95% of the other passengers and get through immigration
lickety split! Then we had to decide whether or not to exchange dollars for the
local currency (Riel). We passed...and it’s a good thing we did. The exchange
rate is about 4,000:1...and everyone accepts US Dollars; some exclusively.
Because of the overnight flight we had to take, we
decided to "relax" at the hotel for the day. But when Annabelle's
definition of relaxing is to swim for almost two hours, it ended up being a
pretty tiring day.
We decided to spend the next day touring the main temples
in the area: Angkor Wat, Bayan (main temple in Angkor Thom), and Ta Prohm. Each
of the temples is approximately 800 to 1,000 years old and in various states of
restoration.
Angkor Wat is the most popular temple in the area and
surrounded by a huge man-made moat. This protected the temple from too much
encroachment from the forest for hundreds of years. It was initially built as a
Hindu temple to the god Vishnu; which was uncommon as most Hindu temples
were/are for Shiva. The main legend of this temple was about the struggle
between the gods and demons. In order to remain immortal, the gods needed holy
water. To obtain this they had to move a mountain into the sea. They then
wrapped a snake/serpent around the mountain; which the gods and demons
struggled against each other to pull. The pulling of the snake made the
mountain spin...thereby creating the holy water. This story was carved into one
on the walls of the temple. Over the years, the temple eventually converted
into a Buddhist temple, again into a Hindu temple, and finally back into a
Buddhist temple as it remains today.
There are five large towers and three levels to Angkor
Wat, with the third level being the most holy where there are several shrines
to Buddha. In order to get to them you have to climb a very steep set of
stairs...not made any easier by the high heat and humidity; by our standards at
least. And due to how sacred the space is there are no kids are allowed
(neither are "sexy ladies", which we heard more than a few times from
the security guys there). Annabelle was actually perfectly fine staying back
with our guide, Chai, so we headed up for about 15 minutes. The craftsmanship
and architecture are incredible, as are the shrines.
When we got back down we were all a little steamy, but
luckily Chai knew of an ice cream shop which helped Annabelle press on to get
out of the complex.
Our next stop was Bayan temple within the ancient city of
Angkor Thom. This one started as Buddhist, but also went through the ol’
Hindu-back-to-Buddhist conversion. This temple was quite different than Angkor
Wat, with many more towers that had several faces circling each one. There were
a number of shrines there: a handful are Hindu, but the rest Buddhist. There
was also quite a bit of restoration being done in a joint effort between
UNESCO, The Kingdom of Cambodia, and Japan.
Next stop was an awesome lunch with some very good Khmer
curry. (“Khmer” is an encompassing term in the area for the region, people,
language, food, you name it.) We got an air conditioned room and recharged for
the afternoon.
Our last planned stop was to the so-called "Tree
Temple": Ta Prohm. This was also going through some serious restoration,
thanks to help from India. As opposed to the other temples we visited, this is
a long and relatively flat complex. Over the years, trees were able to take
root and grow through the crevices in the stones used to construct the temple.
This resulted in many trees actually growing over the walls of the temple. Very
cool.
After exiting Ta Prohm, Annabelle and Griff had to get a
coconut to share. With that refreshing jolt, we had one more temple left in us.
This was one of the first temples in the area, over 1,000 years old and
actually made out of brick. A lot of it had to be restored (with help from
Germany), but the main shrine to Vishnu had been very well maintained.
We spent the entire next day in Siem Reap. A short
tuk-tuk ride into town got us to the main tourist areas and we could walk
everywhere we needed to once we got there. (The tuk-tuks here are motorbikes
with carriages attached.)
After lunch, we wanted to check out the Night Market
area, but it wasn't open yet...at 3:00 in the afternoon...go figure. So instead
the girls decided to get pedicures at a local shop. I got a little bored and
decided to go for a walk. Bad idea. Very. Bad. Idea.
It turns out that the vigor with which people offer
massages increases quite a bit as a lone male. In no less than two minutes I
got four offers. The first woman almost smacked me with her massage menu when I
said "no, thank you"...I knew at that point something was a little
different. The second woman simply asked me "why not" as I walked by;
a little better...what a nice lady (maybe not...see below). The third offer
came from a lovely gentleman lounging in a chair and in the form of several
loud kissing gestures. The fourth is what really got to me (so far). She didn't want to give me a chance to say no
and keep walking, as evidenced by her pressing her entire body against mine and
literally pushing me (hey, watch those hands, lady!) several times toward her
shop.
Whoa. Okay. So, at the end of the block I realized I now
had to turn around and walk the gauntlet again. The Aggressor ignored me this
time, but my guy friend had to ask me a few times "why not" as I kept
walking. I was able to muster a smile and a laugh for him, at least. But
then...that nice little lady from before came up again, closer. This time it
was, "You want massage? ... I put inside." Now, I can ONLY assume she
meant she'd put my bag inside the massage parlor for safekeeping..............right? C'mon, you know better than that. And so did
I.
I got back to nail place and was shell-shocked. Amanda
knew something was up immediately, but I decided it best to wait to give her
the details until our child was out of earshot. Wowee zowee. That was quite the
experience.
To calm down a bit we went on a shopping spree and got
some pretty good deals, including a nice backpack for our Europe trip and a new
suitcase to hold all the other stuff we had to buy. We also found a catholic church hidden in a
corner of town, which was an interesting experience. They definitely adapted to local culture as
they had everyone remove shoes and sit on the floor during mass (no standing
and very limited kneeling). They also
had a very interesting sculpture of Mary and some great music to
rock out to. Even though we were hot and
tired, we were very glad we went. Very
cool experience.
On our last day we found a vegetarian restaurant that had
a bunch of fair-trade items, as well as a yoga class. There was also a bonus
swing in the mix for Annabelle. This
whole complex was amazing. It was remarkably difficult to find vegetarian food
in Cambodia, so the fact that this place had yoga, swings, fair trade products,
and it was exclusively vegetarian meant that we needed to spend the whole day
there!
So, we got to experience some amazing ruins, lots of
bartering, great food, yoga, pedicures for the girls, and I even got
propositioned for the first time in my life. SUCCESS! Thanks Cambodia!
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