Just like in Tomb Raider

An early start to catch my plane. The city looked totally different in the morning, and unlike any city I’ve seen. The population was already awake at 6 am, and zooming around on their Honda Dreams. I look forward to spending some time here.

But for now, off to Siem Reap. I thought Mike said to stay at Guesthouse No. 9, so I asked one of the moto kids at the airport if he knew where it was. He said “yes,” but seemed confused. I knew what was coming, but was too tired to care. Once on the bike, he started apologizing about not knowing where the No. 9 is. Of course he had his own place, which seems alright, so I’ll probably stay here due to inertia. Despite his deception, which is to be expected, I’ll let him take me to the sites tomorrow morning.

Having a room, and feeling tired and unmotivated, I slept for three hours. Then I rented a bike for a buck, and rode around in search of food. I was really surprised at how nice the town of Siem Reap is. All green and leafy, with palm trees everywhere. Lots of modern buildings, which are inevitably hotels and restaurants, and none of the grime of Phnom Penh. Even though it seems to be a real Cambodian town full of Cambodians, it’s also a tourist town, making big bucks off of us, so I won’t draw any conclusions about Cambodia as a whole, yet.

Then at 2 I rode to the Angkor site, for my first view of Angkor Wat. I coughed up the $60 for a seven-day pass. My first impression was “wow, it’s big!” But the view was spoiled by all the renovations going on. It was still impressive, though, just not photogenic. First you cross a big causeway (covered with green tarps) to the wall, then proceed down a long road to the temple (covered with scaffolding), for the famous view of the five towers. Immediately inside the temple is a series of highly detailed bas relief’s, immediately setting Angkor apart from Bagan. The temples of Angkor get more interesting the closer you get, while the opposite was true in Bagan.

The beauty's in the details

In the central courtyard you can climb up to the top of the pyramid. That’s another difference from Bagan, whose temples were often closed off. You could climb wherever you wanted on this one. Like all other ancient temples, the stairs were narrow and incredibly steep. But it wasn’t too high, so wasn’t particularly scary.

I was right in my guess that there wouldn’t be too many foreign tourists. I only saw a few. And according to my hotel’s guest register, I’m the first person to stay there in a week. But it was packed with Cambodians. Angkor Wat is a huge source of national pride (it’s even on their flag), and as such, Cambodians get in free, while I have to pay $10 a day. It’s also the place to get married in Cambodia, and there were several wedding parties, complete with Khmer karaoke!

The Khmers

The Khmer people look as distinct from the Thais as Tibetans look from the Chinese. They also speak a totally different language, easily distinguished from Thai, as “kha” is not every other word. On a superficial level (the level you experience as a tourist), they seem happy and friendly, not unlike the Thais.

Keeping it Riel in Cambodia

Cambodia has its own currency, the riel, so I bought $40 of it. But it turns out everyone wants good ol’ US dollars. Then when you buy something that costs less than a dollar, you get change in riel (1000 riel = 25 cents).

Whatever the currency, so far Cambodia ain’t cheap. I’ll have to be careful not to go broke in one of the world’s poorest countries. But I’ll also have to try to get rid of all my riel.