Cambodia

In mid-September I went to Siem Reap, Cambodia, with my friend Ricky, to tour the ancient cities of the Khmer Empire.  The region containing these cities is known as Angkor.  It's easier for me to classify Angkor as one large city, rather than a bunch of smaller ones.  Technically it is much larger than Rome, but it is more spread out.  The ruins are equally amazing, and nothing like what you can find at Roman ruins. 

The dollar goes very far in Cambodia, and they often charge US Dollars anyway so you don't really need to exchange money.  They don't have American change, so they give paper Riel when they need to break a dollar.  One US Dollar is worth between 3800-4000 Cambodian Riel.  At the end of the trip Ricky ended up with nine leftover 100-Riel bills, worth about 20 cents.  The look and feel of Siem Reap is certainly third world, however, they have roads, a very nice airport, hotels, reliable transportation and little crime that we could tell.  We felt perfectly safe walking around the city at night.  Pickpocketing is rampant in Italy; it was nonexistent in Siem Reap. 

Siem Reap sits in the northern half of Cambodia, at the northern tip of the large Tonle Sap Lake.  It is a jungle climate, very hot and humid, with rainy seasons.  The temperature is between 80-90 degrees year round--much hotter when you factor in humidity. 

Angkor, built between 800 and 1300 A.D., was the largest ancient city in the world, covering 390 square miles.  That becomes more impressive considering it vanished after the 1400s and wasn't discovered again until the early 1900s. 

We visited a number of sites in the city, the most impressive being Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.  Overall, we toured following complexes, temples or structures:  Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Victory Gate, Thommanon, Chau Say Thevoda, Ta Keo, Ta Prom, Banteay Kdei, Srah Srang, and Prasat Kravan. 

There is really too much information to try and convey about these sites, so if you're interested, I would just suggest reading about them on Wikipedia, I have linked them for you above.  Please click on the pictures and then view them zoomed in as well.  You can't tell very well, but nearly every square inch of wall, tower, door, and roof has been hand carved in some way.  The carved reliefs were as prevalent as paint would be for us today--truly amazing. 

The outer wall of Angkor Wat, as seen from inside.

And example of a small section of wall covered in carvings.  This particular wall was well over 100 feet long and 12 feet high.  Every inch was carved like this.  These scenes actually depict Khmer history.  

A view of the Angkor Wat grounds.

View of the main  temple once you get through many layers of walls.  One more layer to go.

The upper gallery of the Angkor Wat temple. This is the center tower, in the middle of four others on the corners of the square temple.  Five towers in all. 

A statue, possibly of Brahma or Vishnu (I'm not sure), in the upper gallery, below the center tower.

View of the temple from the back side.  If you look very closely you can make out all five towers.  

Me, sweating like crazy.

 Another view.

The South Gate.  It serves as the entrance to Angkor Thom. 

The Bayon temple, the largest structure in Angkor Thom.

A closer view of the Bayon temple.  Every one of those peaks has four identical faces on it.  There must be hundreds of these faces here.  You couldn't turn your head without one of these faces looking at you.

Another view, from the natural entrance to Bayon.

Baphuon.  Also located in Angkor Thom.

Phimeanakas - also at Angkor Thom. 

Ta Keo.  

Chau Say Tevoda.  This temple complex is not as tall or tiered as many of the other temples, but it is a sprawling network of buildings and paths and roads.  As you can see, the forest has become one with it.

Chau Say Tevoda.

Chau Say Tevoda.

Chau Say Tevoda.

A relief carved into a wall at Banteay Kdei.  

Siem Reap and the Night Market

Ricky and I also walked all around the city during one afternoon and evening.  There you could find all kinds of souveniers, food and drink.  We were hassled pretty hard to buy massages, "fish doctor" massages (where a specific species of fish nibbles all the dead skin off your feet), and Tuk Tuk rides.  A Tuk Tuk is a cart hitched to a motorcycle.  The main taxi-like service available there.  We took a Tuk Tuk to and from the airports, and all around Angkor while touring. 

Our view from the Tuk Tuk. 

The pool and restaurant at our hotel.

The local beer.  

Food to buy at the market.

An entrance to the night market.

The weird fish massage or "fish doctors."

Me and Ricky at a bar.  Those beers were $1.