Eastbound and Down: Siem Reap

When we started planning our trip, we asked for lots of advice from friends that had recently been in the area (Annie/Todd and Kim/Kyle were hugely helpful!) and one destination that came up again and again was Siem Reap in Cambodia. Providing easy access to the Angkor temples and wild jungle beauty, there was no way we could skip it.

Quick General Travel Tips:
1) Be sure to get your e-visa ahead of time ($30 each for 90 days, multiple entries).
2) The official currency is the Riel but USD are accepted almost everywhere and come out of the ATMs.
3) Tuk tuks are the main form of transportation in town. Prices are negotiable. Get it squared away ahead of time.
4) Tipping has become pretty standard practice, although it "isn't really in Cambodian culture." The exact amount is debatable and confusing (more on that later).

Thanks to a recommendation from Rick's mom's friend, we had two days of all-inclusive tours booked with a guy named Sopheara Phaev. We are usually pretty self-sufficient but it seemed like there was a lot to do and see in a short amount of time and we didn't feel like bargaining with local tuk tuk drivers all the time (we learned we are not good hagglers in Marrakech). Better to have a set itinerary and a flat fee so that we could spend our time enjoying Cambodia and not getting wondering if we were getting ripped off. I was looking forward to someone else making the decisions!

We stayed at the Kim Xiang Boutique hotel and they offered to send a tuk tuk to pick us up from the airport (~20 minute ride to downtown). When we arrived at the hotel, the person in charge asked us if we were planning to visit Angkor and showed us their tour packages. I explained that we had already set something up and the owner got a little snippy, telling us that the only reason our airport transfer was free was because the driver "expected a real job," such as taking us to the temples. I don't appreciate being guilted into using a service so the exchange instantly put a bad taste in my mouth. Strike one.

We got settled in and went to go find some dinner, which turned out to be Cambodian BBQ. You get a basin of hot water and a domed cook surface over a bucket of coals, and you grill a selection of meats right there on the table. Chuck some veggies in the water, let the meat juices drip down to make a broth and you have yourself a hearty meal! It was quite tasty. We strolled through the night market (Hello sir! Hello ladyyyyyy!) and just took in the sights, sounds and smells (oh, God so many smells). We went to bed at a reasonable hour because we had to get up super early the next day for our touring.

Cambodian BBQ with 7 different meats, including crocodile and shark!

4:50am snuck up on us quickly. Our hotel had packed us a breakfast to go which consisted of several super sweet processed snack foods (think: vending machine muffins) and some bottled water. Sopheara picked us up and we drove directly to the Angkor visitor center to get our temple passes (a 3-day pass cost $40), which they check at every entrance to every temple. The lines were fairly long because lots of other tourists were trying to get passes in time to catch the sunrise over Angkor Wat, the best preserved and most extensive of all the temples in the region.

We found a great spot to stand but heavy cloud cover made for a very gray and very underwhelming sunrise. Glad we got up at the crack of dawn... It wasn't a total loss because we got to visit the temple before it was blisteringly hot outside and with so much walking around to do, we were glad for some more moderate temperatures. Although the dress code isn't quite as strict as it was in the mosques of Istanbul, everyone is still required to have covered knees and shoulders in all of the temples. Lightweight, moisture wicking fabrics are essential.

No sun for our sunrise :-(

Monkeys will steal your breakfast

Angkor Wat is objectively impressive. It's a sprawling maze of hallways, courtyards, and little alcoves, all brilliantly decorated with reliefs depicting epic battles between gods and demons. Sopheara gave us a veritable master class in Buddhist iconography, which was fascinating, but eventually started to wear us down. There is only so much information one can retain at 8am.

The visit continued at the Angkor Thom complex, which I think was my favorite of all the sites we saw. It's slightly smaller than Angkor Wat but with more varied structures.

Faces of Angkor Thom

Bayon Temple

Baphoun Temple

Temple exploration requires a fair level of fitness. Be ready to climb a lot.

When I ride an elephant past a 10th century Cambodian temple, the thing I care most about is what's on my phone.

Our last stop before lunch was Ta Nei, a more isolated and less touristy temple in the middle of the jungle. Climbing on ruins is fun!

In the afternoon, we went to Ta Prohm, which was made famous by the Tomb Raider movie and was pretty spectacular with this giant tree growing right through the middle of it, and Banteay Kdei.

Nature does what it wants.

Banteay Kdei

We were back in the hotel by 4pm but it felt like midnight because the day was so intense. We had a little nap and then went for dinner at this restaurant just up the street from our hotel (Bao Chin Thian). It was modest to say the least but the food was soooo good. The menu offered something called "sexy fish" but they were out so we had to settle for regular fish, some sautéed veggies and a shrimp curry. Delicious.

The next day didn't require us to get up so early so we had a hot breakfast at the hotel before venturing off to Beng Mealea, another temple in the middle of nowhere, over 70km away from downtown Siem Reap. Although it was pretty cool driving through the Cambodian countryside, the temple itself was underwhelming. It was mostly ruins, just giant stones getting swallowed by the jungle. Plus, it was an additional $5 entry fee each since it's not part of the Angkor Wat archeological site. It was cool climbing in the vines and over rocks but I didn't think it was worth the extra trip. Plus, my stomach was a little upset that day and riding in the tuk tuk on bumpy roads for close to two hours was not making it feel any better. I think there was a miscommunication with our driver because they usually take a car to get there... Strike 2.

Beng Mealea

We had lunch in a "local" restaurant but the only people eating there were other tour groups. The guides/drivers all ate by themselves in a separate room. It was awkward. The afternoon took us to the Preah Ko and Bakong temples followed by sunset over Tonle Sap lake.

Preah Ko

Bakong

In the rainy season, the lake doubles in size and to get there, you have to travel through a fishing village where all the houses are on stilts. The visit was an extra $20 per person, plus a $5 small boat ride to get to the big boat because the road was under construction, plus tip. While it was definitely beautiful and I am glad we got to see it, I couldn't shake this feeling that we were turning these people's lives into a spectacle. I suppose whenever you visit a city, there is a certain amount of that, but you're usually looking at monuments, not someone's home. Plus, it wasn't clear what all the money was paying for. Did it go to the boat driver? The community? Some kind of lake preservation fund? No idea.

Little boat to get to the bigger boat. Driven by this small child.

Beautiful fishing village

The lake stretched as far as you could see in every direction. It was pretty impressive. 

When it was all said and done, the total cost of two days of transport and guide services was $140 plus $30 tip, plus ~$50 for the lake plus $10 for Beng Mealea, bringing us to a grand total of $230. Yikes. Everyone always talked about how cheap everything was in Cambodia but that was definitely not our experience. Strike 3.

We had made reservations at The Sugar Palm (Gordon Ramsay said it was good!) but we had to go all grubby because we were late getting back and didn't have time to change. Sorry we were so smelly but we had earned it.

On our last day, we hired the kid that had picked us up from the airport and gave him a "real job": Our only request was for him to take us around to some of his favorite spots. We saw two more temples (Preah Kahn and Baksei Chamkrong), and it was a lot of fun to have some time to explore them on our own without running commentary from a guide.

Preah Kahn

Breaking the rules

Baksei Chamkrong

Those steps were super steep and not super safe in retrospect.

It was time for lunch so the kid took us to a truly local spot at the edge of a lake and we ate like champions for next to nothing. We had grilled frogs, quail eggs, sour soup with snails, and some kind of fish. It was epic.

Our final destination was Wat Thmei, also known as the killing fields shrine. The exhibit tells the story of the Khmer Rouge era and the genocide of the Cambodian people. It was a really humbling experience because we always think of these atrocities as things of the distant past when in fact Jason was born the same year that Vietnam invaded Cambodia, ending the genocide. Makes you wonder if we have really come as far as we think we have as a global community...

It was time for our next destination so we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and the kid ran us out to the airport. In many ways, our last day was the most enjoyable because we did all the stuff that we love the most: climb tall things, eat local food and learn a little history.

Overall, our time in Cambodia was not really what we hoped it would be. From the moment we arrived, we felt like we were getting scammed. For being heralded as this budget destination, everything was quite pricey, more so with having to tip an unknown amount all the time. The most difficult thing for me was that more than anywhere we had been before, I felt like that Banksy piece with the poor brown kid pulling some fat white people around in a rickshaw. I understand that their economy depends on westerners bringing their stacks of western money to enjoy the history and culture of Cambodia but it still felt exploitative somehow. Maybe that scammed feeling is just part of the price you pay. 

Lesson from Siem Reap: The tourist stuff is great to see but you'll save money and perhaps some of your soul if you get away from it and try to experience life like the locals. Also, there is such a thing as too many temples.