ChrisJenTravel.com – Honeymoon Trek

We woke up on Christmas Eve a little sad that we were in dusty Cambodia, the furthest thing imaginable from a white Christmas. But, our trip was getting easier. We found a money changer and a makeshift breakfast to start the day. We walked around the town a bit and found out it wasn’t all bad, much like an infant Bangkok just developing to serve the needs of the hoards of travelers starting to come see the ruins. And we found another nice tuk tuk driver who agreed to give us a tour of Angkor Wat for the day for $8.

We hopped in and were on our way. At the entrance to the ancient city, we each paid $20 USD for the day – pricey, but well worth every cent. We couldn’t even do its history justice here but, suffice it to say it was once the largest, most powerful city in Southeast Asia, with over a million people when London only had 50,000 inhabitants. The nearby service town of Siam Reap actually means death to Thailand, symbolic of the time when Angkor Wat ruled over the entire region. Nowadays, it is almost the sole source of tourism for Cambodia and a national treasure. It was featured in Tomb Raider and several other movies.

Although there are literally thousands of structures to see in the ruins, a full day can be spent at the 5 or 6 major sites so we settled on a detailed examination of these. We were dropped off for 2 hours at the first ruin and it took the entire time to explore, which hopefully gives some idea of the size and magnitude. We walked a bridge over a moat the length of a soccer field just to get in, then 15 minutes past the outer wall just to reach the palace. It was hard to believe that we were walking on stones that had been placed thousands of years ago. Statues still marked the entrance-ways and stairs. Others stood tall in small, dark rooms. The stone walls were ornate with reliefs, looking like exquisite wall paper, yet feeling like intricate brail. We climbed to the top – the city’s steps steeper than 45 degrees and reaching far, grazing the clouds above. Despite the swarms of tourists around, the site offered some great photo opportunities. We continued on to the other sites, equally amazed at each one. You’ll have to check the photos as words simply can’t do them justice. The pace of the day matched our tendency to view natural treasures in a hurry and we were elated and exhausted at the end. After an honest day’s tour, our driver took us home for the agreed-upon price with no detours and no hassle for more money – truly refreshing.

Feeling like we owed ourselves some splurging for the occasion, we wanted to find a place for a nice dinner before returning to the realities of budget traveling and another long bus ride back to Thailand the next day. On the ride back from the ruins, we noticed an open air restaurant/bar overlooking the river that was very South Beach meets Cambodia. It turned out to be the FCC, or former Foreign Correspondents Club, a meeting place for the journalists covering the wars in years past. It had been remodeled complete with a table-side pool and was great for a taste of home. We dined in style while watching a traditional Cambodian tribal depiction of Christmas and retired feeling refreshed. We were anxious to get back to Thailand the next day to start the island part of our visit.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 at 10:09 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.