The Plan B Adventure

As promised we dragged our weary bones up at 5:30am to make our way toward the awe-inspiring Angkor Wat, the centerpiece of Angkorian civilization. Well, all the build up and it didn’t disappoint. Being there first thing in the morning is fantastic. Of course, you aren’t alone but the quiet and calm is quite noticeable as you walk toward the monsterous, gorgeous monument that the most successful Angkorian king built to honor Buddha.

The colors and architectural shadows make you think that it must have been built so everyone could see it at sunrise. Surrounded by 300 of our closest Japanese friends we made our way up the long dragon-lined walkway to the entrance of this famous temple. We would like to share our impressions of its grandeur, pain-staking detail, and overall superior craftsmanship (sorry Fred, these guys are really good), but we want each of you to experience it without our impressions crafting too much of an expectation. So we will leave it at that and help with a few logistical comments. First, go in the morning….it’s the only time you are going to get up THE STAIRS to the top (yes, you have to go!!…..well, maybe not our mothers) without an extreme wait. The monks are still praying and cleaning and the sun hitting the stone makes for some striking photos. Second, enjoy the first floor bas-reliefs, by a guide book for explanations of the scenes, but be selective or you will be there all day and never appreciate the bas-reliefs of the many other temples. Lastly, if you want a photo in front of the entire building plan on coming back after noon.

By 8:00am (before we ususally even wake up) we were at The Bayon but this time we didn’t beat the tour buses. This is a good one to do mid afternoon if you can deal with the heat. We still had a blast seeing the center of Angkor Thom, the ancient Royal city, and waiting ten minutes for this picture…..It is quite amazing to see the level of respect and admiration this civilization had (and has) for Buddha yet only years before and just a few years after their beliefs (or their King’s beliefs) would revert to Hinduism. We followed the well chosen path that Becca had set out due to her research on her own and Jeff got to see just enough of the old city (Terrace of Elephants, Terrace of Leper King, Baphuon, etc) to keep him interested as they hit the rest of the big temples later in the day.

Sticking with our efficient yet extremely ambitious plan Mr Chantha (our driver) took us through many of the outerlying highlights we hadn’t seen the day before. Becca was waiting to unleash her surprise of Ta Prohm on Jeff and they were both looking forward as they made their way into the back jungle of the untouched Ta Prohm. It is a completely different temple from the others and a must-see on any trip to Angkor. As previously explained when Bec toured it the temple has largely been purposely ignored from restoration and allowed to exist within the towering silk and fig trees, which are now overtaking it. Conveniently, we beat the tour bus rush through the opening gates and made our way almost halfway through this gorgeous relic. Oopss….they caught up…let’s go this way. We wound our way through the labyrinth of Ta Prohm and enjoyed getting lost amidst the praying Buddhists and surprisingly overreaching trees. As we sped up to get away from the next wave of Prada-wearing tourists and finish our tour of Ta Prohm it happened…..SNAP! The under-hydrated and over-heated Jeff stopped dead in his tracks. This is more how it happened:

Jeff: “No, really Becca I think my Achilles just snapped….I really can’t walk”

Becca: “What…your Achilles!! Try and walk it off.”

Jeff: “Oh no….we can’t continue the trip”

Becca: “Are you sure you can’t walk on it?”

Jeff: “Well, a little but it hurts to walk”

Becca: “Come on…let’s be solution-oriented.”

Jeff: “Okay….we are leaving”

Well, needless to say after making our way back to the tuk-tuk, drinking a few gallons of water, your fearless travellers found the issue to be nothing more than a over-cramped muscle which was cured a few days later with much water and a few good meals (that didn’t consist of Jeff’s previous All-Carb diet). Who calls Jeff, Mr. Drama!!??
Ok….have your laughs!!! We had a great time and are so happy to be sharing these experiences with you and not on the next plane home. We loved Siem Reap, loved the Angkor temples and can’t wait to hear all your stories once you have a chance to visit. We are headed to Phnom Penh for a brief big city interlude, a cooking class, and some more Cambodian history lessons before gallavanting west to Sihanoukville and the (what we’ve heard) lovely Cambodian beaches……Stay Tuned!!!!

By the way….we just uploaded a boat load of pictures so please access our Flickr site and view because linking them to specific words in this text gets to be a little much after 2 hours at the Internet Cafe, but we love you all….so we continue to do it!

Welcome to Cambodia everyone…..land of enchanting temples, beautiful sunshine, and one of the poorest populations outside of Africa. We flew into Siem Reap via the reputable Lao Airlines in comfort looking forward to spending a great week in Siem Reap and the surrounding areas relishing in the culture of Cambodia and the masterpieces of the Angkor Temples.

Right off the bat we have to give a strong recommendation to stay at the Villa Siem Reap. The owners, Fiona and Anthony, recently remodeled and designed a beautiful guesthouse, tucked away from the monsterous Disneyland-like hotels so you can experience Cambodian culture while accessing their extensive information on temples and other things to do. The staff is exceptionally friendly (Thank you to all!!) and every $.07 that Fiona and Anthony make goes to charitable causes in the Siem Reap area. Great job guys….we can’t wait to see you again.

So as we strolled out of the airport (way worth it to fly opposed to overland through southern Laos) Villa Siem Reap had arranged for us to be picked up in tuk-tuk by Mr. Chantha, our designated driver for the week. He was great and had drinks waiting for us upon arrival. We were both shocked as we drove into town by the sheer number of giant, luxury hotels that have gone up or are going up and the amount of construction on infrastructural issues like drainage and landscaping. As we came to find out over the next few days Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor are slowly becoming THE destination vacation in Southeast Asia if you aren’t looking for the beach. And rightly so……this city is teeming with fantastic people, enjoyable sights and activities, and more tourist-oriented accommodations than you can shake a stick at. We can both imagine the level of development that will have taken place when we visit next.

Once we got to the hotel and had a chance to decompress and relax we opted to see the sunset at a less-frequented temple location, Banteay Kdei. Fiona recommended this site to get our feet wet (some local kids took it literally) and enjoy our first experience without the busloads of Japanese and German tourists….and she was right. What a gorgeous jungle setting at sunset with the sun-soaked stone and orange-reddish sun poking its head through the giant silk and fig trees. Our first impressions: breathtaking, amazing construction, and everyone needs to witness these sites at some point in their lifetime.

A few logistical bits of information…you have many transportation options to see the temples. Our favorite, the moto-tuk-tuk, essentially a covered carriage securly fastened to the back of a moto. Very comfortable, safer than a moto itself, and $10 a day.You could also go with a private car for $20 and in our minds that’s the only other option. Your other options are walking and/or riding a bike. Imagine this, it’s 95 degrees without a cloud in site, you have just marched up 100 stairs to the top of a temple then down, your clothes are basically nicely sown towels due to their absortion of your sweat, and now you have to get on a bike and pedal to the next temple. We’ll save the exercise for home (right, Molly!!) and sit our asses on a padded seat with a cooler of cold drinks at our feet and have Mr Chantha wisk us away to the next location. As for the walkers….good luck…give yourself a month and bring an umbrella and three pairs of sandals.

Day Two began at about 1:30am that morning. Jeff was making a game of how many times he could adjourn to the restroom if you get the drift….couple that with some intense muscle aches and it looked like Round Two of the Plan B Adventure stomach virus had taken its toll on your favorite travellers. It also began to look like Becca would have to use the first day of our temple passes on her own 🙁 She was not happy about not being able to share her first impressions with Jeff but she promised not to go to Angkor Wat and do a lot of looking around at other stuff so when Jeff got better they could efficiently (what other way would she do anything) tackle the stuff she had seen and he hadn’t.

Becca’s first stop was the royal city of Angkor Thom (for everyone who’s interested or needs a reference here is a map of the Angkor Temples), which houses multiple temples and Buddhist monuments constructed at the peak of Angkor civilization. She first set eyes (before the multitudes of tour groups arrived) on Bayon, which contains some of the most famous Buddhist stone faces (we know you’ve seen them) in all of Angkor. 54 towers, in fact, are constructed within the walls of the Bayon with 4 stone faces to each tower. At the base of the towers were gorgeously constructed bas-reliefs of wars won and lost, as well as daily life of the Khmer people. After the centerpiece of Angkor Thom, Becca moved through many of the other grand sites within this walled city and couldn’t come close to imagining what this area must have been like in its heyday and the amount of sheer activity and talent it took to build something like this. From Angkor Thom she moved to some of the other older temples and discovered the different styles of temple-building and began to fashion her opinion on some of her favorites. Anything with Hindu influence and anything with an elephant!!! To end her day she beat the masses to the jungle-enclosed temple of Ta Prohm, constructed for the reigning king’s mother (of, course) and one of the only temples left by restoration efforts to the throws of the jungle. She immensely enjoyed its grand scale and natural state and rushed home to share with Jeff, prediciting Ta Prohm would be one of his favorites.

After much bread, crackers, and rice Jeff was ready to rumble (so was his stomach) for Day Three. The travelling duo decided to take it slow and ease Jeff’s stomach into the rigors of Angkorian exploration. Becca had mapped out a great tour starting with many of the outerlying temples she hadn’t seen and including some of the oldest, yet better preserved temples that had been constructed over 1000 years ago. We started with Preah Khan, which was built to honor the reigning king’s father and strictly Buddhist style architecture. It was gigantic and much in line with Ta Prohm and, even more similar, to the sunset temple seen on the first night of Banteay Kdei.

After a full day of temple exploration including many great photos, newly-learned history, and preferred architectural styles we were off to see the sunset at Tourist Heaven. But not before Becca met the “Andrew Lamb” of Angkor and was kindly persuaded into purchasing a few of his wonderful books (We will comment on this cottage industry on a future post) at the low, low price of two for $10. As a side note, the Angkor history book was worth its weight in gold and we anticipate the Vietnam book to be the same in the weeks to come.

Sunset at Phnom Bakheng (the first capital of Angkor) was hilarious and beautiful. Hundreds of tourists and tour buses unloading at the foot of one of the most rigorous climbs in all of Angkor. We are dedicating a special blog entry to the footwear employed by all-comers so stay tuned for that!!! Once we ascended the hill, the ascension to the temple followed and we were thoroughly drenched after the 15 minute climb…UGH it’s hot! (We know none of you are sympathezing in Seattle or Chicago) but it is really uncomfortable at times…..At the summit the views are striking. A gorgeous glowing Angkor Wat complex in the distance with the sun setting across the Baray (man-made lake) while you watch the dust shoot up and settle from the hustle and bustle of everyday Cambodian life. We had a blast watching the sun descend and commenting on other tourists. Fortunately, we beat the rush down the mountain by keenly predicting the sun would set behind a cloud and escaped into the night……As we headed home and assessed Jeff’s stomach situation we decided to get up at dawn to view the great Angkor Wat at sunrise…..