Saturday April 13, 2024 – Thursday April 18, 2024
(This is part 1 of our two week Cambodia & Malaysia trip)
Itinerary
We spent 6 days in Cambodia: 2 of those days were in Phnom Penh and 4 were in Siem Reap. We opted to explore Phnom Penh because it’s the capital and most populous city in Cambodia. From there we took a 6 hour bus ride to Siem Reap, which we visited because it was our home base for the 3 day tour in Angkor Wat, which we chose to do with a private guide. Those 3 days started early since we wanted to beat the heat, and ended in the afternoons giving us plenty of time to relax and explore Siem Reap the rest of the day.
Overall Impressions
I personally consider visiting Cambodia to be an enriching experience with so much to learn both culturally and historically. One reason I say that is because it is home to Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world. With a quality tour guide, you can learn so much about why this place was crowned the 8th Wonder of the World, diving into its significance, stories, symbolism, and impressive craftsmanship. Another reason is because we were in Cambodia during the Cambodian New Year celebrations and witnessed streets packed with young people, happily spraying everyone with water, full of lighthearted fun and excitement.
But I also consider visiting Cambodia to be a crucial eye-opening experience, because of the genocide that took place from 1975-1979. It’s mind-boggling how such recent history that is. Much of our time was spent visiting memorials and historical sites to educate ourselves about these horrors. They say travel is good to broaden your perspectives and it accomplished exactly that. I am astonished by the cruelty humanity is capable of and uncomfortable with learning about my home country’s contributions, and feel so moved in seeing Cambodians efforts to rebuild a brighter future. Is that more than one might bargain for to witness on what’s supposed to be a vacation? Perhaps.
But of course, you can also treat it as a touristy vacation. Given the affordability, we got nice hotels, lots of massages, ate whatever we wanted at night markets, and hailed Grab cars and tuktuks everywhere.
So it’s quite a mixed bag. You can come only as a tourist, or as someone who wants to learn, because there’s a lot to learn. While I admit I felt a heaviness from some things I saw, I’d argue it’s important to educate yourself, and as a result, Cambodia has a lot more to offer you than your average vacation.
Day 1 & 2: Phnom Penh
First thing’s first, may I emphasize to you that it is hot, like 100 degrees hot. Simply being outside made us sweat. So you can put the remainder of our trip within this context. It is brutal outside!
As I mentioned, we spent our first two days in the capital of Cambodia. The first thing we tried to do was visit Wat Ounalum Monastery, which we wrote in our notes is the most important Buddhist temple in Cambodia. But upon arrival, we learned that a high ranking monk had just passed away, so maybe that was why there was nothing to see when we went? So we pivoted plans.
Since we happened to arrive on day 1 of festivities to celebrate the Cambodian New Year, which isn’t something we planned for but just how our travel dates lined up, we went to check it out. One way they celebrate is by having a giant water gun party that spans through several blocks. People throw and slather baby powder on you too. In the beginning, we deliberately went to experience what it was like, so it was fun and interesting to witness. But later on when we’re just trying to get from point A to point B, there are times when you can’t get through without getting sprayed on which is a little more stressful when you don’t feel like getting gross. Most kids are polite and avoid impacting us (because we look like tourists? Or because we give off please spare us vibes?) but other times, we get hit because kids will be kids haha.
When we were exploring the festivities, we bought refreshing sugar cane drinks from sidewalk carts to cool down and an innards noodle soup for lunch. In the evening, we took a relaxing sunset cruise, floating along the river lazily with a big orange sun saying goodbye to the day.
For dinner we ate at Central Market, but we must’ve arrived late as only two stalls were still open. We ordered grilled shrimp and chicken which were pretty not good, and when we paid, we had a suspicion the lady was seriously ripping off us tourists. But what can you do. At night we checked out Independence Monument. It’s kind of nicer to just drive by than take a walk at; there’s not much to see. But nearby we spontaneously discovered a casual restaurant filled with lots of locals. We sat on stools, ordered inexpensive comfort food and mystery drinks that looked popular with everyone (turned out to be pandan yum!). It overwrote our failed dinner at the market and we ended our day on a pleasant note!
Our lodging was the Plantation Urban Resort & Spa. The next morning, we had a very nice breakfast at the hotel by the pool. I just love hotel breakfasts in Asia.
But our main activities on day 2 were visiting two memorials to learn about the genocide that took place under the Khmer Rouge.
First was the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, or killing fields, one of the many where the Khmer Rouge carried out their murders. Today, it is a peaceful site where a memorial stands amidst the orchard, small lake, and rice fields yonder. But our audioguide guided us stop by stop through what took place here only about 50-some years ago. How endless bus loads of people were taken here, brutally killed, bodies tossed into pits, and a display of the rudimentary tools used to complete these tasks and strategies taken to cover the sounds and smells. The audioguide is of high quality, skillfully guiding the visitor through these horrors and thoroughly informative while approaching these stories with respect, additional stories available if one desired. My heart broke repeatedly and I shed quiet tears as we moved through. There really was nothing to say and I tried to focus on my one responsibility— to learn and bear witness to their suffering.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (former S-21) is a similar site, a former high school turned into a prison and killing site, and now stands as a museum and memorial. The audio guide here is of the same high quality. At both places, we listened to each guide almost in its entirety but here, we left out some bonus content because by then, the content can wear you down. I think the biggest difference to me between visiting the two is that Tuol Sleng feels closer to how it looked when it was used. It preserves the rusty metal bed-frames used for torture in each room, the prisons, shackles, barbed wire, the wooden structure where kids used to climb rope but was converted to a torture device. It is preserved but is not a pretty sight. At Choeung Ek, after excavation of course, the surrounding mother nature has a way of soothing. Tuol Sleng had a peaceful area in the middle but it’s not quite the same.
On a more cheerful note, after these visits we get lunch at Eleven One Kitchen. We learned from their menu that while Cambodian food is similar to Thai food, Cambodian food is milder in terms of spices. Victor also gets to play poker, and we get massages at our hotel, our first massage of the trip and it was really good!
Day 3: travel day and Siem Reap
On the third day, we took a 6 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap so that was our main objective of the day. After arriving in the afternoon to an awesome hotel, the Golden Temple Residence, we went for a Khmer massage and body wrap, to try a different type of massage. A Khmer massage is kind of painful lol, similar to a deep tissue massage. And a body wrap turned out to be like a marinating experience, you get slathered in moisturizing products I guess and wrapped in saran wrap haha, interesting. At night we went to Phare, the Cambodian Circus. The young circus performers were bold, talented, and really put themselves out there to entertain, kudos to them! Even better, the tickets go to supporting a performing arts school for underprivileged youth, pretty awesome. Before the show, there are several food trucks there where we grabbed dinner first. The next few days would be dedicated to Angkor Wat.
Day 4, 5 & 6: Angkor Wat – 3 day tour
First, let me rave about our tour guide. He was excellent first in terms of his English which totally stood above everyone else we interacted with. He said he self-studied English and always left the news on to learn, that is, until he had to move out and away from his family to be closer to work as a guide; times were tough after the risk he took to open a restaurant failed due to Covid. And he also excelled in his knowledge of Angkor Wat. I don’t know if we just got lucky we had such a studious guide, but we did also learn that the government requires guides to pass exams, so it seems the role of an Angkor Wat tour guide is taken seriously here.
But anyways, day 1 started at 7:30 am and lasted 5 hours. We visited several temples including Pre Rup temple, Ta Som, Prasat Preah Khan, and Neak Poan. We learned so much about all different aspects of these temples.
To begin, we learned what the temples were used for— pretty much always for worshipping but some were also libraries, or here’s an interesting use case: one was a structure to hold the all-important sword that is passed between kings. Or then there was Neak Poan which acted as a healing temple with healing waters. That one’s still especially significant to Cambodians today as we saw many families visiting for the Cambodian New Year and a family showering their child with healing water. We learned which king built each temple during what years because almost every king would build their own temple(s), perhaps for himself or to dedicate to his father or mother. If not, the king in power might convert existing temples from Buddhist to Hindu or vice versa depending on his beliefs.
We talked about the construction and layout of these temples. Some were pyramidal while others were flat. Different materials were used, from limestone to volcanic rock, bricks or clay and the varying durability of those materials played a big role in which parts lasted. Most of them were surrounded by moats. Temples always faced east, except for Angkor Wat which was built to align with the solstices. Even doors were worth talking in depth about— notice how some are quite short? It was to require you to bow down as you entered holier areas.
A large portion of our learnings were on the symbolism of various statues and carvings that completely covered all temples. For example, elephants guard the temple. Another is Garuda, a half eagle half human who transports the god Vishnu at the speed of lightning. Naga is a seven-headed snake that protected the Buddha during a raging storm to help him reach enlightenment, and there were many women carvings representing those who served the king as wives or concubines. Every aspect of every temple was thoughtfully considered and packed with mythology, history, and meaning.
Let’s talk about Angkor Wat itself, the big grand temple whose name is most recognizable. We began our second day at 5am in order to catch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We were unlucky with a cloudy sky that day, but still I felt a sense of awe walking the stately pathway to this temple as the sky gradually lit up. After watching the sunrise, we began our history lesson. This temple was dedicated to Vishnu the preserver.
There are tons of impressive carvings, each telling a different story. One such story is about churning the sea milk. It was a thousand year collaboration between demons and gods to create an immortality elixir. Their method of churning was tug of war with the gods on one side and demons on the other, which is why we saw the theme of tug of war throughout Siem Reap, whether as statues or being played as a game during the New Year.
Another panel depicted a war that erupted because one side drank the whole vial. War also actually occurred while the temple was being built so it wasn’t completed. During evacuation, many folks were offered a better life in Thailand in exchange for their skills, so lots of skilled people were lost to another country then. But it was interesting insight into why Cambodia and Thailand share similarities and perhaps rivalries, from food to language to martial arts. We also climbed the 37 steps to reach the uppermost level of Angkor Wat, which being closest to heaven, was only for kings and priests back then.
Ta Prohm Temple was another highlight of the day. Huge fig trees have grown right out of the top of this temple, making for beautiful pictures. Apparently this is where Tomb Raider was filmed and often represents tourism in Cambodia. It’s on lots of magazines and I totally see why, it’s so unique and pretty.
We stopped at Victory Gate, where people were taking some kind of wedding pictures or something. It was used by the king and his army after they returned from winning a battle. We ended with Bayon Temple, the next most famous temple after Angkor Wat and known for its many stone faces.
Day 3 we visited Banteay Srei. Though it doesn’t have the name recognition of Angkor Wat, some say you have not visited Angkor Wat if you have not visited Banteay Srei. I’m with them. The unbelievably intricate carvings on this temple are just beautiful and so impressive. The carvings tell many elaborate stories, like the one about the monkey brothers.
Today was a shorter day and we ended with the Cambodia Landmine Museum. It’s a modest but eye opening museum to visit. We became educated about the horrible dangers of landmines, the history of why they’re in Cambodia and how there are so many that are still active and endangering lives today. The museum also shares the story of Aki Ra who was forced to be a child soldier and lay lots of landmines during that time. After the war, he’s been dedicating his life ever since to make his country safe for his people: spending years clearing landmines with the expertise he gained as a soldier, saving up money to start this museum, take in orphans affected by the landmines, raising money to send children in the area to school, so on and so forth. After all this, I am flabbergasted my country hasn’t signed the international agreement to stop using landmines. But if there’s one link I’ll share with you, it’s this one to learn more about ongoing defining efforts: https://www.cambodianselfhelpdemining.org/.
We finished this tour having learned so much.
Day 4, 5, 6 – Siem Reap in the afternoons and evenings
In the afternoons and evenings of the 3 day tour, we explored in our home base city of Siem Reap. Fun fact, Siem Reap means defeat of the Siamese. We got lots of massages and tried out various night markets. Many night markets didn’t pan out maybe because we’re visiting around the holiday. But when it did, I really enjoyed walking around the lively streets, trying skewers, smoothies, mystery dessert snacks and more. The last thing we did in Cambodia was try a fine dining Cambodian restaurant, Embassy Khmer Gastronomy. I think they did well in making it an experience: pre-dinner snack tasting In the waiting area, taking you into the kitchen, presenting a display of ingredients they used, but as for what’s outside of their control, I guess Cambodian food just isn’t as memorable to me personally.
All in all, visiting Cambodia was a very educational experience and we still appreciate the impact it had on us. Onwards we go to the second country of this trip, Malaysia. Check that out at http://exploringduo.com/malaysia/!