Wow, it’s been an intense several days! No time for blogging, so I’ll have to catch up over the course of the next several days.
We got up at 3:30 a.m. Sunday to depart the Orion for the last time. After confirming that we had the right suitcases in the port terminal, we boarded the bus and headed for Bangkok’s international airport at 4:45. Viking handled everything for us at the airport, and it was a smooth flight on a turboprop to Siem Reap airport in Cambodia. We flew in over a vast lake surrounded by flooded rice paddies stretching as far as we could see. The airport at Siem Reap was modern and uncrowded, and the customs and immigration process was amazingly fast. Soon we were on the bus to our hotel, the Park Hyatt Siem Reap—a beautiful hotel!–to drop off our bags and head out immediately for lunch.
Lunch was at Mahob Khmer restaurant, a converted old wooden house. We’d never eaten Cambodian food, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. I thought it might be something like Thai or Vietnamese food, and it was a little of both but also unique in its own right, and extremely tasty. This meal set a high bar for the quality of cuisine we’d be enjoying over the next few days. First was a chicken salad that was similar to Thai larb gai, topped with a flower.
The main course was wok-fried snakehead fish fillet with mixed vegetables and shallot in tamarind gravy. It was served in a “bowl” made of palm or banana leaves. Outstanding! Accompanying it was “local luffa gourd with egg” and jasmine rice.
Dessert was “infused pumpkin cake with coconut cream” accompanied by watermelon, dragon fruit, and a crispy piece of pastry.
After our early start and such a wonderful lunch (and a beer), we were ready for a nap. But no—we were just getting started. From there, we went to the Angkor Panorama Museum for an orientation to the temple area. This included a diorama in the round in the same manner as the “Cyclorama” at Gettysburg. This one showed three stages of construction of the Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom areas. It was painted by North Korean artists. The museum guide told us that after the painting was finished, the Cambodians had to repaint all the faces, because they looked like Koreans rather than Cambodians. We also saw a large map depicting the layout and relationship of the various sites. We picked up our three-day photo ID passes for the temple area.
And then we started exploring.
Our first stop was the Ta Prohm temple. Much of this temple was left in the state in which it was rediscovered by the French, to show how nature had reclaimed this area since the king of the Khmer Empire abandoned the area in 1431 as indefensible against enemies, moving his capital to Phnom Penh. (Destruction by invading armies and the rapid advance of the jungle destroyed and hid the temples until the French “discovered” Angkor Wat in 1860 and began restoring the remains of the once-great cities and temples.)
Ta Prohm was built in 1186 CE as a Buddhist learning center.
The way in which the roots of the various trees are surrounding and blending with the stone reminded me of the “Space Jockey” in the ship in Alien. It’s a very otherworldly look.
There is a movie connection for Ta Prohm; Angelina Jolie filmed part of Tomb Raider here.
From Ta Prohm, we went back into Siem Reap for dinner at another outstanding Cambodian restaurant. And then, it was time for the circus! We were taken to “Phare, The Cambodian Circus.” As we got off the bus, someone sprayed our exposed skin with mosquito repellent (unnecessary, as we never saw a bug the entire time we were in Cambodia) and handed us rattan fans. We were ushered into a circular tent and found places on benches arranged in a tiered circles around the stage floor.
Then, for the next hour and a half, we were entertained by some outstanding acrobats, music, dance, juggling, and mimed comedy by very talented young artists in a show entitled, “Same Same But Different.” This highlighted funny encounters between locals and tourists. We later learned that most of the performers were orphans from the countryside who were given the opportunity to study and train for performing, with the hopes of making better lives for themselves.
What an inspiring and fun evening – but boy, were we exhausted! We got back to the hotel at 9:30 and collapsed! We would be back onsite at temples at 8 a.m. the next day.