Today is our last morning in Cambodia. It has been a pretty quick tour. I've liked it though, it's been a great eye opener. The town of Siem Reap thrives on the tourist industry. I couldn't give you an exact number, but it seems like almost everyone is a tuk tuk driver, waiter at a restaurant that caters to westerners, a vendor in one of the market stalls,and also leads personalized tours of the temple ruins. Bargaining over prices is everyday standard practice here, except for a meal in a sit-down restaurant. I have to admit, I haven't eaten much "street food"yet, but maybe that's more popular in Thailand. Here, the more common street vendors I've seen sell some sort of shells in a large basket and I'm not quite sure of what they are, and corn on the cob. Very few noodle vendor carts.
Anyhow, yesterday and the day before we did some serious ruin-ing. Touring ruins can be a 9-5 job! Yesterday we rented bicycles to cruise around the ruins which was an awesome way to go. Got some exercise, went at our own pace, and got to be a part of the local commute. It can be a little scary if you're not comfortable on a bike. City traffic in the states can be scarier sometimes! Here, bikes and motorbikes outnumber cars by a lare margin. We saw more of Angkor Wat which is most famous for its four large temples with one temple in the middle symbolizing Mt. Meru, the center and creator of the universe, as well as its well preserved bas reliefs. For a long time these bas reliefs were exposed to the elements, but in the 70s and 80s preseravationists rebuilt the arches, pillars and roof that protect the carvings. The carvings depict epic battle scenes between gods and demons, Shiva, Ganesh, Vishnu, scenes from the Ramayana and countless other tales. Our favorite was "The Churning of the Sea of Milk"which depicts gods and demons pulling at the tail and head end of a serpent that churns the Sea of Milk, which produces the elixir of immortality. Ah the age old battle over immortality. Pretty timeless, even J.K. Rowlings uses that theme in her first Harry Potter novel. But I digress...
Seeing the ruins has been pretty amazing. There is just so much to take in! To get some sustenance you are able to each lunch basically on site. At every stop there are vendors selling the classic Angkor Wat t-shirts (I bought one...) and little restaurants. As soon as you enter or exit a site, you will hear a young woman call out to you "You want something to eat? You eat lunch here!" We were sold on a little girl and she walked us to her table. Her name was Bo and she was eleven years old. She asked if we rode bikes and we replied yes. I asked if she rides and bike and she said yes, everday to go to school. I took a picture with her, I'll try to post it later some time. She was very sweet.
We toured Angkor Thom yesterday along with some other smaller ruins by tuk tuk. Angkor Thom is a massive temple site, and house over a million people in its hey day. My favorite part of that temple complex was the Bayon Temple, which has hundreds of faces- gods and the image of the bodhisattvha staring at you from all directions. The expression that finds you around every turn is an ambivalent, omniscient, and omnipotent smile. Somewhat scary, somewhat genuine, but you are never away from its gaze. the symbolism behind this described in the guidebooks is that this was the ever present eye of the king-always watching everything that went on in his kingdom. Pretty neat.
Last night we made it a point to visit the night market. It is also massive. Anything you could want in terms of tourist goods. Paintings and drawings of the ruins, Khmer pants, Angkor Wat t-shirts, jewelry, handbags, and rows beyond rows of scarves. We haggled a little on some items and man is it exhausting. I make a special price for you.
We ended the night with a late dinner of Cambodian BBQ. Super tasty! It is cooked on what looks like an upside down collander except there aren't holes all the way from the bottom to the top. There are holes from the top and halfway down (sorry I didn't have my camera out last night...) and then a trough around the bottom. This contraption sits on a gas burner. The waiter then pours water from a kettle into the trough to heat up this bbq grill. The dish comes with four different meats- we went with the basics of chicken, fish, beef, and...oh my lord its escaping me now. But, you can order snake, ostrich, kangaroo and crocodile. No thanks to those options. But it was really delicious. The water turns to broth while the meat is cooked over the bbq with the addition of lettuce, noodles, carrots and some other greens. The whole dish is served with rice of course, and it was a tasty little meal.
Today we fly to Ko Samui, the southernmost island in the chain of islands in the Gulf of Thailand. We want to stop onto all of the islands- Ko Samui, then Koh Phangan, and Ko Tao. There is great diving and bouldering on and around these islands, and of course wonderful beaches. Hooray!
So goodbye Siem Reap, Cambodia and hello Southern Thailand. Last night the moon looked near full and we realized it will be a full moon while were on the islands. Oh boy.
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