Angkor What? Angkor Wat!

Sweet!

Hello from Cambodia!

It's Friday afternoon as I write this in Phnom Penh Cambodia. When we left off I was still in Laos. Excuse me if there's a lot of typos in this post, the keyboard isn't very good.

Last Friday was spent in Vang Viang. Vang Viang has pretty much turned into nothing more than a backpacker ghetto. There isn't really any local culture left. On one hand it's a bit of a shame. On the other hand though, the local population is enjoying the economic benefits. The town is obviously wealthier than most of Laos.

The activity of the day was tubing down the river. We rented big floating inflatable tubes and took a nice ride for a few km. The tubing business is controlled by the town as a whole, and the profits are split amongst the citizens, very communist. The ride was relaxing. The views of the mountains were great. That's about it for Vang Viang.

The next morning we boarded a public bus to Vientiane. The bus station was located next to the defunct airport.The ride was a bit bumpy but alirght. The bus broke down, something to do with the clutch. We waited for about an hour along the side of the road while it was fixed. A bit later, during a stop in a town a food vendor stood outside the door of the bus. Se had a few delicacies on a stick for sale. One of these delicacies was tiny bats. That's right, bats. I can't say no to a new food experience so I had to buy one. The stick of 6 bats cost less than a dollar. When asked about how they taste, my response is, "They taste like crunchy." Indeed they did, they also had a bit of a meaty and salty flavor. The whole things were eaten, head, bones, innards and all.


We arrived in Vientiane, the capital, in the afternoon. Vientiane is very different from the hustle and bustle of other Asian capitals. It's very calm and not crowded at all. There's also no McDonald's, KFC, or 7-11. I haven't mentioned it, but Malaysia and Thailand has a ridiculous amount of 7-11s. It seems like they're on every block.

Anyways, Vientiane is a pleasant city. We had lunch on the Mekong riverfront. After we toured a few temples and went to the central market. I picked up a few souvenirs. There's honestly not a ton to do there. Though I would've liked a day just to explore. That's about it for Vientiane.

On Sunday morning we boarded our plane headed to Siem Reap, Cambodia. I had to wake up at 4 am, to meet at 4:30 for a 6:10 flight. Not fun.

The flight was a one a 60 seat propeller plane on Lao Airlines.

First we had to go to Pakse in southern Laos, which took an hour. Then we waited an hour. Meanwhile the plane re-fueled and I exited Laos through immigration control. We re-boarded the same plane and headed to Siem Reap, which took another hour. Immigration business was taken care of and I was in.

The Kingdom of Cambodia!

Cambodia is very different from where I've been so far. It's hectic and lively, but also desperately poor.

We checked into the hotel and I was off into the city. First order of business... Lunch! I went to the market near not too far from where I was staying, just across the Siem Reap River.

I had a great bowl of noodles. It had scallions, bits of fried garlic, re-hydrated dried squid, beef (added to the bowl raw and cooked by the broth) and vegetables. It was very tasty. The squid was quite unique, I could pull it apart to shreds with my chopsticks.


The rest of the market was really cool. It was very busy, very Cambodia. Granted, the hygiene standards are not what you and I are used to, nonetheless it was a good look into the culture.

Later, I met with a few people from our group. We took a trip out to a floating village outside the city. It's located on the edge of Tonle Sap, Cambodia's great lake. The size changes drastically between the rainy and dry season, and the people living there move their homes and businesses accordingly. The boat toured around the area.
We went fishing, I didn't catch anything, but another guy did. We were able to get it cooked up, very good. We also picked up some water snake (we didn't catch it). That tasted really good. It had been salted, it kinda tasted like bacon. Mmmmm.... snake bacon.

After we got back I relaxed a bit. I went out to dinner, going to a street-side "restaurant", a real local place. I had soup in a very rich brown broth. The broth reminded me a bit of what is seen in French cuisine, I bet they had some influence in this dish. It had various vegetables, bamboo shoots, and little bits of goat (I think). It came with a big plate of rice. I also got a soda with it. The whole meal cost 2 bucks.

Oh yea, the official currency of Cambodia is the Riel. The preferred currency is the US dollar. It's what you get out of ATMs. Stores and restaurants like it more when you pay in dollars. They don't use coins though. Small change, any amount less than a dollar, is done in Riel. There's 4,000 Riel to a dollar. So if something costs $1.25, and I give them a $5 bill, I'll get change of 3 dollar bills and 3,000 Riel.

The next day was a trip to Angkor. Angkor is a World Heritage site, consisting of many temples and other old buildings built by the Khmer Emipre during the 8th to 13th centuries. It was a city, one of the largest in the world during its time. Angkor's most famous building is Angkor Wat. I got the opportunity to see it a sunrise, though I had to wake up at 4:15 to do so. It's quite a spectacular building. It really should be considered one of the wonders of the world. One thing, part of it was in scaffolding. crap. Otherwise, it was awesome.


After seeing the sunrise, we headed back to Siem Reap for an hour to get breakfast and pickup others who hadn't come for sunrise. During that time I had an awesome bowl of noodles. This was another one of the best things I've had on this trip. It was really simple. It was fresh yellow noodles in a light but flavorful broth. It came with a few pieces of roast duck (and a bit of dipping sauce) and some scallions. Pure deliciousness.

Angkor has lots of other temples too. My favorite was Ta Prohm. It's had a few trees grow over it, with the roots coming down the walls, giving a really bizarre effect.

Another temple was Bayon, which was many large stone carvings of faces. That one was great as well. Towards the end of the day rain came. I was soaked. It is still monsoon season.

After a long day of touring, I crashed at the hotel and took a wonderful nap. I went out for dinner, and found another street-side restaurant. I managed to order a beef salad. It came with grilled beef, onions, green tomatoes, green eggplant, carrot, Thai basil and mint. the dressing, served on the side, was Prahok based. Prahok is fermented mudfish paste. Yes, you read that right. It tastes like it sounds, but in a good way. It's very, very strong though, a little goes a long way. Additionally, I got a giant bowl of rice, a juice, and a large Angkor Beer (the national brew). Total cost, $3.25

The next day I slept late. I had another bowl of the yellow noodle soup. This time it also came with a few blood cubes (coagulated blood in cube form). Great.

I spent time wandering around the city some, checking out the streets a bit. The day was pretty chilled out, nothing too crazy.

The next day we got on a bus to Phnom Penh. Along the way we visited a silk business. It was very interesting seeing the whole processes, from silk worm eggs, through the life cycle, to the processing of the silk to the final product.

We also stopped in Skun for lunch. Skun is famous for one dish in particular, tarantulas (the big spiders). They're sold as a snack. They're fried with garlic. I tried one (alright, 2, I went back for a second). It was not all that flavorful, a bit crunchy, especially the legs.

I also got to try a tiny frog stuffed with lemon grass. Blech. Wayyy too much lemon grass.

That afternoon we got to Phnom Penh. I was pretty tired and took another good, long nap. I also got a massage (massages are really cheap, this one was $8 for an hour). Very relaxed. I also ran some errands, I hadn't stocked up on supplies in a while.

For dinner a few of us went to a Chinese restaurant. I know, I know, it's not Cambodian. It was really delicious though, authentic Chinese food. I tried jellyfish for the first time. It was served cold and shredded with abit of chili and lightly dressed. I really liked it. There was also some pig ear. Main dishes included fried pigeon, mushrooms, ostrich with peppers, and steamed fish and one other thing I can't remember. It was all very, very good.

The next morning, Thursday, we toured Phnom Penh. We took cyclos, cyclos are pedal powered transport. They're touristy, and cost more than taxis, but support the cyclo drivers. Cyclo drivers come from the poorest parts of Cambodia. Puhn, the driver of my cyclo, was the oldest of all of the cyclo drivers for the group. He musta been at least 60. Don't let his age fool you, he worked like a machine, powering that cyclo around.

We saw the Royal Palace and its grounds which were really beautiful. Later, we went to the market which was also great. I had lunch there, noodle soup (it's what powers SE Asia).

After that we got a bus to tour Choeng Ek (killing fields) and S21 (prison). See the previous post for a description of that. Most of the rest of the day was spent feeling pretty miserable about what I had seen.

The group and I went out for our final night together. We went to a restaurant called "Friends." It's part of a culinary school for street kids. They're provided with training at the school, and working in this restaurant is the final phase of their education. They usually go on to work in the big hotels and restaurants in the city, turning their lives around.

This morning I said goodbye to most of the people in the group. A few of us are staying on in Phnom Penh for another night (or in my case, another 4). We're splitting hotel rooms here.

That brings us up to the present moment.

That's about it. On the 23rd I head to Vietnam. I need to get it organized. I'll hopefully be taking a oat down the Mekong from Phnom Penh into the Delta in Vietnam. I can't wait to see Vietnam. I hope to update you all before I leave.

Take care,
Mike