We arrived at Siem Reap on December 7, 2001 at about 11:00 in the morning. The tiny airport at Siem Reap funnels you through Visa and Immigration, with at least six officials handling the passport before you are admitted. The tiny baggage claim area has a dead-end luggage belt. They check your claim tags against your luggage tags before you can go. There were only 4 luggage carts, so we were lucky to get one! Our driver from Angkor Village drove us from the airport to the hotel. The hotel is a few blocks off the main street. All but the main street are dirt roads with some broken pavement thrown into the potholes.

After a wonderful lunch of tiny fried spring rolls, fish in coconut milk and grilled marinated chicken, we set off for our first of 11 half-day tours through the temples. Our first stop was Angkor Wat. While the floor plan looks symmetrical and ordered, we never really knew where we were within this large complex on our first visit. It was like a maze with long corridors leading from the center outward, with stairs so steep it felt more like rock climbing ascending them. But what a view at the top!

During the next 5 days we visited many other temples, which you can see in the photo album pages, which gave us a different appreciation and feel for the architecture of the temples. We went back to Angkor Wat on our last morning. Because we arrived early there were very few people, as compared to hundreds our first day. We could actually find our way around. The quiet and the cool of the morning added to the meditative atmosphere of this spectacular temple complex.

Please enjoy looking at our photos and learning something about these amazing structures.

Guidebooks:
Angkor, 4th Ed., by Dawn Rooney, Odyssey Pub., 1999

Ancient Angkor by Michael Freeman & Claude Jacques, River Books Guides, 1999

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Other Interesting Books:
Gecko Trails, by Carol Livingston, Phoenix Paperback, 1996

Ruins of Angkor Cambodia in 1909, by P. Dieulefils, Photo-Editor in Hanoi, River Books, Bangkok, 2001

Cambodia Links

The people in Siem Reap, Cambodia, which is the town closest to the temples, are very poor, at least by my Western standards. We drove through different parts of the city every day on our way to the temples and saw so much - people going places on bicycles with large baskets on the back, firewood, dead pigs; scooters with 3 and 4 riding together - the whole family many times. We saw many, many monks in saffron robes at the temples and in town. There were people everywhere we went out and about going about their business. Tourism has brought some prosperity to Siem Reap and we gladly spent our American dollars (we each brought plenty of US cash with lots and lots of $1 bills). Virtually everything in Siem Reap is priced in US dollars.

At the temples, when we got out of the van, children would just flock around us and all holler at once, "Madam, buy from me, madam, only 1 dollar!!" Two to as many as 10-15 would surround us all at once. We bought alot of t-shirts! It was difficult to pick out exactly what we wanted because they all wanted you to buy from them. We tried our best to spread the wealth. The most we paid for a single t-shirt was $3.50. They also sold guidebooks, flutes and other musical instruments made from bamboo. I even bought a Cambodian "violin" for $12.00. It is a thing of beauty and to think it was made there in the jungle by the people (I honestly don't know where it was made, this is my assumption). It's rosewood with a long neck, 2 steel strings with a long rosewood bow in between the strings. The old man who sold
it to me played it beautifully, I sound terrible, but it will be fun to learn (Kathie doesn't think so, though!)

On our last day there in the early morning we went back to the large temple complex of Angkor Wat and there was hardly anyone there. It is so large, it's like walking through a maze, but after being at so many of the smaller temples, we were able to make better sense of it. Then in the late afternoon we went to one of the mountain temples on elephant-back! It was a trip, we sat on a long padded seat (it fit the 2 of us perfectly) and it was a very comfortable ride. You don't realize just how large an elephant is until you ride on its back. Then we stayed up there for awhile and took pictures of the sunset, and then took another elephant ride back down.

The hotel was really charming. We loved the restaurant surrounded by the ponds filled with water lillies and lotus. We also enjoyed a refreshing swim in their small pool every evening. The traditional Cambodian beds were a 6" hard foam pad on top of wood. Needless to say, we were up very early every morning.

This trip was so worth it. We could see the people re-building their infrastructure, whole teams of people were paving a road we took often. Being there only whet my appitite for more, I am certain I will return one day. Cambodia is a very special place with very special people. I want to thank them for their hospitality!