Arrival in Siem Reap

Since we were already in eastern Thailand, our next stop was Cambodia! For most of our trip, we were only planning our stops a few days in advance, so when we looked at our maps and our schedule, we didn’t find the time to travel throughout Cambodia. But we knew we had to make time to go see Angkor Wat, the 8th Wonder of the World! So from Pak Chong, we took a bus to Bangkok and another bus to Arayprathet, the Thai town on the Cambodian border. We stayed in a hotel on the border which was one of the nicer places we stayed, with an in-ground swimming pool that we took a dip in that night. Too bad we hadn’t arrived during the heat of the day!

In the morning, we crossed the border to Poipet. Our tuktuk driver tried to rip us off again by bringing us to somebody who would arrange our visa for us, but this time we were smart. He pulled up alongside this roadside shack where a man in business clothes came outside with paperwork and a big smile. We told the tuktuk driver that we wanted to go to the border, and the man in the business attire said, “This is the border!” Yeah, right. The tuktuk driver didn’t say anything while the man tried to convince us to come inside to have our visa arranged, but we kept demanding that the tuktuk driver take us to the border, and after several minutes of arguing, he finally did. He wasn’t too happy about it, though. Once we crossed the bridge and paid for our visas, everything was fine, and we found a taxi to take us the 2 or 3 hour drive to Siem Reap. It was a crazy trip, with the driver speeding and swerving around cars and motorbikes and people and animals, but I actually fell asleep during the ride. Once in Siem Reap, we found a place to stay and spent the afternoon relaxing in the guest house’s outdoor dining area.

At 4:30 in the afternoon, we took a tuktuk to Angkor Wat. I remember our driver very well. The tuktuk was a carriage attached to a motorbike. Our driver was a young man and very thin and looked almost comical when he put his large helmet on. He was very friendly but also shy and spoke no English. He was wearing nice pants and a white button-down shirt. We hired him for the evening and for the following day. Our tickets to Angkor Wat, $20, were good for both the evening and the next day. For the evening, we went to Phnom Bakhaeng to watch the sun set behind Angkor Wat in the distance.

 
We walked up a dusty path to the temple, where flocks of tourists also trekked, sometimes walking slowly, 5 or 6 across the width of the trail, making passing difficult. As we reached the top of the hill, the temple came into view behind a stone wall, and our first glimpses were of the hundreds of people perched on the temple steps and walls. They dotted the entire temple with different colored clothing, perched on the many tiers and steps of the structure, all facing west. We approached the western face of the temple and also began to climb it. The stairs were very shallow and very steep, making climbing difficult. I was surprised how many elderly and overweight people had made it to the top of the temple, though I did hear some huffing and puffing and see a lot of sweat and struggle. I even had to use my hands for balance and to pull myself up in some places. At the top, we explored the ruins: crumbling bricks and eroding statues lining the stairways. These were more impressive than the sunset, which was nearly nonexistent because of the cloud cover. As it started to get dark, we walked down the elephant path, stopping every so often and stepping off the path to let the elephants, clad in red and gold headdresses and with riders on their backs, pass us.

 

 

Back in Siem Reap that evening, we ate dinner and briefly checked out the night market before we went back to our guest house to sleep. We had to get to bed early because we had a very early wakeup call: 4:45 AM!