Siem Reap – The Ruins of Angkor

From Phnom Pehn, we made our way by bus to Siem Reap to explore the very famous Angkor Archeological Park. The town itself is pleasant and filled to the brim with tourists. There are several night markets and a very popular Pub Street, where cheap beers are in abundance. We rented bicycles and bought a 3-day park pass ($40 US each), giving us plenty of time to explore the park. The park is huge (400 sq. km) and is filled with ruins from the ancient Khmer empire and are a mix of Hindu and Buddhist architecture. Though the ruins themselves are mesmerizing, the park is really well known for the thick jungle vegetation that has reclamed many sites, making the area even more picturesque.

Night markets

Pub street!

Celebrating 100 days in SE Asia

Our three days in the park were spent cycling and visiting as many ruins as we could. On the first day, we visited the smaller ruins on the large outer circuit and finished with a sunset view of the park from the temple mountain Phnom Bakheng.

View of Angkor Wat from Phnom Bakheng

Relief carvings at Pre Rup Temple

East Mebon

Tree roots reclaiming the area

Ta Som

Tree taking over entrance to Ta Som

Frog that plumps up as a defense mechanism

Stone cavings at Preah Khan

Tree overtaking the ruins at Preah Khan

A tree through a hole in the ceiling

Preah Khan in the evening sun

Tree roots in the afternoon

Big roots!

Monks waiting for sunset at Phnom Bakheng

Sunset at Phnom Bakheng

On the second day, we peddled into the park at 5:00 am to watch the sunrise at Ta Prohm. This site is famous for the trees that climb out of the ruins, reclaiming the jungle. Ta Prohm was also known for being  featured in ‘Tumb Raider.’ Riding around on the small circuit, we visited a few more ruins and ended with the huge temple Bayon, which is famous for the large stones faces that adorne the many towers that surround the central peak.

Famous tree overtaking the ruins at Ta Prohm

Sunrise at Ta Prohm

Amanda amongst the ruins and tree roots

Roots weaving around the ruins

Imagine Angelina Jolie running through this door

Ta Prohm in the evening light

Tree roots everywhere

Ta Prohm’s most famous ruin

Bayon Temple

Star jumps at Bayon

The faces of Bayon

Monks exploring the ruins of Bayon

On our final day, we finished our time in the park by touring Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. The amount of ruins in and around the park is mind boggling and after three days of peddling around in the hot sun and touring the ruins, we were exhausted.

Angkor Wat

Star jumps in front of Angkor Wat

Relief carvings

The temple at Angkor Wat

Etchings that surround the exterior of Angkor Wat

Carvings from the Terrace of the Leper King in Angkor Thom

Terrace of the Leper King

Angkor Archeological Park is on the list of our favorite places in Asia and we highly recommend touring it by bike. We went during dry season, so we had great weather, but we can only imagine how even more stunning the ruins would be covered in lush green during the wet season. Angkor Wat is spectacular, but we enjoyed some other ruins even more. Bayon, Ta Prohm, and the North Gate are just a few of our favorites. The outer circuit is less visited and some of the ruins scattered around may not have the wow factor, but they are more pleasant to visit. Hundreds of tourists just come to the park for the day and that’s a real shame. You could easily spend more than three days visiting the park and even more in the surrounding area. Watching the sunrise and sunset in the park is very popular. We aren’t sure if it was the time of year or what, but we don’t recommend it. The sky is hazy and, for sunrise, the light really isn’t that good until about two hours later. We found that the best time for visiting and taking  pictures time was in the morning (7-9 am) and in the afternoon (3-5 pm). There are fewer people and the light is beautiful. Whatever you time schedule, route, or budget, no visit to Cambodia is complete without seeing the ruins of Angkor.

Phnom Penh – Learning About A Dark History

We spent two nights in Cambodia’s capital, before and after our trip to Koh Kong. It is the necessary travel hub for most places in Cambodia. We stayed in a cheap guesthouse and spent most of our time enjoying the city. On both visits, we spent all of our meals eating at the central market. Cambodia has delicious food influenced by Vietnam, Thailand, and China, and in the market, you can find everything you could ever drool of having and some weird stuff too.

Little shrimp trying to escape

Crabs for sale

Edible bugs!

Small clams

Cambodia has a very sad history and its capital is at the heart of the story. We brushed up on our history via Google and set out to see it for ourselves. We rented a motorbike and drove to the edge of town to see the “Killing Fields.” During the horrible reign of the Khmer Rouge (1975 – 1979), the goal was to create a perfect communist agrarian society at any and all cost. Anyone suspicious of having contact with the western world or conspiring against the Rouge was arrested, put in jail, and usually executed. It’s estimated that nearly a million lost their lives – Men, women, children, academics, educators, artists, and even members of the Khmer Rouge who were suspected of being disloyal to the regime were all executed. Most claims were false and baseless and the whole family was eradicated in case of retaliation or redemption. Learning about all of this was hard and seeing it was extremely painful. The Killing Fields are plots of land throughout Cambodia where inmates were taken out of the crowded jails to be executed, usually violently, and buried in mass graves. We visited Choeung Ek, which is the largest of the Killing Fields and was mainly used for executing prisoners from the famous S1 Prison in Phnom Penh. It is estimated that nearly 9,000 bodies were buried there. A stupa was constructed and filled with 5,000 human skulls in remembrance of those that perished here. With monsoon rains washing away at the surface, clothes and bones from the executed prisoners still surfacing today.

Skulls displayed in the stupa

Stupa at Choeung Ek

Human skulls of those that perished

“The Killing Tree” – Used to execute children

Human bones becoming unearthed

Clothes of those that were executed

On our second visit to Phnom Penh, we visited the S1 Prison. The Khmer Rouge dismantled all schools and converted one of the city’s high schools into a prison. This prison is largely in tact and it is haunting to tour the ground’s buildings – bare rooms with iron beds, unimaginably tiny cells, and interrogation rooms (or torture chambers). Photographs of prisoner’s mug shots, coerced confessions, and execution scenes were painstakingly documented by the Khmer and line the open holding cells, which were once classrooms.  Though visits to historical places like these are not easy, they are necessary in order to understand Cambodia and its people. It is also a necessary reminder of history and the horrible things that are now, luckily, in the past. We went to a small movie house called, “Flicks,” attached to a hostel that shows the movie, “The Killing Fields” almost every night. It’s a moving story of this time period and is definitely worth watching.

Looking in from outside the complex

Holding cells

A lone bed in holding cell

Rooms filled with photos of the prisoners

Shackles

Once a classroom…

Barbed wire fence around the complex

Smaller cells

Aside from the heavy sight seeing, we did spend some time walking around the city, seeing its monuments, chic shops and restaurants, hopping bars advertised by groups of “lady boys,” upscale residential areas, beautiful palaces and Buddhist Wats. Despite the efforts of the Khmer Rouge, Phnom Penh really is a modern, advancing city.

Wat Langka

Wat Langka

Independence Monument

Koh Kong – Islands, Mangroves, and Jungles

From Kratie, we went to the coastal town of Koh Kong, adjacent to the Thailand border. We had to go through Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, which acts as the country’s main transportation hub; however, we’ll write about that later, combining it with our second trip to the capital city.

Koh Kong is a laid back port town with a lot to do around the area and delicious food. At night, along the river, food venders line the street and serve delicious seafood dishes and cheap Cambodian beers. Strangely, though, this area also turns into a strange riverside fair with rides and games for kids.

Women on pier

Kids by the river

Kids playing on boat

Monk by the water

Delicious riverside basil-chili clams

Stout beer

Wierd fair

Because Cambodia is so affordable, we were able to book two very different excursions. On our first excursion, we took a 2-hour boat ride to the island of Koh Kong. There’s pretty much nothing on the island but stretches of beautiful white sandy beaches. Once our boat anchored, everyone spread out, choosing their spot in the sand. There were only about ten people in our group, so it felt like we had the whole beach to ourselves. One of the reasons we loved this excursion so much is because it was so relaxed. If you wanted to snorkel, they had masks and fins available for you. If you wanted to go fishing, they had poles and bait ready. It was great! The water was spectacularly clear, and though the snorkeling wasn’t fantastic, it was fun and we saw some pretty fish. The crew spent most of the time preparing our huge lunch of barbecued fish and veggies, rice, bread, and fresh fruit.

Our boat for the day

Shellfish on rocks

Lunch!

Koh Kong Island

In the afternoon, we boarded the boat and headed back towards the mainland to explore the mangrove forests in Botum Sakor National Park. We got out of the boat for a bit to walk around a nice boardwalk through the mangrove forest preserve. As we walked along the path, the trees and their tangled roots gave us an eerie sensation.  On the way back to the boat, we watched the sun setting through the trees.

Boat ride through the mangrove forest

Walkway through the mangroves

Eerie mangroves

The next day, we embarked on our second excursion, an overnight jungle trek in the Cardamom Mountains. Sally, an Aussie, joined us for the day. The three of us and two guides were dropped off at a trailhead, barely visible from the road. We hiked through the jungle, stopping along the way to eat lunch and to learn about the many fascinating plants and animals. Our guide, Sopia, knew so much about the jungle and with gestures accompanying his broken English, we were able to learn about the vegetation and wildlife. We ended our hike at a campsite by the river and swam in a small waterfall. After a quick swim, Sally and her guide hiked back, as she was only spending the day in the jungle. Our excursion, however, had just gotten started.

Ant colony

Rubber Tree

Victor climbing a vine

Lunch!

Ants… They’re everywhere!

Drinking water from cut vines

Sally’s guide

Jungle trap

Dissected ant nest

Swimming in the waterfall

Bird nest hidden behind the falls

After swimming and laying in the last bit of the day’s sun, Sopia got started building a fire. We had fruit and coffee while he showed us how he was going to prepare our barbecue dinner on bamboo skewers. As dinner cooked, Sopia taught us some puzzles with pieces of bamboo to help keep us entertained. When our chicken and veggie skewers were ready, Sopia laid it all out on palm leaves and we toasted to the day with homemade rice whiskey. After dinner, in the dark, we went searching for frogs, tarantulas, snakes, and fish. Sopia caught a small fish with his makeshift pole and roasted it over the fire. Bear Grylls who? Once enough rice whiskey was drunk and we had completed all of Sopia’s puzzles, we went to our hammocks to sleep under the stars.

Sopia sharpening his knife

Building a fire

Making coffee

Barbecue skewers

Bamboo puzzles

Move 3 to make the fish swim in the other direction

Dinner!

Turantula trying to get to our rice whiskey

Frog

In the morning, Sopia had coffee and toast waiting for us. We  ate quickly, packed up, and set out back through the dense jungle seeing more of the region’s interesting vegetation. By mid-day, we had nearly hiked out of the jungle when we stumbled across a large group of Great Hornbilled birds. We saw about 15 of them flying through the tall, dense trees. Even our guide was excited to them in such large quantities. Unfortunately, no photos were captured as there was too much excitement and movement. After the Hornbilled birds left the area, we eventually made our way to the main road, where a truck was waiting for us. We picked up our lunch, hopped on motorbikes, and drove down to see the Tatai waterfalls to eat lunch and have a swim, ending our jungle excursion.  We had such a good time on our excursion and highly recommend Koh Kong, especially if you want to experience a lot of Cambodia on a small budget and in a short amount of time.

Tatai Waterfalls

Prickly tree

Orchids

Fungi

Riding to the falls

A macaque relaxing and posing for the camera

Jumping in!

A macaque’s hands and feet

A macaque

Us with our guide, Sopia

Star jumps into the river

Kratie – Cambodia on the Mekong

From 4,000 Islands, we took a boat back to the mainland and then a bus into Cambodia. We heard horror stories about corrupt border patrolmen and various touts while crossing the border. We were prepared for the bus company shpeal about the corruption at the border and how we should pay them $40 US to handle all the visa paperwork “for less hassle.” We said no thanks and kept our money and passports with us, choosing to do the border crossing on our own. When we got to the Laos customs counter, they asked for a fee of $2 US for a stamp to leave the country. This is not a lagitament fee, but if you want to leave Laos, you just have to pay it. It’s illegal and corrupt – After much protesting, though, we too ended up paying the “fee.” The Cambodian side was easy. Everyone pays the same visa fee ($35 US), despite what you read online, and no one made us pay for the notorious “health screening” we heard about. All in all, we needed $37 US to cross from Laos to Cambodia.

First sunset in Cambodia over the Mekong River

We eventually made it to our first stop, Kratie, just before a beautiful sunset over the Mekong River and immediately felt good vibes from Cambodia. Kratie is a small river town mostly known for the pods of Irrawaddy Dolphins and as a pit stop on the way from Laos to Phnom Penh. In the morning, we rented bikes and peddled up river to Kampi to see the dolphins, stopping at the many wats and pagodas along the way.

A truck full of Monks

One of the many pagodas we visited along the way

Most monks are eager to speak to foreigners and practice their English

One Monk’s cabin

Touring the pagodas

A monk and his apprentices

Upon arriving to Kampi, we hired a boat to see the dolphins with an Argentinian couple. The river this time of year is beautiful and the dolphins are everywhere. Our captain drove us a little ways further upstream to go swimming/floating in small rapids. After our tour and lunch, we peddled back into town, watched another beautiful sunset, and met up with the Argentinians for dinner and drinks, and to swap travel recommendations.

A glimpse of an Irrawaddy Dolphin

The Mekong

Our tour boat

Watching the dolphins

Dolphin surfacing

Going for a swim

Our boat gang

Our captain

Traditional home by the river

Biking through the villages, giving out high fives

The next day, we took advantage of Kratie’s great food market then caught the ferry that crosses the river to the small island adjacent to town. We spent the day relaxing on the beach, playing dominoes, and exercising in our infinity pool (i.e. the Mekong.) We had the beach all to ourselves. Though there’s not a ton to do in Kratie, it’s a great, relaxing introduction to Cambodia.

Market eats!

Bloody fish

Packaged to go

Eating breakfast

Crusted boat

Sunset over the Mekong