Siem Reap: Legends of the Hidden Temple

Truthfully, I didn’t know Cambodia was a country until a few weeks ago. Considering Kansas does not teach evolution, this shouldn't come as a huge surprise. Cambodia is a land filled with thousand-year-old temples, hidden trails, Buddhist and Hindu monasteries, rice paddies, tuk tuks and fake Ray Bans. The country’s treasures have been remarkably well preserved over the past thousand years, even against the backdrop of war and genocide.

On Saturday, we landed in Siem Reap airport, which was the second smallest airport I’ve ever been in, right behind Laos’ (our layover stop). In order to gain access to Cambodia and Vietnam, you just arrange for visas through very credible websites such as SmileTravelVietnam.com and LuckyVietnamVisa.com. As it turned out, Cambodian customs was a synch because, although this was the only country where we had to declare our belongings and cash, the customs officer was off for the day. To be fair, it was the weekend.

Up until now, we’ve enjoyed a relatively causal, carefree touring schedule. Cambodia was different. My friend Eric had put us in touch with a guide named Mr. T a few weeks ago, and with T we arranged for an action-packed four day tour. We seem to have a knack for finding guides with one letter names. T was waiting for the three of us at the airport with a 12 passenger air conditioned Shag-Mobile.

Our first stop was the 9th century Rolous Group temple site, where we saw three Hindu temples: Lolei, Preah Ko and Bakong. Kings commissioned the construction of nearly every one of the 300 temples in the Angkor area and the 4,000 temples in Cambodia to honor the legacies of themselves and their ancestors. Each temple offers a unique architectural design, with meticulous attention to detail and well preserved carvings.

Interestingly, although the Buddhist and Hindu temples were created during a period of mutual respect and understanding, in the 11^th century, a Hindu king decreed the destruction of all Buddha statues in the Angkor area. So nearly every Buddha statue and carving in these temples – and there are thousands – has been removed or defaced in some manner.

On Day 2, we visited Angkor Thom, the ancient capital city of the Khmer Empire, where we saw Bayon, Baphoun, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King, Rhimeanakas and the Royal Enclosing Wall. After lunch, we visited the jungle temple of Ta Prohm. In Ta Prohm, towering trees literally grow from the tops of the temple stones.

With all of the temples starting to blend together, it was time for a change of pace, so T arranged for us to do an ATV tour through the Cambodian countryside. Upon our arrival at Cambodia Quad Adventure, a French man (Cambodia was a French colony until 1953) walked us through the basics on how to operate an ATV, and then to confirm our driving competence, we each went on a short tandem ride with a guide aboard the back of the vehicle. This wasn’t a test per se, simply a way for us to get accustomed to the ATV before the tour. That didn’t stop Cymerman from failing (he had some trouble steering his ATV, which took him all of 15 seconds to figure out once we left the compound for the tour). His penalty? One Cambodian riding partner. With a man holding his waste for the entirety of our two hour ATV ride, Steve bonded with his new friend like son with father. As they glided through the open air of the countryside, Steve and his best friend contemplated contemporary issues such as bumps in the road, water buffalo prevalence and steering techniques. During breaks, Steve’s companion unhooked his helmet, fed him water and massaged his back while he urinated (not true, but the bathroom attendants do that here. It’s incredibly uncomfortable).

During our ride we stopped at an orphanage and met Nek. Nek is an extremely intelligent 10-year-old orphan, fluent in English and Cambodian and learning Mandarin and Japanese. Lang thought about adopting him Angelina Jolie-style, but instead settled on a donation. Together, we think we may have fed the orphanage for a month. Nek showed us around his orphanage/school, which is how we came across their reading comprehension passage for the week, a multiple choice exam on Justin Bieber. I learned that Justin Bieber is a good role model because (A) he has a 4.0 GPA and wants to go to college and not because (C) He is friends with Usher and dresses really nice or (D) he only cares about money and fame. And never to say never.

During our ride, we passed by many houses, temples and locals. For whatever reason, the little kids here love ATVs so much so that when they hear the bikes coming, they sprint from their homes to the side of the road, to wave and flash peace signs. Naked babies included. Our responsive waving became so natural that we also waved at passing chickens, water buffalo, motorcyclists and rice paddies. Steve’s co-rider was in on the waving, too. Which reminds me… did I mention that Steve failed his ATV driving test and had to ride with a guide on the back of his seat?

After our tour, T brought us to an area where hundreds of monkeys freely roam and accept food from tourists. Or so we thought. After enjoying my time feeding some well-behaved friendly monkeys, I was chased back to the van by a violent one-eyed monkey who had no interest in bananas. Sorry I’m not sorry.

That night, we went to Pub Street for an authentic Khmer meal and chowed down on some grilled Frog. The first frog was delicious, so at $1 a pop we ordered some more. But after once again running the highest tab this restaurant has ever seen (no more than $10 a person), a few frogs lived to see another meal, as the restaurant forgot to bring out the extras.

After dinner, we headed to the night market and engaged in some lively conversation with locals. To clarify, conversation between Americans and Cambodians is very simple. They, and this applies from everyone to little kids and sales people to masseuses, speak Khmer and their English is limited to the following words: I love you, handsome, same same, beautiful. Popular phrases include “No beautiful, no boyfriend,” “are you married? Marry me” and “you buy from me, my name is Angelina Jolie, I over there.”

What better way to relax after a large meal than a foot massage? Massages are everywhere here and masseuses vary in skill. At these ubiquitous foot massage stations, you sit down with your feet in the water as hundreds of tiny fish literally eat the dead skin off your feet. It sounds as disgusting as it felt, but the Cambodians assured us that it’s good for your feet and makes them “smooth as baby bottom.” I was flattered, however, that the fish seemed to stay away from my feet for the most part. After some post-massage research we realized that maybe it’s better to stick to (un)trained masseuses as the fish-massage practice is banned in 14 US states.

Yesterday morning we woke up at 4am to watch the sun rise over the magnificent Angkor Wat. This was the earliest I’ve ever woken up for anything other than traveling or pledging, but it was totally worth it. Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious building and biggest tourist attraction in Cambodia. It was built in the 12^th century as a Hindu temple and then turned Buddhist centuries later.

While exploring Angkor Wat with T, we learned about the recent history of Cambodia. T himself is a walking history book, as he survived the reign of the evil Pol Pot, who terrorized Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge’s reign (1975-1979) by murdering more than 2 million Cambodians (the population was 8 million). During that period, T spent two years living with his family and other Cambodian refugees at Angkor Wat. As he put it, they were “chickens in a cage waiting to be eaten.” In 1979, the Khmer Rouge were forced from power and retreated to the Cambodian jungle, where they continued to terrorize the country until Pol Pot’s death in 1998.

After our history lesson, I put my PennQuest skills to work as we hiked to a waterfall and jungle where a riverbed contains incredible underwater sculptures of ancient Gods and Linga and Yoni symbols. If you were wondering, those are sexual symbols. Much of the ancient history of these places involves sexuality. For example, the Kings, considered Gods, had 2,000 concubines ready for them at all times. I have learned many wilderness survival skills through PennQuest, but I think our instructors must have glossed over the “what to do if you’re walking in a dense jungle that was filled with landmines no more than 14 years ago.” We survived, but were tempted to explore more explosives later that afternoon at the shooting range.

After visiting a smaller temple named Banteay Srei , we could think of no better way to cap off our afternoon than to drive our Shag-Mobile into the heart of a Cambodian military base and fire an M80 machine gun. Larger and more powerful than an M16 (a common US Military weapon), the M80 is, frankly, scary. We were greeted at a hut filled with all sorts of guns, including five foot long rocket launchers (apparently in Phnom Phen, Cambodia, you can pay $350 to launch one of these at a cow). Riding ATVs in Cambodia requires signing a waiver, shooting deadly automatic weapons does not. #ThingsThatDontHappenInAmerica.

Cymerman took the first 20 shots while our cameraman, a non-English speaking Cambodian solider, took pictures of him. Lang and I were standing 10 feet behind him, holding onto our ear muffs and clinging to the the door of the indoor shooting room. I was next up. After my first shot, I could feel the sheer power of the gun recoil against my body. Two bullets deep, I couldn’t wait to be done with the other 18 and never have to touch one of these things again. After posing for a picture at what we realized was a fully loaded stationary machine gun setup, we casually exited the facility as stealthily as this guy.

Last night we took the Tigres Papier Cooking Class. We were expecting a one hour cooking tutorial, not a five hour master feast production, but it couldn’t have been any more enjoyable. Although our class was quite diverse (two Oregonians, a New Zealander, two Australians and the three of us), we were united by our love for Angkor beer ($.50 per pint).

We ventured to the markets together to buy ingredients for our dishes and try fried crickets (Lang went first and confirmed that they taste like potato chips then did his part to control the cricket population by eating about 20 more). Together, our group cooked eight main courses, salads, spring rolls and dessert (which was terrible, and I was the scapegoat). The chicken, flavored with traditional Khmer spices, was the most delicious chicken I have ever eaten.

This morning, we’re off to see the boat village and then take a horseback ride around the country side. Afterward, we make our way to Bangkok for what we have been informed is anywhere between a 5 to 12 hour bus ride. Stay tuned for our account of the trip.

Thanks for reading and as always let us know!

P.S. If you’re traveling to Cambodia, contact T, his email is thyangkor@yahoo.com.