So after my not-so-fun entry into Cambodia I’ve decided to change perspectives on my first impressions of the country. At this time I don’t know if I’m going to post what happened two days ago during the border crossing. I was going to but then started to feel like I was just on a rant and that’s not what I want to blog to be about. So I may tweak the entry, or post it as is I just don’t know right now.

What to say about Cambodia so far? It’s definitely not what I was expecting, at least so far as I’ve gotten into it. The first thing that stands out is that the two cities that I been in, Poipet and Siem Reap and both have been dirty and seemingly lacking in some of the basics of life that we sometimes come to forget about.  The second is that there is a tension here when it comes to some of the Cambodians, especially the tuk-tuk drivers. Depending on whether I post what happened when I arrived here or not you will see my first encounter with the drivers, but let me say they have an open hostility towards me, maybe all “European” people. After I decline a ride it is more common than not to hear them laugh at me as I proceed past. This happens almost anytime I pass a gang of them about four or five times a day. I’ve read that it’s common for people who can’t get a job to end up being  tuk-tuk drivers, and I also read that there are way too many drivers since the global slowdown in 2008.

At 645 in the morning I left the hotel and went looking for a driver to take me to Angkor Wat, the process is pretty simple, you hire a tuk-tuk. The problem I have is that I’m starting to really dislike all the drivers I’ve hired and all the drivers I pass as I walk around… so after being laughed at the corner I cross the street and head in a different direction. I flagged down the first tuk-tuk with the idea that I was going to turn him down but this guy seemed like a nice guy. He was young, respectful and seemed to be genuine, so I hired him for the day. It turned out to be a good decision.

I’d like to give a little history to start about Angkor Wat some of it you may or may not know already. Angkor Wat is one temple out of many. It is also the name of a national park that has dozens of other Wats (temples). Although it may be accurate to say you spent the day at Angkor Wat, it may also be a little misleading because tourists can visit many Wats while at Angkor Wat. Hopefully that made sense.

I passed the gates into the park at about 715 in the morning. In retrospect I think it would have been better to be a little bit earlier, maybe 6 or 630, but nevertheless I still beat the majority of tourists to my first temple; Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is supposed to be the most famous, the most preserved, and the most popular so I guess it is first on the list of wat to see (pun intended). To be honest I wasn’t sure which I wanted to see, where I should go, and which would be the best. I did know that I’ve been fascinated by photographs of trees almost swallowing walls and buildings and I did have a Lonely Planet guidebook to give me a little history to the wats.

The day was spent going from one temple to another and for the most part each had something a little bit unique to itself. Some had staircases rising 50 meters at nearly 60 or 70 degrees, some had statues of elephants standing guard at each corner, some had reliefs of dancing girls, while others had warriors beheading their enemy. Each temple was worth seeing.

It wasn’t until I got to Ta Prohm that I really got excited. It is the temple that looks like the jungle is slowly devouring it. Trees emerge from the top of buildings and walls, their roots flow down the sides like a waterfall frozen in time. As I was walking around and taking pictures, like every other tourist there, an old man crosses in front of me, jumps a rope fence and waves for me to follow. Hmmm. He’s got an official looking shirt on, so why not? I jump the fence and follow him through a crumbling passageway and over toppled walls until he points at another tree growing over the building. He holds his hands up to pantomime the taking of a photo, so I take a photo. For the next fifteen minutes we go around the temple through blocked off areas taking photos of things that he deemed interesting. When I had to climb up to get a better vantage point, he’d tap the areas where I should step. Looking back I don’t think he ever said anything to me, everything was in gestures. The whole thing was kind of surreal, this guy never asked me to go with him, I never asked, or even had eye contact with him beforehand, but it worked out great for me. I was going where I probably shouldn’t have gone, getting photographs that I know I wouldn’t have gotten without him. At the very beginning, I was like, “I am not going to tip him… I didn’t ask him for the guide!” about 5 minutes in, “okay, so this is cool, maybe I’ll give him a dollar.” After about 10 minutes, “I wonder if $2 is too little?”

I stuck around there for about an hour, with some of the time just sitting and watching tourists or trying to visualize what this had been like in it’s heyday, or even what it must have looked like when it was first “discovered” by Europeans as it must have been much more overgrown than what it is now.

After Ta Prohm the rest of the wats paled in comparison and except for some serious steep staircases there wasn’t much more to talk about—photos will do better. Rain was looming and when my driver said there wasn’t any temples left I decided to head back to town. The rain started before we left the parking lot of the last temple and the rain soon turned into a downpour.

I ended the night at a Western style restaurant for a burger and extra fries, all washed down with some local ale. Not a bad ending for a great day.