Cambodia - Day 7

Day 7
It's funny. Let me preface this entry by reiterating the fact that on our very first day in Cambodia, we all agreed to only stick to the touristy areas. Don't go where only locals go. If there were white people around, we'd be safer because they would stand out more than our group of black-haired American copies. We just didn't feel safe there.

Okay, so this is what we did on day 7 in Cambodia...

Before the crack of dawn, Victor and I are already on our way to visit Angkor Wat again. The complex was much less crowded this morning. Where are all the people? I looked around, and saw a couple hundred people sitting in front of a pond facing the pyramids of Angkor Wat. If EVERYONE is gathered there, good photo ops must reside there. When we walked to the edge of the pond, I understood why everyone is waiting here. The temple already looks incredible against the changing hues of the morning sky, but this is reflected into the pond as well. It was just amazing.

Before the huge mass of people left their seats, Victor and I wandered into the main complex for the second day in a row. We practically had the entire place to ourselves. Being the only ones to be walking through their corridors and avenues felt a little eerie. I could feel the eyes of the old watching from above. Rows of headless Buddha statues can be a little creepy. Beautifully detailed relief carvings lined many of the walls of this complex. It's really hard to put into words the beauty and mysticism Angkor Wat (as well as the other temples) hold. You kind of just stand there in awe and completely speechless. My fondness of temples were magnified this morning because we explored in solitude.

Victor and I decided to return to the hotel after an hour or so. We had breakfast with the whole group and met up with Nara again so he could take us to the Killing Fields of Siem Reap. Before the trip, I wasn't interested in seeing the Killing Fields. It was a time of unimaginable pain and suffering. I didn't want our moods to be dampened by a visit to such a place. But this is history. So when Nara suggested coming here, we all thought it was a good idea.

The Killing Fields here wasn't what I had imagined. The main one in Phnom Phenh is much bigger. The size of this one didn't lessen the pain and heartache that was felt here. As we were walking around in a temple, a teacher of this site approached us and shared with us some stories of the Khmer Rouge and the state of education and poverty today. He asked us for a donation, and we all willingly donated some money to the school. He walked us around, showed us a well where some victims of the Khmer Rouge had died. He pointed to a nearby building where scores of Cambodians were tortured and killed. By the time we filed into our van again, my heart was so heavy.

The topic of where to go next brought all of our spirits up. We wanted to have an easy day, and it was pretty easy so far, except for me and Victor who woke up many hours ago. We decided to take a boat tour to a floating village. Thinking we would just be sitting in a boat, that tour sounded quite attractive. We had two options. One was closer but very touristy, dirty, and the natural state of the floating village has not been preserved. Our other option was a little farther, but the beauty of the floating village was as it should have been. Hmm... Dirty, staged, and harassed by merchants? Or something that is "real?" Despite Nara's urges to go to the closer one, we asked him to drive to the farther village.

Off we went. Paved roads became a dirt road. The dirt road became tighter, passing by tiny living communities made of little huts on stilts. We even passed by a wedding banquet! Nara pulled over to the side of the road, and we looked around. No floating village in sight! The village was far away. We had to transfer to a truck with huge tractor tires to go the rest of the way. All of us climbed into the bed of the truck and continued on the very tight road with monstrous potholes and shrubbery whacking us in the faces when we weren't looking. The scenery was lovely at times though. There were acres upon acres of bright green rice fields on both sides. At times, I wondered how deep we are going into this remote area of Cambodia. No one knows that we're here... It was a big relief to see some tourists going the opposite way. Whew!

The truck finally stopped. In front of us was a little trench. How the heck are we going to get past this part of the road? By walking. After a short walk with the sun beating down on us, we finally boarded our (longtail?) boat. With the motor roaring in the back, we slowly snaked down the murky waters of this narrow river.

The village didn't look anything like what I had imagined it to be. Remember I mentioned we wanted something that was easy? Just sitting? Well, to visit this "floating" village, we had to walk there. It was the dry season. The village needs rain to look like it's floating. None of us put the two together. We all got off the boat and walked through the one wide street that made up this very remote village. Walking through felt a little eerie. Where are all the residents? There was nobody walking around. It felt like a ghost town. Since all of the houses stood on stilts, it felt like we were an exhibit. All the villagers' eyes were on us. Trying to push these paranoid thoughts aside, I thought it was cool to see the houses standing on stilts, but it would've been cooler to see the houses sitting right above the water! =D We found that one of their trades is making dried shrimp. Many sheets of these were laid on the ground to dry in the hot air. The smell was sort of potent. Heh heh heh...

We walked to the end of the village and boarded our boat once again. They were going to take us to Tonle Sap Lake. The lake was vast and looked pretty deep. The boat slowed and the engine stopped. Uh. What are we doing? My friend, Mae, got very nervous at this point because Nara started taking off his watch. A little boat was waiting for us just a few meters away. She was nearly convinced that we were going to get mugged or something worse. Nara continued stripping down to his shorts. Swimming trunks underneath! I think he said "Swimming!" and jumped into the water. He surfaced and asked, "Swimming?" All of us shook our heads in relief and shock, and he asked again, "Why?" And went under again. As I was watching him swim and looking at the lake, I wondered, are they ALWAYS ready for a swim? Nara had no idea he was going to be here today... He and a couple other locals swam for about 15 minutes. They quickly dried off, and we were on our way back to our starting point again.

It was sort of a relief to get back onto the bed of the truck. We smelled fumes for about an hour and got whacked again by stray branches. Our truck broke down twice, I think, and we stopped to help a tractor that was stuck in the riverbed. When we got into our air conditioned van, it felt really really nice. Mostly because I didn't have to smell exhaust anymore! Our AC stopped working as were headed back to the city so Nara stopped on the side of the road and bought all of us water! That was really very nice of him and totally unnecessary!

We had a buffet dinner designed for tourists that included traditional dance accompanied with narration. Food was alright. Our original plans for the rest of the evening involved looking for another spa to visit, but we realized how tired Nara must have been, so we let him go early that night. We learned that he was to make a long drive to Thailand very early the next morning, so he must have been very happy to be able to go home earlier tonight.

This is our whole group with Nara.

So what to do while the night was still young? Let's party! We decided to go to the "Beer Garden" for some chill time. The tuk-tuk driver told us he knew where that was. But when we got there, it was like, "Where the heck are we?" This doesn't look like a beer garden... It looked just a like a local outdoor restaurant. We decided to just finish our beers and leave to look for a better spot. Our boys, Victor and Eric, decided to go scout out the area, in search of some other place to go to. How stupid of us to let them go. They were gone for some time. I was really starting to get worried. I don't know about Eric, but Victor is such a friendly trusting person. He probably thinks everyone is a good person. What if he unknowingly flaunts his touristy characteristics? What if they got mugged? Kidnapped? Killed?? Good thing Eric was with him though. He's been mistaken a number of times for being a local. Heehee... We waited eagerly for their return. Gosh... It took forever. I was actually kind of mad at them when they got back. Made us worry so much about them! >=(

Okay, stick to our original plan which is stick to the tourist areas. Where to? Pub street! We took another tuk-tuk and headed to a well-known bar called "Angkor What?" We peered inside, and it looked pretty crowded. Across the street though was another bar pumping out some pretty loud familiar songs. We opted for this place instead. After some more beer and kamikaze, we got on the dance floor. You know those annoying obnoxious Americans who scream and do insane moves on the dance floor because they're too intoxicated to care?? Yeah, those people were us. Oh my gosh. Everyone let loose. Even our ride back to the hotel in the tuk-tuk was crazy. We sure were obnoxious. =\

Okay, here are some photos we took at the bar. These are the presentable ones. =)


We learned a really silly move from a Thai music video and showed off our skills that night. You like?What a way to end our stay in Cambodia. It was absolutely incredible. The next morning, we were to depart to go to Phuket!!