The Fam Part II: Siem Reap

Read The Fam Part I: Arrival in Cambodia here.

On the afternoon of December 21^st we went back to the airport – for the third time in forty-eight hours (the second being to retrieve the luggage that didn’t arrive initially) – to fly up to Siem Reap.

Arriving at about 4:00, we checked into a wonderful boutique hotel, recommended by a friend of a friend. In between the airport and Siem Reap town and set down a dirt road and surrounded by farmland, Journeys Within has tropical gardens and flowers, an infinity pool, and rooms that are both spacious and luxurious. We didn’t take much time to savor the hotel, however, in order to catch sunset at the famed Angkor Wat. It was not as much of a zoo as I expected, but it was still quite busy. We walked across the causeway, through the initial gate, and to a pond in front of Angkor Wat’s magnificent towers, just in time to see the sky light up in brilliant hues of orange, pink, and yellow. It was the best introduction to Siem Reap possible for my family.

The following morning, after a delicious, complementary breakfast at the hotel, we went on a whirlwind tour of the “Grand Circuit,” stopping at Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm, Ta Keo, Thommanom, Angkor Thom, Bayon, and, of course, Angkor Wat. Doing the Grand Circuit in reverse –that is, the opposite direction that most tourists go - appeared to make a difference in the size of the crowds at most places we visited, which certainly helped to enhance the experience as a whole.

For the most part the fam enjoyed the temples. They were impressed by the grandeur of their architecture, entertained by the traditional Khmer music played by landmine victims, amused by all of the kids selling stuff (my dad started calling his encounters with them trips to “the dollar store”), and everyone, especially my sister, enjoyed the lunch we had at the food stalls within Angkor Thom. By the end of the day, however, they were pooped, so we left the temples in late afternoon and relaxed by the Journeys Within pool and ordered room service for dinner.

Much to my family’s chagrin, at least initially, I forced them to get up early for sunrise at Angkor Wat on day two. By 5:30 we were at the temple, in the dark, and using the light from my cell phone to make our way to the same spot we watched sunset a day and a half prior. At first, the sunrise was rather dull, but by shortly after 6:00 it exploded into a beautiful array of bright colors. If that wasn’t enough to convince my family that getting up was worth it, we had a wonderful pancake breakfast at the stalls outside of Angkor Wat.

From Angkor Wat we went on a lengthy tuk-tuk ride through Cambodian countryside to the far out ruins of Kbal Spean and Banteay Srei. The ride was a bit longer than I remembered from my October trip (read the lengthy description of my first trip to Angkor Wat here), but it was a great way to expose my parents and sister to rice fields, thatch huts, water buffalo, sugar palms, and other aspects of country life. Though the “climb” up to Kbal Spean was a bit much for my mom, the river ruins were as impressive as I remembered and incredibly well-preserved. After a bit of time at the intricate Banteay Srei, the fam was “templed out,” so we headed back to town for lunch, a massage, and some relaxation by the pool at the hotel.

On our last morning in Siem Reap we headed for the floating villages of the massive Tonle Sap Lake. I had heard mixed reviews of the village, but was eager to do some exploring, without having had time to go in October. As it is the dry season, the water was much lower than a few months prior and, as a result, we had a slightly longer drive from Siem Reap town.

It was immediately very depressing. The narrow dirt road leading to the “docks” was lined with tiny wooden, dirt-floored shacks. Few if any of the people in or around the shacks were smiling and not even the children waved or smiled at us, the typical greeting in most parts of Cambodia. As we got closer to the docks, the road was lined with cars, vans, and even buses devoid of their foreign occupants, who had gone on a boat tour to the floating village.

We got out of the car and hopped into a fairly large wooden boat. Following a line of similar tourist boats, it took about twenty minutes to get to the floating village, which is literally a floating village – homes, shops, schools, churches, etc in the middle of the massive Tonle Sap Lake. The occupants are mainly ethnic Vietnamese who are not recognized as Cambodian citizens and cannot own land forcing them to reside in the Lake.

The conditions in the village were even more depressing than back on the mainland. It was immediately clear that our tourism dollars were not helping these people at all; the $30 per boat that tourists pay clearly disappeared somewhere between the mainland and the village. Beggars were everywhere, malnutrition was widely evident, and the trip as a whole felt more like a trip to a zoo than a tourist attraction. More out of pity than anything else, we bought some bananas from a small girl and her mother. The $1 seemed to absolutely make their day and the smiles on their faces were some of the few we saw the entire morning. Though dismal in many ways, I’m glad we visited the floating village and I’m glad that my parents and sister saw it.