Ankor Wok in Cambodia:

Thailand/Cambodia Trip – Cambodia (Mar. 19, 2008)

Since we were early (our flight was at 5 pm and we were at the airport at noon), after my daughter left, after I went through all the shops in the airport (and didn't buy anything), W and I decided to check in. The lady at the counter asked us if we wanted to change to the flight that was leaving at 3 pm since there were empty seats.

"Yes," we said. On one hand, I was happy that I didn't have to wait two extra hours. On the other hand, I was upset why they didn't mention this to my daughter so she could fly to Cambodia directly instead of flying to Bangkok and then from Bangkok to Cambodia. Oh well… mothers are this way, aren't they? We just can't let go when someone causes troubles for our children.

The area we waited to board the plane was quite big. A couple more shops ;-) I saw one small room next to a shop so I went to take a look. It had a couple of sofas and a coffee table in it. The sign said it was for monk. Later when I saw W sit inside filling up the visa form, I was horrified. "You can't go in there. It's for monks," I said.

He shrugged. "No one is here."

"But the sign said it's for monks."

He became irritated. "Are you sure you read the sign?"

"Yes." Just to be sure, I read the sign again. "It says this room is for monk and novice."

"Do you know what novice means?" W asked.

"No."

He grinned. "I am a novice."

He gestured me to sit next to him. "Come in and take a seat. You have to sign the form."

I shook my head. "No, I am not going in there. I'll wait outside. I can sign the paper out here.

After 30 year's marriage, we knew we couldn't force each other to do anything. So he stayed in the room and finished the form, and when he was done, he brought them outside for me to sign them. While waiting, I kept looking around. I was afraid if someone came to find W in the room. I wondered if the person would get mad. Fortunately no one came.

We boarded the plane on time. Once again, Thai Airway pampered us. I think I could take a one-week vacation just staying on the plane!

Those who followed my trip report probably remember how much I didn't want to go to Cambodia. Strangely, as soon as I got in the plane, I was ready to go. This happened to me many times in my life. I seem to be able to accept things when I know I don't really have a choice. ;-)

When we arrived at Cambodia, it was almost dark. The custom officers were not as friendly as some other countries, but they were not rude either. I guess they all somewhat tired from working many hours.

Our daughter instructed us to get a taxi to the hotel and wait for her there. The guy at the taxi station told us it was $5 (USD). We had to verify with him a couple of times before we were certain that $5 would take us to the hotel. "I think I like here," I whispered to W.

Our taxi driver was a young man about 20-year old. At first, we had some trouble to understand his English, but after a while, we could pretty much guess what he was saying. He asked us if he could be our driver on the next day. We told him we had to discuss with our daughter. He kept asking. I knew he was trying to make some money. My soft heart finally gave in. I said okay.

She then told us not to say a thing to the hotel people. I asked him why. He said, "They had taken my business away a couple of times."

I felt sorry for the guy and told him we wouldn't say a thing to people in hotel.

Hotel was nice. As soon as we walked in, they brought each of us a glass of fruit juice. People were very polite.

This was the first time W and I each had our own bed since we left home. I finally could catch up my sleep, I thought.

Two hours later, our daughter arrived. I was relieved to see her. It was only eight hours since we saw her last time, but it felt like weeks.

We told our daughter about the taxi driver. She asked us if the guy was a licensed tour guide. We said no. She said people told her that we had to hire a licensed tour guide. I knew my daughter had done a lot of research before the trip. I knew it would be wise for us to follow her plan instead.

Through the hotel, we hired a tour guide. Then W called the taxi driver to tell him we didn't need his service for on the next day. W told me the taxi driver sounded very mad. Usually I would feel bad for changing my mind like this, but in this case, he was pushing and his English was hard to understand, so I didn't feel bad at all. I was sure he would blame the hotel people for taking his business away again.

Our daughter asked us if we wanted to see sunrise at Ankor wok? "People said we really should see it. But if we do, we have to get up at 4 am," she said.

I knew I needed some sleep. I also knew my daughter really wanted to see the sunrise. "Of course we want to go," I said.

Soon after I said that, I passed out on the bed. Next morning I noticed three mosquito bites on my face. I looked terrible.

Cambodia – part one (Mar. 19, 2008)

When we arrived at the Cambodia, it was getting dark. First, we had to go through the custom like every other country. Ten to twelve custom officers sat behind the counter forming an assembly line. We gave our passports to the first officer; he did his thing and then passed it to the second officer. Eventually, our passports reached to the last officer, who asked us a couple of questions and gave our passports back to us.

The airport wasn’t big, which was good. Soon, we found the taxi booth—if you wanted a taxi, you had to go there to pay the money. The guy told us it would cost us $5 USD to get to our hotel. We thought that was great.

Our taxi driver was very young, probably 19 or 20 year old. Right after we left the airport he started striking a conversation with us. His English was very difficult to understand, so half of the time we simply responded with an “Umm.”

He asked us if we would hire him as our tour guide for next day. He said he knew all the history and he would tell us the history before we reach the destination, but since he wasn’t an official tour guide, he could not accompany us into all the tour spots.

We told him we have to wait and see what our daughter had arranged. He kept pushing us and we finally said okay. “Don’t tell hotel people about this, please,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because they always try to take my business away from me,” he said.

As soon as we walked into the hotel, someone served us a glass of fruit juice and gave us a wet towel to wipe our face (remember it was very hot.) The room was very nice and clean, but I thought I saw one or two mosquitoes.

When our daughter finally arrived (she took a different flight), we told her about the deal we had with our taxi driver. Our daughter didn’t like the arrangement. “This may be the only time we visit here. We should hire an official tour guide and a driver,” she said.

She and her father went to talk to the hotel people and hired an English-speaking tour guide and a driver. W called our taxi driver and told him that we didn’t need his service on the next day. The guy was pretty mad. I don’t really understand what he say, but I know he’s angry. I’m sure he’s going to blame hotel people again,” W said.

Our daughter was the only person who had spent a lot of time in planning the trip. One of her friends recommended us to get up early (4 am) to watch sunrise at Angkor Wak. As a mother who liked to spoil her child, I decided that watch sunrise at Angkor Wak was exactly what we were going to do.

That night, I had a hard time to fall asleep.

Cambodia – part two (Mar. 20, 2008)

Waking up at 4 was easy if you couldn’t sleep anyway. Getting up was a different story though. When we finally managed to go downstairs, the hotel person handed us 3 packages - our breakfast. I was touched. They knew we were going to see the sunrise, so the hotel restaurant had prepared our breakfast for us.

Soon our tour guide Dino showed up. He was a short man with dark skin, wearing a big hat.

It was still dark outside so we didn’t see much on our way to Angkor Wak. From parking lot to the temple, we were joined by hundreds of people. Getting inside of the temple compound, we saw more people sitting at every possible place to sit.

The breakfast included bottle water, some fruit, a croissant, and a pastry. We ate and waited and noticed the sky was covered with dark gray clouds.

The clouds gradually turned white. People started leaving. After half of people left, I asked Dino what exactly we were waiting for. “The sun is already up behind the clouds, isn’t that right?”

He sat there comfortably and replied, “Well, if you want to see the sun, it will eventually come out.”

He had no intention to leave.

“We can see sun in U.S., you know? We want to see sunrise, not the sun.”

“Well, if you want to leave, we can leave,” he said.

Three of us nodded. And that was the end of our sunrise experience.

Cambodia – part three (Mar. 20, 2008)

Not being able to see the sunrise at Angkor Wak was disappointing. But it wasn’t the end of the world. Dino told us it was better to go back to Angkor Wak in the afternoon, so he took us to see other temples.

Several of them! They all have carvings on the wall telling stories. And most have steep stairs to go up. Bayon temple was one of my favorite – it has many smiling faces on it ;-)

Bayon is known for its huge stone faces of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, with one facing outward and keeping watch at each compass point. The curious smiling image, thought by many to be a portrait of Jayavarman himself, has been dubbed by some the "Mona Lisa of Southeast Asia." There are 51 smaller towers surrounding Bayon, each with four faces of its own. (From: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/cambodia/bayon-temple.htm)

The temperature quickly arose. When we arrived at the third temple, W said he would rather sit under a tree waiting for us. I was exhausted, too, so I stayed with him and let our daughter go with Dino. When they returned, W said he wanted to go back to the hotel to take a nap. I thought that was a great idea. Our daughter, however, thought I shouldn’t miss any temple just because W was tired (Okay, I didn’t tell her I was near fainted, too.) I wanted to be with her no matter how tired I was. So, after watching W get on the car, we moved on.

At one temple, we climbed up to the top. Two local women smiled at me. I smiled back. They seemed wanting to say something, so I paused. One lady giggled, pointing at her friend and said, “Take a picture of her.”

“You want me to take a picture of you?” I asked.

She nodded shyly.

I took a picture of her and showed her. She smiled. Slowly, she put her hand out. Was she asking me to pay her? I guessed so, but when I looked at her face, with a shy smile, she put her hand down. Dino was waiting for us at the bottom, so I didn’t have any way to communicate to these women. I thanked her and moved on.

Dino took us back to hotel at noon and he said he would pick us up around 3. One thing we didn’t have to worry when traveling with our daughter was where to eat. She would open her tour book and point at a place and said, “Here is where we should eat.” We had a wonder curry chicken dish for lunch.

Around 3, we went back to Angkor Wat. Angkor wat had the most incredible bas-relief carving for hundreds of meters along the passageways on the perimeter of the temple. Dino let us sit at a shady place and told us the story that was carved on the wall. He is a good storyteller. I enjoyed listening to him, but I don’t remember much now. You can read about Angkor Wat here: http://www.sacredsites.com/asia/cambodia/angkor_wat.html

After visiting Angkor Wat, W went back to hotel. My daughter and I went shopping for silk scarves. I was pretty sure that we could negotiate the price, but since we were not good at it, we simply gave the lady whatever she asked for.

Dinner was fine, not as good as lunch though.

Cambodia – part four (Mar. 21, 2008)

Dino was going to show us two more temples today. These are farther away from our hotel, so he thought it would be better if we went there today.

Soon after we left the hotel, we saw a dragon made out of some sort of plastic stuff in the river. Dinio said he had no idea what that was for. He stopped the car, so I could take a picture of it. Due to the size of the dragon, I couldn’t take a picture of the whole dragon. I kept running forward trying to find a way to get a picture the whole dragon. My daughter ran behind me. She kept saying, “Mom, you are crazy.” That was a compliment, I believed.

On the other side of river, there was a market. I couldn’t see the market, but the whole structure looked as if it could fall at any moment.

Dino said, “Most Cambodians around here buy their food there. My mom goes there everyday.”

A minute later, we saw a pick up truck. On the back of the truck, there was a coffin. A monk stood by the coffin giving blessing to the death. Many family members dressed in plain clothes walked behind the truck.

Dino said, “This is part of our culture.” He told me to take a picture.

“I’m not going to take a picture of this. They are so sad and they don’t need a tourist to take a picture just because she is curious about your culture.”

“But, it’s an important part of our culture. You should take a picture of it if you’re interested in knowing our culture,” he argued and kept trying to persuade me.

“No, I’m not going to take a picture. And that’s it.”

W jokingly said, “You don’t know my wife. She is afraid of seeing something else showing in her picture.”

Dino laughed.

On our way to the first temple, we passed several schools. Dino said all of these schools were built with donation money from foreign countries. I remember French is one of them, but don’t remember others. In my heart, I thanked those countries. They made me feel good about human beings.

I saw several stores selling some liquid in liquor bottles. The bottles looked filthy and the color of the liquid didn’t look any better. Who would drink such thing? I wondered. I finally had a chance asking Dino what that was. He laughed. “It’s gasoline. That’s how we buy gasoline here.”

See the bottles on the left side.

Along the street, there were many palm trees and cashew trees. W and I were surprised to see cashew nuts were actually hanging outside of cashew fruits. Dino told me cashew fruit tasted very good. He gave one to me to try, but since I’m allergy to several fruits, I didn’t dare to take the risk.

We also learned they make a drink out of the palm flower (palm juice) and at one shop, we saw they make palm sugar.

Palm sugar is a sugar which is extracted from the sap of palm trees.

To extract the sap, climbers ascend the palm tree and slash the flower buds, placing buckets under the buds to collect the sap which wells out. Then, the sap can be boiled down to concentrate it and evaporate the moisture. Depending on how heavily the palm sugar is processed, it may be sold in the form of a paste, or it may be dried out and molded into blocks or cones to make it easier to handle. (From http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-palm-sugar.htm)

Unlike other temples at Angkor, Ta Prohm has been left as it was found, preserved as an example of what a tropical forest will do to an architectural monument when the protective hands of humans are withdrawn.

One temple Dino described as death temple. Dead people would be cremated there and they let part of the ashes flow to the river. It was in that temple, Dino told me that when his grandfather died several months ago, they mixed water with some of his grandfather’s ash and every relative drank some.

We took Dino out for lunch. After lunch, he took us to the airport. Before we left, I already knew I would miss this place and Dino.