Cambodia: Siem Reap

My first stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap. Since I only had a limited amount of time in Cambodia before I had to be back in Thailand, I planned to only stay three days. I ended up extending my time there by two additional days and if I had the time I would have stayed even longer. While it is a very touristic town filled with Westerners, it still had a lot of charm and was a fun city to visit.

To get from Koh Tao, an island in the south of Thailand, to Siem Reap, Cambodia I booked a combo ferry and bus ticket for the sixth of January. Ever since the first of the year the waters in the Gulf of Thailand had been rough with large waves and strong currents. I had been told by someone I knew who had taken a ferry the day before that people were throwing up throughout the whole ride due to the rough seas. Knowing it was going to be rough seas I preplanned and got two motion sickness pills from 7-Eleven and took one before leaving. At the very beginning of the ferry ride the waves were massive and I could tell it was going to be a long and potentially nauseating ferry ride so I opted to try and sleep through it. Luckily, since it was a morning ferry, I was able to easily fall asleep and I slept through the entire ride and was unaffected by the rough seas. Once to the mainland pier, I had a connecting bus ticket to Bangkok and I didn’t have to wait long for the bus to arrive. While it was a long ride, the bus was very nice and it was a smooth easy ride to Bangkok. In Bangkok, I had one full day in the city before leaving for Cambodia. My tasks for the day were to book a bus ticket for the next day, convert Thai Baht for USD, and catch up on some admin work. Getting the bus ticket was easy, however getting USD proved harder than I thought it would be. The reason I needed USD was to pay for my visa on arrival in Cambodia. Unfortunately when I left the US I never thought to bring US cash with me. When trying to get USD I ended up going to a bunch of exchange places but found that most would only convert USD to Baht and not the other way around. Fortunately I did find one exchange place that would convert Baht to USD. Thankfully I was able to complete all my tasks and that evening I met up with Sophia, who I spent time with on Koh Samui and Koh Tao, for dinner after which we wandered around for a while.

The next morning I had to be up bright and early to get my bus to Siem Reap. Fortunately, getting the bus was super easy and it was pretty empty so I was able to have my own space. The bus ride was uneventful and smooth which was nice. Once we arrived at the border, we had to get off the bus and walk through to cross. The bus company had a Cambodian guide who walked us through the process. Having the guide to cross the border was so nice as he already had the visas started for us so all we had to do was pay him, give him our passports, and then wait in line while he arranged all of our visas for us and then, when completed, he handed us back our passports. After getting our visas and getting through the border we were brought back to the bus and the rest of the ride was just as smooth and easy and before I knew it I was in Siem Reap. Once there I was able to walk to my hostel, settle in, and then meet up with Louisa, who I’d met on Koh Samui and who arrived in Cambodia the day before and who happened to be staying in the same hostel as me, for dinner along with others she had met on her day tour to Angkor Wat. It was a great evening spent with a bunch of really nice people.

On my first full day in Siem Reap Louisa, five others I’d met the night before, and I hired two tuk tuks to go to the Cambodian Landmine Museum. Before continuing, I will give a very brief history lesson to hopefully make the continuing events and information I share from my time in Cambodia make more sense. During the Vietnam War, in addition to bombing Vietnam, the US also bombed Laos and Cambodia, which was known as the Secret War and also the Cambodian Campaign. During that time, the US dropped more bombs on Laos than it did on Vietnam, making Laos the most bombed country in the world. The US bombed both Cambodia and Laos because they believed Vietnam was transporting troops and supplies through the neighboring countries. At the same time as the US was bombing Cambodia, Cambodia was also fighting a civil war between the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese backed Cambodian government. During this time both groups were laying landmines all throughout the jungles. These wars and landmines laid by the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian government are the reason for the Cambodian Landmine Museum outside of Siem Reap.

The Landmine Museum ended up being pretty far out of town. The tuk tuk ride there was peaceful and I was able to see the countryside and surrounding small establishments outside of the city. Once at the Landmine Museum, after we bought our tickets, the single employee working there gave us an in depth tour of the museum which displayed all of the different types of landmines that were used. The landmines at the museum were all removed from the ground. Our guide started by telling us more about the founding of the museum which was opened by a former Khmer Rouge child soldier, Aki Ra, who still works today with his own and other organizations to demine fields throughout Cambodia. Aki Ra also has a school where he helps children who are victims of landmines. The guide also shared that when he was eight years old he was walking in front of his two older siblings when he stepped on a landmine. He survived but lost part of his leg; unfortunately both of his siblings died due to internal bleeding. He also shared that after he was injured Aki Ra took him in at his school and that is how he became a part of the organization. On the tour our guide also told us about each of the names of the different landmines, how they worked, what country they were made in, and more. He also shared that currently two to three people, mostly children, are still injured or killed every week by landmines. On top of all of the different types of landmines the museum had, they also had some unexploded bombs that the US had dropped on Cambodia from planes. At the entrance they also had a small demonstration landmine field to show how easily hidden the landmines are out in the jungle and how they were used, whether in the ground, in trees, or the wire booby trap setups. When we arrived I thought we would just walk through the museum but having him describe what happened as he walked us through the museum allowed me to learn so much more about the history of Cambodia during that time and I was able to learn even more about the landmines than I would have had I walked through the museum on my own. It was fascinating and heartbreaking. After getting back into town we all went for a late lunch and then I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the town.

On my second day in Siem Reap I booked a day tour to the Angkor World Heritage Site, more commonly known as Angkor Wat, however Angkor Wat is only one of the many temples there. Originally when booking the tour through my hostel I didn’t realize they offered two different tours so I thought I was booking a tour to the main temples. When I showed up for my tour I found out I was instead going to an outer ring of temples and not the main ones. Since I was already planning on buying a multi-day pass I decided to not switch to the main temple tour even though I could have. I am so glad I decided to keep with my accidentally booked tour. Instead of being in a large tour group for the same price I had a mostly private tour; it was just the tour guide, a British couple, and me. Having such a private tour was great and my guide was awesome. Throughout the day he would have us stop at great locations for us to be in the photos and at one point he was fully directing me as to where to stand and he would show me how exactly to pose. It was really amusing. I also saw a few other tour guides directing photo ops; overall the guides in the Angkor World Heritage Site seemed to go above and beyond by not only guiding the tour but also the photos. Since we weren’t going to the main temples that people visit if they only have one day, the temples we went to were a lot quieter, which I really enjoyed. Angkor World Heritage Site used to be the capital city of the Khmer Empire which used to rule much of modern day Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar and it is now a large complex of ancient temple ruins that were built between the tenth and twelfth centuries. On my tour I was able to visit five temples and we were able to not only walk around and through them but to the top of some of them. I found it so cool to see how over the course of hundreds of years nature had taken over and trees were growing around and even through some of the temple structures. The last temple of the day was the furthest away and was a red stone color and was shorter in height since the stone came from a small hill and so there wasn’t enough material to build a larger temple. Overall it was a really long but awesome day. I enjoyed having a mostly private tour and being at temples with little to no other people around. It made the experience even better.

The next two days after my tour to the temples were pretty uneventful as I spent the time wandering around Siem Reap and having admin work time at my hostel. I had extra work and rest time at my hostel since part of both of the days were rainy so they were forced days in. While having rainy days could seem unfortunate, I really enjoyed having forced time in and it was peaceful being able to hear the rain as I got my work done. Since it didn’t rain all day on either of those days I was still able to get out and explore which made it better.

On my final day in Siem Reap I once again went to Angkor World Heritage Site, this time I went to the main temples but on my own, without a tour. When going to the main temples I hired a tuk tuk driver for the day who took me to the temples and waited for me as I walked around. Since everyone I had met in Siem Reap so far had already gone to the main temples I ended up going alone. I really enjoyed going alone because I was able to explore at my own pace and since some of the temples are so big I was able to have large areas all to myself even at the super touristy stops. My first stop of the day was to the main temple, Angkor Wat. I knew this temple was big but it was even larger than I could have imagined. After Angkor Wat, I went to Bayon Temple which is a lot smaller than Angkor Wat and was also a lot quieter, so fortunately I was able to be alone in an ancient temple. At one point as I was wandering around Bayon Temple, I turned around and there was a monkey right next to me. It was very startling and it was too close for comfort, but it was also really cool at the same time. After Bayon Temple I went to a smaller temple that was pretty hidden within the trees before going to my last temple of the day which was Ta Prohm. When walking through Ta Prohm it felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie with how nature has taken over the temples and how it was not in as pristine of shape as compared to the other temples. Another reason why it felt like an Indiana Jones movie was because it was featured in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” as well as “Tomb Raider.” Overall it was a really cool temple and my favorite part was seeing the contrast of temple vs nature and how time has affected the temple. It was very hot today and the skies were no longer overcast, but nonetheless it was a great last day in Siem Reap and Angkor World Heritage Site.

My time in Siem Reap went by way too fast. I really enjoyed the city and exploring the temples of the Angkor World Heritage Site and if I had more time I would have stayed longer in Siem Reap. I look forward to being able to go back and visit again someday.

“Travel is the most intense mode of learning.”

- Kevin Kelly