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| The temple appears to ooze its ancient green goo. |
Ardent readers of mine will recall that I last posted about a wild few days on our group SE Asia trip in Vang Vieng and Vientiane in Laos. To round out the trip, we hopped a plane to visit our third country - Cambodia. A short flight brought us to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital and largest city.
Recent history in Cambodia makes for a truly unique atmosphere (in a mostly horrifying way). One can't spend an hour there without noting its youth. There's this innocence and naivete that exists that I haven't seen anywhere else before, and it's a direct result of 68% of the population being under the age of 30. These children, roaming the streets all hours of the day and night in search of spare change (sometimes in wholesome ways, ofttimes not), are second and third generation offspring of survivors of the Khmer Rouge. That they even exist is a minor miracle considering the bloody brutality of Pol Pot.
Recent history in Cambodia makes for a truly unique atmosphere (in a mostly horrifying way). One can't spend an hour there without noting its youth. There's this innocence and naivete that exists that I haven't seen anywhere else before, and it's a direct result of 68% of the population being under the age of 30. These children, roaming the streets all hours of the day and night in search of spare change (sometimes in wholesome ways, ofttimes not), are second and third generation offspring of survivors of the Khmer Rouge. That they even exist is a minor miracle considering the bloody brutality of Pol Pot.
I mention naivete above, and it manifests itself in the way Phnom Penh is run: trash thrown onto the curb (sometimes burned), markets flooded, rank, and crawling with rats, and the city's innumerable homeless and vagrant accosting every passerby. The city itself is disorienting, with every turn feeling like a narrower and darker passage leading to a gruesome end for the unaware.
And, of course, the city is mired in the horrors that took place in the 1970s. Just a quick bus ride from the bustling downtown core are remnants of and memorials to the most visceral reminders of the Khmer Rouge: the killing fields at Choeung Ek and S-21 prison.
It was a wholly sobering 24 hours, not what you would expect at the tail end of two weeks of partying. We ended the day exhausted, feeling a vague futility and disappointment in humanity. Several months later, talking about it with Rhiannon (who had visited the same sites on her Cambodia trip in April 2016), she summed my feelings about it perfectly: "It's amazing how shit humans can be, and this was only 40 years ago."
And, of course, the city is mired in the horrors that took place in the 1970s. Just a quick bus ride from the bustling downtown core are remnants of and memorials to the most visceral reminders of the Khmer Rouge: the killing fields at Choeung Ek and S-21 prison.
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| The view just outside of a holding cell in S-21, a former high school turned political prison. |
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| A tower of actual human skulls recovered from nearby mass graves, sorted by method of the final blow. |
It was a wholly sobering 24 hours, not what you would expect at the tail end of two weeks of partying. We ended the day exhausted, feeling a vague futility and disappointment in humanity. Several months later, talking about it with Rhiannon (who had visited the same sites on her Cambodia trip in April 2016), she summed my feelings about it perfectly: "It's amazing how shit humans can be, and this was only 40 years ago."
* * *
Here I make a 180 degree reversal in mood, but believe me when I say that it follows the trajectory of our yo-yoing emotions at the time. From Phnom Penh, we spent the last two days of our trip in Siem Reap, a backpacker's abode famous for a bustling night market and proximity to timeworn temples - namely Angkor Wat.
Against the backdrop of Cambodia's youth and sorrowful not-that-long-ago past, ironically, are near millennium old reminders of its former glory. It is a country truly attempting to come to terms with its recent history while bridging to (and monetizing the heck out of) its ancient past.
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| Arrival at Angkor Wat before dawn is a must for a great sunrise shot. Plus you can get a great shot of a great sunrise shot, or even a great shot of a great shot of a great sunrise shot, and so on... |
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| Pro tip: the backside of Angkor Wat is clean and (relatively) crowd-free. Here Michael contemplates the wonders and industry of man, maybe. |
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| Everyone visiting the temples has to pay to get a photo ID for the day. Here is Dakota's 5 am face. |
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| The Bayon temple - well-preserved happiness. |
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| No one ever talks about how much great seating is provided by 900 year old sandstone Khmer architecture, but it's a lot. |
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| This temple has a real name, but everyone just calls it the Tomb Raider temple, or the one Angelina Jolie has been to. |
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| Possibly the best part of the temples - riding in tuk-tuks from one temple to the next through fields, forests, lakes, and various ruins. |
As I said at the beginning, this was over 8 months ago. So my memory is a little foggy from there, especially when trying to establish the order of everything. We definitely went on a sunset ATV ride through rice paddies, had a blow-out last night of dinner and heavy liquor-bucket drinking, ate rolled ice cream from a street vendor, and had a meal Timon and Pumba would be proud of:
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| Siem Reap's very own Bugs Cafe. Here we have a deep-fried tarantula, water beetles on a skewer, sauteed ants with rice, and roasted scorpions. Bon appetit! |
After that last night out with our group trip, everyone started heading back into their own corner of the real world. Hugs were shared, and last second inside jokes were formed. For our smaller group of five guys, those last few hours were a time of bonding, convalescing by the hotel pool, eating knock-off Pringles and eventually getting pedicures for like $3.
It was a wholly satisfying two weeks gallivanting through small areas of Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Some of us loved, some got violently ill, all of us drank snake whiskey and tore at least one pair of elephant pants, and ultimately none of us will forget the sights, sounds, drinks, and (mostly) smells of southeast Asia.
Cheers!
Next for me: Vietnam with Rhiannon. Maybe I'll write about it next week, maybe I'll never write about it, I dunno.
Bonus: a monkey at Angkor Wat!
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| Other pro tip: don't bring any fruit to Angkor Wat, or you'll become a much photographed victim of theft. |
