Siem Reap, Cambodia

I got back to Saigon from Cambodia last night and have a day to kill before my parents, aunts and uncles come to Saigon.

Last Thursday we took drove 12 hours with nine other people (tour group) to Siem Reap. Three families went with us: one family from Australia and two from Saigon. We nicknamed one of the people, a 13 year old boy, "Momma's Boy" because he kept rubbing his mom's back and laying on her in the car, and his dad, "Dinosaur Digger" because he kept picking his nose.

I slept most of the time but once we crossed over to Cambodia, I loved watching the countryside. Plus the car would slam on its brakes every mile for the oxen crossing the road, or swerve to avoid the horse and oxen-driven flatbeds or the motorbikes. The road was surrounded by fields of green grass and trees. People lived in stilted homes made of leaves and wood but every now and then I'd see stucco homes. In front of most of the homes were rectangular ponds with bright pink lotuses rising high above the murky water. Kids in their white shirts and navy bottom school uniforms rode on bicycles. Little kids (some naked) ran around the streets. Women in their colored head scarves sold food and artwork from their roadside stores.

On Friday we visited the popular ancient temples of Banteay Srey, Ta Prohm, Bayon, and Angkor Wat. Banteay Srey had Hindu carvings of gods, elephants, and monkeys. Ta Prohm, where Tomb Raider was shot, had many carvings of females and had giant banyan trees with exposed roots that grew over the rocks. I liked Bayon the best because of the Buddha faces carved on the rocks and the statues of the Buddha draped with orange cloth. It was amazing to walk around the maze-like structures under the giant pillars and rocks, discovering etchings in Sanskrit and carefully stepping on the loose stones. I could turn a corner and be all by myself, getting lost in the magical ancient kingdom.

We hiked up a hill by Angkor Wat to watch the sunset. On the way, I passed by a group of landmine victims playing music. It's hard to believe that the Cambodians endured a genocide less than 30 years ago. When we got up the hill, we climbed up the steep, narrow steps of an old temple and watched the sun change from yellow to pink to orange, then we rushed down the hill before it got dark.