Sunday, November 17 - Siem Reap

Sunday, November 17 - Siem Reap

This morning, we had a 45-minute flight from Phnom Penh north to Siem Reap.  This is the gateway to Angkor Wat and many other ancient temples and is a HUGE tourist center. 

Our guide and driver picked us up at the airport for the drive to the two temples we'd visit today.  The temple complex is huge and, once within its confines, we drove for several miles, past the tourist mob, famous towers and vast moat at Angkor Wat and then through Angkor Thom, both of which we will visit during our stay here.  Our first destination was Preah Khan, a large temple, first Buddhist, then Hindu.  It seemed that we walked through innumerable rooms, with towering walls and criss-crossing passage ways.  Everywhere, the carving on the sandstone walls, pillars, and archways was extensive, detailed, and intricate.  Several places within the temple, there were local families hawking things to tourists.  It was amazing to watch their young children just being kids, playing with their friends among the ruins.

A  bit farther down the road, we came to Neak Poan, a small Buddhist temple set in a central pool, surrounded by four pools representing the four elements, all in the center of a large reservoir.  Bathing in the pools was believed to cleanse believers of their impurities and bring them to a higher state of being.  As we walked on a path through the reservoir, we encountered an ensemble of musicians who were victims of land mines, which this area was riddled with during Cambodia's conflict-ridden recent past.  (Guidebooks to this country stress the importance of not straying from well-trodden paths.)

By midafternoon, we were at our hotel and on our own for the rest of the day.  We walked the short distance to and across the Siem Reap river to visit the Old Market and surrounding beehive of activity.  Tuk tuks may come close to outnumbering motorcycles here; they're a convenient and cheap way to get around the city.

Back at the hotel, we enjoyed the pool before our happy hour and again venturing out across the river via tuk tuk  for dinner at a restaurant suggested by our guide.  Before boarding another tuk tuk to head home, we paid a visit to the Night Market.