Day 114: Angkor Wat

Angkor what??? I know it's not an uncommon play on the name Angkor Wat ('Wat' means temple), but I feel that it's a pretty accurate description of my knowledge of this place up until a few years ago. I had no idea it existed, let alone that it is a wonder of the modern world. 

The primary reason for us to go to Siem Reap is to see Angkor Wat, which is 6 km outside the city. I think Angkor Wat is the primary driver for most visitors to Cambodia, and boy is it a money maker! 

Every hotel is named some variation of Angkor [insert second differentiating name]. Every tuk tuk want a fair to Angkor Wat, which ranges from $10-15 USD. For 6 Kms! Granted, it is also for them to take you around the full day, but still! Then, Angkor Wat itself charges $20 USD for a one day pass. It's crazy. 

Wanting to avoid the tuk tuk mafia, we had this ambitious plan to rent a tandem bicycle and bike to and around Angkor Wat. We figure tandem would be a good way to see a small part of the 400 square  park (don't get excited. We'd only bike a few kms in the park) so that, in the event that one of us got tuckered out, the other could bike the extra weight. 

Pallavi's Hindu gods must have intervened and, as she said, "my child, you have no idea. We'll show you." We got into a fight at the tandem bike place about them refusing to accept my driver's license as a deposit with some ridiculous amount of USD as well. In a fit of principle, we stormed off and got a tuk tuk instead. 

I'm so glad we did! I had told Pallavi the night before we went that my hope for Angkor Was was to be impressed by it's size. I was impressed! We would never have been able to bike this place. 

It's been a long time time since I said 'wow' after ever new temple. If Angkor Wat makes you feel overwhelmed by its size now, imagine if you lived there at the time. 

Angkor Wat itself has a 1.5 km by 1 km most surrounding it. It's built like a typical Hindu temple, says Pallavi, but obviously bigger. I like the attitude of the ruler who built this place. In Sarah's interpretation of history, this ruler finally defeated his arch nemesis, the Chams, and to make sure he never got attacked again, he built a big temple. "Ha ha! This temple will either show my enemies or help sway the gods to be on my side. To help sway them, I shall dedicate this temple to Vishnu, show lots of amazing detailed carvings of my battle vs the Chams and Vishnu's heroic role in the milky ocean (probably easier for you to Google it)." Well, somebody should have told his descendent of the plan, but he missed the memo and turned the place into a Buddhist temple instead! 

We read to bring lots of sunscreen and water because it's hot in Angkor Wat. It must be hot all of the time and the day was no different. It was also crazy crowded. What's the world come to when you can't even find a place to take a seldom without somebody in the background? This place was even more crowded than the Taj Mahal. 

After an hour we made it back to our tuk tuk and had him take us 3 km to the next place: the area around the old city of Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom had a population of 1 million people at a time when London had only 10,000. It was a big city. 

A bridge lined with Buddhas on either side of you and a single lane gate crowned with 4 large Buddha heads facing the cardinal directions greets you. The first stop in the complex was the Buddist temple of Bayon. It is lined with 1 km of carved panels, one quarter of which depict the daily lives of the villagers at that time. Cockfights, picking fruit, fishing, etc. The temple itself looks like a vertical maze of faces. 37 towers with faces on all 4 sides, which they think are either of a certain Boddisava or of the king who built it. 

We then continued by foot through the park, past a few more temples, the royal palace, and the wall of elephants where the king would greet his people. 

Finally we made it back to the tuk tuk driver, had a fight with him after he accused us of taking too long when he had agreed to take us until 4 or 5 pm (it was 3-3:30), made it back to twin, and started to get ready to head back to Bangkok. 

We walked 5 Kms just around a few of the many places the park had to offer. We must have seen 1,000 people if we saw one person - and this is low season. What a money maker for Cambodia. I just hope they do something good with it.

We had a ball. We know there was much more to see but we feel we had a great experience and really know what it's like. We also didn't want to see so many temples that we got burned out and stopped appreciating them for what they are. It was an awesome experience. 

Day 111-112: Transit to Siem Reap & Silk Farm

After another long, boring, and hungry bus journey (damn these buses giving you 2 minutes every time they stop), we finally made it to Siem Reap, neighbor to Angkor Wat.

We got there quite late and decided to take it easy on our first day in Siem Reap. We figured we would just explore the town and see what it had to offer. As I perused my Lonely Planet, I found a company that supports local artisans. They give you free tours around their facility and give you a 3 hour free tour over to a Silk Farm.

Silk Farm? Nope. Never been to one of those! I always love my Mr. Roger's Neighborhood factory tours. We're totally in! It's a place called Artisans D'Angkor. Apparently during the time of Khmer Rouge, a lot of traditional arts and crafts got executed along with the people. This place is trying to bring it back. They participate in all traditional crafts and even work on bigger pieces, such as the restoration of Angkor Wat sculptures or any commissioned pieces for places such as the airport.

Anyway, so here is what we learned about silk what from the silk farm!

1. Silk worms love mulberry leaves. Apparently eating anything else gives them indigestion. 
2. They kill the silk worms for the silk! It seems so logical, but for some reason, I just figured the silk was more like Charlotte's Web, but for silk worms. Not the case. 
3. They keep 20% of the ugly silk moth's for reproduction. 
4. Silk moths cannot fly, which seems all a bit pointless if I was trying to escape a silk farm.
5. The silk actually comes from the silk worm's cocoon. 
6. Each cocoon has both raw silk and fine silk.
7. There is some difference between tie-dye color and the pattern. I do not know what. 
8. There are a lot of stages that are involved to pull the silk from the cocoon and put it on a spindle. 
9. They do not pay these women enough. Or do they? Hard to say. $5 a day. What do you think? 

It was incredibly cool and interesting. I'd put it up there with visiting a tea plantation. 

We spent the rest of the evening trying to crack a $100. Here in Cambodia, the ATMs dispense USD. They also charge a $5 fee; however, if you withdraw more than $100, you get big notes. Here, everything costs $1.00. You feel like a real deutsche if you buy something for that little and give $100 - that's if they can even break it. We went to pay a t-shirt guy and had agreed on $3.00, but when we said we only had $2.15 or a $100, he just gave it to us for $2.15. Who'd have thought that negotiation tactic would work! After a few beers (where they cracked our $100), we called it an early night! 

Time for some temples!