Siem Reap and the Angkor Temples

Saleem has been living in Thailand since October 2011, where he is teaching English. Beginning in early March he embarked on a backpacking tour of Southeast Asia, where he experienced the different cultures and lifestyles of eight different countries. This blog is a first-hand account of several of those experiences. 

Country number three was a full day of traveling away. We started our morning with a ferry to Ban Nakasan to board a bus to the Laos-Cambodian border and then on to Siem Reap. A 15 hour journey when all was said and done. 

Usually sleeping is the best way to pass the time on these long bus rides, but the conditions of the roads did not make it easy. Similar to Laos, the roads were wrecked. Small strips of pavement led to cracks and gaping potholes filled with mud and rainwater. The rainfall increased as we passed overturned trucks along the way.

We smelled burning rubber from spinning tires, as smaller buses and minivans struggled to escape the mud. Knowing that a simple mistake could land us in similar situations, our slow drive through the slippery passageways had everyone literally on the edge of their seats. One time the bus shook so violently that it seemed inevitable that we would be tallied up as yet another overturned vehicle. 

By 11pm we finally reached Siem Reap and found a guesthouse that was recommended to us by some friendly Canadians back in November. Our new home was nice. No cockroaches and two fans. Southeast Asian luxury at its finest. 

We slept in our first morning in Siem Reap. There was no rush to go anywhere and nothing was planned. We slowly left our guesthouse around noon and found some food. It was disappointing, to say the least. In fact, most of the food we found in Cambodia lacked something or other. It didn’t have the spice of Thai food, the scents of Vietnamese, nor the made-with-love simplicity of Laos. 

Siem Reap exists because of Angkor Wat and the Angkor temples. The history and beauty of the ancient world is what attracts millions of people every year. Unfortunately, Siem Reap has turned into a giant tourist trap. While it is rather quiet and peaceful in certain areas, the main roads are a constant source of annoyance. Tuk-tuk (auto rickshaw) drivers pick at your nerves, one by one, while they offer you their services. Vendors from store fronts and push carts chirp into your ears about this t-shirt and that scarf. 

It is obvious that Cambodia’s tourism economy, or economy as a whole, is based almost entirely around the attraction that has become Angkor. Deemed the “8th Wonder of the World,” Angkor Wat sits north of Siem Reap, along with several temple sites scattered about. Tuk-tuk drivers bring you from one to another along roads full of more tuk-tuks, rental cars, and tour buses.

I heard many positive reviews about Angkor Wat before arriving. I heard about the majestic structure that reflected in water that surrounded it. The idea of temples made me think about my trips to Thailand, where we walked around Ayutthaya in utter silence, at our own pace, even with plenty of tourists among us. 

This was different. This was chaos. This was tours and talking. This was hot and rushed. This was postcard vendors holding images of places that didn’t resemble what we had just seen. This was the Taj Mahal of Cambodia. It was a place that was run over by tourists and where the locals strove to benefit from the constant flow of travelers, day in and day out.

We continued our journey from stop to stop, and fortunately that made things better. The other temples were much more interesting, in my opinion. Trees and nature encroached on the ruins of the crumbled stone walls. Faces hidden on towering structures. The soothing smell of incense carried through the damp, dark hallways that many tourists luckily neglected to visit. 

I am sure Cambodia has plenty more to offer outside of Siem Reap, a city where U.S. dollars are used as currency due to the amount of tourists. If I did have more time I would have seen myself traveling to the countryside or maybe even Phnom Penh in the south.