Siem Reap

Most of the places were to some degree crowded

Our first stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap. From Norway it is a pleasant flight via Bangkok in Thailand. Even though we knew nothing about Cambodia before we decided to go there, it did not take long until we understood Siem Reap is a must for tourist. In the beginning I thought Ankor Wat was one wat and I could not understand why we would need several days to visit it. But it turns out that every king from  year AD 802 to 1432 built his own wat to keep his people safe and inside the wat there was always a temple. These are the buildings that remain today. Houses in stone were only for the Gods, so houses for the people are long gone as they were built using wood.

We ended up spending two days looking at different temples, each had their own style and charm. We had a tuk tuk driver taking us from temple to temple and it worked out really nice. He always gave us cold water when we were done with a temple, a much aprecciated service in the heat with conservative clothes:)We could have spent both longer and shorter looking at the wats with their nice carvings, sculptures and histories, but for us they started to melt into each other after a while.

 

 

 

My "guide". We came a long way just using our Lonely Planet book



Some temples were almost overtaken by nature and it was special to see how the trees had grown into one with the buildings. But be careful though. A lot of loose stones around.

A nice variations was the 2 km walk up to the carvings at Kbal Spean. Less people and nice nature is my cup of tea. I found it very special that they had made carvings in the water and I could not really make any sense of it.

Banteay Srei, my favourite with all its details! It isn't alway about size...

Coconut from our driver:) Plenty of hydration!

Being a tourist in Siem Reap was very easy for us. It started with my mum asking me to read an article in the newspaper about Cambodia. It turned out the article was about a Norwegian couple running a guesthouse in Siem Reap. There are pro and cons going to a guesthouse not run be locals, I thought. But I read the article and then I visited their webpage to find out more. When I realized they were dedicated both to the environment, taking initiatives to decrease our negative impact on nature, and also working for responsible tourism, I had no doubt. We were staying at Babel Guesthouse. It was really inspiring to see how they try to make an impact. Like the refillable bottle campaign: Refill, not landfill. Instead of buing a new one, you refill the one you have. Think big, act small:)






It ended up being a good choice. We got all the help and tips we needed from both the staff, the managers and even the manager's family. We could ask about anything. From the regular things like: Where to go, what to do, how to get from a to b to all the small and big things at least I wonder about in a new country. Why do they do that? What is that? How does thing work? What is that loud noise I've been hearing all day? The food was really nice there too, so we had everything we needed after a long day. In the city centre it got very touristic and rather busy, so for a good place to eat: ask at your hotel for a recommendation.

Pub Street in day light

Other places we went to was the market, pub street and Phare. The market and the night market was okay, but very pushy compared to the markets we visited later in Cambodia. First we visited pub street during the day, and we thought we wanted to go back in the evening. And so we did, but we only ended up feeling old and boring. It was extremly noisy, it was almost like the pubs were competing about having the loudest music. It was difficult speaking to each other out on the street, so it must be impossible inside the pubs. We did not even attempt to go inside. But if you want to party, it seemed like the perfect place to be.






What I would really recommend doing is going to see Phare, the Cambodian Circus. A fantastic performance! It is not a circus with animals, but a history told with music, dancing, paiting and mainly acrobatics. More like cirque du soleil. With almost no use of props they told a touching history about the time of Kmer Rouge. The acrobatics they do, are incedibly impressive! The circus it selfe was an initiative to give young people a way of living after the fall of Kmer Rouge. With its school in Battambang they still provide an alternative for street children. Not only great entertainment, but a great cause as well.

Medium loaded with the usual madrasses