The (should be) Seventh Wonder of the World

We went from Bangkok to Siem Reap. Cambodia wasn’t in our original travel plans, but the stars aligned and Scott had been wanting to go. It turned out to be one of the most interesting stops so far. The plane ride there was less than fun as the person sitting between Scott and Keali became disgustingly ill just as we landed. The barf bags on the flight required the top to be torn off prior to opening. Evidently, it was too complex to quickly open, and the woman wasn’t able to open it before she got sick. All over herself. The seat in front of her. And the floor under her. Gross is an understatement.

After deboarding, we had to wait in line for the “visa on arrival”. It was quick, and the kids were excited to have another sticker visa in their passorts.

The town of Siem Reap is an old town with a small population of about 200,000. The other hundred thousand people are tourists. Hotels are everywhere. Tourists are everywhere. Tuck tuks are everywhere. It appeared that the only income was from tourist services. Every tuk tuk and taxi driver were trying to sell us rides for the next day or two.

Arrival day was spent poolside and relaxing.

We spent the second day touring the nearby temples.

Angkor Wat, the seventh wonder of the world, was our first stop which ended up being impressive for many reasons. First, we learned (from our mostly English speaking guide) that it is the largest religious building in the world. Once we started walking around, that became readily apparent.

You couldn’t help but be impressed by the level of details that were carved into the stone.

Second, it took less than 40 years to build the entire building complex and the surrounding moat. Did I mention how massive the structure is? To build something that large in 12th century seems impossible. This is a tiny part of the moat:

Third, the crowds were unbelievable. Thankfully the structure was large enough to walk around without crashing into people every few minutes, but the number of people who travel to such a far removed place was surprising.

Fourth, they take the “respectful dress” seriously. I was wearing a skort that went to my knees. Even that was unacceptable to enter the temples. I ended up picking up a wrap-around floor length skirt to wear. But if you are ever in the area, you’ll be more comfortable in something from your own wardrobe…

Keali even found bats in one of the towers. Leave it to her to find any living critters.

Ta Prohm, the temple featured in the movieTomb Raider, was next on the list. I’m sure if you could see through the crowds, it would have been amazing. As it was, the most impressive thing I saw was the way the trees have grown up through the temple even as the temple remains standing. Aside from that, I’ll always remember the menacingly large hoards of pushy tourists crowds walking through such a small space. (Don’t let the pictures below fool you. People were everywhere.)

The last temple ended up being all of our favorites. Because we had started our tour so late in the day (and skipped the iconic 4am trek to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise), it was midday by time we arrived at Angkor Tom. This temple was absolutely brilliant. It too was unreal in size. You could still see where the stadium once stood, as well as where the king and queen sat to watch the events.

The temple for the royal family was smaller than the huge main temple. Ladders Steep stairs were available to climb to the top of it, but children under 12 weren’t allowed to climb the almost vertical stairs which gave Scott and I the excuse not to attempt ascending in the sweltering heat.

It was beautiful nonetheless. (I was particularly fond of there being less than ten other people total around the area.)

Buddha faces pointing in all directions:

Dancing too:

And it goes without saying that the kids’ favorite part of the day was the wild monkeys that we passed on the roadside. There were momma monkeys and baby monkeys and even what appeared to be a newborn monkey. “Ohs” and “awwwws” resonated throughout the van as we passed by.

The guide thought we were all pretty hysterical to find the monkeys as exciting as the temples. The next day we left for Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary!

Video highlights: