Angkor, I Barely Know Her!

We arrived in Siem Reap last Friday with one objective: to go see the Temples of Angkor. Scattered around the outskirts of the city are hundreds of stone temples built between the 9th and 13th centuries. The temples fell off the proverbial map until around 1908, when French archaeologists began to clear away the encroaching jungle and rebuild the damaged temples. The most famous temple, Angkor Wat, claims to be the largest religious building in the world. It's a big symbol of national pride for Cambodians, appearing on the money, flag, cigarettes, and even beer. We made it into the park for sunrise and spent the whole morning touring seven of the temples, including Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm, a temple complex being taken over by giant trees whose roots are slowly strangling the stone buildings. It was even used as a set for the movie Tomb Raider.

While in Siem Reap Andrea found a cricket in her dinner. Although Cambodians eat them deep-fried by the bagful, she did not consume it. She also did not complain about it; her dish was veggie, and it was a "bonus"- like complaining about an extra piece of chicken in your dinner. After that we got lured into a bar that was hosting pig racing for charity. That's right, 12 pigs competed to see which one could run a course around the bar the fastest (while being chased), and half of all bets placed went to local charities. It was very squealy.

Cambodia has a dark history that is pretty recent but widely unknown in the world. From 1975 through the 1990s, a group called the Khmer Rouge led a bloody revolution that killed millions of Cambodians. Educated people, monks, doctors, those who could speak foreign languages or who wore glasses, were among the people labeled "parasites" and then forced into labour camps, or imprisoned, tortured, and killed. Only now are leaders of the Khmer Rouge being brought to trial, and unfortunately the main leader, Pol Pot, has already died before being tried for his crimes against humanity.

Now we're back in Phnom Pehn, the capital. We visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former Khmer Rouge-run prison that, at its gruesome peak, killed 100 people per day. From 1975 to 1979, 20,000 men, women, and children were held and tortured here, before being executed at the Killing Fields 14 km outside of town. Pretty much any Cambodian has a story of personal tragedy due to the Khmer Rouge regime. The museum was shocking, but it felt like a history that should be acknowledged, even if it is a little late.

We are waiting for our Thai visas to be ready in a few days before we head back into Thailand. We have seen everything we wanted to see, so we decided to travel to the southern beaches again. We will be meeting up with Floris and Marlous, our Dutch friends, on Koh Phan-gan for our second full moon party. Killing a few weeks on the beaches before we head home certainly won't be very difficult!