A trip to Cambodia — specifically, to Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor Wat — is a must on every Southeast Asian expat’s to-do list. The temples are a huge World Heritage site, awe-inspiring… and hot. Really hot.
You would think we would be used to hot after living in Singapore, but the truth is that air-con is never more than a taxi away. Sure you sweat to death walking to the MRT, but once you are there you can bask in the chill. Mia and Andie, who have way WAY less tolerance for humidity than Marc or me, have been dreading a trip to Cambodia since we arrived. “Why do we have to see a bunch of old rocks in the middle of the jungle? Can’t we just go to the botanic gardens? Temples are boring! Waaahhhh.”
So we made them go.
Learning about the Well Project from local Cambodians.
We went over Thanksgiving this year, eating our turkey a few days early in order to enjoy the days off. Having spent a lot of time in Marriotts (yay points!), we stayed in a small boutique hotel partially owned by a not-for-profit, Journeys Within Our Community (JWOC). JWOC raises money for the local Cambodian community, provides schools, and helps dig wells for communities without a safe source of water. Our trip with their tour guides would help fund their Well Program, and they gave us a tour of some of their nearby projects.
Our first day started easily, with a fun trip on quad bikes (or ATVs) into the Cambodian countryside. Given the state of most of the roads, quad bikes were the perfect vehicles for getting beyond the touristy shopping strips. We went through village after village with smiling people and children waving. The girls were amazed that kids who barely had any clothes and lived in dirt-floored huts would be so happy. It made for some very interesting dinner conversation, especially after we explained a little bit about the brutal history of Khmer Rouge Cambodia.
The next day was temple day, with Angkor Wat in the morning and Angkor Thom in the afternoon. We explored the temples with our guide, whose name I can not remember, who was unwittingly entertaining with his descriptions of the ancient carvings and Buddhist/ Hindu stories. His tales were a bit incomprehensible, but one thing he did say over and over and over was how there is a large snake who appears in many temple designs, and he is “Churning the Ocean of Milk of immortality water.” We still don’t know exactly what that means, but it’s become a favorite family quote.
Deb: “He is churning the milk of immortality water!” Mia: “My mom embarrasses me.”
The temples involved quite a bit of climbing, and the sun was very very hot. When visiting the temples you must cover your legs and shoulders out of respect, which made the heat even worse. Fortunately, we went early in the morning and returned to the hotel for a rest in the afternoon.
After lunch and a swim, we went to Angkor Thom, best known as the temple with the really large faces. Yes, there were more snakes churning more milk of immortality water, but the faces on the temples were very cool and the afternoon sun was not as brutal.
Blessing from a Buddhist priest.
Later we received a blessing from a Buddhist priest. We are not sure exactly what he said, but according to our guide he chased away evil spirits and gave us good luck. He tied a red yarn bracelet around our wrists to protect us from evil. We all wore it for several weeks (afraid of what would happen upon removal! Fortunately, nothing life-threatening). The blessing was supposed to involve pouring buckets of water over our heads, but we opted for a sprinkling rather than a full-on dousing.
Cruising Cambodian-style in a tuk-tuk.
At night we enjoyed rides in tuk-tuks, the preferred mode of transit in Cambodia. Similar to Vietnam, Cambodians love their motor scooters. In Siem Reap, they are hooked up to fancy wagon-like cars to haul 4-5 people. Mia and Andie loved riding through the Cambodian traffic in the tuk-tuks, some of them adorned with tassels, fake silk seats, or faux BMW emblems.
Cambodia is a country that has seen more than its share of tragedy, and the more you learn about Pol Pot and his insane brand of communism the more remarkable Cambodia becomes. We wanted Mia and Andie to learn a bit about Cambodians’ lives and the struggles they face, which is why we booked the trip with JWOC. After the temples, we spent a morning learning about their clean water program. Our new guide was a graduate of JWOC’s education program. He had traveled to many different countries talking about their work, and he showed us, with genuine enthusiasm, the wells they developed in a neighboring village. It was very eye-opening for Mia and Andie to see how Cambodian villagers live. As always everyone we met was incredibly friendly. We never felt like a tourist, always a guest.
After the village tour we visited a silk farm and learned about the worm-to-scarf process, and that night enjoyed the Phare Ponleu Selpak Circus, sort of a Cambodian Cirque du Soleil. The circus is another program designed to help Cambodian youth develop careers and opportunities. The performance had some sinister overtones and told stories of the war and the Pol Pot years, but younger kids could still enjoy it at face value for its acrobatics. Mia thought it was upsetting, Andie thought it was cool.
As a family, it was a nice chance for us to get out of the international hotel circuit and try to get to know the culture. If you ask the kids they would definitely prefer a Marriott, but there is a lot of value in knowing a country by more than the knick-knacks decorating the hotel lobby. After so much time in squeaky-clean air-conditioned Singapore, a little dust from a tuk-tuk was a nice change of pace.
Save for Later!
Pin this article.
