After Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, we flew to Cambodia, moving to a less-prosperous country with each phase. Cambodia’s one of Asia’s poorest, and its currency, the riel, runs at around R4000:US$1. You don’t need it, as dollars are widely used and dispensed by ATMs, though you may get a few thousand riels back as change when paying in cash. People are happy to see you. Tourist revenues have halved this year, due to Iran-related fuel costs, simmering conflict with Thailand, and fear of crime, though it seemed safe to me.
We traveled in and near Siem Reap, Cambodia’s second-largest city (pop. 260,000) and gateway to the marvelous temples of Angkor, onetime seat of the Khmer Empire, which dominated mainland Southeast Asia from the ninth to 15th centuries. The temples are Hindu or Buddhist, depending on the religion of the kings who ordered them; there were conversions in both directions. Angkor Wat’s the largest and most famous; built in the 12th century in dedication to the Hindu god Vishnu, it’s housed Buddhist monks for centuries. Among its notable features are a bas-relief of the Churning of the Sea of Milk, in which gods and demons churn the primordial ocean to release the elixir of immortality. We came early to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat, worthwhile despite the overcast sky. Twice a year, on equinoxes, the sun rises directly over the temple’s central tower, as big crowds watch.
There are many temples, so it’s wise to allocate time for others in the Angkor area. These sites were often recovered from the jungle during the French colonial era. The surrounding buildings, including royal places, were made of wood and are gone, but the temples, made of stone, survive, with varying degrees of wear or ruination. One temple, Ta Prohm, is where Tomb Raider was filmed; it has trees growing through the structure. Another highlight is Bantay Srei, with intricate carvings and pink sandstone. Others not to be missed include Neak Pean, on an artificial island, and Bayon, with giant smiling faces. We saw a total of 10 temples, seven on an organized tour and three with a private driver. “I can’t believe you’re seeing more temples,” a friend said, but we happily did.
We spent four full days in the country, the first three on a tour with Journey Cambodia, an excellent company hired to conduct a post-trip option for families who’d participated in the International Geography Championships, in Thailand. If hiring Journey Cambodia, ask for our guide, Bun (pronounced “boon”), and his driver Dara (a name that means “star”). When you travel with them, you become part of “Bun’s family,” getting insider views and jokes, along with cautions against tripping on temple stones or hitting your head on the lintels.
You can also hear Bun’s harrowing story about life under the Khmer Rouge, the Communist party that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and murdered some two million people, about a quarter of the population. Bun was a small child, forced to leave Siem Reap and live in the countryside, near the Thai border. The Khmer Rouge emptied the city, telling people this was a temporary measure to avoid an expected US bombing. In fact, it was meant as a permanent reinvention of society. The Khmer Rouge, under their leader Pol Pot, wanted perfect equality, everyone doing the same backbreaking agrarian work.
People didn’t know what Pol Pot’s agenda was before he gained power, Bun explained. They thought he was a good man who’d bring back King Sihanouk, who’d been forced out by a US-backed general, Lon Nol, as the Vietnam War bled into Cambodia. Lon Nol was unpopular, and few regretted his departure. But the reality of life under the Khmer Rouge’s version of Communism soon became clear.
The Khmer Rouge killed anyone suspected of wealth or education; wearing eyeglasses was reason enough. “To keep you is no gain. To kill you is no loss,” was a government slogan. Malnutrition was rampant. Khmer Rouge soldiers began killing each other. When Communist Vietnam invaded, the Khmer Rouge retreated into the jungle, laying down millions of landmines, which Pol Pot called “sleeping soldiers.” The Khmer Rouge eventually collapsed, the war formally ending in 1998. Pol Pot died in old age, under house arrest by ex-comrades. Khmer Rouge soldiers were deemed brainwashed and given amnesty. Five high-ranking officials were tried and imprisoned; one’s still alive.
We visited APOPO, the name of which is a Dutch acronym for Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development, and saw the HeroRATs, African pouched rats trained to sniff out the chemicals in landmines. My son held one of them. Rats have advantages for this work over dogs, as the former are light enough not to set off the mines, and over metal detectors, which will pick up various metal objects that aren’t relevant. We also visited Wat Thmey, a Buddhist pagoda complex that was one of many Khmer Rouge killing fields.
Against the grandeur of its ancient history, and the grimness of its not-distant past, Siem Reap is also a fun town, with lots of restaurants and a night market on Pub Street. To get around, you can take a tuk tuk, a three-wheeled motorized vehicle for up to four passengers; it’ll be just a few dollars, but ask the price beforehand. Also don’t miss Phare: The Cambodian Circus, in which we saw a show where gymnasts did remarkable feats while sketching out an evening of relationships formed and broken in a bar.
Our tour also took us to Tonle Sap, a large lake that’s highly seasonal. Along its shores are houses on stilts that are accessible by water part of the year. There are also floating structures on the lake with restaurants, shops or houses. We took a boat tour that visited one that had crocodiles in a pit below the platform; such crocodile farming is legal but criticized for the poor conditions in which the animals may be kept, some likely worse than what we saw. One boy in our group was allowed to feed the crocs with chicken on a long stick. As one animal grabbed the meat, I grabbed the stick to prevent the boy from relinquishing it. I later read that a Cambodian man was catapulted into such a pit a few years ago and torn to pieces.
At the offshore shop, I bought a crocodile wallet that, upon further research and inspection, is probably fake. Things could’ve been worse. At a roadside shop on the way to the lake, I bought a crocodile skull for my son. It was real, but, as we soon saw online, also illegal in Singapore, where we’d be staying for a day before returning to the US. To avoid confiscation and possible imprisonment in the strict city-state, I returned the skull for store credit, which I used to buy a croc belt, subject to more lenient rules as a finished product, but also real (the rigidity of the scales is an indicator).
On our last day, besides temples, we visited the Lotus Silk Farm, where fibers from the lotus plant are spun into a rare and prized material, used for expensive scarves and other products; we also went by rowboat to see the lotus plants in the water. This creative artisanal enterprise struck me as a hopeful sign for Cambodia’s future.