Siem Reap, Cambodia

No visit to Cambodia is complete with a visit to the main tourist attraction - Angkor Wat which is an ancient Khmer and Buddhist temple complex built by the king in the 12th century. 

(Most photos by Carlos @ Pit Zips)

We were initially wowed by the intricate craftsmanship of the hand carved details that cover every inch of the temple but it's very repetitive throughout the main building which is set up like a square with an inner courtyard. It takes days to see all of the temples so we just did the main ones, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom which houses the famous "Angelina Jolie" temple from Tomb Raider.

Two of hundreds of inukshuks in the courtyard of Angkor Wat

The hostel we stayed at was our first time without air conditioning. We had been getting lucky with free upgraded rooms since it's the low season but they refused to give us the remote unless we paid an extra $7 per night. I'm sure everyone back in the States can relate as it's been as hot there as it is here. It did admittedly feel kind of good to "rough it" with just a fan as many of the locals don't even have that luxury.

Entrance to Angkor Thom

Look familiar from Tomb Raider?

Happy Cow rewarded us once again with the suggestion of the Peace Cafe which is owned by a couple of New Yorkers. Aside from delicious food reminiscent of back home, they offer daily vegetarian cooking and yoga classes and a public meditation hut which I regrettably didn't have time to partake in. We had muesli with soy milk, fresh fruit, and scrambled tofu with toast every morning for breakfast which was a nice change from the typical Asian cuisine we have been eating which doesn't really differentiate between meals. Another great food find was Vitking House which offered a few vegan options for very reasonable prices. They also had another restaurant of the same name back in Phnom Penh which we ate at a couple times before our ride to Ho Chi Minh.

Peace Cafe

Muesli and fresh fruit

After just 2 nights in Siem Reap we took a 7 hour bus ride on local roads back to Phnom Penh to go to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields that we missed the first time around. As I mentioned before, 1 in 4 Cambodians were killed during Pol Pot's reign that lasted 4 years. All of Phnom Penh was deserted 3 days after the coup. He recruited young men from the country, telling them that they deserved a better life and that the city people were treating them unfairly. Many intellectuals and professionals were murdered, setting Cambodia back many years economically and scarring the survivors for life. Often the entire family was slain, even babies, to reduce the chance of retaliation against the Khmer Rouge. The grounds were very "raw" in the sense that burial pits were still sunken in and bits of clothing and bone were still found all even on the footpaths between audio tour stops. We were quite affected by the somber emotional feeling of the place and, quite honestly, were not in the mood to take pictures so here's the only one of the day:

Some of the victims' skulls inside the memorial stupa