We only spent 16 days in Cambodia and thus decided to focus only on two places: Phnom Penh & the Angkor Area near Siem Reap. Heidi also spent two days in Battambang.

There are many other places to see in Cambodia, but we had simply run out of time and had grown weary of changing place every other night after 11 months of traveling. Cambodia surely deserves more time to be discovered in depth.

We stayed one week in Phnom Penh, although three days would be enough to see the major sights. The Angkor area deserves a good week if you plan to see all the major sights at a leisurely pace. To our big surprise, the most famous and most well-know monument, Angkor Wat, did not rank number one among the many monuments we visited.

The highlights of this trip were:

(x) The “Jungle Temples” in the Angkor Area, especially the very remote and almost mystical Beng Mealea, but also the famous Ta Prohm and the impressive Preah Khan. (x) Of course Angkor Wat, but maybe even more the Bayon Temple in Angkor Thom. (x) The panoramic view from a helium-powered balloon over Angkor Wat at the end of a sunny afternoon. (x) Visiting the memorials for 2 million victims of the horrific Khmer Rouge Regime and learning more about the terror of the prison S21 & the Killing Fields. Also seeing how the country and its people moved on from this nightmare. (x) Cooling down in the pool and relaxing at the Golden Banana Hotel in Siemp Reap, after walking our feet sore. It was one of the best accommodations we stayed in more than 11 months. (x) The boat trip from Siem Reap to Battambang and riding the bamboo train there.

When thinking about Cambodia, this is what we will always remember:

(x) “Mister, Tuk Tuk?” or “Ok, you buy from me!” Street vendors in Angkor and Tuk Tuk drivers in general are omnipresent and can be pretty relentless. (x) The innumerous N.G.O. projects. Some of them, like “Pour un sourire d’enfant”, are really impressive. (x) How present, although not obvious Cambodia’s tragic past is. Many adults we talked to had suffered under the terror regime of the Khmer Rouges, but it was never them who initiated this topic.

Would we do something differently the next time?

(x) Take more time to discover other places of Cambodia. (x) Skip the “sun set watching” from the small hill near Angkor Wat. By the time the sun really sets and the light would be right for taking photos, Angkor Wat is already in the shade, since it is on the side of the hill facing away from the sun. We took great photos of the zillions of tourists waiting with us.

Conclusion? The most amazing aspect was to visit a country that 10 years ago was still seeing violent struggles between government troops and what was left of the Khmer Rouges but that now attracts 2 million visitors a year to see the incredible achievement of its ancient Khmer civilization. We truly hope that this hard working people will continue to see a brighter future.

Cambodia is a relatively cheap country to travel, though it is not as cheap as its neighbors. We spent on average 35 Euros per person per day. True, since Cambodia was the last country we visited during this Round The World Trip, we treated ourselves to better hotels and hardly ever ate at the markets as we used to do in other countries.

We spent on average 16 Euros per night on accommodation, for nice double rooms with air-conditioning. In Siem Reap, our absolute favorite, the Golden Banana Hotel, even had a pool, which provided a very pleasant refreshment after visiting temples for hours.

We spent 13 Euros per day and person on food and drinks, almost exclusively in the pricier tourist restaurants. Finally, entrance fees, transport and tours are expensive, especially in the Angkor Area. For this, we spent altogether 130 Euros per person in two weeks.

Since distances are short, overland travel is extremely cheap, except of course if you decide to fly...

I chose the Hotel Royal and really liked the place and its super friendly staff. It offers the usual services of a backpacker hotel, plus “motordup” service to the few sights around. The “free-lance drivers” hang out in the hotel lobby and patiently go through the limited number of sights with every new arrival, in excellent English by the way.

This proved to be already extremely useful at our first destination, the Phare Ponleu Selpak “Circus School” outside the city. Naturally, I had lots of questions to ask the teachers. This project started in the mid 1980s and was aimed at young Cambodian refugees near the Thai Border to overcome their trauma by offering drawing lessons. Eight returning refugees from Battambang continued and further developed what they had learned in these cultural workshops. The school now gives children from poor families access to culture via different artistic activities, including music, drawing, drama, dancing and circus. Small troupes of students perform in villages educating about AIDS, drugs, children’s rights etc… Unfortunately, I missed their weekly circus performance by one day and had to make do with watching them practice.

Then, we continued to the Phnom Sampeou, a small single hill about 20 kilometers outside of Battambang, rising above its otherwise flat surroundings. The view from above is stunning, but it is the sad history of the pagoda and the caves at its top that has turned it into a tourist destination. During the Khmer Rouge regime, the pagoda was turned into a prison / torture chamber. The prisoners were then killed by being pushed through an opening at the top of the cave. There is another cave that drops down from the foot of the one mentioned before. It still contains lots of skulls and bones. Many of them belong to children who were simply thrown down there to starve to death. A simple glass encasing filled with skulls and bones reminds of this unimaginable terror and cruelty.

I was very thankful that this day trip ended on a lighter note, a ride on the bamboo train. This is a unique and creative form of ad-hoc local transport, mainly used to transport wood as far I was able to observe. A little pay off to the authorities allows the villagers to take tourists a couple of kilometers up and back. The vehicle consists of a bamboo platform that is placed on two iron bars, each with two wheels at its end. All this is powered by a motorcycle engine that is linked by a kind of rubber belt to one of these iron bars.

The cart is assembled within minutes, right in front of you. Then you start off at neck breaking speed riding on ancient tracks that were built in colonial times. What you see ahead are two big, dark snakes, each going a slightly different way. In the beginning it all seemed like a visual deception, tracks that neither run parallel nor leveled. The gap between the individual iron tracks is usually a few centimeters in width and height, which keeps you bouncing throughout the whole trip.

After about 15 minutes you stop, the platform is lifted, turned around to position the engine in the right place and then you head back. If you encounter other bamboo trains, these are either taken off the tracks, or if you are close to the stop they are pushed back in your direction. Later they continue their journey. While I was enjoying the ride, I suddenly remembered a documentary on Austrian TV. It was on recent history of Cambodia. Its very last image was this train, which then was run by moving a handle back and forth.

The boat trip from Siem Reap to Battambang was definitely one of the highlights of my trip through Cambodia. Ironically, it was the only destination in this country that Gilles and I could not agree on. So I went ahead by myself, while Gilles relaxed a few more days at the Golden Banana Hotel in Siem Reap.

As soon as the bus left Siem Reap, with its five star hotels and fancy restaurants, you felt propelled into the Neolithic Age. The small river running along the road towards Lake Tonle Sap was lined with dwellings like I had never seen before. They looked so fragile on these super long thin poles that you would expect them to crash any minute into the swampy ground below. The walls and roofs made of bamboo mats looked tousled, to put it nicely. The many antennae poking high into air signaled that there was at least one piece of modern appliance in these huts, a TV. Although these huts are right next to the road there is no electricity from the grid, only from batteries. The closer we got to the lake the more disheveled the huts looked, more like tiny shelters or shacks, often only covered by plastic. I remembered our guide in Angkor telling us that many of these people are Vietnamese refugees with nowhere to go, since they lost their citizenship after fleeing Vietnam.

When we saw the boat, we all looked a bit anxious. It seemed so small! About 15 passengers squeezed in, two rows facing each other. For a while we passed through the floating village of Phnom Krom, a cluster of “floating houses” or houseboats in various conditions. Just before we entered Tonle Sap with its caramel colored waters, Asia’s biggest fresh water lake, our little vessel ploughed through an area thick with water plants. We all felt a bit vulnerable venturing out into the vast expanse of water in our tiny boat. Did I mention that there was no safety equipment whatsoever on the boat?

Actually, the trip across Lake Tonle Sap was rather short, whereas the trip up the Sanker River to Battambang took up most of the time of the trip. Altogether, I spent about eight hours watching people living on and off the river, while we passed wetland and saw the occasional bird. We stopped once for lunch on a floating restaurant, very simple but tasty.

Parts of the river were like a narrow, meandering road and the captain approached every curve very carefully, honking full blast. The other precaution against collisions with boats going the other way was a young man standing up front, signaling traffic to the captain who was at the far end of the boat. I figured it must be rather difficult to navigate this river since never before I had seen such “security measures” in Cambodia. During this river trip you could see any type of housing and watch any kind of activity you would observe elsewhere. Even the frenzy accompanying for the upcoming election in Cambodia was omnipresent. “Houses” were plastered with the faces of candidates and we passed a “campaign boat” carrying supporters in yellow T-shirts. Like on land you could hear them long before you saw them, because of the ear-piercing recorded speeches coming from a giant speaker.

Upon arrival in Battambang, the passengers crawling from the boat were “welcomed” by touts working for the Hotel Royal and Hotel Chaya. These two places are extremely well organized: we had already received their folders before we “set sails” from Phnom Krom! Obediently we crawled into their “free transport”, filled one for each hotel and were herded off.

The original plan was to take a boat to Battambang from Siem Reap before heading to Bangkok. But after a whole week of visiting temples, I grew weary and just wanted to enjoy the most pleasant swimming pool of the Golden Banana Hotel and the greatest luxury there is: just do nothing for a couple of days! This was especially true since I was slowly realizing that I would be back to work in only three weeks…

“You wimp!”, snapped Heidi when I told her I would skip Battambang and just stay at the Golden Banana two more nights before jumping on a plane to Bangkok. “Yes, and proud of it!” was my answer.

Of course, Heidi decided to do it the hard way: she would take the boat to Battambang, a seven hour trip. Then she plans to visit the city & its surroundings and on the following day take a bus to Bangkok, a torturous 8 to 10 hour trip, some of it on a horrible road.

Well, I do not regret my decision. It is so nice to stop and just do nothing for a few days. We definitely should have done that more often!

After a long struggle with various vendors over who should get the business of selling us lunch, water, coconut etc… we distributed the business evenly among them. Heidi even bought some clothes, for the first time here, because the quality and design is usually not that grand here near Siem Reap.

Noodle soup and fried rice provided us with the energy to tackle the very last sightseeing during our week stay in Siem Reap, in which we only took 1.5 days off, actually sorting out more than 1.500 pictures and writing for the website. When we read about the Roluos group during our lunch break, we were almost faltering. But then, wandering around the three different sites, we were again inspired by the beauty, especially by the elaborate carvings.

What makes up the temples of today Ruluos was once the first capital of the Angkorian Era. It was built in the 9th century and is thus a lot older than the temples we previously visited. The main attraction is Bakong, which then was the state temple of the new Angkorian capital.

It was here that the first temple-mountain was constructed. Even today, stone lions guard the steep stairs at each level of the pyramid. The fourth level we found most interesting with 12 small intact shrines surrounding it. The sanctuary tower is on the last and 5th level. From there you have a great view of the entire complex.

Preah Ko, the very first temple built in Ruluos, was our next and very, very last stop. Despite the heat we could not escape the exquisiteness of its delicately carved lintels, especially the garlands with miniature horsemen emerging. Although we had seen zillions of carvings this week, we were still drawn in by them.

We did discover something new here, though. Most of the small tower had “blind doors”, called so because they were closed with bricks. After closing them with bricks, a layer of lime mortar was applied, into which carvings of most intricate patterns were chiseled.

For those who wonder about our sudden enthusiasm for ancient architecture... The answer is that we have never seen such a vast amount of temples, buildings, shrines, carvings in one area. So one question has been haunting us: how many people worked for how long to create all this?

Starting with transporting the large stones from distant quarries by elephants, chiseling the blocks to build temples and palaces etc... But the most amazing relics are the innumerous reliefs, carvings, sculptures that adorn the buildings. Not even our famous tour guide could answer this question!

Beng Mealea we saved for our last day of sightseeing, since it is so different from all other temples. It is completely unrestored, surrounded by dense vegetation and overgrown with trees. It is about 80 kilometers from Siem Reap, so we decided to invest in a stiff 60 USD taxi ride. Indeed, the last time we used a Tuk Tuk for a longer trip, Heidi was suffering endlessly: the dust in her eyes and behind her contact lenses would not disappear for days!

Ben Mealea is simply amazing. Part of it is totally in ruins, other parts are in surprisingly good shape, like some Apsara dancers, lintels and walls. Like many other temples, it was once the center of a town long gone.

We could not believe that we were clambering amidst ruins over 1.000 years old like would-be explorers. Though, recently it became necessary to build a little wooden walkway through a small section of the site, since more and more tourists have found their way out here. Its purpose is first of all to stop the monument from being further destroyed by tramping tourists, but we guessed that there was also a safety issue. Before the construction of the walkway, visitors were climbing onto the roof of already fragile galleries and walking on top of sagging walls in order to see the temples “secrets”. Even now, a visit still involves a lot of climbing and balancing, but done sensibly, it is good fun. All in all, we were so happy to have come here!

At the entrance of the temple, “informal” guides wait to take “unguided tourists” around. We think such a guide is essential. We would have never found some of the highlights on our own. So the small tip is a good investment, especially considering the expenses involved coming here.

What makes Cambodia so different from Laos is its relentless street vendors. In Phnom Penh, it was the Tuk Tuk drivers and the motorbike-taxis we had to deal with. Apart from fending them off, they would feed us with incorrect information regarding opening hours etc… and so trying to convince us to go somewhere else with them, of course!

Angkor Archaeological Park was the final test for us. Every trip to a temple was accompanied by the same ritual. Vendors, mostly children, would approach us offering their merchandise: postcards, bracelets, T-shirts, books, musical instruments, table cloths, toys, scarves, cold drinks, food, coconuts, just to name the most frequently ware.

We always thwarted these offers in a friendly manner. Heidi would get in lengthy conversation with children, who spoke good English as long as it concerned their business. What we found most amazing was that these kids had an answer to all our excuses and explanations for not buying from them. It seems as if the had heard it all and were very well prepared!

A typical exchange between vendors, who usually come in groups, each hawking something different, and tourists:

Vendor 1: “Mister, want some water?” Tourist: “No, thank you, we have some”. Vendor 1: “Buy later, okay?” Tourist: “Yeah, maybe later.” Vendor 1: “Remember me, buy later from me!”

Vendor 2: “Okay, buy post cards, one dollar” Tourist: “We have bought some already”. Vendor 2: “Buy more, only one dollar, good price” Tourist: “It is not about the price, we do not need any more post cards”. Vendor 2: “Buy postcards, only one dollar”

Vendor 3: “Silk scarf, two for 10 dollars” Tourist: “We have already a silk scarf”. Vendor 3: “Buy more, for your friends” Tourist: “I do not have any friends” Vendor 3: “Buy scarf, very cheap, good price”

Vendor 4: “Buy coconut from me” Tourist: “I just had a coconut”. Vendor 4: “Buy another one” Tourist: “I am full, I cannot drink another one” Vendor 4: “Then buy one for driver” Tourist: “The driver is drinking one just now”. Vendor 4: “Good price, only one dollar”

A bit weary of temples?

Head out to Kbal Spean, in the midst of the jungle, a 1.5 hour north of Siem Reap. The trip itself is scenic, since the road runs through a Cambodia as rural as it can be: rice paddies, villages with their characteristic stilt houses, lots of children walking to or from school, hardly any traffic…

Once you arrive at the parking lot, you need to walk for about 30 minutes through the rainforest. The path is well-marked and very pleasant. Again, this monument is NOT a temple, but consists of hundreds of carvings, found in the river bed, “The River of a Thousand Linga”. A linga is a phallic symbol of fertility, but these looked more like little disks to us. These were cut into the rock by hermits between the 11th and the 13th century in order to “fertilize” the waters that fed the rice paddies below.

During the rainy season, the river dries up and the carvings are viewed best then, whereas when the water is really high, they simply disappear. For our visit the level of water was perfect, the disks were just covered by a few centimeters of water and glittered in the sun. There are a few other carvings on rocks all around, which we found with the help of a young man. He waits at the top and for a small tip shows you around.

It is not the many disks that are so spectacular, but the whole setting in the jungle, the walk up and the trip from Siem Reap. A trip to Kbal Spean is best combined with a visit of Banteay Srei, another must-stop.

Banteay Srei, famous for its elaborate carvings, is a small temple on the way to Kbal Spean and a must stop. A first glance at the entrance area brought a pleasant deja vue. The same kind of pillars was leading up into the temple as at Wat Phu in Champasak in Laos. We were relieved to see that the monument was fairly compact, not as extensive as others.

Despite our enthusiasm, the heat was wearing us out. The most intricate carvings are found in the lintel above each doorway. The inner enclosure is also in exceptionally good condition. We found ourselves studying the carvings very closely with mythical figures, animals, swirls etc…

Since the site is so small, you get a good overall view of the entire inner enclosure with its little towered shrines from relatively close up. With low surrounding walls, the temple itself is quite a sight. It is sagging in or tilted at some places, but still standing after more than 1.000 years.

Banteay Srei is so remote that it was only discovered in 1914! We were glad to see that a good number of visitors come out here to pay tribute to this magnificent sight.

Definitely our favorites, since both are jungle temples partially overgrown with trees! Their giant roots embrace walls, bring them down, pry them apart or keep them from collapsing.

Ta Prohm was a huge monastic complex that has been only to some extent cleared from jungle overgrowth, a decision made by conservationists who wanted visitors to have an idea of what these temples looked like when they were first discovered by Europeans. Nobody back then could anticipate the huge number of tourists who would wander through this place. So this immense influx eventually required the installation of wooden walkways which are unfortunately distracting a bit from the “jungle atmosphere”.

The most impressive sights are the giant fig trees and silk wood trees that cradle entire buildings. Often they just sit on top of a Gopura, the elaborate entrance of an enclosing wall. We constantly wondered why those have not collapsed under the immense weight.

Preah Khan is a similar big complex like Ta Prohm, full of carvings, passages and corridors. But Preah Khan was much more than a monastery. With over 1.000 teachers, it appears to have been a Buddhist university and a considerable sized city. Again, we entered through a causeway guarded by gods and demons holding a snake, proud to eventually recognize and identify these common features of classical Khmer architecture. This is why one building with round columns really caught our eye. The answer to this puzzle: it was added later!

Again we enjoyed these two sites more than most others, because we often felt like those early explorers. Ta Prohm is by now on the itinerary of most tour groups, so early morning or late afternoon is the best time to visit. Preah Khan is less visited but the light for photographing seems to be better in the afternoon.

A few weeks before returning home, a thorough check into our finances revealed that Heidi was able to save some money over the year we were traveling. These unexpected modest riches made her light-headed.

First thing we did was we hired the best, most famous guide in town, Mister Meas Veasna from Asia Trails to take us around Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm. Costly, but worth every penny! We tried to soak up every syllable he said about the history and architecture of these monuments. The hardest part, requiring all of our concentration, was listening to the many folk tales, because we never could remember the names of the protagonists. The newly acquired knowledge helped us to enjoy our later excursions much more. Those we did on our own, just using the guide book. Without such expertise, it would become really tiresome and meaningless to tour the sites after a few days.

The other lavishness we invested in was to take a look of Angkor Wat from above. A helium powered balloon tied to a steel cable made in Austria, as Heidi immediately noticed, took us up 90 meters up. This short 10 minute trip gives you a bird eye of Angkor Wat and the vast green plains surrounding it. Rice paddies were glittering in the setting sun and Tonle Sap Lake rested in the near distant.

Unfortunately the last flight was before sunset, but nevertheless the view was awesome. It was a gorgeous day with blue skies, a little windy though. So Heidi was glad to set foot on the ground again after swaying around, even for such a short time. We truly enjoyed the ride although it was a stiff 15 USD per person. Strangely, we did not see any other temples, which made us realize how far apart they must be.

Between the 12th and the 16th century, Angkor Thom was the capital of the mighty Khmer Empire.

The outer enclosure is still intact and encompasses the 9 square kilometers of what was once a striving city of an estimated one million people. At that time probably the most populated place in the world!

The few monuments left are truly amazing in what is now mainly a forested area, especially the colossal Bayon temple with its 37 spectacular face-towers and the causeways leading up to the city gates that once crossed a moat. Both sides of the bridge are lined with large stone statues holding a giant snake with its typical fan-like head at the end. One side depicts demons, the other side gods.

The unscrupulous robbers, who cut off the heads of these statues, did not differentiate between god and evil. They simply stole them all. Only the south gate is relatively intact. This is why most tourists approach through this one. We left through another gate, where all the heads had been stolen. Angkor’s ornaments have been stolen since serious restoration started at the beginning of the 20th century, but it climaxed in the 1980s. Despite tough control nowadays, even now tourists are caught carrying off stones in their backpacks.

The Bayon is a monumental construction most famous for its face-towers. Each features four large faces carved from the rocks pointing in each cardinal direction. Once inside, you are lost in a maze of galleries on different levels. Many are decorated with intricate bas-reliefs narrating daily life and Khmer history.

Of course, nobody leaves Angkor Thom without strolling along Elephant Terrace with its giant elephant carvings and the Leper King Terrace with even more elaborate carvings.

Nothing is left of the royal palace or the other buildings that once constituted the city, since they were constructed from less durable material than religious buildings.

So why is Angkor Wat so much more famous than all the other splendid temples all around it?

The main reason is that it was never abandoned, like all the other sites, when the capital of nearby Angkor Thom was moved to Phnom Penh in the 16th century. Until 1941 monks lived here and most important, took care of it. The other reason is that it is an architectural masterpiece of fine proportion and rich in details.

Angkor Wat is most impressive when looked at from across the wide moat that surrounds it. From there its five towers are the most prominent feature. These represent the five peaks of Mount Meru and thus are the centerpiece of this temple, which completely realizes the microcosms of the Hindu universe.

A causeway leads across the moat to one of the five gates in the high wall. This encloses the area of what was once a city. Once within, the view is equally impressive as from across the moat, but only three towers are visible now. On that first of three levels is the famous bas-relief, a breathtaking relief that runs 600 meters around the four long walls of the gallery. Our favorite carvings were the many Apsaras, gracious, celestial dancers that decorate the walls.

The second level has a similar gallery that once was adorned with beautiful sculptures, which were all stolen. The only statue left, a finely sculptured women colored with a reddish coat, gives you a glimpse of how mind-bogglingly beautiful this place must have been when it was finished in the 12th century. Needless to say, even her head was chopped off, because the piece itself was too heavy to carry away.

The third and uppermost level of the temple carries the five towers, the surrounding galleries and the central shrine. It truly looks like the final ascent of a great mountain. Until recently, visitors could climb these steep, narrow, sloping stairs. We think it was about time to close this frail and most precious part off from the masses, especially after we watched how little respect some visitors showed for this ancient monument. Sometimes, we were truly shocked when people climbed on buildings, touched the reliefs, rubbed against the carvings or sat on fragile stone railings. The few guards hardly ever interfere, disinterested since they are paid next to nothing. Beside that, they feel embarrassed telling visitors off.

We straight forward admit that Angkor Wat was not our favorite monument. We came with these really high expectations of seeing a temple in the jungle, which it is not. Of all the sites it has the least vegetation surrounding it.

Most people spend between 1 to 3 days visiting the various sites spread out over a vast area. So a visit naturally requires some kind of transport. Sporty travelers bike the 7 kilometers out to the temples and then the not so short distances between the sites, others hop on the backseat of a motorbike. We chose to hire a Tuk Tuk that took us around for three days, for 12 US per day. One day, we even went top class, more about this under “Extravanza”. Talking about money, tickets are 20 / 40 / 60, for one day / three days / one week.

Usually, we did a few hours of sightseeing in the early morning and after a long rest at the pool, we went back for a late afternoon visit. We strongly recommend taking a guide for at least one or two days, otherwise after a while, these magnificent monuments only look like a pile of stones to you. No guide book can make up for the inside knowledge of these experts, who know what is the best time to visit certain places and exactly what to focus on. Apart from that, they are also an inexhaustible source on any question concerning Cambodia.

The guide book “Ancient Angkor” is a good investment. It is sold by the vendors in the temples for as little as 5 USD, with good quality color photos. It is easy to digest and very systematic in its approach. It gives you various options as how to go about your visit, in a chronological order starting with the oldest temples and working your way up, or only the most famous, or according to a theme, anything is possible, provided you have the time.

In the course of a week, we learned a lot about Khmer architecture & history, Hindu & Buddhist religion as well as mythology. And… we were not alone! Maybe a figure best describes the influx of visitors from all over the world. In 2007, the incredible number of 2 million (!!!) tourists, the majority Asians, visited the Angkor Wat World Heritage Site. This status was already granted in 1992, when hardly any tourist traveled to this country.

Who has not heard of Angkor Wat, one of the biggest, most highly eulogized religious buildings in the world?

Few newly arrived tourists are aware that they will explore a vast number of monuments during their visit here, temples, cities, shrines, reservoirs etc… with famous Angkor Wat being only one of them. Quite a few of them, like Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm or Banteay Srey, to name the most famous, can easily compete with the so famous Angkor Wat or even surpass its magic!

The highly developed architecture and carvings that characterize these monuments are an outstanding example of the Khmer civilization that flourished between the 8th and 13th century. The area of Angkor was the site of various capitals of this Khmer empire, which was one of the most powerful empires in South East Asia then.

Our guide book describes 47 temples in Angkor, some as far as 80 kilometers away from Siem Reap. We assume this is only a small fraction of the many monuments in the area, namely those that are accessible. In the next few entries, we only briefly described the highlights of this enormous site, because experts have filled libraries with their knowledge, so any attempt on our behalf would have been ludicrous. Instead, we concentrated on very personal observations.

The first excavation work started in the late 19th century by French archeologists, which slowed down during World War II and was later completely disrupted by a long period of war & unrest. Only when Angkor was given World Heritage status did the conservation work resume in the mid 1990s.

It has been about 100 years that serious conservation work began in the area, so already before the Vietnam War, tourists came to admire the grandeur of Angkor. Then many years of war made visits and restoration work impossible, but in the mid 90s tourists slowly started to return.

Initially, mainly N.G.O workers began arriving in Phnom Penh in those days and eventually package tourists flew in from there. But then, only Angkor Wat was cleared of land mines. Apart from the landmines making it impossible for tourists to venture out and see the many other temples, the area was still a battle ground between supporters of Pol Pot and government troops. Only when “Brother Number 1” died in 1998 did the fighting finally stop. Although Angkor was never desecrated by the Khmer Rouge, bullet holes give evidence of shoot outs between the two groups.

A tour guide told us that in 2001, there were only a handful of hotels and guesthouses in the city and on Siem Reap’s “pub street”, there were four restaurants catering foreigners. ATMs were unknown in Cambodia then and individual backpacking was difficult, because roads were in horrid condition.

Seven years later, “Pub Street” is the epicenter of the city’s diverse restaurant and bar scene, a street lined with western style bars and eateries, branching out into the neighboring alleys and streets. All international hotel chains are represented here, as innumerous others. Although businesses must be Khmer owned, there are many ways to surpass the law. Many investors are Chinese, South Korean, Thai and without a few exceptions almost all tourist restaurants are run by foreigners.

Countless spas offer any kind of massage and various markets cater to tourists hunting for souvenirs. Right now, a brand new shopping mall is being built, one of the innumerous construction sites in the city. And yes, ATMs arrived to make it possible to spend your money at all these venues!

This oasis was our home for the week we explored Ancient Angkor and we cannot think of a better place. It offers two types of accommodation, an affordable B&B for 23 USD with a small breakfast and hotel for 44 USD. It is at a dead end street and thus absolutely quiet, has great staff and interesting clientele.

The two venues are separated by a narrow alley. This set up makes it look small and cozy, only during breakfast time do you realize that quite a few people stay here. The best place to relax is the fairly sized pool that is framed by bamboo and banana trees and a big effort is taken to keep mosquitoes at bay. Behind these screen of greenery hides the one storey hotel with about 12 rooms.

The music played at the pool is pleasant and not loud, something we have come to appreciate. The best pool turns into a nightmare if thumping music makes you reach for your ear plugs. Although it is not a backpacker accommodation, it is very easy to strike up a conversation with other guests and we met some truly fascinating people. The staff is lovely and attentive and we cannot think of a better place to be.

Obviously this place is such a success story that a new building is being added right next door.

The trip to here from Phnom Penh was absolutely unspectacular: flat countryside, lots of it uncultivated, palm and banana trees and houses built on stilts. The rice paddies that we passed were not planted yet. This was a clear sign that the rainy season still not really started in this part of Cambodia.

The only surprise was our arrival in Siem Reap, after we thought we had seen it all! Ten minutes before we pulled into the bus station, the manager of the bus company came on board and told the astonished passengers that they should all gather in the office of his company and wait for the luggage to be delivered to them. Then, those who had no pickup arranged would be taken to their accommodation for free (!!!) by Tuk Tuk. This was for our safety and convenience, because once the bus stopped there would be so many Tuk Tuk drivers competing over the arriving newcomers.

What really happened was: the Tuk Tuk drivers were extremely civilized, some holding up placards promising “I won’t hassle you”. Others said “free pick up” or quoted a price ridiculously low. So we knew we were in for some new. Young men in blue shirts, identifying them as company employees, schlepped the luggage around and guided us to a Tuk Tuk, THEIRS.

Then the usual polite questions and you had a Tuk Tuk for the next few days taking you to the monuments around Siem Reap. Not that we are critical of this arrangement, it is quite clever. The reason we mention it is because we had never seen that scheme before.

In Siem Reap, you find any accommodation thinkable, starting from a few dollars to open end. All major hotel chains are presented here and many, many new hotels are under construction. This is also true for the restaurants scene, of course.

Being in the capital, it was about time for some REALLY great food and drinks. We found it at two places that could not more different: the most luxurious hotel in town, Le Royal, and a restaurant run by former street children and their teachers, called Friends.

One thing we have missed was a good cocktail, like the one we usually enjoy at our watering hole in Vienna, the First American Bar. So we walked the 500 meters from our modest hotel to the Raffles Le Royal Hotel, the most exquisite hotel in Phnom Penh, built in colonial style. In the cozy atmosphere of the Elephant Bar, we enjoyed drinks that will be remembered, served with a little snack that was equally delicious. By 07:00 pm the place was packed, so we figured there are a lot of other tourists who monitor the promotions alias happy hour of first-rate bars.

But the most remarkable experience was our visit to the restaurant “Friends”, a project that initially started to help street children back in 1994. Part of the whole project of “Friends”, this restaurant aims at training street children in the hospitality / gastronomy industry. The “venture” has turned into a real success story!

We both love food and eating out but we can only remember a few times eating such creative, delicious food. The tragic part is that we postponed eating there to the very last day of our week long stay in the city, the day we visited the Royal Palace, about 200 meters away. So we ate there twice that day trying to sample as many dishes as possible. This is easy because, except the “daily specials”, all dishes are served as “Tapas”, so you need to order at least two or three to end up with a real meal. Every single one was fantastic, as were their very creative cocktails and “freezers”, non-alcoholic cocktails.

Of course we bought their cook book so that we can try some of our favorites back home!

Our first destination was the Royal Place, but we were not admitted because Heidi wore a sleeveless shirt. We completely had forgotten about that! So instead of buying a T-shirt at the “conveniently” placed shop next to the ticket office, we headed for the National Museum nearby.

Of course, the Tuk Tuk drivers waiting and watching outside knew immediately what had happened. One approached us and told us that the same policy, no sleeveless shirt, applies for the nearby National Museum as well. This is why we should go to visit the Killing Fields, 15 kilometers away, instead, using his service of course. Naturally, this was all nonsense and we strolled through the National Museum for a good hour, a very impressive building with a stunning courtyard.

A very remarkable collection of statues and stone sculptures from the pre-Angkor (6th to 9th Century AD) and Angkor Period (11th to 13th Century AD) is on display here. In particular striking is how well those civilizations mastered stone carving. Unfortunately, those civilizations seem to be still relatively unknown, since neither a period nor an origin can be named for an important part of the displayed artworks. We did not see any guide in the museum, because this would have surely enhanced our visit. Reading a bit about archeological work in Cambodia afterwards, we learned that the first archeological field work, especially in Angkor Wat, was done by the French during colonial times. After almost half a century of war, it was only resumed in the early 1990s.

The Royal Palace, the residence of the royal family, and its extensive garden, is hidden behind a high wall, surrounding the entire complex. Nevertheless, the shiny roofs of pagodas, stupas and pavilions manage to peek from behind, announcing its immense grandeur. We found the interior of the Silver Pagoda the most impressive part with the Emerald Buddha sitting on top of what seems a super high throne. Carved from one big junk of jade, the head to this Buddha is almost transparent. There is also a large number of other delicate and exquisite metal works and stone carvings displayed there, like little trees with golden leaves.

The Throne Hall is the other big attraction, lots of gold décor including the golden throne, plus the largest carpets we have ever seen. Large parts of the complex are off limits, so what looks so huge from the outside can be visited in a good hour.

We tried to steel ourselves for this visit to what is also referred to as “The Killing Machine” of the Khmer Rouges. This school turned into prison was Cambodia’s largest security institution, especially designed for the interrogation, torture and extermination of anti “Angkar” element, or what a paranoid clique of Khmer Rouge leaders thought was such.

We strongly recommend taking a guide, who can provide more intimate details. The lady who took us around was 14 years old when she was made to leave Phnom Penh and labor in the rice fields. Only one cousin of her extended family survived.

Building A is probably the most horrifying section, were the political prisoners, often Khmer Rouge cadres, were kept in single cells, shackled, and tortured. There is one photo in each cell showing the gruesome image of a dead person tortured to death. Those were taken by the Vietnamese who liberated Cambodia of the Khmer Rouges in 1979.

The other buildings contain equally horrifying evidence of this terrible suffering. There, the family members of the prisoners confined in Building A were imprisoned. Either they were kept in miniature cells with chains shackled to the floor or held in large mass cells where their legs were shackled to a piece of iron bar. They were regularly tortured. The rules were rigid and inhuman. Anyone breaking them was tortured. The guards were teenagers taken from remote villages, uneducated and eventually trained to kill.

There are many rooms full of hundreds of photos of prisoners, as prisoners were photographed when they arrived at the prison. For us, a captivating photo was that of the wife of a top official of the Khmer Rouge holding her baby. Her eyes and resigned facial expression tells that she knew exactly what was going to happen to her and her family.

People would confess to imaginary crimes under torture. Then, those who did not die under torture were sent to the Killing Fields and exterminated. Everything was hold for the record, filling thousands of pages.

Approximately 20.000 people were killed in S21. There were only seven (!!!) survivors amongst the inmates. One of them, a painter, later painted what he saw, was told by other prisoners or assumed what was happening by what he was hearing. The only other witnesses are the prison guards, who were of course the first ones the fingers were pointed.

The leaders of the Khmer Rouges denied any knowledge of the existence of these death camps. Since it was impossible to determine who was supporting simply the Khmer Rouges and who was pressured to commit these atrocious crimes, a general amnesty was granted in 1991, also letting of the hook the big fish. Pol Pot or Brother Number 1 as he was called, died of Malaria in 1997. Other top Khmer Rouges leaders and criminals lived in Cambodia unharmed until 2007. Then finally Brother Number 2 & Brother Number 3 were arrested and brought to justice by an International Court under the supervision of the United Nations.

The Khmer Rouges conquered Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 and that same day, hard to believe but true, made 2 millions people leave the city under the pretense of possible Vietnamese air raids. The “new people”, as the urban population was referred to, were taken into the country side, where they were forced to work in the rice fields or build irrigation canals.

Intellectuals, teachers, politicians and soldiers of the old regime were the first ones to be arrested and taken to prison centers to be exterminated. There were 167 “Security Offices” and 343 “Killings Fields” in the country.

Very soon, it showed that Pol Pot’s vision of a perfect society, based on collective farming, would fail. Although almost the entire population was working in the fields, there was famine. This nightmare did not go unnoticed and some Khmer Rouge cadres tried to defect to Vietnam, others uttered mild criticism, a death sentence if caught. This is when the 3 “Brothers” leading the country became even more paranoid, filling the prisons with more and more of their own people.

S21 or Tuol Sleng was not unique, it was just the biggest Security Prison, located in Phnom Penh. The prison was enclosed by two folds of corrugated iron, all covered with electrified barbed wire.

This project was established in 1996 to support underprivileged children who work and live in the streets around the Stung Meanchey garbage dump. It was in 1995 that the inhuman conditions of small children poking through the steaming, decaying garbage was brought to the attention of a French couple and this is what the achieved in the course of 12 years.

Initially, it provided schooling for younger children and food. In 2002, a Hotel School was opened once the founder recognized the growing need to hospitality training. This is aimed at students between 17 and 23 years old and provides training in cooking, service, housekeeping, massage, hairdressing… as well as course such as secretary, in administration and even management.

A young lady who received her training here took us around and we grew more and more impressed by the minute. The project is most comprehensive, since it not only provides two nutritious meals, education and transport to get to school, but took measures that the families allow the children to stay in school. This was achieved by giving some mothers a job in the school canteen and by providing rice for the families.

The situation of a family is assessed by a social worker before a student is admitted to make sure to reach those children who need the help most. There is even housing for girls who were taken from the family because they were subjected to domestic violence, sexual abuse or would be sold to prostitution circles.

The complex is huge, with modern buildings for classrooms, vocational training, a training hotel and restaurant, which was booked out the day we visited (!!!), an administration building and ample space for the smaller children to move and play. Currently, 1.100 children come here to school, 900 take part to the “professional training” and several hundreds also get an education in the centers in Siem Reap and Sihanoukville. More than 9.000 students have “graduated” from these trainings! The students are neatly dressed in school uniforms and carry an ID, all in all very professionally run, by 300 highly experienced employees.

We were so impressed that we came back the next morning to give some business to the young apprentices learning to be a hairdresser. Gilles got an excellent haircut and Heidi had her hair dyed, superbly done. While we were there many of the male employees of the center had their hair done, as well as manicure and pedicure. The salon was equipped with modern equipment as you would find in most beauty parlors in Europe. The young ladies “working on us” were a bit nervous at the beginning, but soon that wore off. The price we paid was so little that we went down to the administration to make an appropriate donation.

Being so close to this huge garbage dumb, or “smoking mountain” as the locals call it, we thought we should go and see for ourselves. We passed narrow alleys cramped with huge sacks of retrieved garbage, people dressed in ragged clothes were carrying smaller bags and the whole place just looked depressing, dirty and horrid. The closer we came the more we felt it was wrong to drive up there in a tuk tuk, shoot a few photos of this misery - people pocking through garbage - and drive off. So we asked the driver to turn around.

This is one of the sites where the unspeakable horror of the Pol Pot Regime reached its climax during the Cambodian Genocide. Just 15 kilometers outside of Phnom Penh, this is the place where between 1975 and 1979, an estimated 20,000 prisoners were executed. Here, the Khmer Rouge brought those prisoners who had survived the interrogation and torture at the central Security Prison 21, also called S21.

The vision of Pol Pot’s ideal society required to erase all traces of civilization, money, markets, books, spectacles, property, anything linked to culture and education. The goal was to create a rural egalitarian society based on collective farming.

Just anybody could end up there: former politicians, intellectuals, teachers, farmers, workers, women, children, monks, foreigners. It was random and soon the Khmer Rouge cadres was targeted and at last Pol Pot’s best friend, especially when it soon became obvious that the “project” was failing. Although most Cambodians were forced to work in the fields, a famine of unknown dimension hit the country. Scapegoats had to be found: “spies” working for the hated Vietnamese and Americans. Prisoners were tortured until they would confess to crimes they never committed and were then executed.

The centerpiece of this memorial is a high tower divided in layers, filled with the 8.950 skulls removed from the 86 excavated mass graves (out of 129) there. It is a ghostly, horrid sight that becomes even more alive when the guide reveals some of the torment and cruelty these prisoners were subjected.

The Khmer Rouge recruited very young, uneducated soldiers from rural areas, not older than 15 and systematically prepared them for their “task”. Once prisoners arrived at Choeung Ek, they had to line up kneeling or squatting in front of a very deep ditch, hands tied behind their back and blindfolded. They were hit over the head with a bamboo stick or an ax, often their throats were cut and they were then pushed into the ditch. The Khmer Rouge never used guns to kill their victims, because bullets were too expensive. It can be assumed that many victims were still alive when they were buried. This was one reason why DDT, a strong poison, was spread over the pile of bodies.

The number of people found in those mass graves differs greatly, from a few to over 400 hundred. Often a grave contained a whole family, because the Khmer Rouge believed that “the evil” could only be made extinct by killing all the family members of the accused.

The skulls and graves are the only evidence left. All buildings and torture instruments have disappeared or were destroyed. Nevertheless, there is the plan to reconstruct all these items in accordance with what it really looked like.

Huge contrasts were the first thing that we observed, already when arriving by bus through the outskirts of the city. The newest, most shiny building may sit next to a completely dilapidated wooden hut on stilts in swampy terrain. This characteristic is also true for the city center, where elegant hotels or new government buildings are not far from the thousands of ghastly dwellings on the shores of Lake Boeng Kak or the Tonle Sap River.

This gap is also reflected on the road: you see mostly people on scooters, often 4 of them, but the cars that are clogging the streets are usually huge, expensive SUVs. There are still a lot of cyclos, bicycle taxis maneuvered by very frail looking men. Anyway traffic is mad in this town with vehicles milling in each directions, often the wrong one. The wide pavements of Phnom Penh are used as parking lots. No wonder nobody is walking!

The quay along the river with lots of pricey restaurants is another perfect example to demonstrate this evident disparity. There tourists, N.G.O. personnel and other westerners working in town sample on pizzas for 7 to 10 dollars and drinks for half that price. At the same time, little children try to sell the customers of these restaurants god knows what, crippled people ask for money and fragile, old men without shoes pass by, who make a living by transporting goods on pushcarts.

We made the mistake to eat there on our first evening, because we were craving for a change in our diet. The food was mediocre and expensive and to be permanently approached by vendors, tuk tuk drivers or beggars turned our dinner into an unpleasant affair. It also surprised us that all the N.G.O. workers gathered in this rather expensive bars / restaurants. One would assume that these people would try to funnel money into businesses that need the money, not enterprises owned by foreigners or rich locals.

The other area frequented by western tourists is the lakeside, although only backpackers make their way here. In these narrow, stuffy & clogged streets you find a high concentration of very cheap and often run-down guesthouses, along with the usual infrastructure: Internet cafes, laundry service, traveler information, bars & restaurants and what not...

Some of the guesthouses are built on floats, which at a first look seemed kind of romantic, but when we saw the trash floating by, past the dungeon like rooms, we opted for a place further away. Besides, the thought of what the “mosquito situation” must be like in the evening made us take refuge in the super comfortable Chinese run Pho Paris Hotel, a two minutes walk from the entrance of this “backpacker ghetto”.

After we passed the border to go to Stung Treng, we saw very few people, even less houses, not speaking of traffic. It seemed that Cambodia was a country without cars. A few ramshackle huts could be seen along the road. However, they were not made of neatly woven bamboo mats like in rural Laos, but a few planks hammered together. There was no electricity even for huts right on the main road passing to the capital and water was collected in big earthen jars.

The little time we spent in Stung Treng, we noticed that huge, rectangular blocks of ice were transported around on scooters. These were then cut in pieces using a little saw, something we never saw anywhere else. Also people looked different in Laos & Cambodia: the Khmer are darker skinned, with very different features.

Moreover, there is a huge difference in the way women dress. In Laos, the elegant sarong was the common outfit, but here in Cambodia, ladies dress in loose paints often made of the same material as the top, a style we saw a lot in rural China. Like in Laos, people here eat with forks and spoons, chop-sticks are only used in Chinese restaurants and for noodle soup.

Rural areas seemed more impoverished than in Laos. We also are not quite sure how to interpret the pushiness of street vendors and Tuk Tuk drivers. Are they more desperate to earn their money or is this the temperament and the way business is done here?

The plan was rather simple: we had bought an expensive ticket from our guesthouse on Don Khon to be taken from there to Phnom Penh in one day. That involved taking a boat, a minibus to the border, another minibus from the border to the next town and finally a bus to Phnom Penh, a 14 hour journey.

Everything went fine in the beginning: at first a nice 20 minute boat ride, then an unspectacular short trip to the border. There, our passports were stamped in no time, which involved paying a total of 7.5 dollars “processing fee” to the immigration officers on both sides. Finally we jumped on a minibus waiting on the Cambodian side to Stung Treng, the first major town in Cambodia. This leg of the trip can only be done by pre-arranged transport, because there is not public transport: the border is far away from any village / town on either side.

Perfect? How wrong… In Stung Treng, the minibus driver simply told us that we were the only two passengers going to Phnom Penh, so it was too expensive to drive so far just for the two of us. We would have to wait for the public bus leaving the next morning, since there were no more buses that day.

After a long and heated argument, we had no choice but to accept his offer to arrange a transport to Kratie and pay for the public bus to Phnom Penh the next morning. Of course, three Vietnamese seasonal laborers were squashed into the banged up taxi with us, so we traveled like sardines for two more hours.

Even though we had not planned to stop in Kratie, it turned out to be a nice evening watching the spectacular sunset over the Mekong from the Red Sun Falling Bar. Who would assume that a decent Bloody Mary and an acceptable Sauvignon Blanc could be found in such a godforsaken town?

Early next morning, we hopped on the bus for the remaining 350 kilometers to Phnom Penh, a 6 hour ride on a very uncomfortable bus. The only excitement was a lunch stop where ladies offered delicacies like grilled crickets and … huge, black spiders! We were not hungry so we decided to skip this great opportunity to taste something new… The other new experience was that vendors in Cambodia are rather pushy and seem to have heard every excuse from tourists and thus have the proper answer ready.

Main destination in Cambodia is Angkor Wat, the most famous Khmer ruins.

Afterwards, we will head towards Phnom Penh, and from there continue to Vientiane (Laos).