Al llegar a la ciudad nos enfrentamos a un ataque de tuktuks, después de 7 meses viajando sabes como decir de una manera educada "no gracias" y caminar a tu destino. Lo que no esperabamos es una ola de tuktuks afuera de nuestro hostel, todos ofreciendo tours por la ciudad.
We had been looking forward to getting to Cambodia and trying to speak some of the Khmer language ever since we watched some funny videos on Youtube!
My first impression was that this wasn't the most attractive city and that didn't really change until we had been furtherafield. On arrival at our downtown hostel we were surrounded by tuk tuk drivers all wanting us to take us on one tour or another for the next day. A bit overwhelming after a long bus journey, but its one of the poorest counties we've visited and they are just trying to make a living. We soon realised that our guesthouse also ran the cheapest bus service around the country so it was where most of the tuk tuks hung out. After a couple of days of "no thanks we're walking" we knew a few of them by name and had a laugh with them.
Vistas de nuestro cuarto/ Room with a view!
Just before our arrival they had just had a national election and we got to see the protests in the street outside our window. Apparently it was a fix, sounds familiar!
Para el calorcito
Visitamos un lugar llamado el centro de genocidio, un poco de historia para conocer a Camboya. El pueblo camboyano sufrió de una masacre por sus propios líderes, ejecutando a toda persona que representara ser un enemigo potencial, por consecuencia la mayoria.
After some fun bartering with the tuk tuks this we arranged a trip to the "killing fields" where Pol Pot's people's army murdered thousands of innocent people. I have to admit that some of it was very hard to take, especially as it happened so recently and is still happening elsewhere in the world.
Tuk tuk estilo camboyano, vimos a todos usar máscara, lo entendimos cuando anduvimos de paseo en una nube de polvo
After a couple of minutes driving through clouds of dust, we realised why everyone wears face masks, we improvised!.
Optamos por caminar a la mayoria de los lugares, una o dos veces sin saber donde estabamos pero bien dicen "no estas perdido si no sabes a donde quieres ir".
After some exploration we discovered the city actually had a lot to offer, the temples and monuments along the wide French colonial avenues and river side was a nice place to walk and escape the downtown area.
Independence monument
Liberation monument
Uno de los lugares mas bonitos para caminar es cerca del rio
Mercado central
Siam Reap (05/09/13)
La razón para visitar Camboya es principalmente los templos de Angkor, Siam Reap es el pueblo mas cercano a las ruinas. Conocimos sus calles, templos y disfrutamos mucho sus especialidades culinarias.
Our main reason to visit Cambodia was to see the huge complex of ancient temples at Angkor. Siem Reap is the closest city and was a nice place to base ourselves. It was also a great place to try some of the local Khmer food.
Typical houses
Tuvimos que volver en varias ocasiones al mismo lugar para probar todos los platillos, pescado en salsa de coco mi preferido
The local fish coconut curry was the best known dish and didn't dissapoint.
Angkor
La antigüa Capital del imperio, con un complejo de templos que te dejan sin aliento en algo aproximado como 3,000 km2.
En la mayoria de las partes que hemos visitado me han confundido con gente local, pero esta vez fue difícil decir que no. La entrada es 20 dólares, para camboyanos es gratis, "eres de Camboya?" La señorita me preguntó, mi respuesta con algo de duda fue "no", "estas segura?" Volvió a preguntar, "alguno de tus padres son de Camboya?" Preguntó una vez mas, mi mente me decía di que si, con esos 20 dólares nos espera una buena cena, pero negar México jamás, termine pagando los 20 dólares.
Exploramos los templos en bicicleta, vez menos templos pero es divertido, es a tu propio tiempo y es barato. Hicimos el circuito mas pequeño algo como 40km incluyendo el camino a Siam Reap.
Spread over a couple of thousand square miles the temples of Angkor is the largest religious site in the world. We were never going to see it all (and would have probably gone crazy if we tried!) So we decided to rent bikes and do the "mini circuit" which consisted of the most famous central temples and covered around 25 miles. It is also the cheapest way to do it!
Upon paying our entrance fee, the lady was convinced Rigel was Cambodian! Actually this has happened in many places, not so hard to believe in South America but a bit harder in Asia! "Are you Cambodian?" "No" "are your parents Cambodian?" "No "are you sure?" "Yes". We then realised that if She had said yes it would have saved us $20, but Mexican pride took over!
Angkor wat fue nuestro inicio y final, es conocida como la mayor estructura religiosa que haya existido, es simplemente impresionante.
Angkor Wat temple is the most famous and was our first destination. We arrived just after sunrise (although the picture below was taken later) to get the most of the day and avoid riding the first 5 miles in the blazing sun.
La segunda parada fue Angkor Thom, siendo Bayon uno de los templos que considero de los mas impresionantes. Te sientes observado a donde quiera que camines, hay caras en todos lados.
Bayon temple, we had the strange feeling that we were being watched.
Baphuon & Pnimeanakas
Photo bomb!
Terrace of the elephants
Monkeying around
Thommanom
Ta Keo
Ta Phrom
La naturaleza ha formado parte del templo, lo que lo hace especial, árboles creciendo dentro de paredes del templo, te sientes como Angelina Jolie en Tomb Raider.
Ta Phrom is now sometimes known as the Tomb Raider temple as some of the movie was filmed here, it brought me back to back to playing PlayStation in the late 90's! Actually this was one of my favourite places we visited as very little restoration has been done, I love the way the tree roots have become part of the structure, weaving their way through the stone.
Banteay Kdei
Regresamos a Angkor Wat para el final de nuestro día, exhaustos, con algunos moretones, sudados hasta la punta del dedo chiquito pero inmensamente felices, contemplando las maravillas que los hombres podemos construir.
After almost 12 hours of cycling, walking, climbing and playing we returned to Angkor Wat happy and exhausted to take a few more pictures in better light, it was time to just sit with a cold drink and enjoy the view before riding back to Siem Reap whilst getting overtaken by "flashpackers" in taxis! It is a really amazing place and would recommend it to anyone .
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