Cambodia!
- Apr 15, 2017
- 4 min read
Or...Preah Reacheanachak Kampuchea
(Khmer: ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា)
Cambodia is a fascinating place and I have promised myself to return there someday to spend much more time exploring. I was excited to visit this country initially because of world heritage site, Angor Wat, secondly because I have worked with several Khmer students in my teaching career, and finally because it is so mysterious to me. Not knowing what to expect and only having a pretty shallow understanding of Cambodia's rich history, left a lot of room for exploration and learning. Three days was simply not enough...
First impressions of Siem Reap, Cambodia: The airport, while on the small side, was lovely in terms of art and architecture, but the lines through customs were incredibly long. I believe we waited for about 2 hours, standing in lines before we could get through to the baggage claim area, and out to the pick up area where our driver had been waiting for three hours for us!!! (More on that adventurous ride in the "No tuk tuk today, No tuk tuk tomorrow" post...)
Mekong Angkor Palace Hotel, right off a main street (Sivatha Blvd.) in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Walking along a main road, Sivatha Blvd., and ducking down some side streets in Siem Reap. We saw a lot of tourists in this busy downtown area, but it was not overwhelming.
The next day, we really enjoyed our first morning market experience in Cambodia. My only regret was that I didn't buy more as the market there had some of the best prices (after bartering). The vendors readily accept U.S. dollars there but usually gave change in Cambodian riel (the exchange rate at the time was $1=about 4,000 Riel!) They also accept Chinese yuan due to the heavy Chinese tourism in the area. (the exchange rate was 1 Yuan=580 Riel) So, by the time we left Cambodia, we had a confusing jumble of change that we could not use anywhere else along our trip and had to eventually exchange back to dollars/baht.
It was also here that I discovered my mother-in-law's talent for bartering and quickly realized that this is a skill that I simply do not have. She would coyly walk around the shops, pretending not to be that interested in their goods, casually asking about the cost, and then adamantly refusing the quoted price while walking away. Inevitably, each time she did this, the vendor would come back very sweetly and offer her a much better price, "just for you", to which Niam would quote her own price, usually about 1/2 or 3/4 of the original price. I have to say, she usually got her way while I just stood back in awe of the exchange. Although, we used English the whole time we interacted with people in Cambodia, I asked Niam to do the bartering for me because I was so bad at it. I felt like an intruder who would be insulting them by trying to get a lower price off the already low price (in comparison to U.S. prices ). She enjoyed the bartering game and while she did actually walk off a number of times, more frequently she got the price she was asking for. The only places that this bartering technique did not work was in the more upscale (geared towards wealthier tourists) markets and shops.
This shot, taken as we strolled through the streets of Siem Reap, illustrates the contradiction that I found in Bangkok as well as many of the places we visited in SE Asia...but perhaps it was especially poignant here considering the violence of recent history alongside the budding tourist industry. As we drove past palatial Chinese owned resort hotels next to open fields of garbage and stray dogs, the contradictions become glaringly apparent. In this photo, the pairing of razor wire and the delicate blossoms of this flowering tree, sum up the myriad contradictions found here and in so many big cities...
Wandering the streets of Siem Reap, there is so much to be discovered!
Without an agenda or itinerary, we just stumbled upon a lovely temple along Pokambor Ave. in downtown Siem Reap. Wat Preah Prom Rath is filled with interesting statuary, beautiful Khmer architecture, and peaceful gardens.
We made it a goal to see one of the several dinner and dance performance options available in Siem Reap, and we ended up chosing Koulen Restaurant right on Sivatha Rd. Our hotel helped make the arrangements and overall it was a pleasant experience. Although there were a lot of people there, and the lines seemed long, the place is so big there wasn't much waiting involved and we were seated right away at one of the long shared tables. The dance performance was definitely the best part of the experience, and although we sat rather far from the stage we could see well and were able to move up closer as the performance went on and people started leaving. The dancers were absolutely beautiful in their colorful garments and they displayed remarkable control in every elegant gesture and intricate movement. The dances ranged from a peaceful flower blessing dance, to the animated coconut shell dance, to the energetic fish harvest dance, to an Aspara dance. The Aspara dance stems from a legend that the kingdom of Cambodia originated from the union of a wise hermit, Kampu, and the Aspara (female spirit of clouds and water in Buddhist mythology), Mera. In the dance, Mera, is shown in white dancing in her garden, as maidens offer her flowers as a token of love from the Khmer people.
There was also a dance known as Sovann Machha which illustrates a love story between the White Monkey military commander and the Golden Fish commander (Sovann Machha), a story that originates in the Ramayana.
I can't wait to return to Cambodia someday to explore, experience, and learn so much more in this fascinating country!
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