Winter Vacation 2008 part 1

Winter vacation began on a very un-wintery day. It wasn't really that un-wintery by Higashihiroshima standards, but it was definitely the first December 20th that I have woken up to 10 degrees on the plus side of the thermometer. +10 was the first of many temperatures to be experienced that day and Japan was the first of 4 countries. It was a long day of being in transit that roughly played out like this:

train ride -> bus ride -> airport (Hiroshima) -> plane ride -> airport (Taipei) -> plane ride -> airport (Ho Chi Minh) -> plane ride -> airport (Siem Reap) -> tuk tuk ride -> Yay we made it!

Siem Reap is a provincial capital of Cambodia that happens to be 7km from the largest religious structure in the world. Angkor Wat has apparently become one of the "it" destinations in world travel, since the risk of being killed in Cambodia has gone down significantly in the last 10 years. I will spare you the history lesson and in depth description of Angkor Wat, if you are interested Wikipedia has an excellent article that, does a better job of explaining then I would anyway. Angkor Wat is only one of dozens of massive sandstone ruins that are scattered around the Siem Reap area, each impressive enough that they would al individually be a national treasure if they were in their spread out over many countries instead of concentrated in a 30 km radius. Tessa and I spent about 3 days give or take leisurely exploring the temples and jungle around Siem Reap, getting really sweating and dirty in the process. The temples and shrines are amazing, the scale and detail of them are mind boggling.

The temples were the focus of the visit in Siem Reap – but the Lonely Planet directed us to a few other things that the region had to offer. We spent one afternoon visiting the floating town of Chong Keneas. This is town south of Siem Reap that is made up of Vietnamese fishermen who fled to Cambodia for some reason, and due to some strange government compromise were allowed to stay in Cambodia, but not allowed to live on Cambodian land… so a floating village on SE Asia’s largest lake emerged. The town is complete with floating, schools, stores, restaurants and even a basketball court. Interesting place for sure. Also while we were in Siem Reap we had some massages, one of them was at a place that is dedicated to helping the blind. Blind people are taught how to give shiatsu massage – it was excellent.

As much as I enjoyed my time in Siem Reap it was impossible to ignore the poverty, exploitation and dirtiness in the area. The majority of the locals lived in not much more than poorly constructed shacks with no sewage or garbage system. At the same time there are 100’s of massive hotels and condos being built all over town for the tourists to come in and stay in while they flaunt their wealth. I really felt like the big, white, western, consumer that I am, and had a hard time convincing myself that my tourist money was really helping the people who needed it in the area.

Part 2 will go up tomorrow - (lots) more pictures linked in the post below