After arrival, we found a hotel for me and then were off to Wat Phnom, a famous hilltop temple in the center of the city. We followed this with my first western food in ages--pizza--in the heart of Phnom Penh. After what amounted to a long day, we called it quits early.
The next day we started early to the Tuol Sleng Museum, home of the infamous S-21 detention and torture site of the Khmer Rouge. If not chilling enough, we followed this with a trip to the Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh. Here the Khmer Rouge would send the prisoners of centers like S-21 to be killed in their brutal attempt at social reengineering that cost the lives of 2 million Cambodians between 1975-1979. The devastation of this time in Cambodian history, I would come to find out, is still vivid in the minds of the eelder generation and a very important part of Cambodian culture. Children separated from parents, husbands separated from wives, millions moved out of cities and into the country to be worked morning to night in an effort to revamp Camobian rice production to create a fully self sufficient Cambodia. The massive devastation from the four short years of Khmer Rouge rule so severely stunted Cambodia's growth that it is only beginning to recover.
We lunched at a fabulous Khmer restaurant and had some great local cuisine before touring the large market in the center of the city. After a break to wait for Kheng's cousin Malin to join us, we took a river cruise and finished with more Khmer food, including what became my favorite dish in Camobida, ground pork sauteed with eggplant. Yum!
Our final day in Phnom Penh, we toured the colorful and ornate Royal Palace, checked out the largest pagoda in Phnom Penh, then lunched outside of Phnom Penh on some more fabulous Khmer food, including my first time eating frog, which was quite tasty! Finally, Kheng and I caught a bus out to Siem Reap, and I was ready to see some temples!
We arrived in the evening, grabbed some grub and crashed early, ready to get up at 4:30 to view the sunrise over Angkor Wat. And it was majestic! The view was magificent from the western courtyard as the brilliant red/orange sun slowly rose over the largest religious building in the world. We spent the next few hours touring this largest of temples before heading to the Angkor Thom complex a few kilometers away. This complex was the seat of the Khmer empire for a time after Angkor Wat, and it is home to the magnificent Bayon temple, built with many four-sided towers, each side depicting a different face of Buddha. After lunch we saw the Ta Pramh temple, known for being the location of the Anjelina Jolie film, Tomb Raider, but also notable for the massive trees reclaiming the temple walls. Kheng and I spent the afternoon at the Cambodian Culture Town in Siem Reap learning about Camobidan culture through a series of skits detailing Cambodian customs, including a wedding ritual. It was a great experience getting a brief, but informative glimpse into traditional Cambodian culture.
The second day: more temples. There are a vast number throughout the area, and I no doubt only saw a few. However, the second day was particularly enjoyalbe because the crowds were smaller in the morning as most visitors headed to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. Between temples, we stopped at the Land Mine Museum and learned that there are still many areas in Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge planted land mines that have still not been recovered. To this day, people are still being injured by newly discovered mines, as Cambodia races to rid the country of these hidden and long-forgotten instruments of death. Half a day of temples, followed by the Angkor National Museum to learn about the history of the Khmer empire in Southeast Asia, and we were off to Battambang, Kheng's hometown, for a quick visit.
We arrived in the evening, and after a much-needed shower, I met Kheng and his parents at my hotel and we headed for dinner. His father and mother, who own a rice processing factory, were very kind and accommodating hosts. We had Cambodian BBQ, beef fried rice and an excellent sweet fried corn dish that was another favorite of mine in Cambodia.
My only day in Battambang started with breakfast with Kheng and his parents, before Kheng and I headed off to a mountain outside the city to see the temple located on top. It was beautiful to look out from the temple to the Cambodian countryside, and we even had a chat with the monk in the temple. Of course, by "we" I mean Kheng, since it was a fully-Khmer conversation. I mostly smiled and nodded whenever the conversation seemed to include me. Outside the temple we checked out some cool caves, then made our way to a temple another hilltop temple with splended views. At the base of the temple, we lunched on fried eel and frog stew with rice, while laying in hammocks resting from the hot afternoon sun. We headed back toward Battambang stopping at the first Cambodian winery for a tasting of their fine red wine, brandy, grape juice and ginger juice, where we chatted with a vacationing German couple. After that, we checked out Kheng's future place of employment, his family's under-construction new rice factory where his father explained that the fields it is built on were in the middle of the fighting during the civil war that led to Khmer Rouge rule in 1975. Another reminder of the haunting past of this beautiful country. For our last dinner together, Kheng and I went to a restaurant locally known for its fried pig intestine, as well as a traditional Khmer fried fish delicacy. Both were delicious, and a fine meal to be my last in Cambodia. Good company and good food, I can't complain.
The final morning, I had breakfast with Kheng and his parents before they gave me a quick tour of downtown Battambang and then whisked me to the bus station to catch my passage to Bangkok. Five days was nowhere near enough, but with my still-recovering shoulder, I was eager to get on to Thailand and continue recovery.
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