Siem Reap, Cambodia

Yesterday, we traveled for 27 hours leaving home at about 5 AM and arriving in Bangkok at 11 PM with a 9 hour time shift. The airport is only 3 years old, a spectacular building, but our guide pointed out that it took them 47 years to build – largely due to corruption.
After 6 hours of restless sleep, we took our final 1 hour flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. As we approached the town, we began to wonder whether we were going to land in a lake. The entire area seems to be underwater. It’s the end of the rainy season (which goes through October) and Tonle Sap Lake, the largest lake in South East Asian is flooded to 3 times its dry season size, putting many of the roads and fields under water. But we found dry land, the airport seemed to be a couple feet above the flooding, though we could still see sand bags where yesterday, some of the streets were underwater. Siem Reap is a town of 29000 people, but has 100 hotels because of its proximity to Angkor Wat. Ours is a nice 4 star hotel, the Tara Angkor. All the businesses here seem to have Angkor in their name. Cambodia itself has 14 million people, 80% of whom are farmers. Unemployment is very high (about 70%) so most families tend a small farm and/or sell some retail. Tourism, which really began in the late 1990’s is now about 10% of the jobs. Most of the culture and language comes originally from India. In fact, the Cambodian, Thai, and Laotian languages and cultures are all fairly similar.

John and Mary riding their ox-cart

In the afternoon, we walked part of the town. There are bike and motor scooters everywhere. Over 99% of the houses are built on stilts because of the periodic flooding. The first floors may house a business and usually a kitchen in the back (for both safety and comfort). Richer houses have a kitchen on the 2nd floor. Neighborhoods are mixed – as people get richer they may upgrade their house from thatch with a tin roof to wood or concrete with a slate roof. We had a ride on an ox cart (affectionately called a 10 wheeler, 8 hoofs and 2 wheels). The driver stopped at his house for us to take a look. There we met his mother, sister, and son. On their ground floor, they sold soaps and toothpaste to the neighbors. The walls were covered with family pictures. His mother was filling small bags with fish paste to sell and in the corner was a TV! Upstairs was one mattress for his mother to sleep on, everyone else slept on the floor, ancestor shrines and some small closets filled with dancing clothes (for his sister). Behind the house was the kitchen with a wooden stove.

Apsara or Khmer Dancing

In the evening we had a buffet dinner with a large variety of Cambodian (Thai) food. The evening ended with traditional Apsara dancing. Many of the dances made use of hands and fingers in various positions as well as slow moving footwork with a lot of balancing on one leg. (These dances emulated what we would see in a few days time on the walls of the temples.) The music was a mix of drums, a flute-like instrument and a wooden xylophone.