Angkor what?

We spent our second day in Siem Reap exploring more temples and decided not to bike this time! We rented a tuk tuk for $20 for the whole day and he took us to some of the more distant temples- Banteay Srei and Banteay Samre- both of which were built in the 11th century and were quite different from previous temples. We also visited the Angkor Butterfly Centre, which was amazing, and we were taught how farmers make money here by selling cocoons to the center, which they send to butterfly centers all over the world. Then we went to the Land Mine Museum, which was an interesting and sad experience. The museum is owned by a former child soldier in the Khmer Rouge, who laid thousands of land mines throughout Cambodia and is now working to clear and deactivate the mines (and bombs) which are still maiming Cambodians today. I did not know of any of this and I learned so much about the tragedy of Cambodian history. In case you too didn't know, in the 1970's, during the Vietnam war, the US bombed a large area of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to disrupt the weapons' trail the Vietnamese were using in those countries- many of those still-active bombs still exist in the jungle today. Also, shortly after (and influenced by the Americans involvement) a revolutionary group known as the Khmer Rouge took power, led by a vicious man named Pol Pot. Throughout the next few years land mines were laid (specifically used to injure and not kill its victims because this was much more expensive for the enemy) and a social experiment involving torture and murder took place and was responsible for the deaths of 2 million Cambodians. It is such a sad story and I can tell there is still an air of sadness that lingers here.

After this, we went for a rest at the guesthouse and then went to the Old Market in Siem Reap to buy some souvenirs. After a few minutes a torrential downpour started and we quickly found a restaurant for dinner, then took a carriage-transformed tuk tuk (to protect from the rain) back and found that the power was out at our guesthouse. Luckily we had a generator, which lasted about 20 mins and then it was lights out. Went to bed with nothing else much to do and fell asleep to sounds of the Cambodian monsoon thunderstorm.

Next morning we woke up at 4:30am to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was quite beautiful and really peaceful to see the sun burn off the morning mists and to hear the surrounding jungle come alive. Then we went on another grand tour of more temples (via tuk tuk). My favorite was Preah Khan, which was very long, consisted of moss covered columns and sculptures and looked magical in the morning mist (pics to come). We saw at least 6 temples after that, including the famous Ta Prohm, which was left at the mercy of the jungle (by the French) to show how the temples looked when they were first discovered in the early 1900's. Spindly roots from the silk cotton and fig trees make their way through every possible crevice like veins, causing entire stone galleries to collapse. Then we headed back to Siem Reap and went to the night market to watch a documentary called the Pol Pot Regime- very anti- American movie that told more about the rise of the Khmer Rouge and how our involvement in the Vietnam War influenced it, yikes. It was interesting, but knowing how the Cambodians feel about America makes me a little more reluctant to identify myself as such. Then we went out to a few bars on "Pub Street" (including the famous Angkor What?) and watched some traditional aspara dancing.

After a full day of traveling yesterday, we are finally on the beach and it is beautiful down here! :)