Angkor Wat, the pride and symbol of Cambodia

After the day racing in Phnom Penh, we rested during the evening and took our chosen mode of transport to Siem Reap, the touristic city next to Angkor Wat and probably by now Cambodia's main source of income. Our two teams chose the luxury public bus, the Mekong Express. The bus was nice and comfortable, it came with its own hostess wearing a Cambodian silk uniform, and they fed us Western-style pastry. We stopped in Skuon, a town famous for its crispy deep-fried spiders. Yup, the same ones that Rob crunched into very happily in Phnom Penh. Apparently the spiders aren't captured, they are bred somewhere close to town. Brr… I didn't try them this time either.
We made it to Siem Reap in one piece after 6 hours on the bus. One of the pictures required was a monk holding our mascot - we had to drive into the Wat in Siem Reap and caught young monks washing their tunics in the sun - this is the picture for the other team, the Turtle and the Hare

littlemunk, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

The next day was the race challenge around Angkor Wat. We started the day very early with the sunrise on the main Angkor Wat temple.

angkorsunrise, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

This leg wasn't timed, we just had to answer the clues and find the appropriate bas-reliefs on the temple, and shoot a few Tomb Raider style pictures. I thought of adding pomelos under my t-shirts to be more Angelina-Jolie like but we didn't come across any. Angkor Wat is indeed a HUGE site, with temples in all styles and sizes, and getting around isn't easy in the scorching heat. We had to climb all the way up the major temple of Angkor Wat:

pvclimbing, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

We took the time to appreciate the details of the bas-reliefs in Angkor Wat like all the pretty Apsara (dancing nymphs of the heavens)

apsara, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

My favourite temple, aside from the huge Angkor Wat complex, was Ta Prohm and its temple half-eaten by the forest.

taprohm, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

taprohm2, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

We shot a few Tomb Raider piccies:

angelina, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

We had to do some Khmer Classical dance at the Terrace of the Elephants:

terraceelephants, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Looking for pictures of tourists in strange outfits (required for the race) we stumbled upon a few wedding parties shooting pictures at the entrance of Angkor Wat:

cambodianwedding, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

And this is our winner for the worse-dressed tourist!

worsetourist, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Vini also found and played for his latest orchestra, the Landmine Survivor's band:

landminemusician, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

We finished the day by visiting the Landmine Museum, opened by a local Cambodian called Akira who was forced to work for the Khmer Rouge, then the Vietnamese army, then the Cambodian army, then the UN. He is now raising money to teach people how to de-mine the country as there are still 1 million landmines around Cambodia, and they claim lives and limbs on a daily basis. Some decommisionned mines:

landmines, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

Akira trains civilians to de-mine the country. It costs 30 USD to train 1 person to remove mines for 1 month, including food and board. This is his website for donations:
The Landmine Relief Fund

The next day, I wanted to return to Angkor Wat for more history but my gut started acting out. So instead, I am taking it easy, updating the blog, lounging by the pool, and reading a bit. We are leaving Cambodia by taxi tomorrow to cross into Thailand.

A very dark piece of recent history

I thought that this deserved a post on its own. On the last leg of today's race, we had to go to Choeng Ek, the Pol Pot killing fields where a lot of the Khmer Rouge genocide was carried out between 1975 and 1979. We walked around a little to honour the souls of those innocent killed. Notice the monks who came to pay their respects.
I can't even begin to describe the horror that we all felt when we walked amongst the shallow graves, or when we saw the tree against which Pol Pot's soldiers beat children.

genocide1, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

genocide2, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

I bought 'Surviving the Killing Fields', a first-hand account of the genocide.

The long awaited food challenge!!!

Cheers again from Phnom Penh!

I forgot to mention that yesterday, we finished our tour in a really nice restaurant where streetchildren are taken in by a nice couple of Northern Cambodians, fed and lodged, and they get to work in the restaurant to help out. At the end of the supper they all decided to come sing and party with us, because one of the members of the group had had her birthday celebrated with a very special cake. It was quite a sight to have all of us dancing, foreheads covered with sweat, on a terrasse along the Tonle Sap river in Phnom Penh, along with very happy Cambodian children singing... Jingle Bells!!!

Today was another race day, after our 'off' day yesterday. We started at yet another orphanage ran by restaurant owners since 2004, where they teach the kids the traditional Khmer dance along with school, English and Japanese. During Pol Pot's brutal communist regime, around 2 million Cambodians were slaughtered in the killing fields, most of whom were intellectuals, guardians of the culture ie. dancers and artists, and educated people. So it turns out that very few people are left to teach the traditional Khmer dancing. One of the legacies is that the street addresses in Phnom Penh are not at all in order - number 124 could follow number 33 follwed by 543. Thankfully this particular orphanage, called NCCLA (New Cambodian Children's Life Association) has the resources and the children have been on tour dancing in Japan and elsewhere in the country. We, on the other hand, had to entertain them and teach them something by singing and mime; Vini and I picked the Passe-Partout song 'Brosse, brosse, brosse, j'me brosse les dents' and handed a few toothbrushes along the way. I had had some training dealing with such kids in Peru in 1994 and it all came back. I also was not surprised at all to see lents in most kids' heads, to our poor Aussies' dismay :).

nccl, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

More about the NCCLA can be found on their website: The New Cambodian Children's Life Association.

Then we had to race through Phnom Penh the rest of the afternoon. The 4 of us teamed up and did the course, which involved the museum, the market and... eating bugs. My dad had mentioned that he'd eaten grasshoppers when he was a kid and well, now I know what it feels like! 10 points were awarded for any bug - bamboo worm, locusts, grasshoppers, coackroaches... and 30 points were awarded for black spiders. All insects are like, deep fried or baked, and really only taste crunchy. I was able to take in 10 locusts and Vini the same number, and we ended up the wimpiest team!!! PV crunched into a bunch of locusts as well, and Rob took 3 spiders! Kudos to him!!! Photos are here to prove it.

locust1, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

malvbug, originally uploaded by Galadryel.

rpspider, originally uploaded by Galadryel.