Wednesday, November 8
Last day in Vietnam. Overall I would say it is and isn’t what I expected. Very similar to China in ways, but different. The people seem friendly and open to tourists yet unlike China, there is more country side and the people are more independent. There has also been so many wars in their history and they have only been at peace since the late 80’s.
On to Cambodia and the temples today. A quick 50 minute flight to the brand new airport in Cambodia. It just opened in October and is now an hour away from Siem Reap to help protect the temples. Before heading to the hotel, we went to see Ta Promh temple. On the drive to the temple, we went through the country side. There are many more cars here than Vietnam and we saw a lot of cows. Some were very malnourished.
Ta Promh was founded as a Buddhist temple and is sometimes referred to as the “Tomb Raider Temple” or the “Angelina Jolie Temple” due to its depiction in the film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. It was completed in 1186 and built without mortar. After it was abandoned, trees took root in the loosened stones. When the government began restoring the Angkor temples, it was decided to leave Ta Promh largely as it had been found. Although they do need to do some restoration so the entire complex does not fall down. Walking through the complex was amazing. I didn’t know where to look and if I was on my own, I could have spent hours there wandering around taking pictures, but we only spent one hour there. It was majestic and very hot! I don’t know if I have ever sweat so much.
What I didn’t expect when we got to the temple was all the people trying to get us to buy things when we got off the bus at the temple. They were pretty aggressive and followed very close. Even when we got back on the bus, they were at the door trying to get us to buy things like books, scarves, tee shirts.
Then we headed to our hotel in Siem Reap. When we got there, everyone got a linen scarf with the hotel logo. We then sat in the reception area and had a beverage as we waited for our room key. The hotel was built in 1932 and includes an old style elevator and dial phones. It is pretty cool looking.
Photos
Additional photos coming