Angkor WHATTT? Day 3

the buffet


angkor thom

Today’s itinerary was to go to Angkor Thom in the morning. Happily I realized this meant a free afternoon. I load into the tuk tuk with my wonderful guide, Chen, along with Kristy and Sara once more and we headed towards Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom was older, although less famous, than Angkor Wat and it served as the capital many centuries ago. Immediately as the tuk tuk driver, Vet, brought our trusty carriage to a halt, I knew Angkor Thom would prove to be my favorite temple.

At first glance you could tell it was once magnificent city. Although it was a fairly small piece of land that the actual temple was on, each centimeter was brilliantly filled with towers, corridors, chiseled out artwork on every wall and pillar, and staircases leading to various floor levels that further proved Angkor Thom’s aura of past greatness. In fact, my first thought of the temple was that it looked like a “drip castle” I used to make as a child on the beach. The ripples formed by the placement of each brick and its architecture from afar came together to create this flowing, sinking sand comparison. As you walk closer, one’s eye immediately focuses on Buddha’s face. On each tower, perfectly sculpted Buddha faces loomed over the temple, each facing a different direction around each tower to represent the directions North, South, East and West. Additionally, there were 57 towers, 35 that exist today. If you could count the amount of Buddha faces and depictions in this temple, you might as well be a Catholic counting the beads on a rosary over and over again because not only is the number large, but the feelings of holiness is equal. Additionally, there were grand murals of invading Cham’s and war stories of the past, but the most interesting mural was of everyday life. Having been made in the tenth century, this chiseled art piece was a direct link to how each person, whether mother, child, king, or commoner lived. Ironically, many of the pictures were strongly comparable to the modern lifestyle that I have witnessed in the last few days. The tuk tuk type transportation, the way people carry things, and many other telling characteristics and actions depicted were still evident.

After being blessed by a few monks, all of the tuk tuks headed back in caravan style to Journeys Within. With a free afternoon, a few girls and I headed to Blue Pumpkin to upload photos, blog, and use the Internet provided. Blue Pumpkin once more was no disappointment, but my search for a more local coffee house remains.

Now, the exciting part of the day… It started at 7:45 pm when we decided to take the advice of one of the tour guides, Yute. During the temple visits, my roommates Maura and Megan wrote down the name of a local BBQ restaurant. Oh, and no not American bbq; this type of bbq was closer to the Korean style BBQ that consists of cooking your food on a coal stove type structure on your table. Having done this similar eating experience multiple times in Japan last summer, I was quite “gung ho” about it. Yute promised this restaurant was all locals and hardly, if ever, tourists ventured there. Perfect! Only thing that did not cross our minds, how were we to know what we were eating or how to cook it if we didn’t have a native speaker with us? This thought, unfortunately, did not occur until we were all nervously sitting down at a long table beside one another. However, we were all excited to try this new experience so despite lack of knowledge, seats were pushed back and we approached the buffet of raw meats and fish. One waiter knew two words, “Chicken” and “Beef.” Chicken and Beef? That is all I needed to know. Even though I recognized some other plates, such as squid and shrimp, I also knew that some plates were definitely organs, skin, or other parts that Asians famously consider normal cuts of meat for a meal. The facial expression on each of our ten faces was a mixture of pleasure and pain. Feelings of confusion, excitement, and panic for the health of our stomachs (or all three) were read on each face as all of us selectively filled our plates to bring back to the table. Nerves were calmed as we happily ate noodles, rice, tofu, beef, and chicken while laughing continuously at what was happening. Also, to our delight there were some cooked dishes (normally safer in such an adventure), which helped satisfy the void that was produced by receiving warm beer. Dinner was fairly successful by the end and left the restaurant feeling more Cambodian than how we arrived.

Next, since we were already out of the B&B, what else to do than head to Pub Street and check it out. Pub Street consists of one block with restaurants and bars full of backpackers, tourists, and ex-pats on each side of the street. “Angkor What?” is where we started. This bar’s name was painted in graffiti font on the wall outside, and each wall was covered with small ink messages left by its visitors. Inside its walls were equally covered, making this bar a four-walled notebook. The atmosphere and its music made me grow epically fond of this place. After a beer, that cost $0.75, we wanted to explore and walked across the street to The Temple. I believe the group was dragged here by my insistent voice yelling, “This place is playing Latin music, and we have to check it out.” No surprise for those that know me and my addiction to all things Latin. I bought one margarita, but ended up sipping on it for 30 minutes because even though it was very small in size, I think it had the same alcohol content as the normal size, which is probably two or three times bigger. The rest of the night was full of great music and great dancing. We danced with a group from Australians. A few times I received laughs because I insisted on drinking water while others were there for the bar experience. All I wanted to do was dance and the idea of a beer quickly left my mind. The night ended with a tuk tuk ride home, even if our driver went the wrong direction at first, and a good night’s slumber despite breakfast being at 7:15 that next morning. The first day of real exploration of Siem Reap was a major success!