Siem Reap and the Amazing Race?

Well a number of you informed us that Siem Reap was a pitstop in the latest Amazing Race TV show and you asked if that is close to us. It is a 6+ hour bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (if all goes well). We decided we wanted to see Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat temples, and with a holiday break scheduled in mid-November and with the temperature outside becoming more moderate (about 28-30C as a high) it seemed like a great time to go.
(We found that the last time we had a break, we just stayed at home and we started to think about some of the comforts of home a bit too much, so... this time we did not want to do that.)
We went on a bus on a Tuesday, and like I said earlier, if all goes well, we get there in 6 hours. Well, things didn't quite go that way. Our bus driver hit a van and crushed the van's back end on the highway. For some reason the van was stopped dead in the road and for another unforeseen reason, our bus driver seemed to have very little breaking ability to stop abruptly. In the end, the bus was not going too fast when he hit the van, but he popped it a good 5-10 feet ahead. We waited there for an hour as the two drivers finally figured out that the best plan of action was to tie the back trunk with a rope and drive to the next town where the van driver could get it replaced? Seriously, every guy and his dog was thinking he could bend the back trunk back to its proper shape. The trunk did not move, but that didn't seem to matter. The next guy thought he could do it.

Anyways, we finally got to Siem Reap. The city is nicer than Phnom Penh (PP) in many ways. There are very nice looking hotels, due in part because of the number of international tourists who come to visit the temples. Don't be fooled though, its still Cambodia. What I mean by that comment is, this country is trying to develop its tourism trade, but they "just don't quite get it yet" (the quality standard is not totally understood, i.e. cleanliness, food handling, tourism in general). We are getting use to it, we just have to laugh and go with the flow. There are a few very nice hotels, and the standard is apparently excellent(at $350/night) but overall, the industry is still trying to understand the standard and expectations of developed countries.
We stayed in a pretty good little place for $30/night. (We got a good discount from someone who knew someone...you get the picture). We left PP in part because at this time of the year, the whole country celebrates the end of the rainy season with the water festival. The Water Festival is a celebration in PP where the country seems to converge on the city swelling it to 3X the population. We were told to get out of town because it is too crowded. It is also a chance to give thanks to the river gods for the fish etc.... We would rather give thanks to the God who is the River of Life.

On the night we arrived, we went to a dinner that showcased local Khmer cultural dancing. It was very enjoyable as we had not seen anything like that since we had been to Cambodia. At the end of the show the performers permitted anyone to come up and pose with them for photos. These dancers are short compared to us folks.

We went to the temples on the first day. We hit the big three: Angkor Wat, Bayon, and Tam Prom Temple. There are many other temples, but we didn't want to push our luck with Maya. Maya and the girls all did well. We left for the temples at 7 am and got back around 12:30. That is a fair amount of walking. We had a guide show us the ruins. If you have never been there, it is worth a look, the temples, hindu at first and later buddist, are amazing structures. Our guide tried to tell us that the largest temple, Angkor Wat took men 35 years to build and required 4000 elephants to help move all of the sandstone in the process. That is alot of elephant dung.

I enjoyed the open space of the temples, a refreshing change from the PP city life. Just having a chance to walk around was a nice option too. (Even if it was with Maya on my back for a good portion of it). Steph and Julia liked Bayon temple the most because it had many different areas to explore. It is the temple with the many faces of Buddha all over it. It would have made for a great game of hide and seek.
The Tam Prom temple is the temple with all of the trees running through it. This temple was also used as a key location for the "Tomb Raider" movie. ( I want to see that now!) I liked this temple too because it somehow represented this idea to me that God was slowly breaking down this very, seemingly indestructible and impenetrable, solid rock structure with the simplicity of the trees. (Very large trees mind you). Maybe a small metaphor for the simple way Christ's message is building up and growing in this buddist country?
After we finished with the temples we got back to the city and had a good rest. Later that afternoon we went to a market area. This market area was so nice compared to PP. There was no chaos at this market. The vendors still use the standard lines, like "Please sir, buy somesing" or "Buy a T-Shirt, please Sir", but it all seemed so civil compared to PP. Nobody is tugging on you. The market still has the over-powering smells of unrecognizable foods, but it is so much cleaner and orderly too.
Afterwards we went home and enjoyed the hotel TV.
The next day we went to see the "Floating Village". This village is accessible by boat tour only and is located on the Tonle Sap lake. This area is also featured from the Amazing Race. This entire village literally has every structure floating on top of the water. The school, store, police station, the gym, and all the homes float on water. I was impressed that some people owned pigs! Thats right, floating pig pens.
The boat we toured on is a big noisy diesel powered boat. The seats are wood but a very thin cushion is placed for our enjoyment. (Thats what I mean about the idea of "standard"), we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and chuckled about the cushion.
Most of the people were in the process of reeling in the day's catch when we went through the village. Everyone is hitting these nets with a stick while these very small sardine like fish fall into an awaiting basket below. Later that day we saw these fisherman taking their catch via their little boats and preparing to sell the fish in the market.
Near the end of the tour we docked at a floating store. Inside this store there is a crocodile and fish farm. Random people were feeding the fish regularly with some sort of fish meal. When the food was dumped into the fish pen, the fish would splash and churn in a frenzy.
Julia wished they would have fed the crocodiles while we were there. The crocs moved about as the water level of the floating pen moved up and down with the changing weight of the people coming on board to view them all. The odd child would throw something at the crocs to try and stir up some rage. The crocs did not show any emotion as the empty water bottles or pencils were directed their way. There was a partially eaten chicken carcass dismembered and floating in the pen but no croc showed any interest in eating that.
Shortly after we left the floating store, we got back to shore and ventured back to a different market. This market was even more civil than the other one. The funny thing is that we don't really buy anything at the market, we just go there almost just to move around and enjoy the civility.

Later that night we watched a Cello player perform on behalf of a children's hospital and talk about the poor state of hospital care for Cambodian people. It was also a nice chance to see something musically cultural. It was too much for Maya as she fell asleep in Les's arms. We froze to death as someone put the aircon on a low level, actually Steph sat on me just to get some much

needed warmth. Finally, Julia was so cold that I suggested that Steph sit on Julia and the two of them could warm each other up. It worked well as they cuddled each other up during the show. We went to a coffee shop later and just let Maya sleep while we had a some food.
I will skip ahead to the last night, when as we were just leaving dinner to go to a night market, we met Jana K and her YWAM team also visiting Siem Reap! We were so amazed that we would see each other in this location. Neither of us had spoken to each other for about a month because she was off in another province. Anyways, it was good to see her and the whole team. We want to invite them all to our place for a dinner sometime in the next week.
Well we had to leave Siem Reap the next day, and in fine cambodian style, once we were on the bus we were informed that we had no working aircon or washroom for the 6+ hours back to PP. Some of the travelers were less than impressed, we just had to laugh as we opened up some windows. Oh Cambodia!

By the way, completely random, the last picture was just great, as someone was transporting 3 live pigs on a Moto. (My first question is, "how did the guy get the pigs on there in the first

place?" You just have to love it!

Blessings Everyone.
Dean