Cambodia - Day One

Visa trip time!! Because of our type of visa, we need to leave China every 60 days. Twist our arms, travel if we must! For this trip (Hong Kong was our first), we decided to catch a flight to Cambodia. To be honest, I was initially underwhelmed by idea of this vacation. Everyone said it was supposed to be beautiful and blah blah blah, but I was pretty fixated on Seoul (and am still determined to go - sorry Mom). However, after an amazing 7 days, I readily admit I drastically underestimated Cambodia.

We departed for the first leg of our journey Friday after work and after a typical 3-hour delay, we flew from Beijing to Guangzhou. After a four hour or so layover in the Guangzhou airport (where I slept on the floor like a true backpacker), we set off on our second flight to Siem Reap. Collectively we perhaps got 5 hours of sleep, but upon exiting the airport in Cambodia, we instantly perked up. The lush greens of the grass and trees were magnified by a light mist floating from the sky. It was truly a tropical welcome. Plus, the airport had a duty free shop with some fun Korean beauty brands so already I was feeling better #retailtherapy.

After dotting our i's and crossing our t's with boring travel things like exchanging money and getting a local SIM card, we climbed aboard a tuk tuk and headed to our hostel. If I could ride a tuk tuk everywhere, I would. Was one of my favorite parts of this trip riding around in tuk tuks? Perhaps…They’re the perfect balance of speed while still having ample time to fully appreciate your surroundings.

Since this was my first sojourn in Southeast Asia, I was instantly captivated by the jungle-y nature of Cambodia...hint hint there are monkeys to come! It was also considerably more underdeveloped than most countries I've visited. Lean-to type houses and shacks lined the dirt roads while men pulled rickshaws carrying goods. Already, Cambodia was unlike anything I had seen before and we barely left the airport!

We arrived at the hostel before our room was available, so we dropped off our bags and decided to dive headfirst into sightseeing! The hostel arranges group tours of the various temples so we opted to tackle the sunset tour of the "grand circuit", referring to a large loop of temples including Preah Khan, Ta Som, Neak Pean, and Pre Rup. We were saving the small circuit with Angkor Wat for the next day. 

Let me tell you... I was COMPLETELY blindsided by the beauty of the temples. In looking at them from both an individual and collective point of view, the temples are truly amazing in every sense. While their sheer magnitude alone is breathtaking, what I found the most moving was the history and stories that took place within their walls. You can literally feel the energy radiating from the ruins and the peace and awe emanating from the temples is unparalleled. It’s incredible standing among the rubble, simultaneously feeling so small, yet so connected to the lives that came before you. I can only imagine the splendor of the temples during their hey-day.

The intent of the sunset tour was…of course…to view the sunset while standing on top of one of the temples. But after a long day of flights and 5 hours of temple touring in the heat, we were exhausted and couldn’t stop thinking about the dinner and showers waiting for us at our hostel. We opted to forgo the sunset, especially since we were going to set out early the next day to watch sunrise over Angkor Wat.

After much needed showers and dinner, we walked through the Night Market located right next to our hostel. This area is like a large bazaar peddling goods anywhere from pants to knock off handbags to food. We ended up walking around the night market a few times given its close proximity to the hostel and seemingly endless stalls of souvenirs. Once we had our fill of the market, we called it a night and quickly fell asleep (despite the loud, tone-deaf karaoke happening next door).