Soben is my guide. He’s been doing tours for five years. It’s my first day and I am already on my second drink by 2pm.

I’m sitting outside and dinning alone for lunch (Christian wanted more sleep and opted not to go on tour with me) and I feel quite happy and yet alone. It will be the first of many dinning alone experiences once November comes. That realization gives me pause.

Then I bite into a minced meat deep spring roll and pour myself more of my Angkor beer. There is so much to look forward to.  I look forward to more uncertainty.

Angkor beer tastes like Bud Light, now affectionately known as America. The heat is totally bearable. It’s 82 degrees outside with humidity in the 90’s. I am sweating and there is still a cool breeze from time to time. This weather feels like a sauna and for me saunas are healing. I feel like I can breathe in deep breaths and my asthma is light years away.

I’m sure I am falling in love with this tropical forrest weather. The sky is gray but there are no clouds.

Most people are running around with long pants (including me) and I have yet to feel overheated. Granted, all I’ve done today is fly to Cambodia, ride in an air conditioned car, day drink at the hotel bar, eat a “snack” of fried chicken wings and spring rolls, nap for an hour, meet Soben, my guide, get on a Tuk Tuk and go to lunch.

After lunch I’ll explore Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei temples with Soben. I’ve booked a half day tour with Kampoul Adventure Tours. It gets you a guide and transportation but you still need to buy your entrance tickets. $32 dollars for a day pass or $62.00 dollars for a three day pass gets you into all of Siem Reap’s temples.

My first impressions of Cambodia excite and unsettled me. Never before have I been in a place so fresh from a 1970’s genocide where even my driver from the airport, Mr. Sim (he suggested I call him that), can say he lost both his parents in the genocide. My two conversations with Cambodian people so far have turned to this topic and each time there is a saying “We don’t live in the past.”

On the way to the temples Soben tells me how Siem Reap became a tourist destination. Prior to the 1990’s many of the temples were surrounded by mines. It was dangerous to visit or go exploring outside of government designed roads and pathways. Then UNESCO declared Angkor Wat a UNSECO site in 1994 and it was removed from the endangered list in 2004. Tourism took off and  efforts to remove mines from the civil war were almost fully successful. Tourism is now the second biggest economy in Cambodia after agriculture, according to Soben. He tells me about his life.

He tells me that each tourist who comes to Cambodia helps at least four people keep their job. He tells me that around 3.8 million tourist came last year and that means over 8 million Cambodians were helped through tourism.

Walking around ancient grounds that had recently spilled blood in wars humbles me in ways I did not know it could.

My Thoughts on the Temples:

The two temples were beautiful. Ta Prohm was built in the late 12th century to early 13th century and is overrun by trees. It’s an eerie reminder of how the earth takes back what it gives. Roots span like snakes around the stone wall structures. It’s also famous for being the location where Tomb Raider ( staring Angelina Jolie) was filmed. The temples was built by the king for his mother, sons, and monks.

Entrance to one of the many hallways at Ta Prohm Temple in Siem Reap

View of the ruins from behind in Ta Prohm. Trees are taking over everywhere.

Tree Vines grown around the outside walls. Careful not to destroy the foundation.

Banteay Kdei is, in my opinion, less impressive but equally beautiful. It was built as a temple and used as a monetary for buddhist monks. Cambodia has an interesting history where it switched back and forth from Buddhism to Hinduism depending on the king and one of the outcomes was the destroying of Buddhist relics and statues after switches. many buddhist statues were beheaded.

View of Banteay Kdei ruins

CC: Jasmine Nears