Cambodia,

Cambodia

Cambodia boasts the enormous ruins of the temple city, Angkor Wat, and the metropolis of Angkor Thom designated UNESCO world heritage sites. The enormous scale of the ruins can take days to explore, they are spread out over hundreds of acres. Cambodia has many temple sites that are covered by the jungle and rainforest. The rich and ancient heritage of the proud people of Cambodia is overtly balanced by the visual scars of 30 years of war. In a country with a population of over 14 million people, there are still an estimated 16 million landmines left in the soil. The evidence of this is on every street corner in the form of people, and children, on crunches or prosthetic limbs. The tourist industry is relatively new to Cambodia, beginning in earnest less than 8 or 9 years ago. This means that it is a haven for travelers on a tight budget, meals and accommodations, very good meals and accommodations, are mere dollars a day. Dollars. This brings me to another observation. Cambodian currency is the Riel, and you can get Riel from the bank at the airport, but all of the ATM machines, menus hotel bills, everything is in US Dollars, and they are the preferred currency. In fact, you have to buy your tourist Visa to visit Cambodia at the airport in US Dollars, they do not accept their own currency. Makes one think……

The Khmer and Cambodian people are very friendly, and hospitable. They are a people tired of war and are pinning their future on tourism. We visited an art school in Siem Reap that was teaching traditional art forms in a very modern facility. There were also some very contemporary style galleries along the main road.

Besides Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, the boat trip to Tonle Sap was an amazing highlight. This is the largest freshwater lake in Asia, and next to tourism is the second largest economic engine in Cambodia. A thriving community of Cambodian’s and Vietnamese who escaped the Vietnam War live on Tonle Sap, there are floating homes, schools, hospitals, a church and restaurants as well as houses and Buddhist temples on “stilts” nearly 9meters high. During the monsoon season the lake swells nearly 6 times (more or less) its size now in the dry season.

Cambodia has a lot to offer and as previously mentioned is finding it’s future in tourism. As a family traveling to Siem Reap we felt very safe and well taken care of. There are many options for the traveler to stay and to eat. Riding in the tuk tuk’s is one of our favorite means of transportation and there are plenty of them. If you ask the kids what their favorite experience in Siem Reap was they won’t say the temples but they will say their fish “massage”. Cambodia will change in the next decade and if anyone wants to travel there now is the time to go, before it is overwhelmed by tourism. Let’s just put it this way, Roan said he would live on the Tonle Sap Lake…. And for Roan that’s a bold statement!