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Mention Cambodia, and for those Americans who even know where the country is (sorry :), images of the Vietnam war and land mines are likely to come to mind - maybe even the atrocious leader, Pol Pot. If not land mines, then hopefully for what Cambodia is known best for in the tourist trade - Angkor Wat. But Cambodia is much more than either of these. After just a few hours in Cambodia, we can already get a feel for the people - incredibly friendly and hard-working. When we have arrived in tropical weathered 3rd world countries, we typically find people sitting on their stoop, waiting for the money to come to them. Not here. Almost everyone, of all ages, greets us with a smile - even if just motorbiking by. Wow. And this is from a country who even recently has struggled through civil strife and war for decades. The stigma of land mines is accurate - as the Vietnamese built K-5, the world's longest landmine field from the Gulf of Thailand to the border of Lao. Pol Pot, a leftist leader who led a revolution, orchestrated the killing/execution/murdering (any difference?) of ~2 million people from 1976-1979. This just after Cambodia had lost hundreds of thousands during the N./S. Vietnam wars (in part due to secret Nixon/Congress authorized 4 years of carpet-bombing of suspected communist camps using B-52's in Cambodia). There has been much political instability until more recent grass-roots democratic elections.
Ok - back to our story :). Our taxi was waiting for us. When our reception person asked us where we wanted to go, and then translated it to our driver - I knew our expectations and assurances of a well-speaking English driver were over. I asked the reception person about this, and she said because it was New Years, no one wanted to work - so we were left with the bottom of the barrel. Looks like we were on our own today as far as where we were going :). We decided to go to Bayon temple first - one of 3 of the major attractions in the nearby temples. Unfortunately, our driver misunderstood us and kept taking us to banks - saying they were closed (we kept saying Bayon - yes yes, we know it's close :)). ha.
Bayon temple has 54 gothic towers, each with 4 smiling faces (that's 216 smiles following us around), built around 1200 ad. We walked around the temple - it was beautiful. Most of the temples except for Angkor Wat were swallowed back up by the jungle, due to neglect for 500 years. It was awe-inspiring to see all that jungle cut back, and restoration (by the French and, at this temple, the Japanese) - to feel what it felt like 800 years ago in this powerful temple of watching faces. We climbed up its three levels - the steps here were very steep. This seemed to be a common theme amongst the temples here - very steep large steps. On top of the dangerous steps, even though it's only 8:30 am, it's at least 90 degrees and very, very humid :))
We headed east, and within 1 minute, we found ourselves alone on a long jungle-treed road. We knew it was only 1/2 mile down the road, but were unsure about what we might encounter on a Cambodian road alone. Of course, after about 8 minutes, we could see our goal. Before the gate, we saw about 6-8 people hanging out. Uh oh. As we walked closer, we could see that these were male teenagers (always the worst to encounter when you're alone :)). They were walking towards us. We just kept our brisk walk in the tremendous heat, gave them a nod, and didn't have any problems. After about 30 seconds, I looked behind us to see what they were up to - and they were gone. They must have wondered into the jungle which was just a few feet off the road. Anyways - we just ignored them, and headed to the gate - just a minute away. The gate was as interesting as the south - but a little more camera friendly :).
We moved off the road and into Baphoun temple. Much of it was under reconstruction, so we more or less just walked along the outer parts. The temple had been taken apart with reconstruction work continuing into the 1960's. When civil war broke out, the project was abandoned, and when the efforts were picked back up in the 90's, they realized the plans had been destroyed, posing a large problem. We noticed the stones had numbers labeled on them, but I guess that doesn't help without knowing what the numbers mean! :) There are still thousands of stones laying around waiting to be put back together.
From the Royal Enclosure, we headed north along a small trail and through a small gate exiting the enclosure. The jungle was now all around us, and we came upon a small temple Preah Pallilay. The jungle had swallowed up this Buddhist temple. Trees were growing on the temple, and the temple was close to collapsing (we couldn't and wouldn't want to enter it :).
After peeking in our hotel restaurant and finding no one there (bad sign :)), we headed across the street where we had seen a bunch of people eating - at The Villa hotel. I had Amok Chicken - one of the local favorites. It was quickly one of my favorites as well - it was a coconut curry with spinach and chicken - yum! Jaimie had a vegetable laksa - which is another Cambodian dish that's basically a lighter version of the curry with shredded vegetables. The food was so good - we knew where we were eating dinner too! We also noticed their $4/day electric bike rental and inexpensive lunch packs. We then knew our transportation means for the next day :). After a little rest, we headed to Phnom Bakheng - a temple built on a hill overlooking Angkor Wat. As such, it's the place to be at sunset. The masses of people arriving there were unbelievable. We stopped for 2 coconut waters before climbing the hill, and as we did the people kept flowing in. As it is New Year's for the Cambodian's, it seemed like the whole country had come to Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset. We joined in the flow, and climbed to the top along a dirt hill. At the top, we "got in line", if you could call it that, to climb the, once again, very steep steps of the temple. It was a tough climb in the afternoon heat - and when we made it to the top, we were greeted by hundreds of people taking their position for sunset!
We hopped in the pool once again (required - it's soooo hot and humid!), and headed back to The Villa for dinner. I had another Cambodian dish - best summed up as beef with basil and veggies. Jaimie was actually going to try the Amok Chicken, but when they were out of chicken, and she hadn't done so well with her last fish curry - she just went with the only other thing they had on the menu besides chicken and beef - which was Nachos (she tried for the Pizza - but they were "out" of it - or it was really bad - we couldn't understand :)). We arranged to use the electric bikes for the next day and a packed lunch with ice, so we could picnic at the temples. Fun!
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After a week of beach time (and not the consulting type for those consultants reading :)), - it's hard to return to early days :). We got up at 6:45am to grab a decent included "American" egg breakfast at the hotel, and got ready for our 7:30am taxi. We opted for a full day car driver to begin our tour of the infamous temples here.
While early Cambodian culture came from India, resulting in a Hindu country in the 5th - ~12 century, a devout Buddhist king took control in the 12th century, and the country remains majority Buddhists. The temples of Angkor Wat, near Siem Reap, have a mixture of Hindi and Buddhist origin. 
The temples of Angkor Wat have been in the international tourism route since the 19th century, when they were "re-discovered" by a French explorer (they had been discovered by westerners at least two other times, but no one had paid attention). The French began a restoration effort even in the 19th century, clearing away jungle, and assisting the repair of neglected temples. From 1907 to the 1960's, tourism was alive in Cambodia. Unfortunately, with the onset of civil war, Cambodia was left alone until the 1990's, when tourists returned for a glimpse of the colossal temple complex's from the 5th - 15th centuries. Even Hollywood is no stranger to these temples, with Tomb Raider, Two Brothers, and a few other big hits using the mystique of these jungle temples. Angkor Wat is the center of attention, believed to be the largest religious structure in the world, measuring .9 miles by .8 miles long (including the 600 ft. moat)! Bayon temple and Ta Prohm, along with Angkor Wat, are the other 2 of the 3 must-see temples, with dozens of others left to explore.
After picking up our $40pp 3 day pass (with a passport photo), we headed toward our first destination of Bayon which was within the ancient city walls of Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom has 5 gates, each 60 feet high with 54 statues of gods and 54 demons (in various states of disrepair and reconstruction (although the reconstructed ones look great - not very fake looking)). We approached the south gate, and got out for a view and majestic walk through the gates. However, once we got our nostalgic feeling of walking back in time 1300 years, the heat reminded us that we're in the new millennium, where AC was waiting for us in our taxi. We hopped back in for a short ride to the temple. We hesitantly departed with our driver who pointed north and said to meet him 1km up the road. We were a bit nervous about finding him, but were too impressed with the temple to care. 
After spending an 1 hour being amazed by the temple, we decided to head to Angkor Thom's east gate, as the gate wasn't as crowded as the south gate where everyone comes in from - not to mention a piece of the Tomb Raider was filmed there :). On our way out, we saw a bunch of elephants giving rides on the easterly road. We inquired to see if they would give us a ride to the east gate, but they were actually just charging $10 per person for a minute or two ride so people could get a picture on an elephant with the temple in the background - crazy! 
We enjoyed a few minutes at the east gate, and decided to head back. We kept an eye out for our young friends, and about 100 feet ahead, I saw one in the bushes. As we approached, he got up and headed towards us - with all of his 6 friends! Great. We got a little closer together, and picked up our pace. They just seemed to loiter in the middle of the road as we passed. They had collected a bunch of berries while in the woods - and maybe that's all they were doing, and it was just coincidental they happened to be finishing up as we passed? We weren't sure, but didn't want to sit there and have a conversation. We kept up our pace, and they trailed behind a bit slower. We were happy as the space between us widened as we kept our fast pace almost all the way back. 
Once back to Bayon, we decided to check out some of the other temples inside Angkor Thom. Enroute, we couldn't avoid passing a few of the vendors along the road. All the crafts were so inexpensive, we couldn't resist buying a few paintings, silk scarves, etc. We also couldn't resist a fresh coconut for the cold coconut water - these were going to come in handy for just 2 for $1 :).
From here, we headed north through a small gate along a path, and into the "Royal Enclosure" of the Angkor Thom city. Here, we came upon the Phimeanakas, what would have been part of the Royal Palace. There wasn't much left, except for this 3-tiered temple. The 3 tiers was a popular theme in the temples - a representation of the mythical Mt. Meru (at least that's what our guide book told us :)). The steps here were dangerously steep. In the front was a sign that said no climbing (for those stairs we assumed :)). We walked to the side, and found no sign. We decided to give it a go - the steps were very challenging - very steep, with little foot room. We got to the top with an expectation of a view of something - but we were more or less just surrounded by jungle and a few vendors below selling their crafts and drinks. Oh well. We rested a bit - strolled around the small top, and decided to head back down. This was definitely a more challenging adventure - we had to resort to facing the temple, and crawling back down similar to the way we came up. Once down, we walked over to the back, and noticed that the stairs had been reconstructed on one side with a cable!! Oops :).
It was about 1pm, we were getting hungry, and didn't think we could bear any more heat (we had constantly been sweating - consuming about 3 liters of water between the two of us!). We headed east towards the road, and before we were on the road, we noticed our driver pulling up with the door open and the AC on!! We weren't sure what was up - as we hadn't seen him for 4.5 hours, and wondered if he was searching for us :). Either way, we liked the perfectly timed pick-up. We went back to our hotel - and arranged for the driver to pick us back up at 4:30pm after we had a rest. We immediately hopped in the hotel pool and let the water soak up our exhaustion! It was perfect! 
We found a decent spot, and sat as the sun lowered. We took a few photos, soaked in the light, and watched the sun's rays soften to a nice orange on Angkor Wat. The sun snuck behind some clouds in the west, and that was pretty much the end of the sun. It was unbelievable on the way down - the number of people with us on the hill. Luckily we left many behind, as they were waiting for the sun to set further - even still, the hill was teaming with people. On the way down, we did run into a band playing by the side. The main player was using a leaf to play the melody! One guy wondered if the guy had done something special to the leaf, to be able to play so many notes with it, and the guy just threw that leaf away, and picked up another one from the branches above his head and continued playing. Have to love some people's creativity when resources are tight!
We headed back to our driver, who was in the exact spot he pointed to on the way in :). The ride was slow, with everyone leaving (as we were also behind the mass exodus from Angkor Wat itself as well). We were hoping for less of a crowd tomorrow, but since it is New Year, there may be no reprieve. On the brighter side, the smaller/less popular temples we had visited only had 5-10 other people max - so there was at least some escape :)