Cambodia - exploring Angkor and Phnom Penh

Admittedly, we are moving quite quickly! Nevertheless, we ensure that we have enough rest periods in between to process all our impressions. It hasn't even been two weeks since we started our journey and yet we have already experienced so much that we sometimes have to think about what happened when and where! Now we are in Cambodia. Since we decided to take a flight from Luang Prabang (Laos) to Siem Reap, we notice the differences more immediately. In Cambodia, we arrive quite unprepared, so we still scrape together the last few euros to pay for our visas, albeit at a rather questionable exchange rate. (By the way, what confuses us is that there is not only the Cambodian currency, Riel, but everything and always for tourists is quoted in US dollars - we find that strange). We are also picked up - and by a vehicle that is completely new to us! It resembles a tuk-tuk, but is a motorcycle with a trailer that somehow looks like a carriage (it is called "Remork").

So we are chauffeured to our hotel in our carriage and we are greeted by a six-member welcoming committee that waves to us cheerfully and almost in unison says, "Welcome home!". So here we are, in our new two-day home. After the very quiet, almost sleepy Luang Prabang, Siem Reap is much busier - countless motorcycles zoom through the streets, exhaust fumes blow in our faces, there are more people, more hustle and bustle - and a lot of (plastic) litter that collects on the roadside and in the river. Furthermore, it is now really hot for the first time, so we are sweating without even moving. But well, we are not in Siem Reap because of the city itself, but because of the ancient ruins and temple complexes of Angkor Wat, the largest religious site in the world. And yes, it is huge. And of course, our schedule is - let's say "tight".

In the hotel, we book the "small tour", which is supposed to take us to the most important temples in Angkor from sunrise to late afternoon, including a tuk-tuk driver and guide. Our alarm clock rings at 4.00 am, and at 4.30 am we are picked up - but we don't feel like we have even closed our eyes at night. The journey to Angkor is quickly driven, and thanks to the guide, we find the right path through the complete darkness. The stars shine very brightly in the sky, but the Venus shining five times as bright as the other stars outshines everything today. After sunrise, our guide takes us to various temples and knows the best photo spots where we pose and he takes pictures of us - at least 15 times in different places in Angkor throughout the day. What we particularly like in Angkor are the weathered temples of Ta Prohm, where the roots of enormous trees are intertwined with the temples, and the "Bayon", a temple with dozens of Buddha faces gazing into the jungle. And in all the temples: beautiful bas-reliefs that tell stories from Hinduism and Buddhism or depict "Apsara", beautiful semi-goddesses in a dancing position.

The next day is Elena's birthday and right after breakfast, a great surprise awaits organized by Claudio: two hotel staff members sing a birthday song and bring a "cake" that consists entirely of fruits. What joy!

We visit the temples of Banteay Srei on the same day, which are quite far out - but beautiful, as they are made of red sandstone and have beautifully intricate decorations. After two days of temple hopping and filled with many impressions, we then make our way to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. In our new hotel, the next group awaits Elena, this time with a real cake that tastes wonderfully sweet and delicious, and another birthday song. Wonderful!
Phnom Penh itself feels very big and during our tour to the Killing Fields, we pass through several neighborhoods and later more rural communities and experience a sensory overload - hundreds of motorcycles, traffic jams, the rumbling and honking, black clouds from the exhaust and exhaust fumes that we receive unfiltered in the open tuk-tuk, passing workshops for massive wooden furniture, delicate basket weavings, car and motorcycle workshops, trucks with many people on them being driven to work, workshops where metal is processed, we see welding work, hear circular saws, everything mixed together, then continuing through more rural areas where people almost live on rather than just with the garbage. On the way, we encounter the same good-looking, Western and trained man on advertisements at least twenty times, who is certainly being massaged in a different establishment every 50 meters - he must be relaxed!