Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UGxezSHn3jrjSVE47
So after my last minute flight from Argentina to New York for my uncle’s funeral, my mom and I flew to India…I booked for 6 weeks while my mom’s ticket is open ended (Emirates allows for free rebookings so she has a roundtrip but isn’t sure how long she’s staying). We flew just to be with my grandma since she’s understandably taking the loss hard. Spent a week with her, basically just doing some last minute travel planning (if I’m going to be in India for 6 weeks I might as well take advantage), reading, and exercising in the gym in her apartment complex. While here, I learned about my uncle’s extensive plans…he was about to retire in a few weeks, and while his first trip would have been to meet up with me in Bolivia for a couple of weeks in the end of April, he also had trips lined up across India, Europe, etc. with friends and his wife. This was just more fuel to the fire for me in terms of realizing that I need to do things now instead of putting them off in the future, since you never know what will happen to you. I suppose me just digging into last minute travel plans was a way to cope, in a way, since I was kept busy by figuring out last minute things on what to do while in India (let alone booking a last minute flight from Argentina to New York and then flights for myself and my mom from New York to India in like a three day window). But this experience really drove home to me how useless most people are in the face of stress or pressure – see the initial COVID reaction with governments panicking and shutting down everything while people panicked and hoarded toilet paper. I wonder if I might want to pursue a job that is NGO/international aid related but that also involves”stressful” situations since it weirdly seems very enriching and satisfactory for me to get stuff done in that setting.
Anyways, I decided to spend a week in Cambodia after my first week in India. Obviously planning on being at my grandma’s in and out while in India, and while the circumstances of the trip obviously sucked, it was still great to be back in my favorite country. Just absorbing the media, the city landscapes, the crowds, etc…India is just so unique and so amazing. And while this was just Chennai for now, still good to be back in the country as a whole. Anyways, I have already been to Cambodia twice – once in 2017 with my dad, and then once for a few days alone in December 2019, so actually during this period of retirement. It is my all-time favorite tourist attraction, and probably the only place, along with Chernobyl (which obviously is a no-go for the forseeable future) that I can continuously revisit and not get bored of. I also wanted to visit again and bring my Fuji camera to snap some good pictures, since my last couple of trips have just been cell phone photos (which have still been great! but still). Also wanted to mess around with the GoPro I bought off my friend Arjun in New York after Iceland – his diving clips with that have been fantastic, but he got a new GoPro 10 so I bought this used one off him. Figured it could be cool to get some videos of abandoned temple exploration, and also just learn how to use it more before my liveaboard in the Galapagos in the end of June.
It was definitely a bit surreal to enter SE Asia again…the mecca of backpacking after all of this COVID nonsense the past two years. The food here was eh – I find southeast Asian cuisine to be aggressively mediocre and Cambodian food is some level below Malay/Indonesian/Vietnamese, but that was whatever. I’d honestly go so far as to say as that the food I had on my Singapore Airlines flight (especially both Singapore<>Siem Reap legs) was the best food of the trip. But the food there was like legit Singaporean food (aka very good Chinese and Indian with a touch of Malay), so that is obviously very hard to top. I also met my first Australians in my Siem Reap hostel since pre-COVID. I think this is a sign that the world is finally healing – before COVID, Aussies were notoriously in literally every single hostel, so missing them completely the past 2 years has been a bit weird.
One thing that I have personally enjoyed the past few years but that came into focus again here in Cambodia, was that no matter what I was always sort of an “outsider” who was strafing along communities without fully integrating myself. In Mexico and Central America everyone there was long term travelling for 1 year+ solely in that region…likewise, everyone in Cambodia who I met had been in SE Asia for 2+ years, marooned because of COVID. So even though these are similar long term travelers to myself, in many ways they had their own groups that I was just dipping into for a little before bouncing. And to be honest, I’ve always preferred that…even when I lived in Chicago, I never went more than like 4 weekends in a row in Chicago, I was always bouncing around, visiting my family and friends in NYC, Liam and Brad and Kris in Boston, Arjun in Philly, etc. etc. I think that is a part of the appeal of travel for me – to always bounce around and connect with people who I can always hit up later, while having a home base without necessarily being tied down to it. I do enjoy this sort of transient state of being while flowing in and out of communities, and it runs the whole gamut from having truly transcendental experiences (Burning Man is the obvious one here, and then somewhere like Iraq as well), to great relationships in places like Guatemala and Egypt, to here in Cambodia where it was “just” friendly but forgettable and somewhere like Spain where I only made a couple of friends, if that. But that’s a part of the fun, not everything will be Iraq-level in terms of temporary integration (to say nothing of Burning Man).
I got the 3 day Angkor pass and saw all stuff that I had seen already, and yet it was still a magnificent trip. On my first day, I woke up at 4am to catch the Angkor Wat sunrise. Sunrise was actually pretty cool with strong hues of red. I find the Angkor Wat temple itself to be quite overrated – strictly from an architectural standpoint I think the older temples in India are way, way more impressive. For me the fun is the jungle ruin aesthetic, and for that I think there’s far cooler places in this complex than the refined Angkor Wat. To be fair the bas-reliefs here were quite cool though. The 3 main highlights from my first day were Banteay Kdei, Ta Som, and of course Preah Khan. Banteay Kdei and Ta Som are both basically very small scale versions of Preah Khan, with a deteriorating and abandoned look that is smack dab in the middle of the humid jungle. And because Cambodia has only just opened up, I literally saw <10 tourists each day (except for the ~100 that were there for the Angkor sunrise). Preah Khan…third time visiting in the past 5 years and it still holds up as my all time favorite tourist destination (with Chernobyl giving it a stroooong run for its’ money). Words simply can’t describe. It’s also a massive, massive complex, so even now I was discovering sights that I had not seen before, like a bas-relief of a reclining Vishnu that was in great condition. It’s just so much fun to wander around a giant, abandoned, falling-apart, jungle infested temple, climbing over the rubble to explore every nook and cranny. I think I love it because it combines my inner child (exploring), my history-nerd self (ancient hindu and buddhist temple complex), and my personal aesthetic appeal of nature taking over humankind. Just cannot overemphasize how awesome it is to literally walk and climb around a 1000 year old temple ruin. Preah Khan is unique in that every other temple that is ruined to this state is roped off or has boardwalks, so it really is unbeatable for me. I also think it’s really, really cool how the Cambodian authorities preserve a lot of these temples in a “maintained ruin” state, where they keep the rubble and jungle overgrowth but it is still in a safe enough state where there is no danger of things falling apart. I will say that after this trip, as amazing as the Guatemala jungle temples were, Cambodia is still a class above for that. The beauty of Guatemala here was the actual 7 day jungle trek more than the final destination ruins, as good as the ruins were. That said, Guatemala is still like a top 4-7 place for me with Cambodia, Russia/Ukraine, and Iraq, with East Africa (Tanzania/Uganda/Kenya), Central Asia (Tajikistan/Kyrgyzstan/Uzbekistan), and India comfortably in the top 3.
On the second day, the main highlights were the Ta Prohm temple and the walls of Angkor Thom. Ta Prohm is the famous “jungle temple” where trees are growing all over the temple walls structures. It’s definitely the most picturesque of the bunch, but it’s much more sanitized than the rawness of Preah Khan – boardwalks everywhere and a lot of things roped off. Still, a very very cool temple. Also saw the Bayon temple this day, which has all the Brahma faces on every tower. Unfortunately the top level of the temple was closed for renovations, so I couldn’t get up close to these faces. But I did mange to get up close by walking along the eastern walls of Angkor Thom (which was an ancient city), where you could walk right up to the ancient gates and see the faces right up front. Coupled with the trees and jungle look and it was just plain awesome. I really am a fan of that Cambodian aesthetic, with the 4 faces of Brahma on every tower. It just seems so eerie and mysterious, especially in a jungle setting, like with thes Angkor Thom eastern gates.
I also did two days of day trips while in Cambodia. The first was a day trip to Koh Ker, Beng Mealea, and Bantey Srei, which I had seen with my dad back in 2017 (but not in 2019). The second was to Banteay Chhmar, which I had not seen before, so really the only new place of this entire trip. Koh Ker was about as cool as I remembered – typical ruined temple vibe with the highlight being a massive, massive step pyramid that looked straight out of mesoamerica. To my knowledge it is the only giant pyramid complex in Asia, and it was originally dedicated to Shiva. Koh Ker, along with most of the other major temples in Cambodia, were built by Jayavarman VII, so I really owe that guy a ton for the joy he’s single handedly brought me. There were also a much of cool, smaller temples in the area around the primary pyramid temple, include one which housed a miraculously intact, ginormous Shiva linga. Then we went to Beng Mealea, which objectively could have been the coolest temple ever, but sadly had boardwalks over the entire complex so you could not actually walk and climb around. Wasn’t quite as aesthetically pleasing as Ta Prohm (but what is?), but it really could have been a Preah Khan on steroids. As it was, it was still an incredibly fun time. The final temple of the day was Banteay Srei, which was very different than the rest I had seen. It is one of the oldest temples in Cambodia at over 1000 years old (most are “only” 800+ years old), and yet is by far the most well preserved, with intricate carvings of Hindu mythology carved into it. It’s tiny and yet gorgeous, especially with the sunset light radiating on the pink stone walls to really bring out the bas reliefs and carvings. It’s actually absolutely wild to think about, but basically every single temple in Cambodia was probably just as intricate, but they’re all in various stages of decay while this one stands strong.
My final day was definitely a worthy end to the trip. Drove 3 hours northwest to a tiny village which encircled the giant temple complex of Banteay Chhmar. This was similar to Beng Mealea but not as cool – huge ruined complex with tumbling stones everywhere that were begging to be climbed, but roped off boardwalks preventing any seriously fun action. Still obviously a great visit. The highlight here, however, were some of the satellite temples that were a few minutes drive away, in really all directions. My two favorite here were Samnang Tasok to the west, and Chinchem Trey to the north. These were both, quite literally, in the jungle thicket, where we had to park our car and walk in a few minutes into the jungle before seeing a giant Brahma face grace us, as this four faced tower lay in a state of decay with tumbling stones and random carvings laying astrewn all around. This was the absolute closest I got in the entire trip to the El Mirador experience in Guatemala of walking through a jungle and seeing ruins, and it might have been my single favorite experience of the entire trip. Each of these was tiny and only warranted 20 or so minutes to appreciate, but still. Felt like proper Indiana Jones exploration, minus the fact that it was a few minutes drive from a remote village. Just so, so cool.
Overall, definitely glad that I made it back to Cambodia. Also glad that I took my camera with me…I’ve definitely become a better photographer in the past couple of years but I can comfortably say that these are some of my best pics yet, right up there with Chernobyl (both also happen to be my clear cut top two for sightseeing). Will be in India for the next month basically, hanging out with my grandma while seeing some relatives, popping up to Delhi for a wedding, doing a tiger safari down south in Kabini, and seeing some 1000 year old temples in both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in southern India.