Travelfood

For many it is probably a sin to claim that you have visited Cambodia if you have spent just a day there. I know people who have been in Angkor Wat only for a whole week and I spent just a day. But beware that many Finns travel for example to Tallinn for just a few hours and they count that as a whole trip abroad.

Arriving by plane to Siem Reap, the closest city to the temple area of Angkor Wat, I rented a moped transportation with a driver for a whole day and it turned out to be a good move. He drove me to the gate, where they sell tickets for the whole temple area and then he drove me to the main temple, Angkor Wat, where I spent a few hours. After this he drove me to the most beautiful temple, Angkor Thom, with huge face carvings facing to all the four directions. Having spent an hour there we continued to the jungle temple where the movie Tomb Raider had been filmed. After this he drove me to the airport and I travelled to Bangkok.

The temples are truly beautiful and impressive. It is unbelievable to think that the stones for the temples have been transported huge distances centuries ago, during a time when Europe was not very developed at all. It is an impossible thought that such a civilized culture produced centuries later the cruel Khmer administration. When the plane rose from Siem Reap late at night and I looked at the numerous bonfires lighting the darkness of the night, I reflected on civilization once again. In Cambodia everyone burns their garbage every night and that if anything affects the global warming of our planet.

Cambodian food resembles of Vietnamese and Thai food. There are chili sauces, fish sauces and curry sauces for meat or vegetables. When I tried to find something authentic Cambodian in one of the numerous food tents of Angkor, the only finding was something called Cambodian Salad. It was simply a vegetable wok with chicken and some kind of an Asian sauce.

Asia, Cambodia, exotism, food, travel, travel experiences