After an early morning flight and a connection in Kuala Lumpur, I arrived in Siem Reap Friday early in the afternoon. A small, but new and organized arrival terminal was quick and easy to navigate and soon I ghad met my ride for the short ride into Siem Reap. My guide Reth was informative in the quick drive into town, pointing out all the new hotel development and giving me a quick lay of the land and background on some of the visitors to Siem Reap (mainly Korean, Chineese, Japanese, with a lot of weekend visitors from neighboring Laos, Thailand, Vietnam).

Pub Street, a collection of bars and nightlife in Central Siem reap.

Amok at Khymer Kitchen in Central Market.

The explosion of tourism in Siem Reap is immedietly obvious, where new hotels and shops dot the otherwise low and dusty landscape of a small Frech colonial village. The Old Center of town is packed with night markets, stalls, shops, vendors, bars and nightlife. Tuk tuks (motorized rickshaws) and the vehicles of tight packed streets make for a chaotic scene, but one rich with fun sights to take in. There are plenty of stalls with all the same, fun tourist souveniers mixed in with massage parlors and restaurants with a worldy range and everyone barting for tourists attention every 5 feet. "Buy something", "I have your size", "Tuk tuk?", all phrases you cant walk 5 feet without hearing. Although constant, the people of Siem Reap were quite friendly and not onvertly aggressive and tucked within this maze are some real gems in food, beer, and culture that made for fun nights wandering the streets and markets. The US dollar is the unit of currency here and it goes a long way.

I mentioned the food in Siem Reap, and as evident by my Instagram feed Siem Reap and Camobida was a great venue for good eats including great street food and awesome Amok. The Khymer food is a melting pot itself of curries from Indian cuisine and noodles from Chineese, it has a unique approach to spices and aromatics, contrasting flavors and an emphasis on seafood and vegetables, but overall differnet and unique from other Asian cuisines and a great part of my visit to Cambodia.

Jungle-clad ruins of Ta Prohm (from Tomb Raider movie)

Thousands of detailed carvings - this wall is hundred of feet long with this scene.

So outside of the food and the night life and culture of Siem Reap, the real gem here, the the purpose of most of my visit was Angkor. Angkor is a collection of over a thousand tempes that once served as the seat of the Khmer Empire begining over a thousand years ago, including the famous Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world. I spent 2 full days touring and learning about the vast history and culture of this place by visiting aabout 110 of these temples dotted throughout a landscape of jungles and rice patties. My guide Reth actually grew up a stones throw from the moat of Angkor Wat (his swimming pool) and was forced to move when the site was designted a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. The tours were filled with a deep history of the religion, culture and rule of the land and people who built and lived within this area over the course of a thousand years. I gained a deep understanding of Hindu and Buddism, and the conlifct between the two thaat has played out in the ornaments and architecure of the many temples at Angkor. Each temple had a distinct feature from the pink sandstone and incredible preserved carvings of Banteay Srei to the pure scale of Angkor Wat and the preserved jungle entangled stones of the temple Ta Prohm. What stuck me most outside of the amount of tourists and visitors (unsustainable tourism as some see it), was the incredible scale and detail of the construction and decoration which in some cases has lasted 10 centuries. The amount of work needed to produce this must have consumed livelihoods of many generations. You start to think about the impact that work has now set against the fact that the individuals who created it had no sense of the longevity, rather were just dedicated to the religious pursuit of its creation, its a pretty amazing sight.

Didnt even tour this one, just a quick look from the road.

Just 3 of the over 200 faces at Bayon Temple.

All in all, this is an awesome place. Again, its a great mix of old and new - you have the thousand year old temples a short air conditioned drive from a tourist safe haven with ample English and USD spitting ATMs. I think the real trick here is in the moderation, especially when it comes to tourism and the melding of cultures and ideals. The risk is losing that grasp on preservation of the historic at the sake of the ease of tourism, it's a delicate balance, and the secret in keeping the mix of old and new and the optimal mix of influences and cultures intact is not leaning to far to either side while supporting both. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in Cambodia, where all of this is still relatively new.

Next its a short flight to Laos!

P.S. - Here is my two day touring Itinerary. More photos available on iCloud.

Day 1: (Angkor Thom) - Bayon Temple, Preah Khan, Banteay Srei, Banteay Kdei.

Day 2: Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Prasat Kravvan, Ta Keo, Thommanon Temple and Chau Say Tevodam

A missing Budda statue at Chau Say Tevodam.