On to Siem Reap

When I envisioned the trip originally, I pictured myself going overland (and water) to Indonesia – south through Thailand and then Malaysia (maybe stopping in Singapore?) and then taking a ferry to Sumatra and from there a ferry to Java and then going across Java and taking a ferry to Bali and maybe there would be time for Lombok? It didn’t take me long to abandon that plan – first of all, the southern provinces of Thailand have some unrest and may not have been safe (never mind that there was a warning for the whole country after the airport takeover). Second of all, going that way would have taken over 48 hours, and even with no set time limit, that didn’t seem the best use of time – especially not with air travel as affordable as it was. Third of all, even though I had jettisoned things in Rabat and mailed things home from Thailand, traveling with the big suitcase, though manageable, promised to be unpleasant. I decided to prioritize – fly to Jakarta, fly from there to Yogyakarta, fly from there to Bali, and leave lots on the table – Sumatra, with orangutans and Krakatoa, Borneo, with Balikpapan, the city where my father had lived as a little boy (the guidebook described it as an oil-and-gas town, uninteresting for tourists, but other parts of Borneo had an appeal), Lombok (Bali beaches would have to do) and all sorts of other places in Indonesia (I’m just listing the ones Linda drew up for me and/or the places my stockbroker visited and showed me pictures of).

Some farewell pictures of Thailand:
Celebration for the King (with representatives from every country with royalty)


A replica Emerald Buddha (in the Doi Suthep temple in Chiang Mai)


Tibetan Prayer wheels and singing bowls (I had gotten my sister one at an antiques store and then I saw more)


Offerings

Laughing Cow Cheese (this was in Luang Prabang, not in Thailand, but farewell to that too)


But before going on to Indonesia, I decided to spend a couple of days in Cambodia. The trip to Luang Prabang convinced me that as long as I was in the area I should see the Angkor complex. Who knows when I will get another chance? I may have another chance this winter, it turns out, but that may be only because I was so taken with it that I kept finding myself wondering how I could get back there. I thought about adding Vietnam in as well, but that seemed too far from the original plan – better to have an overview of Angkor now and think about going back to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam another time. Inshallah.

I had a farewell breakfast with Marilee – pad thai – and then went to Wawee Coffee for chocolate cheesecake (it had not been there since the week I discovered it; nice that it was there for a farewell). Then it was on to Thomas the Travel Agent for the plane tickets within Indonesia; I had made my own reservations as far as Jakarta. Then back to Wawee to look for a hotel in Yogyakarta – plan-as-you-go! On to Bodytune to say goodbye to my friend (I gave her some brownies, she gave me a scarf); Japanese for lunch and then it was on to the airport. I napped on the plane – all of a sudden really tired. Mind you, the airfare for this leg wasn’t really a bargain, but I decided it would be worth it (and it was!).

Another visa on demand and then I was in Cambodia! The taxi driver who took me to my hotel suggested I use him to get to the temples the next day – I had planned to use a tuk-tuk but he said he could get me farther than a tuk-tuk could so I would see more. Of course, it would cost more too, but he seemed nice so I said yes. I asked him about a sunset view of a temple and he said it had rained, so there wouldn’t really be a nice view. I then asked about sunrise the next morning and he said that since it had rained, it probably wouldn’t be a nice sunrise either. I think he just didn’t want to get up, but that’s okay – I didn’t really want to get up either! In fact, I was so tired that I went to bed at nine o’clock that night rather than read up on what I was about to see.


But first I had some time to explore the village of Siem Reap. I went to the Old Market and scoped things out (neatest things were carved-to-order stamps – I had one made for each of my nieces and bought one for myself), saw several fair trade stores with some nice products – silk, coffee, baskets – and had some gazpacho that hit the spot. The rain had cooled off what had probably been a warm day, but it was still humid. There were a lot of tourists and a lot of restaurants and bars; also a lot of Cambodians, which gave the place a completely different feel from Luang Prabang. It was much quieter there, more off-the-beaten track. Not that Siem Reap was rowdy – it was just busier and a little less relaxed. The weirdest thing was using dollars – American dollars – which is the preferred currency. After not using dollars on a regular basis for over two years, they looked strange. Of course, they could have been counterfeit, but I didn’t have any trouble using the dollars I got out of the ATM, and I tried not to get a lot of change.