Craig Dodge - Blog

We just got back from 5 days  in Siem Reap, Cambodia with Josh's company. What an amazing place.  I must confess, though, that I know almost nothing about Cambodia or it's history. After this trip, though, I am very motivated to do some reading, learn more, and go back to spend more time. Nonetheless, I would still like to share with you a little about what we did and saw.

We stayed in two different, incredibly nice hotels.

The first two nights were at the Golden Banana Boutique Resort. This was my favorite of the two. The Golden Banana is located on a quiet alley in a residential area within a short walk of the market in the old part of Siem Reap. There are three parts to the hotel: The Boutique Resort, Boutique Hotel and Bed & Breakfast (which was under renovation when we were there). I can't even find words to express how comfortable the place is or how friendly the staff is. The staff-to-guest ratio is nearly 1:1, so they provide warm, friendly, personal attention. Dirk, the owner of the property, pays for the staff to go to school and learn English, which not only helps them provide better service, but also obviously makes them happy about where they work. For any future visits to Siem Reap, the Golden Banana will be my first choice of places to stay.

The second two nights were at the Hotel de la Paix, a 5-star hotel near the night market. When I say it's a 5-star hotel, I mean it. The facilities are luxurious, the staff is friendly and professional, the rooms are comfortable and the food is delicious. For our last night there, we enjoyed a massage in the hotel's spa, which was so relaxing and the perfect way to end 5 full days of sightseeing. If you like 5-star luxury style accommodations, Hotel de la Paix would be an excellent choice.

The focus of the tour was visiting the many temples of Angkor. I am so ignorant of their history, but was just amazed by what I saw. I encourage you to read more about it from more authoritative sources, as I plan to do.  Around the temples are so many young kids selling trinkets, that it kind of broke my heart a little. There were two kids, though, that really stood out in my mind. One had learned the capitols of many countries and US states. He even knew that the governor of California was Arnold Schwarzenegger and that he was from Austria. I taught the kid a few other state capitols and tested him, then bought 3 books from him when he passed the test. Another really cute kid was a girl at one of the smaller temples. She was so silly and we joked around a lot. She thought one of the women in our group was my girlfriend, and when I told her it wasn't true, she yelled "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!". Then, we got into this thing about believing and not believing about all kinds of ridiculous things. So cute.....

More interesting to me than the temples was meeting some different local people. We visited a very famous craft school and market called Artisans Angkor. It was so fascinating to see how they made the wood and stone carvings, silver boxes and lacquer panels. We also went to an orphanage and school called Little Angels, where they carved pictures into leather to make money for living. The little kids had learned how to say thank you in several languages and were studying more. I also got to talk to a monk at a small Buddhist temple who had 2 young students/trainees to whom he taught language, religion and other subjects. These places were so touching and yes, I got a little emotional and cried. When I go back, I want to visit more places like this and maybe even find some way to help.

Cambodia is such a poor country with some very disturbing periods in their history. When some people visit Cambodia, they might feel uncomfortable with seeing the poverty or being approached so aggressively by beggars or people trying to sell things. It's difficult to see, but if you just remember it's what they must do to survive, you can still appreciate the culture, history and beauty, and maybe find some ways to help.

Please visit my photo album with many of the pictures I took in Cambodia.