I visited Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 2006. While there, I ate weed-covered pizza and fried spiders, then gambled with locals on a strange game of chance (in which you spun a wheel and it landed on an American pop singer’s face).
My most memorable Siem Reap moment came when I rented a bike, woke up at 5 a.m., and rode to see the temples at sunrise. I got there before any of the tour busses, before the sun had peeked over the horizon. As the sky slowly lightened — shifting from gray to purple — I was treated to a stunning view of the temple. It’s truly one of the great manmade wonders, those few locales where knowing the history is nice, but not really important because the place is obviously spectacular no matter how or when it was built.
This video by Tyler Fairbank returns me to that moment. If you’ve never been there, it’ll provide plenty of motivation to go.
Where are you headed in 2016? What’s on top of your travel list?
