Angkor Day 1

Nov 20 – Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom

 We were up before the sun and were on our way to see the Temples of Angkor at 5am. We arrived at Angkor Wat, along with many other tourists, and waited for the sun to rise. It was quite spectacular with the sky changing colours as the sun came up. The only things that marred this moment was the scaffolding encompassing part of Angkor Wat and the locals trying to get you to come eat at their restaurant. Once the sun had risen the crowds seemed to disperse and we were able to explore Angkor Wat without too many other tourists. We had brought some longan with us so we had a little break to snack on them. We headed back to the tuk tuk and went on to see Angkor Thom. We got out at the north gate and walked through so we could take pictures then hopped back in the tuk tuk and continued on to the center of Angkor Thom. We saw the Bayon, the Baphuon Temple, the Royal Palace & Phimeanakas, the Elephant Terrace, and the Leper King Terrace. We were starting to tire after seeing all these site but our tuk tuk driver whisked us away to another set of temples. Our next two temples were Chau Say Tevoda and Thommanon. At Chau Say Tevoda there was a man selling temple rubbings. They were very beautiful so we bought a big one for a decent price. Next we went to Ta Keo and then on to Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm was very cool. It's called the jungle temple and was actually used as the set for one of the Tomb Raider moves. One of the coolest things about this temple were the trees. There were massive trees growing out of some of the walls and roofs. The building was built over 800 years ago and the trees would have started to grow on the buildings after Angkor was abandon. It was really cool to see how nature will grow right over top of the things man builds. Our tuk tuk driver still had two temples for us to see today but we put them off till tomorrow. We were quite hungry and footsore, we had been explore temples for about 7hrs and it was only 1pm. We went back to the hotel and just ate their restaurant before having a nap. We headed out to the restaurant area called the Alley and Bar Street. For dinner we had a self bbq dish. There was broth to cook your vegetables in a metal center to cook your meat. Ours had a mixture of meats including snake, beef, chicken, shrimp and alligator. The alligator was very tasty but the snake was tough. It's good to try new things!

Outside Angkor Wat at Sun Rise

Inside Angkor Wat at sunrise

Angkor Wat

North Gate to Angkor Thom

The Bayon

The Bayon

Baphuon Temple

Royal Palace & Phimeanakas

Elephant Terrace

Ta Prohm

One of many trees growing on the temples

2 Months Gone

It dawned on Beau and I today that we have been traveling for exactly a month! I feels like so long ago we were preparing to set off on our journey.  It's been an amazing two months though and am excited to see what the future has in store for us.  I do think it'll be nice to take two weeks and relax in New Zealand without having to catch a sleeper bus! 

I do have a little Asia rant though, it has become apparent to me that my pet peeve is noisy eaters.  So often I find myself cringing because someone is eating like a cow.  Just chomping away with their mouths open, smacking their lips.  This isn't a trait of any particular social class, gender or age.  It also doesn't matter what they are eating, it could be soup or bread or something completely different.  Why has no one ever taught them to chew with their mouths closed!! It drives me nuts and it is gross to boot.  The main thing that sparked this little rant was on our bus from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh we had just gotten back on the bus after stopping for a pee brake and the Cambodian guy in the row next to me kept smacking is lips and making chewing noises.  He wasn't even eating anything!! I cringed every time.

Nov 18 - Sihanoukville

We had a fairly restless night due to our neighbours thinking they were motorbikes. They were making vrooming noises and security had to tell them to be quiet twice. We were taking it easy today after how busy our last 4 days have been. We stopped by EcoSea and picked up our temporary dive cards then we went to the beach. We spent the afternoon hanging out at a beach bar with $0.50 beers, wifi, and power. We updated our blog/website. We also talked a bunch with one of the guys working at the Bar. He was a very nice Khmer guy named Vida. We told him a bunch of stuff about Canada and explained some English words to him too. It was interesting talking to him. I had a dish called amok for lunch which is a delicious Cambodian coconut curry dish. We caught a bus to Siem Reap around 7 or 8 pm. We were on a sitting bus to Phnom Penh and then had to change buses for a sleeper bus to Siem Reap. The sleeper bus sucked; the seats were fixed and not reclined very much although they were wider than some, the bathroom was gross. It was dirty and you had to flush with a pail of water which took up the entire floor space so it would be very difficult to pee. Needless to say I hung on till we reached our destination.

Nov 19 – Siem Reap
We arrived in Siem Reap around 6 or 7 am. We had been promised a tuk tuk would be there to pick us up but there was not. We paid the $2 fair to take us into the city. Our tuk tuk driver took us to a hotel where we checked out their rooms. The rooms were nice but we wanted to do some comparison shopping. When we went to leave the guy dropped the price to $6 for a fan room so we took it. We then got to talking with our tuk tuk driver about trips to Angkor and we made a deal for 2 days for $25. We lazed away most of the day since we were so tired from our bus ride but it was nice to just read and nap. Late in the afternoon we explored some of the markets and then found a cheap restaurant to eat in. We called it a night pretty early since we were still kind of tired from the night before and we're getting picked up at 5am so we can see the sun rise over Angkor.