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Temple Hoping @ Siem Reap
Entry 10 of 27 | show all | print this entry |
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Tomb Raider staring Melissa Wallinger and Nadia Weber as Angelina Jolie....
Well our version of the movie isn't quite as exciting but we definitely we running, and climbing through temples like it was nobody's business! First night in Siem Reap, after our private mini bus from Phnom Penh which turned into a dance/karaoke club on wheels, half of us decided to pack it in early, while the other half decided to head to Angkor What? bar. Luckily I was part of the first group and woke up at 4:30am the next day, poured myself into a tuk tuk and headed to Angkor Wat for sunrise. So absolutely beautiful it takes your breath away. Our Angkor group consisted of myself, Jamie, Adam, Luc, and Paul and we spent to rest of the day fighting torrential downpours, exhausting heat, hangovers (Luc and Paul who were still in party mode at 4:30 that morning.), and so many kids trying to sell us stuff. But it was more than worth it. We jam packed the day with climbing temples and seeing as much as we could. At around 5:00 we headed up to the highest temple, which had a 360 degree view of all of Angkor and watched the sunset. Probably the best day that I have had on the trip. Hard to believe the temples have been standing so long. Oh and FYI to future Angkor travelers. In order to avoid being bombarded with kids and pineapple ladies Luc discovered a few new methods of getting them to leave you alone...
1. Growl at them and make yourself as big as possible (this method usually ends in the laughing at you or calling you names like "monkey" or "feet"???) 2. Do a full on sprint through the crowd of them. They will be so baffled at the sprinting white man/woman that they will not have time to say their usual spiel. 3. Say the exact thing back to them. Example: if they say "Mister you want pineapple" then turn to them and say "Mister do you want pineapple" in a really annoying voice. So after our long day we returned to the group, ate some supper, and headed to Angkor What? for some glorious and much needed buckets. They had a deal if you bought two buckets then you get a free T-shirt. Bad idea, but I got a free t-shirt !!! In the bar you can write all over the walls, so we spent a lot of the time writing random things on the walls. I'm sure if you are there look for some pictures I will include on here. On our way home, two Cambodian street girls attached themselves (literally) to us so we took them grocery shopping. It was pretty cool.
Next day as the the other half of the group did their Angkor temple day, we just spent the day in Siem Reap shopping, eating, sleeping, and running (yes I'm still running, although you do get quite the stares and kids and dogs running with you, so it turns into quite the spectacle). That night Adam and myself hit up a Cambodian BBQ. Kind of like a fondue. We tried crocodile...and it was very tasty, but they are quite endangered so never again. Booked our bus to Bangkok for the next day and hit the sheets early. Woke up and waited for our "VIP" bus to the Thai border.And waited, and waited. I mean that ugly,old school-bus like one can't be it right!?? Right?? Wrong, thats it. My god. So they crammed us on this tiny bus, backpacks and all to the point that every seat was taken and luggage was two-three bags high in the aisle and in the back where Alice and Nadz were sitting (they had great wakeup calls when backpacks began to fall on their heads). That wasn't even the worst. If anyone has done this trip you know how bad the road is. And dust like I have never seen. We all had a layer of dirt stuck to us because it was either keep the windows open and get dirty dirty dirty or close them and roast. However the most entertaining part was when 20 min after leaving a bathroom stop Nadz had to go, so she shouted from the back of the bus, waking everyone up and then proceeded to climb over people an bags to get to the front and go on the side of the road. Toooooo funny. So we make it to the boarded and the guys had to unload the bags out of the windows. We then stood at the Cambodian departure gate for about an hour in the sun with our bags, then marched across no-mans land to the Thai boarded where we waited for another hour (in AC this time though thank god) then got scooted onto a mini bus, which was surprisingly really nice. From there our crazy Thai driver blasted us (including one entertaining American who was hopped up on 6 Valium) into Bangkok. Total travel time from Siem Reap 12 hours....
So far Tahiland is looking far too clean, and very touristy. I'm sure it will be amazing, but I am really missing Vietnam. Aw well on we go!!!! More thumbnails ...
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