Yup, we're really in Cambodia

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So we walked off the night train from Chiang Mai, and headed straight to the airport. The nice lady at the desk got us on an earlier flight and we made it to Siem Reap an hour later. Wowsers!

Now we had these crazy ideas of what to expect when we got here. Boy were we off course! The airport looks like a teak Asian temple. I guess that the French wanted to get some cash for their investment in this little colony, so they built it up right. We got our visas (my passport is almost full now... uh-oh) and headed to the hotel. When we told the driver where we were staying he was quite suprised. He said that we must have money, but looked more like the kind who stay in guest houses, not in 4 stars! Sweet! I guess I booked us a nice one. And it is. 25 dollars can really get you into a posh place here. So we had a luxurious shower and then hit the temples....

Now I was imagining Pompeii in Italy, or the UNESCO site in Albania... this blows them out of the water! The first town that we hit, Angor Thom(they said it could have housed a million people back in the 12th century) was unreal. Think of a small town, with all of the amenities. The moat was 100m wide, but dried up, and the buildings were unreal. They had been working since the 50's, trying to keep the jungle from tearing down the stones and had rebuilt most, but there was one huge (imagine a walmart) structure that they had started working on in the late 70s, but then the Kymer Rouge can and killed everyone and destroyed all of the reconstruction documents. They have been trying to piece it back together since 1999.

The second one that we visited was Angor Wat (Temple City) and it was also immaculate. There was again a huge moat and then we walked along a 200m boardwalk to the temple. It was about 3 stories on the outside, then the centre temple rose up about 6 stories (and steep!) We put 2000 riel (50 cents) in the Bouddha's pocket and lit some incence for "forever good luck"according to the monk. We decided to explore the ÿard of Angkor Wat, which I think was about 4x4 kms. On the way to the back, I saw a snake killing a bull frog. It was cool, but made me a little weary of the jungle. We wandered through a few more buildings, but it was HOT so we headed back to our 4 stars and went for a swim! Yeah baby!

So today we are going to see a few more temples. The one that I'm really excited for has been scarificed to the jungle, because they don't think that they can save. Maybe if my kids come, it will be completely swallowed up.

Tomorrow we are taking the bus to Phnom Phen to see the atrocities of the Kymer Rouge... not sure how excited I am, but Denny thinks that it's important.

You should see my tan and how skinny Den is!
Love J and D

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