Melting at Angkor Wat

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What can I say about Cambodia except it was wonderful. I left Beth, flew into Bangkok, stayed at a hotel near the airport and then flew to Cambodia first thing in the morning. The airport is ... different... you fly in on a small plane that pulls right up to the door of the Siem Reap airport. It looked like we were pulling up to a resort... I was waiting for my complimentary drink and flower garland! 😊

Straight to my hotel, a small nap and then I hired my Tuk-Tuk driver for the next 3 days. $50 will get you a Tuk Tuk (basically a carriage attached to a scooter) for 3 days. He takes me anywhere I want and waits around until I am ready to leave. We started with the main temple of Angok Wat - very beautiful. The carvings and statues are all mostly intact (the temple was built in the 1200s, abandoned and then reclaimed this century - they had to cut it out of the jungle) and are phenomenal. It''s amazing to think of how much work went into these temples/buldings. The temples are a mix of religions, they started out as Buddhist and then changed to Hindu when the religion changed in Cambodia... then back to Buddhist, so there's a strange mixture of Buddhas and Vishnas throughout the temple.

I won't bore you with the details of all the temples I visited (3 days visiting temples kinda gets you all templed out!) but I will say they were amazing and I would recommend them to anyone. Cambodia is such a friendly country, maybe it's because the tourist market has not been around that long for them so they haven't all learned to scam the westerners yet.

The one thing I do have to mention about Cambodia is how deadly hot it is. It was probably 30 degrees all day but with the humidity I would say it was about 45. It's unbeliable - I felt like I was melting. About 5 minutes after I left my A/C'd room I was soaked in sweat. Everywhere you looked peoples shirts were drenched - and the heat starts at 8 o'clock in the morning. I went to see the sunrise at Angok Wat - Tuk Tuk picked me up at 5 AM and it was deadly hot by 7AM - just regular hot at 5AM!!

The other fun thing about Angor Wat is that almost everything costs you $1.
Little girl: "Lady wanna buy a cold drink? $1?"
Little girl: "Lady wanna buy a scarf? $1. Okay, 2 for $1?"
Me: "No thank you"
Little Girl : "Why not?"
Me while walking into the temple: " No thank you."
Little Girl: " OK, you think about it and when you come back you buy. I remember you... you buy from me!"
Me: Smile

On the way out she did remember me... came running over and asked me if I had changed my mind. 😊

It's remarkable how congenial they are about it... and contrary to the other developing countries I've been to they don't harrass you forever. They ask a couple of times and then just accept no.

I liked Cambodia.

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Photos

One of the courtyards in Angkor Wat
These kinda place always look more mysticla in Sepia

Angkor Wat - staircase
There were these crazy ass staircases throughout all the temples. One was 4 meters high and straight up - almost 90 degrees. Christine and staircases - we don't mix!

Apsaras
Devotees to the Hindu and Buddhist gods

Ta Prohm
This is what most of the temples looked like when they were reclaimed. They decided to leave Ta Prohm as is

Ta Prohm in sepia
Again... doesn't it look mystical?

Banteay Srei
This temple was about a 1 hr ride out of Siem Reap. Got to drive through the countryside which was beautilf and lush - very green

My Tuk Tuk driver
This is a picture I took sitting in the Tuk Tuk.

Cambodia - Countryside
Taken from a speedy tuk tuk - excuse the blur

Pub Street in Siem Reap
You can see the tuk tuk driver waiting out front. No I don't know those people, they just happened to end up in my shot

Comments

[Anisa]

I'm sold! Cambodia just moved up my list on places to visit. Amazing pictures.