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Published: January 11th 2011
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We arrived at 5:30am. There were hundreds of people standing around and waiting; waiting for the sun to rise over these mysterious temples. It happened slowly while the cameras started flashing. I paced and walked 10 feet every minute to get new angles and new colors of the sun rising. I thought it was phenomenal. I took the time to breathe and smile. I listened to some Americans complain how this was so overrated, yet it was still happening… the sunrise. I just kept walking. After about 20 minutes, the experience was over. I met with my group and our local tour guide. Most of the masses leave by 6am to go back to their 5 star resorts to go back to sleep. We headed into the massive structure.
I tuned out our guide as he was dull and I was just happy staring at what was in front of me. The details, the statues, the carved artwork… it was beautiful. I am not sure my pictures did it much justice, but either way I am glad we spent a few hours here.
We waited until 8am when you can take a steep stair case to the top of
the temple. Here I just marveled at the scenery. I walked around and I found myself ready to go back down this steep stairwell. My knees buckled. Before I can go down, I knew I wanted to take some last pictures to remember this. My camera is busted! It says reboot? I have no idea what that meant as I didn’t even know you can reboot a camera. All I know is that it wouldn’t take a picture, nor would it close. I realized that this is the end of my trip and I didn’t even get the slightest bit upset. I thought thankfully this happened today, instead of yesterday or last week or last month. I then heard a voice asking me if I wanted a picture of me with my camera. I laughed and said my camera is busted.
A guy from my group was standing behind me knowing my fear of heights. He took my camera from me and talked me down the stairwell. I smile my head off that I made it down without cringing too much.
We arrived back at the hotel around 9am. We feasted on breakfast and most people went to
nap. I was wide awake. I decided to spend the rest of my day lounging by the pool and getting my last $15 hour long massage.
Our group had a farewell dinner at a nice restaurant in town. By this point, I didn’t have much of a care for most of the group except for a few. For some reason Nicole and I seemed isolated as we were at a different table than the rest of our friends. We ate and decided not to go to the bar. Instead we walked around. Fish spas are everywhere in Siem Reap. The locals literally drag you in. We simply kept laughing so Nicole finally said ‘I have foot fungus’. Boy were we left alone quickly! For the next hour or so anytime someone approached us, I said – she has foot fungus. People who were begging on the street, I said sorry, she has foot fungus (I assure you they didn’t understand me). When getting whistled at, I screamed, she has foot fungus. It was hilarious!!! Nicole was just thankful I found this so funny and it was the last night so I couldn’t spend anymore time screaming about the non-existent
foot fungus!
Overall, I was happy this part of the trip came to an end. I was lucky to meet and bond with a few great people; however a majority of the group was not very respectful or my cup of tea. I didn’t let it get the best of me, but it did affect my trip enough to avoid Contiki in the future. I was lucky in 95% of my travels surrounding myself with nothing but amazing, interesting and fascinating people. The main problem is that these people live all over the world, which may make it difficult to ever see them again!
Cambodia is an interesting place to visit. It is a harsh reality as I saw more begging here than anywhere else during my travels. Tourism has definitely westernized small bits of the country; however most of the country isn’t visited and is extremely poor.
My flight to Bangkok is early in the morning…
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