Angkor Wat

We took a short flight on August 27th from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We originally thought we'd take a bus across the Thai border but we found a cheap flight and this way we had most of Sunday in Bangkok instead of spending it all on the road. We flew Bangkok Air ("Asia's boutique airline") and even though the flight was just an hour they managed to bring around hot towels, beer, and a quick dinner. What service! We're staying at an Irish Pub and Guesthouse in Siem Reap called Molly Malone's which is very cute and comfortable except for the lack of shower in our en suite bathroom. There's just a showerhead on the wall next to the sink that you can use to rinse off a little. And after spending 5 minutes outside in this heat you need to. Our first night in town we made friends with the proprietors of Molly Malone's (a French man and his Irish wife) and went to Angkor What? Bar for late night.

Day 1: We visited Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. Beautiful and the photos don't begin to do them justice. There are so many temples of various ages and in various states of decay. Some of the carvings are beautifully preserved and the sheer size of the temples is breathtaking. Our favorite one was Ta Prohm which was used as a set for the Tomb Raider films. Unlike the other temples which the caretakers weed painstakingly, Ta Prohm has been left to the surrounding jungle which is slowly taking over the ruins. Everywhere there are trees growing out and over the temple walls, their roots sucking water out of every pore of the structure. Really amazing. The only mishap we had was when my flip flop broke and I was stranded in the middle of a hot dirt path with biting ants swarming everywhere. The little children who are everywhere trying to sell little trinkets and postcards seized the opportunity and offered to run and get me new shoes for $2. I didn't have much choice and the price was right so I'm now sporting my new Cambodian kicks. For dinner we went to the Red Piano (supposedly Angelina Jolie's favorite place to eat when she's in Siem Reap and they've even named a drink after her) and it was pretty good. The tourism industry is basically the only industry in town because this is the base from which to view Angkor Wat and for such a small town there are at least 80 hotels, restaurants galore, and of course busloads of Japanese tourists.

Day 2: Today our driver took us out to a silk farm where we saw the process from worms to dying fabric to weaving. The farm works in conjunction with an NGO to train Cambodians to make silk products and employs about 250 people on site. We were impressed with the operation and the final product. Next we drove out of town to Southeast Asia’s largest lake, Tonle Sap, where we took a little boat tour. Tons of people live along the lake in their houses on stilts and fish. The mid-point of the tour was to stop at a fish farm/crocodile farm (more crocs, and really up close this time!) where there was also a little cafe and souvenir shop. Garron and I were hungry but decided it would be prudent to wait to eat back in town. Today the weather was much cooler and overcast and finally the threatening clouds let loose a deluge of thunder, lightning and rain. It's been raining for hours no and shows no signs of letting up. Welcome to rainy season in the jungle! It's actually a welcome change after almost suffering heat stroke at the temples yesterday.

We've got a bus ticket from here to Phnom Penh for tomorrow and the trip should take about 6 hours. Our driver here has called a friend of his and arranged for him to be our tuk-tuk driver when we get to PP.

P.S. A random entry about Chang Mai seems to be have been posted to my site by someone else... I deleted it and I'll keep an eye out for any aberrations in the future. Sorry for the confusion!

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