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And so our tuk tuk picked us up and took us to #10 Happy, just as promised. It was a 6 hour bus ride North and luckily the road has been paved in the past few years, so it was a pretty breezy drive. Also, the bus wasn't full, so we each had two seats to ourselves, which always makes the journey that much better. We had one stop along the way. The rest-stops on bus rides in Asia are pretty standard. Toilets and people selling fruit, fried rice and some sort of chicken or fish being cooked, while the man or woman tending to it use a stick with a plastic bag tied to the end to shoo away the flies. This rest-stop however, was a bit unusual. First of all, Cambodia has the most children selling things of any of the countries yet. You see plenty of children selling things in the other countries, but here, wherever you go, the children are bombarding you with books, bracelets, postcards, etc. They are so cute and their English is so good, it's surprising. They enjoy the attention you give them, even without buying anything. The little girls always like to look at my jewelery and are especially interested in the lip piercing. They have dirty little hands that they rub your arm with, while telling you your beautiful and asking you to buy their over-priced goods. They are also very good at bargaining. So, we hop off the bus and have tons of little girls walking with us. I tell one I will talk to her about some pineapple when I get out of the bathroom. I was mostly concentrated on her and the pineapple I really wanted, so I only noticed in passing the trays piled high with something burnt-black. When I came out of the bathroom, my little girl was standing their waiting for me and was by my side immediately, saying 2000 Riels (50 cents) for a small bag of warm pineapple. I was offereing 1000. Her English was good, but as I was negotiating a lower price, a smaller, even more adorable little girl, with even better English came over, pointed to my lip ring and said, "Good!" She told me I was beautiful and that they'd take 1500 Riels...what a deal! Now that's a good little bargainer! The little girls here always tell you your beautiful when they're trying to sell stuff and I love telling them they're beautiful, then we get into a little match of, "You're beautiful!" "No, you're beautiful!" "No you're beautiful!" Which always ends in giggling. It's too cute.

So, with pineapple in hand I walk over to find Cameron and we are standing around enjoying our few minutes off the bus, when I hear him say something to one of the little girls. I look over and this little girl has a tarantula in her hand! A live tarantula, just chillin' in her hand! I was taken aback and with my hand to my chest automatically said, "Oh my God!" The little girls around us loved that...they also like to mimic you...so I had two or three little girls over-dramatically mimicking me saying, "Oh my God, oh my God!" They are so darn cute. So this is when I realize that these trays of heaping burnt-black something are fried tarantula! Ugh!! We only saw one lady eating one while we were there. Now snake hearts are one thing, but tarantulas, noooo wayyyy! So after Cameron points out the fact that they must come from somewhere and are probably crawling around everywhere I did not mind getting back on the bus and heading far away from this creepy little rest-stop.

We checked into #10 Happy and made our way out for dinner. We ended up following the music. There was a live band playing at a bar called Dead Fish. This bar was so cool. It was an old building with wooden platform after wooden platform connected by wooden ladders and stairs on too many levels to count. There were old tires, with round glass plates on top and pillows to sit on and this is where we ate our dinner, while listening to a band of two Cambodians, an Englishman and a Frenchman playing cover songs and actually doing them well! Some of the platforms had wicker tables and chairs, some wooden picnic benches, some floor seating and all the waiters and waitresses were barefoot. This place also had a crocodile farm with about 25 crocodiles, just hanging out in the back left corner of the restaurant. It was the most unique place I have seen in a long time. We enjoyed the dinner and live music, then called it an early night, because we planned to leave our hostel in a tuk tuk at 5:30am to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat was beautiful at sunrise. We explored the Wat, then watched the sun come up. It was so early, but I'm glad we got up for it. Around 7:30am we had breakfast, just outside Angkor Wat, then headed off for the next temple. The next Wat was called Bayon and is known as The Temple of Faces, because all the pillars have faces on all sides of them. It was beautiful! It was more intricate than Angkor Wat, so there was so much to see. We spent a good hour in this Wat. They all have so many stairs that it's a workout getting through them, but luckily it was still cool that early in the morning. Then we headed off to Ta Prohm, which is known as The Jungle Wat, and the one where Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones were filmed. It has really awesome trees and overgrowth. At first we thought it wasn't as cool as we'd hoped, but then Cameron and I started climbing around through it (off the pathways), which is mostly piles of fallen rock, so it turned out to be like this huge playground. Also, most of the rock that fell had beautiful carvings in them. We ended up climbing around for an hour or two...I don't really know, we lost track of time in there, and took a lot of cool photos that we are assuming will not be nearly as cool to anyone else who sees them, but we're a lot of fun to take at the time. This Wat had piles and piles of fallen rock to climb on and we climbed up every bit possible for photos. It was almost noon by the time we got back to our tuk tuk and headed out. It was a long day of Wats, but well worth it!

We are exhausted and plan on doing nothing more in Siem Reap than checking out the Angkor Night Market after a much needed nap this afternoon. Tomorrow we get picked up at 7am for a grueling 12-hour bus ride to Bangkok, our hub city, on our way down to Ko Tao, Thailand, where finally we will get to do some diving. The past month and a half has been intense traveling. For as much as there is to do and see in Southeast Asia, we've definitely been hitting a lot of spots in a very short amount of time. I am so looking forward to some relaxation on the beach and diving on this small, but well-revered island. So until Ko Tao, be well...

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Photos

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Angkor Wat at Sunrise!

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Angkor Wat

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Inside Angkor Wat

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Angkor Wat

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Angkor Wat as the sun actually comes up!

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Maren and I in front of Angkor Wat.

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Bayon

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Bayon

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Bayon

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Bayon

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Huge tree stump!

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On our way to the next temple.

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Ta Prohm

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Ta Prohm

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Ta Prohm

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Ta Prohm

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Ta Prohm

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Ta Prohm

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Ta Prohm

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Ta Prohm

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Ta Prohm

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Ta Prohm

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Ta Prohm

Comments

[Steven]

It looks small until you see someone next to the buildings then you realize how huge they are.

[anonymous]

The one with the light poking through the top is awesome.