Day 05 - Angry at What? No dummy, Angkor Wat!

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Our first morning in Cambodia is one that has been much anticipated. We have our morning routine down pretty good. We get up about 90 minutes before we have to meet our guide. This morning was a 6:30 wake up. The three of us can shower and get ready within an hour; that leaves 30 minutes for breakfast. The hotel is really nice and not what we expected. As well as the breakfasts at every hotel have been great.

Eight am rolls around and our guide, Nok, picks us up for our day of bike riding to the Angkor temples. We drove a short distance to get our park passes and then hopped on the bikes. It was great to be active today and not riding around in a "nap trap". The first temple was a 7 kilometer ride. The weather, of course, was warm (hot as hell) and humid, but at least it was overcast and we did not have the sun burning down on us. The Ankgor temples in a word are AMAZING! We walked around the grounds of the first temple and it was just a beautiful site. The massive monuments are a marvel to see. Our guide explained the histories behind them and how the ruins go back and forth between Hindu and Buddhist religions depending one the leader of the day. He talked about how the French and other countries invaded Cambodia and stripped them of their land. We asked a lot of questions about the history and about him. Shortly after Nok was born, his father was killed by the Khmer Rouge and then he spent his entire life until he was 18 in an orphanage. Crazy.

We hopped back on our bikes and rode to another temple and again, AMAZING. Their beauty is so hard to describe and do it justice. Hopefully our pictures offer some insight into these incredible ruins. We made it to the temple they call "Tomb Raider." A major scene from one of Angelia Jolie's movies was filmed at this temple. The temple is slowly being destroyed by nature. Sponge trees are sprouting up through the temple and crumbling it. It is sad and majestic at the same time. We walked the grounds and snapped a thousand pictures. By the day's end, the three of us took in excess of 1000 pictures. But these was nothing compared to the number of selfies from other groups. We did a quick ride on an elephant to get the full 360 of the grounds. From this temple we stopped for lunch and had a traditional Cambodia meal. It was delicious. The meal consisted of spring rolls, a plate of steamed vegetables, chicken curry and sour pork soup. For dessert we had fried bananas. Awesome and filling.

After lunch we got back on the bikes and made our way the Angkor Wat. This is where we learned that our guide does not like a specific ethnic group of tourists. We did experience first hand, why. Angkor Wat is massive and beautiful. We walked the ruins and learned all about the kings and how it was build and why. The carvings was ornate and similar in detail to Egyptian carvings. We climbed all over the place and revered in its significance. Our guide continued to move us along to the center of the temple so we could get in line to climb to the top of the temple. Officials only let 100 people at a time climb the temple. Brilliant. Our guide knew exactly when to get us in line before all the tourists from a certain region reached the temple. We headed up the very steep stairs and toured the top. As we are on sacred ground, most of the tourists were respectful and quiet in their viewing; however, this one group of tourist were the worst. They were loud, obnoxious, and pushed their way around others with no regard. Lynn and Kirsten did their best to shush a group, but it did no good. Even that people in Asia hate the Chinese. On our way down the temple stairs, the sun started to peer out from the clouds and the intense heat grew. This entire time we have been sweating profusely. We all carry clothes to wipe the sweat away. We have downed gallons of water only to sweat it our through our elbows. Leaving the temple we were so appreciative of our guide for getting us up to the top when he did. The line to get up now, stretched around the building. Phew. Back to sweating, sweating and sweating some more sweating. We actually couldn't wait to get back to the van and cool down. the seats stains on some of our clothes were pretty funny.

We got back to our hotel and immediately peeled our clothes off. They are disgusting. We decided to hang them outside to avoid the smell. We quickly changed into our swimsuits and hit the pool. It was relaxing and much needed.

The evening came and Lynn wanted to stay in the room and relax, so Chester and Kirsten took a tuk tuk to town and Pub Street. We managed to stop by a silver shop and buy jewelry, had a 30 minute foot massage (That's four massages in four days for Kirsten), and ice cream for dinner. (we had a big lunch)

This was truly a great day. Our butts a little worse for the wear and our clothes ready for the garbage but all worth the effort.

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