Angkor Ruins and What the kip

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This morning we got up before dawn, at 4:40 AM to be exact, to make our way to the Angkor ruins. We had a tuk tuk driver (chariot cart pulled by a motorcycle) drive us the 20 odd kilometers to the ruins. We wanted to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat and boy was it well worth it. The world heritage site and wonder of the world was lit up on the horizon, just as we had hoped. We proceeded to spend another 7 hours exploring all the ruins. It's only early afternoon at this point, but we are pretty tired out. Our favourite part of the ruins was the temple of Angkor Thom, which was completely hidden by the jungle until it was rediscovered. There are enormous tree trunks and roots growing through the temple. We took some of the most beautiful pictures we have taken on our trip so far.

A couple other things of note while at the Angkor ruins:
- There are hundreds of children everywhere trying to sell you bracelets, paintings, water, pineapple... the list goes on. Every time we would get swarmed by children we would simply repeat "no thank you, no thank you". Most of them knew some key phrases like "what's your name?", "where are you from?" and my two personal favourite: "no thank you doesn't help me" and "if you don't buy this bracelet than you don't love Cambodia". Keep in mind that Adam and I were at the ruins for 7 hours, early in the day and during low season. These kids were so bored that some of them followed us for a good 5 or 6 minutes before realising their efforts were futile. Adam and I started using some strategic moves when we would exit the sites such as a weaving-style walking pattern, or only answering with words that didn't make sense (I think we were delirious). For example, when asked where we were from, Adam said we were from earth. This confused the children because they didn't have a further conversation point. Most of them know the capitals of all the countries in the world and how many people live in those countries. They try to keep the conversation going to get you to buy something. Poor little things didn't know what to do when we told them we were from the earth.

At one point we stopped for a drink and we had one little girl, who's name we later learned was Nic, try to sell us figurines. Nic asked us where we were from and Adam told her we were from Ethiopia. She told us the capital of Ethiopia was Addis Ababa (which last time I checked is correct), and so we should buy something. We started spitting out random country names. She knew the capital of every single one. We eventually told her we were from Canada (not Ethiopia) and it turns out Nic knew more about Canada than I think most Canadian children her age know. She knew the capital, the prime minister, all of the provinces/territories and their capitals, the governor general's name, the population of Canada, and the population of most major cities. Once she realised we weren't going to buy anything from her, she decided she could use us to find out more information about Canada (so she could impress other Canadians down the road with her knowledge in the hopes of selling them something). She busted out a notepad and paper and began to write down everything we were saying. She wrote in Cambodian sounding out all the English words. We told her what Canada's national sport was (we had to explain what hockey and ice are) and we spelled out all the provinces and capitals so she could pronounce them properly. Here was a nine-year-old little girl who is so eager to learn, who will most likely never have the opportunity to further develope her talents. I wish I could take little Nic home with me or at least given her an encyclopedia.

When we got back from the ruins we went for lunch and then walked around trying to find an exchange office where we can exchange our 1.7 million Kip (Laos currency). Through a comedy of errors, we ended up getting to Cambodia with lots kip. Turns out it is basically an unexchangeable currency. Live and learn I suppose.

Tomorrow we are going to spend the day in Siem Reap exploring. There is quite the lively little restaurant and bar scene here. Most of the restaurants have a hybrid of traditional Khmer cuisine as well as more western food. Last night we ate at a restaurant where you could design your own burgers and sip cocktails named after Angelina Jolie...life is good. Wednesday we will take the bus down to Phnom Penh (about 5 to 6 hours) where we are planning on staying for a couple of days before we head to Sihanoukville in the South.

More soon.

Lots of love,

Nicole/Poke/Coco
xoxoxo

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