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Published: March 31st 2006
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Couldn't resist... what a good song! classic. Anyways... the bus ride (dun dun dun)... the one evvveryone has horror-stories about - actually wasn't as bad as we thought. After we crossed the border to Cambodia, we switched to a small bus. The road was unpaved, bumpy, and full of potholes... you couldn't read a book, or fall asleep, and it was so loud that iPods could barely tune out the motor-sounds... but it was fun! A great ride... totally okay. Our driver told us how the government has promised to fix this road since the nineties. Hasn't happened yet! But it was a GORGEOUS ride... red (not orange!) dirt roads, fields going on for miles, little stilt houses and villages at the side of the road... great lighting at the time. And we drove by so many pick-up trucks filled with around twently people, motorbikes piled high with junk, carts with 5 feet of stuff, and then a family perched on top. If only the drive wasn't so bumpy, we've have amazing photos. A thunderstorm started later... very eerie! But cool...
We arrived a lot later then had planned... and then had to take the driver up on his offer
to stay at his "friends guesthouse... very nice... very cheap... too dangerous to go out at this time! better stay here!". Suuuuure... but it was an okay place, and we were lazy, so us and our new German friend (Cristina) gave in and stayed.
The area around Siem Reap is full of gargantuan, palace-like mansions... these cost a ton, and are for the thousands of more uppppscale travellers who flock here to see Angkor. There must be hundreds of these places! It's such a contrast when you're out at night... you drive by five year olds sniffing glue, the people digging through garbage bags, the begging kids who actually look like they're desperate, and then you pass these sparkling giant castles. Sad.
The restaurant/bar street in Siem Reap is also gorgeous... the places are mostly run by Foreigners, we heard. They're so well decorated, and have excellent food... the kinds of places we'd never be able to afford to eat in in Canada! But the street is blocked off... no beggars are allowed. As soon as you step off the street, you get absolutely hounded! "You from Canada - Capital Ottawa! What's your name?" They're adorable! But it's
impossible to really help with anything... you can give them a dollar or some food... but they'll still be there the next day. We'd been warned about the poverty in Cambodia... it's different. A very different place. It'll take a while, I guess, to completely recover from something as insane as the Khmer Rouge regime... Hard to beleive that everyone over 30 can probably recall things that happened in that time.
ANGKOR WAT!
On a happier note... ANGKOR WAT!!!! WOAH!!! We bought a super-pricey 3-day pass, hired a tuk-tuk with Cristina, and headed out bright and early to the Angkor complex. We LOOOVED it. AMAZING! Angkor is one of those places that is exactly what you expect. Just how it looks in photos, except, with a few hundred more tourists! But it's such a huge place that if you can bear being in the temples during midday, you can get some shots without other people in them. RAD! SO RAD!!! Its giant, the complex, surrounded by untouched jungle, and a river, and lots of grass... it's beautful! Angkor Wat was amazing, but the other places within Angkor were amazing aswell... Everything is so well preserved. The details eveywhere
at angkor, after the sketch steep stair-climb up!
we like that you can actually climb these ancient buildings. on the buildings are spectacular. Just looking at these buildings can take your mind back in time... you can just imagine the lives of the King, the dancers, and the people who lived there so long ago! It's huge... We saw Angkor Wat the first day, along with Angkor Thom and the Bayon (the faces of the god king and buddha image meshed together), and a few other smaller ones.
The second day, our tuk-tuk that took us from bulding to building around the huge complex had a flat tire! Wahoo! Too bad our driver spoke no english! He dissapeared, and for a while, we thought we might have been stranded! But alas, a while later, he came back all fixed! Amazing... So then we headed to a bunch of other buildings, including the elephant terrace, and Ta Prohm, which was quite possibly our fave. It's the one with the green temple, with huuuuge trees and amazing roots growing on top of it, breaking down the walls. So amazing! We had to wait out the tour groups at times, but it was worth it! So ancient! So amazing... insaaaaanity.
Later, Evan bought a D'ro or Troh (Cambodian kind of
violin instrument) from one of the hundreds of vendors who sells things in a stall in front of his hut. We wonder how people get permission to build homes in Angkor... it would be a cool place to chill... They have hammocks, and stoves... how cool is that?
So angkor was incredible! Nothing like it... now for the rest of the wonders of the world... but tommorow - PHNOM PENH!
later....
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wat do you do for an angkor..?
Your blog and travels are amazing guys. Description of Siem Reap and pics of Angkor Wat the stuff of fantasy. Following you with great interest - keep it up and stay safe. Unca Mike.