Siem Reap & Angkor Wat

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Saweedaka my friends!

Greetings from Bangkok! We arrived this morning. But lets back track to a couple days back...Siem Reap. This was our 2nd city in Cambodia. We fell in love! Everything about Siem Reap was amazing...the people are the nicest most sweetest most noble & humble in the WORLD! The city is 100x better than the capital Phnom Penh...as Ana puts it: "We were in Iraq!". Our tour guide, Ing, was incredibly helpful, knowledgeable & very sweet. The first day we went to the floating villages. We went on a boat ride down a river. This is one of the poorest areas in S.R. They are on the river (dont ask me which one, its pointless for me to even guess). They live on houseboats & use the river for EVERYTHING!...Bathing, drinking, peeing & pooping. So they literally shit where they eat. Yeah, the fish they eat comes from the same river. Anyhow, it was very interesting to see how these people live. They have no electricity either. It makes you think of all the things we take for granted back home. On the way back to our van, we got off the boat & as we began walking to our van a little girl shoves a souvenir plate in my face. But wait MY FACE WAS ON THE PLATE! Check this out...they took pics of us when we arrived & in the time it took to do the boat ride, they managed to print this pic & put it on the plate. Of course I looked like a dork but we bought the damn plates. HOW INGENIOUS! Plus, they are persistent & know exactly what to say..."Laaaayyyddeee, please $1, help me go to schooool". AAAAHHHH! After a while, it sounds like "un cantadito" bc its like 10 of them surrounding you saying this at the same time.

The next day we saw the Bayon temple, the Jungle temple or Tombraider Temple (where Angelie Jolie filmed the movie) & Angkor Wat. All I can say is WOW! It was breathtaking! I got some facts here & there but was too busy shooting pictures to really pay attention. As you can imagine, I was so overwhelmed with all the "photo ops" that it was driving me crazy. Adri however is my history book & notetaker so she fills me in with what I missed. I will leave the history facts to her to fill you all in as well. By the way, it is FREAKIN' HOT! We have been sweating every single minute since we got here. This vacation has definitely not been one of blow dryers, makeup, high heels or looking pretty. More like insect repellent, sunscreen, bottled water, evian face spray, wipies, hats & glasses. Nobody can ever say we are prissy or plastica! We are HARD CORE baby! This is a funny story: on the way out of one of the temples, a swarm of kids surrounded us trying to sell us bracelets, instruments, books, postcards, ANYTHING & EVERYTHING. It sounded like they were chanting. It was O.O.C! I even shot some video of this to show you guys.

The HUGE highlight was that we decided to go visit an orphanage in Siem Reap. We told our tour guide & asked him where we could go & buy the kids gifts & what orphange to go to. He suggested school supplies & gave us the name of one called Sunrise Village. We went to a tiny, jampacked store that looked like their version of Office Depot for the supplies. We gave him $80 & told him to buy as much as he could. Well our 80 bucks went a long way...we got 50 of everything: notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, crayons, rulers, and soccer balls (for P.E. of course). We left & were on our way. We were so excited & a bit nervous too. We arrived, signed in & went to meet one of the people who worked there. We handed him the supplies & he gave us a small tour of the orphanage. As we walked along, some small children would come up to us. They were a bit shy at first, some were very friendly. He told us many stories about the different kids there. Most were there bc their parents were killed by landmines or HIV. There were many other sad stories. Their youngest child was 14 months old, the oldest are 18. Finally it was time to interact with the kids. We decided to grab the soccer balls & play with them. We began playing soccer & volleyball & just running around with all of them. We sat with them, laughed & played with them. We had a major workout. We looked like we had bathed of how much we were sweating. It was amazing! (*Sidebar: Ing, the tour guide happens to be amazing at shooting pictures...LUCKY ME!) So he was shooting candids during the entire time! Thanks to him we have gotten some great group pics of the 4 of us.

These kids were sooo beautiful & friendly. They were so respectful as well. You could tell just by the way they would play & interact with us. And then of course theres always those kids that "just get you". There was one little boy that we called "Little Buddha". He had the most beautiful & expressive eyes. I took many pics of him. He was one of "Ana's sons". She also had another one that would get jealous when she carried Little Buddha & not him. Tremendo SHow! Well, after running around for a while, it was time to go. We got some beautiful group pics & then we began our goodbyes. It was very emotional for all of us! We got info so we could help the orphanage with some money or sponsoring a child. Overall though, it was one of the most rewarding & touching moments in my life. It felt soooo good to help these kids but it was so very difficult to leave knowing the lives they have led. Its comforting to know however that they at least are taken care of in the orphanage.

As for the rest of Siem Reap, after a loooong day of Wats & sweat, we of course went shopping AGAIN! It has become a sickness! We cannot stop! We are now at the point that we have to purchase additional luggage...no joke. At least Adri & Ana do, Im still doing good.

We left Siem Reap this morning & we were sad to go. Cambodia was a wonderful country to visit after all. There is so much to see & so much to contribute. The people are very grateful when you help them.

We have arrived in Bangkok today & will be here til Sat morning. We just heard there was an earthquake in Indonesia today so of course theres tsunami warnings. We are monitoring the situation & will decide by the end of the week if we are going to Phuket or not.

Here are some dot dots to close this off....Apagones in Siem Reap, sube escalerita-baja escalerita, im having food issues, Tuk tuk, Laaayyydeeee, mango juice, Marcia- are you really going to eat that, our tour guide eats snakes, cobra blood, they eat dogs here...

PEACE OUT MY FRIENDS!
STAY TUNED....

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