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Published: August 25th 2008
All templed out!!!
Well we arrived in Siem reap on schedule from Phnom Penh and set forth looking for our next adventure. Siem Reap is a built up tourist destination as everyone who visits Cambodia is here for Angkor Wat and the amazing temples located just outside Siem Reap. Needless to say, you can get whatever you want here. There is a ton of people (tourists) around doing the exact same thing as you. Tuk-tuk drivers constantly bombarding you with their services, as they want to drive you around Angkor Wat for a few days. This is where they make their money, averaging about 5$/day in profit, tourists mean big money. This being said, we will be happy to leave this harrassing yelling behind.
We hired a pretty nice tuk-tuk driver for our three days, named Wait, and he took us wherever we wanted to go. On the first day we visited the two largest temples Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. They are immense and we were in complete awe. It is amazing to see the ingenuity of the Khmer - some of these temples were built over a thousand years ago. We both were stunned to see them and continued
on with days two and three.
It is to much writing to really decribe what you see, but you can sort of get the jist of it from some of our pics. We took about one hundred pictures in three days.....more than our whole trip thus far! In the end you need to see it for yourself to really picture it.
Remember the scene in "Tomb Raider" when Angelina Jolie was chasing the guys through the tomb in ruins with trees growing out of the blocks of stone.....well we saw it first hand. Ta Prohm is that temple, and it is amazing. We started thinking about the term for what we did, and came up with Templing. The art of viewing ancient temples. We are truly "templed" out now!
I (Dan) had previously posted how hot we thought Halong Bay was in Vietnam...I think this is hotter! I looked like I just stepped out of a shower the whole time, and considering we opted for a 6$/night room with fan only, we have been sweating pretty profusely since we arrived. All's good in Templing....I guess.
We had to make a decision on where to go next so stay tuned to
find out............
I (Jodi) just wanted to add how amazing I thought the temples were...but even I was templed out at the end. Some of the temples are in complete ruin and you are able to simply climb over the blocks and all over them. The bigger ones are really busy but some of the further temples were quite empty and it was peaceful to sit out and stare at the jungle and hear all the birds and insects. Dan and I also visited a landmine museum created in partnership with funds from the Canadian govermnent. They have a children's facility where landmine affected children can live and go to school. It is really noticeable in Cambodia how many people have been affected by the tragedy of landmines - it was good for us to learn more and gather some information to bring home with us.
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Dougal
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The Move...beginning of day 3 at Takeo
Regarding the elegant, suave, fluid gymanstic move......1.5 for technical difficulty and 3.0 for completion..........major deductions for view of roll around middle....lol.....what do they put in that beer.Thought maybe you had eaten the tray of bugs...... Sad how you could have such beauty and such horror side by side....no Jodi, I'm not talking about you and Dan.....the beauty and majesty of the temples and the horrors of the Killing Fields. Keep the pictures coming......will be looking for further grand displays of finese and agility,but next time lets have a greater degree of difficulty. Take Care