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Published: January 18th 2006
Angkor
totally worth the lack of sleepHello hello hello,
I'm back in action. After a quick tour of Thailand and it's beautiful islands we decided to head to Cambodia to see the amazing Temples of Angkor. After a short 13 hour ride that included Dave getting sick on the highway (and all over the side of the van). The driver was nice enough to NOT stop and kept driving while Dave gave a little of himself to both the Thai and Cambodian Countryside.
I had been hearing about these temples ever since we decided to go on this trip and was scared that they were not going to live up to the hype. We rolled out of bed at 4:45, stumbled downstairs and met our Tuk Tuk driver Jeng. For 12 Dollars Jen was ours for thew whole day. Cheap date. At 5:15 when we arrived to the temple it was still dark. We could still see the stars and barely make out the massive Temple of Angkor. The sun slowly rose, unveiling the magnificence of the temples. We slowly entered main temples. They seem untouched by time, as if they were created yesterday. Little men and women set up their shrines to Buddha and
My Hommie
This little man had took his job very seriously. Cleaning the area in front of the reclining buddah and getting ready for his day of prayers... the smell of incense filled the air. I lit a piece of incense and carried it around with me. The smells reminded of being back in Marin in my parents house.
After about 2 hours of exploring we made our way back to Jen. He took us to a lot of other temples, two others really stick out in my mind. Bayon, which consisted of 3 levels and 211 faces carved out of the rock. It was magnificent. The faces were so calm and at peace.
We also visited Ta Prohn, which had been forgotten for many years and the trees and surrounding jungle slowly took over the buildings. Trees creep in and out of the windows, over walls, moving entire buildings to the side.
As Lloyd and Dave took a nap amongst the lake, I went off by myself to see one last temple. I entered the temple, slowly walking towards the statue of Buddha. This little girl stopped playing with her little toys and came over to me, asking me if I wanted to buy 10 postcards for $1. I declined and kept moving. Pretty soon I was approached by another little boy, who guess
Sunrise at Angkor Temple
WE got up at 4:45am so we could see this... what did the same thing. I told him "Te Au Kohn? (no thank you), but this time took a picture of this cute little boy. I took me a little while to get him to smile but as you can see by the picture, he figured it out. He and his little sister giggled as they saw the pictures.
I said goo bye and kept walking through the temple. From far off I heard "Mister, Mister." It was another little girl about 300 meters away. This time I turned around and started heading away from her. She started laughing and as she got closer and closer I got lost and was trapped. She asked me if I wanted post cards I said "Te Au Kohn."
"Mista, where you from." "California," I replied as I rolled my eyes, i knew she was up to something. "Ahh, Capitol Sacramento." Wow, impressive. "Mista, mista do have a girlfriend?" "Ummm, no I don't"
to which she said, "Why? You so Fine" HA. I got a good laugh but she kept persisting and tried to give me a picture of a flower she had drawn for good luck, but I couldn't accept it and
quickly found my escape from the 12 year old girl. Though I have to admit my confidence was a little higher as I walked away.
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addie
non-member comment
"you so fine"
gotta love the kids....they do the same trick in India (tell you the capital of your state), but I never got any to tell me I was fine...so nice job hot stuff. haha