Day 188 - Angkor Wat

Saturday, August 13th, 2016

3rd Day in Cambodia; Siem Reap

Maid Alarm

Wake up to the maids pointing at 9am wanting to clean the room. Thanks, but we're still sleeping. For some reason, I assume that cleaning staff don't usually come in until 10 or 11.

This BnB/Resort/Hotel also serves breakfast. We come down at noon, far after when breakfast would have stopped being served, and Yumi, the Japanese woman running the place, gets in the kitchen herself and makes us omelettes.  We're planning on leaving Siem Reap tomorrow, so we need to see Angkor Wat today if it's going to happen.

Angkor Wat

I'm not much for these sorts of things, actually. A couple hours, a few dozen photos, and I'm good. Maybe that's because I almost never have a guide, but the further we travel back from the present, the less interesting I often find it. History and Geography have both been my weak points.

The temples were huge. Angkor wat is not just one temple, but a bunch of them. We had the option to do a 1-day pass, or a 3-day pass, as well as a long or short day. Short, 1-day, please. The tuk tuk guy has a relationship with our hotel, which usually means they're a bit more trustworthy when they take you around, though we haven't had any bad experiences yet. I'm including all of my travels thus far.

The first, main place has a bridge leading up to it, then you think you're entering the temple, but it's actually just the perimeter wall that surrounds the massive grounds, with the main temple sitting a smidge back from center.

Light Bartering

She's scared of heights,
but did great!

It's all very impressive, but with so many people, rock walls that block all air movement, and 40ºC humid weather... I'm sweating through all of my clothes. Melting and looking for any form of reprieve, one woman offered to sell a water bottle. I decided before walking up that I only wanted to pay $1 for two bottles. She offered a big one for 2 bucks. Got that sucker for 1 because I wasn't that desperate, a division had begun to walk away. It still isn't a great price, since the store down the street from our hotel sold it for $0.50. 

We return to the tuk tuk, who had been giving us free bottles of water whenever we were ferried from place to place. "You bought water? Why?" he asked in a joking tone. "I don't know," was the only honest answer, besides "I was hot and impatient"

I'm always impressed with the quality of pictures my cellphone can take

I saw him sitting there and was just going to donate money,
but then he made us both bracelets instead.
He said they were for "Good Luck."

Animal Litter

Boars, cattle, and chickens are dot the highway as we zip down the two-lane street that has been broken down into 5 impromptu lanes of motorcycles, or 3 for tuk tuks. There were times when we thought we might flip, came too close to an edge, or a motorcycle may have had a near miss speeding in the opposite direction, but we always arrived safely. Pretty even keel at this point, but I remember bracing for dear life a few times in Indonesia.

At the third stop, our driver had given us 2 hours to look around, but the place was massive and we weren't feeling it anymore. The plan had been to make it to this view he knew of for the sunset, but we decided to take a pass. Regrettable, no?

Nope! Grey Cottony clouds rolled in and blotted out the sun, surprising us all a needed wash. Seems we made the right call, since we made it back without regret. There was no sunset to witness.

Big Ol' Gnarly Trees

Japanese Directness

Back at the hotel, we rested, cleaned up, and were heading out into the clear night. I told the Japanese owner we were going to grab a tuk tuk to the Night Market "Oh. Are you that lazy?" she asked. She's a funny, pointed woman who says what's on her mind, but somehow does so in a friendly way. When we'd first met, she couldn't believe we hadn't seen some particular thing in Yokohama, but we didn't even know of it. 

Badass

We had Indian food. Goddamn, was it ever delicious. I love Indian food, and now have it on my list of places to travel to. Carden Alex had said that the food there was fantastic, her boyfriend had been uncertain about whether he wanted to go there or not, but both loved it once they went. Now I'm beginning to wonder where I might be able to find some good Indian in Beijing...

The rest of the night we relaxed and watched Nightcrawler (2014; Jake Gyllenhaal), which is not what I expected. Kind of American Psycho meets News Reporter, only with less hands-on murder. Check it out.

Editing Music

Don't Know What To Do

Fou De Toi











Bonus Pics: Ones that wouldn't fit in the already packed post and a video of Shimou eating a Hotdog... just in case you wanted to know what she sounded like.