Cambodia Days 1+2
warning to anyone ever considering coming to Southeast Asia in the summer: humidity will be your worst enemy.
Day 1
that being said, I’M IN CAMBODIA!! after about 30+ hours of traveling, we finally landed in Siem Reap, Cambodia at around 1pm in the afternoon. after a bit of confusion/chaos, we found the tuk tuk driver from our hostel and headed on over.
i like our hostel. the rooms are clean, there’s hot water, i haven’t fallen off the top bunk yet, and more importantly there’s air conditioning. :)
after settling in, we spent a few hours wandering around the area looking at markets, buying water (did i mention it’s hot??), and buying exciting cotton pants for $4.
^streets around our hostel where our exploring began. right after some rain!
^they really like those weird fish pedicure things here. but i thought the sign was great: “fish can make you happy and funny.”
for dinner, i had Khmer curry which was really good and tasted kind of similar to Thai food.
^this whole thing AND rice was $2.50. mmmmmm.
given that we were kind of dead, we knocked out at like 8:30 PM and slept for 10-11 hours. WEE.
Day 2
Angkor Wat day! we woke up to meet our tour guide, Kea, who joined us on our tuk tuk to visit the main structures of Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat - two big temples built by previous Cambodian kings. interesting fact: these were originally Hindu temples before the majority turned Buddhist. what up Hindus.
we spent the first half of the day at Bayon, the center temple of Angkor Thom, and then visited the Elephant Terrace, where old games and fights were held. all the temples and sites are pretty spaced out, so we took the tuk tuk in between.
^lens partially closed but HI MONKEY and you can see my $4 pants! (you’re not supposed to wear shorts to the temple, so they were a nice solution).
^entrance to Bayon at Angkor Thom.
^that’s a freaking TREE ROOT growing into the temple as support. ridiculous.
for lunch, white noodle with chicken and vegetables!
^we were angry that this was like $5, obviously spoiled by last night’s dinner.
after lunch, we went to the most famous temple: Angkor Wat. though we were kind of melting away by this point, it was still beautiful. we got to climb to the top of the central tower and look at the awesome views.
^as you walk into the temple.
^whole of Angkor Wat and it’s reflection in the pond!
we wrapped up the tour around 4 PM and headed back to the (air conditioned) hostel room, where we showered/crashed/watched modern family until dinner.
after dinner, we continued our wandering at the night market near our hostel, and now here i am writing about my day on tumblr.
Tomorrow
waking up at 4 AM to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat! going around to visit the temples we didn’t get to see today (like i said, its a huge site), shopping at the nearby markets, and taking advantage of the 50 cent beers at our hostel’s happy hour.
as promised:
Fails:
-being attacked by hungry monkeys who stole all our fruit.
-looking like maniacs from how hot/gross it was outside.
-our complete inability to remember our awesome tuk tuk driver’s name, which we now know is Botna.
-not finding ice cream when we needed it most.
Successes:
-seeing Angkor Wat.
-the monkeys were cute (despite their fruit stealing).
-befriending some jovial Australians inside the temple.
-stealing 2 handkerchiefs from a restaurant.
:D
