Agkor WHAT??????

The day started today with a bright and early 4:30 am wake-up call.  I came damn near close to missing the bus, thank god that Jourdan had them hold it for a minute for me.  We headed straight over to the Angkor Wat complex.   This is a massive collection of ancient city sights and temples (over 300) all within only a few kilometers.

The first stop was the Angkor Wat temple.  This is a monstrous religious compound that used to house a religious city, with the actual temple at the center.  We watched the sunrise from in front of the reflecting pool.  The weather wasn’t great, but it was still beautiful. 

On the way in, I was handed some incents, and did some prayer.  I thought I was being given a light, because it was so dark.  When he asked me for money for the monks, I realized I was duped.  I gave him a dollar and walked away, only to realize that for some reason, a good portion of the group followed me, and were all doing the incents prayer.  Many people got taken for way more the a dollar (Emma and Niall).  Oops, my fault.

After the time the sun should have risen, we met our new guide, Borin, and started going through the history of Angkor Wat, and how it was used.  We entered the complex, and finally got a very real ideal of how magnificent and grand this temple is.  The place is HUGE, and looking at it from the front is very deceiving.

As we climbed through different portions of the temple, it was amazing to see the ornate sculptures and the 70 degree sloped staircases, which force you to crawl up in a manner subservient to god.  When Jourdan and I decided to climb a particularly large set of stairs for a photo op it was actually quite scary.  From the top, Jourdan tried to “biff” his jandal at Hoover (biff is Kiwi for throw).  He missed by a long shot, and then Hoover was ready to toss his jandals onto the roof of Angkor Wat.  When she realized it would not be respectful to the site, she turned and biffed them at Jourdan, nailing him in the chest.  It was priceless.

After the jandal biffing incident, we were able to climb to the top of the complex.  It was a great view, and furthered the magnificence of the compound.

We next headed back to the hotel for naps and lunch on Pub Street.  It really is a great area to walk around in. 

In the afternoon, we began the second part of our temple tour, and headed back to the Angkor Wat complex.  We first headed to the ruins of Bay Lon temple, where they have massive tours with four-sided Buddha faces.  The ruins were quite spectacular, and you can tell how expansive this city must have been at one time. 

After Borin gave us a tour of the area, we jumped into tuk-tuks to head to Angkor Tom.  This portion of the complex is itself 9 square kilometers, and it was one of 32 sites within this portion of the larger site.  Along the way, we must have passed at least a dozen smaller ruins of buildings and temples.  A person could truly spend a week in this complex and not see everything.  It is amazing how built up this area was.

Angkor Tom is a temple that was left in the condition it was found it, because it was so overgrown with trees that they were unable to safely clear the area.  It also happens to be the temple where they filmed the Tomb Raider movies.  It was awesome to walk through this overgrown temple, and find surprises around every corner (hidden smiley faces and echo rooms included).

As we headed back to the hotel, we jumped into the pool and started having a pool-pregame with everyone from the tour.  Jourdan jumped into the spa for a head massage, as we started throwing back the drinks. 

They jumped into my picture, so I jumped into theirs

The group headed over to our final nights dinner at 8^th Street Brassiere.  From the parts I remember, it was really good, and we had a lot of laughs.  We all had our “Same Same but Different” tee-shirts, except Jourdan, who made a “Different but Same Same” tee.  We passed them around, and everyone signed each other.

To have a solid final night, we all headed to a bar called Angkor WHAT.  From there, things got silly.  The drinking and dancing was off the hook.  See some funny pics below.

Into Siem Reap we go

We woke up this morning, headed back to the airport and boarded a flight heading over to Siem Reap.  This was a really pretty town.  There was a great area filled with day and night markets, restaurants, bars, and stores.  The hotel, Casa Angkor, was the best one yet.  It was high class, had a great pool, and offered free 15-minute massages.  The whole town is basically built up around tourism, so people speak English really well, and are very friendly.  The only complaint is that the market people end up being a little too in your face.

As soon as we got into Siem Reap, we headed for a cruise on Tonle Sap.  It is the largest fresh water lake in all of SE Asia.  On the lake, there is a really interesting group of people, who spend their entire lives on the lake.  The have literally built floating houses, and floating communities (a 2000 person village) that they move around the lake bi-annually in coordination with the dry and wet seasons.  Along the trip, we saw some very interesting things.  These people use the river for everything, including cooking, drinking, bathing, and toilet.  They also fish the river, trade on the river, and raise alligators and fish.  I decided that I was going to play “Swamp Hunter” for a bit, and I fed me some gators.

After the trip, we headed back to the hotel and walked around the town.  We ate locally with from friends, and then decided that we all wanted to get massages.  Jourdan and I each got a 4-hand Khmer massage for an hour.  It cost $12.

We headed back to the hotel for a drinking pool party, and then we grabbed a local meal in town.  Tonight most of the group went to sleep early, because tomorrow we have a VERY early start.

A serious, but educational day in Phnom Penh

NO SMILING!!!

First thing to do today, head to the airport and fly into Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia.  First thing we notice, this is a real city, but a VERY poor city.

We jumped into a local restaurant for a quick lunch, and rushed back onto the bus to begin a tour.  We met our new guide, whose name translates to Lucky.  He pointed out some sights in the city, and the fact that everyone there drives high end Lexus or nicer (corruption money and drug money).

He then began explaining the recent history of Cambodia, in relation to Pol Pot and the communistic takeover.  It was interesting to note that the country has basically only been open to tourism for 15 years officially, but tourism didn’t really start until 2002.

We went over to the Khmer Rouge S-21 prison that was used for people who were considered political dissidents or anti-regime.  We learned about the spy networks, torture, and murder that took place in the prison, and contributed to the over 3 million lives that were lost in genocide between 1976 and 1979. 

Monuments all over Cambodia

We then headed over to the killing fields that were used to commit this genocide, and bury the dead.  We were able to see the excavated pits, and there are still human bones that come up every time there is a rain storm. 

On the way back into the city, we passed some incredibly poor areas of the outer city.  Things were very destitute, and despite having more money then Laos, it seemed dirtier and poorer because of how many people are in the city.

As we neared the city center, we passed the casino, the Royal Palace, and the government buildings.  These buildings were ornate and gorgeous.  You can tell where the rebuilding and government money has been focused.  The whole area along the water front (also the Mekong, and made for tourists) is incredibly well built up and beautiful.  You just wouldn’t want to go more then a block out of that area. 

Jourdan and I strolled to the local food market.  Besides being disgusting, unhygienic, and smelling horrible (chicken, meat, and fish just laying out in the heat), we were almost run down by the two way tuk-tuk traffic, motor bikes, and pedestrian hustle on the 5 foot walkway between stalls. 

Dinner was at a rooftop bar called FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club).  Food was really good, and we had a fun night of chillin and drinking games, while overlooking the Mekong.

Dinosaur at the bar



Hoover Fucking with me while I sleep on the bus

This is the largest city in Laos? Vientiene.

This morning we woke up and boarded the bus.  It was nice to know that we could safely depart and head to the capital city of Vientiene.  The first thing we noticed, is that the term city is used very lightly here.  While by far being the most populated area of Laos that we have seen, it is a small townish city at best.

When we got into the city we visited COPE, which is an organization that helps supply artificial limbs to people who have lost them in accidents from unexploded ordinances dropped by the US during the Vietnam war. 

We learned about the Secret War the US conducted in Laos, where American bombers dropped millions of tons of bombs all over the country in an attempt to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail, and dissuade Laos from entering the war.  Even today, there are countless unexploded ordinances that children and people have accidents with despite the countries best efforts to find and neutralize them.

After the museum, we headed to the Golden Temple called That Luang Stupper.  We walked around, it was quite beautiful, in addition to being the most important temple in the country.  From there we headed to the Arc de Triumph called Patuxay Park.  We climbed to the top for a view of the city.

As the group headed back to the hotel, Jourdan and I went to explore the city.  Like other places in SE Asia, it is amazing how you can be in a run down neighborhood, and then out of nowhere run into an gorgeous temple.  We strolled through some temples, and walked along the Mekong for a bit, with a beautiful view of Thailand.

The whole group went for dinner at Makphet.  The food was delicious, and it is run by an organization that supports children in the city, and helps get them off the street.

We spent the night at a rooftop bar drinking, while overlooking the night markets, the Mekong, and Thailand.



The great electrical wiring