Angkor What??

When I last updated you guys I was hoping for the power to stay on in Vientiene, Laos so I could publish my post with the shit wifi in that city. The next day, after surprisingly few additional power outages, we boarded an overnight train to Bangkok. What an experience.

Our tickets were for second class, upper bunk, air con sleepers. We boarded when all the beds were still upright seats and, for some reason, the porters kept moving Meri, Paige and I around. We then ordered dinner, which threw everyone into further confusion because, at the exact time our dinner was delivered, they decided it was time to put the beds down. At 7:30 p.m. Just so you have the right mental picture, each pair of seats has a removable table in between. When they put the beds down, the person on the upper bunk no longer has a chair to sit in, so they have to crawl up top and just...hang out. Alone, behind their little curtain. So, at 7:30 p.m. with our plates of dinner (sweet and sour chicken for me, soup and fried rice for them) that were utterly non conducive for eating in bed, we had to find an abandoned pair of seats to squeeze all three of us into for dinner. And of course we had a great time, laughing way too loudly and disturbing the people around us who decided 7:30 p.m. was a good time to go to sleep.

After that we crawled into our little bunks and passed out for the next 8 hours. Example of our teeny, yet comfortable, pods:


We managed to make it in to Bangkok only 3 hours late. Thailand's trains are NOT like Germany's. We spent about 24 hours in Bangkok, seeing the things Paige and Meri hadn't gotten to see yet, and then we went our separate ways. Paige took another overnight train down to Koh Tao to do her Open Water PADI certification, and Meri and I flew into Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat.

In a rather dubious arrangement, which I'm not entirely sure is legal, Bangkok airways holds the monopoly on providing direct flights from Bangkok to Siem Reap. They run five 35 minute flights back and forth daily. For the privilege of having a roomy seat on one of those half empty flights, Meri and I paid $400. Apiece. When most SE Asian flights run between $60-$100 one way, that is fucking highway robbery. However, because we were short on time and couldn't sacrifice 12 hours of travel time each way, we had to pay.

The Siem Reap airport is, like most things in this city, freaking adorable. You disembark from your plane and just walk in the door of the airport like you're going into a shopping mall. No security to speak of. From someone very used to flying into and out of the Atlanta airport, this was extremely strange. We got inside, went through the quick and painless process of getting a Cambodian passport, meeting some of the nicest immigration officers in the world, and were outside looking for our driver about 20 minutes after we walked off the plane. Ridiculously quick.

When I book hotels, the first thing I look for is the ratings, then the price, and then the location. I picked a cheap hotel in Siem Reap, $19/night, with decent reviews and a location right between Angkor Wat and pub street. Holy crap, we were treated like royalty by the staff the entire time we were here! Here's our driver, that's been with us the whole time:


Nicest Cambodian boy ever. After the 10 minute tuk tuk ride from the airport, the staff greeted us by name at the door with cold, minty towels and a super refreshing welcome drink. They brought our luggage to the room, which has a mini bar, ice cold air con, room service and an awesomely clean bathroom. You'd think we were at a 4 star hotel in the States instead of (what we thought was going to be) a cheap guest house in Cambodia. The hotel also has a pool with a pool bar. It seriously doesn't get much better than this!

The next day we finally relaxed after 10 days of non stop travel and a different city every night. Then we got our first glimpse of Angkor Wat when we went for sunset. Unfortunately, we went to Phnom Bakheng first. We tried to ride the elephants to the top, but we got there right at 5 p.m. after the last one had left. We climbed the hill, which was not as arduous as everyone says, and saw the LONG ASS line of people waiting to climb to the top of the temple to see the sunset. This was our first impression of Angkor Wat, and we were not impressed. The temple was ok, unremarkable really, and because of the location the sun didn't set on any of the temples, just on the jungle and the Tonle Sap lake. We didn't even wait on the sun to actually set because of the OUTRAGEOUS amount of people and the unbearable heat of the afternoon. We took a couple pictures and left.





We got to the bottom of the hill as the elephants were returning. Meri has developed as obsession with these animals and had to have a moment:


That night we went down to pub street for dinner, to a restaurant called il Forno. So. Fucking. Good. After so much Asian food we decided we needed a break (who am I kidding - I don't even really like Thai food) and Italian was just what we needed. The bruschetta was incredible. Seriously. Like best ever.

The next morning we left the hotel at 4:45 a.m. (I know, how the hell did I get Meri out of bed that early?) to head to Angkor Wat for sunrise. For those that don't know a lot about the temples, Angkor Wat is actually about 400 square kilometers of smaller temple complexes, the most famous of which is actually called Angkor Wat. So, we actually went to the small area called Angkor Wat, as it's supposed to be one of the best places to see the sun rise. It's been super cloudy here, though, so it wasn't the most satisfying sunrise ever.








After leaving Angkor Wat we headed to the Bayon, another famous temple complex. This one has between 30 and 40 towers made up of four huge, carved faces. It feels like legends of the hidden temple as you're walking through it. Because we started the day before 5 a.m., there were very few people there and we got some great shots without strange people in them. Also, it wasn't unbearably hot and humid yet.








The Bayon temple is located inside Angkor Thom. We explored the rest of the area of Angkor Thom and came across some great ruins.





At this point my camera died and it was starting to get hot, so we called it a day and headed to the pool. We had dinner at the Temple Balcony, a Khmer restaurant that does a nightly, free Aspara (traditional Cambodian dancing) show. Dinner was average, but the dancing and atmosphere were great, so it made up for it. After dinner we spent too much money at the night market buying hippie pants and artwork. Then we headed to a bar on pub street called Angkor What?? and drank absinth and gin. Great night.

Today we left the hotel at 7 a.m., another early day, and headed to the coolest temples ever. We started the day at Ta Prohm; when they were restoring the temples at Angkor Wat, they chose this one to remain looking as it would have when it was discovered (or re-discovered, rather) in the early 1900's. The temple has piles of rubble and trees growing out of it - extremely badass. This was definitely our favorite place in Angkor Wat.














Next we headed to Ta Som, a smaller temple from the same time period as Ta Prohm. Coolest thing about this temple is the entrance:


After Ta Som we went to Preah Khan, which was a temple as well as a Buddhist university.














We definitely made a great choice by going early in the day - again not too hot and not too many people around. We beat the hoards of people arriving on huge tour busses. We were temple'ed out after that so we came back to the pool for awhile. We tried to go see the sunset again, but the clouds were awful and the sunset was utterly disappointing. It was nice to see Angkor Wat one last time before going back to Thailand.

Dinner was at Raja Angkor, a Khmer barbecue restaurant. The food was so amazing. I ordered red snapper, thinking I'd get a nice, easy to deal with fillet. Nope. I got the whole fish, scales, eyes and all. Stuffed with lemongrass and bay leaves, it was incredible. Meri had noodle soup, also delicious, and we had creme brûlée and apple tart for dessert. We've had the best food in Cambodia.

Tomorrow we fly to Bangkok, and then on to Koh Samui. We're going to try to get on earlier flights so we can catch the last ferry to Koh Phagnan so we don't have to pay 8,000 baht for a speed boat...we'll see.

Until next time!

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Location:Taphul Rd,Siem Reap,Cambodia