Angkor Wat - What?

My journey to Siem Reap was an interesting one... full of bouncing, five people throwing up, scenery of complete poverty (emaciated cows, children playing in dirty, stagnant water, and mat after mat covered with drying rice harvests), and our busdriver's liberal use of the horn. Add six hours and we were there... a bit jiggled up, but no worse for the wear.

I sat next to a woman named Stephanie from Germany and we ended up catching the same tuk-tuk into town. Then we booked the same guesthouse which is great. It's called Smiley's and I heard about it from Jodie and Glenn whom I met on Lamai Beach in Koh Samui. It's new, beautiful, clean, and a lovely shade of buttercup yellow. There's a garden in the middle that my room looks over and it's filled with chirping birds. It feels a little like a dream.

Stephanie and I hired a tuk-tuk driver for the afternoon and set off for the Temples of Angkor. We took two hours to see Angkor Wat (the largest, and most famous of the temples). We were both really excited to see them, but disappointed at the same time. I mean, the temple was SO cool, and we didn't expect to be the only tourists there, but there were thousands upon thousands. You couldn't really get a solitary moment there. The bas reliefs, the representations of Buddah, the grand moat surrounding the complex, and the vast greens inside - unbelievable.

We had our driver take us to Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset... and after a short hike up the mountain and climbing many treacherous steps, we arrived at the top. The view was *killer* and as I was basking in the evening glow I heard someone calling "Janice! Janice!". I completely ignored this because, heck, I'm halfway around the world in a non-English speaking country and no one here knows me... Well, I was wrong. It was Jo, from The Sanctuary on Had Tien in Koh Phangan! Of all the thousands of people at the temples, and the thousands more in the city, we met up without any planning on my first night here!

We sat and watched the sunset together and talked for a while - it was great to reconnect with someone, as I've enjoyed meeting people en-route, but sadly have to part without seeing eachother again.

The three of us went to dinner that night and then yesterday all did more temples on our own. I rented a two-peddle steed and enjoyed lazily peddling around the complex. It's quite huge and today my butt feels a little square. This morning Stephanie and I got a tuk-tuk to take us back to the temples for sunrise. Our 5am departure was a bit early, but the view was well worth it. The sky changed from a pale lavender, to a bright hue of rose, to a pale yellow... and then there was a blue, blue, blue sky. It was so peaceful that you could still hear the crickets and see a crecent moon in the sky.

Two and a half days left me templed out... I came here to an internet cafe to soak up some AC before heading back to the hotel for a nap. Jo and I are meeting up for dinner tonight and we're going to talk about where to go next. We had both thought about Battembang (a smaller town not too far from here), but apparently the boat there greatly varies on wet/dry season. In wet season it takes 4 hours and in dry it can take anywhere from 10-12. Wet season just ended, but word is that the water levels are already low. I don't want to take a little boat for 10 hours, so we may find somewhere else to travel together or I may just go my own way.



This is our fearless tuk-tuk driver as we found him asleep on the job while he was waiting for us at one of the temples. His name's Lucky.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone... I had Indian food that night, by the way - and not even Native American Indian food. :)

Love to everyone - and I miss you.
xoxo
Janice

***1:08p Internet Cafe, Siem Reap, Cambodia