Two posts in two days? It could only be a flurry of activity brought on by the imminent arrival of MOM and DAD on Sunday! Yay! Also, sorry for the downer of a post yesterday. I didn't like writing it, you didn't like reading it. It was like Death of a Salesman: attention must be paid. But on to other, cheerier things.
After the laugh-attack that was PP, we were all rather eager to get to Siem Reap, home of the temples at Angkor, a WONDER OF THE WORLD! (my Dad said to imagine a trumpet sound effect after saying the previous sentence. I think it works pretty well.) The bus ride over to Siem Reap was another 10 hours. I swear, no matter where you're going in all of SE Asia, it's a ten hour bus ride. Next town? Three countries away? Ten hours. Once we arrived, we were descended upon by what can only be described as a paparazzi-like swarm of tuk-tuk (like a taxi) drivers. They tugged on our bags, they touched our arms, and they shouted at us. I felt like Jesus in the crowd of lepers in "Jesus Christ Superstar". It was overwhelming and not cool at all. We all lost our cool a bit, shouting and getting angry with the drivers. Our hotel was supposed to pick us up, but they didn't show, thus the fare wars. See, tuk-tuks get a huge commission from a hotel when they get you to book there. It's not uncommon at all to get into a tuk-tuk, ask them to take you somewhere, and then arrive somewhere else (the hotel they work for). You have to kindly but firmly request they take you to the originally agreed upon location. It's a generally harrowing process, but the horde at Siem Reap station was the worst I'd ever seen. The bus driver ended up taking us out to our hotel for free because he felt bad for us. One thing to say for Cambodia-the people are hospitable. Despite their relentless heckling to buy their wares, they are a kind and warm people. I was continually surprised by people going out of their way to help us here.
Anyway, we arrived at our hostel, which was an oasis of calm after the bus station. The man at the front desk spoke great English and helped us book all the things we wanted to do while we were there very quickly. First stop was sunset over the temples. Siem Reap is all very spread out and not at all easy to navigate. You have to hire a tuk-tuk driver to take you pretty much everywhere. Our hotel had some that they trusted/used regularly, and we ended up with Pehab, a smiling man in his late twenties. For the whopping fee of $4, he drove us out to the temple to see the sunset, and to the night market to get our fill of souvenirs. When I say, drove us to the temple, I mean drove us to the foot of the temple. We had to do a long-ass hike up a hill to get to the temple, then climb an infinite stretch of stairs to get up the temple. I was beginning to worry a bit about our full day of temple-seeing the following day. The sunset, sad to say, was less than spectactular. It was very cloudy. It was very cool to be at the top of the temple, though. The ruins are amazing-it's just otherworldly to be walking paths that were laid centuries ago. Could the Khmer empire have envisioned the lasting legacy of their temples? Once the sun went down, it cooled off a lot, which was nice. We tucked into bed early, as we had a wakeup call 4:30 AM for sunrise over the temples, followed by a long day of temple-trekking. I was very excited about seeing the temples, something I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember. Would it live up to my expectations?
In a word: yes. Oh, yes! The alarm clock went off at o'dark thirty, and I serenaded my roommates with a little Aerosmith. To say that excitement was high was an understatement. :) We met the faithful Pehab and our English speaking tourguide, Vanna (a man). Off we zipped in our tuk-tuk (it's basically a bench strapped to a motorcycle. It's open-air, very nifty way of traveling, provided of course that you don't fall out) to the temples. They're spread out all over the area. And there are tons of them! If I had honestly known how hot it was going to get and how much walking I was going to do that day, I would have been less cheerful, but in the predawn chill, things were looking good. We watched sunrise over Angkor Wat, the biggest temple. It was, like sunset the night before, a bit lackluster, but we were all so pumped to be there that it didn't matter.
Once the sun was up, we grabbed some breakfast and started touring in earnest. Vanna clearly spoke English but it was heavily accented and he was very hard to understand. He also repeated things about 7 or 8 times, which was a bit frustrating. However, we did learn a lot about the temples! He was a friendly, knowledgable guide. We started at Angkor Thom and worked our way around, seeing countless temples. I finally got to achieve a lifelong goal of an ELEPHANT RIDE! It was the bomb. Mei and I rode one around Angkor Thom, viewing it as the kings of antiquity would have. It was so super cool and I was giggling like a schoolgirl the entire time.
Off we went, traipsing over kilometers of land, overwhelmed with amazing sight after amazing sight. I grew tired of snapping photos yet could not seem to stop. It is all just totally awe inspiring. I want you to see the photos without explanation-just soak up the wonder. Imagine how they might have looked centuries ago and marvel that they are still standing today.
That night, we had our farewell spring break dinner at a local restaurant that had Apsara dancers, a traditional Khmer form of dance. We met up with some friends, who a)complained the whole time and b)didn't use chopsticks. We girls all felt a bit superior after listening to all their moaning and observing their inability to absorb any culture. It was nice to feel good at something after such a challenging week.
Our guide, Vanna, told us about his family's escape from the Khmer Rouge. It was a brutal, sad story and he told it like it had happened yesterday. It is amazing, the resiliency of these people. How could someone live that life and then just go on, leading tours of foreigners through temples? I left Cambodia with tons of bugbites, a large quantity of sorrow, and even more respect for this mystical, strange country. What a week!
Well, there you finally have my spring break trip. Tune in next time for Tioman Islands and Phuket! Sayonara suckers, and love you all!
