How do all of those random things hang together? I'll explain. In a nutshell, this last weekend at Angkor Wat was insane. We took a bus out to Sien Reap which is the province outside of Angkor Wat. It took 6 freaking hours to get there! Normally I wouldn't mind this but we were on the most uncomfortable bus ever! Luckily I was armed with the following items, iPod, DS, PSP, Laptop, book, Spirited Away. Sadly three of those electronic items were not charged. I lost my iPod charger (ugh) and I forgot one tiny detail when I was charging my DS and camera. The hotel room only has power if you leave the key in the special slot. GUESS WHO WAS A SPACE CADET? ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pretty much I didn't have use of a digital camera or other forms of electronic entertainment. Don't worry I got pictures though. After getting into the hotel we went out to dinner and came back and went to sleep.
Saturday was amazing! I supplemented my lack of digital camera by buying a disposable camera, FOR FIFTEEN FU*KING DOLLARS!!!!! Pardon my French but that was ridiculous. It was an interesting experience because I went down into this little area of shops because I saw a disposable camera on display. The second I said "I need a camera", at least 5 different people were on me! They were tugging and saying things like "my shop has a camera"! It was a little overwhelming. Eventually I shook em off by saying "I want a camera and it's over there". FIFTEEN DOLLARS?! Enough about that, the ruins is probably what is the most interesting part.
When it comes to Angkor Wat, there is the central temple of Angkor Wat and the (I believe) 4 or 5 temples surrounding it, once you've seen one, you've seen em all. We explored the surrounding temples first. They are very impressive and kind of a mystery. These temples are huge, I mean 7 stories at least. It makes you wonder how they got there, each brick has beautiful artwork on it. An entire wall would tell a story. If I'm remembering correctly, each temple told a different story within the Hindu religion. Don't quote me on that because our tour guide didn't speak perfect English.
After lunch we explored the central temple of Angkor Wat. I will be honest, this was godlike! I also believe that I conquered my fear of heights! You have to climb up an enormous steep staircase to even get up there. Up at the top it was like a sky temple (if that makes any sense at all). I was on top of this huge temple that was at least 7 stories high (I think) and up there were big plazas and hallways. The only thing that was kind of jarring was the construction scaffolding to preserve the temple. It was one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life.
Speaking of amazing things, MONKEYS!!!!!!! As we were heading out of one of the temples we saw wild monkeys! A bunch of us sat and stared at them for awhile, one monkey stole a banana from one of the women in our group. It was hilarious. The monkeys were so amazing and a little scary to see up close.
After the whole exhausting day was over, we geared up for dinner. What was for dinner? CROCODILE! No joke, one thing you can do at our hotel is order a crocodile from the farm next door. Special thanks to Aussie Andrew for getting it all organized. Crocodile tastes amazing, I loved it. After dinner was pretty cool because there was an incredible thunderstorm outside. I'd look out the window periodically and see the sky just flashing. Eventually we all went out there and the storm was right over us. Incredible lightning and thunderclaps that shook the entire hotel! We were out there for a good hour plus appreciating it.
The next day we were going to explore one last temple. This temple was going to be the original Angkor Wat but the king at the time said screw it, we're moving it. Off the road there's this abandoned temple where tourists rarely go and it was awesome! I explored it with my friend Rachel and these little kids lead us around. This temple was in mid construction so there were materials lying around and it looked very hazardous. I enjoyed climbing around it and talking to Rachel and just appreciating the serene quality of it. At one point apparently someone (not in our group) fell, so policemen came into the ruins to help people get around. One came to Rachel and I and helped her down this wall. When the time came for us to go up another wall to get out, the guy put his hand square on my ass and pushed. A part of me was really hoping it wasn't the policeman but I knew it was. We got down and Rachel had to give the guy a dollar, I'm like (in my head) "you're not getting a dollar to touch my ass, that was free".
After exploring the temple we went to lunch and got back on the bus. It took 8 hours to get back to Phnom Penh, this bus will appear in my nightmares because it was so uncomfortable. I got back to my hotel room and did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.
The entire weekend I was trying to think of a Legend of Zelda reference, I came up with an okay one.
"I wish I brought my hookshot" Might be a little above some peoples heads but I thought it was good.
Until next time.
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