Hi Guys,
Had a few days MIA since I thought we'd be staying at the Siem Reap Hostel, but when we arrived on Monday night, they seemed to have given our room away and didn't have room for us! Luckily Siem Reap is teeming with cheap guest houses and we just went down the list calling the places in our guidebook, and found a room for $25/night - the lady that owns the place is super nice, and they have free breakfast, kitties, hot water and... drumroll... AIR CONDITIONING! :) But, sadly, no internet.
Monday morning we went around Saigon hurriedly catching a few museums we wanted to go to but couldn't previously due to the lunar new year holiday, then got a $5 massage - I'd stick to the $14 dollar ones, this one was definitely not a legitimate place, the girl spent more time practicing her english with me than actually massaging me, had long nails, and at one point left so I could take a nap. ha. Oh well no harm done. Tuesday our hotel helped us hire a tuk tuk (motor bike with an attached cart to haul us tourists in the shade) $12 for the day. The driver was really nice, had very basic english - the english in Siem Reap is much better than anywhere in Vietnam. He took us all around many different temples - they are amazing, huge structures with large stones cut and fitted together, the older places don't have any mortar holding them together, although many of them have been restored and do have more secure walls. Lots of detail etched in the stone - took many many pics, but hard to capture how amazing it is. The last stop of the day was at Angkor Wat, the most massive of them all. We climbed all the way to the top (had to wait in about a half hour line to do it) - beautiful views and again, amazing architecture and beautiful carvings in the stone. We then went out on the lawn and watched the sun set reflected on the front of the main entrance - it faces to the west. Had our tuk tuk drop us off at a restaurant in town, food was decent, coconut soup, fried frogs legs with basil and lemongrass (tastes like chicken), stir fried beef and a green mango salad. All for about $24. The restaurant had a girl doing traditional dancing and a (separate) crocodile pit - they looked scary but didn't move much. Probably because of the heat.
It has been SOOO hot here. Climbing temples is hard work!! We've been very diligent with the sunscreen and so far no burns knock on wood. I guess my 45 spf and M's 70 spf should be good enough :) It seems similar temps to Saigon except that the heat is very still here, no breezes and the sun beats down on you.
Today we hired a tuk tuk again and went to some outer lying temples, one that had about a 1.5mile hike up the mountain to some carvings that had been done in the riverbed and waterfalls. The waterfalls were nice but not sure the hike was worth the small bits of carving - still cool to see though. Definitely interesting to see what the countryside of Cambodia looks like - the tuk tuk ride was an hour each way. Lots of very poor families and houses with thatched roofs. Some poor houses with thatched roofs and a DTV satellite attached. Ha. I guess you have to watch the soccer game somehow.
After that, we decided to take a ride in a hot air balloon that some of the backpackers in Hoi An had told us about - just down the road from the main entrance to Angkor Wat, for $15 you can go up in a Hot Air Balloon, it's tethered to the ground but you still go up pretty far, got some beautiful vistas of the countryside and bird's eye view of Angkor Wat. And, my first ever hot air balloon ride! I was a little afraid I'd get motion sickness watching it go back and forth in the wind, but by the time I got up there the views were so amazing I totally forgot about the careening back and forth!
Tonight we're going to have dinner on "pub street" and then head to a backpacker bar called "Angkor What?" We're pretty much templed out, and seeing as we have started at 7:30am to try to beat the heat for the last few days, we're going to sleep in tomorrow before heading to our 1:30pm flight to Bangkok. I think our next hotel has internet, but never know - so until next time!!
A
No comments:
Post a Comment