Siem Reap - days 4 & 5

After our first day of exploring the epic awesomeness that is Angkor Wat, we had planned to get up early again on day 4, rent motorbikes and go explore the complex by ourselves. However our plans were foiled by the Siem Reap tuk-tuk mafia! It turns out (and makes complete sense) that tuk-tuk prices in the tiny town are all fixed. In order to maintain the monopoly on tourist transport, the drivers work together with the police to make it impossible for foreigners to rent moto's. We were very disappointed, although the streets of Siem Reap are undoubtedly the safer. In the end we decided to take a day off temple-visiting, and instead spent the day plotting our next adventures to Vietnam, Laos and Nepal.

Today we woke up before the butt crack of dawn to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. By 5am we were loaded in to our tuk tuk, braving the cold (aka 70 degrees) and the dark heading to the temples. Of course we requested that our driver stop off somewhere so we could get coffee (it was 5am for god sake), since we asked in Khmer he brought us to a totally local joint that served some amazing Khmer coffee and baguettes. While we were eating and drinking with our driver and his friend we asked if there were any other temples we could watch the sunrise at, as we had heard from Abbie that it is extremely crowed at Angkor Wat. He agreed with us and told us that there is a mountain that we could climb only 2 km away from Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise above the temple complex. He dropped us off at the start of a large hill, and told us to climb, blind to what we were about to experience we ventured off on our long hike in the dark of the early morning.

The temple in the distance on our walk to the top

When we reached the top we were so surprised to find a beautiful ancient temple over looking the entire Angkor reserve. We climbed to the top of the temple and along with maybe 20 other tourists, and waited patiently for the sun to rise. After 30 minutes of waiting (and shivering), the sun peaked above the horizon and we were able to look directly at the red/orange circle in the sky. It was a beautiful and unexpected experience, calm and serene.

Waiting for sunrise

Enjoying the moment

After the sunrise, we headed on a long tuk tuk journey to Banteay Srey an ancient temple made of sandstone about 40km away from the Angkor complex. It was beautiful and intricate and awesome. It is known as the 'womens temple' as it is a Hindu temple for Shiva.

Walking up to the temple

After eating an over priced lunch (though delightfully tasty), we headed back to the Angkor complex to visit some of the smaller, less restored temples. It was a really cool experience to explore ruined temples with out so many other tourists around.

East Mebon aka the elephant temple

Ta Som a small and secluded jungle temple.

Neak Pean; In the middle of a man made reservoir, the temple is on a small island and is full of water.

Preah Khan; a big temple complex with very gorgeous detail and endless corridors.

Walking up to the temple

We would definitely recommend buying the $40 3-day pass and seeing everything Angkor has to offer! We would recommend spending the money and getting an official guide for at least your first day to give you an idea of what you're looking at. It's normally $35 and can be arranged through you hotel/guesthouse. Even though every temple is stunning, a guide will show you around, give you the history and share their personal story (if you ask).  We spent 17 hours over two days and didn't even come close to seeing everything. Since we are more then likely coming back multiple times over the next two years when friends/family come to visit, we were too worried about missing out this time around. But if we weren't we would love to spend a week here.

Tomorrow we are headed back to Phnom Penh, where we will be working our butts off to secure visas and transportation for our next adventures in Vietnam, Laos and Nepal. Our Cambodian visa's expire on friday and unless we all want to fork over another $25 each to extend our visa here, we need to get in gear and get out of the country!

The next time we post, we will be in Vietnam (hopefully!!).

Much love everyone :)

Siem Reap- Day 3

Today we woke up early and headed to the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. We arranged a tuk-tuk ride through our hotel and left at around 9am. After talking with our guide, we decided to get 3 day entry passes instead of just one day, since Cait had never been and because one day is just not enough to explore all of the temples! We decided to do the small tour for our first day, seeing just the main temples and ruin sites.

tuk-tuk ride to Angkor

We started off at Ta Prohm, the temple famous for the huge trees that grow on the walls and rooftops of the complex. Since it was still early in the day, there were few tourists and we were able to get some amazing pictures. The temple is currently being restored so there was a lot of the grounds we couldn’t walk around, but it was extremely cool to see the temple being put back together in front of our own eyes.

We then stopped off at a smaller temple called Ta Keo and climbed all of the way to the top. It was crazy how steep the steps are, you basically have to bear climb, using all fours, to make it up to the top. At times it felt more like we were rock climbing then climbing stairs!

One more level to go!

At the top

We then headed into the Bayon complex, stopping to explore around the Terrace of the Leper King, the Elephant Terrace, The Elephant Temple and the Royal Palace. Sam and Cait made the climb to the top of the Royal Palace while Mackenzie waited behind to take their picture (but also because the temple was really tall, I don’t like heights!).

Cait and Sam at the top

We stopped at 12:30 to grab some lunch, then headed to the Bayon Temple (Angkor Thom). We spent quite a bit of time exploring the different levels and getting lost in the corridors. We tried desperately to find the place where Sam and Mackenzie took photos last time they visited of “touching noses” with one of the giant faces but we couldn’t manage to find it. We had also promised Cait that there would be elephants walking around but sadly the elephants are only around until 10am :(

At lunch

Our last stop was at Angkor Wat.  Although, we didn’t stay for very long because at that point it was 3pm, the temperature had reached 100 degrees and we were all tired, hot and in desperate need of an ice-cold beverage! We plan to go back to Angkor Wat as our first stop to explore some more since we have a 3-day pass.

We then headed back to our guesthouse to shower and change, then made our way downtown to find a place to eat dinner on the route of the Giant Puppet Parade (a parade put on by multiple organizations to help get street kids off the street and give them something productive to put their energy into). Sam had been craving Mexican food so we ended up getting a table at a Mexican restaurant at the start of the parade route.  Thankfully we went early because literally the whole city of Siem Reap (and most of the tourists) came out to see the once-a-year event.  As soon as the kids hit the street we had to stand on our chairs to see anything! It was so cool to see all the different giant Chinese puppets that the kids had made and to see the smiles on their faces as they paraded their art through the main streets of Siem Reap. The puppets were huge, beautiful and extremely impressive. We were so glad we got to experience it.

Caitie trying to get a good view!!

Sun bear

Grasshopper

Some sort of bird

Dragon

Horse

Unfortunately, it looks like our trip to go to India is going to have to be postponed due to the fact it’s very difficult to get an Indian tourist visa on such short notice. So instead, we’ve made arrangements to go to Vietnam, Laos and Nepal! We leave for Vietnam on Friday 2/28/14 for 10 days, taking a bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City to spend 2 nights, then flying to Hanoi where we’ll spend a week exploring the city, hopefully Halong Bay and the surrounding country side. We’ll then fly into Laos and spend 2 weeks exploring the jungles and learning to be Mahout’s (an elephant trainer/caretakers) which means we’ll be officially certified to ride elephants by ourselves!! Finally we’ll fly from Laos to Nepal and spend 3 weeks trekking the Himalayas and wandering around Katmandu.  We will fly from Katmandu back to Phnom Penh and immediately start applying for jobs! We are SO EXCITED to travel and see more of the world. Hopefully when we get back we’ll be so exhausted from traveling that getting jobs will be a welcomed sense of structure and stability in our day-to-day lives!!! =)

We will be giving updates as often as we can...so keep checking back and please leave us comments! We love and miss you all!

Cheers!

Siem Reap- Day 2

Due to our late start today, we had a very low key day. We all woke up hungover, tired and not wanting to do anything-- but that's what we get for staying up until 3am :P



We were able to check into our original guesthouse(the Jasmine Lodge) at around noon, and were upgraded to a bigger room because of our troubles and because we were so nice and understanding!! Which was super awesome. It's located relatively close to the downtown area; only a $1 tuk-tuk ride or a 10 minute walk. We have 3 beds, A/C, a swimming pool and best of all HOT WATER (which doesn't seem super exciting, but we haven't had hot water since we left the states)! It's owned by a Khmer family, is super clean and has a very relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. We're paying $25/night and breakfast is included. Not a bad deal!



We also made an extremely frustrating trip to our Cambodian bank to withdraw some money...apparently they have very strict signature-matching rules(?). Sam's signature didn't EXACTLY match the one she signed when we opened our account, so it took them almost an hour and 3 calls to our home branch to finally give us our money. When we signed up, they told us that unless we had a valid job contract, we could only get a savings account which means no debit card :( We always say that the only reason we're looking forward to getting jobs is so that we don't have to deal with going into the bank during business hours just to take out $$$.



We ate lunch at an amazing Indian food restaurant called MaharaJah in downtown Siem Reap. Over a delicious spread of cheese naan, butter chicken, and rice we decided that we're going to go to India and Nepal next month before we're tied down with jobs and while the hot season is in full swing in Phnom Penh (Samnang warned us that during March and April there will be rolling blackouts around the city because the infrastructure cannot support the increase in demand). So currently we are all researching places to go in India and Nepal, flights and sorting out all the visa details! We're so excited!!

Unfortunately our friend Pope couldn't make it over here to meet us, which we're all super bummed about :( BUT our trip to India will take us through Bangkok so we will see him as soon as we arrange our visa's into India!



Tomorrow we will tour the temple complex of Angkor and then in the evening head downtown to watch the annual 'puppet parade' (a parade put on by an organization that helps get street kids off the street by giving them the opportunity to gain confidence and self-esteem by building giant Chinese puppets and parading them through the streets of Siem Reap once a year). Life is so good, we're all so happy and everyday we wake up excited for the future!



Cheers!

 

Siem Reap- Day 1

After taking the bus to/from Sihanoukville and hating it, we decided to travel to Siem Reap by river ferry instead--the best idea we've ever had!!! A one way ticket cost $35/person vs. $10/person on the bus, but it was totally worth it!! The inside of the ferry was air-conditioned and had big comfy leather seats and a bathroom, you also had the option to sit on the top of the boat, which is where most of the passengers sat(we didn't cause it looked super sketchy/cold/loud!). 

Inside the boat

Outside/the top of the boat

They served fresh baguettes 2/$1 and had soda and beer for sale at $1 a piece. We left from Phnom Penh at 7:30a heading north up the Tonle Sap river, we hit the lake around 11am, then it was another 3 hours before we arrived at the Siem Reap port.

The scenery was absolutely gorgeous the whole way! It was great to have the chance to see a different side of Cambodia, other then the roadside villages. We saw hundreds of fishermen out on the water reeling in their morning catch, many floating villages, and tons of traditional Khmer stilt houses along the river banks. 

Fishing boat

Floating village

Stilt houses

Even though the lake was at one of its lowest levels of the year, it was HUGE, at times you couldn't see any land and it seemed as though we were in the middle of the ocean! We were told that after the rainy season the lake will triple in size!

Random patches of land due to the low water level

In the middle of the lake, also what the view looked like from all sides!

When we arrived at the port, there was a tuk-tuk driver waiting for us and for $3 he took us 16km into town and to our hotel. In true Cambodian fashion, our hotel was over booked so the guy at the reception desk sent us to his uncles hotel just down the street for no charge! We dropped off our gear and headed down to pub-street(the most touristy area in the whole city but the only place Sam and Mackenzie knew had cheap food and drinks). We ate some delicious Khmer food, then headed towards the market to browse the shops. Sam and Mackenzie bought two beautiful Cambodian Pashminas, a pair of(what we call) mosquito pants, and a jade bracelet for only $15! We then headed back to pub-street for some drinks and hungout playing cards. Our waiter struck up a conversation with us and invited us to go out drinking with him at his favorite local joint after he got off work at midnight. We stayed out WAY past our bedtime drinking and talking, it was so nice to meet a local our age that wanted to talk about Cambodia, politics and philosophy!

Our friend Viboh

Our friend Pope arrives today and this weekend we will be visiting the ancient temples of Angkor Wat! More updates and pictures to come!

Cheers!