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!