Angkor Wat

Before leaving on this trip Kayla and I were beyond excited. We were excited about the adventure and all the places we would see. One of the places that held the most allure was Angkor Wat. It is known all around the world and has been included on several lists of the world's wonders. Getting to Siem Reap, where the temples are located, takes a bit of planning. First, you have to decide if you would like to travel by bus, train, or plane. You can take a bus or train out of Bangkok straight into Cambodia and onto Siem Reap but you have to be prepared for a lot of sitting on your rump surrounded by tons of other people. The other option is to fly into Cambodia. Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia, is the location of the main international airport. You can take a plane straight into Siem Reap but it is much more expensive. Originally we planned to take the train into Cambodia for a couple different reasons. First, we wanted the experience and we wanted to see the country side. Secondly, it seemed as if it was going to be quite a bit cheaper. However, our decision was made for us when we realized that we needed to fly back into Thailand in order to extend our visa and we found a deal online where we could fly in and out of Cambodia for rather cheap and our journey would take a couple of hours rather than all day. We were quite surprised when we arrived in Phnom Penh. It was utter madness. We had scheduled pick up from the airport with out hostel which turned out to be a stroke of genious. When we arrived there was a man standing with a that contained our name and our hostel. Normally this would seem like the beginning of the sequel to the movie "Hostel" but it turned out to be a huge advantage. While other travelers were wading through a sea of tuk tuks trying to find someone that knew where their hostel was located, Kayla and I followed our driver right to a tuk tuk and took off for the hostel. Once on the road we realized that we definitely weren't in Kansas anymore. For one thing there didn't seem to be any traffic laws, or traffic lights, or traffic signs. It appeared to be an every man for himself type of situation. The second thing that became very apparent was that there were more mopeds and motorbikes on the road then we had ever seen. The local Cambodians somehow managed to turn a 4 lane street into a 12 lane highway. They seemed to have no fear. There were motorbikes with 4 men piled on, woman driving while holding a small child in front of them, and entire families piled onto one bike complete with the mom on the back bottle feeding an infant. Most without helmets. As we were contemplating how these people do not get into a million accidents and die a truck tried to force it's way into our lane. It caught one of it's rear view mirrors on the side of our tuk tuk and when we moved forward it exploded and rained glass all over Kayla. At this point Kayla and I were ready to turn around and go straight back to Thailand. In the spirit of adventure we continued on and finally arrived in Siem Reap.

We decided that when going to visit Angkor Wat that we wanted to see it at sunrise. So we woke up at 4 am and met our tuk tuk driver that we had arranged to be our driver for the day. You have to decide if you would like to purchase a 1 day, 3 day, or 1 week pass. There are people that I know could spend days walking around the temples but Kayla and I were not sure if we were those people. So we decided on a 1day pass and figured that if we wanted to go back for a second day we would just eat the small amount that we would have saved buying a 3 day pass to begin with. This turned out to be a good decision. Sunrise over the temples of Angkor Wat was beautiful. We just sat there in awe as we watched the sky change colors around the tops of the temples. We were very excited to get the chance to walk around the temples and to go inside. However, by 7 o'clock we were drenched in sweat. Being from Texas we did not think that we would be phased by the temperature or the humidity. We were wrong. By midday the temperature hit 104 degrees and we were exhausted. The temples are spread out and your tuk tuk drives you from one to the next. We finally hit the point where we were silently willing him to not pull over.

Overall it was a great experience. But unless you are very serious about walking every inch of every temple then one day will probably be enough.

Can you see the face?