AMAZING ANGKOR

Jeremy has survived Cambodia, and is now back in Thailand. Or should I say, Cambodia has survived Jeremy.


One of the most thrilling aspects of travelling that I have found is changing plans last minute - on the busride back to Bangkok from Kanchuriburi, our obnoxious driver made a 30 minute stop to load all sorts of boxes of who-knows-what onto the top of our minibus, pulled over to investigate what we orginally thought was a flat tire, and ended up getting stuck in the horrendous Bangkok traffic, and thereby arriving too late in Bangkok for Erik and I to make our Friday night flight to Cambodia - but, I don't stress, I just call up the airline and get our flights easily changed to Saturday morning, giving us one more night in Bangkok in which we preceded to tear apart the city starting with Indian food by our guesthouse, Jager bombs on Khao San Road followed by an all-night disco club experience at a club in which Sam, our hilarious British tag-along and Laura, another Brit who we made friends with on the minibus (who just finished 2 months teaching in Cambodia) found ourselves amongst a throng of hardcore partying Thais.



Anyway, we stayed up all night and left immediately for the airport without a wink of sleep arriving in a foreign country with no guidebook, no hotel booked, and not having read or researched a single lick about Cambodia. STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND! Still, we arranged for a private driver Mr. Dara for $25 a day to graciously show us around the eye-opening, inspirational, awe-inspiring Khmer temples of Camodia, built over a thousand years ago in mostly limestone with some extremely detailed stone carvings. Within a 20 square meter area, there are so many magnificent temples, that you almost obtain a been-there done-that attitude towards one of the new seven wonders of the world after seeing 4 or 5 of them. The craziest thing about the temples is that there are no boundaries, you literally can climb, explore, sit, stand, run, walk through and all over all of them. The whole time I'm thinking that these temples can make for one hell of a setting for a game of hide and seek with all the hidden rooms, dark passageways, huge rooms, and steep inclines. Angkor Wat is the most famous and largest temple, but Angkor Thom with over 200 eerily smiling faces staring down at you from all angles, and "the jungle temple" which is overrun by the forest, complete with a huge fig tree literally tearing the temple apart as it grows through, up, over, and around the masonry were my favorites. That temple was made famous when Angela Jolie filmed Tomb Raider there.

But besides the temple, the people of Cambodia really intrigued me. Just an hour plane hop from Bangkok, it is amazing how different the scenery, way of life, and most of all the people of Cambodia are from their former enemies and current friends of Thailand. The poverty level is so high and the area of Siem Reap, where Angkor Wat is located has source of income is from tourism - so walking by the temples, you get swarmed by children and other people looking for hand-outs and trying to hawk scarfs, books, and other merchandise. Its heart-wrenching, especially driving through the country and seeing the structures and living conditions, but at the same time, everybody seems happy as they go about their every-day routine. Apart from the temples, we did a boat ride through a village of people who live directly on the lake, and I had my camera snapping away as I took it all in.

Unfortunately, I left my memory stick in my guesthouse here in Chiang Mai, so I will have to wait until later to post them, but I got some real keepers for sure. To add insult to injury though, I completely and utterly spoiled myself last night at this super ridiculously nice hotel in Cambodia. We heard how nice this hotel was, so went there for a few drinks from one of the nicest and most interesting drink menus I have ever seen, then to go get an amazing hour massage from this ultra ritzy spa, only to return to the same hotel for an 8 course tasting menu meal complete with wine pairings where we sat on this swinging chair/table sofa-thing. Upon finishing the meal around midnight, both Erik and I literally fell asleep on the swing and had to woken up by the waiter probably 20 minutes later. The whole evening cost about $70, which probably is enough to feed an entire Cambodia family for a month, which is both disgusting yet makes me realize just how lucky I have it. I most have done something truly deserving in a past life.

It was great travelling with Erik as we got along well, and he is so laid back, but I am also happy to be on my own again (Erik jumped on a flight to Phuket at the Bangkok airport this morning upon returning from Siem Reap and I took a flight to Chiang Mai, after a week of travelling with a companion. I have a week up North now before I head down to the islands, which is right on track with my planned itinerary. Between Bangkok, Kanchaniburi, and Siem Reap, I just can't believe I have only been here a week - I have done more amazing things in a single week than I have done in the past 3 years. Travelling is absolutely incredible and thought of having to go back to slaving away in an office is pretty hard to think about right now, but luckily, I don't have to as my trip is only 25% in, and there surely are so so many more adventures that await me. Though, I can only envision returning home at the end of December to immediately begin planning the next exit.

Bless you all and thanks for reading. Pictures to come later.