More Temples!

Today we got an early start to explore MORE TEMPLES! This morning we started at the Terrace of the Leper King (which I kept pronouncing "leopard" - oops - head is still in Africa a bit ;-)) and the Terrace of the Elephants.

I found more elephants!

From there, we went to Neak Pean Temple and Preah Khan. I'm not gonna lie. After the first temple and Angkor Wat, literally most other temples started to blend together. I mean, we saw all the ones listed here, but we also drove by - and walked by - countless others. We definitely enjoyed our time at each...but they really all kind of blend seamlessly into one memory... The only reason I remember Neak Pean is because Jon challenged himself to not step on the ground the whole time we were there and only step on rocks...don't worry, he succeeded :-p.

Our next stop was lunch at a Cambodian restaurant in the middle of the action where I ordered...chicken amok (the curry dish I wrote about yesterday). I basically had to order it because the description said it comes "in a coconut shell". Ummm sign me up.

Coconut shells are a LOT bigger than you think! There was SO MUCH AMOK inside. Despite all 4 of us sharing the amok (along with a few other dishes) we could not come close to finishing it!

Next, our taxi driver dropped us off at the beginning of a park for a mile hike to Kbal Spean. Kbal Spean, better known as the "Valley of 1,000 Lingas", is an archaeological site where rock relief carvings form a river bed, leading to a waterfall. Unfortunately, the river was sooooooo dry, that the water wasn't even running over the rocks in most areas, but rather trickling between them...and the waterfall was literally nonexistant. The stones were beautiful nonetheless, showing "Lingas" or raised bumps to represent the Hindu god, Shiva, as well as portraits of other Hindu gods.

Lingas in the "river"

While the hike was only a mile long, the heat was certainly getting to us. Good thing our taxi driver always kept us well equiped with LOTS of water waiting for us at our car :).

After Kbal Spean, we headed to Banteay Srei, a 10th century Hindu temple, also dedicated to Shiva. It stood out to us because it was one of the more complete and yet still original temples we had seen. This is because it is carved out of red sandstone, helping it to stand the test of time. It was also much smaller, so easier to explore. Overall one of my faves :)

Our last stop for the day was...a temple which I forgot the name of...oops! Anyway, we got there, climbed to the top, took lots of photos, and stayed to watch the sunset :).

After the sun set, we were off to town to grab some dinner. Pear said she was in the mood for pizza...to which Jon and I were QUITE skeptical. We went into town, to a place aptly named "Pub Street" and found a pizza place. We ordered two large pies, a salad, and some tortellini. We thought it was going to be WAAYYYY too much food...but we still ate it all!

From there we headed to a bar where everyone else ordered 50 cent beers...and I was the difficult one and ordered a $3.50 "Welcome to Cambodia" (which in theory was supposed to be close to a Long Island Iced Tea, but which was actually a watered down pineapple mixture).

Once we finished our drinks, we headed to the market to look for a magnet. Jon and I also stumbled upon a guy making ice cream on the side of the street. We ordered 2 Oreo ice creams and watched as he turned milk, sugar, and crushed Oreos into ice cream before our eyes!

(I have a video of it in case anyone is curious :))

Our last stop was back to our hotel. It is LATE and time for bed - sunrise over Angkor Wat in the morning!!

Jess' and Jon's highlight of the day: Banteay Srei

Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor Wat!

Today was a JAM packed day!! When we had asked Nath if he'd be interested in coming with us on any of our travels, he quite excitedly jumped on coming with us to Siem Reap, telling us it was one of his favorite places and that Pear had never been. When Jon told him it would be great if he came, he immediately emailed Jon back with a super structured itinerary for 3 days in Siem Reap, outlining all the highlights we'd be seeing and asking if it was ok. Ok??? I LOVE other Type A people!!! I was so grateful that he had already covered all the bases and that we didn't have to plan ANYTHING for Siem Reap - awesome!

So today we set out at 7 am to begin Nath's plan at Wat Thom. While most people begin their journey to Siem Reap at Angkor Wat, Nath told us that Wat Thom is actually MUCH larger than Angkor Wat, takes more time to cover, and because most people start at Angkor Wat, Wat Thom is much less crowded in the morning (hooray for being with someone who knows these things!)

We arrived at the ticket office around 7:15, purchased our 3-day passes ($40 USD for those of you who are curious) and then set off for Wat Thom, with our first stop at Bayon Temple. 

Bayon is the largest temple in Wat Thom, which also means it takes the most time to cover. We entered through the south gate, best known for it's warriors protecting the entrance.

 

While they have deteriorated somewhat overtime (and also the heads have been looted and sold to collectors), Cambodia's government has restored or replaced many of the statues over time. The statues which guard the gates, about 30 on each side, show the guards playing "tug-of-war" with one another, showing the battle between good and evil.

After entering the gates, we were introduced to the wonder that is Bayon Temple.

It's hard to describe just how large the temple is, but you could probably wander it for 2 hours and not reach all of its nooks and crannies. The best way to say how I felt on it is simply to say: it is like an adult jungle gym. The floor and steps are all uneven, you can fall at every twist and turn, but it's super fun and you get to climb on everything :). It's also beautiful, and truly incredible to think about its history (built in the late 12th century/early 13th century).

Having a bit of fun :)

After Bayon Temple, we headed off to the Baphuon and Phimeanakas temples.

Next came Ta Prohm, better known as the "Tomb Raider" temple, since that is where Angelina Jolie filmed the movie in 2001. The temple, which was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992, is best known for blending the 12th century structures with nature. Trees have taken over much of the temple and sprout directly from between its massive stones!

After Ta Prohm, we headed out of the park for a quick lunch stop before coming back to go to...... Angkor Wat! Hooray!

Angkor Wat, which translates to "City of Temples", is the largest religious structure in the world. Originally constructed as a Hindu temple, it was later converted to a Buddhist temple. The temple is the reason why 50% of tourists visit Cambodia today! Classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, also in 1992, Angkor Wat is only one of two national monuments depicted on a nation's flag (the other is Afghanistan!)

  

Nath did an EXCELLENT job of scheduling our days in Siem Reap. We got to Angkor Wat around 2 pm and there was nothing on the itinerary for the afternoon...except to hang out at the temple and enjoy :). I can't even tell you how many pictures I took at the temple. Seriously. We climbed to the top of the temple and for about 2 hours I took picture after picture - I was so happy!

After our relaxing afternoon, we headed off to dinner and a show to watch some traditional Cambodian dancing! Our buffet-style restaurant had every type of food you could think of - Western (pizza, sandwiches, pasta, fries, sushi) to Middle Eastern to Southeast Asian and traditional Cambodian. Cambodia is known for a dish called amok, which is when curry is steam cooked in banana leaves, usually with either fish or chicken. While I tried it, it definitely is not my favorite Asian dish (that still belongs to my beloved Pad Thai!) After dinner, dancers presented traditional Cambodian dances.

We came back to our hotel around 9 and decided it was time for a drink. The four of us headed up to the rooftop bar where there was a pool table and jumped right in. Unfortunately, the table wasn't too ready for us. No cue ball (but two 3-balls??) meant that we were playing using a 3 as the cue. The warped table and sticks didn't really help much, nor did the humidity which made it impossible to slide a stick between your fingers.

It was legit the longest game of pool of our lives. While we had been pretty excited to play in the beginning, the odds were stacked against us and we were SOOOOOOOO tired. Jon and I played THE worst game before packing it in. Ugh. Time for sleep.

It has been a long day and tomorrow is only going to be longer. Time for bed!

Jess' and Jon's highlight of the day: Angkor Wat!

Another Relaxing Day

Yesterday we did most of the things around the city that we thought were going to take 2 days (mostly thanks to being with Nath and having his car to take us directly to our various destinations around the city - thanks, Nath!) As such, we decided that we were owed another lazy day since our internal clocks have still barely adjusted to Asia time and since Jon wasn't feeling too well.

We woke up around 10, I wrote some blog posts/updated some online, we called some family members, took showers, and then headed out for lunch at the mall. We walked to the mall (located about a 15 minute walk from our hotel), ate some more delicious food and then tried to use the ATM machine. We have been having problems with our Wells Fargo card lately with not being able to take out money, so we have (reluctantly) been using our Barclaycard credit card to take out money. However, we decided to wait to take out money since Cambodia uses American dollars, so instead we headed back to the hotel where we packed up our things and waited for Nath to pick us up for our flights to Cambodia!

Nath arrived with his girlfriend, Pear, at about 4 pm. We arrived at the airport around 5:30, and then started the arduous process of looking for parking. We entered the parking structure and there were cars EVERYWHERE. In addition to the normal spaces where cars were parked horizontally, there were cars BEHIND those cars, parked vertically, blocking in all the cars that were parked in the properly designated spaces. I asked Nath,

"How are the cars that are parked in the spots supposed to get in and out?"

To which he responded,

"You push the other cars."

I laughed, thinking he was joking, until he continued:

"If you park vertically, you have to put your car in neutral, that way, if any cars need to get in or out, people can come over and push your car out of the way. If there are lots of cars in the line, someone might have to push 5 or 6 cars before they free their car to get out. It's kind of an unwritten customary respect that you put your car in neutral so that it can be moved."

Wow. Just wow. I thought people would be hesitant to allow strangers to move their cars like that, but ALL those spots were taken in addition to all the regular spots!! We climbed to the top of the parking structure before we finally found a space (in a regular spot). Whew!

We entered the airport, went through customs, checked our bags (MAN it felt good to only travel with small bags after that!), and grabbed dinner at the airport. We let Nath order everything again (because he picks the most delicious Thai food) and ended the meal with a traditional Thai dessert, mango and sticky rice.

Pear and Nath, excited to introduce us to mango and sticky rice!

From there we walked to our gate where we waited for approximately 20 minutes before boarding our flight. The uneventful flight was ONE HOUR long. I've never been on a shorter flight in my life! Jon and I began discussing our next travel plans as we ascended and were already descending and we'd only talked about maybe a week of our travel plans! It was crazy!

Upon arrival in Siem Reap, Cambodia, we waited to get our visas, completed customs, grabbed our bags, and met our taxi driver for the next few days who took us first to an ATM to take out cash, then to our hotel, the Blossoming Romduol Lodge. Along the way, we passed SOOOOOOOOOOO many luxury resorts and hotels. Our driver told us some of them cost upwards of $1,000 a night!!! To give you a bit of perspective, our lovely hotel with AC, an on-suite, private bathroom, and included breakfast costs $17 a night :-p.

We checked in, climbed the stairs to our room and it is definitely now time to pass out - early wake up call tomorrow!

Jess' highlight of the day: relaxing a bit and meeting Pear!
Jon's highlight of the day: arriving in Siem Reap

Thankful for Good Friends

Today was a MUCH different day in Bangkok than yesterday. After our failed adventures at visiting the places we wanted to go, we were a little downtrodden. Fortunately, Nath was able to take the day off and explore the city with us - hooray for a personal tour guide!

He picked us up in his fancy 2-month old car and our first stop was the floating market. We got to the market after about an hour of driving and boarded a gondola-type boat with a guide.

The market was like nothing any of us had ever experienced (Nath told us he'd never been!) Along the sides of the canal were shops on land, but in addition, there were floating shops on their own gondolas that passed between the boats of tourists. It was SO cool! You could tell your guide to stop at any stalls you wanted to barter prices, shop, and just take in the beauty on the water. It was pretty mesmerizing. You could even have Pad Thai or Tom Yum Soup (fish soup) made for you right in the next boat over!

While it was awesome to see the whole concept of the floating market, it was also quite overwhelming in terms of actually BUYING things. For those of you who don't know, I'm quite the bargainer and haggler when it comes to markets - something I pride myself on. But much of my technique derives from being able to move away freely (a concept I hadn't considered when I began to barter for a pair of elephant pants! (basically PJ pants with elephant designs on them)) I couldn't get away from the stall - I was literally stuck...in a boat! This made it QUITE difficult to figure out the best price for my pants from multiple vendors, and pretty much impossible to go back to different stalls. In the end, I ended up purchasing 2 pairs of elephant pants for about $8 (which I later learned was WAYYY too much). Oh well - they're comfy and have elephants on them - I win :).

When we had arrived, the canals had been pretty empty of other boats, just a few others floating along with us. By the time an hour had passed, we were caught in a HUGE traffic jam of boats and were VERY glad that it was time to debark for dry land!

Once on land, we stopped at a few more stalls (and I purchased an elephant shirt and a pair of elephant shorts...I'm not sure I had/have enough elephant gear...) before heading off to...the train market!

Nath had told us he wanted to take us to the infamous train market. The market itself is less of a tourist location and more an actual market where locals buy their groceries, daily necessities, and clothing. It is called the train market because it is built along a train track and every day, twice a day, a train comes through. This means that EVERY vendor that is located ON the tracks, picks up ALL their goods and moves them far enough aside so that the train can pass.

TWICE A DAY. EVERY DAY.

 We arrived just in time for the 11 am train to pass through. We started walking towards the market and Nath asked for directions...and then was told that they were making repairs to the track...and that no trains were coming through! BUMMER! Regardless, it was still awesome to see the market and to think about the fact that these stalls would all have to be moved twice a day when the train starts rolling back through the city in about a month! We wandered the stalls, with Nath pointing out the various types of fruits, vegetables, and fish (most that we don't have in the US) and enjoying the glimpse at local life before heading back to the city for the rest of the day.

We got to Bangkok around noon and took a quick detour to the train station to purchase our tickets to Chiang Mai (we had tried to purchase them online but to no avail - their website didn't seem to like our credit card...). Nath was able to sort everything out in about 10 seconds (yay for being with someone who speaks the language!) and we were off!

And what was the train station next to? WAT TRAIMIT! AKA the temple we'd been trying to go to the day before!

We joked that we were actually taking Nath on a tour of the city instead of the other way around, since he had never been to ANY of the places we had visited (including the train station!) After Wat Traimit we took a small detour around the city so that Jon could purchase some Liverpool jerseys for himself...because apparently he doesn't own enough already? Well now he has three more...

After picking up the jerseys we stopped to get lunch at a small restaurant next to the market. Nath ordered for us yet again (it really is amazing having someone with you who knows exactly what to order!) and got an excellent mix of spicy and sweet (although mostly spicy - THAI FOOD IS SUPER SPICY!!!!!!!) with fish noodle soup, pork strips, Thai salad, and spring rolls. Everything was more delicious than the last - definitely our favorite meal in Thailand so far!

At lunch we asked Nath if there was any special drink we needed to try while in Thailand and he told us that Thailand has "Thai tea" which it is known for. We asked if we could get some somewhere and so after lunch we stopped at a roadside stand to pick some up. Nath handed us the cup and we were both SOOOOOOOO excited. It was DELICIOUS!!! It is basically tea made from Thai tea bags with LOTS of sugar and coconut milk. It tastes surprisingly similar to sweet tea in the South, but the coconut milk adds a nice texture to it. SUPER delicious. We were definitely already excited to have more the next time we saw it!

Our next stop was Wat Pho, a beautiful temple in the middle of the city known for its "reclining Buddha". Words can't begin to describe the size of this Buddha...only a picture will do...

Hi Nath!

Buddha was MASSIVE. SO BIG! We wandered down and around inside the temple which housed the reclining Buddha before heading outside to explore the rest of Wat Pho, which has beautifully ornate rooftops and stupas (burial monuments).

Wat Pho was really beautiful - I could have stayed there for another 3 hours, but we didn't have the time! We wanted to get to Wat Arun before it closed at 6 pm. We quickly exited Wat Pho and took the ferry (for a total of 5 Thai Baht (about 15 cents) across the river to Wat Arun. When we got there, we saw that much of the temple is currently being renovated, so we were only able to ascend 2 of the 4 levels of the temple. Either way, the temple was quite beautiful and we wandered around, with me taking more pictures than is necessary (but seriously, what else is new?)

After taking the ferry back over to the middle of the city, we got back in Nath's car and headed to a new riverfront mall that recently opened. We sat at a rooftop bar as we watched the sunset over the river and ate another delicious dinner (ordered by Nath, of course) that consisted of more spring rolls, quesadillas, lemongrass soup, pork tenderloin, Pad Thai, and beer.

After dinner, we wandered downstairs in the mall and decided to get crepes for dessert (blueberry for Nath, nutella for me - what else?) and Jon found a Thai tea stand - so we were all pretty gosh darn excited!!

We ate our goodies as we caught a tuk tuk which carried us to Khao San Road, basically the crazy, touristy section of Bangkok that we had been warned about by pretty much every person we know that's been to Bangkok. It's not that it's a bad place to be - it's actually rather a fun street. It's more that it's just A LOT.

The whole street is lined with bars and night markets (where I, of course, bought another pair of elephant pants...because two is not enough), and sellers hawking different wares. It is also lined with massage parlors (where you can literally get a 1-hour full body massage for $12!!!) and vendors selling foods that aren't actually traditional to Thailand, but are more meant for the tourist crowd (read: scorpions on a stick, lots of different kinds of bugs, etc.). While I would normally be tempted to try one of these disgusting things, Nath made it sound like no one in Thailand actually eats them and they are really just there for tourists. That said, I didn't really feel the need as it's not really a "Thai experience", if you will. We wandered around the street for about 20 minutes, enough time to appreciate its craziness while not going crazy ourselves. I was REALLY glad that Nath took us there so we could experience it, while not actually staying anywhere around it!

From there, we wandered back to Nath's car and he drove us the 40 minutes back to our hotel. Today DEFINITELY made up for yesterday (or at least just all around it was a much better day...). We are quite grateful for Nath and looking forward to more adventures with him in Cambodia!

Jess' highlight of the day: beautiful Wat Pho and the reclining Buddha
Jon's highlight of the day: dinner at P-Hight on the river